Government calls Vatican representative for talks after scathing letter accuses Mnangagwa of corruption and abuse of power
The Zimbabwean government has summoned the Vatican representative in Harare over growing criticism by Catholic bishops of the country’s human rights record.
The move follows a scathing letter send by local clergy accusing President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s regime of abusing power in its crackdown on political activists, and of rampant corruption.
Continue reading...A writ alleges the aged care home allowed staff or residents not to wear PPE and rove freely within the centre despite coronavirus risk
St Basil’s aged care home breached its duty of care and failed its residents, according to a writ filed in the Victorian supreme court over the nursing response to the Covid-19 pandemic, which has cost dozens of the centre’s residents their lives.
The writ, obtained by Guardian Australia, was filed on Thursday and lists Effie Fotiadis as the first applicant in a case that could include residents, their families, employees, or the estates of residents at the Victorian aged care centre.
Continue reading...Assurances on Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh dependent on UK handing over evidence
The US has promised not to pursue the death penalty against two British Isis members accused of taking part in the beheadings of western hostages, in return for UK cooperation with the prosecution.
The pledge was given in a letter from the US attorney general, William Barr, in the case of Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh, members of the “Beatles” group of British Isis members, who were captured by Syrian Kurds and then handed over to US custody last October.
Continue reading...The first step to change is to admit that systemic racism exists. To own it. Only then can we root it out
• Time to reset: more brilliant ideas to remake the world
Ever since I was a boy, it was my dream to become a policeman. Growing up in Toxteth, Liverpool, amid the riots of the 1980s, it must have seemed crazy: black gay scousers from working-class estates didn’t go into the police.
I joined Greater Manchester police three months after 9/11. From training, through to my transfer to the Metropolitan police in London, racism blighted my career. I fell ill with depression, and challenged the police in the courts. The Metropolitan police was found to have harassed, victimised and discriminated against me, because of my sexuality and the colour of my skin. I was then forced out after 11 years’ service.
Continue reading...Pro-democracy rallies continue with large event due to be held in Bangkok on Sunday
A prominent student protest leader in Thailand has been arrested on charges of sedition as pro-democracy rallies continued across the country.
Parit Chiwarak, 22, whose arrest was livestreamed on social media, was stopped on the outskirts of Bangkok on Friday night. As he was physically carried into a car, he raised his hand in a three-fingered salute – a gesture borrowed from the Hunger Games that is used by protesters and symbolises opposition to the military-backed government.
Continue reading...Pro-democracy activists allege five British officers have taken part in brutal actions against protesters
Pro-democracy activists have launched a private prosecution in London against five British officers working for the Hong Kong police, alleging they have taken part in brutal actions against protesters.
The officers – who have not been named – occupy senior roles inside Hong Kong’s local police force. They are accused of torturing anti-government demonstrators, who have been protesting since June last year over an extradition bill and security law imposed by Beijing.
Continue reading...Car driven by a friend pulled over by officers who later admitted they made a mistake
Dawn Butler, the Labour MP and former shadow equalities minister, has accused the police of being institutionally racist after she was stopped while driving to Sunday lunch with a friend.
Butler, a strong critic of police stop-and-search tactics, said the car was being driven by her male friend, who like Butler is black, when two police cars pulled it over in Hackney, east London. Officers said the vehicle was registered in North Yorkshire.
Continue reading...Children with autism among those detained in England and Wales and left for hours in sometimes filthy cells
Children with Down’s syndrome and autism were among those left for hours in court cells while they waited for legal representation or transport, a custody watchdog has revealed in a damning report.
The treatment of some young people, including those with disabilities, was labelled unacceptable and a “matter of embarrassment” for the criminal justice system by the Lay Observers (LO), volunteers who inspect court custody conditions and transport arrangements for detainees in England and Wales.
Continue reading...Preliminary opinion a setback for Christian Brückner’s attempt to appeal conviction using European arrest warrant rules
The prime suspect in the disappearance of the British toddler Madeleine McCann was told that he was lawfully put on trial for rape last year, as his lawyers attempt to overturn that conviction at the European court of justice.
Christian Brückner, a 43-year-old German, is trying to overturn his conviction for the rape of a 72-year-old American woman in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in 2005. He has argued at the ECJ that he had been extradited to Germany from Portugal, and later Italy, on a different charge.
Continue reading...Court in Guangzhou announced Xu Weihong’s penalty and said an alleged accomplice had been given a life sentence
China has sentenced a third Canadian citizen to death on drug charges amid a steep decline in relations between the two countries.
