The Israeli Jews who spied for Iran in biggest infiltration in decades

Israel's arrest of almost 30 mostly Jewish citizens who allegedly spied for Iran in nine covert cells has caused alarm in the country and points to Tehran's biggest effort in decades to infiltrate its arch foe, four Israeli security sources said.

Among the unfulfilled goals of the alleged cells was the assassination of an Israeli nuclear scientist and former military officials, while one group gathered information on military bases and air defences, security service Shin Bet has said. Last week, the agency and Israel's police said a father and son team had passed on details of Israeli force movements including in the Golan Heights where they lived.

The arrests follow repeated efforts by Iranian intelligence operatives over the past two years to recruit ordinary Israelis to gather intelligence and carry out attacks in exchange for money, the four serving and former military and security officials said.

The sources asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.

"There is a large phenomenon here," said Shalom Ben Hanan, a former top Shin Bet official, referring to what he called the surprising number of Jewish citizens who knowingly agreed to work for Iran against the state with intelligence gathering or planning sabotage and attacks.

Shin Bet and the police did not respond to requests for comment. Iran's foreign ministry did not respond to questions.

In a statement sent to media after the wave of arrests, Iran’s U.N. mission did not confirm or deny seeking to recruit Israelis and said that "from a logical standpoint" any such efforts by Iranian intelligence services would focus on non-Iranian and non-Muslim individuals to lessen suspicion.

At least two suspects were from Israel's ultra-Orthodox community, police and the Shin Bet have said.

Unlike Iranian espionage operations in previous decades that recruited a high-profile businessman and a former cabinet minister, the new alleged spies were largely people on the fringes of Israeli society, including recent immigrants, an army deserter and a convicted sex offender, conversations with the sources, court records and official statements show.

Much of their activity was limited to spraying anti-Netanyahu or anti-government graffiti on walls and damaging cars, Shin Bet has said.

Nonetheless, the scale of the arrests and involvement of so many Jewish Israelis, in addition to Arab citizens, has caused concern in Israel at a time it remains at war with Iran-backed Hamas in Gaza and that a ceasefire deal with Hezbollah remains fragile.

Shin Bet on Oct. 21 said the espionage activities were "among the most severe the state of Israel has known."

The arrests also follow a wave of attempted hits and kidnappings linked to Tehran in Europe and the United States.

The unusual decision to provide detailed public accounts of the alleged plots was a move by Israel's security services to signal both to Iran and potential saboteurs inside Israel that they would be caught, Ben Hanan said.

"You want to alert the public. And you also want to make an example of people that may also have intentions or plans to co-operate with the enemy," he said.

Israel has achieved major intelligence successes over the past few years in a shadow war with its regional foe, including allegedly killing a top nuclear scientist. With the recent arrests Israel has "so far" thwarted Tehran's efforts to respond, one active military official said.

Iran has been weakened by Israel's attacks on its proxy Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the related fall of Tehran's ally, former president Bashar al-Assad in Syria.

SOCIAL MEDIA RECRUITS

Iranian intelligence agencies often find potential recruits on social media platforms, Israeli police said in a video released in November warning of ongoing infiltration attempts.

The recruiting efforts are at times direct. One message sent to an Israeli civilian and seen by Reuters promised $15,000 in exchange for information, with an email and number to call.

Iran has also approached expatriate networks of Jews from Caucasus countries living in Canada and the United States, said one of the sources, a former senior official who worked on Israel's counter espionage efforts until 2007.

Israeli authorities have said publicly some of the Jewish suspects were originally from Caucasus countries.

Recruited individuals are first assigned innocuous-seeming tasks in return for money, before handlers gradually demand specific intelligence on targets, including about individuals and sensitive military infrastructure, backed by the threat of blackmail, said the former official.

One Israeli suspect, Vladislav Victorsson, 30, was arrested on Oct. 14 along with his 18-year-old girlfriend in the Israeli city of Ramat Gan near Tel Aviv. He had been jailed in 2015 for sex with minors as young as 14, according to a court indictment from that time.

An acquaintance of Victorsson told Reuters he had told her he had spoken to Iranians using the Telegram messaging app. She said that Victorsson had lied to his handlers about his military experience. The acquaintance declined to be named, citing safety fears.

Igal Dotan, Victorsson's lawyer, told Reuters he was representing the suspect, adding that the legal process would take time and that his client was being held in tough conditions. Dotan said he could only respond to the current case and had not defended Victorsson in earlier trials.

