Tuesday, September 08, 2020

Belarusian student protesters targeted by masked men

PUTIN'S PROUD BOYS AKA LITTLE GREEN MEN

By Caitlin McFall, Fox News

September 8, 2020 | 

Students were dragged from protests against the contested re-election of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, by masked men who hauled them into vans, reported Reuters Saturday.

Russian news agency TASS said that roughly 30 students were detained for taking part in unauthorized protests in Belarus’ capital city, according to Minsk police officers.

Students wore red and white opposition colors as they protested Lukashenko for the fourth week across the city. On Karl Marx street in the center of the nation’s capital, students were targeted by men in masks.

They also protested in front of the Minsk State Linguistic Institute where five other students were reportedly arrested Friday, according to Reuters.

Thousands of women reportedly held a separate demonstration later, protesting the arrests of students and shouting “hands off the children.”

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Reports of severe abuse by those who have been arrested over the last several weeks of demonstrations have emerged once people are released.

Dozens of protesters who were arrested have disappeared, along with dozens of journalists.Enlarge Image

Opposition supporters rally to protest against disputed presidential elections results in Minsk .
Opposition supporters rally to protest against disputed presidential elections results in Minsk.Getty Images

Reports of severe abuse by those who have been arrested over the last several weeks of demonstrations have emerged once people are released.

Dozens of protesters who were arrested have disappeared, along with dozens of journalists.

The government has denied any abuse of detainees, but photos of demonstrators released from police custody suggest otherwise.

A woman marching Saturday carried a poster of an injured demonstrator, an apparently badly beaten woman. She was photographed showing the poster to a police officer monitoring the protest.

Hundreds of others reportedly congregated for a service at a Catholic church in Independence Square, to show solidarity to Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz. He was barred from entering Belarus this week, after returning from a trip to Poland.

Kondrusiewicz has publicly opposed state aggression against protesters, the Vatican News reported.

Protests erupted in Belarus following the Aug. 9 presidential election that resulted in the re-election of Lukashenko, who claimed to have won with 80 percent of the vote and alleged that his opponent, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, received only 10 percent of the vote.

The European Union has rejected the election results and is considering placing sanctions on Belarus.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also has said that the US and its allies are considering sanctions.

Lukashenko rejects all accusations of a rigged election.

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Belarus claims opposition leader arrested trying to flee to Ukraine


SEPTEMBER 8, 2020 / CBS/AFP

Belarusian authorities claimed Tuesday that one of the country's leading opposition figures had been detained while trying to cross into Ukraine, a day after her allies said she had been bundled into a van by unknown men and whisked away. European nations had demanded that Belarus' government explain the whereabouts of Maria Kolesnikova after her disappearance, along with two other opposition figures, on Monday.


On Tuesday, after officials in Minsk spent hours denying any knowledge of Kolesnikova's whereabouts, a spokesman for Belarus' State Border Committee claimed that she had been detained while attempting to cross overnight with two other members of the opposition's Coordination Council. He said two male members of the Council escaped, but Kolesnikova was arrested.

Quickly the Belarusian government's version of events was challenged by members of the Opposition Council, speaking both on the record and anonymously to Russian media, and by a Ukrainian official.


Kolesnikova and the two other council members, press secretary Anton Rodnenkov and executive secretary Ivan Kravtsov, disappeared on Monday morning. The council said a witness reported seeing Kolesnikova bundled into a minibus early that morning by unknown men. None of the three have been contactable by phone since they disappeared.
Maria Kolesnikova (R) speaks during an opposition rally in Minsk, Belarus, August 17, 2020.SERGEI GAPON/AFP/GETTY

Bychkovsky said that Rodnenkov and Kravtsov were able to cross into Ukraine, and the Ukrainian embassy in Minsk confirmed to AFP they were in the country. But Ukraine's Deputy Interior Minister Anton Gerashchenko called Rodnenkov and Kravtsov's arrival in his country the result of a "forcible expulsion" from Belarus. He said Kolesnikova refused the same treatment and was taken into custody in her home country.

