IGIHE

Category: Justice

  • Iran Executes Man Despite International Pressure

    Iran Executes Man Despite International Pressure

    Iran on Sunday hanged a man said to be affiliated to an exiled opposition group, state media reported, despite international pressure on the Islamic republic to halt the execution.

    According to the official IRNA news agency, Gholamreza Khosravi Savadjani was convicted of “waging war against God” (moharebeh) by helping the People’s Mujahedeen Organisation of Iran (PMOI).

    The announcement of the hanging came just hours after Amnesty International said Khosravi Savadjani’s trial in 2010 had been unfair.

    The rights group said the condemned man’s family were informed by prison officials on Saturday that they must go to a jail west of Tehran, sparking fears his execution may be imminent.

    Khosravi Savadjani was until then being held in solitary confinement at Evin Prison in the capital. Death row prisoners in Iran are generally transferred to isolation units before their executions take place.

    Prior to his death, Amnesty said the execution would be a breach of domestic and international law, as Khosravi Savadjani — held since 2008 — should have benefited from a subsequent law that imposed lighter penalties for the crimes he was convicted of.

    The PMOI was founded in the 1960s to oppose the pro-western shah.

    After the 1979 Islamic revolution that ousted the shah, the PMOI took up arms against Iran’s clerical rulers and Tehran holds it responsible for murdering thousands of Iranian civilians and officials.

    Iran says PMOI members currently in exile in Iraq should be extradited to face charges.

    Khosravi Savadjani was arrested in 1981 and jailed for several years. He was detained again in 2008 for having contact with the PMOI and has been in custody since.

    According to the Iranian judiciary, documents, including photos and papers from sensitive facilities such as military bases, were recovered when Khosravi Savadjani was arrested. These had been given to the PMOI and their affiliated media, officials said.

    Khosravi Savadjani had also been accused of facilitating financial aid for the opposition group. He was convicted by a revolutionary court and the verdict was later upheld by a branch of Iran’s Supreme Court.

    Amnesty International said Khosravi Savadjani had reportedly been held for more than 40 months in solitary confinement in various detention centres.

    “Yet again Iranian authorities are about to execute a man who did not even receive a fair trial,” Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty’s deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa, said on Saturday.

    Iran remains the second biggest executioner in the world, after China, according to the United Nations.

    wirestory

  • Pele’s Son Jailed for 33 Years Over Drugs

    Pele’s Son Jailed for 33 Years Over Drugs

    The son of the Brazilian football legend Pele has been sentenced to 33 years in jail for laundering money raised from drug trafficking.

    Edinho is a retired footballer who played goalkeeper for Pele’s old club, Santos, in the 1990s.

    He was first arrested in 2005 and has served a sentence for drug trafficking offences and links with a notorious drug dealer in the city of Santos.

    He admits he had a drug problem but denies the trafficking charges.

    The ruling was issued by a judge in the nearby coastal city of Praia Grande, in Sao Paulo state.

    Brazilian media have not been able to contact Edinho, whose real name is Edson Cholbi do Nascimento, but they say he is expected to appeal.

    Edinho, 43, works as a goalkeeping coach at Santos.

    US childhood

    Pele, or Edson Arantes do Nascimento, played all his professional career in Brazil for Santos.

    Playing for Brazil, he won the World Cup in 1958, 1962 and 1970 and was acclaimed as the greatest footballer of his generation.

    He retired in 1974, but made a comeback a year later for New York Cosmos.

    Edinho is Pele’s third son from his first marriage. He was five when the family moved to New York to play for Cosmos.

    When he returned to Brazil he decided to pursue a career in professional football – as a goalkeeper, much to his father’s surprise.

    He was Santos’ goalkeeper in 1995 when the team reached the Brazilian league final, losing the title to Botafogo.

    His detention and alleged involvement with drug gangs took most people in Brazil by surprise.

    Pele, now 73, went to visit his son several times in jail.

    “God willing, justice will be done. There is not a shred of evidence against my son,” he said in 2006.

