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Ugandan pop star, a government critic, faces military court
Court News |
2018/08/18 17:59
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A pop singer and prominent critic of Uganda's government was charged with unlawful possession of firearms and ammunition in a military court on Thursday for his alleged role in clashes in which the longtime president's motorcade was attacked by people throwing stones.
Lawmaker Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, whose stage name is Bobi Wine, was arrested in the northwestern town of Arua earlier this week. In a court session closed to reporters, he was remanded and will reappear on Aug. 23, the military said in a statement.
Ssentamu's wife insisted he doesn't know how to handle a weapon, and rights activists demanded his release. In a suburb of the capital, Kampala, small groups of his supporters took to the streets and burned tires in protest but police quickly dispersed them, national police spokesman Emilian Kayima said.
Three other lawmakers arrested alongside Ssentamu were charged earlier on Thursday with treason in a magistrates' court in the northern town of Gulu, where he was detained.
Many Ugandans expressed concern for Ssentamu's safety after Uganda's deputy prime minister told lawmakers he had been hospitalized in custody, without giving details.
The clashes broke out on Monday when Ssentamu and other politicians, including President Yoweri Museveni, were in Arua campaigning in a by-election to choose a lawmaker after the previous one was shot dead near Kampala in June.
Ssentamu's driver was shot dead in the clashes. The lawmaker later posted a picture of the dead man on Twitter, saying he had been killed by the police "thinking they've shot at me."
A group of lawmakers authorized by the parliamentary speaker to investigate the situation told reporters on Thursday that they had been unable to see the pop star.
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EU steps up action against Poland over supreme court law
Lawyer News |
2018/08/16 17:59
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The European Union is increasing pressure on Poland over what it sees as flaws in the country's Supreme Court law, and has given Warsaw a month to act before facing possible court action.
Tuesday's move centers on Polish legislation that forces the early retirement of over a third of the Supreme Court justices. The law is the culmination of the ruling populist Law and Justice party's efforts to put Poland's entire court system under its control, a plan it began nearly three years ago.
The EU Commission objected to the law, saying it falls short of the values guiding the 28-nation bloc, and said that Poland's explanation "does not alleviate the Commission's legal concerns." It said a case could be opened at the EU's highest court in a month.
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Court document details moments before fatal police shooting
Lawyer News |
2018/08/16 17:59
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Investigators say a man fired gunshots into a bedroom wall and pointed a gun at his roommate before he was fatally shot by St. Paul police.
A search warrant filed Tuesday by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension contains details about the moments leading up to the fatal police shooting on Aug. 5.
The document says William "Billy" Hughes became angry and fired two or three gunshots into a wall in his apartment before pointing a gun at his roommate's head. The Star Tribune says the roommate fled and called police.
The warrant says relatives told investigators Hughes had been suicidal over a terminal illness that limited his quality of life.
The bureau has said Hughes was shot after police knocked on one of the apartment's doors and he came out another. The agency continues its investigation. |
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Court: Ex-federal immigration lawyer can be sued for forgery
Court News |
2018/08/15 17:58
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A U.S. appeals court says a former federal immigration lawyer who forged a document in an effort to get a man deported can be sued for damages.
Jonathan M. Love was assistant chief counsel for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Seattle in 2009, when he forged a document purporting to show that Mexican immigrant Ignacio Lanuza had voluntarily agreed to be deported in 2000.
Lanuza later obtained a new attorney, who noticed the document was fake: Its letterhead said "U.S. Department of Homeland Security" — a federal agency that didn't exist in 2000.
Love was criminally prosecuted and sentenced to a month in prison in 2016. But U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman reluctantly dismissed Lanuza's civil claim against him. The judge said legal precedent barred the lawsuit.
A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that decision Tuesday. The panel called the forgery egregious. |
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Zimbabwe's opposition challenges election results in court
Court Watch |
2018/08/13 23:15
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Zimbabwe's main opposition party on Friday filed a legal challenge to the results of the country's first election without Robert Mugabe on the ballot, alleging "gross mathematical errors" and calling for a fresh vote or a declaration that their candidate Nelson Chamisa was the winner.
The filing brings more uncertainty to a country that had hoped the peaceful vote would begin a new era but has been rocked since then by scenes of military in the streets and opposition supporters harassed and beaten.
The court now has 14 days to rule, and Justice Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi said the inauguration, once planned for Sunday for President Emmerson Mnangagwa, is "on hold' until then.
Zimbabwe's main opposition party on Friday filed a legal challenge to the results of the country's first election without Robert Mugabe on the ballot, alleging "gross mathematical errors" and calling for a fresh vote or a declaration that their candidate Nelson Chamisa was the winner.
The filing brings more uncertainty to a country that had hoped the peaceful vote would begin a new era but has been rocked since then by scenes of military in the streets and opposition supporters harassed and beaten.
The court now has 14 days to rule, and Justice Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi said the inauguration, once planned for Sunday for President Emmerson Mnangagwa, is "on hold' until then. |
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Tennessee high court refuses to block looming execution
Lawyer News |
2018/08/13 23:14
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The Tennessee Supreme Court has refused to stay Thursday's scheduled execution of a convicted child killer while the state's new lethal injection protocol continues to be challenged on appeal.
The order brings Tennessee within days of killing Billy Ray Irick with a three-drug mixture, barring some last-minute change. Irick, 59, would be the first inmate Tennessee has executed since 2009. He was convicted of the 1985 rape and killing of a 7-year-old Knoxville girl.
Federal public defender Kelley Henry said she will request a stay with the U.S. Supreme Court. She had asked Gov. Bill Haslam to issue a temporary reprieve while the drugs are studied further. But the governor quickly ruled it out, saying he would not intervene.
"My role is not to be the 13th juror or the judge or to impose my personal views, but to carefully review the judicial process to make sure it was full and fair," Haslam said in a statement Monday. "Because of the extremely thorough judicial review of all of the evidence and arguments at every stage in this case, clemency is not appropriate."
The Tennessee Supreme Court's majority wrote that its rules require proving that the lawsuit challenging the lethal injection drugs is likely to succeed on appeal, but Irick's attorney has failed to do so.
In a ruling late last month, Davidson County Chancellor Ellen Hobbs Lyle wrote that attorneys for 33 death row inmates, including Irick, didn't prove that there is a substantially less painful means to carry out the execution or that the drugs the state plans to use would cause the inmate to be tortured to death. |
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