Tunisia presidential candidate gets prison term, still on ballot: lawyer

Tunisia presidential candidate gets prison term, still on ballot: lawyer
A poster of imprisoned presidential candidate Ayachi Zammel is displayed at the entrance of his electoral headquarters on September 16, 2024, in Tunis, ahead of presidential election. (AFP/File)
Short Url
Updated 19 September 2024
Follow

Tunisia presidential candidate gets prison term, still on ballot: lawyer

Tunisia presidential candidate gets prison term, still on ballot: lawyer

TUNIS: Tunisian presidential candidate Ayachi Zammel was handed a 20-month prison term for charges related to forging voter endorsements Wednesday but will still stand in next month’s election, his lawyer told AFP.

Zammel, a former lawmaker and head of a small liberal party, is one of only two candidates approved by Tunisia’s electoral authority ISIE to challenge President Kais Saied in the October 6 poll.

One of Zammel’s lawyers, Abdessatar Messaoudi, said a court in the northwestern city of Jendouba issued the sentence which the defense team “will appeal.”

Messaoudi said the ruling was not final and does not prevent 43-year-old Zammel from remaining on the presidential ballot.

“He is still a presidential candidate, and his team will keep campaigning,” the lawyer said.

“Nothing can put an end to his candidacy apart from death.”

In the 2019 election that brought Saied to power, businessman Nabil Karoui made it to the second round behind bars.

Zammel, a businessman who was little-known to the general public before his presidential bid, was arrested on September 2 on suspicion of forging endorsements.

He was released on September 6, but was almost immediately arrested again on similar accusations.

Saied, 66, the incumbent and frontrunner, was democratically elected but orchestrated a sweeping power grab in 2021 and has since ruled by decree.

ISIE earlier this month announced the final list of approved candidates: Saied, Zammel and former lawmaker Zouhair Maghzaoui, 59, who had supported the president’s power grab.

The election board dismissed the presidential bids of three other hopefuls despite court orders in their favor.

Human Rights Watch accused ISIE of having “intervened to skew the ballot in favor of Saied,” with at least eight prospective candidates prosecuted, convicted or imprisoned in the run-up to the election.

“Holding elections amid such repression makes a mockery of Tunisians’ right to participate in free and fair elections,” said the New York-based advocacy group.

The European Union has said Zammel’s arrest and the exclusion of the three candidates demonstrated “a continued limitation of the democratic space” in Tunisia.


China, Italy ‘strongly condemns’ Israeli fire on UN peacekeeper base

China, Italy ‘strongly condemns’ Israeli fire on UN peacekeeper base
Updated 3 sec ago
Follow

China, Italy ‘strongly condemns’ Israeli fire on UN peacekeeper base

China, Italy ‘strongly condemns’ Israeli fire on UN peacekeeper base
  • UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres has also condemned the shooting
  • UNIFIL has about 10,000 peacekeepers stationed in south Lebanon
BEIJING/ROME: China and Italy have condemned Israeli forces for attacks on UN peacekeeping forces stationed in southern Lebanon.
UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres has also condemned the shooting against UN premises and has called for peacekeepers to be protected.
“I am telling Israel these incidents are intolerable,” the UN chief said.
“China expresses grave concern and strong condemnation over the Israeli Defense Forces’ attack on UNIFIL positions and observation posts, which resulted in injuries to UNIFIL personnel,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said, referring to the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon.
UN peacekeepers said Israeli fire on their headquarters in south Lebanon Thursday left two Blue Helmets injured, sparking condemnation from European members of the mission.
Israel acknowledged its forces had opened fire in the area, saying the Hezbollah militants on whom it is waging an escalating war operate near UN posts.
Israeli forces have acted illegally by shooting at positions used by UN peacekeepers in Lebanon, Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said on Thursday, denouncing it as a possible war crime.
The UN peacekeeping mission known as UNIFIL is stationed in southern Lebanon to monitor hostilities along the demarcation line with Israel — an area that has seen serious clashes between Israeli troops and Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters.
“This was not a mistake and not an accident,” Crosetto told a news conference. “It could constitute a war crime and represented a very serious violation of international humanitarian law,” he said.
Crosetto said he had contacted his Israeli counterpart to protest and had also summonsed the Israeli ambassador to Italy to demand an explanation, which was not yet forthcoming.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
Unlike some European countries, Italy has been highly supportive of Israel throughout its year-long war against the Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Italy has traditionally supplied a large number of troops to UNIFIL, and although none of its contingent was injured this week, Crosetto said the Israeli actions would not be accepted.
Israel has sought to shift the UNIFIL peacekeepers away from the border, but Italy said it had no right to do so.
“I told the ambassador to tell the Israeli government that the United Nations and Italy cannot take orders from the Israeli government,” Crosetto said.
Israel acknowledged its forces had opened fire in the area, saying the Hezbollah militants on whom it is waging an escalating war operate near UN posts.
Italy, a major contributor of troops to the force, said the acts “could constitute war crimes” while Washington said it was “deeply concerned.”
UNIFIL, which has about 10,000 peacekeepers stationed in south Lebanon, has called for a ceasefire since an escalation between Israel and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah on September 23, after a year of cross-border fire.

