Spain's Supreme Court endorses imprisonment of ex-IMF chief

October 03, 2018

MADRID (AP) — Spain's Supreme Court has confirmed a 4½-year prison sentence for former International Monetary Fund head Rodrigo Rato for misusing a Spanish bank's corporate credit card. A judge of the lower court will now need to order the imprisonment in the next few days of Rato, who was IMF chief from 2004 to 2007 and previously a leading figure in Spain's conservative Popular Party and Spanish economy minister.

The National Court last year convicted Rato of unlawful misappropriation of funds during his 2010-12 leadership of Bankia, a bank that was later bailed out. Rato had denied that the credit cards were used for irregular and undeclared expenses.

Rato received the severest sentence among the 64 defendants in the case.

Catalan leader issues ultimatum over independence vote

October 02, 2018

MADRID (AP) — Catalan regional president Quim Torra issued an ultimatum to Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Tuesday over the wealthy northeastern region's future. It was promptly rejected by the Spanish government.

Torra indicated he could deny Sanchez the votes he needs to approve the national budget in Spain's parliament unless the government proposes by next month an independence referendum in Catalonia. Failure to get a budget passed could spell the end of Sanchez's four-month-old administration and bring a snap election.

Torra, a leading secessionist, said in a speech in Barcelona that Catalan separatist parties won't back Sanchez in parliament if their demand for a vote on self-determination is not met. "Our patience ... is not endless," Torra said. "If a proposal to exercise self-determination in an agreed, binding and internationally recognized way is not on the table by November, the independence movement cannot guarantee for Mr. Sanchez any kind of stability in parliament."

Madrid rejected Torra's demand later Tuesday. "The Spanish government does not accept ultimatums," government spokeswoman Isabel Celaa said, urging Torra to open a dialogue between Catalans who favor independence and those who oppose it.

"The proposal that unites is coexistence, not independence," she said. The ultimatum was aimed directly at Sanchez's growing predicament over his center-left Socialist government's spending plans for 2019.

The minority government holds just 84 of the 350 seats in the country's lower house. That means it is relying on the expected support of other parties, including those supporting Catalan secession, to pass its state budget.

Catalan separatists clash with police as tensions mount

September 29, 2018

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Clashes between Catalan separatists and police in Barcelona left 14 people injured and led to six arrests Saturday as tensions boiled over days before the anniversary of the Spanish region's illegal referendum on secession, which ended in violent raids by security forces.

Separatists tossed and sprayed colored powder at police officers, filling the air with a thick rainbow cloud and covering anti-riot shields and police vans. Some protesters threw eggs and other objects and engaged with the police line, which used batons to keep them back.

The clashes erupted after local Catalan police intervened to form a barrier when a separatist threw purple paint on a man who was part of another march of people in support of Spanish police demanding a pay raise. Officers used batons to keep the opposing groups apart.

There were more confrontations as the separatists tried to enter Barcelona's main city square where 3,000 people supporting Spanish police had ended their march. Separatists shouted "Get out of here, fascists!" and "Independence!" at the Spanish police supporters, who responded by shouting "We will be victorious!" and "Our cause is just!"

Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau pleaded for peace when the first scuffles broke out. "I make a call for calm," Colau told Catalunya Radio. "This city has always defended that everyone can exercise their rights to free speech."

The Catalan police told The Associated Press that the six arrests were made on charges of aggressions against police officers. The investigation was continuing. One police officer was hurt, although it was not immediately clear if the officer was among the 14 people reported by health authorities as needing medical treatment. Three were taken to hospital while the others were attended to on the street.

There were ugly episodes between members of the opposing groups. An AP photographer saw a group of several people who had come to support the Spanish police being chased by a mob of around 100 separatists, some of whom tried to kick and trip the supporters before they could reach the safety of local police. Separately, a woman punched a man who supports Catalan secession in the face before police could separate them.

The pro-police march had originally planned to end in another square home to the regional and municipal government seats but 6,000 separatists, according to local police, gathered in the square to force regional authorities to alter the march's route. Some separatists arrived the night before and camped out in the square.

"The separatists are kicking us out," said national police officer Ibon Dominguez, who attended the march. "They are kicking the national police and Guardia Civil out of the streets of our own country."

The police march was organized by the police association JUSAPOL, which wants Spain's two nationwide police forces, the national police and Civil Guard, to be paid as much as Catalonia's regional police.

JUSAPOL holds marches in cities across Spain, but Saturday's march in Barcelona comes two days before Catalonia's separatists plan to remember last year's referendum on secession held by the regional government despite its prohibition by the nation's top court.

That Oct. 1 referendum was marred when national police and Civil Guard officers clashed with voters, injuring hundreds. JUSAPOL spokesman Antonio Vazquez told Catalan television TV3 that while the march's goal was to demand better salaries, they also wanted to support the national police and Civil Guard officers who had been ordered to dismantle the referendum.

"The national police and Civil Guard agents who acted last year were doing their duty and now they are under pressure and we have to support them," Vazquez said. Last year's police operation that failed to stop the referendum has become a rallying call for Catalonia's separatists, who point to it as evidence of Spain's mistreatment of the wealthy region that enjoys an ample degree of self-rule.

"Outrageous! They shouldn't be here. They came here to hit us a year ago and today they want to make an homage to that. It is pathetic," said secession supporter Montse Romero. Pro-secession lawmaker Vidal Aragones of the extreme left CUP party called the police march an "insult to the Catalan people."

While Catalonia has seen huge political rallies take place without incident for several years, two weeks ago police had to intervene to keep apart rallies by Catalan separatists and Spanish unionists in Barcelona, the region's capital.

Catalonia's separatist-led government is asking Spain's central authorities to authorize a binding vote on secession. Last year's illegal vote led to an ineffective declaration of independence by Catalonia's parliament that gained no international recognition and triggered a months-long takeover by central authorities.

Polls and recent elections show that the region's 7.5 million residents are roughly equally divided by the secession question.

AP video journalist Renata Brito and AP photographer Daniel Cole contributed to this report.

Ukraine demands access to filmmaker imprisoned in Russia

September 29, 2018

MOSCOW (AP) — Ukraine's Foreign Ministry is demanding that Russia allow consular access to an imprisoned Ukrainian filmmaker who has been on a hunger strike since mid-May. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mariana Betsa made the demand Saturday on Twitter. Russia's penitentiary service said Friday that an unspecified "correction" in Oleg Sentsov's treatment had been ordered; it published a photo of him being examined with a stethoscope.

Betsa also called for allowing Ukrainian doctors to visit Sentsov. The filmmaker is an opponent of Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2015 for conspiracy to conduct terror attacks.

Sentsov denies guilt and has refused to seek a pardon from President Vladimir Putin. His lawyer said this month that Sentsov's health was irreversibly damaged. Prison officials say he is receiving a nutritional formula.

World Economic Forum hosts Balkan leaders in Switzerland

October 02, 2018

GENEVA (AP) — The World Economic Forum's president said Tuesday that the organization's move to bring together leaders from four Western Balkan countries and regional powers aims to fight "complacency" in a region facing lingering tensions on a route used by migrants into Europe.

Borge Brende, a former Norwegian foreign minister, said that lessons from history show that events in the west Balkans tend to have a "huge influence" on the rest of Europe, while pointing to economic opportunities in the region.

"What happens in the Balkans will have huge implications for Europe in the future — and this is too frequently neglected," Brende said in an interview. "What we have learned during the last years is that complacency is not a good idea."

He spoke after the WEF hosted the leaders from Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro and Serbia, as well as key officials from regional players like Croatia, Germany and Turkey. The leaders announced plans to create a regional center on emerging technologies in the "Fourth Industrial Revolution," cooperate with a WEF cybersecurity center and hold a regional summit next year.

The Geneva-based think tank is best known for the annual Davos gathering in the Swiss Alps.

Romanian ex-prison chief sentenced to 20 years dies in jail

September 26, 2018

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Ion Ficior, who was incarcerated for the deaths of 103 political inmates while in charge of a communist-era labor camp in Romania, has died. He was 90. Ficior died Wednesday at Jilava prison hospital, according to Bianca Filote, spokeswoman for the government Institute for Investigating the Crimes of Communism. The institute began to pursue Ficior and other former prison guards in 2013 in a bid to make them finally accountable for wrongdoing during the communist era, handing over evidence to prosecutors.

Prison hospital spokeswoman Denisa Ene confirmed to The Associated Press that a prisoner, suffering various chronic medical conditions, had died Wednesday morning, but declined to provide further details, citing privacy rules.

Ficior was serving a 20-year sentence there for crimes against humanity. He was imprisoned in March 2017, but denied wrongdoing and said he was merely following orders. But Andrei Muraru, who initiated the investigation of Ficior, said he "showed a complete lack of mercy toward his victims, who endured prolonged suffering, were skeletal inmates, or defenseless elderly people," he told the AP.

"They were subjected to a diabolic program of extermination through exhausting work, hunger and physical torture," said Muraru, now an adviser to President Klaus Iohannis. Ficior was commander at the Periprava labor camp from 1958 to 1963. During his trial, former detainees accused him of beatings, a lack of food and medicine, overwork and unheated cells.

In an interview with the AP in 2013 before he was charged with more than 100 deaths, Ficior claimed "two or three had died" while he was prison commander. Romania had about 500,000 political prisoners under the Communist regime, about one-fifth of whom died while in detention, according to historians. Many were locked up for merely falling afoul of the communist regime. A general amnesty was granted to political prisoners in 1964.

Ficior is survived by a son.

Romania ruling party endorses embattled party chief

September 21, 2018

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Romania's ruling Social Democratic Party on Friday endorsed its chairman despite his recent conviction for abuse of power. Colleagues had called for Liviu Dragnea to step down, but party members voted in support of Dragnea, who is barred from becoming prime minister because of a 2016 conviction for electoral fraud.

There were conflicting figures about the vote tally Friday, which came after an eight-hour meeting. Dragnea later vowed he would do all he could to "destroy... this odious system" of what he calls "the parallel state," which he thinks has too much power. Those institutions include an anti-corruption movement, Romania's secret services, the anti-corruption prosecutors agency and President Klaus Iohannis, a political rival.

However, Dragnea indicated that he would allow more autonomy for the Romanian government, which has been under party control. In June, Dragnea was convicted of abuse of power in office and sentenced to 3½ years in prison. Party colleagues say he should be considered innocent pending a final ruling.

One ally, Marian Oprisan, said he didn't recognize that conviction, labeling it "political." Despite that conviction and the court case, Dragnea retains a tight grip on the party he has ruled since 2015.

In a letter this week, three leading party officials, including Bucharest mayor Gabriela Firea, urged him to step down. Tensions have grown in the party since an anti-corruption protest directed against the Romanian government last month left 450 people injured.

Romanians have held many anti-corruption protests since the Social Democrats won power in 2016 and embarked on a contentious judicial overhaul that critics say will make it harder to prosecute cases of high-level corruption.