Tag: police

Canadian police make arrests in prominent Sikh activist’s killing | Police News

Police in Canada have made arrests in the fatal 2023 shooting of prominent Sikh-Canadian activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, months after authorities accused Indian government agents of being involved in the killing.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in Canada’s westernmost province of British Columbia said on Friday afternoon that three people were arrested as part of an ongoing investigation into Nijjar’s killing.

The three individuals — all Indian nationals — were arrested in Edmonton, Alberta, and charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder, RCMP Superintendent Mandeep Mooker told reporters.

“This investigation does not end here. We are aware that others may have played a role in this homicide, and we remain dedicated to finding and arresting each one of these individuals,” Mooker said.

He added that police are “investigating if there are any ties to the government of India”.

“However, as I said, it’s an ongoing investigation and I don’t have any information to provide on that matter at this time.”

Nijjar was fatally shot on June 18, 2023, outside a Sikh temple in Surrey, British Columbia, spurring widespread condemnation.

A few months later, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the country’s security agencies were investigating “credible allegations of a potential link” between Indian government agents and Nijjar’s killing.

“Any involvement of a foreign government in the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty,” Trudeau said in an address to Canada’s parliament in September of last year.

“In the strongest possible terms, I continue to urge the government of India to cooperate with Canada to get to the bottom of this matter.”

His comments spurred a fierce response from India, which rejected the allegations as “absurd” and politically motivated. New Delhi also accused Canada of not doing enough to stem anti-India activism and “Sikh extremism”.

But Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has long faced allegations of targeting political opponents, journalists and religious minorities, including Muslims and Sikhs, in what rights groups have said is a continuing effort to stifle dissent.

At the time of Nijjar’s killing, tensions had been growing between Canada and India over a Sikh campaign for a sovereign state in India’s Punjab region. Known as the Khalistan movement, the campaign has supporters in Canada.

Nijjar served as president of the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara, the temple where he was killed. He was among those advocating for Khalistan.

‘Active police operation’

Asked to comment on Friday’s reports that arrests were made in the case, Canada’s Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc referred reporters’ questions to the RCMP.

“You’ll understand that the developments with respect to the murder of a Canadian citizen, Mr Nijjar, are part of an ongoing police operation. This operation started today. It is still an active police operation,” LeBlanc said in Ottawa.

The RCMP identified the three men arrested on Friday as Kamalpreet Singh, Karanpreet Singh and Karan Brar.

Mooker, the police superintendent, said all three were non-permanent residents of Canada and had been in the country for between three to five years.

CBC News reported earlier in the day that, according to unnamed sources, “members of the hit squad are alleged to have played different roles as shooters, drivers and spotters” on the day Nijjar was killed.

“Sources said investigators identified the alleged hit squad members in Canada some months ago and have been keeping them under tight surveillance,” the Canadian broadcaster said.

The High Commission of India in Ottawa did not immediately respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment on Friday afternoon.

Reported threats

Nijjar’s killing continues to raise questions around allegations of Indian foreign interference, particularly within Sikh diaspora communities in Canada, the United States and other countries.

In September, Moninder Singh at the BC Gurdwaras Council told Al Jazeera that he was among five Sikh leaders — including Nijjar — who were warned by the RCMP’s national security division in 2022 about threats against their lives.

Reports of an alleged plot to kill another prominent Sikh separatist leader in the US have also emerged following Nijjar’s death. In late November, the US Department of Justice announced charges against a 52-year-old Indian national, Nikhil Gupta.

Gupta was accused of being part of a foiled attempt to assassinate US citizen Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, in coordination with an Indian government employee and others.

The Washington Post reported earlier this week that US intelligence agencies determined that the operation to target Pannun was approved by the then-head of India’s foreign intelligence agency, known as RAW.

The Indian government rejected those allegations as “unwarranted” and “unsubstantiated”, according to media reports.

On Monday, White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre described the Washington Post report as “a serious matter”.

“The government of India has been very clear with us that they are taking this seriously and will investigate — and we expect that accountability from the government,” Jean-Pierre told reporters during a news briefing.

She added that Washington would continue to raise concerns with New Delhi.

