US indicts Nicolás Maduro and other top Venezuelan leaders for drug trafficking

Posted on March 26, 2020 by Admin

$15m reward for information leading to president’s capture
William Barr alleges plot involving Farc guerrilla faction

The US has charged the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, and 14 members of his inner circle with drug trafficking, “narco-terrorism”, corruption and money laundering, and offered a $15m reward for information leading to Maduro’s capture and prosecution.

Unveiling the indictment, the attorney general, William Barr, said the Venezuelan leadership collaborated with a dissident faction of the former Colombian guerrilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or Farc, operating on the Colombian-Venezuelan border, which Barr described as an “extremely violent terrorist organization”.

Roger Stone is a friend of Trump – does that mean he’s above the law?

Posted on February 21, 2020 by Admin

Stone, sentenced to 40 months for lying to Congress, is an ally of the president – and in the US in 2020 that carries a lot of weight

Any other convict, in Roger Stone’s place, might find cause for despair.

Sentenced by Judge Amy Berman Jackson to 40 months in federal prison on Thursday, Stone, 67, the piratical politico, was also on the receiving end of a stern rebuke for making threatening social media posts during the trial and for generally acting as if the rules did not apply to him.

Isis ‘Beatles’ should face trial in UK, says former director of public prosecutions

Posted on October 12, 2019 by Admin

QC says a US trial makes Britain look like a ‘banana republic lacking faith in our own institutions of justice’

The UK government has been accused of acting like “a banana republic” after suppressing charges against the British group of Isis militants known as “the Beatles” out of fears that trying them at home could set a precedent for mass jihadist repatriations.

Prosecutors charged one member of the group, Alexanda Kotey, with multiple counts of murder in 2016 but the Home Office made no attempt to bring him home to face justice because, sources say, then home secretary Theresa May felt it was politically problematic.

California governor to place moratorium on death penalty

Posted on March 12, 2019 by Admin

Gavin Newsom’s executive order means 737 death row inmates will not be executed during his tenure

California’s governor is set to issue a moratorium on capital punishment in the US’s most populous state, providing a reprieve for hundreds of inmates sentenced to death.

On Wednesday morning, Gavin Newsom is expected to sign a new executive order that will put in place an executive moratorium on the death penalty, meaning 737 inmates awaiting execution in California will not be put to death during the governor’s tenure.