The Spanish city of A Coruna on Monday awarded the status of adoptive sons to two Senegalese migrants who risked themselves to help a gay man whose 2021 murder shocked the nation.
Ibrahima Diack and Magatte N’Diaye attempted to intervene to save Samuel Luiz as a group of men viciously kicked and punched him outside a nightclub in the northwestern city in July 2021.
The subsequent death in hospital of Luiz, 24, sparked nationwide protests and condemnation from Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.
Photo: AFP.
Diack and N’Diaye were irregular migrants at the time, but have since gained work and residency permits after the recognition of their heroism.
A Coruna Mayor Ines Rey paid tribute to their “altruism” in a ceremony at the town hall, where Diack and N’Diaye received a standing ovation and plaques honoring their achievement.
“That two undocumented migrants were the only ones who physically risked themselves to help the victim of a pack thirsting for horror leaves much food for thought and a series of lessons,” Rey said.
“We are not heroes, we did what we had to do,” N’Diaye said, citing the importance of the values of respect, love and solidarity he learned in Senegal.
Diack agreed that his upbringing shaped his actions.
“I was born in a family that doesn’t have much ... but they gave me many things more valuable than money,” he said. “They gave me respect, education and above all values.”
A jury in November last year found four men guilty of Luiz’s murder and that the main accused, who received a jail term of 24 years, shouted homophobic insults at him during the attack.
Mali, Senegal and Morocco represent the most common nationalities of the tens of thousands of migrants who reach Spain illegally every year, the vast majority by boat to the Canary Islands.
MINERAL DEPOSITS: The Pacific nation is looking for new foreign partners after its agreement with Canada’s Metals Co was terminated ‘mutually’ at the end of last year Pacific nation Kiribati says it is exploring a deep-sea mining partnership with China, dangling access to a vast patch of Pacific Ocean harboring coveted metals and minerals. Beijing has been ramping up efforts to court Pacific nations sitting on lucrative seafloor deposits of cobalt, nickel and copper — recently inking a cooperation deal with Cook Islands. Kiribati opened discussions with Chinese Ambassador Zhou Limin (周立民) after a longstanding agreement with leading deep-sea mining outfit The Metals Co fell through. “The talk provides an exciting opportunity to explore potential collaboration for the sustainable exploration of the deep-ocean resources in Kiribati,” the government said
Romania’s electoral commission on Saturday excluded a second far-right hopeful, Diana Sosoaca, from May’s presidential election, amid rising tension in the run-up to the May rerun of the poll. Earlier this month, Romania’s Central Electoral Bureau barred Calin Georgescu, an independent who was polling at about 40 percent ahead of the rerun election. Georgescu, a fierce EU and NATO critic, shot to prominence in November last year when he unexpectedly topped a first round of presidential voting. However, Romania’s constitutional court annulled the election after claims of Russian interference and a “massive” social media promotion in his favor. On Saturday, an electoral commission statement
Chinese authorities increased pressure on CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd over its plan to sell its Panama ports stake by sharing a second newspaper commentary attacking the deal. The Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office on Saturday reposted a commentary originally published in Ta Kung Pao, saying the planned sale of the ports by the Hong Kong company had triggered deep concerns among Chinese people and questioned whether the deal was harming China and aiding evil. “Why were so many important ports transferred to ill-intentioned US forces so easily? What kind of political calculations are hidden in the so-called commercial behavior on the
The head of Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, was sacked yesterday, days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he no longer trusts him, and fallout from a report on the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack. “The Government unanimously approved Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposal to end ISA Director Ronen Bar’s term of office,” a statement said. He is to leave his post when his successor is appointed by April 10 at the latest, the statement said. Netanyahu on Sunday cited an “ongoing lack of trust” as the reason for moving to dismiss Bar, who joined the agency in 1993. Bar, meant to