LONDON: Britain announced on Thursday a public inquiry into the death of Dawn Sturgess, who was exposed to nerve agent Novichok after the poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal in 2018.
Sturgess, 44, died after spraying herself with what she thought was perfume from a discarded bottle which in fact contained the deadly chemical weapon.
The bottle was allegedly used to carry the poison used in the attack on Skripal in the small English city of Salisbury.
Skripal was found with his daughter Yulia, both unconscious, on a bench in the city. They survived after being taken to hospital and now live under protection.
Interior minister Priti Patel said she hoped the inquiry “will bring comfort” to Sturgess’ family “through a greater understanding of the circumstances” of her death.
Heather Hallett, a member of the upper chamber of parliament the House of Lords, will chair the probe, which is due to begin next year.
Hallett has been in charge of a coroner’s inquest into Sturgess’ death but in September wrote to Patel saying a “full, fair and effective” hearing could not be held without wider powers.
An inquest, which is limited in scope, “cannot make any finding of civil or criminal liability against a named person, and it cannot attribute blame or impose any sanction or punishment,” she added.
Britain blames the attack on two Russian security service officers who allegedly entered Britain using false passports.
In September, London warned the pair — and a third agent who allegedly led the operation — they faced arrest and prosecution if they ever leave Russia.
The Kremlin has vehemently denied any link to the Skripal attack.
The Skripals spent days in a coma before recovering but local resident Sturgess died after picking up the discarded bottle.
Her partner, Charlie Rowley, spent weeks in hospital and a police officer also received a non-lethal dose of the Soviet-era nerve agent.
The incident resulted in the largest ever expulsion of diplomats between Western powers and Russia.
UK opens inquiry into death of woman caught up in Skripal attack
https://arab.news/jjm88
UK opens inquiry into death of woman caught up in Skripal attack
- Sturgess, 44, died after spraying herself with what she thought was perfume from a discarded bottle
- The bottle was allegedly used to carry the poison used in the attack on Skripal in the small English city of Salisbury
Two dead and 500 arrested in France during PSG win celebrations
PARIS: More than 500 people were arrested by police during the Champions League final celebrations in France, and two people were reported dead and 192 injured, the interior ministry said on Sunday.
Wild celebrations erupted across the French capital and beyond on Saturday night after Paris St Germain crushed Italian opponents Inter Milan to win the Champions League for the first time, although skirmishes with police later threatened to spoil the party.
The interior ministry's provisional assessment as of Sunday morning was that 559 people had been arrested, including 491 in Paris, which led to 320 people being placed in police custody, 254 of them in Paris.
On the Champs Elysees, bus shelters were smashed and projectiles hurled at riot police, who fired tear gas and water cannon to push back surging crowds as thousands of supporters descended on the boutique-lined boulevard.
The interior ministry on Sunday reported hundreds of fires, including more than 200 vehicles burned. Some 22 members of the security forces and seven firefighters were harmed.
Nearly 200 migrants in small boats rescued in Channel
Lille: Nearly 200 migrants trying to cross the Channel from France to Britain in small boats were rescued between late Friday and late Saturday, French coastal authorities said.
A total 184 people were picked up in four different rescue operations, the maritime prefecture for France’s Channel and northern region said in a statement on Sunday.
In one instance, the motor died on a boat carrying 61 people. In another, nine people on a boat called for assistance.
According to an AFP tally of official figures, 15 people have died so far this year trying to cross the Channel, one of the busiest areas in the world for shipping.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in May announced tougher new policies to tackle high levels of regular and irregular migration, in an attempt to stem a growing loss of support to the hard right.
They include looking at the creation of centers in other countries to take in migrants whose asylum applications have been turned down.
The EU has also unveiled plans to make it easier to send asylum seekers to certain countries outside the bloc, in the latest overhaul aimed at reducing irregular migration.
Bangladesh opens fugitive ex-PM’s trial over protest killings
- Up to 1,400 people were killed between July and August 2024 when Hasina’s government launched its crackdown, according to the United Nations
DHAKA: Fugitive former prime minister Sheikh Hasina orchestrated a “systemic attack” to try to crush the uprising against her government, Bangladeshi prosecutors said at the opening of her trial on Sunday.
Up to 1,400 people were killed between July and August 2024 when Hasina’s government launched its crackdown, according to the United Nations.
Hasina, 77, fled by helicopter to her old ally India as the student-led uprising ended her 15-year rule, and she has defied an extradition order to return to Dhaka.
The domestic International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) is prosecuting former senior figures connected to Hasina’s ousted government and her now-banned party, the Awami League.
“Upon scrutinizing the evidence, we reached the conclusion that it was a coordinated, widespread and systematic attack,” Mohammad Tajul Islam, ICT chief prosecutor, told the court in his opening speech.
“The accused unleashed all law enforcement agencies and her armed party members to crush the uprising.”
Islam lodged charges against Hasina and two other officials of “abetment, incitement, complicity, facilitation, conspiracy, and failure to prevent mass murder during the July uprising.”
Hasina, who remains in self-imposed exile in India, has rejected the charges as politically motivated.
As well as Hasina, the case includes ex-police chief Chowdhury Abdullah Al Mamun — who is in custody, but who did not appear in court on Sunday — and former interior minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, who like Hasina, is on the run.
The prosecution of senior figures from Hasina’s government is a key demand of several of the political parties now jostling for power. The interim government has vowed to hold elections before June 2026.
The hearing is being broadcast live on state-owned Bangladesh Television.
Prosecutor Islam vowed the trial would be impartial.
“This is not an act of vendetta, but a commitment to the principle that, in a democratic country, there is no room for crimes against humanity,” he said.
