Category Archives: Law

Make environmental damage a war crime, say scientists

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Call for new Geneva convention to protect wildlife and nature reserves in conflict regions

International lawmakers should adopt a fifth Geneva convention that recognises damage to nature alongside other war crimes, according to an open letter by 24 prominent scientists.

The legal instrument should incorporate wildlife safeguards in conflict regions, including protections for nature reserves, controls on the spread of guns used for hunting and measures to hold military forces to account for damage to the environment, say the signatories to the letter, published in the journal Nature.

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Brexit funder Arron Banks threatens Netflix over Great Hack documentary

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Legal threat comes as campaigners warn UK government that courts are being used to intimidate journalists

Letter: press freedom campaigners call for action on ‘vexatious lawsuits’

Related: The Great Hack: the film that goes behind the scenes of the Facebook data scandal

The businessman Arron Banks and the unofficial Brexit campaign Leave.EU have issued a legal threat against streaming giant Netflix in relation to The Great Hack, a new documentary about the Cambridge Analytica scandal and the abuse of personal data.

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EU nations to be vetted on their adherence to the rule of law

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Policy comes as incoming president seeks to tackle claims she would be beholden to Poland and Hungary

EU nations are to be vetted annually on their adherence to the rule of law, in a renewed attempt from Brussels to stop governments from firing independent judges and packing courts with pliable supporters.

In an effort to stop democratic backsliding, all EU countries will be subject to annual monitoring on the rule of law, the European commission announced on Wednesday, one day after its incoming president, Ursula von der Leyen, sought to assuage critics of her appointment with a pledge to uphold democratic values.

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Police letting down older victims of crime, say inspectors

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Report says police have only superficial understanding of crimes against older people

Older victims of crime are being let down by the police and the wider criminal justice system, according to the first inspection report on the age group.

The police have only a “superficial understanding” of the crimes committed against older people, the report by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services and Her Majesty’s Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate says.

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E Jean Carroll says she received death threats after accusing Trump of rape

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Exclusive: advice columnist says for the first time in her life she has bullets loaded into the handgun in her bedroom

E Jean Carroll, the esteemed New York journalist who has alleged Donald Trump raped her in the Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan in the 1990s, now sleeps with a loaded gun by her bed having received online death threats.

In the course of a two-hour interview with the Guardian in her upstate New York cabin, the advice columnist described the fallout of her decision to go public last month with the most serious allegations of sexual assault yet leveled at the US president. She said she had received so many death threats that she had been forced to stop looking at her social media feeds and for the first time in her life had bullets loaded into the handgun in her bedroom.

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Jeffrey Epstein asks to be released on bail while awaiting sex trafficking trial

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Epstein’s lawyers argued that home confinement and electronic monitoring would be enough to ensure that he does not flee

Disgraced American financier Jeffrey Epstein has asked a federal judge to let him out of jail and allow him to remain under house arrest as he awaits trial on charges of sex trafficking underage girls.

In a filing in federal court in Manhattan on Thursday, Epstein’s lawyers argued that home confinement, along with electronic monitoring, surveillance and a bond secured by a mortgage on his $77m Manhattan mansion would be enough to ensure that he does not flee the country.

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Tommy Robinson given nine-month jail sentence for contempt of court

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Far-right activist will serve 10 weeks after being found guilty of breaching reporting ban

Tommy Robinson has been given a nine-month prison sentence – of which he will serve about 10 weeks – after he was found guilty of contempt of court at an earlier hearing.

Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, broadcast reports that encouraged “vigilante action” and “unlawful physical” aggression against defendants in a sexual exploitation trial, according to the judges who found him guilty last week.

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El Salvador rape victim jailed for murder after stillbirth faces retrial

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Pro-choice activists say Evelyn Beatríz Hernández’s case will be important in determining the stance of the country’s new leader

A teenage rape victim in El Salvador who was convicted for murdering her child and jailed for nearly three years after a stillbirth will face a retrial next week, her lawyers said on Wednesday.

Evelyn Beatríz Hernández was handed a 30-year prison sentence in 2017 for aggravated murder by a female judge who ruled the teenager had induced an abortion, which is a crime under any circumstance in the Central American nation.

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A brutal warlord has been convicted – so why doesn’t it feel like a triumph? | Vava Tampa

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Bosco Ntaganda killed, raped and enslaved Congolese people for years while living in plain sight. Does the world care so little?

In 2015, the international community – led by the US and the UK – finally decided to take Bosco Ntaganda to the international criminal court to face justice for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Ntaganda, known as “The Terminator”, became one of the most feared, powerful and brutal warlords in DRC since Rwanda, backed by Uganda, reinvaded DRC in 1998.

Related: DRC warlord 'the Terminator' convicted of war crimes

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Pamplona bull-run festival steps up protection for women

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More police on duty as tourists descend on Spanish town to watch bulls and party

One man was gored and two sustained head injuries during the first run of the week-long San Fermín running of the bulls festival in Pamplona, northern Spain, on Saturday. The injuries were not life-threatening.

