TOKYO: Japanese went to the polls Sunday in the shadow of the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, gunned down while making a campaign speech for the governing party that cruises to a likely major victory. Amid voting Sunday, police in western Japan sent the alleged assassin to a local prosecutors’ office for further investigation toward pressing murder charges, the day after a top regional police official acknowledged possible security lapses that allowed the attacker to get so close and fire a bullet into the still-influential former Japanese leader. In a country still recovering from the shock, sadness and fear of Abe’s shooting — the first of a former or serving leader to be assassinated in postwar Japan — polling started for half of the upper house, the less powerful of Japan’s two-chamber parliament. Abe was shot in Nara on Friday and airlifted to a hospital but died of blood loss. Police arrested a former member of Japan’s navy at the scene. Police confiscated his homemade gun and several others were later found at his apartment. The alleged attacker, Tetsuya Yamagami, told investigators he acted because of Abe’s rumored connection to an organization that he resented, police said, but had no problem with the former leader’s political view. The man had developed hatred toward a religious group that his mother was obsessed about and that bankrupted a family business, according to media reports, including some that identified the group as the Unification Church. Abe’s body, in a black hearse accompanied by his wife, Akie, returned to his home in Tokyo’s upscale residential area of Shibuya, where many mourners, including Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, their predecessors and top party officials, paid tribute. His wake and funeral are expected in coming days. Nara prefectural police chief Tomoaki Onizuka on Saturday said that Abe’s assassination was his “greatest regret” in his 27-year career. He said problems with security were undeniable, that he took the shooting seriously and will review the guarding procedures. Abe’s assassination ahead of Sunday’s parliamentary election shocked the nation and raised questions over whether adequate security was provided for the former prime minister. Some observers who watched videos of the attack noted a lack of attention in the open space behind Abe as he spoke. Experts also said Abe was more vulnerable standing on the ground level instead of atop a campaign vehicle, a standard for premier-class politicians, but that option was reportedly unavailable due to his hastily arranged visit to Nara. Mitsuru Fukuda, a crisis management professor at Nihon University, said police were seen focusing frontward and paying little attention to what was behind Abe, noting that the suspect was approaching the former leader unnoticed until he fired the first shot. “Clearly there were problems,” Fukuda said. The first shot narrowly missed Abe and hit an election vehicle. The second entered from his upper left arm damaged his neck artery, causing massive bleeding and death. Fukuda said that election campaigns provide a chance for voters and politicians to interact because “political terrorism” was extremely rare in postwar Japan. It’s a key democratic process, but Abe’s assassination could prompt stricter security at crowded events like campaigns, sports games and others. On Saturday, when party leaders went out for their final appeals under heightened security, there were no more fist-touches — a COVID-19 era alternative to handshakes — or other close-proximity friendly gestures they used to enjoy. After Abe’s assassination, Sunday’s election had a new meaning, with all political leaders emphasizing the importance of free speech and their pledge not to back down to violence against democracy. “We absolutely refuse to let violence shut out free speech,” Kishida said in his final rally in northern city of Niigata on Saturday amid tightened security. “We must demonstrate that our democracy and election will not back down to violence.” According to the Asahi newspaper, Yamagami was a contract worker at a warehouse in Kyoto, operating a forklift. He was described as a quiet person in the beginning but started ignoring rules that led to quarrels with his colleagues, then he started missing work and quit in April citing health problems. A next-door neighbor at his apartment told Asahi he never met Yamagami, though he recalled hearing noises like a saw being used several times late at night over the past month. Japan is known for its strict gun laws. With a population of 125 million, it had only 21 gun-related criminal cases in 2020, 12 of them gang-related, according to the latest government crime paper. Experts say, however, some recent attacks involved use of consumer items such as gasoline, suggesting increased risks for ordinary people to be embroiled in mass attacks. While media surveys have predicted a major victory for