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Iran sentences couple to death for adultery
Published: November 08, 2021 15:59
Tawfiq Nasrallah, Senior News Editor
Gulf News
Image Credit: Shutterstock
Dubai: A 27-year-old man and a 33-year-old woman have been both sentenced to death for committing adultery in Iran, local media reported.
The Supreme Court in Tehran confirmed the death sentence, after the man’s father-in-law refused to forgive him, Shargh newspaper reported.
According to the paper, the man’s wife discovered her husband’s illegal affair with a woman early this year and filed a case against him along with supporting documents, including video clips proving his affair with a woman six years older to him.
Although the suspect’s wife dropped the charges against her husband, her father refused, and asked the judicial authorities to apply the maximum penalty against them.
Accordingly, the Supreme Court in Tehran sentenced both to death based on the tapes and the confessions of the accused.
According to Iranian law, the punishment for adultery can even be death, but it is up to the judge to determine the means of execution. Iranian laws also allow the maximum punishment not to be carried out if the victim’s family considers the convict to be forgiven.
Pegasus spyware linked to Israel branding Palestinian rights NGOs
as terrorists – report
8 Nov, 2021 13:31
Phones of six members of Palestinian human rights organizations were hacked with the notorious spyware Pegasus, a new report said. The Israeli government designated the organizations as terrorists.
The designation was likely meant to give a post-factum justification for the use of the spyware, which the producer says is restricted to law enforcement operations against terrorism and crime, the Ireland-based NGO that identified the intrusions said.
The accusations against the Israeli government came on Monday from Front Line Defenders, a Dublin-based human rights group. It said a Palestinian group tuned to them on October 16, after suspecting that an activist’s phone may have been hacked. The Irish group confirmed his suspicion and swiped a total of 75 iPhones used by various pro-Palestinian activists for signs of similar attacks, discovering five additional phones had been compromised.
The earliest detected intrusion happened in July 2020. The most recent hacks happened in April 2021 and targeted three phones. The forensic analysis indicated that the phones were broken into with Pegasus, a military-grade spyware toolkit developed by the Israeli firm NSO.
Front Line Defenders’ conclusions were confirmed by Citizens Lab and Amnesty International’s Security Lab, both of which have extensive records of identifying and exposing alleged cases of Pegasus deployment.
Also in October, the Israeli government designated six Palestinian rights groups, to which the targeted activists belonged, as terrorist organizations. The controversial decision was taken by the civilian government, but reportedly not supported by the IDF, which means that the six NGOs remain legal in the military-administered West Bank.
According to Haaretz, the Israeli State Prosecutor’s Office has no intention of filing any indictment against members of the group, which casts additional doubt on the strength of the evidence against them that the Israeli government alleges to have. Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said Israel failed to show European governments any credible proof to justify the terrorist label.
Sources in the Israeli government said the goal was to dismantle financial support of Palestinian terrorism by cutting European funding of the six NGOs. Front Line Defenders believes that the real motive for the decision was to justify the use of Pegasus against Palestinian rights activists.
“The Israeli designation of these organizations as ‘terrorists’ after Pegasus was detected, but just days before this investigation is reported, appears to be a clear effort to cover its actions and disconnected from any evidence that would discredit these organizations,” the report said.
The Irish group called for continued funding of Palestinian groups and said European nations should join the US in blacklisting NSO. Last week, Washington banned the developer of Pegasus along with three other software firms from trading with US companies without a special license.
The Biden administration cited evidence that NSO supplied its software to “foreign governments that used these tools to maliciously target government officials, journalists, businesspeople, artists, activists, academics, and embassy workers.” The accusations of widespread shady use of Pegasus were reinforced earlier this year by multiple media outlets, which investigated how NSO’s flagship product was used. The firm denied any wrongdoing, stating that it has strong safeguards in place to prevent misuse of its spyware.
Cannes stabbing: Policeman who was attacked should thank his vest
8 Nov, 2021 09:41
A police officer targeted on Monday in a stabbing attack in Cannes was protected from physical injury by his vest, France’s interior minister confirmed as investigators evaluate if the incident was related to terrorism.
The officer was attacked by a male assailant outside the central police station of Cannes. One officer was stabbed, but luckily wasn’t injured thanks to his ballistic vest, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said in an update on Twitter. The minister flew to Southern France to personally oversee the investigation into the attack.
According to BFM, the suspect, who was shot and injured by another police officer at the scene, was identified as a 37-year-old Algerian citizen, who was not on law enforcement’s radar before the incident.
The man reportedly approached a police car parked outside the station and stabbed one officer, before walking around the vehicle and opening the door to attack another. At that point, a third officer sitting in the car shot him.
Some reports claimed the suspect said something about “the Prophet” during the attack. Investigators have not confirmed that the incident had any terrorist connection.
