Brussels bombing suspect Osama K. charged in Paris attacks

• Belgium
 
• Brussels attacks
 
• Paris attacks (Nov. 13)

Brussels bombing suspect Osama K. charged in Paris attacks

Latest update : 20/04/2016

 
 
 
 
 

© John Thys, AFP | Police officers stand outside a Brussels courthouse on April 14, 2016.

Article text by FRANCE 24 

A main suspect in the investigation into the Brussels bombings has also been charged with participation in the Paris attacks four months earlier, Belgian federal prosecutors said on Wednesday. 

Osama Krayem, who was arrested in Brussels earlier this month, might have been present in different safehouses used by the militant attackers, such as a suspected bomb factory raided in December, prosecutors said.

“He has been charged with terrorist murder and participation in the activities of a terrorist group,” prosecutors said in a statement.

Krayem, a Swedish national, had been previously linked to the attacks in Paris after it emerged that he had been checked by police in October near the southern German city of Ulm in a car rented by Salah Abedelslam, a key suspect in the investigation.

Belgian prosecutors also believe Krayem is the man seen with Brussels bomber Khalid El Bakraoui shortly before he blew himself up at a metro station, and was responsible for buying the bags used to transport the explosives. He was charged with terrorist murder over the Brussels bombings shortly after his arrest on April 8.

The Brussels bombings claimed the lives of 32 victims in March, while 130 died in November’s attacks in Paris.

Turkish court overturns 275 convictions in Erdogan coup plot case

Turkey’s appeals court has overturned coup plot convictions imposed in 2013 on a retired military chief and other senior figures in a case then regarded as clipping the wings of the secularist and military establishment, state media said on Thursday.

The ruling closes the final chapter in a nine-year legal drama whose twists and turns have tracked the shifting balance of power at the heart of the Turkish establishment.

In August 2013, ex-military chief General Ilker Basbug was sentenced to life in jail for his role in the “Ergenekon” plot to overthrow then-Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s Islamist-rooted government.

Politicians, lawyers and journalists were also among 275 defendants in the case, which emerged in 2007 when an arms cache was discovered in a house in an Istanbul suburb.

It was at the time championed by Erdogan and his supporters as a battle against anti-democratic forces and to tame a military that had seen itself as the guardian of secularism, carrying out three coups and forcing a fourth, Islamist-led government from power in the second half of the 20th century.

In Thursday’s ruling, the appeals court said there had been no “Ergenekon terror group”, and that evidence had been collected illegally, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

Sledgehammer

After the 2013 convictions, the case became entwined in a power struggle between Erdogan and U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, whose influential followers in the judiciary had been seen as key to the Ergenekon convictions.

Erdogan accused Gulen of using his influence within state institutions to try to unseat him in a coup plot. As their feud deepened, the Ergenekon defendants were released in March 2014, with the government suggesting they too may have been unfairly treated and the victims of a Gulenist plot.

Another trial over an alleged 2003 plot against Erdogan, the “Sledgehammer” case, ended with acquittal for more than 200 military officers in March last year.

The prosecutor who led the Ergenekon investigation, viewed as close to Gulen, fled to Armenia in August as an arrest warrant was issued for him over his role in a separate investigation of alleged corruption in Erdogan’s inner circle.

That corruption inquiry was thrown out by the courts and the judiciary and police subjected to a systematic purge of suspected Gulen supporters.

Police operations have subsequently targeted thousands of supporters of Gulen, accused of leading what prosecutors described as a “Gulenist Terror Group” trying to overthrow Erdogan. Gulen denies the accusations.

EU Parliament recommends making Turkish 25th official language

The European Parliament has advised making Turkish an official language of the European Union, building on the initiative by Greek Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades, according to the EP’s 2015 progress report on Turkey. 

“The European Parliament … welcomes the initiative of … Anastasiades, to make Turkish an official language of the EU, and urges the parties to accelerate this process,” read a part of EP’s progress report on Turkey, which was adopted on April 14, with 375 yay votes to 133 nays, and 87 abstentions.

Anastasiades had lobbied for Turkish to be made the EU’s 25th official language ahead of expected reunification with Turkish Cyprus.

The Mediterranean island of Cyprus has been divided since 1974 after Turkey intervened in the north following a coup attempt to join Greece took place.

The two communities of the island, Turkish and Greek, re-launched peace talks under the auspices of the United Nations last May to find a peaceful solution to the more than 40-year-old dispute.

The two leaders of the island, Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot President Mustafa Akıncı, jointly expressed in January that a peace deal was possible by the end of 2016.

Obama kicks off London visit by urging Brits to vote against Brexit in June referendum

US President Barack Obama arrived in London on Thursday with a mission - to persuade British voters not to ditch membership of the European Union in a referendum that Washington fears could weaken the West.

Obama is urging Britons to vote to stay in the European Union, saying the challenges in the world require allies to “stick together.”

In an op-ed published in the Telegraph newspaper, Obama says Great Britain’s presence in the EU “magnifies” Britain’s influence and helps spread “British values.”

Obama writes he’s offering his view “with the candour of a friend” and notes the decision will affect US interests.

Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam charged with attempted murder in Begium

Salah Abdeslam, a key suspect in November’s Paris attacks, has been charged with attempted murder in Belgium during a police shootout in Brussels three days before his arrest, prosecutors said.

Abdeslam, who is due to be extradited to France in the next few weeks over his part in the attacks in Paris by Islamic State militants that killed 130 people, appeared before a Belgian judge on Thursday.

Four police officers were wounded and an Islamist gunman was killed in the shootout at a suspected militant safe house in the Brussels district of Forest on March 15.

Hundreds of migrants feared dead in shipwreck off Libya

The UN refugee agency said on Wednesday it feared around 500 migrants from Africa had drowned in the Mediterranean, in what could be one of the worst tragedies since the start of the refugee crisis in Europe.

Survivors who were spotted drifting at sea before being picked up by a passing merchant ship on April 16 told the UNHCR many migrants drowned when human traffickers tried to transfer people on to another, already overcrowded vessel somewhere between Libya and Italy.

The latest reported deaths come as Europe struggles to find a way of stemming the flow of people fleeing war, poverty and persecution in what has become the continent's worst migrant crisis since World War II.

Brussels bombing suspect Osama K. charged in Paris attacks

A main suspect in the investigation into the Brussels bombings has also been charged with participation in the Paris attacks four months earlier, Belgian federal prosecutors said on Wednesday.

Osama Krayem, who was arrested in Brussels earlier this month, might have been present in different safehouses used by the militant attackers, such as a suspected bomb factory raided in December, prosecutors said.

“He has been charged with terrorist murder and participation in the activities of a terrorist group,” prosecutors said in a statement.

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen to campaign for Brexit

Marine Le Pen, the leader of France’s far-right National Front (FN) party, is planning to visit the UK in the coming weeks to campaign in favour of Britain leaving the European Union.

The FN’s head of communication, Alain Vizier, told FRANCE 24 that “while no date has been set, she will definitely be going to London”.

Le Pen is an MEP whose party is virulently anti-Europe and anti-immigration. She has said she would organise a referendum in France on leaving the EU if she were to come to power. Her party has been monitoring the British referendum closely, hoping for a pro-Brexit vote that would give a boost to the FN agenda at home.

Queen's 90th birthday: Beacons lit amid UK celebrations

• 4 hours ago
 
• From the sectionUK

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Media captionHow the Queen spent her 90th birthday

The Queen has lit the first of more than 900 beacons lighting up across the UK and overseas as part of her 90th birthday celebrations.

Prince Philip, the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall then joined the monarch at a private dinner in Windsor Castle.

Earlier, cheering crowds lined the streets in Windsor as the Queen took part in a walkabout.

On Twitter, the Queen thanked senders of "#HappyBirthdayYourMajesty" tweets.

In another tweet, the Queen said: "I send my best wishes to those who are celebrating their 90th birthday... on this shared occasion, I send my warm congratulations to you."

• Follow the day's live events as Queen turns 90
• In pictures: Queen's birthday celebrations

Ukraine bans Russian films in media war

• 21 April 2016
 
• From the sectionEurope

Image copyrightGetty Images

Image captionKiev: Nationalist feelings have surged amid tension with ethnic Russians in Ukraine

Ukraine has banned Russian films, including TV dramas and documentaries, made since 1 January 2014 in what Kiev regards as "an aggressor state".

The ban follows other restrictive measures imposed by Russia and Ukraine on each other since Russia's annexation of Crimea in March 2014.

They have barred each other's main TV channels on their territory.

Ukraine has blacklisted 83 cultural figures, most of them Russian, whom it considers a national security threat.

Those on the list - barred from visiting Ukraine - mostly support Russia's annexation of Crimea and the pro-Russian insurgency in eastern Ukraine.

Turkish hotline for Erdogan insults angers Dutch

• 2 hours ago
 
• From the sectionEurope

Image copyrightAFP

Image captionAlmost 2,000 legal cases have been launched in Turkey for insulting the president

The Turkish consulate in Rotterdam has infuriated Dutch MPs by calling on Turkish groups in the Netherlands to inform it of insults against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Several MPs complained of the "long arm of the Turkish state" while the Dutch PM said it was a "strange" move.

Last week, Germany allowed the prosecution of a top satirist for insulting Mr Erdogan to proceed.

Jan Boehmermann had read a crude poem on TV, aimed at testing German law.

Both Germany and the Netherlands have old lese majeste laws against insulting the head of a friendly head of state.

Brussels bombing: Anger over Jambon's 'Muslim dancing' comment

• 21 April 2016
 
• From the sectionEurope

Image copyrightPA

Image captionTwo bombs tore through Brussels airport on 22 March

Belgium under attack

• Victims of the Brussels attacks
• Have Belgian blunders hampered Brussels attacks inquiry?
• Brussels attacks: Molenbeek's gangster jihadists
• Brussels explosions: What we know

Belgian Interior Minister Jan Jambon has come under fire for saying that a "significant part of the Muslim community danced" in response to the Brussels bomb attacks.

He was repeatedly asked by MPs for evidence of his claim and a Muslim group has made an official complaint.

The 22 March bomb attacks at Brussels airport and Maelbeek metro station left 32 dead and hundreds more wounded.