WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2015 INTERNATIONAL

Spanish couple go on trial over murder of adoptive daughter

MADRID: A Spanish couple accused of Santiago de Compostela. take concrete measures to ensure the date, “to deprive her of all will and their adopted daughter together. drugging and suffocating their 12-year- Porto had told police that the girl, safety as well as the legitimate rights and defence and presumably to ease the Their trial began at a court in old daughter who they adopted in China Asunta Yong Fang Basterra Porto, had interests of adopted Chinese children”. action of asphyxiation, in a plan agreed Santiago with the closed door selection went on trial yesterday in a case that has gone missing after she was left alone at The judge investigating the case with Rosario”. of the nine members of the jury. The drawn the attention of Beijing. her apartment in Santiago. A Chinese accused the couple in a summary judge- Porto, a Spanish citizen who acted as accused couple will start being ques- Rosario Porto, a 46-year-old lawyer, foreign ministry spokesman said at the ment of having drugged Asunta with the French honorary consul in Galicia from tioned in court on Thursday. The court and her ex-husband, 51-year-old journal- time that Beijing was “highly concerned sedative Orfidal for three months before 1996-2006, and Basterra have both has called 84 witnesses and 60 experts ist Alfonso Basterra, were charged with about the case” and urged Spain “to asphyxiating her on September 21, 2013. denied having killed Asunta, who they to testify. The trial is scheduled to last murder in October 2013, a month after launch an investigation at once”. He wrote in the summary that adopted in China when she was still a until October 21. If found guilty the the body of their daughter was found in He also called on Spanish authorities Basterra “administered to the child a tox- baby. At the time of the girl’s death, the couple face a prison sentence of up to a wood near the northwestern city of to “hold the perpetrators to justice and ic dose of Orfidal” at his home on that couple were separated but were raising 20 years. — AFP

UK ‘fake sheikh’ reporter charged with conspiracy

LONDON: Mazher Mahmood, a British said in a statement. “In the meantime I journalist whose undercover work posing have nothing further to say.” Mahmood as a “fake sheikh” led to a number of high- previously worked for Murdoch’s News of profile criminal court cases, was charged the World tabloid, which the media yesterday with conspiracy to pervert the mogul was forced to shut in 2011 when it course of justice. was disclosed journalists had hacked Mahmood, well-known for revealing voicemails on mobile phones of thou- wrongdoing amongst politicians, TV and sands of people, including that belong- film stars and even royalty, was suspend- ing to a murdered schoolgirl, to find ed by Rupert Murdoch’s Sun newspaper exclusive stories. in July last year after the collapse of a That led to the jailing of a number of celebrity trial in which he was a main wit- senior staff from the paper including its ness. former editor Andy Coulson. Rebekah The journalist had given evidence in Brooks, who returned this month to run the drugs trial of Contostavlos, a Murdoch’s British newspaper arm News former judge on the British version of the UK after a four-year hiatus following the “X Factor” TV talent show. hacking scandal, was acquitted of She had denied being involved in the involvement after a high-profile trial. supply of drugs to Mahmood while he She often cited Mahmood’s work dur- posed as a film producer, but her trial col- ing her defence as examples of good lapsed with the judge saying he suspect- investigative journalism. Mahmood car- ed the reporter had lied to the court. ried out the inquiry which led to the 2011 Nick Vamos, Deputy Head of Special conviction of three Pakistani cricketers Crime at Britain’s Crown Prosecution for taking bribes to fix incidents in a Service (CPS) said it was in the public match against England. PARIS: French Prime Minister Manuel Valls (R) and European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker hold a joint press interest to charge Mahmood and another In his most famous exclusive in 2001, man, Alan Smith. he posed as an Arab sheikh to dupe conference at the Hotel de Matignon, yesterday in Paris, after a meeting on the migrant crisis, as thousands of people “This decision comes after it was Sophie, Countess of Wessex, who is mar- fleeing conflict and poverty continue to stream into the European Union. — AFP alleged that Mr Smith agreed with Mr ried to Queen Elizabeth’s youngest son Mahmood to change his statement to Prince Edward, into making indiscreet police as part of a trial in July 2014, and comments about other members of the Germany beefs up asylum rules that Mr Mahmood then misled the court,” royal family and senior politicians. Vamos said. Mahmood, who will appear News UK said it noted the decision to at London’s Westminster Magistrates prosecute Mahmood and would await as half a million cross Med court on Oct. 30, said he denied the the outcome of the criminal trial. “He charge. remains suspended from ,” a Conservative bloc criticise Merkel’s approach “I will vigorously contest it at court,” he spokeswoman said. — Reuters

