12/19/22 12/19/22 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> as we see the increase in asylum seekers into our community and we see the temperatures dropping and we know title 42 looks like it is going to be called back on wednesday, we thought it was proper time today to call a state of emergency. amy: the democratic mayor of el

paso, texas, has declared a state of emergency over concerns the city won't be able to provide shelter and resources to thousands of asylum seekers arriving at the border every day. we will go to el paso. then supporters of imprisoned journalist mumia abu-jamal are hailing a decision about philadelphia judge to order the local da's office to share all its case files with abu-jamal's defense am. could this leato a newrial? >>he fts are infortion erged recentlys early januar 2019 whh clearl suggests that the main witnesses in this case were lies. amy: would look at how qatar and morocco have been caught bribing members of their p.m. parliament , a scandal that has rocked brussels. we will look at how the bribes impacted europe's stance on qatar's human rights record and

morocco's illegal occupation of western sahara. >> we are shocked by this. i can imagine the population is shocked by this, and rightfully so. we should use this moment to improve the internal secrecy. amy: all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. inhe nation's capital, the house committee investigating the january 6 insurrection is holding its final public hearing today ahead of the report wednesday. the committee is reportedly expected to issue criminal referrals against president trump and others. also today in washington, d.c., jury selection begins in federal trial of former proud boys leader enrique tarrio and four other senior members of the white nationalist group, nearly two years after the deadly insurrection. prosecutors charged the defendants with seditious conspiracy, conspiring to obstruct an official proceeding, and other offenses.

meanwhile friday, douglas jensen of iowa was sentenced to five years in prison for taking part in the capitol attack. separately, another rioter, tennessee man edward kelley, was charged with plotting to assassinate the federal agents who investigated him. kelley was already facing charges for assaulting a police officer. in texas, the mayor of el paso hadeclared a state of emergency over concerns the city won't be able to provide shelter and resources to the growing number of asylum seekers arriving at the u.s.-mexico border. an average of over 2400 asylum daily migrants have been apprehended daily by border 30's in el paso in recent days. local shelters are beyond capacity with many asylum seekers forced to sleep on the streets under freezing winter temperatures. this is el paso's mayor oscar leeser. >> i would call it what i felt that these are asylum seekers,

it is not say. i believe our asylum seekers are not safe as we have hundreds on the streets. that is not the way we want to treat people. by calling a state of emergency, it gives us the ability today to do things we could not do until we called it, and that is shelters. to put people in shelters and make sure they are safe. amy: this comes as the trump-era pandemic policy title 42 is set to end on wednesday after a federal appeals court refused to postpone this week's deadline following challenges from republicans. title 42 has been used to expel over 2 million migrants from the southern border, blocking them from seeking asylum and pushing them back into mexico where migrants face dangerous and inhumane conditions, including torture and kidnappings. the policy forced asylum seekers to use deadly routes along the u.s.-mexico border to enter the u.s. as many are fleeing violence, poverty, and the catastrophic impacts of the climate crisis. thousands are now hoping they'll

be safely allowed into the u.s., after title 42 ends, to finally pursue asylum. in montreal, canada, delegates from nearly 200 nations have wrapped up the u.n. biodiversity summit, known as cop15, with an agreement to protect at least 30% of the earth's land and oceans for wildlife by 2030. the landmark agreement seeks to halt the earth's sixth major mass extinction event, currently underway due to human acvity. as part of the deal, indigenous communities will have an ineased role in protecting wildlife. lands inhabited by indigens peoples hold 80% of the world's remaining biodiversity. the world wildlife fund called the agreement a win for people and planet. but the wildlife conservation society criticized it r focusing on 2050 deadlines, writing -- "that will be far too late for us to halt and reverse biodiversity loss and address related challenges such as climate change." in peru, mass protests continue, following the ouster and jailing

