France’s Le Pen denies wrongdoing as she and her party go on trial accused of embezzling EU funds

France’s Le Pen denies wrongdoing as she and her party go on trial accused of embezzling EU funds
President of Rassemblement National parliamentary group Marine Le Pen, 24 other persons and the RN party are set to be tried by the Paris Criminal Court begining on September 30, 2024 on charges relating to suspicions of embezzlement of European funds. (AFP)
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France’s Le Pen denies wrongdoing as she and her party go on trial accused of embezzling EU funds

France’s Le Pen denies wrongdoing as she and her party go on trial accused of embezzling EU funds
  • The nine-week trial will be closely watched by Le Pen’s political rivals as she remains a strong contender in the race to succeed Emmanuel Macron
  • The National Rally and 27 of its top officials are accused of having used money destined for EU parliamentary aides to pay staff who instead did political work for the party

PARIS: French far-right leader Marine Le Pen denied violating any rules as she and her National Rally party and two dozen others went on trial on Monday, accused of embezzling European Parliament funds, in a case that has the potential to derail her political ambitions.
Arriving at the court in Paris, Le Pen said “we have not violated any political and regulatory rules of the European Parliament” and vowed to present “extremely serious and extremely solid arguments″ in the trial.”
The nine-week trial will be closely watched by Le Pen’s political rivals as she is a strong contender in the race to succeed Emmanuel Macron when the next presidential election takes place in 2027
It comes as a new government dominated by centrists and conservatives just came into office in the wake of June-July legislative elections. Some observers expect the trial could prevent National Rally lawmakers, including Le Pen herself, from fully playing their opposition role in Parliament as they would be busy focusing on the party’s defense.
Since stepping down as party leader three years ago, Le Pen has sought to position herself as a mainstream candidate capable of appealing to a broader electorate. Her efforts have paid off, with the party making significant gains in recent elections at both the European and national levels. But a guilty verdict could seriously undermine her bid to take the Elysee.
The National Rally and 27 of its top officials are accused of having used money destined for EU parliamentary aides to pay staff who instead did political work for the party between 2004 and 2016, in violation of the 27-nation bloc’s regulations. The National Rally was called National Front at the time.
Le Pen, whose party has softened its anti-EU stance in recent years, denies wrongdoing and claims the case is politically driven.
“Parliamentary assistants do not work for the Parliament. They are political assistants to elected officials, political by definition,” she argued in her defense. “You ask me if I can define the tasks I assigned to my assistants; it depends on each person’s skills. Some wrote speeches for me, and some handled logistics and coordination.”
If found guilty, Le Pen and her co-defendants could face up to 10 years in prison and fines of up to 1 million euros ($1.1 million) each. Additional penalties, such as the loss of civil rights or ineligibility to run for office, could also be imposed, a scenario that could hamper, or even destroy, Le Pen’s goal to mount another presidential bid after Macron’s term ends. Le Pen was runner-up to Macron in the 2017 and 2022 presidential elections.
She served as party president from 2011 to 2021 and now heads the group of RN lawmakers at the French National Assembly.
Despite her denial, her party has already paid back 1 million to the European Parliament, the Parliament’s lawyer Patrick Maisonneuve said. Of that amount, 330,000 euros were directly linked to Marine Le Pen’s alleged misuse of funds.
A longstanding controversy
The legal proceedings stem from a 2015 alert raised by Martin Schulz, then-president of the European Parliament, to French authorities about possible fraudulent use of European funds by members of the National Front.
Schulz also referred the case to the European Anti-Fraud Office, which launched a separate probe into the matter.
The European Parliament’s suspicions were further heightened when a 2015 organizational chart showed that 16 European lawmakers and 20 parliamentary assistants held official positions within the party — roles unrelated to their supposed duties as EU parliamentary staff.
A subsequent investigation found that some assistants were contractually linked to different MEPs than the ones they were actually working for, suggesting a scheme to divert European funds to pay party employees in France.
Alexandre Varault, a spokesperson for the National Rally who was elected to the European Parliament in June, told The Associated Press that Le Pen will attend the first day of the trial, adding that he hopes for the acquittal of all the defendants.
Misuse of public funds alleged
Investigating judges concluded that Le Pen, as party leader, orchestrated the allocation of parliamentary assistance budgets and instructed MEPs to hire individuals holding party positions. These individuals were presented as EU parliamentary assistants, but in reality, were allegedly working for the National Rally in various capacities.
The European Parliament’s legal team is seeking 2.7 million euros in compensation for financial and reputational damages. This figure corresponds to the 3.7 million euros allegedly defrauded through the scheme, minus the 1 million euros already paid back.
During the 2014 European elections, the National Front won a record 24 MEP seats, finishing first with 24.8 percent of the vote, ahead of the center-right and the Socialists. This surge resulted in a substantial financial windfall for the party, which faced severe financial problems at the time.
An audit of the party’s accounts between 2013 and 2016 revealed that it was running a deficit of 9.1 million euros by the end of 2016. Yet, the party still had a cash balance of 1.7 million euros and had lent 1 million euros to Le Pen’s 2017 presidential campaign, while also holding 87,000 euros in loans to Cotelec, its funding association.
At the time, the party was also indebted to a Russian bank for 9.4 million euros, a loan taken out in 2014 for 6 million euros.
Suspected systemic practice
The investigation uncovered many irregularities involving prominent party members.
Thierry Légier, the long-time bodyguard of Le Pen’s father Jean-Marie, was listed as his parliamentary assistant. But his resume did not reference this role, and he made no mention of it in his 2012 autobiography. Légier admitted during the investigation that he was not interviewed and signed his employment contract without fully understanding his official role.
Jean-Marie Le Pen, who led the National Front from 1972 to 2011, will not appear in court alongside his former colleagues due to health concerns. Now 96, he was deemed unfit to testify by a court in June. He has 11 prior convictions, including for violence against a public official and hate speech.
He has denied wrongdoing during his time as party leader, stating that the “pool” of assistants was common knowledge. “I did not choose which assistants were assigned to me. That was decided by Marine Le Pen and others. I only signed the contracts,” he said.


