Europe – Page 48 – CounterVortex

Europe

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Muhsin

A 24-year-old Crimean Tatar was sentenced by a court in Russian-annexed Crimea to 10-and-a-half years' imprisonment for supposed involvement in a volunteer force patrolling the border of Crimea and mainland Ukraine to help enforce a blockade. Video evidence introduced in the trial only showed the suspect from behind. Nonetheless, Fevzi Sahandzhy was convicted of being a member of the Asker Battalion—also known as the Noman Çelebicihan Battalion, in honor of the martyred president of the short-lived independent Crimean Republic of 1918. The Battalion began participating in the blockade of Crimea in 2015 to press demands for the release of political prisoners and restoration of freedom of speech and assembly on the peninsula. (Photo: Human Rights in Ukraine)

Europe

France under attack for Roma deportations

The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance joined critics of French mass deportations of Roma and demolition of their encampments. The commission accused France of “stigmatizing migrants.”

Europe

Police disperse right-wing extremist march in Slovakia

Police intervened against a march by the far-right Slovak Brotherhood in front of the castle in Bratislava, amid a controversy about fascist symbols in a new statue of Prince Svatopluk on the castle grounds.

Europe

France to close Roma, Traveller camps in sweeping crackdown

In a move protested by rights groups, French President Nicolas Sarkozy will evict some 300 squatter camps in a sweeping crackdown on Roma immigrants and “travellers.”

Europe

Stark reactions to ambiguous World Court ruling on Kosova

The Hague’s ruling that Kosova’s declaration of independence was not illegal is predictably applauded by the US and Kosova and protested by Russia and Serbia—yet it resolves nothing.

Europe

Srebrenica: 15 years later, still no justice

World leaders commemorated the 1995 Srebrenica massacre July 11, and genocide convictions have been handed down—but the accused massacre mastermind Ratko Mladic remains at large.

Europe

Presumed ETA military commander arrested in France

Four suspected members of armed Basque separatist group ETA were arrested in Bayonne, France—including military commander Mikel Kabikoitz Carrera Sarobe, Spain’s most wanted man.

Europe

Greek Parliament passes austerity measures in wake of deadly unrest

The Greek Parliament passed the austerity package, with protesters gathering outside the Parliament’s doors. The deaths of three bank workers in a fire set by protesters has polarized Greece.

Europe

May Day rocks Athens as general strike builds

Police clashed in Athens May 1 with thousands of protesters marching against new austerity measures the Greek government is to adopt. A general strike is called for May 5.

Europe

Deadly suicide blasts hit Moscow metro

Russian authorities say they suspect a North Caucasus militant group in the coordinated suicide blasts that left at least 35 dead on the Moscow metro.

Europe

Arson attack on Roma families in Hungary —again

In the latest in a wave of attacks on Roma families, assailants threw petrol bombs into four homes in Siófok, Hungary. The attack follows a nearly identical one days earlier in the Czech Republic.

Europe

France: court orders far-right anti-Islamic posters removed

A court in Marseilles ordered that inflammatory anti-Islamic campaign posters put up by the far-right National Front be taken down following a complaint from Algeria.