Erdogan Tells UN’s Guterres Israel Must Be Tried in Int’l Courts over Gaza Crimes

Palestinians inspect the destruction caused by Israeli strikes in Wadi Gaza, in the central Gaza Strip on November 28, 2023, amid a truce in battles between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
Palestinians inspect the destruction caused by Israeli strikes in Wadi Gaza, in the central Gaza Strip on November 28, 2023, amid a truce in battles between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
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Erdogan Tells UN’s Guterres Israel Must Be Tried in Int’l Courts over Gaza Crimes

Palestinians inspect the destruction caused by Israeli strikes in Wadi Gaza, in the central Gaza Strip on November 28, 2023, amid a truce in battles between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
Palestinians inspect the destruction caused by Israeli strikes in Wadi Gaza, in the central Gaza Strip on November 28, 2023, amid a truce in battles between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday told United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres that Israel must be held accountable in international courts for the war crimes it committed in Gaza, the Turkish presidency said.

In a phone call ahead of a UN Security Council meeting on Gaza planned for Wednesday, Erdogan told Guterres that "Israel continues to shamelessly trample on international law, laws of war, and international humanitarian law by looking in the eyes of the international community", his office said.

Israel launched an air and ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza after the militant group carried out a deadly gun rampage in southern Israel last month, killing some 1,200 people and taking 240 others hostage. Israeli bombardment has killed more than 15,000 in Gaza, according to the enclave's health authorities.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, part of a so-called contact group of Muslim countries that has been holding talks with Western leaders over Gaza, will attend the meeting in New York on Wednesday, the foreign ministry said on Tuesday.



Thumbprint on Cigarette Carton Leads to Arrest in 1977 Death of US Woman

This taken Feb. 1, 1977, photo provided by the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office shows the inside of the Volkswagen in San Jose, Calif. (Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office via AP)
This taken Feb. 1, 1977, photo provided by the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office shows the inside of the Volkswagen in San Jose, Calif. (Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office via AP)
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Thumbprint on Cigarette Carton Leads to Arrest in 1977 Death of US Woman

This taken Feb. 1, 1977, photo provided by the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office shows the inside of the Volkswagen in San Jose, Calif. (Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office via AP)
This taken Feb. 1, 1977, photo provided by the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office shows the inside of the Volkswagen in San Jose, Calif. (Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office via AP)

Nearly half a century after a young California woman was strangled to death, officials say a thumbprint on a carton of cigarettes has led to an arrest.

Willie Eugene Sims was arrested in Jefferson, Ohio, in connection with the death of Jeanette Ralston, according to a Friday statement from the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office.

Sims, 69, has been charged with murder and was arraigned on Friday in Ashtabula County Court before being sent to California.

Ralston was found dead in the back seat of her Volkswagen Beetle on Feb. 1, 1977, in San Jose, according to the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office. Her body was found in the carport area of an apartment complex near the bar where friends say she was last seen.

She had been strangled with a long-sleeve dress shirt, and evidence appeared to show she was sexually assaulted, according to prosecutors. Her car showed signs of having been unsuccessfully set on fire, The Associated Press reported.

Her friends said at the time that they saw her leave the bar with an unknown man the evening before, saying she would be back in 10 minutes, but she never returned.

Police interviewed the friends and other witnesses and created a suspect sketch. But the investigation went cold.

A thumbprint found on Ralston’s cigarette carton in her car was found to match Sims last fall after law enforcement had asked to run the print through the FBI's updated system, prosecutors said.

Earlier this year, officials from the District Attorney’s office and San Jose police went to Ohio to collect DNA from Sims. Prosecutors say it matched the DNA found on Ralston’s fingernails and the shirt used to strangle her.

“Every day, forensic science grows better, and every day criminals are closer to being caught," District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in a statement. "Cases may grow old and be forgotten by the public. We don’t forget and we don’t give up.”

William Weigel, homicide team supervisor for the Santa Clara county public defender’s office, confirmed Monday that Lara Wallman had been assigned the case. He said their office can't comment on the evidence yet because they haven’t seen it but cautioned the public from jumping to conclusions.

“It is kind of important that we let the system play itself out and allow our side to conduct our own independent review and investigation of the case before we rush to judgment as it were,” he said.

Back in 1977, Sims was an army private assigned to a facility about 68 miles (109 kilometers) south of San Jose, prosecutors said.

The year after Ralston’s death, a jury in a separate case convicted Sims of an assault to commit murder in Monterey County and sentenced him to four years in prison, court records show.

Ralston's son, Allen Ralston, was 6 when she died. He told WOIO-TV that he is grateful and relieved an arrest was finally made.

"I'm just glad that somebody cared," he said about the case.