Category Archives: Law

Trafficked children among 230 people rescued in Niger raid

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Police discover trafficked minors coerced into exploitative work and men from Ghana who were recruited online and enslaved

Children as young as 10 were among more than 230 people rescued last month during a series of raids combating trafficking and forced labour in Niger.

Operation Sarraounia uncovered 46 children who had been sexually abused or forced to beg and hundreds of Ghanaian men who had been recruited online and then enslaved in the capital, Niamey, said Interpol, which provided assistance.

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Dubai ruler loses appeal over release of two UK court judgments

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Appeal court rejects challenge by Sheikh Mohammed, who may now go to supreme court

The ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, has failed in his latest attempt to prevent publication of two family court judgments involving his children with his ex-wife Princess Haya of Jordan.

The court of appeal in London also refused his lawyers permission to take the case to the supreme court but said they had until 4pm on Tuesday to lodge an application directly with the UK’s highest court if they wished to object. The two family court judgments cannot be published until any such potential further appeals have been determined.

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Heathrow third runway ruled illegal over climate change

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Appeal court says decision to give go-ahead not consistent with Paris agreement

Plans for a third runway at Heathrow airport have been ruled illegal by the court of appeal because ministers did not adequately take into account the government’s commitments to tackle the climate crisis.

The ruling is a major blow to the project at a time when public concern about the climate emergency is rising fast and the government has set a target in law of net zero emissions by 2050. The prime minister, Boris Johnson, could use the ruling to abandon the project, or the government could draw up a new policy document to approve the runway.

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George Clooney ‘saddened’ by alleged child labour on Nespresso coffee farms

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Brand ambassador pledges ‘work will be done’ after children are filmed toiling on Guatemalan farms believed to supply company

George Clooney has said he is “surprised and saddened” by the alleged discovery of child labour on farms used by coffee giant Nespresso, the brand for which he has long served as ambassador.

The Oscar-winning actor and director, who during school holidays worked on his own family’s tobacco farm in Kentucky, vowed that “work will be done” to improve conditions after a Channel 4 Dispatches documentary, due to air next week, filmed children picking coffee beans and hauling sacks on six Guatemalan farms believed to supply Nespresso.

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Dubai ruler trying to keep two judgments secret, UK court hears

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Sheikh Mohammed opposes release of family court rulings involving two of his children

The ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, is attempting to prevent publication of two family court judgments involving his two children with his ex-wife, Princess Haya of Jordan, the court of appeal in London has been told.

At the opening of a hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice on Wednesday, Lord Justice Underhill read out a public statement explaining that the case “raises matters of public interest beyond the particular issue in the wardship proceedings”.

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Set them free! The judge who liberates Nigerians forgotten in jail

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Ishaq Usman Bello is shaking the conscience of the courts – and nearly 4,000 wrongly detained prisoners are grateful for it

In a crowded prison courtyard in Suleja, Nigeria, a judge flipped through a battered folder detailing the case against a young woman who stood quietly before him in a faded pink dress.

She was charged with “issuing a dud cheque”, a crime that carries a maximum sentence of two years in prison. But she’d already spent three years in prison awaiting the outcome of her trial.

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Why are New Zealanders still not allowed to know the identity of Grace Millane’s killer? | Andrew Geddis

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We have had a history of suppressing information about those facing trial, but it is unclear if it can survive in the era of Facebook, Google and Instagram

British backpacker Grace Millane’s murderer was last week sentenced to life imprisonment, with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years.

However, the killer’s identity has not been published in New Zealand. When convicting Millane’s killer, Justice Simon Moore extended an existing suppression order that not only prohibits his naming, but also the reasons for making it.

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Julian Assange was ‘harassed’ by cell search, father claims

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John Shipton says his son’s Belmarsh room was targeted on eve of extradition hearing

Julian Assange’s father has claimed his son was “harassed” by a prison cell search the day before his extradition hearing was planned to begin.

John Shipton visited the WikiLeaks founder at Belmarsh prison in south-east London for two hours on Sunday.

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Harvey Weinstein trial: jury appears to reach partial verdict

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Jury indicated that in three counts they have reached their decision, and will now break and return to deliberations on the other two counts on Monday

The jury at Harvey Weinstein’s rape trial in New York appears to have reached a verdict on three of the five counts facing him, though they are deadlocked on the most serious charge – predatory sexual assault.

Shortly after the lunch break on Friday, the five men and seven women of the jury were called back into court having indicated that in three counts they have reached their decision. These are: the count that alleges the fallen movie mogul forced oral sex on a then Project Runway production assistant, Miriam Haley, in 2006 and two counts of rape in 2013 of a woman who the Guardian is not naming as her intentions on identification are unclear.

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Abuse victim Manny Waks wins $800,000 in damages from paedophile David Cyprys

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Waks, now an advocate for Jewish abuse victims, was one of a number of children Cyprys abused at Melbourne’s Chabad Yeshivah centre

A child abuse victim who blew the whistle on abuse within the Orthodox Chabad sect of Judaism in Australia has been awarded $804,170 in damages in a civil case brought against his perpetrator and serial abuser, David Cyprys, in Melbourne.

Manny Waks was about 13 years old when he was first abused by Cyprys at the Elwood synagogue, and he was also abused at the Chabad Yeshivah centre in Melbourne.

