NEW DELHI: The deaths of a father and son from alleged torture at the hands of police have sparked outrage across India, with many drawing parallels with the killing of George Floyd in the United States.
Their case has thrown a new spotlight on police brutality just weeks after the killing of Floyd, an African-American man, by a white police officer in the US led to worldwide protests.
J. Jayaraj, 58, and Bennicks Immanuel, 31, were arrested on June 19 and accused of keeping their store open past permitted hours in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, which has reimposed a lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus.
They died in hospital a few days later, officials said, with their family alleging in written complaints that they were severely abused by police and had suffered rectal bleeding.
Two policemen involved in the alleged torture were suspended, the state’s Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami said.
The deaths in the small town of Sathankulam triggered a protest last week and shopkeepers across Tamil Nadu staged a strike on Wednesday.
“Reeling from what I’m hearing. Absolutely stunned, sad and angry... the guilty must not be allowed to go unpunished,” tweeted Bollywood star Priyanka Chopra Jonas on Saturday.
“Let’s demand for the same justice we did for George Floyd,” said actress Krystle D’souza.
State politician, social activist and lawyer Jignesh Mevani wrote that the “George Floyds of India are far too many.”
“Will Indians march on streets in thousands like in America?” he tweeted.
Rahul Gandhi, a leader of the opposition Congress party, described it as a “tragedy when our protectors turn into oppressors.”
Several reports by human rights groups in India have detailed cases of alleged torture of suspects in custody, with deaths often blamed by police on suicide or natural causes.
According to the National Human Rights Commission, 3,146 people died in police and judicial custody in 2017-18.
“Custodial violence and torture is so rampant in India that it has become almost routine,” it said in a report.
“It represents the worst form of excesses by public servants entrusted with the duty of law enforcement.”
Convictions in such cases are extremely rare, according to activists.
'George Floyds of India:' outrage mounts over police custody deaths
https://arab.news/r6crf
'George Floyds of India:' outrage mounts over police custody deaths
- A father and his son were allegedly tortured at the hands of Indian police, sparking outrage
- Their case has thrown a new spotlight on police brutality just weeks after the killing of US citizen George Floyd
Rescuers ‘very close’ to kids missing for weeks in Colombian Amazon
- Children — aged 13, nine, four and one — have been lost in the jungle since the light aircraft crash in Colombia’s southeast on May 1
- Soldiers found the bodies of the three adults and the debris of the plane stuck vertically in the thick vegetation, its nose destroyed
The children — aged 13, nine, four and one — have been lost in the jungle since the light aircraft crash in Colombia’s southeast on May 1 claimed the lives of the three adults on board: their mother Magdalena Mucutui Valencia, the pilot, and an Indigenous leader.
The bodies of the adults were found with the plane wreck, but a massive search by 160 soldiers and 70 Indigenous people with intimate knowledge of the jungle has been under way ever since for the youngsters — Lesly (13), Soleiny (9), Tien Noriel (4) and baby Cristin.
On Sunday, rescuers found the latest traces, which “confirm two things: the first that they are alive, and the second that we are very close,” team leader General Pedro Sanchez told Blu Radio.
The search area has been narrowed to about 20 square kilometers (7.7 square miles), said Sanchez, from an initial 320 square kilometers — about double the size of Washington, DC.
Judging by its size, the footprint found may belong to Lesly, whom relatives have said knows the jungle well.
Unlike a sandal print found previously, the new trail indicates at least one of the children is now barefoot.
Last week, the team had found a pair of shoes and a diaper in the dense jungle.
Near the fresh print, the team on Sunday also found “a kind of resting place” or shelter. “The children probably used it for a night or two,” said Sanchez.
“At some point we crossed paths (with the children),” he added.
Search team member Col. Fausto Avellaneda said the latest finds “gives us new motivation and excitement.”
“This is a fresh footprint found approximately two kilometers from the last footprint we had found, and it gives us a sign that the children are still alive,” he said in a video distributed by the military.
