A South African woman convicted of kidnapping and trafficking her six-year-old daughter has been sentenced to life in prison, along with her two accomplices. The jail terms for Racquel “Kelly” Smith, her boyfriend Jacquen Appollis and their friend Steveno van Rhyn’s come more than a year after Joshlin Smith mysteriously disappeared outside her home in…
Access to the social media account of Istanbul’s jailed opposition mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, has been blocked by the authorities in Turkey. Imamoglu, who is the main rival to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, can no longer send messages in Turkey to his 9.7 million followers on X. His account is still accessible abroad. His social media…
Brazil Supreme Court A woman in Brazil has been jailed for 14 years after writing an offensive message in lipstick on a statue during riots in Brasilia. Debora Rodrigues took part in the unrest in January 2023, along with hundreds of supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro. The riot saw thousands of Bolsonaro’s supporters attack…
A hairdresser from St Petersburg has been given a jail term of five years and two months on a charge of spreading fake news about the Russian army. Anna Alexandrova denied posting eight anti-war messages on social media, insisting the case was motivated by a squabble over land with a neighbour. Her neighbour told the…
Three Americans convicted for their role in a failed coup in Democratic Republic of Congo last year have been sent home to the US to serve the rest of their jail terms. The three were originally sentenced to death by a military court before their sentences were commuted to life in prison last week. US…
An Algerian court has sentenced an 80-year-old writer to five years in prison after accusing him of undermining the country’s territorial integrity. Boualem Sansal was arrested last year after saying in an interview with a far-right French media outlet that, during the colonial era, France gave too much land to Algeria and too little to…
Orla Guerin Senior international correspondent in Istanbul EPA The rallies have been largely peaceful, but on Sunday, fierce clashes saw protesters fired upon with tear gas and rubber bullets The head of Turkey’s main opposition party has told the BBC that protests will continue “in every city” until either early presidential elections are called, or…
An Indonesian TikToker has been sentenced to almost three years in prison after reportedly ‘talking’ to a picture of Jesus on her phone and telling him to get a haircut. Ratu Thalisa, a Muslim transgender woman with more than 442,000 TikTok followers, had been on a livestream, and was responding to a comment that told…
Five members of a German far-right group have been jailed for plotting to overthrow the government and kidnap its health minister. Four of the group were described as “ringleaders” of a “terrorist organisation” which planned to use violence to trigger civil war-like conditions in Germany. The group had planned to kidnap Health Minister Karl Lauterbach…
Paul Kirby Europe digital editor Reuters Ocalan’s letter was read out on big screens in Diyarbakir and other mainly Kurdish cities Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdish group PKK, has called on his movement to lay down its arms and dissolve itself. His statement, read out in a letter by MPs from…