A court in Guangzhou announced Xu Weihong’s penalty on Thursday and said an alleged accomplice, Wen Guanxiong, had been given a life sentence.
Continue reading...Attacks following election at centre of ‘most serious known case of human rights abuse suffered by Unilever workers’
A group of 218 Kenyan tea plantation workers have filed a complaint with the UN against Unilever, alleging that the multinational violated international human rights standards by not adequately assisting its employees, who were attacked when ethnic violence broke out following a disputed election in 2007.
The workers say that Unilever, known in the UK for its PG Tips brand, breached its obligation to remediate any human rights abuses to which it has contributed, which is central to the UN’s guiding principles on business and human rights, and which the company has endorsed. They request the UN’s working group on business and human rights to make a declaration to this effect, and to call on the company to provide redress.
Continue reading...A federal appeals court on Friday overturned the death sentence of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the man convicted in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.
The three-judge panel of the first US circuit court of appeals in Boston issued the decision more than six months after arguments were heard.
Continue reading...Lawyers argue human rights of ‘extremely vulnerable’ woman were breached by Home Office access to personal and confidential details
A British victim of trafficking is bringing a case against the home secretary, Priti Patel, arguing that her department unlawfully accessed personal information including details of her intimate thoughts.
If the case succeeds it could have implications for tens of thousands of others who may also have had their personal information accessed by officials. Five other survivors of trafficking have threatened the minister and her office with legal proceedings on this issue.
Continue reading...Salo Muller secured €50m from Dutch railway for transporting people to Nazi camps
A Holocaust survivor who successfully campaigned for the Dutch railway to pay compensation for transporting people to the Nazi concentration camps has tabled a legal claim against the German state over the wartime role of the Deutsche Reichsbahn.
Salo Muller, 84, whose parents were taken by rail from Amsterdam to the Dutch transit camp Westerbork, and on to their deaths at Auschwitz, is demanding an apology and financial recompense for about 500 Dutch survivors and about 5,500 next of kin.
Continue reading...UK and EU at odds over role of European court of justice in settling disputes
Boris Johnson is facing a major Brexit test with the future of Eurotunnel operations at stake, it has emerged.
The EU wants the UK to drop its opposition to a role for the European court of justice in British affairs to ensure trains keep running between France and the UK after Brexit is implemented on 1 January.
Continue reading...High court hears closing remarks in three-week libel case exposing couple’s relationship
Amber Heard has spoken of her trauma at reliving the breakup of her marriage, saying she is “placing her faith in British justice” as Johnny Depp’s lawyer branded her a “compulsive liar” and the “abuser” in the couple’s relationship.
As the libel action brought by Depp against the publishers of the Sun newspaper ended on Tuesday, Heard was booed and heckled by Depp fans who have gathered daily outside the high court in London for the proceedings over allegations that the Pirates of the Caribbean star had been violent towards her.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Mishcon de Reya partner Mike Stubbs allegedly relayed offer as part of plot to release €300m from Swiss bank account
A lawyer at one of the UK’s most prestigious law firms has been accused of relaying an offer of a £1m “bribe” to police officers as part of a bizarre plot to release €300m (£274m) hidden in a Swiss bank account, according to court transcripts obtained by the Guardian.
Mike Stubbs, a partner at Mishcon de Reya, allegedly told two Metropolitan police detectives that a former SAS sergeant with intelligence contacts had concocted a plan to release what were described as “CIA funds” being held in the Swiss bank for “covert” purposes in Somalia.
Continue reading...The teenager’s violent death has inspired a broader movement against PNG’s endemic domestic abuse
For six full days 19-year-old Jenelyn Kennedy suffered. Her legs and arms were chained, witness statements to police say, her mouth gagged.
They allege she died from being beaten, locked in her room. Her young children in a room down the hall.
Continue reading...New York judge orders documents unsealed after Maxwell’s lawyers had tried to keep them secret
An extensive collection of “extremely personal” documents in civil litigation against British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell can be unsealed, a Manhattan federal court judge ruled on Thursday.
The documents relate to Maxwell’s deposition in this litigation, as well as her early 2015 correspondence with her longterm associate, the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Continue reading...Rules allowing up to 22 hours of solitary confinement for young offenders could continue, in move lawyers say is ‘very concerning’
The Ministry of Justice has said that new rules that allow youth detention facilities to hold children in solitary confinement for up to 22 hours a day to prevent the spread of Covid-19 could remain in place for two years despite lockdown measures being relaxed for the rest of the UK.
Lawyers have told the Guardian that time out of cells and access to education are still being severely curtailed in many facilities across the country.
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