BARI, Italy — French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Wednesday the release of Louis Arnaud, a French citizen who had been held in Iran since 2022 and who had been sentenced to five years in prison in November.

“Louis Arnaud is free. He will be in France tomorrow after a long incarceration in Iran,” Macron said on X, thanking Oman in particular for its role in obtaining his release. 

The release is rare positive news about France and Iran. 

Bilateral relations have deteriorated in recent months, with Tehran holding four French citizens — including Arnaud — in what Paris has said are arbitrary arrests equivalent to state hostage taking. 

France is also increasingly concerned by Iran’s regional activities and the advance of its nuclear program. 

Arnaud, who had been held since September 2022 after traveling in the country, was sentenced to five years in prison in November on security charges. He was held in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison. 

“This evening, I also think of Cecile, Jacques and Olivier,” the remaining French citizens held in Iran,” said Macron. “I am calling on Iran to liberate them without delay.” 

In recent years, Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards have arrested dozens of dual nationals and foreigners, mostly on charges related to espionage and security. 

Rights groups have accused Iran of trying to extract concessions from other countries through such arrests. Iran, which does not recognize dual nationality, denies taking prisoners to gain diplomatic leverage. 
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Gaborone, Botswana — Some Southern African countries pushing against the United Kingdom’s anti-hunting efforts suffered a blow when the Labor Party, expected to form the next government, committed last week to support a ban on hunting trophy imports.

Angola, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe said in a joint statement that they are disappointed Britain’s Labor Party will attempt to ban hunting trophies.

The countries said, however, that unlike the Conservative government, the Labor Party has “at least pledged a full consultation on a policy with significant ramifications for conservation programs in our countries.”

Botswana, with the largest elephant herd in the world at more than 130,000, has been at the forefront of a campaign against efforts by the U.K. and other European nations to ban hunting trophies from Africa.

Adam Hart, a U.K.-based ecologist and conservation scientist specializing in southern Africa, told VOA he is disappointed with the Labor Party’s move.

“It shows that perhaps they have not listened to the sides that have gone in front of the Conservative Party, and they have not listened to the voices of the affected nations,” he said.

In its manifesto, the Labor Party says it will put forward a comprehensive plan to end animal cruelty that includes a ban on the import of hunting trophies from abroad.

“I think politicians see this as an easy win,” said Hart, who is a professor at the University of Gloucestershire. “It’s only when they start getting involved more with the issues that they realize that it is nowhere near as straightforward as they thought.”

He said the Labor Party must be honest in its consultation with the affected southern African countries.

“We have to give [the Labor Party] the benefit of the doubt and suggest that perhaps the consultation will be genuine,” he said. “Many people when they go into this debate think that they have the answers. They think that it’s a very … simple issue, that banning hunting trophies will save endangered species.

“Of course, once you start digging into the issue, you realize it’s much more complicated than that and that, in fact, it can have the opposite effect.”

Countries such as Botswana and Zimbabwe are pursuing alternative markets.

Botswana’s permanent secretary in the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, Boatametse Modukanele, said, “We are looking at the Middle East. We are also looking at the United Arab Emirates, as an example. We are looking at those countries because they also have a hunting culture, and they do not have the many restrictions that we have currently.”
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Tbilisi, Georgia — Protesters in Georgia have vowed to continue anti-government demonstrations driven largely by the so-called “foreign agent” law that took effect last week.

Thousands of people have taken to the streets of the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, in the past two months to protest the law, which critics have compared to similar measures in Russia. Many of the demonstrators carry European Union and Georgian flags, while others wave the Ukrainian colors in solidarity with Kyiv following its 2022 invasion by Moscow.

Protesters beaten

Among the most well-known figures at the demonstrations is David Katsarava, a prominent activist who monitors Russian activities in parts of Georgia occupied by Moscow’s forces since its 2008 invasion of the country.