Meet the Filipino chef behind TikTok’s viral Dubai chocolate bar

Meet the Filipino chef behind TikTok’s viral Dubai chocolate bar
Updated 24 sec ago
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Meet the Filipino chef behind TikTok’s viral Dubai chocolate bar

Meet the Filipino chef behind TikTok’s viral Dubai chocolate bar
  • One video of the chocolate-pistachio dessert bar has racked up over 80m views
  • Filipino chef Nouel Catis Omamalin says his flavors are inspired by a sense of nostalgia

MANILA:  On TikTok, people’s feeds have been taken over by the “Dubai chocolate bar,” a gooey and crunchy candy stuffed with crispy knafeh and a creamy pistachio spread. 
The bar, with its artistic paint-like exterior, and textured, green-colored filling, shot to social media fame last December when UAE-based food influencer Maria Vehera posted a video of herself enjoying a taste, racking up over 80 million views to date. 
Since then, millions more have watched other content creators reacting to this viral confection, while cooks and businesses have created copycat versions across the globe, from New York to Auckland. 
Originally sold by Fix Dessert Chocolatier in Dubai, “Can’t Get Knafeh of It” is the brainchild of Filipino chef Nouel Catis Omamalin and British Egyptian entrepreneur Sarah Hamouda, who partnered in 2021 to launch the company. 
When Hamouda tapped Omamalin for his culinary expertise to create a chocolate bar brand that was “beyond ordinary,” he sought inspiration for his flavors through nostalgia. 
“I always go back to the nostalgia of things, the childhood memories of a certain culture, even any culture in general,” he told Arab News. “It never goes wrong when you think about nostalgia.” 
Omamalin thought of knafeh — the Middle Eastern dessert with chunks of pistachio enjoyed as a treat by Arab children — and how it had a particular crunch that lent itself well to chocolate.
“Everyone was just having the same kind of (chocolate) bar, and we thought, why not have a dessert in a chocolate bar? And knafeh is my favorite Arabic dessert,” he said. 
“So, I thought, let’s try to fuse them, and the challenge was to make it like dessert on top of chocolate without making it too sweet. That’s how the pistachio knafeh came about, because this is something that I am really passionate about in the kitchen — to recreate how nostalgia in this region would be enjoyed in a different manner.” 
Omamalin was born and raised in the Philippines, and trained as a pastry chef at L’Ecole Valrhona Paris. He has been running a culinary consulting company in Dubai for the past 15 years. Although he was no longer a partner at Fix when the chocolate bars went on sale in 2022, he stayed on to help perfect the candy. 
“I was working as a friend of Sarah’s,” he said. “I was helping her out because I really wanted her to succeed.” 
This entailed creating the bars by hand during the early days, a painstaking process that took Omamalin and his team six to eight hours to complete — from manually piping the filling to letting it set and packaging the items.
The process meant that only 25 bars could be produced each day, which meant the products sold out almost immediately. Fix has since scaled up its operations, but the bars still to sell out regularly in Dubai. 
Global social media fame also sparked high demand in other countries, including the Philippines, where unofficial resellers sell the Fix bars as high as $32 a piece, almost twice its UAE price. 
The Filipino chef, who grew up in Dipolog City in the southern Philippines, said living and working in Dubai since 2009 had given him a platform “to play around with ingredients” and “interact with different cultures.” 