of president pedro castillo, with at least 25 protesters killed by the police and military. the peruvian education and culture ministers have resigned in protest of the killings. patricia correa, peru's outgoing education minister, said -- "the death of compatriots has no justification. state violence cannot be disproportionate and cause death." peru remains under a nationwide state of emergency suspending many constitutional rights and imposing curfews. newly installed peruvian president dina boluarte is resisting calls to step down. >> i am only fulfilling the constitutional mandates. there is a group -- what will be solved by my quitting? is the problem solved? the problem will be solved. we will be firm and to the congress brings forward elections. amy: iranian authorities have raided the home of one of iran's most famous actresses and

arrested her after she expressed solidarity with a man recently put to death for crimes allegedly committed during nationwide protests. taraneh alidoosti faces charges of publishing "false and distorted content" that incited riots. her instagram page has since been suspended. before her arrest, she shared a photo of herself with her hair uncovered, in violation of iran's mandatory hijab law. alidoosti is best known internationally for her starring role in "the salesman," which won an oscar in 2017 for best foreign language film. in tunisia, calls are mounting for president kais saeid to step down after a record low turnout in saturday's parliamentary electis, which was boycotted by 12 political parties. tunisia's election authority updated a previous estimate of 8.8% turnout to just 11.1%. the lack of voter participation comes after months of protests against saeid, who has been

widely accused of a legislative coup as he has worked to consolidate power over the past year and a half. the renowned mexican radio and television journalist ciro gomez leyva survived an assassination attempt friday in mexico city. he said two gunmen shot at him near his home but that the armor of his truck stopped the bullets. this year alone at least 13 journalists have been killed in mexico, making it the deadliest country for reporters outside war zones. elon musk could be resigning as twitter ceo after a poll on twitter closed this morning with 57.5% voting "yes" to musk's question, "should i step down as head of twitter?" twitter's embattled ceo said he would abide by the results when he posted the poll sunday evening. the latest twist comes after another chaotic week for twitter. on sunday, a new policy banning users from sharing accounts on other platforms received swift backlash. the move was apparently undone just hours later. earlier in the day, musk was

pictured with jared kushner as the pair watched argentina's victory over france in the world cup final in qatar. meanwhile, twitter reinstated the accounts of most of the journalists it suspended on thursday. on friday, elon musk posted a twitter poll in which a majority responded the suspensions should be lifted immediately. musk had accused the reporters of endangering his life by linking to an account that provides a live tracker to his private jet. twitter, however, required the journalists to either remove the offending tweets or lodge an appeal before they could start tweeting again. this is one independent journalist aaron rupar who was suspended by twitter for one day, speaking on msnbc after his account was restored. >> i think what this will end up doing, unfortunately, the chilling effect of coverage of elon musk. can either publish a newsletter or tweet it is looking -- have to think twice and wonder if he can many pillay the terms of service kind of on the fly to, but the reason to ban me.

oamy:ne reporter, business insider's linette lopez, is still blocked on twitter. she has reported critically for years on elon musk and his businesses. meanwhile, officials from france, germany, the u.k., the european union, and the united nations condemned twitter's crackdown on journalism. in criminal justice news, attorney general merrick garland on friday instructed federal prosecutors to end disparities in the way they handle offenses involving crack cocaine and powder cocaine. rights groups hailed the news. the aclu called it "an important move toward ending the racist, unjust sentencing disparity that has devastated black communities." advocates are urging the senate to pass the equal act, which provides retroactive relief to previously convicted people. the bill has already overwhelmingly passed the house. here in new york, governor kathy hochul has signed new animal rights legislation bills into law.

