Indonesia begins talks with Britain to repatriate UK’s ‘most prolific rapist’

Indonesia begins talks with Britain to repatriate UK’s ‘most prolific rapist’
Serge Atlaoui (C), a Frenchman on death row in Indonesia since 2007 for drug offenses, looks on with French Ambassador to Indonesia Fabien Penone (R) at Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, after leaving Salemba prison ahead of his repatriation to France on February 4, 2025. (AFP)
Updated 07 February 2025
Follow

Indonesia begins talks with Britain to repatriate UK’s ‘most prolific rapist’

Indonesia begins talks with Britain to repatriate UK’s ‘most prolific rapist’
  • A Manchester court ruled that Sinaga must serve at least 30 years in prison for a total of 159 offenses committed from January 2015 to May 2017

JAKARTA: Indonesia has begun talks with Britain to repatriate the most prolific rapist in British history, a senior minister said, following its move to also seek the return of a Guantanamo Bay detainee accused of being one of the Bali bomb plotters.
Reynhard Sinaga, 41, was found guilty in Manchester in 2020 of assaulting 48 men whom he drugged after taking them back to his apartment from bars and clubs in the British city.
A Manchester court ruled that Sinaga must serve at least 30 years in prison for a total of 159 offenses committed from January 2015 to May 2017.
Indonesia’s senior minister for law and human rights affairs Yusril Ihza Mahendra told reporters late on Thursday that talks with the British government were at an early stage.
The mechanism for such a repatriation would be decided later, he said, either through a prisoner transfer or through an exchange with a British prisoner jailed in Indonesia.
“No matter how wrong a citizen is, the country has the obligation to defend its citizen,” Yusril said.
“It’s not an easy job for us,” he said, adding there are many things that need to be negotiated with the British government.
The British embassy in Indonesia did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Indonesia is also looking at ways to repatriate Riduan Isamuddin, better known as Hambali, who was accused of being involved in some deadly attacks including the 2002 Bali bombings.
Under British rules, Sinaga is only able to file for leniency after he has been in jail for 30 years, Yusril said.
Sinaga’s family have met with the ministry’s representative to seek his repatriation.
If the British government agrees to his return he would be jailed in a maximum security prison, Yusril said. “Otherwise he will cause new problems.”
Sinaga, who has been in the UK since 2007, targeted young men who looked drunk or vulnerable and rendered them unconscious with a sedative.
The rape investigation was the largest in British legal history.


Ethiopia and Eritrea on path to war, Tigray officials warn

Ethiopia and Eritrea on path to war, Tigray officials warn
Updated 7 sec ago
Follow

Ethiopia and Eritrea on path to war, Tigray officials warn

Ethiopia and Eritrea on path to war, Tigray officials warn

ADDIS ABABA: Ethiopia and Eritrea could be headed toward war, officials in a restive Ethiopian region at the center of the tensions have warned, risking another humanitarian disaster in the Horn of Africa.

Analysts said that direct clashes between two of Africa’s largest armies would signal the death blow for a historic rapprochement for which Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 and could draw in other regional powers.

It would also likely create another crisis in a region where aid cuts have complicated efforts to assist millions affected by internal conflicts in Sudan, Somalia, and Ethiopia.

“At any moment, war between Ethiopia and Eritrea could break out,” Gen. Tsadkan Gebretensae, a vice president in the interim administration in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, wrote in Africa-focused magazine the Africa Report on Monday.

A 2020-2022 civil war in Tigray between the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, or TPLF, and Ethiopia’s central government killed hundreds of thousands of people.

Fears of a new conflict are linked to the TPLF’s split last year into a faction that now administers Tigray with the blessing of Ethiopia’s federal government and another that opposes it.

On Tuesday, the dissident faction, which Tsadkan accused of seeking an alliance with Eritrea, seized control of the northern town of Adigrat.

Getachew Reda, the head of Tigray’s interim administration, asked the government for support against the dissidents, who deny ties to Eritrea.

“There is clear antagonism between Ethiopia and Eritrea,” Getachew told a news conference on Monday. 

“What concerns me is that the Tigray people may once again become victims of a war they don’t believe in.”

Ethiopia’s federal government has not commented on the tensions. 

Eritrea’s information minister dismissed Tsadkan’s warnings as “war-mongering psychosis.”

