Tag Archives: life in prison

Syria executes 24 people over deadly forest fires

By Suleiman Al-Khalidi

AMMAN (Reuters) – Syria executed 24 people it said had set fires that swept swathes of forests mainly in the coastal province of Latakia, the ancestral home of Syrian President Bashar al Assad, the justice ministry said on Thursday .

Those executed on Wednesday were charged with committing “terrorist acts that led to death and damage to state infrastructure, public and private property,” the ministry said.

It said 11 others were sentenced to life in prison on the same charges from dozens arrested at the end of last year who confessed to igniting the fires that began in September 2020 and lasted until mid-October.

Although executions are common in the tightly run country with a powerful security apparatus, it is rare to publicize such a large number of executions on a single day.

The justice ministry statement said tens of fires swept forests and farmland and burnt homes in dozens of villages and towns in Latakia and Tartous provinces and also the central province of Hama.

No details were provided on where and how the executions took place in a country where international human rights groups says many detainees are executed without trial and where security prisons have tens of thousands of detainees.

Assad visited the devastated rural areas near his ancestral home of Qardaha in Latakia, inhabited mainly by his minority Alawite sect that dominates the higher echelons of power in the security forces and army.

The huge fires caused tens of millions of dollars of losses in cultivated plots of mainly citrus, apples and olive trees that many poor Alawite farmers rely on to supplement meager low paid state jobs.

It also damaged a main part of the state-owned tobacco company that is a mainstay of the coastal area’s economy.

State television showed alleged confessions of some of the culprits who said they were paid to set the deliberate fires.

The authorities had at the time blamed Syria’s foreign and internal enemies for igniting the fires as part of what it said was economic warfare. The country’s decade-old war has led to tens of thousands of deaths, displaced millions, and led to a refugee crisis.

(Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

Gibraltar votes to ease strict abortion law

By Marco Trujillo

GIBRALTAR (Reuters) -Gibraltar voted to ease a strict abortion law, officials said on Friday, after a referendum which some locals said marked a long overdue advancement of women’s rights in the tiny British territory.

Around 62% of voters who took part backed the change in Thursday’s ballot, where turnout was about 52% of the 23,000 odd eligible voters, Gibraltar’s parliament said.

“Gibraltar does have to keep up with the times, you cannot live in the past,” said Jacqueline, a Gibraltarian woman who declined to give her last name, on Friday morning.

The vote “is an excellent result for women,” chief minister Fabian Picardo, who backed ‘yes’ in a divisive campaign, said on Twitter. “We will also work to introduce the new services we will require to ensure counselling and safe and legal abortions,” he added.

Criminal law in the British enclave on Spain’s southern tip had banned abortion in all circumstances, with a maximum punishment in theory of life in prison. While no one has ever been convicted, citizens and residents were forced to go to Spain or travel to Britain to have an abortion.

The referendum had originally been scheduled for March 2020, but was postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Even with the amendment approved on Thursday, the law remains more restrictive than in most of the rest of Europe.

The amendment to the criminal law approved by the referendum allows pregnancies to be terminated by a registered physician within the first 12 weeks in cases where the pregnancy carries more risk to the mother’s health than termination.

Abortions would be permitted at a later stage of pregnancy under a narrow set of circumstances.

Pro-life groups, who opposed the new bill, say the wording of the law could be interpreted in a way that would ultimately allow most abortions after 12 weeks of conception.

Others said the bill did not encourage abortion but that it was important the choice should rest with the woman.

“I am not pro-abortion, but I am pro-choice,” said Sheela, another Gibraltar resident. “I think every person should have, at the end of the day, their own right to do what they want.”

(Reporting by Marco Trujillo in GIBRALTAR and Inti Landauro in MADRID; Editing by Andrei Khalip and Philippa Fletcher)

Gibraltar votes in referendum on easing strict abortion law

By Jon Nazca and Marco Trujillo

GIBRALTAR (Reuters) – Gibraltarians voted in a referendum on Thursday on whether the tiny British territory on the southern tip of Spain should ease one of the strictest abortion laws in Europe.

