Man arrested after fires at two homes linked to Keir Starmer
The 21-year-old was arrested early on Tuesday on suspicion of arson with intent to endanger life. He remains in custody.
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UAE Moments
11 hours ago
- UAE Moments
Palestine Action Wins Bid to Challenge UK Ban
In a significant development, Huda Ammori, co-founder of the pro-Palestinian campaign group Palestine Action, has won her bid to legally challenge the UK government's decision to ban the organization under anti-terrorism laws. The ruling, issued by London's High Court, opens the door for a full judicial review into whether the proscription infringes on civil liberties, including the right to freedom of expression. Palestine Action, founded in 2020, has made headlines in recent years for its direct action campaigns targeting Israel-linked companies in the UK. Their protests have involved spraying red paint, blocking access to buildings, and damaging equipment used in arms manufacturing. The group claims these actions are aimed at ending British complicity in what it describes as Israeli war crimes in Gaza. Despite these claims, the UK Home Office, led by Interior Minister Yvette Cooper, enacted a ban on the group that came into effect shortly after midnight on July 5, following the failure of a legal appeal to suspend it. The proscription officially designates Palestine Action as a terrorist organization, making membership a criminal offense punishable by up to 14 years in prison. The legal challenge centers around the argument that this ban constitutes a 'disproportionate interference' with freedom of speech. Judge Martin Chamberlain, in his ruling, stated that Ammori's case is 'reasonably arguable,' thereby granting permission for a judicial review of the government's actions. The impact of the ban has been immediate and widespread. Since July 5, dozens of individuals have been arrested for holding signs showing support for Palestine Action. Ammori's legal team argues that the ban has had a chilling effect on free speech, with individuals voicing support for Palestinian rights now facing increased scrutiny from law enforcement. The British government, however, maintains its stance. Yvette Cooper emphasized that 'violence and criminal damage have no place in legitimate protest,' citing specific incidents such as the breaking into a military base and damaging of two aircraft as justification for the group's proscription. Meanwhile, Israel has denied accusations of war crimes in Gaza, following the escalation of violence that began on October 7, 2023, after an attack by Hamas militants on Israeli territory. The ongoing conflict has heightened tensions and intensified scrutiny of activism related to the Palestinian cause worldwide. The upcoming judicial review will be closely watched by human rights advocates, legal experts, and political observers alike, as it could set a precedent for how far governments can go in limiting activism under national security laws. For now, Palestine Action remains a banned organization, but Ammori's legal victory marks the first step in potentially overturning the proscription and reigniting debate on the balance between security and civil liberties in the UK.
The National
21 hours ago
- The National
High Court grants Palestine Action bid to challenge terrorist ban
Palestine Action will be allowed to challenge a UK government decision to designate it a terrorist organisation at the High Court in London, a judge ruled on Wednesday. The protest group's co-founder Huda Ammori sought to challenge Home Secretary Yvette Cooper's decision, which came into effect this month. Mr Justice Chamberlain approved the application on two grounds: first, that the proscription order " amounts to a disproportionate interference with the claimant's and others' rights to freedom of expression, and freedom to protest". Second was that Ms Cooper had not consulted the group before making the proscription order, in breach of "natural justice" and of Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Planes damaged The move to proscribe Palestine Action was announced after members of the group damaged two Voyager aircraft at RAF Brize Norton late last month. Police said about £7 million ($9.3 million) worth of damage was caused. The group claimed the planes had been involved in supporting Israel's military action in Gaza via the Royal Air Force base at Akrotiri in Cyprus. But the decision to designate the group was made as early as March, over some of its previous protests. Mr Justice Chamberlain rejected Ms Ammori's claims that the move was unlawful because it was influenced by "the views of pro-Israeli lobby groups", or that the group seeks "to prevent conduct which many regard as amounting to genocide". 'Reasonably arguable' However, he accepted other points. 'As a matter of principle, I consider that it is reasonably arguable that a duty to consult arose,' he said. 'Having considered the evidence, I also consider it reasonably arguable that there was no compelling reason why consultation could not have been undertaken here.' After Wednesday's ruling, Ms Ammori said: 'This landmark decision to grant a judicial review, which could see the Home Secretary's unlawful decision to ban Palestine Action quashed, demonstrates the significance of this case for freedom of speech, expression and assembly, and rights to natural justice in our country, and the rule of law itself.' Judges had previously denied Ms Ammori's legal challenge for an injunction on July 4 that would have postponed the proposed ban, citing a strong public interest in bringing the order into force. The latest ruling was welcomed by campaign groups, who fear the terror designation could have an adverse effect on the wider pro-Palestine protest movement. A representative for Defend Our Juries, the group organising the protests, said: 'Yvette Cooper has no one to blame for this crisis but herself. We are confident the High Court will soon strike down this absurd and repugnant order.' Any ban would mean support for, or membership of, Palestinian Action is a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in jail.
