British ‘Netflix’ conman gets six-year prison term in France

British ‘Netflix’ conman gets six-year prison term in France
Convicted British conman Robert Hendy-Freegard who featured in a Netflix documentary appeared in a French court on Thursday charged with knocking over and injuring two police officers in 2022 as he tried to escape from them. (X/@SpiesVespers)
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Updated 06 February 2025
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British ‘Netflix’ conman gets six-year prison term in France

British ‘Netflix’ conman gets six-year prison term in France
  • State prosecutor Alexandra Pethieu had requested a seven-year prison sentence
  • At the time of the incident, Hendy-Freegard had been living on and off in the nearby village of Vidaillat under a fake name since 2015, illegally breeding dogs

GUERET, France: A convicted British conman who featured in a Netflix documentary was sentenced on Thursday to six years in prison by a French court for running over and injuring two police officers while trying to escape.
Robert Hendy-Freegard, also known as David Hendy, became notorious as the central figure in the documentary “The Puppet Master: Hunting the Ultimate Conman” and the fictional film “Rogue Agent,” both available on Netflix.
In 2005, a London court had sentenced Hendy-Freegard to life in prison for kidnapping, deception and stealing from students and women — from whom he took more than £1 million ($1.24 million at current exchange rates) — while posing as a spy for MI5, Britain’s domestic intelligence service.
But he was freed in 2009 after an appeals court overturned his conviction for kidnapping on the grounds that there had been no physical constraint.
Coercive behavior in an intimate setting, or psychological manipulation, was not a crime in British law at the time.
More than a decade later, Hendy-Freegard, now 53, appeared in court on Thursday for running over and injuring two police officers in central France’s sparsely populated Creuse region in August 2022.
“I had enough. I panicked,” he told the court in the town of Gueret.
State prosecutor Alexandra Pethieu had requested a seven-year prison sentence, saying the escape attempt resulted in “an appalling scene worthy of ‘Mad Max’.”
At the time of the incident, Hendy-Freegard had been living on and off in the nearby village of Vidaillat under a fake name since 2015, illegally breeding dogs.
While he often left his home for long periods, a haggard-looking woman always stayed behind to look after a pack of noisy beagles, never leaving the property and hardly interacting with neighbors.
Her neighbors — many of them retirees — told AFP they grew increasingly concerned over the years, especially after discovering online Hendy-Freegard’s real name and discovering his criminal past.
They said they repeatedly alerted the authorities, who said there was nothing they could do as the woman had not filed a complaint.
Vets had inspected conditions at the kennels and demanded the owner improve them, but did not follow up their inspections.
Then local residents watched the Netflix documentary about Hendy-Freegard that came out in early 2022, in which the son and daughter of a woman called Sandra Clifton appealed for help to find her, saying she had disappeared with the serial swindler.
She looked exactly like the woman holed up in the house next door.
The neighbors said they contacted the children, and both came over separately that summer to try to draw their mother out from the grip of the conman, who was away but controlling her behavior over the phone after convincing her that her family was against her.
In August 2022, her son came over, and with the mayor’s office and neighbors, took advantage of repeated warnings from the local animal welfare authority to organize for animal rescuers to take over the care of the beagles so Clifton would agree to leave.
As they were loading the last of the beagles into a truck to be taken away by a charity, Hendy-Freegard turned up in his car.
A neighbor who saw the events, but asked to remain anonymous, said police on site to oversee the procedure started to question Hendy-Freegard.
“They checked his papers, but he still had the keys in the ignition. He turned on the engine and fled, hitting the two cops,” the neighbor said.
Hendy-Freegard managed to escape as far as Belgium, but was arrested and then extradited back to France, where he has been in custody since October 2022.
Clifton has since returned to Britain.


Magazine publishes entire US attack plan mistakenly shared in chat group

Magazine publishes entire US attack plan mistakenly shared in chat group
Updated 3 sec ago
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Magazine publishes entire US attack plan mistakenly shared in chat group

