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PARIS, June 26, 2024 (AFP) – US reporter Evan Gershkovich is due to face the start of a closed-door trial on espionage charges in Russia on Wednesday. He is one of several Westerners held by Russia at a time when Moscow’s tensions with the West have soared to Cold War-era levels, following the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine. Washington has accused Moscow of arresting its citizens on baseless charges to use them as bargaining chips to […]
MOSCOW, Feb 18, 2024 (AFP) – Russian courts have sentenced dozens of people detained at events commemorating Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny to short prison sentences, official court announcements showed, with 154 sentenced in Saint Petersburg alone. Details of rulings published by the city’s court service on Saturday and Sunday showed 154 people had been given jail time of up to 14 days for violating Russia’s strict anti-protest laws. Rights groups and independent media outlets reported […]
By Daria ANDRIIEVSKA KYIV, Ukraine, Jan 31, 2024 (AFP) – Russia and Ukraine traded hundreds of prisoners of war on Wednesday, just a week after Moscow said Kyiv had shot down a plane carrying captured Ukrainian soldiers to an exchange. The crash of a Russian military cargo plane near the border with Ukraine — which Russia said killed 65 Ukrainian POWs — had thrown doubt on future prisoner swaps between the two sides. President Vladimir […]
TEHRAN, Dec 29, 2023 (AFP) – Iran on Friday hanged four people convicted of spying for arch foe Israel, the judiciary said, less than two weeks after authorities had executed a man on similar grounds. “Four members of a sabotage group related to the Zionist regime (Israel)… were hanged this morning” in Iran’s northwestern province of West Azerbaijan, the judiciary’s Mizan Online website reported. It identified them as three men — Vafa Hanareh, Aram […]
WASHINGTON, Dec 21, 2023 (AFP) – The White House said Thursday it was preparing a new proposal to Russia to seek the release of two imprisoned Americans after Moscow rejected an earlier attempt. “We’re working hard to see what we can do to get another proposal that might be more successful,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters. The State Department said earlier this month that Russia rejected a “substantial” proposal to free the […]
By Emil GULIYEV BAKU, Dec 13, 2023 (AFP) – Armenia and Azerbaijan on Wednesday swapped prisoners of war, a first step towards normalising relations since Baku retook control of the long-disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region in a one-day autumn offensive. It is the first time the neighbours have exchanged prisoners since the lightening September offensive. Azerbaijan’s military operation ended almost three decades of Armenian separatist control of Karabakh, forcing tens of thousands of ethnic Armenians to flee. […]
JERUSALEM, Nov 22, 2023 (AFP) – The vast majority of Palestinians slated for release under an Israel-Hamas swap deal to secure the release of hostages held in Gaza, are teenage boys, an official Israeli list shows. Israel released the names on Wednesday of 300 Palestinian detainees who could be set free under the agreement. Under the terms of the deal, the first phase will see 50 Israeli hostages released over the course of four days, […]
SYDNEY, Australia, Nov 14, 2023 (AFP) – Days after Myanmar’s military ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s government in February 2021, an Australian economist working with her received an anonymous email telling him the police were watching his room and that he should flee. Sean Turnell, an economics professor at Macquarie University, was detained soon after, as the military launched a sweeping and bloody crackdown on democracy protests and those who had worked with Suu Kyi’s […]
DOHA, Oct 9, 2023 (AFP) – Palestinian Islamist group Hamas is not open to negotiating a prisoner exchange with Israel during hostilities, a member of the militants’ political office in Doha said Monday. “The military operation is still continuing… therefore there is currently no chance for negotiation on the issue of prisoners or anything else,” Hossam Badran, a Hamas official, told AFP from Doha. “Our mission now is to make every effort to prevent the […]
DOHA, Sept 18, 2023 (AFP) – Arch-foes the United States and Iran each released five detainees on Monday in a prisoner swap deal that also gives Tehran access to $6 billion in long-frozen oil funds. The five Americans freed by Iran, including a businessman arrested in 2015, landed in Doha just before 5:40 pm (1440 GMT) on a Qatari jet, hours after the unblocked funds were credited to Iranian accounts in Qatari banks. The five […]
NEW YORK, Sept 18, 2023 (AFP) – The United States on Monday confirmed a prisoner swap with Iran and said that President Joe Biden had granted clemency to five Iranians jailed or awaiting trial for non-violent crimes. A US official said that seven US citizens were on a Qatari plane that departed Iran. They include three previously identified Americans — Siamak Namazi, Morad Tahbaz and Emad Sharqi — and two who wish to remain anonymous. […]
YANGON, Myanmar (AFP) — Myanmar’s junta on Wednesday announced it had pardoned more than 2,000 prisoners jailed under a law that criminalizes encouraging dissent against the military. The military pardoned “2,153 prisoners serving sentences under Penal Code 505 (a) to mark Kasone Full Moon Day”, a Buddhist festival, the junta said in a statement. The law — which carries a maximum three-year jail term — has been widely used in the junta’s crackdown on dissent […]