The National
a day ago
- The National
Iraqi-British hotel owner and his Iranian oil smuggling link to Yemen's Houthis
Reviews of The Gainsborough Hotel speak of its spacious rooms, friendly staff and convenient location for visiting some of London's most famous tourist sites. It is fair to say all those who have enjoyed their stay at the hotel are probably unaware of any connections the establishment has to oil smuggling and Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp (IRCG). A closer look at the ownership of the property where the hotel sits, however, reveals it to be a company whose owner has been placed under sanctions by the US for masterminding a vast oil smuggling operation. Salim Ahmed Said is an Iraqi -British citizen who runs a network of companies that have been selling Iranian oil falsely declared as Iraqi since 2020, said the US Treasury when it announced the sanctions this month. The 47-year-old owns and runs companies that have smuggled oil for the benefit of the Iranian government and the IRGC. Through bribery of Iraqi officials he has been able to pass off Iranian oil as if it originated from Iraq, through a terminal he runs just over the border. The network of which his is part has "collectively shipped tens of millions of barrels of Iranian oil and other petroleum worth billions of dollars", the Americans allege. An investigation by The National has uncovered the London-business connections of Mr Said, who the US says has two British passports and goes by several aliases. Links to a Syrian shipping magnate, who is under US sanctions for his dealings with the Houthis and Hezbollah, can also be revealed. Ships involved in the black market Iranian oil trade link Said with Houthi and Hezbollah financier Abdul Jalil Mallah. The US has described Mr Mallah as an "illicit shipping magnate", alleging he and his brother "use their shipping empire to support Iran's malign activities and those of its proxies". A join t investigation by The National and the Greek journalism organisation iMEdD revealed Mr Mallah appears to operate the business in Greece despite being under sanctions. London hotels Turn the corner on to Queensberry Place, after a short walk from South Kensington underground station, and at the end of the street the Natural History Museum's imposing towers loom into view. On the right-hand side of the road is The Gainsborough and directly opposite The Exhibitionist, its sister hotel. Both are run by the same Dublin-based company. The Gainsborough building is owned by Robinbest and was bought for £6.5 million ($8.6 million) in 2018, according to accounts. Robinbest is in turn owned by The Willett Hotel, whose owner is Mr Said, and the company has assets of £27 million, according to its most recently filed accounts. The Willett Hotel's correspondence address is, however, The Exhibtionist Hotel, while its registered office is The Gainsborough Hotel. The building that is home to The Exhibitionist is owned by another company, The Exhibitionist Holdings. The Exhibitionist Holdings' solicitor said his client's accountants were raising this crossover with Companies House "as a matter of urgency". The Willett Hotel's registered office was once the Exhibitionist Hotel's site but it shifted across the road to The Gainsborough before again it moved, this time to an accountancy firm in east London, which was also the registered office of Robinbest. An employee, who asked for his identity and that of the firm not to be revealed, confirmed the handsome townhouse was part of Mr Said's empire when The National visited. He said he was 'very surprised' when told both the companies have been placed under sanctions by the US. 'We were not aware that he was involved in the oil business, only hotels,' he said. 'We're not aware of any sanctions.' The employee said the firm dealt only with Mr Said's staff and never with him. They sent all the relevant paperwork needed to file accounts. 