However, according to UK-based Human Rights Concern-Eritrea, Eritrea ordered a nationwide military mobilization in mid-February.

Two diplomatic sources and two Tigrayan officials said Ethiopia deployed troops toward the Eritrean border this month.

Payton Knopf and Alexander Rondos, the former US and EU envoys to the region, say the prospects of a new war are real.


Spain closes Russia probe against Catalan separatist leader

Spain closes Russia probe against Catalan separatist leader
Updated 13 March 2025
Follow

Spain closes Russia probe against Catalan separatist leader

Spain closes Russia probe against Catalan separatist leader
  • A judge from a lower court placed Puigdemont under investigation for high treason
  • The Supreme Court said in a statement it had “decided to close the proceedings” opened into the “alleged Russian interference in the Catalan independence process“

MADRID: The Spanish Supreme Court on Thursday said it had closed a treason investigation against Catalonia’s exiled separatist figurehead Carles Puigdemont over alleged Russian interference in the region’s failed 2017 secession bid.
The worst crisis Spain had experienced in decades saw the wealthy northeastern region hold a secession referendum and proclaim a short-lived declaration of independence whose aftershocks continue to reverberate.
A judge from a lower court placed Puigdemont under investigation for high treason to determine whether he had contacts with the Kremlin or tried to gain Russian support for Catalan independence in return for financial compensation.
The Supreme Court said in a statement it had “decided to close the proceedings” opened into the “alleged Russian interference in the Catalan independence process.”
Spain’s top court last year shelved a separate investigation against Puigdemont for a terrorism charge related to 2019 protests in Catalonia against prison terms handed out to separatist leaders for their role in the secession bid.
Puigdemont has lived in exile in Belgium since the crisis and remains Spain’s most-wanted fugitive as he was excluded from the remit of an amnesty law introduced by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s leftist government to heal tensions.
But his Junts per Catalunya party wields outsized influence in national politics as its seven MPs often determine whether Sanchez’s minority government passes legislation in the hung parliament.


Indonesia aims to strengthen academic, research ties with Saudi Arabia

Indonesia aims to strengthen academic, research ties with Saudi Arabia
Updated 13 March 2025
Follow

Indonesia aims to strengthen academic, research ties with Saudi Arabia

Indonesia aims to strengthen academic, research ties with Saudi Arabia
  • Kingdom is among top destination countries for Indonesian students 
  • Indonesian minister eyes more research projects with Saudi universities 

JAKARTA: Indonesia aims to strengthen academic, scientific, and research ties with Saudi Arabia, its Ministry of Higher Education said on Thursday, following talks on future collaboration with the Kingdom’s envoy to Jakarta.

Indonesia’s Higher Education, Science and Technology Minister Brian Yuliarto met with Saudi Ambassador to Indonesia Faisal Abdullah Amodi on Wednesday to discuss plans for cooperation in higher education between their two countries. 

“We are committed to expanding cooperation between Indonesian and Saudi universities,” Yuliarto said in a statement.

“We hope that more Indonesian professors can collaborate with their counterparts at the top Saudi universities, partnering in more programs and research projects.”

Further talks are expected to take place after Eid Al-Fitr, involving rectors from Indonesian universities, the ministry said.

There are currently more than 2,000 Indonesians studying in Saudi Arabia, which is one of the top destination countries for young scholars from the Southeast Asian nation.

Saudi-Indonesian ties span centuries, but have gained momentum in recent years following King Salman’s visit to Indonesia in 2017, which has since sparked more bilateral exchanges. 

In education, cooperation includes exchange programs and Saudi scholarships for Indonesian students. 

Saudi Arabia’s higher education sector is observing a boom and becoming globally competitive and innovative, in line with the objectives of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030. Focusing on quality, international partnerships, STEM education, and research, Saudi Arabia is positioning itself as a leader in education in the Gulf region.

Saudi Arabia has also sponsored the development of multiple schools and universities in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation. 


