Singapore executes second prisoner in one week despite international outcry
Singaporean authorities executed Mohamed Shalleh Bin Abdul Latiff, a 39-year-old former delivery driver, Thursday for trafficking 54.04 grams of diamorphine, a controlled drug, which is four times the amount required to trigger the mandatory death penalty under Singapore’s Misuse of Drugs Act. Shalleh is the second person executed by the country in the last week. [...]
Former Ohio Speaker of the House sentenced to 20 years in prison for racketeering and bribery
An Ohio federal court sentenced former Ohio Republican Speaker of the House Larry Householder on Thursday to 20 years in prison for leading a complex racketeering and bribery scheme. Householder allegedly accepted over $60 million in bribes through the scheme by working to pass a nuclear plant bailout. Matt Borges, former Ohio Republican Party Chair, [...]
New York jury convicts former police sergeant and two others for acting as illegal agents of China
A Brooklyn, New York, jury on Tuesday convicted a former New York City police sergeant and two others for acting as illegal agents of Chinese authorities when they attempted to intimidate US residents to return to China. Michael McMahon, a former New York City police sergeant, faces up to 20 years in prison. The other [...]
US warns war crime allegations against Australia soldiers could prevent defense collaboration
The United States warned the Australian Defence Force (ADF) that it may need to end its alliance with Australia’s Special Air Service Regiment because of allegations of war crime committed by Australian soldiers in Afghanistan, according to Wednesday testimony from General Angus Campbell to the Australian Senate. Campbell stated that he “received a letter from [...]
Imran Khan and the Weaponization of Litigation by Pakistan’s Elite
Civil action and criminal prosecution are the two great substitutes invented by law to replace revenge, a deeply wired instinct among humans expressed in a Mesopotamian maxim, an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. In Pakistan, most ironically, civil litigation and criminal prosecution have become the revenge instrument, particularly among ruling elites fighting [...]
US federal prison agency loses appeal to withhold names of lethal injection drug suppliers
The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit Tuesday reversed a lower court’s decision allowing the US Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to withhold the names of its pentobarbital suppliers. BOP withheld the names of the pentobarbital suppliers, claiming justification under Exemption 4 of FOIA, which allows the government to withhold confidential commercial [...]
Philippines court clears Nobel laureate journalist of tax evasion charges
The Philippine Court of Tax Appeals Wednesday acquitted Nobel-winning journalist Maria Ressa and her news website Rappler of tax evasion charges. According to the International Centre for Journalists (ICFJ), the maximum sentence for the four tax charges amounted to 34 years in prison. Hold The Line Coalition (HTL), a group of Ressa supporters, welcomed the [...]
Biden signs bill mandating revamp of outdated prison surveillance systems
US President Joe Biden Tuesday signed into law the Prison Camera Reform Act, 2021, which requires the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to revamp the outdated security systems at its 122 facilities. It puts special emphasis on fixing broken surveillance cameras after the surfacing of several reports of inmate escapes, staff sexual misconduct and high-profile [...]
Human Rights Watch (HRW) Tuesday demanded the immediate release of Hong Kong “pro-democracy media tycoon” Jimmy Lai and six of his co-defendants. Lai is currently serving a 20-month prison sentence in Hong Kong for his participation in a vigil commemorating victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. A Hong Kong court added almost six additional [...]
JURIST Features Editor Ingrid Burke Friedman talked with Brian Concannon, a human rights lawyer and the executive director of the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti about the ongoing civil unrest in Haiti. Below is a transcript of their conversation, which has been edited for clarity. Could you please tell us more about your [...]
