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Swedish court acquits former Syrian general of war crimes charges: statement

Swedish court acquits former Syrian general of war crimes charges: statement
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Updated 20 June 2024
AFP
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Swedish court acquits former Syrian general of war crimes charges: statement

Swedish court acquits former Syrian general of war crimes charges: statement
  • The trial is against one of the highest-ranking Syrian military officials to be tried in Europe,
Updated 20 June 2024
AFP
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Stockholm: A Stockholm court on Thursday acquitted one of the highest-ranking Syrian military officials to be tried in Europe on war crimes charges, saying in a statement the prosecution did not prove his alleged involvement.
Former brigadier general Mohammed Hamo, 65, was declared innocent of the charges of “aiding and abetting” war crimes in 2012, the court said. While the Syrian military had used “indiscriminate attacks” at that time, the prosecution did not prove that Hamo’s division was involved in those attacks, nor that he had a role in providing arms for the attacks, the statement said.
The war between President Bashar al-Assad's regime and armed opposition groups, including Islamic State, erupted after the government repressed peaceful pro-democracy protests in 2011.
It has killed more than half a million people, displaced millions, and ravaged Syria's economy and infrastructure.
According to the charges, Hamo contributed -- through "advice and action" -- to the Syrian army's warfare, which "systematically included attacks carried out in violation of the principles of distinction, caution and proportionality".
"The warfare was thus indiscriminate," prosecutor Karolina Wieslander told the court when the trial opened in April.
Wieslander said the Syrian army's "widespread air and ground attacks" caused damage "at a scale that was disproportionate in view of the concrete and immediate general military advantages that could be expected to be achieved".
In his role as brigadier general and head of an armament division, Hamo allegedly helped coordinate the supply of arms and ammunition to units.
Hamo's lawyer, Mari Kilman, told the court her client denied criminal responsibility and had not shown "intent" to contribute to "indiscriminate warfare" by others.
Kilman said the officer could not be held liable for the actions "as he had acted in a military context and had to follow orders."
Aida Samani, senior legal advisor at rights group Civil Rights Defenders -- which has been monitoring the trial -- told AFP that "strong evidence" had been presented at the trial.
"We will now see what the court makes of that information and evidence," Samani said.
"What is noteworthy about this case is that this is the first trial concerning the Syrian military's warfare. That is, how the warfare was carried out," she said.
No European court has previously dealt with this issue and the impact on civilian lives and infrastructure, she added.
Hamo is the highest-ranking military official to go on trial in Europe in person, though other countries have tried to bring charges against more senior members.
In March, Swiss prosecutors charged Rifaat al-Assad, an uncle of President Bashar al-Assad, with war crimes and crimes against humanity.
However, it remains unlikely Rifaat al-Assad -- who recently returned to Syria after 37 years in exile -- will show up for the trial, for which a date has yet to be set.
Swiss law allows for trials in absentia under certain conditions.
In November, France issued an international arrest warrant for Bashar al-Assad, accusing him of complicity in crimes against humanity and war crimes over chemical attacks in 2013.
Three other international warrants were also issued for the arrests of Bashar al-Assad's brother Maher, the de-facto chief of the army's elite Fourth Division, and two generals.
In May, a Paris court also ordered life prison sentences for three top Syrian security officials for complicity in crimes against humanity and war crimes.
The accused -- Ali Mamlouk, former head of the National Security Bureau; Jamil Hassan, former director of the Air Force intelligence service; and Abdel Salam Mahmoud, former head of investigations -- were all absent, but there are international warrants for their arrest.
In January 2022, a German court sentenced former colonel Anwar Raslan to life in jail for crimes against humanity. That was the first international trial over state-sponsored torture in Syria and was hailed by victims as a victory for justice.

Topics: Syria Sweden

Scholz says a joint Ukraine approach can be found with Trump

Scholz says a joint Ukraine approach can be found with Trump
Updated 6 sec ago
Reuters
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Scholz says a joint Ukraine approach can be found with Trump

