LONDON: A British police officer on Tuesday was sentenced to 18 months of community service for sharing messages on WhatsApp supporting the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Mohammed Adil, 26, from Bradford in northern England, pleaded guilty to two charges under the Terrorism Act for sending the messages in October and November last year.
He has been suspended from duty and now faces disciplinary proceedings, potentially including dismissal.
Adil was reported by two colleagues at the West Yorkshire Police force and charged by the Crown Prosecution Service’s (CPS) Counter Terrorism Division.
“Mohammed Adil understood that in sharing the images he did, it would arouse suspicion that he was showing support for a terrorist organization,” said Bethan David, head of the division.
Previously, chief magistrate Paul Goldspring had warned Adil that the crimes were “very serious” and that he could face prison time.
But on Tuesday, he said a custodial sentence would be “unnecessarily disproportionate.”
Adil was first arrested on November 6 and suspended as an officer before appearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in central London in May.
He admitted two counts of publishing an image in support of Hamas, which is proscribed as a terrorist organization in the UK.
It came after Israel declared war against Hamas in Gaza in response to the militant group’s unprecedented October 7 attack.
Displayed on his WhatsApp “updates,” prosecutors said the image showed a Hamas fighter wearing a Hamas headband.
In one post, Adil had added the caption: “Today is the time for the Palestinian people to rise, set their paths straight and establish an independent Palestinian state.”
It was said to be a quote from the leader of Hamas’s military wing, Mohammed Deif.
The second post was captioned: “We will hold accountable all those who occupied our lands and Allah will hold accountable all those who remained silent against this occupation and oppression.”
That was said to be from Abu Ubaida, a spokesman for the group’s military wing.
The posts were accessible for 24 hours to Adil’s 1,092 WhatsApp contacts, according to prosecutors.
“We will now commence with misconduct proceedings,” said Tanya Wilkins, of West Yorkshire Police, after the sentencing.
“We make it clear to all employees that it is not compatible for anyone working in policing to be a member of, or show support for, a proscribed organization.”
UK police officer sentenced for sharing pro-Hamas images
https://arab.news/2cvnb
UK police officer sentenced for sharing pro-Hamas images
- Mohammed Adil from Bradford in northern England, pleaded guilty to two charges under the Terrorism Act
- “Mohammed Adil understood that in sharing the images he did, it would arouse suspicion that he was showing support for a terrorist organization,” said Bethan David, head of the division
Hamas chief says ready for ‘long war’ in Gaza
- Israel has killed at least 41,226 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry
- Independent UN rights experts meanwhile warned that Israel risked international isolation over its actions in Gaza and called on Western countries to ensure accountability
Gaza Strip, Palestinian Territories: Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar said Monday the Palestinian group had the resources to sustain its fight against Israel, with support from Iran-backed regional allies, nearly a year into the Gaza war.
Sinwar, who last month replaced slain Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, said in a letter to the group’s Yemeni allies that “we have prepared ourselves to fight a long war of attrition.”
Deadly fighting raged on in the besieged Gaza Strip, where medics and rescuers said Monday that Israeli strikes — which the military has not commented on — killed at least two dozen people.
The latest strikes came as Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned that prospects for a halt in fighting with Hezbollah militants in Lebanon were dimming, yet again raising fears of a wider regional conflagration.
Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan told AFP at the weekend the group “has a high ability to continue” fighting despite losses, noting “the recruitment of new generations” to replace killed militants.
Gallant last week said Hamas, whose October 7 attack triggered the war, “no longer exists” as a military formation in Gaza.
Sinwar, in his letter to Yemen’s Houthis, threatened that Iran-aligned groups in Gaza and elsewhere in the region including Lebanon and Iraq would “break the enemy’s political will” after more than 11 months of war.
“Our combined efforts with you” and with groups in Lebanon and Iraq “will break this enemy and inflict defeat on it,” Sinwar said.
Independent UN rights experts meanwhile warned that Israel risked international isolation over its actions in Gaza and called on Western countries to ensure accountability.
Spain, which recently joined several European countries in formally recognizing the State of Palestine, is due to host Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Tuesday, an official in his office told AFP.
Abbas, who is based in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and holds little sway in Gaza, is set to meet Spanish King Felipe VI and Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, before heading to New York for the UN General Assembly.