one bill bans the sale of cats, dogs, and rabbits in pet stores in a crackdown on so-called puppy mills -- high-volume eeding centers that churn out animals for profit. another new law bans the sale of cosmetics that have been newly tested on animals, including rabbits, guinea pigs, and other rodents. the bill's co-sponsor, state senator alessandra biaggi, said -- "no animal should ever have to face abuse or unsafe conditions, and this legislation makes it clear that new york will not tolerate their mistreatment." in philadelphia, a judge granted mumia abu-jamal's lawyers 60 days to examine all the evidence uncovered in recent years that supporters say could finally help release the journalist and former black panther who spent 41 years in prison after being convicted of murdering a police officer. this is professor and filmmaker johanna fernández, who has been campaigning for years to free mumia. >> there are documents that emerged recently, as early as

january 2019, which clearly suggests that the main witnesses in this case were lies. a letter by witness in the case who said he saw what happened and he allegedly saw mumia, he wrote a letter with his handwriting asking the lead prosecutor in the case -- amy: we'll speak more with professor johanna fernandez later in the broadcast. and over 1000 starbucks workers from 100 stores went on a three-day strike from friday through sunday to protest the mega-chain's union-busting efforts. it's the largest coordinated labor action by starbucks workers. 270 locations have voted to unionize in just a year, but the company has waged an escalating anti-union campaign and has refused to bargain with its workers in good faith. this is a former starbucks worker in anderson, south

carolina, who was fired along with five other workers in retaliation for their organizing efforts. >> doubling down on the unionbusting tactics that we are doubling down. [indiscernible] they are targeting union leaders by cutting hours. we are here together in solidarity standing against the company as they mcmillan's of dollars but our employees struggle to pay their bills. amy: unionized workers are asking customers to refrain from buying starbucks gift cards this holiday season in a show of support for their campaign. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we begin today's show in texas where the democratic mayor of el paso has declared a state of emergency over concerns the city won't be able to provide shelter and resources to the growing

number of asylum seekers arriving at the u.s.-mexico border. an average of over 2400 asylum -- migrants are now being apprehended daily by border authorities along the border near el paso. local shelters are beyond capacity with many asylum seekers forced to sleep on the streets under freezing winter temperatures. this is el paso's mayor oscar leeser. clothes as we see the increase in asylum seekers into our community and we see the temperatures dropping and we know title 42 looks like it is going to be called back on wednesday, we thought it was proper time today to call a state of emergency. the reason why we are doing it is because i have said from the beginning that i would call it when i felt either asylum-seekers or our community was not say. i really believe today our asylum-seekers are not safe as

we have hundreds and hundreds on the streets. and that is not the way we want to treat people. by calling a state of emergency, it gives us the ability today to be able to do things we could not do until we called it, and that is our shelters. to put people in shelters and make sure they are safe. keep says from putting a lot of people and a certain buildings. continue that now with the fire department and proper personnel. amy: that was the mayor of el paso, texas, oscar leeser speaking on saturday. during his remarks, he referenced title 42 -- the trump-era pandemic policy that has been used to block over 2 million migrants from seeking asylum in the u.s. the biden administration is expected to stop enforcing title 42 on wednesy. but the fate of the policy may be decided by the supreme court. on friday, a group of u.s. states with republican attorneys general lost in their latest legal attempt to keep title 42

in place. the states are expected to appeal to the u.s. supreme court today. on saturday, el paso's mayor leeser talked about the ending of title 42. >> the influx on wednesday will be incredible. it will be huge. talking to some of our federal partners, they really believe on wednesday, our numbers will go from 2500 to 4000, 5000, or even 6000. when i asked them, do you believe you guys can handle it today? the answer was no. when i got an answer of no, that meant we needed to do something and do something right away. amy: we go now to el paso where we are joined by fernando garcia, the founder and executive director of the el-paso, texas-based border network for human rights. welcome back to democracy now! can you explain what is happening on the ground and what needs to happen? it is getting cold there. maybe even colder than new york. we are talking 20 degrees

fahrenheit? >> good morning. yes. what i consider the perfect storm happening right now the border, particularly in el paso because we have two crisis coming together. the first one is a humanitarian crisis. we have thousands, hundreds of members of refugee communities and asylum-seekers in both sides of the river in the streets, the river, exposed to the freezing temperatures. right now we had like 32 degrees. it is going to go lower. thursday visited some of the families in el paso and had children without winter coating. most of them come from venezuela and nicaragua and many are not used to this kind of weather. they are not prepared.

