Tag Archives: law and order

Germany

Germany: Expected first verdict in Syria torture trial | World | Instant News


Activists hope to increase similar cases, both in Germany and elsewhere, against perpetrators of gender-based violence in Syria, Kaleck added.

Raslan is accused of overseeing the “systematic and brutal torture” of more than 4,000 prisoners between April 2011 and September 2012, which resulted in the deaths of at least 58 people. A verdict in his case is expected later this year.

Al-Gharib was one of Raslan’s underlings. When he was a sergeant major, his unit was allegedly involved in chasing and detaining at least 30 people after the demonstration in Douma, and then taking them to a detention center where they were tortured.

Al-Gharib left Syria in 2013 and came to Germany in 2018. The two men were arrested a year later.

Steve Kostas, a senior lawyer at the New York-based Open Society Justice Initiative, praised Germany for leading the prosecution. He said other countries should resume prosecution immediately, especially countries where the Syrian government perpetrators are known to live.

“Although this verdict will be made against one perpetrator, the evidence shows the scale and systematicity of the Syrian government’s torture program,” said Kostas, whose group represents the four victims in the Raslan case. Two clients left because of concerns about them or them. family safety.

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Switzerland

Olympic ‘Kingmaker’ faces a 5-day forgery trial in Swiss court | Sports area | Instant News


Several months earlier in 2015, the sheikh had made an extensive apology on Kuwaiti television about the allegations now before a Swiss court. He apologized to the then emir, who was his uncle, plus former prime ministers, Sheikh Nasser al-Sabah, and al-Kharafi.

Sheikh Nasser, who has long-standing connections to Geneva, filed a criminal complaint.

“Sheikh Nasser is suing … to show everyone that his honor and reputation” were badly injured by the perpetrators, said his lawyer, Jean-Pierre Jacquemoud, in a statement to the AP.

Although Sheikh Ahmad has distanced himself from the IOC and ANOC – the global groups of national Olympic bodies he has led since 2012 – he continues his 30-year leadership at the Asian Olympic Council, founded by his late father.

In December, The sheikh arranged the deal with regional rivals Qatar and Saudi Arabia choosing Doha to host the 2030 Asian Games and giving Riyadh the 2034 edition.

Sheikh Ahmad also has a key influence in the Asian Football Confederation, which is weighing Qatar and Saudi bids to host the Asian Cup in 2027. India and Iran have also made bids.

The trial will be conducted in French and Arabic, with the court appointed an interpreter, his lawyer said.

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Switzerland

Olympic power brokers to go on trial in Geneva on counterfeiting | Sports | Instant News


GENEVA (AP) – Olympic power broker Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahad al-Sabah is set to stand trial in Switzerland this month on a forgery case he says is linked to political competition in the Kuwaiti royal family.

The sheikh’s lawyers told The Associated Press on Friday that he will attend the trial registered by the criminal court in Geneva which will run from February 22-26.

“He is absolutely determined to get a full acquittal and is confident about the positive outcome of this case,” Geneva law firm RVMH said in a statement.

It is not clear when the panel, which consists of three judges, can give a verdict.

Sheikh Ahmad earned his reputation as the electoral king on the International Olympic Committee and other governing bodies in the Olympic family. A IOC members For nearly 30 years, the former minister of the Kuwaiti government has been a charismatic figure in sports diplomacy, often in a business suit or jeans and his trademark ponytail.

The sheikh’s influence grew by winning elections in 2012 to head the global group of the national Olympic body, known as ANOC. One year later, he became a key campaigner who helped Thomas Bach win the IOC presidency.

In November 2018, Sheikh Ahmad officially stepped aside – “temporarily suspended itself,” in the official phrase of the Olympics – from the IOC and ANOC thereafter was charged with four others by Geneva prosecutors.

The IOC on Friday said its ethics commission “is closely monitoring developments in the case and in particular any decisions that may be taken by the Geneva judicial authorities.”

The sheikh said political competition in the oil-rich Kuwait kingdom led to the former prime minister filing criminal charges against him in the Swiss city, the center of international banking and arbitration cases.

A statement from Sheikh Ahmad’s private office in 2018 claimed “all these issues are based on accusations motivated by political factions in Kuwait since 2012.”

The criminal charges allege that Sheikh Ahmad and the lawyer acting for him later took part in a sham arbitration case in Geneva, which was carried out to try to prove that the video circulating on social media was genuine and imply Sheikh Nasser al-Sabah, the former prime minister, was in error. finance and politics.

