Each day at just after midnight Eastern, a post like this one is created for contributors and readers of this site to upload news links and video links on the issues that concern this site. Most notably, Islam and its effects on Classical Civilization, and various forms of leftism from Soviet era communism, to postmodernism and all the flavours of galloping statism and totalitarianism such as Nazism and Fascism which are increasingly snuffing out the classical liberalism which created our near, miraculous civilization the West has been building since the time of Socrates.
This document was written around the time this site was created, for those who wish to understand what this site is about. And while our understanding of the world and events has grown since then, the basic ideas remain sound and true to the purpose.
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This is the new Samizdat. We must use it while we can.
Egypt’s prosecutor-general refers doctor, parents to criminal court after girl dies from FGM
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/363959/Egypt/Politics-/Egypts-prosecutorgeneral-refers-doctor,-parents-to.aspx
“Egypt’s top prosecutor referred a doctor and the parents of a 12-year-old girl to a criminal court over an illegal female genital mutilation (FGM) procedure which subsequently killed her last month due to complications.
According to a statement by the prosecution on Saturday, Prosecutor-General Hamada El-Sawy referred retired doctor, Ali Abdel-Fadil, and the girl’s parents to an Assiut criminal court over the criminalised procedure.
Nada Hassan Abdel-Maqsoud died last month in the Upper Egyptian governorate at Abdel-Fadil’s private clinic, which had its licence expired in 2016.
According to the prosecution’s investigation, the parents agreed on circumcising their daughter according to “customs and traditions” on 29 January, agreeing with Abdel-Fadil to perform the procedure.
The girl went into a coma following the half-hour procedure. Resuscitation attempts failed and she passed away.
The doctor denied performing the procedure, claiming the operation concerned an external tumour in her reproductive system.
He said her death was the result of suffocation due to an allergy from long-term Penicillin and Cefotaxime.
His claims were shortly dismissed by Egypt’s Forensics Authority after the prosecution ordered an autopsy, which confirmed the FGM procedure was conducted and dismissed traces of the two medicines in the girl’s body.
The girl’s death came after severe hypotension caused by a nervous shock and excruciating pain from the operation.
FGM has been criminalised in Egypt since 2008. A 2016 amendment mandates sentences of between five and seven years in prison for those involved in a procedure if it results in the death or disability of the victim.
The first conviction for performing FGM in Egypt was in January 2015, seven years after the practice was first criminalised in 2008.
According to the 2014 Egyptian Demographic Health Survey, 92.3 percent of ever-married women aged 15-49 have undergone FGM.
Four-fifths of such operations are carried out by medical professionals, according to the survey.
According to the health ministry in 2018, the rate of FGM among teenage girls aged from 15 to 17 fell from 74 percent in 2008 to 61 percent in 2014.”
6 PKK/KCK suspects arrested in southern Turkey
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/turkey/6-pkk-kck-suspects-arrested-in-southern-turkey/1741610
“Turkish police arrested on Saturday six PKK/KCK suspects for their links to the terrorist group, security sources said.
The arrests came after prosecutors in the southern port city of Mersin issued warrants for the suspects, said the sources who asked not to be named due to restrictions on speaking to the media.
Those arrested include members of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) such as Akdeniz district chair Feyza Kaya and Toroslar district chair Cabbar Karabeg, among others.
Ankara has long accused the HDP of having links to the terrorist YPG/PKK.
In its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK — listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and EU — has been responsible for the deaths of 40,000 people, including women and children. The YPG is the PKK’s Syrian offshoot.”
Deutsche Pravda – Berlin gold coin heist: 3 sentenced to jail
A Berlin court found three men guilty of having stolen a massive 100-kilogram gold coin from the city’s Bode Museum in an audacious inside job in 2017. The coin, valued at millions, has not been seen again since.
The coin, dubbed the “Big Maple Leaf,” weighed roughly 100 kilograms (220 pounds) and had an estimated value of €3.75 million ($4.05 million). It was stolen from Berlin’s Bode Museum in the night of March 27, 2017 and has not been recovered. Police believe it was cut up into smaller pieces, as they later found gold particles.
The Canadian coin was imprinted with the image of Queen Elizabeth II. It was only one of five in the world made by the Royal Canadian Mint. It is thought to be the world’s second-largest coin.
Two defendants, ages 23 and 21, were sentenced as juveniles and handed four-and-a-half-year prison sentences. The third convicted defendant, a 21-year-old guard at the museum, received a prison sentence of three years and four months. A fourth defendant was acquitted.
The trial, which began more than one year ago, lasted 41 court days. State prosecutors had pushed for all four men to receive prison sentences of between five to seven years, whereas the defense attorney had argued for acquittal.
41 days of hearings packed with personal and expert testimony convinced the court that cousins Ahmed and Wissam Remmo had orchestrated an insider job with Denis W., a childhood friend of Ahmed’s, freshly hired in March 2017 to guard the 100-kilogram gold coin.
“This relationship was the lynchpin of the crime,” Prüfer told a packed courtroom at Berlin’s Regional Court.
Between 3:20 and 3:50AM on March 27, 2017, the Remmo cousins, together with an unidentified accomplice, walked along the light-rail tracks running parallel to the Bode Museum in central Berlin, from which they accessed a changing room for museum staff.
From there, they quickly infiltrated the Bode Museum’s world-renowned coin collection housing some 540,000 pieces. That included the “Big Maple Leaf,” on special exhibition since 2010.
