VATICAN CITY: Catholic cardinals acknowledged Wednesday the definitive word is still out about the Vatican trial that convicted Cardinal Angelo Becciu of financial crimes, in the latest twist to a drama that has dominated conversations leading up to the May 7 conclave to elect Pope Francis’ successor.
Becciu, 76, is the once-powerful Italian cardinal who formally withdrew his participation in the conclave on Tuesday, after days of uncertainty about his status.
The Vatican’s criminal court convicted Becciu in 2023 of embezzlement and other finance-related charges at the end of the so-called “trial of the century.”
But the convictions are being appealed and there are lingering questions about the integrity of the trial, which the College of Cardinals appeared to refer to in a statement Wednesday. As in Italy, convictions in the Vatican criminal court are not considered definitive until all appeals are exhausted.
In their statement Wednesday, the college thanked Becciu for withdrawing and for “contributing to the communion and serenity of the conclave.”
“The Congregation of Cardinals expresses its appreciation for the gesture he has made and hopes that the competent organs of justice will be able to definitively ascertain the facts,” said a statement from the cardinals who are meeting in pre-conclave discussions.
Francis in 2020 forced Becciu’s resignation as head of the Vatican’s saint-making office and forced him to renounce the rights of the cardinalate after receiving allegations of financial misconduct against him.
Becciu denied wrongdoing but said at the time that he wouldn’t be able to vote in a future conclave. After Francis died April 21, Becciu had asserted his right to participate. But he backed down Tuesday after being presented with letters from Francis, penned before his death, saying he couldn’t take part.
Questions around the trial
During the trial, defense lawyers discovered that Francis had secretly issued four decrees during the investigation to benefit prosecutors, allowing them to conduct intercepts and detain suspects without a judge’s warrant. Defense lawyers argued such interference by an absolute monarch in a legal system where the pope exercises supreme legislative, executive and judicial power violated their clients’ fundamental rights and robbed them of a fair trial.
Also during the trial, it emerged that the prosecution’s prime witness against Becciu was coached, threatened and manipulated by outsiders to persuade him to turn on the cardinal.
The tribunal rejected the defense objections at the time and the trial went ahead. But in recent weeks even more evidence has emerged about the outside manipulation of the witness and apparent collusion with Vatican prosecutors and gendarmes to target Becciu. The Domani newspaper has published previously redacted WhatsApp chats and an audio suggesting that Vatican gendarmes and prosecutors were involved indirectly in coaching the witness, Monsignor Alberto Perlasca, to turn on Becciu.
Becciu has responded to the reports with outrage, saying they prove that his prosecution was manipulated from the start.
“From the very first moment I spoke of a machination against me: an investigation built on falsehoods, which five years ago unjustly devastated my life and exposed me to a pillory of worldwide proportions,” he said in a statement April 14, when the first chats were published.
The appeal is scheduled to begin in September.
Cardinals thank Cardinal Becciu for stepping back from conclave
https://arab.news/76wuy
Cardinals thank Cardinal Becciu for stepping back from conclave
- The Vatican’s criminal court convicted Cardinal Angelo Becciu in 2023 of embezzlement and other finance-related charges
- Pope Francis in 2020 forced his resignation as head of the Vatican’s saint-making office and forced him to renounce the rights of the cardinalate
For Rohingya mothers, Eid marks rare chance to serve meat for family
- Around 1.3 million Rohingya refugees living in Bangladesh are dependent on food aid
- Their meals normally lack proper nutrition, as assistance consists mostly of rice, lentils, oil
DHAKA: As she prepared for Eid Al-Adha celebrations on Saturday, Nikash Tara could not recall the last time she served a proper meal for her family.
In the cramped camps of Cox’s Bazar, a nutritious meal was a near-impossible treat available only during special occasions and solely dependent on charitable contributions.
Most days, Rohingya refugee mothers like Tara could only rely on food rations, which have been slashed in recent years due to insufficient funding.
“It was probably during Eid Al-Fitr when we last had a truly nutritious meal … We survive on the food rations, which are not enough now. Sometimes, I skip meals so that my children can eat,” Tara told Arab News.
“We get rice, lentils, and oil, but no vegetables, no milk. It’s hard to call it a ‘meal,’ let alone nutritious.”
Eid Al-Adha, known as the “Feast of Sacrifice” and one of the two most important holidays for Muslims, is the first time this year that the mother of three gets to serve meat for her family.
