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ISO 9001:2008 CERTIFIED NEWSPAPER Friday 21 June 2013 12 Shaaban 1434 - Volume 18 Number 5737 Price: QR2 Indian rupee India in at new low; Champions markets fall Trophy final Business | 13 Sport | 22 www.thepeninsulaqatar.com [email protected] | [email protected] Editorial: 4455 7741 | Advertising: 4455 7837 / 4455 7780 Five sentenced to jail Heir Apparent meets Abu Dhabi Crown Prince over Villaggio blaze Four handed six years, one five by lower criminal court DOHA: In a landmark judge- and head of security were cleared negligence and failure to abide by ment, a lower criminal court of all charges. All the five will get rules and regulations. yesterday sentenced four peo- 15 days to appeal and will remain Both had hired a shop from ple to six years in jail at the end out of custody until the appeal the third accused to operate the of a nine-month hearing in the process is completed, legal circles day care centre without fulfilling Villaggio Mall fire case. said yesterday. licensing requirements. A fifth defendant was handed The court also ordered payment They didn’t provide necessary down five years in jail, while two of blood money of QR200,000 each security and fire safety measures of the seven defendants were to families of all the 19 victims. and the crèche was located in cleared of all charges. It referred the case to the civil an unsuitable place that caused Nineteen people, including 13 court to decide on other finan- the smoke to concentrate in the children, were killed in the fire cial claims, including material area, leading to the death of many in the luxury mall on May 28 last and emotional damages, by the people. year, which shocked the entire families. They set up and operated the country and drew international At least five families of vic- centre using a licence that was The Heir Apparent H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani with Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme attention. tims and some defendants were not intended for such a facility. Commander of the UAE Armed Forces General Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan at Al Bahr Palace The dead included two firefight- present in the packed courtroom The licence was not issued by the yesterday. The Heir Apparent hosted a luncheon in honour of Sheikh Mohammed and his delegation and later ers and four women employees of to hear the verdict. authorised sections. bid them farewell at the airport. Gympanzee, a day care facility in The families expressed hap- The third convict was also the mall, which operated without piness and satisfaction over the charged with causing death due to a proper licence. judgement, saying “justice has negligence and violation of rules. Those convicted include two been served.” He signed a contract with the co-owners of Gympanzee and the The first and second accused first and second accused to rent owner and manager of the mall. were charged with uninten- out the shop to set up the illegal Kuwait parliament polls on July 25 The mall’s assistant manager tional manslaughter due to their day care centre and failed to pro- vide required emergency exits and KUWAIT: Kuwait will hold its sixth parliamen- than in other Gulf Arab states, although the Emir fire safety equipment. tary election in seven years on July 25, a snap has the final word in state matters. Justice has been served: Parents He also failed to monitor the vote ordered by the top court after the assembly Opposition politicians boycotted the last election work of his subordinates to ensure was dissolved earlier this week in another sign of in protest against changes to the voting system DOHA: Parents of children who died in the Villaggio Mall fire that fire extinguishers were prop- political turmoil in the country. decreed by the Emir H H Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmed say justice has been served by the verdict by a lower criminal erly maintained. Similar charges Almost constant factional infighting and disarray Al Sabah six weeks ago. court yesterday. They said they were surprised to know that the were imposed on the fourth and has stalled infrastructure development and held up The government says the new rules brought defendants were sentenced to imprisonment for a period longer fifth accused. economic reforms. Kuwait’s system in line with voting systems else- than what they had expected. “We are very surprised by the ver- All the five were charged with On Sunday, opposition supporters lost a legal where in the world. Under the old system, voters dict, because we were expecting a lighter sentence. All parents failure to take necessary meas- fight to undo changes to the voting system they said were allowed to cast ballots for up to four candi- are happy. I was present at the court with four other families,” ures