Armed groups in Libya torturing migrants, selling slaves, U.N. says
By Ray Downs
Fighters loyal to Libya's parliament General National Congress prepare to launch attacks as they continue to fight Islamic State on the outskirts city of Sirte, Libya, on March 16, 2015. According to U.N. officials Wednesday, armed groups are committing human rights abuses across the country with impunity. File Photo by EPA/STR
UPI -- Seven years after the U.S. and NATO-led effort to remove Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, armed groups are committing human rights abuses and people are being sold in slave markets, according to United Nations officials.
Andrew Gilmour, United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights, said the situation in Libya has not improved since Gaddafi was toppled and killed in 2011. Armed groups with no connection to the government have proliferated throughout the country and are detaining people arbitrarily and subjecting them to torture and murder.
Not to mention rape, child rape, and gang-rape. Especially those from south of the Sahara who are trying to make their way to Europe. They are extremely vulnerable and often kidnapped and held until someone in their family can pay a ransom. If no ransom is paid, the person is sold as a slave.
Sexual assaults a common, even likely for young women and girls.
"Extrajudicial and unlawful killings are rampant," Gilmour said. "In what has become an increasing pattern in and around Benghazi over the last two years, more bodies with signs of torture and hands bound were found in the streets."
Gilmour also said there are "absolutely intolerable" reports of captured migrants being bought and sold in open slave markets.
Reports of slave markets have persisted since at least April 2017, when the U.N. published reports of West African migrants being captured and sold in Libya.
Gilmour called on the U.N. member states for a broader engagement on human rights issues in Libya, including working with security forces there.
Libyan authorities denied that the situation was as dire as Gilmour described but acknowledged it had little resources to combat organized crime and terrorism.
It is, in fact, worse than Gilmour's report and has been since the assassination of Gadaffi by Europe and America. There was order, as opposed to the current chaos, when Gadaffi was in control and there were no significant numbers of sub-Saharan Africans migrating to Europe through Libya, as there are now.
Whoever thought getting rid of a strong man was a good idea, anyway? In Iraq it resulted in ISIS. Libya will continue to be in chaos and a human rights sewer until another strongman emerges. This year, Gadaffi's son will be running in federal elections and just may be the only person who can regains some control and order in Libya. Will the west allow that to happen? Or will the ensure many more years of chaos in that poor country.
#MeToo struggling to gain ground in misogynistic Russia
Leonid Slutsky, Chairman of the Russian State Duma Committee on International Affairs, speaks at a plenary meeting / Sputnik
Several Russian media outlets have announced that they are ending cooperation with the lower house of parliament after its ethics commission dismissed sexual harassment accusations by a number of female reporters against an MP.
The decision was announced shortly after the State Duma ethics commission refused to take disciplinary measures against Head of the Foreign Affairs Committee Leonid Slutsky. The Liberal Democratic Party of Russia MP had faced accusations of sexual harassment from several female reporters from a number of media outlets.
The commission noted that the allegations had been made almost simultaneously in the final stages of the presidential election campaign – despite the fact that the alleged incidents had taken place over a long period of time. It concluded that complaints therefore appeared to be part of a pre-planned PR stunt.
Such complaints always come in bundles. One woman has the courage to complain and infects others with that courage and the desire to support her before she is trampled over by a herd of pigs. This is very basic knowledge which is obviously of no interest to those on the commission. It would seem they are more interested in finding an excuse to refuse the complaints than in finding the truth and protecting women from harassment.
Many Russian media outlets did not take this verdict lightly. Television channels Dozhd and RTVI, whose journalists were among Slutsky’s alleged victims, issued statements announcing that they were ceasing any cooperation with the State Duma. Talk radio Ekho Moskvy, regional news site Znak.com, and news agency RBC soon joined the boycott; demanding that the parliamentary leaders restore order in the house and review the ethics commission’s decision concerning Slutsky.
Popular business newspaper Kommersant released a statement in which its editors condemned the decision and said they were suspending cooperation with Slutsky and with the ethics commission, but not the State Duma as a whole.
MP Otari Arshba, chair of the ethics commission, called the boycott an attempt to pressure the commission members. “The commission cannot just appoint someone as being guilty, regardless of how much someone might want this. All decisions must be made within the legal field and this has been done,” he said.