The October 7 attack on southern Israel that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Militants also seized 251 hostages, 97 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,226 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, which does not provide a breakdown of civilian and militant deaths.
Tensions have surged along Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, amid fears the violence could explode into an all-out war.
“The possibility for an agreement is running out as Hezbollah continues to tie itself to Hamas and refuses to end the conflict,” Gallant told visiting US envoy Amos Hochstein, a defense ministry statement said.
Israeli media outlets said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was considering firing Gallant, one of several officials who have been at odds with the veteran leader on war policy. Netanyahu’s office denied the reports.
Netanyahu told Hochstein later Monday he seeks a “fundamental change” in the security situation on Israel’s northern border.
Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group has traded near-daily cross-border fire with Israeli forces since October in stated support of ally Hamas.
Hezbollah deputy chief Naim Qassem said Saturday his group has “no intention of going to war,” but if Israel does “unleash” one “there will be large losses on both sides.”
The violence has killed hundreds of mostly fighters in Lebanon, and dozens of civilians and soldiers on the Israeli side.
In central Gaza, survivors scoured debris Monday after a strike on the Nuseirat refugee camp.
Ten people were killed and 15 were wounded when an air strike hit the Al-Qassas family home in Nuseirat in the morning, said a medic at Al-Awda Hospital, where the bodies were taken.
“My house was hit while we were sleeping without any prior warning,” said survivor Rashed Al-Qassas.
Gaza’s civil defense said six Palestinians were killed in a similar strike at night on a house belonging to the Bassal family in Gaza City’s Zeitun neighborhood.
Emergency services later reported six more deaths, with Al-Awda Hospital saying it received the bodies of three people killed in Israeli strikes on Nuseirat.
The Gaza war has drawn in Iran-backed Hamas allies across the Middle East, including Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis, whose maritime attacks have disrupted global shipping through vital waterways off Yemen.
On Sunday the rebels claimed a rare missile attack on central Israel which caused no casualties, prompting Netanyahu to warn that they would pay “a heavy price for any attempt to harm us.”
In a televised speech, the Houthis’ leader said the rebels and their regional allies were “preparing to do even more.”
“Our operations will continue as long as the aggression and siege on Gaza continue,” Abdul Malik Al-Houthi said.
US military completes withdrawal from junta-ruled Niger
- US and France had more than 2,500 military personnel in the Sahel until recently
- Niger has pulled away from its Western partners, turning instead to Russia for security
DAKAR, Senegal: The withdrawal of US troops from Niger is complete, an American official said Monday.
A small number of military personnel assigned to guard the US Embassy remain, Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh told reporters.
Earlier this year, Niger’s ruling junta ended an agreement that allowed US troops to operate in the West African country. A few months later, officials from both countries said in a joint statement that US troops would complete their withdrawal by the middle of September.
The US handed over its last military bases in Niger to local authorities last month, but about two dozen American soldiers had remained in Niger, largely for administrative duties related to the withdrawal, Singh said.
Niger’s ouster of American troops following a coup last year has broad ramifications for Washington because it’s forcing troops to abandon critical bases that were used for counterterrorism missions in the Sahel. Groups linked to Al-Qaeda and the Daesh group operate in the vast region south of the Sahara desert.
One of those groups, Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa Al-Muslimin, known as JNIM, is active in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, and is looking to expand into Benin and Togo.
Niger had been seen as one of the last nations in the restive region that Western nations could partner with to beat back growing extremist insurgencies. The US and France had more than 2,500 military personnel in the region until recently, and together with other European countries had invested hundreds of millions of dollars in military assistance and training.
In recent months Niger has pulled away from its Western partners, turning instead to Russia for security. In April, Russian military trainers arrived in Niger to reinforce the country’s air defenses.
‘Starving’ in isolation: fears for imprisoned Belarus protest leader
- The 42-year-old is now serving an 11-year sentence in Gomel, one of over 1,000 political prisoners in the country
- Minsk announced a new wave of pardons on Monday, with 37 political prisoners freed, but it was not yet known if Kolesnikova was included
WARSAW: Nobody outside of Prison Colony Number Four in the Belarusian city of Gomel has seen or heard from Maria Kolesnikova, imprisoned for leading huge 2020 protests against President Alexander Lukashenko since February last year.
