Latest news with #PalaceofJustice
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Yahoo
Mexican judge arrested over 2014 disappearance of 43 students
Police in Mexico have arrested a retired judge accused of tampering with evidence related to the disappearance of 43 students from Iguala more than a decade ago. Lambertina Galeana Marín was the president of the Superior Tribunal of Justice in the state of Guerrero when the trainee teachers went missing in 2014. The 79-year-old is suspected of having given an order that led to the disappearance of CCTV footage which investigators said was key to the case. She was arrested in the city of Chilpancingo, three years after a warrant for her arrest had been issued. Families of 43 missing students in Mexico are still demanding justice The disappearance of the 43 students - who all attended the same teacher training college in the town of Ayotzinapa - has long haunted Mexico. More than a decade on, and despite several investigations, much is still unknown about what happened on the night of 26 September 2014. The remains of three of the students have been found, while the whereabouts of the 40 others remain a mystery, although they are widely presumed to have been killed. A 2022 report by a truth commission tasked by the Mexican government with investigating the case found that it was a state-sponsored crime involving federal and state authorities. According to the commission report, local police worked with members of a criminal group to forcibly disappear the students. The students had gone to Iguala to commandeer buses to take them to an annual protest in Mexico City. The Mexican government said both the police and a local criminal group known as Guerreros Unidos (United Warriors) had been alerted to the students' activities. Guerreros Unidos suspected that the students seizing busses in Iguala had been infiltrated by members of a rival criminal gang, Los Rojos, the report alleged. Both the police and members of Guerreros Unidos then mounted several roadblocks in and around the city, it added. One of those roadblocks, manned by local, state and federal police was on the street outside the Palace of Justice. Two Palace of Justice employees told investigators that the palace's security cameras had captured what had happened at the roadblock. However, the footage was never handed over to the authorities and when officials attempted to retrieve it almost a year later, the footage had been "lost", investigators said in 2015. Prosecutors have since alleged that Ms Galeana gave the order to have the footage destroyed or deleted. In an official statement, Mexico's security ministry said Ms Galeana would face charges of forced disappearance. Families searching for sons in drug war 'until last heartbeat'
Straits Times
23-04-2025
- Politics
- Straits Times
Tunisian judge orders detention of prominent lawyer and Saied critic Souab
A Tunisian flag flutters atop of the Palace of Justice building in Tunis, Tunisia May 13, 2024. REUTERS/Jihed Abidellaoui/File Photo TUNIS - A Tunisian anti-terrorism judge ordered on Wednesday the detention of prominent lawyer Ahmed Souab, a fierce critic of President Kais Saied, lawyers said, two days after his arrest for comments about the judiciary. Souab's arrest sparked widespread anger among political parties and civil society groups, which said the move was a dangerous escalation of a crackdown on dissent and marked a further entrenchment of the country's authoritarian regime. Activists took the streets in protest this week demanding his release, chanting slogans against Saied and demanding an end to the harassment, silencing and imprisonment of critics. Souab is among the lawyers acting for opposition leaders who received prison sentences on Saturday on conspiracy charges. Souab strongly criticized the judge and the trial last week, calling the proceedings a farce and saying the judiciary had been destroyed. He also said that "the judges are under pressure, with a knife to their heads". An anti-terrorism court interpreted the comment as a threat to the judges, but Souab's lawyers said it was a reference to the huge political pressure on judges. Souab had been detained on "terrorism-related charges" over the comment, a spokesperson for the court said. Souab is a retired administrative judge and lawyer, and a vocal critic of Saied who has repeatedly said the judiciary had lost its independence. Souab's lawyers boycotted Wednesday's hearing, after the judge informed them that he had accepted the representation of only four lawyers out of the dozens present to defend him. Opposition and right groups say Saied has had full control over the judiciary since he dissolved parliament in 2021 and began ruling by decree. He dissolved the independent Supreme Judicial Council and sacked dozens of judges in 2022. They described the move as a coup. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
The Star
23-04-2025
- Politics
- The Star
Tunisian judge orders detention of prominent lawyer Souab, a critic of president
A Tunisian flag flutters atop of the Palace of Justice building in Tunis, Tunisia May 13, 2024. REUTERS/Jihed Abidellaoui/File Photo TUNIS (Reuters) - A Tunisian judge on Wednesday ordered the detention of prominent lawyer Ahmed Souab, a fierce critic of President Kais Saied, lawyers said, two days after his arrest for comments about the judiciary. Souab is among the lawyers acting for opposition leaders who received prison sentences on Saturday on conspiracy charges. Souab strongly criticized the judge and the trial last week, calling the proceedings a farce and saying the judiciary had been destroyed. (Reporting By Tarek Amara; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