Its criminal law bans abortion in all circumstances, with a maximum punishment in theory of life in prison. While no one has been convicted, citizens and residents are forced to go to Spain or travel to Britain to have an abortion.

“I think we should be able to have an abortion here, we shouldn’t have to go to a different country just to have an abortion,” 20-year-old student Geraldine told Reuters after casting her vote.

“At the end of the day it is our body, our choice. Other people shouldn’t make the choice for us,” added the student, one of 23,000 Gibraltarians eligible to vote.

The referendum had originally been scheduled for March 2020, but was postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Although penalties are tough, not a single woman or doctor has ever been convicted under the law, a Gibraltar government spokeswoman said.

The referendum is on an amendment to the criminal law that would allow pregnancies to be terminated by a registered physician within the first 12 weeks in cases where the pregnancy carried more risk to the mother’s health than termination.

Abortions would be permitted at a later stage under a narrow set of circumstances.

Even if the changes are approved, the law would be far more restrictive than in most of the rest of Europe.

Pro-life groups say that the wording of the law could be interpreted in a way that would ultimately allow most abortions.

“I’m supporting ‘No’ because I believe life begins at conception and life is sacred and it should be respected until the moment of death,” Susan Gomez, 52, who is a member of the Gibraltar pro-life movement, told Reuters.

“We should give (women who are pregnant) all the support in the world so that abortion never happens”, she said.

Both the government, which has backed the proposed changes, and opposition parties in the enclave encouraged people to vote.

“The government will act in keeping with the views of the people of Gibraltar as expressed … whichever of the two results may come out,” Fabian Picardo, Gibraltar’s chief minister, said.

(Reporting by Jon Nazca and Marco Trujillo in Gibraltar. Writing by Emma Pinedo in Madrid)

China’s attacks on ‘foreign forces’ threaten Hong Kong’s global standing -top U.S. envoy

By Greg Torode, Anne Marie Roantree and James Pomfret

HONG KONG (Reuters) -The top U.S. diplomat in Hong Kong said the imposition of a new national security law had created an “atmosphere of coercion” that threatens both the city’s freedoms and its standing as an international business hub.

In unusually strident remarks to Reuters this week, U.S. Consul-General Hanscom Smith called it “appalling” that Beijing’s influence had “vilified” routine diplomatic activities such as meeting local activists, part of a government crackdown on foreign forces that was “casting a pall over the city”.

Smith’s remarks highlight deepening concerns over Hong Kong’s sharply deteriorating freedoms among many officials in the administration of President Joe Biden one year after China’s parliament imposed the law. Critics of the legislation say the law has crushed the city’s democratic opposition, civil society and Western-style freedoms.

The foreign forces issue is at the heart of the crimes of “collusion” with foreign countries or “external elements” detailed in Article 29 of the security law, scholars say.

Article 29 outlaws a range of direct or indirect links with a “foreign country or an institution, organization or individual” outside greater China, covering offences from the stealing of secrets and waging war to engaging in “hostile activities” and “provoking hatred.” They can be punished by up to life in prison.

“People … don’t know where the red lines are, and it creates an atmosphere that’s not just bad for fundamental freedoms, it’s bad for business,” Smith said.

“You can’t have it both ways,” he added. “You can’t purport to be this global hub and at the same time invoke this kind of propaganda language criticizing foreigners.”

Smith is a career U.S. foreign service officer who has deep experience in China and the wider region, serving in Shanghai, Beijing and Taiwan before arriving in Hong Kong in July 2019. He made his comments in an interview at the U.S. diplomatic mission in Hong Kong on Wednesday after Reuters sought the consulate’s views on the impact of the national security law.

In a response to Reuters, Hong Kong’s Security Bureau said that “normal interactions and activities” were protected, and blamed external elements for interfering in the city during the protests that engulfed Hong Kong in 2019.

“There are indications in investigations and intelligence that foreign intervention was rampant with money, supplies and other forms of support,” a representative said. He did not to identify specific individuals or groups.

