ROME: Charities running migrant rescue ships in the Mediterranean faced a pre-trial hearing in Sicily Saturday over alleged collusion with people traffickers after a controversial probe that involved mass wiretapping.
Twenty-one suspects, including crew members of Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Save the Children and German NGO Jugend Rettet rescue ships, are accused of “aiding and abetting unauthorized entry into Italy” in 2016 and 2017.
“Our crews rescued over 14,000 people in distress from unseaworthy and overcrowded boats... and are now facing 20 years in prison,” Kathrin Schmidt, who sailed with Jugend Rettet’s ship Iuventa, said ahead of the hearing.
Trapani judge Samuele Corso must rule whether or not to proceed to trial after a five-year investigation mired in controversy for the mass wiretapping of charity workers, lawyers and journalists in what critics say is a politically motivated bid to stop sea rescues.
Italy has long been on the front line of seaborne migration from Africa to Europe, with a record 180,000 arrivals in 2016, dropping to 120,000 in 2017.
It has registered some 17,000 arrivals so far this year, according to the interior ministry.
Prosecutor Brunella Sardoni told AFP she expected the preliminary hearings process to last “several months, considering the complexity” of a case file with some 30,000 pages and hundreds of CDs.
Corso set the date for the next hearing as June 7.
Supporters of the rescue charities held a sit-in at the port in Trapani featuring large paper boats bearing the date and location of shipwrecks, and the number of victims.
The charities are accused of coordinating their actions with smugglers just off Libya, returning inflatable dinghies and boats to them to be reused, and picking up people whose lives had not been in danger.
The rescuers say anyone attempting the central Mediterranean crossing to Europe — the “world’s deadliest” according to the UN — on rickety boats or unseaworthy dinghies is at risk, and should be saved.
At least 12,000 people have drowned on this route since 2014. Many shipwrecks go unrecorded.
The charities also deny ever communicating with smugglers, who are sometimes armed and can be spotted loitering near rescues in the hope of retrieving valuable engines from migrant boats.
Save the Children told AFP it “strongly rejects” the accusations, as did MSF, which slammed a “period of criminalization of humanitarian aid” it hoped would soon end.
The Iuventa was impounded in 2017 shortly after Jugend Rettet and others refused to sign a new and contentious interior ministry “code of conduct” accord, and as the European Union scaled up surveillance and policing in the Mediterranean.
“Despite the fact that mobile phones and computers were seized and analyzed, not a single contact with Libyan smugglers... has been found,” said Nicola Canestrini, lawyer for the Iuventa crew members.
Pre-trial hearings are held behind closed doors, but representatives from the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) and Amnesty International have requested the judge allow them to sit in for transparency.
ECCHR senior legal adviser Allison West has condemned “improper investigative practices” in the investigation, led by a prosecutors’ office more used to exposing Mafia crimes.
The probe was launched after ex-policeman Pietro Gallo, working as a security contractor on Save the Children’s Vos Hestia ship, sent allegations against the charities in October 2016 to Italy’s secret services, Canestrini told AFP.
He and a fellow ex-policeman also sent them to the head of the anti-immigration League party, Matteo Salvini, before reporting their suspicions to the police.
Gallo has since said in an interview that he regrets it. Asked if he ever saw any contact between the charities and traffickers, he replied “no, never.”
The damage was done. Police placed an undercover agent on the Vos Hestia in May 2017, who would provide information including elements used to charge the four Iuventa crew members, Canestrini said. Those included alleged hand signals between the crew and smugglers.
Iuventa’s case has been studied by Forensic Architecture, an agency based at Goldsmiths, University of London, which uses advanced reconstruction techniques to investigate police, military and state facts.
It discredited the police theories for all three Iuventa rescues in question.
Sicily judge weighs trial of migrant rescue NGOs
https://arab.news/nsynv
Sicily judge weighs trial of migrant rescue NGOs
- Trapani judge Samuele Corso must rule whether or not to proceed to trial after a five-year investigation mired in controversy
- The charities are accused of coordinating their actions with smugglers just off Libya
Putin proposes direct talks with Ukraine in Istanbul, ‘without preconditions’
MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday proposed holding direct talks with Ukraine in Istanbul on May 15, hours after Kyiv and European leaders called for an unconditional 30-day ceasefire to start Monday.