Arshba also accused reporters who had decided to join the boycott of blackmail, adding that “before taking such steps, one should think it over thoroughly, because decisions caused by emotions often lead to mistakes and can create problems in the future.”
Deputy Head of the Liberal Democratic Caucus in the State Duma Yaroslav Nilov MP alleged that the boycott may be caused by financial problems in the media outlets that had launched it. “We should not forget that this can be connected with some internal reasons, like austerity or optimization of human resources, with pursue of commercial profits. Don’t perceive everything literally,” Nilov told TASS.
MP Oksana Pushkina of the parliamentary majority party United Russia, herself a former television anchor, has approved the boycott. “Good for them! I am glad for my profession. It is good that my colleagues don’t betray their own,” Pushkina told RIA Novosti. “This problem [sexual harassment] exists in our country. It must be solved by means of legislation,” she added.
South Korean prosecutors seek warrant
to arrest ex-governor
By Yonhap News Agency 
Former South Chungcheong Governor An Hee-jung speaks to reporters after arriving at the Seoul Western District Prosecutors' Office in Seoul, South Korea, March 9, 2018. An Hee-jung attended the court to face questioning over allegations that he sexually assaulted at least two women, one of whom was his secretary. Photo by EPA-EFE/JUNG UI-CHEL
The Seoul Western District Prosecutors' Office said it requested the warrant on charges of sexual intercourse and sexual harassment by abuse of occupational authority, citing the risk of him destroying evidence as he has denied the charges.
If convicted, he could face up to five years in prison or a 15 million won (US$13,000) fine.
The 54-year-old is accused of sexually assaulting his former secretary and another female researcher from a think tank multiple times over the past year.
But the charges that have been made for the warrant only include the ones for the case involving the secretary. An investigation is still under way for the latter victim, prosecutors added.
The secretary, Kim Ji-eun, made the revelation in a TV news interview early this month and filed a complaint with the prosecution.
The Seoul Western District Court will hold a hearing on Monday to decide whether to issue the arrest warrant for An. The decision is expected to be made late Monday afternoon or dawn Tuesday.
An, once a prominent liberal politician who was considered a potential presidential candidate, resigned as governor over the scandal.
He has undergone questioning by prosecutors twice. He apparently denied the charges, saying the sexual relations were consensual.
Irish man jailed for making child porn
featuring friend’s sleeping children
Fiona Ferguson, Isabel HayesA sex offender described as posing a “serious threat to society” has been jailed for five years for sexually assaulting a boy and producing and possessing child pornography.
The man, who cannot be identified, made child pornography involving two sleeping boys and accumulated thousands of child porn images and videos from the internet.
The 39-year-old man, who had returned to Ireland after serving a sentence for child sexual abuse in another country, had created the material involving the boys after befriending their family.
The boys were aged between 10 and 11 and four and five at the time.
Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that the boys appeared to be unaware of the offences to date and reporting restrictions were imposed in the case to avoid possibly identifying them.
The accused man pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual assault against the older boy and to producing child pornography involving the boy on dates between September and December 2012. He also pleaded guilty to producing child pornography involving the younger boy in July 2013.
He further admitted possession of child pornography in December 2014 and contravening the provisions of a sex offenders order in May 2016.
‘Predilections’
Judge Martin Nolan said there was “no perfect solution” in relation to the man’s “predilections”. He said the man was a paedophile who has a “very unhealthy, criminal and dangerous interest in young boys”.
“He has serious predilections. At times he can’t control those predilections. Unless he does, he will be a serious threat to society,” he said.
Judge Nolan noted there was “no such thing in our society as preventative detention” and said he had to sentence the man taking into account all factors of the case before him.
He imposed a sentence of six-and-half years and suspended the final 18 months on a number of conditions, including that the man engage in services and counselling available to him in custody.
“There’s no perfect solution in relation to (this man’s) particular predilection but this court must sentence him justly for the crimes he has committed,” Judge Nolan said. “I hope for (his) sake, and particularly for society, that he conquers his particular predilection.”
Wonderful! You have just sentenced more boys to be sexually assaulted in 5 or 6 years time. There should be preventative detention - unlimited incarceration should he so much a look at another child in his lifetime!
Did the pervert share the pictures he took of the boys with anyone. Are they out there on the web?