Russia's Interfax news agency, citing anonymous sources close to the Belarusian opposition, also said Kolesnikova had refused to be expelled from Belarus at the border.



Bychkovsky said Kolesnikova was being held and "an investigation is under way to legally assess the situation."

Another senior member of the opposition Coordination Council, Maksim Znak, said Tuesday that none of the three council members — Kolesnikova, Rodnenkov, nor Kravtsov — had discussed any plans to leave the country.

"There is a lot that is strange in this story, voiced by Belarusian television," Znak said. "None of them had any intentions to leave the country. We spoke [hypothetically], relatively speaking, if it was offered, prison or going abroad, Maria clearly said that she would not go anywhere."

State news agency Belta quoted border officials as saying the three had tried to cross the border in a BMW around 4:00 am Tuesday.
ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA/GETTY

Bychkovsky, of the Belarusian border authority, told reporters that "Rodnenkov, Kravtsov and Kolesnikova passed customs border control in a BMW car and moved towards Ukraine. However, later, meeting a border guard, the car accelerated sharply, posing a threat to the life of a serviceman of the border service.


"Kolesnikova found herself outside the vehicle. In fact, she was pushed out of the car, which continued to move towards Ukraine," Bychkovsky claimed, offering no explanation for why she might have been forced from the vehicle by her colleagues.

Russian state-run media released security camera video showing the BMW appearing to pass uneventfully through the first checkpoint, but there was no video released of the second incident involving the alleged rush for the border, or Kolesnikova being ejected from the car.

The Coordination Council was set up to ensure a peaceful transfer of power after President Alexander Lukashenko's main rival Svetlana Tikhanovskaya rejected his claim to have won an August 9 presidential election with 80 percent of the vote.


The disputed election has sparked widespread protests and a harsh police crackdown that has seen several thousand people arrested.

Germany and Britain had on Monday demanded answers after Kolesnikova went missing and allies said she had been snatched off the streets by unidentified men in black.
From left, Veronika Tsepkalo, wife of opposition figure Valery Tsepkalo, who was barred from running for presidency, presidential candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya and Maria Kolesnikova, Viktor Babaryko's campaign chief, pose during a press conference in Minsk, Belarus, July 17, 2020.SERGEI GAPON/AFP/GETTY

Kolesnikova, 38, is the only one of the trio of women who fronted Tikhanovskaya's campaign to remain in Belarus.

Tikhanovskaya left the country under pressure from the authorities and was granted refuge in EU member state Lithuania, while her other campaign partner, Veronika Tsepkalo, is now in Ukraine.

First published on September 8, 2020 / 5:14 AM

© 2020 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Agence France-Presse contributed to this report.

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US Army's top officer says sending troops to war is a 'last resort' after Trump blasts military leaders who 'want to do nothing but fight wars'
Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville testifies before the Senate Armed Services Committee. Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

President Donald Trump accused military leaders of fighting endless wars to satisfy defense companies during a press conference on Monday.

On Tuesday, Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville, the Army's most senior officer, defended military leaders, saying that the brass takes the decision to send troops to war "very seriously."

"Many of these leaders have sons and daughters that serve in the military, many of these leaders have sons and daughters who have gone to combat or may be in combat right now," he said, while refusing to comment directly on the president's remarks.

After President Donald Trump said Monday that military leaders in the Pentagon "want to do nothing but fight wars" to line the pockets of defense firms, the Army's top officer said Tuesday that senior military leaders recommend sending US troops to war only as a "last resort."

"I'm not saying the military is in love with me. The soldiers are," Trump said during a Labor Day press conference. "The top people in the Pentagon probably aren't because they want to do nothing but fight wars so that all of those wonderful companies that make the bombs and make the planes and make everything else stay happy."

"But, we're getting out of endless wars," he said.

His comments were followed by a report from NBC News citing multiple senior administration officials saying that the president had looked into replacing Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, a former lobbyist for defense contractor Raytheon whom Trump has reportedly been unhappy with for a while.

