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Estonian prime minister resigns amid corruption scandal,
citing loss of public confidence in government
13 Jan 2021 18:28
FILE PHOTO: Estonian Prime Minister Juri Ratas arrives at the European Union leaders summit, in Brussels, Belgium.
© Sputnik / Alexey Vitvitsky
Juri Ratas, the Prime Minister of Estonia, announced on Wednesday that he will stand down from the role amid a row over state-backed loans and government contracts, which were allegedly offered to political donors.
In a Facebook post, Ratas said that he “made a value-based decision to resign from office over the situation.” However, he argued that an investigation launched by Tallinn’s public prosecutor’s office did not, by itself, imply that he or his colleagues had acted “in an illegal way.” But he added, “in such a situation, it seems only right that I give myself a chance to shine light on the circumstances. This is for political and social peace…. We need to restore confidence in our state”.
Ratas’ Centre Party has come under fire for ties to property developers Porto Franco. The firm received a €39 million ($47 million) loan from public funds, as well as a profitable contract for the redevelopment of the capital’s historic harbor. The Mayor of Tallinn is also a member of the governing Centre grouping, and both the Party’s Secretary General Mikhail Korb and a government advisor are listed among those suspected of involvement in an illicit arrangement.
The ruling party came to power for the first time in its history in March 2019. Before then, however, it had attracted attention for a series of politically charged scandals, including accusations of discrimination against the country’s Russian population, despite its name and professed center-left ideology. Around a third of the country’s population speaks Russian as a native language. Party members also came under fire for participation in a torchlight procession that was reported to have been held in honor of Nazi SS legionaries.
The Centrists had governed alongside their right-of-center coalition partners, the Conservative People’s Party and the Fatherland Party. However, later on Wednesday, the country’s President, Kersti Kaljulaid, was reported to have asked the leader of the more liberal opposition Reform Party, Kaja Kallas, to attempt to form a government.
On Twitter, Kallas said that her party will do everything it can to establish a new government, but that she “would not underestimate the willingness of the current coalition parties to continue together at all costs.” “The government has fallen, but unfortunately the coalition still exists,” she added. If a new agreement between parliamentary parties cannot be concluded within the next two weeks, fresh elections will have to be called.
Italy begins largest mob trial in decades against Ndrangheta syndicate
By Clyde Hughes
Calabria province, Italy, on January 19, 2014. Officials said the Ndrangheta syndicate was behind the killings.
File Photo by Francesco Arena/EPA
Jan. 13 (UPI) -- Italy on Wednesday began its largest legal battle against organized crime in decades, putting more than 350 defendants on trial who are linked to the powerful Ndrangheta syndicate.
Security is high for the start of the trial in Lamezia Terme, which is expected to include close to 1,000 witnesses and evidence gathered over a period of many years.
Due to the COVID-19 threat, many will appear via remote video link. Those who appear in court will wear masks and appropriately distance, officials said.
Prosecutor Nicola Gratteri is leading a government team that's collected some 24,000 wiretaps and conversations to put the criminal case against Ndrangheta together. It's a wide-ranging legal fight against literally hundreds of defendants -- which include a former senator, police chief, local council members and business figures.
Authorities arrested the defendants across Italy, as well as Germany, Switzerland and Bulgaria.
Gratteri has been called a "dead man walking" by some members of the Italian mafia for his role in the case. "You need to have broad shoulders and nerves of steel," Gratteri said of taking on Ndrangheta.
"You need to stay calm and not get caught up in emotion or tension. You need to rationalize every emotion because the goal is important and fundamental."
Gratteri, who said he won't be intimidated, pressed ahead with the trial during the pandemic because he feared the possibility that Ndrangheta could further threaten business owners and others who are already vulnerable due to the health crisis.
"I am worried that the Ndrangheta and the other mafias will be able to take advantage of the needs of merchants, hoteliers, restaurateurs in crisis," he said. "And that with the money from cocaine they can buy everything that is on sale and then through the purchase of these hotels, restaurants and pizzerias can launder money."
The trial is Italy's largest prosecution of organized crime in 30 years, and is expected to last about two years.
While this is very encouraging, I wonder if it will make any difference? If they manage to take down Ndrangheta, are there not a dozen more mafia families waiting anxiously to take their place?
