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Australia plans tougher gun laws following shooting

South Korea raids Unification Church HQ SEOUL: South Korean police raided the headquarters of the Unification Church yesterday and named its leader as a suspect in the bribery of several high-profile politicians. The church, known for its mass weddings, is at the centre of a mounting scandal in South Korea over alleged payments to lawmakers from ruling and opposition parties. Prosecutors raided the church’s headquarters in Seoul as well as the imposing countryside residence of leader Han Hak-ja, who is already on trial for allegedly offering bribes to the former first lady. The Unification Church told AFP that it had “no comment” on the raid. However, its president said last week the church felt“deeply responsible for having caused concern to the public” and acknowledged “its failure to detect misconduct within the organisation at an early stage”. President Lee Jae Myung has strongly criticised what he described as “political interference by religion”, without directly naming the church. He asked officials last week to see whether there were grounds to “dissolve religious groups that interfere in politics”. Members of Lee’s own Democratic Party have been implicated in the scandal. Oceans Minister Chun Jae-soo resigned last week after being accused of having received 30 million won (RM83,845) in cash, as well as two luxury watches, from church officials between 2018 and 2020. He denied wrongdoing. Church leader Han, also known to her followers as “holy mother”, was arrested in September on charges of bribing South Korea’s former first lady with gifts. The 82-year-old leader also faces graft charges over cash payments to a lawmaker linked to disgraced former president Yoon Suk Yeol. – AFP Iranian Nobel laureate hospitalised DUBAI: Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi was taken to a hospital emergency room twice after suffering blows from security forces who arrested her on Friday, her family told the Narges Foundation yesterday. The human rights activist won the award while in prison in 2023, following her three decade campaign for women’s rights and the abolition of the death penalty. She was re-arrested on Friday, having been released late last year, after denouncing the suspicious death of lawyer Khosrow Alikordi. Mashhad prosecutor Hasan Hematifar had told reporters on Saturday that Mohammadi and Alikordi’s brother had made provocative remarks at the lawyer’s memorial ceremony in the northeastern city of Mashhad and encouraged those present “to chant norm-breaking slogans” and “disturb the peace”. The family-run Narges Foundation said Mohammadi had made a call to her family late on Sunday. “Narges Mohammadi said in the call that the intensity of the blows was so heavy, forceful, and repeated that she was taken to the hospital emergency room twice ... Her physical condition at the time of the call was not good, and she appeared unwell,” the foundation said. Mohammadi had been released in December last year from Tehran’s Evin prison after the suspension of her jail term to undergo medical treatment. She told her family she was accused of “cooperating with the Israeli government” and received death threats from security forces, prompting her to request her legal team to file a formal complaint against the detaining security body and the violent manner of her arrest. There was no immediate comment from the Iranian authorities. – Reuters

SYDNEY: Australia signalled plans for tougher gun laws yesterday as the country began mourning victims of its worst mass shooting in almost 30 years, in which a father and son duo killed 15 people at Sydney’s Bondi Beach. The father, a 50-year-old, was killed at the scene, taking the number of dead to 16, while his 24-year-old son was in critical condition in hospital, police said at a press conference yesterday. Forty people were taken to hospital following the attack, including two police officers who are in serious but stable condition, police said. The victims were aged between 10 and 87. Police did not release the shooters’ names, but said the father had held a firearms licence since 2015 and had six registered weapons. One of the suspected attackers was known to authorities but had not been deemed an immediate threat, security officials said. They were identified as Sajid Akram and his son Naveed Akram by state broadcaster ABC and other media outlets. Home Minister Tony Burke said the father arrived in Australia in 1998 on a student visa, while his son is an Australian-born citizen. Police did not provide details about the firearms, but videos from the scene showed the men firing what appeared to be a bolt action rifle and a shotgun. “We are very much working through the background of both persons. At this stage, we know very little about them,” New South Wales Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon told reporters. The shooting has raised questions about whether Australia’s gun laws, already among the toughest in the world, remain fit for purpose. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he would ask Cabinet to consider limits on the number of weapons permitted by a gun licence, and how long a licence should last. “People’s circumstances can change,” he told reporters. “People can be radicalised over time. Licences should not be in perpetuity.” Witnesses said the attack lasted about 10 minutes, sending about 1,000 people attending a Hanukkah event scattering along the sand and into nearby streets. A bystander captured on video tackling and disarming an armed man during the attack has been hailed as a hero whose actions saved o A$550,000 raised for ‘hero’ who disarmed attacker

Mourners gather by floral tributes at the Bondi Pavillion in memory of the victims. – AFPPIC

mourners paid respects and laid flowers. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had warned Albanese that Australia’s support for Palestinian statehood would fuel antisemitism. Mass shootings are rare in Australia, one of the world’s safest countries. Sunday’s attack was the worst since 1996, when a gunman killed 35 people at the Port Arthur tourist site in the southern island state of Tasmania. Rabbi Mendel Kastel, whose brother-in-law Eli Schlanger was killed in Sunday’s attack, said it had been a harrowing evening. “You can very easily become very angry and try to blame people, turn on people but that’s not what this is about. It’s about a community,” he said. “We need to step up at a time like this, be there for each other, and come together. And we will, and we will get through this, and we know that. The Australian community will help us do it.” – Reuters

lives. 7News Australia named him as Ahmed al Ahmed, citing a relative, who said the 43-year old fruit shop owner had been shot twice and had undergone surgery. A fundraising page for the man had raised more than A$550,000 (RM1.5 million) by yesterday afternoon. Bondi resident Morgan Gabriel, 27, said she had been heading to a nearby cinema when she heard what she thought were fireworks, before people started running up her street. “I sheltered about six or seven. Two of them were actually my close friends, and the rest were just people that were on the street ... their phones had been left down the beach, and everyone was just trying to get away,” she said. A makeshift memorial with flowers and Israeli and Australian flags was set up at the Bondi pavilion and an online condolence book was established. Police and private security guards wearing earpieces were positioned around as

Yoon tried to provoke North Korea, says prosecutor SEOUL: Former South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol tried to provoke North Korea into mounting an armed aggression to create justification for the December 2024 martial law declaration and to eliminate political opponents, a special prosecutor said. Cho said his team has confirmed an elaborate scheme allegedly masterminded by Yoon and his defence minister, Kim Yong-hyun, going back to October 2023 to suspend the powers of parliament and replace it with an emergency legislative body. Subsequently, Yoon conspired to brand those who are politically against him, including then-leader of his conservative People Power Party, as anti-state forces and declared martial law when he had no justification, Cho said.

Cho was among three special prosecutors appointed after President Lee Jae Myung was elected president in a snap election called after Yoon’s removal by the Constitutional Court in April. Yoon is on trial for insurrection, which on conviction is punishable by life in prison or even the death penalty. His former ministers and other officials face various charges stemming from the failed martial law attempt. – Reuters

“To create justification for declaring martial law, they tried to lure North Korea into mounting an armed aggression but failed as North Korea did not respond militarily,” he said. The special prosecutor’s team has previously accused Yoon and his military commanders of ordering a covert drone operation into the North to inflame tensions between the neighbours.

Special prosecutor Cho Eun-seok told a briefing yesterday his team had indicted 24 people, including Yoon and five Cabinet members, for their alleged involvement during his six-month investigation on insurrection charges. “We know well from historic experience the justification given by those in power for a coup is only a facade and the sole purpose is to monopolise and maintain power,” Cho said.