Kurdish 'Foxtrot Network' crime boss sanctioned by the UK for attacks linked to Iran
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British officials say the move is part of its wider response to Iranian hostilities across Europe
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Gulf Today
13 hours ago
- Gulf Today
3 Britons face death penalty in Indonesia
Three British nationals accused of smuggling nearly a kilogramme of cocaine into Indonesia were charged on Tuesday in a court on the tourist island of Bali. They face the death penalty under the country's strict drug laws. Convicted drug smugglers in Indonesia are sometimes executed by firing squad. Jonathan Collyer, 28, and Lisa Ellen Stocker, 29, were arrested on Feb.1 after customs officers halted them at the X-ray machine after finding suspicious items in their luggage disguised as food packages, said prosecutor I Made Dipa Umbara. Umbara told the District Court in Denpasar that a lab test result confirmed that ten sachets of Angel Delight powdered dessert mix in Collyer's luggage combined with seven similar sachets in his partner's suitcase contained 993.56 grammes of cocaine, worth an estimated 6 billion rupiah ($368,000). Two days later, authorities arrested Phineas Float, 31 after a controlled delivery set up by police in which the other two suspects handed the drug to him in the parking area of a hotel in Denpasar. He is being tried separately. The drugs were brought from England to Indonesia with a transit in the Doha international airport in Qatar, Umbara said. The group successfully smuggled cocaine into Bali on two previous occasions before being caught on their third attempt, said Ponco Indriyo, the Deputy Director of the Bali Police Narcotics Unit during a news conference in Denpasar on Feb.7. After the charges against the group of three were read, the panel of three judges adjourned the trial until June 10, when the court will hear witness testimony. Both the defendants and their lawyers declined to comment to media after the trial. About 530 people, including 96 foreigners, are on death row in Indonesia, mostly for drug-related crimes, the Ministry of Immigration and Corrections' data showed. Indonesia's last executions, of an Indonesian and three foreigners, were carried out in July 2016. A British woman, Lindsay Sandiford, now 69, has been on death row in Indonesia for more than a decade. She was arrested in 2012 when 3.8 kilogrammes of cocaine was discovered stuffed inside the lining of her luggage at Bali's airport. Indonesia's highest court upheld the death sentence for Sandiford in 2013. Associated Press
Middle East Eye
19 hours ago
- Middle East Eye
Majority of British people support arms embargo on Israel
A majority of British people support a full arms embargo on Israel, according to a new poll commissioned by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign. The poll, conducted by Opinium Research between 30 May and 2 June, found that 57 percent of people think the UK should impose a full arms embargo, with only 13 percent opposed. The poll also found 53 percent of people think Israel should be expelled from the United Nations, while 50 percent said Israeli products in supermarkets should be boycotted. Fifty-four percent backed sanctioning far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who has been a staunch supporter of Israel's total blockade of the Gaza Strip that has left over 93 percent of the population suffering from acute food insecurity. Increasing numbers of public figures in the UK are speaking out against Israel's war on Gaza, which has killed at least 54,607 Palestinians and wounded 125,341 since 7 October 2023. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters Last week, more than 300 artists signed an open letter to Prime Minister Keir Starmer calling for an end to British arms sales to Israel. The new poll comes after a similar survey showed public support for Israel in European countries had fallen to its lowest recorded level. Support for Israel in Europe drops to record low, finds YouGov poll Read More » According to a survey by YouGov last month, fewer than a fifth of respondents in six countries held a favourable view of Israel. The poll was conducted between 12 and 26 May in Britain, France, Germany, Denmark, Spain and Italy. Middle East Eye revealed on Tuesday that the US has been pressuring the UK not to back a French proposal to recognise a Palestinian state. France is reportedly gearing up to unilaterally recognise Palestine at an upcoming UN conference. MEE understands that France has been lobbying Britain to do so as well. Prominent Israeli diplomat Alon Pinkas told MEE this week that Macron's push to recognise Palestinian statehood 'is serious and has the backing of most of the European Union and Saudi Arabia'. French officials believe the British government is on board with the plan, according to French media.
Middle East Eye
20 hours ago
- Middle East Eye
Exclusive: UK believes Trump may sanction Amal Clooney over ICC Palestine role
The British government believes the US could sanction prominent human rights lawyer Amal Clooney over her role advising the ICC chief prosecutor on arrest warrants for Israeli leaders, Middle East Eye can reveal. In April it emerged that the British Foreign Office had warned senior British lawyers involved in the ICC's war crimes case against two senior Israeli leaders that they are at risk of US sanctions. This came after the Trump administration imposed financial and visa sanctions on Karim Khan, the court's British chief prosecutor, in February. Last November the ICC issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Trump's executive order, a response to the arrest warrants, warned further measures could follow 'on those responsible for those transgressions'. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters Multiple sources within the British government told MEE that last week the Foreign Office's legal directorate listed Amal Clooney and Lord Justice Adrian Fulford as being potentially at risk of US sanctions. Clooney, a prominent British barrister of Lebanese and Palestinian descent, is the wife of Hollywood actor George Clooney. But she is not an American citizen and could be barred from entering the US if she is sanctioned. 'I believe in the rule of law' Both lawyers served early last year on an independent panel of legal advisors convened by the ICC prosecutor. The panel expressed their support for Khan's decision to seek arrest warrants for senior Israeli and Hamas leaders for war crimes and crimes against humanity, and ICC judges granted his application in November. In a statement published on the Clooney Foundation for Justice (CFJ) website last May, Clooney said she served on the panel 'because I believe in the rule of law and the need to protect civilian lives". Amal Clooney critics humbled as role in Israel-Hamas ICC arrest warrant bid revealed Read More » 'As a human rights lawyer, I will never accept that one child's life has less value than another's,' she added. Adam Keith, a director at Human Rights First, told MEE: "The Trump administration's sanctions programme targeting the ICC is so sweeping that just providing legal advice or input regarding the court's Palestine investigation appears to be sanctionable. "This means it could get any non-American placed on the Treasury Department's financial blacklist and barred from entering the United States." Keith described the programme as "an outrageous misuse of sanctions, and a direct attack on an accountability body that survivors and advocates around the world rely on for justice". The British Foreign Office did not respond to multiple requests for comment. The CFJ was co-founded by the Clooneys in 2016. In 2024 Amal won the Legal 500 Award for international lawyer of the year. And just last week she was photographed backstage at her husband's Broadway play Good Night, and Good Luck with senior Democrats Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi. Trump's order gave the US Treasury and State Department a 60-day deadline to provide recommendations on who else besides Khan should be sanctioned. No further sanctions have been announced, although they may not have been made public. Fulford, named alongside by Clooney by the British Foreign Office's legal directorate, is a former judge of the ICC and former vice-president of the Court of Appeal. In December 2024 he said it was 'vital' that ICC member states should act on the warrant for Netanyahu's arrest. MEE contacted Fulford and the Clooney Foundation for Justice for comment but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
