Judge says WikiLeaks co-founder ‘still has an incentive to abscond from these, as yet unresolved, proceedings’
Julian Assange has been refused bail by a judge who this week rejected a US request to have him extradited to face espionage and hacking charges.
The co-founder of WikiLeaks has been held at Belmarsh prison in south-east London for the past 18 months after he was evicted from the Ecuadorian embassy, where he sought asylum for seven years.
Continue reading...Judge said the ‘humiliating’ practice was used to cast suspicion on the victim, and deflected focus from the act of sexual violence
A Pakistani court has outlawed the practice of subjecting female rape survivors to a virginity test in an unprecedented ruling.
Lahore’s high court ruled on Monday that the virginity test has no legal basis and “offends the personal dignity of the female victim”.
Continue reading...Joe Biden’s priorities could scupper extradition of WikiLeaks co-founder, says departing Virginia attorney
The American prosecutor seeking to put Julian Assange on trial in the US has said he is uncertain if Joe Biden’s incoming White House administration will continue to seek the extradition of the WikiLeaks co-founder.
Zachary Terwilliger, who was appointed by Donald Trump, made the comments as it was announced that he was stepping down as the US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Continue reading...Legal team for WikiLeaks co-founder expected to refer to Covid risk at Belmarsh prison
Julian Assange will make a fresh appeal to be released from prison this week after a British judge ruled that he cannot be extradited to the US to face charges of espionage and hacking government computers.
While district judge Vanessa Baraitser rejected arguments that Assange would not get a fair trial in the US, she blocked extradition on the basis that the WikiLeaks co-founder was at risk of taking his own life if he were to be held in isolation.
Continue reading...Stephen Greenhalgh said executives should not ‘hide behind’ rarely used French law
The UK government has demanded that executives who supplied combustible cladding to Grenfell Tower “step up to the plate” after their refusal to give evidence to the public inquiry into the disaster provoked anger among the bereaved and survivors.
On Sunday, Stephen Greenhalgh, the building safety minister, escalated a legal and diplomatic dispute over the position taken by three current and former executives at the French division of the US company Arconic. He told them to stop hiding behind an arcane French law.
Continue reading...Criminal networks are depending on the chaos of Covid and Brexit. Now more than ever we need focus and international cooperation to prevent further tragedies
Trials in the UK of the drivers and haulage organisers involved in the Essex lorry tragedy in which 39 Vietnamese migrants perished ended in guilty pleas and convictions. Vietnam also convicted the agents who brokered the victims’ journeys to the UK and sentenced them to terms of imprisonment.
While these are positive developments in achieving some measure of justice for the victims, they won’t do anything to stem the smuggling and trafficking of Vietnamese migrants to the UK. No justice system has reached the actual masterminds and profiteers behind this horrific crime: the organised crime groups.
Continue reading...2020 led to surges in everything from domestic abuse to black markets in fake vaccines
By the end of March, one week into the UK’s first lockdown, recorded crime in Lancashire had dropped by a startling 40% compared with the four-year average.
“At first there was some mild panic,” says DCI Eric Halford, of Lancashire Constabulary. “Most senior officers expected a surge in demand.”
Continue reading...Students among those who could face long sentences under sweeping lese-majesty law
Thailand’s authorities must stop targeting pro-democracy protesters with draconian legal action and instead enter into dialogue, according to the UN’s special rapporteur for freedom of assembly, who warned the country risks sliding into violence.
Clément Voule said he had written to the Thai government to express alarm at the use of the fierce lese-majesty law against dozens of protesters, including students as young as 16.
Continue reading...Human rights organisation says allegations that Nicholas Opiyo withdrew over $300,000 in funds are ‘frivolous’ and ‘fabricated’
Nicholas Opiyo, one of Uganda’s most prominent human rights lawyers, has been charged with money laundering.
Opiyo, known for representing LGBTQ+ people, appeared before magistrates in Kampala on Thursday and was remanded in custody until 28 December.
Continue reading...Country’s expected ascension to human rights council presidency is being challenged by a China-backed bid by Bahrain
For a small country in the South Pacific that joined the UN’s powerful human rights council for the first time in 2019, Fiji has made giant strides within the organisation: right to the very top ... almost.
By consensus, Fiji’s chief diplomat in Geneva, ambassador Nazhat Shameem Khan, was set to assume the presidency of the council for 2021, a historic first not only for Fiji, but for a Pacific region consistently under-represented on the global stage.
Continue reading...When she was just 24 and her colleague was attacked by Harvey Weinstein, Perkins took on the media mogul. She explains the impact of this year’s verdict and why she is still fighting against the non disclosure agreements that kept his crimes being revealed
For more than 20 years, Zelda Perkins had known that the film producer Harvey Weinstein was a sexual predator, though not the scale of his abuse. This year, Weinstein was finally convicted of rape; in March, he was sentenced to 23 years in prison. Perkins was “blown away”.
Perkins was not one of the women Weinstein assaulted, but her colleague was. Instead, Perkins became – as a naive but furious 24-year-old assistant – one of the few people brave enough to stand up to the rich, powerful man known for his bullying and ability to make or break careers.
