The Brazil Senate officially indicted President Dilma Rousseff on Wednesday, marking the beginning of an impeachment trial against the embattled president. The Senate, which held a 16-hour session while deliberating on how to proceed, voted 59-21 against the suspended president—five more votes than were required to begin the impeachment proceedings. The vote comes less than [...]
The International Crimes Tribunal Bangladesh (ICTB) on Wednesday sentenced a former member of parliament to death and seven others to life in prison for crimes committed during the 1971 war for independence. Sakhawat Hossain, a former lawmaker and member of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, was accused of commanding a group that aided Pakistani soldiers. His lawyers [...]
A judge for the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois ruled Tuesday that former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich must serve the rest of his 14-year sentence in a Colorado prison. Judge James Zagel ruled that Blagojevich’s sentence should not be reduced, rejecting his plea for leniency. Blagojevich’s lawyers said that it was [...]
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein on Tuesday urged the Maldives to abide by a decades-old moratorium on the death penalty. The country has operated according to the de facto moratorium for decades, but last November brought changes to the judicial climate, halting death sentences being commuted into life sentences. There [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on Monday affirmed a lower court ruling that barred Ecuadoran plaintiffs from collecting a USD $8.646 billion Ecuadoran judgment against Chevron Corp. The lower court had concluded in 2014 that the Ecuadoran judgment was obtained through corruption and fraud and barred the plaintiffs’ attorney, Steven Donziger, [...]
The District Court in Braunschweig, Germany, ruled Monday that a collective complaint against Volkswagen AG (VW) may move forward. Like US-style class-action lawsuits, the collective complaint was launched on behalf of multiple investors who lost money following the diesel emissions cheating scandal. Unlike US-style class-action lawsuits, a German court must choose one case to decide [...]
The UN Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) warned on Thursday that the ongoing conflict in South Sudan has caused the number of malnourished children in the nation to dramatically increase. While South Sudan’s population suffered malnutrition prior to the conflict’s inception in 2013, UNICEF stated that seven of South Sudan’s ten states have now passed the [...]
Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte on Sunday identified approximately 150 serving and former state officials who are allegedly involved in the nation’s illegal drug trade. Duterte stated that all named officials, which includes mayors, judges, legislators, policeman and military personnel, have been relieved of duty and have 24 hours to surrender to their respective authorities before [...]
An Iranian judiciary spokesman announced on Sunday that a nuclear scientist was executed for providing the US with state secrets. Shahram Amir previously went missing in 2009 while embarking on a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia. Amir reemerged in the US in 2010 and returned to Tehran, claiming that he had been abducted by the CIA [...]
Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Friday denounced the detention and abuse of peaceful protesters in Armenia. Amidst growing dissatisfaction with the Armenian government, protesters have recently held frequent demonstration in the capital city of Yerevan. HRW reports that, despite the occurrence of occasional violence, such protests have been peaceful yet have been met with a [...]
