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The Week In News

Mali Junta Frees President

The rebel soldiers who seized power in Mali last week are demanding a military-led transitional body to rule for three years and have agreed to release the ousted president they kidnapped, according to a statement issued on Sunday.

Last week’s coup – the second in Mali within eight years – followed months of protests calling for the resignation of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, as discontent grew over Islamist insurgency and the collapsing economy.

“The junta has affirmed that it wants a three-year transition to review the foundations of the Malian state. This transition will be directed by a body led by a soldier, who will also be head of state,” a source in the ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) delegation reported. He elaborated that, under the proposal, the government “will also be predominantly composed of soldiers.”

The source and a junta official added that Keita, currently detained along with other political leaders, would be freed and allowed to return to his home in the capital and would be permitted to travel abroad for medical treatment if he so chooses. Prime Minister Boubou Cisse, who has been held at a military base outside the capital with Keita, would be moved to a secure residence within the city.

While the coup was met with international condemnation, thousands of supporters celebrated the president’s ouster in the streets of Bamako. The junta has promised to hold elections “within a reasonable time,” though Mali’s neighbors have called for the reinstatement of Keita.

Keita won a landslide election in 2013, presenting himself as a unifying figure in a fractured country and was re-elected in 2018 for another five-year term.

Putin Critic was Poisoned

On Monday, the Berlin hospital that was treating Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny said that test results indicated he had been poisoned. Russian doctors, however, responded that they were not able to find the toxin in his blood.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel called for the Russian authorities to ensure those responsible are held accountable.

The 44-year-old opposition leader and anti-corruption campaigner was brought to the German capital on Saturday after falling ill in Siberia last week with what Russian doctors blamed on a metabolic disorder. His supporters say that poison was slipped into the tea that he drank at the airport on Thursday. His plane had been forced to make an emergency landing in the city of Omsk when he began to feel sick.

On Monday, the German hospital said its clinical tests on Navalny “indicate poisoning with a substance from the group of cholinesterase inhibitors.”

Cholinesterase is an enzyme needed for the central nervous system to function properly. Its inhibitors are used to make medicines and insecticides and nerve agents such as sarin.

“Alexei Navalny’s prognosis remains unclear; the possibility of long-term effects, particularly those affecting the nervous system, cannot be excluded,” the hospital said on

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Navalny is being treated in intensive care and remains in a medically induced coma, it said, adding: “While his condition is serious, it is not currently life-threatening.”

Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said on Twitter that his poisoning was “no longer a hypothesis but a fact.”

Navalny is the latest in a long line of Kremlin critics who have fallen seriously ill or died in apparent poisonings, some by nerve agents.

He lost consciousness shortly after his plane took off on Thursday from Tomsk in Siberia, where he was working to support opposition candidates ahead of next month’s elections.

Yarmysh said he had seemed “absolutely fine” before boarding the flight and had neither drunk alcohol nor taken any medication.

She said she was sure he had suffered from an “intentional poisoning” and blamed Putin.

Navalny has made many enemies with his anti-corruption investigations, which often reveal the lavish lifestyles of Russia’s elite and attract millions of views online.

Austria and Russia Spygate

Austria has expelled a Russian diplomat due to suspicions that he was engaging in Russian espionage.

The unnamed envoy was reportedly caught red-handed this week by Austrian authorities while meeting with his source. After invoking his diplomatic immunity, he was given until September 1 to leave the country.

“The Russian diplomat had carried out economic espionage in a high-tech company for years with the support of an Austrian citizen,” reported the Kronen Zeitung daily. Austria’s foreign ministry confirmed in a statement that “the diplomat’s behavior contradicts the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.”

Russia denied the allegations and retaliated by expelling an Austrian diplomat serving in Moscow. A Kremlin spokesperson vowed that Russia would respond using the “traditional tit-for-tat principle.”

“We are outraged by the unfounded decision of the Austrian authorities, which is damaging to constructive relations,” tweeted the Russian Embassy in Vienna.

Austria is seen as a hub of Russian spying, with many Russian diplomats posted in Vienna to represent Moscow at a slew of Europe-based international organizations. In June, an Austrian court sentenced an ex-colonel to 3 years behind bars for spying on behalf of Russia.

55 Years for Manchester Terrorist

Hashem Abedi, whose younger brother Salmen killed 22 people when he bombed an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester back in 2017, was given 55 years in prison for his involvement in the attack.

A British court found Hashem guilty in March of 22 counts of murder, one count of attempted murder, and one count of conspiracy to cause an explosion. In the sentencing last Friday, Justice Jonathan Baker ruled that both brothers “were equally culpable for the deaths and injuries which were caused by the explosion.”

Baker added that the 20-year-old Abedi was too young to receive life in prison, forcing him to sentence Hashem to only 55 years behind bars. Had he been a year older, said the judge, Hashem would have received life without the possibility of early release.