After graduating from the University of the Philippines, and later studying pastry and baking at the French Culinary Institute, Omamalin pursued a career in the hospitality industry, before eventually moving to Dubai in search of greener pastures. 
“I’ve always been an artisan and I needed to craft something that is really different from anyone else,” he said. 
“I wanted to be the first Filipino who would break ground… I think that has always been my driving force up to now.” 
With the viral chocolate bar now being recreated across the globe, Omamalin found validation for his work. 
“For me, the biggest form of flattery is always when you copy someone’s work, and I have no problem with that at all because it means you’ve done something over and above what you have expected,” he said. 
“When people copy you that means you’ve really triggered a lot of their emotions or creativity.”
 


Conservative leadership frontrunner proposes putting Star of David at all UK entry points

Conservative leadership frontrunner proposes putting Star of David at all UK entry points
Updated 3 min 42 sec ago
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Conservative leadership frontrunner proposes putting Star of David at all UK entry points

Conservative leadership frontrunner proposes putting Star of David at all UK entry points
  • Robert Jenrick also wants British Embassy in Israel moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem
  • Director of Council for Arab-British Understanding labels his comments ‘pathetic’

LONDON: A senior Conservative politician has suggested that the UK display the Star of David at all points of entry into the country, and that it should move the British Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Robert Jenrick, who is standing to be leader of the Conservative Party, said the gestures would show that “we stand with Israel,” adding that he wants Israelis to be able to enter the UK via e-gates rather than standard passport control.

Jenrick, the current favorite to replace former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak as leader, made the remarks at a Conservative Friends of Israel reception for all the candidates at the party’s conference in Birmingham on Sunday, while wearing a black hoody emblazoned with the words: “Hamas are Terrorists.”

He told the event: “I want this country to be the most welcoming country in the world for Israelis and for the Jewish community.

“A small thing that I fought for when I was the immigration minister was to ensure that every Israeli citizen could enter our country through the e-gate, through the easy access, so that at every airport and point of entry to our great country there’s the Star of David there as a symbol that we support Israel, we stand with Israel. We’re friends and allies of Israel, and Israelis are welcome in our country.”

On the subject of moving the embassy, Jenrick said: “If the Foreign Office or the civil servants don’t want to do it, I’ll build it myself.”

Chris Doyle, director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding, called Jenrick’s comments “pathetic.”

Doyle told Arab News: “The Conservative Party leadership candidates are all playing in a beauty contest in terms of their support for Israel — they consider this a ticket to a greater vote share, regardless of actual realities on the ground, and Jenrick is playing up to that.

“The last time this happened, (former Prime Minister) Liz Truss was the one who promoted, in her leadership campaign, the transfer of the embassy, and pretty quickly had to back away from that because it’s such a toxic idea and irresponsible in terms of stoking tensions at a time when we need to be de-escalating.

