LONDON: The first wave of Libyan army cadets being trained in Britain will be sent home early, British Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said yesterday, after five were charged over a series of sex attacks on local residents.
Two cadets have been charged with raping a man in Cambridge on October 26, Cambridgeshire Police said. Three more were charged with sexual assaults on women in Cambridge the same day, police said. Two of the men pled guilty at Cambridge Magistrates’ Court last week.
Cambridgeshire Police said it had also received nine reports of sexual assaults on October 17
Britain played a key role in the Libyan revolution that overthrew Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, mounting an air campaign against Gaddafi’s forces.
But Libya has failed to build up its security forces and disarm rebels militias since then, leaving the country on the brink of chaos.
Prosecutors appeal Pistorius verdict
PRETORIA: South African prosecutors yesterday appealed the verdict and sentence of Paralympian Oscar Pistorius, who was last month handed a five-year jail sentence for killing his girlfriend.
After a sensational eight-month trial, Pistorius was found guilty of culpable homicide, a charge equivalent to manslaughter, for shooting dead his model girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine’s Day 2013 and began to serve his sentence on October 21.
Prosecutors announced last week that they would press for a murder conviction and a harsher sentence and on Tuesday officially lodged the appeal. “Today, we announce that the NPA filed the application for leave to appeal both the conviction and sentence,” the National Prosecuting Authority said in a statement.
Spain court blocks Catalan independence vote
MADRID: Spain’s Constitutional Court yesterday suspended a watered-down vote on independence in Catalonia scheduled for Sunday, a move certain to stoke frustration among Catalans, most of whom favour a referendum.
Spain’s government had asked the court to block the “consultation of citizens” called by Catalonia’s regional government on grounds it was a way to get around the court’s September suspension of a non-binding referendum on secession.
That referendum, which would carry more legal weight, was originally scheduled for Sunday but the court suspended it at the end of September to consider its legality, a process that could take months.
Agencies