Shin Bet and police said Victorsson knew he was working for Iranian intelligence, carrying out tasks including spraying graffiti, hiding money, posting flyers and burning cars in the Hayarkon Park in Tel Aviv for which he received over $5,000.

According to the investigation made public by the security services, he was found to have subsequently agreed to carry out an assassination of an Israeli personality, throw a grenade into a house and also look to obtain a sniper rifle, pistols and fragmentation grenades.

He recruited his girlfriend, who was tasked with recruiting homeless people to photograph demonstrations, the security services said.

Reuters

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Russia vows response after Ukraine used US-made ATACMS to strike airfield

Russia said on Wednesday that Ukraine had struck a military airfield on the Azov Sea with six U.S.-made ATACMS ballistic missiles, a move that could prompt Moscow to launch another experimental intermediate-range hypersonic missile at Ukraine.

Russia's defence ministry said two of the missiles fired by Ukraine were shot down by a Pantsir missile defence system and the rest were destroyed by electronic warfare.

"On the morning of December 11, 2024, the Kyiv regime launched a missile strike with Western precision weapons at the Taganrog military airfield in the Rostov region," the defence ministry said.

"This attack by Western long-range weapons will not go unanswered and appropriate measures will be taken," it said.

Russia fired a new intermediate-range hypersonic ballistic missile known as "Oreshnik", or Hazel Tree, at Ukraine on Nov. 21 in what President Vladimir Putin said was a direct response to strikes on Russia by Ukrainian forces with U.S. and British missiles.

A U.S. official said on Wednesday that Russia could launch another hypersonic ballistic missile in Ukraine in the coming days, but Washington does not consider the Oreshnik weapon a game-changer in the war.

After approval from the administration of President Joe Biden, Ukraine struck Russia with six U.S.-made ATACMS on Nov. 19 and with British Storm Shadow missiles and U.S.-made HIMARS on Nov. 21.

Putin, after those attacks, said that the Ukraine war was escalating towards a global conflict after the United States and Britain allowed Ukraine to hit Russia with their weapons, and warned the West that Moscow could strike back.

The war is entering what some Russian and Western officials say could be its final and most dangerous phase as Moscow's forces advance at their fastest pace since the early weeks of the conflict.

President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office next month, has pushed for a ceasefire and negotiations to end the war quickly, leaving Washington's long-term support for Ukraine in question.

Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine has left tens of thousands of dead, displaced millions and triggered the biggest crisis in relations between Moscow and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Zelensky rejected Christmas ceasefire – Orban

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has rejected a proposed Christmas ceasefire and a large-scale prisoner swap with Russia, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Wednesday. 

Orban made the remarks on X in response to a post by Zelensky criticizing a phone conversation between the Hungarian leader and Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier that day. 

“At the end of the Hungarian EU Presidency, we made new efforts for peace. We proposed a Christmas ceasefire and a large-scale prisoner exchange. It’s sad that [Zelensky] clearly rejected and ruled this out today. We did what we could!” Orban wrote. 

Zelensky accused Orban of merely seeking to “boost personal image”with his diplomatic efforts and mockingly expressed hopes that the Hungarian leader “at least won’t call [former Syrian President Bashar] Assad in Moscow to listen to his hour-long lectures as well.” 

“No one should boost personal image at the expense of unity; everyone should focus on shared success. Unity in Europe has always been key to achieving it. There can be no discussions about the war that Russia wages against Ukraine without Ukraine,”Zelensky wrote.

Shortly after the social media exchange, Dmitry Litvin, an aide to Zelensky, flatly denied that any contacts between Kiev and Budapest on a proposed Christmas ceasefire and prisoner swap took place, effectively suggesting that Orban was not telling the truth.

“As always, Ukraine has not authorized Hungary to do anything. As always, Ukraine is working on a daily basis to free prisoners, and for two weeks now, relevant contacts have been ongoing regarding a significant exchange by the end of the year,” Litvin told Ukrainian media.

The aide also appeared to echo claims made by Zelensky about Orban’s true motives, stating that Ukraine needs “not PR, but a fair peace, and not blabber, but reliable security guarantees.”