“ The defendant having been found guilty of 22 counts of murder, there is only one sentence which can be imposed upon him for these offences and that is a sentence of imprisonment for life,” Baker said. “The defendant should clearly understand the minimum term he should serve is 55 years. He may never be released.”

Hashem was absent during the sentencing, maintaining that his Islamic faith refused to recognize the court’s authority over him. His brother, Salmen, was killed in the attack, which saw him detonate a homemade bomb in the Manchester Arena lobby just as the pop concert was ending.

The explosion killed 22 people and injured 100 in what was one of the worst terror attacks in UK history. Hashem was arrested by British police a few days after the attack and has been behind bars ever since. The resulting investigation found that Hashem, an immigrant from Libya, helped his brother plan and execute the bombing.

A mong other things, Hashem gathered shrapnel for the bomb, scouted out the location, and constructed part of the explosives. According to the judge, Hashem “had taken an integral part not only in the planning of such an event but in participating in its preparation.”

“It is apparent from the electronic material which was meticulously gathered during the course of the subsequent police investigation that both the defendant and his brother were integrally involved in these purchases, the latter of which was made using an email address which had been created for the purpose namely bedab7jeanna@email.com which translates as meaning, ‘We have come to slaughter,’” c ontinued Baker.

“ The defendant and his brother were equally culpable for the deaths and injuries caused. The stark reality is that these were atrocious crimes, large in their scale, deadly in their intent, and appalling in their consequences.”

Iran Sold Hezbollah Explosives

A new report alleges that the Hezbollah militia purchased large amounts of ammonium nitrate in 2013, the same material responsible for the explosion that devastated Beirut.

Citing Western intelligence

sources, the German newspaper Die Welt reported that Iran’s Quds Force sold Hezbollah a total of 670 tons of ammonium nitrate seven years ago. Hezbollah paid $72,000 for the material, which was delivered in three installments.

Die Welt journalists said that they had viewed invoices for the purchases. After the sale, Iran transported the ammonium nitrate to Lebanon by aircraft, container ships, and trucks originating from Syria. Overseeing the shipments was Ahmed Kasir, a senior Quds Force official who was sanctioned by the U.S. for being involved in terrorism.

A lmost 200 people were killed while Beirut’s port was utterly destroyed after 2,750 pounds of ammonium nitrate detonated there earlier this month. A highly sensitive substance used in fertilizer, ammonium nitrate, has been used by Hezbollah in the past to produce explosives.

M any Lebanese have blamed Hezbollah for the blast, with numerous reports attributing the explosion to a Hezbollah weapons warehouse. A recent report by Israel’s Channel 13 said that Hezbollah had been stockpiling the substance in the port in order to manufacture rockets meant to be used in the next round of hostiles with Israel.

Quoting Israeli intelligence sources, the report alleged that Hezbollah had purposely stored the ammonium nitrate in the port in order to deter Israel from attacking the site due to the large amounts of civilians in the area.

Court: Museum Can Keep NaziLooted Painting

A California appeals court ruled that a Spanish art museum is entitled to keep a $40 million Camille Pissarro painting that the Nazis had stolen from their Jewish owners.

T itled “Rue Saint-Honoré, Après-midi, Effet de Pluie,” the artwork was painted in 1897 and was later purchased by Lilly Cassirer, a German Jew residing in Berlin. In 1939, Cassirer was forced to sell the painting for only $360 in order to finance her escape to freedom.

Cassirer survived the Holocaust and was compensated $13,000 for the painting by the German government. She had been unaware that the artwork survived the war but never waived her official rights to the artwork despite accepting financial compensation.

In 2005, Cassirer’s grandson, Claude, sued for restitution after discovering the piece in the museum in 1999. Lilly Cassirer’s father-in-law, Julius, had purchased the painting from Pissarro. Claude Cassirer died a couple years ago but his son, David, continued the lawsuit.

In 2005, Cassirer’s descendants discovered the painting displayed in a Madrid art museum. Asserting that the original sale in 1939 was fraudulent, they demanded that the painting be returned to the family and sued the gallery in 2005 after the their petition was denied.

The legal saga has wound its way through the courts ever since until a federal court ruled in favor of the museum in 2019. The Cassirer family appealed the ruling, leading to last week’s ruling upholding the original decision.

In both decisions, the courts ruled that there was no proof the Spanish art museum had known of the painting’s dubious provenance. While criticizing museum officials for not doing more to uncover the identity of the artwork’s original owner, the three judge panel said that there was no proof it had deliberately covered up the fact that it had been looted by the Nazis.

B oth U.S. District Judge John Walter, in a 2019 ruling, and the appeals court in Tuesday’s criticized the baron and the Spanish foundation for not doing more to discover whether the painting was looted art. But both courts concluded there was no proof either deliberately hid that it was.

“It is perhaps unfortunate that a country and a government can preen as moralistic in its declarations, yet not be bound by those declarations. But that is the state of the law,” the appeals court wrote.

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