Daesh gunman’s fugitive widow convicted in 2015 Paris attacks

Tributes left outside the office of Charlie Hebdo in Paris after the 2015 attack. (AFP/File)
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Updated 16 December 2020
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Daesh gunman’s fugitive widow convicted in 2015 Paris attacks

  • Hayat Boumeddiene was one of 14 people on trial for the attacks
  • Satirical Charlie Hebdo newspaper and a kosher supermarket were targeted in January 2015

PARIS: The fugitive widow of a Daesh gunman and a man described as his logistician were convicted Wednesday of terrorism charges and sentenced to 30 years in prison in the trial of 14 people linked to the January 2015 Paris attacks against the satirical Charlie Hebdo newspaper and a kosher supermarket.
The verdict ends the three-month trial linked to the three days of killings across Paris claimed jointly by the Daesh group and Al-Qaeda. During the proceedings, France was struck by new attacks, a wave of coronavirus infections among the defendants, and devastating testimony bearing witness to bloodshed that continues to shake France.
Patrick Klugman, a lawyer for the survivors of the market attack, said the verdict sent a message to sympathizers. “We accuse the executioner but ultimately it is worse to be his valet,” he said.
All three attackers died in police raids. The widow, Hayat Boumeddiene, fled to Syria and is believed to still be alive. The two men who spirited her out of France are thought to be dead, although one received a sentence of life in prison just in case and the other was convicted separately.
Eleven others were present and all were convicted of the crime, with sentences ranging from 30 years for Boumeddiene and Ali Riza Polat, described as the lieutenant of the virulently anti-Semitic market attacker, Amédy Coulibaly, to four years with a simple criminal conviction.
The Jan. 7-9, 2015, attacks in Paris left 17 dead along with the three gunmen. The 11 men standing trial formed a loose circle of friends and criminal acquaintances who claimed any facilitating they may have done was unwitting.
One gambled day and night during the three-day period, learning what had happened only after emerging blearily from the casino. Another was a pot-smoking ambulance driver. A third was a childhood friend of the market attacker, who got beaten to a pulp by the latter over a debt.
It was the coronavirus infection of Polat that forced the suspension of the trial for a month.
Polat’s lawyer, Isabelle Coutant-Peyre, described him as a scapegoat who knew nothing about Coulibaly’s plans. She said he would appeal.
“He knew from the beginning it was a fictional trial,” she said afterward.
In all, investigators sifted through 37 million bits of phone data, according to video testimony by judicial police. Among the men cuffed behind the courtroom’s enclosed stands, flanked by masked and armed officers, were several who had exchanged dozens of texts or calls with Coulibaly in the days leading up to the attack.
Also testifying were the widows of Chérif and Saïd Kouachi, the brothers who stormed Charlie Hebdo’s offices on Jan. 7, 2015, decimating the newspaper’s editorial staff in what they said was an act of vengeance for its publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad years before. The offices had been firebombed before and were unmarked, and editors had round-the-clock protection. But it wasn’t enough.
In all, 12 people died that day. The first was Frédéric Boisseau, who worked in maintenance. Then the Kouachis seized Corinne Rey, a cartoonist who had gone down to smoke, and forced her upstairs to punch in the door code. She watched in horror as they opened fire on the editorial meeting.
“I was not killed, but what happened to me was absolutely chilling and I will live with it until my life is over,” she testified.
The next day, Coulibaly shot and killed a young policewoman after failing to attack a Jewish community center in the suburb of Montrouge. By then, the Kouachis were on the run and France was paralyzed with fear.
Authorities didn’t link the shooting to the massacre at Charlie Hebdo immediately. They were closing in on the Kouachis when the first alerts came of a gunman inside a kosher supermarket. It was a wintry Friday afternoon, and customers were rushing to finish their shopping before the Sabbath when Coulibaly entered, carrying an assault rifle, pistols and explosives. With a GoPro camera fixed to his torso, he methodically fired on an employee and a customer, then killed a second customer before ordering a cashier to close the store’s metal blinds.
The first victim, Yohan Cohen, lay dying on the ground and Coulibaly turned to some 20 hostages and asked if he should “finish him off.” Despite their pleas, Coulibaly fired the killing shot, according to testimony from cashier Zarie Sibony.
“You are Jews and French, the two things I hate the most,” Coulibaly told them.
Some 40 kilometers (25 miles) away, the Kouachi brothers were cornered in a printing shop with their own hostages. Ultimately, all three attackers died in near-simultaneous police raids. It was the first attack in Europe claimed by the Daesh group, which struck Paris again later that year to even deadlier effect.
“This is the end of a trial that’s been crazy, illuminating, painful but which has been useful,” said Richard Malka, a lawyer for Charlie Hebdo.
Prosecutors said the Kouachis essentially self-financed their attack, while Coulibaly and his wife took out fraudulent loans. Boumeddiene, the only woman on trial, fled to Syria days before the attack and appeared in Daesh propaganda.
One witness, the French widow of a Daesh emir, testified from prison that she’d run across Boumeddiene late last year at a camp in Syria and Boumeddiene’s foster sisters said they believed she was still alive. Testifying as a free man after a brief prison term, for reasons both defense attorneys and victims described as baffling, was the far-right sympathizer turned police informant who actually sold the weapons to Coulibaly.
Three weeks into the trial, on Sept. 25, a Pakistani man steeped in radical Islam and armed with a butcher’s knife attacked two people outside Charlie Hebdo’s vacated offices.
Six weeks into the trial, on Oct. 16, a French schoolteacher who opened a debate on free speech by showing students the Muhammad caricatures was beheaded by an 18-year-old Chechen refugee.
Eight weeks into the trial, on Oct. 30, a young Tunisian armed with a knife and carrying a copy of the Qur’an attacked worshippers in a church in the southern city of Nice, killing three. He had a photo of the Chechen on his phone and an audio message describing France as a “country of unbelievers.”