Government adviser and former security chief Regina Ip told Reuters it was only “China haters” who had reason to worry about falling afoul of the law.

“There must be criminal intent, not just casual chat,” she said.

Smith’s comments come as other envoys, business people and activists have told Reuters of the chilling effect on their relationships and connections across China’s most international city.

Private investigators say demand is surging among law firms, hedge funds and other businesses for security sweeps of offices and communications for surveillance tools, while diplomats describe discreet meetings with opposition figures, academics and clergy.

Fourteen Asian and Western diplomats who spoke to Reuters for this story said they were alarmed at attempts by Hong Kong prosecutors to treat links between local politicians and foreign envoys as potential national security threats.

In April, a judge cited emails from the U.S. mission to former democratic legislator Jeremy Tam as a reason to deny him bail on a charge of conspiracy to commit subversion. Tam, one of 47 pro-democracy politicians charged, is in jail awaiting trial; his lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“It’s appalling that people would take a routine interaction with a foreign government representative and attribute something sinister to it,” Smith said, adding that the consulate did not want to put anyone in an “awkward situation.”

In the latest ratcheting up of tensions with Western nations, Hong Kong on Friday slammed a U.K. government report that said Beijing was using the security law to “drastically curtail freedoms” in the city.

Hong Kong authorities also this week lambasted the European Union for denouncing Hong Kong’s recent overhaul of its political system.

‘TOUGH CASES’ LOOM

Although local officials said last year the security law would only affect a “tiny minority” of people, more than 100 have been arrested under the law, which has affected education, media, civil society and religious freedoms among other areas, according to those interviewed for this story.

Some have raised concerns that the provisions would hurt the business community, a suggestion Ip dismissed.

“I think they have nothing to worry about unless they are bent on using external forces to harm Hong Kong,” Ip said. “I speak to a lot of businessmen who are very bullish about the economic situation.”

Retired judges familiar with cases such as Jeremy Tam’s said they were shocked at the broad use of foreign connections by prosecutors. One told Reuters he did not see how that approach would be sustainable, as the government accredits diplomats, whose job is to meet people, including politicians.

Hong Kong’s judiciary said it would not comment on individual cases.

Smith said Hong Kong’s growing atmosphere of “fear, coercion and uncertainty” put the special administrative region’s future in jeopardy.

“It’s been very distressing to see this relentless onslaught on Hong Kong’s freedoms and back-tracking on the commitment that was made to preserve Hong Kong’s autonomy,” he said.

(Reporting By Greg Torode, Anne Marie Roantree and James Pomfret. Additional reporting by Clare Jim. Editing by Gerry Doyle)

Suspects in Michigan kidnap plot also weighed targeting Virginia governor: FBI

By Gabriella Borter

(Reuters) – Some suspects accused of trying to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer also discussed whether they should shoot her in the head and contemplated abducting Virginia Governor Ralph Northam as well, an FBI agent testified on Tuesday.

Thirteen people including at least seven tied to an armed militia were arrested last week and accused of plotting to kidnap the Democratic governor Whitmer, who has come under criticism from Republican President Donald Trump and from right-wing extremists for her handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

FBI Special Agent Richard Trask was testifying at a hearing in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan to decide whether five of the suspects accused of federal kidnapping charges should be granted bail.

During a planning meeting in Dublin, Ohio, in June, some of the suspects also discussed targeting Northam, who like Whitmer is a Democrat who has enacted coronavirus restrictions that they opposed, the agent said.

“At this meeting they discussed possible targets, taking a sitting governor, specifically issues with the governor of Michigan and Virginia based on the lockdown orders,” Trask said, basing his testimony on evidence from confidential informants, including encrypted communications from the group.

The FBI gleaned from the group’s messages that one of the suspects had at one point suggested going to Whitmer’s house to “cap her,” possibly disguised as a pizza delivery man, Trask said.

One suspect floated the idea of grabbing a pizza delivery person and taking his shirt in order to carry out the plan, Trask said.

