International

Nicaragua: Bishop who refused exile gets 26-year imprisonment

Published

2 years ago

February 11, 2023

Rolando Alvarez

Roman Catholic Bishop Rolando Alvarez, a staunch critic of Nicaragua’s government, has been stripped of his citizenship and sentenced to a 26-year jail term.

A court in Nicaragua has sentenced Catholic Bishop Rolando Alvarez to over 26 years in prison, a day after the outspoken critic of President Daniel Ortega’s government declined to be expelled to the United States as part of a prisoner release.

The sentence was handed down on Friday by Octavio Ernesto Rothschuh, the chief magistrate of the Managua appeals court.

The prison sentence given to Alvarez on Friday is the longest given to any of Ortega’s opponents in the last few years.

What do we know about the case against the bishop?

Alvarez was known to be one of the most vocal religious figures still in Nicaragua as Ortega intensified his crackdown on the opposition in recent years. His government has detained dozens of opponents, journalists and religious figures.

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The bishop was arrested in August, when the police dislodged him after he had barricaded himself in church property for several weeks along with other priests.

A large number of Nicaraguans see the church as the last independent institution in the country, making it a threat to Ortega’s increasingly authoritarian regime.

What led up to the prison sentence?

On Thursday, the Nicaraguan government announced a surprise political prisoner release.

Around 222 individuals were freed and put on a plane to Washington. Ortega also released prisoners who he viewed as criminal agents of foreign powers who sought to undermine Nicaragua’s national sovereignty.

Alvarez, who was to be included in the release, refused to board the plane. Ortega called Alvarez’s refusal “an absurd thing.”

Reaction of the international community

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Nicaragua’s Foreign Minister Denis Moncada, the State Department said Friday.

The two discussed the importance of constructive dialogue between the two nations to build a better future for Nicaragua’s people, the State Department added.

The US had welcomed Thursday’s prisoner release as a “positive” step.

International

Syria new leader says all weapons to come under state control

Published

26 minutes ago

December 23, 2024

Trends Admin

Syria new leader says all weapons to come under state control

ANKARA: Turkiye’s foreign minister Hakan Fidan met with Syria’s new leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa in Damascus on Sunday, Ankara’s foreign ministry said.

A video released by the Anadolu state news agency showed the two men greeting each other.

No details of where the meeting took place in the Syrian capital were released by the ministry.

Fidan had announced on Friday that he planned to travel to Damascus to meet Syria’s new leaders, who ousted Syria’s strongman Bashar Assad after a lightning offensive.

Turkiye’s spy chief Ibrahim Kalin had earlier visited the city on December 12, just a few days after Assad’s fall.

Kalin was filmed leaving the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, surrounded by bodyguards, as broadcast by the private Turkish channel NTV.

Turkiye has been a key backer of the opposition to Assad since the uprising against his rule began in 2011.

Besides supporting various militant groups, it has welcomed Syrian dissenters and millions of refugees.

However, Fidan has rejected claims by US president-elect Donald Trump that the militants’ victory in Syria constituted an “unfriendly takeover” of the country by Turkiye.

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International sanctions on Damascus must be lifted “as soon as possible” to allow Syria to get back on its feet and refugees to return home, Fidan said.

“The sanctions imposed on the previous regime need to be lifted as soon as possible,” he said, adding: “The international community needs to mobilize to help Syria get back on its feet and for the displaced people to return.”

During a joint press conference, Al-Sharaa said that all weapons in the country would come under state control including those held by Kurdish-led forces.

Armed “factions will begin to announce their dissolution and enter” the army, Sharaa said during a press conference with Fidan, adding “we will absolutely not allow there to be weapons in the country outside state control, whether from the revolutionary factions or the factions present in the SDF area,” referring to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.

Syria alone was responsible for overthrowing Bashar Assad, Fidan also said.

“This victory belongs to you and no one else. Thanks to your sacrifices, Syria has seized a historic opportunity,” he said. Turkiye has repeatedly dismissed claims it had any hand in the lightning 12-day rebel offensive that ended with Assad’s overthrow on December 8.

