PAGE 24
German schoolgirl who allegedly joined ISIS may be tried in Iraq
Linda Wenzel was one of at least five foreign women captured by Iraqi forces after the battle for Mosul. (CNN) A 16-year-old German girl who ran away from home in 2016 and allegedly joined ISIS has been found alive in Iraq, the German government confirmed yesterday. Linda Wenzel, a schoolgirl from the town of Pulsnitz near Dresden, was one of at least five foreign women captured by Iraqi forces sweeping the old city of Mosul after the defeat of ISIS, according to sources within the counterterror operation in Mosul. The sources added that the women have now been moved to Baghdad and are under interrogation. An Iraqi journalist who met Wenzel said she was treated for a gunshot wound. Wenzel was named on Monday by the German Foreign Ministry, which said a second German national was among those detained. “From what we know, she
is physically fine,” Dresden prosecutor Lorenz Haase told CNN when asked about Wenzel’s condition. “However we do not know how she is psychologically.” Haase does not yet know if Wenzel will return to Germany and said she could be put on trial in Iraq. “If she is proven to be a member of ISIS her case will go to the general federal prosecutor in Germany,” he said. Wenzel’s parents first alerted the police that Linda had gone missing in July last year, Haase confirmed. When police learned that the teenager might have converted to Islam and ran away to join ISIS, the case was handed over to the prosecutor in Dresden. However, the investigation was dropped after Wenzel’s whereabouts could not be determined.
“Now that Linda is identified as the missing girl from Pulsnitz, we will reopen the investigation today or tomorrow on the suspicion that she may have been supporting a terrorist organization or was planning an attack against a foreign state,” said Haase.”However, we do not know what happened to Linda after she disappeared in Istanbul last year in the summer. We do not know who she was in contact with, what she was doing or whether she was involved in criminal acts or even fighting with [ISIS]. Iraqi journalist Amir Musawy visited Wenzel last week as part of an investigative team reporting for German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung and public broadcasters NDR and WDR. According to Musawy, he was the first journalist to gain access to the teenager since she was discovered. Wenzel had a gunshot wound on her leg but was able to talk and answer questions, Musawy told CNN. He witnessed her being offered medical treatment. “It seemed to me as she didn’t fully understand what happened to her or what she did,” he said. “I just want to leave,” she said, according to the report published in the Suddeutsche Zeitung (SZ). “I want to get away from the war, away from the many weapons, the noise.” She also said she was ready to testify.
San Antonio driver says he didn’t know immigrants were in truck San Antonio (CNN) James Matthew Bradley Jr. says he had no idea dozens of undocumented immigrants were stuffed inside the brutally hot semi truck he was driving. That’s the story he told federal investigators, who clearly don’t believe him. The 60-year-old Florida man is charged with knowingly transporting undocumented immigrants. Bradley was driving the tractor-trailer found parked at a Walmart in San Antonio early Sunday morning. After an employee noticed the suspicious vehicle and called police, authorities found dozens of undocumented immigrants inside. Eight people in the truck were already dead, and two more died after being hospitalized. Dozens more were severely injured, and many will suffer from “irreversible brain damage,” the city’s fire
Tuesday July 25, 2017
Kaieteur News
James Matthew Bradley Jr. walks to court chief said. San Antonio’s police chief called the case “a human trafficking crime.” “Checking the video from the store, we found there were a number of vehicles that came in and picked up a lot of the folks that were in that trailer that survived the trip,” Police Chief William
McManus said. But the truck driver said he didn’t know what — or who — he was hauling. When police came to investigate the semi, an officer found “multiple people standing and laying at and around the rear of the trailer,” according to a criminal complaint against Bradley.
Turkey: Opposition newspaper journalists go on trial in Istanbul
Reporters demonstrating as the trial of journalists from one of Turkey’s opposition publications began Monday Istanbul, Turkey (CNN) The trial of 17 staff members from Turkey’s Cumhuriyet newspaper — one of the country’s last remaining opposition publications — began yesterday in what many are calling a crucial test of press freedom. Charged with terror-related offences in the wake of last year’s failed coup, the defendants — journalists, executives and lawyers — made their first appearance in court since they were put in pre-trial detention nearly nine months ago. Each faces lengthy prison sentences of up to 43 years if convicted. Prosecutors are expected to argue that the newspaper aided members of US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen’s movement — whom Turkey says
was behind the coup attempt — in addition to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK. Gulen has denied involvement in the failed 2016 coup. But rights activists have condemned the trial as “politically motivated,” accusing the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) government of using the coup to muzzle opposition. “This case is highly symbolic. Cumhuriyet newspaper is one of the few remaining independent media outlets — that’s why they are on trial,” said Johahn Bihr of Reporters Without Borders, outside the hearing. “Today press freedom is on trial. The situation in Turkey has never been as difficult as it is now.” “We are sick and tired of
these mass trials ... In Turkey journalists are being jailed chronically for their journalism. Articles they have written are taken as evidence in the indictments,” he added. The government has heavily restricted the media, shuttering around 150 media outlets and jailing an estimated 160 journalists, according to Reuters, which cites the Turkish Journalists’ Association. In an ironic turn of events, the trial kicks off on one of the country’s three press freedom days. Journalists have historically recognized July 24 as the day censorship was lifted in the Ottoman Empire. Turkey is ranked 155 out of 180 on the World Press Freedom Index, compiled by Reporters Without Borders.
Chinese jets intercept U.S. surveillance plane: U.S. officials WA S H I N G T O N (Reuters) - Two Chinese fighter jets intercepted a U.S. Navy surveillance plane over the East China Sea at the weekend, with one jet coming within ab o u t 3 0 0 f e e t ( 9 1 meters) of the American aircraft, U.S. officials said on Monday. The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said initial reports showed one of the Chinese J-10 aircraft came close enough to the U.S. EP3 plane on Sunday to cause the American aircraft to change direction. One of the officials said the Chinese jet was armed and that the interception happened 80 nautical miles (148 km) from the Chinese city of Qingdao. The Pentagon said that the encounter between the
aircraft was unsafe, but added that the vast majority of interactions were safe. Incidents such as Sunday’s intercept are relatively common. In May, two Chinese SU30 aircraft intercepted a U.S. aircraft designed to detect radiation while it was flying in international air space over the East China Sea. China closely monitors any U.S. military activity around its coastline. In 2001, an intercept of a U.S. spy plane by a Chinese fighter jet resulted in a collision that killed the Chinese pilot and forced the American plane to make an emergency landing at a base on Hainan. The 24 U.S. air crew members were held for 11 days until Washington apologized for the incident. That encoun-
ter soured U.S.-Chinese relations in the early days of President George W. Bush’s first term in office. Separately, the Pentagon said the U.S. military would soon carry out another test of its Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system. “These tests are done as a routine measure to ensure that the system is ready and... they are scheduled well in advance of any other real world geopolitical events going on,” Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis told reporters. The director of the Missile Defense Agency, Lieutenant General Sam Greaves, said in a statement that a test would be carried out at the Pacific Spaceport Complex in Alaska.