Region

TUNIS — Tunisian prosecutors asked the top judicial body to strip 13 judges of immunity so they can be tried on terror charges, their lawyer said on Wednesday, describing the case as "purely political".

The move comes nearly seven months after President Kais Saied sacked 57 judges, accusing them of corruption and blocking enquiries into two left-wing political figures in 2013, among other purported transgressions.

Defence lawyer Ayachi Hammami said the 13 were among 49 judges reinstated in August.

But the justice ministry has been investigating his 13 clients for "terrorist crimes mentioned in security reports", he added.

"This case is purely political," Hammami said.

The accused judges are to appear before the Supreme Judicial Council (CSM) on January 24, he told AFP.

Saied staged a dramatic power grab in July 2021, sacking the government, suspending parliament and rocking the foundations of the only democracy to have emerged from the Arab Spring uprisings.

In February he dissolved a previous top judicial body, replacing it with the CSM whose members the president picks — and can sack without appeal.

In June he issued a decree tightening his control over the CSM, a day before he suspended the 57 judges.

Rights groups Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International had slammed the suspensions as “a direct attack on the rule of law”, and Tunisian lawyers went on strike for a month in response.

MOSCOW — The defence ministers of Russia, Turkey and Syria met in Moscow on Wednesday, the first such talks since a war broke out in Syria, the Russian defence ministry said.

It was also the first meeting between Turkish and Syrian defence ministers since the start of the war in 2011.

Russia and Turkey are involved in Syria, with Moscow supporting the Damascus regime against its opponents, and Ankara backing rebels.

The meeting came as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly threatened to launch a military offensive in northern Syria against Kurdish groups.

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and his Turkish and Syrian counterparts, Hulusi Akar and Ali Mahmoud Abbas, discussed “ways to resolve the Syrian crisis, the problem of refugees, and joint efforts to combat extremist groups in Syria”, said the Russian defence ministry.

The sides “noted the constructive nature of the dialogue held in this format and the need to continue it in the interests of further stabilizing the situation” in Syria and the region, the defence ministry in Moscow said.

The Turkish defence ministry struck a similar note, saying the meeting was held in a “constructive atmosphere”.

“At the meeting, the Syrian crisis, the refugee problem and joint efforts to combat all terrorist organisations in Syria were discussed,” the ministry said in a statement.

On Saturday, Akar told reporters that Turkey was in talks with Russia about using Syrian airspace in a possible operation against the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia.

“We are holding discussions with the Russians about the opening of the airspace” in Syria, he said.

The Turkish and Syrian foreign ministers had a brief informal exchange on the sidelines of a regional summit in 2021 and Ankara had acknowledged contacts between intelligence services of the two countries.

In November, Erdogan said a meeting with Syrian leader Bashar Assad was a possibility, after cutting diplomatic ties with Damascus throughout the 11-year conflict.

In mid-December, he indicated that he could meet with Assad after the two countries’ defence and foreign ministers meet.

“We want to take a step as Syria, Turkey and Russia,” he said at the time.

TEHRAN — President Ebrahim Raisi said Tuesday Iran would show "no mercy" towards "hostile" opponents of the Islamic republic, gripped by more than 100 days of protests sparked by Mahsa Amini's death.

The "riots", as Tehran generally refers to them, were triggered by the September 16 death in custody of Iranian-Kurdish Amini, 22, after her arrest for an alleged breach of the strict dress code for women.

Addressing a crowd in Tehran, Raisi accused "hypocrites, monarchists and all anti-revolutionary currents".

"The embrace of the nation is open to all those who were lured," said the ultraconservative president at a funeral procession for unidentified soldiers who perished during its eight-year war in the 1980s with neighbouring Iraq.

"The embrace of the nation is open to everyone, but we will show no mercy to those who are hostile."

Iranian officials say hundreds of people have been killed, including members of the security forces, and thousands have been arrested nationwide.

Foreign-based rights groups have put the death toll among protesters at more than 450.

Earlier in December, Iran executed two people in connection to the protests. The judiciary has said nine others have been sentenced to death, two of whom have been allowed retrials.

Campaigners say about a dozen other defendants have been charged with offences that could see them receive the death penalty.

Iranian officials have accused hostile foreign powers, including the United States and some European countries, of stoking the unrest.