Scholz says a joint Ukraine approach can be found with Trump
Updated 6 sec ago
Reuters
FRANKFURT: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is confident he will be able to agree with US President-elect Donald Trump on a joint strategy for Ukraine after speaking to him on the phone, Scholz told the Funke group of newspapers.
“I am confident that we can develop a joint strategy for Ukraine. My guiding principle remains that nothing can be decided without giving the Ukrainian people a say,” he told the paper in an interview.
He added he had spoken with the future US president “in detail” and that his team was in a direct exchange with Trump’s security advisers.
Ukraine is shaping up as a major issue in campaigning for Germany’s snap election in February, which follows the collapse last month of Scholz’s three-party governing coalition in Berlin.
Friedrich Merz, the conservative opposition leader who is on course to unseat Scholz, has said Germany should send Taurus cruise missiles. Scholz has opposed such a move, saying it could escalate the war.
Scholz on Monday announced new military aid for Ukraine during a rare visit to Kyiv that he said sent a message to Russian President Vladimir Putin that Berlin would stand by Kyiv for as long as needed in the war.
(Reporting by Ludwig Burger; Editing by Alison Williams)

In California’s ‘earthquake country,’ a 7.0 temblor prompts confusion and a tsunami warning

In California’s ‘earthquake country,’ a 7.0 temblor prompts confusion and a tsunami warning
Updated 11 min 42 sec ago
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In California’s ‘earthquake country,’ a 7.0 temblor prompts confusion and a tsunami warning

In California’s ‘earthquake country,’ a 7.0 temblor prompts confusion and a tsunami warning
Updated 11 min 42 sec ago
AP
SAN FRANCISCO: Valerie Starkey was driving through Northern California to visit relatives when she suddenly felt shaking and feared her car had broken down, only to realize later that it was an earthquake so powerful that it triggered a tsunami warning for hundreds of miles of the US West Coast.
The epicenter of Thursday’s 7.0 magnitude shaker occurred in what’s known as California’s “earthquake country” because it’s where three tectonic plates meet. The temblor was the most powerful to rattle the state since a 7.1-magnitude quake hit Ridgecrest in 2019.
Its intensity shocked Starkey and many of the 5.3 million other people along nearly 500 miles (805 kilometers) of the California and Oregon coasts who were under the tsunami warning for about an hour. It was lifted after no major waves arrived.
“I thought my axles had fallen apart,” said Starkey, a Del Norte County supervisor representing Crescent City, a town of fewer than 6,000 near the Oregon border. “That’s what I was feeling ... ‘My axles are broken now.’ I did not realize it was an earthquake.”
The quake struck at 10:44 a.m. west of Ferndale, a small city in coastal Humboldt County, about 130 miles (209 kilometers) from the Oregon border, the US Geological Survey said. The shaking knocked items off grocery store shelves and sent children scrambling under desks at schools.
It was felt as far south as San Francisco, some 270 miles (435 kilometers) away, where residents described a rolling motion for several seconds. It was followed by multiple smaller aftershocks. There were no immediate reports of major damage or injuries from the quake.
The tsunami warning issued shortly after the quake struck spanned from the edge of California’s Monterey Bay north into Oregon.
“It was a strong quake. Our building shook. We’re fine, but I have a mess to clean up right now,” said Julie Kreitzer, owner of Golden Gait Mercantile, a store packed with food, wares and souvenirs that is a main attraction in Ferndale.
“I have to go. I have to try and salvage something for the holidays because it’s going to be a tough year,” Kreitzer said before hanging up.
The region — known for its redwood forests, scenic mountains and the three-county Emerald Triangle’s legendary marijuana crop — was struck by a magnitude 6.4 quake in 2022 that left thousands of people without power and water. The northwest corner of California is the most seismically active part of the state because it’s where three tectonic plates meet, seismologist Lucy Jones said on the social media platform BlueSky.
Shortly after the quake, phones in Northern California buzzed with the tsunami warning from the National Weather Service that said: “A series of powerful waves and strong currents may impact coasts near you. You are in danger. Get away from coastal waters. Move to high ground or inland now. Keep away from the coast until local officials say it is safe to return.”
Numerous cities urged people to evacuate to higher ground as a precaution.
In Santa Cruz, authorities cleared the main beach, taping off entrances with police tape. Aerial footage showed cars bumper-to-bumper heading to higher ground on California highways 1 and 92 in the Half Moon Bay area south of San Francisco.
Cindy Vosburg, the executive director for the Crescent City-Del Norte County Chamber of Commerce, said she heard alarms sound just before shaking began, and the city’s cultural center downtown started to creak.
“Just as it would start to subside, the building would roll again,” Vosburg said.
White House spokesperson Jeremy Edwards said President Joe Biden was briefed on the earthquake and that FEMA officials are in touch with their state and local counterparts in California and Oregon.
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed off on a state of emergency declaration to quickly move state resources to impacted areas along the coast. State officials were concerned about damage in the northern part of the state, Newsom said.
Crews in Eureka, the biggest city in the region, were assessing if there was any damage. Eureka Mayor Kim Bergel, who works at a middle school, said lights were swaying and everyone got under desks.
“The kids were so great and terrified. It seemed to go back and forth for quite a long time,” she said. Some children asked, “Can I call my mom?“
The students were later sent home.
Humboldt County Sheriff William Honsal said residents experienced cracks in their homes’ foundations, as well as broken glass and windows, but nothing severe.
Honsal said he was in his office in the 75-year-old courthouse in downtown Eureka when he felt the quake.
“We’re used to it. It is known as ‘earthquake country’ up here,” he said. “It wasn’t a sharp jolt. It was a slow roller, but significant.”
The San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District, known as BART, stopped traffic in all directions through the underwater tunnel between San Francisco and Oakland, and the San Francisco Zoo’s visitors were evacuated.
This quake was a strike-slip type of temblor that shifts more horizontally and is less prone to cause tsunamis, unlike the more vertical types, said National Weather Service tsunami program manager Corina Allen in Washington state.
___
Dazio reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press writers Christopher Weber, Jaimie Ding and Dorany Pineda in Los Angeles; Martha Mendoza in Santa Cruz, California; Sophie Austin and Tran Nguyen in Sacramento, California; and Seth Borenstein in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.

