LONDON: Syria’s first lady, who is also a British citizen, may be prosecuted and stripped of her UK citizenship after a preliminary investigation was opened into allegations that she incited and encouraged terrorist acts during the country’s civil war.
Asma Al-Assad, 45, moved to Syria after her marriage to Bashar Al-Assad in 2000, and has given speeches supporting the Syrian armed forces.
Syrian forces have targeted civilian areas, including hospitals and schools, with barrel bombs, chemical weapons, airstrikes and artillery during the last ten years and the Syrian government has been designated a state sponsor of terror by the US.
The Metropolitan police have opened a preliminary investigation after an international law chambers based in London sent evidence of the first lady’s power in the Syrian ruling class and vocal support for Syrian armed forces, The Times reported.
If prosecuted, she would join other influential figures in autocratic regimes who have faced justice in the UK.
Toby Cadman, head of law chambers Guernica 37, said he believed the case for prosecuting Al-Assad was a strong one.
“Our legal team at Guernica 37 has been actively investigating this matter for several months and as a result have filed two confidential communications with the Metropolitan police service counter terrorism command (SO15). It is important that as we approach the tenth anniversary of the conflict in Syria, there is an effective process aimed at ensuring those responsible are held accountable,” Cadman told the British newspaper.
The investigation argues that Al-Assad is guilty of encouraging terrorism through her public support of the Syrian armed forces.
It is not clear whether prosecutors would wish to proceed with a trial in absentia and it is unlikely that the first lady would obey a court summons in the UK.
An Interpol red notice could be issued, which would mean she could not travel outside Syria without facing arrest.
The investigation also raises the serious possibility that Al-Assad could come under scrutiny by the Home Office and be stripped of her British citizenship.
A Met spokesman said: “We can confirm that the Met’s war crimes unit … received a referral on July 31, 2020 relating to the ongoing Syrian conflict. The referral is in the process of being assessed by officers from the war crimes unit.”

BEIRUT: Lebanese supermarkets halted sales and businesses closed their doors on Saturday as the country’s embattled currency slumped to a record low on the black market.

With the dollar exchange rate exceeding 12,000 Lebanese pounds, panic erupted on the streets as shopkeepers and major outlets stopped selling goods to avoid incurring losses.

Amid growing alarm at the country’s increasingly precarious state, activists in working-class areas in Mount Lebanon climbed the minarets of mosques and called on people to take to the streets.

A spokesperson for the Oct. 17 revolution said: “We will stay in the squares until the corrupt system falls.”

Hundreds of protesters in Martyrs’ Square in downtown Beirut pounded on metal barriers blocking access to parliament and hurled rocks at security forces manning  roadblocks.

Anti-riot personnel launched tear-gas grenades after violent clashes erupted between protesters and security forces.

In the past three days, Lebanon’s currency has endured a roller-coaster ride, rising to 9,000 Lebanese pounds against the dollar before falling to 10,000 Lebanese pounds.

But in a dramatic collapse on Saturday, the Lebanese pound fell from 11,750 to 12,200 against the dollar, with the slump worsening by the hour despite efforts to close online trading platforms.

Economist Louis Hobeika told Arab News: “The strong demand for the dollar is caused by the decline in confidence in the country. People are panicking about the future.”

Hobeika rejected the idea that banks are buying up dollars.

“The dollar trading volume in the Lebanese market does not exceed $2.5 million. The banks want to increase their capital on the request of the Banque du Liban collectively and need $3.5 billion — and this cannot be secured from the Lebanese market.”

Protesters traveled to Martyrs’ Square from different regions, with retired soldiers leading many groups.

The demonstrators raised Lebanese flags, played revolutionary and patriotic songs over loudspeakers, and chanted angry slogans.

A group of protesters near the Banque du Liban joined with families of the victims of the Beirut port explosion demanding that the investigation into the blast be stepped up and not politicized.

Baalbek business owners blocked roads after they closed their stores.

In Sidon, drivers formed roadblocks with their cars, while there were also protests on the streets of Tyre.

In the Bekaa region, some gas stations were demanding 70,000 Lebanese pounds for a can of petrol as fears grew over the state of the fuel market.

George Al-Baraks, a member of the Syndicate of Gas Station Owners, said that “there is no gasoline or diesel crisis.”

He said that distribution “will be rationalized in order to maintain fuel deliveries, in line with the approval of the Banque du Liban to open credits for ships of import companies and oil facilities.”

Panic in Lebanon is growing as the stalemate between President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri shows no signs of ending.

MP Rola Tabsh Jaroudi told Arab News: “Those who are obstructing the formation of the government must bear the consequences of the chaos in the street.

“Hariri’s position was clear from the beginning, and he has the approval of foreign countries for what he proposed. He will remain committed to forming the government.”

On the Free Patriotic Movement’s calls for Hariri to step down, Tabsh Jaroudi said: “He is the prime minister appointed by the members of parliament, and he will not concede what he proposed, nor will he accept the bargaining that is taking place.”

He added: “People are hungry. It is their right to take to the streets to get their voices heard.”

