Category Archives: Law

Russian soldier pleads guilty in first Ukraine war crimes trial since invasion

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Tank commander Vadim Shysimarin, 21, admits shooting dead a 62-year-old civilian who was on a bicycle

A Russian tank commander has pleaded guilty to shooting dead 62-year-old man as he rode his bicycle down a village road, in Ukraine’s first trial for war crimes committed during the Russian invasion.

Vadim Shysimarin, 21, sat emotionless as prosecutors detailed charges that he had fired his AK-47 at the unarmed cyclist from the window of a car in the north-eastern Sumy region in late February.

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Ben Roberts-Smith’s defamation trial hears conflicting evidence over Afghan deaths

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Troops who were present at Whiskey 108 compound split over whether two men shot dead were murdered or were insurgents killed lawfully

The tunnel at Whiskey 108 – and whether there were any people hiding in it – continues to dominate and divide the Ben Roberts-Smith defamation trial, with an SAS soldier accusing a comrade of cowardice over a raid on the compound in the Afghan village of Kakarak.

At issue is whether two men killed in the compound in April 2009, were pulled from the tunnel and murdered by Australian troops, or were insurgents lawfully killed in a firefight.

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World’s highest jailing rate found in Uyghur county of China, data leak suggests

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One in 25 people sentenced to prison on terrorism-related charges in Konasheher, Xinjiang province, where Communist party represses Muslim minority

Nearly one in 25 people in a county of the Uyghur heartland of China has been sentenced to prison on terrorism-related charges, in what is the highest known imprisonment rate in the world, an Associated Press review of leaked data shows.

A list obtained and partially verified by the Associated Press cites the names of more than 10,000 Uyghurs sent to prison in just Konasheher county, one of dozens in southern Xinjiang. In recent years, China has waged a brutal crackdown on the Uyghurs, a largely Muslim minority, which it has described as a “war on terror”.

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Cuban parliament approves penal code which activists warn curbs dissent

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The updates, touted as ‘modernizing’ the country’s laws, control unauthorized contacts with foreign organizations and individuals

Cuba’s parliament has approved a new penal code that officials say modernizes the country’s laws but human rights groups warn tightens already strict limits on dissent.

The law approved late on Sunday controls unauthorized contacts with foreign organizations and individuals and explicitly bans foreign financing.

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Priti Patel lifts restrictions on police stop and search powers

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Home secretary announces the end of limitations on use of section 60 powers where serious violence anticipated

The government is lifting restrictions placed on police stop and search powers in areas where they anticipate violent crime, the home secretary has announced.

In a letter to police forces on Monday, Priti Patel outlined the easing of conditions on the use of the tactics under section 60 of the criminal justice and public order act.

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Calling a man ‘bald’ is sexual harassment, employment tribunal rules

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Tony Finn, who worked at West Yorkshire manufacturing firm for 24 years, is in line for compensation

Calling a man “bald” is sexual harassment, an employment tribunal has ruled.

Hair loss is much more prevalent among men than women so using it to describe someone is a form of discrimination, a judge has concluded. Commenting on a man’s baldness in the workplace is equivalent to remarking on the size of a woman’s breasts, the finding suggests.

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Levi Bellfield: Raab says granting marriage request ‘inconceivable’

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Justice secretary says safeguarding concerns must be addressed, and criticises Human Rights Act

Granting Levi Bellfield’s request to get married in prison is “inconceivable” unless serious safeguarding concerns are addressed, Dominic Raab has said.

Bellfield, who murdered Marsha McDonnell, Amelie Delagrange and Milly Dowler, is engaged and has requested a prison wedding, the Ministry of Justice has confirmed.

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Experts scorn UK government claim it can ditch parts of NI protocol

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Lawyers reject Liz Truss’s claim that UK is able to dump parts of treaty with EU without its agreement

Claims that the UK government has discovered a legal justification for tearing up large parts of Brexit arrangements in Northern Ireland have been greeted with scorn by expert lawyers.