    Edinho said that his father was his idol.

    Four other people have also been convicted for many laundering, including a man accused of controlling much of the drug trafficking in the region – Ronaldo Duarte Barsotti, known as Naldinho.

    wirestory

  • Sudan Woman on Death Row to Be Freed Soon

    Sudan Woman on Death Row to Be Freed Soon

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  • Court Allows Impeachment of EALA Speaker

    Court Allows Impeachment of EALA Speaker

    The East African Court of Justice yesterday declined to stop the impeachment of the East African Legislative Assembly (Eala) Speaker, Ms Margaret Nantongo Zziwa.

    The court ruled that the legislators’ move to throw her out of office did not infringe on the treaty that established the East African Community (EAC).

    According to the court, the details filed were not good enough to stop the process. But Mbidde Foundation Limited of Uganda and Ms Zziwa can still seek an injunction, according to Principal Judge Jean-Bosco Butasi, if they can produce sufficient evidence to merit stopping the move against the Speaker.

    Represented by Mr Fred Mukasa Mbidde and Jet Mwebaze, the applicants also sought an order stopping Eala from conducting any investigation into the matter pending the hearing and determination of the main case.

    But the court yesterday rejected the applicants’ claims that presenting the petition to the Assembly constituted an infringement of the EAC Treaty. The Principal Judge said in the ruling at the EACJ’s new chambers: “Those Rules of Procedure were promulgated under Articles 49 (2) and 60 of the Treaty. No material was availed to this Court as would suggest that the Rules per se infringe Treaty provisions.”

    He added: “At this stage, we find that the presentation of the petition to the House was in compliance with Rules duly promulgated under the EAC Treaty and, therefore, in compliance with the Treaty.”

    Secondly, he said, the removal of the Speaker of the Assembly was a function of Eala as provided by Article 53 of the Treaty with the procedure for such removal detailed in Rule 9 of the Assembly’s Rules of Procedure.

    He went on to say that Article 49 (2) (g) of the EAC Treaty does not mandate the regional Parliament to formulate its own rules of procedure as well as those which pertain to its committees, of which, the Committee on Legal, Rules and Privileges is one such committee.

    Justice Butasi defended the Assembly’s Rules of Procedure, stressing that the perceived bias on the Committee as was neither frivolous nor vexatious, adding that the material produced in Court by the Respondents “does not prima facie demostrate an act of Treaty infringement such as would invoke the provisions of Article 30 (1) of the Treaty.

    The Applicants had argued that if the interim order to stop the impeachment of the Speaker was not granted, she and Mbidde Foundation Limited would suffer “irreparable damages which will not be compensated.”

    They also added that the political career of Ms Zziwa and the smooth running of Eala would be affected. They submitted that there was a prima facie case to be determined by the Court and asked the EACJ to grant the order sought with costs.

    But the Court said it was not satisfied that Mbidde Foundation demostrated any injury it is likely to suffer, referring to an affidavit of one Moses Kyeyune Mukasa to the effect that the organisation wanted to protect Uganda’s rotational interest in the office of the Speaker as well as the rights of the incumbent Speaker.

    “But this does not provide material that demonstrated the injury that party is likely to suffer if the injunction is refused,” the ruling stressed.

    eala.jpg
    NMG

  • Tanzanian Witchdoctor Jailed for Conning Nairobi Woman

    Tanzanian Witchdoctor Jailed for Conning Nairobi Woman

    A self-proclaimed witchdoctor from Tanzania and his accomplice will serve three years in jail for defrauding a Nairobi resident of Sh9 million with the promise of riches.

    Amos Chipeta and Peter Mwami will be repatriated back to their country after completing their sentences, for lying that they would multiply their client’s money.

    Senior Principal Magistrate Lucy Mbugua handed them the jail term after they were found guilty of defrauding Catherine Njeri of the colossal sum of money.

    The prosecutor informed the court that Chipeta and Mwami, between August and December 2012, obtained Sh9 million from Njeri at their premises along Juja Road by saying that the money would multiply to Sh50 million after three months and quadruple in six months.

