“The unwarranted seizure of Batumelebi and Netgazeti’s bank accounts confirms what has been clear from the start of Mzia Amaglobeli’s trumped-up trial – that authorities’ goal is to silence two of Georgia’s most respected news outlets and the courageous woman who runs them,” said CPJ Chief Global Affairs Officer Gypsy Guillén Kaiser. “Georgian authorities should lift all undue restrictions on media outlets’ accounts, release Amaglobeli, and end their campaign against the independent press.”

Batumelebi reported that Georgia’s Revenue Service seized the accounts of the outlets’ legal entity, Gazeti Batumelebi, on July 17, after previously giving it just five days to pay accumulated tax debts, interest, and penalties totaling around US$100,000.

CPJ and international partners monitored the July 14 trial of Amaglobeli, who was jailed over an altercation with a local police chief, and denounced the charges against her as “disproportionate and politicized.” A verdict is expected on August 1, with the prominent media manager facing between four and seven years in prison and declining health.

The measures “appear aimed at breaking [Amaglobeli] personally and, ultimately, destroying the media organization she founded,” Batumelebi said in its statement.

The outlet, which is known for its coverage of human rights issues and scrutiny of authorities, said it had been paying off the debt and pointed to the much higher arrears of pro-government media as a “telling example” of “the selectivity of this pressure.”

The Revenue Service said in a July 22 Facebook post that the seizure of Gazeti Batumelebi’s accounts was carried out “automatically” and it was ready to lift the measure and allow the company to cover its debts “in the event of a tax agreement.” 

Batumelebi said the Revenue Service repeatedly declined its proposed payment plans both before and after the seizure.

In recent weeks, two independent broadcasters have reported similar account seizures over tax arrears, alleging political pressure. The moves come amid an unprecedented media crackdown and authoritarian turn by the ruling Georgian Dream party, with a series of repressive new laws on the press and extensive police violence against journalists. 

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

The first trial in a case challenging the Trump administration’s policy of detaining and deporting international students and professors who participate in pro-Palestinian activism is underway in Boston. The American Association of University Professors and the Middle East Studies Association brought the lawsuit. Government lawyers tried to get it dismissed, but U.S. District Judge William Young, an 84-year-old Ronald Reagan nominee, ordered a trial, saying it was the “best way to get at truth.”

“Students and faculty all over the country are quite literally terrified about the possibility that their advocacy and expression will lead to detention,” says Jameel Jaffer, director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University and one of the lawyers challenging the Trump administration. “They are terrified that ICE agents will show up at their door any day and take them away.”

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

“The prosecution of Öznur Değer is yet another example of the witch hunt against critical journalists in Turkey. Reporting on sensitive issues does not equate with promoting violence,” said Özgür Öğret, CPJ’s Turkey representative. “Turkish authorities should quickly free Değer, drop the charge against her, and put an end to such vindictive prosecutions.”

Değer, news director for the pro-Kurdish site JİNNEWS, was taken into police custody during a February 7 raid on her home in the southeastern city of Mardin and put under arrest by a court.

The court subsequently charged her with making propaganda for the PKK, which Turkey recognizes as a terrorist organization.

The PKK, which has been fighting Turkish security forces since 1984, announced in May that it was planning to disband as part of a new peace process.

In the four-page indictment, reviewed by CPJ, prosecutors said PKK-related news, photographs, and videos that Değer posted on the social media platform X between 2021 and 2024 were terrorism propaganda.

The indictment also said Değer was under investigation for “insulting a public officer,” who filed a complaint about comments Değer made at a funeral wake in December.

Değer is appealing a six year and three month sentence issued against her and seven other journalists in June 2024 for membership of a terrorist organization. She spent almost seven months in jail, from October 2022 to May 2023, awaiting trial.

CPJ’s email requesting comment from the chief prosecutor’s office in Mardin did not receive a reply.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

Barrett Newkirk, a former reporter for The Desert Sun, was subpoenaed on April 24, 2025, in connection with the Indio, California, trial of an ex-mayor accused of taking bribes. A judge ruled in May that the state’s shield law doesn’t protect Newkirk from being questioned about his coverage.

According to court filings reviewed by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, Newkirk worked on two articles in April 2015 concerning Stephen Pougnet, then mayor of Palm Springs, and his dealings with two real estate developers.

Pougnet was indicted in 2019 alongside developers John Wessman and Richard Meaney on felony counts of bribery, perjury and conflict of interest, The Desert Sun reported. Less than a month before the case was finally set to go to trial, prosecutors subpoenaed Newkirk, ordering him to appear to testify before the jury on May 1.

Attorneys representing Newkirk and The Desert Sun asked a judge to strike down the subpoena in an April 30 filing, arguing that the former reporter’s testimony was not needed to verify Pougnet’s quotes in the articles and that, given more than a decade had passed, he was unable to recall details to authenticate the quotes.

They added that anything else that Newkirk might be asked about at trial — such as his newsgathering and reporting techniques — is squarely protected by the state’s shield law, particularly as it is the prosecution that seeks his testimony.

Were the subpoena to be enforced, they argued, it would “convert Newkirk and The Desert Sun into a ‘research tool’ or ‘investigative arm’ of the prosecution, called to testify whenever they may have obtained news or an interview that the government might find useful.”

The prosecution argued in its response that reporter’s privilege only extends to information about sources and unpublished materials, not the standards and practices behind attributing quotes in articles.

“Indeed, some might say that the public is entitled to know what standards apply to quoting and attributing statements in the press, and in fact many journalistic organizations post their standards on these issues online,” Deputy District Attorney Natasha Sorace wrote.

Superior Court Judge Samuel Diaz Jr. sided with the prosecution on May 7, but ruled that he would hear additional arguments on whether the evidence would be admissible before compelling Newkirk to testify, according to The Desert Sun.

Before a hearing could be scheduled, Pougnet pleaded guilty May 14 to more than a dozen counts — including bribery, conspiracy and holding prohibited financial interests in public contracts — and entered no contest pleas to three perjury charges.

The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker was unable to confirm whether the prosecution still intends to pursue Newkirk’s testimony at the trial of Pougnet’s co-defendant, Wessman, which is scheduled to begin May 19 or 20.

Newkirk, his attorney and Gannett — The Desert Sun’s parent company — did not respond to requests for comment. The Riverside County District Attorney’s Office declined to comment on the pending case.

This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

Adem Karadag and Yusufu Mieraili, both handcuffed and shackled, appeared Thursday at a Bangkok criminal court for a fresh arraignment aimed at speeding up proceedings in the politically sensitive case.

“I still have hope for freedom,” Karadag told Radio Free Asia through a courtroom interpreter. “I want to go anywhere but not to be sent back to China like others.”

Both men smiled and hugged their Thai lawyer and Uyghur interpreter.

“I exercised. I can eat well,” Mieraili said in Thai.

Both men deny they triggered the Erawan Shrine bomb in the Aug. 17, 2015 attack that was apparent retaliation for Thailand’s repatriation of dozens of Uyghur migrants to China, where they face high risk of persecution.

Twenty people died in the bombing of the Hindu shrine in downtown Bangkok and more than 120 more injured.

The trial has languished due to jurisdiction changing between civilian and military courts amid regime changes in Thailand. Lack of qualified courtroom interpreters also has caused delays.

The criminal court on Thursday cut the number of prosecution witnesses to 20 from 55 to shorten the trial. It has set 11 court dates from September to December. The pair are charged with first-degree murder and could face execution if found guilty.

Police arrested Karadag and Mieraili shortly after the bombing based on CCTV footage, but failed to find dozens of other alleged perpetrators.

The trial is expected to finish next year, said Chuchart Gunpai, a lawyer for the defendants.

Uyghur exodus through Southeast Asia

Uyghurs are Turkic-speaking Muslims who mostly live in the Xinjiang region of China but are also spread across Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Turkey. They have been fleeing China in large numbers to escape what they describe as persecution and repression by Chinese authorities – allegations that Beijing denies.

Before the bombing, nearly 400 Uyghurs who fled China were arrested in Thailand in 2014, according to the Thai foreign ministry. The fleeing Uyghurs were hoping for resettlement in Turkey via Malaysia, right advocates and other lawyers said. Others likely slipped through the Thai-Malaysian border without detection by authorities.

In June 2015, Thailand allowed 172 Uyghur women and children to leave for Turkey, but two weeks later appeared to bow to pressure from Beijing and put 109 Uyghur men, blindfolded, on a plane back to China, provoking international condemnation.

The Thai foreign ministry said at that time the men “have been verified as Chinese and evidence of their involvement in criminal activities has been sent by the Government of China.”

The decision drew condemnation from the World Uyghur Congress, an exiled Uyghur group, which claimed 25 Uyghurs were killed resisting the forced deportation. Thailand denied any deaths.

“Had Thailand followed the principle of not sending people into harm’s way, these mishaps could have been avoided,” Chalida Tarjaroensuk, the director of the People’s Empowerment Foundation, who assisted the Uyghurs, told RFA.

Poor conditions

Following the deportations and the arrests of Karadag and Mieraili in 2015, more than 50 Uyghurs remained in Thai immigration prison until earlier this year.

Some said they were denied proper lawyer visits and kept in cramped unhygienic cells without adequate medical care. Thai officials said three detainees died during their imprisonment.

Some 40 of the imprisoned Uyghurs were deported to China in the dead of night on Feb. 27. Reporters who traveled with Thai officials to China to check on conditions for the deported men said they were subjected to Chinese surveillance.

Another three Uyghur men, who held Kyrgyzstan passports, were resettled in Canada.

Five Uyghurs are continuing to serve sentences for jailbreaking, according to Chalida, who fears they will also face deportation to China after their release in the next year or two.

Edited by Stephen Wright and Taejun Kang.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Staff.

Vinay Narwal was among the 26 shot dead by terrorists in what is being dubbed the worst attack on civilians in recent history. Survivors, including Himanshi, had said that those killed were targeted based on religion. “They said he doesn’t look like a Muslim and shot him,” she said.

After the carnage, the image of a grieving Himanshi sitting next to her husband’s lifeless body soon became a symbol of the brutality that unfolded in the Baisaran valley.

The above image was aired by almost every news channel and carried across newspapers the following day. On social media, many, including the BJP, amplified the picture, or versions of it, to express solidarity with her or to make communal remarks, like “Even in death, only religion mattered” and “They asked for your religion, not caste“.

 

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But by May 1, the tides turned against Himanshi; much of the sympathy for the late officer’s wife suddenly turned into hateful, abusive trolling.

The Turning Point

Many social media users accused the woman of ‘protecting jihadis’. Why? Because of an appeal she made on May 1, while attending a blood donation camp on her late husband’s birthday in Haryana’s Karnal.

“I just want the entire nation to pray for him that wherever he is… he remains in good spirits, he is healthy and at peace. That’s it… There is one more thing that I want, I do not want any hatred towards anybody. This is what’s happening. People are going against Muslims or Kashmiris. We don’t want this. We want peace and only peace. Of course, we want justice. Of course, the people who have done wrong to him should be punished.”

Karnal, Haryana: On the birthday of the late Indian Navy Lieutenant Vinay Narwal, who was killed in the Pahalgam terror attack, his wife Himanshi says, “I just want the entire nation to pray for him, that wherever he is, he remains healthy and happy…” pic.twitter.com/8MdugaqmOg

— IANS (@ians_india) May 1, 2025

Her statement came amid a rise in ‘retaliatory’ hate crimes targeting Muslims and Kashmiris, and calls for boycott and hate in the aftermath of the terror attack.

But her public appeal for peace didn’t sit well with many social media users, who often share radical, far-Right content and identify with the Hindutva ideology, going by their bios.

Soon, many who were initially referring to her as ‘Himanshi Narwal’ stopped and instead began using her maiden name, ‘Himanshi Swami’, to address her. A few users online even began questioning whether she ever cared about her late husband and whether she qualifies for the monetary compensation she would receive as the widow of Vinay Narwal.

People dug into her past, scrutinised her decision to continue wearing the mangalsutra (a necklace worn by some married Hindu women), and brought up her old social media posts. Some even made remarks that suggested she was complicit with the terrorists. All of this seemed to be largely because her condemnation for what happened was largely devoid of any Islamophobic or communally charged rhetoric. It was rather the opposite.

Documenting Hate

Himanshi became the target of the social media hate machinery.

On May 1, X user @erbmjha posted Himanshi’s video, where she urges peace for all, with a sarcastic remark: “Sarv Dharm Vadapao ultra pro Max”.

Another X user, @PremPandey1011, followed up this post with claims that he knew Himanshi, adding that “she was student of MA CESP in SSS, #JNU , she used to love muslims a lot , Her daily habit was to visit Jhelum hostel of JNU , a boys hostel where Mainly Kashmiris lived. She was in Living relationships with Kashmiris!! [sic]” This person added that she “got her fate”. (Archive)

In a follow-up post, @PremPandey1011 added that he “doesn’t wish for Indians to develop a fake sympathy for such girl through media narrative”. He calls Himanshi underserving of any sympathy since he claims she might have been friends or even romantically involved with a Kashmiri or a Muslim person during her college days. (Archive)

Remember, these posts got thousands of views and were reshared by many.

Three days later, on May 4, the user added another post to the thread with an image of Himanshi. Text on the image made it seem like she was being quoted. It read: “I told my husband for Kashmir trip to show him army is fascist, And i don’t want to say any thing wrong about Muslims as I’m from DU and have many Muslim friends, I don’t want to ruin my friendship.”

Above this image and quote, the X user insinuated that “such girls” should not receive their late husband’s pension or any other compensation. They then shared a screen recording of those Himanshi followed on Instagram. The recording seemed to highlight that she followed many Muslims. A post of hers wishing everyone ‘Eid Mubarak’ was also mentioned. (Archive)

Presently, her Instagram account is private, and thus, details of whom she follows or what she shares are not publicly accessible. Additionally, details regarding Himanshi’s education mentioned by this user are available on her LinkedIn profile, which is public, so it’s possible that the details were taken from there. Note that the inflammatory quote attributed to her in the May 4 post was not reported by any credible news outlet and is likely fabricated.

Below are screenshots of these posts.

Another X account, @HPhobiaWatch, indulged in similar hateful, communal and misogynistic posts against Himanshi. Note that over a period, Alt News has been tracking @HPhobiaWatch’s posts that frequently target Muslims and amplify communal misinformation.

On May 2, this user shared a screenshot of a news report in which Himanshi’s image along with her appeal for harmony and peace were used. This was juxtaposed with an image of author Gurmehar Kaur holding a placard, which said “Pakistan did not kill my dad, war killed him”. Kaur, whose father was martyred in Kashmir in 1999, is among the prominent faces appealing for peace between India and Pakistan. However, she faced a lot of ire over this particular image with the placard, which first went viral in 2017.

“How low can you stoop for cheap fame? Insta Nachaniyas: I can show my body; Martyrs women : I can sell my deceased members body,” @HPhobiaWatch wrote in their post. ‘Nachaniya’ is a derogatory, crass term used for women dancers. (Archive)

The user then shared screenshots of old Facebook posts, allegedly by Himanshi, where she seems to be promoting a liberal view. These included posts from 2018 and 2019 in which she shared reports of a transgender anchor going on air for the first time on Pakistan television and how a Hindu girl saved a Muslim family from a mob attack. Calling her “big time secular, pro-pak and islam apologist”, @HPhobiaWatch made derogatory remarks like she will go trap another person after taking away compensation for Vinay Narwal. (Archive)

She was a big time secular, pro-pak and islam apologist. It wouldn’t surprise anyone if honeymoon in kashmir was her plan

Ye to Vinay ka compensation le kar nikal jayegi koi dusra bakra fasaane. At the end of the day only Vinay’s parents will have to suffer https://t.co/Rp6LYdYn7r pic.twitter.com/5BH8HwJ3cF

— Hindutva Knight (@HPhobiaWatch) May 2, 2025

The following day, this user reshared @PremPandey1011’s X post and concluded that Himanshi felt “no remorse for her husband’s loss”. (Archive)

I was correct in guessing that honeymoon in kashmir must be her idea. No wonder she has no remorse for her husband’s loss https://t.co/kI8d0EAorZ pic.twitter.com/rv2cGwrBgx

— Hindutva Knight (@HPhobiaWatch) May 3, 2025

The post was amplified widely and attracted some nasty comments; some explicitly saying that she might have been involved in the terror attack.

Below are the other posts and reposts by @HPhobiaWatch targeting Himanshi. (Archives 1, 2)

Another X user, @Cyber_Huntss, actively participated in the trolling. On May 1, this account made posts to expose her “true character” and said that her remarks made the Right wing look like “fools”. The bashing and character assassination continued further. (Archive)

In one such X post, a screenshot of an appeal she made on her Facebook profile in 2018 was shared. The FB post was a link to a petition for Asifa, a seven-year-old Muslim girl who was found dead in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua district on January 17, 2018. The minor was raped and killed. The brutalities inflicted on her left many shaken. Seven individuals, including a minor, a special police officer and a temple priest, were among those accused. In 2019, six of the seven were convicted; one was acquitted.

But in the eyes of @Cyber_Huntss, sharing a petition in support of the minor rape-murder victim and demanding justice for her made Himanshi Swami “an active member of JNU’s tukde tukde gang”. This user insinuated that she “previously had affairs with Muslims while at JNU.”

“She shouldn’t be in mourning because maybe her first love will come back to her — maybe a Kashmiri. The one who is gone was a mother and father’s son… Spit on such a woman”, the caption of the post said in Hindi. (Archive)

A swarm of hateful comments and ‘whataboutery’ followed.

Things didn’t stop at that. The following day, on May 2, too, the user continued their hate campaign, “So brothers and sisters, today’s topic is Himanshi’s story, as told by her friends. It’ll be a spicy tempering, fried in a hot pan of oil, and there’ll be a lot to hear,” a ‘teaser’ of this so-called ‘exposé’ said. (Archives 1, 2)

The three-part ‘exposé’ was that she went to JNU for education and a reiteration of the same things mentioned by user @PremPandey1011. At the end, this user said that her life events make it clear that she had a ‘soft corner’ for Muslims and Kashmir because she dated them and had Left-leaning views; her appeal to peace for Kashmiris and Muslims should be read in that context, they insinuated. (Archive 1, 2, 3)

The fifth X user whose posts against Himanshi were also widely circulated was @ladynationalist, or Moana. This user, too, is aligned with Right Wing ideology, going by their X bio and often promotes Hindutva by targeting Muslims and minorities in their posts.

After Himanshi’s press statement on peace on May 1, this user posted her video along with a vulgar, sexual abuse, rubbishing her remarks. “behn ki l*di ke pati ko dharm puchhkar goli mari thi aur ye ab bhi secularism ka jhenda leke chal rhi” (Translation: “Her husband was asked his religion and shot dead but she is still waving the secularism flag”. (Archive)

Readers should note that this isn’t the first time @ladynationalist has targeted someone for expressing solidarity with Muslims. In May last year, after many civilians were killed in Israel’s bombing of Rafah in Palestine, this social media user similarly trolled and harassed many popular public figures who shared the viral graphic ‘All Eyes on Rafah’. This account also singled out Indian cricketer Mohammed Siraj, who shared the same graphic, for his religious identity.

“We don’t want people to go against mslms/ kashmiris”

behn ki l0di ke pati ko dharm puchhkar goli mari thi aur ye ab bhi secularism ka jhenda leke chal rhi
pic.twitter.com/YPNRiWSWtl

— Moana (@ladynationalist) May 1, 2025

X user @SonOfBharat7, whose posts amplifying communal misinformation have been documented by Alt News before, shared images of Himanshi Narwal and Aishanya Dwivedi side-by-side. Aishanya Dwivedi is the wife of late Shubham Dwivedi, another victim of the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack. (Archive)

The user suggested that while both the women were Hindu widows, the wife of Shubham Dwivedi was bare-necked and wore no lipstick, while Himanshi Narwal donned the ‘mangalsutra’. “Shubham’s wife is still screaming loudly that earlier she used to think everyone is one and the same, but now she knows that Muslims are only using Hindus as bait… But Vinay’s wife is suggesting to show love towards Muslims… In your opinion, who is right?” they wrote.

In a hurry to compare the grief of two women who suffered an immeasurable loss, the user even named the victim incorrectly.

A @RituRathaur posted on X that Himanshi was “protecting Jehadis” because she went to JNU, where she “befriended Kashmiri Muslims”. (Archive)

Her post had a screenshot of @PremPandey1011’s X post, where he claimed to know Himanshi, alongside an image from Himanshi’s Instagram feed, showing her with two friends — one of whom was Muslim.

Meet Himanshi, wife of Vinay Nariwal who was shot down in cold blood by Muslim terrorists in #palghamterrorattack !

Having befriended Kashmiri Muslims while in JNU, explains why she is protecting jehadis.

I feel so bad for Vinay pic.twitter.com/2Zl9BtLg1y

— Ritu #सत्यसाधक (@RituRathaur) May 3, 2025

How her grief was related to her past or present friendships with anyone belonging to the Muslim community was not clear.

A Complete Flip?

The extent to which many of these social media users flipped the narrative after Himanshi Narwal’s public statement did not fan anti-Muslim sentiments is interesting. Her appeal for peace seems to have deeply rattled many who felt she should have been angrier, hateful and going all out in her remarks to avenge the death of her husband.

We say this because the nature of the posts that the same users made on or after April 22, immediately after the attack when her image next to Vinay Narwal’s deceased body went viral, are quite different.

Moana (@ladynationalist) wrote: “She never thought she’d return home all by herself. ” (Archive)

Sharing visuals from Vinay Narwal’s last rites on April 23 @SonOfBharat7 said: “Your heart will ache at the sight of this — A soldier’s wife giving him his final salute with a tearful “Jai Hind” … Lieutenant Vinay Narwal of the Indian Navy was given a heartfelt farewell by his wife, her eyes filled with sorrow. It was only the fifth day of their marriage when Muslim terrorists wiped away her sindoor—after asking about his religion.” (Archive 1, 2)

Meanwhile, @RituRathaur wrote: “This picture of young Hindu daughter sitting next to the dead body of her husband should give sleep less nights to Hindus…” (Archive)

These are just a few examples. For many, on social media, the Pahalgam attack and Vinay Narwal’s killing were “proof” that terrorism and Islam were synonymous; Himanshi’s image was used to reinforce that. Emotions amid such a distressful event were running high, and loss was being weaponised. As a result, there was a massive surge in Islamophobic rhetoric, especially on social media. Her tragedy became the symbol for public outrage and revenge.

As soon as Himanshi, as a survivor, did not ride this bandwagon, she was othered, turned into an object of loathing; her loss trivialised.

However, after the launch of ‘Operation Sindoor’ on May 7, Himanshi’s images resurfaced online. Many used her photos to say that the strikes were named after wives like her. Notably, some of those sharing these posts had been among the ones trolling her just days earlier. (Archives 1, 2)

Sympathise First, Despise Later

Apart from Himanshi Narwal, Arathy R Menon, daughter of N Ramachandran — another victim of the terrorist attack — also faced abuse from social media users who flaunt the Indian flag or Hindutva ideology in their bios.

While recounting the horrors of the fateful day when she saw her father die in front of her eyes, Arathy added that in that moment of panic and helplessness, she found support from two Kashmiri men. She said, “My driver, Musafir and another man, Sameer — they became my brothers. They stood by me through everything, took me to the mortuary, helped with the formalities… I waited there till 3 am. They took care of me like a sister… I have two brothers in Kashmir now. May Allah protect you both.”

Like Himanshi, she also faced much backlash for this statement. Some social media users went as far as saying it was better to be childless than to have a daughter like her.

Below are a few more instances of hateful posts and comments directed against Himanshi and Arathy.

In another case of the pro-Right hate machinery at work, on May 11, India’s foreign secretary, Vikram Misri, had to make his X account private because social media trolls, unhappy with his announcement of a ceasefire between India and Pakistan, began targeting his daughter. Old photos and posts of hers were circulated with distasteful remarks, and she was doxxed, with her contact number leaked online.

Apart from these instances, history has enough examples of how women often become easy targets of public anger, more so when they don’t subscribe to the populist ideologies of the time.

In an interview with Haryana Tak on May 7, when asked about the trolling she faced online, Himanshi simply said, “See, I cannot change anyone’s mentality. I know what my intention was, and it was simply to stress that no innocent person should be wronged. There should not be any hatred…”

The flipping of a social media narrative, some might argue, may not be one to focus on, considering these are not necessarily reflective of ground realities. However, targeting those who are grieving, especially women, for upholding humanity over hate seems to indicate that we, as a country, might be headed for dark times.

The post From tragedy to trolling: Himanshi Narwal, widow of naval officer killed in Pahalgam, faces social media trial appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Oishani Bhattacharya.

Milwaukee trial court judge, Hannah Dugan.

This morning, President Trump directed the FBI to arrest trial court judge Hannah Dugan in Milwaukee. She is being charged with obstructing law enforcement, a federal crime.

Let’s be clear. Trump‘s arrest of Judge Dugan in Milwaukee has nothing to do with immigration. It has everything to do with his moving this country toward authoritarianism. He is illegally usurping Congressional powers. He is suing media that he dislikes. He is attacking universities whose policies he disagrees with. He is intimidating major law firms who have opposed him. He is ignoring a 9-0 Supreme Court decision to bring Kilmar Abrego Garcia back from El Salvador, where he was illegally sent. He is threatening to impeach judges who rule against him.

Trump’s latest attack on the judiciary and Judge Dugan is about one thing – unchecked power. He will attack and undermine any institution that stands in his way. Trump continues to demonstrate that he does not believe in the Constitution, the separation of powers, or the rule of law. He simply wants more and more power for himself. It is time for my colleagues in the Republican Party who believe in the Constitution to stand up to his growing authoritarianism.

The post On Trump’s Arrest of a Milwaukee Trial Judge appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Bernie Sanders.

The journalists could be jailed for up to three years for violating the law on gatherings and demonstrations. In the indictment, reviewed by CPJ, prosecutors argue that the journalists were participating in an illegal meeting as protesters. Photographs in which their press credentials and cameras were not visible were submitted as evidence to support this charge.

“This trial has been invented as a scare tactic to intimidate and deter all journalists in Turkey from reporting from the field. Experienced journalists should not be forced to explain in court why they were photographing Turkey’s biggest protests in a decade, in its biggest city,” said Özgür Öğret, CPJ’s Turkey representative. “Authorities should drop the charges against the five photojournalists who already suffer enough in trying to capture images of historic events while repeatedly being beaten, tear gassed and shot with rubber bullets.”

On March 24, Istanbul police raided the homes of Agence France-Presse’s Yasin Akgül, local NOW Haber TV channel’s Ali Onur Tosun, and freelancers Bülent Kılıç, Zeynep Kuray, and Hayri Tunç, as well as two photographers employed by local municipalities, Kuruluş Arı and Gökhan Kam.

All seven were arrested and then released on March 27, pending their April 18 trial.

Unrest broke out on March 19 following the detention of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, who is seen as a potential challenger to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

CPJ’s email to Istanbul’s chief prosecutor requesting comment did not receive a response.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

The journalists could be jailed for up to three years for violating the law on gatherings and demonstrations. In the indictment, reviewed by CPJ, prosecutors argue that the journalists were participating in an illegal meeting as protesters. Photographs in which their press credentials and cameras were not visible were submitted as evidence to support this charge.

“This trial has been invented as a scare tactic to intimidate and deter all journalists in Turkey from reporting from the field. Experienced journalists should not be forced to explain in court why they were photographing Turkey’s biggest protests in a decade, in its biggest city,” said Özgür Öğret, CPJ’s Turkey representative. “Authorities should drop the charges against the five photojournalists who already suffer enough in trying to capture images of historic events while repeatedly being beaten, tear gassed and shot with rubber bullets.”

On March 24, Istanbul police raided the homes of Agence France-Presse’s Yasin Akgül, local NOW Haber TV channel’s Ali Onur Tosun, and freelancers Bülent Kılıç, Zeynep Kuray, and Hayri Tunç, as well as two photographers employed by local municipalities, Kuruluş Arı and Gökhan Kam.

All seven were arrested and then released on March 27, pending their April 18 trial.

Unrest broke out on March 19 following the detention of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, who is seen as a potential challenger to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

CPJ’s email to Istanbul’s chief prosecutor requesting comment did not receive a response.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

Fresno Bee reporter Thaddeus Miller was subpoenaed by prosecutors for the city of Fresno, California, on April 8, 2025, in connection with a criminal case. The subpoena was dropped as moot following the case’s dismissal on April 10.

The case involved Wickey Twohands, a 77-year-old homeless man who was arrested in October 2024 for alleged violations of the city’s controversial anti-camping law.

The ordinance — among the toughest in the state — went into effect in September 2024 and bans camping, sitting or lying on public property at any time. Twohands pleaded not guilty on Jan. 21, 2025, and his trial was postponed until April 10 so his attorney could file motions to dismiss the case.

Deputy City Attorney Daniel Cisneros subpoenaed Miller and a second reporter, Fresnoland’s Pablo Orihuela, ordering the journalists to appear to testify at the hearing, the Bee reported. Both Miller and Orihuela had previously interviewed Twohands and reported on the charges against him.

Miller told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he had been out of the office each time they attempted to serve him from April 4 to 7, but the afternoon of April 8 they succeeded. He said the subpoena did not include any indication of what prosecutors intended to ask him, just a copy of his March article.

“The most frustrating part for me is it’s a good story, an interesting story, and now I can’t cover it,” Miller said. “It’s frustrating to try to be doing your job, where your whole job is being impartial and staying out of it, and then they try to pull you into it.”

The subpoenas to both Miller and Orihuela were rendered moot and functionally dropped after County Judge Brian Alvarez dismissed the case against Twohands on the grounds that the city violated his right to a speedy trial.

Following the dismissal, Fresno City Attorney Andrew Janz told a Bee editor that he had not reviewed or authorized the subpoenas and that they had not been issued according to protocol, noting that “any communication with media or journalists has to be run through the City Attorney.”

Janz told the Bee that the journalists were subpoenaed to confirm the validity of their reporting and what the defendant had told them during his interviews, and that in the future the city will first ask journalists to voluntarily testify about published information.

Miller said that Janz’s stance was concerning. “I kind of expected the city attorney to say that they had made a mistake and that we shouldn’t worry about it in the future, but that doesn’t seem to be the stance he’s taken,” Miller told the Tracker. “It’s worrisome that the city attorney’s office sounds like they want to be doing this more in the future.”

David Loy, legal director of the First Amendment Coalition, told the Bee that while the state’s shield law does not prohibit such subpoenas, the California Evidence Code establishes that news articles are self-authenticating.

“Whether they ask or send subpoenas, it’s immaterial,” Loy said. “It’s unnecessary, superfluous and compromises the independence and neutrality of the press. People aren’t going to be able to trust reporters if they see reporters on the stand testifying to the government.”

This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

Pablo Orihuela, a housing reporter for the nonprofit news outlet Fresnoland, was subpoenaed by prosecutors for the city of Fresno, California, on April 4, 2025, in connection with a pending criminal case.

The case involves Wickey Twohands, a 77-year-old homeless man who was arrested in October 2024 and may be the first to go to trial for alleged violations of the city’s controversial anti-camping law.

The ordinance — among the toughest in the state — went into effect in September 2024 and bans camping, sitting or lying on public property at any time. Twohands pleaded not guilty on Jan. 21, 2025.

Orihuela reported on the charges against Twohands in February after his trial was postponed so his attorney could file motions to dismiss the case. The parties are due back in court April 10 for a ruling on the motions and, if the case proceeds, the start of the jury trial.

Deputy City Attorney Daniel Cisneros ordered Orihuela to appear to testify at the hearing with less than a week’s notice, according to a copy of the subpoena reviewed by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.

The request did not provide any indication of what the journalist would be questioned about, and included only a copy of Orihuela’s February article obtained April 3, according to the header.

Orihuela declined to comment until after the hearing and Cisneros did not respond to a voicemail requesting comment.

David Loy, legal director for the First Amendment Coalition, wrote a letter on Orihuela’s behalf objecting to the subpoena the day it was issued.

“Even if the subpoena were timely and properly served, California’s reporter shield law absolutely protects Mr. Orihuela against a subpoena from the City compelling him to testify about any unpublished information,” Loy wrote. “Accordingly, the City should immediately cease attempting to subpoena Mr. Orihuela.”

Loy told the Tracker that the subpoena was improperly served, as it was sent via email to Orihuela and Fresnoland Executive Director and Managing Editor Danielle Bergstrom, and that without proper service a witness has no legal obligation to comply.

“It’s obviously highly significant for any reporter or newspaper or publication to get a subpoena, even by email,” Loy said. “One would hope that government lawyers would be better educated on reporter shield law.

“I’m going to assume best intentions, until proven otherwise: that this is some good-faith mistake and that hopefully — now that I’ve written to the city explaining the law — they have stopped trying to subpoena a reporter.”

This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

Broadcast station WFXT, a Fox News affiliate in Boston, was subpoenaed by prosecutors on Feb. 7, 2025, for interview recordings and notes in connection with a murder trial in Dedham, Massachusetts.

A judge upheld the request later that month and the outlet turned over the materials in March, according to court records reviewed by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.

According to the prosecutors’ request, WFXT began advertising Feb. 6 about “the biggest interview of the year”: a sit-down with its reporter Ted Daniels and Karen Read, who stands accused of the murder of her boyfriend in a case that has captured national attention. The interview aired Feb. 9.

After the case against Read ended in a mistrial in July 2024, prosecutors issued multiple subpoenas to news outlets and journalists ahead of the April 2025 retrial. Massachusetts does not have a formally recognized reporter’s shield law protecting journalists from being forced to disclose newsgathering materials.

Prosecutors had succeeded in subpoenaing the broadcast station in 2024, with Superior Court Judge Beverly Cannone ordering WFXT to produce copies of all recordings and notes from interviews with Read’s parents and brother.

In their February 2025 request, prosecutors asked Cannone to order the production of all recordings and notes from interviews with Karen Read, including those that were never aired.

“The defendant has repeatedly used the media to promote her position,” prosecutors wrote. “The defendant and her counsel cannot avail themselves of a media strategy to publicize and promote the defendant’s varying claims to the public at large and the potential jury pool while simultaneously excising statements and admissions that may not be favorable to her cause.”

Cannone granted the request on Feb. 19, ordering WFXT to produce the materials by March 1. According to court filings, the station complied and turned over the files on March 3.

WFXT did not respond to requests for comment.

This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

New Yorker contributing writer Eren Orbey and the magazine’s publisher, Condé Nast, were subpoenaed on Dec. 18, 2024, for copies of on- and off-the-record interviews and communications in connection with a murder trial in Brockton, Massachusetts. The magazine has requested the order be struck down.