The attorney general, Suella Braverman, has reportedly approved overriding the Northern Ireland protocol on the grounds that it is being unfairly enforced by the EU. Her submission, understood to be based on external advice, claims the EU’s “disproportionate and unreasonable” implementation is undermining the Good Friday agreement (GFA), according to the Times.

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Are Canadians being driven to assisted suicide by poverty or healthcare crisis?

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Critics argue laws are being misused to punish the poor but experts say cases represent country’s failure to care for its most vulnerable citizens

After pleading unsuccessfully for affordable housing to help ease her chronic health condition, a Canadian woman ended her life in February under the country’s assisted-suicide laws. Another woman, suffering from the same condition and also living on disability payments, has nearly reached final approval to end her life.

The two high-profile cases have prompted disbelief and outrage, and shone a light on Canada’s right-to-die laws, which critics argue are being misused to punish the poor and infirm. In late April, the Spectator ran a story with the provocative headline: Why is Canada euthanising the poor?

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Hundreds of mentally ill prisoners denied urgent treatment in England

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Most seriously ill inmates left to wait in cells often due to bed shortages at secure hospitals, data shows

Hundreds of severely mentally ill prisoners in urgent need of hospital treatment are being left in prison cells due to bed shortages in secure NHS psychiatric units, an investigation has discovered.

Freedom of information (FoI) responses from 22 NHS trusts reveal for the first time that just over half of the 5,403 prisoners in England assessed by prison-based psychiatrists to require hospitalisation were not transferred between 2016 and 2021 – an 81% increase on the number of prisoners denied a transfer in the previous five years.

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‘Access is vital’: picnicking protesters target Duke of Somerset’s woods

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Group of 200 Totnes residents trespass and eat sandwiches and Victoria sponge to highlight lack of right to roam

On a beautiful Sunday in May a spot under the trees in an ancient woodland would seem like an idyllic location for a picnic for residents of the Devon town of Totnes.

But when a group of 200 people settled down on the grass to enjoy sandwiches and slices of Victoria sponge next to the publicly funded woodland, they were actually breaking the law.

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‘He is Mr Rules’: Labour denies leak shows Starmer broke lockdown laws

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Tories claim document published in Mail on Sunday proves Labour leader is guilty of ‘rank double standards’

Labour has rejected claims that a leaked planning memo about Keir Starmer’s visit to Durham last year undermined his assertion he did not break lockdown laws, insisting he is “Mr Rules”.

The Labour document, published by the Mail on Sunday, shows that an 80-minute dinner with the Labour MP Mary Foy, featuring a takeaway curry, was planned as part of his schedule.

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Ben Roberts-Smith defamation trial: witness expected to deny wrongdoing in killing of Afghan villager

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Person 11 to give evidence on allegation by newspapers that Roberts-Smith kicked handcuffed man off cliff before ordering him shot

An Australian soldier alleged by three newspapers to have participated with Ben Roberts-Smith in the “joint criminal enterprise” of murdering an Afghan villager named Ali Jan is set to appear in the federal court this week as a witness for Roberts-Smith in his defamation action against the newspapers.

Anonymised before the court as Person 11, the SAS’s soldier evidence will be critical to Roberts-Smith’s case over the events in the village of Darwan on 11 September 2012, when Roberts-Smith is alleged, by the newspapers in their defence, to have kicked a handcuffed Ali Jan off a cliff before ordering him shot.

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UK urged to act after UN panel rules detention of Briton in India ‘arbitrary’

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Jagtar Singh Johal has been detained since 2017 and allegedly tortured, accused of helping to fund assassination plot

The UK is under pressure to insist India release Jagtar Singh Johal, a British citizen, after a UN working group ruled he had been arbitrarily detained by India and his detention lacked any legal basis.

Boris Johnson apparently raised the case when he met the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, last month and provided a written note of consular cases, but Foreign Office ministers have not confirmed whether they regard his detention as arbitrary.

