Author: BBC

Last week, an ex-intelligence officer, Colonel Rabih Alenezi, told the BBC that he was ordered to evict villagers from a tribe in the Gulf state to make way for The Line, part of the Neom eco-project.One of them was subsequently shot and killed for protesting against eviction. A statement issued by Saudi state security at the time alleged that he had opened fire on security forces and they had been forced to retaliate. Human rights organisations and the UN have said he was killed simply for resisting eviction.At least 47 other villagers were detained after resisting evictions, many of whom…

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A Paris court has acquitted director Roman Polanski of defaming a British actor who accused him of raping her when she was a teenager. In 2019, he told Paris Match magazine that Charlotte Lewis had lied about being sexually assaulted by him four decades ago.Ms Lewis, 56, brought the case against the 90-year-old filmmaker.She told the court in March that she had become the victim of a “smear campaign” that “nearly destroyed” her.Ms Lewis told the BBC she will appeal the decision.The court’s verdict relates to the charge of defamation and not to Ms Lewis’s accusation of rape against Mr…

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