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Indonesia court sentences cleric behind attacks to death
International |
2018/06/24 16:36
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Radical cleric Aman Abdurrahman was sentenced to death by an Indonesian court Friday for ordering Islamic State group-affiliated militants to carry out attacks including the January 2016 suicide bombing at a Starbucks in Jakarta.
Abdurrahman, who police and prosecutors say is a key ideologue for IS militants in the world's largest Muslim nation, kneeled and kissed the floor as the panel of five judges announced the sentence while counterterrorism officers guarding him uttered "praise be to God."
Several hundred paramilitary and counterterrorism police secured the Jakarta court where the trial took place. Fears of attacks have been elevated in Indonesia after suicide bombings in the country's second-largest city, Surabaya, last month that were carried out by families including their young children. Police say the leader of those bombers was part of the network of militants inspired by Abdurrahman.
During the trial, prosecutors said Abdurrahman's instructions from prison, where he was serving a terrorism-related sentence, resulted in several attacks in Indonesia in 2016 and 2017.
They included the Starbucks attack in the capital that killed four civilians and four militants, an attack on a bus terminal in Jakarta that killed three police officers and an attack on a church in Kalimantan that killed a 2-year-old girl. Several other children suffered serious burns from the Kalimantan attack.
The defendant's "speeches, teachings and instructions have inspired his group and followers to commit criminal acts of terrorism in Indonesia," said presiding Judge Ahmad Zaini.
The court said there was no reason for leniency. It gave defense lawyers seven days to consider lodging an appeal.
Abdurrahman has refused to recognize the authority of the court, part of his rejection of secular government in Indonesia and desire to replace it with Shariah law.
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Teenager charged with plotting terrorist act in Australia
International |
2015/05/10 11:48
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A 17-year-old boy arrested last week when police allegedly found three homemade bombs in his family home in Australia's second-largest city appeared in a children's court on Monday charged with terrorism offenses.
The boy, who as a juvenile suspect cannot be publicly identified, was remanded in custody after a brief court appearance in a Melbourne Children's Court during which he was charged with planning a terrorist act somewhere in Victoria state and with possessing items connected with a terrorist act.
He faces a potential sentence of life in prison if convicted.
Attorney General George Brandis told the Senate that the boy was the 23rd person to be charged in eight counterterrorism raids in the east coast cities of Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Logan since September when Australia's terrorist threat alert was raised to the second highest level on a four-tier scale due to the unprecedented threat posed by the Islamic State movement.
The boy did not enter a plea and did not apply for bail. His next court appearance is May 26.
The boy sat in the dock flanked by police during the hearing. None of the boy's family appeared to be in the courtroom. |
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Sweden's supreme court upholds Assange's detention order
International |
2015/05/08 11:48
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Sweden's highest court on Monday rejected WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's appeal of a pre-trial detention order in a nearly five-year-old investigation of alleged sex crimes.
The Supreme Court in Stockholm on upheld rulings by lower courts ordering the detention for Assange, saying there is no reason to rescind it as the investigation continues.
Since 2010, prosecutors have sought to interrogate Assange over allegations of rape, sexual molestation and illegal coercion made by two women after his visit to Sweden that year. Assange denies the allegations and has not been formally indicted.
Swedish prosecutors in March agreed to question Assange in London where he has been holed up in the Ecuadorean Embassy for nearly three years to avoid being extradited.
Assange's lawyers say he fears extradition to Sweden would merely be a first step in efforts to take him to the U.S., where WikiLeaks infuriated officials by publishing secret documents including 250,000 State Department cables. |
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Venezuela opposition leader will appear in court
International |
2014/12/01 14:03
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Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said Thursday she will continue working toward a peaceful change of Venezuela's government even as she complies with an order to face charges of plotting to kill the president.
Venezuela's chief prosecutor on Wednesday ordered the former congresswoman to appear in court next week on charges of participating in what the government described back in May as a U.S.-backed plot to assassinate socialist President Nicolas Maduro. She denies the allegations.
Machado told journalists the charges are further evidence that the Maduro administration has become a dictatorship and said the charges may have been retribution for demanding the resignation of national election council leaders earlier Wednesday.
"Maduro is trying to bring chaos to Venezuela, and we are in danger," she said.
