Spain's Socialist opposition is challenging Mariano Rajoy's government by filing for a vote of no confidence after judges ruled that the governing Popular Party profited from a large kickbacks-for-contracts scheme.

A party spokeswoman who wasn't authorized to be named in media reports confirmed the decision on Friday, one day after the National Court convicted 29 businesspeople and PP officials for fraud, tax evasion and money laundering, among other crimes.

The judges issued prison sentences totaling 351 years and fined the conservative PP 245,000 euros (US$ 287,000).

The Socialists' challenge will push the pro-business Ciudadanos (Citizens) party, which has until now supported the prime minister's minority government in parliament, to make a decision whether to back the vote. The anti-establishment Podemos party has already said it will vote to sack Rajoy. </s> Spain’s Socialist opposition is challenging Mariano Rajoy’s government by filing for a vote of no confidence after judges ruled that the governing Popular Party profited from a large kickbacks-for-contracts scheme.

A party spokeswoman who wasn’t authorized to be named in media reports confirmed the decision on Friday, one day after the National Court convicted 29 businesspeople and PP officials for fraud, tax evasion and money laundering, among other crimes.

The judges issued prison sentences totaling 351 years and fined the conservative PP 245,000 euros (US$ 287,000).

The Socialists’ challenge will push the pro-business Ciudadanos (Citizens) party, which has until now supported the prime minister’s minority government in parliament, to make a decision whether to back the vote. The anti-establishment Podemos party has already said it will vote to sack Rajoy. </s> 'Spain’s biggest opposition party, the Socialists, filed a no-confidence motion on Friday against Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy after his conservative Popular Party was found guilty of benefiting from illegal funds in a mega graft trial.

The motion was filed in Spain's 350-seat lower house of parliament, a Socialist party spokesman told AFP just as Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez began an emergency meeting of the party's federal committee to discuss the parliamentary vote seeking Rajoy's ouster.

To succeed, it will need the support of an absolute majority of 176 lawmakers, a difficult task as opposition parties are deeply divided.

While far-left party Podemos has already called for a no-confidence vote, the motion will need the unlikely support of centrist party Ciudadanos, Rajoy's allies in parliament, or that of several tiny regional parties, including Catalan separatist parties.

Sanchez has in recent months clashed with the Catalan separatist parties over their independence push which has violated Spain's constitution.

In Spain's deeply fragmented parliament, the Socialists and Podemos do not have the votes on their own to defeat Rajoy, whose Popular Party (PP) lost its absolute majority in parlaiment over two years ago.

Spain's National Court said Thursday it had uncovered a vast system of bribes given to former Popular Party (PP) officials in exchange for lucrative public contracts between 1999 and 2005 in various regions including Madrid.

The court sentenced 29 people in jail for a total of 351 years for corruption, embezzlement and money laundering in the so-called Gurtel trial, named after the code name of the police investigation.

The PP itself was not on trial for direct involvement in the scheme but was found to have benefited from funds obtained illegally.

It is the first time that a ruling party in Spain has been found guilty in court, and the PP was ordered to pay back 245,000 euros ($290,000).

"Devastating sentence," headlined Catalan daily newspaper El Periodico on Friday while top-selling daily El Pais said in an editorial that "there is no precedent in democratic Spain for such a blow".

The court ruling "badly affects the credibility of a party that has ruled this country between 1996 and 2004 and again from 2011."

The case was just one of many graft scandals to have hit the PP over the years, in a country where corruption cases are widespread.

The graft scandals have taken their toll on the PP.

The party has 24 percent support according to a poll by Sociological Research Center (CIS) published earlier this month, down from 33 percent at the last genral election in June 2016, giving it just a slim lead over Ciudadanos in first place. </s> MADRID: Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy will face a vote of no confidence after courts ruled that the governing Popular Party profited from a large kickbacks-for-contracts scheme, the Socialist opposition announced Friday.

 A spokeswoman said the PSOE party had filed for the vote in parliament one day after the country’s National Court convicted 29 businesspeople and former PP officials for fraud, tax evasion and money laundering among other crimes.

 The challenge puts Rajoy’s future on the ropes, but Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez will need to convince other opposition parties to back his 84 votes in the 350-seat national congress in order to sack the conservatives from the government.

 The anti-establishment Podemos party, with 67 seats, has already announced that it would vote to sack Rajoy. But with its challenge, PSOE is also pushing the pro-business Ciudadanos (Citizens) party to decide whether to back or not the vote, which needs at least 175 votes to succeed.