Spain court remands ex-UN official wanted by US for fraud

Spain court remands ex-UN official wanted by US for fraud
Updated 13 March 2025
Follow

Spain court remands ex-UN official wanted by US for fraud

Spain court remands ex-UN official wanted by US for fraud
  • An internal UN court ruled last year that Vitaly Vanshelboim, a Ukrainian, secretly collected $3 million in gifts
  • Spain’s top criminal court on Wednesday ordered he be remanded in custody because he poses a flight risk

MADRID: A Spanish court has ordered a former top UN official wanted on suspicion of fraud which cost the agency millions of dollars to be remanded in custody, according to a ruling made public Thursday.
An internal UN court ruled last year that Vitaly Vanshelboim, a Ukrainian, secretly collected $3 million in gifts, including a new Mercedes, from a British businessman while he invested more than $58 million of the body’s money in the man’s companies.
At the time he was the deputy head of the UN Office for Project Services (UNOPS), a little-known agency that acts as a kind of general contractor for other arms of the organization.
Vanshelboim was put on leave in 2021 while the UN investigated the allegations and was sacked in early 2023. He moved to Spain three years ago.
A New York court in January issued an international arrest warrant for Vanshelboim for alleged bribery, money laundering and electronic fraud.
Spain’s top criminal court on Wednesday ordered he be remanded in custody because he poses a flight risk, according to a ruling made public on Thursday.
While Vanshelboim has family and economic ties in Spain, “such ties cannot be considered sufficiently strong to counter the aforementioned risk, given that he has only been living here for three years,” the court said.
The UN has said it lost the bulk of the more than $58 million in UNOPS funds which Vanshelboim entrusted to the British businessman.
The scandal led to an overhaul of the agency and embarrassed the UN.


Jewish protesters flood Trump Tower’s lobby to demand the Columbia University activist’s release

Jewish protesters flood Trump Tower’s lobby to demand the Columbia University activist’s release
Updated 13 March 2025
Follow

Jewish protesters flood Trump Tower’s lobby to demand the Columbia University activist’s release

Jewish protesters flood Trump Tower’s lobby to demand the Columbia University activist’s release
  • Mahmoud Khalil helped lead student protests on the Manhattan campus against Israel’s war in Gaza
  • Jewish Voice for Peace protesters chanted 'Bring Mahmoud home now!'

NEW YORK: Demonstrators from a Jewish group filled the lobby of Trump Tower on Thursday to denounce the immigration arrest of a Columbia University activist who helped lead student protests on the Manhattan campus against Israel’s war in Gaza.
The Jewish Voice for Peace protesters, who carried banners and wore red shirts reading “Jews say stop arming Israel,” chanted “Bring Mahmoud home now!“
After warning the protesters to leave the Fifth Avenue building or face arrest, police began putting them in zip ties and loading them into police vans outside about an hour after the demonstration began.
Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent US resident who is married to an American citizen and who hasn’t been charged with breaking any laws, was arrested outside his New York City apartment on Saturday and faces deportation. President Donald Trump has said Khalil’s arrest was the first “of many to come” and vowed on social media to deport students who he said engage in “pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity.”
Police, who were staged inside and outside the Fifth Avenue building ahead of the demonstration, began arresting protesters after warning them to leave.
Among the protesters was actor Debra Winger, who has discussed her Jewish faith and upbringing over the years.
Winger accused the Trump administration of having “no interest in Jewish safety” and “co-opting antisemitism.”
“I’m just standing up for my rights, and I’m standing up for Mahmoud Khalil, who has been abducted illegally and taken to an undisclosed location,” she told The Associated Press. “Does that sound like America to you?”
Khalil’s supporters say his arrest is an attack on free speech and have staged protests elsewhere in the city and around the country. Hundreds demonstrated Wednesday outside a Manhattan courthouse during a brief hearing on his case.
Trump Tower serves as headquarters for the Trump Organization and is where the president stays when he is in New York. The skyscraper often attracts demonstrations, both against and in support of its namesake, though protests inside are less common. The building’s main entrance opens to a multi-story atrium that is open to the public and connects visitors to stores and eateries such as the Trump Grill.
Khalil, 30, was being detained at an immigration detention center in Louisiana, where he has remained after a brief stop at a New Jersey lockup.
Columbia was a focal point of the pro-Palestinian protest movement that swept across US college campuses last year and led to more than 2,000 arrests.
Khalil, whose wife is pregnant with their first child, finished his requirements for a Columbia master’s degree in December. Born in Syria, he is a grandson of Palestinians who were forced to leave their homeland, his lawyers said in a legal filing.