Courts, Corrections, Incarceration

Despite having been freed by a lower court due to a lack of evidence three years ago, Canadian academic Hassan Diab has been ordered by France's court of appeal to stand trial in connection with a bomb attack on a Paris synagogue in 1980. His French lawyers plan to appeal the decision, which would require his extradition, to France's Supreme Court. Diab, who was never formally charged, spent three years in prison before the original prosecution collapsed. [node:read-more:link]

Dominion Voting Systems, an electronic voting hardware and software company founded in Toronto in 2002, is suing former U.S. President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Guiliani, for US$1.3 billion. It accuses him of defamation for his “big lie” campaign about widespread electoral fraud in last November’s presidential election. “There are no accusations that could do more to damage Dominion's business or to impugn Dominion's integrity, ethics, honesty, and financial integrity,” the company says. “Giuliani's statements were calculated to . . . [node:read-more:link]

Two Ontario politicians are expected to appear in court in June to face charges of non-compliance with COVID-19 restrictions. Federal MP Derek Sloan and Randy Hillier, a member of the provincial legislature, were charged along with eight other persons who attended a service at a church which also has been charged as a corporation. [node:read-more:link]

The common law spouse of the man responsible for killing 22 people in April 2020 in Nova Scotia is pleading not guilty to charges she illegally provided him ammunition. [node:read-more:link]

The National Rifle Association’s attempt to use bankruptcy as protection against a New York regulatory action involving alleged corruption within the organization was dismissed today by a federal court judge in Texas. The judge did not believe the bankruptcy courts were meant to be used in such cases and was troubled in the secretive nature of the bankruptcy filing. [node:read-more:link]

An unidentified Israeli has been indicted on charges of spying for Iran and conspiring with that country’s intelligence apparatus to recruit Israeli Arabs for terrorist attacks. Shin Bet says that when he was arrested in March, the man was in possession of an encryption device and that he had been in contact with a Lebanese member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. [node:read-more:link]

President Donald Trump has signed an executive order preventing the entry of International Criminal Court staff investigating whether U.S. forces committed war crimes in Afghanistan. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the U.S. would not be “threatened by a kangaroo court” and Attorney General William Barr accused “foreign powers like Russia" of "manipulating the ICC in pursuit of their own agenda.” [node:read-more:link]

Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine who is a Canadian citizen by birth, has been sentenced to 16 years of hard labor by a Russian court on charges of espionage. Whelan, who reportedly had visited Russia many times, the latest to attend a wedding, was arrested in Moscow in December 2018 while in possession of a thumb drive which Russia alleges contained state secrets. [node:read-more:link]

A special prosecutor at The Hague has accused Kosovo President Hashim Thaci and others of war crimes during the country’s 1998-1999 independence war with Serbia, which resulted in more than 10,000 deaths and ended only after NATO intervention. The accusations are being assessed by a judge. [node:read-more:link]

Washington-based Human Rights Watch is accusing Canada of flouting its international obligations by failing to repatriate and provide adequate consular assistance to 47 citizens, including 26 children, detained in northeast Syria. The adults, linked to the Islamic State terrorist organization, are being held by Kurdish forces. The Canadian government said it will not put its personnel at risk to gather evidence and repatriate the combatants. [node:read-more:link]

Manitoba resident Corey Hurren, a Canadian Ranger and former regular member of the Canadian Armed Forces, is being held by RCMP after a pickup truck was used 02 July to ram through the games at Rideau Hall. The driver, who was reportedly armed with a long gun, was arrested without incident after moving on foot toward the official residences of the Governor General and the Prime Minister, neither of whom was home. [node:read-more:link]

After the federal government information watchdog testified to finding evidence of internal activity to thwart access to information searches related to the failed case against VAdm Mark Norman, the Public Prosecutions office had contacted the RCMP in March 2019. The RCMP determined it was in a conflict of interest due to its investigation of Norman and it had planned to refer the case to the OPP. [node:read-more:link]

Two British members of the Islamic State charged with murdering Western hostages in Iraq and Syria would not be sentenced to death if found guilty, the U.S. says. Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh, stripped of their citizenship and now in U.S. military custody in Iraq, have been at the center of a legal dispute which has stalled progress, but U.S. Attorney General William Barr has told U.K. Home Secretary Priti Patel that if a U.S. court did opt for capital punishment, “it will not be carried out.” [node:read-more:link]