A French court on Thursday jailed for 30 years a man who used machetes to attack soldiers outside the world-famous Louvre museum in Paris.
Judges issued the sentence in line with anti-terrorism prosecutors' demands for Egyptian citizen Abdalla El Hamahmi, 33, who did not react from behind his coronavirus mask as it was read to him by an interpreter.
El Hamahmi, a married father, rushed at a group of soldiers patrolling the Louvre area early on February 3, 2017, with a machete in each hand and wearing a T-shirt with a skull motif.
He wounded one soldier to the scalp before being severely injured when the patrol opened fire.
El Hamahmi insisted throughout the trial that he planned to protest against French policy in Syria by destroying masterpieces inside the Louvre, which houses thousands of works including Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa.
He claimed to have been surprised to encounter soldiers, who have patrolled central Paris since a wave of terrorist attacks that killed more than 250 in France from 2015.
El Hamahmi said he attacked them "as a reflex", saying he was acting "like a robot".
During the trial, tried to deny the authenticity of a video in which he swore allegiance to ISIS.
But he later admitted he tried to join ISIS in the Middle East before turning to France.
ISIS did not claim responsibility for his attack.
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
What can victims do?
Always use only regulated platforms
Stop all transactions and communication on suspicion
Save all evidence (screenshots, chat logs, transaction IDs)
Report to local authorities
Warn others to prevent further harm
Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence
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