World
Corruption scandal: MEPs lift Cozzolino and Tarabella’s immunities
Andrea Cozzolino and Marc Tarabella, two MEPs caught up within the corruption scandal rocking Brussels, had their parliamentary immunities lifted on Thursday.
The vote within the plenary in Brussels follows a request by the Belgian Federal Public Prosecutor’s Workplace on 16 January and comes two days after the European Parliament’s authorized affairs committee backed the movement.
Each MEPs deny any involvement within the illicit lobbying allegedly performed by Qatar by Morocco.
Italian MEP Cozzolino was not current for the vote however Tarabella, from Belgium, voted to have his immunity waived.
“I’ve been asking for the lifting of this immunity for the reason that very first days of this affair so as to have the ability to reply the questions of the investigators and to assist the justice system to make clear this case,” he advised reporters after the vote.
“Out of respect for the judicial authorities and for the work of the investigation, I avoided commenting on the accusations within the press. It was very tempting to reply to them, particularly as I’m harmless, however I’ve not but expressed myself and I cannot accomplish that once more in the present day as a way to reserve the primary a part of my explanations to the choose. In any case, you must know that I’ve nothing to reproach myself for,” he added.
4 individuals have been arrested and charged for taking part in a legal organisation as a part of the investigation into the alleged cash-for-favours scheme within the European Parliament.
These embody Greek MEP Eva Kaili, her life associate Francesco Giorgi, former MEP Pier Antonio Panzeri, and NGO director Niccolò Figà-Talamanca.
Panzeri, who preceded Cozzolino on the helm of the EU-Morocco parliamentary committee, implicated each males throughout his hearings with Belgian authorities since his arrest in early December, in response to a confidential doc seen by Euronews.
He advised a choose, the doc states, that Cozzolino agreed to attempt to squash resolutions towards Morroco in alternate for cash and that Tarabella — the vice chair of the European Parliament’s delegation for relations with the Arab peninsula — obtained between €120,000 and €140,000 in money to help sure positions in favour of Qatar.
French MEP Manon Aubry, co-leader of the Left group and the rapporteur on the votes, welcomed the outcomes of the ballots.
“With this investigation, justice is doing its half. However politics is not. The President of Parliament and the primary teams have betrayed the promise of formidable reforms made within the decision adopted in December and the “14-point motion plan” introduced as an alternative by Roberta Metsola is a sham,” she added.
World
US Supreme Court justices in Trump case lean toward some level of immunity
World
Mexico City seeks to downplay the case of a serial killer suspect who kept women's bones in his room
Mexico City prosecutors sought Thursday to downplay the case of a suspected serial killer who kept women’s bones and a saw in his room, and apparently targeted women over the course of more than a decade.
The city’s head prosecutor said the remains of six women were found in the suspect’s rented room, “not 20 as some unfounded reports have suggested.”
POLICE FIND 7 BODIES, 5 OF THEM DECAPITATED AND 1 DISMEMBERED, IN MEXICO’S FIFTH LARGEST CITY
City prosecutor Ulises Lara stressed that only three of his crimes occurred during the present administration, which took office in late 2018. He said the others apparently occurred in 2012, 2015 and 2018, meaning the killer went uncaught for at least 12 years.
Lara slammed reports that all the crimes took place in 2023 and 2024 — during the term of ex-Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, who is now running for president — as “absolutely false and unfounded.”
And Lara claimed the killer was essentially unstoppable because “he showed no signs of violent or aggressive behavior in his daily life.”
Lara did not specify the nature of the remains found in a search of the suspect’s rented rooms last week, but local media reported they were skulls. Under Mexican law, the suspect can only be identified by his first name, “Miguel.” Local media reported he worked as a chemist.
Investigators also found blood stains, bones, a saw, cellphones and missing women’s ID cards, as well as other “biological material” in the rooms. Lara said five of the ID cards belonged to women who have been located alive, but did not say how many belonged to women who are still missing or among the dead.
Last week, Lara said investigators also found “a series of notebooks that may well be narrations of the acts that Miguel carried out against his victims.”
Lara rejected criticisms that Mexico City authorities do little to investigate the cases of missing women until their bodies pile up, saying the number of reported women’s killings have declined.