    The witchdoctors also promised Njeri that they would use magic powers to enable her become rich. The court heard that after handing over the cash to the witchdoctors, they gave her a box, which she was instructed not to open before three months were over.

    When the period ended, Njeri opened the box only to find it stuffed with pieces of papers rather than the cash promised by the witchdoctor.ghd.jpg Tanzania national Amos Chipeta (left) and Peter Mwami at the Milimani Law Courts

  • Man Sentenced to 4years in Jail over Slavery

    Man Sentenced to 4years in Jail over Slavery

    A court in Niger has sentenced a man to four years in jail in the country’s first prosecution for slavery, a magistrate said on Thursday.

    The 63-year old man had taken a woman as his fifth wife against local law and had subjected her to slavery, the magistrate added, requesting anonymity.

    Niger ranks number 28 out of 160 in the 2013 United Nations global slavery index with up to 130,000 people trapped in modern slavery. Mostly women and children are trafficked for sexual exploitation, domestic work and forced labour, the index says.

    Elhadji Djadi Raazikou, who has been in detention since 2010, was arrested after a local anti-slavery organisation, Timidria, alerted the authorities.

    Raazikou, already married to four wives, was accused of buying a young girl for 200,000 CFA francs ($420) and putting her to work for one of his wives.

    He later took her as a fifth wife while she continued to work for him as a domestic servant.

    Realising he had fallen foul of local Islamic law that allows a man to marry up to four wives so long as he treats them all equitably, Raazikou had tried to divorce one of the others, the court in Birnin Konni in southwest Niger, heard on Tuesday.

    He admitted the slavery charge but having already served four years in detention, he is expected to be released at the end of this month, the magistrate said.

  • Pakistani Woman Killed for Marrying Man of her Choice

    Pakistani Woman Killed for Marrying Man of her Choice

    A 25-year-old woman was stoned to death by her family outside one of Pakistan’s top courts on Tuesday in a so-called “honor” killing for marrying the man she loved, police said.

    Farzana Iqbal was waiting for the High Court in the eastern city of Lahore to open when a group of around dozen men began attacking her with bricks, said Umer Cheema, a senior police officer.

    Her father, two brothers and former fiance were among the attackers, he said. Iqbal suffered severe head injuries and was pronounced dead in hospital, police said.

    All the suspects except her father escaped. He admitted killing his daughter, Cheema said, and explained it was a matter of honor. Many Pakistani families think a woman marrying her own choice of man brings dishonor on the family.

    Iqbal had been engaged to her cousin but married another man, Cheema said. Her family registered a kidnapping case against him but Iqbal had come to court to argue that she had married of her own free will, he said.

    Around 1,000 Pakistani women are killed every year by their families in honor killings, according to Pakistani rights group the Aurat Foundation.

    The true figure is probably many times higher since the Aurat Foundation only compiles figures from newspaper reports. The government does not compile national statistics.

    Campaigners say few cases come to court, and those that do can take years to be heard. No one tracks how many cases are successfully prosecuted.

    Even those that do result in a conviction may end with the killers walking free. Pakistani law allows a victim’s family to forgive their killer.

    But in honor killings, most of the time the women’s killers are her family, said Wasim Wagha of the Aurat Foundation. The law allows them to nominate someone to do the murder, then forgive him.

    “This is a huge flaw in the law,” he said. “We are really struggling on this issue.”

    wirestory

  • Burundi Sued at EACJ

    Burundi Sued at EACJ

    A Burundi national has sued his government before the East African Court of Justice (EACJ) over land infringement.

    Mr Masenge Venant is seeking declarations from the court that the acquiring and using of land property in Kizina by the Burundi government was an infringement of Article 6 (d) and 7 (2) of the Treaty for the Establishment of the East African Community.

    The applicant also wants the court to declare that failure by Burundi’s ministry of Foreign Affairs to demolish the buildings and stop construction on the land was unlawful and a violation of the EAC Treaty.

