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Dutch court acquits nurse of killing patients
Legal World News |
2010/04/15 09:20
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A Dutch appeals court has acquitted a nurse who was once sentenced to life in prison for on charges of killing several patients, and prosecutors have apologized. Lucy de Berk, now 49, served six and a half years in prison before an extraordinary review of her conviction — which had been upheld by the country's Supreme Court — led to a retrial. A key finding was that a statistician who testified the chances of her innocence were one in 342 million had gravely miscalculated. The country's Attorney General Harm Brouwers said Wednesday he wishes to restore De Berk's reputation. He said the state is negotiating a financial settlement and in the future will not be so quick to rely on the opinions of outside experts.
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Moscow judge who sentenced neo-Nazis shot to death
Legal World News |
2010/04/12 09:10
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A judge who sentenced to prison neo-Nazis responsible for dozens of hate killings was gunned down Monday amid a surge of violence against activists and officials opposed to Russian nationalists. Moscow City Court judge Eduard Chuvashov was shot contract-style in the stairwell of his apartment building in central Moscow, Russia's top investigative body said. The murderer used a silencer and left no shells, but investigators obtained footage from surveillance cameras showing a tall Slavic man, about 30-years-old, coming out of Chuvashov's apartment building shortly after the killing, it said. |
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US judge seizes $105 million in Argentine funds
Legal World News |
2010/04/08 12:29
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Argentina quickly said it would file a court appeal after a U.S. federal judge ruled Wednesday that bondholders can seize $105 million in Argentine central bank deposits held in the United States. A bank spokesman told The Associated Press that Argentina was optimistic because similar rulings had been overturned. The decision, nevertheless, drove down Argentine bond prices just as the cash-strapped government prepares a $20 billion debt-swap offer in hopes of satisfying the bondholders and ending the lawsuits. Argentina has been in a seemingly endless legal battle with bondholders who refused to accept about 30 cents on the dollar for debt they bought before the country's record $95 billion default in 2002. U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Griesa in New York said Argentina is willfully defying its legal obligations and "has thus enmeshed the court in years of wasteful litigation with no end in sight." More threatening for Argentina is the basis for his ruling: that President Cristina Fernandez has proven through her actions that the country's Central Bank lacks independence. That could expose Argentina's funds to other seizures, and increase the perception around the world that the country is a risky place to invest. The judge issued the order at the request of the hedge fund firm Elliott Management Corp. and an affiliated company, NML Capital Ltd.
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Bangladesh sets up war crimes tribunal
Legal World News |
2010/03/25 12:13
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Bangladesh set up a war crimes tribunal Thursday for long-delayed trials of people accused of murder, torture, rape and arson during its 1971 independence war. Three High Court judges will sit in the tribunal, Law Minister Shafique Ahmed told reporters, without specifying when trials would begin. The government also appointed six retired civil, police and military officials to investigate war crimes charges. The government has already barred about 50 war crimes suspects mostly belonging to the country's main Islamic party, Jamaat-e-Islami, from leaving the country. Jamaat-e-Islami had sided with Pakistani troops against whom Bangladesh fought the independence war. On March 26, 1971, Bangladesh — then East Pakistan — declared its independence from West Pakistan, following years of perceived political and economic discrimination. Bangladesh official figures say Pakistani soldiers, aided by local collaborators, killed an estimated 3 million people, raped about 200,000 women and forced millions more to flee their homes during a bloody nine-month guerrilla war. With help from neighbor India, Bangladesh emerged as an independent nation on Dec. 16, 1971, with the surrender of the Pakistani army in Dhaka. An amnesty was declared after the war for collaborators who were not directly involved in heinous crimes. It did not cover those who had specific charges or evidence of crimes against them. A Law Ministry statement said the tribunal will conduct quick trials under a 1973 act outlining prosecution and punishment for people accused of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and other crimes under international law. |
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German court gives ex-Nazi life for Dutch killings
Legal World News |
2010/03/23 16:01
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A court in Germany sentenced an 88-year-old former Nazi SS death squad member to life in prison Tuesday for the murder of three Dutch civilians in World War Two.
A spokesman for the court in the western city of Aachen confirmed the verdict against Heinrich Boere for the three killings, which were carried out in the Netherlands in 1944. His defense said it would appeal, which could mean that the sentence is not legally binding for months. Boere, who is on the Simon Wiesenthal Center's list of most wanted war crime suspects, had confessed to killing the three civilians when he was a member of an SS squad targeting anti-Nazi resistance, but argued that he was following orders. The proceedings have attracted international interest, not least because they have coincided with the case of John Demjanjuk, 89, who is on trial in Munich on charges of helping to kill 27,900 Jews at the Sobibor extermination camp in Poland. Boere was born in Germany but grew up in the Netherlands. He was captured there by U.S. forces after the war, but escaped to Germany before being sentenced to death in absentia in the Netherlands in 1949.
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South African youth leader convicted of hate speech
Legal World News |
2010/03/15 13:35
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A court convicted the governing party's youth leader of hate speech Monday after he said the woman who once accused South Africa's president of rape had had a "nice time" because she stayed the night and asked for taxi money. A gender justice group took African National Congress Youth League president Julius Malema to the Johannesburg Equality Court after he made the comment to students in January 2009. Jacob Zuma was acquitted of rape in 2006 after he insisted the sex was consensual and went on to become president last year. Just hours after the conviction, a court official sent a second round of hate-speech complaints to Malema. These complaints address Malema's decision last week to lead college students in singing a song that calls for the killing of white South African farmers. The judge who convicted Malema ordered him to make an unconditional public apology within two weeks and pay 50,000 rand ($6,700) to a center for abused women, called People Opposing Women Abuse, within a month, South African media reported. "Instead of perpetuating rape myths, public figures should make it clear that rape can happen anywhere ... We need to make sure that women who have been raped are not stigmatized and are not made to feel like the crimes against them were their fault," said Mbuyiselo Botha, spokesperson for the Sonke Gender Justice group that took Malema to court. Malema was not present in court to hear Monday's judgment. Malema's lawyer said his client will appeal soon. |
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