PARIS: The grandparents of two children stranded with their French militant mother at a camp in Kurdish-held Syria filed a lawsuit at Europe’s top rights court on Monday over France’s refusal to allow them home, lawyers said.
It is the latest challenge to the French government’s opposition to returning the children of suspected militants in Syria or Iraq.
The four-year-old girl and three-year-old boy, who were born in Syria, are among the estimated 500 children of French citizens who joined Daesh’s so-called “caliphate” before the militants’ last Syrian redoubt was overrun in March.
France has said it will consider requests for their return on a case-by-case basis only, infuriating many rights advocates and NGOs.
Since March it has repatriated just five orphans and a three-year-old girl whose mother was sentenced to life in prison in Iraq.
Critics say the policy exposes innocent victims of the war, many of whom have suffered serious trauma during the fighting and coalition bombardments, to inhumane living conditions and long-term psychological risks.
The grandparents of the two children, whose mother had joined militants in Syria, filed a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg, eastern France, their lawyers told AFP.
“By refusing to repatriate this mother and these two sick children who are wounded and in a state of extreme weakness, France is consciously and deliberately exposing them to inhumane and degrading treatment,” they said in a statement.
The suit also accuses France of violating the family’s right to enter the state where they are citizens — the first time such an argument has been invoked in the case of militants’ children, the lawyers said.
They declined to name the mother to protect her identity.
Some Western women have given birth to children in territory previously controlled by Daesh, but their children have never been registered with authorities in their home countries.
The two children and their mother, who is the subject of an arrest warrant by a French anti-terror judge, were wounded in the battle for Baghouz, the last Daesh stronghold taken by Kurdish-led forces in March.
They are being held at the camp of Al-Hol in northeast Syria, where 73,00 people live according to the United Nations, including 12,000 foreigners.
The lawyers for the family said cholera, tuberculosis and dysentery are spreading in the camp, with the children undernourished and the mother suffering from typhoid fever.
The mother “has confirmed her desire to have her children repatriated... and wants to face justice on French soil,” her lawyers said.
But France is loathe to bring back foreign fighters or their families after suffering a wave of deadly militant attacks that have killed more than 250 people since 2015.
After considering repatriation at the urging of Kurdish forces in Syria as well as the United States, the government decided against bringing home any men or women who joined the Daesh fight.
So far, legal attempts beginning last year to force France to allow the return of citizens held in Syria have failed.
In April, France’s State Council, which rules on the legality of policies and laws, rejected several requests, saying it was a French diplomatic matter outside the council’s jurisdiction.
Repatriation of citizens who went to fight in Syria and Iraq is a hugely sensitive issue in Western nations, wary of taking on the legal challenges of trying to convict people for acts overseas.
Britain and the United States have gone so far as to strip some Daesh proponents of citizenship.
This hard-line stance drew criticism in March when 19-year-old Shamima Begum lost her British citizenship after giving interviews in which she begged to return home but showed little remorse for having been a Daesh propagandist.
Her baby Jarrah died of pneumonia less than three weeks after he was born.
The burden of treating children is also daunting for Western governments, which have had to set up special services for dealing with deep psychological scars from their years in the battle zones.
Many show the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, including vivid nightmares, mutism and a visceral rejection of any attachment to others.
“These children have known hunger and cold. Some had already been separated from their parents, sometimes to protect them from the war, and they are scared of being abandoned again,” said Marie-Rose Moro, a doctor who has treated several returned families.
France challenged over refusal to allow militant’s children home
France challenged over refusal to allow militant’s children home
Baltic Sea wind farms impair Sweden’s defense, says military
- The revelation comes after the Swedish government blocked the construction of 13 offshore wind farms in the Baltic on November 4
- “The Swedish Armed Forces have been clear in their evaluation regarding offshore wind energy in the Baltic Sea,” the military said
STOCKHOLM: Offshore wind farms in the Baltic Sea hinder the defense of Sweden and its allies, impairing the military’s ability to identify threats, it said on Wednesday.
The revelation comes after the Swedish government blocked the construction of 13 offshore wind farms in the Baltic on November 4, and stopped another off the island of Gotland on November 21 due to the military’s defense concerns.
On Wednesday the military said all wind farm projects in the Baltic would pose a problem.
“The Swedish Armed Forces have been clear in their evaluation regarding offshore wind energy in the Baltic Sea,” the military said in an email to AFP.
“It would pose unacceptable risks for the defense of our country and our allies,” it added.
The government said the towers and rotating blades of wind turbines emit radar echoes and generate other forms of interference.
The relative proximity of the 13 blocked projects to the “highly militarised” Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, which is sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania, had been “central” in the government’s assessment, Defense Minister Pal Jonson said.
He said wind farms in the area could delay the detection of incoming cruise missiles, cutting the warning time in half to 60 seconds.