Reuters/RT

Contrary to assertions by some so-called experts who have been prattling all week that Dele Farotimi wrote what he could not logically substantiate in his book Nigeria and its Criminal Justice System, this was a pre-meditated confrontation. Having depleted the legal means to get justice, he wrote to re-litigate the case in the court of public opinion. He seems calculatedly driven by the Yoruba proverb that says no one dies at the same spot they uttered blasphemy. In the time between your speaking and being punished, much can happen to change social dynamics. From the potpourri of events in the past week, Farotimi got what he wanted. One cannot say the same for Afe Babalola who, by now, would have realised that giving a traducer what they want is not the most prudent battle move. My reading is that Farotimi knew Babalola’s peculiar weakness and worked it to advantage. I will get to that momentarily.

The blowback from this case is another instance that hopefully teaches our elites to rein in their tendency to exploit the warped Nigerian justice system that allows criminal defamation as a legal recourse. Criminal defamation might be legal, but it is unjust. It is a law that exists to regulate the differentials of power and access, one of the many ways rich people further privatise public resources. Since lawmakers are too compromised to expunge the law and law enforcers incapable of the reflexivity that will enlighten them on the stupidity of using state resources to fight an individual over another’s integrity, the best we can do for now is pressure the entitled “big man” not to take that path. In a criminal case, the prosecutor investigates to convict. The Nigerian police, perennially short of resources, spares no expense when sent to prosecute criminal defamation on behalf of another narcissist. Why should the state do that on behalf of an ordinary individual? Babalola, especially, is a man of ample resources, who can afford to fight for his reputation on his own dime.

So, on Friday, Babalola’s legal team held a press conference in Ado Ekiti. Among several things, the lead lawyer Owoseni Ajayi said was: “Those pushing Farotimi are not his friends. By the time they led him to the dungeon, he would realise they were deceiving him. Let me advise his family members to apologise to Aare. Aare Babalola is a builder, not interested in destroying Farotimi.” I was intrigued by what he said it takes for them to call off the police hounds. If someone injured your reputation, and that reputation is truly worth the price you placed on it, why would you not be interested in watching them destroyed? Why would Ajayi, so sure of their victory that he boldly asserted that the only possible conclusion to the case is the dungeon, want to settle for the cheap spectacle of Farotimi’s family members with their clasped hands rolling on the floor and begging?

What sealed the picture for me was an article by Kenneth Ikonne where he, like Ajayi, also urged Farotimi to go “beg” Babalola. According to Ikonne, he had won a preliminary objection against Babalola’s suit—which a lawyer is supposed to do, right? —but he was so intimidated by his own victory against the legal giant that he had to go beg Babalola. While Ikonne’s adulating article drips with flattery, it also unwittingly reveals a kabiyesi-complex. It is an attitude that revels in watching other humans’ heads perpetually bowed in servile reverence so they can repay your self-denigration with overwhelming niceness. Babalola seems like a man who likes to be liked, an attitude is consistently weakening because you must always play nice. Please note that there is a vast difference between being nice because you are a decent human and niceness as manipulation, a means to seduce others into becoming your subject. People of the latter category will take you to the top of the pinnacle, show you the extent of their power and glory, and nicely offer you a portion if only you would bend obsequious knees before them. If you refuse, they will then kick your calves until you fall on your face.

Babalola is so used to a world where junior lawyers who defeat him in court still come to his Ado Ekiti palace to prostrate before him that Farotimi’s boldness to confront him must have been jarring. He resorted to his standard weapons of warfare, but as he must have also found out in the past week, the battle terrain has changed. Even if he wins the case, what will be the social value of a reputation held up by the courts? If Farotimi begs him as his lawyer and others have enjoined, what is done cannot be undone.

However, this goes down, I commend Farotimi’s boldness. We all agree that the Nigerian judiciary is rotten, but the logic of producing rational evidence has made it virtually impossible to progress beyond merely abstract observations. Until we begin to mention names and point accusing fingers at specific people, the issues will remain intractable. Statistically, Nigerian judges and magistrates are the highest receivers of bribes in 2023, beating even the Customs/Immigration! This is according to the NBS. Those who facilitated these transactions are not ghosts. We have all been witnesses to the several instances where retiring judges have severely deplored the rot in the judiciary. It is amusing to see some people pretending Farotimi revealed what they did not already know.