CAIRO: A leader of the migrant community in the Yemeni capital on Saturday called for an international probe into a fire that tore through a detention center last week, killing at least 44 people, mostly Ethiopian migrants.
In a news conference in Sanaa, Othman Gilto, who heads the Ethiopian community, blamed “negligence” by the Houthis who control the capital, as well as the United Nations, which has aid agencies present in Yemen. The fire also injured more than 200 people, he said.
Some 900 migrants, mostly from Ethiopia, were detained at the facility — including 350 inside a warehouse — when the fire took place on Sunday, according to the International Organization for Migration. That was three times the facility’s capacity, it added.
At least 43 of the dead were buried in a Sanaa cemetery on Friday amid tight security. Women from the migrant community were seen screaming and crying while ambulances, carrying the bodies, arrived from a funeral service at a major mosque.
Abdallah Al-Leithi, head of the Sudanese community in Sanaa, said many of the dead lacked IDs and could not be identified, adding that most “had not given their real names” on documentation before the fire.
There were no immediate comments from the Houthis.
The UN migration agency has called for those responsible for the tragedy to be held accountable, said Olivia Headon, the agency’s spokeswoman in Yemen.
“We stand with the victims of the fire. Migrants urgently need more protection and support in Yemen, or we will continue to see them suffer and lives lost. A step in this direction is to ensure that the victims of the fire and their families have the accountability they deserve following the horrific incident,” she said.
Survivors and local rights campaigners say the deadly blaze erupted when guards fired tear gas into the crowded warehouse, trying to end a protest against alleged abuses and ill-treatment at the facility.
The Iran-backed Houthi militia did not state the cause of the fire, mention a protest or give a final casualty toll. They had said an investigation was opened but no conclusions have been announced. The Houthis also prevented the UN migration agency from accessing injured migrants at hospitals, the agency said.
Some 138,000 migrants embarked on the arduous journey from the Horn of Africa to Yemen in 2019, but the figure plummeted to 37,000 last year because of the coronavirus pandemic. Over 2,500 migrants reached Yemen from Djibouti in January, according to the IOM.

RAMALLAH: The Palestinian Authority and the Arab League on Saturday condemned the Czech Republic’s opening of a diplomatic office in Jerusalem, calling it a violation of international law.

Prague opened a Jerusalem branch of its Israel embassy, which is located in Tel Aviv, on Thursday. Its inauguration, attended by Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis, was two weeks after Israel sent several thousand COVID-19 vaccine doses to the Czech Republic.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry said it considered Prague’s move “a blatant attack on the Palestinian people and their rights, a flagrant violation of international law,” and said it would harm peace prospects.

In Cairo, Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit said in a statement: “The legal status of Jerusalem will be affected by the decision of one country or another to open representative offices. East Jerusalem is an occupied land under the International law.”

Jerusalem’s status is one of the thorniest issues in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israel annexed the eastern part of the city in a move not recognised internationally and regards all of Jerusalem as its capital.

The Palestinians seek East Jerusalem, which Israel captured along with the West Bank and Gaza in the 1967 Middle East War, as the capital of a future independent state.

Peace talks broke down in 2014.

Although the Czech Republic supports a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it was named in an International Criminal Court pre-trial decision last month as one of the countries supporting Israel’s argument that the court had no jurisdiction over war crimes in the Palestinian territories.

The Czech Republic is also one of Israel’s strongest supporters in the European Union. Last month Israel froze its short-lived “vaccine diplomacy” programme to send COVID-19 vaccines abroad to buy international goodwill after it came under legal scrutiny.

TRIPOLI: Libya’s first woman foreign minister, Najla El-Mangoush, will be sworn in next week as part of a new unity government, a rare female voice at the top table whose appointment many Libyan women welcomed this week.
Mangoush, a lawyer who had a role in the transitional council that briefly governed Libya after its 2011 uprising, will be joined by four other women in the Cabinet, including Halima Abdulrahman as justice minister.
“I think this is a win for all of us women in Libya. I hope it’s a first step to going further: A woman reaching head of government,” said Afia Mohammed, 34, a pastry maker in Tripoli, adding it would encourage more women to enter politics.
Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh’s interim government emerged through a UN talks process and is mandated to unify Libya’s divided state institutions and oversee national elections in December.
The 75 Libyan delegates selected by the UN to take part in those talks laid out a commitment for the new government to include women in 30 percent of senior government roles, including in top Cabinet posts.
Women represent only 15 percent of the posts in Dbeibeh’s Cabinet but the proportion will rise when deputy ministers are appointed, he has said.
Elham Saudi, a lawyer and talks delegate, said: “It’s a stepping stone toward fuller representation.”

She said the quota was a result of women in the forum being “absolutely relentless on this point” despite having big differences on other political issues.
As the first meeting took place in Tunis, where Saudi said women delegates faced a barrage of sexist online abuse, Hanan Al-Barassi, a female lawyer and critic of rights violations, was shot dead on a busy Benghazi street.
When the Libyan state crumbled after 2011 and myriad warring factions seized territory, women suffered a wave of violence and those in official positions were nearly all men — until now.
“This will give an opportunity for other women to join the work in sovereign positions. The five ministers will be role models,” said Lamees BenSaad, a women’s rights activist and another member of the UN talks forum.
“We have been fighting a long time for this gain.”
Opposition to women having a big public role is not only held by men. Tahani Qarouq, who makes wedding delicacies in Tripoli, said she did not agree with women running Cabinet ministries or state institutions.
But Hanan Malouda, selling beauty products in the market, said women in government would be good for Libya.
“Hopefully they will have more compassion for us,” she said.