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Julian Assange: Australian MPs call on UK to block US extradition

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Politicians from WikiLeaks founder’s home country have flown to UK to visit him in jail

Boris Johnson should block attempts to extradite Julian Assange to the US, say two Australian MPs who have flown to the UK to visit the WikiLeaks founder.

Andrew Wilkie, an independent federal MP, said the extradition of Assange, who has been charged by the US with conspiring to hack into a secret Pentagon computer network, would set a dangerous precedent.

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Families of Troubles victims warn against amnesty for soldiers

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Emmett McConomy, whose 11-year-old brother died in 1982, said cases ‘not going away’

A man whose 11-year-old brother was killed by a soldier in Northern Ireland nearly 40 years ago has warned that victims’ families “were not going to go away” if the British government tried to introduce an amnesty for military personnel.

Emmett McConomy, whose older brother Stephen was shot in the back of the head with a plastic bullet, said the new Northern Ireland secretary, Brandon Lewis, needed to understand the strength of feeling among families who had not yet seen cases involving British soldiers come to court.

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Fashion executive accused in rape lawsuit reportedly hosted Prince Andrew at Bahamas estate

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  • Peter Nygard is accused of luring women to the property
  • Photos from 20 years ago show the royals visiting the site

A millionaire fashion executive accused of raping 10 women and girls at his Bahamas mansion reportedly hosted Prince Andrew and his family at the property in 2000.

A class action lawsuit lodged in New York City claims that Peter Nygard lured “young, impressionable, and often impoverished children and women” to his Bahamas property with cash payments and promises of modeling opportunities, only to then “assault, rape, and sodomize them”.

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Australia’s offshore detention is unlawful, says international criminal court prosecutor

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Treatment of refugees and asylum seekers ‘cruel, inhuman or degrading’, but does not warrant prosecution, ICC office says

Australia’s offshore detention regime is a “cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment” and unlawful under international law, the international criminal court’s prosecutor has said.

But the office of the prosecutor has stopped short of deciding to prosecute the Australian government, saying that while the imprisonment of refugees and asylum seekers formed the basis of a crime against humanity, the violations did not rise to the level to warrant further investigation.

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Sudan signals it may send former dictator Omar al-Bashir to ICC

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Talks resolve to send ‘those who face arrest warrants’ for war crimes to The Hague

Sudan has suggested it is prepared to hand over the former dictator Omar al-Bashir to the international criminal court in The Hague to face trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The decision marks a dramatic shift from the previous official position of the country’s new rulers, though observers warned that many obstacles still needed to be overcome before the 76-year-old reached a court room.

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Appeal court gives 11th-hour reprieve to detainees due to be sent to Jamaica

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Court of appeal orders Home Office not to remove anyone scheduled to be deported from two detention centres on 6.30am flight

A group of about 50 people due to be deported to Jamaica on Tuesday morning won a last-minute reprieve on Monday night following an emergency ruling by the court of appeal.

The court ordered the Home Office not to remove anyone scheduled to be deported from two detention centres near Heathrow on the 6.30am flight to Jamaica – “unless satisfied [they] had access to a functioning, non-O2 sim card on or before 3 February”.

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Russian anti-fascist group given ‘monstrous’ jail terms

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Rights activists criticise trial, saying members of the Network group were tortured

A Russian court has sentenced a group of anti-fascists to between six and 18 years in prison on terrorism and other charges, with rights activists describing the punishment as monstrous.

Sergei Morgunov, a lawyer for one of the seven defendants, said a military court in the central city of Penza had handed down the verdict in the Network case. All seven had denied the charges.

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Saudi Arabia using secret court to silence dissent, Amnesty finds

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Activists handed long prison sentences or death penalty by court set up for terror cases

Saudi Arabia is using a secretive special court set up for terrorism-related cases to systematically prosecute human rights activists and other dissenting voices who defy the country’s absolute monarchy, a new report has found.

The human rights watchdog Amnesty International spent five years investigating 95 cases heard at the Specialised Criminal court (SCC) in Riyadh, concluding in a report published on Thursday that the court is routinely used as a weapon to silence criticism despite the kingdom’s recent attempts to cultivate a reformist image.

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Harvey Weinstein trial: attorney shows dress witness wore during alleged attack

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Lauren Young gave a distressing account of an alleged hotel bathroom attack by the once-powerful movie producer

The sixth and final woman to accuse Harvey Weinstein of sexually attacking them took the witness stand at his rape trial on Wednesday, describing in harrowing detail how he allegedly groped her in a Los Angeles hotel bathroom in 2013.

The jury in the New York supreme court were once again subjected to a graphic and distressing account of an alleged forced sex act imposed on an aspiring young actor by the once-powerful movie producer.

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Sentencing: minister rejects European human rights convention warning

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Matt Hancock’s comments come as UK seeks tougher sentencing for terrorists

A senior government minister has raised further questions over Britain’s relationship with the European convention on human rights (ECHR) as Boris Johnson scrambles to push through tougher sentencing for terrorists.

Legal experts have suggested the government’s intended plan to extend the time terrorists serve in prison could be in breach of the ECHR, to which Britain has been signed up for decades.

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