The Times - UK (2020-11-26)

38 1GM Thursday November 26 2020 | the times

Wo r l d

Chairman Mao never lived to see a

Chinese lunar mission but Beijing

plans to honour him by sending

moonrock from Chang’e 5, its latest

space venture, to his birthplace.

The chief designer of the moon

mission, which blasted off on

Monday, said lunar samples would be

sent to the province of Hunan as a

tribute to the founding figure of the

communist republic.

“Chairman Mao once wrote [in a

poem] that we can travel through the

skies to embrace the moon,” Wu

China

Didi Tang Beijing

A Saudi women’s rights activist in jail

for more than two years had her case

transferred to a terrorism court yes-

terday, according to her family.

Loujain al-Hathloul, who has be-

come the face of women’s activism in

Saudi Arabia since being arrested in

2018, is on hunger strike and “looked

weak in court,” said Lina, her sister.

“Her body was shaking uncontrolla-

bly and her voice was faint and

shaky,” she said.

Ms Hathloul, 31, was arrested for

driving while it was still illegal for

women. In advance of the decision to

lift the ban, made in 2017, she was

Saudi Arabia

Richard Spencer

Middle East Correspondent

Women’s activist faces terror trial

warned not to speak to the press to

claim credit.

She was arrested anyway along

with several other long-term female

activists a month before the reform

came into force in June 2018. That de-

cision, linked by Saudi media to their

high profiles in the West and their

contacts with foreign embassies,

caused worldwide outrage that was

eclipsed only by the murder of the

journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Sa-

udi consulate in Istanbul that year.

The decision to transfer Ms Hath-

loul’s case to a special court was taken

more than a year and a half after the

beginning of her trial, which has been

condemned by human rights groups

as a mockery.

Her sister said: “How is it possible

for the judge to realise the court lacks

jurisdiction after dealing with the

case for one year and eight months?

Nobody can be fooled any more.”

Most of the women have been re-

leased, though they still face charges,

but Ms Hathloul remains in custody

with at least three others. Her family

say she has been beaten and threat-

ened with sexual assault.

Ms Hathloul, who is a graduate of

the University of British Columbia in

Canada, was subsequently offered a

deal under which she would be re-

leased in return for saying she had not

been ill-treated, which she refused.

It is unclear under what charges

she is being held. Diplomats and jour-

nalists have not been allowed to at-

tend hearings.

TONI ANNE BARSON ARCHIVE/WIRE IMAGE/GETTY IMAGES

wages they owed him. Mr Hachem

has now been told by Nicolas Man-

sour, the first investigative judge of

the Mount Lebanon governorate,

that he has been “charged with inten-

tional killing, but in legitimate self-

defence”.

The killing charge comes with a

maximum sentence of 20 years’ jail,

but his lawyers said that the self-

defence mitigation meant that he was

unlikely to serve a prison term.

Ms Ajram, 37, emerged as a child

star in her teens and in contrast to

some of her Lebanese peers devel-

oped a squeaky-clean family reputa-

tion to go alongside her syrupy love

songs. Her face has been used to

advertise high-quality brands, espe-

cially jewellery, across the Middle

East, even in more conservative Gulf

societies. That has only added to the

fascination with her husband’s case,

which also touched on one of the

country’s most sensitive issues: the

assimilation, or threat, of more than a

million Syrians seeking refuge from

their country’s civil war.

Many men work as casual labou-

rers and, because of the difficulty of

obtaining work permits, are easily

exploited. However, the sheer num-

ber of Syrians in the country is widely

resented, particularly in rural areas.

Politically, the fact that the

refugees are overwhelmingly Sunni

Muslim is regarded by Christians and

Shia Muslims as a threat to Lebanon’s

delicate sectarian balance.

In interviews Ms Ajram denied

that the couple knew Mr Moussa, and

said she hid in the bathroom when

she realised there was an intruder,

adding that her husband had been

protecting their children. “Before

anything, Fadi is a father and a hus-

band. He has responsibilities. He is a

human being,” she said in one inter-

view. “It was a normal reaction to the

threat he experienced.”

She appeared at first with a ban-

dage on her leg, suggesting she had

also sustained an injury, though she

Nancy Ajram said her husband Fadi El-Hachem was acting in self-defence did not give details.

Mao asked for moon and now he will get it

Weiren, 67, said. “It will be a tribute to

Chairman Mao to keep the lunar soil

in Hunan.”

The moonshot’s lander will collect

soil and return it to Earth next

month. It is the first attempt

to retrieve lunar samples

in more than 40 years.

The 23-day mission

and the 2kg (4.5lb) of

soil that it plans to

return is viewed as a

great source of

national pride. The plan

to honour Mao’s birth

province reflects the rever-

ence with which he is held

more than 40 years after his death —

despite his ruinous economic policies

and ruthless plans that killed tens of

millions of people.

A museum in Mao’s home-

town of Shaoshan and a

geological museum in the

provincial capital of

Changsha are the

likely contenders to

“preserve and store”

the lunar sample.

The mission is re-

garded in the country

as a sign of China’s rise,

fulfilling the aspirations of

the communist founders.

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The husband of the Arab world’s
most revered pop star has
been charged over the kill-
ing of an intruder at the
family home.
Fadi El-Hachem, a
dentist best known for
being married to Nancy
Ajram, a multi-award-
winning singer and
former judge of the
Arab version of
Pop Idol, shot dead
a Syrian man who
broke into their home
north of Beirut in Jan-
uary. The long police
investigation has
played out under the
glare of publicity,

Pop idol’s husband

charged over death

of masked intruder

with both Ms Ajram and the family of

the dead man telling their side of the

story to television audiences.

Security camera video from the

home the couple share with their

three young daughters showed a

masked man apparently break-

ing in and wielding a gun. In the

ensuing struggle Mr

Hachem, who was also

armed, shot the

intruder 16 times.

The dead man

was later identified

as Mohammed

Hassan al-Moussa,

a Syrian, and his gun

was found to be a

fake. His family claim

that he had worked as

a gardener for the

couple and had gone

to the house to claim

Lebanon
Richard Spencer Beirut