Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

CRIME

Exiled Azerbaijani journalist shot and wife murdered near Toulouse

An Azerbaijani journalist forced into exile in France was seriously wounded and his wife was killed on Friday in a gun attack near the southern city of Toulouse, police said.

Published: 30 March 2018 16:30 CEST
Exiled Azerbaijani journalist shot and wife murdered near Toulouse
French police officers stand near the site where Rahim Namazov and his wife were targeted by gunfire. Photo: AFP
Rahim Namazov, a father of three, fled his oil-rich homeland in Central Asia for France in 2010 after suffering death threats and being imprisoned.
   
The 39-year-old is fighting for his life in hospital after suffering serious back injuries while his wife died after being hit in the head during the shooting in front of their home on Friday morning in the town of Colomiers near Toulouse.
 
   
One of their children, a 15-year-old boy, was in their apartment at the time and heard the gunfire, local authorities told AFP, adding that he was being looked after by a local trauma group.
   
Police said that seven bullets were fired in total.
   
Azerbaijan has been ruled by the repressive family of a strongman president Ilham Aliyev since 1993.

CRIME

French cinema boss on trial for sexual assault

The head of France's top cinema institution Dominique Boutonnat denied sexually assaulting his godson as he went on trial Friday in a case that has led to calls for him to step down.

Published: 15 June 2024 12:59 CEST
French cinema boss on trial for sexual assault

The trial comes as French cinema reels from a renewed #MeToo reckoning that has seen several big names, including acting legend Gerard Depardieu, accused of sexual abuse.

READ ALSO: French actor Gérard Depardieu to be tried for sexual assault in October

Activists have denounced Boutonnat’s continued leadership of the National Centre of Cinema (CNC), whose role includes overseeing measures to curb sexual violence in the industry.

His godson accuses him of trying to masturbate him during a holiday in Greece in 2020 when he was 19.

“I looked at him to find my godfather and that’s when I saw someone completely different… It was someone using me to masturbate,” the godson, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the court.

Boutonnat responded in court that it was his godson who had initiated the situation and kissed him.

“I feel bad about leaving an ambiguous situation, but to say there was a sexual assault is false,” he told the court.

He was placed under investigation in February 2021 but still reappointed by the government as head of the CNC in July 2022.

Training to prevent abuse has in recent months become obligatory for films seeking public funding via the CNC.

The CNC told AFP that the case against Boutonnat came from “the private sphere” and had no relation to its activities.

SHOW COMMENTS