“As for the idea of immigration and e-gates, it just says how desperate Jenrick is to embellish his pro-Israeli credentials without any sense of any assessment of Israeli government conduct at all.

“The British government should be examining how to prevent violent Israeli settlers and their supporters from entering the UK, not facilitating that entry.”

Regarding Jenrick’s wearing of a hoody branding Hamas terrorists, Doyle said: “He’s trying to provoke. He’s trying to grab attention. It’s typical of a type of politics that isn’t serious.

“It’s not an approach that’s bringing solutions to what is a protracted conflict. It’s all about grandstanding. It’s really rather pathetic.”

Conservative MP Andrew Mitchell also spoke at the event, saying the generation of Britons who fought in the Second World War would “turn in their graves” if they heard Israel’s war in Gaza described as “apartheid” and “genocide.”

He told the audience: “In Parliament, on the streets of London, in university campuses around the world, we’ve witnessed a form of hysteria — words like apartheid, genocide, words that would make those who fought against Hitler and against apartheid in South Africa turn in their graves.

“The vitriolic outpouring of hostility has crossed all boundaries of sane debate. Some of it may be well intentioned — people must be free to express their anger and protest the government of Israel and the genuine humanitarian concerns for the suffering we’re witnessing.”

He added: “There’s a deeply toxic trend that has spread like wildfire, a desire not only to demonize but to de-legitimize the Jewish state to the point of turning back the clock to the time it didn’t exist.”

Jenrick’s fellow leadership candidate Demi Badenoch echoed Mitchell’s words, condemning the election of a group of pro-Palestinian independent MPs in the UK as a “new threat” that had been “elected on the back of sectarianism.”


Trump suspect to appear in court on attempted assassination charge

Trump suspect to appear in court on attempted assassination charge
Updated 30 September 2024
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Trump suspect to appear in court on attempted assassination charge

Trump suspect to appear in court on attempted assassination charge
  • Routh expected to plead not guilty to five federal charges
  • Prosecutors allege Routh intended to kill Trump at golf course

WEST PALM BEACH:The man charged with attempting to assassinate Donald Trump after allegedly positioning himself with a rifle outside one of the former president’s Florida golf courses is due to appear in court on Monday to enter a plea to five federal charges.
Ryan Routh, 58, is expected to plead not guilty to charges that include attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate. He has already been ordered to remain in jail to await a trial.
Prosecutors allege Routh intended to kill Trump as he golfed at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach on Sept. 15. Routh, a struggling roofing contractor, condemned the Republican presidential candidate in a self-published book and dropped off a letter left months earlier with an associate referencing an attempted assassination on Trump, prosecutors allege.
“This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I failed you,” the suspect wrote, according to a court filing by prosecutors.
Lawyers for Routh suggested at a Sept. 23 court hearing that the letter may have been an attempt at gaining publicity and highlighted what they called Routh’s efforts to promote democracy in Ukraine and Taiwan.
Routh hid outside a fence overlooking the sixth hole of the course, where authorities found an AK-47-style rifle, a bag of snacks, a digital camera and bags containing metal plates meant to withstand return fire by the US Secret Service, according to prosecutors.
A Secret Service agent patrolling the course ahead of Trump spotted Routh and opened fire after noticing the rifle sticking through a fence. Routh fled and was later arrested along a Florida highway, prosecutors allege.
He was initially charged with gun-related offenses. An indictment last week added the attempted assassination charge along with assault on a federal officer and possessing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence.
The Florida incident was the second apparent assassination attempt on Trump in a roughly two-month span, raising questions about protection of the candidate ahead of the Nov. 5 election. A gunman wounded Trump’s right ear and killed an attendee at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13 before being killed by a Secret Service sniper.
Trump has sought to turn the assassination attempts into a campaign issue, alleging the Justice Department, which charged Trump in two criminal cases last year, should not be trusted to handle the investigation.