In 2023 and 2024, Orbey extensively interviewed Patrick Clancy, whose wife, Lindsay Clancy, stands charged for the murder of their three children in January 2023. Orbey also spoke with Patrick Clancy’s parents, sister and numerous family friends, ultimately authoring a lengthy October 2024 profile titled, “A husband in the aftermath of his wife’s unfathomable act.”

In December, prosecutors attempted to compel the disclosure of the journalist’s notes and recordings from all of the interviews he conducted for the piece, including those that were off the record. The Commonwealth also requested all emails, texts and voicemails between Orbey and the interviewees, according to court records reviewed by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.

“All of these individuals provided direct information to Orbey/Conde Nast related to how Lindsay’s demeanor, attitudes, and mental health appeared both before and after the murders,” Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague wrote. “These statements and observations are directly relevant to the defendant’s criminal responsibility as the article itself was framed to portray the defendant as suffering a mental health crisis when she killed her children.”

Plymouth County Superior Court Judge William Sulivan granted the prosecution’s request on Feb. 7, 2025, and ordered Orbey or Condé Nast to provide the requested materials by March 14.

That day, Condé Nast instead filed a motion to quash the records request, arguing that not only does New York’s reporter shield law protect the magazine from disclosing newsgathering materials, but that the request itself is a clear “fishing expedition.”

“The New Yorker’s sympathies are not on trial here. In fact, even a cursory reading of the piece shows The New Yorker’s reporting is complex and nuanced, and is hardly ‘in support’ of the defense,” attorney Jonathan Albano wrote. “But even if it were, the notion that the government could seek presumptively privileged, unpublished information from any news outlet that expresses sympathy for a criminal defendant is chilling and directly contrary to the First Amendment.”

Albano also highlighted that while only some of the sources for the article were confidential, all of the sources Orbey spoke with were sensitive about speaking to the press, largely out of a concern for causing further emotional distress to distraught family members.

“The forced disclosure of confidential and unpublished journalistic work product not only would breach the trust of the sources here,” Albano wrote, “but also would significantly interfere with The New Yorker’s future reporting efforts by sending a signal to all sources that speaking to the magazine is the equivalent of speaking to the government, all to the detriment of the informing the public on matters of public concern.”

A hearing on Condé Nast’s motion is scheduled for May 28, according to the court docket.

In a statement shared with the Tracker, a New Yorker spokesperson said, “We’ve filed our opposition to this subpoena. These sorts of subpoenas that seek to turn independent journalists into tools of law enforcement violate basic First Amendment values.”

This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

The groups said in a joint statement, led by CPJ, that the 26-year-old journalist’s case raises “serious concerns” over unjustifiably long pretrial detention and allegations that authorities had planted the weapons that led to Cumpio’s arrest in February 2020.

The journalist concluded her testimony on Monday at a local court, defending herself against charges of illegal firearms possession and terrorism financing, which she denies. If convicted, she faces up to 40 years in prison. 

No verdict date has been set while a trial continues for those co-accused with Cumpio. CPJ has been monitoring the journalist’s trial.

Read the full statement here.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

Li Yanhe, more widely known by his pen-name Fucha, or Fuchsia, was detained some time in March 2023 after traveling to China to cancel his household registration as part of his naturalization as a citizen of democratic Taiwan.

Li, who is ethnically Manchu, founded the Eight Banners imprint under Taiwan’s Book Republic publishing group in 2009, using it to publish non-fiction works on China’s overseas infiltration and influence operations, the 1989 Tiananmen massacre, and other work critical of Beijing.

He is among hundreds of Taiwanese nationals to disappear in China over the past 10 years, rights groups told the United Nations in December.

“The Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court held a public trial and issued a verdict in the first instance on Feb. 17, 2025,” Taiwan’s Central News Agency quoted a spokesperson for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office as saying.

No verdict has yet been issued, according to reports in the United Daily News and Central News Agency.

“The court tried the case strictly in accordance with the law and fully protected the various litigation rights enjoyed by Li Yanhe and his defense counsel in accordance with the law,” spokesperson Chen Binhua told Central News Agency.

Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council told the agency it was aware of all of the details of Li’s case, but wasn’t making them public in accordance with his family’s wishes.

(Eight Banners Publishing House via Facebook)

“The fundamental purpose of the Chinese Communist Party’s detention of Fu Cha is to create a chilling effect in Taiwan’s cultural and academic circles,” the Council was quoted as saying. “This case clearly shows the authoritarian nature of Chinese Communist Party rule.”

It said the case had once more demonstrated that Taiwanese nationals should be aware of the risks associated with travel to China.

Public trials are ‘meaningless’

Taiwanese rights activist and NGO worker Lee Ming-cheh, who served a five-year prison sentence in China after disappearing on a visit there himself, dismissed the claim that Li had had a “public trial.”

“Public trials in China are meaningless,” Lee told RFA Mandarin on March 17. “Who was it open to?”

“China did not proactively inform the outside world of Fu Cha’s verdict,” he said. “Today, it responded passively responding to a question about an allegedly secret trial.”

According to Lee, the charge of secession can be laid against anyone who doesn’t support Beijing’s territorial claim on the island.

“Anyone who doesn’t support their one country, two systems idea is basically an independence activist in the view of the Chinese government,” Lee said, adding that Li could wind up making a forced public statement in future.

Taiwan was ruled as a Japanese colony in the 50 years prior to the end of World War II, but was handed back to the 1911 Republic of China under the Kuomintang, or KMT, government as part of Tokyo’s post-war reparation deal.

The KMT made its capital there after losing a civil war to Mao Zedong’s communists that led to the founding of the People’s Republic of China.

While the Chinese Communist Party claims Taiwan as an “inalienable” part of its territory, Taiwan has never been ruled by the current regime in Beijing, nor has it ever formed part of the People’s Republic of China.

Zeng Jianyuan, chairman of the overseas-based New School for Democracy, said the authorities have yet to make the verdict public.

“This case is attracting international attention, yet the media and human rights groups following the case have no way of finding out what the verdict was,” Zeng said. “The Taiwan Affairs Office is simply talking nonsense.”

According to Article 103, Section 2 of China’s Criminal Law, those who “incite secession and undermine national unity” can receive jail terms of “no less than five years” if their case is deemed serious.

There are also concerns that China will treat Li as a Chinese national and refuse to allow him to return home to Taiwan after his sentence has been served, Lee said.

Viewed as a ‘traitor’

Li had intended to renounce his Chinese household registration on his trip as part of his naturalization process as a citizen of Taiwan, but had been detained before he could get to it, he said.

“If the Chinese government treats him as a Chinese national, then he won’t be allowed back to Taiwan when his sentence is complete,” Lee said.

Zeng said Beijing regards Li as a “traitor” because he retains his Chinese nationality and his membership of the ruling Chinese Communist Party.

“That’s why the Chinese Communist Party wants to punish him severely,” Zeng said.

Li was born in the northeastern Chinese province of Liaoning to a Manchu family, and joined the Chinese Communist Party after graduating from university, before rising to become vice president of the Shanghai Literature & Art Publishing House.

He married a Taiwanese woman in 1996, and settled in Taiwan in 2009. His last Facebook post was made on March 12, 2023.

The Republic of China has remained a sovereign and independent state since 1911, now ruling just four islands: Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu.

The island began a transition to democracy following the death of KMT leader Chiang Kai-shek’s son, President Chiang Ching-kuo, in January 1988, starting with direct elections to the legislature in the early 1990s and culminating in the first direct election of a president, Lee Teng-hui, in 1996.

Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Huang Chun-mei for RFA Mandarin, RFA Cantonese.

Off Beat

This March, the Manhattan district attorney’s anti-trafficking unit handed over 41 “illegally exported” cultural artifacts to China. However, the handover was not a happy occasion for Tibetan scholars – they’re concerned that the artifacts, which include Tibetan Buddhist relics, will be used by China to promote its historical claims to Tibet.

This isn’t the first time the cataloguing of Tibetan artifacts has stirred controversy. Over the past year, Tibetan diaspora communities have called out the British Museum, the Musée du Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac and the Musée Guimet for labeling artifacts and exhibitions in a way they say prioritizes Beijing’s wishes over Tibetan history.

(Xinhua)

Tibetan Service director Tenzin Pema returns to RFA Insider to offer more insight into how these relics ended up in the U.S., why Tibetan advocates are concerned about their handover to China and where the Tibetan diaspora community would rather these artifacts be sent to.

Double Off Beat

Former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte was arrested at Manila Airport on Tuesday, a development that surprised his staunch supporters as well as families impacted by his drug crackdown who never expected justice. Anthony Esguerra from BenarNews, RFA’s sister organization reporting on security, politics and human rights in South and Southeast Asia, explains how Duterte’s war on illegal drugs enabled the murders of thousands – while the Philippine government reports that 6,252 suspects were killed during Duterte’s presidency, rights groups estimate the number to be as high as 20,000.

(Gerard Carreon/BenarNews)

Despite this bloodshed, how has Duterte amassed so many supporters in the Philippines? How has the current president, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., handled the International Criminal Court’s investigation and arrest of Duterte? And what’s next for Duterte, who awaits arraignment in The Netherlands? Tune in to hear the answers from Anthony on this episode of RFA Insider.

BACK TO MAIN

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Amy Lee for RFA Insider.

A French judge will interview witnesses in the case against Hing Bun Hieng and Huy Piseth from March 19-21, exiled opposition leader Sam Rainsy said on Facebook on March 8.

Blasts from four grenades that went off in a park on March 30, 1997, where protesters had gathered killed 16 people and injured 150 others, blowing off the limbs of some. Sam Rainsy, the leader of the rally, is thought to have been the target of the attack but was uninjured.

Hing Bun Hieng was the commander of then-Prime Minister Hun Sen’s bodyguard unit, while Huy Piseth was the commander of the army’s Brigade 70, which is responsible for capturing or killing high-value targets.

An FBI report indicated that Cambodian authorities possessed prior knowledge of the attack and that there was a possibility the attackers colluded with the bodyguard unit.

(AFP)

Former opposition party lawmaker Men Sothavarin told Radio Free Asia on Monday that the French judge has summoned victims and witnesses, as well as Hing Bunhieng and Huy Piseth, to appear before the court.

“If they do not come, the court will try them in absentia,” he said of the two commanders.

No one was arrested

On the day of the attack, protesters had gathered in a Phnom Penh park across the street from Cambodia’s National Assembly to denounce the judiciary’s corruption and lack of independence.

According to eyewitness accounts, the people who threw the grenades ran toward Hun Sen’s riot gear-clad bodyguards, who allowed them to escape.

Because American citizen Ron Abney was among those seriously injured, the FBI sent investigators to Cambodia in the weeks after the attack. The bureau’s report was declassified in 2009.

But no one has ever been arrested for the attack, despite the large toll of death and dismemberment.

However, warrants for the arrests of Huy Piseth and Hing Bun Hieng were issued in 2021 by Judge Sabine Khéris, the deputy chief of investigation at the Paris Court of Justice.

The warrants were issued following a complaint by Sam Rainsy and his wife, Tioulong Saumura, who live in exile in France.

The court at first also summoned then-Prime Minister Hun Sen, but the French government later blocked the warrant, citing French law that gives immunity to heads of government.

‘Bodies all over the place’

Brad Adams, a former U.N. human rights worker, told RFA that he will give testimony at the court next week. In an interview, he recalled arriving at the park about 10 minutes after the blasts.

“There were bodies all over the place,” he said. “It is one of the worst things I have seen in my entire life.”

He described a scene in which soldiers actively interfered with efforts to help the wounded. When the police arrived a short time later, they just stood around.

“The only assistance came from civilians,” he said.

Hing Bun Hieng is now deputy commander of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces and also serves as the commander of Hun Sen’s family bodyguard unit.

Huy Piseth is currently a secretary of state at the Ministry of National Defense and deputy chief of staff to Prime Minister Hun Manet, Hun Sen’s son.

Hing Bun Hieng told RFA on Monday that he will not appear before the court or send a lawyer in his place. The case only arose because of Sam Rainsy’s emotional and unsubstantiated accusations, he said.

“He has accused me for more than 30 years, but there has never been any proper evidence,” he said. “Are there any photos showing me ordering the tossing of the grenades?”

He also denied any role in the attack during a 2022 interview with RFA in which he dared anyone to present evidence to the contrary.

“I already clarified this [with the FBI]. I wasn’t involved,” he said. “I don’t know anything.”

Hing Bun Heang was sanctioned by the U.S. government in June 2018 over his unit’s alleged role in the attack, as well as several other assaults on unarmed Cambodians.

Huy Piseth didn’t immediately respond to RFA’s attempt for comment this week. He has previously acknowledged to the FBI that he ordered the deployment of the 70th Brigade to the park on the day of the attack.

Translated by Sum Sok Ry. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Khmer.

Zhang, 40, was one of a group of citizen journalists detained, jailed or “disappeared” after they went to the central city of Wuhan to report on the emerging COVID-19 pandemic.

In December 2020, she wasfound guilty of “picking quarrels and stirring up trouble” -- a vague charge frequently used to target peaceful critics of the ruling Communist Party -- and sentenced to four years' imprisonment.

Last June, she was released from that sentence, during which she repeatedly refused food, but then was re-detained in September 2024.

Now, she faces new charges -- also of “picking quarrels and stirring up trouble” -- and will likely stand trial at the Pudong New Area People’s Court in Shanghai very soon, a person familiar with the case told Radio Free Asia.

Support for pro-democracy activist

The Weiquanwang rights website reported Jan. 25 [in Chinese] that the new charges are likely linked to a trip Zhang made to the western province of Gansu after her release to help detained pro-democracy activist Zhang Pancheng.

Prosecutors are now seeking a prison sentence of 4-5 years.

“She’s probably going to be tried again soon, and I think she’ll get four years,” said the person, who gave only the surname Song for fear of reprisals.

(Leo Ramirez/AFP)

“She was brought back [to Shanghai] because she went to Zhangye, Gansu province, to see a fellow activist who had spoken up for her,” Song said.

Shanxi-based rights lawyer Zhang Xian said Zhang could get a sentence of five years or more, however.

“Four years is unlikely -- it’s likely she will be sentenced to five years or more, because she was sentenced to four years in prison the first time, and the court’s sentencing will be based on her past criminal record,” Zhang Xian said. “The authorities' policy is that ... it should be heavier than the previous sentence.”

A person familiar with the case also told Radio Free Asia that the prosecution had carried out a psychiatric evaluation and psychological assessment of Zhang and concluded that her mental state was judged to be “normal.”

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Legal expert Lu Chenyuan said Zhang is highly likely to get a harsher sentence this time around, and that the psychiatric assessment makes her more likely to get a harsher term.

“Conducting a psychiatric assessment of Zhang Zhan is a way of stigmatizing her and ... damaging her image,” Lu said. “They will punish Zhang Zhan more severely as a repeat offender.”

Lu said that Zhang has been allowed to meet with her Shanghai-based lawyer, but the lawyer has been warned off making any public statements about the case.

“The lawyer who represents Zhang Zhan is under pressure from the authorities, and doesn’t dare talk about the details of the case,” he said.

Repeated calls to Zhang’s family, the Pudong New Area Detention Center and the District Court rang unanswered during office hours on Monday.

Refusing food

The Weiquanwang rights website reported on Jan. 25 that Zhang is once more refusing food in detention, and has been force-fed by staff.

“The process of force-feeding and the deprivation of adequate medical care constitute cruel and inhumane treatment in violation of the Convention against Torture, which China ratified a long time ago,” the group said in a statement on its website.

“We urge the Pudong Detention Center to stop force-feeding immediately.”

Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Qian Lang for RFA Mandarin.

A closely watched civil trial that began in North Dakota last week could bankrupt Greenpeace and chill environmental activism as the climate crisis continues to deepen. The multimillion-dollar lawsuit by Energy Transfer, the oil corporation behind the Dakota Access Pipeline, claims Greenpeace organized the mass protests and encampment at Standing Rock between 2016 and 2017 aimed at stopping construction of the project. Although the uprising at Standing Rock was led by Indigenous water defenders, Energy Transfer is instead going after Greenpeace for $300 million in damages — an amount that could effectively shutter the group’s U.S. operations. “This case is not just an obvious and blatant erasure of Indigenous leadership, of Indigenous resistance,” says Deepa Padmanabha, a senior legal adviser for Greenpeace USA. “It is an attack on the broader movement and all of our First Amendment rights to free speech and peaceful protest.”

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

An Istanbul court arrested Toktas on January 26 after pro-opposition Halk TV broadcast a conversation between its journalist Barış Pehlivan and an expert financial witness. The court said Halk TV had secretly recorded the two men’s telephone conversation and it had publicly named the witness to put pressure on him. Four other Halk TV staff were placed under judicial control and banned from foreign travel.

“Suat Toktaş and his four Halk TV colleagues must not be jailed for airing an interview that the government disagreed with. The public deserve to hear all sides of this story, which is of national importance and involves a top Turkish politician,” said Özgür Öğret, CPJ’s Turkey representative. “Authorities should immediately halt their prosecution of Halk TV and instead take a positive step towards improving Turkey’s dismal press freedom record.”

Pehlivan’s interview took place after Istanbul’s opposition Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu hosted a news conference where he named the witness, who he alleged had filed biased reports in numerous politically motivated lawsuits against opposition-controlled municipalities. The witness told Pehlivan that the mayor’s allegations were false.

The interview was aired on a program hosted by Seda Selek, with Serhan Asker as director and Kürşad Oğuz as program coordinator.

All five journalists were charged with violating the privacy of communication through the press and influencing those performing judicial duties, a crime for which the prosecution has requested up to nine years in prison. Pehlivan and Oğuz face an additional charge of recording non-public conversations between individuals and could be jailed for up to 14 years, according to the indictment, reviewed by CPJ.

CPJ’s email to Istanbul’s chief prosecutor requesting comment did not receive a response.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

“Palina Pitkevich’s detention is yet another grim reminder that President Aleksandr Lukashenko’s government is the worst jailer of journalists in Europe and Central Asia,” said CPJ’s program director, Carlos Martínez de la Serna, in New York. “Belarusian authorities must drop all charges against Pitkevich and repeal the country’s extremism legislation instead of using it to silence dissent.”

Pitkevich was arrested in June, shortly after authorities designated the Press Club Belarus’ media literacy project Media IQ as an extremist group and listed her among its members, a representative of the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ), an exiled advocacy and trade group, told CPJ on condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal.

If found guilty, she could be jailed for up to six years, according to the Criminal Code, which was amended to comply with a package of extremism legislation in 2021. Since then, the law to combat extremism has been used to ban more than 35 media outlets, according to BAJ.

CPJ is also investigating the case of freelance journalist Aleh Supruniuk, who has been missing since late January, and the detention of seven former journalists with the shuttered independent outlet Intex-Press, including reporter Ruslan Raviaka, on extremism charges in late 2024.

The BAJ representative confirmed to CPJ that Supruniuk was in detention. In 2021, Supruniuk was also briefly detained and his home was searched.

Belarus is the world’s fourth-worst jailer of journalists, with at least 31 journalists behind bars, on December 1, 2024, when CPJ conducted its most recent annual prison census. Pitkevich was not included at the time due to a lack of publicly available information on her detention.

CPJ emailed the Belarusian Investigative Committee, the country’s law enforcement agency, for comment but did not receive any response.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

Boston magazine contributing editor Gretchen Voss was subpoenaed on Nov. 21, 2024, for confidential newsgathering materials in connection with a murder trial in Dedham, Massachusetts. After initially upholding the motion in December, the judge partially reversed the order almost two months later.

In June and July 2023, Voss interviewed Karen Read, who stands accused of the murder of her boyfriend in a case that has captured national attention.

Prosecutors first attempted in January 2024 to compel the disclosure of the journalist’s notes and recordings of the interviews. Massachusetts does not have a formally recognized reporter’s shield law protecting journalists from being forced to disclose newsgathering materials.

Superior Court Judge Beverly Cannone denied the prosecutor’s request for the off-the-record portions of the interviews and notes handwritten by Voss, but ordered her to produce copies of Read’s recorded on-the-record comments. Voss provided the redacted recordings.

The case against Read ended in a mistrial in July and was scheduled for a retrial in early 2025.

The state renewed its request for the notes and unredacted interview recordings in November 2024, ahead of the second trial. Prosecutors also requested copies of any texts, emails or voicemail communications Voss had with Read.

“The defendant made a tactical decision to be interviewed. There is no legal justification enabling a defendant to pick and choose what statements can and should be disseminated to the public,” the motion said. “The ‘off the record’ promise has no legal import, and this Commonwealth does not recognize the private agreement between the defendant and the news sources.”

Cannone granted the government’s request on Dec. 5 and ordered Voss to produce the documents by Jan. 2, 2025. Voss filed a motion for reconsideration regarding her notes, writing in an affidavit that forcing her to turn them over would jeopardize her credibility with sources in the future and her ability to work as an investigative journalist.

“Obtaining information from sources ‘off the record’ is a normal—and critical—part of my work,” Voss wrote. “Keeping my word on this is critical to maintaining credibility and trust, and thus maintaining source relationships while not intervening with the flow of important information to the public.”

Robert Bertsche, an attorney representing Voss and Boston magazine, argued in the motion that courts have cautioned against making journalists “discovery agents for the government.”

“What is the Commonwealth seeking now from the taped interviews? Exactly what it forswore earlier: the statements made by Karen Read’s attorneys during those interviews,” Bertsche wrote. “The Commonwealth is commandeering a journalist merely in the hopes that the journalist’s records will prove useful to its case.”

Cannone ordered Voss to provide the notes for “in camera review” — where the judge privately views disputed materials to determine relevance — by Jan. 13, and Voss complied.

During a Jan. 31 hearing, Cannone partially reversed her decision and ruled that Voss would not be compelled to turn over her off-the-record notes, the Boston Herald reported. “Voss has articulated a compelling argument that requiring disclosure of the notes poses a greater risk to the free flow of information than the other materials produced,” Cannone wrote.

The judge ruled, however, that the unredacted copies of her on-the-record interviews with Read — which had excluded off-the-record comments from both Read and her attorneys — must be turned over to prosecutors.

Neither Voss nor Bertsche responded to requests for comment.

This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

The state’s lawsuit, filed by Attorney General Keith Ellison in 2020, charges three major architects of climate denial with running a “campaign of deception” to mislead consumers about the science of climate change and failing to disclose their knowledge of the climate harms of their fossil fuel products.

The latest ruling aligns with rulings in similar cases in Honolulu, Boulder, Vermont, and Massachusetts, all of which are moving closer to trial despite the oil industry’s efforts to derail the cases.

Alyssa Johl, vice president and general counsel of the Center for Climate Integrity, released the following statement:

“This ruling is an important step forward in Minnesota’s efforts to hold ExxonMobil, Koch Industries, and the American Petroleum Institute accountable for their climate lies. The judge made clear that the state's lawsuit is about accountability for the companies’ deception and failure to warn Minnesotans about the harms of their products for decades, and not an attempt to regulate interstate emissions. Given that these companies’ lies and deception have fueled the climate crisis the state is facing today, the people of Minnesota deserve their day in court.”

Background on U.S. Climate Accountability Lawsuits Against Big Oil:

Eleven attorneys general — in California, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Vermont, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico — and dozens of city, county, and tribal governments in California, Colorado, Hawai`i, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Washington, and Puerto Rico, have filed lawsuits to hold major oil and gas companies accountable for deceiving the public about their products’ role in climate change. These cases collectively represent more than 1 in 4 people living in the United States. Last year the attorney general of Michigan announced plans to take fossil fuel companies to court.

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Newswire Editor.

This article was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in partnership with the Anchorage Daily News. Sign up for Dispatches to get stories like this one as soon as they are published.

The chief justice of the Alaska Supreme Court told state lawmakers this week that the court system is taking steps to reduce the amount of time it takes criminal cases to reach trial, a problem highlighted by a recent ProPublica and Anchorage Daily News investigation.

In an annual State of the Judiciary speech to legislators Wednesday at the Capitol in Juneau, Chief Justice Susan M. Carney said the court system has increased training for judges, created new policies on postponements and authorized overtime pay. She noted that the court system’s mission includes deciding cases “expeditiously and with integrity.”

“You are probably aware that we are not meeting expectations — our own or Alaskans’ — about the expeditious part of that mission,” Carney said.

Noting “recent media accounts” of extreme delays, Carney said the state is gaining ground and that resolving the problem is “our No. 1 priority.”

“We must, and we will, improve how we handle criminal cases to prevent that kind of delay,” Carney said.

The Daily News and ProPublica reported in January that the most serious felony cases in Alaska can take five, seven or even 10 years to reach trial as judges approve dozens of delays. These delays might be requested because defense attorneys are waiting for prosecutors to share evidence or because attorneys have high caseloads to juggle, or even as a tactic to weaken the prosecution’s case with the passage of time.

The category of cases that ProPublica and the Daily News examined, the most serious felonies such as murders and violent sexual assaults, took the judicial system a median of three years to complete in 2023, a threefold increase from 2013.

The newsrooms identified one case that judges described as one of the most “horrendous” sexual assaults they had ever seen and that has been delayed at least 74 times over the course of 10 years.

The Alaska judicial system and lawmakers were aware of serious pretrial delays long before COVID-19 disrupted the courts, particularly in Anchorage. In 2009, a report by the National Center for State Courts noted that the time to resolve felony criminal cases in Anchorage had increased nearly 400% over the prior decade.

While acknowledging the long delays described in news reports and their impact on victims and defendants in major felonies, Carney told legislators that less serious criminal cases — which are most cases in the system — do not take as long to resolve.

“I do this not to justify those extraordinarily delayed cases, but I do want to provide a bigger picture,” said Carney, a Fairbanks judge who was appointed to the Supreme Court in 2016 and became the chief justice this year.

The median time to close misdemeanor cases is six months or shorter, Carney said. Less serious felony cases such as vehicle theft and certain assault charges are resolved within a median of six months, she said. Class A felonies, which include some sexual assaults, manslaughter and some drug charges, take a median of 13 months.

Carney also noted that only about 3% of criminal cases go to trial. Many are resolved when the defendant agrees to plead guilty to reduced charges, rather than take the chance of being found guilty by a jury, or when prosecutors drop the charges.

Carney told legislators that judges have created new limits on the number of times a case can be delayed and on the duration of the delays, and that judges devoted one-third of their annual conference to training on how to reduce the number of pending cases.

More cases are now being closed than are being opened, and the number of open cases last month was down by one-third from a year before, Carney said, bringing the number of open criminal cases to its lowest since 2018.

“So we are making progress,” said Carney, who spent nearly three decades as a lawyer for the Alaska Public Defender Agency and Office of Public Advocacy.

She did not provide caseload figures specifically for unclassified felonies, the category of serious crimes that ProPublica and the Daily News focused on.

Alaska’s sluggish justice system has created palpable impacts on crime victims, defendants and the community.

A Daily News and ProPublica report in October found the city of Anchorage dismissed hundreds of criminal cases in 2024 because it didn’t have enough prosecutors to meet speedy trial deadlines. Dismissed cases included charges of domestic violence assault and child abuse.

State prosecutors have responded to that investigation by offering added staff to help the city keep cases moving.

This content originally appeared on ProPublica and was authored by by Kyle Hopkins, Anchorage Daily News.

A human rights expert told RFA that Vietnam might be attempting orchestrating a “surrender show,” so authorities can tell the public that he and his family agreed that he should return on his own volition, rather than going through with the trial.

Y Quynh Bdap fled with his family to Thailand in 2018 to escape religious persecution.

As a member of the Ede ethnic minority, he is classified as a Montagnard, a term used to describe members of mainly Christian minority groups who live in Vietnam’s Central Highlands.

Bdap’s grandfather, like many Montagnards, worked with the U.S. military that fought alongside South Vietnamese forces in the 20-year war won by North Vietnam in 1975.

Y Quynh Bdap was granted refugee status by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, or UNHCR, but was arrested by Thai police in mid-2024 following an extradition request from Vietnam.

If extradited to Vietnam, Y Quynh Bdap faces a 10-year prison sentence for “terrorism,” a charge issued in absentia by the Dak Lak People’s Court in January 2024.

Authorities allege he played a role in directing attacks on two government offices that resulted in nine deaths. The activist has consistently denied these allegations.

In late September 2024, the Bangkok Criminal Court ruled that he should be extradited to Vietnam. The court also gave the Thai government 90 days to enforce the decision.

(Y Quynh Bdap via Facebook)

On Thursday, Y Quynh Bdap’s attorney Nadthasiri Bergman told RFA that her team was waiting to submit the appeal against the extradition order but provided no further details.

Call to surrender

On Wednesday, Y Phô Êban, the activist’s father, told RFA that an inter-agency group of representatives from the Dak Lak provincial government had visited the family of Y Quynh Bdap’s wife on December 25.

They handed his father-in-law a document titled “Letter Calling on the Wanted to Surrender,” and asked the family to “actively encourage Y Quynh Bdap to give himself up to receive leniency.”

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The group warned that if his family did not sign the document and failed to convince him to return to Vietnam, “the authorities won’t help if any issues or difficulties arise in the future.”

Y Quynh Bdap’s in-laws later called his father to tell him what happened, saying they refused to sign the document.

“We won’t let Y Quynh return because it’s too dangerous for him,” said Y Phô Êban. “The authorities here are very hostile. They threaten us and will show no leniency.”

He said the accusations against his son were fabricated.

“Since they’ve labeled Y Quynh a terrorist, I’m certain they won’t spare him,” he said.

RFA’s called the two telephone numbers listed in the letter from the inter-agency group to seek further information, but those calls went unanswered.

Thailand’s role

Since the arrest and detention of Mr. Y Quynh Bdap, Thailand has faced protests from many international human rights organizations.

They say Thailand’s anti-torture law should prevent his extradition to Vietnam where he may face torture and inhumane treatment.

Truong Minh Tam, a legal expert with the U.S.-based Civil Rights Project, which advocates for disadvantaged communities in Vietnam, believes Thailand is more likely to cooperate with Vietnam on a “surrender” plan than to allow Mr. Y Quynh Bdap to resettle in a third country.

“It’s very likely that the Vietnamese government, by all means, will orchestrate the narrative of Y Quynh Bdap surrendering himself or that he was won over and bailed out by his relatives,” said Tam.

But he said Thailand would likely try to gauge international opinion before agreeing to such a plan.

One of Y Quynh Bdap’s attorneys told human rights group Project 88 in late December that if no countries offered him asylum by late January, it was almost certain that Y Quynh Bdap would be extradited to Vietnam.

Project 88 disclosed that Bdap applied for asylum in Canada but Ottawa stalled his application after Vietnam announced the terrorism charges against him.

Right before his arrest, the Canadian Embassy in Bangkok interviewed him for resettlement purposes.

Translated by Anna Vu. Edited by Eugene Whong.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Vietnamese.

This story describes an alleged sexual assault and serious injuries resulting from it.

This article was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in partnership with the Anchorage Daily News. Sign up for Dispatches to get stories like this one as soon as they are published.

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The sexual assault case was one of the most horrendous that two Alaska Superior Court judges said they had encountered in their long careers on the bench. The victim suffered internal injuries that required surgery and the use of a bag for her digestive system.

“Even somebody like me, who does nothing but this work for so long, still has their sensibility shocked,” Judge Philip Volland said at an early bail hearing, warning that he worried the suspect might try to threaten the woman. “The facts of this case tell me there is a very, very real risk of intimidation of the victim. If she wasn’t afraid then, she should be afraid now.”

Detectives had interviewed the alleged victim, executed search warrants and, two weeks after the reported incident, arrested a suspect: then-38-year-old Lafi “Beago” Faualo, who pleaded not guilty to first-degree sexual assault.

That was a decade ago. The case has still not gone to trial.

Over the years, the state assigned the case to four different judges, including Volland, who between them agreed to delay the trial more than 70 times — usually at the request of the defense attorney. Such delays and judges’ acquiescence have become routine in Alaska, robbing victims of timely justice and sometimes eroding the prosecution’s ability to mount an effective case using eyewitness testimony.

A spokesperson for the court system said the state is taking steps to reduce the length of time it takes to resolve Alaska criminal cases, including providing new training for judges and issuing orders to limit delays.

In the neverending case of sexual assault against Faualo, it all began with an alleged attack on July 16, 2014, in a van parked outside an Anchorage church. According to the charges, Faualo was in the back seat with the victim during the incident. Prosecutors additionally accused a second man, who was in the driver’s seat, of sexual assault in the case but later dropped the charges when the man pleaded guilty to coercion.

According to a charging document, Faualo denied sexually assaulting the woman but told Anchorage police he might have “accidentally” put his hand in her anus. The report quotes Faualo saying he might have used a bottle, but then saying it was definitely his hand. Faualo’s defense attorney has since said that Faualo’s co-defendant — who has since died — was the one who committed the assault and not Faualo.

ProPublica and the Anchorage Daily News obtained audio recordings and logs from each hearing or listened to it live. Nearly every time the defense attorney asked to delay the trial, a judge agreed. Not once did anyone in the courtroom ask what the victim wanted.

Faualo did not respond to an interview request and did not respond to emailed and hand-delivered questions.

Here’s how an Alaska sexual assault defendant has been able to prevent his case from going to trial since 2014. Prosecutors typically raised no objection to the delays. Unless noted, the judge granted the defense request for a delay in every instance.

• Sept. 25, 2014: Faualo has hired a private attorney, Rex Butler, who asks to delay the hearing.
• Oct. 7, 2014: Judge Philip Volland agrees to a delay because the defense attorney says he is still new to the case.
• Nov. 4, 2014: The judge grants the defense a three-week delay.
• Nov. 25, 2014: The judge delays the case as Faualo’s co-defendant considers a plea deal.
• Dec. 9, 2014: The defense attorney has a scheduling conflict, delaying the case.
• Jan. 13, 2015: Faualo files a motion to suppress evidence, delaying the case for months.

By 2015, the case has stretched past the state’s 120-day speedy-trial deadline. With no trial date in sight, Faualo asks to be released on bail, but the prosecutor claims he is a flight risk and a threat to the victim. The judge denies the bail request. The stakes are high. If convicted, Faualo faces a minimum of 25 years in prison for one count of sexual assault that resulted in serious injury, plus additional time for each of three additional counts of sexual assault.

