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  • Bolsonaro’s legal woes deepen with undeclared diamond gifts

    Bolsonaro’s legal woes deepen with undeclared diamond gifts

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    This photo provided by Brazil’s Federal Revenue Department shows jewelry seized by customs authorities at Guarulhos International Airport in Sao Paulo, Brazil, the week of March 24, 2023. The jewelry is part of an investigation into gifts received by former Brazilian President Jail Bolsonaro during his presidency. (Brazil’s Federal Revenue Department via AP)

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    This photo provided by Brazil’s Federal Revenue Department shows jewelry seized by customs authorities at Guarulhos International Airport in Sao Paulo, Brazil, the week of March 24, 2023. The jewelry is part of an investigation into gifts received by former Brazilian President Jail Bolsonaro during his presidency. (Brazil’s Federal Revenue Department via AP)

    RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Undeclared diamond jewelry brought into Brazil from Saudi Arabia has deepened the legal jeopardy of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. An investigation into two sets of jewels reportedly worth millions is only the latest scandal threatening the far-right politician. But an extensive paper trail and even videos could make the case particularly daunting for Bolsonaro.

    WHAT HAPPENED WITH THE DIAMONDS?

    Federal police and prosecutors are investigating whether Bolsonaro tried to sneak two sets of expensive diamond jewelry into Brazil without paying taxes — and whether he improperly sought to prevent the items from being incorporated into the presidency’s public collection. Authorities are also looking into whether he enlisted public officials to try to bypass customs.

    The first set of jewels, composed of earrings, a necklace, a ring and a watch by Swiss brand Chopard, arrived in Brazil in October 2021 through Sao Paulo’s international airport with an adviser to the then minister for mines and energy, Bento Albuquerque, according to the newspaper O Estado de S.Paulo, which first reported the case in early March.

    Customs authorities seized the jewels, which are reportedly worth $3 million. A video released by television network Globo shows Albuquerque at customs later the same day stating that the jewels were for Bolsonaro’s wife, Michelle.

    A second set of jewels, also made by Chopard and including a watch, a pen, a ring, cuff links and a piece resembling a rosary, slipped past authorities and ended up in Bolsonaro’s possession. The watch is worth about $150,000, the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo reported.

    A government watchdog on March 22 ordered Bolsonaro to turn the jewelry over to the state-owned Caixa Economica Federal bank, as well as firearms he received as a gift from authorities in the United Arab Emirates. Bolsonaro’s representatives did so on Friday.

    Brazil requires its citizens arriving by plane from abroad to declare goods worth more than $1,000 and, for any amount above that exemption, pay a tax equal to 50% of their value. The two sets of jewelry would have been exempt from tax had they been a gift from the state of Saudi Arabia to the nation of Brazil, but would not have been Bolsonaro’s to keep.

    Bruno Dantas, a member of Brazil’s government watchdog, said a president could receive a gift for personal use without paying taxes as long as it was of low value, such as a T-shirt of a country’s national football team. Expensive jewelry does not meet the criteria, he said.

    The watchdog said it will audit all gifts received by Brazil’s presidency during Bolsonaro’s term.

    WHAT DID BOLSONARO DO ABOUT THE CONFISCATED JEWELS?

    Documents and video footage appear to show Bolsonaro making multiple unsuccessful attempts to retrieve the seized jewelry.

    A letter from the presidential office was sent to Albuquerque requesting that the jewels be released, O Estado de S.Paulo reported. The ministries of foreign affairs and mines and energy also sent letters pressuring customs authorities. Then Bolsonaro sent a personal letter to customs, O Estado de S.Paulo said.

    A last attempt came in the closing days of Bolsonaro’s presidency. According to a document viewed by O Estado de S.Paulo, on Bolsonaro’s orders a sergeant took a military plane to Sao Paulo’s airport in a failed effort to force the release. Globo released a video of the sergeant speaking with custom authorities.

    WHAT LEGAL ISSUES HAS THE CASE RAISED?

