French court hands down heavy sentences in teacher beheading trial

French court hands down heavy sentences in teacher beheading trial
Louise Tort (C), French lawyer for defendant Brahim Chnina, speaks to the press at the Paris Special Assize Court after the verdict (AFP)
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Updated 21 December 2024
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French court hands down heavy sentences in teacher beheading trial

French court hands down heavy sentences in teacher beheading trial

PARIS: A French court on Friday handed heavy sentences to several men convicted of having played a role in the jihadist beheading of schoolteacher Samuel Paty in 2020 — a murder that horrified France.
Paty, 47, was murdered in October 2020 by an 18-year-old Islamist radical of Chechen origin after showing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in class.
His killer, Abdoullakh Anzorov, died in a shootout with police.
Two friends of Anzorov, Naim Boudaoud, 22, and Azim Epsirkhanov, 23, were on Friday convicted of complicity in the killing and jailed for 16 years.
Prosecutors had accused them of having given Anzorov logistical support, including to buy weapons.
Epsirkhanov admitted he had received 800 euros ($840) from his fellow Chechen Anzorov to find him a real gun but had not succeeded.
Prosecutors said Boudaoud had accompanied Anzorov to buy two replica guns and steel pellets on the day of the attack.
Two other defendants who took part in the hate campaign against Paty before his murder were convicted of terrorist criminal association.
Brahim Chnina, the 52-year-old Moroccan father of a schoolgirl who falsely claimed that Paty had asked Muslim students to leave his classroom before showing the caricatures, was jailed for 13 years.
His daughter, then aged 13, was not actually in the classroom at the time and earlier in the trial apologized to her former teacher’s family.
Abdelhakim Sefrioui, a 65-year-old Franco-Moroccan Islamist activist, was jailed for 15 years.
Chnina had posted messages and videos attacking Paty online. Sefrioui, founder of a now-banned pro-Hamas group, had denounced Paty as a “thug” in another video.
He and Chnina spread the teenager’s lies on social networks with the aim, said prosecutors, to provoke “a feeling of hatred” to prepare the way for “several crimes.”
Chnina spoke to Anzorov nine times by telephone in a four-day period after he published videos criticizing Paty, the investigation showed. But Sefrioui had told investigators he was only seeking “administrative sanctions.”
“Nobody is saying that they wanted Samuel Paty to die,” prosecutor Nicholas Braconnay had told the court.
“But by lighting thousands of fuses online, they knew that one of them would lead to jihadist violence against the blasphemous teacher.”
The other four defendants, part of a network of jihadist sympathizers around Anzorov spreading inflammatory content online, were also convicted, receiving either jail or suspended sentences.

Paty, who has become a free-speech icon, had used the cartoons, first published in Charlie Hebdo magazine, as part of an ethics class to discuss freedom of expression laws in France.
Blasphemy is legal in a nation that prides itself on its secular values, and there is a long history of cartoons mocking religious figures.
In November, seven men and one woman went on trial, charged with contributing to the climate of hatred that led to the beheading of the history and geography teacher in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, west of Paris.
The case was heard by a court panel of professional judges in a trial that lasted seven weeks.
Before the court’s ruling came on Friday, the family of Paty had accused the prosecution of leniency.
Prosecutors had requested that some of the accused be acquitted, and had disputed the “terrorist intent” of the defendants.
Paty’s sister Mickaelle told BFMTV that the demands by prosecutors were “very weak,” saying she feared that these would be confirmed by the court.
“I think my brother died for nothing,” she said, and teachers were still being targeted by violence and threats, she added.
Paty’s killing took place just weeks after Charlie Hebdo republished the cartoons, which originally appeared in 2015.
After the magazine first published them, Islamist gunmen stormed its offices, killing 12 people.


UN urges warring sides in South Sudan to ‘pull back from the brink’

UN urges warring sides in South Sudan to ‘pull back from the brink’
Updated 15 sec ago
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UN urges warring sides in South Sudan to ‘pull back from the brink’

UN urges warring sides in South Sudan to ‘pull back from the brink’
  • The human rights situation risks further deterioration as fighting intensifies, Volker Turk says

GENEVA: The UN rights chief has urged warring sides in South Sudan to pull back from the brink, warning that the human rights situation risks further deterioration as fighting intensifies.
“The escalating hostilities in South Sudan portend a real risk of further exacerbating the already dire human rights and humanitarian situation, and undermining the country’s fragile peace process,” said the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk.
“All parties must urgently pull back from the brink,” he added.
Since May 3, fighting has intensified, with OHCHR citing reports of indiscriminate aerial bombardment and river and ground offensives by the South Sudan People’s Defense Forces SSPDF on Sudan People’s Liberation Army positions in parts of Fangak in Jonglei State and in Tonga County in Upper Nile.
Clashes between South Sudan’s army and fighters backing the rival to President Salva Kiir have killed at least 75 civilians since February, the UN human rights chief said on Friday.
Dozens more have been injured and thousands forced to flee their homes, said the commissioner.
He expressed concern over arbitrary detentions and a rise in hate speech since February.