An orchestra flute player, Kolesnikova was the star of a street movement that shook the Minsk regime four years ago — she then famously ripped up her passport while the KGB tried to forcibly deport her.
The 42-year-old is now serving an 11-year sentence in Gomel, one of over 1,000 political prisoners in the country. She has been barred from contact with the outside world for 19 months.
Minsk announced a new wave of pardons on Monday, with 37 political prisoners freed, but it was not yet known if Kolesnikova was included.
Two ex-prisoners released from the same colony told AFP Kolesnikova spends months in the harshest “PKT” type of punishment cell, held in isolation from other inmates, who are banned from talking to her.
“I am worried for her life,” her sister Tatiana Khomich, who lives abroad, told AFP.
She has been told Kolesnikova’s weight has severely dropped.
Kolesnikova had lost weight after abdominal surgery in November 2022, but has now lost “even more,” unable to recover in harsh conditions and denied an appropriate diet, her sister said.
According to Khomich, she has a limited allowance of around 20 euros in the prison shop per month.
“She’s basically starving,” Khomich said.
The world last saw a glimpse of Kolesnikova after the surgery, when she was allowed to see her father, with authorities releasing a fuzzy picture.
Then, the letters stopped: the last one was dated February 15, 2023. Contact was also lost with other key imprisoned opposition figures.
Khomich knows that Kolesnikova spends most of her time in the PKT, which ex-convicts describe as a “prison inside a prison.” PKT is an acronym for “cell-type space.”
Darya Afanasyeva, a feminist activist who served a 2.5-year sentence in Gomel, said information on Kolesnikova trickled down to women in the prison if someone was sent to a punishment cell and heard her through a wall.
Released this spring and now living in Poland, she described the level to which Kolesnikova was kept out of sight.
When a medical van came into the prison, likely headed for Kolesnikova, Afanasyeva said authorities put the colony “on some kind of martial law.”
“Everyone was put in one room and you are not allowed to go to the windows,” the 29-year-old said.
“We saw it was headed to the PKT and we understood it was for Masha.”
Before Kolesnikova was sent to the PKT, Afanasyeva said she appeared “very thin.”
Afanasyeva said Kolesnikova’s isolation in the Gomel prison — which started filling up with political prisoners after the protests — started as soon as the protest leader arrived there in June 2022.
Women with political cases were singled out with a yellow triangle on their uniforms, ex-prisoners said.
Prison officials were quick to cut Kolesnikova off.
She was the only political prisoner placed in a “brigade” with no other women with political cases.
Afanasyeva described the level of surveillance around Kolesnikova when she was still working at the prison sewing factory.
“They put special cameras to watch her, she worked on a machine and these two cameras were right above her table,” the activist, who had a yellow triangle tattooed on her forearm, said.
“Everything to do with Masha was made into a secret,” said Kristina Cherenkova, another former political prisoner, arrested for social media posts against the war in Ukraine in her town near the Ukraine border.
“Practically the whole year and one month that I was in the Gomel prison, she was in the PKT,” Cherenkova, now also in Poland, said.
She relayed what women sent to solitary confinement had told her.
“At first, the girls said her voice was strong and that she sang in there,” Cherenkova said.
“But in the last months of me being there, they would say you could not hear her as much.”
When news broke of a major swap between Russia — on whom Belarus relies — and the West, Khomich had hoped her sister would be among prisoners released.
But while let down by an absence of Belarusian dissidents in the swap, it gave her a boost that “talks are possible, even in times of war.”
A fresh wave of pardons this summer has offered new hope to relatives of political prisoners.
Analyst Artyom Shraibman said Kolesnikova was getting “special treatment” in prison, with the regime driven by “revenge for the trauma of 2020.”
He struggled to imagine a free Kolesnikova, saying “Lukashenko mainly lets people go who would leave prison soon anyway.”
“Or who would die in prison soon,” he added.
Starmer praises Italy’s Meloni for reducing illegal migration
- The center-left Labour Party prime minister is not a natural ally of Meloni, who heads the far-right Brothers of Italy party
ROME: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer praised his Italian counterpart Giorgia Meloni on Monday for her efforts in reducing illegal migration, saying his “government of pragmatism” sought new approaches to the hot-button topic.
