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Whole Truth Five Sentenced To 4-5 Years At Southwark Crown Court

July 19, 2024 Just Stop Oil. , , , , ,
In an obscene perversion of justice, five Just Stop Oil supporters were handed multi-year prison sentences today for nothing more than attending a Zoom call. [1] At Southwark Crown Court, Judge Christopher Hehir jailed Roger Hallam (57, from Wales) for five years, whilst Daniel Shaw (38, from Northampton), Lucia Whittaker De Abreu (34, from Derby), Louise Lancaster (58, from Cambridge) and Cressida Gethin (22, from Hereford) were each sentenced to four years. They were convicted last week of conspiracy to cause a public nuisance in relation to the M25 motorway disruption in November 2022. [2] They will join Amy Pritchard who was sentenced in June to 10 months in prison for breaking a window belonging to the world’s largest fossil fuel funder, JP Morgan.

Appeals Court Dismisses Biden Genocide Complicity Case

July 18, 2024 Brett Wilkins, Consortium News. , , , , , ,
A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco affirmed a lower court’s dismissal of the lawsuit against President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, which was led by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) on behalf of several Palestinian groups and individuals. During a Tuesday interview on Democracy Now!, CCR attorney Katherine Gallagher — who represented plaintiffs in the case — said its dismissal “essentially gives the blank check to carry out any kind of conduct that the executive wants in times of genocide, in times of war.”

Truth Dies: Uhuru 3 Trial May Set Dangerous Precedent For Free Speech

July 16, 2024 Margaret Flowers, Clearing the FOG. , , , ,
On July 29, 2022, the FBI raided seven properties connected to the African People's Socialist Party/Uhuru Movement and fabricated charges against three prominent members: Chairman Omali Yeshitela, Jesse Nevel, Chair of the Uhuru Solidarity Movement, and Penny Hess, Chair of the African People’s Solidarity Committee. They are facing up to 15 years in jail for speaking out against the proxy war in Ukraine. Their trial is currently scheduled for September 3. Clearing the FOG spoke with Penny Hess and Leonard Goodman, a criminal defense attorney with the Uhuru Legal Team. Mr. Goodman made the point that if this trial succeeds, political speech may be considered disinformation even if it is true. Learn more about the trial and how to support the Uhuru Three as they put the US government on trial.

Guilty Plea In First Espionage Act Case Involving Drone Photography

July 16, 2024 Kevin Gosztola, The Dissenter. , , , , ,
In a first-of-its-kind prosecution, a Chinese graduate student pleaded guilty to violating the United States Espionage Act when he flew a drone and photographed U.S. military and naval installations. The plea deal does not create any legal precedent, and U.S. prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia never explicitly accused Fengyun Shi of spying on behalf of the Chinese government. However, the case itself carries implications for the right to photograph or gather news. Shi agreed to plead guilty [PDF] to two counts of “unlawful photographing of designated installation without authorization.” Both are misdemeanor charges that carry a potential sentence of one year in prison and a fine of $100,000. He also faces deportation back to China.

Big Oil Is Pulling Out All The Stops To Block Lawsuits For Accountability

July 15, 2024 Emily Sanders, Truthout. , , , ,
In the face of mounting scrutiny from local, state, and federal officials, fossil fuel companies and their allies are deploying a range of tactics to obstruct ongoing lawsuits and investigations concerning evidence that the industry has misled the public about the harms it knew its products would cause to the climate, environment, and human health. Far-right industry allies with ties to Chevron have mounted an “unprecedented” pressure campaign calling on the Supreme Court to stop a potentially historic climate deception lawsuit against oil majors from going to trial. Republican attorneys general are separately urging the Supreme Court to throw out similar climate fraud lawsuits from five states.

Grocery Workers File Union Democracy Lawsuit

July 11, 2024 Lisa Xu, Labor Notes. , , , ,
Members seeking to transform the United Food and Commercial Workers have added a new weapon to their arsenal: legal action. Grocery workers Kyong Barry (Local 3000 in Washington) and Iris Scott (Local 1459 in Massachusetts) sued the UFCW April 19 over the undemocratic representation of members at the UFCW Convention, which takes place every five years. There are several charges, but the crux of the lawsuit is that delegates are apportioned across locals in such a way as to deny members equal voice. A favorable ruling would enable reformers in other unions to sue on the same basis. The UFCW is the fifth-largest union in the U.S. after the NEA, SEIU, AFSCME, and the Teamsters.

Corporate Social Responsibility Leader Convicted Of Funding Death Squads

July 2, 2024 Margaret Flowers, Clearing the FOG. , , , , ,
In a landmark legal case, Chiquita Banana was convicted by a federal court in Florida of funding a paramilitary death squad, the United Self Defense Force of Colombia (AUC in Spanish), in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The AUC murdered thousands of workers and used Chiquita ports and boats to move cocaine and weapons. This is the first time a US corporation has been held accountable for committing human rights abuses in another country. Clearing the FOG spoke with Professor Terry Karl, who was an expert in the case, about what happened, how Chiquita will now work to cover up its misdeeds and the impact this case will have.

