Category: Justice

Court approves warrant for ex-leader Park’s arrest

{Ousted president can be held in a cell for up to 20 days while she is probed on multiple charges, including bribery.}

A South Korean court has approved a warrant for ousted President Park Geun-hye, who was removed from office earlier this month over corruption allegations – the first democratically elected leader ever arrested in the country.

Live TV footage showed a black sedan carrying Park entering the detention centre near the capital Seoul early on Friday.

The ruling by the Seoul Central District Court came after Park, 65, faced nearly nine hours of questioning over a number of charges, including bribery and abuse of presidential power.

The court’s decision marks yet another humiliating fall for Park – South Korea’s first female president who was elected in 2012 amid a wave of conservative nostalgia for her late dictator father whose 18-year rule is marked by both rapid economic rise and enormous human rights abuses.

In the coming weeks, prosecutors are expected to formally charge her with extortion, bribery, and abuse of power. A bribery conviction alone is punishable by up to life in prison in South Korea.

Park was held at a prosecutors’ office next door while a judge at the court studied the evidence and arguments to decide on whether to issue the arrest warrant.

“The cause and the need for the warrant are recognised as the main charges against her have been verified and as evidence could be destroyed,” the judge said later in a statement.

South Korea is to hold an election in May to choose Park’s successor.

The former president can now be held in a jail cell for up to 20 days while she being investigated.

Park is expected to be transferred to a south Seoul detention facility for high-profile suspects. There, she may be given a bigger cell than other inmates, but she would be subject to the same rules on everything from meals to room inspections, according to former prosecution and correctional officials.

Park had her removal from office confirmed by the country’s top court on March 10, ending her executive immunity, and her prosecution has been a key demand of millions of people who took to the streets to protest against her.

She has been accused of colluding with a friend, Choi Soon-sil, and a former presidential aide, both of whom have been on trial, to pressure big businesses to donate to two foundations set up to back her policy initiatives.

Park is also accused of soliciting bribes from the head of the Samsung Group for government favours, including the backing of a merger of two Samsung affiliates in 2015 that was seen to support the succession of control over the country’s largest “chaebol” conglomerate.

The former president has denied any legal wrongdoing. She apologised for putting trust in Choi, but said she only let her edit some of her presidential speeches and provide the president with some “public relations” help.

Al Jazeera’s Yaara Bou Melhem, reporting from Seoul, called the court’s ruling “historic”.

“Park is the first democratically elected leader to be detained after being impeached and forced out of office. The court didn’t take their decision lightly. It’s 3:30am now (18:30GMT), and the court hearing ended yesterday evening after a marathon eight hours and 40 minutes hours of arguments about whether this arrest warrant request should be upheld.

“It was the longest hearing ever held for an arrest warrant, and the court eventually ruled in favour of the prosecution, saying the key allegations have been explained and it’s issuing the arrest warrant because there was the potential she could destroy evidence,” Melhem said.

Park, daughter of dictator Park Chung-hee, is also said to have ordered aides to leak secret state files to Choi, and to have cracked down on thousands of artists who had voiced criticism of her or her father’s rule from 1961 to 1979.

Park’s father was gunned down by his own intelligence chief in 1979, five years after his wife was killed in an assassination attempt that targeted him. Park Geun-hye served as first lady after her mother’s death.

Source:Al Jazeera

March 31, 2017
Ivory Coast’s former first lady Simone Gbagbo acquitted

{A court in Ivory Coast has acquitted the country’s former first lady, Simone Gbagbo, of crimes against humanity.}

The charges related to the violence that followed the 2010 presidential poll when her husband, Laurent, refused to accept defeat to Alassane Ouattara.

The majority of the judges dismissed the prosecution’s argument that Simone Gbagbo, 67, headed a crisis cell and tried to buy weapons.

She is already serving a 20-year prison term for undermining state security.

Ivory Coast has refused to extradite her to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, where Laurent Gbagbo is on trial for crimes against humanity.

The ICC has issued a warrant for Simone Gbagbo on similar charges.

More than 3,000 people died in the violence after the 2010 presidential poll.

Laurent and Simone Gbagbo were arrested in 2011 after troops stormed a bunker where the pair had taken refuge in the main city, Abidjan.

