Iraq issues arrest warrants for ‘heist of the century’

The Supreme Judicial Council of Iraq can be seen in this photo. (File/INA)

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Updated 27 August 2024

AFP

August 27, 2024 14:04

Iraq issues arrest warrants for ‘heist of the century’

The criminal court issued the warrants for businessman Nour Zuhair and Haitham Al-Juburi, a former adviser to then prime minister Mustafa Al-Kadhemi
Suspects are among several facing a trial which opened in mid-August, but are on the run and failed to appear in court

Updated 27 August 2024

AFP

August 27, 2024 14:04

BAGHDAD: An Iraqi criminal court on Tuesday issued arrest warrants for a businessman and a former government official wanted over their alleged involvement in stealing $2.5 billion of public funds.
The scandal, dubbed the “heist of the century,” sparked widespread anger in Iraq, which is ravaged by rampant corruption, unemployment and decaying infrastructure after decades of conflict.
The criminal court issued the warrants for businessman Nour Zuhair and Haitham Al-Juburi, a former adviser to then prime minister Mustafa Al-Kadhemi, state news agency INA reported.
The two suspects are among several facing a trial which opened in mid-August, but are on the run and failed to appear in court.
According to the tax authorities, the defendants allegedly expropriated the $2.5 billion between September 2021 and August 2022 through 247 cheques cashed by five companies.
The money was subsequently withdrawn — in cash — from the firms’ accounts.
The owners of those accounts — most of whom are also on the run — have also been subject to arrest warrants.
Around 30 suspects are facing trial, INA reported, including six already behind bars or awaiting extradition to Iraq, the national anti-fraud agency has said.
In October 2022, Zuhair was arrested at Baghdad airport as he was trying to leave the country.
A month later he was released on bail after giving back more than $125 million and pledging to return the rest in instalments.
Juburi also returned $2.6 million of the allegedly embezzled funds before disappearing, a judicial source told AFP.
The current whereabouts of both men is unknown.
However, wealthy businessman Zuhair was back in the news over the few days after he reportedly had a car crash in Lebanon, following an interview he gave to an Iraqi news channel.
“The Nour Zuhair affair is a scandal... that concerns the entire political system,” Iraqi journalist and commentator Hamed Al-Sayyed told AFP.
He blamed the authorities for releasing him on bail two years ago, allowing him “to flee.”
“His release from jail, at a time when he was being investigated, shows that the political system, at the highest echelons, is complicit,” Sayyed added.
Corruption is endemic in Iraqi state institutions, with the top echelons of power often evading accountability.

US says new Syria rulers helping in hunt for reporter Tice

This 2023 age-progressed photo released by the FBI Washington Field Office, shows what Austin Tice may look like in his 40s. (AP

Updated 20 sec ago

AFP

December 21, 2024 02:00

US says new Syria rulers helping in hunt for reporter Tice

Tice was working for Agence France-Presse, McClatchy News, The Washington Post, CBS and other media outlets when he was detained at a checkpoint in August 2012

Updated 20 sec ago

AFP

December 21, 2024 02:00

WASHINGTON: US officials said Friday that Syria’s new leaders had assisted in the hunt for missing journalist Austin Tice, with searches underway at sites of interest.
US diplomats, paying the first visit to Damascus since Islamist-led rebels toppled strongman Bashar Assad earlier this month, said they told the new Islamist-led authorities of their priority of finding Tice and other missing Americans.
“We feel it’s our duty as the US government to press on until we know with certainty what happened to him, where he is and to bring him home,” said Roger Carstens, the US pointman on hostages.
He said that he worked Friday with the new Syrian leadership to search a location where Tice could have been held.
“There are other locations that need to be searched in the coming days, weeks and months, and we’ll be working with the interim authorities,” Carstens told reporters after the trip.
Tice was working for Agence France-Presse, McClatchy News, The Washington Post, CBS and other media outlets when he was detained at a checkpoint in August 2012.
Carstens said that US teams were not yet authorized to operate in Syria but that he has reached out to non-governmental groups as well as journalists for assistance.
“The bottom line is that over 12 years, we’ve been able to pinpoint about six facilities that we believe have a high possibility of having had Austin Tice at one point or another,” he said.
Carstens said up to three more sites of interests have been added recently and that he hoped for thorough searches of all of them.
Tice’s mother Debra said earlier this month that she had information that her son was alive.
Carstens said that the United States was also seeking information about other Americans including Majd Kamalmaz, a Syrian-American psychotherapist believed to have died after being detained under the Assad government in 2017.

