Three militants belonging to ETA, a Basque separatist movement, make a declaration from an undisclosed location in October 2011. AFP / Gara.et
Three militants belonging to ETA, a Basque separatist movement, make a declaration from an undisclosed location in October 2011. AFP / Gara.et
Three militants belonging to ETA, a Basque separatist movement, make a declaration from an undisclosed location in October 2011. AFP / Gara.et
Three militants belonging to ETA, a Basque separatist movement, make a declaration from an undisclosed location in October 2011. AFP / Gara.et

US removes five groups from terror blacklist but retains Al Qaeda


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The US has removed five extremist groups, all believed to be defunct, from its list of foreign terrorist organisations.

In notices published in The Federal Register on Friday, the State Department said it had removed the groups after a mandatory five-year review of their designations.

Al Qaeda, which was also up for review, was kept on the list, first created under the federal Immigration and Nationality Act.

The designation allows the US to take strong, unilateral moves against a group's members and associates, seizing assets, blocking travel to the US, deportation and — significantly — jailing for up to 20 years anyone found providing “material support” for them.

Several of the removed groups once posed significant global threats, killing hundreds if not thousands of people across Asia, Europe and the Middle East.

The decision was politically sensitive for President Joe Biden's administration and the countries in which the organisations operated.

The groups removed from the list are the Basque separatist group ETA, the Japanese cult Aum Shinrikyo, the radical Jewish group Kahane Kach and two Islamist groups that have been active in Israel, the Palestinian territories and Egypt.

None of the five are seen as currently active organisations and the State Department must review the designations every five years to see if they remain warranted.

“Our review of these five [foreign terrorist organisation] designations determined that, as defined by the [Immigration and Nationality Act], the five organisations are no longer engaged in terrorism or terrorist activity and do not retain the capability and intent to do so,” the department said in a statement.

The revocations also “recognise the success Egypt, Israel, Japan and Spain have had in defusing the threat of terrorism by these groups”, it said.

All but one of the five groups were first designated foreign terrorist organisations in 1997 and have remained on the list for the past 25 years.

Agencies contributed to this report

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What is hepatitis?

Hepatitis is an inflammation of the liver, which can lead to fibrosis (scarring), cirrhosis or liver cancer.

There are 5 main hepatitis viruses, referred to as types A, B, C, D and E.

Hepatitis C is mostly transmitted through exposure to infective blood. This can occur through blood transfusions, contaminated injections during medical procedures, and through injecting drugs. Sexual transmission is also possible, but is much less common.

People infected with hepatitis C experience few or no symptoms, meaning they can live with the virus for years without being diagnosed. This delay in treatment can increase the risk of significant liver damage.

There are an estimated 170 million carriers of Hepatitis C around the world.

The virus causes approximately 399,000 fatalities each year worldwide, according to WHO.

 

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Yemen's Bahais and the charges they often face

The Baha'i faith was made known in Yemen in the 19th century, first introduced by an Iranian man named Ali Muhammad Al Shirazi, considered the Herald of the Baha'i faith in 1844.

The Baha'i faith has had a growing number of followers in recent years despite persecution in Yemen and Iran. 

Today, some 2,000 Baha'is reside in Yemen, according to Insaf. 

"The 24 defendants represented by the House of Justice, which has intelligence outfits from the uS and the UK working to carry out an espionage scheme in Yemen under the guise of religion.. aimed to impant and found the Bahai sect on Yemeni soil by bringing foreign Bahais from abroad and homing them in Yemen," the charge sheet said. 

Baha'Ullah, the founder of the Bahai faith, was exiled by the Ottoman Empire in 1868 from Iran to what is now Israel. Now, the Bahai faith's highest governing body, known as the Universal House of Justice, is based in the Israeli city of Haifa, which the Bahais turn towards during prayer. 

The Houthis cite this as collective "evidence" of Bahai "links" to Israel - which the Houthis consider their enemy. 

 

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Our legal columnist

Name: Yousef Al Bahar

Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994

Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers

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