CUNY Encampment Felony Charges Could Set A Dangerous Precedent

July 2, 2024 Hebh Jamal and CHarlie Markbreiter, Mondoweiss. , , , , , , , ,
Earlier this month, the Manhattan district attorney’s office dropped felony charges against nine pro-Palestinian protesters arrested at City College’s encampment on the fateful police raid orchestrated on April 30. Thirteen protestors, however, could still serve felonies, including up to nine years of jail. While organizers have faced legal threats nationally, CUNY students — who, in addition to being predominantly POC and working class, are consistently some of the most militant student intifada members — have been hit with the highest charges. This sends a message: when it comes to Zionist repression, the most vulnerable and most radical students will be the first to go. But the consequences of the CUNY 22 trial extend far beyond CUNY.

Judge Orders Railway To Pay Washington Tribe For Trespassing

June 29, 2024 Gene Johnson, AP. , , , , ,
Seattle, WA — BNSF Railway must pay nearly $400 million to a Native American tribe in Washington state, a federal judge ordered Monday after finding that the company intentionally trespassed when it repeatedly ran 100-car trains carrying crude oil across the tribe’s reservation. U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik initially ruled last year that the railway deliberately violated the terms of a 1991 easement with the Swinomish Tribe north of Seattle that allows trains to carry no more than 25 cars per day. The judge held a trial earlier this month to determine how much in profits BNSF made through trespassing from 2012 to 2021 and how much it should be required to disgorge.

Report: Climate Lawsuits Against Polluting Companies Are Increasing

June 29, 2024 Cristen Hemingway Jaynes, EcoWatch. , , ,
A new report has found that climate lawsuits being filed against companies are on the rise all over the world, and most of them have been successful. The report by the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) — Global trends in climate change litigation: 2024 snapshot — said that roughly 230 climate cases have been brought against trade associations and corporations since 2015, more than two-thirds of which have been filed since 2020. “Climate litigation… has become an undeniably significant trend in how stakeholders are seeking to advance climate action and accountability,” said Andy Raine.

Assange: I Broke The Law But The Law Is Wrong

June 27, 2024 Joe Lauria, Consortium News. , , ,
Before Federal Judge Ramona Manglona on Wednesday at the court in Saipan, capital of the Northern Marianas, Assange pleaded guilty to a single charge of conspiracy to obtain defense information, a violation of the U.S. Espionage Act. “With this pronouncement, it appears that you will be able to walk out of this courtroom a free man,” the judge said. According to an account by Dow Jones news service in The Australian, Mangola asked Assange what he had done to violate the law. “Working as a journalist, I encouraged my source to provide information that was said to be classified,” Assange replied. “I believed the First Amendment protected that activity, but I accept that it was a violation of the espionage statute.”

Media Claims Of Hezbollah Weapons At Beirut Airport Trigger Lawsuit

June 25, 2024 Robert Inlakesh, Mintpress News. , , , ,
On Sunday, The Telegraph published an article alleging that whistleblowers had informed them that Hezbollah was storing a range of missiles and explosives at the Rafik Hariri International Airport in Beirut, Lebanon. The report attempted to link this claim to the catastrophic Beirut Port explosion in 2020. However, the British media outlet has since retracted the original article and replaced it with another piece that covers Lebanese refutations of the allegations. An article published by The Telegraph, claiming it had acquired knowledge from unnamed sources about the presence of Iranian-made weapons being stored at Beirut’s International Airport, has triggered a lawsuit from Lebanon against the British media outlet.

Julian Assange Is Finally Free

June 25, 2024 Joe Lauria, Consortium News. , , , ,
Julian Assange has agreed to a plea deal with the United States. He left Belmarsh on Monday and is headed to Australia, WikiLeaks said. “He was granted bail by the High Court in London and was released at Stansted airport during the afternoon, where he boarded a plane and departed the UK,” WikiLeaks said in a tweet early Tuesday morning London time. Stella Assange, tweeted: “Julian is free!!!! Words cannot express our immense gratitude to YOU- yes YOU, who have all mobilised for years and years to make this come true. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU.” Assange was released as a result of a plea deal with the United States, the BBC reported.

Veteran’s Trial To Highlight BAE Systems Inc. Complicity In Genocide

June 25, 2024 Veterans for Peace, Popular Resistance. , , , , ,
Endicott, NY – On Wednesday, June 26, 2 pm, in Endicott Village Court, 225 Jefferson Avenue, Jack Gilroy, an 89-year-old former machine gunner in occupied Austria, will tell the court why he was compelled to deliver a letter to weapons manufacturer, BAE Systems, and should not be convicted of trespass. Gilroy, a member of Veterans For Peace (VFP), will testify that he has written letters to public officials, given talks, voted for antiwar candidates and signed petitions, but the genocide continued, prompting him to try to meet directly with BAE Systems management to implore them to stop. “This case is not about trespass," Gilroy said.

Julian Assange Is Free, But Government Still Abused The Espionage Act

June 24, 2024 Defending Rights and Dissent. , , ,
Defending Rights & Dissent welcomes the news that Julian Assange will go free for the first time in over a decade. For over five years, Assange has been confined to Belmarsh Prison in London, as he contested his extradition to the US. Prior to that, Assange spent seven years in the Ecuadorian embassy under what a United Nations Work Group deemed to be arbitrary detention.  On Monday, it was announced that Assange had filed a guilty plea in the US District of Northern Mariana Islands. Assange, who faced 17 counts under the Espionage Act and one count of conspiracy to violate the Computer Fraud And Abuse Act, pled guilty to single count of conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defense Information in violation of the Espionage Act.
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