Our society maintains an overly reverential attitude toward people who have money and power, and are elderly. When a person combines all three, we are virtually cowed before their almighty presence. Otherwise, why can we not ask, if defamation is an offence that supposedly lessens someone’s reputational worth, what exactly would constitute it in the case of persons who have practised law in morally decrepit and with progressively weakened institutions like Nigeria for 60-plus years? Which of the atrocities that presently bedevils the country does not have the hands of the so-called learned class in it? This is not to disparage the legal profession or caricature lawyers, but we cannot talk about what is wrong with Nigeria today without the role lawyers have played in vandalising the temple of justice. From the so-called “legal luminaries” who—through endless frivolous election petitions—rendered democracy incoherent to the ones with the “SAN” appendage to their names who fraternise with politicians, they remade the country in their amoral image.

We were all here when a partner in the firm of a high-profile lawyer solicited the client of another, saying their principal’s political influence would “significantly switch things in favour” of the prospective client. While that woman was disowned and eventually debarred, it was a moment of self-revelation as to how the justice system operates. Big names in the legal system do not necessarily correspond with a deep knowledge of the law. It just means they know which judge to buy and which string to pull. We witnessed a lawmaker publicly admitting that his judge’s wife helped his colleagues win their various cases. In a serious country, every case that a woman adjudicated would have been recalled and scrutinised, but this is Nigeria. Nothing ever happens here. This is the utterly compromised ecosystem in which Babalola has practised law and thrived to the point he built a magnificent university. He was also a lawyer and confidant to former President Olusegun Obasanjo, whose administration reputation was thoroughly corrupt. Nobody, not even the staunchest of his defenders, has said of Farotimi’s allegations that “it cannot possibly be true”.  What they all say is, “It cannot be proven,” and that is telling enough.

Given the contradictions of his profession, Babalola should have been circumspect enough to not jump into a public contest over his reputation. He seems to me like a man who has invested in being nice just so that he would not be remembered as a villain in Nigeria’s story. Now he is no longer the man with the carefully curated legacy who set out to redeem his image but the one who proved his critic right.

Punch

Value Added Tax (VAT) is a regressive tax that disproportionately affects poorer families, who pay a larger percentage of their income. Unfortunately, under President Bola Tinubu’s tax reform agenda, which aims to increase government revenue, the plan to double the VAT rate will place the highest burden on the poor. With manufacturing, employment, and income declining, the expected 100% increase in VAT receipts is primarily targeting the telecoms sector, where the poor market their goods and ideas at relatively affordable rates. The next target is bank charges, with 90% of accounts holding less than N500,000.

In progressive societies that actively pursue equity and egalitarian values, the highest tax receipts typically come from progressive taxes, where the rich contribute a higher proportion of their income, followed by proportional taxes, where everyone pays a similar percentage. Since the telecoms and banking sectors already pay the highest progressive income taxes, why then should their customers be subjected to regressive taxes? Nigeria appears to be a regressive nation, not only in its tax policies but in nearly every aspect of its economy and politics. Since independence, the people have been pushed toward a state of regression, closer to slavery.

Neocolonial elites in Nigeria share the exploitative mentality of their colonial predecessors — governance is seen as an opportunity to exploit the masses with little in return. This warped social contract between the ruling elites and the people reflects a model of taxation without representation. The elites siphon off the country’s human and natural resources, giving back only a pittance. Public funds are largely consumed by the government’s administrative costs, leaving basic services like roads, water, electricity, education, and social housing woefully underfunded. The people are left to fend for themselves, much like slaves.

President Tinubu represents the archetype of a neocolonial elite — an emotionally detached leader who extracts the lifeblood of the people to appease the demands of global financial institutions like the IMF and World Bank. He sees himself as a reformer who can “squeeze blood out of stone” by increasing energy costs (removing petrol and electricity subsidies), devaluing wages through foreign exchange devaluation, and now by doubling regressive taxes. Though he began his political career with Afenifere, espousing the Welfarist ideology of the Action Group, his tenure as Governor of Lagos State saw the implementation of some of the most socially regressive policies in the name of increasing internally generated revenue (IGR).

In Lagos, Tinubu’s tax policies focused on taxing the informal sector through market and transport levies and other flat-rate regressive taxes. The low-wage informal sector bore the brunt of these taxes, but there were no visible benefits, as government investments in education, health, and social services remained neglected. While Tinubu prioritized luxurious housing projects for the super-rich in places like Banana Island and Eko Atlantic City, 70% of Lagosians lived in substandard conditions or were homeless. The majority of Lagosians survived by retailing imported goods, while the food, beverage, and tobacco industries — legacies of colonialism — remained dominant.

