MEXICO CITY – A politician who was elected mayor of a city in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca earlier this month has been arrested for faking his death in 2010 to avoid prosecution, officials said Wednesday. Raymundo Carballido was arrested Tuesday night at a house owned by his family in a city near Oaxaca city, the state capital, and faces numerous charges, the Oaxaca state Attorney General’s Office said.
Carballido faked his death three years ago to avoid being detained on an arrest warrant issued for a rape he allegedly committed in 2004.
A judge issued the arrest warrant on Oct. 12, 2010, but an AG’s office agent told the court a week later that the politician had died while in “a diabetic coma,” closing the case against him.
Carballido, however, filed to run in the mayoral race in the city of San Agustin Amatengo and his victory was covered by the media, alerting authorities that he was alive.
Investigators began tracking Carballido and a judge issued an arrest warrant on various charges, including making false statements and using a false document.
Carballido, who ran on the ticket of the coalition formed by the conservative National Action Party, or PAN, the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution, or PRD, and the Workers Party, won nearly 50 percent of the vote in the July 7 elections. EFE
Attacks on Police Leave 22 Dead in Mexico Gunmen on the payroll of the Los Caballeros Templarios drug cartel staged six attacks Tuesday on officers patrolling highways in the state, a high-level Federal Police commander said
MORELIA, Mexico – At least 20 suspected drug traffickers and two law enforcement agents were killed in a series of attacks on Federal Police officers in the western Mexican state of Michoacan, officials said.
Gunmen on the payroll of the Los Caballeros Templarios drug cartel staged six attacks Tuesday on officers patrolling highways in the state, a high-level Federal Police commander told Efe.
“We are talking about attacks that were planned ahead of time, in which individuals armed with rifles hiding in the hills participated, as well as having roads blocked with buses and other vehicles,” the Mexican National Security Commission said.
Fifteen Federal Police officers were wounded in the attacks, officials said.
One of the attacks took place on the highway that links Morelia, the capital of Michoacan, to the Pacific coast, and two other attacks were staged on the road that connects the cities of Tumbiscatio and Arteaga.
Three attacks were carried out in the cities of Aguililla, Mugica and Aquila.
Vehicles were used to block the highway that links Morelia to the coast and the road that connects the coastal highway to the city of Apatzingan, the main base of the Caballeros Templarios, officials said.
Drug traffickers torched several vehicles.
At least five people were killed and eight others wounded when gunmen suspected of being on the Caballeros Templarios’s payroll opened fire Monday on about 200 members of a self-defense group protesting police corruption in Los Reyes, a city in Michoacan.
Residents of the cities of Coalcoman, Buenavista Tomatlan, Los Reyes, Tepalcapetec and Aquila took up arms on Feb. 24 against Los Caballeros Templarios.
The Caballeros Templarios, La Familia Michoacana and Jalisco Nueva Generacion drug cartels have been fighting for control of Michoacan.
The gangs have been battling each other, as well as new armed vigilante groups that call themselves “community police forces,” in different cities and towns.
The Caballeros Templarios gang was founded in March 2011 by former members of La Familia Michoacana and deals in both synthetic drugs and natural drugs.
The cartel has been fighting rival gangs for control of turf and smuggling routes in Guerrero and Michoacan states, both of which are on the Pacific.
Michoacan’s forests and mountains are used by drug traffickers to grow marijuana and produce synthetic drugs.
Los Caballeros Templarios is suspected of carrying out murders, staging kidnappings and running extortion rackets that target business owners and transport companies in Michoacan’s 113 municipalities, officials said. EFE
Video: A Chinese journalist's inside view of censorship
Journalist Liu Jianfeng worked in China’s state-controlled media for nearly two decades. Eventually, frustration with the system and pressure from his colleagues prompted him to quit. He continues to report on public issues such as land grabs, and hopes to find a new model for investigative journalism in China. Jonah Kessel reports. (11:10)
New York, July 24, 2013--The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the release on Tuesday of Yemeni freelance journalist Abdulelah Hider Shaea, who had been imprisoned for almost three years on anti-state charges.
Shaea was released yesterday after President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi issued a pardon, which also stipulated that the journalist could not leave Sana'a, the capital, for two years, state news agency Saba and other news sources reported.
Shaea, who was arrested in August 2010, was sentenced in January 2011 to five years in prison for "belonging to an illegal armed organization" and "recruiting young people, including foreigners, to the organization by communicating with them via the Internet," according to news reports. CPJ and others said the charges appeared to have been lodged in retaliation for his coverage of extremist groups and the Yemeni government's security practices.