• April 7, 2015: The defense asks for another delay.
• July 7, 2015: The judge grants a two-week delay, no questions asked.
• Aug. 18, 2015: Judge Michael Wolverton has been assigned to the case. He approves another delay.
• Aug. 26, 2015: The judge delays the trial to November 2015.
• Oct. 14, 2015: The judge agrees to another delay.
• Nov. 18, 2015: The judge delays the case another 35 days.
• Dec. 9, 2015: The first motion to suppress evidence fails, and the judge agrees to another delay.
• Jan. 20, 2016: The defense asks for a 30-day delay.
• Feb. 17, 2016: The state has offered a plea deal. The defense asks for a 30-day delay.
• Mar. 16, 2016: The defendant hasn’t decided on the plea deal and asks for another monthlong delay.
• April 20, 2016: The defense files another motion and asks for a 30-day delay.
• May 18, 2016: The judge agrees to delay the case for another month.
• June 15, 2016: With a new prosecutor assigned to the case, the defense again asks for a 30-day delay.
• July 13, 2016: The defendant is considering a plea deal that has been offered; the prosecutor asks for a two-week delay.
• July 27, 2016: The defendant hasn’t decided on whether to take the deal. The judge delays the trial by six weeks.

By now, the delays in the case mostly revolve around motions filed by the defense to throw out evidence collected by detectives early in the investigation. For example, Faualo’s lawyer says police served a search warrant too late at night — despite the warrant saying it could be served at any time. Meanwhile, Faualo’s co-defendant has agreed to a plea deal and is expected to testify against him at trial.

• Oct. 12, 2016: The defense asks for a one-month delay to continue negotiating a deal.
• Nov. 16, 2016: The judge agrees to the defendant’s request for another one-month delay.
• Dec. 14, 2016: The judge delays the case a month to make time for an evidentiary hearing.
• Feb. 8, 2017: The judge denies the defense’s motions to suppress evidence, and the defense asks for another three-week delay.
• Mar. 8, 2017: Faualo’s lawyer tells the judge he will “try to get” the case resolved soon but asks to delay the trial two months.
• May 17, 2017: The defense asks to delay the trial by one month to negotiate a deal.
• July 5, 2017: The defense asks for another one-month delay to continue negotiating.
• Aug. 2, 2017: The defense says they’re “very close” to making a plea deal and just need to delay proceedings by another two weeks.
• Aug. 16, 2017: Still negotiating, the defense says, asking for another two-week delay.
• Aug. 30, 2017: The defense says it needs a three-week delay to continue negotiating.
• Sept. 27, 2017: “Give us two more weeks,” the defense attorney asks. The judge OKs the delay.
• Oct. 11, 2017: The defense is “pretty close” to a plea deal but needs a two-week delay.
• Nov. 1, 2017: The defense asks for a one-month delay — long enough “so we don’t come back in two weeks and not have an answer.”
• Dec. 6, 2017: The defense asks for a one-month delay. The judge agrees without asking questions.
• Jan. 10, 2018: The defense says the two sides are “close to resolving” negotiations but need a two-week delay.
• Jan. 24, 2018: The judge delays the trial to allow more negotiations.
• Feb. 14, 2018: The defense asks for a new three-week delay without explanation. The judge agrees.
• Mar. 7, 2018: A new prosecutor takes over the case; the defense attorney asks for a two-week delay.
• Mar. 21, 2018: The defense asks for a one-week delay to negotiate.
• Mar. 28, 2018: The defense asks for two more weeks to negotiate.
• May 2, 2018: The defense attorney asks to delay the trial until October.

Prosecutors often say that trial delays make it harder to win a conviction because witnesses’ and police officers’ memories fade over time.

“Without question, the delay that occurs in cases going to trial makes it more difficult to keep track of where victims and witnesses are,” said Alaska Deputy Attorney General John Skidmore. “Police officers retire, move out of state. Lab analysts leave.”

“All of our cases depend upon us being able to present the evidence, and it’s just a fact of life that as time progresses, life moves on,” he said.

• Sept. 5, 2018: The defense asks for a one-month delay.
• Oct. 3, 2018: The defense asks for a two-week delay.
• Oct. 17, 2018: The judge agrees to delay the trial for two weeks for “attorney negotiations.”
• Nov. 28, 2018: Faualo has a new public defender, who asks to delay a week to prepare.
• Dec. 12, 2018: The public defender asks to delay again.
• Feb. 6, 2019: Butler, the private defense attorney, returns. He requests a delay until September.

Nothing happens in the case for seven months because Faualo’s attorney says he doesn’t have time for the trial. Faualo has now been in jail for five years, but the case appears to finally be destined for trial when a judge sets a new date for November 2019.

• Oct. 28, 2019: The defense attorney asks to delay the trial one month.

The 2019 trial date comes and goes, and Wolverton has now retired. At a spring hearing held before Judge Catherine Easter, the defense attorney says he’s once again considering a plea deal rather than a trial. The judge chuckles when she reads the case number, which shows it has been awaiting trial since 2014. When the defense asks for a delay, the prosecution objects.

Because of the age of the case, the judge sets a trial date. But soon after, the COVID-19 pandemic pauses jury trials across Alaska.

• May 11, 2020: COVID-related delay.
• June, 11, 2020: COVID-related delay.
• Oct. 27, 2020: COVID-related delay.
• Jan. 12, 2021: COVID-related delay.
• Mar. 9, 2021: COVID-related delay.
• June 17, 2021: COVID-related delay.
• Aug. 16, 2021: The defense asks for a delay to negotiate a deal. Judge Erin Marston, the latest judge assigned to the case, agrees.
• Oct. 26, 2021: A new prosecutor is assigned to the case and asks for a delay.
• Nov. 24, 2021: The defense requests a delay.
• Jan. 5, 2022: Jury trials have resumed across Alaska, but both sides in this case ask for a delay.
• May 9, 2022: The prosecutor says she’s ready for trial. The defense wants a delay.
• June 10, 2022: The defense asks for a 30-day delay to continue negotiations.
• July 14, 2022: The judge delays a hearing a week. The prosecutor doesn’t show up to the new hearing, so the judge delays again.
• July 26, 2022: The defense asks for a delay due to a scheduling conflict.
• Sept. 9, 2022: The prosecutor asks the judge to delay the case for “one last status hearing.”

The only witness to the alleged assault, other than the victim, has now died, the defense attorney says. Faualo has been in jail for eight years, and the judge agrees to release him on bail. His daughters will be asked to watch him and report to police if he violates conditions of his release.

• Nov. 28, 2022: “I know it’s an old case,” the defense attorney acknowledges while asking that the trial be delayed several more months.
• Feb. 1, 2023: The defense asks for a delay of 45 days.
• Mar. 15, 2023: The defense requests a delay. A new judge assigned to the case, Judge Andrew Peterson, agrees.
• April 26, 2023: The defense asks to delay a trial until 2024.

The talk of trial dates pauses for a few months as Faualo’s lawyer works, successfully, to loosen bail restrictions. At a bail hearing, a judge confuses Faualo with the codefendant who pleaded guilty to lesser charges. Misunderstanding the severity of the charges against Faualo, the judge agrees to ease up on his bail conditions. Faualo is now allowed to leave his house during the day.

• Nov. 15, 2023: The defense asks for a 30-day delay.
• Dec. 13, 2023: The prosecutor wants time to negotiate. She asks for a 30-60 day delay.

It’s now been nearly 10 years since the alleged sexual assault. Having failed to reach a plea agreement, the two sides say the earliest they can appear at trial is October 2024.

• Aug. 30, 2024: With the trial set for October, the defense asks for a 15-day delay.
• Sept. 25, 2024: The defense requests a 30-day delay.
• Oct. 30, 2024: The prosecutor is ready. But the trial is delayed again because Faualo’s lawyer had double-booked himself for two trials at the same time.
• Nov. 27, 2024: The prosecutor and defense are supposed to select a trial date, but the defense isn’t ready. The judge delays the case again.

The most recent hearing in this case was held on Dec. 16, 2024, when Judge Andrew Peterson set a trial date for June 2025, 10 years and 11 months after the alleged sexual assault took place.

This content originally appeared on ProPublica and was authored by .

This article was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in partnership with the Anchorage Daily News. Sign up for Dispatches to get stories like this one as soon as they are published.

The evidence was overwhelming from the time it all began in 2017. A sexual assault in broad daylight at a popular Anchorage park, with a witness who dialed 911 and described the attack as it was happening. A police officer hoisting the suspect from atop one of the victims, the suspect’s pants still around his knees. DNA evidence corroborating the crime.

Yet in Alaska’s slow-motion court system, it took more than seven years for the case against Fred Tom Hurley III to finally go to trial, in December. Attorneys came and went with the passage of time — a series of six for the defense and four for the prosecution — as judges granted 50 delays. Most of the slowdowns came at the request of Hurley’s lawyers, long before and long after the COVID-19 pandemic paused jury trials across the state. At hearing after hearing, talks concerned scheduling, not the facts of the case.

For the two women Hurley was charged with assaulting, justice delayed meant justice denied in their lifetimes. Both died before the case ever reached the jury.

Told the details of the case, former Florida state prosecutor Melba Pearson called it “a travesty of justice.”

“That’s a travesty. Period. End of story,” said Pearson, who recently co-authored a report on trial delays across the country.

What’s surprising isn’t how long the Hurley case lingered unresolved, but how ordinary it is in Alaska’s court system.

A recent Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica investigation found hundreds of misdemeanor criminal cases in Anchorage thrown out of court because overwhelmed city prosecutors couldn’t meet speedy trial deadlines.

But when it comes to felonies in Anchorage and across the state, the opposite problem often exists for victims and witnesses: a wait of five, seven or even 10 years or more to reach trial, plea agreement or dismissal, often because of defense motions to delay. As a benchmark, the National Center for State Courts says 98% of felonies should be resolved in under a year.

The extreme pretrial delays in Alaska are especially striking because it has one of the nation’s strictest limits on how long cases can drag out: 120 days from the time a person is charged.

In reality, this deadline is rarely met. Over a recent 12-month period, only seven criminal cases went to trial within 120 days in Alaska state courts.

The problem is getting worse. The median time to resolve the most serious felony cases, such as murder and sexual assault, has nearly tripled over the past decade, from just over a year in 2013 to 1,160 days in 2023. About 54% of people held in Alaska jails and prisons last year were there to await trial or, in a smaller number of cases, to await sentencing. That’s up from just 30% in 2016.

A courts spokesperson, Rebecca Koford, said by email that the state “is well aware of the issues with case backlogs and has been actively working to improve time to disposition.” Koford cited an Anchorage presiding judge’s orders limiting when postponements may be used, as well as new training for judges on managing case flows.

“We have made inroads in that direction,” she said, “but it takes time and continues to be exacerbated by the low number of attorneys who are able to handle complex criminal cases."

Some defense attorneys request pretrial delays to cope with overwhelming caseloads. According to the Alaska court system, Hurley’s current attorney, Rex Butler, represents defendants in at least 375 active cases, for example. (In an interview, the attorney said he sometimes hires other lawyers to help with that workload and noted that most cases do not require a jury trial.)

Time is generally a friend to a defendant. Witnesses may get into trouble or their recollections may fade, which could work to your benefit.

Attorneys also can employ delays as a tactic, increasing the odds their clients will walk free as the prosecution’s case ages. Defendants sit in jail or live on monitored release pending trial, but the wait can avert a heftier prison sentence.

The thought was captured in a 2017 email from a state-appointed defense attorney to his client, later made public in a court proceeding.

“Time is generally a friend to a defendant,” assistant public advocate Jim Corrigan wrote. “Witnesses may get into trouble or their recollections may fade, which could work to your benefit.”

The defendant had been questioning why his lawyer asked to delay his sexual assault case.

“You should not be in any hurry to take these cases to trial,” Corrigan replied.

Corrigan did not respond to a recent request for comment.

Terrence Haas, a former judge who oversees public defenders in Alaska, said that any lawyer who believes a delay is necessary or would benefit a client’s case is “bound by the ethics of their profession and duty of loyalty to their client to request a continuance.”

But one person has the power to say no to such requests: the judge. Records show Alaska judges routinely agree to such requests even after years of delays. These preventable failures have existed for more than a decade. What’s more, everyone saw it coming.

Victims advocates in Alaska have raised alarms about pretrial delays over and over again, largely without impact.

“It is not unusual for felony cases to take 2 to 3 years before victims see their case go to trial or result in a plea agreement,” the Alaska Office of Victims’ Rights wrote in 2014. Few judges were giving serious consideration to victims who asked them to speed up the process.

The agency issued similar warnings as the years went by:

• 2015: Judges often allowed 20 or more status meetings before forcing the two sides to go to trial.

• 2016: The most common victim complaint is “pre-trial delays allowed by the courts.”

• 2017: The maxim that “justice delayed is justice denied” could not be more true than for victims of crime in Alaska. “Victims cannot heal or find closure when the wounds caused by the offender are constantly reopened by a prolonged court case. Victims are often held hostage to the system for far too long and in violation of their rights as victims.”

The victims’ rights office laid blame for the delays mostly with judges, particularly judges in Anchorage.

One week in 2018, the agency watched four Anchorage Superior Court judges hold pretrial hearings for 181 criminal cases. The judges let 161 be delayed up to two months. In most cases, the victims’ rights office said, neither the defense attorney nor the prosecutor gave a good reason for the delay. Not once did a judge ask what the victim wanted, the report said.

The next year, the Office of Victims’ Rights accused Anchorage judges of being enablers. “It is up to the judge to control the docket, to adhere to standing court orders, to follow the law and to protect victims’ rights as well as defendants’ rights,” the agency wrote. “Generally, what is seen is more of a rubber stamping of such requests.”

A common delay tactic during the pandemic known as the “off-record continuance” allowed attorneys to delay cases by email and skip court. But it persisted after courts reopened. Records show judges in 2024 allowed off-record continuances in dozens of cases, ranging from a 4-year-old felony assault to a 5-year-old sexual assault to a 6-year-old car theft.

(The Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica delivered questions to all Anchorage Superior Court judges by email and in hard copy, receiving a response from only two judges, who both said they mostly hear civil cases and rarely preside over criminal trials.)

Crime survivors pay a price for the inaction. They take time off work or pay for day care to attend hearings, advocates note. Victims fight to calm the pit in their stomachs before stepping into a courtroom, only to find the event is canceled.

The Office of Victims’ Rights in May filed paperwork on behalf of the alleged victim in a 2017 sexual abuse case, demanding the court honor the woman’s right to “timely disposition” under the Alaska Constitution. The agency asked Superior Court Judge Jack McKenna to hold a trial in June so that the woman and her family could move on with their lives. The judge delayed the case once again.

McKenna did not respond to an email or questions delivered to his courthouse mailbox. But Koford, the court spokesperson, said the trial in the 2017 case had to be delayed because the defense attorney was scheduled to appear in another trial. Other delays were because the prosecutor was unavailable.

The state of Alaska’s criminal justice system is operating on the fringes, barely able to protect against the deprivation of fundamental rights, barely able to respond in a professionally responsible manner.

Koford said the case illustrated Alaska’s shortage of experienced attorneys to handle major felonies, which often leaves judges with a choice between postponing a trial and forcing one with unprepared attorneys, unavailable witnesses or an incomplete examination of evidence.

“A victim’s right to a speedy trial is important,” Koford said, “but it is also important to try a case correctly the first time.”

One judge has publicly blamed backups on lawmakers and governors, whom he accused of skimping on money for public defenders.

Fairbanks Superior Court Judge Michael MacDonald was presiding over a case in 2019 involving the beating death of an Alaska Native woman in a Yukon River village. It was less than 2 years old and about to go before a jury. The defendant admitted to the killing.

Then the defendant’s state-appointed attorney requested a delay, saying she had been juggling 200 cases at once, felt burned out and couldn’t ethically move forward with a trial. (A 1998 audit for the Alaska Legislature said public defenders can “ethically” handle no more than 59 cases in a 60-hour workweek.)

MacDonald described the request as a sign of dysfunction.

“The state of Alaska’s criminal justice system is operating on the fringes,” MacDonald wrote, “barely able to protect against the deprivation of fundamental rights, barely able to respond in a professionally responsible manner” to violent crime.

He went ahead and ordered the trial postponed. The defendant eventually pleaded guilty to second-degree murder under an agreement with the prosecution. (The judge has since retired but declined to be interviewed for this story, saying he still occasionally fills in for other judges and presides over cases.)

At the December sexual assault trial for Hurley in Anchorage, few people were more eager to see the case concluded than Eva Foxglove. The 53-year-old mother was the one who called 911 during the attack. Foxglove didn’t know the women, but she said she had been sexually assaulted before and knew they might not be able or willing to testify when the time arrived.

“I have to come and do this for them,” she told the jury.

The events Foxglove watched unfold in 2017 had their origins shortly after Hurley’s release from jail on a previous sexual assault charge.

Accused of sexually assaulting a woman in her home, Hurley was acquitted at trial, walked out of jail and wrote on Facebook July 13, 2017, “What’s up free at last.” Two days later, he showed up at an Anchorage soup kitchen, where he met the two women he was later charged with attacking, according to a police report.

The report said the three of them walked to the Delaney Park Strip, several city blocks of grass that skirt a gleaming oil company tower and the governor’s office building. One alleged victim told police Hurley said she was beautiful and tried to kiss her but that she turned her head and told him she was engaged to be married, the report said.

Foxglove recalled in a recent interview that she was charging her phone at an outlet in the park. It was about 4 p.m. in the thick of tourist season, 68 degrees under a clear, bright sky.

The women seemed to pass out after drinking from a half-gallon bottle, Foxglove said. She could see Hurley moving on top of one and then the other, she said. “I was like, ‘What the fuck is he doing?’” Foxglove said. Shortly after she dialed 911, a police officer jogged up to Hurley and yanked him from one of the two women, the officer, now a sergeant, told jurors in December.

Police later collected DNA matching Hurley’s from the second woman’s body and from the first woman’s clothing.

The case was assigned to Anchorage Superior Court Judge Kevin Saxby and given a trial date of Oct. 9, 2017. But that date came and went. Saxby and other judges agreed to delay the trial 50 times, most often at the request of Hurley’s lawyers. One example: Hurley’s attorney wanted to see the criminal records of the two alleged victims.

Saxby did not respond to emailed and hand-delivered questions. Koford, the court system spokesperson, said judges generally do not comment on their actions for “fairness and due process reasons” and “cannot and do not comment on decision-making and reasoning in a case.”

One of the alleged victims was described in enough detail in police reports for the Daily News and ProPublica to track down additional information about her life. She lived unhoused and was listed in police reports as a victim in at least two prior sexual assault cases.

The woman told officers that she had passed out and awoke to find Hurley on top of her, police records say. A charging document quoted her using the word “rape” to describe what happened. Unlike the arriving police officer, the woman could testify not only to sexual contact, but also her lack of consent.

She never got the chance.

A passerby found her body outside a public library in Anchorage on April 19, 2019, some time between Hurley’s 19th pretrial delay and his 20th. Police said there was no evidence of a crime. At some other point during the long wait for Hurley’s trial, the second woman died as well.

Prosecutors had the DNA and witnesses who could establish sexual contact. But without the victims, prosecutors needed to show that they were incapacitated and therefore inherently incapable of agreeing to sex. The job fell largely to Foxglove. On the witness stand, she wore an oversized T-shirt and loose ponytail. “I’ve never been to court before,” she told the jury. But she recounted the events from seven years ago clearly, with greater precision and consistency than she’d offered in an earlier interview with a reporter.

When Butler, Hurley’s defense attorney, challenged her statement that the two women were passed out — rather than simply asleep — she never flinched. She could tell when someone wasn’t just napping but dead-to-the-world unconscious, she told the jury.

“I was a drunk. I know what sleep is. When you want to sleep you lay down and go to sleep. But when you drink so much, you pass out,” she said. “I know the difference, and I see.”

After seven years of delays, Hurley’s attorney gave no opening statement and did not call any witnesses. The trial took five days, including two days of jury selection.

The jurors returned their decision within two hours on Dec. 10: guilty on five of six felony sexual assault charges. As of Monday, the state court website indicated Hurley has not filed an appeal.

Although the Hurley case ended in a conviction, delays have worked to the defendants’ advantage in other Alaska criminal cases.

A man held at Fairbanks Correctional Center for two years without a trial had his drug charges thrown out after asserting his attorney waived his speedy trial rights violation without his consent.

And since October, at least 10 pretrial inmates at the Goose Creek Correctional Center have filed petitions in federal court challenging their state detention. They allege the state violated their speedy trial rights and in some cases appointed unreliable public defenders, saying they never signed forms saying they wanted to stop the 120-day countdown to a trial. Federal judges dismissed four of the petitions, while another six are awaiting a decision.

Haas, the official who supervises Alaska public defenders, said he wasn’t familiar with the petitions but said it’s not uncommon for defense attorneys and their clients to disagree about how long it will take to get ready for trial. “During the pandemic, of course, that got a little bit more extreme in terms of what delays were going on,” he said.

Pretrial delays can lead to a reversal for prosecutors even if they’ve won a conviction.

In a recent decision that could have far-reaching impact in Alaska, a man convicted of sexually abusing children succeeded in forcing the Superior Court to revisit his case.

Police arrested Ralph Hernandez in 2011 after an 11-year-old girl told her friend about the alleged abuse. Prosecutors said he abused, tortured or sexually assaulted children from toddlers to teenagers.

Over the seven years that it took the case to get to trial, Hernandez repeatedly voiced his demand for a speedy trial, often over the objections of his public defender. A jury convicted Hernandez of three counts of first-degree sexual abuse of a minor and one count of attempted second-degree sexual abuse of a minor.

But Alaska’s appeals court ruled in February that Hernandez had proven his pretrial delays were “presumptively prejudicial” and sent the case back to lower court for review.

In the 1978 federal ruling that set the precedent for the Hernandez case, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals made clear that states can’t get away with violating speedy trial rights simply by blaming a shortage of public defenders or prosecutors.

“A state government’s allocation of resources plays a major role in creating congested dockets, and it is unfair to require defendants to bear the entire burden that results from the government’s fiscal decisions,” the court wrote. “There must be a point at which delay due to a congested docket becomes so unacceptable that by itself it violates the right to a speedy trial.”

Although defendants may object to endless delays, they can benefit from them as time eats away at the prosecution’s case.

“We as prosecutors are obligated to present evidence in court and persuade a jury beyond a reasonable doubt about what happened,” said John Skidmore, Alaska deputy attorney general. “But when memories fade and people are less certain about what happened at some point in the past, that makes it more difficult for us to meet those burdens.”

Especially in cases of sexual violence, it’s prosecutors who are in a race against time. Often the evidence rests on a survivor’s word against an attacker’s. Losing the alleged victim’s testimony — a likelier outcome each day without a trial — can crush a prosecutor’s odds of a conviction.

It happened, a prosecutor said, in the case of Andre Corcoran.

The charges say Corcoran met his alleged victim, an unhoused woman taking cooking classes at a soup kitchen, shortly after moving to Alaska. The woman told police Corcoran seemed safe because he volunteered to clear kitchen tables. When Corcoran told her he had no place to stay, the woman offered to show him an abandoned tent.

Inside, according to the charging document, Corcoran and the woman began kissing, but she said she felt uncomfortable and asked him to stop. The charging document says Corcoran admitted to holding her down and attempting to have sex as she screamed for help. A police report on Corcoran’s arrest describes his subsequent interview with a detective.

“I think women need to be raped,” Corcoran told the detective, according to a transcript. The defendant said his only regret was not completing the act, the report said.

She wanted to make sure that he was held accountable for what he did and that he wouldn’t be able to do this again.

A grand jury indicted Corcoran on Aug. 30, 2018, on felony sexual assault charges. He waited in jail as defense attorneys had the case delayed at least 11 times. Still, when it finally reached trial in late April, Corcoran’s alleged victim was willing to testify despite suffering anxiety, a prosecutor later said.

“She wanted to make sure that he was held accountable for what he did and that he wouldn’t be able to do this again,” prosecutor Betsy Bull told the court.

Then the judge declared a mistrial. Corcoran’s attorney said he wasn’t told the alleged victim had a boyfriend at the time the assault was reported — which the attorney said gave the woman a potential motive to lie and cover up consensual sex with another man.

The prosecution was ready to give it a second try this fall, but as the new trial date approached, Corcoran’s alleged victim died of severe burns after her tent caught fire.

Bull said she was forced to offer a deal that let Corcoran plead guilty to a single count of felony assault. He would be sentenced to time served — his years in jail awaiting trial — and would not have to register as a sex offender. The prosecutor told the judge it was the best she could do.

“It’s not, from the state’s perspective, because he didn’t do it,” Bull said.

The courtroom was empty. No jury. No spectators. The judge asked the defendant if he wanted to say anything, and Corcoran stood.

“I do feel bad about who I used to be,” he said. “And I have made changes to who I want to be. I want to be a better person.”

Corcoran’s attorney, Jaffer Khimani, said Corcoran’s expression of remorse “was sincere to me.” Khimani said he was unaware of something else that, according to a report filed by a police detective, his client imparted moments after.

The report said Corcoran spoke to the court officer who escorted him to an elevator on his way to being set free.

It quoted Corcoran saying something very different from what he’d told the judge about his actions: “She got what she deserved.”

This content originally appeared on ProPublica and was authored by by Kyle Hopkins, Anchorage Daily News.

This article was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in partnership with the Anchorage Daily News. Sign up for Dispatches to get stories like this one as soon as they are published.

The evidence was overwhelming from the time it all began in 2017. A sexual assault in broad daylight at a popular Anchorage park, with a witness who dialed 911 and described the attack as it was happening. A police officer hoisting the suspect from atop one of the victims, the suspect’s pants still around his knees. DNA evidence corroborating the crime.

Yet in Alaska’s slow-motion court system, it took more than seven years for the case against Fred Tom Hurley III to finally go to trial, in December. Attorneys came and went with the passage of time — a series of six for the defense and four for the prosecution — as judges granted 50 delays. Most of the slowdowns came at the request of Hurley’s lawyers, long before and long after the COVID-19 pandemic paused jury trials across the state. At hearing after hearing, talks concerned scheduling, not the facts of the case.

For the two women Hurley was charged with assaulting, justice delayed meant justice denied in their lifetimes. Both died before the case ever reached the jury.

Told the details of the case, former Florida state prosecutor Melba Pearson called it “a travesty of justice.”

“That’s a travesty. Period. End of story,” said Pearson, who recently co-authored a report on trial delays across the country.

What’s surprising isn’t how long the Hurley case lingered unresolved, but how ordinary it is in Alaska’s court system.

A recent Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica investigation found hundreds of misdemeanor criminal cases in Anchorage thrown out of court because overwhelmed city prosecutors couldn’t meet speedy trial deadlines.

But when it comes to felonies in Anchorage and across the state, the opposite problem often exists for victims and witnesses: a wait of five, seven or even 10 years or more to reach trial, plea agreement or dismissal, often because of defense motions to delay. As a benchmark, the National Center for State Courts says 98% of felonies should be resolved in under a year.

The extreme pretrial delays in Alaska are especially striking because it has one of the nation’s strictest limits on how long cases can drag out: 120 days from the time a person is charged.

In reality, this deadline is rarely met. Over a recent 12-month period, only seven criminal cases went to trial within 120 days in Alaska state courts.

The problem is getting worse. The median time to resolve the most serious felony cases, such as murder and sexual assault, has nearly tripled over the past decade, from just over a year in 2013 to 1,160 days in 2023. About 54% of people held in Alaska jails and prisons last year were there to await trial or, in a smaller number of cases, to await sentencing. That’s up from just 30% in 2016.

A courts spokesperson, Rebecca Koford, said by email that the state “is well aware of the issues with case backlogs and has been actively working to improve time to disposition.” Koford cited an Anchorage presiding judge’s orders limiting when postponements may be used, as well as new training for judges on managing case flows.

“We have made inroads in that direction,” she said, “but it takes time and continues to be exacerbated by the low number of attorneys who are able to handle complex criminal cases."

Some defense attorneys request pretrial delays to cope with overwhelming caseloads. According to the Alaska court system, Hurley’s current attorney, Rex Butler, represents defendants in at least 375 active cases, for example. (In an interview, the attorney said he sometimes hires other lawyers to help with that workload and noted that most cases do not require a jury trial.)

Time is generally a friend to a defendant. Witnesses may get into trouble or their recollections may fade, which could work to your benefit.

Attorneys also can employ delays as a tactic, increasing the odds their clients will walk free as the prosecution’s case ages. Defendants sit in jail or live on monitored release pending trial, but the wait can avert a heftier prison sentence.

The thought was captured in a 2017 email from a state-appointed defense attorney to his client, later made public in a court proceeding.

“Time is generally a friend to a defendant,” assistant public advocate Jim Corrigan wrote. “Witnesses may get into trouble or their recollections may fade, which could work to your benefit.”

The defendant had been questioning why his lawyer asked to delay his sexual assault case.

“You should not be in any hurry to take these cases to trial,” Corrigan replied.

Corrigan did not respond to a recent request for comment.

Terrence Haas, a former judge who oversees public defenders in Alaska, said that any lawyer who believes a delay is necessary or would benefit a client’s case is “bound by the ethics of their profession and duty of loyalty to their client to request a continuance.”

But one person has the power to say no to such requests: the judge. Records show Alaska judges routinely agree to such requests even after years of delays. These preventable failures have existed for more than a decade. What’s more, everyone saw it coming.

Victims advocates in Alaska have raised alarms about pretrial delays over and over again, largely without impact.

“It is not unusual for felony cases to take 2 to 3 years before victims see their case go to trial or result in a plea agreement,” the Alaska Office of Victims’ Rights wrote in 2014. Few judges were giving serious consideration to victims who asked them to speed up the process.

The agency issued similar warnings as the years went by:

• 2015: Judges often allowed 20 or more status meetings before forcing the two sides to go to trial.

• 2016: The most common victim complaint is “pre-trial delays allowed by the courts.”

• 2017: The maxim that “justice delayed is justice denied” could not be more true than for victims of crime in Alaska. “Victims cannot heal or find closure when the wounds caused by the offender are constantly reopened by a prolonged court case. Victims are often held hostage to the system for far too long and in violation of their rights as victims.”

The victims’ rights office laid blame for the delays mostly with judges, particularly judges in Anchorage.

One week in 2018, the agency watched four Anchorage Superior Court judges hold pretrial hearings for 181 criminal cases. The judges let 161 be delayed up to two months. In most cases, the victims’ rights office said, neither the defense attorney nor the prosecutor gave a good reason for the delay. Not once did a judge ask what the victim wanted, the report said.

The next year, the Office of Victims’ Rights accused Anchorage judges of being enablers. “It is up to the judge to control the docket, to adhere to standing court orders, to follow the law and to protect victims’ rights as well as defendants’ rights,” the agency wrote. “Generally, what is seen is more of a rubber stamping of such requests.”

A common delay tactic during the pandemic known as the “off-record continuance” allowed attorneys to delay cases by email and skip court. But it persisted after courts reopened. Records show judges in 2024 allowed off-record continuances in dozens of cases, ranging from a 4-year-old felony assault to a 5-year-old sexual assault to a 6-year-old car theft.

(The Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica delivered questions to all Anchorage Superior Court judges by email and in hard copy, receiving a response from only two judges, who both said they mostly hear civil cases and rarely preside over criminal trials.)

Crime survivors pay a price for the inaction. They take time off work or pay for day care to attend hearings, advocates note. Victims fight to calm the pit in their stomachs before stepping into a courtroom, only to find the event is canceled.

The Office of Victims’ Rights in May filed paperwork on behalf of the alleged victim in a 2017 sexual abuse case, demanding the court honor the woman’s right to “timely disposition” under the Alaska Constitution. The agency asked Superior Court Judge Jack McKenna to hold a trial in June so that the woman and her family could move on with their lives. The judge delayed the case once again.

McKenna did not respond to an email or questions delivered to his courthouse mailbox. But Koford, the court spokesperson, said the trial in the 2017 case had to be delayed because the defense attorney was scheduled to appear in another trial. Other delays were because the prosecutor was unavailable.

The state of Alaska’s criminal justice system is operating on the fringes, barely able to protect against the deprivation of fundamental rights, barely able to respond in a professionally responsible manner.

Koford said the case illustrated Alaska’s shortage of experienced attorneys to handle major felonies, which often leaves judges with a choice between postponing a trial and forcing one with unprepared attorneys, unavailable witnesses or an incomplete examination of evidence.

“A victim’s right to a speedy trial is important,” Koford said, “but it is also important to try a case correctly the first time.”

One judge has publicly blamed backups on lawmakers and governors, whom he accused of skimping on money for public defenders.

Fairbanks Superior Court Judge Michael MacDonald was presiding over a case in 2019 involving the beating death of an Alaska Native woman in a Yukon River village. It was less than 2 years old and about to go before a jury. The defendant admitted to the killing.

Then the defendant’s state-appointed attorney requested a delay, saying she had been juggling 200 cases at once, felt burned out and couldn’t ethically move forward with a trial. (A 1998 audit for the Alaska Legislature said public defenders can “ethically” handle no more than 59 cases in a 60-hour workweek.)

MacDonald described the request as a sign of dysfunction.

“The state of Alaska’s criminal justice system is operating on the fringes,” MacDonald wrote, “barely able to protect against the deprivation of fundamental rights, barely able to respond in a professionally responsible manner” to violent crime.

He went ahead and ordered the trial postponed. The defendant eventually pleaded guilty to second-degree murder under an agreement with the prosecution. (The judge has since retired but declined to be interviewed for this story, saying he still occasionally fills in for other judges and presides over cases.)

At the December sexual assault trial for Hurley in Anchorage, few people were more eager to see the case concluded than Eva Foxglove. The 53-year-old mother was the one who called 911 during the attack. Foxglove didn’t know the women, but she said she had been sexually assaulted before and knew they might not be able or willing to testify when the time arrived.

“I have to come and do this for them,” she told the jury.

The events Foxglove watched unfold in 2017 had their origins shortly after Hurley’s release from jail on a previous sexual assault charge.

Accused of sexually assaulting a woman in her home, Hurley was acquitted at trial, walked out of jail and wrote on Facebook July 13, 2017, “What’s up free at last.” Two days later, he showed up at an Anchorage soup kitchen, where he met the two women he was later charged with attacking, according to a police report.

The report said the three of them walked to the Delaney Park Strip, several city blocks of grass that skirt a gleaming oil company tower and the governor’s office building. One alleged victim told police Hurley said she was beautiful and tried to kiss her but that she turned her head and told him she was engaged to be married, the report said.

Foxglove recalled in a recent interview that she was charging her phone at an outlet in the park. It was about 4 p.m. in the thick of tourist season, 68 degrees under a clear, bright sky.

The women seemed to pass out after drinking from a half-gallon bottle, Foxglove said. She could see Hurley moving on top of one and then the other, she said. “I was like, ‘What the fuck is he doing?’” Foxglove said. Shortly after she dialed 911, a police officer jogged up to Hurley and yanked him from one of the two women, the officer, now a sergeant, told jurors in December.