On the morning of May 1, a Cessna 206 airplane left a jungle area known as Araracuara heading for the town of San Jose del Guaviare in the Colombian Amazon.
Minutes after starting the 350-kilometer (217-mile) journey, the pilot reported problems with the engine and the plane disappeared from radars.
Between May 15 and 16, soldiers found the bodies of the three adults and the debris of the plane stuck vertically in the thick vegetation, its nose destroyed.
The air force has since dumped 10,000 flyers into the forest with instructions in Spanish and the children’s own Indigenous language, telling them to stay put.
The leaflets also included survival tips, and the military has dropped food parcels and bottled water for the children who are of the Huitoto community, known for living in harmony with the jungle.
Huitoto children learn hunting, fishing and gathering and the kids’ grandfather, Fidencio Valencia, has told AFP the children are well acquainted with the jungle.
Rescuers have been broadcasting a message recorded by the children’s grandmother, urging them not to move so the soldiers can find them.
Air force helicopters and satellite images are being used in the search in an area home to jaguars, pumas, snakes and other predators, as well as armed groups that smuggle drugs and terrorize local populations.
According to Sanchez, the minors and their mother had boarded the plane to escape guerrilla activity near their community.
But he said it was “unlikely” the kids had fallen into the hands of any armed group. “We have not found any adult prints.”
Sanchez said the search was complicated by “a totally jungle terrain where you can see nothing 20 meters ahead, trees 40-50 meters (tall)... where the rays of the Sun enter with great difficulty.”
It rained about 16 hours per day, erasing any tracks and muffling the sound of movement, he added.
US says ‘the time is now’ for Sweden to join NATO and for Turkiye to get new F-16s
- Blinken maintained that the administration had not linked the two issues but acknowledged that some US lawmakers had
- President Joe Biden implicitly linked the two issues in a phone call to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
OSLO: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday the “time is now” for Turkiye to drop its objections to Sweden joining NATO but said the Biden administration also believed that Turkiye should be provided with upgraded F-16 fighters “as soon as possible.”
Blinken maintained that the administration had not linked the two issues but acknowledged that some US lawmakers had. President Joe Biden implicitly linked the two issues in a phone call to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday.
“I spoke to Erdogan and he still wants to work on something on the F-16s. I told him we wanted a deal with Sweden. So let’s get that done,” Biden said.
Still, Blinken insisted the two issues were distinct. However, he stressed that the completion of both would dramatically strengthen European security.
“Both of these are vital, in our judgment, to European security,” Blinken told reporters at a joint news conference in the northern Swedish city of Lulea with Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson. “We believe that both should go forward as quickly as possible; that is to say Sweden’s accession and moving forward on the F-16 package more broadly.”
“We believe the time is now,” Blinken said. He declined to predict when Turkiye and Hungary, the only other NATO member not yet to have ratified Sweden’s membership, would grant their approval.
But, he said, “we have no doubt that it can be, it should be, and we expect it to be” completed by the time alliance leaders meet in Vilnius, Lithuania in July at an annual summit.
Fresh from a strong re-election victory over the weekend, Erdogan may be willing to ease his objections to Sweden’s membership. Erdogan accuses Sweden of being too soft on groups Ankara considers to be terrorists, and a series of Qur’an-burning protests in Stockholm angered his religious support base — making his tough stance even more popular.
Kristersson said the two sides had been in contact since Sunday’s vote and voiced no hesitancy in speaking about the benefits Sweden would bring to NATO “when we join the alliance.”
Blinken is in Sweden attending a meeting of the US-EU Trade and Technology Council and will travel to Oslo, Norway on Wednesday for a gathering of NATO foreign ministers, before going on to newly admitted alliance member Finland on Friday.
Speaking in Oslo ahead of the foreign ministers’ meeting, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the goal was to have Sweden inside the grouping before the leaders’ summit in July.
“There are no guarantees, but it’s absolutely possible to reach a solution and enable the decision on full membership for Sweden by the Vilnius summit,” Stoltenberg said.