Source:BBC

March 29, 2017
Kenya:Court detains computer geek in Sh4bn KRA case for 40 days

{A Nairobi court has allowed a request by prosecutors to detain for three more weeks a computer expert charged last week over the theft of Sh4 billion from the tax agency.}

Alex Mutungi Mutuku, 28, was arrested on March 7 and has been battling to be released on bond.

Chief Magistrate Francis Andanyi allowed police to continue detaining Mr Mutuku last week, when he pleaded not guilty to electronic fraud that resulted in the loss of Sh3,985,663,858 from the Kenya Revenue Authority.

On Tuesday, the court said that if investigations are completed before April 17, Mr Mutuku may be released on cash bail of one million shillings.

{{National security }}

The fortune was allegedly lost through alleged interference with the tax collector’s computer systems.

His lawyer, Tacey Makori, had protested the request to detain him longer, saying the police had not shown evidence of what had been gathered in the 14 days he had been in custody.

But prosecutors argue Mr Mutuku has the potential to interfere with computer servers remotely, is considered a threat to national security and has been working with suspects who are outside the country.

Prosecutors also told the court that a printout of data from seized items would fill two rooms each measuring 30 by 40 feet.

The magistrate pointed out that cybercrime is a serious offense worldwide and that there is no evidence presented so far showing that the accused had interfered with investigations in his earlier case.

{{Plea }}

Mr Mutuku has a pending cybercrime case.

He was arrested with six others and they were all first arraigned in a JKIA court on March 8 where Flying Squad police were allowed to detain them for 20 days to wrap up their investigations.

He had sued in the High Court to challenge that directive on March 16 and was directed to take plea on March 21.

The suspects had all been locked up at the Pangani Police Station.

Source:Daily Nation

March 28, 2017
Kenya:Trial adjourned after suspect in lawyer Willy Kimani’s case falls ill

{The trial of four Administration Police officers accused of murdering lawyer Willy Kimani and two others was adjourned after one of the suspects fell ill in court.}

Stephen Morogo requested Lady Justice Jessie Lessit to discontinue the hearing because he could not follow the proceedings due “to abdominal complications”.

Mr Morogo told the judge through his lawyer that “he begun vomiting while on his way to the court from Kamiti Maximum Prison where he is detained.”

State Prosecutor Nicholas Mutuku told the court that although he was ready to proceed with the case, it was in order for the suspect to be given medical attention.

Mr Mutuku asked the court to direct health personnel to provide a detailed medical report explaining Mr Morogo’s sickness and treatment.

The judge directed prison authorities to escort the suspect to hospital for treatment.

She also ordered that a medical report be produced in court on March 27.

Mr Morogo is jointly charged alongside Senior Sergeant Fredrick ole Leliman, Leonard Mwangi Maina, Sylvia Wanjiku Wanjohi and police informer Peter Ngugi Kamau with the murders of lawyer Kimani, his client Josephat Mwenda and taxi driver Joseph Muiruri.

They allegedly killed the three dubbed “The Mavoko Three” at Soweto in Athi River.

The three were allegedly kidnapped as they left Mavoko Law Courts on June 23, 2016 then locked up at the Syokimau AP camp before they were moved at night.

Source:Daily Nation

March 24, 2017
African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights hears Ingabire appeal

{African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights based in Tanzania has started hearing the appeal of Ingabire Victoire where she protests a 15-year sentence handed by Rwanda Supreme court. }

The hearing was presided over by seven judges on Wednesday with the absence of the government of Rwanda representatives which boycotted the court.

Rwanda announced withdrawal from the African Court of Human and People’s Rights last year.

Defense lawyers who represented Ingabire Victoire include lawyer Gatera Gashabana and Caroline Buisman from Netherlands.

They told the court that their client’s rights were not respected. Caroline Buisman was last year ordered to leave the country by the Directorate of Immigration and Emigration office in Rwanda after she tried to enter Nyarugenge prison to meet Ingabire Victoire without permission.

Both defense lawyers told the court that witnesses accusing Ingabire did it against the law as they worked behind maneuverings.

They also explained that she was punished by laws passed after her arrest while the court read crimes different from alleged accusations.

