ATHENS: Greece has dropped criminal charges against dozens of international aid workers, ranging from spying to facilitating what authorities had called illegal entry into the country through the island of Lesbos, court documents showed on Tuesday.
Most of the 35 people, accused in 2020 of setting up a criminal organization and providing support to traffickers ferrying migrants, were German nationals. The rest included people from Norway, Austria, France, Spain, Switzerland and Bulgaria. They were arrested and had denied wrongdoing at the time.
The case was dropped due to inadequate evidence, the documents seen by Reuters showed.
“The detailed investigation of the case file has resoundingly quashed the police narrative which was pure fiction,” said Zaharias Kesses, a lawyer representing some of the aid workers.
Greece was on the front line of a huge surge of refugees and migrants to Europe in 2015 and 2016, many through its outlying islands close to Turkiye, including Lesbos. That flow has since ebbed.
The case was based on a 2020 operation by the Greek intelligence service EYP and the anti-terrorism unit with the code name Alkmini, and involved undercover agents who traveled as migrants from Turkiye to Lesbos.
Greek intelligence services were initially involved because the workers, who were using an alarm phone for migrants and asylum seekers in need of rescue at sea, were thought to have passed on information on Greek coast guard movements and vessel equipment.
But a magistrate’s investigation concluded the information and visual material collected were not confidential.
“There is not enough evidence to support the accusations against the defendants,” the documents said.
Greek court drops criminal charges against 35 international aid workers
https://arab.news/mmkap
Greek court drops criminal charges against 35 international aid workers
- The case was dropped due to inadequate evidence
- Greece was on the front line of a huge surge of refugees and migrants to Europe in 2015 and 2016
Convicted head of human smuggling plot gets 10 years after Indian family dies on US-Canada border
The judge handed down the sentences at the federal courthouse in the northwestern Minnesota
MINNESOTTA, USA: More than three years after a family of four from India froze to death while trying to enter the US along a remote stretch of the Canadian border in a blizzard, the alleged ringleader of an international human smuggling plot was sentenced in Minnesota on Wednesday to 10 years in prison.
Federal prosecutors had recommended nearly 20 years for Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, and nearly 11 years for the driver who was supposed to pick them up, Steve Anthony Shand. Shand also was to be sentenced Wednesday.
The two men appeared before US District Judge John Tunheim, who declined last month to set aside the guilty verdicts, writing, “This was not a close case.”
The judge handed down the sentences at the federal courthouse in the northwestern Minnesota city of Fergus Falls, where the two men were tried and convicted on four counts apiece last November.
Prosecutors said during the trial that Patel, an Indian national who they say went by the alias “Dirty Harry,” and Shand, a US citizen from Florida, were part of a sophisticated illegal operation that brought dozens of people from India to Canada on student visas and then smuggled them across the US border.
They said the victims, Jagdish Patel, 39; his wife, Vaishaliben, who was in her mid-30s; their 11-year-old daughter, Vihangi; and 3-year-old son, Dharmik, froze to death. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police found their bodies just north of the border between Manitoba and Minnesota on Jan. 19, 2022.
The family was from Dingucha, a village in the western Indian state of Gujarat, as was Harshkumar Patel. Patel is a common Indian surname, and the victims were not related to the defendant. The couple were schoolteachers, local news reports said. So many villagers have gone overseas in hopes of better lives — legally and otherwise — that many homes there stand vacant.
The father died while trying to shield Dharmik’s face from a “blistering wind” with a frozen glove, prosecutor Michael McBride wrote. Vihangi was wearing “ill-fitting boots and gloves.” Their mother “died slumped against a chain-link fence she must have thought salvation lay behind,” McBride wrote.
A nearby weather station recorded the wind chill that morning at -36 Fahrenheit (-38 Celsius).
Seven other members of their group survived the foot crossing, but only two made it to Shand’s van, which was stuck in the snow on the Minnesota side. One woman who survived had to be flown to a hospital with severe frostbite and hypothermia. Another survivor testified he had never seen snow before arriving in Canada. Their inadequate winter clothes were only what the smugglers provided, the survivor told the jury.
“Mr. Patel has never shown an ounce of remorse. Even today, he continues to deny he is the ‘Dirty Harry’ that worked with Mr. Shand on this smuggling venture — despite substantial evidence to the contrary and counsel for his co-defendant identifying him as such at trial,” McBride wrote.
Prosecutors asked for a sentence of 19 years and 7 months for Patel, at the top end of the recommended range under federal sentencing guidelines for his actions. They asked for Shand’s sentence to be 10 years and 10 months, in the middle of his separate guidelines range.
