PARIS: French President Francois Hollande’s partner Valerie Trierweiler admitted yesterday she had made a mistake in firing off a tweet snubbing Hollande’s ex-companion and said she regretted it.
“It was a mistake that I regret. I must have been clumsy because this was badly interpreted,” Trierweiler told a french newspaper. “I had not yet realized that I was no longer a simple citizen. It won’t happen again.”
During Parliamentary elections in June, the 47-year-old sent out a tweet wishing good luck to an opponent of Segolene Royal — Hollande’s ex-partner.
The tweet attracted widespread media coverage, with the French press calling it an embarrassment to Hollande shortly after his victory in the presidential race.
“It is entirely to her credit that Valerie Trierweiler has taken the time to express her regrets,” government spokeswoman Najat Vallaud-Belkacem said after the first lady’s interview with Ouest-France.
There has long been speculation of intense rivalry between Royal and Trierweiler and a string of books have appeared chronicling the history of the love triangle.
According to the accounts, Hollande first became enamored of Trierweiler back in the 1980s and they were already a couple in 2007, although he publicly pretended to be still with Royal when she ran unsuccessfully for president that year.
An opinion poll released yesterday showed two-thirds of the French have a negative opinion of Trierweiler and more than 40 percent believe Hollande’s private life is having a bad impact on his image.
Separately, France presented plans yesterday for a new anti-terrorism law that will allow authorities to prosecute citizens who attend militant training camps abroad.
The move comes six months after Muhammad Merah, a French citizen who claimed to have attended Al-Qaeda-style training camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan, killed seven people in a wave of shootings in and around Toulouse.
The plans were presented to Cabinet yesterday and President Francois Hollande hopes Parliament will adopt them by the end of the year, government spokeswoman Najat Vallaud-Belkacem said.
“The terrorist threat remains at a very high level in France,” she said.
The reforms will allow authorities to detect “the spread of radicalism on the Internet and to identify people returning to France after training or participating in terrorist actions” abroad.
The bill would amend France’s criminal code to make terrorism-related crimes committed outside France punishable in the country.
Those attending training camps abroad could face up to 10 years in prison for “association with a terrorist enterprise”.
French president’s partner admits tweet ‘mistake’
French president’s partner admits tweet ‘mistake’
Myanmar’s military government releases more than 6,100 prisoners on independence anniversary
- It was not immediately clear whether those released include the thousands of political detainees imprisoned for opposing military rule
- The amnesty comes as the military government proceeds with a monthlong, three-stage election process that critics say is designed to add a facade of legitimacy to the status quo
BANGKOK: Myanmar’s military government granted amnesty to more than 6,100 prisoners and reduced other inmates’ sentences Sunday to mark the 78th anniversary of the country’s independence from Britain.
It was not immediately clear whether those released include the thousands of political detainees imprisoned for opposing military rule.
The amnesty comes as the military government proceeds with a monthlong, three-stage election process that critics say is designed to add a facade of legitimacy to the status quo.
State-run MRTV television reported that Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the head of the military government, pardoned 6,134 prisoners.
A separate statement said 52 foreigners will also be released and deported from Myanmar. No comprehensive list of those freed is available.
Other prisoners received reduced sentences, except for those convicted of serious charges such as murder and rape or those jailed on charges under various other security acts.
The release terms warn that if the freed detainees violate the law again, they will have to serve the remainder of their original sentences in addition to any new sentence.
The prisoner releases, common on holidays and other significant occasions in Myanmar, began Sunday and are expected to take several days to complete.
At Yangon’s Insein Prison, which is notorious for housing political detainees, relatives of prisoners gathered at the gates early in the morning.
However, there was no sign that the prisoner release would include former leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was ousted in the military takeover in 2021 and has been held virtually incommunicado since then.
The takeover was met with massive nonviolent resistance, which has since become a widespread armed struggle.
According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, an independent organization that keeps detailed tallies of arrests and casualties linked to the nation’s political conflicts, more than 22,000 political detainees, including Suu Kyi, were in detention as of last Tuesday.
Many political detainees had been held on a charge of incitement, a catch-all offense widely used to arrest critics of the government or military and punishable by up to three years in prison.
The 80-year-old Suu Kyi is serving a 27-year sentence after being convicted in what supporters have called politically tinged prosecutions.
Myanmar became a British colony in the late 19th century and regained its independence on Jan. 4, 1948.
The anniversary was marked in the capital, Naypyitaw, with a flag-raising ceremony at City Hall on Sunday.