White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows tried to clarify the president's comments Tuesday morning, arguing that Trump was not criticizing any specific military leader, but was instead criticizing the "military industrial complex."

While Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville did not comment on the president's remarks, stressing the need for the military to stay out of politics, he did defend military leaders Tuesday, saying they take the decision to send service members to war "very, very seriously."

"Many of these leaders have sons and daughters that serve in the military, many of these leaders have sons and daughters who have gone to combat or may be in combat right now," he said during a forum hosted by Defense One, Reuters reported.

"I can assure the American people that the senior leaders would only recommend sending our troops to combat when it is required in national security and in the last resort," he added. "We take this very, very seriously in how we make our recommendations."

Trump's remarks Monday followed an explosive report last week from The Atlantic that said the president spoke disparagingly about US service members who died in battle, those who were captured and held as prisoners of war, or who suffered injuries in combat.

The report, citing anonymous sources, said that the president canceled his planned 2018 visit to a Paris cemetery because he felt it was unnecessary to honor those who fell in battle, service members he reportedly characterized as "losers" and "suckers."

Aspects of the reporting were confirmed by Fox News, CNN, and other outlets, but the White House has repeatedly denied the report published in The Atlantic.

One White House official calling it "just another anonymously sourced story meant to tear down a Commander-in-Chief who loves our military and has delivered on the promises he's made."
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Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe faces new charge, Iranian media reports

State TV says British-Iranian dual national appeared in Tehran court on Tuesday

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been under effective house arrest after her release from prison due to the coronavirus pandemic after serving nearly all of her five-year sentence. Photograph: Reuters
Associated Press in Tehran

The British-Iranian dual national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe faces a new, unspecified charge, according to a report on Iranian state TV, which also said she had appeared in court on Tuesday morning.

The report did not elaborate beyond saying Zaghari-Ratcliffe has appeared before a branch of the country’s revolutionary court in Tehran, where she was first sentenced in 2017.

Labour MP Tulip Siddiq said she had spoken to Zaghari-Ratcliffe who confirmed she was taken to court on Tuesday morning and told she was facing another trial on Sunday.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been under effective house arrest following her release from prison due to the coronavirus pandemic after serving nearly all of her five-year sentence. She has been wearing an ankle tag that limits her movements to within 300 metres (984ft) of her parents’ home in Tehran.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested during a holiday with her daughter in April 2016. Her family says she was in Iran to visit family, denying she was plotting against the state. She was accused of plotting the “soft toppling” of Iran’s government.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe worked for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of the news agency.

The new charge comes after Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s family linked her detention to Iran’s negotiations with the British government over a £400m settlement ($530m) held by London, a payment the late Iranian Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi made for Chieftain tanks that were never delivered.

Tehran has denied her detention was linked to the negotiations. The charges could be an attempt to gain new leverage in the negotiations.

Iran was hit hard by the coronavirus early this year, becoming the worst-affected country in the Middle East. Since then, it has reported more than 391,000 cases and 22,542 deaths.

Topics
Timeline


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Arrest in Tehran

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is arrested at Imam Khomeini airport as she is trying to return to Britain after a holiday visiting family with her daughter, Gabriella.

Release campaign begins

Her husband, Richard Radcliffe, delivers a letter to David Cameron in 10 Downing Street, demanding the government do more for her release.

Sentenced

She is sentenced to five years in jail. Her husband says the exact charges are still being kept a secret.

Hunger strike

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe's health deteriorates after she spends several days on hunger strike in protest at her imprisonment.

Appeal fails

Iran’s supreme court upholds her conviction.

Boris Johnson intervenes

Boris Johnson, then Foreign Secretary, tells a parliamentary select committee "When we look at what [she] was doing, she was simply teaching people journalism". Four days after his comments, Zaghari-Ratcliffe is returned to court, where his statement is cited in evidence against her. Her employers, the Thomson Reuters Foundation, deny that she has ever trained journalists, and her family maintain she was in Iran on holiday. Johnson is eventually forced to apologise for the "distress and anguish" his comments cause the family.

