Nearly 50 children repatriated between Russia and Ukraine

 

Russia, Ukraine to exchange displaced children

in Qatar-brokered deal

Russia and Ukraine have agreed in a Qatari-brokered deal to exchange almost 50 children displaced by Moscow's invasion, the Kremlin's children's rights commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova announced in Doha Wednesday. 

Issued on: 24/04/2024 - 17:40Modified: 24/04/2024 - 21:14

1 min

By:FRANCE 24Follow|FRANCE 24

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday that 16 Ukrainian children previously "deported to Russia" had been reunited with their families.

"A group of 16 Ukrainian children ... have been released and reunited with their families" in Qatar, Zelensky said, not addressing Russia's claim that 48 children were involved in an exchange, including 19 that would go to Russia.

Moscow has been accused of forcibly taking Ukrainian children into Russian territory during its full-scale offensive, with Lvova-Belova wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on charges related to those allegations.

"For the first time in a face-to-face format, we held talks with the Ukrainian side. Twenty-nine children are due to go to Ukraine and 19 to Russia," Lvova-Belova announced.

She gave no details on why the children were in Russian hands or where they had come from.

Ukraine believes Russia has illegally taken more than 19,000 of its children since the start of the 2022 invasion, of which fewer than 400 have been returned.

Moscow denies that charge, saying that it has transferred children for their safety away from fighting zones.

The fate of the children has been highly sensitive in Ukraine since the war began two years ago. Some of the children's parents were killed, while others were separated from carers by the fast-moving front lines at the start of the invasion.

Some were living in Ukrainian orphanages in areas Russia then occupied.

Ukraine says Moscow's forces illegally deported them to Russia, and accuses the Russian authorities of trying to wipe out their Ukrainian identity.

Teenagers that returned to Ukraine have said they were subjected to Russian patriotic education and made to praise the Russian army.  

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

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Qatar Convicts Dutch Woman Who Says She was Raped

She went dancing and woke up the next day in an unfamiliar apartment after allegedly being drugged
Image Credit: AFP

The 22-year-old woman was also fined 3,000 Qatari riyals and will be deported once she pays the fine, court officials said.

Gulf News, Qatar
AFP

Doha: A Doha court on Monday convicted a Dutch woman of adultery and handed her a one-year suspended sentence after she reported being raped while on holiday in Qatar.

The 22-year-old woman, known only as Laura and who was not in court, was also fined 3,000 Qatari riyals and will be deported once she pays the fine, court officials said.

3000 Riyals is $800 USD

She had denied the charge against her.

The male defendant, said by a court official to be Syrian and named Omar Abdullah Al Hassan, was sentenced to 100 lashes for the illicit sex and 40 lashes for consuming alcohol.

Hassan, who was also not in court, will undergo a medical examination to see if he is fit enough to withstand the punishment.

He will not serve any time in jail but will also be deported once he has been punished.

The Dutch ambassador to Qatar, Yvette Burghgraef-van Eechoud, who was present in a packed courtroom, told reporters the embassy would help Laura leave Qatar.

“We will do everything to get her out of the country as soon as possible to where she wants to go,” said Eechoud. The envoy added that she expected Laura to leave Qatar within the next few days.

The ambassador added that she had spoken to Laura Sunday and said that “under the circumstances she was doing fine”.

Back in the Netherlands, Laura’s mother said she had not yet spoken to her daughter but was “so happy” at the news of her release.

“I do not know yet when she gets home, but this is not most important,” she told the Dutch television NOS website. “The most important is that she gets home … I am so happy,” she said.

Bert Koenders, the Dutch foreign minister tweeted that he was “relieved” that Laura could soon go home.

Laura was arrested on March 14 and has since been held in custody. Her lawyer previously said the incident happened after she had visited a Doha hotel.

“She went dancing but when she returned to the table after the first sip of her drink, she realised that she had been drugged,” Brian Lokollo has said.

“She really didn’t feel very well,” he added.

The woman remembers nothing more until the following morning when she woke up in a totally unfamiliar apartment “and realised to her great horror, that she had been raped”, he said.

The defendant had insisted that their night together had been consensual and that the woman had even asked for money.

Adultery, or illicit sex, is treated as a serious crime in Qatar.

But the case provoked an international outcry with many appalled by the treatment of an alleged rape victim and an online campaign using the #freelaura hashtag to try and draw attention to the Dutch woman’s imprisonment.

I think it might have worked, too. This is as good an outcome as is possible under Sharia. And for the man to be convicted without witnesses, well that was unexpected.

Qatar is a big tourist destination and jail time would have damaged that business. Also, it could be that Qatar is actually moving into the 2nd millennia.

Islamic Law: Dutch Woman on Holiday is ARRESTED After She is RAPED in Qatar

Another woman arrested for being raped. This is not unusual in countries where Sharia is the law or highly regarded. Women are mostly invisible in these countries until they complain of the incredible injustice they suffer at the hands of evil men, then they become the target of the judicial system. Being raped is almost as bad as walking down the street with your head uncovered.

The west needs more Muslims so that we can have Sharia too!

By PAMELA GELLER

In Muslim countries, rape victims are at fault. Islamic law. Any Western woman who vacations in a Muslim country risks sharia enforcement.

An online campaign has been launched to free a Dutch woman in Qatar who was arrested for having sex outside of marriage after reporting that she had been raped.

Speaking to Doha News, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the woman was arrested and is expected to face charges of fornication as well as an alcohol-related offense.

She’s been identified in Dutch media as Laura.

The defendant is scheduled to appear in court on Monday. Ahead of the hearing, hundreds of people on Twitter are calling for her release under the hashtag #FreeLaura.

What is galling is that Texas public schools are accepting funding from Qatar to push Islam, sharia and Arabic.

Note BBC’s use of the word “claim.” Sharia media.


By BBC

“Dutch woman arrested in Qatar after making rape claim,” BBC, June 10, 2016:

A Dutch woman is being detained in Qatar on suspicion of adultery after she told police she had been raped.

The 22-year-old, who was on holiday, was drugged in a Doha hotel and woke up in an unfamiliar flat, where she realised she had been raped, her lawyer says.

She was arrested in March on suspicion of having sex outside of marriage. She is due to appear in court on Monday.

The alleged rapist is also being held, but says the sex had been consensual.

A Dutch foreign ministry spokeswoman said the woman, who she named as Laura, had been arrested but not yet been charged.

“We have provided assistance to her since the first day of detention. For the sake of the defendant’s case we will not make further comments at this point,” the Dutch embassy said in a statement.

‘Great horror’

The woman had gone dancing at a hotel in Doha where alcohol was allowed, “but when she returned to the table after the first sip of her drink… she felt very unwell” and realised she had been drugged, her lawyer Brian Lokollo told Dutch broadcaster NOS-Radio1.

Her next memory was waking up in an unfamiliar apartment where she “realised to her great horror that she had been raped,” Mr Lokollo added.

The woman may also be charged with an alcohol-related offence, news website Doha News reported.

It is an offence to drink alcohol or be drunk in public in Qatar, although alcohol is allowed at certain hotels and expatriates can obtain a permit for purchasing alcohol.

In 2013, a Norwegian woman in neighbouring United Arab Emirates was given a 16-month prison sentence for perjury, extramarital sex and drinking alcohol after she told police she had been raped.

She was later pardoned and allowed to return to Norway.