“We currently see no technical solutions or legal prerequisites for a coexistence of our defense interests and wind power in the Baltic Sea,” the Armed Forces said on Wednesday.
“The greatly deteriorated security situation after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine means that we can no longer accept any risks to our defense capability.”
“Our ability to detect incoming threats against both Sweden and our allies is vital. Our sensor chain plays a decisive role in this and it must be able to operate with the highest possible capability,” it said.
Tensions have mounted in the Baltic since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
With Sweden and Finland now NATO members, all of the countries bordering the Baltic are now members of the alliance except Russia.
The Swedish government has insisted that wind power expansion remained a priority, with electricity consumption expected to double by 2045 from the current level.
It has said other areas off Sweden’s southwestern and northeastern coasts were better suited for offshore wind projects.
ICC seeks arrest warrant for Myanmar junta chief over crimes against Rohingya
- ICC prosecutor requests arrest warrant for Gen. Min Aung Hlaing
- Hlaing accused of crimes against humanity, deportation and persecution of the Rohingya
The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor on Wednesday applied for an arrest warrant for the head of Myanmar’s military regime for crimes committed against the Rohingya Muslim minority.
Nearly a million people were forced to flee to neighboring Bangladesh from Myanmar’s Rakhine State to escape the 2017 military crackdown that UN experts have referred to as a “genocidal campaign,” amid evidence of ethnic cleansing, mass rape and killings.
ICC judges authorized an investigation into these events in 2019, saying that there was a “reasonable basis to believe widespread and/or systematic acts of violence may have been committed that could qualify as crimes against humanity.”
Although Myanmar is not a state party, Bangladesh ratified the ICC Rome Stature in 2010, which allows the court to have jurisdiction over some crimes related to the Rohingya because of their cross-border nature.
ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan announced the application for an arrest warrant for Sr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing during a visit to Bangladesh, where he met members of the displaced Rohingya population.
“My office is submitting applications to the judges of the pretrial chamber and this first application is for Min Aung Hlaing, the acting president of Myanmar and the head of the Defense Services of Myanmar. Other warrant applications will follow soon,” he said in a video message.
Hlaing took power from Myanmar’s elected leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, in a coup in 2021. Serving as commander in chief of the Tatmadaw, the armed forces of Myanmar, since 2011, he is accused of having directed attacks against Rohingya civilians.
The ICC chief prosecutor’s office said in a statement that Hlaing “bears criminal responsibility for the crimes against humanity of deportation and persecution of the Rohingya, committed in Myanmar, and in part in Bangladesh” between Aug. 25, 2017 and Dec. 31, 2017 by the armed forces, “supported by the national police, the border guard police, as well as non-Rohingya civilians.”
The arrest warrant application “draws upon a wide variety of evidence from numerous sources such as witness testimonies, including from a number of insider witnesses, documentary evidence and authenticated scientific, photographic and video materials,” Khan’s office said.
Khan’s application is the first against a high-level Myanmar government official since the ICC investigation started seven years ago.
Nur Khan, a Bangladeshi lawyer and human rights activist, told Arab News it was a big development in the course of delivering justice to the Rohingya community and paving the way for the repatriation of Rohingya refugees.
“Eventually, it will create psychological pressure on the Myanmar military junta. It will also pave the way for the world to create a sustainable solution to the Rohingya crisis, ensuring reparation with rights, dignity, and citizenship,” he said.
In 2022, the International Court of Justice, the UN’s top court, started a separate case brought by Gambia, which accused Myanmar of genocide against the Rohingya. Five European countries and Canada have backed the proceedings.
“It’s true that a genocide had been conducted aiming to completely wipe out the Rohingya, and the Myanmar military has committed this crime. The Rohingya have been demanding for many years that those who are responsible for this genocide should be brought to trial,” Nur Khan said.
“We want to remain hopeful that this process will be expedited and that the Rohingya will get back their rights soon.”
Malaysian court drops one of the graft cases against jailed former premier Najib Razak
- Najib had already been convicted in his first graft case tied to the 1Malaysia Development Berhad state fund, or 1MBD, scandal
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia: A Malaysian court on Wednesday dropped charges against jailed former Prime Minister Najib Razak over criminal breach of trust linked to the multibillion-dollar looting of a state fund.
Najib had already been convicted in his first graft case tied to the 1Malaysia Development Berhad state fund, or 1MBD, scandal and began serving time in 2022 after losing his final appeal in his first graft case.
But he faces other graft trials including Wednesday’s case in which he was jointly charged with ex-treasury chief Irwan Serigar Abdullah with six counts of misappropriating 6.6 billion ringgit ($1.5 billion) in public funds. The money was intended as 1MDB’s settlement payment to Abu Dhabi’s International Petroleum Investment Company.
