Theresa May’s Brexit no-deal support wanes
T
HERESA May’s no-deal Brexit plans got the cold shoulder from members of her Cabinet who are warming for a Canada-style trade agreement should her Chequers White Paper fail.
A leaked document offered an insight into the preparations underway aimed at keeping Britain afloat in the absence of a withdrawal agreement, with May telling a summit of business leaders yesterday she “didn’t know” where negotiations would end up.
Rwanda’s Victoire Ingabire released
Rwandan opposition leader Victoire Ingabire was unexpectedly freed from jail on Saturday after President Paul Kagame permitted her early release, alongside two thousand other prisoners
The surprise release of 2,140 prisoners, including Ingabire and musician Kizito Mihigo, followed a cabinet meeting on Friday at which a presidential order of “mercy” was approved.
Ingabire returned from exile in the Netherlands intending to run for president in 2010 as leader of the FDU-Inkingi party.
However, she was arrested, charged with terrorism and treason and sentenced in 2012 to 10 years in jail after a widely criticised trial.
Ingabire, an ethnic Hutu, was accused of “genocide ideology” and “divisionism” after publicly questioning the government narrative of the 1994 genocide of mostly Tutsi people that killed around 800,000 people.
Meanwhile, Mihigo was arrested in 2015 and jailed for 10 years for conspiring to assassinate the president.
S.Africa, UAE sign extradition treaty
South Africa has signed an extradition treaty with the United Arab Emirates, the country’s justice minister announced, raising prospects that the Gupta brothers, friends of former president Jacob Zuma, returning to face corruption charges.
The Indian-born brothers – Ajay, Atul and Rajesh – have been accused of using their ties with Zuma to siphon off billions of rand in state funds and of inappropriately influencing cabinet appointments.
The Guptas are believed to be hiding out in Dubai where they own property and businesses and police have issued an arrest warrant for Ajay Gupta over a corruption case.
Justice Minister Michael Masutha said that treaties on extradition and legal assistance had been signed with his counterpart Sultan Saeed Al Badi in Abu Dhabi.
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