Vickrum Digwa’s ‘unduly lenient’ term for Southampton teenager’s murder increased after attorney general’s appeal
Henry Nowak’s killer has seen his sentence extended by the court of appeal after it ruled that his original sentence was “unduly lenient”.
Vickrum Digwa’s original sentence of life with a minimum term of 21 years was lengthened to a minimum of 24 years and 190 days after a successful appeal by the attorney general, Ellie Reeves.
Continue reading...Akande joining the international court of justice comes a decade after previous British judge failed to get re-elected
A British judge has been elected on to the UN’s international court of justice, in a big British diplomatic victory that comes almost 10 years after a previous British judge failed to get re-elected.
Dapo Akande will now serve as one of the ICJ’s 15 judges for a minimum nine-year term.
Continue reading...Ministry of Justice figures show recalls rose 27% in year to June despite emergency measures to ease overcrowding
More people were recalled to jails in England and Wales in the first half of this year than were released, despite government efforts to reduce the prison population, according to figures released on Thursday.
Ministry of Justice (MoJ) data shows that 12,338 people were recalled to custody between the beginning of April and the end of June, while 12,278 people were released. It continues a trend set between January and March, when 13,193 people were returned to prison and 12,977 released.
Continue reading...Commanders suspected of sexual violence during the largest and fastest slaughter of civilians in more than 30 years have been subjected to travel ban and asset freeze
Senior Sudanese commanders implicated in a “campaign of rape” have been targeted by the UK on the first anniversary of a mass atrocity that saw tens of thousands of civilians killed over several days.
A year after the fall of El Fasher, the British government said it had sanctioned military leaders from both sides in the country’s ongoing conflict whom it suspected of sexual violence during the siege of the city.
Continue reading...Nazhat Shameem Khan claims some staff are facing ‘banking difficulties’ but their work is unaffected
The deputy prosecutor of the international criminal court has said new US sanctions are beginning to take effect on its staff but insisted they have not hindered the court’s work.
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, announced the sanctions this month, accusing the ICC – a frequent target of the Trump administration – of being a “rogue court” and declaring: “Either the ICC will end its threats, or we will end the ICC.”
Continue reading...Morgan Carey sued his sister over claims in her 2020 memoir, The Meaning of Mariah Carey, which he said falsely portrayed him as a violent drug dealer
A judge has dismissed a lawsuit from Mariah Carey’s brother, five years after he accused her of defaming him in her 2020 memoir, The Meaning of Mariah Carey.
In the memoir, Carey described Morgan as a “sometimes drug dealing, been-in-the-system, drunk-ass brother” and called him her “ex-brother”.
Continue reading...Campaigners welcome legislation which follows recommendations by 2025 review into pornography regulation
Pornography that depicts strangulation and incestuous relationships will be banned in England and Wales from early November, the government has announced.
The content will be outlawed from 6 November after cross-party pressure prompted ministers to announce new legislation earlier this year.
Continue reading...Use of death penalty against people for crimes committed when they were children a ‘new low’, say rights groups
A young man faces imminent execution in Saudi Arabia for attending protests and funerals when he was aged 15 to 17, say human rights groups, in the latest example of the kingdom’s surging use of the death penalty for non-violent crimes.
Youssef al-Manasif was arrested in 2017 and accused of crimes including joining demonstrations for religious freedom by the Shia minority and attending funerals that the Saudi authorities deem to be protests. He was convicted and sentenced to death by the specialised criminal court, a secretive tribunal set up for terrorism-related cases.
Continue reading...At least 320 people detained for ‘acts against nature’ after law criminalising homosexuality toughened, HRW reports
Mass arrests, forced HIV testing and barriers to legal representation are part of an escalating crackdown against LGBTQ+ people in Senegal, according to a new report.
More than 320 individuals have been arrested and detained on allegations of “acts against nature” since February, according to HIV Justice Network, an organisation quoted in the Human Rights Watch (HRW) report. Among these, at least 84 were charged with “voluntary HIV transmission”, solely on the basis of their HIV status.
Continue reading...Only Iran and Afghanistan routinely carry out sentences in public, with Saudi Arabia appearing to have ended practice
If the US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, goes ahead with plans to livestream the execution of a soldier radicalised to extremist Islam who killed 13 people at a military base in Texas, his country will join a motley assembly of lesser powers and rogue actors who have conducted public executions in recent years.
Only two countries currently systematically carry out capital sentences in public: Iran and Afghanistan. In 2025, the Taliban authorities carried out six such killings and the regime in Tehran 11, according to Amnesty International.
Continue reading...Convicted pair, plus third man released in August, have IPPs replaced after serving much longer than minimum terms
Two men jailed with indefinite sentences for public protection (IPPs) have been freed after each serving about two decades in custody despite receiving minimum terms of two years or less.
A high court judge and a magistrate hearing an appeal after a review by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) told Luke Ings and Liam Bennett they would be freed, and also replaced an indeterminate sentence given to a third man, James Ward.
Continue reading...Legislation is an effort by ruling Liberals to address growing clash over who has access to doctor-assisted death
Canada’s federal government said on Wednesday it would advance legislation to prevent people whose sole health condition is mental illness from accessing euthanasia, an effort by the ruling Liberal party to address a clash in the country over who has access to physician-assisted death.