Police later collected DNA matching Hurley’s from the second woman’s body and from the first woman’s clothing.

The case was assigned to Anchorage Superior Court Judge Kevin Saxby and given a trial date of Oct. 9, 2017. But that date came and went. Saxby and other judges agreed to delay the trial 50 times, most often at the request of Hurley’s lawyers. One example: Hurley’s attorney wanted to see the criminal records of the two alleged victims.

Saxby did not respond to emailed and hand-delivered questions. Koford, the court system spokesperson, said judges generally do not comment on their actions for “fairness and due process reasons” and “cannot and do not comment on decision-making and reasoning in a case.”

One of the alleged victims was described in enough detail in police reports for the Daily News and ProPublica to track down additional information about her life. She lived unhoused and was listed in police reports as a victim in at least two prior sexual assault cases.

The woman told officers that she had passed out and awoke to find Hurley on top of her, police records say. A charging document quoted her using the word “rape” to describe what happened. Unlike the arriving police officer, the woman could testify not only to sexual contact, but also her lack of consent.

She never got the chance.

A passerby found her body outside a public library in Anchorage on April 19, 2019, some time between Hurley’s 19th pretrial delay and his 20th. Police said there was no evidence of a crime. At some other point during the long wait for Hurley’s trial, the second woman died as well.

Prosecutors had the DNA and witnesses who could establish sexual contact. But without the victims, prosecutors needed to show that they were incapacitated and therefore inherently incapable of agreeing to sex. The job fell largely to Foxglove. On the witness stand, she wore an oversized T-shirt and loose ponytail. “I’ve never been to court before,” she told the jury. But she recounted the events from seven years ago clearly, with greater precision and consistency than she’d offered in an earlier interview with a reporter.

When Butler, Hurley’s defense attorney, challenged her statement that the two women were passed out — rather than simply asleep — she never flinched. She could tell when someone wasn’t just napping but dead-to-the-world unconscious, she told the jury.

“I was a drunk. I know what sleep is. When you want to sleep you lay down and go to sleep. But when you drink so much, you pass out,” she said. “I know the difference, and I see.”

After seven years of delays, Hurley’s attorney gave no opening statement and did not call any witnesses. The trial took five days, including two days of jury selection.

The jurors returned their decision within two hours on Dec. 10: guilty on five of six felony sexual assault charges. As of Monday, the state court website indicated Hurley has not filed an appeal.

Although the Hurley case ended in a conviction, delays have worked to the defendants’ advantage in other Alaska criminal cases.

A man held at Fairbanks Correctional Center for two years without a trial had his drug charges thrown out after asserting his attorney waived his speedy trial rights violation without his consent.

And since October, at least 10 pretrial inmates at the Goose Creek Correctional Center have filed petitions in federal court challenging their state detention. They allege the state violated their speedy trial rights and in some cases appointed unreliable public defenders, saying they never signed forms saying they wanted to stop the 120-day countdown to a trial. Federal judges dismissed four of the petitions, while another six are awaiting a decision.

Haas, the official who supervises Alaska public defenders, said he wasn’t familiar with the petitions but said it’s not uncommon for defense attorneys and their clients to disagree about how long it will take to get ready for trial. “During the pandemic, of course, that got a little bit more extreme in terms of what delays were going on,” he said.

Pretrial delays can lead to a reversal for prosecutors even if they’ve won a conviction.

In a recent decision that could have far-reaching impact in Alaska, a man convicted of sexually abusing children succeeded in forcing the Superior Court to revisit his case.

Police arrested Ralph Hernandez in 2011 after an 11-year-old girl told her friend about the alleged abuse. Prosecutors said he abused, tortured or sexually assaulted children from toddlers to teenagers.

Over the seven years that it took the case to get to trial, Hernandez repeatedly voiced his demand for a speedy trial, often over the objections of his public defender. A jury convicted Hernandez of three counts of first-degree sexual abuse of a minor and one count of attempted second-degree sexual abuse of a minor.

But Alaska’s appeals court ruled in February that Hernandez had proven his pretrial delays were “presumptively prejudicial” and sent the case back to lower court for review.

In the 1978 federal ruling that set the precedent for the Hernandez case, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals made clear that states can’t get away with violating speedy trial rights simply by blaming a shortage of public defenders or prosecutors.

“A state government’s allocation of resources plays a major role in creating congested dockets, and it is unfair to require defendants to bear the entire burden that results from the government’s fiscal decisions,” the court wrote. “There must be a point at which delay due to a congested docket becomes so unacceptable that by itself it violates the right to a speedy trial.”

Although defendants may object to endless delays, they can benefit from them as time eats away at the prosecution’s case.

“We as prosecutors are obligated to present evidence in court and persuade a jury beyond a reasonable doubt about what happened,” said John Skidmore, Alaska deputy attorney general. “But when memories fade and people are less certain about what happened at some point in the past, that makes it more difficult for us to meet those burdens.”

Especially in cases of sexual violence, it’s prosecutors who are in a race against time. Often the evidence rests on a survivor’s word against an attacker’s. Losing the alleged victim’s testimony — a likelier outcome each day without a trial — can crush a prosecutor’s odds of a conviction.

It happened, a prosecutor said, in the case of Andre Corcoran.

The charges say Corcoran met his alleged victim, an unhoused woman taking cooking classes at a soup kitchen, shortly after moving to Alaska. The woman told police Corcoran seemed safe because he volunteered to clear kitchen tables. When Corcoran told her he had no place to stay, the woman offered to show him an abandoned tent.

Inside, according to the charging document, Corcoran and the woman began kissing, but she said she felt uncomfortable and asked him to stop. The charging document says Corcoran admitted to holding her down and attempting to have sex as she screamed for help. A police report on Corcoran’s arrest describes his subsequent interview with a detective.

“I think women need to be raped,” Corcoran told the detective, according to a transcript. The defendant said his only regret was not completing the act, the report said.

She wanted to make sure that he was held accountable for what he did and that he wouldn’t be able to do this again.

A grand jury indicted Corcoran on Aug. 30, 2018, on felony sexual assault charges. He waited in jail as defense attorneys had the case delayed at least 11 times. Still, when it finally reached trial in late April, Corcoran’s alleged victim was willing to testify despite suffering anxiety, a prosecutor later said.

“She wanted to make sure that he was held accountable for what he did and that he wouldn’t be able to do this again,” prosecutor Betsy Bull told the court.

Then the judge declared a mistrial. Corcoran’s attorney said he wasn’t told the alleged victim had a boyfriend at the time the assault was reported — which the attorney said gave the woman a potential motive to lie and cover up consensual sex with another man.

The prosecution was ready to give it a second try this fall, but as the new trial date approached, Corcoran’s alleged victim died of severe burns after her tent caught fire.

Bull said she was forced to offer a deal that let Corcoran plead guilty to a single count of felony assault. He would be sentenced to time served — his years in jail awaiting trial — and would not have to register as a sex offender. The prosecutor told the judge it was the best she could do.

“It’s not, from the state’s perspective, because he didn’t do it,” Bull said.

The courtroom was empty. No jury. No spectators. The judge asked the defendant if he wanted to say anything, and Corcoran stood.

“I do feel bad about who I used to be,” he said. “And I have made changes to who I want to be. I want to be a better person.”

Corcoran’s attorney, Jaffer Khimani, said Corcoran’s expression of remorse “was sincere to me.” Khimani said he was unaware of something else that, according to a report filed by a police detective, his client imparted moments after.

The report said Corcoran spoke to the court officer who escorted him to an elevator on his way to being set free.

It quoted Corcoran saying something very different from what he’d told the judge about his actions: “She got what she deserved.”

This content originally appeared on ProPublica and was authored by by Kyle Hopkins, Anchorage Daily News.

This article was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in partnership with the Anchorage Daily News. Sign up for Dispatches to get stories like this one as soon as they are published.

The evidence was overwhelming from the time it all began in 2017. A sexual assault in broad daylight at a popular Anchorage park, with a witness who dialed 911 and described the attack as it was happening. A police officer hoisting the suspect from atop one of the victims, the suspect’s pants still around his knees. DNA evidence corroborating the crime.

Yet in Alaska’s slow-motion court system, it took more than seven years for the case against Fred Tom Hurley III to finally go to trial, in December. Attorneys came and went with the passage of time — a series of six for the defense and four for the prosecution — as judges granted 50 delays. Most of the slowdowns came at the request of Hurley’s lawyers, long before and long after the COVID-19 pandemic paused jury trials across the state. At hearing after hearing, talks concerned scheduling, not the facts of the case.

For the two women Hurley was charged with assaulting, justice delayed meant justice denied in their lifetimes. Both died before the case ever reached the jury.

Told the details of the case, former Florida state prosecutor Melba Pearson called it “a travesty of justice.”

“That’s a travesty. Period. End of story,” said Pearson, who recently co-authored a report on trial delays across the country.

What’s surprising isn’t how long the Hurley case lingered unresolved, but how ordinary it is in Alaska’s court system.

A recent Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica investigation found hundreds of misdemeanor criminal cases in Anchorage thrown out of court because overwhelmed city prosecutors couldn’t meet speedy trial deadlines.

But when it comes to felonies in Anchorage and across the state, the opposite problem often exists for victims and witnesses: a wait of five, seven or even 10 years or more to reach trial, plea agreement or dismissal, often because of defense motions to delay. As a benchmark, the National Center for State Courts says 98% of felonies should be resolved in under a year.

The extreme pretrial delays in Alaska are especially striking because it has one of the nation’s strictest limits on how long cases can drag out: 120 days from the time a person is charged.

In reality, this deadline is rarely met. Over a recent 12-month period, only seven criminal cases went to trial within 120 days in Alaska state courts.

The problem is getting worse. The median time to resolve the most serious felony cases, such as murder and sexual assault, has nearly tripled over the past decade, from just over a year in 2013 to 1,160 days in 2023. About 54% of people held in Alaska jails and prisons last year were there to await trial or, in a smaller number of cases, to await sentencing. That’s up from just 30% in 2016.

A courts spokesperson, Rebecca Koford, said by email that the state “is well aware of the issues with case backlogs and has been actively working to improve time to disposition.” Koford cited an Anchorage presiding judge’s orders limiting when postponements may be used, as well as new training for judges on managing case flows.

“We have made inroads in that direction,” she said, “but it takes time and continues to be exacerbated by the low number of attorneys who are able to handle complex criminal cases."

Some defense attorneys request pretrial delays to cope with overwhelming caseloads. According to the Alaska court system, Hurley’s current attorney, Rex Butler, represents defendants in at least 375 active cases, for example. (In an interview, the attorney said he sometimes hires other lawyers to help with that workload and noted that most cases do not require a jury trial.)

Time is generally a friend to a defendant. Witnesses may get into trouble or their recollections may fade, which could work to your benefit.

Attorneys also can employ delays as a tactic, increasing the odds their clients will walk free as the prosecution’s case ages. Defendants sit in jail or live on monitored release pending trial, but the wait can avert a heftier prison sentence.

The thought was captured in a 2017 email from a state-appointed defense attorney to his client, later made public in a court proceeding.

“Time is generally a friend to a defendant,” assistant public advocate Jim Corrigan wrote. “Witnesses may get into trouble or their recollections may fade, which could work to your benefit.”

The defendant had been questioning why his lawyer asked to delay his sexual assault case.

“You should not be in any hurry to take these cases to trial,” Corrigan replied.

Corrigan did not respond to a recent request for comment.

Terrence Haas, a former judge who oversees public defenders in Alaska, said that any lawyer who believes a delay is necessary or would benefit a client’s case is “bound by the ethics of their profession and duty of loyalty to their client to request a continuance.”

But one person has the power to say no to such requests: the judge. Records show Alaska judges routinely agree to such requests even after years of delays. These preventable failures have existed for more than a decade. What’s more, everyone saw it coming.

Victims advocates in Alaska have raised alarms about pretrial delays over and over again, largely without impact.

“It is not unusual for felony cases to take 2 to 3 years before victims see their case go to trial or result in a plea agreement,” the Alaska Office of Victims’ Rights wrote in 2014. Few judges were giving serious consideration to victims who asked them to speed up the process.

The agency issued similar warnings as the years went by:

• 2015: Judges often allowed 20 or more status meetings before forcing the two sides to go to trial.

• 2016: The most common victim complaint is “pre-trial delays allowed by the courts.”

• 2017: The maxim that “justice delayed is justice denied” could not be more true than for victims of crime in Alaska. “Victims cannot heal or find closure when the wounds caused by the offender are constantly reopened by a prolonged court case. Victims are often held hostage to the system for far too long and in violation of their rights as victims.”

The victims’ rights office laid blame for the delays mostly with judges, particularly judges in Anchorage.

One week in 2018, the agency watched four Anchorage Superior Court judges hold pretrial hearings for 181 criminal cases. The judges let 161 be delayed up to two months. In most cases, the victims’ rights office said, neither the defense attorney nor the prosecutor gave a good reason for the delay. Not once did a judge ask what the victim wanted, the report said.

The next year, the Office of Victims’ Rights accused Anchorage judges of being enablers. “It is up to the judge to control the docket, to adhere to standing court orders, to follow the law and to protect victims’ rights as well as defendants’ rights,” the agency wrote. “Generally, what is seen is more of a rubber stamping of such requests.”

A common delay tactic during the pandemic known as the “off-record continuance” allowed attorneys to delay cases by email and skip court. But it persisted after courts reopened. Records show judges in 2024 allowed off-record continuances in dozens of cases, ranging from a 4-year-old felony assault to a 5-year-old sexual assault to a 6-year-old car theft.

(The Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica delivered questions to all Anchorage Superior Court judges by email and in hard copy, receiving a response from only two judges, who both said they mostly hear civil cases and rarely preside over criminal trials.)

Crime survivors pay a price for the inaction. They take time off work or pay for day care to attend hearings, advocates note. Victims fight to calm the pit in their stomachs before stepping into a courtroom, only to find the event is canceled.

The Office of Victims’ Rights in May filed paperwork on behalf of the alleged victim in a 2017 sexual abuse case, demanding the court honor the woman’s right to “timely disposition” under the Alaska Constitution. The agency asked Superior Court Judge Jack McKenna to hold a trial in June so that the woman and her family could move on with their lives. The judge delayed the case once again.

McKenna did not respond to an email or questions delivered to his courthouse mailbox. But Koford, the court spokesperson, said the trial in the 2017 case had to be delayed because the defense attorney was scheduled to appear in another trial. Other delays were because the prosecutor was unavailable.

The state of Alaska’s criminal justice system is operating on the fringes, barely able to protect against the deprivation of fundamental rights, barely able to respond in a professionally responsible manner.

Koford said the case illustrated Alaska’s shortage of experienced attorneys to handle major felonies, which often leaves judges with a choice between postponing a trial and forcing one with unprepared attorneys, unavailable witnesses or an incomplete examination of evidence.

“A victim’s right to a speedy trial is important,” Koford said, “but it is also important to try a case correctly the first time.”

One judge has publicly blamed backups on lawmakers and governors, whom he accused of skimping on money for public defenders.

Fairbanks Superior Court Judge Michael MacDonald was presiding over a case in 2019 involving the beating death of an Alaska Native woman in a Yukon River village. It was less than 2 years old and about to go before a jury. The defendant admitted to the killing.

Then the defendant’s state-appointed attorney requested a delay, saying she had been juggling 200 cases at once, felt burned out and couldn’t ethically move forward with a trial. (A 1998 audit for the Alaska Legislature said public defenders can “ethically” handle no more than 59 cases in a 60-hour workweek.)

MacDonald described the request as a sign of dysfunction.

“The state of Alaska’s criminal justice system is operating on the fringes,” MacDonald wrote, “barely able to protect against the deprivation of fundamental rights, barely able to respond in a professionally responsible manner” to violent crime.

He went ahead and ordered the trial postponed. The defendant eventually pleaded guilty to second-degree murder under an agreement with the prosecution. (The judge has since retired but declined to be interviewed for this story, saying he still occasionally fills in for other judges and presides over cases.)

At the December sexual assault trial for Hurley in Anchorage, few people were more eager to see the case concluded than Eva Foxglove. The 53-year-old mother was the one who called 911 during the attack. Foxglove didn’t know the women, but she said she had been sexually assaulted before and knew they might not be able or willing to testify when the time arrived.

“I have to come and do this for them,” she told the jury.

The events Foxglove watched unfold in 2017 had their origins shortly after Hurley’s release from jail on a previous sexual assault charge.

Accused of sexually assaulting a woman in her home, Hurley was acquitted at trial, walked out of jail and wrote on Facebook July 13, 2017, “What’s up free at last.” Two days later, he showed up at an Anchorage soup kitchen, where he met the two women he was later charged with attacking, according to a police report.

The report said the three of them walked to the Delaney Park Strip, several city blocks of grass that skirt a gleaming oil company tower and the governor’s office building. One alleged victim told police Hurley said she was beautiful and tried to kiss her but that she turned her head and told him she was engaged to be married, the report said.

Foxglove recalled in a recent interview that she was charging her phone at an outlet in the park. It was about 4 p.m. in the thick of tourist season, 68 degrees under a clear, bright sky.

The women seemed to pass out after drinking from a half-gallon bottle, Foxglove said. She could see Hurley moving on top of one and then the other, she said. “I was like, ‘What the fuck is he doing?’” Foxglove said. Shortly after she dialed 911, a police officer jogged up to Hurley and yanked him from one of the two women, the officer, now a sergeant, told jurors in December.

Police later collected DNA matching Hurley’s from the second woman’s body and from the first woman’s clothing.

The case was assigned to Anchorage Superior Court Judge Kevin Saxby and given a trial date of Oct. 9, 2017. But that date came and went. Saxby and other judges agreed to delay the trial 50 times, most often at the request of Hurley’s lawyers. One example: Hurley’s attorney wanted to see the criminal records of the two alleged victims.

Saxby did not respond to emailed and hand-delivered questions. Koford, the court system spokesperson, said judges generally do not comment on their actions for “fairness and due process reasons” and “cannot and do not comment on decision-making and reasoning in a case.”

One of the alleged victims was described in enough detail in police reports for the Daily News and ProPublica to track down additional information about her life. She lived unhoused and was listed in police reports as a victim in at least two prior sexual assault cases.

The woman told officers that she had passed out and awoke to find Hurley on top of her, police records say. A charging document quoted her using the word “rape” to describe what happened. Unlike the arriving police officer, the woman could testify not only to sexual contact, but also her lack of consent.

She never got the chance.

A passerby found her body outside a public library in Anchorage on April 19, 2019, some time between Hurley’s 19th pretrial delay and his 20th. Police said there was no evidence of a crime. At some other point during the long wait for Hurley’s trial, the second woman died as well.

Prosecutors had the DNA and witnesses who could establish sexual contact. But without the victims, prosecutors needed to show that they were incapacitated and therefore inherently incapable of agreeing to sex. The job fell largely to Foxglove. On the witness stand, she wore an oversized T-shirt and loose ponytail. “I’ve never been to court before,” she told the jury. But she recounted the events from seven years ago clearly, with greater precision and consistency than she’d offered in an earlier interview with a reporter.

When Butler, Hurley’s defense attorney, challenged her statement that the two women were passed out — rather than simply asleep — she never flinched. She could tell when someone wasn’t just napping but dead-to-the-world unconscious, she told the jury.

“I was a drunk. I know what sleep is. When you want to sleep you lay down and go to sleep. But when you drink so much, you pass out,” she said. “I know the difference, and I see.”

After seven years of delays, Hurley’s attorney gave no opening statement and did not call any witnesses. The trial took five days, including two days of jury selection.

The jurors returned their decision within two hours on Dec. 10: guilty on five of six felony sexual assault charges. As of Monday, the state court website indicated Hurley has not filed an appeal.

Although the Hurley case ended in a conviction, delays have worked to the defendants’ advantage in other Alaska criminal cases.

A man held at Fairbanks Correctional Center for two years without a trial had his drug charges thrown out after asserting his attorney waived his speedy trial rights violation without his consent.

And since October, at least 10 pretrial inmates at the Goose Creek Correctional Center have filed petitions in federal court challenging their state detention. They allege the state violated their speedy trial rights and in some cases appointed unreliable public defenders, saying they never signed forms saying they wanted to stop the 120-day countdown to a trial. Federal judges dismissed four of the petitions, while another six are awaiting a decision.

Haas, the official who supervises Alaska public defenders, said he wasn’t familiar with the petitions but said it’s not uncommon for defense attorneys and their clients to disagree about how long it will take to get ready for trial. “During the pandemic, of course, that got a little bit more extreme in terms of what delays were going on,” he said.

Pretrial delays can lead to a reversal for prosecutors even if they’ve won a conviction.

In a recent decision that could have far-reaching impact in Alaska, a man convicted of sexually abusing children succeeded in forcing the Superior Court to revisit his case.

Police arrested Ralph Hernandez in 2011 after an 11-year-old girl told her friend about the alleged abuse. Prosecutors said he abused, tortured or sexually assaulted children from toddlers to teenagers.

Over the seven years that it took the case to get to trial, Hernandez repeatedly voiced his demand for a speedy trial, often over the objections of his public defender. A jury convicted Hernandez of three counts of first-degree sexual abuse of a minor and one count of attempted second-degree sexual abuse of a minor.

But Alaska’s appeals court ruled in February that Hernandez had proven his pretrial delays were “presumptively prejudicial” and sent the case back to lower court for review.

In the 1978 federal ruling that set the precedent for the Hernandez case, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals made clear that states can’t get away with violating speedy trial rights simply by blaming a shortage of public defenders or prosecutors.

“A state government’s allocation of resources plays a major role in creating congested dockets, and it is unfair to require defendants to bear the entire burden that results from the government’s fiscal decisions,” the court wrote. “There must be a point at which delay due to a congested docket becomes so unacceptable that by itself it violates the right to a speedy trial.”

Although defendants may object to endless delays, they can benefit from them as time eats away at the prosecution’s case.

“We as prosecutors are obligated to present evidence in court and persuade a jury beyond a reasonable doubt about what happened,” said John Skidmore, Alaska deputy attorney general. “But when memories fade and people are less certain about what happened at some point in the past, that makes it more difficult for us to meet those burdens.”

Especially in cases of sexual violence, it’s prosecutors who are in a race against time. Often the evidence rests on a survivor’s word against an attacker’s. Losing the alleged victim’s testimony — a likelier outcome each day without a trial — can crush a prosecutor’s odds of a conviction.

It happened, a prosecutor said, in the case of Andre Corcoran.

The charges say Corcoran met his alleged victim, an unhoused woman taking cooking classes at a soup kitchen, shortly after moving to Alaska. The woman told police Corcoran seemed safe because he volunteered to clear kitchen tables. When Corcoran told her he had no place to stay, the woman offered to show him an abandoned tent.

Inside, according to the charging document, Corcoran and the woman began kissing, but she said she felt uncomfortable and asked him to stop. The charging document says Corcoran admitted to holding her down and attempting to have sex as she screamed for help. A police report on Corcoran’s arrest describes his subsequent interview with a detective.

“I think women need to be raped,” Corcoran told the detective, according to a transcript. The defendant said his only regret was not completing the act, the report said.

She wanted to make sure that he was held accountable for what he did and that he wouldn’t be able to do this again.

A grand jury indicted Corcoran on Aug. 30, 2018, on felony sexual assault charges. He waited in jail as defense attorneys had the case delayed at least 11 times. Still, when it finally reached trial in late April, Corcoran’s alleged victim was willing to testify despite suffering anxiety, a prosecutor later said.

“She wanted to make sure that he was held accountable for what he did and that he wouldn’t be able to do this again,” prosecutor Betsy Bull told the court.

Then the judge declared a mistrial. Corcoran’s attorney said he wasn’t told the alleged victim had a boyfriend at the time the assault was reported — which the attorney said gave the woman a potential motive to lie and cover up consensual sex with another man.

The prosecution was ready to give it a second try this fall, but as the new trial date approached, Corcoran’s alleged victim died of severe burns after her tent caught fire.

Bull said she was forced to offer a deal that let Corcoran plead guilty to a single count of felony assault. He would be sentenced to time served — his years in jail awaiting trial — and would not have to register as a sex offender. The prosecutor told the judge it was the best she could do.

“It’s not, from the state’s perspective, because he didn’t do it,” Bull said.

The courtroom was empty. No jury. No spectators. The judge asked the defendant if he wanted to say anything, and Corcoran stood.

“I do feel bad about who I used to be,” he said. “And I have made changes to who I want to be. I want to be a better person.”

Corcoran’s attorney, Jaffer Khimani, said Corcoran’s expression of remorse “was sincere to me.” Khimani said he was unaware of something else that, according to a report filed by a police detective, his client imparted moments after.

The report said Corcoran spoke to the court officer who escorted him to an elevator on his way to being set free.

It quoted Corcoran saying something very different from what he’d told the judge about his actions: “She got what she deserved.”

This content originally appeared on ProPublica and was authored by by Kyle Hopkins, Anchorage Daily News.

This article was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in partnership with the Anchorage Daily News. Sign up for Dispatches to get stories like this one as soon as they are published.

The evidence was overwhelming from the time it all began in 2017. A sexual assault in broad daylight at a popular Anchorage park, with a witness who dialed 911 and described the attack as it was happening. A police officer hoisting the suspect from atop one of the victims, the suspect’s pants still around his knees. DNA evidence corroborating the crime.

Yet in Alaska’s slow-motion court system, it took more than seven years for the case against Fred Tom Hurley III to finally go to trial, in December. Attorneys came and went with the passage of time — a series of six for the defense and four for the prosecution — as judges granted 50 delays. Most of the slowdowns came at the request of Hurley’s lawyers, long before and long after the COVID-19 pandemic paused jury trials across the state. At hearing after hearing, talks concerned scheduling, not the facts of the case.

For the two women Hurley was charged with assaulting, justice delayed meant justice denied in their lifetimes. Both died before the case ever reached the jury.

Told the details of the case, former Florida state prosecutor Melba Pearson called it “a travesty of justice.”

“That’s a travesty. Period. End of story,” said Pearson, who recently co-authored a report on trial delays across the country.

What’s surprising isn’t how long the Hurley case lingered unresolved, but how ordinary it is in Alaska’s court system.

A recent Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica investigation found hundreds of misdemeanor criminal cases in Anchorage thrown out of court because overwhelmed city prosecutors couldn’t meet speedy trial deadlines.

But when it comes to felonies in Anchorage and across the state, the opposite problem often exists for victims and witnesses: a wait of five, seven or even 10 years or more to reach trial, plea agreement or dismissal, often because of defense motions to delay. As a benchmark, the National Center for State Courts says 98% of felonies should be resolved in under a year.

The extreme pretrial delays in Alaska are especially striking because it has one of the nation’s strictest limits on how long cases can drag out: 120 days from the time a person is charged.

In reality, this deadline is rarely met. Over a recent 12-month period, only seven criminal cases went to trial within 120 days in Alaska state courts.

The problem is getting worse. The median time to resolve the most serious felony cases, such as murder and sexual assault, has nearly tripled over the past decade, from just over a year in 2013 to 1,160 days in 2023. About 54% of people held in Alaska jails and prisons last year were there to await trial or, in a smaller number of cases, to await sentencing. That’s up from just 30% in 2016.

A courts spokesperson, Rebecca Koford, said by email that the state “is well aware of the issues with case backlogs and has been actively working to improve time to disposition.” Koford cited an Anchorage presiding judge’s orders limiting when postponements may be used, as well as new training for judges on managing case flows.

“We have made inroads in that direction,” she said, “but it takes time and continues to be exacerbated by the low number of attorneys who are able to handle complex criminal cases."

Some defense attorneys request pretrial delays to cope with overwhelming caseloads. According to the Alaska court system, Hurley’s current attorney, Rex Butler, represents defendants in at least 375 active cases, for example. (In an interview, the attorney said he sometimes hires other lawyers to help with that workload and noted that most cases do not require a jury trial.)

Time is generally a friend to a defendant. Witnesses may get into trouble or their recollections may fade, which could work to your benefit.

Attorneys also can employ delays as a tactic, increasing the odds their clients will walk free as the prosecution’s case ages. Defendants sit in jail or live on monitored release pending trial, but the wait can avert a heftier prison sentence.

The thought was captured in a 2017 email from a state-appointed defense attorney to his client, later made public in a court proceeding.

“Time is generally a friend to a defendant,” assistant public advocate Jim Corrigan wrote. “Witnesses may get into trouble or their recollections may fade, which could work to your benefit.”

The defendant had been questioning why his lawyer asked to delay his sexual assault case.

“You should not be in any hurry to take these cases to trial,” Corrigan replied.

Corrigan did not respond to a recent request for comment.

Terrence Haas, a former judge who oversees public defenders in Alaska, said that any lawyer who believes a delay is necessary or would benefit a client’s case is “bound by the ethics of their profession and duty of loyalty to their client to request a continuance.”

But one person has the power to say no to such requests: the judge. Records show Alaska judges routinely agree to such requests even after years of delays. These preventable failures have existed for more than a decade. What’s more, everyone saw it coming.

Victims advocates in Alaska have raised alarms about pretrial delays over and over again, largely without impact.

“It is not unusual for felony cases to take 2 to 3 years before victims see their case go to trial or result in a plea agreement,” the Alaska Office of Victims’ Rights wrote in 2014. Few judges were giving serious consideration to victims who asked them to speed up the process.

The agency issued similar warnings as the years went by:

• 2015: Judges often allowed 20 or more status meetings before forcing the two sides to go to trial.

• 2016: The most common victim complaint is “pre-trial delays allowed by the courts.”

• 2017: The maxim that “justice delayed is justice denied” could not be more true than for victims of crime in Alaska. “Victims cannot heal or find closure when the wounds caused by the offender are constantly reopened by a prolonged court case. Victims are often held hostage to the system for far too long and in violation of their rights as victims.”

The victims’ rights office laid blame for the delays mostly with judges, particularly judges in Anchorage.

One week in 2018, the agency watched four Anchorage Superior Court judges hold pretrial hearings for 181 criminal cases. The judges let 161 be delayed up to two months. In most cases, the victims’ rights office said, neither the defense attorney nor the prosecutor gave a good reason for the delay. Not once did a judge ask what the victim wanted, the report said.

The next year, the Office of Victims’ Rights accused Anchorage judges of being enablers. “It is up to the judge to control the docket, to adhere to standing court orders, to follow the law and to protect victims’ rights as well as defendants’ rights,” the agency wrote. “Generally, what is seen is more of a rubber stamping of such requests.”

A common delay tactic during the pandemic known as the “off-record continuance” allowed attorneys to delay cases by email and skip court. But it persisted after courts reopened. Records show judges in 2024 allowed off-record continuances in dozens of cases, ranging from a 4-year-old felony assault to a 5-year-old sexual assault to a 6-year-old car theft.

(The Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica delivered questions to all Anchorage Superior Court judges by email and in hard copy, receiving a response from only two judges, who both said they mostly hear civil cases and rarely preside over criminal trials.)

Crime survivors pay a price for the inaction. They take time off work or pay for day care to attend hearings, advocates note. Victims fight to calm the pit in their stomachs before stepping into a courtroom, only to find the event is canceled.

The Office of Victims’ Rights in May filed paperwork on behalf of the alleged victim in a 2017 sexual abuse case, demanding the court honor the woman’s right to “timely disposition” under the Alaska Constitution. The agency asked Superior Court Judge Jack McKenna to hold a trial in June so that the woman and her family could move on with their lives. The judge delayed the case once again.

McKenna did not respond to an email or questions delivered to his courthouse mailbox. But Koford, the court spokesperson, said the trial in the 2017 case had to be delayed because the defense attorney was scheduled to appear in another trial. Other delays were because the prosecutor was unavailable.

The state of Alaska’s criminal justice system is operating on the fringes, barely able to protect against the deprivation of fundamental rights, barely able to respond in a professionally responsible manner.

Koford said the case illustrated Alaska’s shortage of experienced attorneys to handle major felonies, which often leaves judges with a choice between postponing a trial and forcing one with unprepared attorneys, unavailable witnesses or an incomplete examination of evidence.

“A victim’s right to a speedy trial is important,” Koford said, “but it is also important to try a case correctly the first time.”

One judge has publicly blamed backups on lawmakers and governors, whom he accused of skimping on money for public defenders.

Fairbanks Superior Court Judge Michael MacDonald was presiding over a case in 2019 involving the beating death of an Alaska Native woman in a Yukon River village. It was less than 2 years old and about to go before a jury. The defendant admitted to the killing.

Then the defendant’s state-appointed attorney requested a delay, saying she had been juggling 200 cases at once, felt burned out and couldn’t ethically move forward with a trial. (A 1998 audit for the Alaska Legislature said public defenders can “ethically” handle no more than 59 cases in a 60-hour workweek.)

MacDonald described the request as a sign of dysfunction.

“The state of Alaska’s criminal justice system is operating on the fringes,” MacDonald wrote, “barely able to protect against the deprivation of fundamental rights, barely able to respond in a professionally responsible manner” to violent crime.

He went ahead and ordered the trial postponed. The defendant eventually pleaded guilty to second-degree murder under an agreement with the prosecution. (The judge has since retired but declined to be interviewed for this story, saying he still occasionally fills in for other judges and presides over cases.)

At the December sexual assault trial for Hurley in Anchorage, few people were more eager to see the case concluded than Eva Foxglove. The 53-year-old mother was the one who called 911 during the attack. Foxglove didn’t know the women, but she said she had been sexually assaulted before and knew they might not be able or willing to testify when the time arrived.

“I have to come and do this for them,” she told the jury.

The events Foxglove watched unfold in 2017 had their origins shortly after Hurley’s release from jail on a previous sexual assault charge.

Accused of sexually assaulting a woman in her home, Hurley was acquitted at trial, walked out of jail and wrote on Facebook July 13, 2017, “What’s up free at last.” Two days later, he showed up at an Anchorage soup kitchen, where he met the two women he was later charged with attacking, according to a police report.

The report said the three of them walked to the Delaney Park Strip, several city blocks of grass that skirt a gleaming oil company tower and the governor’s office building. One alleged victim told police Hurley said she was beautiful and tried to kiss her but that she turned her head and told him she was engaged to be married, the report said.

Foxglove recalled in a recent interview that she was charging her phone at an outlet in the park. It was about 4 p.m. in the thick of tourist season, 68 degrees under a clear, bright sky.

The women seemed to pass out after drinking from a half-gallon bottle, Foxglove said. She could see Hurley moving on top of one and then the other, she said. “I was like, ‘What the fuck is he doing?’” Foxglove said. Shortly after she dialed 911, a police officer jogged up to Hurley and yanked him from one of the two women, the officer, now a sergeant, told jurors in December.

Police later collected DNA matching Hurley’s from the second woman’s body and from the first woman’s clothing.