Portugal police arrest crime ring over fraudulent permits for 10,000 foreigners

Updated 7 sec ago
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Portugal police arrest crime ring over fraudulent permits for 10,000 foreigners

The foreigners paid to obtain bogus labor contracts that allowed them to stay in the
Portugal’s center-right government has toughened some immigration rules in the past year

LISBON: Portuguese police have arrested 13 people they believe provided an estimated more than 10,000 foreigners with residence permits and documents allowing them to stay in Portugal and the European Union in exchange for bribes, police said on Thursday.
A spokesperson for the Judicial Police force said the bribes paid to the group, which included a foreign ministry employee, a lawyer and several entrepreneurs, averaged 15,000 euros ($16,950) per person.
The foreigners paid to obtain bogus labor contracts that allowed them to stay in the country and then get residence permits, open bank accounts and access the social security system. Many of them have since left for other EU member states, police said.
Portugal’s center-right government has toughened some immigration rules in the past year, reflecting attempts elsewhere in Europe to fend off the rise of the far-right, and on Saturday vowed to deport 18,000 illegal migrants in the coming months.
It was not immediately clear if those who benefited from the illegal scheme counted among those.
Still, the country remains relatively open to migrants, particularly from Portuguese-speaking countries in Africa and from Brazil. Many experts argue that growing immigration has stoked economic growth.
While anti-immigration sentiment is expected to play a role in an early election on May 18, far-right party Chega has been steady or declining in opinion polls after a surge in the previous election last year. The center-right Democratic Alliance of Prime Minister Luis Montenegro looks set to win the most votes.


Portuguese police have arrested 13 people they believe provided an estimated more than 10,000 foreigners with residence permits and documents allowing them to stay in Portugal and the European Union in exchange for bribes, police said on Thursday. (Reuters/File)

IMF says Nigeria repays $3.4 billion COVID-19 funding

Updated 43 min 4 sec ago
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IMF says Nigeria repays $3.4 billion COVID-19 funding

  • In April 2020, the IMF provided the financing to help Nigeria
  • “Nigeria is expected to honor some additional payments,” Ebeke added

LAGOS: Nigeria has repaid $3.4 billion in emergency funding it received from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to help the country cope with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic five years ago, the global lender said on Thursday.
In April 2020, the IMF provided the financing to help Africa’s largest oil exporter cope with a collapse in crude prices, which hit its finances and tipped the economy into recession.
IMF resident representative to Nigeria Christian Ebeke said in a statement that, as of April 30, the country had “fully repaid the financial support” it received under the Fund’s Rapid Financing Instrument, a facility that provides urgent balance of payments funding to member nations.
“Nigeria is expected to honor some additional payments in the form of Special Drawing Rights charges of about $30 million annually,” Ebeke added.
The most recent data from the Debt Management Office shows that Nigeria last year spent $4.66 billion to service its foreign debt, of which $1.63 billion was to the IMF.


