Here’s the international legal news we covered this week:
[JURIST] Judge Carmen Lamela of Spain’s
National Court [official website, in Spanish] on Wednesday
jailed [press release, in Spanish] eight Catalan ministers by
court order [text, PDF, in Spanish] on charges of
sedition [penal code, PDF, in Spanish].
The court found that the ministers’ actions violated Article 544 [text, in Spanish], which establishes that individuals engage in sedition when they “impede, through force or extralegal methods, the application of [Spanish] law.” Spain’s Constitutional Court recently established that Catalonia’s referendum and subsequent declaration of independence [JURIST reports] were unconstitutional.
A judge for the Guantanamo military commissions on Wednesday held Marine Brigaider General John Baker, the chief defense counsel, guilty of contempt of court and sentenced him to 21 days confinement and a fine of $1,000.
Amnesty International (AI) [advocacy website] published a
report [text, PDF] Tuesday accusing Venezuelan officials of doing illegal nightly home invasions of individuals suspected of dissent in an effort of intimidation.
The Netherlands
Electoral Council [official website, in Dutch]
announced [press release, in Dutch] Wednesday that a referendum will be held next year on a controversial surveillance
law [materials, in Dutch].
The surveillance bill was passed [press release, in Dutch] in July after years of debate and criticism.
[JURIST] The
EU Election Observation Mission (EU EOM) [official website]
released a preliminary statement [text, PDF] Tuesday on Kenya’s presidential elections claiming that the current state of the elections had damaged the electoral process, political institutions and the population.
The EU EOM assessment at this stage is that actions by both sides of the political divide have been damaging to the electoral process and have put the people and institutions of Kenya in an extremely difficult position.
Argentina’s top prosecutor Alejandra Gils Carbo
resigned [letter, in Spanish] on Monday amid accusations that she hindered investigations into the
corruption scandal [JURIST report] surrounding officials from former-president Cristina Fernandez’s administration.
Current President Mauricio Macri accused Carbo of misusing her power by failing to bring corruption charges against officials from Fernandez’s administration.
French
President Emmanuel Macron [official website, in French] formally
signed a law [materials, in French] Monday to replace a two-year-old state of emergency established in the wake of violent Paris attacks that killed 130 people in November 2015.
Saudi Princess Reema Bandar bint Al-Saud, vice president for women’s affairs of the
General Sports Authority [official website, in Arabic],
tweeted [twitter feed] Sunday that the country will begin to allow women to attend sporting events in 2018.
The kingdom’s sports authority announced [press release, in Arabic] that stadiums in Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam will be prepared to admit “families” at the beginning of next year, though the details of how the change will be carried out remain elusive.
UPDATE 2:32PM ET: Manafort and Gates have pleaded not guilty.
Special Counsel [official website] Robert Mueller on Monday revealed charges [indictment] against two former Trump campaign officials, and a plea agreement with a third, marking the first criminal charges to come from a probe into possible Russian influence in US political affairs.
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