But the suspect in this case wasn’t caught until he broke into a neighbor’s apartment to kill his seventh victim last week, was interrupted and left a surviving witness.
According to prosecutors, the suspect apparently waited for a woman to briefly leave her apartment last week and then rushed in and sexually abused and strangled her 17-year-old daughter.
The mother returned and saw him leaving, but he slashed her in the neck and fled. The mother survived but her daughter did not.
Because the suspect lived near the scene of the crime, he was quickly identified and caught.
The suspect has been held over for trial on charges of murder and attempted murder, both related to his latest victims.
Without proper funding, training or professionalism, prosecutors in Mexico’s capital have routinely failed to stop killers until the bodies pile up so high they are almost unavoidable.
In 2021, a serial killer in a Mexico City suburb was only caught after years of alleged crimes — 19 bodies were found hacked up and buried at his house — because of the identity of the final dismembered victim: the wife of a police commander.
In 2018, a serial killer in Mexico City responsible for the deaths of at least 10 women was caught only after he was found pushing a dismembered body down the street in a baby carriage. He dumped most of the bodies of his victims in vacant lots.
World
Hamas ‘serious’ about captives’ release but not without Gaza ceasefire
Palestinian group Hamas has said it remains committed to achieving an agreement with Israel to end the war on Gaza, but only if its conditions including a lasting ceasefire are met.
Khalil al-Hayya, a member of the group’s political bureau, said that Hamas “is serious about releasing Israeli captives within the framework of an agreement” that also ensures the release of thousands of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
He told Al Jazeera Arabic in a televised interview on Thursday that Hamas will not accept a truce without a permanent ceasefire and a complete halt of Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip, which has killed more than 34,000 people – mainly women and children – since the current conflict started in October.
An “unhindered return” of Palestinians across the besieged enclave to their homes, along with the reconstruction of Gaza and “an end to the crippling siege” imposed on it were among the four conditions that al-Hayya reiterated.
Hamas had submitted its response to a United States amendment on April 13 and is still waiting for a reply from Israel and the mediating parties, he said.
Talks on a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas have been in limbo with the two sides showing few signs that they are ready to compromise on their demands, but international mediators – Qatar, the United States and Egypt – have been engaged in intense behind-the-scenes talks to secure a deal.
Top Israeli officials have repeatedly called Hamas’s demands “delusional” and have said an Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip would amount to losing the war.
Egypt has asked for a follow-up meeting with Israel in renewed efforts to mediate a deal, two Egyptian security sources told the Reuters news agency.
Egyptian, Israeli and US officials reportedly held in-person and remote meetings on Wednesday that sought concessions to break the deadlock in the months-long negotiations, and a meeting between Egyptian and Israeli officials is expected to take place on Friday in Cairo.
The US and 17 other countries issued an appeal for Hamas to release captives as a pathway to end the crisis in Gaza.
“We call for the immediate release of all hostages held by Hamas in Gaza now for over 200 days,” read the statement on Thursday by the leaders of Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Spain, Thailand and the United Kingdom.
It said that the “deal on the table to release the hostages would bring an immediate and prolonged ceasefire in Gaza, that would facilitate a surge of additional necessary humanitarian assistance to be delivered throughout Gaza, and lead to the credible end of hostilities”.
Reporting from Washington, DC, Al Jazeera’s Mike Hanna pointed out that the statement appears to be trying to step up pressure on Hamas amid ongoing attempts at negotiation.
“There’s no mention whatsoever of any concomitant release of Palestinian prisoners being held in Israel by the Israeli government, but this is stepping up pressure on Hamas, it would appear, as these negotiations grind forward,” he said.
The renewed effort to continue the talks is shaping up as Israel has significantly increased its military activities across the enclave and is proceeding with plans for a ground invasion of Rafah in the south, where some 1.5 million displaced Palestinians are taking shelter.
The humanitarian situation in Rafah – bordering Egypt – and across Gaza remains dire, with the United Nations and others repeatedly stressing the need for Israel to allow more aid in.
Eleven-year-old Husam is one of more than 600,000 children who have sought refuge in Rafah which was designated a “safe zone” even as the Israeli military continues to pound it from the air in preparation for a ground assault.
“We’re afraid people will resort to killing each other for food,” he told Al Jazeera.
“A person’s psyche wears out with fear. It’s a slow death.”
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