    The Senate’s transparency commission is investigating whether the sale of a refinery by Brazil’s state-controlled oil giant Petrobras to the United Arab Emirates’ Mubadala Capital was related to the jewels. Mubadala didn’t respond to a request for comment sent Friday.

    Petrobras completed the sale for $1.65 billion one month after the first set of jewels was seized in Sao Paulo. The price was “way below” fair market value, an oil workers’ union said in a recent statement.

    Rodrigo Sánchez Rios, a law professor at Pontifical Catholic University in the city of Curitiba, said Bolsonaro could potentially face trial on several counts, including influence peddling, embezzlement, money laundering and corruption.

    “This is potentially the crime with the most evidence currently implicating Bolsonaro,” said legal expert Wallace Corbo from the Getulio Vargas Foundation, a think tank and university.

    WHAT HAS BOLSONARO SAID ABOUT THE JEWELRY?

    “There was no intention on our part to disappear with this material,” Bolsonaro told television network Record on Wednesday during an event in Florida. He previously told CNN Brasil that he neither asked for nor received the confiscated jewelry.

    Bolsonaro’s attorney Frederick Wassef said in a statement on March 7 that the former president “officially declared personal property received on trips,” and is the target of political persecution.

    WHAT ARE BOLSONARO’S OTHER LEGAL PROBLEMS?

    The former president has denied any wrongdoing in all of the various cases under investigation, most recently whether he incited the Jan. 8 riots in which his supporters ransacked the Supreme Court, the presidential palace and Congress one week after leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was inaugurated as president.

    Bolsonaro is the subject of a dozen investigations by Brazil’s electoral court into his actions during the presidential election campaign, particularly related to his unsubstantiated claims that Brazil’s electronic voting system is susceptible to fraud. If Bolsonaro were found guilty in any of those cases, he would lose his political rights and be unable to run for office in the next election.

    Separately, Bolsonaro and his allies are also under investigation in a sprawling Supreme Court-led investigation on the spread of alleged falsehoods and disinformation in Brazil.

    Federal police are also investigating Bolsonaro and his administration for alleged genocide of the Indigenous Yanomami people in the Amazon rainforest by encouraging illegal miners to invade their territory and thereby endangering their lives. He has called the accusation a “hoax from the left.”

    ——-

    Savarese reported from Sao Paulo.

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  • Saudi Arabia frees American imprisoned over critical tweets

    Saudi Arabia frees American imprisoned over critical tweets

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — A 72-year-old American imprisoned more than a year in Saudi Arabia over tweets critical of the Saudi crown prince was back with family members in Riyadh on Tuesday, but it remained unclear whether the kingdom would drop a travel ban to allow him to return home to Florida.

    Saudi Arabia on Monday freed Saad Almadi, a dual U.S.-Saudi citizen who had been a retiree living in Florida until Saudis detained him when he arrived for a 2021 family visit to the kingdom. Saudi courts subsequently sentenced Almadi to 19 years in prison over his years of past posts on social media.

    A State Department spokesman, Vedant Patel, on Tuesday welcomed the news of Almadi’s release, but would not comment on the ban Saudi Arabia had imposed earlier to keep the Florida man from returning home after he finished his prison sentence for the tweets. “Each country is going to have its own sovereign laws and each case is different, so I’m not going to speak about this,” Patel said.

    Almadi is now at home with family members who live in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, said his son, Ibrahim Almadi. Saudi officials dropped all charges against the elder Almadi, Ibrahim Almadi and advocates familiar with the case said.

    The Florida man’s imprisonment over tweets had been one of several alleged human rights abuses that had soured relations between Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and President Joe Biden. That included Saudi officials’ killing of a U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside a Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018, and prison sentences and travel bans that Saudi Arabia under the crown prince’s tenure has given Saudi rights advocates and perceived rivals and critics of the powerful crown prince.

    Both Prince Mohammed and the Biden administration recently have taken steps toward restoring better relations. The two countries are partners in a decades-old security arrangement in which the U.S. provides security for Saudi Arabia and the oil-rich kingdom keeps global markets supplied with oil.

    Saudi Arabia had sentenced Almadi last year to 16 years in prison, saying his critical tweets about how the kingdom was being governed amounted to terrorist acts against it.