The case was assigned to Anchorage Superior Court Judge Kevin Saxby and given a trial date of Oct. 9, 2017. But that date came and went. Saxby and other judges agreed to delay the trial 50 times, most often at the request of Hurley’s lawyers. One example: Hurley’s attorney wanted to see the criminal records of the two alleged victims.

Saxby did not respond to emailed and hand-delivered questions. Koford, the court system spokesperson, said judges generally do not comment on their actions for “fairness and due process reasons” and “cannot and do not comment on decision-making and reasoning in a case.”

One of the alleged victims was described in enough detail in police reports for the Daily News and ProPublica to track down additional information about her life. She lived unhoused and was listed in police reports as a victim in at least two prior sexual assault cases.

The woman told officers that she had passed out and awoke to find Hurley on top of her, police records say. A charging document quoted her using the word “rape” to describe what happened. Unlike the arriving police officer, the woman could testify not only to sexual contact, but also her lack of consent.

She never got the chance.

A passerby found her body outside a public library in Anchorage on April 19, 2019, some time between Hurley’s 19th pretrial delay and his 20th. Police said there was no evidence of a crime. At some other point during the long wait for Hurley’s trial, the second woman died as well.

Prosecutors had the DNA and witnesses who could establish sexual contact. But without the victims, prosecutors needed to show that they were incapacitated and therefore inherently incapable of agreeing to sex. The job fell largely to Foxglove. On the witness stand, she wore an oversized T-shirt and loose ponytail. “I’ve never been to court before,” she told the jury. But she recounted the events from seven years ago clearly, with greater precision and consistency than she’d offered in an earlier interview with a reporter.

When Butler, Hurley’s defense attorney, challenged her statement that the two women were passed out — rather than simply asleep — she never flinched. She could tell when someone wasn’t just napping but dead-to-the-world unconscious, she told the jury.

“I was a drunk. I know what sleep is. When you want to sleep you lay down and go to sleep. But when you drink so much, you pass out,” she said. “I know the difference, and I see.”

After seven years of delays, Hurley’s attorney gave no opening statement and did not call any witnesses. The trial took five days, including two days of jury selection.

The jurors returned their decision within two hours on Dec. 10: guilty on five of six felony sexual assault charges. As of Monday, the state court website indicated Hurley has not filed an appeal.

Although the Hurley case ended in a conviction, delays have worked to the defendants’ advantage in other Alaska criminal cases.

A man held at Fairbanks Correctional Center for two years without a trial had his drug charges thrown out after asserting his attorney waived his speedy trial rights violation without his consent.

And since October, at least 10 pretrial inmates at the Goose Creek Correctional Center have filed petitions in federal court challenging their state detention. They allege the state violated their speedy trial rights and in some cases appointed unreliable public defenders, saying they never signed forms saying they wanted to stop the 120-day countdown to a trial. Federal judges dismissed four of the petitions, while another six are awaiting a decision.

Haas, the official who supervises Alaska public defenders, said he wasn’t familiar with the petitions but said it’s not uncommon for defense attorneys and their clients to disagree about how long it will take to get ready for trial. “During the pandemic, of course, that got a little bit more extreme in terms of what delays were going on,” he said.

Pretrial delays can lead to a reversal for prosecutors even if they’ve won a conviction.

In a recent decision that could have far-reaching impact in Alaska, a man convicted of sexually abusing children succeeded in forcing the Superior Court to revisit his case.

Police arrested Ralph Hernandez in 2011 after an 11-year-old girl told her friend about the alleged abuse. Prosecutors said he abused, tortured or sexually assaulted children from toddlers to teenagers.

Over the seven years that it took the case to get to trial, Hernandez repeatedly voiced his demand for a speedy trial, often over the objections of his public defender. A jury convicted Hernandez of three counts of first-degree sexual abuse of a minor and one count of attempted second-degree sexual abuse of a minor.

But Alaska’s appeals court ruled in February that Hernandez had proven his pretrial delays were “presumptively prejudicial” and sent the case back to lower court for review.

In the 1978 federal ruling that set the precedent for the Hernandez case, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals made clear that states can’t get away with violating speedy trial rights simply by blaming a shortage of public defenders or prosecutors.

“A state government’s allocation of resources plays a major role in creating congested dockets, and it is unfair to require defendants to bear the entire burden that results from the government’s fiscal decisions,” the court wrote. “There must be a point at which delay due to a congested docket becomes so unacceptable that by itself it violates the right to a speedy trial.”

Although defendants may object to endless delays, they can benefit from them as time eats away at the prosecution’s case.

“We as prosecutors are obligated to present evidence in court and persuade a jury beyond a reasonable doubt about what happened,” said John Skidmore, Alaska deputy attorney general. “But when memories fade and people are less certain about what happened at some point in the past, that makes it more difficult for us to meet those burdens.”

Especially in cases of sexual violence, it’s prosecutors who are in a race against time. Often the evidence rests on a survivor’s word against an attacker’s. Losing the alleged victim’s testimony — a likelier outcome each day without a trial — can crush a prosecutor’s odds of a conviction.

It happened, a prosecutor said, in the case of Andre Corcoran.

The charges say Corcoran met his alleged victim, an unhoused woman taking cooking classes at a soup kitchen, shortly after moving to Alaska. The woman told police Corcoran seemed safe because he volunteered to clear kitchen tables. When Corcoran told her he had no place to stay, the woman offered to show him an abandoned tent.

Inside, according to the charging document, Corcoran and the woman began kissing, but she said she felt uncomfortable and asked him to stop. The charging document says Corcoran admitted to holding her down and attempting to have sex as she screamed for help. A police report on Corcoran’s arrest describes his subsequent interview with a detective.

“I think women need to be raped,” Corcoran told the detective, according to a transcript. The defendant said his only regret was not completing the act, the report said.

She wanted to make sure that he was held accountable for what he did and that he wouldn’t be able to do this again.

A grand jury indicted Corcoran on Aug. 30, 2018, on felony sexual assault charges. He waited in jail as defense attorneys had the case delayed at least 11 times. Still, when it finally reached trial in late April, Corcoran’s alleged victim was willing to testify despite suffering anxiety, a prosecutor later said.

“She wanted to make sure that he was held accountable for what he did and that he wouldn’t be able to do this again,” prosecutor Betsy Bull told the court.

Then the judge declared a mistrial. Corcoran’s attorney said he wasn’t told the alleged victim had a boyfriend at the time the assault was reported — which the attorney said gave the woman a potential motive to lie and cover up consensual sex with another man.

The prosecution was ready to give it a second try this fall, but as the new trial date approached, Corcoran’s alleged victim died of severe burns after her tent caught fire.

Bull said she was forced to offer a deal that let Corcoran plead guilty to a single count of felony assault. He would be sentenced to time served — his years in jail awaiting trial — and would not have to register as a sex offender. The prosecutor told the judge it was the best she could do.

“It’s not, from the state’s perspective, because he didn’t do it,” Bull said.

The courtroom was empty. No jury. No spectators. The judge asked the defendant if he wanted to say anything, and Corcoran stood.

“I do feel bad about who I used to be,” he said. “And I have made changes to who I want to be. I want to be a better person.”

Corcoran’s attorney, Jaffer Khimani, said Corcoran’s expression of remorse “was sincere to me.” Khimani said he was unaware of something else that, according to a report filed by a police detective, his client imparted moments after.

The report said Corcoran spoke to the court officer who escorted him to an elevator on his way to being set free.

It quoted Corcoran saying something very different from what he’d told the judge about his actions: “She got what she deserved.”

This content originally appeared on ProPublica and was authored by by Kyle Hopkins, Anchorage Daily News.

Two former members of Vietnam’s National Assembly went on trial for corruption on Tuesday, state media reported, the latest prosecutions in a sweeping anti-graft campaign known as the “blazing furnace”.

Luu Binh Nhuong, 61, is accused of extortion and taking advantage of his position and power to influence others for personal gain, under articles 170 and 358 of the criminal code. He faces a maximum sentence of 20 years or life in prison.

Prosecutors say Nhuong abused his position as deputy head of the National Assembly’s petition committee. They say he called the deputy director of the province’s police to ask him to turn a blind eye while gangsters extorted money from businesses. He also allegedly used his position to receive a wire transfer for US$300,000.

Fellow parliamentary delegate Le Thanh Van, 60, is accused of conspiring with Nhuong to commit fraud. Prosecutors say he signed four documents allowing him to benefit from the sale of land worth more than $70,000 and earn a further $77,000 from a land project.

In July 2023, Van allegedly asked leaders of Quang Ninh province to help the Truong Sinh Company get a license to develop land in the Bac Son valley, benefitting to the sum of $2,300. He is being prosecuted under article 358 of the criminal code and faces a maximum 20 years or life in prison.

Nhuong was arrested in November 2023 and Van in July 2024 and both have been held in detention since then.

Three other people are being tried in connection with the case: Nguyen Van Vuong, 49, a former specialist in the legal department of the office of the president; Pham Minh Cuong, 39, who has three previous convictions; and Vu Dang Phuong, 43. Vuong is accused of abusing his position and power to influence others for personal gain. Cuong and Phuong are accused of extortion. All three are serving sentences for other crimes.

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The Communist Party’s “blazing furnace” campaign, aimed at weeding out corruption in the party and the business world, has led to the prosecution of hundreds of political and business people.

However, some critics say the campaign has also been used by leaders in the party to go after rivals.

Nhuong was a member of the 14th National Assembly of Vietnam for the 2016-2021 term and a member of the National Assembly’s Social Affairs Committee. He is currently deputy head of the National Assembly’s People’s Petitions but was not recommended for re-election because of his age..

During the November 2018 parliamentary session Nhuong criticized the public security ministry, formerly headed by Communist Party General Secretary To Lam. He also said the police had made “terrible mistakes.”

Translated by RFA Vietnamese. Edited by Mike Firn.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Vietnamese.

“The trial of RFE/RL’s Farid Mehralizada and six members of Azerbaijan’s most prominent anti-corruption investigative outlet, Abzas Media, epitomizes the way the Azerbaijani government has used retaliatory criminal charges to lock up vast swathes of the country’s leading independent journalists over the past year,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “Azerbaijani authorities should immediately drop the charges against nearly two dozen journalists, including Mehralizada and the Abzas Media staff, who are currently on or awaiting trial and release them all.”

Police arrested Abzas Media director Ulvi Hasanli, chief editor Sevinj Vagifgizi, project coordinator Mahammad Kekalov, and reporters Hafiz Babali, Nargiz Absalamova, and Elnara Gasimova between November 2023 and January 2024 on charges of conspiring to smuggle currency, accusing the outlet of illegally receiving Western donor funds. In May, police arrested Mehralizada, an economist who contributed anonymously to RFE/RL, as part of the Abzas Media case, though both Abzas Media and Mehralizada denied that he was connected to the outlet.

The journalists are among more than 20 journalists and media workers charged with serious crimes in a major crackdown on the independent press and civil society in Azerbaijan since November 2023. Most of the journalists, who hail from some of Azerbaijan’s most prominent independent media, have been arrested on similar currency smuggling charges related to alleged Western funding, amid a decline in relations between Azerbaijan and the West.

In August, authorities brought seven additional economic crime charges against the Abzas Media journalists and Mehralizada, including tax evasion and money laundering, which could see them jailed for up to 12 years.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

Off Beat

As the founder of popular clothing retailer Giordano and media company Next Digital, businessman Jimmy Lai had established himself as a household name in Hong Kong long before the world began to learn of him following his arrest in 2020. Under the newly passed National Security Law, Lai and other executives of his Apple Daily newspaper, an independent outlet with a pro-democracy bend, were arrested and charged on suspicion of colluding with foreign forces. Other charges were soon stacked upon Lai, including “unlawful assembly” for participating in the 2019 protests and a Tiananmen candlelight vigil in 2020.

Lai, whose trial has stretched on for nearly 100 days now, took to the stand to give his first testimony on November 20. RFA Insider invited Mark Clifford, a former board member of Next Digital and president of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation, to share what he expects the outcome of the trial to be, as well as his thoughts on the future of press freedom in Hong Kong.

Podcast Free Asia

Creative Multimedia Producer Lauren Kim spices things up on this week’s Podcast Free Asia by turning the conversation to the ubiquitous Korean accompaniment, kimchi!

With November 22 designated as Kimchi Day in several states, Lauren explains the history behind the holiday and the role kimchi has in her life as a Korean-American. To commemorate Kimchi Day, Lauren produced a video showcasing the preparation and taste-testing of North and South Korean-style kimchi.

The Rundown

The first story arrives from the touristy town of Vang Vieng, Laos, where six (five at the time of recording) backpackers have died due to suspected methanol poisoning after a night out drinking. Many of the victims had been staying at the same hostel and were rushed to the hospital the following morning, when staff noticed that the victims had failed to check out of their accommodation. Thai police confirmed that autopsies showed that at least several victims died from brain swelling caused by methanol, a clear, tasteless liquid used in household and industrial products such as paint strippers and insecticides. Methanol, which is much cheaper than drinking alcohol, is sometimes added to mixed drinks to boost the alcohol content, often with fatal consequences.

In the world of martial arts, a series of taekwon-do moves named the “unification” pattern is being renamed by the North Korea-backed federation for political reasons. The “unification” pattern will be referred to instead as the “Chang Hon” pattern after Gen. Choi Hong Hi, the founder of taekwon-do, as a sign of North Korean leadership moving away from its long-stated aim of eventual unification with South Korea.

The change is being implemented by one faction of the International Taekwon-Do Federation (ITF), which was established by Choi in Seoul in the 1960s. However, when Choi expressed his intention to include North Korea in the ITF’s international outreach, South Korea refused and he went into exile in Canada. Meanwhile South Korea established the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF), which is currently known as World Taekwondo (WT).

Choi eventually became a citizen of North Korea and moved the ITF’s headquarters to Vienna. Later, his death further splintered the sport as three individuals claimed to be Choi’s legitimate successor as the ITF president, and each established rival world headquarters in Vienna, Toronto and Poland. North Korea endorses the Vienna-based ITF, which is the faction that is re-naming the “unification” pattern.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Amy Lee for RFA Insider.

Lai, 76, is facing charges under the 2020 National Security Law that Beijing imposed on the former British colony a year after it was rocked by anti-government protests. He faces life imprisonment.

“We were always in support of movements for freedom,” Lai, wearing a gray blazer and glasses, told the West Kowloon Magistrates Court, the Reuters news agency reported.

Scores of Lai’s supporters lined up outside the court in the rain early on Wednesday, hoping to get in to show their support, media reported.

The founder of the now-closed Apple Daily, a Chinese-language tabloid renowned for its pro-democracy views and criticism of Beijing, pleaded not guilty on Jan. 2 to “sedition” and “collusion” under the security law.

The United States, Britain and other Western countries have denounced Lai’s prosecution and called for his release.

Human rights groups say Lai’s trial is a “sham” and part of a broad crackdown on dissent in Hong Kong that has all but destroyed its reputation as the only place in Greater China where the rule of law and freedoms of speech and assembly were preserved.

The hearing comes a day after a Hong Kong court jailed 45 democracy supporters for up to 10 years for subversion at the end of the city’s biggest national security trial.

Those sentences drew international condemnation and calls for further sanctions on Hong Kong and the expansion of lifeboat visa schemes for those fleeing the political crackdown in the city.

Trump vow

Lai is a British citizen who, despite being born in the southern province of Guangdong, has never held Chinese citizenship. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer raised concerns about Lai’s health when he met Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday at a G20 meeting in Brazil.

Beijing said the 2020 security law was necessary to safeguard the Asian financial hub’s economic success.

But critics say crackdowns on dissent and press freedom that followed its introduction sounded the death knell for the “one country, two systems” formula under which Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule in 1997, that was meant to safeguard freedoms not enjoyed elsewhere in China for 50 years.

Lai has been in prison for nearly four years. He was jailed for nearly six years in 2022 on a fraud conviction linked to his media business.

Lai has long advocated for the U.S. government, especially during the first term of President Donald Trump, to take a strong stance in supporting Hong Kong’s civil liberties, which he viewed as essential to the city’s role as a gateway between China and global markets.

Prosecutors, however, allege that Lai’s activities and his newspaper’s articles constituted lobbying for sanctions against Beijing and Hong Kong, a violation of the national security law. Lai’s lawyers argue that he ceased such actions after the law took effect on June 30, 2020.

Trump has vowed to secure Lai’s release, media reported.

During Trump’s first term, the U.S. revoked Hong Kong’s special trade status and enacted legislation allowing sanctions on the city’s officials in response to China’s crackdown on the city.

During the peak of the 2019 protests, Lai visited Washington and met then-Vice President Mike Pence and other U.S. politicians to discuss Hong Kong’s political crisis.

“Mr President, you’re the only one who can save us,” Lai said in an interview with CNN in 2020 weeks before his arrest.

“If you save us, you can stop China’s aggressions. You can also save the world.”

Edited by Taejun Kang and Mike Firn.

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This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Staff.

The implication of the Skripal evidence, revealed for the first time on Thursday, is that the attack on the Skripals was not perpetrated by Russian military agents who were photographed elsewhere in Salisbury town at the time; that the attacker or attackers were British agents; and that if their weapon was a nerve agent called Novichok, it came, not from Moscow, but from the UK Ministry of Defence chemical warfare laboratory at Porton Down.

Porton Down’s subsequent evidence of Novichok contamination in blood samples, clothing, car, and home of the Skripals may therefore be interpreted as British in source, not Russian.

This evidence was revealed by a police witness testifying at the Dawn Sturgess Inquiry in London on November 14. The police officer, retired Detective Inspector Keith Asman was in 2018, and he remains today  the chief of forensics for the Counter Terrorism Policing (CTPSE) group which combines the Metropolitan and regional police forces with the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) and the Security Service (MI5).

According to Asman’s new disclosure, Yulia Skripal had woken from a coma and confirmed to the doctor at her bedside that she remembered the circumstances of the attack on March 4. What she remembered, she signalled,  was not (repeat not) the official British Government narrative that Russian agents had tried to kill them by poisoning the front door-handle of the family home.

The new evidence was immediately dismissed by the Sturgess Inquiry lawyer assisting Anthony Hughes (titled Lord Hughes of Ombersley), the judge directing the Inquiry. “We see there,” the lawyer put to Asman as a leading question, “the suggestion, which we now know not to be right, of course”.   — page 72.

Hughes then interrupted to tell the witness to disregard what Skripal had communicated. “If the record that you were given there is right, someone suggested to her ‘Had you been sprayed’. She didn’t come up with it herself.” — page 73. Hughes continued to direct the forensics chief to disregard the hearsay of Skripal. “Anyway the suggestion that she had been sprayed in the restaurant didn’t fit with your investigations?  A. [Asman] No, sir. LORD HUGHES:  Thank you.”

So far in in the Inquiry which began public sessions on October 14, this is the first direct sign of suppression of evidence by Hughes.

Hearsay, he indicates, should be disregarded if it comes from the target of attack, Yulia Skripal. However, hearsay from British Government officials, policemen, and chemical warfare agents at Porton Down must be accepted instead. Hughes has also banned Yulia and Sergei Skripal from testifying at the Inquiry.

The lawyer appointed and paid by the Government to represent the Skripals in the inquiry hearings said nothing to acknowledge the new disclosure nor to challenge Hughes’s efforts to suppress it.

Asman described his career and credentials in his witness statement to the Inquiry, dated October 23, 2024. His rank when he retired from the regular police forces in 2009 was detective inspector. He was then promoted to higher ranking posts at the operations coordinating group known as Counter Terrorism Policing for the Southeast Region (CTPSE). By 2018 Asman says he was “head of the National Counter Terrorism Forensics Working Group since 2012, and was the UK Counter Terrorism Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) forensic lead.” In June 2015 Asman was awarded the Order of the British Empire (MBE) “for services to Policing.”

At page 19 of his recent witness statement, this is what Asman has recorded for the evening of March 8, 2018:

Source: Dawn Sturgess Inquiry — page 19.

Asman’s went on to claim in this statement: “At this point Yulia Skripal was described as being emotional and fell unconscious. I made notes of my conversation with DI [Detective Inspector] VN104 in one of my notebooks, and in addition this information was confirmed to me in writing the next morning. The information she provided about being sprayed at the restaurant [Zizzi] was seemingly inconsistent with the presence of novichok at the Mill public house and 47 Christie Miller Road. On hearing this, I personally wondered whether Yulia Skripal knew more about it than she had alluded to and therefore whilst being fully cognisant of the SIO’s [Senior Investigative Officer] hypothesis and the need to be open-minded continued to prioritise her property.”

The Scene of the Novichol Crime

Source: Dailymail.co.uk

The Evidence the Crime Was British

Left: Yulia Skripal in May 2018, the scar of forced intubation still visible; read more here. Centre; Dr Stephen Cockroft who recorded the exchange with Skripal at her bedside on March 8, 2018; that was followed, Cockroft has also testified, by forced sedation and tracheostomy – read more. Right: read the only book on the case evidence.  

Open-minded was not what the judge and his lawyers wanted from Asman when he appeared in public for the first time on Thursday, November 14. Referring precisely to the excerpt of Skripal’s hospital evidence, Francesca Whitelaw KC for the Inquiry asked Asman: “We can take that [witness statement excerpt] down, but this information as well, was it consistent or inconsistent with what you  had found out in terms of forensic about the presence of  Novichok at The Mill and 47 Christie Miller Road?  A. [Asman] It, I would say, was inconsistent on the basis that she said she was sprayed in the restaurant.” — page 73.

Asman was then asked by Whitelaw to comment on Yulia Skripal’s exchange with Cockroft. “My question for you is: how, if at all, this impacted on your investigations?  A. It only very slightly impacted on it…It was information to have but not necessarily going to change my approach on anything.” — page 73.

In the Inquiry record  of hearings and exhibits since the commencement of the open sessions on October 14, there have been eleven separate exhibits of documents purporting to record what Yulia and Sergei Skripal have said; they include interviews with police and witness statements for the Inquiry; they are dated from April 2018 through October 2024. Most of them have been heavily redacted. None of them is signed by either Skripal.

Neither Yulia nor Sergei Skripal has been asked by the police, by the Inquiry lawyers, or by Hughes to confirm or deny whether Yulia’s recollection of March 8, 2018, of the spray attack in Zizzi’s Restaurant is still their evidence of what happened to them.

This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by John Helmer.

“This show trial must end before it is too late,” said CPJ CEO Jodie Ginsberg on Monday. “The case of Jimmy Lai is not an outlier, it’s a symptom of Hong Kong’s democratic decline. Hong Kong’s treatment of Jimmy Lai — and more broadly of independent media and journalists — shows that this administration is no longer interested in even a semblance of democratic norms.”

Lai, the founder of the now-shuttered pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, has spent nearly four years in a maximum-security prison and solitary confinement since December 2020. He has faced multiple postponements to his trial, in which he has been charged with sedition and conspiring to collude with foreign forces.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told parliament in October that the case of Lai, who is a British citizen, was a “priority” and called for his release. Similarly, United Nations experts in January urged Hong Kong authorities to drop all charges against the publisher and free him.

The U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found that Lai is unlawfully and arbitrarily detained in Hong Kong, expressed alarm over his prolonged solitary confinement, and called for immediate remedy. Lai suffers from a long-standing health issue of diabetes.

Lai won a press freedom award from CPJ and the organization continues to advocate for his freedom.

Responding to CPJ’s request for comment, a Hong Kong government spokesperson referred to a November 17 statement in which it said that Lai was “receiving appropriate treatment and care in prison” and that Hong Kong authorities “strongly deplore any form of interference.”

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

A blogger who last year went missing from Thailand and later resurfaced in Vietnamese police custody is expected to stand trial in Vietnam later this month, his mother told Radio Free Asia.

Duong Van Thai, 42, was living in Thailand when he disappeared on April 13, 2023, in what many believe was an abduction. 

Vietnam has neither confirmed nor denied that he was abducted and taken back to Vietnam, but shortly after his disappearance, authorities announced that they had apprehended him when trying to sneak into the country illegally.

On Friday, his mother Duong Thi Lu, told RFA Vietnamese that she visited him on Thursday and had information regarding his upcoming trial.

“The trial day will be on Oct. 30, but family [members] are not invited to attend,” she said, explaining that her son and the prison guards confirmed the date of the trial.

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Thai had fled to Thailand in late 2018 or early 2019, fearing political persecution for his many posts and videos that criticized the Vietnamese government and leaders of the Communist Party on Facebook and YouTube. 

He had been granted refugee status by the United Nations refugee agency’s office in Bangkok. He was interviewed to resettle in a third country right before his disappearance near his rental home in central Thailand’s Pathum Thani province.  

By mid-2023, the Security Investigation Agency under the Ministry of Public Security announced that Thai was under investigation for anti-state charges under Article 117, a vaguely written law that rights organizations say is used to silence dissent.

If convicted, he could be sentenced to between five and 12 years in prison.

Separated by thick glass

According to Lu, she and her son, separated by two thick layers of glass, spoke through a phone. Neither her son nor the guards could provide any further information regarding the trial.

A source with knowledge of the situation provided RFA with a subpoena from the Hanoi People’s Court, which summoned an individual with 'related rights and obligations' in Thai’s case.

Signed and sealed by Judge Tran Nam Ha on Oct. 9, 2024, the document said the trial would begin at 8:30 a.m. on Oct. 30, 2024, at the headquarters of the Hanoi People’s Court.

The family has hired attorneys Le Dinh Viet and Le Van Luan, but they have not yet received the necessary permits to defend Thai. Therefore, they have not been able to access the case file or meet with their client to prepare for the defense.

RFA attempted to contact the Hanoi People’s Court to verify the information, but phone calls went unanswered.

Translated by Anna Vu. Edited by Eugene Whong and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Vietnamese.

“Journalist Yauhen Nikalayevich’s detention, despite a spate of recent pardons by President Aleksandr Lukashenko, underscores Belarus’ fractured prison system as Europe’s worst jailer of journalists,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “Belarusian authorities should make the reason for Nikalayevich’s charges known or release him immediately.”

Nikalayevich, a former video reporter with independent news website Media Polesye, was arrested and served a 10-day prison sentence in November 2020 on charges of “participating in an unsanctioned event” following his coverage of protests in Pinsk calling for President Lukashenko to resign.

Nikalayevich left Belarus and journalism after serving his sentence, his former outlet reported, adding that he returned to the country in early 2024. 

The new charges against Nikalayevich are “most likely” related to his coverage of the 2020 protests, a representative of the Belarusian Association of Journalists, an advocacy and trade group operating from exile, told CPJ under condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. There is no information on when the journalist was detained.

If convicted, Nikalayevich faces up to four years in jail, according to the Belarusian Criminal Code.

CPJ is also investigating the September 19 detention of photographer Aivar Udrys in the western city of Hlybokaye. The outcome of his Thursday hearing is unknown. CPJ emailed the Belarusian Investigative Committee, the country’s law enforcement agency, for comment on the two detentions but did not receive any response.

Belarus was the world’s fifth worst jailer of journalists, with at least 28 journalists behind bars on December 1, 2023, when CPJ conducted its most recent annual prison census.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

The chairwoman of Van Thinh Phat Group was brought to the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court at 6:00 a.m. amid tight security, the Phap Luat news site reported.

The 34 defendants face charges of fraud, money laundering and illegal cross-border currency trafficking in the trial, due to last for a month.

The case is being heard by a five-judge panel, with five prosecutors representing the city’s People’s Procuracy.

Prosecutors will argue that Lan asked senior staff at Van Thinh Phat and Saigon Commercial Bank, or SCB, in which she owned a 91.5% stake, to issue 25 fake bonds worth 30.7 trillion Vietnamese dong (US$1.3 billion).

The indictment, seen by Vietnamese media, also says 23 Van Thinh Phat companies transferred $1.5 billion from Vietnam to other countries between 2012 and 2020 and received $3 billion in illegal currency transfers from abroad.

Lan and other defendants are also accused of laundering 445 trillion dong ($18.2 billion), including the equivalent of $17 billion taken illegally from SCB and $1.2 billion fraudulently obtained from bond investors.

Lan’s husband, Hong Kong property tycoon Eric Chu Nap Kee, was also brought to court Thursday to face money laundering charges, while her niece, Truong Hue Van, will be tried for fraud and property appropriation, Vietnamese media said.

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In April, Lan was found guilty of bribery, embezzlement and violating banking regulations for ordering SCB officials to approve more than 2,500 loans to shell companies she controlled, causing the bank to lose the equivalent of $27 billion.

Lan pleaded not guilty to the embezzlement and bribery charges, Nguyen Huy Thiep, one of Lan’s lawyers, told Reuters, but she was sentenced to death. She plans to appeal the verdict.

The original trial, which began in March, came about as part of then Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong’s crackdown on corruption in the public and private sectors, dubbed the “blazing furnace” campaign

The accused in Lan’s first trial included 45 SCB executives, 15 State Bank of Vietnam officials, three government inspectors and a former official at the State Audit Office, according to media reports.

A new Communist Party secretary general, To Lam, took over the day before Trong’s death in July, before he was elected to the top job by Vietnam’s parliament the following month. Lam  has said he intends to continue his predecessor’s campaign.

Lam is planning to make his first visit to the United States on Saturday as Vietnam’s leader according to the Reuters news agency, although the details have not been announced.

He is due to speak at the United Nations General Assembly in his capacity as president of Vietnam, a post he has held since May, and also meet U.S. business leaders, Reuters reported.

Edited by Mike Firn.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Staff.

A federal jury in Florida has found members of the pan-Africanist group African People’s Socialist Party guilty of conspiring with the Russian government to “sow discord” and “interfere” in U.S. elections. They face up to five years in federal prison. In a major victory for the activists, however, the jury acquitted them of the more serious charge of acting as foreign agents. “The trial of the Uhuru Three is proving to be one of the most important First Amendment cases thus far in the 21st century,” says attorney Jenipher Jones, who is on the legal support committee for defendants. “It remains clear that when covert government repression tactics fail against activists, the government will use the overt means of charges and cages against folks that they simply disagree with.”

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

“This is long overdue. Former governor Joel T. Reyes has evaded justice for more than 13 years, there must be a swift and impartial trial now without any further delay,” said the coalition, consisting of Free Press Unlimited (FPU), the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), and Reporters Without Borders (RSF), in a statement.

“We hope this new development brings justice a step closer for the Ortega family and call on the Philippine authorities to do everything they can to ensure justice is delivered for this senseless murder. The international community will be watching the trial closely, as the Ortega murder is emblematic of the entrenched impunity in media killings in the Philippines.”

Ortega, an environmental journalist based on the island of Palawan in the Philippines, reported on corruption within the administration of ex-Palawan governor Reyes before he was murdered in 2011. Reyes had been in hiding despite an arrest warrant issued against him in 2023.

Reyes’ surrender came after a successful legal bid to have his trial transferred to a court in Quezon City, near the capital Manila. The Ortega family had wanted the trial to stay in Palawan, but a Philippine court recently rejected the family’s legal plea. No date has been fixed for the start of the Reyes trial in Quezon City.

The three press freedom groups, who together form the ‘A Safer World for the Truth’ initiative, met with the Philippine authorities in Manila earlier this year to present new leads that could lead to the arrest of Reyes. The coalition has investigated the Ortega case since 2020 which showed damning evidence of Reyes’ role in the journalist’s murder. Since 1992, 96 journalists have been killed in connection with their work in the Philippines.

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Spokespeople are available for interviews in English:

Free Press Unlimited (Amsterdam): Jos Bartman bartman@freepressunlimited.org

Committee to Protect Journalists (Frankfurt/New York): Beh Lih Yi, lbeh@cpj.org; press@cpj.org

Reporters Without Borders (Taipei/Paris): Aleksandra Bielakowska, abielakowska@rsf.org

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A Safer World For The Truth is a collaboration between Free Press Unlimited (FPU), Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). We investigate murders through a series of cold case investigations to push for justice on the national level, and we organize the People’s Tribunal on the Murder of Journalists to put a spotlight on states’ obligation to protect journalists and to investigate all attacks against them. To learn more about the project, visit our website https://www.saferworldforthetruth.com/.

Please see A Safer World for the Truth report about Gerry Ortega’s case published in 2022.

About the partners:

Free Press Unlimited (FPU): Free Press Unlimited is a not-for-profit, non-governmental organization based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Free Press Unlimited helps local journalists in conflict areas to provide their audience with independent news and reliable information. The information that people need to survive and give shape to their own future. – freepressunlimited.org

Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ): The Committee to Protect Journalists is an independent, nonprofit organization that promotes press freedom worldwide. Based in New York, we defend the right of journalists to report the news safely and without fear of reprisal. – cpj.org

Reporters Without Borders – known internationally as Reporters sans frontières (RSF) – is an international non-profit organisation at the forefront of the defence and promotion of freedom of information. RSF acts globally for the freedom, pluralism, and independence of journalism and defends those who embody those ideals. Recognised as a public interest organisation in France since 1995, RSF has consultative status with the United Nations, UNESCO, the Council of Europe, and the International Organisation of the Francophonie (OIF). Founded in 1985 and headquartered in Paris, RSF has 13 country sections and bureaus, including a bureau in Taipei and section in Berlin, and a network of correspondents in more than 130 countries. – rsf.org

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

• A federal trial in Memphis began for three former officers charged with violating the civil rights of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old man whose fatal beating was caught on police cameras and triggered protests and calls for police reform.
• KPFA’s Scott Baba spoke with Chris Hare, an associate professor of political science at the University of California, Davis, about the impact presidential debates usually have on the race for the White House and what the two candidates will need to do to move the needle.
• More than a dozen school districts canceled classes across a wide swath of southeastern Kentucky as a grueling search stretched into a third day for a gunman who opened fire on an interstate highway, wounding five people over the weekend.
• James Earl Jones, who overcame racial prejudice and a severe stutter to become a celebrated icon of stage and screen, dies at 93.
• The Line Fire in Southern California is threatening homes and commercial structures and forcing evacuations as it burns along the edge of the San Bernardino National Forest, east of Los Angeles.

Former Memphis police officer Justin Smith leaves the federal courthouse after the first day of jury selection of the trial in the Tyre Nichols case Monday, Sept. 9, 2024, in Memphis, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

The post A federal trial in Memphis began for three former officers charged with violating the civil rights of Tyre Nichols – September 9, 2024 appeared first on KPFA.

This content originally appeared on KPFA - The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays and was authored by KPFA.

Prominent Chinese rights lawyer Yu Wensheng and his wife Xu Yan stood trial on Wednesday in the eastern city of Suzhou for "subversion" amid tight security that saw another prominent attorney taken away by police ahead of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Beijing.

