Lawfare

Lawfare in Argentina: Cristina Fernández Sentenced To Prison

December 8, 2022 Tanya Wadhwa, People's Dispatch. Educate! Argentina, Criminal Justice and Prisons, Lawfare, Regime Change

On Tuesday, December 6, Argentina’s Federal Oral Court 2 sentenced Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner to six years in prison and disqualified her for life from holding public office on corruption and fraud charges. A three-judge panel found Fernández de Kirchner –who was Argentina’s president for two terms between 2007 and 2015– guilty of “fraudulent administration” and diverting nearly 1 billion USD in government funds through public works contracts during her presidency, but rejected another charge of running a criminal organization. The verdict corresponds to the trial known as the Road Management Case, in which VP Kirchner was accused of having formed an “illicit association” with 13 others to irregularly award 51 overpriced public works contacts in the province of Santa Cruz between 2003-2015 to a company belonging to businessman Lázaro Báez and share that surplus. Báez was a friend and business associate of Fernández’s late husband and former president, Néstor Kirchner (2003-2007).

These Starbucks Workers Demanded Fair Pay, Then Were Accused Of Kidnapping Their Boss

August 31, 2022 Saurav Sarkar, In These Times. Resist! Lawfare, South Carolina, Starbucks, Worker Rights and Jobs

Anderson, South Carolina - On August 1, Melissa Morris, a manager of a Starbucks location in Anderson, South Carolina, accused unionized workers at her store of kidnapping and assaulting her during her first week on the job. The shocking accusation resulted from workers holding a “march on the boss” to demand that they benefit from the same pay raise the company was providing to non-union stores, and, as a result, 11 workers have been suspended while the company and police investigate the issue. These workers call the allegations “ridiculous” and part of the company’s broader anti-union campaign.

Has Britain Drafted A Law To Protect Israel’s Weapons Makers?

June 24, 2022 Kit Klarenberg, The Electronic Intifada. Educate! Britain, Israel, Lawfare, Palestine, Weapons makers

ust this week, it was confirmed that Israel’s top weapons exporter Elbit Systems is closing down its offices in London. The decision follows numerous protests against Elbit and Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), the letting agent for those offices. It is the second time that Palestine Action, the group organizing the protests, has compelled Elbit to quit a site in Britain – a country identified by the firm as a priority for sales and investment. Earlier this year, Elbit confirmed it had sold Ferranti, its subsidiary based in Oldham, near Manchester. Palestine Action’s protests – which often involve smashing up weapons facilities – have angered Israel and its supporters. One of Israel’s most influential backers in Britain is Priti Patel, the home secretary. She has effectively declared war on Palestinian solidarity activists by claiming that the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement is racist – without presenting any evidence.

Lula Counters FBI-Backed ‘Corruption’ Prosecution To Lead 2022 Race

March 22, 2022 Julian Cola, Mintpress News. Educate! Brazil, Criminal Justice and Prisons, Electoral Politics, FBI, Lawfare

Rio De Janeiro, Brazil – Former Brazilian president, and frontrunner in the upcoming October 2022 presidential election, Luíz Inácio Lula da Silva is putting four of his one-time accusers of corruption and money laundering in the dock. The initial charges and inquiries — all 25 of them — were completely dismissed earlier this month. Lula’s legal battles — including his sentence of 12 years and 11 months in prison, a sentence that was later increased to 17 years — are part of the infamous and multifaceted “Car Wash” investigations into corruption at state and private companies, such as Petrobras and Odebrecht, as well as among businessmen and politicians. In fact, it was during Lula’s administration that Brazil’s federal police were provided with the legal tools and mechanisms to initiate the Car Wash operations.

COP26: Emitters Sue To Chill Climate Measures

November 9, 2021 Manuel Pérez-rocha, Consortium News. Educate! climate crisis, COP26, ISDS, Lawfare

International negotiators are meeting in Glasgow, Scotland, to develop solutions to the climate change threat. But one major obstacle to global sustainability is largely absent from the discussions: the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) system. This system gives transnational corporations the power to sue governments over actions — including policies to address climate change — that reduce the value of their foreign investments. Allowing corporations to continue to wield this power could undermine whatever agreements might be reached in Glasgow. How does this system work? Clauses in more than 2,600 Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) and Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) allow foreign investors to bypass domestic courts and sue sovereign states in international tribunals for millions — and even billions — of dollars.

Energy Lawsuits Pact Seen Threatening Paris Climate Deal

October 6, 2021 Arthur Neslen, Reuters. Educate! climate crisis, Finance and the Economy, Lawfare, Paris Agreement

Brussels - Fear of multi-billion-euro lawsuits from fossil fuel investors is putting the Paris agreement on climate change at risk, one of the deal's architects has warned. Compensation claims from a pact that allows companies to sue countries over policies that affect their investments could amount to more than a trillion euros by 2050, according to one estimate. The Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) was originally drawn up to protect energy firms as the Soviet Union crumbled, but new analysis suggests it could allow coal plants in 54 signatory states to keep belching carbon dioxide for more than a decade. "The integrity of the Paris agreement is critically undermined by the Energy Charter Treaty," said Laurence Tubiana, the French climate change ambassador during negotiations for the Paris agreement.

Chris Hedges: The Empire Is Not Done With Julian Assange

January 5, 2021 Chris Hedges, ScheerPost.com. Educate! Julian Assange, Lawfare, United States, Wikileaks

Shortly after WikiLeaks released the Iraq War Logs in October 2010, which documented numerous US war crimes — including video images of the gunning down of two Reuters journalists and 10 other unarmed civilians in the Collateral Murder video, the routine torture of Iraqi prisoners, the covering up of thousands of civilian deaths and the killing of nearly 700 civilians that had approached too closely to US checkpoints — the towering civil rights attorneys Michael Ratner and Len Weinglass, who had defended Daniel Ellsberg in the Pentagon Papers case, met Julian Assange in a studio apartment in Central London, according to Ratner’s newly released memoir “Moving the Bar”.

A New Peru, Struggling To Be Born?

December 3, 2020 Daniel Willis, Alborada. Strategize! coup, Lawfare, Neoliberalism, Peru

While November saw two Peruvian presidents removed in a week and the emergence of a grassroots movement to defend democracy, there are no clear answers yet as to who will benefit in the long term. It is not the first time that Plaza San Martín, one of the major squares in Lima’s historic centre, has been surrounded by police and filled with protestors demonstrating against the country’s political elite, but this time something felt different. The week beginning 9 November saw a series of major demonstrations pop up around Lima, and across Peru, in condemnation of the removal of President Martín Vizcarra from power by the Peruvian Congress.

The Battle For Democracy In Ecuador

September 30, 2020 Guillaume Long, Open Democracy. Resist! Court abuse, Ecuador, Elections, Lawfare

Ecuadorian President Lenín Moreno and his allies have gone to great lengths to prevent former president Rafael Correa and his political movement from returning to power. In order to achieve this goal, the current government has persecuted opponents and barred candidates from running. Moreno’s authoritarianism has, so far, gone largely unnoticed internationally. With elections scheduled for February 2021, it is crucial that the international community keeps a vigilant eye on the Ecuadorian government’s persistent attempts at perverting the course of democracy.

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