On May 14, Katsarava was detained by Georgian special forces outside parliament. He says he was severely beaten at least five times in detention, suffering extensive injuries including a broken jaw and eye socket. He was released without charge the following day. The government says it is investigating his treatment.

At his home in the suburbs of Tbilisi, Katsarava told VOA that the protests must go on – and he will rejoin them in the coming days.

“We have now the changed reality and we must continue fighting. Georgia has changed and changed its direction to Russia. We must fight until to the end because otherwise if we stop, if we will be scared and we will stay at home, so that will be a finish for free Georgia. And Georgia then becomes Belarus or some branch of Russia or something like this,” he said.

Foreign agent

The new law requires any organization receiving more than 20 percent of its funding from overseas to register as a “foreign agent.” Critics have compared it to Russian legislation and say it is aimed at stifling scrutiny and criticism of the government by media and non-governmental organizations ahead of elections scheduled in October.

The law’s supporters say it is aimed at ensuring transparency.

“It doesn’t make sense why the state budget should be transparent — but any funding from foreign sources should not be transparent in the same way,” said Fridon Injia, an member of parliament with the European Socialists party, which is closely aligned to the ruling Georgian Dream party.

The European Union has warned that the foreign agent law is incompatible with Georgia’s EU membership aspirations. Last week, the United States imposed sanctions on several Georgian lawmakers who supported the legislation.

October elections

The demonstrators insist they will continue their action until the October elections — with the aim of toppling the government, which is led by the Georgian Dream political party and widely seen as increasingly pro-Russian.

Giga Bokeria, chairman of the “European Georgia” party and a member of the government from 2010 until 2013, compared the coming months to the fall of the Soviet Union, when Georgia regained its independence.

“We have elections in October. These protests will continue until then. And our goal will be just like 30 years ago — to achieve a fundamental change. And this fundamental change is to remove the government, which is a proxy of the enemy of our sovereignty [Russia] and enemy of our liberty inside the country.”

EU support

Polls conducted before the foreign agent law took effect suggest around 80 percent of Georgians support EU membership.

At a recent protest outside parliament, many demonstrators vowed to stay on the streets until the election.

“No matter that the law is already in place, we keep on protesting. Because we want that Europe sees our approach and they support us,” said student Elene Ramishvili.

“There’s a big chance that [the government] will try to fake the results of the elections and we’ll have to be ready for the action, in case this happens,” fellow protester Giorgi Japiashvili told VOA.

Katsarava called on Europe and the U.S. to do more. “I would like to appeal to our Western partners and our friends to please support us,” he said. “We need quick support. And without you, we all will lose Georgia as a free country.”
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Thousands of people have taken to the streets of the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, in recent weeks to protest a new ‘foreign agent’ law, which critics have compared to similar legislation in Russia. The law is now in force – but its opponents have vowed to continue their demonstrations until crucial elections scheduled for later this year. Henry Ridgwell reports from Tbilisi.
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The Hague — A Dutch court will on Wednesday hand down a long-awaited verdict over the 2021 assassination of high-profile crime journalist Peter R. de Vries, a killing that shocked the country.

De Vries was gunned down in broad daylight on a busy Amsterdam street in July 2021, sparking an outpouring of grief and spotlighting the country’s drug gang underworld.

Authorities believe gunmen targeted De Vries, 64, due to his role as advisor to a key witness in the case of drug kingpin Ridouan Taghi. 

Police arrested two suspects, identified only as Dutchman Delano G. and Kamil E. from Poland, shortly after the shooting. Prosecutors have called for a life sentence.

Prosecutors believe Delano G. pulled the trigger and Kamil E. drove the getaway car and carried out surveillance prior to the shooting.

Seven men suspected of organizing and facilitating the killing have been added to the trial.

All nine suspects either denied the charges or invoked their right to silence. Hearings have taken place in an extra high security “bunker” at the court in Amsterdam.

A video showing De Vries seriously injured circulated after the attack. Partly because of this, prosecutors charged the suspects with “murder with terrorist intent.”