Yu and Xu were initially detained in April 2023 on suspicion of "picking quarrels and stirring up trouble" – a charge frequently used to target peaceful critics of the Communist Party – en route to a meeting with European Union officials in Beijing. Brussels has lodging a formal complaint over the incident.

But the pair are now being put on trial for the more serious charge of "incitement to subvert state power" at the Suzhou Intermediate People's Court. Court proceedings were observed by diplomats from 10 countries, the rights website Weiquanwang reported, without giving details.

The trial comes amid tight security across China ahead of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation which runs Sept. 4-6 in Beijing. A prominent rights attorney, Wang Yu, was detained by police in Suzhou shortly after arriving in the city on the first day of Yu's trial, her husband Bao Longjun told RFA Mandarin.

"Wang Yu called me around 7 o'clock this morning," Bao said. "She said she had just left Suzhou station [to meet with a client who is a rights activist], but police blocked him from leaving home."

"I called her again at 10 a.m. but nobody picked up, and I haven't been able to get in touch with her since," he said.

In a later phone call with RFA Mandarin, Bao said police had escorted Wang to meet up with him in the northern city of Handan, where she was released from custody.

‘Key personnel’

President Xi Jinping will deliver a keynote address at the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation next week, setting out proposals for "building a high-level community with a shared future for China and Africa," Vice Foreign Minister Chen Xiaodong told a news conference last week.

The security measures target critics of the ruling Chinese Communist Party known as "key personnel," according to a Beijing resident who gave only the surname Guo for fear of reprisals.

"Security has been very strict in our residential community lately, and they're saying they have to guard against key personnel," Guo said. "I know something big is happening in Beijing."

According to state media and official websites, the term "key personnel" applies to anyone posing a potential threat to public order, national security or disease control and prevention policies, and means an individual is targeted for "monitoring, prevention measures and management by police."

Represented Falun Gong

Yu is a prominent rights attorney who has represented members of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement, as well as many fellow rights attorneys in the wake of a July 2015 crackdown on public interest law firms and associated rights activists. 

He served an earlier four-year sentence for "subversion" that ended in 2021.

Xu has repeatedly spoken out on her husband's behalf, and was threatened with prosecution after meeting with French officials in 2018 about her husband's case.

Rights groups have warned that both were at risk of torture to elicit a “confession” during detention.

Yu and Xu are being represented by defense attorneys Ge Wenxiu and He Wei at the two-day trial, Weiquanwang reported.

24-hour surveillance

Meanwhile, authorities in Beijing are holding Zhou Shifeng, the former director of the Beijing Fengrui law firm that was shuttered following the July 2015 crackdown, under close surveillance, prompting him to flee the capital for his hometown in Henan province.

"They're about to hold the China-Africa Forum in Beijing, and security guards were put on duty downstairs from Zhou Shifeng's home," his friend Zhang Ning told RFA Mandarin on Wednesday.

"There were private security guards, state security police, and officers from the local police station, five people on each eight-hour shift," Zhang said. "Shifeng had to tell them where he was going, and the state security police would drive him there and escort him."

Zhang said Zhou had eventually chosen to leave the capital and return to his hometown in Anyang city, Henan, in the hope of evading further official attention.

Police have also been closely watching independent political commentator Wu Qiang since late July, according to a friend of his who gave only the surname Li for fear of reprisals.

"There are two police vehicles stationed in the residential community where Wu Qiang lives, 24 hours a day," Li said. "They follow him whenever he goes out."

Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Qian Lang for RFA Mandarin.

A young house staff working at the same hospital reached his workplace around 3 pm that afternoon after being informed by his friends about the horrific crime. Like other students and doctors in Kolkata, he actively joined the protests at R G Kar, demanding justice for the victim and increased security measures on the campus.

However, today, Dr Arshean Alam is scared to leave his home. What happened between then and now is a social media trial in which his name was floated as one of the accused in the case. Some posts directly claimed he was one of the ‘real culprits’ or ‘murderers’.

Social Media Trial of Arshean Alam

As calls for swift action in the case grew louder, Kolkata Police arrested a civic volunteer named Sanjay Roy based on circumstantial evidence and CCTV footage. According to the latest reports, DNA reports, too, have confirmed his involvement. Forensic experts collected skin samples from the victim’s fingernails and found injuries on Sanjay’s body. On August 13, the Calcutta High Court handed over the case to the CBI, which currently has Sanjay in its custody.

At the same time, several theories have surfaced in public discourse and on social media vis-a-vis the circumstances of the postgraduate trainee’s death. Some people have opined that Sanjay Roy was being made a scapegoat to protect someone. It is also being claimed that the commission of the crime involved more than one person. In this connection, some specific names of doctors from the hospital have surfaced as the accused in the case.

Arshean Alam is one of the names. His name, along with that of another Muslim house staff, is particularly viral across social media platforms.

Right Wing X user Hindutva Knight (@HPhobiaWatch) tweeted the images of Arshean and the other Muslim R G Kar house staff and claimed that the Bengal government was trying to shelter the two. The tweet has received more than 10 Lakh views and has been retweeted over 7,000 times.

Reminder that Bengal Govt is saving these 2 accused. pic.twitter.com/CvsM9WoNsX

— Hindutva Knight (@HPhobiaWatch) August 15, 2024

The Kolkata Police served a notice on the user on grounds of peddling misinformation. In response, the user again tweeted that they would not be deleting their tweet since they felt that the Kolkata Police’s intentions were not right and that the police were trying to save “a few high profile accused.”

Media outlets ABP Live and News 18 mentioned Arshean’s name in their reports.

The claim was also amplified by Right-wing columnist Madhu Kishwar. She tweeted a list which includes Arshean’s name. She claimed that all of the people named were absconding. It is worth noting that most of the names on the list are Muslims and Kishwar claims that the “names explain” why there is a “determined attempt to shield them” and hang Sanjoy Roy who she claims was “tricked into raping her dead body”.

It is being ALLEGED that these five Geniuses could be the ones guilty of barbaric rape &murder of M in the #RGKarCollege .
They are reportedly absconding since August 9.
The names may explain why there is such a determined attempt to shield them and hang just ONE man who was… https://t.co/QKRKRU52Gc pic.twitter.com/bb1KZXH2xt

— Madhu Purnima Kishwar (@madhukishwar) August 19, 2024

Twitter user @MrNationalistJJ tweeted pictures of social media profiles of three names, one of which is Arshean’s. This user claims that these three, whom he identifies as ‘the culprits’, had left the country. (Archive)

These three culprits have already left the country and they are the sons of TMC ministers of West Bengal, who had done this heinous crime.#KolkataDoctor #JusticeForMoumita pic.twitter.com/hbq9YJms0d

— Mr. Nationalist (@MrNationalistJJ) August 17, 2024

Arshean’s name was circulated with the same claim by various other social media users. On Facebook, a post mentioning his name as a suspect was published on a group page named West Bengal Doctors Forum. (Archives- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)

Facebook has since been flooded with these claims. Below is a 1-minute screen recording of some posts on Facebook making the same allegation. However, these posts represent only the tip of the iceberg.

Alt News Investigation

Arshean Alam belongs to the batch of 2018 at the government-run R G Kar medical college. He completed his MBBS in 2023 and then did a mandatory one-year internship. After his convocation on May 3, 2024, he joined as a house staff at the trauma care unit of R G Kar Hospital. Alt News could independently establish that Arshean was at home and not at the hospital on the night of the alleged crime.

The autopsy of the slain doctor put the time of death between 3 and 5 am. Sanjay Roy, the prime accused, was seen entering the seminar hall on the third floor in the emergency building of the hospital around 4 am. During our investigation into Arshean’s whereabouts on that night, we reviewed CCTV footage from a shop next to his house, covering the hours between 1 am and 5 am. In the viewing of the footage, we found Arshean entering his home at 1.16 am, which is well before the time of the commission of the crime. We observed no movement from Arshean till 5 am, which confirms that he was at home when the crime was committed.

We visited his house and confirmed that there was no second exit through which one could get in or out. Other than the main entry/exit, we found another exit which was closed with an iron shutter, and locals told us that the shutter had been dysfunctional for at least one year. On the outside, we found pieces of rag hanging from a rope tied to it, further suggesting that the exit is not in use.

Alt News also spoke to joint commissioner (crime) of Kolkata Police Murlidhar Sharma who had been directly involved in the investigation before CBI took over. He told us that according to their findings, Arshean was not involved in the case in any way.

All of this proves with certainty that the suggestion on social media that Arshean Alam was directly involved in the commissioning of the crime at Kolkata’s R G Kar hospital is false. And he is not absconding.

Alt News spoke at length to Arshean. He said, “I am in a state of mental distress. I was at home, yet I am being implicated in this case. This has been incredibly difficult for me and my family. My reputation in society is being tarnished, and this amounts to defamation. A hate campaign is being spread by various social media accounts, and I fear for my safety and that of my family.”

He also informed us that he had filed an FIR against social media users who actively amplified baseless claims against him. Alt News saw a copy of the FIR. According to his complaint, the users posted several messages along with his photographs with the intent to promote enmity on communal grounds. It was further alleged that the messages contained false and fabricated accusations intended to implicate him in criminal cases and malign his reputation. The FIR has been filed under Sections 356, 351, 192, 196, and 61(2) of the BNS Act. Arshean has also mailed social media platforms regarding this.

We also spoke to a close friend and batchmate of Arshean. He told us, “We’re all upset about what’s happening to him. I know he couldn’t have done it because he was at home. Now his entire career is at stake. People have started abusing us for our association with Arshean, and our pictures with him online are flooded with abusive remarks. Our entire circle has been kicked out of the batch’s WhatsApp group because of this social media trial.”

At the time of the writing of this article, the claim is also viral on Instagram and WhatsApp. On Instagram, templates carrying his name have been shared extensively.

The post Arshean Alam social media trial: Alt News probe finds he was at home at the time of the R G Kar rape-murder appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Shinjinee Majumder.

“There is no journalism without press freedom,” said CPJ Asia Program Coordinator Beh Lih Yi. “Hong Kong journalists must be allowed to defend their right to report independently without the fear of reprisal or losing their livelihood. If Hong Kong is serious about reviving its slowing economy, then it must improve the media climate swiftly to shake off a reputation as a place with ever-increasing repression.” 

In recent months, officials and pro-Beijing news outlets have heaped pressure on the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA), the city’s largest trade union for journalists.

In June, Hong Kong’s security chief Chris Tang accused the HKJA of lacking legitimacy and siding with demonstrators in 2019, while China’s state-backed Global Times in a July report described the group as “disingenuous and dangerous.”

In July, HKJA’s chair Selina Cheng said she was fired from her role at The Wall Street Journal after she was elected to lead the journalists’ union. She had been the sole candidate for the position amid a growing climate of self-censorship in Hong Kong, once a beacon of press freedom in Asia.

Asked for comment, a WSJ spokesperson told CPJ in an email that the outlet made “personnel changes” but could not comment on specific individuals. The spokesperson added that the WSJ advocates for press freedom in Hong Kong, the city which had been WSJ’s Asia headquarters before they were moved to Singapore in May. 

Another foreign correspondent and a local nonprofit adviser resigned immediately after they were elected to the HKJA’s executive committee in the group’s election following Tang’s criticism of the union.

Between May 2023 and March this year, Tang wrote eight letters to various international news outlets over their editorials or opinion articles about Hong Kong, some of which he labeled “extremely misleading,” “scaremongering,” and “lies.” Four of the eight letters were sent to WSJ.

A Hong Kong government spokesman said the city’s media landscape was “as vibrant as ever” with over 200 media organizations registered with local authorities, and that press freedom and the right to join trade unions were both protected under the law.

“As always, the media can exercise their freedom of the press in accordance with the law. Their freedom of commenting on and criticizing government policies remains uninhibited as long as this is not in violation of the law,” the spokesman told CPJ in an email.

Lengthy trials

The HKJA is the main journalists’ union in Hong Kong and has been advocating for press freedom since it was founded in 1968, but has been battling dwindling membership and funds after Beijing imposed a national security law in Hong Kong in 2020 that saw journalists arrested, jailed, and threatened. 

Among them, the then-HKJA chair Ronson Chan was sentenced to five days in jail in 2023 for obstructing a police officer while reporting.

Hong Kong passed its own homegrown national security law in March, and the U.S. Congress-funded Radio Free Asia shut its Hong Kong bureau days later over safety concerns for its reporters – joining an exodus of media and journalists who left the city since the 2020 crackdown began.

Journalists who remain point to a rising culture of self-censorship in local newsrooms and an increasing hesitation to criticize the government as Hong Kong loses its shine as a leading global financial hub. The city, once the world’s largest IPO market by value for years, saw proceeds raised from new share listings in the first half of 2024 plunge to a two-decade low.

Journalists also face lengthy delays and repeated postponements in their trials.

This includes the now-shuttered pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily’s founder Jimmy Lai, whose trial on national security charges was adjourned again last month to late November. A representative for advocacy group Reporters Without Borders who went to Hong Kong to monitor Lai’s trial was detained and deported upon arrival.

The 76-year-old has been behind bars since 2020. On August 12, Lai lost an appeal against his conviction for taking part in unauthorized anti-government protests.

Patrick Lam and Chung Pui-kuen, former editors of the now-defunct independent news outlet Stand News are expected to hear the verdict in their sedition trial in late August, after a court in April postponed the long-awaited decision. The duo were granted bail in late 2022 after being remanded in custody for nearly a year.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

Y Quynh Bdap, 32, a campaigner for ethnic minority people, is wanted in Vietnam where he was sentenced in absentia in January to 10 years in prison after being convicted of involvement in 2023 attacks on public agencies in Dak Lak province in which nine people were killed.

The co-founder of the Montagnards Stand for Justice indigenous rights group has been in Thailand since 2018 and denies involvement in the 2023 violence.

He was not allowed to attend Wednesday’s hearing and had to take part by teleconference from remand detention after Vietnamese officials cited security concerns.

"It's hard to inquire and translate on teleconference," defending lawyer Nadthasiri Bergman told Radio Free Asia.

"It is also a disadvantage being unable to meet a lawyer in the courtroom."

The case has shone a spotlight on Vietnam’s stand on dissent and also on what rights groups say is growing cooperation between states in the region to crack down on each other’s dissidents.

"The hearing must be transparent,” said Pornpen Khongkachonkiet, director of the Bangkok-based rights group Cross Cultural Foundation, describing Bdap as a rights defender at risk of deportation.

Bdap is from the Ede minority, one of about 30 groups known as Montagnards, the French term for hill people, in Vietnam’s Central Highlands. The mainly Christian groups have suffered years of persecution from authorities over religion and land rights.

‘Swap mart’

On June 11, Thai authorities arrested Bdap for “overstaying” his visa following an extradition request from Vietnam. 

Thailand does not recognize refugee status but the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees has recognized him as a refugee and he is awaiting resettlement to a third country.

Bdap met Canadian authorities on June 10 to discuss resettlement there.

U.S. embassy officials and representatives of international organizations observed Thursday's hearing, as did Vietnamese security officials.

As well as the hearing on Vietnam's extradition request, Bdap will also stand trial for the immigration offense on Aug. 5.

It is unclear when the court will hand down its ruling, Bergman said, adding that Bdap would fight the two-tier proceedings.

She said she was hopeful that if a recently enacted Thai law on forced disappearances was taken into account, he “would not be sent back into harm’s way.”Thailand and Vietnam do not have an extradition treaty but have cooperated on a reciprocal cross-border basis in recent years when dealing with dissidents, right groups said.

New York-based Human Rights Watch accused Thailand of acting like a "swap mart" to exchange dissidents, and disregarding international norms.

Independent experts have called on Thailand to respect the obligation of non-refoulement, which prohibits returning a person to a country where they would face a risk of persecution or torture, the U.N. rights office said last month

More than 160 people are incarcerated in Vietnamese prisons for criticizing the government, among them environmental activists and campaigners for  press freedom, according to Human Rights Watch.

Edited by Mike Firn.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Pimuk Rakkanam for RFA.

Tuyen has been charged with "making, storing, spreading information, materials, items that contain fabricated information to cause dismay among the people" and "making, storing, spreading information, materials, items to cause psychological warfare," according to a court document seen by Radio Free Asia.

If convicted, he faces a prison sentence of five to 12 years.

The 50-year-old has played a leading role in Hanoi’s protest movement since joining demonstrations in 2011 over the conflicting territorial claims of Vietnam and China. He is a founding member of the No-U group, which opposes the nine-dash line, which China marks on its maps to illustrate its claim over most of the South China Sea.

Tuyen has also hosted hundreds of live-streamed discussions on YouTube on various issues and his  AC Media channel has 57,000 subscribers, while another one, Anh Chi Rau Den, has more than 97,000.

He was arrested on Feb. 29, but state media only reported the news a week later.

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A human rights worker said activists should not be prosecuted but allowed to express themselves. 

"The prosecution and upcoming trial of human rights defender Nguyen Chi Tuyen under the draconian Article 117 of the Penal Code is the latest attempt by the regime to silence and jail another activist. He has repeatedly faced police intimidation, harassment, house arrest, bans on international travel, arbitrary detention and interrogations. The authorities must drop these fabricated charges against him and release him immediately and unconditionally,” Josef Benedict, CIVICUS Asia Pacific researcher told RFA.. 

“Instead of prosecuting activists, the government should instead implement the recent recommendations of the U.N. Human Rights Council to repeal such restrictive laws and create an enabling environment for activists and civil society." 

Tuyen has been denied family visits since his arrest. Relatives hired well-known human rights lawyer Nguyen Ha Luan to defend Tuyen.  Luan told RFA he had also received notice of the trial date and Tuyen’s family said the lawyer had been meeting Tuyen at his detention center to help him prepare his defense.

Authorities have arrested seven people, including Tuyen, on charges of “conducting propaganda against the state” since the beginning of the year. 

Tuyen was arrested on the same day as RFA blogger Nguyen Vu Binh. Rights groups, including the Committee to Protect Journalists, have called for their immediate release.

Translated by RFA Vietnamese. Edited by Mike Firn.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Vietnamese.

“Russia’s appalling assault on the media continues to escalate with the secret sentencing of Alsu Kurmasheva,” said CPJ Director of Advocacy and Communications Gypsy Guillén Kaiser. “The U.S. government should immediately designate Kurmasheva – a dual U.S.-Russian citizen – as ‘wrongfully detained,’ leave no stone unturned to obtain her release, and stop Russia from using journalists as political pawns.”

Kurmasheve’s closed-door hearing took place on the same day that Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was sentenced to 16 years in jail on espionage charges, and against a backdrop of Russia’s increasing use of in absentia arrest warrants and sentences against exiled Russian journalists.

The U.S. government has designated Gershkovich as “wrongfully detained” by Russia – a move that unlocked a broad U.S. government effort to free him – but has not made the same determination about Kurmasheva.

Kurmasheva, an editor with the Tatar-Bashkir service of U.S. Congress-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), was detained on October 18, 2023, on charges of failing to register as a “foreign agent.” In December, a second charge of spreading “fake” information about the army — related to a book she had edited about Russians who oppose the war in Ukraine — was brought against her.

Kurmasheva has denied both charges. The status of the foreign agent case, which carries a sentence of up to five years, is unknown.

“This secret trial and conviction make a mockery of justice — the only just outcome is for Alsu to be immediately released from prison by her Russian captors,” RFE/RL President Stephen Capus said on Monday.

“My daughters and I know Alsu has done nothing wrong. And the world knows it too. We need her home,” Kurmasheva’s husband Pavel Butorin told CPJ on Monday.

Russia is the world’s fourth-worst jailer of journalists, with CPJ’s most recent prison census documenting at least 22 journalists in prison on December 1, 2023.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

“U.S. reporter Evan Gershkovich goes on trial today after nearly 15 months of unjust detention. Given the spurious and unsubstantiated charges brought against him, this trial is nothing more than a masquerade,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “Russian authorities must put an end to this travesty of justice, release Gershkovich, drop all charges against him, and stop prosecuting members of the press for their work.”

Gershkovich’s trial started Wednesday, June 26, in the Sverdlovsk Regional Court in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg, reports said. It is not known how long the trial will last.

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) accused Gershkovich, a reporter with The Wall Street Journal, of collecting “secret information” for the CIA on a Russian tank factory in the Sverdlovsk region and arrested him on espionage charges on March 29, 2023.

Gershkovich faces up to 20 years in prison and is the first American journalist to face such accusations by Russia since the end of the Cold War. The journalist, his outlet, and the U.S. government have all denied the espionage allegations.

“No evidence has been unveiled. And we already know the conclusion: This bogus accusation of espionage will inevitably lead to a bogus conviction for an innocent man who would then face up to 20 years in prison for simply doing his job,” said Emma Tucker, editor-in-chief of The Wall Street Journal, in a Tuesday statement.

On June 13, the Russian prosecutor general’s office announced that Gershkovich’s indictment had been finalized.

“I think we were all hopeful that we were able to broker a deal with the Russians before this happened, but it doesn’t stop or slow us down,” Roger Carstens, the special presidential envoy for hostage affairs at the U.S. Department of State, told the House Foreign Affairs Committee the same day.

On April 11, 2023, the U.S. State Department designated Gershkovich as “wrongfully detained,” unlocking a broad government effort to free him.

Russia was the world’s fourth-worst jailer of journalists, with at least 22 behind bars, including Gershkovich and Alsu Kurmasheva, a U.S.-Russian journalist, when CPJ conducted its most recent prison census on December 1, 2023.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Arlene Getz/CPJ Editorial Director.

The trial of 10 activists charged in a case that covers several instances of activism resumed at Phnom Penh Municipal Court, with representatives from the European Union, the United Nations and civil society organizations in attendance.

Seven of the activists are from environmental group Mother Nature. They are facing charges that they insulted Cambodia’s king and plotted to overthrow the government.

Monday’s proceedings included the screening of videos showing Mother Nature founder Alexander Gonzalez-Davidson speaking to reporters about “environmental destruction” in Cambodia and a presentation that he gave in 2019 to Cambodians living in California.

Prosecutors also quoted a Radio Free Asia call-in show from 2021 that featured Gonzalez-Davidson and Transparency International Cambodia Executive Director Pech Pisey saying that then-Prime Minister Hun Sen had failed to provide assistance to people in Cambodia who were quarantined because of the pandemic.

Gonzalez-Davidson, Pech Pisey and three other activists are not attending the trial and are being tried in absentia. Gonzalez-Davidson, who is from Spain, was deported from Cambodia in 2015.

No plans for violence

The other five activists present for the trial – Long Kunthea, Yim Leang Hy, Thon Ratha, Phoun Keo Raksmey and Ly Chandaravuth – gave roses to police and security guards at the courthouse on Monday.

At a hearing earlier this month, the five activists wore white clothes to protest what they called an unfair Cambodian justice system, and also burned incense in front of the court and later meditated under a heavy rain.

After the hearing, Ly Chandaravuth told reporters that the videos only showed Gonzalez-Davidson’s personal views on the Cambodian leadership and didn’t cause any violence.

“There was no element about committing violence or planning to commit violence against any institution or any act that undermines the integrity of Cambodian territory,” he said. 

Gonzalez-Davidson told RFA that his comments in the videos didn’t contain any evidence of a conspiracy.

“They have no victims, no witnesses, no crimes,” he said. “They only have my interviews with journalists as evidence in their hands.”

All of the comments presented in the video and audio clips should be protected under freedom of expression, said Adhoc human rights officer Yi Sok San, who attended Monday’s hearing.

Presiding Judge Ouk Reth Kunthea said the trial would resume on June 24.

Translated by Sok Ry Sum. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

“The start of Gershkovich’s trial comes after he has already spent more than 14 months behind bars for no other reason than his work as a journalist,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “Russian authorities must immediately release Gershkovich, drop all charges against him, and stop prosecuting members of the press for their work.”

The investigation department of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) accused Gershkovich, a reporter with The Wall Street Journal, of acting on assignment for the CIA and collecting “secret information” on a Russian tank factory in the Sverdlovsk region, where he was arrested on espionage charges on March 29, 2023, according to a press release by the Sverdlovsk Regional Court, where Gershkovich’s trial will start behind closed doors on June 26.

It is not known how long Gershkovich’s trial will last, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

Gershkovich, whose detention has been extended five times since his arrest, faces up to 20 years in prison, according to the Russian criminal code. He is the first American journalist to face such accusations by Russia since the end of the Cold War. Gershkovich, The Wall Street Journal, and the U.S. government have all denied the espionage allegations.

On June 13, the Russian prosecutor general’s office announced that Gershkovich’s indictment had been finalized and that the case against him was sent to court.

“Evan Gershkovich is facing a false and baseless charge. Russia’s latest move toward a sham trial is, while expected, deeply disappointing and still no less outrageous,” said Almar Latour, CEO of Dow Jones and publisher of The Wall Street Journal, and Emma Tucker, editor in chief of the publication, in a statement on June 13.

On April 11, 2023, the U.S. State Department designated Gershkovich as “wrongfully detained,” which unlocked a broad government effort to free him.

Russia was the world’s fourth-worst jailer of journalists, with at least 22 behind bars, including Gershkovich and Alsu Kurmasheva, a U.S.-Russian journalist, when CPJ conducted its most recent annual prison census on December 1, 2023.

CPJ emailed the Sverdlovsk Regional Court and the Russian prosecutor general’s office but did not immediately receive any response.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

“Even as Kyrgyzstan continues its rapid descent into authoritarianism under President Sadyr Japarov, issuing prison sentences for 11 journalists would mark a terrible watershed in a country historically seen as Central Asia’s ‘island of democracy,’” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, in New York. “Kyrgyz authorities’ international reputation will be in tatters if the current and former staff of investigative outlet Temirov Live are convicted on evidently trumped-up charges.”

At a preliminary hearing on June 7, judges at the Lenin District Court, in the capital, Bishkek, rejected motions to dismiss the case against Temirov Live director Makhabat Tajibek kyzy, the investigative outlet’s current staff Aike Beishekeyeva, Akyl Orozbekov, Sapar Akunbekov, and Azamat Ishenbekov, and its former journalists Aktilek Kaparov, Tynystan Asypbekov, Joodar Buzumov, Saipidin Sultanaliev, Maksat Tajibek uulu, and Jumabek Turdaliev, and set the first session of the case for June 14, according to reports and Temirov Live founder Bolot Temirov, who spoke to CPJ from exile. The court also extended the pre-trial detention of Tajibek kyzy, Kaparov, Beishekeyeva, and Ishenbekov, those sources said.

The 11 current and former Temirov Live employees were arrested in January on charges of inciting mass unrest, which could see them jailed for up to eight years under Article 278 of Kyrgyzstan’s criminal code. Seven of the journalists were subsequently released into house arrest or under travel bans pending trial.

A local partner of global investigative network Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), Temirov Live is known for its anti-corruption investigations into senior government officials and has more than 280,000 subscribers on its YouTube channels. In November 2022, authorities deported Kyrgyzstan-born Temirov to Russia and banned him from entering the country for five years, after convicting the journalist of using forged documents to obtain a passport, in a case widely regarded as retaliation for his reporting.

Since Japarov came to power in 2020, Kyrgyz authorities have launched an unprecedented crackdown on independent reporting in a country previously seen as a regional haven for the free press.

In January, security services raided privately owned news website 24.kg and opened a criminal case citing “propaganda of war.” In February, a court shuttered Kloop, another OCCRP investigative partner. In April, Japarov ratified a Russian-style “foreign agents” law that could be used to target media outlets and press freedom groups.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

A federal jury found Hunter Biden guilty Tuesday of three felony charges for illegally purchasing a gun at a time when he was using drugs, making him the first child of a sitting U.S. president to be found guilty of a crime. “This was a fairly straightforward case,” says Ben Schreckinger, reporter for Politico. “Most criminal trials result in convictions. This wasn’t an exception.” Schreckinger lays out the political implications for President Joe Biden, compares this conviction to Trump’s criminal proceedings and explains Hunter Biden’s upcoming trial for tax fraud in California.

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

Yahoo (5/31/24)

This week on CounterSpin: Surprising no one, Donald Trump and his sycophants responded to his 34-count conviction on charges of lying in business records by claiming that the trial was “rigged,” the judge and jury corrupt, that it was somehow Joe Biden’s doing, and “you know who else was persecuted? Jesus Christ.” Trump publicly calling the judge a “devil,” and Bible-thumping House Speaker Mike Johnson and others showing up at the courthouse in Trump cosplay, were just some of the irregular, shall we say, elements of this trial. It is a moment to examine the right-wing media that have fomented this scary nonsense, but also to look to reporting from the so-called “mainstream” to go beyond the “some say, others differ” pablum we often see. We’ll talk with Matt Gertz, senior fellow at Media Matters, about press response to the trial and the verdict.

New York Times (11/21/16)

Also on the show: For some people the violent police crackdown on peaceful college students protesting their schools’ investments in Israel’s war on Palestinians has been eye-opening. For others, it’s one more example of the employment of law enforcement to brutally enforce corporate power. The fight led by Indigenous women against the Dakota Access pipeline is not long enough ago to have been forgotten. We’ll hear a bit from an August 2017 interview with North Dakota organizer Kandi Mossett.

This content originally appeared on FAIR and was authored by Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting.

The activists are facing charges that they insulted Cambodia’s king and plotted to overthrow the government.

As they had for a previous hearing, they wore white clothes to protest what they call an unfair Cambodian justice system, and also burned incense in front of the court and later meditated under a heavy rain.

They are among 10 activists charged in a case that covers several instances of activism, including the 2021 filming of sewage draining into the Tonle Sap river in front of Phnom Penh’s Royal Palace. Seven of the 10 activists were a part of Mother Nature.

One of the defendants, Ly Chandaravuth, told reporters outside the court that members of the public should be able to attend and monitor the trial.

“Don’t claim you are independent,” he said of the court. “Don’t claim you are independent if you won’t have a public trial.”

Court officials announced earlier on Tuesday that journalists would need to pre-register with authorities if they wanted to go inside the courtroom. 

Limiting access to the courtroom is part of Deputy Prosecutor Seng Heang’s effort to rush the case toward a verdict, Ly Chandaravuth said.

Ly Chandaravuth and the other four activists who refused to attend Wednesday’s hearing are out on bail in the case. 

The other five defendants in the case are either in hiding or live outside of the country and are being tried in absentia, including the group’s Khmer-speaking founder, Spanish environmentalist Alejandro Gonzalez-Davidson, who was deported from Cambodia in 2015.

Police officer’s testimony

The five activists outside the court building on Wednesday appeared to be trying to disrupt the proceedings with their absence and their behavior, Seng Heang said.

Inside the courtroom, judicial police officer Chin Vannak testified that Gonzalez-Davidson and the Mother Nature movement have used the issue of protecting Cambodia’s forestland as a pretext for inciting people to overthrow the government.

Defendants’ lawyer Sam Chamroeun said the allegations made by the judicial police officer didn’t contain any specific evidence that Mother Nature wanted to overthrow the government.

Yi Soksan, who monitored the hearing for human rights group Adhoc, said a judicial police report was presented as evidence but also didn’t have a specific basis for indicting Mother Nature activists. 

The judicial police officers also didn’t present any concrete evidence in response to questions from defense lawyers, he said.

Presiding Judge Ouk Reth Kunthea scheduled the next hearing for June 11.

Translated by Yun Samean. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

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There’s a tape that both the defense and the prosecution played in summations in former President Donald Trump’s criminal trial. In it, you can hear the chaos of Trump’s office at Trump Tower in September of 2016: Trump seems to be having multiple conversations almost simultaneously. He talks to an unidentified person on the phone. He discusses polls with Michael Cohen, his executive vice-president at the time. Trump and Cohen talk about a diversity initiative and stopping the media from unsealing the records of Trump’s first divorce. His executive assistant pops in with word of a call from a developer. Trump calls for a Coke.

And then, very clearly, you can hear Cohen saying, “I need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend, David, you know, so that — I’m going to do that right away. I’ve actually come up and I’ve spoken … I’ve spoken to Allen Weisselberg” — then the Trump Organization’s chief financial officer — “about how to set the whole thing up.”

Trump interrupts and says, “So, what do we got to pay for this, 150?” Then he says, “Cash?”

“No, no, no, no no,” Cohen says. “I got it.”

On the most literal level, the tape showed Trump discussing the logistics of paying off a woman who said she had an affair with him. This was key evidence for the jury’s ultimate finding that he had intended to alter the outcome of the 2016 election by making unlawful hush money payments.

When this tape was first made public, in 2018, it was hard to pin down exactly what it all meant. But as Trump’s seven-week trial proceeded, the broader meaning of the tape emerged in sharp relief: Everything is connected in Trump world, ethical borders are easily crossed and Trump is on top of every detail.

The verdict in the criminal trial provided answers to a narrow series of questions, not least of which was whether a presidential candidate had used illicit means to prevent voters from learning about a payoff to conceal a sexual encounter. (Trump has vowed to appeal.) But the trial also unveiled a broad array of evidence that went far beyond the charges. It revealed a lot about how Trump went about running his company and the presidency — and provided hints of how that might play out in a second Trump administration.

For most of Trump’s presidential term, I co-hosted the ProPublica/WNYC podcast “Trump, Inc.,” whose mission was to delve into the conflicts of interest between Trump’s business and his presidency. Because there was so much that journalists didn’t — and couldn’t — understand about a privately held company that clung tightly to its secrets, “Trump, Inc.” billed itself as “an open investigation.” We were candid about what we did and did not know because we lived in a world of doubt.

“Trump, Inc.” uncovered a lot, including unearthing Cohen’s dubious connections in 2018 and outlining how his role as Trump’s lawyer (then still intact) created a cloak of legal privilege that hid their interactions.

But we saw just tiny glimpses of the documents that have now been revealed in their entirety in the criminal trial; we had no access to the many Trump employees, current and former, who have now described, under oath, the inner workings of the Trump Organization.

That testimony confirmed what that tape seemed to show: that Trump pays close, close attention to all his business affairs, and always has. This, in turn, suggests that the mixing of Trump’s presidency and business that “Trump, Inc.” and others documented occurred under that same watchful eye. And if voters elect Trump a second time — this time knowing that he was convicted of a crime, one where key acts were committed in the Oval Office, on top of his two impeachments — Trump can conclude that America’s voters have blessed his way of doing business. There’s every reason to believe his conflicts of interest will only be more open and more unapologetic.

The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

Trump employees testified to his intense level of control in three trials against Trump or his company over the past two years. These were among five trials since 2022, each of which I covered in person, including the criminal trial of his company for tax fraud, two defamation suits brought by the writer E. Jean Carroll and the New York attorney general’s civil fraud trial. Each trial ended badly for Trump or his company (and each is being appealed).

