February 12, 2024

Athens, Greece – Saeed* cannot understand why he is in the Avlona prison, a detention centre northeast of the Greek capital Athens. end of list “Whoever asks me why you are in prison, I answer that I don’t know,” said the 21-year-old Egyptian. “We’re children, we’re terrified. We are told that we will be sentenced to 400 or 1,000 years in prison. Every time they say that, we die.” He is among nine Egyptians in pre-trial detention and charged with criminal responsibility for a shipwreck off the town of Pylos last year, which led to the deaths of hundreds of people trying to reach Europe. The group is being charged under Greek law with forming a criminal organisation, facilitating illegal entry and causing a shipwreck. They are the only people being held over the shipwreck. However, Al Jazeera, in partnership with Omnia TV and the Efimerida ton Syntakton newspaper, can reveal that all nine accused claim they were not among the smugglers who organised or profited from the journey. They say they were simply passengers who survived and allege that the Greek Coast Guard caused the overpacked boat to capsize. Speaking via telephone from detention, they told Al Jazeera and its partners that the Greek prosecution did not accurately take their testimonies and that they pressured them to sign documents they did not understand with violence or under threats of violence. Two separate survivors also said the nine accused were not guilty and pinned blame on the national Hellenic Coast Guard. Fearing reprisals for speaking out against the Greek state, all 11 sources asked Al Jazeera to conceal their identities and use pseudonyms for this article. The nine accused, who include fathers, workers and students, said they paid between 140,000 to 150,000 Egyptian pounds ($4,500 to $4,900) to a smuggler or an associate to board the doomed boat. “I am telling you, I am someone who paid 140,000 Egyptian pounds,” said Magdy*, another of the accused. “If I am the guy who put these people on the boat, I’ll have like seven, eight, or nine thousand euros. Twenty thousand euros. Why on earth would I board a boat like this?” In 2022, a smuggler told The Guardian that he charges Egyptians about 120,000 Egyptian pounds ($3,900). Recent reporting has found that those travelling from Syria often pay about 6,000 euros (about $6,500) for such a journey. The two other survivors, both Syrians, said they paid money to people but not the accused Egyptians. The nine being held were not involved in smuggling, they said. “No. They weren’t to blame for anything,” said Ahmed*. People cover practically every free stretch of the deck on the battered fishing boat that later capsized. Image provided June 13, 2023 [Hellenic Coast Guard via AP] On that fateful day last year, June 14, the Adriana, overloaded with an estimated 700-750 people, including Egyptians, Syrians, Pakistanis, Afghans and Palestinians – among them children – capsized. The derelict blue fishing trawler had departed from Libya five days earlier. Only 84 bodies were recovered and 104 on board were rescued, meaning hundreds died in one of the worst-recorded refugee boat disasters on the Mediterranean. Rights groups, activists and some survivors allege that Greek Coast Guard officials failed in their duties to save lives at sea. Ahmed said he saw the nine accused during the chaos as the ship looked ready to capsize, and passengers began to panic and run about. “They were just directing people when our ship started to tilt. They were shouting for people to steady the ship,” he said. Seven of the accused maintain that they saw a Coast Guard patrol boat tie a rope to the fishing trawler. The Greek officials pulled once, then twice, causing the boat to flip over into the Mediterranean, they say. “I saw the Greek boat had tethered a thick blue rope, one rope, to the middle of the boat,” said Fathy*, another of the accused men. “They pulled, the boat leaned sideways, they saw it was leaning, they kept going, so the boat was turned upside down.” “Greece – a Greek boat, towed us and capsized us – and killed our brothers and friends and now I look at myself and I’m in prison.” Two of the accused stated they were in the hold and did not understand what had happened until after disaster struck, when they were on board the Greek Coast Guard boat. The two Syrian survivors told Al Jazeera they witnessed the Greek Coast Guard tug the fishing trawler. “They had nothing to do with the boat sinking. That’s obvious,” said Mohammad*, of the Egyptians being held. “You have to be logical. It was a big boat and wouldn’t have sunk if no one had intervened. The engine was broken but it could have stayed afloat. The Greek Coast Guard is truly responsible for the sinking.” The Hellenic Coast Guard denied the allegations, saying it has “absolute respect for human life and human rights”. “However, in cooperation with the legal authorities and other relevant bodies, appropriate control mechanisms shall be put in place where necessary,” its statement to Al Jazeera read. Initially, the coast guard did not refer to any rope-related incident in its official statements and its spokesman Nikos Alexiou denied the rope reports. However, Alexiou later said that the two boats were “tied with ropes to prevent them from drifting” in a statement that came amid growing accounts from survivors. An ongoing inquiry in the naval court of Kalamata aims to determine whether the Hellenic Coast Guard performed search and rescue properly. A recent Frontex incident report of the Pylos shipwreck found that “it appears that the Greek authorities failed to timely declare a search and rescue and to deploy a sufficient number of appropriate assets in time to rescue the migrants”. The start date of the trial for the nine accused men has not been set, although according to Greek law, it should begin within 18 months from when they were first detained. If the men are found guilty, they could face decades