to protect lives of employees favour pro-government candidates — a dispute which dates, which the opposition said allowed alliances said Mohammad Mouneeb, a South African who lost his child. of the mall and visitors. aggravated political tensions. But the Constitutional that partly made up for the absence of parties. The Mouneeb said parents were very excited when the verdict was The seventh accused was Court found fault in the process leading up to the new system allows votes for a single candidate, which read out and “one of the parents almost jumped from his seat. He charged with issuing a licence to last election in December and ordered a new ballot the opposition says makes alliances difficult. was sitting next to me, and was so emotional.” “It had been a long the day care centre without com- for the 50-member assembly. The Emir said the changes aimed to ensure secu- year with so much pain and stress and we are all very glad about pleting required procedures. “At an extraordinary meeting today, the cabinet rity and stability after policymaking stalled in the the sentences,” he added. Asked about the possibility of the convicts The charges were based on approved a draft decree, inviting voters to elect previous opposition-dominated parliament. appealing against the verdict, he said, “They will appeal and might Qatar’s Penal Code, Labour members of the National Assembly on July 25,” the Prominent Islamist and populist opposition poli- get a lighter sentence, but we are happy with the initial ruling.” Law, Civil Defence Law and state news agency Kuna quoted Minister for Cabinet ticians have said they will not stand in any future THE PENINSULA the Consumer Protection Law, Affairs Sheikh Mohammad Al Mubarak Al Sabah election under the one-vote system but some liber- Continued on page 2 according to Al Sharq. as saying yesterday. The date falls during Ramadan. als and Salafi Islamists have said they will compete, THE PENINSULA Kuwait’s parliament gives its people greater say splitting the opposition. REUTERS Protest in Beirut Friends of Syria QOC Twitter accounts verified DOHA: Real-time information network Twitter has verified the meet tomorrow Twitter accounts of the Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC), the coun- try’s supreme sports body said yesterday. The Twitter accounts in DOHA: Qatar will host tomor- Arabic and English have received ‘Verified Account’ status from row a ministerial meeting of the global network. The accounts are the Schools Olympic Program, the Friends of Syria Group to the National Sport Day and the QOC’s main Twitter account. discuss latest developments in Syria to pressure the inter- Iran seizes two UAE boats, arrests 13 national community to take action against the regime and DUBAI: Iran has detained 12 UAE nationals and one Indian reach a political solution to end aboard two boats which crossed into what Tehran claims as its bloodshed. territorial waters, the English-language Press TV said yesterday. A source from the Foreign “The (Iranian) forces at Abu Musa Marine Patrol Base detected two Ministry told Qatar News Agency intruding UAE vessels while fishing in the Gulf waters and issued yesterday that the Prime Minister the order to capture them,” Press TV quoted base Commander and Foreign Minister H E Sheikh Colonel Ali Vesali as saying. He said the 13 were transferred to a Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabor Al military dock, without giving details. The three islands of Abu Musa Thani will head the Qatari del- and Greater and Lesser Tunb are claimed by both countries but egation to the meeting, to be have been held by Iran since 1971. attended by foreign ministers of Turkey, the US, Britain, Saudi Egypt court frees Mubarak-era PM Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, the UAE, Italy, Germany and France. Members of civil society organisations scuffle with police who blocked their way to parliament during a CAIRO: An Egyptian court ordered the release of former premier QNA protest in Beirut yesterday. Activists were protesting against the extension of MPs’ term by 16 months until Ahmed Nazif yesterday because of a limit on pre-trial detention November next year, postponing the June parliamentary election . in a corruption case for which he had been held since the revolu- tion that toppled Hosni Mubarak. Nazif, who still faces a retrial, is the highest-profile Mubarak-era official to be freed in corruption cases which have failed to produce convictions that stick, prompt- ing opponents of the old regime to criticise the justice system. The court accepted an appeal by Nazif, who was premier from 2004 until Scientists make most detailed 3D brain map Mubarak replaced him during the uprising in January 2011. LONDON: Scientists have finely sliced a A micrometre, or micron, is a millionth of a the project.