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Ukraine’s Zelenskyy makes surprise visit to Netherlands

 

Compiled by Ajibola Adedoye 

 

 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has arrived in the Netherlands, on an unannounced visit expected to include meetings at the International Criminal Court (ICC) and with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte as well as members of the country’s parliament.

 

Dutch news agency reported that Zelenskyy, making his first visit to the Netherlands, landed at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport late on Wednesday after attending a Nordic summit in Finland’s capital Helsinki.

 

According to report, Zelenskyy will visit the ICC, which is based in The Hague.

 

In March, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin on charges of responsibility for the “war crime of unlawful deportation of children” from occupied areas of Ukraine to Russia. Maria Lvova-Belova, commissioner for children’s rights in Putin’s presidential office, was also issued an arrest warrant by the ICC for alleged war crimes related to the transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia.

 

Russia, which is not a member of the ICC and rejects its jurisdiction, denies committing atrocities in Ukraine.

China denies claims it tried to ‘coerce’ Canadian MP, relatives

 

 

China has denied media reports of a Chinese consular officer “coercing” a Canadian legislator and his family, saying the claim has “no factual basis and is purely baseless”.

 

The statement from the Chinese consulate-general in Toronto today came days after a newspaper reported that Beijing had sought information about a Canadian legislator’s relatives who may be in China in a likely effort to “make an example of this MP and deter others from taking anti-PRC positions”.

 

PRC refers to the People’s Republic of China.

 

The newspaper cited a classified report by Canada’s spy agency.

 

The daily said the report by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) did not name the legislator. But citing a national security source, it identified the politician as Michael Chong, a legislator with Canada’s main opposition Conservative Party.

 

Chong was sanctioned by Beijing in 2021 after his motion declaring China’s treatment of the mostly Muslim Uighur minority as genocide passed the Canadian parliament.

 

A diplomatic official at China’s consulate in Toronto was said to be involved in the intrigue, according to reports.

 

Dismissing the allegations, a spokesperson for China’s consulate-general in Toronto expressed “strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition” to the claims and urged the media and politicians concerned to “stop spreading rumours and smearing”.

 

The spokesperson said Canadian media and politicians were “intentionally damaging the reputation and image” of the consulate and “maliciously interfering with normal communication and cooperation between both parties”.

Thais look for change as election nears

 

 

As Thais celebrated the Songkran festival last month by soaking each other in a barrage of water fights, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha was hoping the occasion would help rescue his lacklustre campaign for re-election.

 

Donning a bright Hawaiian shirt and armed with a massive blue water gun Prayuth, the army chief-turned-politician who overthrew Yingluck Shinawatra’s government in a 2014 coup, made a surprise appearance at Bangkok’s Khao San Road, joining startled revellers in the traditional water fights that mark the festival.

 

Thailand’s May 14 elections will determine the Southeast Asian country’s political and foreign policy over the next few years, as the quasi-military government faces growing domestic discontent, security pressures from neighbouring Myanmar and increasing rivalry between the United States and China.

 

Under Prayuth, Thailand has moved closer to China, abstained on the United Nations resolution condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and embraced Myanmar’s coup leaders. But all could change if he is replaced.

 

Opinion polls show Prayuth, 69, trailing far behind his younger rivals – Pheu Thai (PTP) party leader Paetongtarn Shinawatra, 36, and Move Forward (MFP) leader Pita Limjaroenrat, 42. Paetongtarn, who this week gave birth to a baby boy, is Yingluck’s niece and the daughter of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was also removed in a coup.

 

Despite continued crackdowns on opposition parties, Pheu Thai and Move Forward, have proved remarkably resilient and analysts are anxious about a big political showdown.

 

 

Guantanamo prosecution asks for 2025 date in Bali bombing trial

 

 

Military prosecutors at Guantanamo Bay have suggested that the full trial of Hambali, detained over attacks that killed hundreds in Indonesia, start in March 2025, even though he and his two co-accused have been in detention for 17 years.

 

Hambali, an Indonesian whose real name is Encep Nurjaman, has been held at Guantanamo since 2006 along with his co-accused, Malaysian nationals Mohammed Nazir Bin Lep and Mohammed Farik Bin Amin.

 

Hambali is accused of involvement in the Bali bombings in 2002, which left more than 200 people dead, including United States citizens, and the JW Marriott hotel attack in 2003 in Jakarta, in which 11 people died.

 

The Indonesian’s lead counsel James Hodes told journalist his client was doing “as good as can be” considering this prolonged detention and that the proceedings went “as well as we could expect and the judge and observers got to hear a lot about the problems we are facing”.

 

Those problems include issues with interpreters, which Hodes said took up almost all of the third day of proceedings, as well as the testimony of Imam Samudra, one of the original masterminds of the Bali attack who was executed in 2008 in Indonesia.

 

According to Hodes, US authorities failed to interview Samudra while he was still alive, and his testimony could have meant that his client was exonerated.

 

In addition to the challenges around missing exculpatory witness testimony, Hodes said the lack of a speedy trial was troublesome to the defence team, which has always maintained Hambali’s innocence.

 

The discovery process is when both sides exchange documents ahead of a trial and usually, the prosecution would provide such material to the defence as soon as a case begins. For Hambali, the official process to bring him to trial began in 2019 but has yet to be completed some five years later.

 

Mexico’s Lopez Obrador denounces USAID funds as ‘interventionist’

 

 

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has issued a letter to the administration of Joe Biden, calling for the United States to end aid to organisations he perceives as opposed to his government.

 

The letter specifically identifies funds from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), though it does not name the groups López Obrador objects to.

 

“The U.S. government, specifically through USAID, has for some time been financing organisations openly against the legal and legitimate government I represent,” he said in the letter, dated Tuesday and read during the president’s morning press briefing on Wednesday.

 

“This is clearly an interventionist act, contrary to international law and the relations which should prevail between free and sovereign states.”

 

Wednesday’s comments echo earlier pushback from López Obrador, who previously sent the US a diplomatic note in 2021 denouncing USAID funds.

 

At the time, he objected specifically to funding for the nonprofit Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity. “A foreign government can’t provide money to political groups,” he said of the funds, adding: “It’s promoting a form of coup.”

 

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