They aim “to derail the Islamic society from its high goals” by “spreading rumours and fracturing society”, said Raisi.

But foreign countries are “wrong” to think that would achieve their goals, Raisi argued, calling their moves miscalculated.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Israel’s parliament on Tuesday passed controversial legislation paving the way for the return of veteran hawk Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister.

Following his November 1 election win, Netanyahu secured a mandate to form a government backed by ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties and an extreme-right bloc.

Netanyahu will present what analysts have said will be the most right-wing government in Israel’s history to parliament on Thursday.

On Tuesday, lawmakers passed legislation that now allows anyone convicted of offences, but not given a custodial sentence to serve as a minister.

Before the law was passed, there had been uncertainty over whether Aryeh Deri, a key ally from the ultra-Orthodox Shas Party, would be able to serve as he had previously pled guilty to tax offences.

A second law passed allows for two ministers to serve in the same office.

The measure is aimed at the defence ministry, where Bezalel Smotrich, leader of the extreme-right formation Religious Zionism, is to be the minister with control over civil affairs in the occupied West Bank.

The Knesset also voted to expand the powers of the national security minister, a portfolio set to be handed to Itamar Ben Gvir, another extreme-right figure.

The morning session also saw Netanyahu ally Yariv Levin resign as interim speaker of the Knesset, ahead of his expected appointment to a ministry.

Rules require that he had not been in the speaker’s post for 48 hours before any ministerial appointment.

Netanyahu, who is fighting corruption allegations in court, has already served as premier longer than anyone in Israel, including a 1996 to 1999 stint and a record 12-year tenure from 2009 to 2021.

His incoming government has sparked fears of a military escalation in the West Bank amid the worst violence in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory for nearly 20 years.

TEHRAN — Iran on Monday blasted Britain's "non-constructive role" a day after the Islamic republic announced the arrest of a UK-linked "network" involved in the three-month protests sparked by Mahsa Amini's death.

Protests have gripped Iran since the September 16 death of Iranian-Kurdish Amini, 22, after her arrest in Tehran for an alleged breach of the country's strict dress code for women.

Tehran generally calls the protests "riots" and accuses its foreign foes, including Britain, of stoking the unrest.

State news agency IRNA reported on Sunday the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in the country's south had arrested seven people, including dual nationals, who had operated "under the direct guidance of elements from Britain".

Asked about their arrest during a Monday press conference, foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said "some countries, especially the one you mentioned, had a non-constructive role in relation to the recent developments in Iran".

“Their role was quite provocative in inciting extremism and riots,” Kanani said of the foreign nations.

The group, which IRNA described as an “organised network”, had been “leading subversive conspiracies, especially during the recent riots”, the report quoted a Guards statement as saying.

The seven arrested in Kerman province “have been involved in planning, leading and producing content as well as field actions in the recent riots”, it added.

Some of them are “dual nationals who were trying to escape from the country”, the statement said without elaborating.

Iran’s judiciary said last month that 40 foreigners, including dual nationals, had been arrested in the unrest.

The foreign ministry’s Kanani said on Monday that “during the recent riots, several citizens of European countries have been arrested with varying degrees of involvement in the riots”.

“Consular and political information has been given to their respective countries,” he added. 

“The role of the citizens of a certain number of countries, especially European and western European countries... is quite clear and proved.”

A number of Westerners, including dual nationals, had already been in custody in Iran before the protests broke out in September.

Western governments have accused Tehran of employing a “hostage-taking” policy aimed at extracting concessions or secure the release of Iranians held abroad.

QAMISHLI, Syria — The Daesh terror group militants in northern Syria launched a failed attack targeting a prison holding fellow extremists in a clash that killed six Kurdish fighters, local authorities and a war monitor said.

The Kurdish fighters were killed in the assault on a security complex near a prison with Daesh inmates in Raqqa, the group's former de facto capital in Syria, said Farhad Shami, spokesperson for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.

But "Daesh failed to attack the prison because our forces thwarted their assault", he said.

He confirmed the six deaths to AFP, adding that security forces killed an extremist wearing an explosive belt and apprehended his accomplice.

Britain-based war monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, had earlier reported two extremists killed.

The failed assault targeted a Kurdish security complex, which includes a military intelligence prison housing terrorists, the monitor said.

