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Four Iranians on trial in Belgium over suspected
France bomb plot in European first
27 Nov, 2020 09:29
Police officers are seen before a trial of Iranian diplomat Assadollah Assadi, at the court building in Antwerp, Belgium, November 27, 2020. © Reuters / Johanna Geron
An Iranian diplomat and three of his compatriots go on trial in Belgium on Friday after being accused of plotting to bomb an opposition rally outside Paris in 2018, in the first such proceedings in Europe.
The diplomat, Assadolah Assadi, who was formerly based in Vienna, and the three others have been charged by prosecutors in Belgium with planning an attack on a meeting of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI). The exiled opposition group is headquartered in the French capital.
The trial is scheduled to be held on Friday and then Thursday next week, and if convicted, Assadi, 48, faces life in prison. The diplomat, who has not commented on the charges, was arrested while on holiday in July 2018 in Germany, where he had no immunity from prosecution and was handed over to Belgium.
This is the first time an Iranian official has been put on trial in an EU member state for terrorism.
Two of his suspected accomplices, a couple living in Belgium, had also been arrested Belgium, with police saying they had half a kilo of the explosive TATP and a detonator.
Another alleged accomplice, Mehrdad Arefani, 57, is an Iranian poet who had lived in Belgium for several years. He was arrested in France in 2018.
Belgian authorities said in June 2018 that they had thwarted an attempt to "smuggle explosives" to France to attack the meeting, and later that year, French officials accused Tehran's intelligence service of being behind the operation. Jaak Raes, head of Belgium's state security service (VSSE), said in a letter to the prosecutor in February this year that "the attack plan was conceived in the name of Iran and under its leadership."
France also accused Iran's intelligence ministry of planning the plot and reportedly expelled an Iranian diplomat in retaliation in October 2018.
The assets of an Iranian intelligence unit and officials were frozen in the European Union.
The Islamic Republic has denied the allegations, saying that the "plot" was a stunt by the NCRI, which is labeled a terrorist group in Iran.
13 Australian soldiers receive discharge notices after probe finds
evidence of war crimes in Afghanistan
27 Nov, 2020 07:40
© AFP / Australian Department of Defence
The Australian Army said 13 servicemen are facing dismissal and could be referred to the special prosecutor's office set up to study allegations in a report about commandos executing prisoners and civilians in Afghanistan.
"At this time, 13 individuals have been issued administrative action notices in relation to the Afghanistan inquiry," Chief of Army Lieutenant General Rick Burr announced. He explained that the servicemen in question have at least two weeks to respond to the notice, which includes a proposal to sack them.
Burr said the army would then study the written responses from the servicemen and consider "individual circumstance" on a case-by-case basis. He added that the soldiers could be later referred to the office of the special prosecutor, which was created to examine the possible prosecution of troops over their conduct in Afghanistan.
The army did not disclose the names of the soldiers. According to Australian media, the servicemen are from the 2nd Squadron of the Special Air Service Regiment, which was disbanded shortly after the redacted version of the report on Afghanistan was published this month, and the unit's 3rd Squadron.
An official four-year investigation found evidence that elite Australian troops unlawfully killed 39 prisoners and civilians during their service in Afghanistan. The shocking details prompted the Australian government and the army to apologize to Kabul and the people of Afghanistan.
In 2001, Australian troops joined the US-led NATO force to fight Al-Qaeda and the Taliban militants in Afghanistan following the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the US.
Saudi Arabia: Man arrested for shooting four members of his family
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The victims were the suspect’s two sisters and cousins
Published: November 27, 2020 16:19
Ramadan Al Sherbini, Correspondent
Cairo: Saudi police have arrested a man suspected of gunning down four of his family, a media reported said Friday.
The multiple killings occurred in the governorate of Al Qunfudhah, part of the region of Mecca, according to news portal Sabq.
The dead victims were his two sisters and two cousins, including a woman.
The suspect used a machine gun and first killed his male cousin, at a school where the victim worked as a guard.
Afterwards he headed to his house’s two sisters (??) and sprayed them with a volley of bullets in front of their children, according to the report.
He later killed his female cousin before he fled. The suspect’s brother was involved in the crime and was also arrested, Sabq said.
The motive for the crime is not clear yet. Neither the nationality of the suspect or his age was given.
Daesh-linked militants brutally kill 4 Indonesian Christians
Group of sword-and-gun wielding attackers ambushed village in Sulawesi
Published: November 28, 2020 17:19
Indonesia, the world’s biggest Muslim majority nation, has long wrestled with Islamist militancy and terror attacks, while Central Sulawesi has seen intermittent violence between Christians and Muslims for decades.
Image Credit: REUTERS
Palu, Indonesia: Daesh-linked extremists killed four people in a remote Christian community on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, authorities said Saturday, with one victim beheaded and another burned to death.
The group of sword-and-gun wielding attackers ambushed Lembantongoa village in Central Sulawesi province Friday morning, killing several residents and torching half a dozen homes, including one used for regular prayers and services, police said.
No arrests had yet been made and the motive for the attack was not immediately clear.
But authorities pointed the finger at the Sulawesi-based East Indonesia Mujahideen (MIT), one of dozens of radical groups across the Southeast Asian archipelago that have pledged allegiance to Daesh.
Indonesia, the world’s biggest Muslim majority nation, has long wrestled with Islamist militancy and terror attacks, while Central Sulawesi has seen intermittent violence between Christians and Muslims for decades.
“We reached the conclusion that they (the attackers) were from MIT after showing pictures of its members to relatives of the victims” who witnessed the ambush, said Sigi Regency police chief Yoga Priyahutama.
The makeshift church was empty at the time of the early morning attack by around eight militants, he added. “People were just in their homes when it happened,” Priyahutama said.
Lembantongoa village head Rifai, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, said one victim was beheaded and another was nearly decapitated.
One of the other all-male victims was stabbed while a fourth was burned to death in his home, he added.
“Some residents managed to escape, but the victims didn’t make it,” Rifai told AFP.
Indonesia’s Christians have been targeted in the past, including in 2018 when Daesh-linked group Jamaah Ansharut Daulah staged a wave of suicide bombings by families - including young children - at churches in the country’s second-biggest city Surabaya, killing a dozen congregants.
If confirmed to be the work of MIT, Friday’s killings would be its first significant attack since the organisation’s leader was killed four years ago by Indonesia’s elite anti-terror squad, according to Jakarta-based terrorism expert Sidney Jones.
“Through the attack... they want to show that police efforts to arrest and kill members of the group did not have any effect on” them, she said.
In 2018, MIT was believed to have sent radicals posing as humanitarian workers into Central Sulawesi’s quake-tsunami hit Palu city in a bid to recruit new members, Jones said.
Lembantongoa, Central Sulawesi
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