American held in Russia claims injuries
MOSCOW -- Paul Whelan, a retired U.S. Marine who has been jailed in Russia for eight months on espionage charges, said Friday that prison guards had injured him.
The remarks came during a court hearing on whether to extend his detention in Moscow's notorious Lefortovo Prison, which began in late December.
"The prosecutor's office also knows that I was injured by security guards in the pretrial detention center," Whelan was quoted as saying by Interfax, a Russian news agency, adding that he was in "great pain."
The judge in Lefortovo District Court dismissed Whelan's request that the prosecutor be changed, but summoned an ambulance for a doctor to examine him.
Whelan's lawyer, Vladimir Zherebenkov, said that Whelan had asked to be transferred to a better cell because the television worked poorly and the radio not at all. The request was granted, but the transfer aggravated a hernia, he told Interfax.
Whelan, 49, who was the director of corporate security for an auto-parts maker, traveled to Russia late last year to attend a friend's wedding. He was arrested Dec. 28 in a hotel room in central Moscow after receiving a flash drive that investigators said contained classified information.
U.S. confirms Israel attack on Iraq depot
JERUSALEM -- Israel was responsible for the bombing of an Iranian weapons depot in Iraq last month, U.S. officials have confirmed, an attack that would mark a significant escalation in Israel's long campaign against Iranian military entrenchment in the region.
The confirmation comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is hinting strongly that his country is behind recent airstrikes that have hit bases and munitions depot belonging to Iran-backed paramilitary forces operating in Iraq.
The mystery attacks have not been claimed by any side and have left Iraqi officials scrambling for a response, after strong speculation that Israel may have been behind them. Earlier this week, the deputy head of the Iraqi Shiite militias, known collectively as the Popular Mobilization Forces, openly accused Israeli drones of carrying out the attacks, but ultimately blamed Washington and threatened strong retaliation for any future attack.
Such attacks are potentially destabilizing for Iraq and its fragile government, which has struggled to remain neutral as tensions escalate between the United States and Iran.
Two U.S. officials said Israel carried out an attack on an Iranian weapons depot in July that killed two Iranian military commanders. The U.S. officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter with reporters.
France opens Epstein sex-assault inquiry
PARIS -- France opened an investigation on Friday regarding allegations of sexual assaults of minors and other charges linked to the Jeffrey Epstein case, the chief Paris prosecutor announced.
A statement by prosecutor Remy Heitz said the decision to open a preliminary investigation was based on "elements transmitted" to his office and "exchanges with American authorities, competent in the so-called Epstein affair."
The investigation involves information regarding minors 15 years old and older, the statement said.
No details were provided about what "elements" led to the inquiry and whether it might concern in-person testimony from purported victims of Epstein who had maintained an apartment at a luxury address near the Arc de Triomphe.
Epstein, a magnate who rubbed shoulders with the elite and politically powerful and owned a Caribbean island, killed himself Aug. 10 in a New York city jail while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges. He was 66. Numerous women in the United States have claimed they were sexually abused by Epstein.
Putin critic freed from jail in Moscow
MOSCOW -- Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was released Friday after spending a month in jail for calling for an unsanctioned protest.
Navalny, along with several opposition activists, has led a protest movement that started earlier this summer against Russian election authorities' decision to bar nearly two dozen independent candidates from running for the Moscow city legislature in a Sept. 8 election. One of the rallies was the largest anti-government protest that Moscow had seen in eight years.
Speaking to reporters outside the detention facility in Moscow, Navalny vowed to keep fighting against Russian President Vladimir Putin's government despite the increasing pressure.
"I have no doubts that despite these acts of intimidation and terrorizing that are happening now, like arrests of innocent people, this wave [of protests] will grow," he said, adding that the government's heavy-handed tactics show that popular support for the Kremlin is waning. "They feel it, and they're scared of it."
Authorities have clamped down on the demonstrations, refusing to give permission for them, briefly detaining 1,400 people and arresting dozens of protest leaders, including Navalny.
-- Compiled by Democrat-Gazette staff from wire reports
A Section on 08/24/2019