Justice Info

Justice Info

2/6/2025, 3:53:48 PM

🇸🇸 Today, Justice Info focuses on the ongoing *Lundin* trial in *Sweden*. In March 2001, Ian Lundin, head of the oil company Lundin Oil, drove through a disputed area in Sudan with his security chief, Richard Ramsey, and Swedish journalist Bengt Nilsson, who had been invited to showcase the company’s projects. However, a footage of the press trip reveals troubling signs: a road built in a conflict-ridden region and child soldiers. In 2025, Lundin is on trial in Stockholm for complicity in war crimes committed between 1997 and 2003. Prosecutors argue that he knew that his company’s activities contributed to violence and the displacement of civilians. During questioning, he downplays his involvement and insists he had no evidence of such crimes. Documents from that time, including the Scorched Earth report by the NGO Christian Aid, describe attacks on villages that led to 11,000 people being displaced. In 2024, former child soldier Liah Diu Gatkuoth testifies, recounting how he saw his mother killed in a bombing after oil operations began. He explains that he was then recruited as a child soldier to guard oil facilities. This article hinges on whether Lundin knew that his company’s presence was fueling violence. 👉 https://www.justiceinfo.net/en/141138-how-ian-lundin-2001-filmed-trip-sudan-backfired-court.html See you tomorrow for a new post. In the meantime, you can support Justice Info by sharing our articles.

Justice Info

2/6/2025, 6:57:37 PM

#Afghanistan [podcast] 🎧 - In this latest podcast from our partners from Asymmetrical Haircuts, we follow on with a series of episodes on Australia’s investigation into war crimes allegedly committed by its troops in Afghanistan. They discuss and highlight here, in particular, the details of a compensation scheme that has been placed into the hands of the military. For two of the speakers, Professor Ben Saul, the UN Special Rapporteur on Counter-Terrorism and Human Rights, and Rawan Arraf(On parental leave), director of the Australian Centre for International Justice, the delays and the way in which compensation to victims are handled are urgent issues. Also invited on this podcast: Shaharzad Akbar (Rawadari رواداری) and Horia Mosadiq. 👉 https://www.justiceinfo.net/en/141218-why-afghan-victims-still-wait-for-australian-compensations.html

Justice Info

2/3/2025, 5:48:34 PM

Ready for our AFP news? 31/01 - *ITALY JUDGES DEAL FRESH BLOW TO ALBANIA MIGRANT SCHEME* Italian judges Friday refused to sign off on the detention of migrants in centres in Albania, dealing a fresh blow to far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's embattled migration scheme. https://www.justiceinfo.net/en/140951-italy-judges-deal-fresh-blow-to-albania-migrant-scheme.html 31/01 - *UN WAR CRIMES INVESTIGATORS SAY SYRIA 'RICH IN EVIDENCE'* Despite concerns about the destruction of documents and other indications of serious crimes committed in Syria under Bashar al-Assad's rule, UN investigators said Friday that plenty of evidence remained unspoiled. https://www.justiceinfo.net/en/140945-un-war-crimes-investigators-say-syria-rich-in-evidence.html 03/02 - *VICTIMS URGE INTERNATIONAL COURT TO PROBE KENYA ABDUCTIONS* Victims and their family members caught up in a wave of kidnappings and extrajudicial killings in Kenya have called on the International Criminal Court to investigate, the country's human rights commission told AFP Monday. https://www.justiceinfo.net/en/141023-victims-urge-international-court-to-probe-kenya-abductions.html

Justice Info

2/4/2025, 6:23:44 PM

Ready for our AFP news? 04/02 MYANMAR REBEL GROUP ADMITS TO KILLINGS A Myanmar rebel group said on Friday its members killed two prisoners in a rare admission of deadly violence as it fights the ruling junta to maintain control of the country's western borderlands. [...] https://www.justiceinfo.net/en/141040-corrected-myanmar-rebel-group-admits-to-killings.html 03/02 ITALY PM NAMED IN COMPLAINT OVER FREED LIBYA POLICE HEAD A migrant who claimed he was tortured by a Libyan war crimes suspect said on Monday that he had filed a complaint with prosecutors claiming Italy's prime minister enabled the suspect to go free. [...] https://www.justiceinfo.net/en/141035-italy-pm-named-in-complaint-over-freed-libya-police-head.html 03/02 THE ROLE OF MINERALS AND TECH FIRMS IN THE DR CONGO CONFLICT The conflict between Rwanda-backed forces and the DR Congo is often presented as a struggle to control the valuable minerals that power global electronics. [...] https://www.justiceinfo.net/en/141027-the-role-of-minerals-and-tech-firms-in-the-dr-congo-conflict.html

Justice Info

2/4/2025, 2:35:53 PM

🇨🇩 Today, Kerstin Carlson shares in an opinion article her views on the role of international law in North Kivu, East of the *Democratic Republic of Congo* (DRC), at a time when Rwanda seems to have drawn the conclusion of a global context marked by major powers openly considering the expansion of their own territories. She reviews the conflict between the government and the M23, supported by Rwanda. The violence in North Kivu can be understood as part of a modern-day, state-funded gold rush. M23 is expanding its control of rare-mineral mines, and Rwanda is in the meantime benefiting from a 900 million euros mineral export treaty signed with the European Union (EU). In a break from practice and tradition, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Uganda to pay USD 325 million in reparations to DRC for violations of IHL committed between 1998 – 2003. But DRC cannot engage the ICJ in its claims against Rwanda, however, because Kigali has not accepted ICJ jurisdiction. In 2012, the EU cut aid to Rwanda in relation to atrocities committed at the time by M23. Calls have been mounting for the EU to do the same in response to the ongoing violence. But European countries have become more entwined with Rwanda. There is much debate about the decline of the liberal international order. US threats against Denmark over Greenland, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and global inaction on Gaza’s devastation, all signal this shift. If EU would benefit from resources taken by force in the DRC, it would be another sign. According to the author, the principle of non-recognition, a key norm against empire, remains crucial for protecting international peace—and today, states and institutions must simply reaffirm their commitment to it. 👉 https://www.justiceinfo.net/en/141061-modern-day-gold-rush-north-kivu-what-law-can-do.html See you on Thursday for a new post. In the meantime, you can support Justice Info by sharing our articles.