“Even as this family wandered through the blizzard at 1:00 AM, searching for Mr. Shand’s van, Mr. Shand was focused on one thing, which he texted Mr. Patel: ‘we not losing any money,’” McBride wrote. “Worse, when Customs and Border Patrol arrested Mr. Shand sitting in a mostly unoccupied 15-passenger van, he denied others were out in the snow — leaving them to freeze without aid.”
Patel’s attorneys, who have argued that the evidence was insufficient, did request a government-paid attorney for his planned appeal. Patel has been jailed since his arrest at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago in February 2024 and claimed in the filing to have no income and no assets.
Shand has been free pending sentencing. His attorney called the government’s requested sentence “unduly punitive” and requested just 27 months. The attorney, federal defender Aaron Morrison, acknowledged that Shand has “a level of culpability” but argued that his role was limited — that he was just a taxi driver who needed money to support his wife and six children.
“Mr. Shand was on the outside of the conspiracy, he did not plan the smuggling operation, he did not have decision making authority, and he did not reap the huge financial benefits as the real conspirators did,” Morrison wrote.
Board of Deputies of British Jews member resigns over stance on Gaza
- Daniel Grossman, 21, said the UK’s largest Jewish body ‘failed to act morally’ over Israel’s war
- Grossman among 36 elected members to sign letter to the BoD demanding it respect ‘Jewish values’ and ‘speak out’ about the war
LONDON: A member of the UK’s Board of Deputies of British Jews, the largest official Jewish organization in the country, has resigned over its position on Gaza.
Daniel Grossman, 21, is among 36 elected members of the BoD who signed an open letter last month saying “Jewish values compel us to stand up and to speak out” about Israel’s war on the Palestinian territory, adding: “Israel’s soul is being ripped out.”
Grossman, a student at Bristol University, subsequently left the organization, and said that the BoD had “failed to act morally and failed to represent the increasing diversity of opinion within the British Jewish community” on the issue, adding it was trying to “stifle dissent.”
He told The Guardian: “It’s very simple. They (the BoD) are refusing to explicitly and publicly condemn Israel’s genocidal assault in Gaza and to criticize the (Israeli) government for abandoning the hostages, who have been in captivity for far too long.
“Increasing numbers of people are recognizing that Israel’s actions in Gaza cannot be justified as purely self-defense. They seemingly want to declare a perpetual war against Palestinian civilians with the goal of ethnically cleansing them from the Gaza Strip.”
Following the publication of the letter, the BoD, which has 300 elected representatives, began disciplinary proceedings against the 36 signatories. An investigation into their conduct is expected to conclude in the coming weeks.
Grossman, who said that he grew up in a normal Jewish community in the UK, described the months since the attack on southern Israel by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, and the subsequent war in Gaza, as “a journey for me,” adding it had become “increasingly clear that the way the Israeli government is acting is not acceptable by any measure.”
Following his resignation from the BoD, he told the Guardian: “More people were sympathetic than I expected, and it has genuinely astonished me. Lots of these people may not feel able to speak out themselves, they might find it difficult with friends or family. But people have reached out to me.
“A huge shift is happening. The diversity of opinion in the Jewish community is becoming increasingly clear,” he said.
“My 89-year-old grandmother, who was a refugee during the Holocaust, said I had done the right thing and she is proud of me for speaking up.”
A BoD spokesperson told The Guardian: “Daniel’s term as a deputy was due to end in a few weeks with him having been replaced by another representative from the Union of Jewish Students. We wish him well with his future endeavours.”
Merz says Germany will ‘do everything’ to prevent Nord Stream restart
- “We will continue to increase the pressure on Russia,” Merz said
- “We will do everything in this context to ensure that Nord Stream 2 cannot be put back into operation“
BERLIN: Germany will “do everything” to make sure the damaged Nord Stream 2 pipeline from Russia will not resume deliveries of natural gas to Europe, Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Wednesday.
“We will continue to increase the pressure on Russia,” Merz said at a press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Berlin.
“We will do everything in this context to ensure that Nord Stream 2 cannot be put back into operation.”
The Nord Stream 2 gas link connecting Russia and Germany via the Baltic Sea was damaged in September 2022 by huge underwater explosions, said to be an act of sabotage.
The explosions destroyed one of the two pipes of Nord Stream 2 and both branches of its controversial sister pipeline, Nord Stream 1.
While Nord Stream 2 never went into operation, Nord Stream 1 for years shipped cheap Russian gas to Europe via Germany.