Eid Al-Adha commemorates the Prophet Ibrahim’s test of faith when he was commanded by God to sacrifice his son. To reflect his readiness to do so, Muslims around the world slaughter an animal, usually a goat, sheep or cow, and distribute the meat among relatives and the poor.
“On the occasion of Eid, we received a small portion of meat … I prepared a curry with potato and the meat I received. Although it’s not much in quantity, it made the children happy, as it is a chance to have a meal with beef for the first time this year,” Tara said.
“It hurts me as a mother. My heart breaks when my children get excited over a single good meal. It reminds me how little they get on normal days. Eid should be joyful, but I cry inside, knowing my children are being deprived every other day of the year. I feel helpless.”
Mizanur Rahman, refugee relief and repatriation commissioner in Cox’s Bazar, said this year the camps received 1,800 cattle and 350 goats for Eid sacrifice, donated by various Muslim and local nongovernmental organizations.
“In addition to that, different organizations and philanthropists promised to deliver 50,000 kg of fresh meat to be distributed on the day of Eid Al-Adha,” Rahman told Arab News.
The donations will help Bangladeshi authorities to “reach many of the Rohingya families … (and) offer them a feast on the occasion of Eid,” he added.
Bangladesh hosts about 1.3 million Rohingya Muslims, who, for decades, have fled neighboring Myanmar to escape persecution, especially during a military crackdown in 2017 that the UN has been referring to as a “textbook case” of ethnic cleansing.
The majority of them now live in Cox’s Bazar in eastern Bangladesh, which has become the world’s largest refugee settlement. Over the years, humanitarian conditions in the squalid camps have been deteriorating, with aid continuously declining since the COVID-19 pandemic. The Rohingya also have limited access to job opportunities and education.
With nobody able to earn a living, Mariam Khatun’s family was among those entirely dependent on food aid.
“With little food aid and in a life with no earning opportunity, for my children, a decent meal is something unimaginable,” Khatun told Arab News.
Though Eid was a joyful occasion, she said it was “painful that joy comes only once or twice a year.
“It breaks my heart when the children look at the meat and ask: ‘Will we eat this again tomorrow?’ I have no answer.”
Before fleeing her village in Myanmar, the 29-year-old mother of two used to prepare spicy beef curry, her children’s favorite, frying the meat until it was crispy.
“But here, I barely have them. We rely fully on the food rations, but the amount has been cut so much. It’s not enough for a full month,” she said.
“Maybe only on this Eid, we got a little meat. That’s the only time this year my children got something with some nutrition. We’re not living; we’re just trying not to starve.”
Fire on cargo ship off Alaska carrying EVs left burning
- Alaskan coast guard received a distress call on Tuesday reporting a fire onboard the Morning Midas
- The 22 crew members evacuated on a lifeboat before being rescued by another private vessel
WASHINGTON: A fire on a cargo ship carrying electric vehicles off the coast of Alaska was left burning with salvage teams expected to intervene on Monday, according to media reports.
The Alaskan coast guard received a distress call on Tuesday reporting a fire onboard the Morning Midas, a British-managed cargo ship with 22 crew members and carrying thousands of vehicles.
The crew evacuated on a lifeboat before being rescued by another private vessel.
An overflight of the cargo ship, currently located around 547 kilometers southwest of Adak, confirmed the ship was still burning on Wednesday, the coast guard said in a statement.
“Currently, there are no visual indications that the ship is taking on water or listing, and the extent of the damage is unknown,” it said.
Dustin Eno, a spokesman for the ship’s management company Zodiac Maritime, said there were no firefighting vessels nearby to help extinguish the blaze, the New York Times reported.
A salvage team was expected to arrive on Monday, the outlet and the Los Angeles Times said.
Video footage released by the coast guard shows smoke rising from the 183-meter vessel, which is reported to be carrying more than 3,000 vehicles, around 750 of which are electric or hybrid.
Electric vehicles contain lithium-ion batteries, which are generally safe but can overheat and ignite if damaged.
The ship is also estimated to be carrying hundreds of metric tons of gas fuel, according to the coast guard.
Russia accuses Ukraine of ‘postponing’ POW swap
MOSCOW: Russia on Saturday accused Ukraine of postponing a large-scale prisoner swap and the repatriation of the bodies of dead soldiers they had agreed on during peace talks in Istanbul.
“The Ukrainian side has unexpectedly postponed for an indefinite period, both the acceptance of the bodies and the exchange of prisoners of war,” Russia’s top negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said on social media.
Delegations from Moscow and Kyiv agreed on Monday to swap all wounded soldiers and those under the age of 25 who were still held as POWs.