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Videos show violence of mob attack on UCLA anti-war protesters | Gaza

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Videos of the attack on the anti-Gaza war protest camp at UCLA have shown the extent of the violence used by a pro-Israel mob. A day after the protesters were assaulted, police in Los Angeles declared the camp unlawful and moved in to clear it.

Published On 2 May 2024

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Police use tear gas on anti-war protesters at Florida university | Gaza

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Police fired tear gas at protesters who’d set up a camp at the University of South Florida to condemn Israel’s war on Gaza. Several students were reportedly arrested as the camp was dismantled.

Published On 1 May 2024

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Former Binance CEO CZ sentenced to four months | Crypto News

Changpeng Zhao, the former chief executive of Binance, was sentenced on Tuesday to four months in prison after pleading guilty to violating US money-laundering laws at the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange.

The sentence was imposed by United States District Judge Richard Jones in Seattle, who rejected prosecutors’ request that the 47-year-old Zhao serve a three-year term.

Once considered the most powerful person in the cryptocurrency industry, Zhao, known as “CZ,” is the second major crypto boss to be sentenced to prison after Sam Bankman-Fried. In March, Bankman-Fried received 25 years behind bars for stealing eight billion dollars from customers of his now-bankrupt FTX exchange.

Zhao pleaded guilty in November to one count of failing to take required anti-money-laundering measures and stepped down as Binance agreed to pay $4.3bn to settle related allegations.

US officials said Zhao deliberately looked the other way as people conducted transactions that supported child sex abuse, the illegal drug trade and “terrorism”.

“I failed here,” Zhao said before US District Judge Richard A Jones issued the sentence. “I deeply regret my failure, and I am sorry.”

“I believe the first step of taking responsibility is to fully recognise the mistakes. Here I failed to implement an adequate anti-money-laundering program … I realise now the seriousness of that mistake”, he said.

Prosecutors had told the judge a tough sentence would send a clear signal to other would-be criminals.

“We are not suggesting that Mr. Zhao is Sam Bankman-Fried or that he is a monster,” prosecutor Kevin Mosley said. But Zhao’s conduct, he said, “wasn’t a mistake. This wasn’t a regulatory ‘oops.’”

The three-year prison term prosecutors sought was more than twice the guideline range for the crime. If he did not receive time in custody for the offence, no one would, rendering the law toothless, they argued.

Zhao had been free on a $175m bond, and agreed not to appeal any sentence within federal guidelines. Zhao also paid $50m to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Trades in violation of US sanctions

Binance allowed more than 1.5 million virtual currency trades, totalling nearly $900m, that violated US sanctions, including ones involving Hamas’s Qassam Brigades, al-Qaeda and Iran.

“He made a business decision that violating US law was the best way to attract users, build his company, and line his pockets,” the US Department of Justice wrote in a sentencing memorandum filed last week.

Zhao’s lawyers insisted he should receive no prison time at all, citing his willingness to come from the United Arab Emirates, where he and his family live, to the US to plead guilty, despite the UAE’s lack of an extradition treaty with the US.

No one has ever been sentenced to prison time for similar violations of the Bank Secrecy Act, defence lawyers Mark Bartlett and William Burck told the judge Tuesday, and Zhao began making changes to make Binance a model of compliance with banking transparency regulations before stepping down.

“There is no excuse for my failure to establish the necessary compliance controls at Binance,” Zhao wrote in a letter to the court. “I wish I could change that part of Binance’s story. But under my direction, Binance has now implemented the most stringent anti-money laundering controls of any non-US exchange, and those controls have been in place since 2022.”

Prosecutors said no one had ever violated the Bank Secrecy Act to the extent Zhao did.

“He says in hindsight he should have done a better job,” Justice Department lawyer Kevin Mosley told the court. “This wasn’t a mistake. When Mr Zhao violated the BSA he was well aware of the requirements.”

Zhao knew that Binance was required to institute anti-money-laundering protocols, but instead directed the company to disguise customers’ locations in the US to avoid complying with US law, prosecutors said.

Several other crypto moguls are also in the crosshairs of US authorities after the collapse of cryptocurrency prices in 2022 exposed fraud and misconduct across the industry.