BERLIN: Germany toughened rules yesterday for asy- ed by profit-hungry people traffickers. Highlighting been transferring them back to its border with lum seekers from the Balkans as Europe struggled to the dangers, the Italian coastguard said late Monday Hungary. cope with a record surge in migrants, with those cross- that it had coordinated the rescue Monday of 1,151 But Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who ing the Mediterranean exceeding the half a million migrants in 11 separate operations off the coast of has come in for major criticism in recent months, said mark. Libya in north Africa. last week that he also intended to seal his country’s Berlin added Albania, Kosovo and Montenegro to a “Many are suffering from shock,” the Medecins Sans border with Croatia. list of so-called safe origin countries, which will result Frontieres (MSF, Doctors Without Borders) charity, Orban said however that he plans first to consult in swifter deportations for asylum seekers from those whose ship Dignity 1 saved 373 people, said on Twitter UN chief Ban Ki-moon, whom he intends to meet in conflict-free states, in a bid to free up resources to deal with a photograph of a distressed six-year-old boy. New York this week. Hungary’s use of fences and its with claims from citizens of war-torn countries like The Libyan coastguard too reported that it rescued treatment of migrants-there were serious clashes on Syria. Germany’s open-door policy to Syrians has 346 migrants on Tuesday, almost 100 of them women September 16 between police and migrants-has been sparked clashes with eastern EU member states, in and children, found adrift on rubber boats off the sharply criticised, including by Ban. particular Hungary, which has adopted the opposite country’s coast. Reacting to those disturbances, Ban said he was strategy of sealing off its borders to migrants. The risks taken by migrants extended beyond the “shocked to see how these refugees and migrants It is also starting to affect Chancellor Angela sea to the road. A 20-year-old Iraqi was found dead were treated”. Hungary’s foreign minister rejected the Merkel’s popularity according to recent opinion polls, yesterday in a lorry near the French port of Calais, criticism by Ban and others as “shocking”. with members of her own conservative bloc among crushed by pallets as he tried to reach Britain. Hungary has also made it a crime punishable by up those criticising her approach. Hungary’s prime minis- to five years in prison to cross the border illegally, ter was preparing to defend his hard line at the UN Hardline Hungary while giving the army the right to patrol the border General Assembly, as the number of migrants arriving From Greece, many of the migrants then travel up and use rubber bullets. via the Mediterranean reached nearly 515,000, accord- through the western Balkans and into EU member Hungary is also building a barrier along its border ing to the UN refugee agency (UNHCR). Some 54 per- Hungary, bound for northern Europe, particularly with Romania, and last week briefly put in place cent of the arrivals were men, women and children Sweden and Germany. barbed wire along its frontier with Slovenia, the first escaping the four-year civil war in Syria, also a hot top- Hungary, which has seen close to 300,000 migrants such measure inside the passport-free Schengen zone. ic among world leaders meeting in New York this cross its borders this year, on September 15 sealed its Orban, who opposes an EU scheme approved week. border with Serbia, the main entry point to the last week to share out some 160,000 migrants via At the same time, some 2,980 people have per- European Union. mandatory quotas, plans to use his speech at the ished or disappeared trying to make the perilous jour- The move has diverted the flow of migrants to UN to call for “global quotas”, the government said ney in often packed and unseaworthy vessels operat- Croatia, overwhelming authorities there who have yesterday. — AFP BRIGHTON: Britain’s Labour Party Leader is pictured as he delivers a keynote speech on the third day of the annual Labour Party Former Congo VP, aides tried Conference in Brighton, south east England, yesterday. — AFP at ICC on bribery charges C Africa violence