India to host SCO summit in virtual format in July
- New Delhi has invited heads of state of all members, including Russia, China and Pakistan, to the summit
- Pakistan FM visited India earlier this month, but talks between two sides did not suggest any thaw in ties
NEW DELHI: India will host a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in a virtual format in July, the external affairs ministry said on Tuesday, adding that heads of state of all members, including Russia, China and Pakistan were invited.
The eight-member bloc's defence and foreign ministers attended in-person meetings in India earlier this year.
China's defence minister came to India in April for a meeting of the SCO's defence ministers, the first visit of a Chinese defence minister to India since a Himalayan border clash between the two countries' troops in May 2020.
Pakistan's foreign minister visited India earlier this month, but talks between the two countries did not suggest any thaw in their frosty relations.
The SCO is a political and security bloc that includes Russia and China, and India has been the chair since September.
Number of new German citizens hits 20-year high as many Syrians naturalized
- Preliminary figures show that about 168,500 people were granted German citizenship in 2022
- In principle, there is a requirement for people to have lived in Germany for at least eight years, though that doesn't apply to spouses and children
BERLIN: Germany saw a 28 percent increase in the number of people gaining its citizenship last year, with people from Syria accounting for more than a quarter of those who were naturalized, official data showed Tuesday.
Preliminary figures show that about 168,500 people were granted German citizenship in 2022, the Federal Statistical Office said. That was the highest number since 2002.
Of those, 48,300 — or 29 percent — were Syrian citizens. That was more than double the previous year’s figure and seven times as high as in 2020, as increasing numbers of people who migrated to Germany between 2014 and 2016 fulfill the requirements for citizenship.
Those include a working knowledge of German and proof that they can support themselves financially.
In principle, there is a requirement for people to have lived in Germany for at least eight years, though that doesn’t apply to spouses and children. It can be reduced to six years for people who show “special integration accomplishments” such as very good knowledge of the language, professional achievements or civic engagement. There were 23,100 such “early” naturalizations last year, nearly twice as many as in 2021 and 60 percent of them Syrians.
Turkish citizens were the second-biggest group of people gaining German citizenship last year — 14,200 of them, a 16 percent increase compared to 2021, and with an average of more than 24 years living in Germany.
The statistics office said that 5,600 Ukrainians gained German citizenship last year, nearly three times as many as the previous year. They had spent an average 13.3 years in Germany, compared with 6.4 years for their Syrian counterparts.
Germany’s socially liberal government plans to ease the rules for obtaining citizenship, reducing to five years from eight the number of years people are supposed to live in the country before gaining a German passport. People with “special integration accomplishments” would be eligible after three years.
The government also plans to axe restrictions on holding dual citizenship. In principle, most people from countries other than European Union members and Switzerland currently have to give up their previous nationality when they gain German citizenship.
Conservative and far-right opposition parties have assailed those plans. It isn’t yet clear when parliament will consider them.
Germany has about 84 million inhabitants.
Italy arrests a minor belonging to international network of young Daesh supporters
- The minor, identified as an Italian citizen of foreign origin, was arrested in the province of Bergamo
- Italian authorities said others in the network of young Daesh supporters were arrested last week in Europe and the United States
MILAN: Italian authorities have arrested a minor suspected of being a supporter of the Daesh terror network who was allegedly planning an explosive attack in the area where he lived, police said Tuesday.
The minor, identified as an Italian citizen of foreign origin, was arrested in the province of Bergamo on suspicion of association with the aim of terrorism, terrorist training, extolling the virtues of terrorism and instigation to commit a crime.
Italian authorities said others in the network of young Daesh supporters were arrested last week in Europe and the United States, but did not provide further details.
Investigators said that the suspect, who had been under surveillance by Italian intelligence, had quickly become radicalized, publishing terrorist propaganda online, and initiating plans for an explosive attack.
The arrest, approved by a court for minors in Brescia, was carried out last Friday. The suspect had in his possession videos of executions, weapons manuals and instructions on how to build explosive devices, which he was passing along to a network of young Daesh supporters in other countries, encouraging them to take violent action, investigators said.