Justice Info

2/3/2025, 5:06:12 PM

🇱🇰 Today, Justice Info makes a stopover in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka’s bloody civil war ended nearly 16 years ago, with war crimes committed on all sides. Victims have seen no justice. A new President and parliament were elected last year, representing a break with traditional parties and the end of rule by the Rajapaksa dynasty that presided over the war. But will he venture into the arena of transitional justice? Some quotes: Anushani Alagarajah, executive director of the Adayaalam Centre for Policy Research in Jaffna, explains that victims in the Tamil community have lost trust in government transitional justice processes, which she says have not served them. “If the government wants to earn their trust,” says this Tamil activist and researcher, “it can go for the low-hanging fruits” such as releasing land seized by the military and releasing information on the tens of thousands of enforced disappearances during the civil war. “Some of [the National People’s Power (NPP)] party policies and emphasis could give one hope of some movement on questions of human rights, accountability and ending the culture of impunity, ” explains Alan Keenan, Sri Lanka Project Director for the International Crisis Group. But he says the NPP’s roots and traditions come, like previous governments, out of Sinhala Buddhist nationalism, which is “at the heart of the ethnic conflict, the war, and the legitimating ideology against the Tamil militants, justification of terrible violence and war crimes”. “The government is reliant on a lot of economic aid from other countries, so bilateral interventions can also help keep the pressure for justice and accountability before it’s too late. Because people are dying - it’s been decades of chasing justice for the war and discrimination”, says Alagarajah. ➡️ Read our full article here: https://www.justiceinfo.net/en/140999-sri-lanka-break-past.html See you on Tuesday for a new article. In the meantime, you can support Justice Info and our journalists by sharing this one.

Justice Info

1/31/2025, 2:52:27 PM

🇮🇹 Today's article focuses on *Italy*. This is the latest setback in cooperation between a State party and the International Criminal Court (ICC). On January 21, Osama Almasri Najim, head of the Libyan judicial police, was released on procedural grounds by a Rome appeals court and flown to Libya in an Italian government plane. Reportedly in charge of the infamous Mitiga prison in Tripoli and a senior official of Libya’s judicial police, he is suspected of crimes against humanity and war crimes committed since February 2015. According to the ICC, the crimes were committed against detainees for “religious reasons”, “immoral behaviour”, and their alleged support or affiliation with other armed groups. Many of those imprisoned at Mitiga are migrants and refugees, though there is no mention of these groups in the ICC arrest warrant. At least 5,140 persons were imprisoned in Mitiga from February 2015 to October 2024, “in violation of fundamental rules of international law”. At least 8 persons were raped. The judges also found “reasonable grounds to believe that at least 34 detainees were killed in Mitiga Prison" due to torture, to a lack of adequate medical treatment, and as a result of the prison’s yard freezing temperature. Najim was arrested in Italy on January 19 after attending a football match, following an ICC arrest warrant issued the day before. Despite ICC requests, Italian authorities released him on January 21 due to "procedural irregularities" and flew him back to Libya. This sparked political turmoil, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and other officials under investigation for aiding his release. The case highlights Italy’s tense relationship with the ICC, its history of cooperation with Libya on migration control, and its alignment with Trump’s stance against the Court. 👉 https://www.justiceinfo.net/en/140923-rome-defies-icc.html See you on Monday for a new post. In the meantime, you can support Justice Info by sharing our articles.

Justice Info

1/30/2025, 8:06:31 PM

Ready for our AFP news? 30/01 UN PROBE WARNS MYANMAR VIOLENCE MAY WORSEN, FOUR YEARS SINCE COUP UN investigators on Thursday said serious international crimes had been committed in the four years since Myanmar's military coup, warning that the violence would only worsen unless the perpetrators faced justice. [...] ➡️ https://www.justiceinfo.net/en/140895-un-probe-warns-myanmar-violence-may-worsen-four-years-since-coup.html

Justice Info

1/31/2025, 4:38:11 PM

A quote from today's article... 💬 As the International Criminal Court is left with just one ongoing trial in 2025 and is threatened by heavy sanctions from the United States, _“it is a very bitter pill to have come so close to the start of new proceedings, years of work could have materialised,”_ says professor Meloni. _“The Italian government boycotted a successful operation that was almost completed.”_ - Chantal Meloni (Professor at the University of Milan)

Justice Info

2/4/2025, 4:31:08 PM

A quote from today's article... 💬 _This leaves what is arguably the most far-reaching innovation in post-war legal constructions: the UN Charter’s (1945) prohibition against the use of force. Article 2(4) holds that states must not use or threaten violence against other states, except in self-defense. [This principle of non-recognition is] is also the element of international law that currently holds the most potential for addressing Rwanda’s violent incursions into DRC._