Topics: Fall of Assad Syria US journalist Austin Tice

In Damascus meeting, US drops reward for arrest of Syria’s new leader

Updated 58 min 29 sec ago

AFP

December 21, 2024 00:50

In Damascus meeting, US drops reward for arrest of Syria’s new leader

The United States agreed on those principles with top Arab and European diplomats as well as Turkiye during a meeting on December 14 in Aqaba, Jordan

Updated 58 min 29 sec ago

AFP

December 21, 2024 00:50

DAMASCUS: A senior US diplomat told Syria’s new leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa on Friday that Washington was scrapping a reward for his arrest, and welcomed “positive messages” from their talks including a promise to fight terrorism.
Barbara Leaf, Washington’s top diplomat for the Middle East, made the comments after her meeting with Sharaa in Damascus — the first formal mission to Syria’s capital by United States diplomats since the early days of Syria’s civil war.
The lightning offensive that toppled president Bashar Assad on December 8 was led by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), which is rooted in Al-Qaeda’s Syria branch but has sought to moderate its image in recent years.
Leaf’s meeting with HTS chief Sharaa came despite Washington’s designation of his group as a terrorist organization.
“Based on our discussion, I told him we would not be pursuing the Rewards for Justice reward offer that has been in effect for some years,” Leaf told reporters after their talks.
She said “we welcomed positive messages” from Sharaa.
“We will be looking for progress on these principles and actions, not just words,” she said.
“I also communicated the importance of inclusion and broad consultation during this time of transition,” she said.
“We fully support a Syrian-led and Syrian-owned political process that results in an inclusive and representative government which respects the rights of all Syrians, including women, and Syria’s diverse ethnic and religious communities.”
The United States agreed on those principles with top Arab and European diplomats as well as Turkiye during a meeting on December 14 in Aqaba, Jordan.
A Syrian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, earlier confirmed to AFP that the US delegation had met with Sharaa.
“The meeting took place, and it was positive. And the results will be positive, God willing,” the official said.
The US delegation also included the US pointman on hostages, who has been seeking clues on missing Americans including Austin Tice, a journalist kidnapped in Syria in August 2012.
On Friday, the US embassy added on social media platform X that the US and Syrian sides also discussed “regional events, Syria’s intention to be a good neighbor and the importance of common efforts on terrorism.”