i think what we are seeing is the savior, the american saver of multiple systems, both in mexico and the united states. on the other hand, we have the left a fundamental infrastructure. we have been talking about that for years. that is how we have come to be in the situation. amy: can you talk about what is happening on wednesday? the title 42. to explain it more fully. and the possibility that the supreme court will insist it remain. >> let me remind us what happened with title 42. for more than i would say almost three years already, this was a sttegy implemented first by the trump administration as an anti-immigrant strategy for immigrants, refugees, asylum-skers looking for

protection that would tell right away -- at the border. no due process, no hearings, no legal support stop people were sent back to mexico in dangerous conditions. that created a lot of pressure on the refugees and asylum-seekers. lastear was one of the worst years for mignts at the border. almost 1000 migrants died while crossing the border. much of that is in connection to title 42. unfortunately, the administration, the biden administration continued with it. we did not understand today why they make the political situation to keep something that was so bad, so illegal in many ways. it was breaking international law.

it was rejecting refugees and asylum-seekers. not giving basic due process for people. the current administration end refused to end it. at the end of the day, we going to have the repeal of title 42 -- this administration, appeal initial title 42. we have all ofhese families, all ofhese children, women at the border and very difficult conditions. amy: let's hear the voices of sub nicaraguans near el paso seeking refuge in the united states. >> after going through so many things, we will finally be fine after being kidnapped and going hungry. >> after what happened to us, we are afraid. i feel i will not be able to live in peace.

i want to stay working in mexico, but i won't be able because of what happened to me. >> we want the united states government to help us as they have helped us so far. my colleagues at other people are here because we need help. we are asking president biden because he is the only president who will help us. we know he will open the door for us. amy: what you think, fernando garcia, should be happening now? do you expect is the network seven reporting that if this were lifted on wednesday that we're talking about 3, 4, 5000 people coming over the border a day? could you talk about what is the crisis? is it for the migrants or the lack of his immigration process the crisis? >> we already have an increase of migrants coming to the border , independently of tit 42. he creates a lot of pressure -- creates a lot of pressure on

the whole system it is fair to say now there will be more people -- they were coming already come also from venezuela. they were in transit when biden announced the new venezuela policy that they could apply from venezuela for asylum, while thousands were in transit and stuck in mexico. i was talking to them. they were telling the story about how they were fleeing their countries either economic depression or because of what they consider political repression, violence, persecution. most of the people that are coming to the border, they are not trying to sneak into the united states. they are turning themselves over to border patrol themselves. they are saying, i am here, i want to apply for asylum. many of them, almost 1 million

and a half, killed in the last three years. the answer is we don't have [indiscernible] what we have it's a fundamental failure of the immigration system. it has been broken. no one has 10 anything to fix it. i want to talk about what is happening right now. we talked about ending title 42. two years ago, we talked to this administration to start putting welcoming infrastructures. welcoming centers along the border so they could handle situations like this. where they could go in shelters, get support. maybe guidance and information. a bus ticket in the cold

weather. the fact this administration did not do it and decided to stick to title 42 as the only strategy and right now there is no strategy to deal with it. we are very concerned they are expecting local communities and cities to solve this, which is not the case. it is unsustainable. no resources. a lot of people here in el paso crossing the border. amy: el paso's deputy city manager mario d'agostino said the emergency declaration will give el paso options to transport migrants to other locations. this is what he said. >> the munication's we have had with the state is there willing to bus people to locations. to whether it is new york city, chicago, whatever that destination is, we are working on them to add location so we can work with those in geo so we can move people to a travel hub. right now i can tell you as we are working to the community,

working with the ngo's and the migrants themselves, the only people we are referring to the state is somebody who is going that direction. that is how we're doing that. we're doing that to make sure it is individuals who are choosing to go to that next city, wherever it may be, to get their transportation from there. amy: we're talking about a democratic administration in el paso. just down the road from us today at port authority, scores of migrants will be coming off the buses. fernando garcia, can you comment on this busing policy? an overall what has to happen right now? >> listen, i agree -- not innovation declaration. i need to be clear about that. another declaration is being [indiscernible]