Thousands of mourners filed past his coffin in Amsterdam following his death, paying respect to a journalist described as a “national hero.” 

‘Narco-state’

De Vries first shot to prominence as an intrepid crime reporter for the daily newspaper De Telegraaf — writing a best-selling book about the 1980s kidnapping of beer millionaire Freddy Heineken.

The book was later turned into a 2015 movie “Kidnapping Freddy Heineken”, starring Anthony Hopkins in the title role.

The celebrity journalist then moved into television, where he ran his own crime program called “Peter R. de Vries, Crime Reporter.”

De Vries won international renown in 2008 after winning an Emmy Award for his coverage of the disappearance of US citizen Natalee Holloway on the Caribbean island of Aruba.

From 2020, he was an advisor and confidant of Nabil B., the main prosecution witness in the case against Taghi, described as the country’s most wanted criminal.

De Vries revealed in 2019 that authorities had informed him he was on a hit-list drawn up by Taghi, who in February received a life sentence over a series of murders committed by his gang.

Nabil B.’s brother Reduan was killed in 2018, and his lawyer Derk Wiersum was shot dead in 2019.

Together with the assassination of De Vries, the three killings together sparked warnings that the country was becoming a “narco-state.”

The threat touched the top levels of Dutch society.

Crown Princess Amalia, the daughter of King Willem-Alexander, was forced to move to Spain for her studies due to fears of an attack from an organized crime group.

Both the royal and Prime Minister Mark Rutte were mentioned in messages by organized crime groups, raising fears of plans to kidnap or attack them.
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Russia says it is holding more than 6,000 Ukrainian prisoners of war. For many of those released, liberation is the start of a painful process of recovery. From Kyiv, Lesia Bakalets brings the story of one former prisoner of war. Videographer: Vladyslav Smilianets
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Brussels — A court in Brussels on Monday sentenced a 65-year-old Belgian-Rwandan man to 25 years in prison for murder and rape committed during the 1994 Rwandan genocide.  

Emmanuel Nkunduwimye was found guilty of war crimes and genocide for a series of murders as well as the rape of a Tutsi woman. 

Nkunduwimye, who was first arrested in Belgium in 2011, owned a garage in Rwanda’s capital, Kigali, in April 1994 when the genocide began. The garage was part of a complex of buildings that was the scene of massacres perpetrated by Interahamwe militiamen.  

Nkunduwimye was close to several militia leaders – including Georges Rutaganda, who was sentenced to life imprisonment by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and died in 2010. 

The jury at the trial in Brussels found the accused assisted the militia “with full knowledge of the facts.”  

“He could not have been unaware of the abuses committed there,” the sentencing said, according to Belga news agency.  

During the trial, Nkunduwimye was formally identified by the woman he raped, who came to testify in private at the hearing. 

Nkunduwimye denied the accusations and his defense called for his acquittal, arguing in particular that the prosecution’s evidence was unreliable. 

Prosecutors at the trial, which began in April, had requested a sentence of 30 years in jail.  

The genocide in Rwanda, which took place between April and July 1994, claimed at least 800,000 lives, according to the U.N. The victims were mainly members of the Tutsi minority, but also included moderate Hutus.  

The trial of Nkunduwimye was the seventh such trial to be held in Belgium since 2001 involving alleged crimes committed during the genocide. 

Belgium – which controlled Rwanda during the colonial period – can prosecute alleged genocidaires because its court recognizes universal jurisdiction for crimes under international humanitarian law committed outside the country. 

In the most recent trial, Seraphin Twahirwa was sentenced in December 2023 to life imprisonment for dozens of murders and rapes perpetrated by himself or the Interahamwe militiamen under his authority in Kigali between April and July 1994.
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Since the start of Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin has carried out a campaign of repression against local and foreign journalists including via intimidation, threats, expulsions and arrests. Marcus Harton narrates this report from Ricardo Marquina.
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