The Rwandan authorities have issued an international warrant for the arrest and extradition of Aloys Ntiwiragabo, a former head of the country’s military intelligence who is accused of playing a key role in the 1994 genocide in which an estimated 800,000 people were slaughtered, after an investigation by Mediapart revealed that he had settled with his wife in the French town of Orléans.
Journalism itself is on trial in the proceedings against Julian Assange that opened in London on Monday February 24th 2020 and in which the United States is seeking to extradite him from Great Britain over charges that include espionage. The founder of WikiLeaks is not a spy but an activist working on behalf of a fundamental right: the right to know everything that is in the public interest. That is why we are supporting him, writes Mediapart’s publishing editor Edwy Plenel in this opinion article.
After a lengthy legal battle, a former police officer under the 1976-1983 Argentine military dictatorship was finally extradited from France this month to Buenos Aires where he was wanted for the kidnapping and disappearance of student Hernán Abriata during the junta’s so-called “Dirty War”. Although it does not feature on his extradition warrant, Mario Sandoval is also suspected of involvement in about 500 cases of torture and murder, as part of a brutal crackdown on political dissidents when an estimated 30,000 people “disappeared”. Intriguingly, Sandoval, 66, successfully settled in France in 1985, gained dual French nationality and managed to become a university teacher and 'economic intelligence' consultant before he was first unmasked in 2008. Faiza Zerouala and Argentina correspondent Camille Audibert report.
Ian Bailey, 62, an expatriate British former journalist living in Ireland who was found guilty in absentia by a Paris court for the murder in 1996 in County Cork of French TV producer Sophie Toscan du Plantier, a crime he denies, has been ordered to be extradited to France by Dublin's High Court.
Mario Sandoval, 66, who had been living since 1985 in France where he taught at the University of Marne-la-Vallée and at the New Sorbonne University, has been extradited to his native Argentina where he is wanted for crimes against humanity, including torture, during the country's 1976-1983 dictatorship.
The fate of Julian Assange, just like that of Chelsea Manning or Edward Snowden, represents a far bigger issue than that of him as an individual, writes Mediapart’s publishing editor Edwy Plenel in this opinion article. Whatever Assange’s personal faults or mistakes, he argues, the move for his extradition to the US is about making an example of him to others because he had the audacity to challenge the powers that be with the weapon of the right to know.
Yassine Atar, brother of Osama Atar who is suspected of having planned the November 13th 2015 Islamic State group attacks in Paris that left 130 people dead, has been extradited to France from Belgium where he was arrested in March 2016 in connection with the terrorist bomb attacks in Brussels that month which claimed 32 lives.
Mohamed Bakkali, 30, who is accused of knowingly offering his Brussels apartment to attackers who took part in the November 13th 2015 terrorist attacks in and around Paris which left 130 people dead, has been extradited to France, just as the Paris trial of Jawad Bendaoud, 31, continues into his alleged conspiracy with the Islamic State group cell which were housed in a property belonging to him in a suburb close to the French capital.
The middleman Alexandre Djouhri has been released on bail by a court in London pending proceedings to extradite him to France. Examining magistrates in Paris investigating claims that Libyan regime money was used to finance Nicolas Sarkozy's 2007 election campaign want to question Djouhri over crucial documents found at his Swiss home. Mediapart understands these show that the middleman did indeed oversee the payment of half a million euros of Libyan origin to President Sarkozy's most trusted lieutenant, Claude Guéant. Karl Laske and Fabrice Arfi report.
British journalist Ian Bailey, 60, wanted by France for the 1996 murder in Ireland of film producer Sophie Toscan du Plantier, has been summoned to an Irish court hearing on May 31st to decide upon his extradition.
A former militant with the Algerian extremist Armed Islamic Group, which led brutal attacks in the country in the 1990s, Merouane Benhamed fled to France and was among 25 people convicted in 2006 for plotting an attack in support of Islamist fighters in Chechnya.
Mourad Hamyd, the French brother-in-law of gunman Chérif Kouachi, was arrested in Bulgaria last month suspected of attempting to join Islamic State group.