pushing cities and counties along the border to declare there is an influx of criminals. therefore, he is putting a lot of resources to detain and arrest and deport people which should be illegal for the state to do. [indiscernible] however, i am very concerned about the cities connecting with the resources of the state. he has been using the issue of immigration since before the election and right after the election, political -- he is immigrants as a scapegoat. calling them criminals and refer to them i believe city, it is trying to do something better. i believe if there is any busing

of migrants, it should be optional. so they go where they ne to be with her family members, with sponsors. overall, if we don't fix it right now, we're going to have a lot of people suffering. in the long term, this wave of immigration is going to gup and down and up again. if we don't have long-term fixes, we don't have immigration reform, fix the asylum problem ich has been bken and damaged by the previous administration, i think we're going to continue seeing this crisis in the future. amy: fernando garcia, founder and executive director of the el-paso, texas-based border network for human rights. the mayor of el paso, democratic mayor come has declared an emergency, a state of emergency in el paso. coming up, supporters of imprisoned journalist mumia abu-jamal are hailing a decision

by a judge in philadelphia to order the local das office to share all of its cows in the case. could this lead to a new trial? stay with us. ♪ [music eak]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. supporters of imprisoned journalist mumia abu-jamal are hailing a decision by a judge in philadelphia to order the philly das office to share all of its files with mumia's defense team on the case. judge lucretia clemons gave prosecutors and the defense 60 days to review the files, many of which abu-jamal's team has never seen.

the judge is then expected to rule on mumia abu-jamal's request for a new trial. abu-jamal is a former black panther, journalist, has been imprisoned for over 40 years. he was convicted in 1982 for the murder of police officer daniel faulkner. spent much of his years on death row. but his supporters have long claimed prosecutors withheld key evidence and bribed or coerced witnesses to lie. documents found in the district attorney's office in 2019 show mumia's trial was tainted by judicial bias and police and prosecutorial misconduct. the judge's surprise ruling came just days after a u.n. working group submitted an amicus brief urging the judge to grant mumia abu-jamal a new trial. to talk more about the case, we are joined by johanna fernández. she is an associate professor of history at cuny's baruk college and one of the coordinators of

the campaign to bring mumia home. she spoke friday outside the courthouse. >> there are documents that emerged recently come as early as january 2019, which clearly suggest that the main witnesses in this case were biased. a letter by a chief witness in the case who said he saw what happened and he allegedly saw mumia, he wrote a letter with his handwriting asking the lead prosecutor in the case, where is my money? amy: johanna fernández now. she is also producer and writer of the film "justice on trial: the case of mumia abu-jamal" and the editor of "writing on the wall: selected prison writings of mumia abu-jamal."

professor fernandez, it is great to have you back. so why don't you talk about the scene in the courtroom? we interviewed an arkansas trial judge who was calling for mumia abu-jamal to be released last week and he was particularly talking about issues like the one you just mentioned outside the courthouse, the issue of bribery stop if you could explain that? and once again, the judge himself in the original trial, judge savo, referring to mumia abu-jamal with the n-word. good morning. thank you for covering this issue. that letter handwritten by witness is really the smoking gun, if you will, in this case. it is exculpatorevidence. at this hearing, the prosecutor argued, somehow, that it is pro forma, it is customary, to give

witnesses money. but our attorneys corrected the record. they said, well, yes, you give witnesses money for missed work and for transportation. however, robert schubert was driven to work by police nightly. he was a cabdriver. he was held in hotel and all of his expenses were paid. he was cared for by the police during the trial. so what money exactly was he being compensated for? this is bribery. he would have said in the letter , "i was promised compensation for travel," but that could not have been the case. another thing that was raised in the hearing by our attorneys is the significance of circumstantial evidence and inference. this was a man who was driving