 Ciudadanos has until now supported the prime minister’s minority government in parliament, but the criticism of its leader Albert Rivera has increased in step with his party’s newfound popularity in recent polls.

 Friday’s move comes after a roller-coaster ride this week for Rajoy’s PP, whose win on Wednesday of a key approval for the 2018 national budget had secured, in theory, enough breathing space for him to survive until the end of the term, in 2020.

 But the setback came less than 24 hours later in the form of a 1,687-page ruling on the so-called Gurtel case, considered one of the gravest corruption episodes in Spain’s modern history.

 The judges issued prison sentences totaling 351 years and a 245,000-euro fine (US$ 287,000) for the conservative party in power, which the ruling describes as a “profit-seeking participant” in the scheme.

 The verdict also considered that a network involving companies and party officials was established to arrange travel and organize events for PP in exchange for public contracts.

 In some of the most damaging parts of the ruling, the judges also said that PP ran a slush fund at least until 2008 and questioned the credibility of Rajoy when he denied knowing that the scheme was in place during a court hearing where the prime minister testified as a witness.

 The convictions immediately triggered turmoil for the embattled government of the 63-year-old prime minister, who is combating separatist defiance in Catalonia and has for years defended his party against dozens of corruption allegations.

 The ruling party has said it will appeal the part of the verdict that found it was a profit-seeking participant in the scheme. Rajoy has not made public comments since the court decision but the prime minister’s office said in a statement on Thursday that nobody in the current administration or in the party’s leadership was aware of any illicit practice. </s> MADRID -- Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy will face a vote of no confidence after courts ruled that the governing Popular Party profited from a large kickbacks-for-contracts scheme, the Socialist opposition announced Friday.

A spokeswoman said the PSOE party had filed for the vote in parliament one day after the country's National Court convicted 29 businesspeople and former PP officials for fraud, tax evasion and money laundering among other crimes.

The challenge puts Rajoy's future on the ropes, but Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez will need to convince other opposition parties to back his 84 votes in the 350-seat national congress in order to sack the conservatives from the government.

The anti-establishment Podemos party, with 67 seats, has already announced that it would vote to sack Rajoy. But with its challenge, PSOE is also pushing the pro-business Ciudadanos (Citizens) party to decide whether to back or not the vote, which needs at least 175 votes to succeed.

Ciudadanos has until now supported the prime minister's minority government in parliament, but the criticism of its leader Albert Rivera has increased in step with his party's newfound popularity in recent polls.

Friday's move comes after a roller-coaster ride this week for Rajoy's PP, whose win on Wednesday of a key approval for the 2018 national budget had secured, in theory, enough breathing space for him to survive until the end of the term, in 2020.

But the setback came less than 24 hours later in the form of a 1,687-page ruling on the so-called Gurtel case, considered one of the gravest corruption episodes in Spain's modern history.

The judges issued prison sentences totalling 351 years and a 245,000-euro fine (US$ 287,000) for the conservative party in power, which the ruling describes as a "profit-seeking participant" in the scheme.

The verdict also considered that a network involving companies and party officials was established to arrange travel and organize events for PP in exchange for public contracts.

In some of the most damaging parts of the ruling, the judges also said that PP ran a slush fund at least until 2008 and questioned the credibility of Rajoy when he denied knowing that the scheme was in place during a court hearing where the prime minister testified as a witness.

The convictions immediately triggered turmoil for the embattled government of the 63-year-old prime minister, who is combating separatist defiance in Catalonia and has for years defended his party against dozens of corruption allegations.

The ruling party has said it will appeal the part of the verdict that found it was a profit-seeking participant in the scheme. Rajoy has not made public comments since the court decision but the prime minister's office said in a statement on Thursday that nobody in the current administration or in the party's leadership was aware of any illicit practice. </s> Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has told the country's National Court he did not know anything about the ruling Popular Party's accounting practices when a corrupt scheme allegedly helped fund it.

Wednesday's highly-anticipated hearing was the first time that a prime minister has appeared in court while holding office since Spain transitioned to democracy four decades ago.

Mr Rajoy himself is not accused of wrongdoing, but the court called him to provide evidence as the party's vice secretary general until 2003, and its secretary general until 2004, when the illegal funding scheme was allegedly still operating.

"I never took care of the economic issues in the party. I was devoted to political activity," Mr Rajoy told the three magistrates during the proceeding.