Investigators have collected video footage, audio clips, Hasina’s phone conversations, records of helicopter and drone movements, as well as statements from victims of the crackdown as part of their probe.
The ICT court opened its first trial connected to the previous government on May 25.
In that case, eight police officials face charges of crimes against humanity over the killing of six protesters on August 5, the day Hasina fled the country.
Four of the officers are in custody and four are being tried in absentia.
The ICT was set up by Hasina in 2009 to investigate crimes committed by the Pakistani army during Bangladesh’s war for independence in 1971.
It sentenced numerous prominent political opponents to death and became widely seen as a means for Hasina to eliminate rivals.
Earlier on Sunday, the Supreme Court restored the registration of the largest Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami, allowing it to take part in elections.
Hasina banned Jamaat-e-Islami during her tenure and cracked down on its leaders.
In May, Bangladesh’s interim government banned the Awami League, pending the outcome of her trial, and of other party leaders.
China says Hegseth is touting a Cold War mentality in calling it a threat
- The Chinese foreign ministry said Hegseth had vilified Beijing with defamatory allegations the previous day before at the Shangri-La Dialogue
BEJING: China on Sunday denounced US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for calling the Asian country a threat, accusing him of touting a Cold War mentality as tensions between Washington and Beijing further escalate.
The foreign ministry said Hegseth had vilified Beijing with defamatory allegations the previous day before at the Shangri-La Dialogue, a global security conference. The statement also accused the United States of inciting conflict and confrontation in the region.
“Hegseth deliberately ignored the call for peace and development by countries in the region, and instead touted the Cold War mentality for bloc confrontation,” it said, referring to the post-World War II rivalry between the US and the former Soviet Union.
“No country in the world deserves to be called a hegemonic power other than the US itself,” it said, alleging that Washington is also undermining peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific.
Hegseth said in Singapore on Saturday that Washington will bolster its defenses overseas to counter what the Pentagon sees as rapidly developing threats by Beijing, particularly in its aggressive stance toward Taiwan.
China’s army “is rehearsing for the real deal,” Hegseth said. “We are not going to sugarcoat it — the threat China poses is real. And it could be imminent.”
The Chinese statement stressed that the Taiwan question is entirely China’s internal affair, saying the US must “never play with fire” with it. It also alleged Washington had deployed offensive weaponry in the South China Sea, was “stoking flames and creating tensions in the Asia-Pacific” and “turning the region into a powder keg.”
In a Facebook post on Saturday, China’s Embassy in Singapore said Hegseth’s speech was “steeped in provocations and instigation.”
The US and China had reached a deal last month to cut US President Donald Trump’s tariffs from 145 percent to 30 percent for 90 days, creating time for negotiators from both sides to reach a more substantive agreement. China also reduced its taxes on US goods from 125 percent to 10 percent.
But it’s uncertain if a trade war truce will last. Trump in a social media post on Friday said he would no longer be “nice” with China when it comes to trade and accused Beijing of breaking an unspecified agreement with the US
Tensions escalated anew after the US said on Wednesday it would start revoking visas for Chinese students studying there.
Separately, the Chinese Embassy in Singapore criticized attempts to link the issue of Taiwan with that of the war in Ukraine after French President Emmanuel Macron warned of a dangerous double standard in focusing on a potential conflict with China at the cost of abandoning Ukraine.
The embassy made no mention of Macron in its post on Facebook that included a photo showing the French president at the Singapore forum.
“If one tries to denounce ‘double standards’ through the lens of a double standard, the only result we can get is still double standard,” it said.
China, which usually sends its defense minister to the Shangri-La forum, this time sent a lower-level delegation led by Maj. Gen. Hu Gangfeng, the vice president of the People’s Liberation Army National Defense University.
Bangladesh top court restores Jamaat-e-Islami party
- Supreme Court’s decision allows Bangladesh’s largest religio-political party to partake in elections
- Jamaat-e-Islami supported Islamabad during Bangladesh’s 1971 war of independence against Pakistan
DHAKA: Bangladesh on Sunday restored the registration of the largest Islamist party, allowing it to take part in elections, more than a decade after it was removed under the now-overthrown government.
The Supreme Court overturned a cancelation of Jamaat-e-Islami’s registration, allowing it to be formally listed as a political party with the Election Commission.
“The Election Commission is directed to deal with the registration of that party in accordance with law,” commission lawyer Towhidul Islam told AFP.
Jamaat-e-Islami party lawyer, Shishir Monir, said the Supreme Court’s decision would allow a “democratic, inclusive and multi-party system” in the Muslim-majority country of 170 million people.
“We hope that Bangladeshis, regardless of their ethnicity or religious identity, will vote for Jamaat, and that the parliament will be vibrant with constructive debates,” Monir told journalists.
After Sheikh Hasina was ousted as prime minister in August, the party appealed for a review of the 2013 high court order banning it.
Sunday’s decision comes after the Supreme Court on May 27 overturned a conviction against a key leader of Jamaat-e-Islami, A.T.M. Azharul Islam.
Islam had been sentenced to death in 2014 for rape, murder and genocide during Bangladesh’s 1971 war of independence from Pakistan.
Jamaat-e-Islami supported Islamabad during the war, a role that still sparks anger among many Bangladeshis today.
They were rivals of Hasina’s father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman of the Awami League, who would become Bangladesh’s founding figure.
Hasina banned Jamaat-e-Islami during her tenure and cracked down on its leaders.
In May, Bangladesh’s interim government banned the Awami League, pending the outcome of a trial over its crackdown on mass protests that prompted her ouster last year.