with two dwi's, who was driving without a license. he said he was parked directly behind the police car, the car of officer faulkner who was killed that night. but photographs show that he was not where he said he was, and a person who is driving with two dwi's and a drivers license that has been canceled is not going to want to park anywhere near a police officer's car. so the record suggests that robert chopard was bbed for fingering mumia. amy: and the judge, judge sabo, what he said reportedly overheard by the stenographer in the original trial? >> the stenographer at the time, working with a different judge,

and her judge used the same courtroom that the lead judge in this case, albert savo, used, and this was during a shift of cases. the white stenographer overheard the major judge in this case albert sabo say "i'm going to help them fry that [n-word]." referring to how he was going to instruct the jury in this case. the amicus brief filed by the working group of experts, people of african descent, said it is the responsibility of the state to remediate decades, centuries of racism, that there was no time bar on this and it is the responsibility of this court to right this wrong. the only way to write this wrong is to release the man who was

wrongfully on death row for 28.5 years. a federal judge ruled that his death sentence was obtained unconstitutionally in 2010 and he was released to serve life in prison without parole. you would think after 28.5 years of wrongful sentence on death row, you would get out of prison. amy: can you tell me more about cynthia white? she was another witness? what apparently is in these boxes that were found in the das office and significance of the fact they were found, what, in 2019? >> they were found in january 2019. what we see is a string of documents wherein the lead prosecutor in the case, joe mcgill, is tracking what is happening to cynthia white's

other cases. she was a sex worker and had over 36 violations pending against her. so she was facing upwards of 20 years in prison. he was consulting with other prosecutors, ensuring before they made any decision in said the a white's -- cynthia white's case, they consulted with him. there was clearly some kind of bargain made between cynthia white and the prosecutor joe mcgill that if she fingered mumia, she would get off and not have to serve time in prison. amy: i want to go to wendell griffen. we spoke to him last week. he is a division 5 judge of the sixth circuit of arkansas. he is retiring at the end of this year after almost a quarter of a century on the bench. this is what he had to say about

why he has become a prominent voice, another trial judge, just like the trial judge in philadelphia, but he is in little rock, why he has become a prominent voice for a new trial and the release of mumia abu-jamal. >> we have to ask ourselves the question, what is this journalist, why is this black activist not free? and why is it so hard for a judge to say, "hey, we've got the law that requires him to be free. i'm going to follow the law and declare him free"? and if the commonwealth wants to retry him, they can do so. if the commonwealth decides we can't retry him because the evidence is no longer there, people have passed away, witnesses have forgotten information, then that is not

mumia's fault. that is the fault of prosecutors, and mumia should not be imprisoned because, a, he had a pretense of a trial in the first place, and, b, because, for some reasons, bloodlust or the desire to keep a black activist journalist in prison means th we don't want to do what's right. a mako is sitting arkansas trial judge wendell griffen, speaking to us from little rock, arkansas. the significance of this judge speaking out and then i went to go back to the beginning before we end and what happened on friday, what you expected to happen, what the judge said would happen on friday, but then what did happen. >> well, she had promised on october 26 that she would make a decision in this case on

december 16. in fact, she issued an intent to dismiss opinion on october 26 and said we will make a final decision on december 16 because this case has gone on for too long. but the facts of this case, she now understands, merit adjudication. the prosecutor in this case had over and over again, these issues have been litigated. the pennsylvania supreme court litigated this issue. why are you bringing this up now? what the prosecution fails to understand is that evidence has emerged, that that office has hidden for 41 years. that is the reason why these previous cords were unable to grant mumia release, not to mention the fact that the judges

in this case have historically been funded by the fraternal order of police -- the same organization that has attempted to keep mumia behind bars and the same organization that attempted to execute him and make sure he was executed when he was on death row. the fact that a sitting judge has spoken out in this case is tremendous. it speaks to the validity of the new evidence, the new exculpatory evidence and it is case. amy: can you remind our viewers and listeners and readers why these boxes were discovered in 2019? what changed? where were they? >> well, another judge, leon tucker, was hearing the issue of judicial bias in the case that ronald castille was in fact funded by the fraternal order of police and named the man of the

