Poland’s Supreme Court announced Thursday that the court had added 27 new judges in a secret ceremony which took place on Wednesday afternoon. This move comes after Poland lowered the retirement age of its Supreme Court justices from 70 to 65 in September, forcing 27 judges of the 72-judge court into retirement. President Andrezj Duda [...]
Liew Vui Keong, chief minister in the Malaysian Prime Minister’s office, announced Wednesday that Malaysia would abolish the death penalty by the next sitting of Parliament. The move comes after several humanitarian groups, including Amnesty International, called for the death penalty’s abolition as a result of the execution of several minor offenders, including Westerners. Upon [...]
A judge for the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida on Tuesday sentenced Guy Vallerius, also known as “Oxymonster” on the dark web, to 20 years in prison for charges related to drug trafficking and money laundering. The South Florida High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Task Force led the investigation that uncovered Vallerius’ [...]
The UK Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that Christian bakery owners did not discriminate against a gay customer when they refused to make a cake supporting same-sex marriage. Mr. Lee, a gay rights activist, brought a claim against Ashers Baking Company, located in Northern Ireland, after the bakery refused to make a cake iced with the [...]
Guatemala’s Court for High Risks on Tuesday sentenced former vice president Roxana Baldetti to prison for 15 years and six months for committing corruption in the awarding of a multi-million dollar government contract to decontaminate a lake near the capital. A UN anti-corruption commission supported Guatemalan prosecutors in the case against Baldetti and 12 other people for [...]
A Madrid court on Monday found Dr. Eduardo Vela, a gynecologist during the rule of Spanish dictator Francisco Franco, guilty of abducting a child in 1969 but found that the 85-year-old’s crime fell beyond the statute of limitations, sparing him from sentencing. The Madrid Provincial Court agreed in June to hear the case of Ines [...]
UN human rights experts called Tuesday for an investigation into the disappearance of Saudi journalist and government critic Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul. Khashoggi has not been seen since his fiancee saw him enter the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul on October 2. Sources in Turkey believe that Khashoggi was killed in a state-sponsored murder after entering [...]
The Supreme Court of Singapore on Tuesday convicted an activist and an opposition politician under the country’s new Administration of Justice (Protection) Act 2016, finding the Facebook remarks they made critical of Singapore’s judiciary to constitute contempt by scandalizing court. The Administration of Justice Act makes it illegal to commit the crime of “contempt by scandalising (sic) court,” which is defined as: Any [...]
A court of appeals in The Hague on Tuesday upheld a historic legal order that requires the Dutch government to make “a reduction obligation of at least 25% from the emissions in 1990 by end-2020” because that is within the “State’s duty of care.” The court cited Article 2 and Article 8 of the European Convention on [...]
Romania’s referendum Sunday to change the constitution to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman failed due to lack of voter participation. The national election bureau reported that only 20.4 percent of Romanian citizens voted in the referendum, which required a 30 percent voter turnout. The Coalition for the Family, a conservative lobbying group, petitioned the Romanian government [...]
