Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1162446
maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 4 SEPTEMBER 2019 7 NEWS Position may be co-funded through European Union Funding/Bilateral Funds SENIOR MANAGER (EU FUNDS) Applications are invited for the positions of Senior Manager (EU Funds) in the Ministry for European Affairs and Equality. Applicants for the Senior Manager (EU Funds) position must be in possession of a recognised Masters qualification at MQF Level 7 in relevant areas plus three years relevant work experience. Applications will be received at the Corporate Services Directorate, Ministry for European Affairs and Equality, 31B, Tal-Pilar, Marsamxett Road, Valletta, VLT 1850 by not later than noon of Friday 6 th September 2019. Further details may be obtained from the Government Gazette of 23 rd August 2019. Application forms may be downloaded from: https://publicservice.gov.mt/en/people/Pages/PeopleResourcingandComplian ce/FormsandTemplates.aspx Further details may be obtained from the Government Gazette of 30 th November 2018. THE government's proposal to introduce a mechanism that will look to ensure more gen- der equality in parliament, will simply act to undermine the country's democracy, accord- ing to the Democratic Party. Back in March, the govern- ment announced a public con- sultation on the introduction of a mechanism that will come into play if the number of MPs from whichever is the under- represented sex amounts to less than 40% of the total. The mechanism will see up to 12 additional MPs added to the current complement. First in line will be "hanging can- didates" who were last to be eliminated in the proportional representation system of elect- ing MPs. Wasted votes will then from the over-represented sex, who were not elected, will be uti- lized to elect a candidate from the under-represented sex. "Gender equality is not pre- sent in Parliament because there is no gender equality outside Parliament," the PD said through its MP Marlene Farrugia. Laws do not bring about equality and justice. It is the will, action and exam- ple of and from a governing body and its members that can kick-start the transition to real equality." The proposals were formu- lated by the Technical Com- mittee for the Advancement of Representative Democracy, which was established in June last year, and have since been endorsed by 18 of Malta's women's rights organisations. Nationalist Party Secretary General Clyde Puli yesterday told MaltaToday that the PN would be accepting an invita- tion by the government, to nominate two individuals to the committee, which will be taking the proposals forward not that the consultation pe- riod he concluded. "It has become this govern- ment's established practice to ' form a committee' – woven by the preferred few, made up of people who are ready to endorse a predetermined outcome – every time an issue obstinately refuses to resolve itself simply because of the same government's under- performance in the relevant field," the PD said in a state- ment. Parliamentary gender equality proposal will use women to 'thwart democracy', PD says MATTHEW VELLA HUNGARIAN prosecutors have charged a Syrian national alleged to have been a member of the Islamic State terrorist organisation with carrying out acts of terrorism and crimes against hu- manity. The 27-year-old man, Hassan Farhoud, is alleged to have commanded an armed group of the Islamic State and was ar- rested in Hungary in March this year. He now faces a sentence of life in prison. The prosecutors questioned Hassan Farhoud for over 29 hours since his ar- rest in March. Ten other people includ- ing witnesses have also been questioned in Malta and Belgium. An investigation with the involvement of Hungary's counter-terrorism force TEK was underway in several EU mem- ber states, including Malta, Belgium and Greece. Cooperation among the coun- tries' law enforcement agencies was coordinated by the Hungarian office of Eurojust. According to the indictment, the man ordered multiple executions in his homeland in May 2015. The Syrian was also granted refugee status in Greece before he was revealed to have been a prominent IS fighter. He was caught with forged documents in Budapest's Liszt Ferenc Airport 30 December 2018, then received a sus- pended prison sentence for human traf- ficking, and was set to be expelled from the country. But it was information obtained by Bel- gian intelligence that ultimately led to Hassan F.'s detention, when he was ar- rested by TEK officers in the Nyírbátor asylum detention facility. According to Hungarian prosecutors, the 27-year-old man is suspected of aid- ing in the execution of 20 people – all family members of a resident in Homs city who refused to join the Islamic State – in 2016. In addition, he allegedly ap- pears in numerous propaganda videos and assisted in the orchestration of acts of terrorism. Under Hungarian law, the man is now suspected of murder com- mitted as part of an act of terror and of preparations to commit an act of terror. Farhoud is suspected of having ordered the occupation of Al-Sukhnah in the Syr- ian province of Homs and drawing up a "death list" of those who rejected Islamic State's goals. The executions included the public beheading of the local imam and at least 25 people including women and children in the town. Farhoud is sus- pected of having personally participated in the execution of the imam and at least another two people. The suspect's lawyer, László Kelen, claims the evidence is unreliable at best, and references the blurry nature of the photographs in question. Kelen says the "illiterate and unedu- cated" Farhoud continues to voice his innocence. Islamic State commander charged in Budapest, Malta witnesses questioned Hassan Farhoud escorted to court by Hungarian special police