year, the same judge that was hearing mumia's appeal. he should have recused himself. in the process of that hearing, these new boxes emerged and they were hidden in the underworld of the prosecutor's office. six boxes with exculpatory evidence. the judge currently has asked to look at all of the boxes, 32, maybe 200, but we have enough evidence here to clearly give mumia at least an evidentiary hearing company trial, or set him free. amy: johanna fernández is associate professor of history at cuny's baruk college. one of the coordinators of the campaign to bring mumia home. coming up, we look at how qatar and morocco have been caught bribing members of the european parliament in scandal that has rocked brussels and put european parliament members behind bars. stay with us.

♪♪ [music break] amy: argentine vent in honor of

argentina winning the world cup, the first time in something like 30, 40 years. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. while the world cup has ended with argentina defeating france in the finals, we turn now to look at a bribery scandal involving qatar, the host of the world cup, that has rocked the european parliament. earlier this month, authorities in belgium raided the homes and offices of european parliament lawmakers, accusing them of accepting bribes from government officials in qatar as well as this is being reported as much, as well as morocco. the raids recovered hundreds of thousands of euros in cash. among those arrested was european parliament vice-president eva kaili. in the lead-up to the world cup, kaili repeatedly defended qatar against critics who pointed to

the monarchy's dismal record on workers' rights and its persecution of lgbtq people. the scandal has also exposed how morocco has tried to lobby and bribe members of the european parliament in an attempt to increase support for its illegal occupation of western sahara, which is known by many as africa's last colony. another person arrested was the former european parliament member of italy. he was accused of "intervene politically with members working at the european parliament to the benefit of qatar and morocco." we are joined by two guests. francesco bastagli is a former united nations mission and special representative of kofi annan for the western sahara. ana gomes is a retired portuguese diplomat. she was a member of the european parliament from 2004 to 2019 where she was part of the progressive alliance of socialists and democrats. she is joining us from portugal. ana gomes, let's begin with you. can you explain to a global

audience what this investigation is all about when it comes to both qatar and not as well-known to morocco? >> well, the authorities of belgium, this investigation apparently led by suspicion regarding interest by qatar through a number of people including this vice president of european parliament eva kaili, greek member of parliament, and other people, namely working with human rights ngo called fight impunity funded by the former mp. the suspicions about qatar leading more and more to the

fact there is a network established by morocco. qatar is not the center of the investigation. it looks more and more morocco should be the center of this investigation because relative -- the former any of you who establish this ngo to cover up for the corruption network, had his wife and daughter arrested in italy at the request of the judicial authorities of belgium because they were benefiting from money sent by morocco. and apparently this is leading to a network that was indeed

established and directe by the secret service of morocco. i am not surprised. i was not surprised. as soon as i heard mr. penn's that he was involved in this case regarding qatar, neatly was suspicious and said it publicly that this would link to morocco because for these years -- in the same political group, we had a number of disputes exactly because of western sahara. all the time he was trying to protect the interest of morocco, presenting would focus on human rights in morocco and of course the human rights of the people of western sahara, which -- human rights,.

amy: i want to bring francesco bastagli into the conversation, former u.n. special representative for western sahara. talk more about -- i mean, you have the bribing of european parliament members now behind bars on qatar workers rights issues, stopping resolutions going for, condemning qatar's human rights issues, and morocco. and talk about what this bribery has made over the years, especially when it comes to trade agreements. remember, you're talking to a global audience. many are not even aware of morocco's illegal occupation of western sahara. >> good morning. just to enforce what was said by the previous speaker, there is a cluster, sort of group of

