A new UK law targeting human rights abusers should sanction Iranian security forces, judges and diplomats involved in illegal “hostage-taking”, British MPs have been told.
Anti-torture charity Redress said the UK should use new powers to restrict the travel and freeze the assets of officials involved in detaining dual-nationals and using them as bargaining chips in broader diplomatic battles.
“The clear purpose of Iran’s unlawful detention of British and dual nationals has been to exert diplomatic leverage over the UK,” said Charlie Loudon, the group’s international legal adviser. “It is essentially a practice of hostage taking.”
He told the parliamentary Foreign Affairs committee, which is examining the UK’s relations with Iran, that sanctions could be used to target security forces, prison officers, judges and diplomats “who effectively market the detainees in return for diplomatic advantage”.
He claimed that the tactic had been effective in the case of US pastor Andrew Brunson who spent two years in a Turkish jail. He was released two months after the US froze the assets of two Turkish ministers.
UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab announced last week that 49 people would be targeted under Britain’s first independent regime after leaving the European Union. The 49 were from Russia, Saudi Arabia, Myanmar and North Korea.
Families of detainees in Iran had backed the use of the measure in December, claiming that the failure of the UN and governments to punish Iran for illegal detentions had emboldened the regime to continue with the tactic.
“There should be a real clear cost for hostage taking,” Richard Ratcliffe, the husband of jailed charity administrator Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, said last year. “It should be anathema in the modern world.”
But another expert told the MPs on Tuesday that attempts to sanction Iranian officials would be ineffective using the new law named after Sergei Magnitsky, a corruption whistleblower who died after torture in a Russian prison.
“They [the sanctions] will be resented in a country that is constantly criticised and that has a history of sanctions,” said Anicée Van Engeland, a senior lecturer in international security at Cranfield University. “The population jokes about sanctions and wonder when the US will sanction the air and the water.”
Women%E2%80%99s%20T20%20World%20Cup%20Qualifier
%3Cp%3EFrom%20September%2018-25%2C%20Abu%20Dhabi%0D.%20The%20two%20finalists%20advance%20to%20the%20main%20event%20in%20South%20Africa%20in%20February%202023%0D%3Cbr%3E%20%0D%3Cbr%3EGroup%20A%3A%20United%20States%2C%20Ireland%2C%20Scotland%2C%20Bangladesh%0D%3Cbr%3EGroup%20B%3A%20UAE%2C%20Thailand%2C%20Zimbabwe%2C%20Papua%20New%20Guinea%0D%3Cbr%3E%20%0D%3Cbr%3EUAE%20group%20fixtures%3A%0D%3Cbr%3ESept%2018%2C%203pm%2C%20Zayed%20Cricket%20Stadium%20%E2%80%93%20UAE%20v%20Thailand%0D%3Cbr%3ESept%2019%2C%203pm%2C%20Tolerance%20Oval%20-%20PNG%20v%20UAE%0D%3Cbr%3ESept%2021%2C%207pm%2C%20Tolerance%20Oval%20%E2%80%93%20UAE%20v%20Zimbabwe%0D%3Cbr%3E%20%0D%3Cbr%3EUAE%20squad%3A%20Chaya%20Mughal%20(captain)%2C%20Esha%20Oza%2C%20Kavisha%20Kumari%2C%20Rinitha%20Rajith%2C%20Rithika%20Rajith%2C%20Khushi%20Sharma%2C%20Theertha%20Satish%2C%20Lavanya%20Keny%2C%20Priyanjali%20Jain%2C%20Suraksha%20Kotte%2C%20Natasha%20Cherriath%2C%20Indhuja%20Nandakumar%2C%20Vaishnave%20Mahesh%2C%20Siya%20Gokhale%2C%20Samaira%20Dharnidharka%0D%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Moon Music
Artist: Coldplay
Label: Parlophone/Atlantic
Number of tracks: 10
Rating: 3/5
Libya's Gold
UN Panel of Experts found regime secretly sold a fifth of the country's gold reserves.
The panel’s 2017 report followed a trail to West Africa where large sums of cash and gold were hidden by Abdullah Al Senussi, Qaddafi’s former intelligence chief, in 2011.
Cases filled with cash that was said to amount to $560m in 100 dollar notes, that was kept by a group of Libyans in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
A second stash was said to have been held in Accra, Ghana, inside boxes at the local offices of an international human rights organisation based in France.
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
The Bio
Amal likes watching Japanese animation movies and Manga - her favourite is The Ancient Magus Bride
She is the eldest of 11 children, and has four brothers and six sisters.
Her dream is to meet with all of her friends online from around the world who supported her work throughout the years
Her favourite meal is pizza and stuffed vine leaves
She ams to improve her English and learn Japanese, which many animated programmes originate in
MATCH INFO
Manchester United v Manchester City, Wednesday, 11pm (UAE)
Match is on BeIN Sports
The cost of Covid testing around the world
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Dh514 for citizens; Dh865 for tourists
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AED 295
Zanzibar Public Health Emergency Operations Centre, located within the Lumumba Secondary School compound.
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Abu Dhabi’s Seha has test centres throughout the UAE.
UK
From Dh400
Heathrow Airport now offers drive through and clinic-based testing, starting from Dh400 and up to Dh500 for the PCR test.
Infiniti QX80 specs
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