Police believe the gunman who killed UnitedHealthcare’s CEO quickly left NYC on a bus after shooting

Police believe the gunman who killed UnitedHealthcare’s CEO quickly left NYC on a bus after shooting
Updated 26 min 57 sec ago
AP
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Police believe the gunman who killed UnitedHealthcare’s CEO quickly left NYC on a bus after shooting

Police believe the gunman who killed UnitedHealthcare’s CEO quickly left NYC on a bus after shooting
Updated 26 min 57 sec ago
AP

NEW YORK: The gunman who killed the CEO of the largest US health insurer likely left New York City on a bus soon after the brazen ambush that has shaken corporate America, police officials said Friday.
Three days after the shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, police still did not know the gunman’s whereabouts or a motive for the killing. Investigators were looking at whether the shooter may have been a disgruntled employee or client of the insurer, Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told reporters.
Video of the gunman fleeing Wednesday’s shooting showed him riding a bicycle into Central Park and later taking a taxi to a bus terminal that offers commuter service to New Jersey and Greyhound routes to Philadelphia, Boston and Washington, D.C, according to Kenny.
Police have video of the man entering the bus station but no video of him exiting, leading them to believe he left the city, Kenny said. CNN first reported that the suspect may have escaped the city by bus.
Investigators found a backpack in Central Park that was carried by the shooter, police said Friday following a massive sweep to find it in a vast area with lakes and ponds, meadows, playgrounds and a densely wooded section called “The Ramble.”
The gunman made sure to conceal his identity with a mask during the attack and even while he ate, yet left a trail of evidence in view of the nation’s biggest city and its network of security cameras. Thompson was shot outside his company’s annual investor conference at a hotel just blocks from Radio City Music Hall and Rockefeller Center.
The gunman arrived in New York City on Nov. 24, getting off a bus that originated in Atlanta and made several stops along the way, Kenny said.
A law enforcement official told The Associated Press on Friday that surveillance footage shows the suspect riding the subway and visiting establishments in Manhattan, providing more clues about his actions in the days before the shooting.
He appeared to pay with cash in any establishment where he was captured on camera, said the official who was not authorized to discuss details of the ongoing investigation and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.
Investigators have tested a discarded water bottle and protein bar wrapper in a hunt for his DNA. They also were trying to obtain additional information from a cellphone found along the gunman’s escape route.
Police have released photos of the suspected shooter that were taken in the lobby of a hostel on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. The images, showing an unmasked man smiling in the lobby of the HI New York City hostel, add to a collection of photos and video circulated since the shooting — including footage of the attack, as well as images of the suspected gunman at a Starbucks beforehand.
Surveillance images from the shooting show the man wearing a hooded jacket and a mask that concealed most of his face — a look that would not have attracted attention on a chilly morning.
Investigators have learned the man lowered his mask at the front desk of the hostel because he was flirting with the woman who checked him in, Kenny said, leading to a photo of his face. The woman told investigators that during that encounter she asked to see his smile and he pulled down his mask, a law enforcement official told AP.
Investigators believe the suspect used a fake identification card and paid cash, Kenny said, when he checked in at the hostel, which has a café along with shared and private rooms and is blocks from Columbia University.
Investigators also believe the shooter had at least some firearms training and experience with guns, the law enforcement official said.
Security video shows the killer approaching Thompson from behind, firing several shots with a gun equipped with a silencer, barely pausing to clear a jam while the executive fell to the sidewalk.
The words “deny,” “defend” and “depose” were scrawled on the ammunition, Kenny said. The messages mirror the phrase “delay, deny, defend,” which is commonly used by lawyers and critics about insurers that delay payments, deny claims and defend their actions.
Thompson, a father of two sons who lived in a Minneapolis suburb, had been with Minnesota-based UnitedHealthcare since 2004 and served as CEO for more than three years.
The insurer’s parent company, UnitedHealth Group Inc., was holding its annual meeting in New York for investors. The company abruptly ended the conference after Thompson’s death.
UnitedHealth Group said it was focused on supporting Thompson’s family, ensuring the safety of employees and assisting investigators. “While our hearts are broken, we have been touched by the huge outpouring,” the company said.
UnitedHealthcare provides coverage for more than 49 million Americans. It manages health insurance coverage for employers and state and federally funded Medicaid programs.
In October, UnitedHealthcare was named along with Humana and CVS in a Senate report detailing how its denial rate for prior authorizations for some Medicare Advantage patients has surged in recent years.
The shooting has rocked the health insurance industry in particular, causing companies to reevaluate security plans and delete photos of executives from their websites. A different Minnesota-based health care company said Friday it was temporarily closing its offices out of an abundance of caution, telling employees to work from home.