Critics have argued the existence of the pipeline left Germany and the rest of Europe overly reliant on fossil fuel deliveries from Moscow.
German and British media have recently reported that Washington and Moscow had discussed the idea of reviving the Nord Stream 2 project during talks on ending the war in Ukraine.
Senior political figures in Merz’s own party had also expressed tentative support for restarting gas deliveries via the pipeline from Russia before the chancellor definitively ruled out the possibility.
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said earlier this month the bloc was working on a new set of sanctions that would include measures against Nord Stream 1 and 2, pre-empting a restart.
Explaining the measures, EU spokeswoman Paula Pinho said, “the idea is to dissuade any interest, and notably interest from investors, in pursuing any activity on Nord Stream, also in the future.”
Andrew Tate and brother charged with rape: UK prosecutors
- Andrew Tate and his brother have been charged in the UK with several counts of rape, assault and trafficking
LONDON: Avowed misogynist and social media influencer Andrew Tate and his brother have been charged with several counts of rape, assault and trafficking, UK prosecutors said Wednesday.
The accusations, which date back to between 2012 to 2015, were authorized by the Crown Prosecution Service in January 2024, but have only been revealed now.
Former kickboxer Tate, 38, faces 10 charges in the UK including rape, actual bodily harm, human trafficking and controlling prostitution relating to three women.
His brother, Tristan, 36, has been accused of 11 similar charges against one woman.
“A European arrest warrant was issued in England in 2024, and as a result the Romanian courts ordered the extradition to the UK of Andrew and Tristan Tate,” prosecutors said in a statement.
“However, the domestic criminal matters in Romania must be settled first.”
Andrew Tate is facing legal action in several countries, including some cases where he is accused alongside his brother.
In Romania, the Tate brothers face separate allegations of trafficking minors, sexual intercourse with a minor and money laundering.
Both men, who have dual British-US nationality, have denied all charges against them.
Andrew Tate, the figurehead of the online masculinist movement, traveled to Florida with his brother in February, marking the first time they had left Romania since their 2022 arrest.
Romanian prosecutors allege that the brothers and two women set up a criminal organization in Romania in 2021 and sexually exploited several victims.
In a separate civil case in the United Kingdom, four British women have accused Andrew Tate of rape and coercive control.
Tate moved to Romania years ago after first starting a webcam business in Britain.
He leapt to fame in 2016 when he appeared on the “Big Brother” UK reality television show, but was removed after a controversial video emerged.
He then turned to social media platforms to promote his often misogynistic and divisive views on how to be successful.
Tate is followed by more than 10.7 million people on the social network X, where he shares his angry vision of masculinity and often homophobic and racist posts.
Extremist violence and coups test West Africa ECOWAS bloc at 50
- Extremist violence has surged this year in Nigeria and the Sahel region, including Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger — nations that have recently seceded from ECOWAS
- Established on May 28, 1975, ECOWAS aimed to promote regional economic integration, security cooperation, human rights, and democratic governance
LAGOS: The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) faces growing threats of terrorism, climate change, military coups, and poverty, its most senior official said on Wednesday as leaders marked 50 years since the bloc’s formation in Nigeria.
Extremist violence has surged this year in Nigeria and the Sahel region, including Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger — nations that have recently seceded from ECOWAS in protest over sanctions following military coups.
“We are confronting the greatest challenges we face today, terrorism, climate change and unconstitutional change of government, poverty and economic disparities,” ECOWAS Commission President Omar Alieu Touray said, expressing confidence in overcoming the challenges.
Established on May 28, 1975, ECOWAS aimed to promote regional economic integration, security cooperation, human rights, and democratic governance.
However, five decades later, military juntas in founding member states Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger have disassociated from the bloc, saying it no longer serves their interests.
The countries have formed their own Alliance of Sahel States and a confederation, cut military and diplomatic ties with Western powers and sought closer cooperation with Russia.
Touray said ECOWAS would continue trying to cooperate with the three countries.
Security and political analysts said curbing insecurity was crucial for ECOWAS to fulfill its promise of prosperity and lift millions from poverty.
Beverly Ochieng, senior analyst at Control Risk in Dakar, Senegal, said: “If you don’t have security, then of course it means that you cannot guarantee a robust economy in the region.”
Analysts also criticized ECOWAS for its silence when leaders controversially amend constitutions to extend their rule, leading to citizens applauding military coups.
They cited the recent example of Togo’s leader Faure Gnassingbe, who was granted the influential new role of President of the Council of Ministers with no fixed term limit — a move opposition parties labelled a constitutional coup potentially extending his rule indefinitely.