Instead of focusing on increasing productive capacity to raise tax receipts, Tinubu’s approach was that of a rentier system — extracting “Owo Omo Onile” from anyone trying to be productive. Instead of building the necessary 160 kilometers of metro rail to support heavy manufacturing, he empowered private transport collectors, or “Agberos.” Rather than fostering industry leaders from potential manufacturers of railway components and energy, Lagos became home to street warlords and transport touts, who acted solely to serve Tinubu’s economic and political interests.

While Governor Lateef Jakande invested heavily in tertiary education, building Lagos State University and several polytechnics, Tinubu did not build any. It is therefore unsurprising that Tinubu’s 2024 tax reforms not only increase regressive taxes but also break the social contract regarding education funding. The government is phasing out the National Education Trust Fund (NETFUND) — designed to fund universities and polytechnics — replacing it with the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND), which will redirect tax funds into student loans. The government has no moral right to tax the productive use of skills unless it is a joint investor through subsidized education. If students are forced to take loans for their education, then taxes should also be treated as loans.

The public discourse surrounding the proposed tax reforms has been deliberately skewed by tribal and regional divisions. Northern leaders have protested that the new VAT distribution model unfairly targets their region, while Southern leaders have remained silent, even though the reform will negatively impact Southern states like Ondo, Osun, and Bayelsa. A devolution of power through restructuring is necessary, allowing states to control their economic resources before tax reforms can be considered under a unitary system.

Some Northern leaders claim that Lagos is attempting to colonize them in penury, while Southern leaders counter that Northerners are trying to feed off Southern consumption taxes. They point out that the Islamic North opposes alcohol consumption, which contributes only the seventh-highest VAT, while ignoring the fact that the North leads in tobacco consumption, which is frowned upon by the Christian South. These arguments pale in comparison to the telecoms sector, which suffers from overtaxation. Phone and internet services may soon become as unaffordable as petrol and electricity.

The tribal rhetoric obscures a critical analysis of the moral and economic implications of overtaxing the telecoms industry. Taxation should represent a share of the profits from government investments in productive capacities — from education to infrastructure. The Nigerian government’s failure to invest in telecoms contributed to the collapse of NITEL, but the government has continually used the telecoms sector as a cash cow, starting with exorbitant entry fees for mobile telecoms and continuing today as telecoms contribute the second-highest share of tax receipts, both corporate and VAT taxes.

Telecoms have been a major driver of economic growth, fostering expansion in retail, transport, and banking sectors. If Tinubu continues to overtax this sector, especially as the world shifts towards AI technology and governments lower telecom costs to make them more accessible, Nigeria could undermine its own economic potential. Meanwhile, excessive bank charges and high interest rates are stifling business growth. The government’s decision to remove subsidies for petrol and electricity, coupled with anti-business policies, is deflating economic activity, which has increasingly moved online.

We can criticize and advise the political class all we want, but it seems to fall on deaf ears. It is now up to the masses to rise and demand a favorable social contract, one that recognizes us as free citizens, not slaves. Before Tinubu imposes another tax reform, he must first reform his approach to governance and the social contract between the government and the people. We should not be expected to fund exorbitant government costs but instead pool our resources, in proportion to our income, to secure cheaper education, housing, healthcare, and employment infrastructure. If he cannot deliver this, then he should seek loans from those who helped him gain power.

** Justice J. Faloye, author of The Blackworld: Evolution to Revolution, President of the ASHE Foundation Think Tank, and National Publicity Secretary of Afenifere.

Majeed Javdani

Key Takeaways

• ISO 42001 provides a structured framework for AI management systems, ensuring businesses adopt AI responsibly.
• This guide breaks down the implementation process into practical steps, focusing on risk management, stakeholder alignment and continuous improvement to integrate AI seamlessly into business operations.

ISO 42001 establishes a framework for AI management systems, providing organizations with a structured approach to integrating AI-related practices into their operations. This standard emphasizes risk management, continuous improvement, and alignment with the requirements of all stakeholders, ensuring businesses can adopt AI responsibly and consistently while adhering to global best practices.

In this article, I will explain the implementation of ISO 42001, AI management systems, step by step using practical language.

What is ISO 42001?

ISO 42001 is a requirement standard for AI management systems. A requirement standard means that if you, as a business, want to be issued a certification to show your stakeholders that your organization is pursuing consistency in business practices through predetermined processes that take into consideration the requirements of all interested parties.

