Islington racist jailed for slashing Asian teen’s face with a knife (UK)

An Islington man who pinned a 15-year-old Asian boy to the floor and sliced open his cheek in an “appalling” racist attack has been jailed for eight years.

Jerry Monerville, 47, of Claremont Square, off Pentonville Road, pounced on the teenager and beat him to the ground with the help of accomplice Shane Doyle, 26.

The vile pair then slashed his face twice with a knife, and when the boy asked why they had attacked him they spat back: “It’s cos you’re a f***ing Paki”.

Monerville and Doyle ambushed the teenager from behind as he sat alone in Weavers Field Park, Bethnal Green, at around 11pm on November 21, last year.

Prosecutor Helen Owens said the boy heard voices behind him saying “Are you on it? Let’s do it!”, before he was confronted by Monerville and punched in the face, kicked and headbutted.

“Jerry Monerville was sitting on top of him,” said the prosecutor.

“He had the knife in his hand.

“He told the victim he was going to kill him.

“He then drew the knife across the victim’s face twice, causing cuts both times.

“After the victim was cut Shane Doyle kicked him twice in the face.

“He asked why they were doing this and one of them replied: ‘It’s cos you’re a f***ing Paki’.”

Miss Owens said the two men then searched the teenager’s pockets and took his mobile phone before they attempted to flee the scene.

But a passer-by who heard the boy’s screams called the police and the two men were arrested in the park.

Officers recovered the knife used in the attack and found Monerville was also carrying a stungun.

Both men pleaded guilty to robbery and causing grievous bodily harm, but claimed they were drunk at the time of the incident.

Jailing Monerville for eight years and Doyle, of Epping Close, Isle of Dogs, for seven years at Snaresbrook Crown Court, Judge Neil Sanders said: “The facts of this case are appalling.

“To exasperate everything he was repeatedly called a ‘Paki’ and it is absolutely plain that there were racial overtones to what was being done to him.

“It must have been a terrifying experience for the victim.”

Islington Gazette

MEMORIAL ACTIVIST BEATEN OUTSIDE HOME (Russia)

A human rights worker was hospitalized after being beaten up in his apartment building, an attack his employer said was linked to his work. Bakhrom Khamroyev, a member of leading human rights group Memorial, was walking into the building in southeast Moscow on Monday when a group of strangers attacked him, spraying gas in his face and beating him on the head and legs. Memorial chief Oleg Orlov said Tuesday that the attack was aimed at disrupting Khamroyev's upcoming trip to Murmansk, where he had arranged a meeting with an Uzbek citizen threatened with extradition for purportedly taking part in Islamist militant activities, RIA-Novosti reported. "Memorial believes the attack on Bakhrom Khamroyev was planned in advance and prepared as a trap," Memorial said in a statement. "In December last year, an attack was carried out on Khamroyev. A criminal case was opened, but until today no one has been called to take responsibility." Orlov said Khamroyev was attacked by security forces in December when he was working on a similar case involving the arrest of suspected militants from Central Asia. The head of Amnesty International's Russia division, Sergei Nikitin, called on authorities to find and punish those responsible for the beating. "We hope a serious investigation will be carried out and that the guilty are punished," he said. Police said Tuesday that they were looking for the attackers.

Moscow Times

Austrian far-right in fresh push for EU respectability

Buoyed by their recent success in the polls, the Austrian and French far right have made a fresh push for respectability in the European Parliament. A blurring of the 'softer' far right with eurosceptic parties may be in the offing.

Austria's Freedom Party in particular called on the eurosceptic alliance in the chamber, the Europe of Freedom and Democracy grouping led by Britain's Ukip and Italy's Northern League, to let their two MEPs join.

FPO Party leader and MEP Heinz-Christian Strache alongside French Front National chief Marine Le Pen in the parliament in Strasbourg announced deeper co-operation between their two far-right parties at a Wednesday press conference.

Speaking to reporters, the Austrian also said that he wanted his deputies in the EFD but was being blocked by two MEPs in the grouping reluctant to embrace the party.

The two party leaders were hoping to put themselves across as serious statesman and distance themselves from the impression of far-right politicians as consorting with skinheaded and heavily tattooed bully boys.

According to a March poll in Le Parisien, Le Pen, who has something of a softer image from her father whom she succeeded as leader in January, would gain an unprecedented first-round victory if a presidential election were held today.

Meanwhile, a May survey found that were an election to happen now, the FPO would top the polls, with 29 percent of votes to the second-placed Social Democrat's 28 percent. A second far-right party, the Alliance for Austria (BZO) would be awarded an additional 13 percent, putting far-right politics by far the most popular option in the land.

Strache, whose MEPs are classed as 'non-inscrit', the parliamentary term for unattached deputies but something of a short-hand for extremists as most of the non-inscrit politicians come from far-right parties, wants to leave this reputation behind.

He declared he has no interest in joining with the Greater Romania party, the UK's British National Party (BNP) or Bulgaria's Ataka, three groups that in the demi-monde of the far-right are seen as the extremists.

Asked whether Le Pen is looking to form a parliamentary fraction with the FPO, she held back from a full endorsement, saying "Deeper relations and work on different fronts ... does not necessarily revolve around the European Parliament."

In an interview with Dutch radio on 1 June, Le Pen also sought to distance herself from Dutch anti-Muslim politician Geert Wilders, saying he reads the Koran literally.

Strache this week also met with Belgium's Flemish nationalists of the Vlaams Belang and the Northern League to press his case.

According to Francesco Speroni, Northern League deputy and co-chair of the EFD, his party is in favour of the FPO joining, but MEPs from Greece's Laos and Denmark's People's Party are opposed.

The FPO has been campaigning for months to kick Greece out of the eurozone.

Ukip for its part said that they have no contact with Strache's party and have no comment on their joining.

"Everybody is free to desire to be a member of the EFD," EFD spokesman Herman Kelly, a member of Ukip, told EUobserver. "But we have no control over that. The EFD has had no contact with Strache. Ukip has had no contact with Strache. Why would we have an opinion about someone we have never met with?"

In the wake of the economic crisis, both euroscepticism and the far right have been two of the only political forces to increase their support in polls. While the centre-right has benefited electorally at the expense of the centre-left, it has been largely on the back of record abstention.

EUobserver.com