the governing Liberal Democratic Party amid fractured and weak opposition, a wave of sympathy votes from Abe’s assassination could bring a bigger victory than Kishida’s modest goal of winning the house majority. Even after stepping down as prime minister in 2020, Abe was highly influential in the LDP and headed its largest faction. His absence could change power balance in the governing party that almost uninterruptedly ruled postwar Japan since its 1955 foundation, experts say. “This could be a turning point” for the LDP over its divisive policies on gender equality, same-sex marriages and other issues that Abe-backed ultra-conservatives with paternalistic family values had resisted, said Fukuda. Japan’s current diplomatic and security stance is unlikely to change because fundamental changes had been already been made by Abe. His ultra-nationalist views and realistic policy measures made him a divisive figure to many, including in the Koreas and China. Abe stepped down two years ago blaming a recurrence of the ulcerative colitis he’d had since he was a teenager. He said he regretted leave many of his goals unfinished, including the issue of Japanese abducted years ago by North Korea, a territorial dispute with Russia, and a revision to Japan’s war-renouncing constitution that many conservatives consider a humiliation because of poor public support. Abe was groomed to follow in the footsteps of his grandfather, former Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi. His political rhetoric often focused on making Japan a “normal” and “beautiful” nation with a stronger military through security alliance with the United States and bigger role in international affairs. He became Japan’s youngest prime minister in 2006, at age 52. But his overly nationalistic first stint abruptly ended a year later, also because of his health, prompting six years of annual leadership change. He returned to office in 2012, vowing to revitalize the nation and get its economy out of its deflationary doldrums with his “Abenomics” formula, which combines fiscal stimulus, monetary easing and structural reforms. He won six national elections and built a rock-solid grip on power.
LONDON: Britain’s top Muslim lobbying group has said that the next prime minister needs to seriously tackle the “systemic” Islamophobia in the Conservative Party after “an alarming radio silence” from Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is standing down on Sept. 5.
Zara Mohammed, secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said that Johnson should have apologized to the Muslim community in his resignation speech last week, warning that there have been “no concrete steps” taken to deal with Islamophobia in the Tory party.
Mohammed told Metro.co.uk that the MCB had recorded more than 300 instances of Islamophobia in the party since 2019, adding that the next prime minister “must represent everybody and they have to make sure that they do that fairly.”
She said: “We’d like to see these new candidates actually take this issue seriously, because it is quite deep-seated.
“We found over 300 cases, as well as senior members of the party themselves complaining about the problem.”
Recent controversies in the party include Conservative MP Nusrat Ghani reporting that her “Muslimness” was raised when she was fired as transport minister.
Mark Spencer, MP, said that he spoke to Ghani, but rejected the accusations as “completely false and I consider them to be defamatory.”
A report into the situation is still unpublished six months after the alleged event, adding to the pressure that the party is facing following a 2021 review into Islamophobia in the Conservative Party, which found that anti-Muslim sentiment existed and criticizing the Tories for inadequately investigating allegations.
It did not find that the party was institutionally Islamophobic, a finding which the MCB and other groups slammed as a whitewash.
Mohammed said: “There has to be a commitment to zero tolerance on Islamophobia — a party pledge that there will be action where there are Islamophobic comments, whether that is dismissal, whether that is disciplinary.
“There needs to be a real strong voice from leadership saying ‘this is totally unacceptable and this does not reflect the views of the Conservative Party’.”
Mohammed did not comment on the Tory leadership candidates, saying that they “all have their positives and negatives.”
Sajid Javid, the former health secretary who dropped out of the race after the first ballot, attracted attention in the 2019 race for the leadership when he called for the independent investigation that concluded in 2021. But so far, no comments have been made on the issue in this year’s leadership elections.
Mohammed pointed to Johnson’s infamous comments when he compared women in burqas to “letterboxes and bank robbers.”
“We’ve yet to see any apology on that,” she said. “I think the impact that had on Muslim women was real.
