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Report Finds Boris Johnson Deliberately Misled UK Parliament

FILE - Boris Johnson leaves his house in London, on March 22, 2023. Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson deliberately misled Parliament about the lockdown-flouting parties that undermined his credibility and contributed to his downfall, a committee of lawmakers said Thursday, June 15, 2023 after a year-long investigation. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali, File)
FILE - Boris Johnson leaves his house in London, on March 22, 2023. Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson deliberately misled Parliament about the lockdown-flouting parties that undermined his credibility and contributed to his downfall, a committee of lawmakers said Thursday, June 15, 2023 after a year-long investigation. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali, File)
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Report Finds Boris Johnson Deliberately Misled UK Parliament

FILE - Boris Johnson leaves his house in London, on March 22, 2023. Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson deliberately misled Parliament about the lockdown-flouting parties that undermined his credibility and contributed to his downfall, a committee of lawmakers said Thursday, June 15, 2023 after a year-long investigation. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali, File)
FILE - Boris Johnson leaves his house in London, on March 22, 2023. Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson deliberately misled Parliament about the lockdown-flouting parties that undermined his credibility and contributed to his downfall, a committee of lawmakers said Thursday, June 15, 2023 after a year-long investigation. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali, File)

Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson deliberately misled Parliament about the lockdown-flouting parties that undermined his credibility and contributed to his downfall, a committee of lawmakers said Thursday after a year-long investigation.

A scathing report from the House of Commons Privileges Committee found that Johnson’s actions and his response to the committee were such a flagrant violation of the rules that they warranted a 90-day suspension from Parliament, The Associated Press reported.

While a condemning indictment of the former prime minister’s conduct, the recommendation is largely symbolic because Johnson angrily quit as a lawmaker Friday after the committee informed him of its conclusions.

“We have concluded above that in deliberately misleading the House, Mr Johnson committed a serious contempt,″ the committee’s report said.

“The contempt was all the more serious because it was committed by the Prime Minister, the most senior member of the government. There is no precedent for a Prime Minister having been found to have deliberately misled the House.″

The committee also said Johnson should not be granted a pass to Parliament’s grounds.

Johnson, 58, fought back in a statement tinged by fury. He described the committee as a “kangaroo court” that conducted a “witch hunt” to drive him out of Parliament. A majority of the panel’s seven members come from Johnson’s Conservative Party.

“The committee now says that I deliberately misled the House, and at the moment I spoke I was consciously concealing from the House my knowledge of illicit events,” Johnson said.

“This is rubbish. It is a lie. In order to reach this deranged conclusion, the Committee is obliged to say a series of things that are patently absurd, or contradicted by the facts.”

The report is just the latest episode in the “partygate” scandal that has distracted lawmakers since local news organizations revealed that members of Johnson’s staff held a series of parties in 2020 and 2021 when such gatherings were prohibited by pandemic restrictions. The full House of Commons will now debate the committee’s report and decide whether it concurs with the panel’s findings and recommended sanctions.

Johnson angrily quit as a lawmaker on Friday after the committee informed him in advance that he would be sanctioned.

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Russia’s Putin Apologizes to Azerbaijan over ‘Tragic’ Airliner Crash

In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia's President Vladimir Putin holds a Security Council meeting via videoconference in Moscow on December 28, 2024. (AFP)
In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia's President Vladimir Putin holds a Security Council meeting via videoconference in Moscow on December 28, 2024. (AFP)
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Russia’s Putin Apologizes to Azerbaijan over ‘Tragic’ Airliner Crash

In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia's President Vladimir Putin holds a Security Council meeting via videoconference in Moscow on December 28, 2024. (AFP)
In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia's President Vladimir Putin holds a Security Council meeting via videoconference in Moscow on December 28, 2024. (AFP)

President Vladimir Putin on Saturday apologized to Azerbaijan's leader for what the Kremlin called a "tragic incident" over Russia in which an Azerbaijan Airlines plane crashed after Russian air defenses were fired against Ukrainian drones.

The extremely rare publicized apology from Putin was the closest Moscow had come to accepting some blame for Wednesday's disaster, although the Kremlin statement did not say Russia had shot down the plane, only noting that a criminal case had been opened.

Flight J2-8243, en route from Baku to the Chechen capital Grozny, crash-landed on Wednesday near Aktau in Kazakhstan after diverting from southern Russia, where Ukrainian drones were reported to be attacking several cities. At least 38 people were killed.

Four sources with knowledge of the preliminary findings of Azerbaijan's investigation told Reuters on Thursday that Russian air defenses had mistakenly shot the airliner down. Passengers said they heard a loud bang outside the plane.

Putin called President Ilham Aliyev and "apologized for the tragic incident that occurred in Russian airspace and once again expressed his deep and sincere condolences to the families of the victims and wished a speedy recovery to the injured," the Kremlin said.

"At that time, Grozny, Mozdok and Vladikavkaz were being attacked by Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles, and Russian air defense systems repelled these attacks."

The Kremlin said "civilian and military specialists" were being questioned.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy also said he had called Aliyev to offer condolences, and in his statement on the X platform demanded that Russia provide "clear explanations".

OBJECTS SMASHED THROUGH AIRPLANE'S FUSELAGE

Azerbaijan for its part said Aliyev had noted to Putin that the plane had been "subjected to external physical and technical interference in Russian airspace, resulting in a complete loss of control and redirection to the Kazakh city of Aktau".

Until Saturday, Russia's last working day before a long New Year holiday, the Kremlin had said it was improper to comment on the incident before official investigations were concluded.

The Embraer jet had flown from Azerbaijan's capital Baku to Grozny, in Russia's southern Chechnya region, where the incident occurred, and then travelled, badly damaged, another 280 miles (450 km) across the Caspian Sea.

Footage shot by passengers before the plane crashed showed oxygen masks down and people wearing life jackets. Later videos showed bloodied and bruised passengers climbing out of the wreckage. There were 29 survivors.

Baku cited injuries from objects that had penetrated the aircraft’s fuselage from outside and testimonies from survivors as evidence of "external physical and technical interference".

The crash underscored the risks to civil aviation even when aircraft are flying hundreds of miles from a war zone, especially when Ukraine has deployed drones en masse to try to hit back at Russia behind the front lines .

Russia uses electronic jamming to confuse the geolocation and communication systems of Ukrainian drones, which it also targets with air defense systems.

In 2020, Iranian Revolutionary Guards mistakenly shot down a Ukrainian airliner, killing all 176 on board.

And in 2014, Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine, with the loss of 298 passengers and crew, by what Dutch investigators said was a Russian BUK missile system. Russia denied involvement.