Shaea had been critical of Yemen's counterterrorism policies, according to CPJ research. Using his tribal affiliation to gain access, he conducted several interviews with senior members of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. In December 2009, Shaea interviewed the U.S.-born militant Anwar Awlaki for ABC News, according to news reports. Awlaki was killed in a September 2011 U.S. drone attack.
"We are relieved that Abdulelah Hider Shaea has been released, but it comes after three years of imprisonment," said CPJ's Middle East and North Africa Coordinator Sherif Mansour. "His reporting on Al-Qaeda was unjustly conflated with working for Al-Qaeda. Shaea should be allowed to continue working as a journalist without fear of harassment or imprisonment."
Hadi told U.N. officials in May that he planned to release Shaea, but it was unclear until Tuesday whether he would uphold that promise. In February 2011, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh pardoned Shaea, but withdrew the pardon after U.S. President Barack Obama expressed concern over his release, news reports said. The United States, through the National Security Council spokesman, expressed disappointment about Shaea's release on Tuesday.
CPJ had repeatedly called for the immediate release of Shaea, the only Yemeni journalist included in CPJ's annual prison census last year.
In the Western world, the media and political leaders have created a narrative averring that Iran’s seventh president, Hassan Rouhani, will introduce a new chapter to the Islamic Republic of Iran’s history of nuclear defiance. Meanwhile, under Ahmadinejad’s rule, Tehran will continue to spin its centrifuges in attempt to obtain nuclear weapons and arsenals until Rouhani assumes presidency. While the West and other regional countries have suspended all diplomatic initiatives, talks and pressures until Rouhani comes to power, Iranian leaders have taken advantage of this opportunity to speed up their enrichment of uranium so as to sooner reach the critical point of obtaining nuclear weapons.
The “logic” that the Obama administration and other liberal leaders are utilizing to uphold the argument that diplomatic initiatives have to wait until Rouhani comes to power is that Rouhani is a centrist, moderate, realist, and rational Iranian politician who comprehends the concerns and rules of the international community, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations, and P5+1. They argue that Rouhani will comply with rules and halt Iran’s nuclear program in several cities including Bushehr, Qum, Esfahan, Arak and Natanz.
Nevertheless, these arguments do not take into account the ideological nuances, political agenda and structure of the Iranian centrists. In addition, and more fundamentally, these arguments can easily be repudiated not only by the career, personal, ideological, and political background of Hassan Rouhani, but also by the most recent statements that Rouhani has made in Persian media and the state’s outlets.
In a recent interview, Hassan Abedini, the host of one of Iran’s state media channels, IRIB, criticized Rouhani by stating that Iran’s nuclear work had been halted as a result of the negotiations that Rouhani took part in when he was chief nuclear negotiator. Rouhani then immediately interrupted Abedini by exclaiming, “What you said is a lie. You know it’s a lie. This statement is what ignorant people say; you are taught in this….Maybe the person speaking to you in your earpiece doesn’t know, but you know.” After the television host pressured Rouhani further, Rouhani said “We suspended the [nuclear] program? We completed the [nuclear] program. This is unethical act of the IRIB [channel] that has permeated into you. And the person who is talking with you into your earpiece, this unethical act has permeated into him, as well.”
In this interview, Rouhani supported the position that although the West and international community believe that Iran was halting its nuclear program, Rouhani – as the chief nuclear negotiator – was in fact completing it. In addition, at the Supreme Cultural Revolution Council, Rouhani further clarified, “While we were talking with the Europeans in Tehran, we were [simultaneously] installing equipment in parts of the [nuclear] facility in Isfahan, but we still had a long way to go to accomplish the project. In fact, by creating a tranquil environment, we were able to finish the work in Isfahan.”
Furthermore, after Rouhani was elected as the Iran’s seventh president, he publicly declared that the United States must recognize Iran’s nuclear rights and pledge not to interfere in its internal and domestic affairs. Additionally, in his press conference, the president-elect clearly stated, “The era of [enrichment] suspension is gone.”
The critical fact remains that although on one hand the Iranian centrists support using softer and more diplomatic tones on regional and international platforms, on the other hand, they also strongly insist on preserving Tehran’s current political status quo, foreign policy objectives, and continued assistance towards the survival of the Shiite cleric-ruled regime. While Rouhani is nicknamed the diplomatic sheikh and while he calls for employing less hostile language when dealing with the West, it is nevertheless unrealistic to argue that Rouhani will alter Tehran’s nuclear program and foreign policies or challenge the Supreme Leader.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose country would be the most affected if Iran obtained nuclear weapons, responded to Rouhani’s remarks about the era of nuclear suspension being gone. In an interview with CBS News, Netanyahu accurately characterized the political ideology of Rouhani and Iran’s centrist political spectrum by stating, “He [Rouhani] is criticizing his predecessor for being a wolf in wolf’s clothing. His strategy is to be a wolf in a sheep’s clothing. Smile and build a bomb.” Netanyahu also stated previously, “Let us not delude ourselves. The international community must not become caught up in wishful thinking and be tempted to relax the pressure on Iran to stop its nuclear program.”