It was the only concrete outcome from the talks, at which Russia has repeatedly rejected Ukrainian calls for an immediate ceasefire.
Medinsky said Russia had brought the bodies of 1,212 killed Ukrainian soldiers to the “exchange area” — the first of 6,000 to be handed over.
Moscow had also handed over a list to Kyiv with the names of 640 POWs to be swapped in the first stage.
More than 1,000 prisoners from each side are set to be released in the largest exchange of the three-year conflict.
“We urge Kyiv to strictly adhere to the timetable and all agreements reached, and begin the exchange immediately,” Medinsky said.
Kyiv did not immediately respond to the accusation.
After the Istanbul talks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the exchange would take place this weekend, while Russia said it was ready for Saturday, Sunday or Monday.
A top Taliban official offers amnesty to Afghans who fled the country and urges them to return
- Prime Minister Mohammad Hassan Akhund made the amnesty offer in his message for the Islamic holiday of Eid Al Adha
A top Taliban official said on Saturday that all Afghans who fled the country after the collapse of the former Western-backed government are free to return home, promising they would not be harmed if they come back.
Taliban Prime Minister Mohammad Hassan Akhund made the amnesty offer in his message for the Islamic holiday of Eid Al-Adha, also known as the “Feast of Sacrifice.”
The offer comes days after US President Donald Trump announced a sweeping travel ban on 12 countries, including Afghanistan. The measure largely bars Afghans hoping to resettle in the United States permanently as well as those hoping to go to the US temporarily, such as for university study.
Trump also suspended a core refugee program in January, all but ending support for Afghans who had allied with the US and leaving tens of thousands of them stranded.
Afghans in neighboring Pakistan who are awaiting resettlement are also dealing with a deportation drive by the Islamabad government to get them out of the country. Almost a million have left Pakistan since October 2023 to avoid arrest and expulsion.
Akhund’s holiday message was posted on the social platform X.
“Afghans who have left the country should return to their homeland,” he said. “Nobody will harm them.”
“Come back to your ancestral land and live in an atmosphere of peace,” he added, and instructed officials to properly manage services for returning refugees and to ensure they were given shelter and support.
He also used the occasion to criticize the media for making what he said were “false judgments” about Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers and their policies.
“We must not allow the torch of the Islamic system to be extinguished,” he said. “The media should avoid false judgments and should not minimize the accomplishments of the system. While challenges exist, we must remain vigilant.”
The Taliban swept into the capital Kabul and seized most of Afghanistan in a blitz in mid-August 2021 as the US and NATO forces were in the last weeks of their pullout from the country after 20 years of war.
The offensive prompted a mass exodus, with tens of thousands of Afghans thronging the airport in chaotic scenes, hoping for a flight out on the US military airlift. People also fled across the border, to neighboring Iran and Pakistan.
Among those escaping the new Taliban rulers were also former government officials, journalists, activists, those who had helped the US during its campaign against the Taliban.
Kyrgyzstan dismantles Central Asia’s tallest Lenin statue
- Officials said the statue was quietly taken down overnight and is set to be relocated
BISHKEK: Russian ally Kyrgyzstan on Saturday quietly dismantled Central Asia’s tallest monument to Vladimir Lenin, the revolutionary founder of the Soviet Union.
Ex-Soviet states across the region are seeking to strengthen their national identities, renaming cities that have Russian-sounding names and replacing statues to Soviet figures with local and national heroes.
Russia, which has military bases in Kyrgyzstan, is striving to maintain its influence there in the face of competition from China and the West and amid its invasion of Ukraine.
Officials in the city of Osh — where the 23-meter (75 foot) high monument stood on the central square — warned against “politicizing” the decision to “relocate” it.
Osh is the second largest city in the landlocked mountainous country.
The figure was quietly taken down overnight and is set to be “relocated,” Osh officials said.
The decision “should not be politicized,” city hall said, pointing to several other instances in Russia “where Lenin monuments have also been dismantled or relocated.”
“This is a common practice aimed at improving the architectural and aesthetic appearance of cities,” it said in a statement.
Despite some attempts to de-Sovietise the region, memorials and statues to Soviet figures are common across the region, with monuments to Lenin prevalent in the vast majority of cities in Kyrgyzstan.
Kyrgyzstan was annexed and incorporated into the Russian Empire in the 19th century and then became part of the Soviet Union following the 1917 Bolshevik revolution.
It gained independence with the collapse of the USSR in 1991.
