UK will roll out chemical castration for sex offenders
LONDON, May 22, (AP): The British government is to roll out the use of medication to suppress the sex drive of sex offenders, as part of a package of measures to reduce the risk of reoffending and alleviate the pressures on the prison system, which is running out of space.
In a statement to Parliament Thursday following the release of an independent sentencing review, Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood said so-called chemical castration would be used in 20 prisons in two regions and that she was considering making it mandatory.
"Of course, it is vital that this approach is taken alongside psychological interventions that target other causes of offending, like asserting power and control," she said.
Though the review highlighted the treatment would not be relevant for some sex offenders such as rapists driven by power and control, rather than sexual preoccupation, Mahmood said studies show that chemical castration can lead to a 60% reduction in reoffending.
It's been used in Germany and Denmark on a voluntary basis, and in Poland as mandatory for some offenders. The recommendation was part of a wide-ranging review led by former justice secretary, David Gauke.
As well as looking at ways to cut reoffending, Gauke recommended reforms to overhaul the prisons system, which is running at near-capacity.
One of the first things Mahmood did as justice minister after Labour returned to power after 14 years last July was sanction an early-release program for prisoners to free up space. She says she inherited a judicial system that had been neglected for years by the previous Conservative government and set up the review as a means to stabilize it.
"If our prisons collapse, courts are forced to suspend trials,' she said. "The police must halt their arrests, crime goes unpunished, criminals run amok, and chaos reigns. We face the breakdown of law and order in this country.'
The review recommended that criminals could be released from prison earlier than currently, while judges could be given more flexibility to impose punishments such as driving bans.
It also recommended that sentences of less than 12 months would also be scrapped, apart from exceptional circumstances such as domestic abuse cases. It also called for the immediate deportation for foreign nationals handed a three-year sentence or less.
The review called for higher investment in the probation service to allow officers to spend more time with offenders for their rehabilitation and extra funding for the many more being tagged in the community. Mahmood responded by giving a 700 million-pound ($930 million) a year for probation within years.
"If the government doesn't put the resources into probation that is necessary, then the risk here is that we won't make progress on rehabilitation that we need, and there will be a public backlash against it," Gauke said.
The prison population in England and Wales has doubled over the past 30 years or so to nearly 90,000. That's despite a fall in crime rates and is driven in part by the fact that longer sentences are being handed out amid pressure to be tough on crime. Robert Jenrick, the justice spokesman for the Conservatives, warned that scrapping short sentences would be effectively "decriminalizing' offenses like burglary, theft and assault.
And tags, he said, are as useful as "smoke alarms putting out bonfires' in stopping reoffending. In response, Mahmood said she was clearing up the mess left by the Conservatives and that the government has also embarked on the largest expansion of the prison estate since Victorian times in the 19th century.
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Arab Times
6 hours ago
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Men who stole $6 million golden toilet sentenced to prison terms
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Arab Times
6 hours ago
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Israel warns Iran that 'Tehran will burn' if it continues firing missiles
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Iran retaliated by launching waves of drones and ballistic missiles at Israel, where explosions lit the night skies over Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and shook the buildings below. The Israeli military urged civilians, already rattled by 20 months of war sparked by Hamas' Oct. 7 attack, to head to shelter for hours. Both Israel and Iran said their attacks would continue, raising the prospect of another protracted Mideast conflict. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday that his objective was to eliminate any Iranian threat to Israel, but he also urged Iranians to rise up against their leaders. Israel would welcome the government's overthrow even if it is not actively seeking it. Israel's strikes also put further talks between the United States and Iran over a nuclear accord into doubt before they were set to meet Sunday in Oman. I ran's Foreign Ministry spokesman called further nuclear talks with the United States "meaningless' after Israeli strikes on the country, state television said. "The U.S. did a job that made the talks become meaningless,' Esmail Baghaei was quoted as saying. He added that Israel had passed all Iran's red lines by committing a "criminal act' through its strikes. However, he stopped short of saying the talks were cancelled. The Mizan news agency, which is run by Iran's judiciary, quoted him as saying: "It is still not clear what we decide about Sunday's talks.' Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a recorded message Friday: "We will not allow them to escape safely from this great crime they committed.' Iran launched waves of missiles at Israel late Friday and early Saturday. Iranians awoke Saturday to state television airing repeated clips of strikes on Israel, as well as videos of people cheering and handing out sweets. Israel's military said more drones were intercepted near the Dead Sea early Saturday. A hospital in Tel Aviv treated seven people wounded in the second Iranian barrage; all but one of them had light injuries. Israel's Fire and Rescue Services said they were wounded when a projectile hit a building in the city. A spokesperson for Beilinson Hospital said one woman was killed. Hours later, an Iranian missile struck near homes in the central Israeli city of Rishon Lezion, killing two more people and wounding 19, according to Israel's paramedic service Magen David Adom. Israel's Fire and Rescue service said four homes were severely damaged. Meanwhile, the sound of explosions and Iranian air defense systems firing at targets echoed across central Tehran shortly after midnight on Saturday. An Associated Press journalist could hear air raid sirens near their home. Iran's semiofficial Tasnim news agency reported a fire at Tehran's Mehrabad International Airport. A video posted on X showed a column of smoke and flames rising from what the outlet said was the airport. The Israeli military said it carried out overnight strikes on dozens of targets, including air defenses, "in the area of Tehran.' Israel's paramedic services said 34 people were wounded in the barrage on the Tel Aviv area, including a woman who was critically injured after being trapped under rubble. In Ramat Gan, east of Tel Aviv, an AP journalist saw burned-out cars and at least