“We are determined to have serious negotiations ... to eliminate the root causes of the conflict,” Putin told reporters in a middle of the night statement at the Kremlin.
“We do not exclude that during these talks we will be able to agree on some new ceasefire,” he added, without directly addressing the call made by the leaders of Ukraine, Britain, France, Germany and Poland for a ceasefire to start Monday.
(Developing story)
Bangladesh’s interim government bans the former ruling party of ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina
- The ban would stay in place until a special tribunal completes a trial of the party and its leaders over the deaths of hundreds of students
DHAKA, Bangladesh: The interim government in Bangladesh on Saturday banned all activities of the former ruling Awami League party headed by former influential Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who was ousted last year in a mass uprising.
Asif Nazrul, the country’s law affairs adviser, said late Saturday the interim Cabinet headed by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus decided to ban the party’s activities online and elsewhere under the country’s Anti-Terrorism Act. The ban would stay in place until a special tribunal completes a trial of the party and its leaders over the deaths of hundreds of students and other protesters during an anti-government uprising in July and August last year.
“This decision is aimed at ensuring national security and sovereignty, protection of activists of the July movement, and plaintiffs and witnesses involved in the tribunal proceedings,” Nazrul told reporters after a special Cabinet meeting.
Nazrul said the meeting Saturday also expanded scope for trying any political parties involving charges of killing during the anti-Hasina protest being handled by the International Crimes Tribunal.
He said a government notification regarding the ban would be published soon with details.
Hasina and many of her senior party colleagues have been accused of murder in many cases after her ouster last year. Hasina has been in exile in India since Aug. 5 as her official residence was stormed by protesters soon after she left the country.
The United Nations human rights office in a report said in February that up to 1,400 people may have been killed during three weeks of anti-Hasina protest.
Saturday night’s dramatic decision came after thousands of protesters, including supporters of a newly formed political party by students, took to the streets in Dhaka and issued an ultimatum to ban the Awami League party by Saturday night. The members of the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami party also prominently took part in the protest.
There was no immediate reaction from Hasina or her party, but the chief of the National Citizen Party, Nahid Islam, who is also a student leader, applauded the Yunus-led government for its decision.
The student-led uprising ended Hasina’s 15 years of rule, and three days after her fall Yunus took the helm as interim leader.
France in talks with Britain, Ukraine about potential troops, Macron tells paper
- “We’re working on the presence and strategic footprint of the partner countries,” Macron said
- “The key is to have troops in Ukraine“
PARIS: France is consulting with partners on how to potentially support Ukraine in its struggle with Russia with troops, French President Emmanuel Macron told newspaper Le Parisien on Saturday, without elaborating on what such a presence could include.
“We are working on the presence and strategic footprint of the partner countries. There have been several exchanges between our British, French and Ukrainian chiefs of staff, who have coordinated the work with all their partners, and all this is becoming clearer and making progress,” Macron was cited in the article.
“The key is to have troops in Ukraine,” he added.
Major European powers including France threw their weight behind an unconditional 30-day Ukraine ceasefire, with the backing of US President Donald Trump.
Macron joined the leaders of Britain, Germany and Poland on a visit to Kyiv on Saturday during which they held a phone call with Trump.
Seven dead after heavy rain hits Mogadishu
- Floodwaters also damaged key infrastructure, halting public transport
MOGADISHU: At least seven people have died, and major roads were cut off after heavy rains led to flooding in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, on Friday night due to an overwhelmed drainage system and a growing urban population.
The regional administration spokesperson, Abdinasir Hirsi Idle, said on Saturday that rescue efforts were ongoing.
“The death toll could rise because the rains were heavy and lasted for several hours, causing nine houses to collapse across different neighborhoods, and at least six major roads to suffer severe damage,” he said.
Somalia has in the past suffered extreme climate shocks, including prolonged dry seasons that have caused drought and heavy rains that have resulted in floods.
Friday’s rains went on for about eight hours, leaving waist-high waters in neighborhoods where some residents were trapped and others were forced to move to higher ground.
A resident, Mohammed Hassan, said that some older people were still trapped.
“We spent the night on rooftops, shivering from the cold, and I have not even had breakfast,” he said.