On his first visit to Italy since his center-left Labour Party’s landslide victory in July, Starmer expressed interest in the immigration policies of far-right leader Meloni — including plans to operate Italian-run migrant centers in Albania — and stressed the importance of cross-border cooperation.
“You’ve made remarkable progress working with countries along migration routes as equals to address the drivers of migration at the source and to tackle the gangs,” Starmer told Meloni during a joint press conference in Rome.
“As a result, irregular arrivals to Italy by sea are down 60 percent since 2022,” said Starmer, who has vowed to fight illegal migration at home.
His visit, in which he toured a national immigration coordination center with Italy’s Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi, came a day after the latest migrant shipwreck in the Channel claimed eight lives.
The boat had 59 people on board from Eritrea, Sudan, Syria, Afghanistan, Egypt and Iran.
The latest incident brings to 46 the number of people who have died this year trying to reach British shores.
Starmer has rejected the previous Conservative government’s plan to expel all undocumented migrants to Rwanda while their asylum claims are examined.
As a former chief prosecutor, he said, he saw the value of cross-border collaboration on fighting terrorism.
“And I’ve never accepted ... that we can’t do the same with smuggling gangs,” he said.
“And now of course Italy has shown that we can.”
In Britain, the perilous cross-Channel journeys that migrants attempt from northern France have posed a difficult problem for successive governments.
On Saturday, about 800 people crossed the Channel — the second-highest figure since the start of the year, according to the UK Interior Ministry.
Starmer said he had discussed with his Italian counterpart a deal Rome signed with Albania in November to open two Italian-operated centers to house undocumented migrants while their asylum claims are processed.
Asked directly whether he would consider such a plan for Britain, Starmer noted that the centers were not yet operational and “we don’t yet know the outcome.”
Lower migrant arrivals to Italy were currently due to Meloni’s efforts, said Starmer, referring to Italy’s deals with Tunisia and Libya where funding is provided in exchange for help stemming the departure of Italy-bound migrants.
“I’ve always made the argument that preventing people leaving their country in the first place is far better than trying to deal with those that have arrived in any of our countries,” he said.
“Today was a return, if you like, to British pragmatism. We are pragmatists first and foremost, when we see a challenge, we discuss with our friends and allies, the different approaches that are being taken,” he said.
Under Italy’s migrant plan with Albania, migrants with rejected asylum claims will be sent back to their country of origin, whereas those with accepted applications will be granted entry to Italy.
But under the former UK government’s Rwanda scheme, migrants sent to the East African nation could never have settled in Britain irrespective of the outcome of their claim.
The two migration centers in Albania were supposed to have opened in early August, but have been delayed, with Meloni saying Monday it was a matter of “a few weeks.”
Starmer’s trip to Italy has already spurred criticism, even within his own party.
Labour MP Kim Johnson told The Guardian it was “disturbing that Starmer is seeking to learn lessons from a neo-fascist government, particularly after the anti-refugee riots and far-right racist terrorism that swept Britain this summer.”
Besides the Tunisia deal, Meloni’s hard-right government has renewed a controversial deal with the UN-backed Libyan government in Tripoli dating from 2017, in which Rome provides training and funding to the Libyan coast guard for help deterring departures of migrants, or returning those already at sea back to Libya.
Human rights groups say the policy pushes thousands of migrants back to Libya to face torture and abuse under arbitrary detention.
Migrant arrivals to Italy by sea have dropped markedly, according to the Interior Ministry.
Between Jan. 1 and Sept. 13, 44,675 people arrived in Italy compared to a figure of 125,806 for the same period in 2023.
Across all the EU borders, meanwhile, the number of migrants crossing has dropped by 39 percent, according to border agency Frontex.
But multiple factors are behind these trends, experts say, with many migrants seeking entry into the EU having changed their route.
Crossings are up 13 percent over the Channel this year, Frontex said.
Suspect in Trump assassination attempt charged with gun crimes
- The Republican presidential candidate in the Nov. 5 election was unharmed
- Phone records suggest the suspect may have been lying in wait for nearly 12 hours on Sunday, according to a criminal complaint
WASHINGTON: A man suspected of attempting to assassinate Donald Trump was charged with two gun-related crimes in federal court on Monday, a day after being spotted with a rifle hiding in the bushes at the former US president’s golf course in Florida.
