TUESDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2018 07 She was born without legs, but she didn’t stop trying

AFP | Serjilla, Syria walk along the rutted roads of which means the person is born daughter were evacuated from the Serjilla camp after arriving without lower limbs. Syria by the Turkish authori- ight-year-old Maya Merhi back. He cobbled together the ties and brought to Istanbul for had to struggle around a Finally she joined in the games homemade prosthetics on which treatment at a specialised clinic. ESyrian displaced persons and dancing with the other chil- she used to shuffle around the Mohammed received pros- camp on artificial limbs made of dren. camp. thetic limbs as well, but admits plastic tubing and tin cans. “I was so happy when I saw Originally from Aleppo re- that he isn’t yet as steady on But now the girl, who was her walking,” says her gion, the father and daughter them as his daughter. born with no legs due to a con- father Mohammed, had to move to rebel-held Sitting on a foam mattress, his genital condition, is walking on sitting in their Idlib province as fighting daughter unwraps the artificial new prosthetics after undergo- makeshift tent. from Syria’s civil war began legs and attaches them. ing treatment in Turkey. “The whole to rage around their home. “To begin with there were dif- Pictures of her plight in Syr- family and all our After the pictures of Ma- ficulties getting used to them,” ia, were seen around the world loved ones were ya’s difficulties sparked says her uncle Hussein, who ac- in June, and she was taken to so happy.” attention across the companied his brother and niece Istanbul for the life-changing Mohammed globe, the Turkish to Turkey. Maya Merhi removes her artificial legs inside a tent at the Internally Displaced procedure. suffers the Red Crescent inter- “All of a sudden she found her- Persons (IDP) camp of Serjilla Dressed in a pink sweater and same condi- vened. self up high on the new pros - matching shoes, Maya on Satur- tion as his The father and thetics.” day was able for the first daughter, time known as to congeni- tal am- puta- tion

Maya Merhi (L) poses for a picture with the support of crutches next to her brother and disabled father

Syrian Maya Merhi poses for a picture in the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp of Serjilla in northwestern Syria next to Bab al-Hawa border crossing with Maya Merhi (C) stands among her friends in the Internally Displaced Persons Turkey. Eight-year-old Maya, born with no legs due to a congenital condition, had to struggle around the Syrian camp on artificial limbs made of plastic tubing and tin (IDP) camp of Serjilla in northwestern Syria, next to Bab al-Hawa border crossing cans. Today, the girl can walk thanks to her new prosthetics after undergoing treatment in Turkey. with Turkey Siberian cop convicted of more AFP | , Russia’s Meduza website, Popk- ov said he gave women lifts and Siberian policeman who targeted those who were drunk Araped and killed women or living in a way he saw as im- after offering them late-night moral, saying that “any society rides was found guilty of dozens KNOW WHAT condemns the behaviour of a more murders yesterday, making debauched woman”. him Russia’s most prolific serial While already in jail, he con- killer of recent times. fessed to 59 further murders A court in the city of Popkov was caught but was convicted only of 56 on found guilty of in 2012 after investi- Monday because investigators 56 murders between 1992 and gators re-examined had not managed to prove three 2007, sentencing him to a sec- the case and carried of the crimes took place, Interfax ond life term. He was already in out DNA testing of news agency reported, citing the prison after being convicted of court’s press service. killing 22 women in 2015. residents, focusing Investigators said they uncov- Popkov offered rides to wom- on those who drove ered the remains of some of the en late at night, sometimes in his a make of car that victims’ bodies based on Popk- police car, while off-duty around matched tracks found ov’s account, as well as finding his city of Angarsk near Irkutsk. at crime scenes weapons including axes, He killed them using weapons chisels and knives. including a hammer and an axe, The number of killings for then dumped their bodies in the cal attraction to killing people” which he has been convicted woods, at the side of the road but he was ruled sane enough exceeds the totals of several no- and in a local cemetery. Mikhail Popkov stands inside a defendants’ cage during a court hearing in Irkutsk to stand trial. Investigators had torious murderers in Russia and He was also found guilty of suspected a policeman was be- the ex-. raping 10 of the women. His other victim was a police- sent to a prison that is exclusive- life sentence -- Popkov was also hind the crime because of the “Chessboard Killer” Alexan- Popkov described himself as a man. ly for convicts serving life terms, deprived of his police pension. way the killer covered his tracks. der Pichushkin was sentenced “cleaner” who was purging his The grey-haired 54-year-old nicknamed the “Black Dolphin.” The murders took place while to life in prison in 2007 for 48 home city of prostitutes. All but appeared in court in prison uni- As part of his sentence -- a Covered his tracks he was a serving police officer murders and one of his victims were women form, his head bowed, Russian rare case in Russia of a convicted Prosecutors have described and after he left the force in was convicted of 52 Soviet-era between the ages of 16 and 40. television showed. He will be murderer being given a second Popkov as having “a pathologi- 1998. In a 2017 interview with murders.