Inside The Global “Club” That Helps Executives Escape Their Crimes | Chris Hamby
▻https://www.buzzfeed.com/chrishamby/super-court
A parallel legal universe, open only to corporations and largely invisible to everyone else, helps executives convicted of crimes escape... Source: BuzzFeed News
Concernant l’Égypte :
But, though Mubarak was gone, he had left behind a gift for investors like Sajwani: one of the world’s largest networks of investment treaties — twice the size of the United States’ — that allowed foreign businesses to file ISDS claims against Egypt. Within a week of Sajwani’s conviction over the Red Sea deal, Damac invoked one of these treaties and sued Egypt before the international arbitration arm of the World Bank.
The company announced the case with a defiant statement from one member of the powerhouse legal team it had assembled — an American who’d started his career as the youngest Republican state legislator in Texas.
[…]
By filing an ISDS claim, Sajwani took his case out of the Egyptian court system and placed it in the hands of three private lawyers convening in Paris. For the arbitrator he was entitled to choose, Sajwani appointed a prominent American lawyer who had often represented businesses in ISDS cases. And to press his case, Sajwani hired some of the world’s best ISDS attorneys.
For Egypt, the potential losses were big and would come as the country struggled to revive its floundering economy.
The man who had been convicted of collaborating on a deal that would bilk the Egyptian people out of millions of dollars was now free and clear.
It decided to settle.
The terms of the settlement are confidential, but three lawyers who represented the company at the time described the key provisions. Damac paid some money to the government; Sajwani’s lawyers refused to say how much, though one called it a “savvy business deal.”
But the key benefit for Sajwani, according to all three: In exchange for dropping his ISDS case, Egypt would wipe away his five-year prison sentence and close out the probes of the other deals. The man who had been convicted of collaborating on a deal that would bilk the Egyptian people out of millions of dollars was now free and clear.
STATE SPOX CAUGHT CRITICIZING OWN MUBARAK LINE IN HOT MIC
▻http://www.districtsentinel.com/state-spox-caught-criticizing-own-mubarak-line-in-hot-mic
Ces gens sont très conscients,
State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki appeared on Monday to be caught criticizing the department’s own talking point about an Egyptian court’s acquittal of former dictator Hosni Mubarak.
Just after the department’s daily press briefing, Psaki rolled her eyes before giving a friendly glance to Matt Lee of the Associated Press as he approached the lectern. “That Egypt line is ridiculous,” she said, as the TV lights dimmed. Lee, who is known for asking tough questions, could be heard laughing in response.
Egyptian court seeks death sentence for 12 accused in policeman death
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/egyptian-court-seeks-death-sentence-12-accused-policeman-death
An Egyptian court signaled on Wednesday it wanted death sentences for 12 defendants charged with killing a police officer and belonging to a terrorist group, when it referred the case to the country’s highest religious authority. The state news agency said only seven of the defendants were present in court when the judge read his ruling against those accused of killing Major General Nabil Farag last September when security forces arrested Islamist militants supportive of ousted President Mohammed Mursi. read more
#US senator blocks $650 million aid package to #Egypt over rights abuses
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/us-senator-blocks-650-million-aid-package-egypt-over-rights-abuse
Egyptians react outside the courtroom in Egypt’s southern province of Minya after an Egyptian court sentenced Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammed Badie and other alleged Islamists to death on April 28, 2014. (Photo: AFP -Khaled Desouki) Egyptians react outside the courtroom in Egypt’s southern province of Minya after an Egyptian court sentenced Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammed Badie and other alleged Islamists to death on April 28, 2014. (Photo: AFP -Khaled Desouki)
A senior US senator has moved to block hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to Egypt to protest the death sentences imposed on nearly 700 suspected Islamists. Denouncing Egypt’s “dictatorship run amok” and its “egregious violation of human rights,” (...)
Egyptian court bans prominent youth movement April 6 -Aswat Masriya
▻http://en.aswatmasriya.com/news/view.aspx?id=fe0191ba-401c-41d4-8dc5-b97540c9d77b
An Egyptian court banned on Monday all April 6 activities inside Egypt and ordered the confiscation of their headquarters.
A plaintiff had filed a case against the group, accusing them of engaging in practices that distorts the image of the Egyptian state.
The verdict can be appealed.
The co-founder of the youth movement, Ahmed Maher, was sentenced to three years in prison towards the end of last year for protesting without permit.
April 6 played a significant role in the January 25 uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak in 2011.
Chasing homosexuals and atheists, Egypt far from ideal - Analyses - Aswat Masriya
▻http://en.aswatmasriya.com/analysis/view.aspx?id=0daabd9d-e3ce-4bc4-b4e1-934c3e9d1cda
By Arwa Gaballa
CAIRO, April 9 (Aswat Masriya) As bombs go off on a daily basis in the north and tribal violence kills more than 20 people in the span of three days in the south, Egypt is busy jailing homosexuals and atheists.
“Moral glitch”
Earlier this week, an Egyptian court sentenced four men to up to eight years in prison, fining them for cross-dressing and holding and participating in homosexual group-sex parties, BBC Arabic said.
The prosecutor accused the defendants of dressing like women and having sexual intercourse for money at a Nasr City apartment.
“This makes the scene in Egypt more terrifying. It shows that the community will continue to prosecute and persecute homosexuals,” a gay Egyptian man who asked not to be named told Aswat Masriya.
“It also shows that Egypt will continue treating homosexuality as a moral glitch that should be wiped out — but it can’t be,” he added.
Fourteen men were also detained in October for “committing homosexual acts” at a medical centre in Cairo, but perhaps the most publicized case was in 2001 when 52 Egyptian men stood trial after their arrest at a gay nightclub known as “Queen Boat.”
Egypt’s Mohammed Badie due to appear in mass trial - BBC News
▻http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-26726901
The most senior leader of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, Mohammed Badie, is to appear in court with more than 680 others charged with incitement to kill.
Tuesday’s mass trial comes a day after an Egyptian court sentenced 528 supporters of ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi to death.
They were convicted on charges including murdering a policeman and attacks on people and property.
Egyptian authorities have cracked down on the Muslim Brotherhood.
Hundreds have been killed and thousands arrested.
Egyptian court sentences 26 people to death for plotting #Suez_Canal attack
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/node/18788
An Egyptian court sentenced 26 people to death on Thursday for plotting attacks on ships passing through the Suez Canal, judicial source said. The defendants were tried in absentia. Meanwhile, militants blew up a pipeline in Sinai late Tuesday that transports gas to Jordan, security officials said, in the fourth such attack this year in the restive peninsula. Militants planted explosives under the pipeline south of the city of Al-Arish in an area called Lehfen, they said. read more