Primary school principal faces child sex assault charges in WA
UPDATE: In late June, 2019, A jury took only 20 minutes to clear Flavel of all charges.
Bethany Hiatt | The West Australian
Perth: The principal of an eastern suburbs primary school has been charged with sexually abusing a child 10 years ago.
Woodlupine Primary School principal Peter Flavel, 56, will face allegations he sexually assaulted an eight-year-old boy in 2008.
He was employed as a primary school principal at the time the incidents are alleged to have taken place, but not at Woodlupine. Child abuse squad detectives have charged him with sexual penetration of a child under 13 and indecent dealings with a child under 13.
The charges come a month after police escorted Mr Flavel from the Woodlupine school premises in front of students and staff.
Teachers and parents were told only there had been an “interim change” to the leadership of the Forrestfield school “while the substantive principal is away from the school for a period of time”.
An Education Department spokeswoman yesterday confirmed a staff member who had just been charged by police had been previously removed from the school and ordered to stay away from all public schools under section 240 of the School Education Act which bars employees if they present a risk to safety.
Mr Flavel is expected to appear in Midland Magistrate’s Court next month.
South African peacekeepers in DR Congo
face paternity claims - UN
Washington - Five peacekeepers from South Africa face allegations of sexually exploiting women in the Democratic Republic of Congo who are now seeking child support, a United Nations spokesperson said on Tuesday.
"All five incidents involve paternity and child support claims," said UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.
The latest allegations surfaced a month after South African troops were accused of beating a 17-year-old boy in the Kasai region and sexually exploiting women in North Kivu.
The United Nations is "gravely concerned," said Dujarric, adding: "Allegations against this contingent continue to occur despite our sustained efforts," to prevent such misconduct.
The UN mission in the DR Congo has asked UN agencies to help the women and children, and is offering to collect DNA samples of the South African troops for paternity tests, he added.
The United Nations has also asked South Africa to appoint officers to carry out a joint investigation. Under UN rules, it is up to troop-contributing countries to prosecute their nationals accused of crimes while serving under the UN flag.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has vowed to toughen the UN response to allegations of misconduct against the blue helmets whose mission is to protect vulnerable civilians in conflict zones.
The United Nations has nearly 17 500 troops and police serving in the DR Congo, its biggest mission.
South Africa deployed around 1 300 soldiers as part of a UN intervention brigade deployed in the strife-torn eastern DRC region.
Essex man jailed for 16 years for 11 child sex offences
A man has been jailed for 16 years after being convicted of 11 child sex offences in Basildon.
Following further investigations, Cooper, 80, of Mapleford Sweep, Basildon, attended a voluntary interview on February 14, 2017.
On September 14 he appeared at Basildon Magistrates’ Court where he was charged with eight counts of indecent assault and three counts of indecency with a child.
The offences related to two children under the age of 13.
He denied the charges but on Friday, March 16 2018 a jury unanimously found him guilty of all charges following a trial at Basildon Crown Court.
At the same court today, he was jailed for 16 years.
Investigating officer Detective Constable Tiffany Jennings said: “I would like to thank the victims for having the strength and courage to come forward and report their abuse to us and to all the witnesses who assisted in this case.
“Roy Cooper committed horrendous offences against the most vulnerable of all victims."
“The victims’ distress was prolonged further by his persistent denial of the allegations and making the victims re-live their ordeal through a trial. I only hope that his conviction and sentence will assist the victims in moving forward, and will allow other victims to have confidence, that it is never too late to report abuse.”
Pakistani child sex gang who ran 'cynical and predatory' grooming ring across Oxford convicted
Will Walker @OxMailWilliamW
A CHILD sex gang who preyed on vulnerable young girls, abusing them on a ‘massive’ scale across the city, have been convicted.
The depraved grooming ring of seven men, described at Oxford Crown Court as ‘predatory and cynical’, were convicted on Friday by a jury of four women and seven men after a record breaking 107 hours and 31 minutes of deliberations over the course of 24 days.
During the five-month trial, which began on October 9, jurors have heard accounts from the five victims as well as recorded police interviews and testimonies from a number of the men, who each denied their part in the child sexual exploitation.
Judge Peter Ross, who presided over the trial, one of the biggest of its kind in Oxford, said once the final verdicts were handed out: "Systematic and widespread grooming, that is what this case has revealed."