On a regional tour prior to the Aqaba talks, Secretary of State Antony Blinken had stressed the need to prevent a resurgence of Daesh group (IS) jihadists.
The US military said on Friday its forces had killed an IS leader and another operative in Deir Ezzor province, part of escalated US military action against the group since Assad’s overthrow.
The embassy said Leaf also met with Syria’s White Helmet rescuers, civil society leaders, activists and others “to hear directly from them about their vision for the future of their country and how the United States can help support them.”
Below a photograph of Leaf and others with a memorial wreath, the US embassy said she had also commemorated the tens of thousands of people murdered, tortured, disappeared or detained under Assad.
“The US commitment to hold accountable those responsible for these atrocities is unwavering,” the embassy said.
Leaf denied that her press conference in Damascus had been canceled for security reasons, saying she was delayed by street celebrations.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who backed Assad’s opponents, has stressed reconciliation and restoration of Syria’s territorial integrity and unity.
Turkiye has been putting pressure on Kurdish-led forces in Syria, and Erdogan said Friday it was time to destroy “terrorist” groups operating in the country, specifically IS and Kurdish fighters.
“Daesh, the PKK and their affiliates — which threaten the survival of Syria — must be eradicated,” he told journalists following a summit in Cairo, referring to IS and the Kurdistan Workers Party, respectively.
The autonomous administration in northeastern Syria is protected by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, mostly made up of the People’s Protection Units (YPG).
Turkiye accuses the YPG of being a branch of the PKK, which both Washington and Ankara consider a terrorist group.
Kurdish leaders in Syria have welcomed Assad’s ouster and raised the three-star independence-era rebel flag, but many in the region fear continued attacks by Turkiye and allied fighters.
Leaf said Washington was urging a ceasefire between Turkish-backed forces and the SDF around the Kurdish-held Syrian border town of Kobani, also known as Ain Al-Arab.
On a visit to Ankara Friday, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock warned of the dangers of any “escalation” of the fighting, saying: “Security, especially for Kurds, is essential for a free and secure future for Syria.”
Iran and Russia had long helped to prop up Assad, but on Friday Leaf said she expected Syria would completely end any role for Iran.
Amy Pope, the head of the UN migration agency, on Friday urged “the caretaker government to continue to empower and enable women, because they are going to be absolutely critical to the rebuilding of the country.”
Pope also called for the raft of international sanctions on Syria to be reassessed to help the country regain its footing.
Syria’s civil war killed more than 500,000 people and sparked an exodus of millions of refugees.
Since Assad’s departure, which sparked celebrations at home and abroad, rebels have thrown open prisons where tens of thousands of people were arbitrarily detained and tortured.
They have also located mass graves believed to hold some of the estimated 100,000 people who died or were killed in custody since 2011.

Topics: Fall of Assad Syria Ahmed Al-Sharaa

Israel army says troops shot Syrian protester in leg

Updated 21 December 2024

AFP

December 21, 2024 00:23

Israel army says troops shot Syrian protester in leg

Israeli forces have been operating in areas beyond the buffer zone in Syrian-controlled territory, the military has confirmed

Updated 21 December 2024

AFP

December 21, 2024 00:23

JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said its forces shot a protester during a demonstration against the army’s activities in a village in southern Syria on Friday, injuring him in the leg.
Since Islamist-led rebels toppled Syrian president Bashar Assad on December 8 Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes on Syrian military facilities in what it says is a bid to prevent them from falling into hostile hands.
In a move widely condemned internationally, Israel also sent troops into a United Nations-patrolled buffer zone in the Golan Heights, and beyond, calling it a defensive and temporary measure.
“During a protest against IDF’s activities in the area of Maariya in southern Syria, IDF (Israeli military) called on protesters to distance themselves from the troops,” the military told AFP.
The village is just outside the southern point of the UN-patrolled zone.
“After the troops identified a threat, they operated in accordance with standard operating procedures against the threat... The protester was shot in the leg,” the military said.
The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said the Israeli troops were stationed at a barracks in the village.
“During a protest condemning the Israeli incursion, a young man was injured by Israeli forces’ gunfire in the village of Maariya, in the Daraa region,” the Observatory said.
Israeli forced from Al-Jazeera barracks “opened fire directly at the demonstrators,” wounding the man in the leg, it said.