South Korean court upholds ex-President Park's 20-year prison sentence
By Thomas Maresca
She was convicted on charges including bribery and abuse of power in 2017. Photo by EPA-EFE/Yonhap
SEOUL, Jan. 14 (UPI) -- South Korea's Supreme Court upheld the 20-year prison sentence of former President Park Geun-hye on Thursday, ending the legal battles over corruption and abuse of power charges that saw the 68-year-old impeached and then convicted in 2017.
The court's decision was a response to an appeal by prosecutors over a July ruling that reduced her sentence from its original 30 years. A fine of $16.3 million was also upheld.
Thursday's ruling means that Park faces a combined 22 years in prison. She is serving a separate two-year conviction from 2018 for illegally meddling in the nomination process of her political party.
Park became South Korea's first female president when she was elected in 2013, and is its first democratically elected leader to be removed from office. She is the daughter of former dictator Park Chung-hee, who ruled South Korea from 1961 until his assassination in 1979.
Her presidency was marred by scandals that included receiving millions of dollars in bribes from businesses in a scheme with her longtime confidante, Choi Soon-sil.
Millions took to South Korea's streets calling for Park's ouster in a protest movement known as the Candlelight Revolution, which began in November 2016 and carried on through her impeachment and removal from office in March 2017.
Several other figures were also implicated in the scandals including Choi, her confidante, and the de facto head of Samsung, Lee Jae-yong.
In 2017, Lee was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison for offering bribes of roughly $7 million to Park and Choi. He was freed in 2018 after a court reduced his term and suspended his sentence. However, his case is currently being retried and a verdict is expected next week.
Park, who pleaded not guilty, was not present for the sentencing Thursday and has not attended any of her trials since October 2017.
"The unfortunate incident of a former president in prison should serve as a historical lesson that this should never happen again," presidential spokesman Kang Min-seok said in a briefing after the ruling.
The conclusion of Park's trial opens the door to the possibility of a presidential pardon. The idea has been the topic of heated public debate since the leader of the ruling Democratic Party, Rep. Lee Nak-yon, said at the beginning of the year that he would ask President Moon Jae-in to pardon Park and former President Lee Myung-bak, who is also in prison, as a means of promoting "national unity."
Someone will have to explain how that works to me.
Lee Myung-bak, Park's predecessor as president from 2008 to 2013, is serving a 17-year sentence for various corruption charges.
President Moon's office declined to weigh in on the question of pardons on Thursday. "It is not appropriate to comment on pardons so soon after the Supreme Court decision was issued," Kang said.
In survey results released Monday by pollster Realmeter, 56.1% of respondents said that a pardon "would not contribute" to national unity, while 38.8% felt that it would.
South Korean court says former Seoul mayor
sexually harassed city employee
By Elizabeth Shim
District Court ruling that identified Park as an initiator of unwanted sexual advances should bring some comfort
to her client. File Photo by Yonhap/EPA-EFE
Jan. 14 (UPI) -- A South Korean court said a victim of sexual assault at Seoul's city hall also was subjected to unwanted sexual advances from former Mayor Park Won-soon, who was found dead in July in an apparent suicide.
Seoul Central District Court referred to Park, once one of the most powerful politicians in the country, while ruling on a defendant who worked for the ex-mayor, local networks KBS and JTBC reported.
The case centered on the unnamed defendant, a city hall employee, and allegations of his actions of sexual assault. On Thursday, the man was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison for raping an intoxicated female colleague, the plaintiff, during last year's April 15 parliamentary elections, according to Yonhap.
During the trial, the unidentified plaintiff alleged she was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder due to sexual harassment. The woman said she was not only a rape victim, but also a victim of Park's unwanted sexual advances, reports said.
The court said in its ruling the actions of the former mayor did result in the "mental suffering" of the plaintiff.
"Former Mayor Park would send [the plaintiff] sexual text messages, send her photos of himself in underwear, and write to her, 'I want to smell you,'" the court said, according to JTBC.
South Korean authorities have kept a tight lid on investigations since Park's death. According to local law, Park's apparent suicide renders null and void any complaints from plaintiffs.
Last month, South Korean police officially ended their investigation into Park, citing lack of evidence of claims Park's aides abetted harassment.
Seoul's city hall also defended Park's legacy. Representatives have said one victim who was preparing to go public with her accusations in July was lying, according to JTBC.
It is unclear whether the plaintiff in Thursday's case was the same person. Kim Jae-ryun, the attorney for the unnamed plaintiff, said Thursday after the court ruling that the case should bring "some comfort" to her client, according to reports.
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