    As U.S. officials worked to win his release, and after Biden traveled to Saudi Arabia last summer in an attempt to improve relations with the oil-rich nation, a Saudi appeals court tacked an additional three years on to his sentence.

    Ibrahim Almadi had campaigned hard and publicly for his father’s freedom. The son had pushed the Biden administration to formally declare his father as wrongfully detained by the kingdom, and had accused U.S. officials of holding back on criticism in the case in the interest of mending relations with the oil giant.

    “Now we have to fight travel ban,” he added.

    Saudi Arabia did not acknowledge Almadi’s release. However, the kingdom routinely pardons prisoners ahead of the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which could begin as soon as Tuesday night.

    A retired project manager in the United States, Almadi was arrested in 2021 when he arrived for what was to have been a two-week visit to see family in the kingdom. Once in custody, he was confronted by Saudi authorities with tweets he had posted over several years from his home in Florida, his son says.

    Almadi’s tweets included one noting Prince Salman’s consolidation of power in the kingdom and another that spoke of Khashoggi’s killing. U.S. intelligence officials earlier concluded the crown prince authorized the hit team that killed Khashoggi inside a Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

    “We are relieved that Saad Almadi has been released, but he should have never spent a day behind bars for innocuous tweets,” said Abdullah Alaoudh, Saudi director for the Freedom Initiative, a U.S.-based group that advocates for those it considers unjustly detained in the Middle East.

    Alaoudh urged the U.S. to continue to press for the release of all rights advocates and others detained in Saudi Arabia.

    Freedom Initiative says at least four U.S. citizens and one legal permanent resident already were detained in Saudi Arabia under travel bans, and that at least one other older U.S. citizen remains imprisoned. Many of the travel bans targeted dual citizens advocating for greater rights in the kingdom, such as Saudi women’s right to drive.

    Ibrahim Almadi said his father had lost extensive weight in prison and that his health had worsened drastically.

    ——

    Jon Gambrell contributed from Dubai and AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee from Washington.

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  • Taliban ban women from working for domestic, foreign NGOs

    Taliban ban women from working for domestic, foreign NGOs

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    KABUL, Afghanistan — The Taliban government in Afghanistan on Saturday ordered all foreign and domestic non-governmental groups to suspend employing women, the latest restrictive move by the country’s new rulers against women’s rights and freedoms.

    The order came in a letter from Economy Minister Qari Din Mohammed Hanif, which said that any NGO found not complying with the order will have their operating license revoked in Afghanistan.

    The contents of the letter were confirmed to The Associated Press on Saturday by ministry spokesman, Abdul Rahman Habib.

    The ministry said it had received “serious complaints” about female staff working for NGOs not wearing the “correct” headscarf, or hijab. It was not immediately clear if the order applies to all women or only Afghan women at the NGOs.

    THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

    KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Taliban security forces used a water cannon to disperse women protesting the ban on university education for women on Saturday, eyewitnesses said, as the decision from the Taliban-led government continues to cause outrage and opposition in Afghanistan and beyond.

    The development came after Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers on Tuesday banned female students from attending universities effective immediately. Afghan women have since demonstrated in major cities against the ban, a rare sign of domestic protest since the Taliban seized power last year.

    According to eyewitnesses in the western city of Herat, about two dozen women on Saturday were heading to the provincial governor’s house to protest the ban, chanting: “Education is our right,” when they were pushed back by security forces firing the water cannon.

    Video shared with The Associated Press shows the women screaming and hiding in a side street to escape the water cannon. They then resume their protest, with chants of “Disgraceful!”

    One of the protest organizers, Maryam, said between 100 and 150 women took part in the protest, moving in small groups from different parts of the city toward a central meeting point. She did not give her last name for fear of reprisals.

    “There was security on every street, every square, armored vehicles and armed men,” she said. “When we started our protest, in Tariqi Park, the Taliban took branches from the trees and beat us. But we continued our protest. They increased their security presence. Around 11 a.m. they brought out the water cannon.”

