Rape trial continued with cross-examination of accuser who suffered a panic attack under questioning on Monday
The dramatic rape trial of Harvey Weinstein continued on Tuesday with the cross-examination of an accuser who suffered a panic attack under questioning the day before.
The 34-year-old witness alleges she was violently raped twice by the film producer in 2013. Her claims form a central pillar of the prosecution’s case.
Continue reading...Letter calls for full inquests into deaths of 39 people in a refrigerated lorry last year
Families of the 39 Vietnamese migrants whose bodies were discovered in a refrigerated lorry in Essex last year and campaigners in the UK are calling for inquests to be held into the deaths.
While criminal proceedings related to the tragic deaths continue, there has been no indication whether there will be any wider investigation into the circumstances surrounding the incident.
Continue reading...Rishi Sunak defends policies amid backlash over early release of Streatham attacker
The chief secretary to the Treasury has rejected the idea that cuts to prison and probation services have made it harder to rehabilitate or monitor terrorism suspects after a man who left prison days ago was shot dead by police after he stabbed two people in London.
Rishi Sunak declined to reveal the measures that Boris Johnson or the home secretary, Priti Patel, would announce on Monday after the attack by Sudesh Amman on Streatham High Road.
Continue reading...UK court sanctions fines after firm admits using agents across world to bribe officials to land high-value contracts
Airbus, Europe’s largest aerospace multinational, is to pay a record £3bn in penalties after admitting it had paid huge bribes on an “endemic” basis to land contracts in 20 countries.
Anti-corruption investigators hailed the result as the largest ever corporate fine for bribery in the world after judges declared that the corruption was “grave, pervasive and pernicious”.
Continue reading...Call for inquiry into CPS as prosecutions fall by a quarter and convictions by a fifth
Rape victims are finding it increasingly difficult to access justice as police refer fewer cases to the Crown Prosecution Service and fewer allegations of rape are being prosecuted and convicted, according to new figures.
The number of cases referred by the police for charging decisions fell by 32% in the year to September 2019, while prosecutions by the CPS fell 26% and convictions dropped 21%, according to quarterly CPS prosecution data across a range of crimes.
Continue reading...Hearing on teen who later killed herself could lead to first standard for protection from sexual violence at schools in Latin America
An international court hearing that involves the alleged sexual abuse of an Ecuadorian schoolgirl between the age of 14 and 16 by her deputy head could transform girls’ rights across Latin America.
In a region where 30% of students between 13 and 15 claim to have experienced sexual harassment while at school, it is hoped that the case, heard on Tuesday at the Inter-American Court on Human Rights (IACHR) in Costa Rica, will establish the first international standards to protect girls from coercion and sexual violence in school.
Continue reading...Bill passes despite concerns it is ‘stepping into the private lives of families’
A move to ban parents from smacking children has been approved by the Welsh assembly and is expected to come into force in 2022 following a £2m awareness campaign.
Supporters said it was a historic day for Wales and would stop mothers and fathers using physical violence as punishment, but opponents argued it could criminalise loving parents.
Continue reading...Founders of firm making alcoholic sweets left puzzled by trademark infringement claim
Small, sweet bears with the capacity to inflict a very sore head have triggered an intellectual property dispute involving a multinational confectioner, a trio of enterprising Spanish students and a shot or two of alcohol.
A couple of years ago, three friends studying in the Basque country experienced an epiphany: what if they combined their childhood love of sweets with their adult taste for alcohol? And what if the delivery system were a small, chewy bear?
Continue reading...Civil liberties groups condemn move as ‘a breathtaking assault on our rights’
The Metropolitan police will start using live facial recognition, Britain’s biggest force has announced.
The decision to deploy the controversial technology, which has been dogged by privacy concerns and questions over its lawfulness, was immediately condemned by civil liberties groups, who described the move as “a breathtaking assault on our rights”.
Continue reading...MPs vote through legislation just as top court rules its provisions unlawful
A confrontation between the Polish government and senior judges has escalated dramatically after the country’s supreme court and parliament issued conflicting rulings on the legality of judicial reforms.
The rival rulings, which concern attempts by the ruling rightwing Law and Justice party (PiS) to assume direct control over the judiciary, have thrown the country’s legal order into chaos, with judges now liable for prosecution for complying with rulings issued by their own supreme court.