Magazine publishes entire US attack plan mistakenly shared in chat group
WASHINGTON: The Atlantic magazine on Wednesday published what it said was the entire text of a chat group mistakenly shared with a journalist by top US national security officials laying out plans of an imminent attack on Yemen.
The stunning details, including the times of strikes and types of planes being used, were all laid out in screenshots of the chat, which the officials had conducted on a commercial Signal messaging app, rather than a secure government platform.
The magazine, which initially only published the broad outlines of the chat, said it was now publishing the details after the Trump administration confirmed it was genuine and repeatedly denied that any classified information had been included.
The scandal has rocked President Donald Trump’s administration, which for now is reacting defiantly — attacking The Atlantic and denying any wrongdoing.
National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes had said Monday the chain cited by The Atlantic appeared to be “authentic.”
However, Vice President JD Vance, who was on the Signal chat, said The Atlantic had “oversold” the story, while White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said “the entire story was another hoax.”
National Security Adviser Mike Waltz likewise insisted on X that the Signal chain revealed “no locations” and “NO WAR PLANS.”
However, the depth of detail in the now published chat will fuel a furious outcry from Democrats in Congress who are accusing the Trump officials of incompetence and putting US military operations in peril.
The House of Representatives was set to discuss the scandal in a hearing Wednesday.
The story first broke Monday when Atlantic journalist Jeffrey Goldberg said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth sent information in the Signal chat about imminent strikes against the Houthi rebels on March 15.
For reasons unknown, Goldberg’s phone number had been added to the group, also including Central Intelligence Agency Director John Ratcliffe, among others.
Goldberg also revealed disparaging comments by the top US officials about European allies during their chat.
The Atlantic initially did not publish the precise details of the chat, saying it wanted to avoid revealing classified material and information that could endanger American troops.
But on Tuesday, Ratcliff and other officials involved in the chat played down the scandal, testifying before Congress that nothing critical had been shared or laws broken — and that nothing discussed was classified.
Trump himself brushed the breach off as a “glitch” and said there was “no classified information” involved.
The Atlantic said on Wednesday that it therefore asked the government whether in that case there would be any problem in publishing the rest of the material. It got no firm indications to the contrary.
The Atlantic said its full publication Wednesday included everything in the Signal chain other than one CIA name that the agency had asked not to be revealed.
The text discussion includes Hegseth laying out the weather conditions, times of attacks and types of aircraft being used.
The texting was done barely half an hour before the first US warplanes took off and two hours before the first target, described as “Target Terrorist,” was expected to be bombed.
The details are shockingly precise for the kind of operation that the public usually only learns about later — and in vaguer terms.
“1410: More F-18s LAUNCH (2nd strike package),” Hegseth writes at one stage.
“1415: Strike Drones on Target (THIS IS WHEN THE FIRST BOMBS WILL DEFINITELY DROP, pending earlier ‘Trigger Based’ targets).”
A short time later, Trump’s National Security Adviser Mike Waltz sent real-time intelligence on the aftermath of an attack, writing “Building collapsed. Had multiple positive ID” and “amazing job.”
The Houthi rebels, who have controlled much of Yemen for more than a decade, are part of the “axis of resistance” of pro-Iran groups staunchly opposed to Israel and the US.
The Trump administration has stepped up attacks on the group in response to constant Houthi attempts to sink and disrupt shipping through the strategic Red Sea.

Austria to stop refugee family reunification in EU first: govt

Austria to stop refugee family reunification in EU first: govt
Updated 11 min 53 sec ago
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Austria to stop refugee family reunification in EU first: govt

Austria to stop refugee family reunification in EU first: govt
  • Austria has already halted family reunification for Syrians since the ouster of Syria’s leader Bashar Assad last December
  • Syrians make up the bulk of family reunifications

VIENNA: Austria announced on Wednesday that it would pause family reunifications for those with asylum status from May, becoming the first in the European Union to do so.
Several EU countries are mulling stopping or tightening the right for people, who cannot safely return to their home countries, to bring their families, but so far no bloc member has a complete halt in place.
Austria has already halted family reunification for Syrians since the ouster of Syria’s leader Bashar Assad last December, arguing it has to reassess the situation and threatening their deportation.
Syrians make up the bulk of family reunifications, but a newly formed conservative-led government — under pressure with anti-immigration sentiment high — has insisted that it needs to stop all.
Integration Minister Claudia Plakolm said the government would make a legal change to allow the interior ministry to issue a decree to halt family reunification.
“By May, so in just a few weeks, the stop is expected to become reality,” Plakolm of the conservative People’s Party (OeVP) told reporters.
“On one hand, our systems have reached their limits and, on the other hand, the probability of successful integration decreases massively with each new arrival,” she added.
The pause is for six months but can be extended until May 2027, she said, adding it was a “mammoth task” to integrate those who have arrived, many of whom struggle to learn German and find jobs.
In 2023, almost 9,300 people arrived due to family reunification; last year it was almost 7,800 people, according to government figures.
Most of them were school-aged minors, placing a burden on schools, the government said.
Rights organizations have criticized the government’s plans in the country of nine million, with one of the main asylum support groups saying they would challenge the decree once issued in court.
“There must be an emergency (to allow the government to pause family reunification), which in Austria is not the case,” Asylkoordination Oesterreich spokesman Lukas Gahleitner told AFP.
The anti-immigration far-right Freedom Party (FPOe) topped parliamentary elections for the first time ever last November, gaining almost a third of the votes.
It failed to form government, with the election runner-up long-ruling OeVP cobbling together a coalition with the Social Democrats (SPOe) and the liberal NEOs.


