Category Archives: Law

Covid news: UK removes quarantine requirement for arrivals from Balearics, Malta and some Caribbean islands

Posted on by

Latest updates: territories are added to UK’s green list or green watchlist, while more countries added to red list

Rory Boland, travel editor for consumer group Which?, said travellers still needed to be “extremely cautious” about booking trips abroad.
He said: “Countries can be downgraded quickly and with little warning, as we saw with Portugal, while several European countries have introduced quarantine requirements for UK residents. “Restrictions around international travel are changing regularly and when they do, the cost to holidaymakers is significant. “Most providers will not pay refunds if a country is moved from green to amber, and ‘free’ amendments are often anything but, with many companies requiring significant notice of any changes and bookings for new dates usually costing hundreds of pounds. Travel insurance is also unlikely to pay out in these circumstances. “It is only advisable to book if you are able to do 14 days’ quarantine, can be flexible about destination and dates, and book with a provider that guarantees refunds in the event of traffic light changes or quarantine requirements.”

Eluned Morgan MS, minister for health and social services in Wales, said: “International travel is resuming but the pandemic is not over and protecting people’s health remains our main priority.

“Our strong advice continues to be not to travel overseas unless it is essential because of the risk of contracting coronavirus, especially new and emerging variants of concern.

Continue reading...

Greek police arrest Dutch journalist for helping Afghan asylum seeker

Posted on by

Ingeborg Beugel was detained for ‘facilitating the illegal stay of a foreigner’ and faces up to a year in jail

A Dutch journalist based in Greece has been arrested on the Greek island of Hydra for hosting an Afghan asylum seeker in her home and could face up to a year in prison if charged and convicted.

Ingeborg Beugel, 61, a freelance correspondent for Dutch media who has lived on Hydra for almost 40 years, was arrested on 13 June accused of “facilitating the illegal stay of a foreigner in Greece”. The charge carries a 12-month prison sentence and a fine of €5,000 (£4,300).

Continue reading...

Swiss court convicts Liberian rebel of rape, killings and cannibalism

Posted on by

Alieu Kosiah gets maximum 20-year sentence in Switzerland’s first war crimes trial in a civilian court

A Liberian rebel commander has been sentenced in Switzerland to 20 years in jail for rape, killings and an act of cannibalism, in one of the first convictions over the west African country’s civil war.

The case was also Switzerland’s first war crimes trial in a civilian court. It involved 46-year-old Alieu Kosiah, who went by the nom de guerre “bluff boy” in the rebel faction Ulimo that fought former President Charles Taylor’s army in the 1990s.

Continue reading...

Linen condoms and bed curtains: tour exposes history of sex in Scotland

Posted on by

National Trust for Scotland presents exploration of intimacy from 17th to 20th century

The chafing doesn’t bear thinking about. A replica linen condom secured with a dainty blue ribbon is one of the more wince-inducing props for a new exploration of the history of sex and intimate lives in Scotland.

The other material used to fashion prophylactics in the 17th century was animal gut, which was dried then rehydrated at the crucial moment. The Edinburgh-born diarist James Boswell writes about dipping one in a river before intercourse. He was adamant about their use to ward off venereal disease, but still recorded numerous painful bouts of infection in his journals.

Continue reading...

Pride month in Guatemala marred by killings of three LGBTQ+ people

Posted on by

Celebrations become ‘month of mourning’ after three murders in a week, with calls for urgent state reform

Guatemala’s LGBTQ+ community is in mourning after two transgender women and a gay man were murdered in less than a week during pride month.

Andrea González, a prominent activist and leader in the transgender women’s organisation Otrans Reinas de la Noche (Queens of the Night) was shot dead on 11 June in the street near her home in Guatemala City. Her murder followed the killing of another Otrans member, Cecy Ixpatá, who was assaulted and died from her injuries on 9 June in a hospital in Salamá, about 50 miles north of Guatemala City. José Manuel Vargas Villeda, a 22-year-old gay man was also shot and killed on 14 June in Morales, 150 miles north-east of the capital.

Continue reading...

EU ‘has blood on its hands’, say activists calling for border agency’s abolition

Posted on by

Coalition of rights groups demanding Frontex be defunded claim EU policies have ‘killed over 40,555 people since 1993’

Activists, captains of rescue ships and about 80 human rights organisations across the world have launched an international campaign calling for the European border agency to be defunded and dismantled.