ISO 42001, like other ISO requirement standards, doesn't provide a body of knowledge on what you should do with AI. Instead, ISO management systems, including ISO 42001, provide a framework for consistency in understanding the context of your organization in a structured approach, identifying the boundaries of business practices that might be impacted by AI exposure, conducting risk assessment and management within the targeted scope, implementing controls to manage risks to an acceptable level, monitoring the effectiveness of these controls in alignment with the requirements of all interested parties, and continually improving the system accordingly.

Management systems, including AI management systems, are based on the PDCA cycle to uphold the principle of continuous improvement. ISO 42001, for AI management systems, is a generic standard, meaning it can be implemented by businesses regardless of their size or industry.

Today, all businesses, regardless of their size or the industry they serve, need to consider their exposure to AI. By exposure, I mean the level of AI adoption within their organization.

Step 1: Specify the implementation scope

It is not efficient, or even possible, to implement an AI management system for the entire organization as a single project. Therefore, the first step in implementing ISO 42001 is to define the boundaries of the implementation.

As a business organization, you deliver some products in the form of goods or services. Usually, you follow predetermined business processes for your productions whether a good or a service.

The critical point is that the management system needs to be integrated into your business practices to be effective, rather than functioning as a series of independent processes added to existing practices. You will add structure to your business processes by integrating the management system into them, so no additional processes are created. The result is structured business processes with the management system's related controls seamlessly integrated.

The first step in implementing an AI management system is to specify the scope of the processes with which the management system will be integrated.

The scope of the management system is the first question the a certification body will ask when auditing your conformance to the standard. The boundaries of the management system need to be clearly defined, as you will be certified for specific business practices consisting of their own processes, not for your entire organization.

It can be a product, good or service. It can also be a special project or an initiative, such as a research and development joint venture. This refers to a practice consisting of a series of processes that may span across different sections of your organization to produce a specific result. Therefore, the scope does not mean a business section, such as human resources or marketing.

Step 2: Specify the interested parties

When you specify your scope for implementation, you map out the processes that define the determined scope. Next, you identify all interested parties related to these specified business processes — those who impact or might be impacted by them. According to ISO, interested parties include:

• Internal parties, such as investors and employees, where maintaining corporate governance policies is essential to keep them satisfied.
• External parties, such as business partners or suppliers.
• Regulatory parties, encompassing all laws and regulations relevant to the defined processes, which is especially critical in AI.
• The standard itself, as you need to meet its requirements to achieve certification.

Step 3: What are the requirements of interested parties?

What are the requirements of all interested parties? For example:

What do your own governance policies require in relation to your human resources practices?

What are the requirements of your business partners in an R&D initiative — these being contractual requirements?

What are the regulatory requirements that your determined processes must adhere to?

When you identify these requirements, you gain the information needed to determine whether your current processes meet the requirements of all interested parties or not.

In this step, you need to define different types of controls, whether technical or administrative, to be incorporated into your business processes. These controls will add structure to your processes, enabling you to integrate the management system into your business practices. The result is a business scope consisting of processes that are controlled in alignment with the expectations of all interested parties. This signifies that you have successfully implemented the management system.

Step 4: Monitoring and continual improvement

The final step in each iteration is monitoring for continuous improvement. An implemented AI management system needs to be kept alive. Keeping a management system alive means you must continuously repeat what you did during the implementation at predetermined intervals. This ensures that your business practice remains within scope, you have an up-to-date understanding of who your interested parties are, your understanding of their expectations is current, and your implemented controls continue to meet the expectations of all interested parties.

Implementing ISO 42001 is not a one-time task but a dynamic process that requires defining clear boundaries, addressing stakeholder needs, and embedding controls into business processes. By maintaining a cycle of monitoring and improvement, organizations can align their AI practices with strategic goals and stakeholder expectations, driving both compliance and innovation.

Entrepreneur

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has revealed that it receives more than two million complaints annually regarding human rights violations across Nigeria.

NHRC Executive Secretary, Anthony Ojukwu, shared the information on Tuesday in Abuja during an awareness walk held to mark International Human Rights Day, observed every December 10. The walk, themed “Equality: Reducing Inequalities and Advancing Human Rights”, was organized by the NHRC in partnership with the Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption (RoLAC), the European Union, and the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA).

Participants in the walk carried placards with messages such as “Stand for Equality, Fight for Humanity,” “Human Rights Are Universal Rights, Let’s Protect Them,” and “Break the Chains of Inequality, Advance Human Rights.”

