Swedish man convicted for his role in 2015 killing of a Jordanian pilot by Daesh group

5 days ago

STOCKHOLM: A Swedish man was convicted and sentenced to life in prison on Thursday for his role in the 2015 killing of a Jordanian pilot by the Daesh militant group, Swedish media reported.The 26-year-old Jordanian, 1st Lt. Mu'ath Al-Kaseasbeh, was taken captive after his F-16 fighter jet crashed near the extremists' de facto capital of Raqqa in northern Syria. He was forced into a cage that was set on fire in early 2015.The suspect, identified by Swedish prosecutors as Osama Krayem, 32, is alleged to have traveled to Syria in September 2014 to fight for Daesh.Swedish prosecutors say Krayem, armed and masked, was among those who forced Al-Kaseasbeh into the cage. The pilot died in the fire.Krayem was sentenced to life in prison on Thursday, Swedish news agency TT reported. He was indicted by Swedish prosecutors in May on suspicion of committing serious war crimes and terrorist crimes in Syria.He was previously convicted in France and Brussels for fatal Daesh attacks in those countries.The airman became the first known foreign military pilot to fall into the militants' hands after the US-led international coalition began its aerial campaign against the Daesh group in Syria and Iraq in 2014.Jordan, a close US ally, was a member of the coalition and the pilot's killing appeared aimed at pressuring the government of Jordan to leave the alliance.In a 20-minute video released in 2015, purportedly showing Al-Kaseasbeh's killing, he displayed signs of having been beaten, including a black eye. He is shown wearing an orange jumpsuit and standing in an outdoor cage as a masked militant ignites a line of fuel leading to it.The footage, widely released as part of the militant group's propaganda, sparked outrage and anti-IS demonstrations in Jordan.In 2022, Krayem was among 20 men convicted by a special terrorism court in Paris for involvement in a wave of Deash attacks in the French capital in 2015, targeting the Bataclan theater, Paris cafés and the national stadium. The assaults killed 130 people and injured hundreds, some permanently maimed.Krayem was sentenced to 30 years in prison, for charges including complicity to terrorist murder. French media reported that France agreed in March to turn Krayem over to Sweden for the investigation and trial.In 2023, a Belgian court sentenced Krayem, among others, to life in prison on charges of terrorist murder in connection with 2016 suicide bombings that killed 32 people and wounded hundreds at Brussels airport and a busy subway station in the country's deadliest peacetime attack.Krayem was aboard the commuter train that was hit, but did not detonate the explosives he was carrying.Both the Paris and Brussels attacks were linked to the same Daesh network.

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Suspects on trial over Moscow venue attack that killed 149

Al Arabiya

9 hours ago

Al Arabiya

Suspects on trial over Moscow venue attack that killed 149

Nineteen people went on trial in Moscow on Monday over an attack on a city concert hall that killed 149 people in one of the deadliest strikes in Russia. Armed men stormed the Crocus City Hall on the outskirts of Moscow on March 22, 2024, opening fire and then setting the building alight, injuring hundreds of people. ISIS group claimed responsibility. The four suspected attackers, all from Tajikistan -- an ex-Soviet republic in central Asia -- and another 15 people accused of being accomplices have gone on trial. An AFP reporter at the courtroom before saw some of the defendants in glass cages, their hands cuffed behind their backs. Around 30 survivors were also present. One of them, Tatiana Ruzanova, told AFP she came to the court to see the defendants. 'They all sit quietly with their heads slumped in cages... I didn't see if they felt guilty, they all had their heads down,' Ruzanova said. On the night of the attack, she came to the concert of the Russian rock group Piknik with a friend but did not make it inside the hall. 'We saw everyone already in the foyer, maybe that saved us. We inhaled smoke. It was a miracle that we didn't make it,' Ruzanova said. Closed-door trial Subsequent hearings were to take place on Tuesday and Thursday, according to the court's website. The judge ordered the trial to proceed behind closed doors. The attack shocked Russia, which has been battling Ukraine in a military offensive since February 24, 2022. Despite IS claiming responsibility, Russia implicated Ukraine in the attack, an allegation that Kyiv called baseless and absurd. The massacre ignited a debate about the reintroduction of the death penalty. Some hardline politicians publicly called for a moratorium, observed since 1996, to be lifted. It also sparked a wave of xenophobia against central Asian migrants in Russia. Nearly half of the victims were killed by smoke and carbon monoxide inhalation from the fire that broke out, rather than from gunshot wounds, the state TASS news agency reported on Sunday, citing case materials. Ekaterina Klimenko, who survived the attack, told AFP she hoped for a 'fair decision' from the judges. 'I still go to concerts, but intuitively I look around with my eyes to see if there is any danger,' she said.

Sudan paramilitaries kill 14 civilians fleeing besieged city: Monitor

Al Arabiya

12 hours ago

Al Arabiya

Sudan paramilitaries kill 14 civilians fleeing besieged city: Monitor

Sudanese paramilitary fighters have killed at least 14 civilians trying to flee a besieged city in Darfur, a rights group said Monday, more than 27 months into their war against the army. The Emergency Lawyers, which documents atrocities in the war between the Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese army, said that 'dozens more were injured and an unknown number of civilians detained' in the paramilitary attack on Saturday on the outskirts of El-Fasher city, in the western Darfur region. The RSF has in recent days launched its latest attack on El-Fasher, the North Darfur state capital which it has besieged since May 2024 but has been unable to seize from the hands of the army. Just two days before Saturday's attack, the RSF's political administration urged residents to evacuate to Qarni village, where the Emergency Lawyers says the civilians were killed. 'I call on you to leave El-Fasher and head to Qarni, the northwest gate of the city, where our forces and the Tasis alliance forces are located and will ensure your safety,' the RSF-appointed Darfur governor Al-Hadi Idris said in a video address on Thursday. Tasis is an RSF-led political alliance which late last month named leaders of a government based in South Darfur state capital Nyala. The UN has repeatedly warned of the plight of hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped in El-Fasher with virtually no aid or services. Families have survived on animal feed, a shortage of which was announced last week. Since April 2023, the war between the army and the RSF has killed tens of thousands, torn the country apart, and created what the UN has called the world's largest hunger and displacement crises. If the RSF captures El-Fasher, it will control all of Sudan's vast western region of Darfur and, along with its allies, much of the country's south.

Arab News

13 hours ago

Arab News

Sudan paramilitaries kill 14 civilians fleeing besieged city: monitor

KHARTOUM: Sudanese paramilitary fighters have killed at least 14 civilians trying to flee a besieged city in Darfur, a rights group said Monday, more than 27 months into their war against the army. The Emergency Lawyers, which documents atrocities in the war between the Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese army, said that 'dozens more were injured and an unknown number of civilians detained' in the paramilitary attack on Saturday on the outskirts of El-Fasher city, in the western Darfur region.