Iran says ready to ‘defend sovereignty’ against Israel attack

Iran says ready to ‘defend sovereignty’ against Israel attack
Updated 53 min 44 sec ago
Follow

Iran says ready to ‘defend sovereignty’ against Israel attack

Iran says ready to ‘defend sovereignty’ against Israel attack
  • The Islamic republic launched the missiles at Israel on October 1 in retaliation for the killing of two of its closest allies
  • Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi: ‘We do not want a war’ but ‘we are not afraid of it, and we will be ready for any scenario’

TEHRAN: Iran said it is “fully prepared to defend its sovereignty” if its arch-foe Israel attacks as it has threatened to do in response to a barrage of about 200 missiles.
The Islamic republic launched the missiles at Israel on October 1 in retaliation for the killing of two of its closest allies, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, along with an Iranian general.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant vowed this week that his country’s response would be “deadly, precise and surprising.”
In an address to the UN Security Council on Thursday, Iran’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Amir Saeid Iravani, said the Islamic republic “stands fully prepared to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity against any aggression targeting its vital interests and security.”
Iran, he said, was not seeking “war or escalation” but would exercise its “inherent right to self-defense fully in line with international law and will notify the Security Council of its legitimate response.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said meanwhile in an interview with Al Jazeera Arabic on Thursday that “we do not want a war,” but “we are not afraid of it, and we will be ready for any scenario.”
The warnings come against the backdrop of a war between Israel and Iran-allied Palestinian militant group Hamas that has been raging for more than a year and has expanded to include Lebanon in recent weeks.
“Lebanon stands on the brink of a humanitarian collapse, and the international community must not allow this catastrophe to worsen,” Iran’s UN representative Iravani said.


Indonesia confirms two of its peacekeepers injured in Israeli fire

Indonesia confirms two of its peacekeepers injured in Israeli fire
Updated 11 October 2024
Follow

Indonesia confirms two of its peacekeepers injured in Israeli fire

Indonesia confirms two of its peacekeepers injured in Israeli fire
  • Indonesia foreign minister: ‘Attacking UN personnel and property is a major violation of International Humanitarian Law’

JAKARTA: Indonesia on Friday confirmed two of its UN peacekeepers were injured in Israeli fire in Lebanon, and called the attack a violation of international law.
UN peacekeepers said Israeli troops opened fire on their headquarters in south Lebanon Thursday, injuring two Blue Helmets, and sparking condemnation.
Israel said it was targeting Hezbollah militants near UN posts in an operation that came after the peacekeeping mission rejected Israeli demands to “relocate” from some of its positions.
“In the attack on the tower in Nakura, two personnel were injured, and they were from Indonesia,” Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said in a statement.
She added the two peacekeepers had sustained light injuries and are in hospital for further observation.
“Indonesia strongly condemns the attack,” she said. “Attacking UN personnel and property is a major violation of International Humanitarian Law.”
She called on all parties to ensure respect for UN territory at all times and under all circumstances.
Indonesia, a staunch critic of Israel and supporter of Palestine, has around 1,232 personnel currently deployed with the UN mission in Lebanon, UNIFIL.
UNFIL has about 10,000 peacekeepers stationed in south Lebanon.


