BURSTIn today’s newsletter: As a judge finds the government unlawfully detained Tamils on Diego Garcia, we look at the geopolitcs that led to them being trapped in ‘hell on earth’ for three years
Good morning. In October 2021, a boat carrying dozens of Tamils trying to find their way to Canada sprung a leak. They were rescued by the British navy and brought to Diego Garcia, a tropical island in the middle of the Indian Ocean that was under the control of the British government, and which hosted a US military base. But their saviours became their captors – and they found themselves in rat-infested camps, largely deprived of their liberty and caught in legal limbo with no obvious way out.
The authorities on Diego Garcia maintained that the asylum seekers were free to leave whenever they wanted, and that any restrictions on their movements there were lawful and necessary. Yesterday, a judge said that case had “not come close” to being made. She ruled that the asylum seekers had been unlawfully detained in conditions that one of them described as “hell on earth”. The ruling amounts to a crushing defeat for the British government, and a wholesale vindication for an almost forgotten group of people whose fate has been subjugated to geopolitical forces far beyond their control.
Espionage | The alleged Chinese spy with links to Prince Andrew and who made connections at the heart of the UK establishment has been named as Yang Tengbo, a businessman also known as Chris Yang. Yang ran the Duke of York’s Pitch@Palace charity project in China and was given authority to act on his behalf in Chinese business dealings.
Russia | A Russian general in charge of radiation, chemical and biological protection forces has been killed in an explosion in Moscow, the country’s investigative committee has said. Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov and his assistant were said to have been killed by a device hidden inside a scooter.
Germany | Olaf Scholz has lost a historic vote of confidence in the German parliament after the collapse of his government. The German chancellor had called the vote in order to deliberately lose it so that the first formal step could be made towards triggering new elections.
UK news | Lucy Letby’s lawyer has announced he is seeking to reopen her appeal because the prosecution’s lead medical expert witness, Dr Dewi Evans, has changed his mind on some key evidence. At a press conference on Monday, Mark McDonald said Evans was not a reliable expert, and that not all of Letby’s convictions were safe.
Politics| Victoria Thomas Bowen, the 25-year-old woman who threw a milkshake over Nigel Farage during the UK general election campaign in June, has been given a 13-week prison sentence, suspended for 12 months.
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