Ojukwu emphasized that Human Rights Day serves as a reminder of human dignity and the importance of protecting fundamental rights. “Today is a reminder of your rights, the very essence of your being,” he said. “For Nigeria, the NHRC is the main institution set up by the government to ensure that your rights, as enshrined in the constitution, are protected.”

He further explained that the commission receives over two million complaints annually, a figure he described as “mind-boggling.” However, Ojukwu viewed the high number of complaints as a positive sign of increasing awareness and willingness among Nigerians to seek redress for rights violations. “This wasn’t the case during military rule, when we might have received 20 or 100 complaints a year. The fact that we’re now receiving over two million complaints shows that Nigeria has come of age,” he said.

Ojukwu also appealed for support for the NHRC’s Human Rights Fund, which remains unfunded. “Individuals, companies, and organizations can contribute in various ways — not just with cash, but by donating equipment like computers, vehicles, or office supplies,” he said.

Salamatu Suleiman, Chairman of the NHRC Governing Council, called for a year-round commitment to human rights, stressing that Human Rights Day should not be limited to a single occasion. She highlighted the need to focus on the education of out-of-school children, noting that improving access to education could help reduce social vices.

Mohammed Fall, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria, addressed the global rise in conflicts and suffering, which he said often leads to human rights violations. He reassured that the United Nations would continue to take action based on internationally adopted human rights principles.

Natalia Kanem, Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), emphasized the importance of prioritizing the rights of women and girls for a fair and prosperous world. She pointed out that while progress has been made, millions of women and girls still face violations of their fundamental rights. “Only 56% of women can make decisions about their sexual and reproductive health and rights,” she said.

In commemoration of Human Rights Day, the Media Rights Agenda (MRA) called on both federal and state governments to uphold human rights as outlined in the constitution, regional, and international treaties. MRA Programme Officer Esther Adeniyi criticized the state of human rights in Nigeria, citing issues such as extrajudicial killings, police brutality, arbitrary arrests, gender-based violence, and restrictions on freedom of expression. “The government must fulfill its duties to respect, protect, and fulfill human rights,” she said.

In a joint statement, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) and the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) condemned the use of repressive laws to target journalists and media organizations. They criticized the misuse of laws such as the Cybercrimes Act and the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) codes, which they said are used to stifle free expression. Despite 25 years of uninterrupted democracy, they noted that press freedom in Nigeria remains under severe threat.

Chidi Odinkalu, former chairman of Nigeria’s National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), has criticized the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) for using protests to secure political power in 2015, only to later clamp down on demonstrations once in office.

Odinkalu made the remarks on Tuesday during an event organized by the NGO Global Rights, which was held on the X platform in observance of International Human Rights Day. The event’s theme was “Protest in Nigeria: A Democracy that Disqualifies Dissent.”

While addressing the issue of the right to protest in Nigeria, Odinkalu stated, “I’m not sure it’s within my pay grade to assess the performance of the Nigerian government on the right to protest. Partly because the right to protest is not granted by the government. It’s a right that belongs to the people.”

He explained that the government’s role should be to facilitate and protect protests, ensuring they are peaceful and that other people’s rights are respected. “What you do under the existing law… is liaise with the state, notify the state, so it can provide the necessary protection for the protest,” he added.

Odinkalu pointed out that the APC’s current leaders, from ex-President Muhammadu Buhari to President Bola Tinubu and key officials in the government, had a history of activism and protests. “They protested their way to an electoral victory in 2015,” he noted, underscoring that the APC’s rise to power was in part due to its protest-driven mobilization.

He added, “If you look at the past decade, the very fact that those who were once frequent protesters rose to political power is evidence that the right to protest in Nigeria, at least up until that point, was strong and respected.”

However, Odinkalu expressed disappointment that since the APC’s ascent to power, there has been a concerted effort to suppress protest movements. He pointed to the case of the “Bring Back Our Girls” campaign, which was instrumental in generating public pressure over the abduction of schoolgirls by Boko Haram. “That protest was part of the infrastructure used by the APC to gain political support,” Odinkalu said.

Yet, after assuming power, the government took steps to shut down the protest movement, including restricting access to the protest venue in Abuja. “They shut down that venue, effectively preventing further protests,” Odinkalu said. “And despite failing to make progress on the fate of the missing girls, they closed off that space for protest altogether.”

In summary, Odinkalu highlighted the irony of the APC, once a champion of protest, now undermining the very right it once championed in order to suppress dissent.