Together with fellow opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez, Machado called tens of thousands of demonstrators into the streets to protest the government earlier this year. The strategy brought them into conflict with more moderate opposition leaders who were advocating gradual electoral change. |
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Court: Exec guilty over faulty French implants
International |
2013/12/12 13:00
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A disgraced French businessman was convicted of fraud and sentenced to four years in prison on Tuesday for filling tens of thousands of breast implants with industrial grade silicone. But he left the courthouse freely after lodging an appeal, and thousands of women will have to wait longer to discover if they will receive damages.
The ruling in the criminal case by a court in Marseille, which all the trappings of a class-action lawsuit, ordered up to 40 million euros ($55 million) in damages paid to a fraction of the 125,000 women worldwide who received the implants.
However, that sum for Jean-Claude Mas' company, Poly Implant Prothese, was largely theoretical because it is bankrupt, and because the appeal froze any efforts to find alternate sources. It will be months, if not years, before any women see money many say they need to remove the faulty, leak-prone implants.
In addition to his prison sentence, the French businessman was fined 75,000 euros ($103,000).
His lawyer promised to appeal immediately, and Mas left the courthouse without comment. The appeal freezes the jail term, fine and any damages.
Four managers in the now-defunct Poly Implant Prothese received lesser sentences.
The decision established a complex system of damages for about two-thirds of the 7,100 women who joined the case, with a potential total of 40 million euros ($55 million) to be paid by those convicted. But, like Mas' fine, it was not clear where that money would come from. |
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Russian court: Greenpeace activist to stay in jail
International |
2013/11/18 15:31
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A Russian judge refused Monday to free Australian Greenpeace activist Colin Russell, who was among 30 people arrested following a protest against oil drilling in the Arctic, signaling that others also could be kept in jail for three more months pending trial.
In a subsequent hearing, however, a judge agreed to free a Russian doctor who was on the Greenpeace ship when it was seized by the Russian coast guard on Sept. 18. Yekaterina Zaspa was released on bail of 2 million rubles ($61,500).
Investigators had asked St. Petersburg courts to extend the detention period of all 30. Hearings were scheduled Monday for seven of the group.
During similar hearings two months ago on whether to jail the defendants, the rulings were the same in all 30 cases, which made Monday's release of the Russian doctor unexpected.
The Russians arrested everyone on board the ship, including cooks and journalists documenting the protest, after a few of the environmental activists tried to scale an offshore drilling platform owned by Russian state energy giant Gazprom. |
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IMF head Lagarde in court in fraud probe
International |
2013/05/22 09:07
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International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde is facing questions at a special Paris court Thursday over her role in the 400 million euro ($520 million) pay-off to a controversial businessman when she was France's finance minister.
The court hearing threatens to sully the reputations of both Lagarde and France. The payment was made to well-connected entrepreneur Bernard Tapie as part of a private arbitration process to settle a dispute with state-owned bank Credit Lyonnais over the botched sale of Adidas in the 1990s. It is seen by many in France as an example of the cozy relationship between big money and big power in France.
Lagarde has earned praise for her negotiating skills as managing director of the IMF through Europe's debt crisis and is seen as a trailblazer for women leaders. Her decision to let the Adidas dispute go to private arbitration rather than be settled in the courts has drawn criticism, and French lawmakers asked magistrates to investigate.
Lagarde, smiling at reporters, left her Paris apartment Thursday morning and appeared at a special court that handles cases involving government ministers. She has denied wrongdoing.
At the time of the payment, Tapie was close to then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who was Lagarde's boss. Critics have said the deal was too generous to Tapie at the expense of the French state, and that the case shouldn't have gone to a private arbitration authority because it involved a state-owned bank. |
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Class action or a representative action is a form of lawsuit in which a large group of people collectively bring a claim to court and/or in which a class of defendants is being sued. This form of collective lawsuit originated in the United States and is still predominantly a U.S. phenomenon, at least the U.S. variant of it. In the United States federal courts, class actions are governed by Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule. Since 1938, many states have adopted rules similar to the FRCP. However, some states like California have civil procedure systems which deviate significantly from the federal rules; the California Codes provide for four separate types of class actions. As a result, there are two separate treatises devoted solely to the complex topic of California class actions. Some states, such as Virginia, do not provide for any class actions, while others, such as New York, limit the types of claims that may be brought as class actions. They can construct your law firm a brand new website, lawyer website templates and help you redesign your existing law firm site to secure your place in the internet. |
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