The defendants in Tuesday’s hearing are among six people facing federal kidnapping charges who could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted.

Seven suspects associated with the Wolverine Watchmen militia group face state charges in Michigan.

Their arrests last week, in the final stretches of the Nov. 3 presidential campaign, underscored the country’s political polarization as Trump seeks re-election against Democratic challenger Joe Biden.

Trask said the plotters were eager to carry out some action before the election, with one suggesting they put her on trial for treason.

Michigan is considered a state where voters could favor either Biden or Trump, potentially swinging a close national election.

Internal U.S. security memos in recent months have warned that violent domestic extremists could pose a threat to election-related targets, a concern exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic, political tensions, civil unrest and foreign disinformation campaigns.

The plotting took place after Trump in April had tweeted “LIBERATE MICHIGAN!” and “LIBERATE VIRGINIA, and save your great 2nd Amendment. It is under siege!” in reference to gun rights under the U.S. Constitution.

(Reporting by Gabriella Borter; Writing by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Howard Goller)

Jury finds Dallas police officer guilty in shooting death of her neighbor

FILE PHOTO: Amber Guyger, who is charged in the killing of Botham Jean in his own home, arrives on the first day of the trial in Dallas, Texas, U.S., September 23, 2019. REUTERS/Jeremy Lock/File Photo

By Bruce Tomaso

DALLAS (Reuters) – A Dallas jury found former police officer Amber Guyger guilty on Tuesday of murder when she accidentally walked into a neighbor’s apartment thinking it was her own and shot him dead as he ate ice cream.

The Sept. 6, 2018, killing of Botham Jean, a 26-year-old black PwC accountant, by a white officer sparked street protests, particularly when prosecutors initially opted to bring the lesser charge of manslaughter against Guyger, 31.

“We the jury unanimously find the defendant Amber Guyger guilty of murder as charged in the indictment,” Judge Tammy Kemp read aloud to the courtroom from the jurors’ statement. A sob, which sounded like it came from Guyger’s bench, cut the judge off and Kemp paused to address the courtroom: “No outbursts.”

Guyger, who spent four years on the force before the killing, faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison for the slaying. She took the rare step of testifying in her own defense during her trial, tearfully expressing regret for shooting Jean but saying she had believed her life was in danger when she pulled the trigger.

“I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry. I have to live with this every single day,” Guyger told the jury of eight women and four men.

In cross-examination, Assistant District Attorney Jason Hermus asked her, “When you shot him twice, you intended to kill him, didn’t you?”

“I did,” Guyger responded, in a calm voice.

Prosecutors also argued that Guyger did little to help Jean even after realizing her mistake, calling the 911 emergency phone number for an ambulance but not administering first aid.

Hermus also told the jury that Guyger missed blatant clues that she was not in her own apartment – including the smell of marijuana smoke – because she was distracted after a 16-minute phone conversation on her commute with her former police partner. Guyger testified that the call was in relation to work.

The shooting stood in contrast to cases like the killings of Michael Brown in Missouri and Philando Castile in Minnesota. Guyger shot Jean while she was off duty, rather than while responding to a reported crime.

In her testimony, Guyger told jurors that the shooting “is not about hate; it’s about being scared.”

Neither prosecutors nor the defense focused on race during the trial.

(Reporting by Bruce Tomaso in Dallas, additional reporting by Brad Brooks in Austin; Editing by Scott Malone, Cynthia Osterman and Jonathan Oatis)

Frenchman convicted to life in Jewish museum attack, tells jury ‘life goes on!’

By Clement Rossignol

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – French citizen Mehdi Nemmouche was sentenced to life in jail on Monday for shooting dead four people in a Jewish museum in 2014, telling the court “life goes on” in his last words to the jury.

The families of victims and survivors of the attacks voiced relief at the end of a two-month-long jury trial dogged by controversy over what they denounced as conspiracy theories put forward by Nemmouche’s defense lawyers.

Nemmouche, 33, who staged the attack after coming back from Syria, spat out just that one short phrase ahead of the jury’s final deliberation on the length of his penalty on Monday.