The Kuala Lumpur High Court discharged the pair after ruling that procedural delays and prosecutors’ failure to hand over key documents were unfair to the defense, said Najib’s lawyer, Muhammad Farhan. A discharge doesn’t mean an acquittal as prosecutors reserve the right to revive charges against them, he said.
“The decision today was based on the non-disclosure of critical documents, six years after the initial charges were brought up, which are relevant to our client’s defense preparation. Therefore the court correctly exercised its jurisdiction to discharge our client of the charges,” Farhan said.
Najib set up 1MDB shortly after taking power in 2009. Investigators allege more than $4.5 billion was stolen from the fund and laundered by his associates to finance Hollywood films and extravagant purchases. The scandal upended Najib’s government and he was defeated in the 2018 election.
Najib, 71, issued a rare apology in October for the scandal “under his watch” but reiterated his innocence.
Last month, he was ordered to enter his defense in another key case that ties him directly to the 1MDB scandal. The court ruled that the prosecution established its case on four charges of abuse of power to obtain over $700 million from the fund that went into Najib’s bank accounts between 2011 and 2014, and 21 counts of money laundering involving the same amount.
In addition, Najib still has another money laundering trial. His wife Rosmah Mansor and other senior government officials also face corruption charges.
Pakistan ends lockdown of its capital after Imran Khan supporters are dispersed by police
- The police operation came hours after thousands of Khan supporters, defying government warnings, broke through a barrier of shipping containers
- Tension has been high in Islamabad since Sunday when supporters of the former prime minister began a “long march” from the restive northwest to demand Khan’s release
ISLAMABAD: Authorities reopened roads linking Pakistan’s capital with the rest of the country, ending a four-day lockdown, on Wednesday after using tear gas and firing into the air to disperse supporters of imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan who marched to Islamabad to demand his release from prison.
“All roads are being reopened, and the demonstrators have been dispersed,” Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said.
Khan’s wife, Bushra Bibi, who was leading the protest, and other demonstrators fled in vehicles when police pushed back against the rallygoers following clashes in which at least seven people were killed.
The police operation came hours after thousands of Khan supporters, defying government warnings, broke through a barrier of shipping containers blocking off Islamabad and entered a high-security zone, where they clashed with security forces.
Tension has been high in Islamabad since Sunday when supporters of the former prime minister began a “long march” from the restive northwest to demand his release. Khan has been in a prison for over a year and faces more than 150 criminal cases that his party says are politically motivated.
Hundreds of demonstrators have been arrested since Sunday.
Bibi and leaders of her husband’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party fled to Mansehra in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where the party still rules.
Khan, who remains a popular opposition figure, was ousted in 2022 through a no-confidence vote in Parliament.
Anti-mine treaty signatories slam US decision to send land mines to Ukraine
- Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has called the mines “very important” to halting Russian attacks
- Ukraine receiving US mine shipments would be in “direct violation” of the anti-mine treaty
Siem Reap, Cambodia: Washington’s decision to give anti-personnel mines to Ukraine is the biggest blow yet to a landmark anti-mine treaty, its signatories said during a meeting.
Ukraine is a signatory to the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention which prohibits the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of land mines.
The United States, which has not signed up to the treaty, said last week it would transfer land mines to Ukraine to aid its efforts fighting Russia’s invasion.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has called the mines “very important” to halting Russian attacks.
Ukraine receiving US mine shipments would be in “direct violation” of the treaty, the convention of its signatories said in a statement released late Tuesday.
“In the 25 years since the Convention entered into force, this landmark humanitarian disarmament treaty had never faced such a challenge to its integrity,” it said.
“The Convention community must remain united in its resolve to uphold the Convention’s norms and principles.”
Ukraine’s delegation to a conference on progress under the anti-landmine treaty in Cambodia on Tuesday did not mention the US offer in its remarks.
In its presentation, Ukrainian defense official Oleksandr Riabtsev said Russia was carrying out “genocidal activities” by laying land mines on its territory.
Riabtsev refused to comment when asked by AFP journalists about the US land mines offer on Wednesday.
Ukraine’s commitment to destroy its land mine stockpiles left over from the Soviet Union was also “currently not possible” due to Russia’s invasion, defense ministry official Yevhenii Kivshyk told the conference.
Moscow and Kyiv have been ratcheting up their drone and missile attacks, with Ukraine recently firing US long-range missiles at Russia and the Kremlin retaliating with an experimental hypersonic missile.
The Siem Reap conference is a five-yearly meeting held by signatories to the anti-landmine treaty to assess progress in its objective toward a world without antipersonnel mines.
On Tuesday, land mine victims from across the world gathered at the meeting to protest Washington’s decision.
More than 100 demonstrators lined the walkway taken by delegates to the conference venue in Cambodia’s Siem Reap.