Lawyer Gashabana told the court that his client was detained for six months before she was informed of alleged crimes which was supposed to have been done at least in five days and appear before the court within seven days.

He explained that all these procedures were not respected adding that Ingabire was jailed against the law, and in secrecy.

Lawyer Gashabana explained that the trial began on 5th September 2011 and finalized on 30th October 2012 while the Supreme Court read the appeal on 13th December 2012.
He said that they provided evidence proving innocence of their client on treason crimes but the court disregarded it as it read the decisions regarding the appeal.

He also explained that the court applied new laws in the appeal and were never used before in trials.

The ruling of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights is expected in no more than three months. Rwanda boycotted the Court following its decision to hear appeal of a genocide ideologue convict.

Rwanda had joined the court in 2013 where Rwandans could file human rights appeals.

March 24, 2017
Kenya:Court to rule on bond for Sh4bn KRA fraud suspect

{A 28-year-old man alleged to have hacked into the taxman’s systems, leading to the loss of nearly Sh4 billion, will know next week whether he will be detained for 40 days or freed on bond.}

Mr Alex Mutungi Mutuku pleaded not guilty to a charge of electronic fraud.

His lawyer Tacey Makori protested against the prosecution request to have him detained for a further 40 days and nights.

“Due to the slow pace of extracting information per gadget which is not less than five hours, to provide quality evidence, we need at least 40 running days and nights to generate a forensic report,” they said.

The IT expert is accused of fraudulently causing the loss of Sh3,985,663,858 from the Kenya Revenue Authority through interfering with the taxman’s computer systems.

Mr Mutuku was arrested after a multi-agency security operation was conducted within Nairobi and after the police received information that financial institutions were losing cash through suspicious electronic transactions.

The court was told that several electronic gadgets including mobile phones, computers, hard drives, digital video recorders and servers were seized and taken to the cyber forensic laboratory for analysis.

Prosecution lawyers Edward Okello and Eddie Kadebe claimed that data analysed so far indicates that Mr Mutuku has been working with suspects outside the country and so he is a national security threat.

They urged the court to have him detained while claiming that he has the potential to interfere with the servers remotely through an external source.

“He travels a lot and frequently, he seems to walk in and out of Tanzania. He has visited India, Uganda as well as Burundi. He is a frequent traveller and the likelihood of him running away is real,” they added.

{{Pending case }}

Even though Mr Mutuku has a pending case on a cybercrime related offence, Ms Makori protested against his further detention, saying that the police had not shown evidence of what had been gathered in the 14 days he has been in custody.

She further claimed that the police have not ruled out the possibility of intruders accessing the seized gadgets and termed the sum of monies said to have been lost as “ridiculous”.
She also urged the court to consider the penalty for the offence allegedly committed, which is a jail term of three years or a maximum fine of Sh200,000, instead of the value of the monies in the charge he is facing.

“The charge which implies the loss is exaggerated. How that figure was reached is unclear because the forensic report has not been produced, it is merely meant to hoodwink the court,” Ms Makori said.

Mr Mutuku was arrested with six others who were not present on Tuesday.

Source:Daily Nation

March 22, 2017
Uganda:Kasese attacks: Court releases 6 juveniles on mandatory bail

{Jinja Chief Magistrate’s Court on Monday released on bail six juvenile suspects in connection with last year’s Kasese attacks, pending the hearing of the various offenses slapped against them.}

The accused were released on what is legally referred to as “mandatory bail” after spending three months on remand without investigations being concluded.

Their release followed a spirited submission by their defense team comprised led by Caleb Alaka that the accused be released on bail since they have stayed on remand for more than three months.

Mr Alaka went quoted Section 91 of the Children’s Act and Section 20 of the Children’s Amendment Act of 2016 which he said gives juveniles a right to be unconditionally released on bail in capital offenses unless there is a serious danger on a child in case they are released.

“According to the Children’s Act, juveniles on remand should not exceed three months and their continued detention in prison will be illegal and we request for their released on bail…” Mr Alaka submitted.

Those released include; Phasimwa Lyahinda, Crispo Muhindo,Vincent Masereka, Dan Bwambale, Mbusa Bughura and Hamada Masereka.

