Tag Archives: investigation

The judge leading Lebanon’s probe into last year’s massive port explosion has renewed his summonses of two former ministers for questioning, a judicial official said. The decision by Judge Tarek Bitar came despite intense criticism from the country’s powerful Hizbullah of the direction of the long-running investigation. Hizbullah leader Sayyed …

Prime Minister Najib Miqati has noted that he does not intend to resign and that Cabinet will not convene before a solution is found for the dispute over Beirut port blast investigator Judge Tarek Bitar. “The security situation is stable and there are no fears,” Miqati said in an interview, …

The stance of Hizbullah and Amal Movement is “a righteous demand that serves the higher national interest as to security and stability and thwarts the strife scheme whose threads are American and is being implemented with domestic Lebanese tools,” sources close to the Shiite duo said. “Some of these tools …

The lead judge investigating last year’s catastrophic Beirut port blast issued an arrest warrant on Tuesday for former finance minister Ali Hassan Khalil after he failed to show up for questioning, a judicial source and local media said. Khalil, a senior member of the Shiite Amal movement and an ally …

Relatives of people killed in last year’s Beirut port explosion protested on Wednesday against the suspension of a probe into the tragedy. The blast killed more than 200 people, wounded thousands and devastated the capital. Tarek Bitar, the judge leading the investigation, had to suspend his work on Monday after …

A senior official in the Lebanese Shi’ite group Hezbollah told the judge investigating the disastrous Beirut port blast that it would remove him from the probe, according to a journalist who says she conveyed the message and a judicial source. Judge Tarek Bitar described the message in a letter to …

A probe into the catastrophic explosion at Beirut port was frozen on Monday when a former minister wanted for questioning as a suspect filed a case questioning the lead investigator’s neutrality, a judicial source said. The Aug. 4, 2020 Beirut port blast killed more than 200 people, injured thousands and …

A suicide bomber who targeted Chinese nationals in the Pakistani port city of Gwadar last month came from Iran, counterterrorism police in the southwestern Balochistan province said on Friday, adding that the mastermind behind the attack was a resident of Chahbahar in the neighboring country. Earlier in August, Pakistan’s Interior …

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon said on Monday it has secured enough funding to hear the appeal of its main case, centering on the 2005 assassination of Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, which will start Oct. 4. Three months ago the United Nations-backed international tribunal, located near The Hague, had said …

Police fired tear gas to try to disperse relatives of victims of last year’s Beirut port blast protesting outside the home of the caretaker interior minister on Tuesday over his refusal to let the lead investigator question Lebanon’s security chief. Nearly a year after the Aug. 4 explosion, which killed …

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced a midnight deadline on Tuesday to put together a new coalition government — or be looking at the possibility of leading his Likud party into the opposition for the first time in 12 years. Netanyahu has struggled to secure a parliamentary majority since March …

Lebanon’s public prosecutor has launched an investigation into central bank governor Riad Salameh, a judicial source said Friday. The probe follows a Swiss legal request alleging that over $300 million had been embezzled from the bank through a company owned by Salameh’s brother. The senior judicial source said that the …

A Lebanese judge who defied a decision dismissing her from an investigation into possible currency export breaches was Tuesday referred to the Judicial Inspection Authority over her actions. Judge Ghada Aoun had been investigating the Mecattaf money exchange company and Societe Generale Bank for allegedly withdrawing US dollars from the …

-An Israeli prosecutor told a court on Monday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had helped a business couple to clinch deals worth hundred of millions of shekels in exchange for favourable coverage of him on a news website they controlled.https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/core/bridge3.448.1_en.html#goog_1632484994  Prosecutor: Netanyahu’s favors were ‘currency’ 01:57 Speaking at the opening …

Lebanon’s Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Tuesday dismissed accusations of any links between the group and the killing of researcher and activist Lokman Slim. “Any incident that happens in your area then you are accused until the opposite is proven? Is this something that is practiced in the whole …

A former FBI lawyer was sentenced to probation on Friday for altering an email the Justice Department relied on in its surveillance of an aide to President Donald Trump during the Russia investigation. Kevin Clinesmith apologized for doctoring the email about Carter Page’s relationship with the CIA, saying he was …

After riots at the U.S. Capitol by President Donald Trump’s supporters, the Republican Party is facing defections from two camps of voters it can’t afford to lose: those saying Trump and his allies went too far in contesting the election of Democrat Joe Biden – and those saying they didn’t …

Lebanon has asked Interpol to issue arrest warrants for the Russian captain and owner of the ship that brought the explosive material that detonated at Beirut port in August, killing nearly 200 people, state media reported on Thursday. About two months after the explosion that injured thousands and ravaged the …

A Bulgarian court sentenced two men of Lebanese origin to life in prison on Monday over a 2012 bus bombing that killed five Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian driver, which Bulgarian authorities have blamed on Lebanon’s Shi’ite Muslim group Hezbollah. The two men were tried in absentia over the July …

Lebanon’s army said on Thursday it had found 4.35 tonnes of ammonium nitrate near the entrance to Beirut port, the site of a huge blast last month caused by a large stockpile of the same highly explosive chemical. Army engineers were “dealing with it,” according to an army statement carried …

Lebanese President Michel Aoun dismissed as “impossible” the chance that a vast explosion in Beirut’s port this month was caused by a blast from a deposit of Hezbollah arms, but said that all possibilities would be investigated. Lebanese authorities are probing what caused massive amounts of ammonium nitrate warehoused unsafely …