A villager from Maariya told AFP that Israeli soldiers had been entering his village and other nearby villages in recent days.
“When the Israelis entered ... they sowed fear and horror among the people, the children, the women,” Ali Al-Khalaf, 52, told AFP.
“So much so that some people fled to other nearby villages. They (Israeli troops) entered the villages of Maariya, Aabdyn and Jamlah,” he added.
On Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a security briefing atop a strategic Syrian mountain inside the UN-patrolled zone.
During the visit Netanyahu reviewed the army’s deployment in the area, his office said.
Hours after Assad was overthrown, Netanyahu had ordered Israeli troops to seize the buffer zone.
Israel has framed the move as temporary and defensive, with Netanyahu saying it was in response to a “vacuum on Israel’s border and in the buffer zone.”
Israeli forces have also been operating in areas beyond the buffer zone in Syrian-controlled territory, the military has confirmed.
Netanyahu said his country has “no interest in confronting Syria. Israel’s policy toward Syria will be determined by the evolving reality on the ground.”
Syria’s new leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa accused Israel of “a new unjustified escalation in the region” by entering the buffer zone but said “the general exhaustion in Syria after years of war” prevents it from entering new conflicts.
Israel conquered around two-thirds of the Golan during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and later annexed it. The United States, during Donald Trump’s first term as president, is the only country that has recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the occupied Golan.

Topics: Fall of Assad Syria US

All foreign forces must withdraw from Syria now, 50 UN experts say

Updated 20 December 2024

Ephrem Kossaify

December 20, 2024 23:40

All foreign forces must withdraw from Syria now, 50 UN experts say

Rehabilitation of the country should pay specific attention to the human rights of minorities, the marginalised and all who face discrimination
Justice for the victims of war crimes must be pursued through a credible judicial system focusing on accountability, reparations and reconciliation, not revenge

Updated 20 December 2024

Ephrem Kossaify

December 20, 2024 23:40

NEW YORK CITY: A group of 50 independent UN human rights experts have called on the international community to support Syria’s efforts to rebuild but stressed that the country must be free of foreign interference and aggression.

They emphasized the challenges posed by ongoing foreign military interventions, warning that such actions undermine the nation’s sovereignty and hinder the reconstruction process.

In particular they highlighted Israeli airstrikes and incursions into Syrian territory, particularly in the Golan Heights and northeast of the country, as significant obstacles to peace and stability.

“Syria has endured major foreign interventions, transforming the country into a battleground for proxy wars involving multiple actors, including private forces,” the experts said.

“The continuing military interventions, such as Israel’s unprovoked, illegal attacks and its occupation of more Syrian territory in the Golan Heights, and other air attacks and incursions into northeast and central Syria, put grave obstacles to the rehabilitation process and destabilize the region.”

The experts reiterated the call for all foreign occupying forces to immediately withdraw from Syria.

“While international support for Syria’s rebuilding is essential, the rehabilitation process must remain free of foreign interference or aggression,” they said. “All territorial incursions and attacks must cease without delay.”

The experts, who included the UN’s special rapporteurs on torture, arbitrary executions, freedom of opinion, trafficking in persons, and the protection of fundamental freedoms, also stressed the need for a Syrian-led political transition. They said this process must be inclusive, non-sectarian and take account of the interests of all elements of Syrian society.

Syrian insurgents seized control of Damascus on Dec. 8, forcing President Bashar Assad to flee the country after more than 13 years of civil war, ending his family’s 54-year rule. The rebels’ rapid advance, which took less than two weeks and met with minimal resistance, raised questions about the ability to ensure an orderly political transition in the aftermath.

“This is a watershed moment in the region’s history,” the experts said, pointing to the opportunity it offers for lasting peace, justice and the restoration of Syrian sovereignty. They called for full respect for the territorial integrity of the country, and stressed that ongoing

lawlessness, violence and persistent violations of international law, especially human rights and humanitarian law, must cease.

They urged the international community to collaborate on the rehabilitation of Syria based on democratic principles that respect the human rights of all Syrians, with a particular focus on minorities, marginalized groups, women, people who are vulnerable due to sexual orientation or gender identity, persons with disabilities, children, internally displaced persons, and returning refugees.

The experts also highlighted the urgent need to address widespread violations of human rights, including torture, sexual violence, enforced disappearances, unlawful killings and human trafficking. They emphasized the “paramount” need to pursue justice for all victims of such atrocities and called for the release of all individuals who were arbitrarily detained. Preserving evidence of gross violations of rights is also critical to help ensure accountability, they added.