Health concerns

Her husband reveals that Zaghari-Ratcliffe has fears for her health after lumps had been found in her breasts that required an ultrasound scan, and that she was now “on the verge of a nervous breakdown”.

Hunt meets husband

New Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt meets with Richard Ratcliffe, and pledges "We will do everything we can to bring her home."

Temporary release

She is granted a temporary three-day release from prison.

Hunger strike

Zaghari-Ratcliffe is on hunger strike again, in protest at the withdrawal of her medical care.

Diplomatic protection

The foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, takes the unusual step of granting her diplomatic protection – a move that raises her case from a consular matter to the level of a dispute between the two states.

Travel warning

The UK upgrades its travel advice to British-Iranian dual nationals, for the first time advising against all travel to Iran. The advice also urges Iranian nationals living in the UK to exercise caution if they decide to travel to Iran.

Hunger strike in London

Richard Ratcliffe joins his wife in a new hunger strike campaign. He fasts outside the Iranian embassy in London as she begins a third hunger strike protest in prison.

Hunger strike ends

Zaghari-Ratcliffe ends her hunger strike by eating some breakfast. Her husband also ends his strike outside the embassy.

Moved to mental health ward

According to her husband, Zaghari-Ratcliffe was moved from Evin prison to the mental ward of Imam Khomeini hospital, where Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have prevented relatives from contacting her.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe's five year old daughter Gabriella, who has lived with her grandparents in Tehran and regularly visited her mother in jail over the last three years, returns to London in order to start school.

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UK

HMRC targets furlough fraudsters after up to £3.5bn wrongly paid out via scheme

Perm sec Jim Harra tells MPs the scheme's fraud and error rate "could be between 5% and 10%" of £35.4bn bill
Jim Harra spoke to the Public Accounts Committee remotely this week. Screenshot: Parliament TV

08 Sep 2020

Up to £3.5bn from the government's furlough scheme could have been paid out in error or due to fraudulent claims, HM Revenue and Customs has said.

HMRC permanent secretary Jim Harra told MPs on Monday that 27,000 "high-risk" cases were being pursued amid fears that 5-10% of applications could have been claimed fradulently or in error.

Official figures show as much as £35.4bn has been paid out through the government's job retention scheme since it was established in April.

The scheme paid 80% of furloughed workers' wages in the first months of lockdown with around 1.2 million employers making the use of the system by August.

As many as 2.7 million self-employed people also used the scheme during the pandemic, claiming a further £7.8bn in funding from the Treasury.

Speaking to the Public Accounts Committee on Monday, Harra said the tax authority would not pursue employers who had made claims in error and would instead focus on tackling fraudulent activities.

"We have made an assumption for the purposes of our planning that the error and fraud rate in this scheme could be between 5% and 10%," Harra said.

"That will range from deliberate fraud through to error.

"What we have said in our risk assessment is we are not going to set out to find employers who have made legitimate mistakes in compiling their claims, because this is obviously something new that everybody had to get to grips with in a very difficult time."

He added: "Although we will expect employers to check their claims and repay any excess amount... what we will be focusing on is tackling abuse and fraud."

The HMRC chief executive also revealed that 8,000 calls had been made to HMRC's fraud telephone hotline in regards to the scheme.

And he encouraged workers who believed their employers were making fraudulent claims to report them to his department.

He added: "While we can't get involved in any relationship between the employee and employer, we can certainly reclaim any grant that the employer is not entitled to, which includes grants they have not passed on in wages to their employees."

The job retention scheme is set to wind down from next month, with chancellor Rishi Sunak repeatedly dismissing calls from opposition MPs to extend the support further.

Former Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith said the figures proved it was the right time to bring the scheme to a close.

"It's rapidly being defrauded more and more because employers are making furloughed people work and telling them they can't say anything or they'll lose their jobs," he told the Daily Mail.

"The scheme is open to fraud and abuse and it's hard to check where the money is actually going.

"The sooner we bring this scheme to an end, the sooner we can stop haemorrhaging money and get the country back to work."

John Johnston is a reporter for CSW's sister title PoliticsHome, where this story first appeared.

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