War ignited record-breaking wildfires in Ukraine last year, scientists say

War ignited record-breaking wildfires in Ukraine last year, scientists say
Updated 21 min 15 sec ago
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War ignited record-breaking wildfires in Ukraine last year, scientists say

War ignited record-breaking wildfires in Ukraine last year, scientists say
  • Satellite data showed nearly 9,000 fires torched a total of 965,000 hectares in Ukraine in 2024
  • Ukraine has around 10 million hectares, or 100,000 sq km of forest

BRUSSELS: Last year was Ukraine’s worst year for wildfires in more than three decades of record-keeping, as shelling along front lines in the war with Russia triggered an unprecedented number of blazes, scientists said.
Forest fires in Ukraine in 2024 burnt more than twice the area destroyed by fire in the entire 27-country European Union in 2024, the EU’s Joint Research Center — its independent science research service — said in a report published this week.
Satellite data showed nearly 9,000 fires torched a total of 965,000 hectares in Ukraine in 2024. Ukraine has around 10 million hectares, or 100,000 sq km (38,610 sq miles), of forest. Around a third of the area burned last year was farmland.
For comparison, the EU member state with the most land burnt last year was Portugal, which lost 147,000 hectares — its worst annual total since 2017.
The JRC said satellite data showed the fires were concentrated in Ukraine’s east, in areas apparently in close proximity to front lines of the war.
Ukrainian forests have incurred severe damage as both Russian and Ukrainian armed forces blast thousands of shells at each other every day, shredding the earth.
Maksym Matsala, a forest researcher at Sweden’s University of Agricultural Sciences, said the main cause was artillery and falling shells igniting fires.
He said the jump in fires last year was partly because of a large build-up of dead and damaged trees since Russia’s invasion in 2022, which had created plentiful fuel for fires during extremely dry weather in 2024.
“If war is continuous, then sooner or later there will be a lot of inaccessible areas and a lot of areas with accumulating dead wood,” Matsala told Reuters.
Ukraine’s forests are also riddled with land mines and unexploded ordnance that can detonate during fires — making it impossible for firefighters to control the flames.
The EU data only goes back to 2020, but when cross-checked with data from researchers at Ukraine’s National University of Life and Environmental Sciences, 2024 was the worst year for forest fires in Ukraine since at least 1990.
Climate change is exacerbating wildfires by increasing the hot and dry conditions that help them spread faster, burn longer and rage more intensely, scientists say. Hotter weather saps moisture from vegetation, turning it into dry fuel.
Ukraine’s fires mostly occurred during summer, when this kind of fire-prone weather is more frequent.


Ethiopia to name new head of Tigray interim administration: PM

Ethiopia to name new head of Tigray interim administration: PM
Updated 44 min 5 sec ago
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Ethiopia to name new head of Tigray interim administration: PM

Ethiopia to name new head of Tigray interim administration: PM
  • The region still suffers from the aftermath of a brutal two-year conflict, ended by a 2022 peace deal in Pretoria that established the interim administration
  • Although the guns have fallen silent, a failure to fully implement the terms of the Pretoria agreement has fuelled divisions within the Tigrayan political elite

ADDIS ABABA: Ethiopia said Wednesday it will appoint a new head of the interim administration in northern Tigray region, where months of tensions between rival factions have threatened a fragile peace agreement.
The region still suffers from the aftermath of a brutal two-year conflict, ended by a 2022 peace deal in Pretoria that established the interim administration.
The war was one of the deadliest in recent decades, claiming roughly 600,000 lives and pitting Tigrayan rebels against federal forces, supported by local militias and the Eritrean army.
"The federal government, taking into account the realities on the ground, is taking action... in order to extend the mandate of the interim government" by one year, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed posted on X, adding that the administration had been "unable to complete its essential tasks within the given timeframe".
Writing in Tigrinya, he said it had "become necessary to appoint a new head of the interim administration" in Tigray to replace Getachew Reda, but did not specify a timetable for replacing him.
Getachew did not respond to AFP's request for comment.
The current tensions in Tigray stem from an internal power struggle between Getachew and Debretsion Gebremichael, head of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF).
"If the transition is well managed, it is an opportunity to emerge from the crisis we are in," Wondimu Asamnew, a close associate of Debretsion, told AFP.
"The two years of Getachew Reda's governance have been symbolised by crises and clashes, we now need a stable government," he added.