friends revolving around th european parlient and parliamentarians themselves that for a long time have been channeling this illicit interests of their sponsors in way to sustain their agendas within the parliament. on the part of morocco, this group of friends is very articulate innocence not just of numbers or statu of the participants, but jobs. in other words, they don't just channel mon or resources, but they also facilitate the identification of parliamentarians, because of the age of the sanctions and possibilities of the parliament can be of greater use to their clients and create occasions where these parliamentarians can be approached for social

gathering, and so on. so it is a very articulate system. also monitoring the behavior of parliamentarians that have been bribed to make sure they also behave or are in line with what is expected of them. now when it comes to morocco, as was rightly said, morocco has a long tradition of very aggressive presence both in terms of bilateral relations with key countries, such as the u.n. and european union and support of its agenda. and this indeed is a term's impact on two dimensions already been hinted. one, of course, still cannot trade relations. we're talking about european union in this instance. we repeatedly moroccoas been

trying to include territory westn sahara and the ctural agreements with european union. this is very important because western sahara is very rich -- among the richest in the world. western sahara is the major producer of phosphates which is extremely important for the production. whenever morocco was signing a trade agreement with the european union, was very important this agreement should include the territory of western sahara. this is where the lobbying effort of their friends of morocco became extremely important. so much so that twice the agreements between the european union and morocco included the territory and resources of western sahara and twice european court nullified, declare the agreement invalid.

yet again, the parliament is reviving an effort to sign official agreement with morocco including western sahara. so the upm parliament -- [indiscernible] the question of western sahara, western sahara as part of the greatest lobbying effort of morocco not just in the e.u. but also the united nations because basically western sahara is an illegal occupation of a former colony in 1975 morocco occupied illegally in collusion with the spanish authority the territory under u.n. charter, international law, should have been allowed -- when many former

colonies in africa as well. referendum [indiscernible] since 1975, has been occupied illegally this territory. in spite of that, thanks to its loving effort, morocco has always been able to prevent the u.n. to enforce its obligation to allow -- we shall remain supporters of morocco in this refusal to honor the international legality, influential members of the security council such as the united states and france, euro, and spain, also very supportive of morocco's reluctance, refusal to grant these people to them. amy: speaking of 1975 morocco's illegal occupation of western sahara, ana gomes, the same year

indonesia invaded east timor, killing one third of the population, one of the worst genocides of the late 20 century. but the u.n. was able to sponsor referendum in 1999 for east timo r the people, voted overwhelmingly for their freedom . now it is an independent nation. why has the course of western sahara been so different and is this bribery five european officials a part of that? >> the role of some states, the united states, france, and spain in particular, in protecting the regime in morocco and in supporting the regime in its illegal occupation of western sahara. i as a diplomat worked a lot of

east timor liberation case. when i enter the rpm parliament in 2004, i was absolutely flabbergasted to see in the european union, people were seeing sahara as if it did not exist, as if it were part of morocco. the international law, the right to self-determination would not exist. started protesting. i was often -- this was cleared and the agreement on agriculture and fishery that with the support o some members in the european parliament, putting myself, were brought to the court -- european court of justice, as was mentioned, and european court of justice very clearly established international law.

this, through that persistence, apart from the government of this european state, of course, the protection of the united states as well. there is this network inside the european parliament to overrule ople like myself who put forward the argument of international law and human rights. and also even the security -- on myself, i went to morocco. i went to the refugee camps. i could sense the extreme security risks that europe in particular but as well as africa and the world is facing by not helping western sahara be settled as it was settled in the

case of human rights with the rights of the people to determine what they want for their future to be properly asserted through a referenm. morocco was obstructing the referendum. i speak of the security and go because you can't imagine such a dispute and generations of sawharis -- amy: 15 second post of >> will be hijacked by some terrorist groups. one more reason why europe should not continue with this neglect of conflict according to the u.n. rule and international law and of course human rights.

amy: we will have to leave it there. ana gomes is a retired portuguese diplomat. former member of the european parliament. francesco bastagli is a former u.n. special representative. democracy now! is looking for pppxxxx■]■t■]■o

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