BACKGROUND

South Sudan, the world's youngest country after gaining independence from Sudan in 2011, was plunged into a violent civil war between 2013 and 2018 that claimed around 400,000 lives.

South Sudan, which gained independence from Sudan in 2011, was plunged into a civil war between 2013 and 2018 that left around 400,000 dead and 4 million displaced.
A 2018 power-sharing agreement between the warring parties had allowed for a precarious calm.
But for several months, violent clashes have set President Kiir’s faction against supporters of his rival, Vice President Riek Machar, who was arrested in March.
Civilian-populated areas have been struck, including a medical facility operated by medical charity Doctors Without Borders or MSF,  Turk said.
According to a UN estimate in mid-April, around 125,000 people have been displaced since the escalation of tensions.
Turk said dozens of opposition politicians linked to the SPLM-IO had been arrested, including Machar, ministers, MPs and army officers, as had civilians.


Woman arrested after 12 injured in stabbing at Hamburg station

Woman arrested after 12 injured in stabbing at Hamburg station
Updated 14 min 50 sec ago
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Woman arrested after 12 injured in stabbing at Hamburg station

Woman arrested after 12 injured in stabbing at Hamburg station
  • Some of the injured sustained life-threatening injuries in the attack
  • Suspect is a 39-year-old woman who was thought to have acted alone

BERLIN: Germany police on Friday said they had arrested a woman after at least 12 people were injured in a knife attack at the main station in the northern city of Hamburg.
Some of the injured sustained life-threatening injuries in the stabbing, emergency services said, although the exact number remained unclear.
Around 6:30 p.m. (1600 GMT), Hamburg police said on X they were carrying out a major operation at the main train station in Germany’s second-largest city.
“A person injured several people with a knife at the main train station” and a suspect had been arrested, they said.
The suspect, police subsequently said, was a 39-year-old woman who was thought to have “acted alone.”
Investigations into the incident were “running at full speed,” police said, without giving an indication of a possible motive.
A spokesman for the Hamburg fire department told AFP that 12 people had been injured in the knife attack.
Among them were “six people with life-threatening injuries,” the spokesman said. German media however reported the number of people with very severe injuries was lower.
The attack took place around 6:00 p.m. in the middle of rush hour at the end of the working week, according to German media.
The suspect was thought to have carried out the attack “against passengers” at the station, a spokeswoman for the Hanover federal police directorate, which also covers Hamburg, told AFP.
Images of the scene showed access to the platforms at one end of the station blocked off by police and people being loaded into waiting ambulances.
Some of the victims in the attack were being treated onboard waiting trains in the station, Bild reported.
German rail operator Deutsche Bahn said on X that four platforms at the station had been closed.
The incident would lead to “delays and diversions in long-distance services,” Deutsche Bahn said in a post on X.
Germany has been rocked in recent months by a series of violent attacks with often jihadist or far-right extremist motivations that have put security at the top of the agenda.
The most recent, on Sunday, saw four people were injured in a stabbing at a bar in the city of Bielefeld.
The investigation into the attack had been handed over to federal prosecutors after the Syrian suspect in the attack told the police officers who arrested him that he had jihadist beliefs.
The question of security — and the immigrant origin of many of the attackers — was a major topic during Germany’s recent election campaign.
The vote at the end of February saw the conservative CDU/CSU top the polls and a record score of over 20 percent for the far-right, anti-immigration Alternative for Germany.


Single UK Special Forces officer rejected 1,585 Afghan resettlement applications

Single UK Special Forces officer rejected 1,585 Afghan resettlement applications
Updated 23 May 2025
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Single UK Special Forces officer rejected 1,585 Afghan resettlement applications

Single UK Special Forces officer rejected 1,585 Afghan resettlement applications
  • UKSF member blocked numerous former Triples soldiers and their families from being resettled despite threats from Taliban
  • Some may have been eyewitnesses to alleged war crimes in Afghanistan; more than 600 cases since overturned

LONDON: A court has been told a UK Special Forces officer personally rejected 1,585 applications from Afghans for resettlement in Britain.

The applications were all from people with credible links to UKSF personnel, the Ministry of Defense told the court, amid an ongoing investigation into alleged war crimes by the Special Air Service in Afghanistan.

The BBC revealed last week that the individual in question may have rejected applications from people with eye-witness testimony relating to the allegations.

Numerous former Afghan special forces soldiers, known as Triples due to their regiment numbers, served alongside UK forces until the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban in 2021. 

Thousands of them and their relatives have subsequently struggled to obtain permission to travel to the UK.

The public inquiry into the conduct of UKSF soldiers in Afghanistan, meanwhile, lacks the power to compel former Triples soldiers to testify unless they are in the UK.

In October 2022 Natalie Moore, the head of the Ministry of Defense’s Afghan resettlement team, voiced concern that UKSF involved in applications for resettlement were giving the “appearance of an unpublished mass rejection policy.”

