JusticeInfo.net

40% of homicides worldwide are linked to large-scale crime. Between 2015 and 2021, #organizedcrime is estimated to have caused 700,000 deaths, a number comparable to that of armed conflicts. #gangs #mafias #cartels: 9 dangerous countries in focus. 🇨🇴 In Colombia: “You have neighbourhoods in Cali where the police cannot enter, or huge places in Amazon where the natural parks rangers cannot enter.”  Felipe Botero (researcher at Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime) 🇪🇨 In Ecuador, according to the investigative website InSight Crime, the homicide rate has risen from 5.8 per 100,000 in 2017 to 44.5 in 2023. This is a spectacular increase, at an unprecedented rate (+700%), fuelled by power struggles between various gangs. 🇳🇬 In Nigeria, the armed gangs, known to Nigerians as “bandits”, number between "10,000 and 30,000 members." These bandits operate “mostly in rural areas and forest areas where you have limited state presence.” - Kingsley Madueke (researcher at Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime) By Golnouche K. Barzegar

#Syria - It is a trial with many firsts. It’s the first time the Netherlands is prosecuting someone for crimes against Iraq’s Yazidis; it’s the first Dutch case of slavery as a crime against humanity; and it’s the first time in Dutch trials of women allegedly linked to Islamic State (IS) that a victim is heard in court. 👉 https://lnkd.in/dSaqDrAR #UniversalJurisdiction

🇺🇦 #Ukraine - The Prosecutor General of Ukraine, Andriy Kostin, tendered his resignation on October 22, in the wake of a corruption scandal that has rocked the judicial system. Dozens of prosecutors have allegedly obtained fake disability certificates guaranteeing them additional income from the state and possibly enabling them to avoid conscription. These revelations stem from the arrest of a civil servant in early October for illegal enrichment. #JusticeInUkraine #Corruption

#Palestine #WarCrimes - The report by Palestinian investigative journalist Younis Tirawi revealed that 21 people were part of the "Refaim" unit (sniper unit of Tsahal, the Israeli army, active in Gaza), including several members with dual nationality: three American-Israelis, two French-Israelis, one German-Israeli, one Italian-Israeli and one Belgian-Israeli. Similar complaints could be filed in the other countries from which some members of the Refaim unit come, notably France, Germany and Italy. The federal public prosecutor’s office in Belgium has opted for a cautious approach, by opening a judicial inquiry, rather than an investigation, into A.B (member of the "Refaim" unit).  In other words, the public prosecutor’s office considers that there are no grounds for appointing an investigating judge at this stage. However, the criminal investigation has already been set in motion by the civil party complaint filed by ABP. https://lnkd.in/gMxQjvZd

#Ukraine/Russia: exchange of prisoners of war - Nikita Buklov, the lawyer representing Yaroslav Zhdamarov for whom Russia has requested 23 years in jail, believes the exchange to be a humanitarian gesture that benefited both sides. “Russia took back conscript soldiers, easing a sensitive issue. At the same time, they handed over cooks, not actual combatants,” he said. “In response, Ukraine states it returned Russian conscripts who weren’t involved in combat, but in exchange received the heroes of ‘Azovstal’. In reality, no fighters were actually exchanged on either side.” #AzovTrial 👉 https://lnkd.in/dMegSBy8

🇦🇺 #Australia [OPINION] - On a visit to Australia, King Charles III was challenged by a senator of Aboriginal origin, Lidia Thorpe, who accused Great Britain of having perpetrated a “genocide” in her country, and called for recognition of the rights of First Peoples via a treaty and reparations for decades of colonialism. #genocide #Commonwealth #Indigenous #FirstPeoples

[#summary] Catch up on this week's articles👇 > 🇷🇺 Russia: The “Azov” trial in Russia is down to 12 defendants in court (🔗 https://t.ly/q3aQg) > 🇸🇾 Syria: “IS saw the Yazidis as objects, not people” (🔗 https://t.ly/6qrIU) > 🌎 International/International Criminal Court: Pressure mounts on the ICC (🔗 https://t.ly/DQEfm) > 🇵🇸 Palestine: Crimes in Palestine: Belgian justice takes an interest in its dual nationals (🔗https://t.ly/GUn-R)

🇵🇸 #Palestine - Belgium is investigating two cases of war crimes committed in Gaza and the West Bank, under its universal jurisdiction. The latest case is causing a stir: a Belgian-Israeli sniper is suspected of being the perpetrator or co-perpetrator of murders of civilians in Gaza, a Palestinian territory invaded by the Israeli army since the Hamas attack on October 7 2023. A case that could set a precedent for other dual nationals. By Gaëlle Ponselet #Palestine #Belgium #Israel #WarCrimes #UniversalJurisdiction #Gaza #WestBank

“This is one of the most difficult crimes to prove, as its definition is determined by notions not currently stipulated by law, such as ‘broad scale’, ‘contamination’, and ‘ecological disaster’,” said Vladyslav Ihnatenko, head of the Department for investigating war crimes against the environment at the General Prosecutor’s office. 👉 https://lnkd.in/drCp4RsT

⚖️ #InternationalCriminalCourt - The pressure is rising The investigation into the Israel-Palestine conflict has positioned the International Criminal Court in the forefront of world politics. The institution faces pressures on multiple fronts, externally and internally. Evidence of Israeli and American threats against the ICC prosecutor (#KarimKhan) has been made public (and the attacks can sometimes get very personal). By Janet H. Anderson