Dutch woman accused of enslaving Yazidi women while part of Daesh goes on trial

A view of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, Wednesday, June 26, 2024. (AP)
A view of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, Wednesday, June 26, 2024. (AP)
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Updated 15 October 2024
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Dutch woman accused of enslaving Yazidi women while part of Daesh goes on trial

A view of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, Wednesday, June 26, 2024. (AP)
  • It viewed the Yazidis as devil worshippers and killed more than 3,000 of them, as well as enslaving 7,000 Yazidi women and girls and displaced most of the 550,000-strong community from its ancestral home in northern Iraq

THE HAGUE: A Dutch woman who joined Daesh in 2015 went on trial in the Netherlands on Monday for crimes against humanity for allegedly enslaving two Yazidi women in Syria.
Hasna Aarab, 33, faces charges of taking part in slavery as a crime against humanity for keeping two Yazidi women as domestic slaves, between 2015 and 2016, while she lived in Raqqa with her small son and her Daesh fighter husband.
The Netherlands is only the second country to put an alleged Daesh member on trial for crimes against humanity against Yazidis, an ancient religious minority who combine Zoroastrian, Christian, Manichean, Jewish and Muslim beliefs.
Daesh controlled swathes of Iraq and Syria from 2014-2017, before being defeated in its last bastions in Syria in 2019.
It viewed the Yazidis as devil worshippers and killed more than 3,000 of them, as well as enslaving 7,000 Yazidi women and girls and displaced most of the 550,000-strong community from its ancestral home in northern Iraq.
In previous cases Germany convicted two members for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed against Yazidis.
Aarab is also charged with membership of a terrorist organization from 2015 to 2022 and endangering her then 4-year old son by taking him to a war zone.
She told the court Monday that she felt alienated and depressed in the Netherlands and left Syria for a new life in 2015 but not to join Daesh.
“I heard some stuff (but) I did not think I would have to deal with IS atrocities,” she told judges.
In earlier procedural hearings Aarab’s lawyers said she was young and naive and was left in the house with the Yazidi by her then-husband, but did not command the women. The defense will present its full case later this week.
Under Dutch universal jurisdiction laws, national courts can try suspects for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide committed on foreign soil as long as the accused have a link to the Netherlands.  

 

 


US wants to please Putin, says Ukraine's Zelensky

US wants to please Putin, says Ukraine's Zelensky
Updated 7 sec ago
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US wants to please Putin, says Ukraine's Zelensky

US wants to please Putin, says Ukraine's Zelensky
  • US President Donald Trump shocked allies last week by announcing he had a direct conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin on a process to quickly end the war in Ukraine

BERLIN: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview broadcast Monday that the United States was trying to “please” Moscow in talks on Ukraine and warned of Europe’s military “weakness.”
Reacting to conciliatory comments toward Russia by US officials, Zelensky said: “The US is now saying things that are very favorable to Putin... because they want to please him.”
“They want to meet quickly and have a quick win. But what they want — ‘just a ceasefire’ — is not a win,” Zelensky said, according to a translation provided by broadcaster ARD of an interview recorded Saturday in Munich.
US President Donald Trump shocked allies last week by announcing he had a direct conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin on a process to quickly end the war in Ukraine.
US defense chief Pete Hegseth also appeared to rule out Ukraine joining NATO or retaking the territory lost since 2014.
On the contours of any future deal, Zelensky said “we will not sign just anything in order to be applauded” and stressed that “the fate of our state for generations to come” was at stake.
He rejected the idea of ceding Ukrainian territory that Russia has seized, saying: “We will reclaim it all.”
As European leaders held crisis talks in Paris on the way forward, ARD broadcast the interview which Zelensky recorded during the three-day Munich Security Conference that ended on Sunday.
The Ukrainian president warned that Europe was in a weak position if it could not rely on the US security umbrella.
While “readiness has increased” in recent years, “in terms of troop strength, the number of combat troops, the fleet, the air force, the drones... I honestly think that Europe is weak today,” he said.
Zelensky said Ukraine had grown more resilient over the past three years and that “Putin wouldn’t be able to occupy us the way he wanted to.”
Even so, he warned that “there will definitely not be a Ukrainian victory without US support.”
Zelensky said he and Trump had spoken about deploying foreign troops to police a future ceasefire.
“I told him the Americans should be a part of this, because otherwise we might lose our unity,” he said.
At a meeting of Kyiv’s backers in Brussels last week, Hegseth flatly rejected the possibility of a US troop deployment to Ukraine.
When asked whether he would give up the presidency if necessary for an agreement, Zelensky said that “for peace I am prepared to do anything.”
“If tomorrow Ukraine were accepted into the EU and NATO, if Russian troops were to withdraw and we got security guarantees, I wouldn’t be needed anymore,” he said.
 