Under the current rules, people whose sole underlying medical condition is a mental illness have been barred from accessing medical assistance in dying (Maid) to end their lives. But that ban – due to be lifted in March – has divided lawmakers over whether to permit this expansion of the Maid program.
In Canada, Crisis Services Canada can be contacted at any time on 1.833.456.4566, or via text on 45645 from 4pm-12am ET. In the US, you can call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org
Continue reading...She must decide by the end of the week whether to seek further review of federal charges over a confrontation with ICE agents at Delaney Hall
A US congresswoman who just gave birth to a baby girl faces a deadline this week on whether to seek a rehearing of a federal case against her by the Trump administration after an oversight visit to an immigration detention facility.
LaMonica McIver, 40, represents New Jersey’s 10th congressional district. She gave birth to her second child last Thursday – a rarity for a sitting member of Congress. She is only the 15th member of Congress to give birth while serving and part of a small subset of congresswomen who have school-age children.
Continue reading...Party formally adopts policy which equates Zionism with racism, as all Green party votes to adopt policy that equates Zionism with racism
On Friday the Times revealed that Katie Lam, the communities secretary, told a meeting in private earlier this year that the state pension system needs a fundamental overhaul.
Speaking in June, when she was a frontbencher but not yet in the shadow cabinet, Lam was asked at a meeting with activists if she thought the pensions triple lock was sustainable. She replied:
Ultimately I think what we will need in the end is an entirely new pension system.
I mean, a baby that is born today has a 20% chance of living to be 100 and I don’t think we can fund one in five people half of their lives, you know, for the first 20 and the last 30 years. But obviously if you are 90 you probably can’t go out and get a job right, so I think you have to be realistic about how you would taper that and bring that in across the population.
The fact is, the triple lock and pensions are things that people have contributed to.
Conservatives believe that if you have contributed, then you deserve to get your state pension.
Continue reading...New York attorney general brought in by governor after recent questions raised over university’s 2024 investigation
Kathy Hochul, the New York governor, said on Thursday she is appointing Letitia James, the state’s attorney general, as special prosecutor to investigate the alleged gang-rape at Cornell University.
“The young woman at the center of this case deserves to know that every fact will be examined and justice pursued,” Hochul said in a statement. “This action will ensure that the matter is fully and thoroughly investigated without conflict or bias, and handled independently with the rigor that this matter demands.”
Continue reading...PM, in first speech to party conference as leader, insists his plans are a ‘good deal’ for older people
Angela Rayner, the housing secretary, has apparently confirmed that Andy Burnham will float the prospect of getting rid of the pensions triple lock to help fund the creation of an NHS-style care service.
Asked about the prospect on Sky’s Electoral Dysfunction podcast, Rayner said that Burnham was “absolutely right to start the conversation” and that he was being “brave”.
The high principle on this is that people have paid in all their lives. They are willing, I think, to look at that.
What they don’t want is what they consider to be, quite frankly, incompetent politicians that are going to take something from us to fill a black hole.
When we met with Andy [Burnham] this week, it certainly wasn’t mentioned.
But I do think that it’s important that Labour make sure that working-class people know that they’re on their side, and this would be a direction of travel that would say the opposite to that.
What I understood the national care service to be was a universal benefit: everybody paid in and everybody gets out, and that is what actually the principle of that is.
Going to a group of people who are getting around £12,500 a year in order to pay for it to take away their security is wrong.
Continue reading...‘People care about the songs, books and pictures that influence the critical moments in their lives,’ says the architect of the fightback in the UK
Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast
If you want to state the case against copyright reform in Australia, get Kylie Minogue’s phone number.
If there is one lesson to be learned from a similar battle in the UK, high-profile members of the creative industries make a difference. They get your argument on the front of newspapers, in the news bulletins and on social media.
Continue reading...Taraneh and Romina Rahimi were charged with ‘waging war against God’ after joining protests against Tehran regime
The family of 21-year-old twins who have been sentenced respectively to death and decades in jail for protesting against the Iranian regime have appealed to the United Nations for help.
A formal “submission of information” relating to the case of Taraneh and Romina Rahimi has been submitted by British human right lawyers on their family’s behalf.
Continue reading...Funding boost for facilities and fixed dates for trials designed to encourage more survivors to come forward
Specialist courtrooms prioritising cases of rape and other serious sex offences are to be introduced across England and Wales, with campaigners welcoming the move as potentially transformative.
The changes, designed to encourage more survivors to come forward, will include the provision of private entrances and waiting rooms, and facilities equipped for recording evidence in advance and observing sentencing remotely.
Continue reading...Samir Ousman al-Sheikh, part of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, was in charge of Adra prison where prisoners were tortured
This article contains descriptions of torture.
A US federal court in Los Angeles sentenced a former Syrian government official who ran one of the country’s most infamous prisons to 60 years in prison on Thursday – the most significant punishment handed to an official of ousted president Bashar al-Assad’s regime by a foreign court and to a defendant present in person.
Continue reading...