“We did see a spike in hate crime, particularly against Muslim women who did wear the burqa or the veil after that, and even a confidence in racists and bigots feeling that they were entitled to say such things or do things like that.”
“I think is a time for us to see a leadership that is inclusive, that is willing to work with Muslim communities and all communities.
“We want to see that across the political spectrum, but certainly in the Conservatives with the leadership election coming up.
“Can we get a politics that we can be proud of, as opposed to embarrassed of?”
A UK government spokesperson said: “We take a zero tolerance approach to anti-Muslim hatred in any form and will continue to combat discrimination and intolerance.”
MOSCOW: Paul Urey, a British man captured by pro-Russian forces in Ukraine, has died in detention, Moscow-backed separatists said on Friday. “He died on July 10,” Darya Morozova, a representative of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, said on messaging app Telegram, adding that he had diabetes. Non-governmental organizations describe Urey as a humanitarian who worked as an aid volunteer in Ukraine. Moscow-backed separatists insist Urey was a “professional” soldier and took part in conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Ukraine. Morozova, the breakaway region’s ombudsperson, said that the Briton took part in fighting in Ukraine and also recruited and trained mercenaries before his capture in April. Urey, born in 1977, was a Type 1 diabetic and needed regular insulin doses, according to his mother Linda Urey, who had earlier said his family was “extremely worried.” Morozova said he suffered from a number of chronic diseases and was also “in a depressed psychological state.” “Despite the severity of the alleged crime, Paul Urey was given appropriate medical assistance,” she said. “However, taking into account his diagnoses and stress, he died on July 10.” Morozova also accused the International Committee of the Red Cross of refusing to provide Urey with necessary medicine. According to humanitarian organization Presidium Network, Urey was a well-traveled humanitarian who worked for eight years in Afghanistan. Pro-Russian separatists have captured a number of foreign citizens they describe as mercenaries. Among them are Brits Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner who in June were sentenced to death by separatist authorities in the stronghold of Donetsk. Britain has expressed fury over the death sentences handed to the two Britons in the case.
LONDON: Britain’s Met Office weather forecaster on Friday declared a national emergency, issuing a red ‘Extreme Heat’ warning for parts of England for Monday and Tuesday next week when temperatures could reach record highs. “Exceptional, perhaps record-breaking, temperatures are likely on Monday, then again on Tuesday,” the Met Office said on their website. “Nights are also likely to be exceptionally warm for the UK, especially in urban areas. This is likely to lead to widespread impacts on people and infrastructure.” The highest ever recorded temperature in Britain was 38.7C recorded in Cambridge University Botanic Garden on July 25 2019. Earlier this week the UK Health Security Agency body and the Met Office issued a level 3 heat-health alert for some parts of the country, which requires social and health care services to take extra measures to protect the vulnerable. The red, level 4, alert is defined on the Met office website as being reached “when a heatwave is so severe and/or prolonged that its effects extend outside the health and social care system. At this level, illness and death may occur among the fit and healthy, and not just in high-risk groups.”