Nacer Bendrer, another French citizen being tried as Nemmouche’s accomplice told the court, “I am ashamed to be here … I am ashamed to have crossed paths with this guy. He is not a man, he is a monster.”

The 12-person jury convicted Bendrer to 15 years in prison for acting as an accomplice. He was suspected of providing the weapon used in the shooting.

The attack in May 2014 – the first by a Western European who fought with Islamist militant factions in Syria’s civil war – highlights the threat posed by jihadist returning home.

The shooting killed an Israeli tourist couple, Myriam and Emmanuel Riva, and two employees of the museum, Dominique Sabrier and Alexandre Strens.

In final words, the prosecutor Yves Moreau called on the jury to hand down a tough sentence: “He will get out of jail and he’ll go on another crusade and start killing again,” he was cited by the state broadcaster RTBF as saying on Monday.

Turning to Nemmouche, who was largely impassive and refused to speak during the trial, he took aim at his lack of contrition. “The cherry on the cake: you aren’t even capable of taking responsibility for your acts,” he said.

Nemmouche, 33 – who was radicalized in the jail, according to investigators – is also facing charges in France over his role in holding hostage journalists in Syria.

During the high-profile trial, the two French journalists had testified that they remembered Nemmouche as a deeply anti-Semitic, sadistic and full of hatred.

Defense lawyers, who had alleged that prosecutors doctored video footage of the attack and that Nemmouche was framed in a settling of accounts between spies including Mossad agents, said he would not appeal the sentence.

(Reporting by Clement Rossingnol; Additional by Clare Roth; Writing by Alissa de Carbonnel; Editing by Jan Strupczewski)

Widow of Orlando nightclub gunman knew of his plans, prosecutors say

Investigators work the scene following a mass shooting at the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando Florida, U.S. on June 12, 2016. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri/File Photo

By Joey Roulette

ORLANDO (Reuters) – The widow of the gunman who killed 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, in 2016 made statements to federal investigators after the attack that proved she knew of her husband’s plans, prosecutors told jurors on Wednesday.

But the defense attorney said Noor Salman was unaware that her husband, gunman Omar Mateen, intended to carry out the Pulse nightclub massacre on June 12, 2016.

“I wish I had gone back and told his family what he was going to do,” Salman told Federal Bureau of Investigation agents, Assistant U.S. Attorney James Mandolfo told jurors during his opening statement at Salman’s federal trial.

Salman made that comment right after she said she was sorry for the shooting rampage that had happened hours earlier, Mandolfo said. The prosecutor said her comment showed she had foreknowledge of the attack.

Salman, 31, faces up to life in prison if she is convicted in U.S. District Court in Orlando of aiding and abetting her husband and obstructing a federal investigation. She is the only person charged in the attack, which ended with Mateen’s death in an exchange of gunfire with police.

Salman was at home with the couple’s then-3-year-old son during her husband’s shooting spree. Defense attorney Linda Moreno told jurors Salman was unaware of her husband’s sinister plans.

“Noor was in the dark about Omar’s secret and despicable life,” Moreno said.

Moreno said the FBI did not record its interrogation of Salman and coerced her into making statements that favored the prosecution.

The trial is expected to last for a month.

According to prosecutors, Salman initially told investigators her husband acted without her knowledge but later acknowledged being aware that he was watching Islamic State recruitment videos, had purchased an assault rifle and examined three possible attack locations.

Salman’s attorneys contend the U.S. government could not show any direct links between Mateen and Islamic State before the attack and has provided no evidence that Salman aided her husband.

Salman was indicted on two charges: obstruction of justice for alleged false statements to federal investigators, and aiding and abetting Mateen in his attempt to provide material support to a terrorist organization.

Mateen, 29, opened fire shortly after the last call for drinks on the club’s popular Latin night.

Holding hostages during his standoff with police, he claimed allegiance to a leader of the Islamic State militant group before being fatally shot.

(Reporting by Joey Roulette in Orlando, Florida; Writing by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and David Gregorio)