Syria new leader says all weapons to come under state control

International

Syria not threat to world, rebel leader al-Sharaa tells BBC

Published

4 days ago

December 19, 2024

Trends Admin

Ahmed al-Sharaa

Syria not threat to world, rebel leader al-Sharaa tells BBC

The de facto leader of Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa, has said the country is exhausted by war and is not a threat to its neighbours or to the West.

In an interview with the BBC in Damascus, he called for sanctions on Syria to be lifted.

“Now, after all that has happened, sanctions must be lifted because they were targeted at the old regime. The victim and the oppressor should not be treated in the same way,” he said.

Sharaa led the lightning offensive that toppled Bashar al-Assad’s regime less than two weeks ago. He is the leader of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the dominant group in the rebel alliance, and was previously known by his nom de guerre of Abu Mohammed al-Jolani.

He said HTS should be de-listed as a terrorist organisation. It is designated as one by the UN, US, EU and UK, among many others, as it started as a splinter group of al-Qaeda, which it broke away from in 2016.

Sharaa said HTS was not a terrorist group.

They did not target civilians or civilian areas, he said. In fact, they considered themselves to be victim of the crimes of the Assad regime.

He denied that he wanted to turn Syria into a version of Afghanistan.

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Sharaa said the countries were very different, with different traditions. Afghanistan was a tribal society. In Syria, he said, there was a different mindset.

He said he believed in education for women.

“We’ve had universities in Idlib for more than eight years,” Sharaa said, referring to Syria’s north-western province that has been held by rebels since 2011.

“I think the percentage of women in universities is more than 60%.”

And when asked whether the consumption of alcohol would be allowed, Sharaa said: “There are many things I just don’t have the right to talk about because they are legal issues.”

He added that there would be a “Syrian committee of legal experts to write a constitution. They will decide. And any ruler or president will have to follow the law”.

Sharaa was relaxed throughout the interview, wearing civilian clothes, and tried to offer reassurance to all those who believe his group has not broken with its extremist past.

Many Syrians do not believe him.

The actions of Syria’s new rulers in the next few months will indicate the kind of country they want Syria to be – and the way they want to rule it.

Syria not threat to world, rebel leader al-Sharaa tells BBC

BBC

International

Israel hits ports, energy sites in Yemen after missile intercepted

Published

4 days ago

December 19, 2024

Trends Admin

Israel hits ports, energy sites in Yemen after missile intercepted

JERUSALEM: Israel said Thursday it struck ports and energy infrastructure it alleges are used by Houthi militants, after intercepting a missile fired by the group.

Israel’s military said it “conducted precise strikes on Houthi military targets in Yemen — including ports and energy infrastructure in Sanaa, which the Houthis have been using in ways that effectively contributed to their military actions.”

The announcement came shortly after Israel said it had intercepted a missile fired from Yemen.

Al-Masira, a media channel belonging to the Houthis, said a series of “aggressive raids” were launched in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa and the port city of Hodeidah.

It reported raids that “targeted two central power plants” in Yemen’s capital Sanaa, while in Hodeidah it said “the enemy launched four aggressive raids targeting the port… and two raids targeting” an oil facility.

The strikes were the second time this week that Israel’s military has intercepted a missile from Yemen.

On Monday, the Houthis claimed a missile launch they said was aimed at “a military target of the Israeli enemy in the occupied area of Yaffa” — a reference to Israel’s Tel Aviv area.

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Also Monday, an Israeli navy missile boat intercepted a drone in the Mediterranean after it was launched from Yemen, the military said.

The Houthi militants have said they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians and pledged Monday to continue operations “until the aggression on Gaza stops and the siege is lifted.”

On December 9, a drone claimed by Houthis exploded on the top floor of a residential building in the central Israel city of Yavne, causing no casualties.

In July, a Houthi drone attack in Tel Aviv killed an Israeli civilian, prompting retaliatory strikes on the Yemeni port of Hodeidah.

The Houthis have also regularly targeted shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, leading to retaliatory strikes on Houthi targets by United States and sometimes British forces.

Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said the group had become a “global threat,” pointing to Iran’s support for the militants.

“We will continue to act against anyone, anyone in the Middle East, that threatens the state of Israel,” he said.