Although the guns have fallen silent, a failure to fully implement the terms of the Pretoria agreement has fuelled divisions within the Tigrayan political elite.
Armed supporters of Debretsion took over the municipality in Adigrat, Tigray's second-largest town near the Eritrean border, this month, ousting the mayor appointed by Getachew.
Debretsion's faction seized control of Mekele's town hall to reinstate its chosen mayor, as well as the local radio station.
Kjetil Tronvoll, a Horn of Africa specialist and professor at Oslo New University College, said he was unsurprised by the changes.
Getachew's faction "had gradually lost control" over the administration, he said, noting that "his powerbase had waned".
"Abiy Ahmed has been closely observing the evolution of the power struggle," he told AFP.
With the initial mandate of the interim administration expiring, "it was opportune for the federal government to let Getachew go", he added.
The African Union, whose headquarters are in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa, has expressed "deep concern" over renewed tensions in the region.
Similarly, the United States, Britain and the European Union also urged all stakeholders to "de-escalate and engage in urgent dialogue".


Bangladesh’s Yunus heads to China for first state visit

Bangladesh’s Yunus heads to China for first state visit
Updated 26 March 2025
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Bangladesh’s Yunus heads to China for first state visit

Bangladesh’s Yunus heads to China for first state visit
  • Yunus to seek investment in healthcare and dedicated Chinese Economic Zone
  • Visit comes amid strained relations with another regional superpower, India

Dhaka: The head of Bangladesh’s interim government, Muhammad Yunus, departed on Wednesday for China, where he will meet President Xi Jinping and also mark his first bilateral state visit since assuming the role of chief adviser, his office said.

Yunus, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and economics professor, will address the Boao Forum for Asia in Hainan, southern China — an annual conference focusing on the changing role of Asia — from where he will travel to Beijing.

His bilateral with Xi is scheduled for Friday, marking their first meeting since Yunus assumed office in August 2024.

“The main focus of this visit is to boost economic cooperation … We are expecting that a number of (memoranda of understanding) will be inked during this visit. The MoUs will cover mostly the areas of economic cooperation,” Azad Majumder, Yunus’ deputy press secretary, told Arab News.

“One of the main focuses of discussion will be bringing more investments from China in our dedicated Chinese Economic Zone.”

Munshi Faiz Ahmad, Dhaka’s former envoy to Beijing, said it was significant that Yunus was choosing China for his first state visit, especially as relations with another regional superpower, India, have soured since the change in government.

India was a close ally of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government. She has also sought refuge in New Delhi after deadly protests that unseated her last year. Until now, India has not responded to Bangladesh’s request to send her home for trial.

The situation opens the door for China — India’s key rival — to expand its footprint.

“For our interim government, this China visit is very significant. It’s the first bilateral visit to any country by Prof. Yunus as the chief adviser,” Ahmad said.

“It’s an opportunity for Bangladesh to boost the relationship with China and explore new areas of cooperation …. It’s an issue of mutual benefit for Bangladesh and China.”

Yunus’ office said he will also seek Chinese investment in healthcare and the establishment of a large hospital in Bangladesh to reduce the trend of medical tourism abroad.

Many Bangladeshis have sought treatment in neighboring India, but it has lately become difficult to obtain Indian visas.

“It has been reported that China is interested in providing a grant of $138 million for building medical facilities. If that proposal moves forward, it will be a good thing. There is a ready opportunity for China, as India is not issuing enough visas for Bangladeshis now. A lion’s share of our medical tourism can be shifted to China,” Humayun Kabir, former Bangladeshi ambassador to the US, told Arab News.

“There are opportunities to attract more investments from China. Our government is very eager in this regard. We have dedicated an economic zone for Chinese investors … Secondly, we are in need of budget support at this moment. If China provides some financial assistance, it would be of great help. Our previous regime also sought this support, but it didn’t materialize.”