More charges appear likely, but the initial counts — possession of a firearm as a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number — will allow authorities to keep him in custody as the investigation continues.
The Republican presidential candidate in the Nov. 5 election was unharmed. But the incident raised fresh questions about how an armed suspect was able to get so close to him, just two months after another gunman fired at Trump during a July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, grazing his ear with a bullet.
Phone records suggest the suspect may have been lying in wait for nearly 12 hours on Sunday, according to a criminal complaint.
The US Secret Service opened fire after an agent saw a rifle barrel poking out of the bushes on Sunday at Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach, a few hundred yards away from where the former president was playing.
The gunman fled in a sports utility vehicle, according to the complaint. Officers found a loaded assault-style rifle with a scope, a digital camera and a plastic bag of food left behind.
A suspect, identified on Monday as Ryan Routh, 58, was arrested about 40 minutes later driving north on Interstate 95. When asked if he knew why he had been stopped, Routh “responded in the affirmative,” according to the complaint. The license plate on his vehicle had been reported stolen from another car.
Records show a phone associated with Routh was located at the golf course starting at 1:59 a.m. (0559 GMT) on Sunday morning.
Routh has two prior convictions, both in North Carolina, according to the criminal complaint: a 2002 conviction for possession of a weapon of mass death and destruction and a 2010 conviction for possession of stolen goods. Further details about those cases were not immediately available.
Trump blamed President Joe Biden and Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris for the assassination attempt. He cited their “rhetoric” and claimed the suspected gunman was acting on Democrats’ “highly inflammatory language,” though authorities have not yet offered evidence of any motive.
“Their rhetoric is causing me to be shot at, when I am the one who is going to save the country, and they are the ones that are destroying the country — both from the inside and out,” he said, according to Fox.
SECRET SERVICE UNDER PRESSURE
The Secret Service, which protects US presidents, presidential candidates and other high-level dignitaries, has been under intense scrutiny since the earlier attempt on Trump’s life.
That led to the resignation of Director Kimberly Cheatle. The service bolstered Trump’s security detail following the July 13 attack, in which the gunman was shot dead by responding agents.
The agency “needs more help,” including possibly more personnel, Biden told reporters on Monday, adding: “Thank God the president’s OK.”
Harris said on X: “Violence has no place in America.”
House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson, who convened a bipartisan task force to investigate after the first assassination attempt, said in a Fox News interview that Congress would also examine the latest incident.
“We need accountability,” said Johnson who also called for more resources to protect Trump. “We must demand that this job is being done.”
Cheatle’s replacement, Acting Director Ronald Rowe, traveled to Florida after Sunday’s assassination attempt, according to several news outlets. Rowe, who took over after Cheatle’s resignation in July, told Congress on July 30 he was “ashamed” of security lapses in the earlier attack.
Rowe has been with the 7,800-member Secret Service for 25 years, according to an official biography, rising to the agency’s No. 2 spot before he was promoted in July.
SUSPECT IS UKRAINE SYMPATHIZER
Routh was a staunch supporter of Ukraine and had traveled there after Russia’s 2022 invasion, seeking to recruit foreign fighters.
Profiles on X, Facebook and LinkedIn with Routh’s name contained messages of support for Ukraine as well as statements describing Trump as a threat to US democracy.
“@POTUS Your campaign should be called something like KADAF. Keep America democratic and free. Trumps should be MASA ...make Americans slaves again master. DEMOCRACY is on the ballot and we cannot lose,” read a post on X, tagging Biden.
Reuters was not able to confirm that the accounts belonged to the suspect, and law enforcement agencies declined to comment. Public access to the Facebook and X profiles was removed hours after Sunday’s incident.
Harris and other Democrats have cast Trump as a danger to US democracy, citing his effort to overturn his defeat in the 2020 election, which led to the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the US Capitol. Harris has promised unwavering support for Ukraine if elected.
Trump has expressed skepticism about the amount of aid the US has provided Ukraine and has vowed to end the war immediately if elected. He told Reuters last year that Ukraine might have to cede some territory to gain peace.
Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X, posted and then deleted a message on the social media site on Sunday wondering why no one had tried to assassinate Biden or Harris. In a follow-up post on Monday, Musk, who has endorsed Trump, said he had been joking.