    A spokesman for the provincial governor, Hamidullah Mutawakil, claimed there were only four-five protesters. “They had no agenda, they just came here to make a film,” he said, without mentioning the violence against the women or the use of the water cannon.

    There has been widespread international condemnation of the university ban, including from Muslim-majority countries such as Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, as well as warnings from the United States and the G-7 group of major industrial nations that the policy will have consequences for the Taliban.

    An official in the Taliban government, Minister of Higher Education Nida Mohammad Nadim, spoke about the ban for the first time on Thursday in an interview with the Afghan state television. He said the ban was necessary to prevent the mixing of genders in universities and because he believes some subjects being taught violated the principles of Islam.

    He said the ban would be in place until further notice.

    Despite initially promising a more moderate rule respecting rights for women and minorities, the Taliban have widely implemented their interpretation of Islamic law, or Sharia, since they seized power in August 2021.

    They have banned girls from middle school and high school, barred women from most fields of employment and ordered them to wear head-to-toe clothing in public. Women are also banned from parks and gyms. At the same time Afghan society, while largely traditional, has increasingly embraced the education of girls and women over the past two decades.

    Also Saturday, in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta, dozens of Afghan refugee students protested against the ban on female higher education in their homeland and demanded the immediate reopening of campuses for women.

    One of them, Bibi Haseena, read a poem depicting the grim situation for Afghan girls seeking an education. She said was unhappy about graduating outside her country when hundreds of thousands of her Afghan sisters were being deprived of an education.

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  • Taliban minister defends ban on women’s university studies

    Taliban minister defends ban on women’s university studies

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    KABUL, Afghanistan — The minister of higher education in the Taliban government on Thursday defended his decision to ban women from universities — a decree that had triggered a global backlash.

    Discussing the matter for the first time in public, Nida Mohammad Nadim said the ban issued earlier this week was necessary to prevent the mixing of genders in universities and because he believes some subjects being taught violated the principles of Islam. He said the ban was in place until further notice.

    In an interview with Afghan television, Nadim pushed back against the widespread international condemnation, including from Muslim-majority countries such as Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar. Nadim said that foreigners should stop interfering in Afghanistan’s internal affairs.

    Earlier on Thursday, the foreign ministers of the G7 group of states urged the Taliban to rescind the ban, warning that “gender persecution may amount to a crime against humanity.” The ministers warned after a virtual meeting that “Taliban policies designed to erase women from public life will have consequences for how our countries engage with the Taliban.” The G7 group includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union.

    Nadim said universities would be closed to women for the time being, but that the ban could be reviewed at a later time.

    A former provincial governor, police chief and military commander, Nadim was appointed minister in October by the supreme Taliban leader and previously pledged to stamp out secular schooling. Nadim opposes female education, saying it is against Islamic and Afghan values.

    In Afghanistan, there has been some domestic opposition to the university ban, including statements of condemnation by several Afghan cricketers. Cricket is a hugely popular sport in Afghanistan, and players have hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.

    Despite initially promising a more moderate rule respecting rights for women and minorities, the Taliban have widely implemented their interpretation of Islamic law, or Sharia, since they seized power in August 2021.

    They have banned girls from middle school and high school, barred women from most fields of employment and ordered them to wear head-to-toe clothing in public. Women are also banned from parks and gyms. At the same time, Afghan society, while largely traditional, has increasingly embraced the education of girls and women over the past two decades.

    Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Thursday that the ban was “neither Islamic nor humane.”

    Speaking at a joint news conference with his Yemeni counterpart, Cavusoglu called on the Taliban to reverse their decision.

    “What harm is there in women’s education? What harm does it do to Afghanistan?” Cavusoglu said. “Is there an Islamic explanation? On the contrary, our religion, Islam, is not against education, on the contrary, it encourages education and science.”

    Saudi Arabia, which until 2019 enforced sweeping restrictions on women’s travel, employment and other crucial aspects of their daily lives, including driving, also urged the Taliban to change course.

    The Saudi foreign ministry expressed “astonishment and regret” at Afghan women being denied a university education. In a statement late Wednesday, the ministry said the decision was “astonishing in all Islamic countries.”