In an open letter sent last week to the European Commission, the Council of the EU and the European parliament, the campaign coalition highlighted the “illegal and inhumane practices” of the EU border agency, Frontex, which is accused of having promoted and enforced violent policies against migrants.

Continue reading...

Françoise Hardy, ‘close to the end’ of her life, argues for assisted suicide

Posted on by

The French singer says radiation has left her in immense pain, and fears a natural death would bring ‘even more physical suffering’

Françoise Hardy, the French pop songwriter who found fame in the 60s yé-yé movement, has said she feels “close to the end” of her life in a new interview.

Hardy, 77, told Femme Actuelle that in 2018 she was diagnosed with a tumour in her ear. It followed her diagnosis with lymphatic cancer in the mid-2000s, and a hospitalisation in 2015 that led to her being placed in an induced coma. Her life was saved when doctors administered a novel form of radiation.

Continue reading...

Home Office abandons plans to deport Osime Brown to Jamaica

Posted on by

Family celebrate success of campaign to halt deportation of 22-year-old, who has autism

A 22-year-old man who has autism and his family are celebrating after the Home Office abandoned plans to deport him to Jamaica.

Osime Brown, who left Jamaica aged four to settle in the UK with his mother, Joan Martin, was facing deportation after being released from prison where he had been serving a sentence for stealing a friend’s mobile phone, though he and others said he did not do it.

Continue reading...

The sexual assault of sleeping women: the hidden, horrifying rape crisis in Britain’s bedrooms

Posted on by

A recent survey suggested a shockingly high proportion of women have been sexually assaulted by a partner as they slept. Now more and more are speaking out

Niamh Ní Dhomhnaill had been with her partner for almost a year when she discovered that he’d been raping her while she slept. At the time, she was 25, and a language teacher in a Dublin secondary school. Her partner, Magnus Meyer Hustveit, was Norwegian. The couple had moved in together within a few months of meeting, but things were tense. It wasn’t a happy relationship.

On that particular night, Ní Dhomhnaill had been out with Hustveit and other friends, but left early, alone, because she felt unwell. “I’d only drunk water but I’d gone to bed and was out for the count,” she says. “I didn’t hear Magnus come back, which is unusual because I’d always been a light sleeper.”

Continue reading...

Giulio Regeni’s last messages before his death in Egypt counter spy claims

Posted on by

Facebook messages from the Italian student killed in Cairo in 2016 show his concerns about studying in the country

The Facebook messages written by the Cambridge student Giulio Regeni in the weeks leading up to his murder give the lie to any notion he was a spy or political agitator.

Even before he left England, Regeni was concerned about the risks he might face doing his thesis on trade unions in Egypt, a sensitive subject in the country.

Continue reading...

Home Office condemned for forcing migrants on bail to wear GPS tags

Posted on by

Round-the-clock tracking condemned as ‘Trojan horse’ giving government vast surveillance powers that violate human rights

More than 40 human rights organisations have condemned the Home Office’s introduction of 24-hour GPS monitoring of people on immigration bail in an expansion of surveillance powers that has involved no consultation process.

The new policy marks a shift from using radio frequency monitors (which alert authorities if the wearer leaves an assigned area) to round-the-clock GPS trackers (which can track a person’s every move), while also giving the Home Office new powers to collect, store and access this data indefinitely via a private contractor.

Continue reading...

Agnes Chow: activist leaves jail as China says Hong Kong ‘pawn in geopolitics’

Posted on by

Key figure in 2019 anti-government protests was imprisoned for more than six months under national security law imposed by mainland China

The Hong Kong democracy activist Agnes Chow has been released from jail after serving more than six months for taking part in unauthorised assemblies during 2019 anti-government protests that triggered a crackdown on dissent by mainland China.

Chow, 24, was greeted by a crowd of journalists as she left the Tai Lam women’s prison on Saturday. She got out of a prison van and into a private car without making any remarks.

Continue reading...

Frontex turning ‘blind eye’ to human rights violations, says former deputy

Posted on by

Gil Arias Fernández says EU border agency, which is under investigation for illegal migrant pushbacks, cannot stop far-right infiltrating its ranks

The former deputy head of Europe’s border and coastguard agency has said the state of the beleaguered force “pains” him and that it is vulnerable to the “alarming” rise of populism across the continent.