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German police break up Gaza solidarity camp in front of Bundestag | Gaza

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German police were accused of using excessive force as they broke up a pro-Palestinian protest camp outside the Bundestag parliament building in Berlin, where several demonstrators were reportedly arrested.

Published On 29 Apr 2024

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Chile declares national mourning after three police officers killed | Police News

It’s the latest attack on security forces in a region where tensions have long simmered between locals and the state.

Armed assailants have ambushed and killed three police officers in southern Chile before setting their car on fire, authorities said, the latest attack on police to revive security concerns in the South American country.

In a statement on X on Saturday, President Gabriel Boric called the attack in Arauco province’s Canete municipality “cowardly” and declared three days of national mourning to honour the officers, identified as Sergeant Carlos Cisterna, Corporal Sergio Arevalo and Corporal Misael Vidal.

“Today the entire country is in mourning. There is heartbreak, sorrow, anger. But these emotions do not paralyse us, they force us, they mobilise us,” Boric wrote. “We will find the whereabouts of the perpetrators of this terrible crime.”

Authorities said the officers responded to three false emergency calls and were attacked in their vehicle with heavy-calibre weapons. They burned inside the armoured patrol vehicle on a road near the city of Concepcion, some 400km (about 250 miles) south of the capital, Santiago.

It remains unclear who carried out the assault but a long-simmering conflict between the Mapuche Indigenous community and landowners and forestry companies in the region has intensified in recent years. The conflict forced the government to impose a state of emergency and deploy the military to provide security.

In Chile, about one in 10 citizens identify as Mapuche, the tribe that resisted Spanish conquest centuries ago and was defeated only in the late 1800s after Chile won its independence.

Large forestry companies and farm owners control large tracts of land originally belonging to the Mapuche, many of whom now live in rural poverty.

Boric, who travelled to the area on Saturday with a large contingent, including top military and congressional officials and the president of the Supreme Court, offered condolences to the victims’ families, promising the killers would be found and brought to justice.

“There will be no impunity,” he said after firefighters dousing the burning police car made the grisly discovery.

In Santiago, hundreds of people gathered outside the presidential palace to protest against the killings, which coincided with National Police Day, celebrating the 97th anniversary of the establishment of the Carabineros, Chile’s military police force. It was the second such fatal attack on the force this month.

Ricardo Yanez, the Carabineros’s general director, told reporters the officers had been dispatched in response to fake distress calls from the rural road, where they were met with a barrage of gunfire.

“This was not coincidental, it was not random,” he said of the ambush.

The spate of bloodshed has tested Boric, who came to power in 2022 promising to ease tensions in the region, where armed Mapuche activists have been stealing timber and attacking forestry companies that they claim invaded their ancestral lands.

Boric’s administration has touted its success in reducing Chile’s national homicide rate by 6 percent, according to government figures from 2023 published earlier this week.

“This attack goes against all the enormous strides that have been made,” said Interior Minister Carolina Toha, a centre-left former mayor of Santiago.

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Daquan Armstead charged in string of random NYC attacks on women over the past month: NYPD

A deranged woman-hating maniac wanted for more than a half-dozen random attacks on women in the Big Apple is finally in custody, police and sources said Tuesday.

Daquan Armstead, 31, was picked up by cops shortly after midnight and charged with third-degree assault and harassment in eight unprovoked attacks on women over the past month, the sources said.

That includes an April 17 attack on a 27-year-old administrator at New York University, who was slugged in the face while walking through Washington Square Park around 10:30 a.m., according to police.

The NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating, although details weren’t released.

Daquan Armstead, 31, is charged with eight random attacks on women in the Big Apple dating to February. Matthew McDermott

Armstead is also being charged in seven other attacks this year.

The violent spree began on Feb. 12, when police said Armstead allegedly walked up to a 30-year-old woman on Elizabeth Street around 11:50 a.m. and punched her without warning, then fled.

On March 24 he allegedly attacked a 30-year-old woman on Delancy Street at around 2 a.m., hitting the victim in the back of the head as she turned. He then ran from the scene.

The following day Armstead is charged with punching a 36-year-old woman in the back as she walked along Chrystie and Rivington streets around 10:15 a.m., police said.

On April 2, he allegedly slugged another woman after he asked the 38-year-old victim for $1 and she replied that she had no cash — so he punched her in the back of the head.