BANGKOK: Ousted Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi denied the accusations in an election fraud charge against her when she testified for the first time on the case Friday at the prison court in the capital Naypyitaw, a legal official said. The army seized power from Suu Kyi’s elected government in February last year, claiming massive voting fraud in the 2020 general election, an allegation not corroborated by independent election observers. Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party won that election in a landslide, while the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party did poorly. A conviction in the election fraud case could lead to Suu Kyi’s party being dissolved and unable to participate in a new election the military has promised will take place in 2023. Suu Kyi has already been sentenced to 11 years in prison after being convicted on charges of illegally importing and possessing walkie-talkies, violating coronavirus restrictions, sedition and a corruption charge. Suu Kyi’s supporters and independent analysts say the charges are politically motivated and an attempt to discredit her and legitimize the military’s seizure of power while keeping her from returning to politics. Suu Kyi is being tried for multiple charges at a new facility constructed in the prison compound in the capital Naypyitaw, including the electoral fraud charge. She was transferred from a secret detention location to a custom-built solitary facility at a prison in Naypyitaw last month. The penalty for the offense is three years’ imprisonment. Former President Win Myint and former Union Government Office Minister Min Thu are co-defendants in the case. The election fraud charge was filed in November by the state Election Commission, whose members were appointed by the military government. The military dismissed the commission’s previous members, who had declared there were no major irregularities in the election. The new commission accused the defendants, including its own former chairman, of being “involved in electoral processes, election fraud and lawless actions.” A legal official familiar with Friday’s proceedings said Suu Kyi testified in the court that she did not go beyond the country’s constitution in holding the 2020 general election, and did not influence the Union Election Commission in that election, before pleading not guilty. Further details of what she said were not available because of a gag order on her lawyers. The legal official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to release information, said Suu Kyi appeared to be in good health. All of Suu Kyi’s trials in the prison court are closed to the media and the public. The prosecutors do not comment on them and the state-controlled media have not reported directly on the proceedings. Suu Kyi’s lawyers have been barred since last year from providing details of the trials under a gag order. The judge adjourned the election fraud trial for next week, when co-defendant Min Thu will testify. Win Myint, another co-defendant in the case, gave a courtroom testimony last week denying the accusations against him, the legal official said. Suu Kyi is also being tried on a charge of violating the Official Secrets Act, which carries a maximum sentence of 14 years, and 11 counts under the Anti-Corruption Law, with each count punishable by up to 15 years in prison and a fine. The corruption cases are among a large number of charges under which the military is prosecuting her. If found guilty of all the charges, she could be sentenced to more than 100 years in prison. Her lawyers are trying to overturn the two counts under the Anti-Corruption Act in an appeal to the Supreme Court on technical grounds, saying the case should not have been filed. In this corruption case, she is accused of receiving $550,000 in bribes from Maung Weik, a construction magnate. The army’s takeover in 2021 was met with widespread non-violent protests. After security forces unleashed lethal force against peaceful demonstrators, some opponents of military rule turned to armed resistance in many areas.
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani forces backed by helicopters killed at least nine separatists after the outlawed group abducted and executed an army officer, government and security officials said Friday. The military and local authorities confirmed Thursday that up to 15 insurgents disguised as police killed Col. Laeeq Mirza after abducting him Tuesday when he was traveling with his family from the town of Ziarat, 100 kilometers (60 miles) northeast of Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan. The military did not share any updates about the operation on Friday. Mirza had been was heading to a tourist resort when members of the outlawed Baluchistan Liberation Army (BLA), designated a “terrorist” group by the United States in 2019, halted his vehicle on a highway and seized him. The group later claimed that it executed Mirza — but let his family members live because they were not involved in crimes against the group. Local government officials confirmed that the attackers freed the colonel’s family members. According to two security officials, the insurgents were surrounded near the area of Harnai and Manga dam, where an exchange of fire was still continuing. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. But the military said the colonel’s civilian cousin — Umar Javed, who was traveling with him — was also abducted and remains in captivity. The military said in a statement it was trying to find and rescue the hostage. The killing of the colonel has drawn widespread condemnation in Pakistan. President Arif Alvi and Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif have vowed that those linked to the incident will be traced, arrested and punished. For years, Baluchistan has been the scene of a low-level insurgency by the Baluchistan Liberation Army and other separatist groups demanding independence from the central government in Islamabad. Although the government says it has quelled the insurgency, violence in the province has persisted. In February, the separatist insurgents attacked two military facilities in Baluchistan, killing at least nine soldiers. In the subsequent exchange of fire, troops killed all the 20 assailants in the hours-long firefights and follow-up operations. A female suicide bomber from BLA in April targeted a vehicle carrying Chinese teachers inside a university campus in the port city of Karachi, killing three Chinese nationals and their Pakistani driver. Since then, Pakistan has arrested or killed dozens of members of the group in multiple raids in Baluchistan.