 


End of the road for Kolkata’s beloved yellow taxis

End of the road for Kolkata’s beloved yellow taxis
Updated 17 min 9 sec ago
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End of the road for Kolkata’s beloved yellow taxis

End of the road for Kolkata’s beloved yellow taxis

KOLKATA: Kolkata locals cherish their city’s past, which is why many in the one-time Indian capital are mourning a vanishing emblem of its faded grandeur: a hulking and noisy fleet of stately yellow taxis.

The snub-nosed Hindustan Ambassador, first rolling off the assembly line in the 1950s with a design that barely changed in the decades since, once ruled India’s potholed streets.

Nowadays it is rarely spotted outside Kolkata, where it serves as the backbone of the metropolitan cab fleet and a readily recognizable symbol of the eastern city’s identity.

But numbers are dwindling fast, and a court ruling means those that remain — lumbering but still sturdy — will be forced off the roads entirely in the next three years.

“I love my car like my son,” Kailash Sahani, who has sat behind the wheel of an Ambassador cab for the past four decades, told AFP.

“It’s a simple car — no electronics, no frills,” the 70-year-old added. “It’s unbelievable how much things have changed ... The end of these taxi cars also marks our end.”

Sahani is among thousands of Kolkata cabbies relinquishing their vehicles in line with tough emissions standards introduced in 2009 to ease the city’s endemic smog problem.

Only around 2,500 Ambassador taxis were still working at the start of this year, down from 7,000 a year earlier, according to Bengal Taxi Association figures.

Another 1,000 will be retired this year, and West Bengal state transport minister Snehasis Chakraborty told AFP that the remainder will be gone by the end of 2027.

“The car is strong. Parts and maintenance are cheap and if it breaks down, it’s easy to find a mechanic,” said Bengal Taxi Association spokesman Sanjeeb Roy.

Their disappearance, he added, “represents all that’s wrong with India’s changing economy.” 

The Hindustan Ambassador was the cornerstone of India’s automotive industry for decades from its 1957 debut at a factory on Kolkata’s northern outskirts. Modeled on a similarly regal sedan car from Britain’s now long-defunct Morris Motors, the car was a triumphant achievement of industry in the first years of India’s history as an independent nation.


Detained Ugandan opposition veteran briefly hospitalized

Detained Ugandan opposition veteran briefly hospitalized
Updated 21 min 43 sec ago
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Detained Ugandan opposition veteran briefly hospitalized

Detained Ugandan opposition veteran briefly hospitalized
  • Besigye, 68, is a leading opponent of President Yoweri Museveni — in power for nearly 40 years — whom he has unsuccessfully challenged in four elections

NAIROBI: Ugandan opposition figure Kizza Besigye was briefly hospitalized after his health deteriorated following a hunger strike but was back in prison on Monday, his lawyer said.

Besigye, 68, is a leading opponent of President Yoweri Museveni — in power for nearly 40 years — whom he has unsuccessfully challenged in four elections.

He was abducted in Kenya in November and has been facing the death penalty on treason charges in a court martial that his wife, UNAIDS executive director Winnie Byanyima, has called a “sham.”

