Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson on Monday demanded the promptness of Johan Floderus, a Swedish European Union worker jailed in Iran.
Floderus arrested in Iran in 2022. Iran announced on Sunday that it had opened proceedings against the Swedish citizen, accusing him of spying for Israel and “corruption on earth,” a crime punishable by death.
“He is detained in an absolutely arbitrary manner,” Kristersson told a news conference. “We call for his prompt release. “
Relations between Sweden and Iran have been strained since 2019, when Sweden arrested a former Iranian official, Hamid Noury, on suspicion of torturing and executing political prisoners in Iran in the 1980s, Reuters reported.
In 2022, a Swedish district court will indict Noury on the charges. Noury appealed the case and the appeals court is expected to rule next week.
The U. N. special rapporteur on human rights in Russia on Monday expressed fear for the fate of jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny after his legal team and allies reported they had been unable to locate him since contacting him 13 days ago.
Navalny’s allies said he did not appear in court as scheduled on Monday and that they were still by his side in Russia’s vast criminal system.
Navalny’s spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh, wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, that Navalny had scheduled several hearings, some of which were suspended because the unknown whereabouts of the politician who is President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest enemy prevented his participation in the user or video link.
Special Rapporteur Mariana Katzarova, an independent expert who reports on human rights in Russia for the UN, said she was “greatly concerned that the Russian authorities will not disclose Mr. Navalny’s whereabouts and well-being for such a prolonged period of time.”
This amounts to an “enforced disappearance,” Katzarova said.
The whereabouts of Navalny, 47, have been unclear since his lawyers lost contact with him after Dec. 6. It is intentionally being hidden after Putin announced his candidacy in the Russian presidential election in March, which the longtime leader is almost certain to win.
“Alexei is Putin’s main opponent, although his call will not appear on the ballot,” Navalny spokesman Yarmysh told The Associated Press. “They will do everything they can to isolate him. “
Navalny’s team has launched a crusade to inspire Russians to boycott elections or vote for a candidate.
The allies said a defense lawyer told the court on Dec. 15 that Navalny had been transferred from the penal colony east of Moscow where he was serving a 19-year sentence for extremism, but the lawyer did not say where Navalny had been taken.
Yarmysh told the AP that Navalny’s team had written to more than 200 pretrial detention centers and special penal colonies and had checked all detention centers in Moscow to locate the opposition leader.
Although a ruling handed down on Monday suspended the judicial process indefinitely after Navalny could not be located, that does not mean the judicial government will locate him, Yarmysh said.
“The court has absolved itself of its duty to administer justice,” he said.
Navalny’s allies raised the alarm after his lawyers were not allowed to enter Penal Colony No. 6, the criminal about 230 kilometers (140 miles) east of Moscow, where he was serving his sentence after Dec. 6. The lawyers also said the letters addressed to him were not being delivered. and that Navalny will not appear at scheduled court hearings via video link.
Yarmysh said earlier this month that those advances were because Navalny had recently fallen ill and fainted “from hunger. “She said he was “starved, kept in a mobile without ventilation, and given minimal time outdoors. “
He was due to be transferred to a “special security” penal colony, a facility with the highest security level in the Russian penitentiary system.
Russian prison transfers are notorious for taking a long time, sometimes weeks, during which there’s no access to prisoners, with information about their whereabouts limited or unavailable. Navalny could be transferred to any of a number of such penal colonies across Russia.
Navalny has been held in Russia since January 2021, when he returned to Moscow after recovering in Germany from a nerve agent poisoning he blames on the Kremlin. Prior to his arrest, he had campaigned against official corruption and organized primary protests against the Kremlin.
Since then, he has been sentenced to three terms and spent months in solitary confinement in Penal Colony No. 6 for alleged minor crimes. He has rejected all charges against him, calling them politically motivated.
President Joe Biden was on Sunday night after a car collided with an SUV in the motorcade that was part of the president’s security detail, a Reuters witness said.
Biden and first lady Jill Biden had just left their crusade headquarters when the collision occurred. Jill Biden was also there after the incident, the witness said.
The Bidens had left the Biden-Harris 2024 headquarters in rainy downtown Wilmington at 8:07 p. m. (01:07 GMT) after eating with members of their re-election team at the time of the incident, at the White House press group. report.
Moments after Biden answered a reporter’s question, a silver sedan with Delaware license plates collided with what appeared to be an SUV from the motorcade protecting the caravan at the intersection in front of the crusade headquarters, according to the group’s report.
Television showed Secret Service agents escorting Biden to his car after the impact.
The silver sedan, which had a broken bumper, was temporarily surrounded by security guards after it stopped. Officers cornered the car and pointed their guns at the driver, who raised his hands.
The Bidens returned safely to their Wilmington home after the incident, the witness said.
A Syrian national was charged and jailed Sunday as part of an investigation into a shipwreck in the English Channel last week that claimed the life of a migrant, prosecutors said.
The boy from Syrian Kurdistan, born in 1993, has been charged with murder, intentional endangerment and complicity in and illegal stay, Saint-Omer prosecutor Mehdi Benbouzid said.
He is suspected of piloting a boat carrying about 60 migrants, including children, an allegation he denies, AFP reported.
The second man, suspected of piloting the ship, is still being sought.
The ship set sail from Oye-Plage, east of Calais, on Thursday night and capsized off the neighbouring town of Gravelines.
One man was killed and two passengers are missing, according to the regional maritime authority.
In another incident, the body of another migrant was discovered on Sangatte beach on Friday after a failed attempt to cross the English Channel.
According to the prosecutor’s office, a boat carrying about 70 other people put to sea before returning “after suffering damage to the engine. “
About 40 more migrants who intended to join the organization remained on the beach in Sangatte.
Police were deployed to the beach and intervened, and a 33-year-old Iraqi man was arrested on Sunday as part of the investigation, according to regional prosecutors.
“The suspect appears to have been involved in the crossing scene, but also incited a number of migrants to attack the police when the boat returned,” prosecutors said.
The cause of the victim’s death has not yet been determined.
On Friday alone, 292 migrants arrived in the UK after crossing the English Channel on seven boats, according to the UK Home Office’s tally. On Saturday, the migrants arrived in the UK on a single boat.
By the end of November, more than 28,000 people had crossed the English Channel since the beginning of this year, according to British government statistics, up from nearly 46,000 for the whole of last year.
A hacking group that Iran accuses of having links to Israel claimed it carried out cyberattacks that disrupted services at petrol stations across Iran on Monday, Iranian state TV and Israeli local media reported.
Oil Minister Javad Owji earlier told Iranian state television that facilities had been disrupted at about 70 percent of Iran’s gas stations and that external interference was a possible cause.
Iran’s state TV news said the Predatory Sparrow group claimed it was behind the disruption. Israeli local media outlets also reported the claim.
“This cyberattack was carried out in a controlled manner to prevent possible damage to emergency services,” Predatory Sparrow said in its statement, according to Iranian media.
Iran’s civil defense agency, which is responsible for the country’s cybersecurity, said it was still considering all possible causes for the disruptions as it investigated.
Iranian state media added that the hacker had in the past claimed responsibility for carrying out cyberattacks on Iranian fuel stations, railway networks and metallurgical plants.
Monday’s fuel shortage is the first such incident since 2021, when a primary cyberattack in Iran disrupted fuel sales, causing long lines at gas stations across the country. Gasoline costs at the pump in Iran are heavily subsidized. Iran has accused Israel and the United States. to be the attacks.
The outages began on Monday morning and were severe in Tehran, forcing many gas stations to operate manually, Iranian media reported.
“At least 30% of the gas stations are operational and the rest resolve service disruptions,” Owji said.
Reza Navar, a spokesman for the Iranian Gas Station Association, told the semi-official Fars news firm that the outage was due to a software issue.
“A software factor with the fuel formula has been shown at some stations across the country and lately experts are in the process of solving the factor,” Navar said.
Navar added that there was no fuel supply shortage but called on drivers to not go to petrol stations.
The Oil Ministry had earlier said on state television that the disruptions were not similar to plans to raise fuel prices, a policy that sparked widespread protests in 2019 and led to a violent crackdown.
State television said gas stations were looking to deliver fuel manually and that problems would take at least 6 to 7 hours.
Israel has yet to comment on the cyberattack in Iran.
Israel’s Cyber Unit said Monday that Iran and Hezbollah attempted a cyberattack on a hospital in northern Israel about three weeks ago. The attack was foiled, but the hackers managed to recover “some sensitive data stored in the hospital’s data systems. “
The Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) claimed on Sunday that it had discovered non-operational espionage at the headquarters of the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Valery Zaluzhny.
In a speech by the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.
Following the discovery of the device, a criminal investigation was opened at the SSU.
The investigation was opened under an applicable article of the Criminal Code of Ukraine related to “the illegal acquisition, sale or use of special technical means for downloading information,” he added.
As the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Zaluzhny is the person who decides the conduct of battles on the front, under the command of President Volodymyr Zelensky.
In recent months, Ukrainian and foreign media reported escalating tensions between Zelensky and Zaluzhny after the failure of a counter-offensive by Ukrainian forces in the summer and a retreat of Western support.
Russian forces have launched daily attacks on various Ukrainian regions since Moscow started a military invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
The French Foreign Ministry said one of its workers died from wounds sustained in an Israeli attack in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip.
The man was seeking refuge at the home of a colleague at the French consulate along with two other colleagues and several members of his family, the ministry said Saturday afternoon.
“The space was hit by an Israeli airstrike on Wednesday night, which seriously wounded our officer and killed a dozen more people,” he said, adding that he died from his injuries, Reuters reported.
France condemned the bombing of a residential building.
“We ask that the Israeli government address the cases of this attack as soon as possible,” he said.
The Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment. A French Foreign Ministry spokesman declined to provide additional details about the worker’s name, nationality and age.
“We are waiting for explanations (from Israel),” French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said shortly after meeting her Israeli counterpart Eli Cohen in Tel Aviv on Sunday.
He called for an “immediate truce” between Hamas and Israel to allow for a humanitarian ceasefire.
Israel says it seeks to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure in accordance with foreign law, even as critics and even its closest ally, the United States, say it will have to do more.
Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin said US President Joe Biden’s claim that Russia would attack a NATO country if he won in Ukraine was complete nonsense, adding that Russia had no interest in fighting with the NATO military alliance.
Biden provided transparent evidence of his comments.
Russia launched an overnight airstrike on Ukraine with an Iskander ballistic missile, a cruise missile and attack drones, the Ukrainian Air Force said on Sunday.
Ukrainian air defense destroyed the cruise missile and 20 attack drones, the Air Force said on the Telegram messaging app.
The Iskander missile “hit its target,” he said, without giving details.
According to Reuters, it is unclear exactly how many drones Russia has brought in in total or whether the attack caused injuries or casualties.
A US nuclear-powered submarine arrived in the South Korean port city of Busan on Sunday, the Yonhap news agency reported citing the South Korean navy.
The arrival of the USS Missouri, also known as SSN-780, comes after South Korea and the US held their second Nuclear Consultative Group meeting in Washington on Friday.
“Any nuclear attack by North Korea against the U. S. or its allies is unacceptable and will result in the end of the Kim regime,” a joint U. S. -South Korean interlocutor said at the meeting.
A senior South Korean official said earlier this week that North Korea may test-launch an intercontinental ballistic missile this month, according to Reuters.
Visits via U. S. nuclear submarines were rare in the past, but have increased as part of agreements between Seoul and Washington that include increased U. S. military resources to help deter North Korea. Another U. S. nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Santa Fe, called out at a port on the South Korean island of Jeju in November.
The USS Carl Vinson, a U. S. aircraft carrier, arrived at a Busan port last month in an effort to bolster deterrence against North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.