Scores killed in airstrikes in central Beirut, with Israel also firing on UN peacekeepers

Scores killed in airstrikes in central Beirut, with Israel also firing on UN peacekeepers
Updated 11 October 2024
Follow

Scores killed in airstrikes in central Beirut, with Israel also firing on UN peacekeepers

Scores killed in airstrikes in central Beirut, with Israel also firing on UN peacekeepers
  • Earlier in the day, a strike on a central Gaza school-turned-shelter killed 27 people
  • The first strike, in Ras Al-Nabaa, appeared to have hit the lower half of an apartment building

BEIRUT: Israeli airstrikes on central Beirut on Thursday left two neighborhoods smoldering, killed 22 people and wounded dozens, Lebanon’s health ministry said, as well as further escalating Israel’s bloody conflict with Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon.
The air raid on central Beirut — the deadliest in over a year of war — apparently targeted two residential buildings in separate neighborhoods simultaneously, according to an AP photographer at the scene. It brought down one apartment building and wiped out the lower floors of the other.
The Israeli military said it was looking into the reported strikes. Israeli airstrikes have been far more common in Beirut’s tightly packed southern suburbs, where Hezbollah bases many of its operations.
After the strikes, Hezbollah’s Al Manar TV reported that an attempt to kill Wafiq Safa, a top security official with the group, had failed. It said that Safa had not been inside of either of the targeted buildings.
Thursday’s strikes followed a year of tit-for-tat exchanges between Hezbollah and Israel that boiled over into all-out war in recent weeks, with Israel carrying out waves of heavy airstrikes across Lebanon and launching a ground invasion. Hezbollah has expanded its rocket fire to more populated areas deeper inside Israel, causing few casualties but disrupting daily life.
The attack came the same day Israeli forces fired on United Nations peacekeepers in southern Lebanon and wounded two of them, drawing widespread condemnation and prompting Italy’s Defense Ministry to summon Israel’s ambassador in protest.
Israeli strikes hit central Beirut
Witnesses reported a large number of ambulances and people gathering in the rubble of two Beirut sites that were hit, in the Ras Al-Nabaa neighborhood and Burj Abi Haidar area.
The Lebanese Health Ministry said 22 people were killed and 117 others wounded, without elaborating on their identities. Recent Israeli airstrikes in neighborhoods adjoining Beirut, in particular the densely populated southern suburbs, have killed Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and other senior commanders.
Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel on Oct. 8, 2023, in support of Hamas and the Palestinians, drawing Israeli airstrikes in retaliation.
Hezbollah kept up rocket fire into Israel on Thursday, setting off air raid sirens in parts of northern Israel. Several drones heading toward Israel were intercepted, the military said.
Iran — which supports Hamas, Hezbollah and other armed groups across the region — launched some 180 ballistic missiles at Israel last week in retaliation for the killing of top Hamas and Hezbollah militants.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Wednesday that its response to the Iranian missile attack will be “lethal” and “surprising,” without providing further details, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with President Joe Biden.
Asked about the latest airstrikes in Lebanon, US Vice President Kamala Harris told reporters in Las Vegas, “We have got to reach a ceasefire, both as it relates to what’s happening in Lebanon, and of course Gaza. We are working around the clock in that regard, but we need these wars to end and we’ve got to definitely de-escalate what is happening in the region.”
Before the latest strikes, Lebanon’s crisis response unit said Israeli attacks over the past day had killed 28 people, bringing the total to 2,169 killed in Lebanon since the war erupted last October.
Hezbollah attacks have killed 28 civilians as well as 39 Israeli soldiers, both in northern Israel since October 2023 and southern Lebanon since Israel launched its ground invasion on Sept. 30. Israel says the invasion, so far focused on a narrow strip along the border, aims to push militants back so that tens of thousands of Israelis can return to their homes in the north.
UN peacekeepers caught in intensified fighting in Lebanon
The UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, said in a statement that its headquarters and positions “have been repeatedly hit” by Israeli forces.
It said an Israeli tank “directly” fired on an observation tower at the force’s headquarters in the town of Naqoura, Lebanon, and that soldiers had attacked a bunker near where peacekeepers were sheltering, damaging vehicles and a communication system. It said an Israeli drone was seen flying to the bunker’s entrance.
The two UNIFIL troops wounded in the attacks and hospitalized are Indonesian, Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said.