In January last year, former Veterans Minister Johnny Mercer told senior government officials there was a “significant conflict of interest that should be obvious to all” in the processing of resettlement applications by UKSF personnel.

“Decision-making power,” Mercer claimed, over “potential witnesses to the inquiry,” was “deeply inappropriate.”

Mercer also noted that a number of former Triples soldiers had been killed by the Taliban after being left to wait in Afghanistan, including one whose application was rejected having “previously confronted UKSF leadership about EJKs (extrajudicial killings) in Afghanistan.”

The MoD initially denied UKSF personnel had a veto over the applications of former Triples soldiers, who having been armed, trained and funded by the UK, were deemed at risk of reprisals if left in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of coalition forces.

However, more than 2,000 applications deemed credible by caseworkers have been rejected by the UKSF. The MoD subsequently announced a review of the applications over fears the process was not “robust.”

An additional 2,500 rejected applications were placed under review this week by the government. So far, more than 600 of the 1,585 rejections attributed to the single UKSF officer have been overturned.

The revelations about the UKSF member who rejected the 1,585 applications were made at a judicial review hearing brought by former Triples soldiers over the conflict of interest in resettlement decision-making, which also heard the MoD had launched two investigations into UKSF practices.

One investigation, known as Operation X, said that it “did not obtain any evidence of hidden motives on the part of the UKSF liaison officer.”

It added it found “no evidence of automatic/instant/mass rejections,” but failed to provide evidence in its conclusion, instead suggesting the decisions were made as a result of “slack and unprofessional verification processes” by the UKSF officer and “lax procedures followed by the officer in not following up on all lines of enquiry before issuing rejections.”

Tom de la Mare KC, representing the Afghan Triple soldier who brought the case, accused the MoD of failing to disclose evidence of blanket application rejections, and of “providing misleading responses to requests for information,” the BBC said.

Cathryn McGahey KC, acting for the MoD, said “there might have been a better way of doing (the applications process), but that doesn’t make it unlawful.”

Daniel Carey, partner at law firm DPG, acting for the former Triples soldier, told the BBC: “My client spent years asking the MoD to rectify the blanket refusals of Triples personnel and has seen many killed and harmed by the Taliban in that time.

“He is pleased that the MoD have agreed to inform everyone of the decisions in their cases and to tell the persons affected whether their cases are under review or not, but it should not have required litigation to achieve basic fairness.”


Harvard sues Trump over block on foreign students

Harvard sues Trump over block on foreign students
Updated 23 May 2025
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Harvard sues Trump over block on foreign students

Harvard sues Trump over block on foreign students
  • “It is the latest act by the government in clear retaliation for Harvard exercising its First Amendment rights,” said the lawsuit

NEW YORK: Harvard sued the Trump administration on Friday over its move to block the prestigious university from enrolling and hosting foreign students in a broadening dispute, a court filing showed.


“It is the latest act by the government in clear retaliation for Harvard exercising its First Amendment rights to reject the government’s demands to control Harvard’s governance, curriculum, and the ‘ideology’ of its faculty and students,” said the lawsuit filed in Massachusetts federal court.

 


Greek court charges 17 coast guard officers over 2023 migrant shipwreck, say sources

Greek court charges 17 coast guard officers over 2023 migrant shipwreck, say sources
Updated 23 May 2025
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Greek court charges 17 coast guard officers over 2023 migrant shipwreck, say sources

Greek court charges 17 coast guard officers over 2023 migrant shipwreck, say sources
  • The 17 coast guard officers would be summoned by a judge to respond to accusations
  • A Greek coast guard official said the service had not been officially informed about the charges

ATHENS: A Greek naval court has charged 17 coast guard officers over one of the Mediterranean’s worst shipwrecks two years ago, in which hundreds of people are believed to have drowned, three sources said on Friday.

The shipwreck of an overloaded migrant boat in international waters off the southwestern Greek town of Pylos on June 14, 2023, sent shockwaves across Europe and beyond. The naval court is still investigating the circumstances around the incident.

A coast guard vessel had been monitoring the boat, named Adriana, for 15 hours before it capsized and sank. It had left Libya for Italy with about 750 people on board. Only 104 of them are known to have survived.

Greek coast guard authorities have repeatedly denied any wrongdoing over the handling of the case.

Three legal sources said the 17 coast guard officers would be summoned by a judge to respond to accusations ranging from obstructing transport to causing or helping cause a shipwreck.

Contacted by Reuters, a Greek coast guard official said the service had not been officially informed about the charges and had asked to be briefed by the naval court.

Greece’s judicial system has several preparatory stages and the compilation of charges does not necessarily mean that an individual will face trial.

Human rights activists and other protesters plan rallies across Greece on June 21 to mark the second anniversary of the Pylos shipwreck.

In February, the Greek Ombudsman recommended disciplinary action against eight coast guard officers, the first national probe into the incident to conclude.

Greece says that the coast guard operates with respect to human rights and that it has rescued more than 250,000 people since 2015, when the country was at the frontline of Europe’s migration crisis.