ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s ex-premier, and his daughter and son-in-law, on Monday challenged the verdict of an accountability court in the Avenfield properties corruption case by filing separate appeals in Islamabad High Court.
Nawaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz and son-in-law Mohammad Safdar are currently behind bars after a court in Islamabad on July 6 sentenced Nawaz and Maryam in absentia to 10 years and 7 years with a £8 million fine and £2 million fine respectively on corruption charges. Safdar was given a one-year sentence without any fine.
Sharif and his family members appealed to the court through their lawyers to annul the verdict of the accountability court and release the defendants on bail until the final decision of the court.
“The accountability court’s verdict is in contradiction with the law and declaring it void would serve justice,” Maryam’s legal counsel Amjad Pervaiz told the media after filing the appeals.
“Our case is very strong and on merit. We hope to get some relief,” he said, while pointing out legal flaws in the judgment.
On July 13, both Nawaz and Maryam were arrested at Lahore airport on their arrival from London and sent to Adiala Jail, Rawalpindi, to serve their sentence.
The two leaders were in London at the time of the verdict with Nawaz’s wife and Maryam’s mother Kulsoom Nawaz who is battling cancer. She has reportedly been on life-support since June 14.
In separate appeals in the high court, their lawyers urged the court to set aside the accountability court’s verdict, suspend the verdict until the high court adjudicates on the appeals and release the trio on bail.
One of the appeals pointed out that the prosecution had provided no evidence establishing the ex-premier as the owner of the London flats.
Sharif family’s lawyers have also urged the high court to transfer the two remaining corruption references against Nawaz — the Flagship Enterprises and Al-Azizia case — to another accountability judge, arguing that the same judge could not hear another case against the accused after giving judgment in the Avenfield case.
Sharafat Ali, high court senior advocate, said that it was at the discretion of the chief justice of Islamabad High Court to fix the appeals for hearing, but it was most likely that a divisional bench of the court would hear the appeals from this week.
“Under the National Accountability Ordinance, the high court is bound to give its verdict on the appeals within 30 days,” he told Arab News.
Ali said that if the high court rejected the appeals, the Sharif family would have a chance to challenge the matter in the Supreme Court. “It is a long legal battle and the Sharif family may not get an immediate relief,” he said.
Nawaz Sharif was ousted from the Supreme Court in July last year in a Panama Papers case. The court had directed the National Accountability Bureau to file corruption references against the deposed premier and his family members for having assets beyond their known sources of income.
Professor Tahir Malik, political analyst and academic, said that it was almost impossible that Sharif and his daughter Maryam would be released on bail before the July 25 general elections.
“Both Nawaz and Maryam will have to serve their jail term with grace if they really want to come out as political heroes and revive the fortunes of their embattled political party,” he told Arab News.
Pakistan’s ex-PM, daughter appeal against jail sentence
Pakistan’s ex-PM, daughter appeal against jail sentence
- High court is bound to decide on the appeals within 30 days under the National Accountability Ordinance
- Sharif and his daughter were arrested at Lahore airport as they arrived in Pakistan on July 13 after they had been sentenced to 10 years and 7 years respectively
Christmas miracle: Filipina Mary Jane Veloso returns home after 15 years on death row in Indonesia
- Mary Jane Veloso was returned to the Philippines through a transfer deal with Indonesia
- She and her family are asking for clemency from President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
MANILA: After almost 15 years in prison, a Filipino woman who was spared from execution on drug trafficking charges in Indonesia returned to her homeland on Wednesday, with her family preparing to spend Christmas together next week.
Mary Jane Veloso, who will turn 40 next month, was arrested in 2010 at an airport in Yogyakarta for allegedly smuggling 2.6 kg of heroin from Malaysia into Indonesia.
While she denied the charge and has always maintained that she was tricked by a recruiter to bring a suitcase with the drugs hidden in its seams, she was convicted and sentenced to death but received a last-minute reprieve from execution by firing squad in 2015.
Veloso’s repatriation was made possible by a “practical arrangement” for the transfer of prisoners between Indonesia and the Philippines, which their officials signed on Dec. 6.
“I’m very happy that I’m finally back to our country,” she told reporters in Manila.
“My plea to President (Ferdinand Marcos Jr.) is he can hopefully grant me clemency so I can be with my family. I’ve been in prison for 15 years in Indonesia for a crime I didn’t commit.”