Hassan Rouhani and the centrist party are the founders and beneficiaries of the theocratic political system of Iran’s Ayatollahs. It would be irrational to argue that Rouhani will stand against the current system, which he assisted in creating, and it is illogical to believe that he will risk his power and accumulated wealth by halting the centrifuges from spinning. Rouhani was the chief advisor of the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as well as the head of Iran’s National Security Council. It is thus inevitable that Rouhani will avoid challenging the Supreme Leader so as to preserve all the benefits and powers he has accumulated.
In a very Machiavellian-like approach, the Islamic Republic of Iran will continue spinning its centrifuges under the rule of Rouhani, but in the meanwhile will use a much softer tone when interacting with the international community. This shrewdness will allow Iran to buy time, manipulate the international community, take advantage of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s loopholes, delude the rest of world and ultimately reach their nuclear and hegemonic ambitions
One month after the arrest of three Christian converts in Isfahan, their conditions remain unknown and there is no news about their fate.
Mohabat News -- According to reports from the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran's sources, since the May 29 arrests of Mohammad Reza Farid, Saeed Safi, and Hamid Reza Ghadiri, their families have been unable to obtain any information about their conditions, and the judicial and police authorities have not provided them with any information about the reasons for their arrests, their detention conditions, or their charges.
According to reports, the forces treated those present at the worship session violently, and confiscated identification cards and information about the group before arresting the three men. During recent weeks, security forces have contacted a number of those present and asked them questions about the three detained men, threatening them with arrest if they refuse to answer questions.
(Three Arrested Christians, Mohammad-Reza Farid, Saeed Safi, and Hamid-Reza Ghadiri)
A local source told the Campaign that the families' efforts to pursue the cases at judicial, security, and police centers have been fruitless. Mohammad Reza Farid and Saeed Safi are Afghan Christian converts and managed the "Our Salvation" website, which was blocked by the Iranian cyber police.
Pressure on Christian converts and Evangelical Christians has increased over the recent months again, and in addition to arrests, Persian-language churches have also been closed down under pressure from the Intelligence Ministry.
Today, the Islamic Republic regime that spends millions of dollars from the country's budget to promote Islamic governments, is facing a new phenomenon called "growth of Christianity among Iranian youth". The regime considers its security force the only way to remove obstacles from their path. The closure of churches, the arrests and the increasing pressures on Christians are associated with the same strategy.
Pursuit, persecution, intimidation, arrests, and heavy judicial sentences for Christians, especially for Persian-speaking Christian converts, have been ongoing activities of the Islamic Republic of Iran for many years, carried out by official and unofficial forces of the regime, repeatedly criticized by religious and human rights organizations.
Religious minorities and religious dissidents, especially Persian-speaking Christians are under ever increasing persecution from the Islamic regime of Iran. These persecutions have reached their peak during the past three years. Numerous Christian converts have been arrested during the period. The reason for these persecutions is to stop growth of Christianity in Iran and its result has been pressure on churches, especially Farsi-speaking churches and house churches.
The Ebute Meta Magistrate's Court has remanded a 35-year old man, Arogundade Hammed, for allegedly torturing his 13-year old son, Qudus, to death. Punch Metro had reported how Arogundade tortured Qudus to death for breaking into a neighbour's house. He allegedly tied him up and hit him with sticks and other objects for hours before Qudus gave up. The charge sheet read in part, "That you, Arogundade Hammed,m, on the 27th day of June, 2013 at about 2215hrs, at New Site, Alagba Estate, Ikorodu Lagos in the Lagos Magisterial District, did unlawfully kill one Qudus Hammed,m, aged 13 years, by beating him to death." The prosecutor, Cpl Iyobosa Onaiwu, said the offence contravened section 221 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State, Nigeria, 2011. The accused plea was not taken. Onaiwu applied that Arogundade be remanded in prison custody pending the advice from the office of the Director of Public Prosecution. The magistrate, Mr. F.J Adefioye agreed to remand him in prison to await the DPP's advice.
MORELIA, Mexico – At least 20 suspected drug traffickers and two law enforcement agents were killed in a series of attacks on Federal Police officers in the western Mexican state of Michoacan, officials said.
One month after the arrest of three Christian converts in Isfahan, their conditions remain unknown and there is no news about their fate.
