
Ex-Australia spinner MacGill avoids jail over drug deal
Sydney, May 9 (UNI) Former Australia cricketer Stuart MacGill has avoided jail after being found guilty of taking part in the supply of cocaine.
The 54-year-old was given a 22-month intensive corrections order and 495 hours of community service on Friday.
MacGill pleaded not guilty but had admitted to the use of cocaine and to introducing his brother-in-law to his drug dealer, Australian broadcaster ABC reported.
Prosecutors said that the pair later made a deal for 330,000 Australian dollars (£159,000) worth of cocaine but MacGill maintained that his involvement was limited to the introduction in Sydney in April 2021.
A police investigation began after MacGill claimed he had been abducted and beaten in April 2021,
the BBC reported.
MacGill sustained minor injuries in the incident but didn't require medical care, police said.
A group of men were arrested one month later in connection with the abduction of MacGill, who told police he had been driven to a remote site where he was assaulted and threatened at gunpoint.
Spinner MacGill, who played 44 Test matches for Australia between 1998 and 2008, was charged with taking part in the supply of a large commercial quantity of a prohibited drug in September 2023.
UNI BM

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


United News of India
2 hours ago
- United News of India
Six, including 5 Bangla nationals, convicted in Tripura under Passport Act
Agartala, June 7 (UNI) Two separate courts in Tripura on Friday convicted six people, including five Bangladeshi nationals, for offences under the Passport Act and Foreigners Act. According to police, the sub-divisional judicial magistrate in Sabroom of the South Tripura district convicted two persons identified as Rubella Chandra Das (28), a resident of Sarsha Bhikari under Feni district of Bangladesh, and Dulal Das (40) from Biswaram Bhusihi Para, Purba Bardhaman of West Bengal. Both were found guilty under Section 3 of the Passport Act. Each of them was fined Rs 5,000 and sentenced to 15 days of simple imprisonment in case of non-payment, police said. While Rubella entered India without valid documents, Dulal was accused of sheltering the illegal immigrant in India. In a separate case, the judicial magistrate 1st class in Khowai district court convicted four Bangladeshi nationals identified as Nagendra Debnath (47), Shyamal Debnath (35), Santi Debnath (55), and Subarna Debnath (26) – all residents of Habiganj District, Sylhet, in Bangladesh. They were found illegally entering India and convicted under Section 3 of the Passport Act and Section 14(A)/ 14(C) of the Foreigners Act. Each of them was fined Rs 10,000 and sentenced to one month of simple imprisonment in case of default in payment. UNI BB ARN PRS


NDTV
4 hours ago
- NDTV
UK Art Dealer Jailed For Selling Over Rs 1.6 Crore Art To Hezbollah Donor
A British art dealer who appeared on BBC television shows appraising antiques was jailed Friday for two years and six months for failing to report "high-value" art sales to a suspected Hezbollah donor. Oghenochuko Ojiri, 53, was sentenced by London's Old Bailey criminal court for selling artwork worth almost £163;140,000 (Rs 1,62,44,816) to Nazem Ahmad, suspected of financing Lebanon's Hezbollah which is banned as a terrorist group in the UK. "You knew about Ahmad's suspected involvement in financing terrorism and the way the art market can be exploited by people like him," the sentencing judge, Bobbie Cheema-Grubb, said. Ojiri pleaded guilty to eight offences of failing to disclose information under the Terrorism Act, and is thought to be the first person convicted under the specific charge. The art expert, who appeared on the BBC show Bargain Hunters and who owned a gallery in London, sold eight artworks to Ahmad -- whose name was kept off the paperwork -- between October 2020 and December 2021. Ahmad, a Lebanon-based wealthy art collector, was sanctioned in 2019 by United States authorities, who suspect him of being a "high-level" Hezbollah financer. Ojiri was "aware of the financial sanctions" the UK's Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said. He sought to "conceal the identity of the true purchaser by changing the details on invoices" and saving Ahmad under a different name on his phone, according to Bethan David from the CPS's Counter Terrorism Division "His motivation appears to be financial along with a broader desire to boost his gallery's reputation within the art market by dealing with such a well-known collector," added David. The art dealer was arrested in April 2023, on the same day that the UK government announced sanctions against Ahmad. His lawyer said Ojiri was arrested "while filming a BBC television programme", adding that the defendant had been "naive". London's Met Police officers also seized several artworks, including a Picasso and one by Andy Warhol, belonging to Ahmad from two UK warehouses as part of a joint operation with US Homeland Security. The case "should act as a warning to all art dealers that we can, and will, prosecute those who knowingly do business with people identified as funders of terrorist groups," said Dominic Murphy, head of the Met's Counter Terrorism Command.
&w=3840&q=100)

