The Times - UK (2021-11-11)

the times | Thursday November 11 2021 2GM 35

Ethiopia rounds up

Tigrayan civilians on the

streets of the capital

Page 39

Three held over murders

of top palaeontologist

and his daughter

Page 37

A French footballer has been arrested

on suspicion of participating in an

attack on a team-mate in order to take

her place in the side.

Aminata Diallo, 26, who plays for

Paris Saint-Germain’s women’s side,

was questioned by detectives in con-

nection with an assault on Kheira

Hamraoui, 31, last week.

The attack is understood to have left

Hamraoui needing stitches, which

meant she was unable to play in Paris

Saint-Germain’s Champions League

game against Real Madrid on Tuesday.

Diallo took Hamraoui’s place in mid-

field for the match, which PSG won 4-0.

L’Équipe, the French sporting daily,

said the assault occurred a week ago

when Diallo and Hamraoui, who both

play for France as well as for PSG,

were driving home after a din-

ner organised by their club.

Diallo was at the wheel

of the car. She is said to

have dropped off

another player, who

has not been named,

and was near Ham-

raoui’s home when

the vehicle was ap-

proached by two people

wearing hoods.

They are said to have

held Diallo while pulling

Hamraoui out of the car and hit-

ting her legs with an iron bar before dis-

appearing. French media outlets said

Diallo had been unhurt.

L’Équipe quoted a person close to

Hamraoui as saying that she needed

stitches to her legs and hands. She

missed the game against Real Madrid

this week because of a “personal prob-

lem”. L’Équipe quoted an unnamed

“observer” as saying: “This attack is in

no way financially motivated because

nothing was stolen from the two young

Footballer ‘took part

in attack on rival to

steal place in team’

France

Adam Sage Paris

women in the car. One of the attackers

went for Kheira Hamraoui’s legs as

though they wanted to stop her from

exercising her profession.

“One line of inquiry being explored is

of an internal rivalry within PSG.”

France Info, the state radio, said

Diallo was suspected of driving her

team-mate into “an ambush”. The sta-

tion said Diallo and Hamraoui were

team-mates but also rivals at PSG and

in the French national side.

Diallo was arrested at daybreak at

her home in Marly-le-Roi near Versail-

les. Le Parisien newspaper said an in-

mate acquainted with her was taken

from his prison cell to be questioned as

well. The newspaper said the inmate

was suspected of organising the attack.

All of PSG’s female players are

thought to have been placed under

close protection by the club following

the assault amid claims that it is

reminiscent of the incident in-

volving the US skaters

Tonya Harding and Nan-

cy Kerrigan. In 1994

Harding’s ex-husband

Jeff Gillooly orches-

trated an attack on

Kerrigan, her rival.

In a statement,

Paris Saint-Germain

said Diallo was being

held for questioning by

detectives in Versailles

near Paris in connection with

an “attack on the club’s players”.

The club said: “Paris Saint-Germain

condemns with the greatest firmness

the violence that was committed. The

club has taken all the necessary meas-

ures to guarantee the health, wellbeing

and safety of its female players.”

No charges have been pressed

against Diallo.

Hamraoui played for the French club

from 2012-16 before moving to Lyons

and then to Barcelona where she won a

Champions League winners’ medal this

year when the Catalan side defeated

Chelsea in the final. She has since

moved back to Paris Saint-Germain.

r a din-

lub.

el

o

ave

pulling

ar and hit-

n bar before dis

reminisce

volving

Tony

cy

H

Je

tr

K

Pa

sai

held

dddetect

near Pari

an “attack on

The club said:“P

Nearly £230,000 worth of Swedish

banknotes discovered in a 98-year-old

man’s bedroom after his death may

have to be incinerated or confiscated

under money-laundering rules.

Gunnar Johansson, a solitary and

frugal retired bookseller, left three mil-

lion Swedish kronor in two old shoe-

boxes and a leather satchel when he

died three years ago.

Because the notes were no longer

legal tender, his relatives tried to ex-

change them at a branch of Sweden’s

central bank, the Riksbank. Yet the

bank refused to replace the money with

valid banknotes, arguing that there was

Bank may have to destroy

fortune left in banknotes

no adequate paper trail to prove that it

came from legitimate sources.

The resulting lawsuit has now risen

to the supreme administrative court,

which is expected to issue a verdict in

the coming weeks. If the court rules in

the central bank’s favour the money

will be seized and possibly destroyed.

Johansson’s heirs argue that they

have bank statements to demonstrate

that he had withdrawn 10,000 kronor

(now about £850) each month over the

ten years before his death. However,

the bank says this is not enough evi-

dence to account for the source of the

banknotes. A bank spokeswoman said

the ruling did not imply that Johansson

had committed a crime, but that the

notes’ origins were unclear.

Sweden

Oliver Moody

after her team-mate Kheira Hamraoui was attacked by thugs on a night out and left unable to play for Paris Saint-Germain

allies sentenced to decades in prison

ating election defeat of its candidates
by the NLD three months earlier.
Nang Khin Htwe Myint was released
to house arrest, then arrested again a
few days later after she gave a live-
streamed speech on Facebook, urging
soldiers to rise up against the junta.
It is difficult to judge the justice of the
convictions. Politicians have previously
been found to have improperly lent
state funds, as the two are accused of
having done. However, in the past simi-
lar offences have been settled without
charges when the funds were repaid.
In comments made after the verdicts
a lawyer for the politicians did not insist
on their innocence. There is little
doubt, however, that the convictions
and the harsh sentences are intended to
remove from public life two influential
figures and close supporters of Suu Kyi.
“It was the maximum term,” Aung

Thein, who acted for both defendants,

said. “These cases were brought with

the intention of sending them to prison,

so it’s not a matter of whether it’s fair or

not.”

Saw Than Htut, Nang Khin Htwe

Myint’s brother, told Radio Free Asia:

“There can never be any justice. It’s so

obvious they did it with a sense of

hatred and vengeance. My sister is now

almost 70 years old. I’m just worried she

will face harsh conditions in prison.”

It follows a 20-year sentence given

last week to Win Htein, 79, Suu Kyi’s

right-hand man and the most senior

member of the NLD to be convicted

since the coup. He was found guilty of

sedition for calling for peaceful civil dis-

obedience after the coup.

The harsh sentences — in effect

whole-life terms — are ominous for

Suu Kyi, 76, who faces a secret trial on

several charges, including breaking the

Official Secrets Act, spreading infor-

mation that could cause public alarm,

and violating pandemic restrictions.

She has also been accused of leasing

property to her personal charity at

below the market price, and of receiving

cash and gold as bribes from business

people. All the allegations are dis-

missed by her lawyers, who say that

they are politically motivated and being

used by the junta simply as a means of

removing her from public life.

ANTHONY DIBON/ICON SPORT/GETTY IMAGES

Nang Khin Htwe

Myint now faces

dying in prison

Tonya Harding, whose ex-husband

attacked her skating rival in 1994