SDF commander Mazloum Abdi said in a statement that "terrorist cells" had attacked "security and military buildings in the city".

“The information we have from Raqqa indicates that Daesh cells are preparing dangerous plots,” he added.

Kurdish-led authorities announced a state of emergency in Raqqa and have put the city on lockdown until further notice, as security forces hunt down jihadists at large.

Security forces are still searching the area to arrest members of the cell, spokesperson Shami said.

Daesh claimed responsibility for the attack, saying two of its fighters had launched it, one of whom had escaped.

The group said the attack came to avenge “Muslim prisoners” and female relatives of extremists living in the Kurdish-administered Al Hol camp.

Al Hol, home to more than 50,000 people, is the largest camp for displaced people who fled after the SDF led the battle that dislodged Daesh fighters from the last scraps of their Syrian territory in 2019.

Among Al Hol’s detainees are more than 10,000 foreigners from dozens of countries.

The overcrowded camp is also home to displaced Syrians, and Iraqi refugees.

This is the most significant attack on a prison since Daesh fighters launched their biggest assault in years in January, when they attacked the Ghwayran prison in the Kurdish-controlled city of Hasakeh.

Hundreds were killed in the assault that lasted for a week and aimed to free fellow extremists.

TRIPOLI — Libya’s unity government has carried out a prisoner exchange with rival eastern forces, releasing a pilot captured during strongman Khalifa Haftar’s 2019 assault on Tripoli, local media reported on Monday.

According to the reports and images on social media, pilot Amer Al Orfi Al Gajam was exchanged for 15 prisoners held by Haftar’s forces, which back a rival government and control much of eastern and southern Libya. The exchange took place in a Haftar-controlled part of the Jufra region, near a ceasefire line between eastern and western forces.

Images on social media appeared to show Gajam, a high-ranking member of Haftar’s forces, with a long beard and dressed in a traditional Libyan tunic and vest. The 2011 revolt that toppled Muammar Qadhafi’s regime left a power vacuum that was filled by an array of armed groups. Haftar’s east-based forces, the self-styled Libyan National Army, were among the most powerful groups that emerged in the aftermath. In 2019, Haftar seized large parts of the south and launched an assault on Tripoli.

TEHRAN — Iran’s supreme court has ordered the retrial of a Kurdish rapper who was reportedly sentenced to death over protests sparked by Mahsa Amini’s death, the judiciary said on Saturday.

Protests have gripped Iran since the September 16 death of Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian of Kurdish origin, after her arrest in Tehran for an alleged breach of the Islamic republic’s dress code for women.

Iran this month executed two people in connection with the protests. It has sentenced another 11 people to death. One of them, Mahan Sadrat, secured a retrial earlier this week.

On Saturday the judiciary’s Mizan Online website said the Kurdish rapper Saman Seydi — also known as Saman Yasin — and another protester, Mohammad Ghobadlou, would be retried.

Hours later, however, Mizan issued a new statement from the supreme court that said Ghobadlou’s appeal had been rejected and confirmed his sentence. It did not elaborate.

Rights groups outside Iran have said Seydi and Ghobadlou had been facing the death penalty based on accusations of involvement in the protests.

Mizan did not specify the verdicts, but confirmed both were charged with offences punishable by death.

Ghobadlou was charged in Tehran with “corruption on earth” for “attacking police with a car, which resulted in the death of one officer and the injury of five others”.

Seydi was accused of “moharebeh”, which means “enmity against God”. Rights groups said the rapper had been accused of firing a pistol into the air three times during the demonstrations.

Saturday’s developments come three days after Mizan said the supreme court had ordered the retrial of Sadrat, who had been sentenced to death after being convicted of capital offences during the protests.

Iran has arrested thousands of people over the unrest in which the authorities say more than 200 people have been killed, including dozens of security personnel.

Foreign-based rights groups say the security forces have killed more than 450 people in a crackdown on the movement.

The Islamic republic has already executed two young men over the protests.

Majidreza Rahnavard, 23, was hanged in public on December 12 after being sentenced to death by a court in second city Mashhad for killing two members of the security forces with a knife.

Four days earlier, Mohsen Shekari, also 23, was executed for wounding a member of the security forces.

Campaigners say a dozen other defendants are charged with offences that could also see them receive the death penalty.