"The investigation has involved countless hours of work and [the police] are entitled to commendations for the work they have done."
He also thanked jurors for their 'assiduous' and 'phenomenal' dedication to the case in returning their verdicts, which has become the longest jury deliberation in Oxford Crown Court history.
The lengthy trial ended with seven of the defendants being convicted – Raheem Ahmed, Moinul Islam, Kamran Khan, Kameer Iqbal, Khalid Hussain, Alladitta Yousaf and Assad Hussain – while two others who stood trial, Saboor Abdul and Haji Khan, were acquitted of all charges.
Two other men involved in the proceedings cannot be named for legal reasons.
The court has heard throughout the trial how the seven men on numerous occasions coerced the girls into sex at a number of addresses across Oxford including at guest houses, in cars, and at local parks.
The victims, none of whom can be named for legal reasons, were all from Oxford and aged between 13 and 15 at the time of the offences.
The abuse, which prosecutor Oliver Saxby QC called ‘routine, cynical and predatory sexual exploitation,’ all took place between 1998 and 2005.
Opening the trial in October, Mr Saxby told jurors: "Each of the young girls we are dealing with shared one very important characteristic, they were vulnerable."
“Perfect prey for, in the main, young men prepared to exploit them for casual sexual gratification that was easy, regular and readily available.”
During the trial one of the victims recounted how she would be pressured into sex at numerous locations across Oxford including at Shotover woods, at lay-bys outside the city and near Oxford City FC's ground Court Place Farm between February 1998 and February 2001.
She told jurors how Assad Hussain, Kameer Iqbal, Khalid Hussain and Alladitta Yousaf had all indecently assaulted or raped her on various occasions.
Another woman, who was aged 14 at the time, was sexually assaulted by Moinul Islam, the court heard, while at Cronin's B&B in Iffley Road.
She told police she recalled ‘feeling sick’ after the assault.
In other instances of abuse the girls were also plied with drink and drugs as part of what prosecutors called the ‘grooming process’ and took part in ‘sex parties’ at a number of addresses across Oxford involving large groups of men.
At one such party, which took place at a flat in London, one girl said that she was forced into sex with Khalid Hussain.
A number of the women also recalled a vehicle driven by the men regularly referred to as the ‘shag wagon’ with a licence plate ending ‘SHG’.
Many sexual abuses are alleged to have taken place inside the vehicle, including gang rapes.
One woman said of the vehicle, a black Nissan Serena people carrier: “They would pick the girls, have sex with them, and dump them."
“Everything happened in that Serena."
The same woman said that the men would ‘take it in turns’ to have sex with her and that gang rapes would take place after she was plied with booze and drugs.
She said: “[They] made you believe they actually care about you, and they actually don’t. Like you are something important to them, that you are a friend to them. And, really, it wasn’t that.
“It was just to get what they want. It took me some years to realise that.”
The men will be sentenced at the same court in June.
The charges in full:
Raheem Ahmed, 40, of Starwort Path, Oxford, was convicted of two counts of indecent assault and one count of false imprisonment. He was cleared of one count of rape
Moinul Islam, 41, of Wykeham Crescent, Oxford, was convicted of two counts of indecent assault, one count of rape and one count of supplying cannabis to another. He was cleared of false imprisonment.
Kamran Khan, of Northfield Road, Bolton, was convicted of indecent assault and false imprisonment. He was cleared of one count of rape.
Kameer Iqbal, 38, of Dashwood Road, Oxford, was convicted of three count of rape.
Khalid Hussain, 37, of Ashhurst Way, Oxford, was convicted of one count of rape and count of indecent assault. He was cleared of another count of rape
Alladitta Yousaf, 47, of Bodley Road, Oxford was convicted of one count of indecent assault.
Assad Hussain, 37, of Iffley Road, Oxford, was convicted of two counts of indecent assault, three counts of rape and two counts of conspiracy to rape. He was cleared of one count of indecent assault.
Saboor Abdul, 37, of Oxford Road, Cowley, one of only two defendants to take to the stand, was unanimously cleared of a single count of rape.
Haji Khan, 37, of Littlegreen Lane, Birmingham, was cleared of one count of conspiracy to rape and one count of indecent assault
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