three damaged houses, including one where the front was nearly entirely torn away. Residents of a central Israeli city that was hit Friday night told the AP the explosion was so powerful it shook their shelter door open. "We thought, that's it, the house is gone, and in fact half of the house was gone, it fell apart," said Moshe Shani. U.S. ground-based air defense systems in the region were helping to shoot down Iranian missiles, said a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the measures. Israel's ongoing airstrikes and Iran's retaliation raised concerns about all-out war between the countries and propelled the region, already on edge, into even greater upheaval. Israel's 20-month-long war with Gaza shows no signs of ending. At least 27 people were killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza overnight Friday, according to local hospitals. Countries in the region condemned Israel's attack, while leaders around the globe called for immediate de-escalation from both sides. Israel had long threatened such a strike, and successive American administrations sought to prevent it, fearing it would ignite a wider conflict across the Middle East and possibly be ineffective at destroying Iran's dispersed and hardened nuclear program. But a confluence of developments triggered by Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack - plus the reelection of U.S. President Donald Trump - created the conditions that allowed Israel to finally follow through on its threats. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the U.S. was informed in advance of the attack. On Thursday, Iran was censured by the U.N.'s atomic watchdog for not complying with obligations meant to prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon. The crossfire between Israel and Iran disrupted East-West travel through the Mideast, a key global aviation route, but Jordan's state-run Petra news agent said the country would reopen its airspace to civilian aircraft at 7:30 a.m. Saturday, signaling it believes there is no immediate danger. Lebanon's government also said Saturday it had reopened its airspace. Among the key sites Israel attacked was Iran's main nuclear enrichment facility in Natanz, where black smoke could be seen rising into the air. It also appeared to strike a second, smaller nuclear enrichment facility in Fordo, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) southeast of Tehran, according to an Iranian news outlet close to the government that reported hearing explosions nearby. Israel said it also struck a nuclear research facility in Isfahan, and said it destroyed dozens of radar installations and surface-to-air missile launchers in western Iran. Iran confirmed the strike at Isfahan. U.N. nuclear chief Rafael Grossi told the Security Council that the above-ground section of the Natanz facility was destroyed. The main centrifuge facility underground did not appear to have been hit, but the loss of power could have damaged the infrastructure there, he said. Netanyahu said the attack had been months in the making and was planned for April before being postponed. Israel's Mossad spy agency positioned explosive drones and precision weapons inside Iran ahead of time, and used them to target Iranian air defenses and missile launchers near Tehran, according to two security officials who spoke on condition of anonymity. It was not possible to independently corroborate those claims. Over the past year, Israel has been targeting Iran's air defenses, hitting a radar system for a Russian-made air defense battery in April 2024 and surface-to-air missile sites and missile manufacturing facilities in October. The first wave of strikes gave Israel "significant freedom of movement' in Iran's skies, clearing the way for further attacks, according to an Israeli military official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss details of the attack with the media. The official said Israel is prepared for an operation that could last up to two weeks, but that there was no firm timeline. Among those killed were three of Iran's top military leaders: one who oversaw the entire armed forces, Gen. Mohammad Bagheri; one who led the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, Gen. Hossein Salami; and the head of the Guard's ballistic missile program, Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh. Two of Bagheri's deputies were also killed, Iran confirmed Saturday: Gen. Gholamreza Mehrabi, the deputy of intelligence for the armed forces' general staff, and Gen. Mehdi Rabbani, the deputy of operations. Trump urged Iran on Friday to reach a deal with the U.S. on its nuclear program, warning on his Truth Social platform that Israel's attacks "will only get worse.' "Iran must make a deal, before there is nothing left,' he wrote.
Arab Times
7 hours ago
- Arab Times
American man detained in Greece over suspected double killing of infant and woman in Rome
MILAN, June 14, (AP): Greek authorities detained an American man on Friday on the Greek island of Skiathos suspected of killing an infant found over the weekend in a Rome park and of having a role in the death of a woman believed to be the infant's mother, whose body was found nearby. The American, who wasn't identified, was detained on a European arrest warrant issued in Italy, citing "strong evidence' of his suspected involvement in the death of the baby girl, chief Rome prosecutor Francesco Lo Voi told a news conference in Rome. Italian investigators said that the cause of the woman's death wasn't known, "but there is a reasonable suspicion that it is a double murder,' deputy prosecutor Giuseppe Cascini said. The bodies of the baby girl and mother, also believed to be American, were found in Rome's Villa Pamphili park on Saturday. The mother's body was under a black bag, having been killed several days before the infant, who was found several hundred meters away in undergrowth. Both were naked, and without any identification, Lo Voi said. The suspect, who witnesses had seen in the presence of a woman and infant, fled Italy for Skiathos on Wednesday, Lo Voi said. He will be formally arrested when the warrant is forwarded to Greek officials, and will appear for an extradition hearing next week, Greek police told The Associated Press. "It is not exactly understandable that someone who was with a woman and a baby girl, once the woman and the girl died, whom he carried in his arms, would then leave the country without calling for help, without seeking assistance," Lo Voi said. "In itself, that doesn't look good.' The victims' relationship with the suspect wasn't immediately clear - but video surveillance and witness reports put them together on several occasions; witnesses heard them speaking in English. They had been traced to a shelter for the needy near the Vatican, where they appeared to be a nuclear family, Corriere della Sera reported. At one point, the pair had fought in the street, leading police to take his identity, which helped lead to him, investigators said. Authorities were able to track down the suspect thanks to fingerprints on the bag covering the woman and a scrap of a tent like ones provided to people without shelter, the newspaper said. He was located in Greece with cellphone data. According to the newspaper, the woman, who was around 30 years old, had a tattoo of a skeleton on a surfboard.