Police said he is also accused of attacking two women in separate incidents on Delancey Street on April 5 — a 25-year-old who was slugged on the right side of her head around 12:25 p.m. and a 44-year-old who was punched in the face just five minutes later, according to cops.

In the last alleged attack before the assault on the NYU administrator, police said Armstead punched a 24-year-old woman on Stanton Street after she also refused when he asked her for $1 shortly before 10 a.m.

Police said Daquan Armstead allegedly attacked a woman at Essex and Delancey streets on April 5 — and another woman down the street five minutes later. Google Maps
Daquan Armstead is chaarged with random attacks on two women on Delancey Street earlier this month — and six other assaults since Februrary. Google Maps

Records show his prior busts date to a 2021 misdemeanor asault case.

He is expected to be arraigned on the new charges later on Tuesday.

Police have also been investigating a series of other attacks on woman that have not been linked to Armstead, including a 23-year-old woman slugged outside Union Square McDonald’s last month.

Among the other recent victims was Halley Kate, an influencer with 1.1 million followers on TikTok, who posted a video last week saying she was assaulted so viciously that she blacked out.

Daquan Armstead, 31, was arrested early Tuesday and is being charged with eight random attacks on women. Obtained by NY Post

Skiboky Stora, 40, a criminal with an extensive criminal record, was busted in that case.

In another random attack, a 57-year-old Brooklyn school bus aide was slugged by an unhinged man — a brutal attack that broke her jaw and knocked out several teeth — in Crown Heights, cops said.

Franz Jeudy, 33 — who has a history of sucker-punch attacks and mental illness — was hit with misdemeanor assault charges in that attack, according to a criminal complaint..

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US Senate votes to reauthorise controversial surveillance programme FISA | Government News

President Joe Biden expected to swiftly sign bill that lets intelligence agencies conduct electronic surveillance without seeking warrant.

The United States Senate has voted to approve the reauthorisation of a controversial surveillance programme widely used by US intelligence agencies abroad, but criticised by civil liberties organisations.

Senators voted 60-34 shortly after midnight to pass the bill, and the White House said President Joe Biden will “swiftly sign the bill into law”.

Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, enables US intelligence agencies to conduct electronic surveillance without seeking a judicial warrant.

In particular, it allows them to sweep up communications, including phone calls and emails, of non-Americans anywhere outside of US territory. That includes communications from US citizens to foreigners targeted for monitoring.

Its reauthorisation secures what supporters call a key element of US foreign intelligence gathering.

“Democrats and Republicans came together and did the right thing for our country’s safety,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said.

“We all know one thing: letting FISA expire would be dangerous. It’s an important part of our national security, to stop acts of terror, drug trafficking and violent extreme extremism.”

Doubts and concerns

Though the spy programme was technically set to expire at midnight, Biden’s administration had said it expected its authority to collect intelligence and to remain operational for at least another year, thanks to an opinion earlier this month from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which receives surveillance applications.

FISA has attracted criticism from both Republican and Democratic lawmakers, who argue it violates Americans’ constitutional right to privacy.

The bill was blocked three times in the past five months by House Republicans bucking their party, before passing last week by a 273-147 vote when its duration was shortened from five years to two years.

Although the right to privacy is enshrined in the US Constitution, foreign nationals’ data gathered by the programme often includes communications with Americans, and can be mined by domestic law enforcement bodies such as the FBI without a warrant. That has alarmed many.

Recent revelations that the FBI used this power to hunt for information about Black Lives Matter protesters, congressional campaign donors and US lawmakers have raised further doubts about the programme’s integrity.

In the past year, US officials have revealed a series of abuses and mistakes by FBI analysts in improperly querying the intelligence repository for information about Americans or others in the US, including a member of Congress and participants in the racial justice protests of 2020 and the January 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol.

But members on both the House and Senate intelligence committees as well as the US Department of Justice said requiring a warrant would handicap officials from quickly responding to national security threats.

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Man arrested in France after bomb threat at Iran consulate | Police News

French prosecutors say no explosives found on suspect or at the Iranian consular office in Paris.

French police have arrested a man who threatened to blow himself up at Iran’s embassy in Paris.