THE HAGUE: Congolese former vice-president Jean- opening of the trial, the first of its kind at the court Prosecutors charge that Kilolo told witnesses to give leaves 36 dead Pierre Bemba and four close associates went on trial at which was set up in 2002 to try the world’s worst crimes. or withhold certain information during their testimony the International Criminal Court yesterday on charges of Bemba faces three war crimes counts and two counts of in exchange for money. Mangenda is believed to have bribing witnesses. Prosecutors accuse ex-rebel leader crimes against humanity before the ICC, arising from been aware, as Bemba’s legal case manager, that Kilolo GENEVA: A wave of violence gripping 11,000 people, he said. Bemba, 52, of masterminding a network from his prison widespread atrocities committed by his private army in was allegedly bribing witnesses and is accused of relay- the Central African Republic has killed “There is great difficulty getting to cell at the ICC’s Hague-based detention unit, to bribe at the Central African Republic between October 2002 and ing messages between Bemba and Kilolo. Babala, nearly 40 people and forced close to the airport. There are barricades in the least 14 defence witnesses to give false evidence in his March 2003. deputy secretary of Bemba’s Congolese Liberation 30,000 to flee their homes in a matter of streets and there was shooting going trial on charges of war crimes. Also in the dock yesterday were Bemba’s lawyer Movement (MLC) party, allegedly handled money trans- days, the United Nations said yesterday. on this morning,” he said. “The dis- The prosecution’s evidence will show “a plan direct- Aime Kilolo, his legal case manager Jean-Jacques fers including payments to Kilolo, Mangenda and Arido. “We fear that the violence that we’re placed people are reported to be in a ed by Mr Bemba to ensuring his acquittal through cor- Mangenda, with Congolese lawmaker Fidele Babala and Arido, who was an expert defence witness on mili- seeing in Bangui is a return to the dark state of shock,” he said, pointing out rupt means,” ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said at the Narcisse Arido, a defence witness. tary operations in the CAR, is accused of recruiting wit- days of late 2013 and 2014, when thou- that many of them had been forced to nesses for the defence and instructing them what to say sands were killed and tens of thousands flee their homes previously. in Bemba’s trial in exchange for money. had to flee their homes,” UN refugee Colville meanwhile said some 500 All five pleaded not guilty to more than 100 com- agency spokesman Leo Dobbs told prisoners had escaped from Bangui’s bined charges. reporters. main prison late Monday. “This is a “We’re particularly concerned about huge setback for the preservation of ‘Gift’ gaining access to the thousands of peo- law and order, and for the fight against Prosecutor Kweku Vanderpuye on Tuesday told the ple who have fled their homes since impunity, which has been and remains court the suspects referred to “making a whisky”-the Saturday,” he said, saying at least 36 had a chronic problem in CAR,” he told code word for a money transfer through Western Union. been killed and 27,400 people had reporters. Colville urged the country’s The prosecutor also played a number of telephone been displaced. Rupert Colville, a transitional government and interna- intercepts including one in which Bemba says a witness spokesman for the UN rights agency, tional actors to “urgently stop what “must not give too many elements, not too fast...(and) meanwhile said at least 37 had died in appears to be a deliberate attempt to only after hesitation.” In another instance, a witness was the violence and 100 others had been derail the current peace process and told money paid “was not a bribe, but a gift from Jean- injured. important progress made in CAR over Pierre Bemba,” Vanderpuye said. Bemba, a former rebel Bangui’s latest round of violence the last 18 months.” leader-turned-politician unsuccessfully challenged DR broke out on Saturday after claims a Central African Republic descended Congo President Joseph Kabila in polls in 2006 went motorcycle-taxi driver was murdered in into bloodshed more than two years into exile after government forces routed his private central Bangui’s Muslim-majority PK-5 ago after Muslim militia ousted long- militia in 2007. He was arrested near Brussels in May neighbourhood. time leader Francois Bozize, triggering 2008. His troops, based in northern DR Congo, allegedly PK-5 neighbourhood was the epi- the worst crisis since independence in murdered, raped and pillaged after being sent into the centre of unprecedented killings 1960. The country since has remained CAR in late 2002 to help put down a coup against then between Christians and Muslims in prey to violence between the mostly Central African president Ange-Felix Patasse. Bangui in late 2013 and early last year. Muslim Seleka fighters and Christian The former rebel leader-turned-politician has said he It remains the last bastion for Muslims militias known as the “anti-balaka”, or THE HAGUE: Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda waits for former vice-president in the transitional gov- deployed his troops when Patasse asked for help in hounded from other districts by anti-machete. French soldiers and UN ernment of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to enter the court room of the International quelling a rebellion led by former armed forces chief Christian “anti-balaka” militias. peacekeepers remain in the former Criminal Court (ICC) to stand trial on charges including corruptly influencing witnesses by giving Francois Bozize, who eventually seized power in 2003. Dobbs said around 10,000 of those French colony, where thousands of them money and instructions to provide false testimony, and presenting false evidence, at The Closing arguments in the main trial were heard in who had been displaced had taken people died in the violence and hun- refuge at Bangui international airport, dreds of thousands remain displaced Hague, the Netherlands, yesterday. Former vice-president in the transitional government of the November last year. Bemba was served with an arrest which had already been hosting around from their homes. — AFP Democratic Republic of the Congo Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo stands trial with Aime Kilolo warrant in connection with the latest charges at the Musamba, Jean-Jacques Mangenda Kabongo, Fidele Babala Wandu and Narcisse Arido. — AFP ICC’s detention unit. — AFP