Besigye’s lawyer Erias Lukwago said he “was brought under heavy security deployment to a private medical facility in Bugolobi (Kampala) last night and taken back to Luzira prison.”

Besigye was last seen in public on Friday during a court appearance where he appeared frail — a day after Lukwago said he was “critically ill.”

Lukwago and opposition lawmaker Francis Twijukye said they were unclear about his current situation as they have “limited access to him.”

His wife said on Sunday she was “very worried” about Besigye’s health.

On trial for “threatening national security,” Besigye went on hunger strike on Feb. 10 to protest his detention.


Illinois legislators sponsor bill to repeal anti-BDS law

Illinois legislators sponsor bill to repeal anti-BDS law
Updated 17 February 2025
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Illinois legislators sponsor bill to repeal anti-BDS law

Illinois legislators sponsor bill to repeal anti-BDS law
  • 38 US states have laws that punish refusal to denounce boycott of Israel
  • Democratic co-sponsor Michael Porfirio: ‘It’s un-American to curtail the right to free speech’

ILLINOIS: Two Democratic legislators in Illinois have introduced legislation to repeal a law adopted by the state in 2015 that imposes penalties on anyone who participates in, or refuses to denounce, the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel.

In July 2015, Illinois became the third of 38 US states to approve anti-BDS laws, calling the movement “antisemitic.”

Each state’s anti-BDS law varies in how they punish American citizens and businesses that refuse to sign a certified letter denouncing the boycott of Israel. 

Punishments range from denying qualification for state jobs and state contracts, to denying the awarding of loans, financial support or funding grants.

The Illinois law denies the issuance of loans to businesses that refuse to sign a letter vowing not to engage in a boycott of Israel.

State Rep. Abdelnasser Rashid, the only Palestinian American serving in the state house, and State Sen. Michael Porfirio, a decorated Iraq war veteran, said the anti-BDS law strips Americans of their fundamental rights under the US Constitution.

“I introduced a bill in the Illinois House called the Illinois Human Rights Advocacy Protection Act, HB 2723,” Rashid said during a presentation on Sunday at a forum organized by the Arab American Democracy Coalition.

“What this bill would do is repeal our outdated and very problematic law that was passed in 2015 and signed by Gov. (Bruce) Rauner that penalizes companies that boycott Israel,” he added.

“When Ben & Jerry’s decided that it was going to stop selling ice cream in illegal Israeli settlements, our pension fund retaliated against them by divesting from Unilever, its parent company.

“And when Airbnb decided it wasn’t going to list units in illegal settlements, they had to backtrack and they were forced to list the units … It’s time that we kick that law off the books.”

Porfirio said he is proud to co-sponsor the legislation in the Illinois Senate and to support the state’s Arab and Muslim communities.

“We really do make a point to work together to represent the community, to make sure that we have government that delivers good service, and that we’re fighting for policies and legislation to give everyone the opportunity to achieve the American dream,” he told the forum.

Porfirio emphasized that the issue is “about protecting the fundamental rights guaranteed to every American in the US Constitution to express their views publicly and without fear of retribution ... It’s un-American to curtail the right to free speech.”

Rashid and Porfirio urged the public to contact their local state legislators to support the Illinois Human Rights Advocacy Protection Act, HB 2723, to immediately repeal the anti-BDS law.

AADC President Ahmad Sows said if the repeal of the “discriminatory Illinois anti-BDS law” is successful, it could start a “domino chain reaction” and result in the repeal of anti-BDS laws that have been passed in the other 37 states.

A date for a public hearing on the proposed repeal legislation has not yet been set by the Illinois House or Senate.

At the time of the original law’s passage, it had the backing not only of several pro-Israel legislators, but also of then-Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who was criticized for his anti-Arab policies.

His first act upon election was to eliminate Chicago’s Advisory Commission on Arab Affairs and terminate the annual Arabesque Festival, which showcased Arab heritage in Chicago’s downtown.