Topics: UnitedHealthcare

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Police believe the gunman who killed UnitedHealthcare’s CEO quickly left NYC on a bus after shooting
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Military leaders are rattled by a list of ‘woke’ officers that a group urges Hegseth to fire

Military leaders are rattled by a list of ‘woke’ officers that a group urges Hegseth to fire
Updated 50 min 58 sec ago
AP
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Military leaders are rattled by a list of ‘woke’ officers that a group urges Hegseth to fire

Military leaders are rattled by a list of ‘woke’ officers that a group urges Hegseth to fire
Updated 50 min 58 sec ago
AP

WASHINGTON: Military leaders are rattled by a list of “woke” senior officers that a conservative group urged Pete Hegseth to dismiss for promoting diversity in the ranks if he is confirmed to lead the Pentagon.
The list compiled by the American Accountability Foundation includes 20 general officers or senior admirals and a disproportionate number of female officers. It has had a chilling effect on the Pentagon’s often frank discussions as leaders try to figure out how to address the potential firings and diversity issues under President-elect Donald Trump.
Those on the list in many cases seem to be targeted for public comments they made either in interviews or at events on diversity, and in some cases for retweeting posts that promote diversity.
Tom Jones, a former aide to Republican senators who leads the foundation, said Friday that those on the list are “pretty egregious” advocates for diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, policies, which he called problematic.
“The nominee has been pretty clear that that has no place in the military,” Jones said of Hegseth.
Hegseth has embraced Trump’s effort to end programs that promote diversity in the ranks and fire those who reflect those values. Other Trump picks, like Kash Patel for FBI director, have suggested targeting those in government who are not aligned with Trump.
But Hegseth has been fighting to save his nomination as he faces allegations of excessive drinking and sexual assault and over his views questioning the role of women in combat. He spent the week on Capitol Hill trying to win the support of Republican senators, who must confirm him to lead the Pentagon, doing a radio interview and penning an opinion column.
Some service members have complained in the past about the Pentagon’s DEI programs, saying they add to an already heavy workload. The Pentagon still has a long way to go in having a general officer corps or specialty occupations such as pilots that have a racial and gender makeup reflective of the country.
A defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the list said senior leaders are hoping that once Trump is sworn in, they will be able to discuss the issue further. They are prepared to provide additional context to the incoming administration, the official told The Associated Press, which is not publishing the names to protect service members’ privacy.
Former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Friday that the list would have “considerable, wide and deep consequences.” He said when military members see people singled out, they will start focusing on their own survival rather than the mission or their job.
“You will drive people out,” Hagel said. “It affects morale as widely and deeply as anything — it creates a negative dynamic that will trickle through an organization.”
The list, which was first reported by The New York Post, includes nine Air Force general officers, seven Navy admirals of different ranks and four Army general officers. Eight of those 20 are women even though only 17 percent of the military is female. None are Marines.
One female Navy officer was named because she gave a speech at a 2015 Women’s Equality Day event, where she noted that 80 percent of Congress is male, which affects what bills move forward. The officer also was targeted because she said “diversity is our strength.”
The phrase is a widely distributed talking point that officers across the Pentagon have used for years to talk about the importance of having a military that reflects different educational, geographic, economic, gender and racial backgrounds in the country.
An Air Force colonel, who is white, was called out for an opinion piece he wrote following the death of George Floyd, saying, “Dear white colonel, we must address our blind spots about race.”