'Everything is above board and the companies pay tax,' he said. Both The Willett and Robinbest moved their registered office addresses to The Gainsborough soon after The National began its investigation. Mr Said is from the town of Ranya in Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region and first came to the UK in 2002 after which he was granted asylum, The Sunday Times reported. His first business venture was a shop named Rhine in Leicester, which was dissolved in 2014. It is not known when he became involved in oil trading. Smuggling operation The complex and shadowy operation run by Salim Ahmed Said is revealed in detail by the US Treasury. At the heart of his sanctions-busting enterprise is the oil terminal at the port of Khor Al Zubayr in southern Iraq, where a company he owns, VS Oil, manages six oil storage tanks. The port sits on a waterway about 40km from Basra but Iran sits on the other side of the neighbouring Shatt Al-Arab river. As sanctions have tightened on it in recent years, Iraq has increasingly become Iran's lifeline and there have been reports that oil smuggling has increased since Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Sudani took office in 2022. The proximity of Mr Said's operation to Iran makes it convenient for the country's oil to be clandestinely shipped there clandestinely. To pay for the delivery, VS Oil employees smuggle hard currency into Iran in cars and lorries, some of which carry millions of dollars each. Once the Iranian oil is dropped off at Khor Al Zubayr it is mixed with Iraqi oil. Tankers carrying Iranian oil also conduct ship-to-ship transfers with vessels carrying Iraqi oil in nearby VS Oil's terminal facilities. Vessel tracking shows that VS Oil has been visited by a number of tankers, which transport Iranian petroleum products on behalf of US-sanctioned Iranian company Triliance Petrochemical. Ships operating for Iranian military front company Sahara Thunder have also visited VS Oil. Sahara Thunder is the main front company that oversees the IRGC's support for Russia's war in Ukraine, including the design, development, manufacture and sale of thousands of drones. This activity was founded by the widespread bribery of Iraqi officials. Mr Said has paid millions of dollars in bribes to many members of key Iraqi government bodies, including its parliament, in exchange for forged vouchers allowing him to sell Iranian oil as if it originated from Iraq. This blended oil that was authenticated by these officials was ultimately sold on the world markets. One expert told The National it was surprising that vessels had been actually sailing into an Iraqi port with Iranian oil to be blended with Iraqi. The expert explained that previously ships transporting Iranian oil had been pretending to be moored in Iraqi ports only to circumvent sanctions. This is done through what is known as spoofing – the manipulation of a ship's automatic identification system. 'So the blending part, that was something that we had not been seeing,' said the expert. While the US has stepped up its designation of vessels suspected of smuggling oil for Iran, tanker operators are 'very quick at adapting'. 'They're quick at moving things under a new name, new companies, new structures, new vessels, repurchasing vessels to fill the gap left by the ones have not been designated,' the source said. 'It's a shame because the US is doing a great job in terms of finally paying attention to this, but it's also not a comprehensive strategy. They are piecemeal designating. 'Until they really hit everyone hard, every single vessel, every single company, they just keep replacing and replacing. And so it just makes it harder.' Shadow fleet In a bid to avoid sanctions on its oil exports imposed by the US, Iran uses a network of oil tankers whose ownership is deliberately obscured. This shadow fleet, as it has come to be known, enables the regime to transport its oil to generate revenue for the struggling national economy. Iran relies on non-sanctioned ships to receive Iranian oil from sanctioned vessels using ship-to-ship transfers before carrying the cargo to buyers in Asia, mainly China. Ships in this shadow fleet have been operated by companies owned or controlled by Salim Ahmed Said. According to the US Treasury, he controls a UAE-based company called VS Tankers despite avoiding formal association with the business, which has smuggled oil for the benefit of the