from Afghanistan
WORLDWIDE TAXI FOCUS from Ireland
TALIBAN JAILING AND TASERING WOMEN - FOR TAKING A TAXI WITHOUT A MAN
Afghan women are being jailed by the Taliban for ‘immoral behaviour’ – including travelling in a taxi without a male relative. Scores have been imprisoned without being charged or tried in court in a shocking breach of the promis- es made to the outside world. Footage taken by an undercover camera crew inside Herat’s central jail found all the women interviewed had been incarcerated for minor infringements of strict Islamic law. Some claimed they had been tasered and beaten, while others told how they were being pressurised to marry mem- bers of the Taliban in exchange for their freedom. The footage, filmed by British Iranian journalist Ramita Navai for an ITV documentary, revealed dozens of women huddling in courtyards and more than 50 others locked up in nearby cells. It comes despite promises that the Taliban had changed and its Afghan government would uphold the rights of girls and women. The documentary, Afghanistan: No Country For Women, also uncovered stories of Taliban fighters abducting young girls off the street and forcing them into marriage. One Taliban commander is said to have demanded that a father consent to his daughter’s marriage by putting a gun to his head. The film crew found some women had committed suicide by setting themselves on fire or drinking bleach to escape domestic violence after the Taliban, which swept back into power in September last year, closed refuges and charities. Navai investigated the fate of Afghanistan’s women in November for ITV’s Exposure series. She followed the story of one girl, ‘Maryam’, who dreamed of being a film director, but disappeared. Navai found that she was incarcerated by the Esteghbaarat intelligence service in Herat’s jail. In a letter smuggled out of prison, Maryam said her friends had been arrested for taking a taxi without a male rel- ative. When she went to the police to help she was arrested. Maryam wrote. ‘There were three people interrogating me. They kept tasering me.’ Describing how a Taliban official went through her mobile phone, she said: “He saw pictures of my classmates. He started swearing, telling me I’m a whore. Why else would I have photos taken with boys? They tasered me two or three times. “They beat me with a gun, then held it to my head saying, ‘Tell the truth’.”
She and her friends were released after family members pulled strings. She then fled to a safe house. Bilal Karimi, the Taliban’s deputy chief spokesman, dismissed all the allegations as ‘lies’.
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DUBLIN DRIVER WHO FRAUDULENTLY CLAIMED €345K SOCIAL WELFARE JAILED
A taxi driver who fraudulently claimed over €345,000 in social welfare payments over the course of 12 years has been sentenced to two and a half years in prison. Mohamed Saleh Zayed, 72, from Dublin, pleaded guilty to six counts of fraud and six counts of deception on dates between March 2003 and November 2015. According to
Independent.ie, at his sentence hearing on 9 May, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that Zayed used a second PPS number to fraudulently claim social welfare payments for disability, rent and dietary allowance. He was working as a taxi- driver over the period and as such was not entitled to social welfare. Judge Melanie Greally noted that Zayed had repaid a sizeable amount of the monies and had an ongoing arrange- ment to reduce the loss to the State, currently put at €159,118.
She said that after gardaí became aware that Zayed was accumulating large sums of capital in various bank accounts, he was arrested and cooperated fully with the garda investi- gation. The court heard that Zayed admitted making fraudulent claims and expressed remorse and a willingness to repay the money. Judge Greally said there was “very significant dishonesty” associated with making fraudulent claims under multiple headings, representing significant sums of money over a very lengthy period of time. She also noted that there was “no particular financial pressure or necessities” for Zayed to have made the fraudulent claims. The court heard that Zayed is a Libyan national who has been in Ireland since the 1980s and has a number of serious health issues, including a history of oral cancer and diabetes. At a previous court hearing, Garda Ian Abbey from the Special Investigations Unit of the Department of Social Pro- tection said the use of facial recognition contributed to the detection of the offences. Judge Greally said that apart from this class of offending, Zayed was a respectable, hard-working person and a good family man who supported his wife and children. She ordered Zayed to be of good behaviour for 12 months post-release and recommended that he be placed in a low security prison as per his request.
JUNE 2022
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