The Israeli military acknowledged opening fire at a UN base in southern Lebanon on Thursday and said it had ordered the peacekeepers to “remain in protected spaces.”
Later Thursday, the UN peacekeeping chief said 300 peacekeepers in frontline positions on southern Lebanon’s border have been temporarily moved to larger bases, and plans to move another 200 will depend on security conditions as the conflict escalates. Jean-Pierre Lacroix told an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council that peacekeepers with UNIFIL are staying in their positions, but because of air and ground attacks they cannot conduct patrols.
UNIFIL, which has more than 10,000 peacekeepers from dozens of countries, was created to oversee the withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon after Israel’s 1978 invasion. The United Nations expanded its mission following the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, allowing peacekeepers to patrol a buffer zone set up along the border.
Israel accuses Hezbollah of establishing militant infrastructure along the border in violation of the UN Security Council resolution that ended the 2006 war.
The European Union’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, sharply condemned Israeli strikes that hit UNIFIL positions as “an inadmissible act, for which there is no justification.”
From Italy, which has about 1,000 soldiers deployed as part of UNIFIL, Defense Minister Guido Crosetto went further, claimed Israel deliberately targeted the UNIFIL base in southern Lebanon in strikes that “could constitute war crimes.”
Several other countries, including France, Spain and Jordan, also denounced the Israeli attacks.
Aid group says staff killed in strike on school
Even as attention has shifted to Israel’s close combat with Hezbollah in Lebanon and rising tensions with Iran, Israel has continued to strike at what it says are Palestinian militant targets across the Gaza Strip.
Earlier on Thursday, an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people in central Gaza killed at least 27 people, Palestinian medical officials said. The Israeli military said it targeted Palestinian militants, but people sheltering there said the strike hit a meeting of aid workers.
The dead included a child and seven women, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where the bodies were brought. An Associated Press reporter saw ambulances streaming into the hospital and counted the bodies, many of which arrived in pieces.
The Israeli military said it targeted a militant center inside the school, without providing evidence. Israel has repeatedly attacked schools that were turned into shelters in Gaza, accusing militants of taking cover in them.
“There were no militants. There was no Hamas,” said Iftikhar Hamouda, who had fled from northern Gaza earlier in the war.
“We headed to tents. They bombed the tents ... In the streets, they bombed us. In the markets, they bombed us. In the schools, they bombed us,” she said. “Where should we go?”
Israel’s offensive in Gaza started after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, when militants stormed into Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250 others.
Israel’s offensive has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who do not specify between militants and civilians. The war has destroyed large areas of Gaza and displaced around 90 percent of its population of 2.3 million people, often multiple times.


Israel army says top Islamic Jihad commander killed in West Bank

Israel army says top Islamic Jihad commander killed in West Bank
Updated 11 October 2024
Follow

Israel army says top Islamic Jihad commander killed in West Bank

Israel army says top Islamic Jihad commander killed in West Bank
  • The military said Mohammad Abdullah was “eliminated” on Thursday after Israeli aircraft struck the camp in Tulkarem

Jerusalem: Israel’s army said Friday it had killed Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad’s top commander for the Nur Shams refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.
The military said Mohammad Abdullah was “eliminated” on Thursday after Israeli aircraft struck the camp in Tulkarem.
An additional “terrorist” was killed in the operation, which recovered M-16 rifles and vests, it added.
Abdullah was the successor of Muhammad Jabber, also known as Abu Shujaa, who was killed in an Israeli strike in late August.
Islamic Jihad is an ally of Hamas, with both groups battling Israeli forces in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Violence has soared in the West Bank since Hamas launched its unprecedented attack on Israel in October last year.
Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 705 Palestinians in the West Bank since, according to the Ramallah-based health ministry.
Israeli officials say at least 24 Israelis, civilians or members of the security forces, have been killed in attacks carried out by Palestinian militants or in Israeli military operations over the same period in the West Bank.