Businesspeople, elected officials and other Popular Party members, including two former treasurers, are among the 37 accused of bribery, money laundering and tax evasion in the "Gurtel case", named after the German translation for belt.

The Spanish word for belt is also the last name of Francisco Correa, a businessman arrested in 2009 who is the key defendant in the case, considered one of the largest corruption scandals in the country's modern history.

Correa faces a 125-year prison sentence if found guilty of controlling the network of aides and companies that arranged free events for the party in exchange for public contracts.

Mr Rajoy arrived in a convoy at the tightly secured National Court compound in San Fernando de Henares on the outskirts of Madrid.

Close by but out of Mr Rajoy's sight, around 100 protesters held banners accusing the conservative party of covering up corruption. Some signs read "Mafia out, democracy in".

In an apparent attempt to underscore that he is a witness and not a defendant, Mr Rajoy gave evidence seated at a table on the stage at the same level as the three magistrates - not standing in front of them as is customary.

Mr Rajoy repeated what he had said earlier: that he never met Correa and he was the one, as party president in 2004, who ordered a halt to contracting with Correa's companies upon learning that they were misusing the conservative party's name.

The trial is part of a wider probe into illegal party funding reflected in hidden accounting kept by Luis Barcenas, the party treasurer for almost three decades.

In the most damaging allegations to date, Barcenas has said there was always a scheme of illegal contributions to the Popular Party and that top officials were aware. The party and Mr Rajoy have denied his claims.

Mr Rajoy called allegations that high-ranking party officials received illegal bonuses "absolutely false". He explained that some received additional payments from the Popular Party to their salaries as legislators - money he said was taxed. He said those payments were halted as soon as any of the politicians took a position in the government.

As prime minister, Mr Rajoy has made economic growth and job creation his chief goals since the party returned to power in 2011. In June, he won a no-confidence debate called against him by Podemos, a left-wing opposition party, because of the myriad of corruption scandals involving the Popular Party. </s> PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Cambodia’s parliament voted on Monday to allow a court investigation into an opposition leader accused of procuring a prostitute, a vote that could push the country closer to political turmoil.

The case of the opposition leader, Kem Sokha, and his alleged assignation has dominated politics for weeks and has raised tension in the run-up to a 2018 election that could prove to be veteran Prime Minister Hun Sen’s most serious test at the ballot box.

Opponents of Hun Sen say the self-styled strongman is using the judiciary to neutralize his opponents. The government denies that.

Kem Sokha is acting chief of the main opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP).

Party leader Sam Rainsy, a former finance minister, lives in self-exile to avoid arrest for an old defamation case he was pardoned for. His party has denounced the new warrant as politically motivated.

All 68 members of parliament from Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party voted to allow a court to proceed with an investigation into Kem Sokha stemming from a secretly recorded, and leaked, telephone conversation between him and a woman who the government says he was having an illicit affair with.

Prostitution was made illegal in Cambodia in 2008 even though it is widespread.

Kem Sokha has neither confirmed nor denied having an affair with the woman and has dismissed the action against him as politically motivated. He has ignored court summonses, most recently last Thursday.

Trade unions allied with the CNRP have called for protests if Kem Sokha is arrested.

“The CNRP wants Cambodia to be ruled by rule of law and a multi-party democracy,” Son Chhay, a senior CNRP lawmaker, told a news conference.

The party said Monday’s vote was unconstitutional.

The last election in 2013 marked Hun Sen’s toughest electoral challenge in three decades of rule and the opposition is expected to mount a sterner test next time as younger voters seek change.

Hun Sen has warned that an election victory for the opposition would see a return to civil war.

The United Nations on Sunday voiced alarm at the escalating tension between Hun Sen’s party and the opposition, in particular the arrest or attempted arrest of politicians. </s> KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak yesterday slammed the opposition parties in the country for allegedly hiding behind a non-governmental organisation (NGO) to fight the government.

He said that as the defeated side in the election, the opposition parties had the right to criticise the government but they had to use the proper channels to do so.

“But in Malaysia, the situation is different. The opposition parties use an NGO, which purportedly does not favour any political party and fights corruption, to pressure the government through rallies,” he said in a post entitled ‘Sandiwara Perhimpunan Pembangkang’ (Theatrics of Opposition Rallies) uploaded today on his www.najibrazak.com blog.