Her transfer removes the possibility of execution, as the predominantly Catholic Philippines has long abolished the death penalty.
She had a tearful reunion with her family at a prison facility she was brought to after arriving in the Philippines, as relatives and a small group of supporters gathered with banners and flowers to welcome her.
“I’m very happy because for the almost 15 years she was in prison, we hadn’t had the chance to spend time with her. Now we can be with her, the whole family … It’s a miracle,” said Celia Veloso, her 65-year-old mother.
“Our plan really is to spend Christmas here with her,” she added. “Her siblings have already made their plan and they have prepared their gifts for her. Even her children are also looking forward to it.”
Veloso’s two sons were 1 and 6 years old when she was arrested in 2010.
“I hope that it won’t take too long for her to get clemency … Mary Jane has been in jail a long time. I hope the president will give it to us as a Christmas present.”
Indonesia, which has one of the world’s harshest anti-narcotics laws, had previously said it would respect any decision made by the Philippines, including if Veloso were given clemency.
“I could not think of any better time for her to come home, given the Filipino tradition of celebrating the season and the spirit behind it,” Edre Olalia, a lawyer in Veloso’s legal team, told Arab News.
“I believe it is a miracle in a sense, and … the best Christmas gift because you cannot quantify the happiness and the joy of being reunited (with family).”
According to protocol, Veloso has to spend five days in quarantine following her arrival but will be able to spend Christmas Eve together with her family, said (Retd.) Gen. Gregorio Catapang, director-general of the Bureau of Corrections.
Justice Undersecretary Raul Vasques said Veloso’s return was “a beautiful gift” for the country.
“It’s a fitting gift during Christmas time, and we cannot say more. This is the result of more than 10 years of diplomatic efforts with the country of Indonesia, and the stars aligned, so to speak, that now we have achieved what we have long hoped for — the return of Mary Jane Veloso.”
Her case had sparked numerous protests in both Indonesia and the Philippines, where people demanded Jakarta spare her from the firing squad. The Philippine government has also sought clemency for Veloso in high-level bilateral meetings, including when former President Joko Widodo visited Manila in January.
For her family, the long wait for Veloso’s return is now over.
“Finally, she is here in the Philippines,” said her 22-year-old son, Mark Daniel Veloso Candelaria.
“We hope that our beloved president will grant the clemency that our family is asking for so that we can spend Christmas and New Year together.”
Russia detains suspect in general’s killing: investigators
MOSCOW: Russia said on Wednesday it had detained a citizen of Uzbekistan who had confessed to planting a bomb which killed Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov in Moscow a day earlier on the instructions of Ukraine’s security service.
Kirillov, who was chief of Russia’s Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Troops, was killed outside his apartment building along with his assistant when a bomb hidden in an electric scooter went off.
He was the most senior Russian military officer to be assassinated inside Russia by Ukraine. Ukraine’s SBU intelligence service, which accused Kirillov of being responsible for the use of chemical weapons against Ukrainian troops, something Moscow denies, took responsibility for the killing.
Russia’s Investigative Committee, which probes serious crimes, said in a statement on Wednesday that the unnamed suspect had told them during questioning that he had come to Moscow where he had received an improvised explosive device for the hit.
The statement said he had described how he had placed the device on an electric scooter which he had parked outside the entrance of the apartment block where Kirillov lived.
Investigators cited him as saying that he had set up a surveillance camera in a hire car nearby and that the organizers of the assassination, who he said had been based in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, had used the camera to track Kirillov and remotely detonated the device when he had left the building.
The statement said the suspect, who was born in 1995, had been offered $100,000 for his role in the murder and residency in a European country.
Investigators said they were identifying other people involved in the hit and the daily Kommersant newspaper reported that one other suspect had been detained. Reuters could not independently confirm that.
Malaysia foreign minister to be fined for smoking at eatery
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s foreign minister will be issued a fine for puffing a cigarette in a non-smoking area, the country’s health minister said Wednesday.
Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad earlier this week reposted a photo of Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan smoking at a street-side eatery in the Malaysian state of Negeri Sembilan.
Smoking in all eateries and restaurants was declared illegal in Malaysia in 2019 and further strict measures were introduced in October this year.