    Mr Ncutiyu Muheto, a lawyer for the applicant submitted that the court has jurisdiction to entertain the matter under Article 27 of the Treaty.

    He also said the applicant has the full right to enjoy his property that has been acquired by the State and, therefore, asked the court to order the government to demolish the buildings on his property.

    He further submitted that although there was a similar case still pending in the National Court in Burundi (Administrative Court), to bring the matter to EACJ did not require exhausting of local remedies according to Article 30 of the Treaty as a natural person. He, therefore, asked the court to grant the declarations sought.

    Mr Elisha Mwansasu, the senior state attorney representing Burundi submitted to court that the declarations being sought by the applicant were not true because the land property belongs to the government and it is using it to construct schools as well as a national centre for agriculture research.

    He also argued that Mr. Masenge alleged land ownership is illegal.

    The Court will deliver its judgment on notice .Earlier the Court heard an application by the Applicant seeking an injunction to restrain the Government of Burundi from constructing on the land pending the final judgment and the ruling will be delivered on June 19, 2014.

  • Apple Wants Samsung Case Retried

    Apple Wants Samsung Case Retried

    Apple is requesting a retrial after a Californian jury ordered Samsung to pay the US company $119m (£71m) in damages for infringing two of its patents.

    Apple had been seeking damages of $2.2bn after accusing Samsung of copying five patents including the “slide to unlock function”.

    The US company also filed a permanent injunction to prevent Samsung using the patents it was found to have infringed.

    Samsung filed court documents too but the contents have not been made public.

    During the original trial Apple had accused Samsung of “systematically” copying features distinctive to its iOS software. Samsung denied that it had copied Apple patents and said it was Apple who was doing the copying.

    The jury found that Apple had infringed some Samsung patents and awarded $158,000 in damages to the South Korean firm.

    “Litigation fatigue”

    Although the jury found in Apple’s favour in respect of two of the patents, the damages awarded were much lower than the company had been seeking.

    The verdict would have been a blow for Apple said the BBC’s North America technology correspondent Richard Taylor, speaking at the time.

    “The figure would appear to reflect the jury’s belief that Apple’s settlement claim was unfairly inflated. Samsung argued all along that it should be far lower than the $2.2bn sought, not least because some of the patents were never even incorporated into the iPhone’s software,” he said.

    This latest legal step is an attempt by Apple to have its damages award increased but it would require a new trial.

    Intellectual property analyst Florian Mueller thinks any new trial is unlikely to happen before an appeal of the original ruling.

    “The judge may make some minor amendments to the verdict but then she’ll let the parties appeal the unfavourable parts of the ruling to the Federal Circuit. Thereafter, there may be a retrial.” he said.

    These requests by Apple mark the latest instalment in a series of legal battles over intellectual property that the world’s top two smartphone makers have been fighting for years across many countries.

    Two years ago, a separate jury ordered Samsung to pay Apple $930m after finding it had used Apple technology. That verdict is still being challenged by Samsung.

    But Mr Mueller thinks Apple may be suffering “litigation fatigue”, he pointed out that Apple has not filed a US case against Samsung in more than two years.

    Apple recently settled a patent row with Google. The two companies had filed several lawsuits against one another but they agreed to dismiss these cases and said they would work together in “some areas of patent reform”.

    wirestory

  • Iran Tycoon Executed Over $2.6bn Fraud

    Iran Tycoon Executed Over $2.6bn Fraud

    Iranian state television says a billionaire businessman at the heart of a $2.6bn state bank scam, the largest fraud case since the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, has been executed.

    The TV report Saturday said authorities put Mahafarid Amir Khosravi, also known as Amir Mansour Aria, to death at Evin prison, just north of the capital, Tehran.

    The report said the execution came after Iran’s Supreme Court upheld his death sentence.

    Three others also face death sentences in the case, which involved using forged documents to get credit at one of Iran’s top banks to purchase assets including major state-owned companies.

    The trial raised questions about corruption at senior levels in Iran’s tightly controlled economy during the administration of former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

    – AP