France hosts emergency meeting on Europe response to Trump

France hosts emergency meeting on Europe response to Trump
Updated 42 min 53 sec ago
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France hosts emergency meeting on Europe response to Trump

France hosts emergency meeting on Europe response to Trump
  • European leaders fear that Trump wants to make peace with Russia in talks that will not even involve Kyiv, let alone the EU
  • Emmanuel Macron has described Trump’s return for a second term in the White House as an ‘electroshock’

PARIS: European leaders met on Monday for emergency talks in Paris called by French President Emmanuel Macron to agree a coordinated response to a shock policy shift on the war in Ukraine by the new US administration of Donald Trump.
With European policymakers leaving the annual Munich Security Forum dazed by Vice President JD Vance’s withering attack on the European Union, key EU leaders, as well as UK Premier Sir Keir Starmer, were in Paris for the summit.
In the most concrete sign yet of the US policy shift, the top diplomats of the United States and Russia were Tuesday due to have the first such face-to-face meeting since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, a clear sign Trump wants to bring President Vladimir Putin in from the cold.
Facing one of their biggest challenges in years, European leaders fear that Trump wants to make peace with Russia in talks that will not even involve Kyiv, let alone the European Union.
Trump sidelined Kyiv and its European backers last week when he called Putin to talk about starting negotiations to end the conflict and said he could meet the Kremlin chief “very soon.”
Other key participants in the summit include NATO chief Mark Rutte, Danish Premier Mette Frederiksen — who has in the last weeks battled to rebuff Trump’s territorial claim to Greenland — and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Macron held telephone talks with Trump just before the summit, the French presidency said.
Macron has described Trump’s return for a second term in the White House as an “electroshock” and there are initial signs some of his counterparts are being stung into action.
Britain’s Starmer, aware of the importance of London showing commitment to European security after Brexit, said Sunday that he was willing to put “our own troops on the ground if necessary” in response to what he called “a once-in-a-generation moment for the collective security of our continent.”
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, another key participant, said on Monday he would urge European leaders at the emergency summit to “immediately” boost Europe’s defenses, warning they do not match Russia’s.
“We will not be able to effectively help Ukraine if we do not immediately take practical steps regarding our own defense capabilities,” Tusk told reporters.
Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, has said Europe would not be directly involved in talks on Ukraine, though it would still have “input.”
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said Sunday it would fall to Europe to guarantee any peace deal in Ukraine, adding he expected the United States to “revise their level of commitment to NATO, including in terms of geography.”
The American policy shift “requires that we truly wake up, and even take a leap forward, to take our place for the security of the European continent,” Barrot said.
But the notion of sending European troops to Ukraine — even after a ceasefire — was already causing friction within the European Union.
Spain’s foreign minister, Jose Manuel Albares, however said that, while it was necessary for Europeans to meet and prepare decisions, “nobody is currently planning to send troops to Ukraine, especially because peace is still far off.”
Germany on Monday agreed, with deputy government spokeswoman Christiane Hoffmann telling reporters it was “premature” to talk about sending troops to Ukraine.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz had said late Sunday that negotiations on Ukraine’s future could not be successful without European guarantees “that we will have created and accepted.”
Meanwhile Hungary, whose Prime Minister Viktor Orban is close to both Trump and Putin, said that Monday’s conference was an effort to “prevent” peace.
“Today, in Paris, pro-war, anti-Trump, frustrated European leaders are gathering to prevent a peace agreement in Ukraine,” said Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto.
The Paris talks come as Washington said Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff would on Tuesday meet with a Russian delegation including Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Riyadh ahead of a future meeting between Trump and Putin in the Saudi capital.
Rubio had earlier sought to play down expectations of any breakthrough at upcoming talks with Russian officials.
“A process toward peace is not a one-meeting thing,” he told the CBS network.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was to visit Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, one day after the meeting between top US and Russian officials.
Zelensky had announced the trip along with stops the United Arab Emirates and Turkiye last week without giving dates, adding he had no plans to meet Russian or US officials.