Sheikh Ahmad’s lawyers, Albert Righini and Patrick Hunziker, declined to comment on the potential political impact of the case.

“Kuwaiti-related domestic political issues, if any, are beyond the scope of the court’s review,” they wrote in an emailed statement to the AP.

A five-day trial is scheduled to open at Criminal Court, which carries a prison sentence of two to 10 years.

Sheikh Ahmad’s verdict can be appealed and subsequently binding the case which has moved slowly to its first trial. In the more than two years since the indictment, the sheikh continues to chair the Asian Olympic Council, which his family has formed, and works in sports politics.

Although Sheikh Ahmad never joined the IOC’s executive board, he was a member of FIFA’s ruling committee as an Asian delegate from 2015-17. He step down as a candidate to be re-elected after being involved in a United States federal court using OCA money to buy influence in Asian football politics.

He has denied wrongdoing and, nearly four years later, prosecutors in Brooklyn have not publicly filed the case.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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Germany

The German drug company paid $ 50 million in US purity cases on the Indian website | Instant News


An international pharmaceutical company has agreed to plead guilty in US courts and pay $ 50 million in a federal Food and Drug Administration drug purity investigation involving a site in India

10 February 2021, 7:20 pm

2 minutes reading

LAS VEGAS – An international pharmaceutical company has agreed to plead guilt in a US court and pay $ 50 million to delete and hide manufacturing records in India during a federal Food and Drug Administration drug purity investigation.

Fresenius Kabi Oncology Ltd. “puts vulnerable patients at risk,” Brian Boynton, acting assistant attorney general in the Justice Department’s civilian division, said in a statement delivered Tuesday announcing the deal to US District Judge Jennifer Dorsey in Las Vegas. The date of defense was not immediately set.

“By concealing and deleting manufacturing records, FKOL seeks to obstruct FDA regulatory authorities and prevent the FDA from … ensuring the purity and potency of drugs intended for US consumers,” Boynton said.

Fresenius Kabi is a subsidiary of the health care group KGaA Fresenius SE & Co. based in Bad Homburg, Germany. It said in a statement that patient safety “has been maintained at all times”.

They blamed a former employee at the company’s plant in Kalyani, West Bengal, India, for failing to provide records during an FDA inspection that prosecutors said took place in January 2013.

The plant makes cancer drugs distributed in the US, prosecutors said.

Employees were fired and the company notified the public in July 2013, said Fresenius Kabi, adding that solving minor offenses would be “net income neutral.” Its parent company is publicly traded in Europe.

“While we are delighted to have reached this resolution, we regret that such an incident occurred several years ago at one of our factories,” said Fresenius Kabi CEO Mats Henriksson.

Court documents alleged that employees deleted computers, documents, and records before the January 2013 FDA inspection, and deleted spreadsheets containing evidence of manufacturing violations.

The company will pay a $ 30 million fine and lose another $ 20 million, prosecutors said. They also agreed to implement a compliance program to “prevent, detect and remedy violations of US law” relating to the manufacture of cancer drugs aimed at seriously ill patients, they said.

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Australia

Chinese-Australian reporter suspected of spreading Chinese secrets | World | Instant News








FILE – In this August 12 2020 photo file, Cheng Lei, a Chinese-born Australian journalist for CGTN, the English-language channel of China Central Television, attends a public event in Beijing. Cheng was formally arrested in China on suspicion of illegally supplying state secrets abroad, said Australia’s foreign minister.


From Han Guan


By ROD McGUIRK Associated Press

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) – China has officially arrested a Chinese-born Australian journalist for CGTN, China Central Television’s English-language channel, on suspicion of illegally supplying state secrets abroad, the Australian foreign minister said Monday.

Cheng Lei’s arrest last Friday started a formal criminal investigation and came six months after he was detained.

“The Australian government has raised serious concerns about Cheng’s regular detention at a senior level, including about his welfare and conditions of detention,” Foreign Minister Marise Payne said in a statement.

“We hope that the basic standards of justice, procedural justice and humane treatment can be met, in accordance with international norms,” ​​he added.

Bilateral relations have deteriorated since Australia called for an independent investigation into the origins of the Corona virus pandemic suspected to be the cause of Cheng’s arrest.

Cheng’s two young children with family members in Melbourne, Australia.

A month before Cheng was detained on August 13, Australia warned its citizens about the risks of arbitrary detention in China. China views the warning as disinformation.

Before the last two journalists working for Australian media in China left the country in September, they were questioned by Chinese authorities about Cheng.

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