Two more migrant boats reach Canary Islands after deadly sinking

Two more migrant boats reach Canary Islands after deadly sinking
Updated 30 September 2024
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Two more migrant boats reach Canary Islands after deadly sinking

Two more migrant boats reach Canary Islands after deadly sinking
  • A makeshift vessel carrying 81 migrants reached Tenerife, the Canaries’ largest island, emergency services said on Sunday evening

EL HIERRO: Two boats loaded with migrants reached the Canary Islands late on Sunday as rescuers kept searching for 48 missing from an earlier sea wreck that may be the deadliest such accident for 30 years in the Spanish archipelago.
A makeshift vessel carrying 81 migrants reached Tenerife, the Canaries’ largest island, emergency services said on Sunday evening. At least one of the migrants required hospitalization.
Another migrant boat reached the second largest Canary island, Fuerteventura. The emergency services did not specify the number of migrants on that boat. A third boat containing some 80 migrants was nearing the smallest island of El Hierro.
The two crossings followed a disastrous sinking of a migrant boat at the weekend that killed at least nine people and left at least 48 missing, including one under 18 years old, rescue services said. Rescuers were able to pick up 27 of 84 migrants who were trying to reach Spanish shores from West Africa.
The disaster prompted Fernando Clavijo, the Canary Islands’ regional president, to call for mainland Spain and the European Union to act to ease a crisis in which migrant crossings from West Africa to the archipelago have soared by 85 percent this year.
“This situation sadly should push us all to immediately and urgently seek an agreement that allows us to deal with this phenomenon,” Clavijo told reporters.
The number of migrants crossing from West Africa to the Canary Islands, a perilous journey that can be as long as 800 miles (1,300 km), rose between Jan. 1 and Sept. 15 to 26,758, interior ministry data show. Meanwhile, the migrant flow from North Africa along routes in the central and western Mediterranean ebbed, EU Frontex border agency figures indicate.
Calm seas and gentle winds associated with late summer in the Atlantic Ocean off West Africa have prompted a renewed surge of migrants, local authorities said this month.
Earlier this year, Clavijo said his teams expected 70,000 migrants to reach the Spanish archipelago by year end, almost a two-fold rise versus 2023 record arrivals of 39,910.
The rising number of migrants, driven by extreme poverty and political instability in Africa’s Sahel region, is causing political tension in Spain where mainland regions have resisted calls to take in migrants from the Canary Islands.
In the roughly 30 years of migrant crossings from West Africa to the Canaries, the deadliest recorded shipwreck occurred in 2009 off the island of Lanzarote when 25 people died.


Denmark faces EU court questions on housing policy, racism

Denmark faces EU court questions on housing policy, racism
Updated 30 September 2024
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Denmark faces EU court questions on housing policy, racism

Denmark faces EU court questions on housing policy, racism

COPENHAGEN: Denmark must answer accusations at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) on Monday that its policy of demolishing minority-heavy neighbourhoods to promote integration amounts to racial discrimination.
The Nordic country in 2018 introduced what it called a ghetto package, a controversial plan to radically alter certain residential zones, including by tearing down social housing units to disperse residents.
Known for strict immigration policies, Denmark has had relative success in integrating migrants from non-Western countries, with high language proficiency and employment rates, but faced a backlash from those affected by the 2018 plan.
At the core of the case is whether Denmark's use of the term "ethnic origin", often used to describe people of colour when classifying ghetto neighbourhoods, is racially discriminatory.
Denmark defines areas with over 1,000 residents as ghettos if more than 50% are "immigrants and their descendants from non-Western countries", and where at least two other criteria on education, income, crime and work force participation are met.
A dozen residents from Mjolnerparken, a residential area in Copenhagen, first filed a case against Denmark's ministry of social affairs in 2020 after facing eviction.
A Danish court in 2023 requested a preliminary ECJ hearing to determine whether the term "ethnic origin" should be interpreted as including "non-Western" background and, if so, whether this was discriminatory.
Eddie Khawaja, a lawyer for the residents, said the plaintiffs felt stigmatised.
"They feel offended by the fact that in everyday speech, in legislation, in all the political proposals that surround this, they have been referred to as residents of ghetto areas," Khawaja said.
Denmark's ministry of social affairs declined to comment, saying it did not discuss ongoing cases.
Once the ECJ has reached a conclusion, the case will return to the Danish court which will decide how to apply the ruling.