Simon Coveney welcomes Council of Europe decision to reopen case of Pat Finucane s murder
There was shock in November when the UK said it would not hold a public inquiry into the Belfast lawyer’s 1989 murder. By Gráinne Ní Aodha Friday 12 Mar 2021, 12:38 PM Mar 12th 2021, 12:38 PM 8,300 Views 7 Comments
John Finucane, his uncle Seamus and his mother Geraldine at the office of Finucane Toner in Belfast.
Image: PA
John Finucane, his uncle Seamus and his mother Geraldine at the office of Finucane Toner in Belfast.
Image: PA
THE COUNCIL OF Europe has said that it will reopen the case of Pat Finucane’s 1989 murder, following the UK’s surprise decision last year not to launch a public inquiry.
10 March 2021
Mushfig Bayram, Forum 18
Prison authorities have repeatedly denied seriously ill Jehovah s Witness prisoner of conscience Shamil Khakimov the specialised medical treatment he needs. The 70-year-old has a bad leg which smells like rotten meat and has had coronavirus symptoms. The UN Mandela Rules for prisoners treatment say medical decisions must be made by doctors, and the UN Human Rights Committee and the UN Committee against Torture have both called for Tajikistan to implement the Rules. Yet the prison governor told Forum 18: I do not know what the Mandela Rules are. A Supreme Court official similarly denied knowledge of the Mandela Rules.
Switzerland latest European country to ban Islamic full-face veils
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Last Updated: Mar 08, 2021, 05:23 PM IST
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Synopsis
Policies attempting to regulate or ban the niqab and the more extensive burqa covering have popped up in a handful of countries across Europe, with France enacting the first public ban in 2010.
Agencies
Norway bans staff wearing the full veil in schools and nurseries.
Switzerland is the latest European country to ban the niqab, the Islamic full-face veil that shows only the eyes. Policies attempting to regulate or ban the niqab and the more extensive burqa covering have popped up in a handful of countries across Europe, with France enacting the first public ban in 2010.
Franceâs voters gave their verdict on former president Nicolas Sarkozy long before last Mondayâs criminal court ruling. Emanuel Macronâs presidency and the triumph of a supposedly ânew politicsâ over Franceâs establishment parties of right and left was a backlash which had as much to do with weariness at their arrogance, corruption and self-dealing, as it had to do with the rise of populism.
And so the humiliating sentencing of Sarkozy to three years in jail â two of them suspended â for bribery and influence-peddling in promising to promote a judge in return for information on an investigation, largely marks a postcriptum to the âSarkoâ era and a final political eclipsing of the man who has at last admitted he will not run again next year.
5 March 2021
Mushfig Bayram, Forum 18
Independent imam Sirojiddin Abdurahmonov, who was also jailed in 2010, was jailed in February for five and a half years along with an unknown number of others. Conscientious objector Rustamjon Norov s appeal against a three and a half year jail sentence is due on 11 March, and a judge has refused to explain why he allowed a Russian Orthodox nun with no connection to the case to testify for the prosecution.
On 12 February, a court in the capital Dushanbe jailed Imam Sirojiddin Abdurahmonov (widely known as Mullo Sirojiddin) for five years and six months, along with an unknown number of others. The arrests followed a November 2020 National Security Committee (NSC) secret police raid on Imam Abdurahmonov s Dushanbe flat when he was teaching a small group about Islam. The NSC also confiscated the Imam s religious books and computer.