Continue reading...In a last-ditch effort to stay alive, Dustin Higgs, a federal death row prisoner set to be put to death next month as part of the Trump administration’s flurry of executions in its final days in office, has petitioned the president for clemency.
Related: Trump administration has executed more Americans than all states combined, report finds
Continue reading...Supreme court upholds order against Zamira Hajiyeva, who spent £1m a year at Harrods
A woman who spent £1m a year at Harrods will be forced to give up her £15m home unless she reveals the source of her fortune following the UK’s first McMafia-style “dirty money” investigation.
Zamira Hajiyeva, the wife of a former boss of the Azerbaijani state bank jailed for fraud, has lost her final appeal against a court order forcing her to reveal how she came by so much money.
Continue reading...Court found L&Q had misled black woman who was harassed by family and had to flee her home
A leading housing association has been condemned by a court for failing to support a tenant made homeless after a racist campaign by neighbours.
London & Quadrant (L&Q), which accommodates 250,000 people across London and the south-east, ignored a code of practice on protecting tenants from racial harassment and was guilty of defensiveness and insensitivity, according to a county court judgment issued last week.
Continue reading...Critics say plan for third runway runs counter to UK’s legally binding target of net zero emissions by 2050
The government faces a legal challenge over its plan to expand Heathrow airport, with lawyers and environmentalists demanding it review its policy in line with its commitment to net-zero emissions by 2050.
The Good Law Project, a not-for-profit organisation with a focus on public interest cases including environmentalism and tackling poverty, argues that the government must update its plan for a third runway to take into account the emissions pledge it made following the approval for the airport expansion in June 2018.
Continue reading...Despite promises in opposition to end enforced abduction by the security forces, under Imran Khan’s government numbers have increased
The abductors moved with an ease and stealth that suggested they had done this before. As Qayyum* and his family slept, 12 masked and uniformed soldiers used a ladder to scale the gate of the house, in an affluent neighbourhood of the Pakistani city of Quetta in Balochistan. The family woke as they burst in but the officers silenced them with an order: don’t scream or we will beat you. One demanded Qayyum’s national identity card.
“Bring your phone and laptop,” barked an officer. A bag was shoved over Qayyum’s head and he was dragged outside and thrown into the back of a car.
Continue reading...Cases of two men accused of trying to rob a police officer in 1972 are being referred to court of appeal
Two men who were jailed nearly 50 years ago on the word of a corrupt detective could finally have their names cleared.
The cases of two members of the so-called “Stockwell Six”, who were accused of attempting to rob that officer on the underground, are now being referred to the court of appeal by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC).
Continue reading...15 March 1933 – 18 September 2020
The revered US supreme court justice’s former clerk recalls a friend who cared passionately about the dignity and rights of all
Before she became the Notorious RBG, Justice Ginsburg was my hero. I had worked at the American Civil Liberties Union and knew of her advocacy establishing gender equality in the law. I was beyond excited years later to interview for a judicial clerkship with her, and yet the interview began in the most awkward way. She appeared at the door of her Watergate apartment, elegant and soft spoken. I noticed my writing samples in her left hand, a bright red circle around a few words on the first page. My heart sank. Did I actually send an article with an error?! She noted that I omitted a “per curium” parenthetical following a case name. I smiled at her precision – she was of course correct – and explained that I was writing for a lay audience, omitting the Latin to keep their attention. She gave me a kind pass. We proceeded to have a rich discussion about gender equality and reproductive justice. I was thrilled when she then offered me the clerkship.
That year, October term 1995, a big women’s rights case came before the supreme court: United States v Virginia, challenging the male-only admission policy at Virginia Military Institute (VMI). The experience of researching, drafting, and polishing the landmark opinion brought us close together. She cared a great deal about this case. Drawing on case law she helped establish as a women’s rights litigator, this was her first gender equality opinion as a supreme court justice. She was persuasive here too: a large majority of the justices joined her opinion, in which she noted that VMI had continued to exclude women, when our constitutional understanding of who was included in “We the People” had expanded.
Continue reading...Police have warned against increased vigilantism after spate of sexual abuse cases
A father who was reportedly beaten by a mob after he allegedly killed the man who attacked his daughter has died in hospital, in a case that has drawn attention to Malawi’s rise in reported rape cases.
The death of the 47-year-old man in Malawi’s capital Lilongwe was reported on Thursday. He had allegedly been beaten and left for dead by a vigilante mob, said to be relatives and friends of the man he had killed.
Continue reading...Court expected to rule there is still insufficient evidence against China, but file to be kept open
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has asked for more evidence before it will be willing to open an investigation into claims of genocide against Uighur people by China, but has said it will keep the file open for such further evidence to be submitted.
With Beijing not a signatory to the ICC, those bringing the claim of genocide have pointed to the alleged forcing of Uighur people from Tajikistan and Cambodia into China as evidence. Both countries are signatories to the Rome statute setting up the ICC.
Continue reading...