During the festival the population of the small city in Navarra swells tenfold as more than a million people come from around the world. Only about 20,000 over the course of the week dress up in the traditional red and white to pursue and be pursued by the bulls along Pamplona’s cobbled streets.

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Nigeria’s ‘Gucci Pastor’ takes leave of absence over rape claims

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Biodun Fatoyinbo steps aside amid allegations of historical attack on photographer

A celebrity pastor in Nigeria is to take a leave of absence after a photographer accused him of rape.

Nicknamed “Gucci Pastor” for his expensive taste in clothes and cars, Biodun Fatoyinbo runs the Commonwealth of Zion Assembly (Coza), one of the country’s fastest-growing pentecostal churches.

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Dubai’s ruler battles wife in UK court after she fled emirate

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British government alleged to have been lobbied for return of Princess Haya

A legal battle between two of the most prominent Middle Eastern royals has been launched in the London courts amid claims that the UK government has been lobbied over the case.

Princess Haya bint al-Hussein, daughter of the late King Hussein of Jordan, and her husband, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai, are understood to have parted. They are now engaged in a formal dispute in the high court. The case began after she fled Dubai and is due to resume later this month.

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Chinese human rights lawyer ‘totally changed man’ after being jailed

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Wife of Wang Quanzhang says his health has deteriorated after four years incarceration

The wife of the jailed Chinese human rights lawyer Wang Quanzhang has described her husband as a “totally changed man” after she and her son were allowed to see him for the first time since he disappeared nearly four years ago.

Wang, 43, was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison in January for “subverting state power” after a closed-door trial.

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Beijing will not rest until it controls Hong Kong. We must keep fighting | Joshua Wong and Johnson Yeung

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In Hong Kong, we have pushed back against the extradition bill. But China is finding other ways to attack our freedom

Let’s put it in plain words: the people of Hong Kong haven’t defeated the proposed extradition law to China yet – we have only earned a small window to catch our breath. And so have the hardliners in the administration and the Chinese government.

Related: Hong Kong protesters hold noisy rally outside police headquarters

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Ukraine walks out of Europe human rights body as Russia returns

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Delegation leaves Council of Europe assembly in protest at readmission of Russian MPs

The Ukrainian delegation at the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe has walked out in protest after Russian MPs were allowed to return to the human rights body five years after the annexation of Crimea.

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said he was disappointed by the decision of the assembly (Pace) to readmit Russian members, while the head of the delegation said Ukraine would halt its work at the assembly.

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Donald Trump accused of sexually assaulting writer E Jean Carroll

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Carroll alleges that Trump assaulted her in a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman in 1995 or 1996, potentially raping her

Donald Trump is facing a fresh allegation that he sexually assaulted a woman in his days as a real estate developer in the mid 1990s, adding to the long list of claims against him of sexual misconduct.

In a cover story in New York magazine, the writer and celebrated agony aunt E Jean Carroll relates an incident in which she encountered Trump in the Manhattan department store Bergdorf Goodman some time in late 1995 or early 1996. She was 52 years old and had recently started an advice column for Elle magazine called Ask E Jean, and he would have been 49 or 50, and married to Marla Marples.

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UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia unlawful, court of appeal declares

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Ruling prompts government to suspend new arms sales to Saudi Arabia while it urgently reviews its processes

British arms sales to Saudi Arabia have been declared unlawful by the court of appeal because ministers failed to properly assess their contribution to civilian casualties in indiscriminate bombing in Yemen.

The unexpected ruling has prompted the British government to suspend new arms sales to Saudi Arabia while it urgently reviews its processes – although Liam Fox, the international trade secretary, has said the government would also seek to appeal.

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Fears Hong Kong protests could turn violent amid calls to ‘escalate action’

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Protesters have given authorities until Thursday afternoon to answer demands to retract extradition bill

Hong Kong is bracing for fresh rallies on Friday, which many fear could turn violent, as protesters gave city authorities until Thursday to meet their demands on the retraction of the city’s controversial extradition bill.

Anonymous messages have circulated on social media and messaging services calling for people to gather outside the government headquarters in the Admiralty business district to “escalate their actions” if the Hong Kong government fails to meet their demands by 5pm on Thursday. It called on people to strike, close shops and stay off school on Friday. On one popular chat platform alone, the message received nearly 89,000 “likes”. A user called this “Hong Kong’s last battle”.

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China is harvesting organs from detainees, tribunal concludes

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Victims include imprisoned followers of Falun Gong movement, China Tribunal says

An independent tribunal sitting in London has concluded that the killing of detainees in China for organ transplants is continuing, and victims include imprisoned followers of the Falun Gong movement.

The China Tribunal, chaired by Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, who was a prosecutor at the international criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, said in a unanimous determination at the end of its hearings it was “certain that Falun Gong were used for forced organ harvesting”.

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