    Previously, Qatar, which has engaged with the Taliban authorities, also condemned the decision.

    In the capital of Kabul, about two dozen women marched in the streets Thursday, chanting in Dari for freedom and equality. “All or none. Don’t be afraid. We are together,” they chanted.

    In video obtained by The Associated Press, one woman said Taliban security forces used violence to disperse the group.

    “The girls were beaten and whipped,” she said. “They also brought military women with them, whipping the girls. We ran away, some girls were arrested. I don’t know what will happen.”

    Several Afghan cricketers called for the ban to be lifted.

    Player Rahmanullah Garbaz said in a tweet that every day of education wasted was a day wasted in the country’s future.

    Another cricketer, Rashid Khan, tweeted that women are the foundation of society. “A society that leaves its children in the hands of ignorant and illiterate women cannot expect its members to serve and work hard,” he wrote.

    Another show of support for female university students came at Nangarhar Medical University. Local media reported that male students walked out in solidarity and refused to sit for exams until women’s university access was reinstated.

    Girls have been banned from school beyond the sixth grade since the Taliban’s return.

    In northeastern Takhar province, teenage girls said the Taliban on Thursday forced them out of a private education training center and told them they no longer had the right to study. One student, 15-year-old Zuhal, said the girls were beaten.

    Another, 19-year-old Maryam, said while crying: “This training center was our hope. What can these girls do? They were full of hope and coming here to learn. It is really a pity. (The Taliban) have taken all our hopes. They closed schools, universities, and the training center, which was very small.”

    ———

    Associated Press writer Suzan Fraser contributed from Ankara, Turkey.

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  • Algeria: Doctors tell Saudi crown prince don’t go to summit

    Algeria: Doctors tell Saudi crown prince don’t go to summit

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    DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Saudi Arabia’s powerful 37-year-old crown prince will not attend an upcoming summit in Algeria after his doctors advised him not to travel, the Algerian presidency said early Sunday.

    Saudi Arabia offered no immediate acknowledgment of the comments by Algeria about the condition of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has quickly risen to power under his 86-year-old father King Salman. Much of the focus on the Al Saud royal family in recent years has been on King Salman’s health, with analysts suggesting Prince Mohammed could rule the OPEC-leading nation for years after ascending to the throne.

    The kingdom’s government did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press about the prince, whose health hasn’t previously prevented him from traveling.

    Statements carried in Arabic and French on the Algeria Press Service referred to a statement from the office of President Abdelmadjid Tebboune about a telephone call between him and Prince Mohammed.

    In the call, Prince Mohammed “apologized for not being able to participate in the Arab Summit to be held on Nov. 1 in Algiers, in accordance with the recommendations of doctors who advise him not to travel,” the statement read.

    “For his part, Mr. President said he understood the situation and regretted the impediment of the Crown Prince, His Highness the Emir Mohammed Bin Salman, expressing his wishes for his health and well-being.”

    A statement on the state-run Saudi Press Agency acknowledged a call between Tebboune and the prince, but offered no word on the doctors’ advice. It just said the call focused on “the aspects of bilateral relations between the two fraternal countries” and possible joint cooperation.

    Prince Mohammed came to power in 2015 as a deputy crown prince, then quickly became crown prince some two years later after King Salman removed Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, a once-powerful figure as head of Saudi counterterrorism efforts and a close American ally.

    His rise to power, however, has seen the kingdom undergo rapid changes, like allowing women to drive, while also engaging in a corruption crackdown that turned a luxury hotel in Riyadh into a prison for powerbrokers in the kingdom who could have challenged his rule.

    U.S. intelligence services have linked Prince Mohammed to the 2018 killing and dismemberment of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, a critic of his rule. The kingdom has denied the prince was involved, though its prosecution of the government squad behind Khashoggi’s slaying has been held behind closed doors.

    Recently, the prince has come under intense American criticism over Saudi Arabia leading OPEC and allied nations to agree to an oil production cut of 2 million barrels per day.

    ———

    Follow Jon Gambrell on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP.

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