Business Standard
8 hours ago
- Business Standard
Kilmar Abrego Garcia charged with illegally transporting migrants
By Chris Strohm, Myles Miller and Bob Van Voris Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man mistakenly deported by the Trump administration to a prison in El Salvador, has been brought back to the US to face federal charges that he illegally transported undocumented immigrants within the country. Abrego Garcia was indicted by a grand jury in Tennessee in May, according to court filings. He appeared in a Tennessee courtroom Friday, hours after he was returned to the US, ABC reported. Attorney General Pam Bondi said an investigation determined that he was member of the criminal gang MS-13 and a 'danger to our community.' Abrego Garcia's case became a lightning rod over President Donald Trump's immigration policies, which have seen the administration move to ramp up deportations of undocumented migrants. The Supreme Court had told the administration to facilitate Abrego Garcia's return. 'Our government presented El Salvador with an arrest warrant and they agreed to return him to our country,' Bondi said at a press conference in Washington. 'Upon completion of sentence we anticipate he will be returned to his home country of El Salvador.' The US is seeking to have Abrego Garcia detained as a flight risk and a danger. The charges could result in him spending the rest of his life behind bars, prosecutors said. 'Today's action proves what we've known all along — that the administration had the ability to bring him back and just refused to do so,' Andrew Rossman, a lawyer for Abrego Garcia, said in an emailed statement. 'It's now up to our judicial system to see that Mr. Abrego Garcia receives the due process that the constitution guarantees to all persons.' According to court documents, Abrego Garcia's role, with other unidentified people, was to pick up migrants in the Houston area after they'd illegally crossed the border into Texas, then move them to other parts of the country. Abrego Garcia and other members of the group also allegedly transported guns and drugs illegally purchased in Texas into Maryland. Before he was removed from the country, an immigration judge had ruled that Abrego Garcia could not be sent to his home country of El Salvador, finding that he would be at risk of harm under the Convention Against Torture. The government later admitted he'd been deported to El Salvador in error. After he was removed from the country in March, his lawyers asked a federal court in Maryland to order his return to the US. Abrego Garica was initially kept in El Salvador's notorious Terrorism Confinement Center, but was later moved to another facility. On April 10, the US Supreme Court agreed with US District Judge Paula Xinis that Abrego Garcia shouldn't have been deported and ordered the Trump administration to 'facilitate' his release from Salvadoran custody. Trump and El Salvador President Nayib Bukele initially responded by claiming they had no power to return Abrego Garcia. Xinis then ordered the government to answer questions detailing its efforts to facilitate Abrego Garcia's return. A US appeals court upheld the order in a harshly critical opinion on April 17. 'Thanks to the bright light that has been shined on Abrego Garcia, this investigation continued,' Bondi said Friday. Chris Van Hollen, the Maryland Democratic senator who visited Abrego Garcia in El Salvador, said that the administration will now 'have to make its case in the court of law.' 'For months the Trump administration flouted the Supreme Court and our Constitution,' Van Hollen said. 'Today, they appear to have finally relented to our demands for compliance with court orders and with the due process rights afforded to everyone in the United States.'