The final results of Pakistan’s national election put independents, backed by jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan, in the lead with 95 of 264 seats. The party of another ex-PM, Nawaz Sharif, was second with 75 seats after Thursday’s vote, lacking a clear majority but it was the largest single party. As coalition talks are held, protests have been called by Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and several other parties over allegations of vote rigging. The final tally of votes was published by the election commission more than 60 hours after voting ended, raising questions over the delay. Here’s what happened today We will be closing this live page soon. Here’s a review of the day’s main events: Independent candidates backed by jailed ex-PM Imran Khan’s PTI party took most seats in Thursday’s election, with questions now being raised over whether they could form a party or join an existing party or coalition. Meanwhile, another ex-PM Nawaz Sharif’s PMLN – which won the largest number of seats after the independents – and the PPP of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari are holding alliance talks and wrangling over who would be the premier. To become PM, a candidate has to show they have a simple majority of 169 seats out of the 336-member National Assembly when it is called into session in the next few weeks. The political developments come amid nationwide protests over allegations of vote rigging and result manipulation after authorities switched off mobile phone network on election day and the counting dragged on for more than two days. Analysts say there could be weeks of political uncertainty ahead in the country where the potential for violent protest – and a crackdown by the powerful military – is ever present. Click here to share on social media IPP founder Jahangir Tareen quits politics Abid Hussain Reporting from Islamabad Jahangir Khan Tareen, founder and chairperson of the Istehkam-e-Pakisan Party (IPP) has announced his retirement from politics. Tareen, a sugar baron and among the richest industrialists in the country, joined the PTI in 2011 and became the party’s general secretary. He played a key role in PTI’s 2018 electoral success. Tareen, who was once considered among the closest aides to PTI leader Imran Khan, left the party formally in 2023 and in June the same year, founded his IPP. The IPP consisted of many politicians who had defected from PTI, after the violent incidents of May 9 last year. Tareen’s IPP managed to win only two national assembly seats, of which one in a highly contentions manner. PTI has filed a petition for recounting and reviewing the results. Caretaker PM says election held in ‘free and fair manner’ Defending the vote amid allegations of rigging, caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar says the government “did not have any institutional mechanism either in fear or favour of an entity, political group or individual”. “But I agree that the future parliament should focus more on the electoral process, the system of balloting and rest of the issues affiliated with it. I personally feel we should have a more robust and financially independent election commission,” he said. Click here to share on social ‘Will be very difficult for Khan and army to reconcile’ Farzana Sheikh, a specialist on Pakistani politics and economy, told Al Jazeera’s Inside Story that Imran Khan and army chief Asim Munir’s “dislike for one another is now pretty well established”. This will likely make it “very difficult” to set aside Munir’s grievances, unless there is “there is real political will on the part of political parties” to put their heads together for dealing with the problems facing the country, said Sheikh. At the same time, many of the cases against Khan have holes, and will go to higher courts where they may be put under more scrutiny, making his release from jail a possibility, noted Sheikh Source:https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/2/12/pakistan-post-election-crisis-live-parleys-and-protests-after-tense-vote

At least 67 Palestinians were killed in Israeli air and sea attacks on Rafah early on Monday, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza. The Israeli army says it rescued two captives from a house in Rafah’s Shaboura neighbourhood overnight. Israeli snipers have killed seven people inside Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis, the spokesman for Gaza’s health ministry says. Israel’s planned ground offensive on Rafah would “blow up” the captive exchange negotiations, the Al-Aqsa television channel quoted a senior Hamas leader as saying on Sunday. Israel’s attacks on Gaza have killed at least 28,340 Palestinians and wounded 67,984 others since October 7. The death toll in Israel from the October 7 Hamas-led attacks stands at 1,139. Israel’s attacks part of plan to expel Palestinians from their land: Turkey The Turkish Foreign Ministry has said that it is “extremely concerned” over Israel’s intensifying strikes on Rafah in