Iranian government and the IRGC. VS Tankers was formerly known as Al-Iraqia Shipping Services & Oil Trading. In 2020, the company reportedly brokered a deal to transport Iranian oil via Iraqi pipelines to be blended and sold as Iraqi oil. Mr Said is also the owner of Rhine Shipping, which was first implicated in blending Iranian oil to sell as Iraqi oil in 2022. Rhine Shipping was previously exposed as the manager of the oil tanker Molecule, which loaded oil in the Arabian Gulf from an Iranian tanker that had turned off its location transponder to conceal the transaction. The Molecule was subsequently sanctioned for its role in shipping Iranian oil as part of the network of Iran-backed Houthi financial official Sa'id Al Jamal. Helping the Houthis Under the direction of Mr Al Jamal, Syrian citizen Abdul Jalil Mallah facilitated transactions worth millions of dollars to Swaid and Sons, a Yemen-based exchange house associated with the Houthis. Mr Mallah is subject to an arrest warrant in the UK and has been listed as a specially designated global terrorist by the US Treasury since 2021 for his involvement with Hezbollah and the Houthis in deals it says were worth 'millions of dollars". He has worked with Mr Al Jamal to send millions of dollars' worth of Iranian crude oil to Hezbollah, the US alleges. Mr Al Jamal, financial backer of the Houthis, is based in Iran and directs a network of front companies and vessels that smuggle Iranian fuel, petroleum products and other commodities to customers throughout the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Last year, the US Treasury also sanctioned four ships belonging to Mr Mallah's brother Luay Al Mallah. Abdul Jalil was successfully sued in the UK over a deal he struck with three subsidiaries of the US firm Oaktree Capital Management (OCM) to finance the acquisition of two cargo ships – the Amethyst and the Courage. OCM sought to terminate the deal in June 2021 when Mr Mallah was placed under sanctions, and his assets and bank accounts were subject to a US freezing order. Subsequent lawsuits sought to wrest control from Mr Mallah. OCM had also sought £1 million in legal costs and in a subsequent court order in May 2024, Mr Mallah was given a prison sentence for fraud. Mr Mallah's submissions included forged documents purporting to be from the Greek authorities showing he had left the country before the notice was served, which led to a hearing for contempt of court. He was sentenced to 18 months in jail, though he is unlikely ever to serve any of it. In response, the shipping tycoon insisted he was the victim of a set-up. "I have nothing to do with Hezbollah and the Houthis. This is a big lie against me to rob me,' he said. Luxury home Mr Said lives in Dubai in the prestigious Palm Jumeirah, a big attraction for foreign buyers making high-end property purchases. When The National tried to pay a visit to his villa in Frond D, security did not allow anyone to pass unless there was permission from the owner. There was a small roundabout before the checkpoint at the Frond D entrance with a small sign on the right mentioning the letter of the Frond with a brief warning in Arabic and English: "Residents and visitors only". The security guard asked for identification and the reason for visiting. 'The host needs to alert the security so you can go inside after showing identification,' he said. Dubai is one of the world's most active markets for luxury homes and The Palm is the most desirable location for $10 million-plus properties. It has 17 fronds which extend outward from the trunk of the island, forming the distinctive palm tree shape. It is spread over an area of 560 hectares and divided into three main areas, The Crescent, Trunk and Fronds. They are primarily designed to house luxury residential villas, hotels and resorts. In June, an announcement was made for five luxurious villas to be built on land bought for Dh365 million ($99.4 million) on the island by developer 25 Degrees. Frond D is a gated sub-community on the north-east of The Palm development. The fronds are primarily residential areas, so access is often restricted to residents, guests or those with legitimate business.
