Anything related to the court system, sentencing of offenders, or incarceration issues
A Russian woman arrested shortly after pro-war blogger Vladlen Tatarsky was killed by a bomb in St. Petersburg April 2 has been charged with terrorism. Russian officials say Darya Trepova, 26, was remanded in custody today by a court in Moscow. [node:read-more:link]
Counsel for Toronto-area MP Han Dong have served Global News with a notice of libel over articles that allege the former Liberal MP, who now sits as an Independent, was a “witting” participant in a Chinese-backed foreign interference network. The notice cites reports that he had asked a Chinese diplomat to have the release of the “Two Michaels” delayed for political reasons but Dong has said he did exactly the opposite and the Prime Minister’s Office found no “actionable evidence” in a transcript of that conversation [node:read-more:link]
Despite repeated urgings by Canadian authorities, Ottawa resident Hassan Diab went on trial in absentia in Paris today, accused of planting a bomb outside a synagogue in 1980. The Lebanese Canadian academic says he was in Lebanon at the time of the explosion. Canada extradited him to France in 2014, where he spent three years in detention before judges ordered him freed due a lack of evidence, but that was overturned on appeal in January 2021. [node:read-more:link]
A resident of Surrey, B.C., faces four terrorism-related charges after one person was threatened with a knife and another’s throat was slashed April 1. Court documents from the Public Prosecution Service of Canada show that Abdul Aziz Kawam is charged with attempted murder, assault, aggravated assault and possessing a weapon “for the benefit of at the direction of or in association with […] the Islamic State.” [node:read-more:link]
A 20-year-old Washington state resident faces 10 felony charges in connection with “swatting” calls in several states as well as in Alberta. His alleged voice-over-internet calls prompted real and potentially deadly police emergency responses to bogus reports of bombs, shootings and other threats. [node:read-more:link]
The International Court of Justice has ordered the U.S. to compensate Iranian companies whose assets have been frozen. The UN court did not specific exact amounts in its March 30 ruling and acknowledged it has no jurisdiction over Iranian central bank assets frozen in a New York Citibank account. [node:read-more:link]
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich has been arrested in Russia and accused espionage. The Kremlin said March 30 that he was caught “red handed” and the state security service said he had been “acting on U.S. instructions” to collect “information classified as a state secret about the activities of a Russian defence enterprise.” [node:read-more:link]
Former U.S. President Donald Trump was indicted by a New York grand jury March 30 in connection with money paid to an adult film actress but reported as business-related legal fees shortly before he was elected in 2016. Expected to be arraigned in Manhattan April 4, Trump is the first former president to be charged with a crime. [node:read-more:link]
Ontario Court Justice Heather Perkins-McVey has been asked by the Crown to recuse herself from pre-trial hearings for “Freedom Convoy” organizers Tamara Lich and Chris Barber. The proposal flows from the “completely inadvertent” disclosure of thousands of pages of Barber’s private text messages during last year’s bail hearings. [node:read-more:link]
Four bankers who enabled a family friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin to deposit the equivalent of US$30 million in Swiss banks over three years have been fined and suspended for two years. The three Russians and one Swiss national helped cellist Sergei Roldugin to deposit the funds even though he could not explain their provenance. Their lack of due diligence evidently puts the famously secretive Swiss banking sector on notice to heed the country’s banking laws [node:read-more:link]
The UN General Assembly has passed a resolution asking the International Court to come up with a legal definition of countries’ obligations to tackle climate change. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said March 29 that ICJ opinions “have tremendous importance and can have a long-standing impact on the international legal order.” However, whether individual states will cooperate remains to be seen; the U.S., which has a fractious relationship with the ICJ, did not support a UN resolution on the issue. [node:read-more:link]
A suggestion by U.S. President Joe Biden that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu abandon his plan to overhaul the legal system has been frostily rebuffed. Netanyahu said today that Israel “makes its decisions by the will of its people and not based on pressures from abroad, including from the best of friends.” [node:read-more:link]
Toronto MP Han Dong, who recently stepped away from the Liberal caucus to sit as an Independent, said today that he will sue Global News for reporting that he had asked a Chinese diplomat two years ago to delay the release of two detained Canadians. “I took every available opportunity to advocate on behalf of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor and to call for their immediate release,” Dong said. It’s reported that the Prime Minister’s Office found no “actionable evidence” in a transcript of Dong’s conversation with the diplomat. [node:read-more:link]
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced today that he would delay judicial changes which continue to be the focus of widespread public protests. The concession came after National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir expressed a willingness to postpone a parliamentary vote. Netanyahu suggested he was motivated by the “possibility of preventing a civil war through dialogue,” but Ben-Gvir said “the reform will pass” eventually. [node:read-more:link]
Israeli Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today that his involvement in plans to overhaul the country’s fourts is an illegal conflict of interest. “You must refrain from […] initiatives to change the judiciary, including the makeup of the committee for the appointment of judges,” she said in a letter to the PM, who faces prosecution for corruption. [node:read-more:link]