Gaza’s south, where hundreds of thousands of displaced people are sheltering. “We are extremely concerned by Israel’s escalating attacks on the southern city of Rafah, following the destruction and massacres it has already inflicted on the Gaza Strip,” the ministry said in a statement. “We consider this operation as part of a plan to expel the people of Gaza from their own land,” it added. “We call on the international community, in particular the UN Security Council, to take the necessary steps to stop Israel,” the statement also said. Click here to share on social media Israel urges UN agencies help evacuate civilians from Gaza war zones Israel has called on UN relief agencies to help with its efforts to evacuate civilians from Gaza war zones ahead of its planned ground sweep of Rafah, a town on the enclave’s border with Egypt which is crowded with displaced Palestinians. “We urge UN agencies to cooperate,” government spokesperson Eylon Levy said in a briefing. “Don’t say it can’t be done. Work with us to find a way.” Click here to share on social media Israel wants to reshape demographic balance by killing Palestinians: Shtayyeh Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh has said that by “killing, destroying, and trying to displace Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, Israel wants to reshape the demographic balance to its advantage, after it shifted in favour of Palestine, for the first time since 1948”, according to the Wafa news agency. Speaking at the beginning of the weekly cabinet session held in Ramallah, Shtayyeh said that the past 400 days were the bloodiest in the contemporary history of Palestine. “We have more than 100,000 Palestinians killed, wounded and missing in the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023, and more than 640 in the West Bank,” he claimed. “There are also more than 10,000 detainees, and these are not numbers, but rather they indicate children, women, the elderly, young men and women, and they indicate our families and our people, each of them has a history, status, and name, and had a future that was killed by Israel.” Click here to share on social media Rescuing captives is a ‘moral obligation’: Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari has issued a statement in which he said the overnight rescue mission “underscores the importance of our ground operation in Gaza, including Rafah, when conditions allow”. He added that the Israeli military has a “moral obligation” to bring all the captives home, an obligation it will continue to do everything in its power to fulfil. Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli strike on a house in Rafah on February 12, 2024 [Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters] Click here to share on social media Israeli snipers kill seven in Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis: Ministry The spokesman for the Ministry of Health in Gaza says Israeli snipers have killed seven people inside Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis, where heavy fighting has been reported in recent days. “No one can move in the yards of Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis,” Ashraf al-Qudra said in a statement on Telegram. “Israeli snipers killed seven citizens and wounded 14 staff and displaced people inside the yard [of the hospital],” he added. He said that ceilings in the dormitory and operations departments collapsed as a result of the explosions around the hospital. “We need the protection of the technical staff to move in the yard of the hospital to repair the sewage network,” al-Qudra said. Click here to share on social media Israeli protesters block Gaza-bound humanitarian aid Dozens of protesters are blocking trucks carrying vital humanitarian aid from entering Israel from Egypt at the Nitzana border crossing, Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reported. In recent weeks, there have been regular protests to block aid to the Gaza Strip, in particular at the Karam Abu Salem border crossing, known as Kerem Shalom in Israel. Protesters often include family members of captives being held by Hamas who demand that their release should come before any more humanitarian aid can cross. Families of captives and supporters protest against the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza in Nitzana, Israel, January 30, 2024 [File: Alexandre Meneghini/Reuters] Click Israeli forces arrest 35 Palestinians: Advocacy group Israeli security forces have arrested at least 35 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem since Sunday night, including a wounded minor and a former prisoner, according to an advocacy group. The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society said on Telegram that the arrests were mostly in the city of Hebron, while others were made in the cities of Nablus, Ramallah, Jenin and Qalqilya, as well as in East Jerusalem. Click here to share on social media Al-Quds Brigades says it killed Israeli troops in ambush The armed wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad says its fighters ambushed Israeli troops early on Monday morning in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, where intense fighting has been reported in recent days. “Immediately upon the [Israeli] forces’ arrival at the site of the ambush, [al-Quds Brigades] attacked them with machineguns, antipersonnel shells, fortifications and explosive devices, leaving the enemies dead and wounded,” al-Quds Brigades said in a