Greenpeace Denmark launches fake tourism ad to highlight pollution

Updated 08 May 2025
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Greenpeace Denmark launches fake tourism ad to highlight pollution

  • “We are inviting Europeans to discover the wonders of Denmark’s agricultural landscape,” Fromberg told
  • Greenpeace believes that Denmark has repeatedly violated the EU Water Framework Directive

COPENHAGEN: Discover a dying sea or cycle through protected natural areas covered in asphalt? A tourism campaign by Greenpeace’s Danish branch seeks to highlight environmental pollution in the Nordic country.
“Through the campaign, which is available on social networks as well as on billboards in Brussels and Warsaw, we are inviting Europeans to discover the wonders of Denmark’s agricultural landscape,” Christian Fromberg, head of agriculture and nature at Greenpeace Denmark, told AFP Thursday.
With a tone of sarcasm Fromberg went on to describe the sights: “Here we find asphyxiated seas littered with mysterious brown sludge, car parks and golf courses that are in officially protected natural areas.”
In the Scandinavian country, which prides itself on being a leader in the combating climate change, human activities, particularly waste from agriculture, have suffocated marine ecosystems.
The equivalent of 7,500 square kilometers (2,896 square miles) of the waters around the country, or 17 percent of the surface area of mainland Denmark, has been affected by deoxygenation, leading to the disappearance of marine flora and fauna, according to the Danish Environmental Protection Agency.
“The campaign is a cry for help to the European Union to enforce the environmental regulations systematically violated by the Danish government,” Fromberg said.
Greenpeace believes that Denmark, which takes over the presidency of the European Union in July, has repeatedly violated the EU Water Framework Directive, which requires member states to implement measures to ensure healthy aquatic ecosystems.
“The current government will not take the necessary measures to revitalize our seas and protect our environment,” Fromberg said.
At the same time, a broad majority of Danish politicians have agreed to introduce a carbon tax on livestock farming by 2030.
Denmark has also committed to make agriculture greener, aiming to reduce nitrogen emissions by 13,780 tons a year by 2027.


Russia and Ukraine report attacks despite Moscow-declared truce as Kyiv ratifies minerals deal

Updated 08 May 2025
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Russia and Ukraine report attacks despite Moscow-declared truce as Kyiv ratifies minerals deal

  • Russian bombs meanwhile struck northeast Ukraine in the opening hours of Moscow’s unilateral ceasefire
  • Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha accused Russia of violating its own ceasefire 734 times between midnight and midday Thursday

KYIV: Russia and Ukraine both reported attacks on their forces on the first day of a 72-hour ceasefire called by Russian President Vladimir Putin, while Ukraine’s parliament unanimously approved a landmark minerals deal with the US.
The ratification is a key step in setting the deal in motion. It would allow Washington access to Ukraine’s largely untapped minerals, deepen strategic ties and create a joint investment fund with the US for the reconstruction of Ukraine.
Parliament approved the agreement with 338 members voting in favor out of the required 226 votes, Ukrainian lawmaker Yaroslav Zheleznyak wrote on his Telegram account. No lawmaker voted against it or abstained.
“This document is not merely a legal construct, it is the foundation of a new model of interaction with a key strategic partner,” Ukrainian Economy Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko wrote on X.