Floodwaters also damaged key infrastructure, halting public transport and temporarily disrupting operations at the main airport, Aden Abdulle International Airport.
Officials later confirmed flights had resumed operations.
The Somali Disaster Management Agency has not yet released an official death toll, but said an assessment was underway to determine the extent of the damage.
In a statement on Saturday, the country’s Energy and Water Ministry said: “A substantial amount of rainfall, exceeding 115 mm, was recorded in over 8 consecutive hours” and warned of flash floods in other regions outside the capital.
Marcos camp takes on Duterte clan in key poll
- Most voters back senate candidates who assert Philippine sovereignty: Survey
MANILA: In political rallies, Senate hearings, and voter surveys ahead of Monday’s midterm elections in the Philippines, China has been an overwhelming — and unusual — presence.
The shadow of its giant maritime neighbor has loomed over the Philippines for years.
However, as the country’s two most prominent political clans flex their muscles in the usually low-key process to pick senators and local government leaders, relations with China have emerged as a political lightning rod.
The outcome could shape the country’s strategic positioning over the remaining half of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s six-year term, which began in 2022.
“Will we allow ourselves to return to the time when our leaders wanted us to become a province of China?” Marcos asked voters at a rally in February, in a dig at predecessor Rodrigo Duterte and his daughter Sara, who is currently vice president and a key Marcos rival.
During his 2016 to 2022 term, Duterte shifted foreign policy on China, adopting conciliatory rhetoric and downplaying disputes in the South China Sea.
The strategy drew concern from Washington and raised questions about the Philippines’ longstanding security alliance with the US.
In contrast, Marcos has moved to rekindle and deepen ties with Washington.
“These are hot-button issues that many Filipino voters can relate to, particularly on the issue of China. There was a time in the past when foreign policy did not matter that much during elections,” said Ederson Tapia, professor of public administration at the University of Makati.
“But now it does.”
An April survey found that most voters in the country of 110 million prefer candidates who assert Philippine sovereignty in the South China Sea, where the Marcos-led administration has taken a more assertive stance in its maritime confrontations with Beijing, which continue unabated.
It is a sentiment that Marcos has tapped into since he started his campaign for the slate of Senate candidates that he is backing.
In the February rally, Marcos pointed to his candidates, saying: “None of them were applauding China when our coast guard was being bombed with water, when our fishermen were being blocked, when their catch was stolen, and our islands seized to become part of another country.”
The Duterte camp enjoyed a surge of sympathy when he was arrested by the International Criminal Court in March and taken to The Hague, but Marcos’ candidates remain ahead in polls and appear poised to dominate the Senate race.
A Duterte spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
Through a months-long campaign, Marcos has kept up the pressure and focused on China as a key election issue, while his allies have aimed at Sara Duterte for her silence on China’s actions.
Sara, a likely future presidential candidate, was once a Marcos ally but now faces an impeachment trial on charges including a threat to assassinate the president if she were harmed.
In the Philippines, the 24-member Senate acts as the jury in any impeachment trial, making the midterms even more consequential in determining Sara Duterte’s political future.
Sara, who denied wrongdoing, responded to her impeachment with defiance, asking the Supreme Court to nullify the complaint against her.
A strong mandate for Marcos would not only define his ability to govern decisively in the remaining three years of his term but would also shape the 2028 presidential race, said Victor Andres “Dindo” Manhit, a political analyst and founder of Stratbase Group, a research and advisory firm.
Marcos is limited to a single term under the Constitution and is expected to anoint a successor. Sara Duterte would also be eligible to run in 2028 if she survives impeachment.
“Those who will run need to be tested on consistency about these issues,” Manhit said, referring to protecting the Philippines’ maritime rights and sovereignty.
“And one of them is the current vice president. She has not spoken against this coercion by China.”
A spokesperson for Sara Duterte did not respond to a request for comment.
The midterm election comes amid a proliferation of disinformation in the Philippines. Inauthentic accounts have driven up to 45 percent of discussions about the elections on social media, Reuters reported last month.
The use of fake accounts and paid influencers for political operations is widespread in the Philippines, but a top security official and a senator alleged last month that Chinese state-sponsored groups might be attempting to influence Filipinos.
China’s foreign ministry and its embassy in Manila have rejected the accusations.