A female Air Force officer was targeted because of “multiple woke posts” on her X feed, including a tweet about LGBTQ rights, one about “whiteness” and another about honoring the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on a stamp.
Another female Air Force officer was on the list because she “served as a panelist for a diversity, equity and inclusion” discussion in 2021.
The list names an Army officer who traveled to 14 historically Black colleges to expand the military’s intelligence recruitment efforts, and an Air Force officer partly because he co-chairs the Asian-Pacific Islander subgroup of the service’s diversity task force.
Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for the Trump transition team, said in a statement that “No policy should be deemed official unless it comes directly from President Trump.”
But in an interview Wednesday for Megyn Kelly’s SiriusXM satellite radio show, Hegseth said Trump told him he wanted a “warfighter” who would clean out the “woke crap.”
Hegseth got a boost Friday from Trump, who posted on his social media site that Hegseth “will be a fantastic, high energy, Secretary of Defense.” The president-elect added that “Pete is a WINNER, and there is nothing that can be done to change that!!!”
Jones told the AP in June that his American Accountability Foundation was investigating scores of federal employees suspected of being hostile to Trump’s policies. The work aligns with the Heritage Foundation’s far-reaching Project 2025 blueprint for a conservative administration.
A letter Jones sent to Hegseth containing the list, dated Tuesday, says “purging the woke from the military is imperative.” The letter points to tensions with Iran, Russia and China and says “we cannot afford to have a military distracted and demoralized by leftist ideology. Our nation’s security is at stake.”
Conservatives view the federal workforce as overstepping its role to become a power center that can drive or thwart a president’s agenda. During the first Trump administration, government officials came under attack from the White House and congressional Republicans, as Trump’s own Cabinet often raised objections to some of his more singular or even unlawful proposals.

Topics: Trump Returns

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Colombia denies UN claims of 20,000 bodies at Bogota airport

Colombia denies UN claims of 20,000 bodies at Bogota airport
Updated 07 December 2024
AFP
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Colombia denies UN claims of 20,000 bodies at Bogota airport

Colombia denies UN claims of 20,000 bodies at Bogota airport
  • Bogota Mayor Carlos Fernando Galan denied the report
  • The UN said its report was based on information it had received from local authorities
Updated 07 December 2024
AFP

BOGOTA: Colombian authorities on Friday denied a United Nations report claiming that the bodies of 20,000 people who were forcibly disappeared over decades of conflict were being kept at Bogota airport.
On Thursday, the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances stated that “thousands of unidentified bodies lie in poorly managed cemeteries or storage facilities,” citing “a hangar at Bogota airport where around 20,000 unidentified bodies are currently stored.”
Bogota Mayor Carlos Fernando Galan denied the report, which followed a visit by a UN delegation to Colombia, and asked the UN to substantiate its claims.
Isabelita Mercado, senior adviser on peace and reconciliation at Bogota town hall, told the W station the city’s cemeteries held the bodies of around 5,500 unidentified missing people or people who had been identified but whose bodies have not been claimed.
The UN said its report was based on information it had received from local authorities but didn’t say which ones.
A press officer did not respond to AFP’s requests for comment.
The Search Unit for Persons Reported Missing, which is in charge of locating and identifying the thousands of people who disappeared over the course of six decades of conflict, said it had “no information” on the existence of a “site of forensic interest” near the airport.
The organization has counted more than 104,000 people who went missing during the conflict between security forces, guerrillas, paramilitaries and drug cartels which began in the 1960s.
The biggest guerrilla group, FARC, laid down arms after signing a peace deal in 2016 but a handful of armed groups remain active in the country.

Topics: Colombia Bogota airport UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances

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