“Justice must be pursued for all crimes, regardless of the perpetrator, through a credible judicial system focused on accountability, reparations and reconciliation, not revenge,” the experts said.

In line with UN Security Council Resolution 2254, which was adopted in 2015 and calls for a Syrian-led political transition and the establishment of a representative government, the experts stressed the importance of adopting a transparent, inclusive process to help establish peace and rebuild the country.

They also noted the severe environmental and infrastructural damage caused by the conflict, including the widespread destruction of housing that might potentially amount to domicide, the deliberate and systematic destruction of homes and living environments.

The experts called for the international community to provide substantial resources in support of humanitarian aid and reconstruction efforts, focusing in particular on mitigating the environmental impacts of the war, including the safe removal of the toxic remnants of the conflict.

“Reconstruction must be carried out in a manner that respects human rights and ensures the safe, dignified return of refugees and displaced persons who wish to go home,” they said.

But they reiterated that no one, whether Syrian nationals or Palestinian refugees, should be forcibly returned to the country.

Furthermore, the experts called for women to have leadership roles in the peace-building and transitional process, and emphasized the need for gender equality and full protection of women’s rights.

They urged all states to repatriate their nationals from Syria and to provide effective protection for women and children who have been arbitrarily detained in northeastern Syria since the fall of Daesh in 2019. They called for the immediate lifting of international sanctions on Syria and urged all parties to prioritize the humanitarian needs of the Syrian population.

The experts expressed strong support for the Syrian people in their pursuit of a democratic and peaceful future, and stressed the importance of ensuring justice, inclusivity and respect for human rights in the country’s transition.

Topics: Fall of Assad Syria UN

Macron sees new role for French military base in Djibouti

Updated 20 December 2024

AFP

December 20, 2024 19:08

Macron sees new role for French military base in Djibouti

Macron was speaking after France was forced to pull troops out of several other African countries

Updated 20 December 2024

AFP

December 20, 2024 19:08

DJIBOUTI: French President Emmanuel Macron said Friday its military base in Djibouti could assume a greater role, speaking after Paris was forced to pull troops out of several other African countries.
“Our role is changing in Africa because the world is changing in Africa, because public opinion is changing, because governments are changing,” he said.
Macron was addressing French forces stationed at the strategic Horn of Africa nation before sitting down for a Christmas meal with the troops, a regular feature on the presidential calendar.
France had to change its past logic of having too many military bases in Africa, he said.
In recent years, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, all three under military rule, have told France to get its troops out.
They have turned instead to Russia for military support in their fight against the jihadist forces active in the region.
And on Friday, France also began withdrawing ground troops from Chad, after N’Djamena last month abruptly ended military cooperation with the former colonial power.
The central African country was the last Sahel nation to host French troops.
Its decision also came shortly after Senegal’s President Bassirou Diomaye Faye told AFP in an interview that France should close its military bases there.
Djibouti has in the past been part of France’s Indo-Pacific strategy, contributing to freedom of navigation in the Red Sea.
“It is also, and will also have to be reinvented as, a projection point for some of our African missions,” Macron said, without elaborating.
The French base at Djibouti currently hosts 1,500 soldiers.
That makes it France’s largest military contingent abroad and the only one untouched by the military draw-down African nations have imposed on Paris.
In July, Djibouti and France renewed their defense cooperation treaty.
As well as paying rent for the base, France also assumes responsibility for patrolling the airspace over the country.
The small east African state is a relative haven of stability. On the other side of the Red Sea lies Yemen, gripped in a devastating civil war.

Topics: Emmanuel Macron Djibouti

Iraq issues arrest warrants for ‘heist of the century’

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In Damascus meeting, US drops reward for arrest of Syria’s new leader

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Israel army says troops shot Syrian protester in leg

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Iraq issues arrest warrants for ‘heist of the century’

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