Police found no explosives at the embassy or on the suspect who was detained there on Friday, French prosecutors said, after the embassy’s consular office reported a man had entered with ammunition.

Police arrested the suspect, born in 1963 in Iran, when he exited of his own accord after appearing to have “threatened violent action” inside, the Agence France-Presse news agency quoted the Paris prosecutor’s office as saying.

But “no explosive materials have been observed at this stage,” either on him, in his car or in the building, prosecutors said.

A police source told the Reuters news agency the man was seen about 11am (09:00 GMT) entering the consular office, carrying what appeared to be a grenade and explosive vest. Police cordoned off the area.

The man later left the office and was then arrested, the police source said.

The TV channel BFM said he had been carrying replica grenades.

A police source said it was the same man who had been suspected of attempted arson near the Iranian embassy in an incident in September.

Le Parisien newspaper said on its website that, according to several witnesses, the man had dragged flags on the floor of the consulate and said he wanted to avenge the death of his brother.

An AFP journalist said the whole neighbourhood around the consulate in the capital’s 16th district had been closed off and a heavy police presence was in place.

Paris transport company RATP wrote on the social media platform X that traffic had been suspended on two metro lines that pass through stops close to the consulate.

Iran’s embassy and consulate in the French capital share the same building but have two different entrances on separate streets.

The incident came with tensions running high in the Middle East; however, there was no suggestion of any link.

Earlier on Friday, explosions echoed over the Iranian city of Isfahan in what sources described as an Israeli attack. Tehran played down the incident and indicated it had no plans for retaliation, a response that appeared aimed at averting a regional war.

Meanwhile, countries around the world and the United Nations have called for de-escalation as tensions in the region rise.

The United States embassy in Paris asked Americans to avoid the area around the Iranian embassy, following similar recommendations by French police.

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Police make multiple arrests in ‘largest gold theft in Canadian history’ | Crime News

Police say five suspects arrested, three more being sought over theft of 6,600 gold bars at Toronto airport last year.

Police in Canada have arrested multiple people accused of stealing thousands of gold bars worth more than 20 million Canadian dollars ($14m), in what authorities say was the largest gold heist in the country’s history.

Last year’s theft at a Toronto Pearson International Airport facility was orchestrated by a “well-organised group of criminals”, Peel Regional Police Chief Nishan Duraiappah told reporters on Wednesday.

“This particular theft has become the largest gold theft in Canadian history, and it’s one of the largest, for that matter, in North America.”

The shipment of 6,600 gold bars weighed 400kg (882 pounds) and came from a refinery in Switzerland. That cargo, along with 2.5 million Canadian dollars ($1.8m) in foreign bank notes, was stolen from an Air Canada facility on April 17, 2023.

On Wednesday, police named nine suspects in the heist and detailed the charges they face.

Five of the suspects were arrested in Canada and released on bail pending trial, police said.

One additional suspect, originally from Brampton, Ontario, was arrested in the state of Pennsylvania after being discovered with dozens of illegal firearms. That person remains in custody in the United States.

Canada-wide arrest warrants have been issued for the remaining three suspects.

Chief of Peel Regional Police Nishan Duraiappah speaks in front of the truck used for the heist, at a news conference in Brampton, Ontario, April 17 [Carlos Osorio/Reuters]

The accused include two Air Canada employees and a jewellery store owner, as well as the alleged getaway driver.

According to authorities, the stolen gold was initially offloaded from a plane and then securely stored in a cargo holding facility.

Two and a half hours later, a man driving a truck arrived at the loading dock with a fraudulent air waybill to claim the cargo. The document he used to track the international shipments had been printed at the Air Canada cargo facility.

In the aftermath of Wednesday’s announcement, Air Canada said it had suspended one cargo division employee charged in the theft. The other, who worked in the same department at the time of the heist, had left the airline before the charges were announced.

“As this is now before the courts, we are limited in our ability to comment further,” Air Canada said in a statement.

Authorities said they believe some of the suspects were also involved in illegal firearms trafficking.

Police added that they seized 430,000 Canadian dollars ($312,000) believed to be profits from the sale of the gold, and six “crudely made” gold bracelets worth an estimated $89,000 Canadian dollars ($65,000).

They are still searching for the rest of the gold.

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