On Monday, Amnesty International (AI) urged the Ethiopian authorities to cease the use of the state of emergency as a tool to “silence peaceful dissent”. The statement comes in the wake of arbitrary detentions of politicians and journalists critical of the government. The state of emergency, which was originally decreed in August 2023 under Article…
On Sunday, former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was released from custody halfway through his year-long sentence. This follows a Tuesday announcement from incumbent Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, revealing that the former PM would be granted parole. Local reports sighted the 74-year-old Thaksin leaving the Police General Hospital in Bangkok’s Pathum Wan District early Sunday…
Over 400 individuals were detained across Russia at rallies held over the weekend in respect to the late opposition leader, Alexei Navalny. These figures were confirmed by both Russian human rights group OVD-Info and a report from Radio Free Europe. This follows the news that Navalny had died in an Arctic prison colony, where he…
The spokesperson for Alexei Navalny, Kira Yarmysh, publicly stated on Saturday that the Russian opposition leader had been “murdered”, demanding the immediate return of Navalny’s body to his family. Her statement came following the announcement of Navalny’s death by Russia’s state prison service, citing that he had lost consciousness and could not be resuscitated. He…
Hong Kong activist Tang Kai-yin has pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice at Hong Kong’s District Court, according to local media outlet The Witness. Tang attempted to flee from Hong Kong to Taiwan via speedboat, while facing charges related to the 2019 Hong Kong protests. Tang’s attempted escape was halted as the speedboat…
Former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. analyst Mohammed Zina has been convicted on charges of insider trading and fraud by a jury in London. These convictions encompass six counts of insider trading and three counts of fraud. As an employee of the Conflicts Resolution Group at Goldman, Zina was involved in insider trades from July 2016…
An issue of particular pertinence, discussed in Kalvis Golde’s article, is the use of habeas corpus petitions to challenge conditions of confinement in prisons. The debate centers on whether a habeas petition can be used to challenge prison conditions – a question left open by the Supreme Court – with different courts of appeals taking…
Providers of Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are readying themselves for a new wave of legal challenges, according to professionals in the legal sector. This popular investment medium has recently been made accessible to a wider variety of investors, creating a multitude of new issues for issuers. Legal experts specializing in cryptocurrency stress the importance of…
Anti-fascist demonstrators took to the streets of Budapest, Hungary, over the weekend to protest a right-wing gathering commemorating the “Day of Honour”. The “Day of Honour” is an annual event observed in memory of a failed breakout attempt by German and Hungarian forces in 1945, while under siege from the Soviet Red Army. Although the…
Yang Hengjun, an accomplished Australian journalist, was sentenced to a suspended death sentence by the Beijing Second Intermediate People’s Court. This serious sentence, delivered on Monday, can be moderated to life imprisonment given two years of exemplary conduct. The news of this unprecedented sentencing has sent shockwaves across the globe. More on this sentencing can…
On Thursday, the Sovetsky District Court in Kazan, Russia extended the pre-trial detention of Alsu Kurmasheva, a Russian-American journalist accused of violating Russia’s ‘foreign agents’ law. Kurmasheva’s pre-trial detention, which was originally set to last until February 5, has now been extended to April 5. Kurmasheva, who works for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) and…
Despite the long-established proscriptions against the use of torturous information in legal proceedings under both domestic and international law, there have been concerted efforts by US prosecutors to prohibit courts from fully recognizing the extent to which the government is forbidden from utilizing information obtained from torture at CIA black sites and Guantanamo. The case…
A Moscow court, on Friday, ruled to extend the prison sentence of Evan Gershkovich, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal by another two months. Gershkovich, who is a US citizen, has been in custody in Moscow since March 29, 2023 facing accusations of espionage. This marks the fourth extension of his sentence. These developments…
The Moscow Municipal Court sentenced Igor Girkin, commonly known as Igor Strelkov, to four years in a general regime colony on Thursday. A renowned pro-war activist, Girkin was accused of questioning the salaries of Russian fighters and the political circumstances in Crimea, deemed as extremist behavior online. His charges fall under Part 2 of Article…
On Tuesday, Iran executed Mohammad Ghobadlou, a protestor with a long-term psychosocial disability, in connection with the alleged murder of a police officer during the 2022 Mahsa Amini protests. Mizan, the Iranian judiciary’s news agency, reported the execution. The Criminal Court of Tehran Province sanctioned the execution after the Supreme Court of Iran confirmed Ghobadlou’s…
The opioid crisis has without a doubt shifted the structure of healthcare, policymaking, and the criminal justice system in our nations. As a specialized family medicine doctor who has been actively involved in the treatment of opioid use disorder (OUD) for a decade, it has long been apparent that the solution to this crisis lies…
Fawad Chaudhry, Pakistan’s former Information Minister, has announced that he will join a group in boycotting the Pakistani general elections, alleging that the whole electoral process is fraudulent. Chaudhry was a key figure in former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party, Pakistan Tahreek-i-Insaf (PTI). Following Khan’s arrest over corruption charges on May 9, 2023, Chaudhry cut…
In a recent development, Federal prosecutors have requested a Manhattan federal judge to sentence an individual to approximately 30 months in custody for trading on confidential data embezzled from a BigLaw associate. According to the prosecutors, not only did the accused carry out the illicit trading, but he also persuaded several others to invest in…
The Criminal Court of Seine-Saint-Denis has sentenced three police officers involved in the assault of Black man, Theo Luhaka during his 2017 arrest. The sentences ranged from a three months to one year suspended imprisonment, according to the French news outlet BFMTV. Among those convicted was officer Marc-Antoine Castelain, who faced charges of voluntary violence…
The German parliament, the Bundestag, has voted in favor of legislation aimed at facilitating the path to citizenship for immigrants. The legislation would abolish longstanding restrictions on holding dual nationalities, making it easier for immigrants to acquire German citizenship alongside their original nationality. The Bundestag voted 382 to 234 to approve this reform. The new…
Nigerian authorities announced on Thursday a total of 14 additional criminal charges against the former Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele, as reported by JURIST. This is in addition to previous charges, bringing the count to a total of twenty offenses. Emefiele was re-arraigned before Justice Hamza Muazu of the Federal Capital Territory High Court. The…
The Rwanda Defence Force confirmed on Tuesday that three soldiers from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) penetrated its border, leading to one soldier being shot and killed, while two others were taken into custody. The official announcement revealed that the soldiers from the Democratic Republic of Congo Armed Forces (FARDC) crossed the border from…
According to an Instagram post from her family, an Iranian court has handed Nobel laureate and human rights activist Narges Mohammadi an additional 15-month prison term. The supplementary sentence has been given to Mohammadi, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in October last year, for allegedly “spreading propaganda” against the country’s Islamic Republic. The…
Iranian authorities have released two journalists who were imprisoned for over a year after covering the controversial death of Mahsa Amini. Amini, an Iranian woman arrested in Tehran by morality police for opposing mandatory hijab standards, died while in police custody – an incident that spurred nationwide and global protests. Both Elaheh Mohammadi, 36, and…
In a significant turn of events, the Supreme Court of India issued a contempt notice to several government and judicial officials from the state of Gujarat over their arrest of businessman Tusharbhai Rajnikantbhai Shah, contravening an anticipatory bail order granted by the Court in December 2023. Anticipatory bail, for those unfamiliar, is a legal tool…