“The Foreign Minister’s office has been informed of this matter,” Dzulkefly said on social media platform X on Wednesday, adding that the foreign minister himself wanted to be issued a fine for the offense.
Under Malaysian law, people caught smoking in prohibited areas can face a fine of up to 5,000 ringgit ($1,120).
Mohamad apologized on Wednesday and said he had received a violation notice from health authorities but that the fine amount was not yet determined.
“If it has become a concern and an issue among the public, I would like to sincerely tender my apology,” he was quoted as saying in The Star newspaper.
“I will pay the fine, and I hope it will not be too high.”
The photo of Mohamad smoking at the eatery had sparked outrage online this week.
“Whether you’re a minister... or a VVIP, wrong is still wrong. No one is above the law,” said one X user.
Another said: “Lawmakers and (law) enforcement authorities who break laws should be punished more severely than the public.”
NATO takes over coordination of military aid to Kyiv from US, source says
- The headquarters of NATO’s new Ukraine mission, dubbed NATO Security Assistance and Training for Ukraine (NSATU), is located at Clay Barracks, a US base in the German town of Wiesbaden
BERLIN: NATO has taken over coordination of Western military aid to Ukraine from the US as planned, a source said on Tuesday, in a move widely seen as aiming to safeguard the support mechanism against NATO skeptic US President-elect Donald Trump.
The step, coming after a delay of several months, gives NATO a more direct role in the war against Russia’s invasion while stopping well short of committing its own forces.
Diplomats, however, acknowledge that the handover to NATO may have a limited effect given that the US under Trump could still deal a major setback to Ukraine by slashing its support, as it is the alliance’s dominant power and provides the majority of arms to Kyiv.
Trump, who will take office in January, has said he wants to end the war in Ukraine swiftly but not how he aims to do so. He has long criticized the scale of US financial and military aid to Ukraine.
The headquarters of NATO’s new Ukraine mission, dubbed NATO Security Assistance and Training for Ukraine (NSATU), is located at Clay Barracks, a US base in the German town of Wiesbaden.
A person familiar with the matter told Reuters it was now fully operational. No public reason has been given for the delays.
NATO’s military headquarters SHAPE said its Ukraine mission was beginning to assume responsibilities from the US and international organizations.
“The work of NSATU ... is designed to place Ukraine in a position of strength, which puts NATO in a position of strength to keep safe and prosperous its one billion people in both Europe and North America,” said US Army General Christopher G. Cavoli, the Supreme Allied Commander Europe.
“This is a good day for Ukraine and a good day for NATO.”
In the past, the US-led Ramstein group, an ad hoc coalition of some 50 nations named after a US air base in Germany where it first met, has coordinated Western military supplies to Kyiv.
Trump threatened to quit NATO during his first term as president and demanded allies must spend 3 percent of national GDP on their militaries, compared with NATO’s target of 2 percent.
Meanwhile, the outgoing Biden administration in Washington is scrambling to ship as many weapons as possible to Kyiv amid fears that Trump may cut deliveries of military hardware to Ukraine.
NSATU is set to have a total strength of about 700 personnel, including troops stationed at NATO’s military headquarters SHAPE in Belgium and at logistics hubs in Poland and Romania.
Russia has condemned increases in Western military aid to Ukraine as risking a wider war.
Cyclone Chido kills at least 34 people in Mozambique
MAPUTO: Cyclone Chido claimed at least 34 lives after sweeping across Mozambique, the National Institute of Risk and Disaster Management announced Tuesday.
The cyclone first hit the country on Sunday at the Cabo Delgado province, where 28 people were killed, the center said, releasing its latest information as of Monday evening. Three other people died in Nampula province and three in Niassa, further inland, it said.
Another 319 people were reported injured by the cyclone, which brought winds of around 260 kilometers (160 miles) an hour and heavy rainfall of around 250 millimeters (10 inches) in 24 hours, the center said.
Nearly 23,600 homes and 170 fishing boats were destroyed and 175,000 people affected by the storm, it added.
Chido struck a part of northern Mozambique that is regularly battered by cyclones and is already vulnerable because of conflict and underdevelopment.
The cyclone landed in Mozambique after hitting the Indian Ocean island of Mayotte, where it is feared to have killed hundreds of people.
It moved to Malawi on Monday and was expected to dissipate Tuesday near Zimbabwe, which had also been on alert for heavy rains caused by the storm.