In his first interview since leaving office, Gil Arias Fernández, former deputy director at Frontex and once tipped for the top post, said he was deeply worried about the agency’s damaged reputation, its decision to arm officers, and its inability to stop the far-right infiltrating its ranks, amid anti-migrant movements across Europe.

Continue reading...

Student’s rape and murder puts India’s sexual violence under spotlight again

Posted on by

Despite new laws to combat the problem, a rape is reported every 15 minutes, leaving victims and families crying out for justice

It was a historic day for women in India. Mamata Banerjee and her party won a spectacular election victory in West Bengal, defeating the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) of the prime minister, Narendra Modi, defying many predictions. Securing a third term as chief minister, she was the only woman in such an important position in India.

The following day, 3 May, while TV anchors debated how Banerjee’s win represented not only a strong force against Modi but also made her a powerful woman in a patriarchal country, a 20-year-old student, known only as Jana (her identity cannot be revealed under Indian law), was cornered by two men in a village, about 70 miles west of Kolkata, West Bengal’s main city.

Continue reading...

Polish government faces court action over failure to tackle climate crisis

Posted on by

Five citizens accuse government of failing to protect them from impacts of global heating

Five Polish citizens are taking their government to court over its failure to protect them from the impacts of the climate crisis.

They say the state has breached their rights to life, health and family life by delaying action to cut national carbon emissions and propping up the coal industry.

Continue reading...

EU takes legal action against Germany after tussle between courts

Posted on by

Brussels says German court ruling contradicting ECJ sets ‘dangerous precedent’ for integrity of EU law

Brussels has launched a legal case against Germany over an alleged breach of “the principle of the primacy of EU law” by the country’s constitutional court.

The “infringement proceeding” is the result of a ruling last year by the German federal constitutional court in Karlsruhe which it is claimed undermined the pre-eminence of the European court of justice (ECJ).

Continue reading...

Ratko Mladić: life in prison is as close to justice as his victims will get

Posted on by

Analysis: upholding of genocide conviction for 1995 atrocities is a victorious end to a process few thought would succeed

When Ratko Mladić’s life sentence for genocide and crimes against humanity was confirmed, marking the end of the road for the Bosnian Serb general 10 years after his capture, Munira Subašić was in The Hague courtroom to watch.

In July 1995, Subašić was outside a UN compound, a disused battery factory near Srebrenica, appealing for protection from Dutch peacekeepers along with thousands of other terrified Bosnian Muslims.

Continue reading...

Daughter of Biloela asylum seekers evacuated from Christmas Island for urgent medical care

Posted on by

Australian-born Tharnicaa Murugappan in Perth hospital with suspected blood infection after Tamil family’s 18-month detention on island

The youngest daughter of the Tamil family from Biloela who have been detained for more than 18 months on Christmas Island has been evacuated to Perth for emergency medical care, advocates have said.

Tharnicaa Murugappan has been evacuated along with her mother, Priya, after being hospitalised with a suspected blood infection.

Continue reading...

The Nobel committee should resign over the atrocities in Tigray

Posted on by

Members of the body that awarded the 2019 peace prize to Ethiopia’s premier, Abiy Ahmed, should all depart in protest

The war on Tigray in Ethiopia has been going on for months. Thousands of people have been killed and wounded, women and girls have been raped by military forces, and more than 2 million citizens have been forced out of their homes. Prime minister and Nobel peace prize laureate Abiy Ahmed stated that a nation on its way to “prosperity” would experience a few “rough patches” that would create “blisters”. This is how he rationalised what is alleged to be a genocide.

Nobel committee members have individual responsibility for awarding the 2019 peace prize to Abiy Ahmed, accused of waging the war in Tigray. The members should thus collectively resign their honourable positions at the Nobel committee in protest and defiance.

Continue reading...

ECJ rejects Hungarian case against MEPs’ vote to pursue sanctions

Posted on by

Hungary fails in attempt to argue abstentions should have been taken into account in 2018 vote

The European court of justice has dismissed an attempt by Hungary to reverse the outcome of a vote by MEPs that for the first time in the EU’s history triggered a process that could lead to a country being stripped of voting rights in Brussels.

A resolution in 2018 raising concerns over the independence of Hungary’s judiciary, the functioning of its constitution and attacks on freedoms of association, religion and expression passed by a majority of votes cast.

Continue reading...