A Chief Magistrate’s Court in Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State, has adjourned until December 20 the ruling on the bail application of lawyer and activist Dele Farotimi, who is facing charges of criminal defamation brought by prominent Nigerian lawyer Afe Babalola. Babalola is the founder of Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti.

Farotimi was remanded in Ado Ekiti’s correctional facility last Wednesday, following his arraignment on 16 counts of criminal defamation. The court adjourned until Tuesday for the hearing of his bail application.

During the previous proceedings, Farotimi pleaded not guilty to all charges. His legal team made an oral application for bail, but Chief Magistrate Abayomi Adeosun advised that a formal written application be submitted. The case was adjourned until Tuesday for the application to be heard.

On Tuesday, after hearing the application, Magistrate Adeosun adjourned the ruling on the bail request until December 20.

Opposing the bail application, prosecuting counsel Samson Osobu argued that the defendant’s bail application was incomplete and not properly filed.

Prosecution Challenges Defence Counsel’s Appearance

Earlier in the session, the prosecution also objected to the appearance of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) Adeyinka Olumide-Fusika, who is leading Farotimi’s defence. Osobu argued that Nigerian law prevents a Senior Advocate of Nigeria from representing a client before a magistrate’s court. He cited a recent ruling by the Court of Appeal in Ibadan, Oyo State, which upheld this restriction.

In response, Olumide-Fusika argued that the law governing Ekiti State’s magistrate courts, as enacted by the state’s House of Assembly, allows all lawyers, regardless of their title, to appear before the court in criminal cases. He also pointed out that the appellate court judgment might not have considered all local laws governing magistrate courts across Nigeria.

Adeosun deferred his ruling on the matter, stating that he would review the cited judgment before making a decision. The magistrate then ordered Olumide-Fusika to step down from the defence team and allowed Taiwo Adedeji, the most senior non-SAN lawyer in the team, to continue representing Farotimi in the meantime.

Case Adjourned and Farotimi’s Remand Extended

The court ultimately adjourned the case to December 20 for a ruling on the bail application and ordered that Farotimi remain in prison custody. This decision extends Farotimi’s remand by at least 10 days, even though a federal court had granted him bail in a separate case on Monday.

Gunmen have abducted more than 50 women and children during a pre-dawn raid on Saturday in Kakin-Dawa, a community located in the hometown of Nigeria’s Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle.

Eyewitness accounts reveal that the bandits arrived on motorcycles around 1:30 a.m. and systematically conducted a house-to-house search, targeting predominantly women and children in the Gidan Goga district of Maradun Local Government Area.

Hassan Ya'u, a local resident whose younger sister was among those kidnapped, described the terrifying incident. "The gunmen went from house to house, picking up residents," he said. Ya'u emphasized the urgency of the situation, calling on both federal and state governments to deploy additional security personnel to combat the escalating bandit activity.

The local police spokesperson, Yazeed Abubakar, was unable to provide immediate details, citing communication network challenges.

This latest incident follows a similar attack in September, when bandits abducted over 40 people from Janboka, another community in the same local government area. Residents have expressed growing frustration, noting that these attacks persist despite the presence of local security guards.

The targeted area is particularly significant as it is the hometown of Bello Matawalle, who previously served as the state's governor before becoming the Minister of State for Defence.

The ongoing security challenges highlight the persistent threat of banditry in the state in particular and the Northwest in general, raising serious concerns about the safety of local communities.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Israeli airstrike kills at least seven Palestinians in central Gaza, medics say

At least seven Palestinians were killed and several others wounded in an Israeli airstrike on a house in the Nuseirat camp in the central part of the Gaza Strip, medics told Reuters early on Wednesday.

In Beit Hanoun town in northern Gaza Strip, where the Israeli forces have operated since October, medics said an Israeli airstrike killed and wounded several people. Rescue workers said several people were trapped under the rubble of a house.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the two attacks reported by Palestinian medics.

Israeli forces have been operating in Beit Hanoun, the nearby town of Beit Lahiya and the Jabalia refugee camp since Oct. 5, fighting Hamas militants waging attacks from those areas and preventing them from regrouping.

Gunmen led by the Palestinian militant group Hamas killed some 1,200 people and took over 250 hostages back to Gaza when they attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, according to Israeli tallies.

More than 44,700 Palestinians have been killed in the 14-month-old Israeli military campaign on Gaza that has followed, Gaza health authorities say.

Reuters