Donald Trump’s criminal trial in New York offered one sharp revelation after the next. The disclosures came not just from the talked-about witnesses, such as former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, Stormy Daniels and Cohen himself, but also from Trump’s former comptroller, his executive assistant and the aide who sat closest to the Oval Office. Some of these individuals, including a junior bookkeeper for the Trump Organization and the head of the company’s accounts payable department, work in Trump Tower to this day.

The picture that emerges from their testimony is of a boss — “The Boss” is what they nearly uniformly call him — who manages the tiniest of details but leaves the faintest of traces of all that management. Up until the throes of the 2016 campaign, Trump had to approve every payment over $2,500, an extraordinarily tiny sum for a mogul with assets around the globe. (For the duration of the campaign, until he became president, that amount inched up, to $10,000.) Trump would reject checks he didn’t want to pay and send them back to his underlings, with the word “VOID” scrawled on them in Sharpie.

Trump watched every expense in this way, his comptroller Jeff McConney testified. Trump once told him, early in his time at the company, “You’re fired,” because McConney hadn’t made an effort to reduce Trump’s bills before presenting Trump with payment documents. “It was a teaching moment,” McConney said on the stand. This close attention and tight-fistedness extended company wide: When it came to Trump University, Cohen testified, it was part of his job to offer a vendor 20% of what they were owed, or to pay them nothing at all.

Trump brought this ethos to the White House, where, as his lawyers liked to point out, he was the “leader of the free world.” He took time to write “PAY” on a $6,974 invoice sent by Trump Organization executive assistant Rhona Graff for an annual membership and “food minimum” at the Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, New York.

Trump, of course, handed over control of the Trump Organization, including the oversight of its payments, to his older sons and Weisselberg at the outset of his administration. But he never gave up ownership of his company. He always made money from it, and does to this day.

And Trump, while president, went to extraordinary lengths to keep control of his “personal” checking account. That account actually belonged to a Trump Organization business entity, which underscored the lack of separation between Trump and the company he had ostensibly separated himself from. Trump’s personal checks were approved by Weisselberg; generated by Deborah Tarasoff, the head of Trump’s accounts payable department; stapled to the approved invoice; and sent via FedEx by Trump’s junior bookkeeper, Rebecca Manochio, to the Washington home of Trump’s bodyguard-turned-White House aide, Keith Schiller, who would bring them over for Trump to sign. That’s how the checks that Trump signed to Cohen made their way to the Oval Office.

“Checks came in a FedEx envelope” that Schiller delivered, testified Madeleine Westerhout, Trump’s director of Oval Office operations. “I opened the envelope. And inside was a manila folder with a stack of checks. And I brought the manila folder in to the president for him to sign.”

Money wasn’t the only thing Trump paid close attention to. He wrote all of his social media posts, save for a few written by an aide, Dan Scavino. Sometimes, Trump would dictate tweets to Westerhout. She would type them up, print them out and show them to Trump so the president of the United States could take time to scrutinize, and adjust, the punctuation. “He liked to use the Oxford comma,” Westerhout testified.

Trump did not send emails or text messages. This aversion has long been known, but the trial testimony laid out a whole series of ways in which Trump communicated without leaving precise documentation.

He was on the phone beginning at 6 in the morning and “late into the night after I went to bed, so I always felt guilty about that,” Westerhout testified. He’d often use Schiller’s cellphone to make calls, and employees would use that number to reach Trump. There were no Trump memos, no notepads, no Post-it notes, just an occasional Sharpie scrawl. And largely, except for Cohen’s, no testimony that what these employees did, they did “at the direction of” and “for the benefit of” Donald Trump. (This was an essential part of the judge’s charge to the jury: that Trump “personally, or by acting in concert with another person or persons, made or caused a false entry in the business records of an enterprise.”)

This is the backdrop for the conflicts “Trump, Inc.” and other news media covered while Trump was president. To recap some of them (at a moment when polls show many Americans have forgotten much of what transpired during his administration): Trump’s hotel in Washington became a must stop-by for foreign officials, earning his company millions. He caused the U.S. Treasury to spend more than $1 million to house Secret Service agents in rooms with top-of-the-market rates at Mar-a-Lago and had the government pick up the tab for $1,005.60 in cocktails apparently enjoyed by administration officials and friends at his resort’s bar.

During Trump’s presidency, the response to questions about all this went something like this: As a global businessman, he or his allies would say, how could he possibly pay attention to whether the presidential seal was used on his golf courses? Or whether his son, Don Jr., was trading on the name “Donald Trump” to sell condos in India. Or whether businesspeople with foreign ties were trying to make a buck, or millions, from his presidency?

Indeed, this was part of Trump’s defense in the criminal trial, and in the civil fraud trial at which Trump was ordered to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to New York state for what a judge found was a yearslong practice of lying about the value of his assets. When he testified at that civil trial, Trump distanced himself from the fraud: “All I did was authorize and tell people to give whatever is necessary for the accountants to do the statements,” he said. And the false statements of financial condition? “I would look at them, I would see them and maybe on some occasions, I would have some suggestions.”

As is his right, Trump chose not to testify at his criminal trial, but his lawyer Todd Blanche argued on his behalf that Trump “had nothing to do, had nothing to do with the invoice, with the check being generated, or with the entry on the ledger” and that he was so busy being president he maybe didn’t even look at the checks he signed. “Sometimes he would sign checks even when he was meeting with people, while he was on the phone, and even without reviewing them,” Blanche said during closing arguments.

The jury did not buy that defense.

Trump is currently leading in the polls. It’s entirely possible he will be elected president. Yet he’s continuing to aggressively pursue business deals in countries that will have a long list of issues on which they will be seeking U.S. support.

The Trump Organization entered a full-on partnership with LIV Golf, an entity majority-owned by the government of Saudi Arabia, for tournaments at his golf courses. And last year, a New York Times reporter and photographer visited what the reporter called a “multibillion-dollar project backed by Oman’s oil-rich government that has an unusual partner: former President Donald J. Trump.” The project was launched and is being built while Trump is the front-runner for a second presidency. But neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign tried to defend or separate the project from the candidate who, while not running the company, still makes money from it.

“It’s like the Hamptons of the Middle East,” Eric Trump, who now runs the Trump Organization, told the Times. The paper wrote: “Oman, in fact, is nothing like the Hamptons. It is a Muslim nation and absolute monarchy, ruled by a sultan, who plays a sensitive role in the Middle East: Oman maintains close ties with Saudi Arabia and its allies, but also with Iran, with which it has considerable trade.”

It isn’t just the foreign deals. In April, right around the time Trump was about to be criminally tried in New York, he offered oil executives gathered at Mar-a-Lago “a deal,” the Washington Post reported. The publication summarized his message as: “You all are wealthy enough that you should raise $1 billion to return me to the White House.” In exchange, the Post said, Trump promised to reverse President Joe Biden’s initiatives to slow climate change, vowing to roll back some of them “on Day 1.”

And, as has been widely reported, with Truth Social going public, Trump has set up what Vox called “a perfect avenue for potential corruption.” As Vox noted, it’s “a way for Trump’s supporters to personally offer him financial support at a time when he desperately needs it.” By propping up the share price of the stock of the cash-hemorrhaging social media company, shareholders have potentially put billions of dollars in Donald Trump’s pocket.

It’s clear that Trump plays favorites and rewards loyalty; nearly eight years after he was inaugurated in 2017, it’s hard to imagine that any savvy businessperson or foreign leader fails to recognize this.

Certainly, those who were once in Trump’s orbit, if only briefly, testified to the dark side of that equation. Both Cohen and Daniels described the torrent of retribution they’ve experienced. Trump is unapologetic about his quest for vengeance. As he put it in one social media post last summer, “IF YOU GO AFTER ME I’M COMING AFTER YOU.”

Merely having been once employed by Trump seems to have taken a toll, on even relatively minor figures. In the civil fraud trial, Trump’s former comptroller, McConney, started weeping when he was asked why he no longer worked at the Trump Organization. He said he could no longer “deal with” the legal scrutiny he’d suffered. In the criminal trial, both former communications director Hope Hicks and Westerhout burst into tears on the stand, reflecting on their work history with Trump. Both said they remained loyal, but both had been banished from Trump’s graces.

And as for Weisselberg, he was not called to testify in this trial. His previous testimony in the trial of Trump’s company resulted in felony convictions on 17 counts and a five-month jail sentence. He is now serving a second jail sentence, in Rikers Island, for committing perjury in Trump’s civil fraud trial.

In the courthouse, Trump spent long stretches of time in an uncomfortable room with the shades always drawn, the fluorescent lighting unforgiving. He was required to listen to weeks of unflattering testimony, including, several times, to his own voice on that tape Cohen made of him, utterly cognizant of the tawdry deal he was striking. Saying, “So, what do we got to pay for this, 150?” After all the testimony in his criminal trial, this no longer seems like a random moment. It sounds like who Trump is: his attention to detail, his willingness to subvert the rules, the way he wields money to enhance his power, and vice versa, and is utterly unashamed.

The public knows all this now. In a second Trump presidency, it’s exactly what we’d get. Except this time, it will be all out before us, not in a secretly recorded tape.

This content originally appeared on ProPublica and was authored by by Andrea Bernstein.

• Hunter Biden’s Delaware gun charge trial seats a jury.
• Israel declares four Hamas held hostages dead.
• Mexico chooses first female President in the country’s 200 year history.
• House introduces new bipartisan Presidential code of ethics bill.
• Pro-Palestinian activists announce a campaign to boycott Maersk shipping line over Israel shipments.
• Police arrest dozens of protesters after they occupy lobby of building housing San Francisco Israeli consulate.
• UN expert warns of Gaza humanitarian problems as war drags on.
• State bill would issue permits to SF street vendors.

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This content originally appeared on KPFA - The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays and was authored by KPFA.

• Trump addresses hush money trial convictions, paints himself as victim.
• President Biden lays out Israeli 3 point Gaza ceasefire proposal.
• Texas Supreme Court rejects challenge to state’s near total abortion ban.
• Mexican elections this weekend likely to lead to that country’s first female President.
• UN experts say food situation in Gaza worsening, call for increased aid shipments.
• Bay Area faith leaders call on Senator Alex Padilla to back ceasefire in Israel-Hamas war.
• Police begin clearing UC Santa Cruz pro-Palestinian protest encampments, dozens arrested.
• State Attorney General Rob Bonta announces several arrests in major organized retail theft ring.

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"The former president has repeatedly demonstrated a sneering disregard for the rule of law, so we know that he will continue to attack any process that doesn't support his interests. But the project of democracy is much bigger than this one individual and the public deserves a truthful resolution. As we anticipate the jury's verdict – and Mr. Trump's inevitable lies – it's important to review the incontrovertible facts of the trial:

• The President, the Department of Justice and the federal government had no role in bringing a case under New York Criminal Law.
• First-degree falsification of business records is a serious crime that's routinely prosecuted in New York. Many individuals, including first-time offenders, are sentenced to imprisonment for this crime in New York.
• Trump and his counsel helped select the jury. He and his lawyers were able to object to individuals whom they thought would not hear the evidence fairly. And those individuals were not selected as jurors.
• Trump was afforded every opportunity to present his defense. His well-paid lawyers mounted hours of testimony and cross-examinations of witnesses, and gave a three-hour closing argument.
• Nothing prevented Trump from testifying at trial.
• The jury received instructions in the law that Trump's lawyers had a hand in drafting.
• The trial proceeded in an orderly and organized fashion, without undue delay. Mr. Trump was treated as any other defendant facing a felony charge.

It is now the jury's responsibility to carefully weigh all of the evidence that was presented to it and everyone should recognize that arriving at a unanimous verdict takes time. As we await the jury's verdict, Common Cause/NY recognizes the jury's time and dedication spent doing their civic duty, and trusts that the public will accept their decision as well as their right to privacy. Respect for the rule of law is the foundation of democracy, but so is public trust in the process. That's why Common Cause/NY fought to make the trial transcripts free and accessible, and we invite anyone to review them on the court website."

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Newswire Editor.

• Closing arguments start in Trump New York hush money trial.
• Israeli airstrike kills dozens, draws rebukes and calls for ceasefire.
• Georgian parliament overrides presidential veto of controversial foreign influence bill.
• Power out for tens of thousands in Texas as deadly storm slams middle of country.
• Pittsburg, CA man announces lawsuit against city over alleged wrongful police shooting.
• Open AI says it has formed a safety and security team to study possible AI dangers.
• Healthcare advocates urge Governor Newsom to preserve undocumented in home support care.

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• Cohen wraps up testimony in New York Trump hush money trial, Trump lawyers attempt to paint him as untrustworthy.
• Hard right GOP lawmakers show up at Manhattan courtroom to support Trump.
• US military finishes temporary floating pier off coast of Gaza, say aid shipments can begin immediately.
• Biden Administration ends all new coal leases on Powder River region of Montana and Wyoming.
• Shooter charged with attempted murder of Slovak Prime Minister, leader listed in critical condition.
• Biden Administration blocks release of interview audio with special counsel in classified documents probe.

The post The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays – May 16, 2024 Cohen wraps up testimony in New York Trump hush money trial, Trump lawyers attempt to paint him as untrustworthy. appeared first on KPFA.

This content originally appeared on KPFA - The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays and was authored by KPFA.

In the historic criminal hush money election fraud trial of former President Donald Trump, New York prosecutors are wrapping up their case charging Trump with falsifying business records in an illegal effort to influence the 2016 presidential election. On Tuesday, Trump’s former fixer Michael Cohen admitted he misled the Federal Election Commission about hush money payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels. In cross-examination, defense attorneys tried to suggest Cohen was motivated by vengeance against Trump. “He’s the one who has firsthand knowledge of the actual deal that he and Donald Trump struck in order to pay the hush money, create a phony retainer, and ultimately falsify the business records,” says criminal defense lawyer Ron Kuby. “The boss betrayed him. And now he, indeed, is out for revenge.” Kuby says Trump and his right-wing allies are using the trial as a backdrop for politics, and discusses the possibility of Trump serving prison time. Kuby is also representing climate crisis activists arrested at Citibank headquarters in New York City during Earth Week last month and pro-Palestinian activists arrested at recent protests at Fordham University and SUNY Purchase. “I tend to view these struggles … as perennial struggles with each generation kind of rising up to do their part,” Kuby says. “I just have mad respect for the young people who are literally risking their education, their careers and their futures to stand up for the planet, to stand up against the slaughter in Gaza.”

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

• Michael Cohen’s second day on witness stand at Trump hush money trial details his role in Daniels pay off.
• Secretary of State Blinken makes surprise trip to Ukraine to bolster US support for ally.
• Self driving taxi service Waymo comes in for federal safety investigation.
• Nobel prize winning Canadian writer Alice Munro dies aged 92.
• Pro-Palestinian activists crash Google developer conference in Mountain View.
• Oakland youths and their supporters call on city officials to reject airport expansion, citing environmental impacts.

The post The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays – May 14, 2024 Michael Cohen’s second day on witness stand at Trump hush money trial details his role in Daniels pay off. appeared first on KPFA.

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A hearing is scheduled for Wednesday at the Ninth Criminal Court, in the capital Guatemala City, to consider Zamora’s request to be freed under house arrest.

“We urge Guatemala’s judiciary to grant house arrest to José Rubén Zamora after nearly two years in solitary confinement and to give him the chance to prove his innocence in court,” said CPJ Latin America Program Coordinator Cristina Zahar in São Paulo. “His ongoing imprisonment amounts to arbitrary detention and demands immediate action. Zamora must have the right to a fair trial and to practice journalism freely.”

On July 29, 2022, police raided the home of Zamora, founder and publisher of the acclaimed investigative daily newspaper elPeriódico, which was forced to close the following year.

On June 14, 2023, Zamora was convicted of money laundering and sentenced to six years in jail, in a ruling widely regarded as a retaliatory measure for his reporting on government corruption. On October 13, an appeals court overturned the conviction and ordered a new trial.

Observers have documented severe irregularities in Zamora’s trial, including repeated delays in court proceedings, limited access to evidence, and challenges in maintaining legal representation as his lawyers have been harassed and jailed.

Zamora, 67, remains in pre-trial isolation, which has had detrimental effects on his physical health and well-being. Zamora previously told CPJ that he was subjected to sleep deprivation, which amounts to psychological torture, and that his cell was infested with insects.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

• Stormy Daniels testifies in Trump hush money trial to alleged tryst and payment to stay quiet about it.
• Biden denounces rise in antisemitism during address at Holocaust memorial event at US Capitol.
• Israeli forces seize Gaza side of Rafah border crossing, UN issues warning against military assault.
• Tornadoes hammer central US, causing injuries, deaths and destruction.
• Putin sworn in for fifth term as Russian leader, after eliminating opposition.
• Veterans kick off peace march from Maine to Washington DC. 
• Maghazi camp in Gaza struck. 

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Chinese media reported that the 80,000-ton Fujian. a Type 003 class vessel, left Jiangnan Shipyard in Shanghai on Wednesday morning to begin its first trial in the open sea.

The sea trial is primarily aimed at testing the reliability and stability of the aircraft carrier's propulsion and electrical systems, state news agency Xinhua reported.

“This is a huge step forward for the Chinese navy,” said Andreas Rupprecht, a veteran Chinese military watcher. 

The sea trial is probably “the most eagerly awaited milestone” for the ship that was launched almost two years ago, Rupprecht told Radio Free Asia.

However, “there is still a lot that we don’t know: if everything works according to plan or whether there remain technical issues,” the analyst said.

Xinhua reported that the Fujian has completed its mooring trials, outfitting work and equipment adjustments and “has met the technical requirements for sea trials” without giving further details.

‘Pride of Chinese Navy’

China’s state CCTV released a clip showing the carrier, flanked by several tugboats, moving out of the shipyard and heading to sea.

This week, the Chinese Maritime Safety Administration issued a navigational warning to ban ships from entering an area in the East China Sea from May  1-19, believed to be the period of the trial.

Sea trials are an important final step towards commissioning the carrier.  Some experts believe the carrier could become operational in 2025 while some say they are unsure of the time frame.

Yusuf Unjhawala, a Bangalore-based defense analyst, said that India took a year to carry out sea trials for its indigenous aircraft carrier INS Vikrant. 

The Fujian is China’s largest and most advanced carrier, also the first to feature a modern catapult system

for launching fighter jets.  Experts said the Fujian’s Catapult Assisted Take-Off Barrier Arrested Recovery, or CATOBAR, mechanism is similar to that of U.S. carriers.

China’s first two aircraft carriers – Liaoning and Shandong – use a ski jump-style launch system.

The Fujian is also China’s first carrier built with an indigenous design, unlike the other two which were remodeled from Soviet-made ships.

Combat capabilities

When operational, the Fujian will “significantly enhance the capabilities” of the navy, Chinese experts told the Global Times.  

They were quoted as saying it can carry a larger number of aircraft and launch aircraft, including heavier ones, faster and more efficiently than its existing carriers.

Fujian will likely host Shenyang J-15 fighters, as well as the next generation J-35s and the new Xian KJ-600 fixed-wing AEWC (airborne early warning and control) aircraft, according to open intelligence sources. 

“The ship’s air complement is based on the Russian Su-33 which it calls the J-15,” said Unjhawala, “It’s a very heavy fighter and it takes off from a ski ramp, which limits its ability to carry arms.”

The aviation component of the new aircraft carrier is beset with technical problems, the analyst said, adding that “it will take time for China to become a formidable carrier force.”

Still, it represents a big leap forward and a warning for countries in dispute with China in the East and South China seas. 

Japan has recently decided to upgrade one of its two helicopter carriers to its first aircraft carrier – a decision that was quickly condemned by Beijing. 

Aircraft carriers represent China’s maritime ambitions and the carrier fleet may be expanded to five ships in the next 10 years, according to a report by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA), an independent U.S. think tank specializing in defense policy, planning and budgets.

China already has the largest navy in the world by number with an overall battle force of more than 370 ships and submarines, compared with the U.S.’s 293, according to the Pentagon. The U.S. Navy, however, has 11 aircraft carriers, most of which are much more advanced and powerful than China’s.

The Fujian has a dead weight tonnage of 80,000 tons, similar to one of the U.S.’s ten Nimitz-class ships but significantly smaller than the U.S.’s new Gerald R. Ford carrier of 100,000 tons.

Edited by Mike Firn.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Staff.

Independent photojournalist Javier Soriano was arrested while covering a pro-Palestinian protest in New York City on March 30, 2024, according to social media posts and court records reviewed by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.

In a post on social media, Soriano wrote that he was arrested by New York Police Department officers while covering a “Land Day” march from Manhattan’s City Hall Park to Union Square to commemorate a deadly 1976 protest in Israel over the seizure of Palestinian land.

This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

• Day two of jury selection in Trump New York hush money criminal trial.
• House Speaker Mike Johnson defies far-right opposition to push Ukraine, Israel aid package.
• Biden pushed economic vision in first leg of three day campaign push in Pennsylvania.
• House Republicans send impeachment articles against DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to Senate.
• California homeless encampment removal bill fails to clear legislative committee. 
• Activists push for housing bond for California fall election.

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This content originally appeared on KPFA - The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays and was authored by KPFA.

Donald Trump is making history today in New York as the first former U.S. president to stand trial for criminal charges. Trump faces 34 criminal charges of falsifying business records as part of a scheme to hide hush money payments he made to adult film actor Stormy Daniels and others, just weeks before winning the 2016 election. He is accused of violating federal campaign finance laws for failing to disclose the payments and instead recording them as a “legal expense.” Each of the 34 counts carries a maximum sentence of four years in prison. “What Donald Trump is accused of is the type of crime that’s prosecuted in New York every single day … [a] garden-variety, ordinary grift,” says Ron Kuby, a longtime New York criminal defense and civil rights lawyer who is following the trial closely. Kuby explains what we can expect from the trial — the first of four different criminal cases Trump is currently embroiled in, but likely the only one he will stand for ahead of the 2024 election — in the coming days.

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

Taipei-based Aleksandra Bielakowska was held for six hours, searched and questioned after arriving at Hong Kong's International Airport on Wednesday, the group said in a statement.

She had been planning to meet with journalists in the city in the wake of a stringent new security law passed last month under Article 23 of the city's Basic Law, and to monitor a hearing in Lai's ongoing trial, the group said.

"[They asked] what I'm doing here, if it's a work-related visit. I said of course, yes, because I'm [an] NGO worker," Bielakowska said in an interview with RFA Cantonese on Thursday after her return to Taiwan. 

"They searched my belongings, in depth, in detail -- they scanned them twice, checked my shoes, everything, checked how much money I had,” she said, adding that 12 officers and staff were watching her the whole time she was being interviewed and searched.

"The person who questioned me was an immigration officer, plus there was a customs officer, but I couldn't tell if there were any police or plainclothes officers inside of the room, because they hadn't given me any IDs," Bielakowska said. "But there were some people who didn't look like immigration officers."

Eventually, she was given a notice of refusal of entry, with a reason she described as "nebulous." Immigration officers refused to clarify the reason for the decision, even when asked repeatedly, Bielakowska said.

Hong Kong's immigration authorities have a stated policy of not commenting on individual cases. A form handed to Bielakowska said only that she would be “imminently/immediately” removed from the city “within a reasonable time,” and that this justified her detention.

Article 23

The Safeguarding National Security Law, known as “Article 23,” was billed by the government as a way to protect the city from interference and infiltration by "hostile foreign forces" that Beijing blames for waves of mass popular protests in recent years.

But its critics -- and some of the city's residents -- say it will likely have far-reaching effects on human rights and freedom of expression that go further than the 2020 National Security Law under which Lai is being prosecuted, with a far broader reach and tougher penalties.

Jimmy Lai stands accused of "collusion with foreign forces" and faces a potential life sentence, yet the case against him relies heavily on opinion articles published in his now-shuttered flagship Apple Daily newspaper.

Bielakowska, who was allowed into Hong Kong in December 2023 to monitor the start of Lai's trial, said Reporters Without Borders, or RSF, isn't a political organization and that she wasn't doing anything "seditious." 

"We just fight for the rights of journalists and press freedom around the world," she said. "It's our obligation as an NGO to attend the hearings and the trials."

Bielakowska's colleague, Asia-Pacific Bureau Director Cédric Alviani, was allowed to enter Hong Kong, but returned to Taipei the next day "for security reasons," she said.

‘Dire erosion’

RSF said it was "appalled" by the treatment of Bielakowska, who was "simply trying to do her job."

"We have never experienced such blatant efforts by authorities to evade scrutiny of court proceedings in any country, which further highlights the ludicrous nature of the case against Jimmy Lai, and the dire erosion of press freedom and the rule of law in Hong Kong," RSF's Director of Campaigns Rebecca Vincent said in a statement, calling for an immediate explanation from the Hong Kong authorities.

Vincent said the remainder of Lai's national security trial "cannot take place in darkness."

"The world must know what is happening in Hong Kong, which has implications for global press freedom," she said.

The group said it was the first time any of its representatives has been denied entry or questioned at Hong Kong's airport. Its staff had t

raveled there without hindrance in June and December 2023, and were able to meet with journalists and diplomats, as well as monitoring court proceedings without any problems, it said.

RSF said it regularly monitors trials around the world as part of its normal work defending press freedom – from proceedings against journalists in Türkiye, to the ongoing US extradition case against Julian Assange in UK courts.

Plunging rank

Hong Kong ranks 140th out of 180 in RSF’s 2023 World Press Freedom Index, having plummeted from 18th place in the past two decades. The rest of China ranks 179th out of 180 countries and territories.

To Yiu-ming, a former assistant professor at the Department of Journalism at Hong Kong's Baptist University, said the questioning of Bielakowska would send a strong message to foreign journalists and international organizations that follow developments in Hong Kong.

"Most importantly, this will have a negative impact on the way that foreign media and the international community view Hong Kong, particularly the impact of the Article 23 legislation on press freedom in Hong Kong," To told RFA Cantonese in an interview on Thursday.

He said that rather than laying down clear guidelines about who will be denied entry, they are proceeding on a case-by-case basis.

"I think [such cases] will be subject to review by national security police," To said.

Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Alice Yam for RFA Cantonese.

Judges at Ho Chi Minh City’s People’s Court said she was guilty of bribery, embezzlement and violating banking regulations.

Lan owned a 91.5% stake in Saigon Commercial Bank and, over the course of 10 years, ordered bank officials to approve more than 2,500 loans to shell companies she controlled, causing the bank to lose the equivalent of US$27 billion.

Lan ordered subordinates to bribe auditors at the State Bank of Vietnam to cover her tracks.

Head banking inspector Do Thi Nhan received $5.2 million in bribes, while deputy chief inspector Nguyen Van Hung received $300,000, state media said.

A family member told Reuters Lan planned to appeal the verdict.

Edited by Elaine Chan.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Staff.

• New York judge won’t delay Trump criminal hush money trial to wait for immunity ruling.
• Israeli war cabinet member calls for early elections, Netanyahu balks.
• Earthquake in Taiwan kills at least nine, injures scores of others.
• Fed Chair hints at possible interest rate cuts later this year.
• Ukraine passes law lowering minimum conscription age from 27 to 25.
• SF General nurses rally for better staffing levels.

The post The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays – April 3, 2024 New York judge won’t delay Trump criminal hush money trial to wait for immunity ruling. appeared first on KPFA.

This content originally appeared on KPFA - The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays and was authored by KPFA.

• Trump hush money trial to begin April 15.
• NY appeals court said Trump fraud trial can be paused if he raises $175 million in 10 days.
• UN Security Council approves Gaza ceasefire resolution, US abstains.
• US officials decry Putin’s continued claim that Ukraine was involved in Moscow terror attack.
• Daly City healthcare workers begin two day strike at Seton Medical Center over health benefits.

The post The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays – March 25, 2024 NY appeals court said Trump fraud trial can be paused if he raises $175 million in 10 days. appeared first on KPFA.

This content originally appeared on KPFA - The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays and was authored by KPFA.

• World’s leading economies warn Iran not to send ballistic missiles to Russia or face sanctions.
• Georgia prosecutor Fani Willis remains on Trump Georgia election interference trial, special prosecutor steps down following judge’s ultimatum.
• Storms in Midwest and South kill at least three and leave a trail of damage.
• Spainish parliament grants amnesty to Catalan separatists who called unauthorised independence referendum.
• California’s new Fast Food Council meets for the first time; state labor commission drops minimum wage exemption for Panera Bread.

The post The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays – March 15, 2024 Georgia prosecutor Fani Willis remains on Trump Georgia election interference trial, special prosecutor steps down following judge’s ultimatum. appeared first on KPFA.

This content originally appeared on KPFA - The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays and was authored by KPFA.

• New York prosecutors say they’re willing to delay Trump hush money trial 30 days.
• Senate leader Chuck Schumer calls Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu an obstacle to peace.
• EPA putting new rules limiting medical equipment cleaning chemical use, citing cancer risk.
• Tenderloin businesses and residents sue San Francisco over rampant drug use in neighborhood.
• Berkeley grants indigenous people plot of land in Western Berkeley.

The post The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays – March 14, 2024 New York prosecutors say they’re willing to delay Trump hush money trial 30 days. appeared first on KPFA.

This content originally appeared on KPFA - The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays and was authored by KPFA.

Russia's Defense Ministry earlier said its air defenses shot down 65 Ukrainian drones over six regions -- 35 in Voronezh, 25 in Belgorod, eight in Bryansk and Kursk each, one in Leningrad, and one on Ryazan region.

Regional officials reported that the Rosneft oil refinery in Ryazan was struck, a day after another drone attack seriously damaged a LUKoil refinery.

Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine

RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia's full-scale invasion, Kyiv's counteroffensive, Western military aid, global reaction, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war in Ukraine, click here.

Pavel Malkov, the governor of Ryazan, some 180 kilometers southeast of Moscow, said the local Rosneft oil refinery, Russia's seventh-largest, was on fire as a result of a drone attack.

There were also casualties, according to preliminary information, Malkov wrote on Telegram, without providing further details.

The Shot Telegram channel reported that the attack on the Rosneft subsidiary Ryazannefteprodukt also injured two people.

Russian news agency RIA Novosti later quoted emergency services as saying that four drones had hit the refinery. The fire, which affected two tanks used in the processing of oil products on an area of some 175 square meters, was later extinguished, it said.

The source, who is in security enforcement and spoke on condition of anonymity to RFE/RL, said that three Russian oil refineries -- one in Ryazan, one in Kstovo in the Nizhny Novgorod region, and one in Kirishi in the Leningrad region -- were targeted by Ukrainian drones as Kyiv seeks to inflict as much damage as possible to Russia's economy

"We have been systematically implementing a detailed strategy to diminish the economic potential of the Russian Federation. Our task is to deprive the enemy of resources and reduce the flow of oil money and fuel, which the Russia directs toward the war and the murdering of our citizens," the source said

Ukrainian drones also targeted a Russian air base in Buturlinovka and a military airfield in Voronezh region, the source said.

Separately, an SBU source who wished to remain anonymous confirmed to Ukrayinska Pravda that the strikes had been orchestrated by the agency.

"We are at war with everything that finances the Russian military and the war. And Russia is at war with civilians and high-rise buildings," Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukraine’s presidential office, wrote on Telegram, without directly confirming the attacks.

In Belgorod, regional Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said an apartment building was struck but there were no injuries, while according to TASS, the facade of the regional headquarters of the Federal Security Service (FSB) was damaged and windows were broken.

The March 13 attacks came a day after another sweeping wave of strikes on multiple targets in Russia that reportedly started fires at two major oil facilities.

The attacks damaged LUKoil's NORSI refinery, Russia's fourth-largest, in the Nizhny Novgorod region about 775 kilometers from the Ukrainian border and hit an oil depot in Oryol, 116 kilometers from Ukraine.

Also on March 12, the Freedom of Russia Legion, the Russian Volunteer Corps, and the Siberian Battalion, which consist of Russian citizens who have been fighting alongside Ukrainian forces in the war, claimed to have launched cross-border attacks into Russia territory.

The Kremlin said Russian forces repelled the incursions and inflicted heavy losses on the armed groups. Neither claim could be independently verified.

Meanwhile, Russian air strikes killed at least two people and wounded several others on March 13 in Ukraine's Donetsk and Sumy regions, officials said.

Two civilians were killed and 11 wounded in the eastern Donetsk region in the bombardment of a high-rise residential building in the city of Myrnohrad, regional Governor Vadym Filashkin said on Telegram.

In the northeastern region of Sumy, a Russian drone attack on a five-story apartment building destroyed 30 apartments and caused a number of casualties, the region's military administration said on Telegram.

Ten people were rescued from the rubble, eight of whom sustained injuries, it said.

This content originally appeared on News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty and was authored by News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty.

Francis was quoted on March 9 in a partially released interview suggesting Ukraine, facing possible defeat, should have the "courage" to sit down with Russia for peace negotiations, saying there is no shame in waving the "white flag."

Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine

RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia's full-scale invasion, Kyiv's counteroffensive, Western military aid, global reaction, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war in Ukraine, click here.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy hit out in a Telegram post and in his nightly video address, saying -- without mentioning the pope -- that "the church should be among the people. And not 2,500 kilometers away, somewhere, to mediate virtually between someone who wants to live and someone who wants to destroy you."

Earlier, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba reacted more directly on social media, saying, “When it comes to the 'white flag,' we know this Vatican strategy from the first half of the 20th century."

Many historians have been critical of the Vatican during World War II, saying Pope Pius XII remained silent as the Holocaust raged. The Vatican has long argued that, at the time, it couldn't verify diplomatic reports of Nazi atrocities and therefore could not denounce them.

Kuleba, in his social media post, wrote: "I urge the avoidance of repeating the mistakes of the past and to support Ukraine and its people in their just struggle for their lives.

"The strongest is the one who, in the battle between good and evil, stands on the side of good rather than attempting to put them on the same footing and call it 'negotiations,'" Kuleba said.

"Our flag is a yellow-and-blue one. This is the flag by which we live, die, and prevail. We shall never raise any other flags," added Kuleba, who also thanked Francis for his "constant prayers for peace" and said he hoped the pontiff will visit Ukraine, home of some 1 million Catholics.

Zelenskiy has remained firm in not speaking directly to Russia unless terms of his "peace formula" are reached.

Ukraine's terms call for the withdrawal of all Russian troops from Ukraine, restoring the country's 1991 post-Soviet borders, and holding Russia accountable for its actions. The Kremlin has rejected such conditions.

Following criticism of the pope’s reported comments, the head of the Vatican press service, Matteo Bruni, explained that with his words regarding Ukraine, Francis intended to "call for a cease-fire and restore the courage of negotiations," but did not mean capitulation.

"The pope uses the image of the white flag proposed by the interviewer to imply an end to hostilities, a truce that is achieved through the courage to begin negotiations," Bruni said.