Continue reading...Foreign secretary calls decision a ‘denial of justice’ and says UK would have acted differently
The foreign secretary has condemned the US decision to refuse an extradition request for the suspect charged with causing the death of Harry Dunn, saying the UK would have “acted differently”.
Harry Dunn died after a crash outside a US military base in Croughton, Northamptonshire, on 27 August 2019.
Continue reading...Government-appointed investigators failed to meet alleged victims living in Bangladesh
A Myanmar government-backed inquiry that dismissed allegations of genocide against the Rohingya has been condemned as a deeply flawed cover-up, after it failed to interview a single victim of rape.
The full report of the panel inquiry, which has been criticised by the UN, was not made publicly available. It is not clear how many Rohingya were interviewed by the panel.
Continue reading...Experts say judgment is ‘tipping point’ that opens the door to climate crisis claims for protection
It is unlawful for governments to return people to countries where their lives might be threatened by the climate crisis, a landmark ruling by the United Nations human rights committee has found.
The judgment – which is the first of its kind – represents a legal “tipping point” and a moment that “opens the doorway” to future protection claims for people whose lives and wellbeing have been threatened due to global heating, experts say.
Continue reading...Activists say 19-year-old’s appeal is watershed for women and law in country
Activists in Cyprus have described the determination of a British teenager to overturn a conviction that she lied about being gang-raped on the island as “a critical moment” for women’s rights.
Ten days after the 19-year-old received a suspended four-month sentence for the offence of fomenting public mischief, her lawyers filed an appeal against the conviction before the country’s supreme court.
Continue reading...Stella Nyanzi, imprisoned in Uganda after writing poem about president’s mother’s vagina, lambasts regime’s ‘fear of writers’
The Ugandan academic, writer and feminist activist Dr Stella Nyanzi, imprisoned for criticising the country’s president, has been awarded the Oxfam Novib/PEN International award for freedom of expression.
Nyanzi has been in Luzira women’s prison in Kampala, the capital, for nearly 15 months after writing a poem about President Yoweri Museveni’s mother’s vagina. The poem uses the metaphor of her vagina and Museveni’s birth to criticise his near 35-year rule.
Continue reading...Crown Prosecution Service asks attorney general to review 30-year term for student who raped up to 195 men
A man described as Britain’s most prolific rapist could have his sentence increased after the Crown Prosecution Service wrote to the attorney general saying Reynhard Sinaga should serve longer than 30 years in prison.
Sinaga, a 36-year-old mature student from Indonesia, was given a life sentence with a minimum tariff of 30 years by a judge at Manchester crown court last week. Suzanne Goddard QC told him it was “borderline” whether he should be given a whole-life term but decided that he should not be considered for release until he was 66, having been unanimously convicted by four juries of drugging and abusing 48 men while they lay comatose in his Manchester flat.
Continue reading...Newspaper faces legal action from Duchess of Sussex for publishing excerpts from a letter to her father
Thomas Markle could be called to give evidence at the high court against his estranged daughter Meghan, as part of her ongoing legal action against the Mail on Sunday, after it emerged that the paper’s defence appears to rely on his account.
The Duchess of Sussex is suing the newspaper for breach of copyright, invasion of privacy, and misuse of personal data after it published excerpts from a letter she sent her father complaining about how he was treating her.
Continue reading...Medics accused of poisoning Tine Nys, 38, in country’s first euthanasia criminal case
Three Belgian doctors go on trial for murder on Tuesday for helping a woman end her life in the country’s first criminal case concerning euthanasia.
The doctors, whose names have not been made public, are accused of unlawfully poisoning 38-year-old Tine Nys on 27 April 2010. Prosecutors say Nys did not fulfil the conditions under Belgian law to be euthanised.
Continue reading...Kenneth Roth was due to launch the organisation’s latest report in the Chinese-controlled city
The global head of Human Rights Watch says he has been denied entry to Hong Kong, where he was scheduled to launch the organisation’s latest world report this week.
Kenneth Roth, the group’s executive director, said that on Sunday he was blocked at Hong Kong airport from entering for the first time, having entered freely in the past.
Continue reading...Group threatens action after being named in guide designed to help prevent terrorism
Extinction Rebellion is threatening legal action against counter-terrorism police for what it said was the illegal listing of the group an extremist ideology in a guide designed to help stop terrorist violence.
The Guardian revealed on Friday that counter-terrorism police placed the non-violent protest group on a list of extremist ideologies that should be reported to the authorities running the Prevent anti-radicalisation programme. Police now say that was an error.
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