A Saudi Arabia-led military coalition fighting in Yemen asked the United Nations on Tuesday to share details of its accusations that the coalition was responsible for 222 child deaths or injuries last year so it could investigate. In a statement, the coalition also said it welcomed U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ …

The FBI said on Saturday that its top lawyer, Dana Boente, had announced his resignation as the agency faces scrutiny over its investigations of former staffers and supporters of President Donald Trump. As a senior Justice Department official, Boente was involved in the investigation of Trump’s former national security adviser …

Syrian Arab Air Force pilots flying Sukhoi Su-22 military planes and a helicopter dropped bombs containing poisonous chlorine and sarin nerve gas on a village in the country’s western Hama region in March 2017, a new team at the global chemical weapons watchdog concluded in its first report. The special …

Istanbul prosecutor’s office said on Wednesday it had prepared an indictment against 20 suspects over the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, including the former deputy head of Saudi Arabia’s general intelligence and a former royal adviser. Khashoggi’s killing in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018 caused a …

A new team established by the global chemical weapons watchdog to attribute blame for the use of banned munitions in Syria will investigate nine alleged attacks during the country’s civil war, including in the town of Douma, sources briefed on the matter told Reuters. The Organisation for the Prohibition of …

The U.N. investigator into the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi on Wednesday called on countries to invoke universal jurisdiction for what she called the international crime and make arrests if responsibility of individuals is proven. Agnes Callamard, U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, asked if universal jurisdiction meant potential …

Democrats on the U.S. House intelligence panel will investigate U.S. President Donald Trump’s response to the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi as part of a “deep dive” next year into U.S.-Saudi Arabia ties, the committee’s incoming head said in a report published on Friday. The committee will investigate the U.S. …

The global chemical weapons watchdog will in February begin to assign blame for attacks with banned munitions in Syria’s war, using new powers approved by member states but opposed by Damascus and its key allies Russia and Iran. The agency was handed the new task in response to an upsurge …

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Sunday that he had met Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister and called for a transparent investigation into the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Washington Post columnist Khashoggi’s murder has escalated into a crisis for the world’s top oil exporter as Saudi Arabia’s allies have reacted …

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday raised the stakes in his dispute with Saudi Arabia over what he called the ‘‘premeditated murder’’ of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, demanding that Riyadh supply more answers and hand over the Saudi suspects to face justice in Turkey. After saying he would reveal …

Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney, claims that then-candidate Trump knew in advance about the June 2016 meeting in Trump Tower in which Russians were expected to offer his campaign dirt on Hillary Clinton, sources with knowledge tell CNN. Cohen is willing to make that assertion to special …

For nearly five years, the young Russian political science student was an unusual fixture at the most important events of the US conservative movement. Maria Butina, who was indicted this week on charges of being a covert Russian agent, struck up friendships with the influential leaders of the National Rifle …

A 29-year-old Russian woman has been arrested for conspiring to influence US politics by cultivating ties with political groups including the gun rights lobby the National Rifle Association (NRA). Mariia Butina was arrested in Washington on Saturday and appeared in court on Monday, the Justice Department said in a statement. …

The European Commission is investigating the bloc’s biggest seaborne gas supplier Qatar Petroleum over potentially restrictive 20-year supply agreements inhibiting development of a single gas market, its latest challenge to a major gas supplier. The bloc, having just wrapped up a seven-year market abuse probe into Russian giant Gazprom, said …

By Marjorie Cohn On March 30, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers shot 773 unarmed Palestinian protesters in Gaza, killing 17 and wounding 1,400. Twenty remain in critical condition. The protesters were marching to demand the internationally mandated right of return of refugees to their cities and villages in what now constitutes Israel. …

The morning after burying 19-year-old Abdul Fattah Abdul Nabi, his family gathered in a tent set up to receive mourners, watching and re-watching a video of the moment they say Israeli soldiers shot him in the back of the head. The video appears to show the teenager, dressed in black, …

The real estate company of Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law, is being investigated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for its use of a federal program that grants visas to wealthy foreigners investing in the United States, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. Kushner …

The FBI has been discreetly investigating the Clinton Foundation for months, reviving a probe that was dialed back during the 2016 election amid tensions between Justice Department prosecutors and FBI agents about the politically charged case, according to people familiar with the matter. The investigation is being run out of …

A Belarusian-Israeli convert to Islam was convicted Wednesday of attempting to join the Islamic State terrorist group in Syria. Valentin Vladmir Mazlevski, 40, who was arrested nearly a year ago while trying to travel to Syria via Turkey, was convicted by the Nazareth District Court of contact with a foreign agent, attempting …

Court says soldiers subjected civilians to cruel and inhuman treatment, in cases that may determine handling of further claims. British troops breached the Geneva conventions and subjected Iraqi civilians to cruel and inhuman treatment by hooding them and taking turns to run over their backs, the high court has ruled. …

The former chief executive of LafargeHolcim, the world’s largest cement maker, and five other top officials are being formally investigated as part of a government inquiry into whether the company helped finance the Islamic State militant group and other armed factions while operating a factory in Syria. The expanding investigation …

The brazen assertion Monday by one of President Trump’s lawyers that a president cannot be found guilty of obstruction of justice signaled a controversial defense strategy in the wide-ranging Russia probe, as Trump’s political advisers are increasingly concerned about the legal advice he is receiving. Trump tweeted over the weekend …

President Donald Trump’s charitable foundation, which last year admitted violating federal rules on “self-dealing,” is in the process of dissolving, according to newly filed documents reviewed by NBC News. The move fulfills a promise Trump made last December, when he said he would wind down the Donald J. Trump Foundation to …