The six are juveniles aged between 15-17.

The court presided over by Chief Magistrate John Francis Kaggwa handed the released juveniles to the Rwenzururu Kingdom Attorney General Mr Alfred Makasi for purposes of ensuring their attendance of court at the subsequent appearances.

The six accused now join their King Charles Wesley Mumbere and the Rwenzururu premier Johnson Thembo Kitsumbire who were recently granted bail.

They return to court on April 10 for mention of their case with the prosecution expected to update the court on how far the investigations have gone.

They are part of the 169 accused persons who are facing treason, terrorism, murder, aggravated robbery to malicious damage to property charges.

Most of the offenses that they are facing arose mainly from the November 27, 2016, joint police and army assault on Mumbere’s palace in Kasese Town aimed at capturing what they called wrong elements who had taken refuge there.

Source:Daily Monitor

March 21, 2017
Namibia tribes sue Germany in US over colonial-era genocide

{More than a century after a long-hushed genocide took place in Namibia while under German colonial rule, descendants of the victims had their day in court in New York for the first time Thursday.}

In one of the darkest chapters of African colonial history, tens of thousands of Herero and Nama people were killed from 1904 to 1908.

Germany and Namibia have been in talks for the past two years about a joint declaration on the massacres.

The tribes filed their class-action lawsuit in January seeking compensation for “incalculable damages” and demanding that they be included in the negotiations between the two countries.

The 15 or so tribal representatives at the hearing — who came from Namibia, Canada and midwest America, some wearing colonial-era traditional dress — won their first victory Thursday when Judge Laura Taylor Swain scheduled another hearing for July 21.

“When I heard that she said the hearing can take place — that was the greatest success we have achieved. This is the sign that we are the winners,” said Ida Hoffmann, 69, a Namibian MP and Nama representative.

{{REPARATIONS REFUSED}}

While some German officials have acknowledged that a genocide occurred, the government has fallen short of an official declaration.

And Berlin repeatedly refused to pay direct reparations, saying that its development aid worth hundreds of millions of euros since Namibia’s independence from South Africa in 1990 was “for the benefit of all Namibians.”

A foreign ministry spokesman described the aid as “generous,” saying it includes “record” amounts per individual and points to Germany’s “responsibility.”

German settlers grabbed land, cattle and other means of subsistence from the locals, triggering a Herero revolt on January 12, 1904 in which they killed 123 German civilians.

In the bloody Battle of Waterberg in August 1904, around 80,000 Herero fled with women and children toward Botswana. German troops went after them across what is now known as the Kalahari Desert. Only 15,000 Herero survived.

In October 1904, colonial military commander General Lothar von Trotha ordered that the Herero be exterminated.

The smaller Nama tribe faced a similar fate. Around 10,000 of them were killed as they sought to rebel against the Germans during the conflict.

{{BLIND EYE TO RAPE}}

The lawsuit alleges that from 1885 to 1903, about a quarter of Herero and Nama lands — thousands of square miles — were taken without compensation by German settlers with the explicit consent of German colonial authorities.

It also claims that those authorities turned a blind eye to rapes by settlers of Herero and Nama women and girls, and the use of forced labour.

In addition to land and property grabs, there were concentration camps, exterminations and scientific experiments on “specimens” of what the settlers considered to be an inferior race — as if setting the stage for the major genocides of the 20th century.

“What happened to the Jews was only a perfection of what happened (to us),” said Vekuii Rukoro, identified as the paramount chief of the Herero people, who attended Thursday’s hearing.

“I’m sure Germany will ask, ‘How many billions?’ I don’t know, we need to sit around a table and hammer this out on the basis of give and take.”

The lawsuit was filed under the Alien Tort Statute that allows non-US citizens to make claims in US federal court for international law violations.

Berlin has been tight-lipped about details of the deal being negotiated with Namibia, but the two tribes claim that their exclusion from the talks violates a United Nations declaration on indigenous people.

Kenneth McCallion, lawyer for the tribal groups, said he hoped Germany would “reconsider its position” on including them in the negotiations, and respond to the lawsuit if possible before the July hearing.

