Egyptian journalists union execs on trial
CAIRO — The trial began Saturday for the head of Egypt’s journalists union and two board members charged with spreading false news and harboring reporters wanted by authorities, with one defendant saying it was part of a government plan to create a “state of fear.”
Union head Yahya Qalash and board members Khaled el-Balshy and Gamal Abdel-Rahim showed at the downtown Cairo court with some dozen defense lawyers led by former presidential candidate Khaled Ali.
In a 10-minute hearing, the defense requested a postponement to allow them time to study the case.
The trial will resume on June 18.
Amnesty International condemned the case last month, describing it as part of a “draconian” crackdown on freedom of expression.
“We are dealing with a case that must be seen in the wider context of a society where there is an all-out attack on freedoms, closure of public sphere and efforts to establish a state of fear,” el-Balshy told reporters.
Baghdad-area bombings leave 15 dead
BAGHDAD — Iraqi officials say bombings targeting a police checkpoint, a restaurant and two markets killed 15 people and wounded more than 40 in and around Baghdad.
The deadliest was a suicide bombing against a military checkpoint in Tarmiyah, about 30 miles north of the capital, which killed eight people and wounded 15 others.
The two separate attacks on markets in Baghdad killed five people, and the bomb targeting the restaurant killed two people. The attacks come as Iraqi forces attempt to retake the western city of Fallujah from Islamic State militants.
Nigeria finds $10.3B in corruption probe
LAGOS, Nigeria — Nigeria has seized more than $10.3 billion in looted cash and assets in the past year under President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-corruption campaign, the information minister announced Saturday.
In addition, the government is expecting the repatriation of more than $330 million stolen from the public treasury and stashed in banks abroad, Information Minister Lai Mohammed said in a statement.
Mohammed did not identify former and current officials accused of looting public funds. He also did not say how much of the money has been returned by former officials hoping for forgiveness or a plea bargain.
He said the funds include $583.5 million recovered in cash and $9.7 billion in cash and assets under interim forfeiture including seagoing vessels, buildings and land.
Hundreds of people have been arrested, including retired Col. Sambo Dasuki, who was former President Goodluck Jonathan’s national security adviser. He is accused of diverting $2.1 billion meant to fight the Boko Haram Islamic insurgency. Jonathan instructed that the money be used to bribe party officials to help him win his party’s presidential nomination, Dasuki has told the court.
Spain ex-leader, jailed Venezuelan meet
CARACAS, Venezuela — Spain’s former prime minister met in jail with Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez on Saturday, the first meeting of its kind in the more than two years since Lopez’s imprisonment for inciting violence during anti-government protests.
Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero’s surprise prison visit is part of a diplomatic effort to defuse the escalating crisis in Venezuela, where President Nicolas Maduro is under pressure to negotiate an end to a stalemate with the opposition, which is seeking his ouster because of triple-digit inflation and widespread food and medicine shortages.
“We don’t know who permitted it or why,” Lopez’s father, also named Leopoldo Lopez, said on Twitter. “All we know is that there was a surprise.”
It’s the first time an outside visitor besides Lopez’s family or lawyers have met with the combative leader in the military prison outside Caracas where he’s being held. In 2015, he was sentenced to nearly 14 years in jail in proceedings condemned as a show trial by the U.S. and human-rights groups.
Venezuela’s opposition is demanding the release of Lopez and dozens of other activists it considers political prisoners as part of an international mediation effort led by Zapatero and the former presidents of Panama and the Dominican Republic.