Tag: justice

EU parliament cuts Suu Kyi from rights prize honorees

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AFP) — The European Parliament on Thursday removed Myanmar’s civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi from the “Sakharov Prize community” because of her “acceptance” of state crimes against the Rohingya community. The EU assembly awarded the former democracy campaigner its top human rights prize in 1990, a year before she received the Nobel Peace Prize, but she will no longer take part in events for laureates. A source close to the parliament said […]

Ecuador upholds graft sentence for ex-president Correa

QUITO, Ecuador (AFP) — An Ecuador court on Monday confirmed ex-president Rafael Correa’s eight-year prison term for corruption, the attorney general said, blocking his vice-presidency run in next year’s elections. Correa, who has lived in Belgium since 2017 to evade the prison term, faces a lifetime disqualification from elections because Ecuador’s constitution bars those convicted of graft. The attorney general’s office said the National Court’s cassation court “by majority vote… rejects the appeals of cassation […]

Court halts Mexico’s ‘Maya Train’ over indigenous health rights

MEXICO CITY, Mexico (AFP) — A Mexican court has ordered the suspension of work on the “Maya Train,” a controversial railroad through Mayan lands in the country’s southeast, after an indigenous community filed an injunction. The $6.2 billion rail link is a pet project of leftist President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who said Wednesday that while the court challenge had “political overtones,” his government would comply with the ruling. “We will comply with the decisions […]

Japan ex-justice minister arrested in vote-buying scandal

TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japanese prosecutors on Thursday arrested the country’s former justice minister — a close ally of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe — and his lawmaker wife over allegations of vote-buying during her electoral campaign last year. The scandal is the latest headache for Abe, who has seen his approval ratings sink over his handling of the coronavirus crisis and faced criticism over alleged attempts to name a favoured candidate to the role of […]

US to resume federal executions after 17 years

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The United States will resume federal executions on July 13, after a 17-year stay, the Justice Department said Monday. There have been just three federal execution since the death penalty was reinstated by the US government in 1988. Attorney General Bill Barr announced a year ago he intended to resume the use of the death penalty for federal crimes. Five convicted murderers were scheduled to undergo lethal injections in December […]

US court orders banks to release Trump financial documents

NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — A US appeals court ruled Tuesday that two banks must hand over documents about Donald Trump’s finances to Congress, in the latest legal blow to the president. Two Democratic-controlled committees issued subpoenas to Deutsche Bank and Capital One in April demanding that they hand over financial records related to Trump and his family. Trump, who is fighting attempts by Democrats and a New York prosecutor to force him to […]

US court blocks resumption of federal executions

  WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — A US appeals court ruled on Monday that the government could not resume its use of capital punishment, in a setback for President Donald Trump’s advocacy of the death penalty. Attorney General Bill Barr announced in July that the Federal Bureau of Prisons would adopt a new lethal injection protocol, clearing the way to carry out death sentences, with five executions set to start December 9 at the federal […]

Opposition leader Keiko Fujimori leaves prison in Peru

  LIMA, Peru (AFP) — Peru opposition leader Keiko Fujimori was released from prison Friday after spending 13 months in pre-trial detention in a corruption case linked to Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht. Her release comes days after the country’s Constitutional Court ordered her freed in a ruling related only to her detention and which otherwise has no bearing on the corruption case against her. “For me, it was the most painful event of my life,” […]

Peru court cuts jail time for opposition leader Keiko Fujimori

  by Luis Jaime CISNEROS Agence France Presse LIMA, Peru (AFP) — Peru’s Supreme Court on Thursday halved the pre-trial detention of Keiko Fujimori, paving the way for the opposition leader to leave jail in April of next year. Fujimori, 44, was ordered held for 36 months last October in a corruption case linked to Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht. Fujimori, who is detained at a women’s prison south of the capital Lima, had petitioned the […]

Texas death row inmate executed

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — A Texas man convicted of raping and strangling a 19-year-old college student was executed by lethal injection Wednesday, the fourth in the state so far this year. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice confirmed the death of Larry Swearingen at 6:47 pm local time at the state prison in Huntsville. According to US media, the 48-year-old maintained his innocence until death, with his lawyers arguing that DNA under the victim’s […]

Four Chinese indicted for evading US weapons sanctions on N.Korea

  WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Four Chinese nationals have been indicted for financial dealings with North Korean companies sanctioned for involvement in the production of weapons of mass destruction, the US Justice Department said Tuesday. Ma Xiaohong, the head of Dandong Hongxiang Industrial Development Co. Ltd (DHID) and three top executives of the Chinese company were indicted by a federal grand jury in New Jersey, the department said in a statement. The other three […]

For Solgen’s “peace of mind,” Justice Carpio inhibits from writ of Kalikasan case on West PHL Sea

(Eagle News) – Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio has decided to inhibit from the Writ of Kalikasan case pending with the high court  involving the protection of the marine environment in the West Philippine Sea, saying he did this for the “peace of mind” of Solicitor General Jose Calida. Carpio’s inhibition came after a motion was filed by the Office of the Solicitor General asking the high court to direct him to inhibit […]