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Priti Patel’s Rwanda plan for UK asylum seekers faces its first legal challenge

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Home secretary is violating international law, the UN refugee convention and data protection rules, say lawyers

The first legal action has been launched against Priti Patel’s plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda as the UN’s refugee agency raised concerns that the UK is “inviting” other European countries to adopt the same divisive immigration policy.

Lodged last Tuesday, the legal challenge states that the home secretary’s proposals run contrary to international law and the UN refugee convention, as well as breaching British data protection law.

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Tortured to death: the 14 Cypriot men killed by British in 50s uprising

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Book reveals fate of EOKA guerrilla fighters at the hands of the army during the dying days of empire on the Mediterranean island

At least 14 Cypriots were tortured then murdered by UK forces during an armed uprising in the late 1950s, according to newly unearthed evidence that raises fresh questions over another shocking chapter of Britain’s colonial history.

Testimony from British veterans and Cypriot rebel fighters, along with postmortem and morgue records, as well as previously undisclosed material from Cypriot archives, suggest that the victims died after being interrogated by UK officers. The dead, all men aged between 17 and 37, were arrested on suspicion of being part of the National Organisation of Cypriot Fighters, a paramilitary organisation known as EOKA, which orchestrated a guerrilla campaign to overthrow British control in Cyprus.

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Tories face test on cost of living and Partygate as people vote across the UK – as it happened

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Latest updates: elections take place in many areas across the UK with polling stations open from 7am to 10pm BST

Boris Johnson and the Japanese prime minister watched an RAF flypast together in Horse Guards Parade before their bilateral discussions in No 10, PA Media reports. PA says:

The pair stood on a dais as they witnessed a Voyager and two Typhoon fighter jets soar over St James’s Park and the parade ground.

Fumio Kishida was then invited in Japanese by the captain of the Nijmegen Company, Grenadier Guards, to inspect a guard of honour.

My forecast ... predicts that the Conservatives will lose more than 200 council seats across Great Britain on polling day (Thursday 5 May). They will suffer net losses of 63 in London, 38 across the rest of England, 83 in Scotland and 22 in Wales.

Labour, meanwhile, will make a net gain of 35 council seats in London but a net loss of 16 across the rest of England. That net loss, however, will be more than compensated for by net gains of 87 and 41 in Scotland and Wales respectively.

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Civil servants called UK Covid testing scheme ‘unlegit’, court hears

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Details of emails released in Good Law Project challenge to awarding of contracts to Abingdon Health for antibody tests

Civil servants described the government’s Covid testing programme as “unlegit” and “no way to do business” in emails revealed in a high court challenge to the awarding of up to £85m in contracts for antibody tests.

The campaigning organisation Good Law Project (GLP) is challenging the health and social care secretary, claiming the contracts with Abingdon Health, a medium-sized UK firm, were unlawful because they were not advertised nor open to competition, and the correct procurement process was bypassed.

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Partygate means all Covid fines should be overturned, lawyer argues

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Call for penalties to be scrapped in light of Boris Johnson’s defence of breaches, as 23 already struck down

Covid fines should be overturned en masse in light of the prime minister’s defence for attending lockdown-breaching events, a lawyer has argued, as it emerged more than 20 penalties imposed on businesses had been struck down in recent months.

Lucinda Nicholls, who successfully represented 23 firms and is still fighting on behalf of seven more, said serious deficiencies in the evidence presented against her clients – as well as Boris Johnson’s own apparent confusion about how to apply his own rules – called every penalty imposed under Covid legislation into question.

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‘Betrayal’: chief justice orders inquiry into leak of draft abortion ruling

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John Roberts says leak of opinion to overturn Roe v Wade ‘intended to undermine the integrity of our operations’

John Roberts, the US chief justice, has announced an investigation into a leak showing that the supreme court provisionally voted to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v Wade case that legalised abortion nationwide.

Publication of the draft opinion by the Politico website on Monday night sparked demonstrations outside America’s highest court, condemnation from Joe Biden and fears that the judiciary has suffered profound damage to its reputation for independence.

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