Source:AFP

March 17, 2017
Two Russian spies indicted over massive Yahoo hack

{Russian agents and two criminal hackers allegedly accessed at least 30 million user accounts through spam campaign.}

Two agents of Russia’s FSB spy agency and two “criminal hackers” were indicted over a massive cyber-attack affecting 500 million Yahoo users, the US Justice Department said.

The indictment unveiled on Wednesday in Washington, DC, links Russia’s top spy agency to one of the largest online attacks in history, carried out in 2014. Officials said that it was launched for espionage and financial gain.

The US government alleged that the content of at least 30 million accounts was accessed as part of a spam campaign, and at least 18 people who used other internet service providers, such as Google, were also victimised.

Officials identified the agents as Dmitry Dokuchaev and Igor Sushchin, both of whom were part of the successor agency to Russia’s KGB.

The two officers “protected, directed, facilitated and paid criminal hackers to collect information through computer intrusions in the United States and elsewhere”, Mary McCord, the acting assistant attorney general, told reporters.

They hired Alexsey Belan and Karim Baratov, described as “criminal hackers”, to carry out the attacks.

“The defendants targeted Yahoo accounts of Russian and US government officials, including cyber-security, diplomatic and military personnel,” McCord said.

“They also targeted Russian journalists, numerous employees of other providers whose networks the conspirators sought to exploit, and employees of financial services and other commercial entities.”

Washington has not contacted Moscow over charges against the Russians, Russian news agencies reported on Wednesday, citing a “highly placed” source in Moscow.

The source was also quoted by TASS, RIA and Interfax as saying that the topic of “Russian hackers” was part of an internal political struggle in the United States.

McCord said Baratov was arrested this week on a US warrant in Canada. Information on the other suspects was not immediately available.

The attack on Yahoo, disclosed last year, was one of the largest ever data breaches and at the time was blamed on a “nation-state” attacker.

Al Jazeera’s White House correspondent James Bays said there was “no direct link” between the Yahoo hack and the hacking of Democratic Party emails, which took place during the 2016 US presidential election.

US intelligence agencies have said that those were carried out by Russia in order to help the campaign of Republican President Donald Trump.

“But the fact that [the US government is] charging two members of the FSB – the successor to the old Soviet KGB – shows the sort of cyber activities that the Russian government may be involved in,” said Bays.

“Clearly, there are still questions about the election campaign and what Russia was up to there, and whether there was any collusion with members of the Trump campaign, or anyone linked to him.”

Yahoo said, when it announced the then-unprecedented breach last September, that it was working with law enforcement authorities and believed the attack was state-sponsored.

The company announced a still-larger breach in December that occurred in 2013 and affected one billion accounts.

Source:Al Jazeera

March 16, 2017
Tanzania:7 foreigners in court for defrauding TCRA of 459m/-

{Seven foreigners appeared before the Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court in Dar es Salaam, yesterday, charged with several counts relating to fraudulent use of communication network and occasioning loss of 459m/- to the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) and the government.}

They are: Dilshad Ahmed (36), Rohail Yaqoob (47), Khalid Mahmood (59), Ashfaq Ahmed (38), Muhamad Aneess (48), Imtiaz Ammar (33), who are Pakistan nationals and Ramesh Kandasamy (36) from Sri-Lanka.

They were not allowed to enter plea to the charges before Principal Resident Magistrate Wilbard Mashauri, as they are facing economic charges.

The magistrate ordered them to remain in remand as his court lacked jurisdiction to termine any bail application. He directed the accused persons to the Economic, Corruption and Organised Crime High Court’s Division to seek bail if they so wished.

Magistrate Mashauri adjourned the case to March 19, for mention, as investigations into the matter, according to the prosecution, have not been completed.

Other counts include conspiracy to commit offences, importation and installation of electronic communication equipment without a licence, use of unapproved electronic equipment and operating electronic communications without a licence and conspiracy to commit an offence.

The prosecution led by Senior State Attorneys Nassoro Katuga and Johanes Karungura, an attorney from TCRA, alleged that on or before November 2016, within the City of Dar es Salaam, all accused persons conspired to commit an offence of fraudulently using network facilities.

Source:Daily News

March 16, 2017