Russian bombs meanwhile struck northeast Ukraine in the opening hours of Moscow’s unilateral ceasefire, killing at least one civilian, Ukrainian officials said. Artillery assaults took place across the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line, although with less intensity than in the previous 24 hours, officials said.
The ceasefire coincides with Russia’s biggest secular holiday, the 80th anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany. Kyiv has pressed for a longer-term ceasefire.
Putin on Thursday welcomed Chinese President Xi Jinping in the Kremlin. Xi, who Putin earlier described as “our main guest” at Friday’s Victory Day festivities, arrived in Russia on Wednesday for a four-day visit.
Both sides list attacks since the Moscow-declared truce
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha accused Russia of violating its own ceasefire 734 times between midnight and midday Thursday. He called the ceasefire a “farce” on the social media platform X.
He said Russia carried out 63 assault operations along the front line, 23 of which were still ongoing as of midday. Ukraine “responds appropriately” and is actively sharing information about the attacks with the U.S, the European Union and others. “We will not let Putin fool anyone when he does not even keep his own word,” Sybiha said.
Russian attacks also took place near Chasiv Yar in the Donetsk region on Thursday morning, a press officer of Ukraine’s 24th Mechanized Brigade, Oleh Petrasiuk, told The Associated Press via phone.
One person died and two were wounded when Russian forces dropped guided air bombs on residential areas near the border in the northeast Sumy region, the regional prosecutor’s office said.
Large-scale missile and drone attacks, which have been a near-daily occurrence in Ukraine in recent weeks, were not recorded since 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, Ukraine’s air force said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had previously cast doubt on the ceasefire, calling it “manipulation” as US-led peace efforts stalled. “For some reason, everyone is supposed to wait until May 8 before ceasing fire — just to provide Putin with silence for his parade,” Zelensky said.
In March, the United States proposed a 30-day truce in the war, which Ukraine accepted, but the Kremlin has held out for ceasefire terms more to its liking.
Russia’s Defense Ministry meanwhile accused Ukrainian forces of attacking its positions and said its forces would continue to “mirror” Ukraine’s actions during the Kremlin’s ceasefire.
The regions of Belgorod, Lipetsk, Orenburg, Ryazan and Tambov came under a drone threat alert overnight, but there were no reports of any drones being shot down or intercepted. Russia’s civil aviation authority Rosaviatsia also briefly imposed restrictions on flights to and from the airport in Nizhny Novgorod.
Putin praises relations with Xi
In welcoming Xi, Putin said that “the brotherhood of arms between our peoples, which developed during the harsh war years, is one of the fundamental foundations of modern Russian-Chinese relations of comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation.”
He added that Moscow and Beijing were developing ties “for the benefit of the peoples of both countries and not against anyone.”
Xi, in turn, said that “history and reality have fully proved that the continuous development and deepening of China-Russia relations is a necessity for the friendship between the two peoples from generation to generation.” He also called for safeguarding “international fairness and justice.”
Putin and Xi have met over 40 times and developed strong personal ties that bolstered the countries’ “strategic partnership” as both face tensions with the West.
China has offered robust diplomatic support to Moscow after its 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine and has emerged as a top market for Russian oil and gas, helping fill the Kremlin’s war coffers. Russia has relied on China as the main source of machinery and electronics to keep its military machine running after Western sanctions curtailed high-tech supplies.


King Charles leads UK service to mark end of WWII

Britain’s King Charles III and Queen Camilla arrive to attend a Service of Thanksgiving at Westminster Abbey on V-E Day.
Updated 08 May 2025
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King Charles leads UK service to mark end of WWII

  • Eighty years ago on May 8, 1945, central London was thronged with huge crowds celebrating the end of the war
  • In a radio address to the nation Churchill announced that the day would be “Victory in Europe Day”

LONDON: King Charles III on Thursday joined veterans and other members of the royal family at London’s Westminster Abbey for a service to mark 80 years since the end of World War II.
Arriving at the abbey, Charles and his eldest son Prince William laid wreaths at the church’s tomb of the unknown warrior.
The King’s message on the wreath read simply: “We will never forget” and was signed Charles R.
William’s message, which was signed “William” and “Catherine,” added: “For those who made the ultimate sacrifice during the Second World War. We will remember them.”
This year’s commemorations have had an extra poignancy due to the great age of the dwindling numbers of surviving veterans.
War-time prime minister Winston Churchill’s 10-year-old great-great-grandson Alexander lit a candle of peace during the service, which was preceded by a nationwide two-minute silence.
“It feels really amazing that I can represent my family and also the younger generation to know and remember everyone involved in World War II,” the younger Churchill said.
Other younger members of the congregation handed out white roses to veterans.
Charles, who is undergoing treatment for an unspecified cancer, was also accompanied by Queen Camilla, William’s wife Princess Catherine, also known as Kate, and other senior members of the royal family.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer and other politicians and dignitaries also attended.
Eighty years ago on May 8, 1945, central London was thronged with huge crowds celebrating the end of the war.
In a radio address to the nation Churchill announced that the day would be “Victory in Europe Day.”
He added: “We may allow ourselves a brief period of rejoicing,” despite the conflict with Japan not yet having ended.
Later that day the crowds even included the late Queen Elizabeth II, then a 19-year-old princess, and her younger sister Margaret, who were allowed to leave Buckingham Palace and join the jubilant crowds incognito.
The Westminster Abbey service featured a rendition of the favorite 1940s song “The White Cliffs of Dover,” readings of wartime letters to loved ones, and an excerpt of Churchill’s 1945 victory speech.
Before leaving, Charles and other members of the royal family spent time chatting to veterans and their families, some of whom are now over 100 years of age.
Kate and Camilla then led other royals in laying flowers at the Innocent Victims’ Memorial in tribute to all victims of war and oppression.
This year’s anniversary events will be the last major commemoration for which “anyone will still be alive who actually served in the Second World War,” monarchy specialist Robert Hazell of University College London told AFP earlier.
The four-day celebration which began on Monday was set to wrap up later Thursday with a concert at London’s Horse Guards Parade, with pubs allowed to stay open two hours later than usual.