Najib said the people were aware that the NGO was actually a puppet of the opposition as almost all the rallies it had held and wanted to hold were led by leaders of opposition parties.

“At their second rally, they rioted in Kuala Lumpur, overturning police cars. At the third rally, they followed the orders of their leader and rammed police barriers, causing a commotion.

“At the fourth rally, they cheered for the toppling of the ruling party but claimed to be non-partisan. Finally, at the forthcoming fifth rally, they are revering opposition leaders charged with corruption when they claim to want to fight corruption.

“Is it not very clear that their struggle is false and the rally is just a movement of opposition parties hiding behind a so-called non-partisan NGO to fight a government elected by the people?” said Najib.

The prime minister said the majority of the people were fed up with the tactics employed by the opposition, and only wanted good service from the government.

“That’s what my team and I will continue to do,” he said. — Bernama </s> ISTANBUL -- Turkey announced Sunday that it had replaced 28 elected municipal and district mayors in several predominantly Kurdish towns in the country's east and southeast, saying the leaders are suspected of colluding with groups the government considers terrorist organizations.

The move led to protests that police later dispersed using water cannons and tear gas.

The Interior Ministry said the decision to remove the mayors was in line with a governmental decree enacted in the wake of a failed military coup.

Turkey declared a state of emergency after the July 15 coup attempt, allowing the government to rule by decree. It has since suspended tens of thousands of people from government jobs over suspected links to terrorist organizations.

Of the 28 mayors who were replaced, 24 are suspected of ties with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, and four are thought to be linked to the movement led by U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, which the government says is responsible for the abortive coup that left more than 270 people dead.

The Interior Ministry said in its statement that when local governments "come under the influence of terrorist organizations, it is the state's primary duty to take precautions against those who have usurped the people's will."

"Being an elected official isn't a license to commit crimes," Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag wrote on Twitter. "If mayors and town councilors finance terrorism by transferring public funds allocated to them to serve the people ... they lose their democratic legitimacy."

The U.S. Embassy in Ankara expressed concern over the government's actions, saying in a statement that it hoped the substitute office-holders who took up their new posts Sunday would be temporary and that "local citizens will soon be permitted to choose new local officials in accordance with Turkish law."

Three of the 28 officials are members of Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party; one belongs to the Nationalist Movement Party. The rest belong to pro-Kurdish parties.

The pro-Kurdish People's Democracy Party condemned the appointments as a "coup by trustees" that violates the Turkish constitution and the European Convention of Human Rights.

"This unlawful and arbitrary action will only deepen existing problems in Kurdish towns and cause the Kurdish issue to be even more unsolvable," the party said in a statement.

The main opposition Republican People's Party also condemned the move. Senior party members spoke to reporters in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir, where they called the appointments unlawful and said they would be taking the decision to Turkey's constitutional court.

Addressing the nation Sunday for the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he was determined to "save Turkey from the PKK scourge," using an acronym for the Kurdistan Workers' Party.

"Like the Gulen movement, the PKK cannot possibly withstand the power of the people and the strength of the state," Erdogan said in a video statement.

The private Dogan news agency reported that a group of about 200 people gathered in front of city hall in the southeastern town of Suruc to protest the government-installed officials and were dispersed with tear gas and water cannons. A protest in front of Batman city hall was broken up in the same way.

Four people, including a deputy mayor, were briefly detained in a minor skirmish outside city hall in the southeastern province of Hakkari. Co-Mayor Fatma Yildiz, who was replaced Sunday morning, said the decision was "a blow against the will of the people," Dogan reported.

Turkish media reported that Internet and electricity were out in the affected cities in the morning, but no official reason was given.

Also on Sunday, about 40 prominent academics and authors from around the world urged Turkey's government to end what they say is the persecution of the country's writers and professors who voice a differing point of view.

In an open letter released Sunday, academics and authors including Turkish Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk and British Booker Prize winner John Berger called on supporters to protest what they said is the Turkish government's "vendetta" against its brightest thinkers.

They said the failed coup shouldn't be used as a pretext for a "[Joe] McCarthy-style witch hunt," referring to the Wisconsin senator who led an anti-communism crusade in the 1950s.

The letter said the group was particularly disturbed by the detention of novelist Ahmet Altan and his brother Mehmet Altan, an economics professor, who Turkey accused of transmitting subliminal messages to rally coup supporters on TV the night before the coup attempt.

Information for this article was contributed by staff members of The Associated Press.
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