Within a half-hour, the team had freed “Big Maple Leaf” from its bulletproof-glass case, rolled it back to their point of entry, dropped it down to the tracks, and pushed it along to a neighboring park in central Berlin, where a getaway car awaited.
A trail of evidence
The 99% pure gold coin, one of six in existence, was never seen again. But it left behind a trail of evidence leading investigators to four suspects, authorities said.
Denis W. had been hired at the Bode Museum as a security guard just weeks before the heist. Digging into his past, authorities discovered the connection to Ahmed Remmo, whose family is among one of Germany’s most notorious crime networks.
“How can it be that someone who has never worked in Germany can accumulate millions in wealth?” Dr. Ralph Ghadban, a sociologist who has studied the family, told Germany’s Focus magazine in 2019, referring to Issa Remmo, the family’s patriarch.
Authorities also discovered that Denis W. had worked the museum’s graveyard shift on the days leading up to the heist, when three suspicious men dressed in all black walked the exact getaway route, according to security footage.
Expert analysis of the size and stature of the men portrayed in the security camera footage matched cousins Ahmed and Wissam Remmo, both high-school dropouts convicted multiple times for past petty crimes.
A subsequent search of Ahmed’s apartment turned up clothing with gold particles matching the high purity of “Big Maple Leaf.” The same particles were found in more than one of the Remmo family’s cars, suggesting the coin was immediately broken apart, melted down, transported and sold.
Meanwhile, a search of Wissam’s apartment resulted in a pair of gloves with security glass particles matching those of the window through which the thieves accessed the museum. His phone also contained a detailed search history of how to break down large pieces of gold, and investigators uncovered a rare Armani jacket in his possession clearly identifiable in security footage.
Lesser convictions
Defense attorneys’ attempts to dispute the mounds of evidence against the three men proved futile. But prosecutors were unable to secure convictions against all of the accused to the degree they had initially hoped.
Security guard Denis W., just 18 years old at the time of the theft, was sentenced to three years and four months behind bars, as well as a fine of €100,000 — the amount phone records and investment inquiries he made after the fact indicated he received for his part in the theft. Prosecutors had originally sought a six-year conviction.
Ahmed and Wissam Remmo, 18 and 20 years old when the crime occurred, were each sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison. Authorities had initially sought a maximum sentence of seven years for each perpetrator.
They were both, however, fined for the estimated price of the coin — a whopping €3.3 million. All of the suspects were tried and sentenced according to juvenile law, based on their ages at the time of the crime, authorities said.
Wayci Remmo, the fourth defendant in the case and Ahmed’s brother, was acquitted of all charges. The prosecution’s attempts to prove his involvement using high-tech models that linked him to security footage proved unconvincing, Justice Prüfer said.
Further investigations
But speaking to a flurry of reporters after the trial, lead prosecutor Thomas Schulz-Spirohn said his office would continue investigating other members of the Remmo family believed to have taken part in the theft. 52-year-old Issa is already standing trial for verbally assaulting a police officer.
“We will calmly review the evidence and won’t steer clear [of further investigations],” Schulz-Spirohn said.
Both the prosecution and the defense now have a week to appeal the decision, according to German law. DW could not immediately reach the defense team for comment.
https://www.dw.com/en/berlin-gold-coin-heist-3-sentenced-to-jail/a-52441680
Bernie wins big in Nevada caucus
Homeless man, 29, accused of stabbing prayer leader in neck had been attending Regent’s Park mosque for ‘a number of years’ before attack, court hears
Daniel Horton, 29, knew prayer caller Raafat Maglad, 70, a court has heard
Bearded defendant spoke only to confirm his name and age in court today
He has been accused of grievous bodily harm and possession of a bladed article
The homeless man accused of stabbing a prayer leader in the neck at Regent’s Park mosque had been attending the place of worship for ‘a number of years’ before the attack, a court has heard.
Daniel Horton, 29, of no fixed address, spoke only to confirm his British nationality, name and date of birth when he appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ court today.
The bearded defendant wore a grey tracksuit and kept his head bowed throughout proceedings. He has been accused of grievous bodily harm and possession of a bladed article.
Raafat Maglad, 70, returned to London Central Mosque today less than 24 hours after the incident.
Mr Maglad, known as the muezzin – the person who makes the call to prayer – returned to the mosque for Friday prayers, less than 24 hours after the incident.
Prosecutor Tanyia Dogra said the victim had suffered a 1.5cm wound to his neck.
She told the court the victim and defendant were known to each other because Horton had been attending the mosque for a number of years.
Horton, who the court heard had been sleeping rough since last year, was remanded in custody by District Judge Nina Tempia to appear at Southwark Crown Court on March 20.
On Thursday afternoon police were called to The London Central mosque near Regent’s Park and found that worshippers had pinned the suspect to the ground.
The Metropolitan Police arrived minutes later to the mosque shortly after 3pm, and arrested the attacker on suspicion of attempted murder.
Mr Maqlad was flanked by security at the mosque yesterday, saying: ‘I forgive him. I feel no hatred for him, he’s a human being and what happened to me is my fate.
‘However the law must be implemented. All I can remember is someone approaching me from behind and then feeling great pain in my neck.
‘He did not say anything to me. It was a really deep cut. I rushed myself out of the room and someone rushed me to hospital.
‘I’m still in pain but I wanted to come here today and pray. I felt it was important to do that but now I’m returning to hospital. I don’t know the man. I have seen him in the mosque before but I don’t know much about him.’
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8032135/Homeless-man-29-accused-stabbing-prayer-leader-attending-mosque-years.html