"Elsewhere in the interview…referring to any situation of war, the pope clearly stated: 'Negotiations are never capitulations,'" Bruni added.

The head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Major Archbishop Svyatoslav Shevchuk, said Ukraine was "wounded but unconquered."

"Believe me, no one would think of giving up. Even where hostilities are taking place today; listen to our people in Kherson, Zaporizhzhya, Odesa, Kharkiv, Sumy! Because we know that if Ukraine, God forbid, was at least partially conquered, the line of death would spread," Shevchuk said at St. George's Church in New York.

Andriy Yurash, Ukraine's ambassador to the Vatican, told RAI News that "you don't negotiate with terrorists, with those who are recognized as criminals," referring to the Russian leadership and President Vladimir Putin. "No one tried to put Hitler at ease."

Ukraine's regional allies also expressed anger about the pope's remarks.

"How about, for balance, encouraging Putin to have the courage to withdraw his army from Ukraine? Peace would immediately ensue without the need for negotiations," Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski wrote on social media.

Lithuanian President Edgars Rinkevichs wrote on social media: "My Sunday morning conclusion: You can't capitulate to evil, you have to fight it and defeat it, so that evil raises the white flag and surrenders."

Alexandra Valkenburg, ambassador and head of the EU Delegation to the Holy See, wrote "Russia...can end this war immediately by respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. EU supports Ukraine and its peace plan."

With reporting by RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service

This content originally appeared on News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty and was authored by News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty.

Until recently, most of these cases had been stuck in limbo. Oil companies were trying to move them from the state courts in which they were filed to federal courts, a more business-friendly setting. But just in the past year, the Supreme Court declined to hear their arguments to relocate these cases on three separate occasions, most recently clearing the way for Minnesota’s case to proceed in state court. That means executives from Exxon Mobil, BP, and other oil giants may soon have to defend their actions in front of a jury.

“Last year was a really pivotal year in terms of getting past the industry’s big push and their delay tactics,” said Alyssa Johl, vice president for the legal program at the Center for Climate Integrity, an environmental advocacy organization that provides support for these cases. “That issue and that effort has been put to rest, and now they have to face the music.”

The long delays might have strengthened the legal arguments against fossil fuel companies. Researchers have uncovered more details about what oil companies knew about climate change and when, and the science connecting fossil fuel emissions to climate disasters has matured, arming cities and states with more evidence. All the while, the effects of climate change — the heat waves, the blazes, the wildfire smoke — have only grown more obvious, and more costly. Last year, the U.S. recorded a billion-dollar disaster every two weeks.

“With each month and with each year that these cases are stalled, the impacts for communities just grow,” said Delta Merner, the lead scientist for the Union of Concerned Scientists’ litigation hub. “I think that’s important context for understanding these cases, and for understanding the additional cases that have been filed over the last six years.”

That might explain the spread of lawsuits from coastal cities and states to inland areas like Minnesota, Colorado, and most recently, Chicago. With the third-largest city in the country suing BP, Chevron, Exxon Mobil, and other oil titans for lying about climate change, a quarter of Americans now live in cities and states that are taking fossil fuel companies to court, according to the Center for Climate Integrity.

One of the cases that’s furthest along, filed by Massachusetts against Exxon Mobil in 2019, is already in the process of “discovery,” the last major step before a trial. In this stage, both sides try to uncover evidence that could help their case in court. The discovery process could unearth further details of oil companies’ deception, such as what individual CEOs or other company executives did with the information they learned about climate change, Johl said. 

“It’s really what the industry fears the most,” Johl said. “They don’t want anyone digging through their archives and divulging their innermost thoughts and secrets.” Much of what the public learned about the tobacco industry’s effort to cover up the link between lung cancer and smoking, for example, came out of the discovery process, made public as part of a major settlement in 1998, when Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds, and other tobacco giants agreed to pay states $206 billion over the next 25 years. 

The discovery phase of the Massachusetts case is expected to wrap up later this year, and it could head to trial as early as 2025, Johl said.

Oil companies have plans to fight back, though. In response to the new lawsuit from Chicago, industry representatives characterized the lawsuits as a “waste of taxpayer resources” and contended that climate change should be addressed by Congress, not the courts. “They’re going to raise issues every step of the way and raise defenses every step of the way,” Johl said. 

Another case that’s at the front of the pack is Honolulu’s suit seeking damages from Exxon Mobil, Chevron, and Sunoco, among others. In October, the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court dismissed the companies’ appeal to throw out the suit, clearing the way for a trial. Last week, the companies asked the Supreme Court to toss that ruling.

The industry’s current line of argument in the Honolulu case (and others) is that these lawsuits are about the broader issue of emissions and pollution, and that the federal Clean Air Act preempts any claim brought by cities and states. So far, this approach has seen some modest success. In January, Delaware’s Superior Court denied oil companies’ motion to dismiss the state’s case against them while granting a few concessions, including that out-of-state emissions were the territory of the Clean Air Act, beyond the limits of state law. Emissions that originated in Delaware, however, were fair game.

As these climate cases have slowly begun to proceed, recent months have brought lawsuits from California, cities, and tribes. Last September, the state of California demanded that oil companies fund efforts to recover from extreme weather. In December, the Makah and Shoalwater Bay tribes along the coast of Washington state became the first Native American tribes to take oil companies to court over the costs of responding to climate-related risks from rising seas, flooding, and ocean acidification. Meanwhile, Hoboken, New Jersey, and a collection of cities in Puerto Rico have added racketeering lawsuits to the mix, alleging that oil companies engaged in a conspiracy of deception.

New research has made it harder for oil giants to say they couldn’t have known the outcome of burning so much fossil fuel. A study published in the journal Science last year found that Exxon’s scientists predicted the effects of climate change with startling accuracy in the 1980s. Exxon’s models nearly matched actual temperature changes over the past several decades.

Then there’s the blooming area of scientific inquiry that connects climate change to extreme weather events. Researchers are now able to quantify how corporate emissions have fueled climate disasters, a critical development for these cases, Merner said. “This is the cutting edge where the science is moving towards — to be able to look not just at these global averages, but to see what is happening regionally.”

A study Merner coauthored last year found that 37 percent of the forests burned in the Western United States since 1986 can be linked to carbon pollution from a group of 88 of the world’s largest fossil fuel producers and cement manufacturers. Last June, Multnomah County — home to Portland — cited the research in its lawsuit against oil companies over their contributions to a deadly heat wave that hit the Pacific Northwest in 2021. In newer cases, like Multnomah’s and the ones filed by Indigenous tribes, the oil industry is sticking to its strategy of trying to move the case to federal courts, according to Margaret Barry, who maintains a climate litigation database at Columbia Law School’s Sabin Center.

The new and improved science linking climate change to weather disasters has been a game changer for all of these cases, Merner said. “We can’t sit back and argue whether or not climate change played a role in extreme weather or public health problems that we’re facing today, because attribution science shows that it does and can calculate what that role was.” 

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Big Oil faces a flood of climate lawsuits — and they’re moving closer to trial on Mar 8, 2024.

This content originally appeared on Grist and was authored by Kate Yoder.

Federal prosecutors in New York have rested their case against former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who is accused of turning the Central American country into a narco-state. Hernández is on trial for cocaine trafficking and weapons charges and is the first former head of state to stand trial in the United States since Panamanian dictator and U.S. ally Manuel Noriega was also tried on drug charges after a U.S.-led ouster. Prosecutors accuse Hernández, a longtime U.S. ally accused of human rights violations throughout his presidency, of accepting millions of dollars in bribes from cocaine traffickers in exchange for protection and turning Honduras into a drug trafficking narco-state. If convicted, Hernández could join his brother Juan Antonio in serving a life sentence in the U.S. We speak to two writers who have been attending the trial in New York: historian Dana Frank and author and Honduran screenwriter Oscar Estrada. “There’s a narrative here that … the Honduran people can’t govern themselves, and then suddenly the U.S. is coming in and heroically imposing the rule of law,” says Frank about U.S. public perception of the trial. However, she continues, “It’s the opposite. It’s the United States that helped destroy the criminal justice system in Honduras.”

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

Truong My Lan, 68, is accused of bribery, embezzlement and violating bank regulations in connection with a VND304 trillion loan from Saigon Commercial Bank, or SCB.

Hundreds of police officers were called out to provide security at the trial, Vietnamese media reported.

Lan’s Hong Kong billionaire husband Eric Chu is accused of helping her secure the illegal loan from SCB – more than 90% owned by Lan – causing the bank to lose the equivalent of US$369 million.

Police and security guards guarded the court entrances from possible protests by angry investors as nearly 80 defendants arrived early Tuesday morning. 

The accused include 45 SCB executives, 15 State Bank of Vietnam officials, three government inspectors and a former official at the State Audit Office, according to media reports. Eight defendants are on the run, with international arrest warrants out for them.

Thousands of witnesses have been called to testify in a trial expected to last two months.

The case has claimed the cash of an estimated 42,000 victims, SCB bondholders who haven’t seen a return on their investments since Lan’s arrest in Oct. 2022, leading to rare protests in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh city.

Edited by Taejun Kang and Elaine Chan.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Mike Firn for RFA.

Photograph Source: Herder3 – CC BY 3.0

The British high court did not make it easy for the press to cover Julian Assange’s anti-extradition hearings in late February. For those of you who may have forgotten, Assange just appealed his extradition to the United States, where he faces brutal punishment for practicing journalism. But the British high court doesn’t want you to remember. How else to explain it making press coverage of the proceedings so extraordinarily difficult?

It wasn’t just that reporters couldn’t hear anything. It’s much bigger than that. As former British diplomat Craig Murray wrote after attending these hearings, the proceedings against Assange have been a “travesty and a charade marked by undisguised institutional hostility.” This theme of Assange’s trials and unjust incarceration in maximum security Belmarsh Prison involves limiting press access. The reason is obvious. When somebody does something wrong, they try to conceal it. And the U.K. and U.S. governments are doing something wrong, namely, shackling, silencing, endangering the life of and bundling a journalist off to Northern Virginia, where he will likely be convicted of bogus crimes, because that journalist, Assange, has been deemed a political enemy. How bogus? One for instance: The U.S. accuses him of endangering the lives of American government agents and foreign intelligence sources, yet has never named one harmed. No matter, Assange is to be convicted of phony crimes. How do we know he’ll likely be convicted? Because Northern Virginia is home to employees of the imperial U.S. security state, so people who regard Assange as an anti-American demon will swarm the jury pool. His lawyers will be hard-pressed to find impartial jurors.

Stefania Maurizi, a reporter allowed in the courtroom on February 20, tweeted “yesterday we journalists were assigned to a Victorian gallery, no table to take notes, use our laptops, NO chance to hear and see what was being discussed in court.” That first day, Assange’s defense presented two key points – that “U.S. charges could be reformulated so that #DeathPenalty applies,” and also raising repeated U.S. references “to the fact that the #FirstAmendment does NOT apply” to Assange. “In both cases, NO guarantees were provided by U.S.”

Reporting on day two, Maurizi again tweeted: “Even this morning we journalists cannot cover the case properly; no tables for our computers, no chance to hear properly: audio is so bad.” Then the judges suspended the hearing, “because even in the courtroom we cannot hear what is being discussed. I am less than three meters away from U.S. lawyers and yet I cannot hear what they say.” Once the proceeding resumed – no improvement. Journalists still couldn’t hear properly.

Since this whole Assange legal fiasco is an assault on a free press, I guess we shouldn’t be surprised that reporters covering the case are treated so cavalierly. In our bizarre world, where a journalist faces 175 years in prison or even conceivably death for doing his job (too) well, why wouldn’t he be treated like Alice in Wonderland by the deranged Queen of Hearts? Assange has basically been caged without charge for over a decade – you expect a reporter who wants to cover this atrocious persecution to be treated professionally? C’mon man, get with the program! This is the wrath of the Empire, of the U.S. security state we’re talking about, because that’s who Assange offended.

He did so on several occasions, including when he published the video Collateral Murder, which revealed U.S. soldiers in their Apache helicopter shooting Iraqi civilians, children and journalists for sport. He also mortified two fantastically narcissistic bigwigs, Mike “Get Assange” Pompeo and Hillary “Can’t We Just Drone This Guy?” Clinton, with sundry revelations about the CIA and embarrassing campaign emails, respectively. With such fearless dedication to truth on Assange’s part, no wonder Washington concluded, over a decade ago, that he was public enemy numero uno and had to be permanently dispatched, in a way that would “teach a lesson” to everyone viewing the appalling spectacle.

Well, I’m not sure the lesson is what Washington intended. It appears to be that a free press is an optional, distant last to whatever the Beltway diktat du jour happens to be, that the rule of law is in fact white house whim, and that anybody, anywhere on this planet can be captured, imprisoned and shipped off to the U.S. carceral gulag – the biggest on earth – for just about anything American mandarins concoct. This despotic state of affairs dates from president George “WMD” Bush’s Global War on Terror. Years have passed since the original insane frenzy that prompted GWOT, but wrecking the rule of law has not. The fourth amendment still lies in tatters and now, with the Assange case, the first does too.

A decision on Assange’s extradition likely won’t come for at least a month. “The two-day appeal hearing,” reported Fox News, February 22, “before a panel of two judges wrapped up after U.S. lawyers delivered arguments.” Assange himself was too ill to be present, so the very politically connected judges, Dame Victoria Sharp and Jeremy Johnson, a former lawyer representing MI6, did not set eyes on him. Let’s hope they’re better than the judges who ruled on Assange so far, judges who have shown little awareness of this case’s earth-shattering implications for a free press and Britain’s nearly thousand-year jurisprudence grounded in the rule of law. Most of that went out the window in the original trial, under the overall very hostile judge Vanessa Baraitser, and it’s didn’t come back in with the last appeal, dismissed summarily by justice Jonathan Swift, who flatly refused to consider fresh evidence.

That was a blinkered decision, because there’s plenty of new evidence and the old evidence was never weighed properly by Baraitser. But Swift was formerly a lawyer for the British government, who represented the security services, and throughout this entire miscarriage of justice, that government has bent over backwards to accommodate its imperial lord, Washington. To cite Murray on Swift, in one legal case Swift met with government officials, “discussed matters relating to the case privately before making judgment. He did not tell the defense he had done this. They found out and Swift was forced to recuse himself.” No wonder Swift, “the former roommate and still best friend of the minister who organized the removal of Julian from the Ecuadorian Embassy,” ruled against Assange. As Murray wrote “what a lovely cosey club is the Establishment.”

The emperor himself, Joe “Pardons Only for Those Who Don’t Need Them” Biden, now owns this sordid business from top to bottom. It originated in Barack “Jail the Whistleblowers” Obama’s vampiric war against sunlight, and got a lot of extra oomph from Donald “Fake News, Unless It Praises Me” Trump’s deranged Justice Department, which brought the indictment, but Biden could have put a stop to it at any point. He didn’t. He will be remembered for that, for gutting the First Amendment, for remaining deaf to pleas from numerous heads of state, who deplored this abuse, this destruction of a journalist for printing the truth. Throughout the Trump years and now the Biden ones, imperial henchmen have treated Assange so cruelly, one can only conclude they would not have been sorry had he died in jail. Indeed, that may have been the plan. Even the press, which initially abandoned Assange, has come around to the realization that this prosecution poses a very real, deadly threat to journalism. Numerous mainstream publications have now protested this juridical abortion. Let’s hope they’re not too late.

This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Eve Ottenberg.

Eric Lach, a staff writer for The New Yorker, was subpoenaed by a federal prosecutor on Feb. 15, 2024, to testify about his reporting on a man accused of fraud, extortion and lying to federal law enforcement.

Lach began reporting on Brooklyn preacher Lamor Whitehead in 2022, according to an affidavit. Whitehead stands accused of stealing a parishioner’s savings and defrauding a businessman with claims that he could leverage his ties to Mayor Eric Adams and other city officials for financial gain, The Associated Press reported.

Lach spoke with the preacher several times that December and published an article about Whitehead and his relationship with Adams in January 2023.

The U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York subpoenaed Lach just over a week before the criminal trial was scheduled to begin on Feb. 26. The subpoena orders Lach to testify during the trial to authenticate on-the-record statements from Whitehead in the published article.

Attorneys representing Lach filed a motion to quash the request on Feb. 19. In his accompanying affidavit, Lach voiced concerns that being forced to testify could impair not only his ability to report on Whitehead’s trial but his journalistic work generally.

“The prospect of being forced to testify in court about my news reporting is, frankly, chilling,” Lach said in his affidavit. “I often speak to criminal defendants as part of my reporting, and I am confident that criminal defendants — and other sources — will be less willing to speak to me as part of my reporting if they understand that I may be called to testify against them in their trial.”

The motion to quash argued that the subpoena is also highly invasive and would subject Lach to a cross-examination that could jeopardize his confidential reporting.

“In violation of the Department of Justice’s own guidelines, the Government seeks to compel the testimony of a journalist to authenticate a generic, run-of-the mill denial,” the motion said, noting that the statements were made after Whitehead knew he was the target of a government investigation.

The day before the subpoena was issued, the Justice Department released new guidelines for federal prosecutors limiting when they can seek journalists’ records: when the information is crucial for the prevention of a serious crime, when the journalist is the target of the investigation and when the records involve information that is already public.

To address concerns around the potential breadth of the cross-examination, Lach and his attorneys agreed to appear for a private interview with District Judge Lorna G. Schofield on Feb. 26.

This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

The 77-minute film titled "Urumqi Road" is compiled from on-the-ground footage of thousands of mostly young people who spilled out onto the streets of Shanghai and other major Chinese cities in late November 2022 to mourn the deaths of a Uyghur family in an apartment fire in Xinjiang's regional capital of Urumqi. 

The tragedy served as a catalyst for the protests, which unleashed years of pent-up frustration and stress. Thousands called for an end to pandemic restrictions, and some even called for President Xi Jinping to resign. 

Many held up blank sheets of paper to represent what they wished they could say but could not due to China’s censorship. In the film, some say that “what happened in Urumqi could have happened anywhere in China.”

The documentary – which carries the English title “Not the Foreign Forces” in reference to "hostile foreign forces" who are frequently blamed by Beijing for instigating protests – was uploaded to YouTube by at least one account in early December 2023, and credited to "Plato."

It garnered thousands of views, but less than a week after it appeared, Plato's Twitter account was deleted and his YouTube channel went private.

‘Catch-all crime’

RFA Cantonese has learned that Plato’s real name is Chen Pinlin, and that he was detained soon after the film was posted on suspicion of "picking quarrels and stirring up trouble," a charge frequently used to target peaceful critics of the government.

Chen, being held in Shanghai's Baoshan District Detention Center, was formally arrested for the same charge on Jan. 5, 2024. His case was transferred to the local prosecutor's office on Feb. 18, a person close to the case said.

A woman who helped Chen to produce the film has been released on bail, the person said.

A Chinese activist based in Germany who gave only the nickname Frank said the charge against Chen is a well-known "catch-all crime."

"The case of Chen Pinlin is evidence that the Chinese government continues to abuse the charge of 'picking quarrels and stirring up trouble' to infringe on artistic freedom and freedom of speech," Frank said. "Anyone who cares about social justice or who criticizes human rights violations gets harshly suppressed by the government."

"We call on the international community, particularly cultural and artistic creators around the world, to pay attention to Plato's situation," he said. "We can't turn a blind eye and just watch as these tragedies keep on happening."

‘We want freedom!’

According to the film's introduction, Chen was among the mostly young protesters who converged on Shanghai's Urumqi Road to protest the deaths of the Uyghur family on Nov. 26, 2022, and that the protest was the first time he had taken part in any kind of political event.

Intercut with footage of young people chanting, "We want freedom!" and "Xi Jinping step down!" Chen said the government's claim that the nationwide protests were the work of "foreign forces" was untrue.

He also called on people to continue to resist government propaganda and censorship, and remember not just the zero-COVID years, but also the 1989 Tiananmen massacre, the 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution and the 1958-1960 Great Famine of the Mao era.

"Remember the ugliness," Chen says in the film. "Only those with an optimistic outlook can hope that China will usher in brighter times soon."

A former “white paper” protester who gave only the nickname Rick for fear of reprisals said Beijing is trying to rewrite the history of the zero-COVID years, and that Chen and other protesters are trying to defend historical truth.

"The Chinese Communist Party won't let people talk about the White Paper movement, which is an attempt to modify the collective memory of the three years of zero-COVID among the Chinese people," Rick said.

"The documentary directed by Chen Pinlin is an attempt to break the Chinese Communist Party’s blockade of historical truth."

He said Chen had taken huge risks in making a film about popular protest in China.

"I admire director Chen Pinlin's courage and sense of social responsibility," Rick said. "Recording the historical truth is not a crime."

Shattered illusions

He said the zero-COVID restrictions had made young people in China realize that they could be deprived of even their most basic rights at any time, forced into starvation or death from illness in their own homes, or even burned to death in fires.

"Their illusions shattered, young people bravely went out onto the streets and shouted their protest," he said.

Many who took part in the movement were detained, while others have fled overseas, where they have continued their support for political change in China.

But even overseas activists are also being increasingly harassed by state security police, with some reporting threats to their families back home, as China pushes ahead with the "long-arm" enforcement of its laws overseas.

"[In] the summer of 2023, there was a wave of harassment targeting Chinese students living in the Washington area," former White Paper Movement protester and Georgetown law student Zhang Jinrui told a recent seminar on Beijing's transnational repression.

He said some students had been detained for their activism after traveling back to China for the summer break, while others had been subjected to long-distance harassment and intimidation by the authorities.

"I think that's basically their main tactic with a lot of Chinese students, but a lot of the time more severe measures will also be taken,” Zhang said. “For example, threatening to confiscate your parents’ money.”

"It's a tactic to try to wear you down,” he said, “to try to harass your family more and more until they can't take it any more.”

Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Yitong Wu and Chingman for RFA Cantonese, Kai Di for RFA Mandarin.

At a critical hearing this week in London, lawyers for imprisoned WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange asked the British High Court of Justice to grant him a new appeal in what is likely his last chance to avoid extradition to the United States, where he faces a 175-year prison sentence for publishing classified documents that exposed U.S. war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. Assange’s lawyer, Jennifer Robinson, says the judges were receptive to their arguments that Assange could face the death penalty in the U.S. and that an extradition would set a dangerous precedent for press freedom. “If Julian is extradited and goes on trial under the Espionage Act, this is a case which is going to set precedent which criminalizes journalistic activity and will be used against the rest of the media.” A ruling in the case is not expected until next month at the earliest.

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

At the same time, Kyiv denied Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu's claim that Russian forces had captured the Ukrainian bridgehead at Krynka.

Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine

RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia's full-scale invasion, Kyiv's counteroffensive, Western military aid, global reaction, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war in Ukraine, click here.

"There were at least three strikes on the concentration of Russian troops at the training ground near Novaya Kakhovka," Nataliya Humenyuk, spokeswoman of the Defense Forces of Southern Ukraine, told RFE/RL on February 22.

"The Russian military was preparing to storm Krynka, which they claimed they had already been captured.... According to preliminary data, commanders of the Dnieper group [of Russian forces] were also there. The information is still being checked," Humenyuk said.

In a separate statement made to Suspilne, Humenyuk said at least 60 Russian soldiers were killed in the attack.

Russia has not commented on the strike, which was first reported by both the Ukrainian Telegram channel DeepState and Russian pro-war bloggers that it resulted in heavy losses. A video of the purported attack consisting of three strikes was also published on Telegram channels.

However, the information could not be independently verified.

At a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on February 20, Shoigu said Krynka "has been cleared," but Ukraine's military said his statement was "a falsification of the facts."

Ukrainian forces in November 2022 liberated Kherson city and the rest of the region on the right bank of the Dnieper forcing Russian troops across the river. Last year, Kyiv's troops managed to also establish a small bridgehead on the Dnieper's left bank, which has come under constant Russian attacks.

The purported Ukrainian strike on Russian forces in Kherson was the second in as many days in which a large number of Russian troops were reportedly killed.

On February 21, BBC Russian reported that a Ukrainian strike on a training ground in Moscow-occupied Donetsk had killed at least 60 Russian troops.

According to the report, Russian soldiers from the 36th Guards Motorized Rifle Brigade had been lined up and were waiting for the arrival of Major General Oleg Moiseyev, commander of the 29th Russian Army, when the strike occurred on February 20.

Neither Russia nor Ukraine has commented on the report. Pro-Russian social media outlets posted videos and photos purportedly showing dozens of uniformed dead bodies, accusing Moiseyev of making soldiers stand in line waiting for his arrival when they were hit.

Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat said on February 22 that since launching the invasion two year ago, Russia has launched more than 8,000 missiles and 4,630 drones -- of which 3,605 have been shot down -- at targets inside Ukraine.

In Moscow, former President Dmitry Medvedev boasted that after Ukrainian forces last week withdrew from the eastern city of Avdiyivka following a monthslong bloody battle, Russian troops would keep advancing deeper into Ukraine.

With the war nearing its two-year mark amid Ukrainian shortages of manpower, more advanced weapons, and ammunition, Medvedev signaled Moscow could again try and seize the capital after being pushed back decisively from the outskirts of Kyiv during the initial days of the invasion in February 2022.

"Where should we stop? I don't know," Medvedev, now deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, said in an interview with Russian media.

"Will it be Kyiv? Yes, it probably should be Kyiv. If not now, then after some time, maybe in some other phase of the development of this conflict," he said.

Medvedev was once considered a reformer in Russia, serving as president to allow Vladimir Putin to be prime minister for four years to abide by term limits before returning to the presidency for a third time in 2012.

But the 56-year-old former lawyer has become known more recently for his caustic articles, social media posts, and remarks that echo the outlandish kind of historical revisionism that Putin has used to vilify the West and underpin the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.

This content originally appeared on News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty and was authored by News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty.

Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny has died while in prison, according to a statement from the local department of the Federal Penitentiary Service, triggering outrage and condemnation from world leaders who said the Kremlin critic paid the "ultimate price" for his courage to speak out against the country's leadership.

"On February 16, 2024, in penal colony No. 3, convict Aleksei Navalny felt unwell after a walk, almost immediately losing consciousness. The medical staff of the institution arrived immediately, and an ambulance team was called," the statement said.

"All necessary resuscitation measures were carried out, which did not yield positive results. Doctors from the ambulance declared the convict dead. The causes of death are being established."

Russian state-controlled media also quoted the statement as saying Navalny, 47, had died.

There was no immediate confirmation of Navalny’s death from his team. According to Russian law, family must be notified within 24 hours if a prisoner dies.

"I don't know if we should believe the terrible news, the news we get only from official media because for many years we have been in the situation where we cannot believe Putin and his government as they are lying constantly," his wife, Yulia, said in a brief statement from Germany where she was attending the Munich Security Conference.

"But if it is the truth, Putin and all his staff and everyone around him need to know that they will be punished for what they have done with our patriot, with my family, and with my husband. They will be brought to justice and this day will come soon," she added.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying President Vladimir Putin had been informed of the report of Navalny's death but that he has no official information on the cause of death.

"It's very complicated to confirm the news that comes from a country like Russia," Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte also told RFE/RL as she attended the Munich Security Conference. "But, if you asked me whether I would be surprised if that's true, of course I would not, unfortunately, because we know that the regime in the Kremlin is an assassin regime, basically, who would go after their enemies as they understand it, after people with different opinions on the development of Russia and their relations to the rest of the world."

A day earlier, Navalny did not appear to have any health issues when speaking by video link to a court hearing.

Navalny spokeswoman Kyra Yarmysh said on X, formerly Twitter, that "we don't have any confirmation of [his death] yet." She added that Navalny's lawyer is now flying to the prison.

"Most likely it is true. Navalny was murdered," said Ivan Zhdanov, blaming Russian President Vladimir Putin. "It is a political murder which will for sure be investigated."

As the reports reverberated around the country and around the world, some people laid flowers at the buildings where Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) was headquartered before the government shut it down after labeling the organization "extremist."

Others gathered in front of Russian embassies in countries such as Georgia and Armenia, while vigils were being planned in many cities across Europe.

"If they decide to kill me, it means that we are incredibly strong. We need to utilize this power, to not give up, to remember we are an enormous power that is being oppressed by these bad people. We don’t realize how strong we actually are. The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing. So don’t be inactive," Navalny said at the end of the Oscar-winning documentary that carried his name.

U.S. national-security adviser Jake Sullivan told NPR in an interview just after the news broke that, if confirmed, Navalny's death would be a "terrible tragedy."

"The Russian government's long and sordid history of doing harm to its opponents raises real and obvious questions here.... We are actively seeking confirmation," he added.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Navalny "paid for his courage with his life," while French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne said in a post on X that the Kremlin critic's "death in a penal colony reminds us of the reality of Vladimir Putin's regime."

European Council President Charles Michel said Navalny had made the ultimate sacrifice while fighting for the "values of freedom and democracy."

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski told RFE/RL that Navalny's only crime was to root out "the corruption [and] the thievery of the current Russian elite" and to have a dream of a better Russia that abides by the rule of law, lives in peace with its neighbors, and invests in its people.

"That proved to be an unforgivable crime," Sikorski said, speaking with RFE/RL at the Munich Security Conference. He said the Russian state was responsible for Navalny's life and welfare "and therefore his death is the legal responsibility of the Russian state."

Navalny, who last month marked the third anniversary of his incarceration on charges widely believed to be politically motivated, nearly died from a poisoning with a Novichok-type nerve agent in 2020, which he blamed on Russian security operatives acting at the behest of Putin.

The man who once blasted Putin as "corrupt, cynical" in an interview with RFE/RL was detained on January 17, 2021, at a Moscow airport upon his arrival from Germany, where he was treated for the poisoning.

He was then handed a 2 1/2-year prison sentence for violating the terms of an earlier parole during his convalescence abroad. The Kremlin has denied any involvement in Navalny's poisoning.

In March 2022, Navalny was handed a nine-year prison term on charges of contempt and embezzlement through fraud that he and his supporters have repeatedly rejected as politically motivated.

Later, Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation and his network of regional offices were designated "extremist" organizations and banned after his arrest, which led to another probe against him on extremism charges.

In August last year, a court extended Navalny's prison term to 19 years and sent him to a harsher "special regime" facility from the maximum-security prison where he was held.

Last month, Navalny was transferred to Polar Wolf, which is a "special regime" prison in Russia's Arctic region.

Navalny's death, if confirmed, comes as Putin, who publicly has long refused to actually say Navalny's name, runs for another term facing no real opposition as those who were expected to be his main challengers -- including Navalny -- currently are either incarcerated or have fled the country, fearing for their safety.

Russian elections are tightly controlled by the Kremlin and are neither free nor fair but are viewed by the government as necessary to convey a sense of legitimacy.

They are mangled by the exclusion of opposition candidates, voter intimidation, ballot stuffing, and other means of manipulation.

Meanwhile, the Kremlin's tight grip on politics, media, law enforcement, and other levers means Putin, who has ruled Russia as president or prime minister since 1999, is certain to win, barring a very big, unexpected development.

Navalny married his wife, Yulia, in 2000. The couple has a son and a daughter.

With reporting by Rikard Jozwiak and Vazha Tavberidze in Munich

This content originally appeared on News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty and was authored by News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty.

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The post The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays – February 15, 2024 Georgia DA Fani Willis vehemently denies claims her relationship has any affect on Trump election trial. appeared first on KPFA.

This content originally appeared on KPFA - The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays and was authored by KPFA.

Yandex, once dubbed Russia’s Google for becoming the country’s dominant online search engine, will exit Russia entirely, selling its assets there in a deeply discounted $5.2 billion deal that marks the end of an era.

Under the agreement announced on February 5 by Yandex’s Netherlands-based corporate parent, a “purchaser consortium” that includes the company’s management, an investment fund linked to Russian oil giant LUKoil, and three other businessmen will take over Yandex’s operations inside Russia.

The Russian entity, meanwhile, takes over the vast bulk of the company’s revenue-generating businesses, including the country’s dominant search engine, and also major operations in things like online shopping, advertising, food delivery, taxis, maps, and other things.

The Dutch parent is expected to retain control of several non-Russian businesses, including operations in cloud computing, self-driving cars, and a number of patents and other intellectual property licenses.

The price takes into account a 50 percent discount mandated by law on the sale of assets of companies from "unfriendly countries" when they exit the local market.

“Since February 2022, the Yandex group and our team have faced exceptional challenges. We believe that we have found the best possible solution for our shareholders, our teams, and our users in these extraordinary circumstances,” Yandex’s board Chairman John Boynton said in a statement.

February 2022 is when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which sparked the exit of dozens of international companies from their Russian operations.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov welcomed news of the sale.

“Yandex is one of the economy’s national champions in high tech and one of the largest companies,” he told reporters. “It’s important for us that the company continues to work in the country.”

Yandex was a long-admired company, in and out of Russia, not only for its search-engine dominance but its innovations and fast-moving efforts to move into lucrative online businesses such as ride hailing and food delivery. Its shares, which traded on the U.S. Nasdaq exchange, were held by major Western institutional investors.

The announcement caps a tumultuous 18-month period since the Kremlin’s decision to launch its large-scale invasion of Ukraine. In the wake of the invasion, Russian lawmakers passed measures that amount to censorship of news and independent information about the war, which the Kremlin euphemistically calls a “special military operation.”

In the weeks that followed, Yandex, whose search engine and news portals were a major source of information for Russians, came under pressure to skew search results, and direct readers to only specified news outlets.

Two board members resigned; several top executives departed, along with thousands of employees; and the company’s American Depositary Receipts, traded on the U.S. Nasdaq exchange, were frozen. The company decided to sell its news and entertainment channels.

Months later, Yandex announced a plan for a wholesale reorganization, with a possible exit from Russia. Aleksei Kudrin, a former finance minister and longtime Kremlin confidant viewed as a “liberal” policymaker, was brought on to help negotiate the restructuring.

But the talks faltered as reports emerged that powerful Kremlin-linked oligarchs were in the running to take it over, and Yandex’s board feared Western sanctions imposed after the Russian invasion might pose legal problems. Kudrin himself ended up being sanctioned by the United States, while the company’s co-founder, Arkady Volozh, who resigned months after the invasion, was hit with European Union sanctions.

The negotiations were complicated further last August when Volozh publicly criticized the Ukraine war, calling it “barbaric.”

Aside from LUKoil and the stake to be held by management, the other three Russian members of the “purchaser consortium” are relatively unknown. One previously was an executive at Gazprom, the state-controlled natural gas giant.

None of the buyers are “a target of, or owned or controlled by a target of, sanctions in the U.S., EU, U.K., or Switzerland,” the company said.

This content originally appeared on News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty and was authored by News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty.