08/10/2025

WEDNESDAY | OCT 8, 2025

8

French court revisits shocking rape case

Remaining Everest trekkers evacuated BEIJING: More than 200 remaining trekkers trapped by a snowstorm over the weekend near the eastern face of Mount Everest in Tibet are being evacuated, a source familiar with the situation said yesterday. The evacuation should be completed by today, said the source, who was not authorised to speak to the media on the matter and declined to be identified. The Tibetan regional government had no immediate comment on the evacuation. Earlier, some 350 other hikers stranded by the blizzard in the remote valley of Karma in Tibet were guided to safety by local rescuers. “We probably walked about 18-19km, mostly through heavy snow,” said Eric Wen, 41, who made his way out of the valley on Sunday. “Thankfully, some people ahead of us were breaking trail, leaving footprints we could follow – that made it a little easier. Otherwise, it would’ve been impossible for us to make it out on our own.” Wen and the other trekkers on his expedition team have since reached Lhasa, Tibet’s capital, with the help of local authorities. In western China, hundreds of hikers, including those in the Karma valley hoping to catch a glimpse of Everest’s eastern Kangshung face, were caught off-guard by the sudden heavy snowfall. In the Qilian Mountains on the border straddling western Qinghai and Gansu provinces, at least one trekker who was stranded in a gully by the snowstorms died, while 137 others were evacuated, Beijing News reported. Further west in Xinjiang, authorities suspended hiking activities in Kanas, a lake district in the Altai Mountains, after roads turned dangerously icy and were blanketed with snow, Beijing News said. – Reuters EX-BANKER JAILED FOR STEALING GOLD TOKYO: A court here sentenced a former employee at one of Japan’s biggest banks to nine years in jail for repeatedly stealing gold bars and cash totalling nearly US$2.6 million (RM10.9 million), slamming her crimes as “heinous”. Yukari Yamazaki, who worked for Mitsubishi UFJ and had a gambling addiction, began stealing after falling into debt due to currency trading and horse betting, according to a court ruling seen by AFP yesterday. Abusing her position and inside knowledge to “incapacitate the security system”, Yamazaki purloined gold bars worth more than US$2.2 million and over ¥60 million (RM1.7 million) in cash, from safety deposit boxes at her bank in 2023 and 2024. Mitsubishi UFJ Bank has been able to retrieve only a portion of the amount she stole. – AFP LOS ANGELES: A medical emergency helicopter crashed on Monday on a busy stretch of Highway 50 in the California city of Sacramento, injuring three, the air transport operator said, although there was no patient aboard. Survivors were taken to hospital to be treated, Sacramento Mayor Kevin McCarty said in a post on X, after the aircraft came down near the city’s 59th Street on the eastbound side of the highway.“We are in the process of determining the details of this situation, as well as the condition of the crew involved, who were all taken to area hospitals,” operator REACH told Reuters in an email. The company provides services for the critically ill and injured across the western United States. MEDICAL HELICOPTER CRASHES ON HIGHWAY

o Defendant appeals conviction

NIMES: Frenchwoman Gisele Pelicot, whose ex-husband recruited dozens of strangers to rape and sexually assault her while drugged, attended court on Monday for an appeal by one man who insisted he “never intended” to rape her. Fifty-one men, including her former husband Dominique Pelicot, were convicted after an initial months-long trial that ended in December last year and turned Gisele Pelicot into a global icon. Husamettin Dogan, 44, is the only defendant to have filed an appeal and maintained it, prompting the fresh trial that started on Monday. When asked by the chief judge whether he accepted the charge he was convicted of, Dogan said: “I am here because I never wanted to rape this lady, whom I respect.” During the initial trial, Gisele Pelicot, 72, waived her right to anonymity and her dignified conduct made her a feminist hero and a symbol of women’s fight against male sexual violence. On Monday, she arrived to applause at the court in the southern city of Nimes, accompanied by her son Florian – one of three children she had with Dominique Pelicot. She shook hands with supporters, but did not make any statement. She is expected to give testimony today. Dogan, who has arthritis and is not in custody, made a more discreet entrance. Wearing a cap, face mask and dark glasses, he walked in using a walking stick, an AFP video journalist saw. The appeal trial is scheduled to last a maximum of four days. Dominique Pelicot will be brought from prison, where he remains in solitary confinement, for cross-examination. He is not appealing his 20-year prison sentence. One of Gisele Pelicot’s lawyers said that she would have been happy to forgo “this ordeal” but was not afraid of being put into the spotlight again. “She understands the attention given to her case, which, beyond her own person, has

Gisele Pelicot arrives for the appeal trial. – AFPPIC

universal significance,” Antoine Camus said. “It challenges us all to think about gender relations and men’s relationship with their sexuality.” Over a nine-year period, Dominique Pelicot drugged his then wife to be raped and sexually abused by strangers while unconscious, mostly at home in the southern French town of Mazan. In December, Dogan was sentenced to nine years in prison. But his incarceration was delayed for health reasons.

“I’m not a rapist,” the 44-year-old construction worker said during the first trial. On Monday, he told the court he only learnt after his arrest that Gisele Pelicot had been unconscious at the time he penetrated her. The rest of Monday’s hearing was taken up by experts giving their professional evaluation of Dogan, who was described as having an addiction to sex but knowing right from wrong. Sixteen other men appealed their verdicts but later abandoned their bids. – AFP

BR I E F S

NZ foreign minister’s home attacked by protester WELLINGTON: A man has been charged after a window of the New Zealand foreign minister’s home was smashed with a crowbar on Monday and a note pinned to his front door that said “welcome to the real world”, the minister’s spokesperson said yesterday. disturbed the peace of our neighbours. Means such as these corrupt the protesters’ ends, such as they are.” Peters on Monday said in a post on X that he was not home but both his partner and a guest were.

The glass smashed all over Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ dog, who was sleeping below the window, he said. Peters has come under pressure from protest groups and opposition parties in recent days after he announced New Zealand would not be following Australia, Britain and Canada in recognising a Palestinian state amid the Israel Gaza war. Protests have been held outside his Auckland home. In a speech to the parliament yesterday discussing the second anniversary of the Oct 7, 2023, attack on Israel that triggered the conflict, Peters told the parliament that the violent targeting of private homes by some protesters was “a disgrace”. “It has caused distress to our families and

“This is truly gutless,” it said. “When we have protesters, political bloggers and MPs alike encouraging this behaviour, posting politicians’ home addresses online, and acting with pure ignorance and extremism, this is the result.” “All of New Zealand needs to be deeply concerned,” the post said. Auckland City District Commander, Superintendent Sunny Patel said that a 29-year old man who was believed to be responsible for the damage had handed himself in to police on Monday and would appear in court on Friday. “I know these occurrences have caused angst and frustration among residents. Police recognise the right to lawful protest, however we will not condone protest action where property is damaged,” Patel said. – Reuters

Peters ... This is truly gutless . – REUTERSFILEPIC