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Dutch government collapses over immigration policy
  + stars: | 2023-07-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com   time to read: +3 min
AMSTERDAM, July 7 (Reuters) - The Dutch government on Friday collapsed after failing to reach a deal on restricting immigration, junior coalition partner Christian Union said, a move expected to trigger new elections in the fall. Therefore they decided to end this government," party spokesman Tim Kuijsten said, confirming media reports that Prime Minister Mark Rutte would tender the resignation of his government. The Netherlands already has a one of Europe's toughest immigration policies but under the pressure of right-wing parties, Rutte had for months been trying to seek ways to further reduce the inflow of asylum seekers. He promised to improve conditions at the facilities, mainly by reducing the number of refugees that reach the Netherlands. Rutte, 56, is the longest-serving government leader in Dutch history and the most senior in the EU after Hungary's Viktor Orban.
Persons: Tim Kuijsten, Mark Rutte, Rutte, Kajsa Ollongren, Hungary's Viktor Orban, Bart Meijer, Anthony Deutsch, Stephanie van den, Sandra Maler Organizations: Christian Union, Defence, Frontieres, Thomson Locations: AMSTERDAM, Netherlands
World Court to hear Syria torture claims on July 19 and 20
  + stars: | 2023-07-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com   time to read: +2 min
THE HAGUE, July 7 (Reuters) - The World Court on July 19 and 20 will hear a request by the Netherlands and Canada that it order Syria to cease all acts of torture and arbitrary detention, as part of a case alleging the country has breached a U.N. anti-torture treaty. The hearing at the Peace Palace, the court's seat in the Hague, will mark the first time an international court has looked at alleged abuses committed in Syria during 12 years of conflict. The International Court of Justice, also known as the World Court, announced last month that the Netherlands and Canada had filed a case against Damascus for breaching the U.N. convention against torture since 2011. The case at the ICJ, the U.N.'s highest court, is the first time an international court will hear a case trying to hold the Assad government accountable for gross human rights violations and torture. Syria's 12-year civil war has killed hundreds of thousands of people, displaced millions and drawn in regional and world powers.
Persons: Bashar al, Assad, Toby Cadman, Stephanie van den Berg, William Maclean Organizations: HAGUE, Court of Justice, Court, United Nations, ICJ, Thomson Locations: Netherlands, Canada, Syria, Hague, Damascus, Germany
U.N. investigators in 2012 concluded there were reasonable grounds to believe shabbiha militias committed crimes against humanity, including murder and torture, and war crimes such as arbitrary arrest and detention, sexual violence and pillaging. PAPER TRAILSome human rights scholars who have studied the role of the shabbiha in the Syrian war say the Assad regime initially used the groups to distance itself from violence on the ground. CIJA is a nonprofit founded by a veteran war crimes investigator and staffed by international criminal lawyers who have worked in Bosnia, Rwanda and Cambodia. While there is no international war crimes court with jurisdiction over Syria's conflict, there are a number of so-called universal jurisdiction cases in countries like the Netherlands, Sweden, France and Germany which have laws allowing them to prosecute war crimes even if they are committed elsewhere. Ghany said the documents were "necessary" pieces of evidence linking the shabbiha to the state in international justice cases.
Persons: shabbiha, Assad, CIJA, Bashar al, Ugur Ungor, Fadel Abdul Ghany, Nerma Jelacic, Ghany, Stephanie Van Den Berg, Maya Gebeily, Frank Jack Daniel Our Organizations: UN, Reuters, Commission, International Justice, Committees, Assad's Baath, Popular Committees, Crisis Management, Dutch NIOD Institute for, Studies, Syrian Network for Human Rights, National Defence Force, Thomson Locations: HAGUE, BEIRUT, U.S, CIJA, Bosnia, Rwanda, Cambodia, Syria, Germany, France, Sweden, Netherlands, Karm, Homs, al, Adawiya
They have since sought to seize Malaysian government assets in France, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, in a bid to enforce the award. In September, the heirs sought permission from a Dutch court to enforce the award in the Netherlands, Reuters reported. Lawyer Paul Cohen, acting for the Sulu heirs, said they were disappointed with the court decision. The heirs say they were not involved in the incursion and sought arbitration over the suspension of payments. This month, a Paris court upheld the Malaysian government's challenge against enforcing a partial award to the heirs.
Persons: Anwar Ibrahim, Anwar, Lawyer Paul Cohen, Sulu, Stephanie van den Berg, Rozanna, Robert Birsel, Clarence Fernandez, Mark Potter Organizations: THE HAGUE, Malaysian, Malaysia, Reuters, Borneo . Independent Malaysia, Thomson Locations: KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Paris, Sulu, France, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Philippines, Borneo ., Kuala Lumpur
[1/3] Police officers carry boxes into a police building in Mainz, Germany, May 3, 2023, after German police arrested dozens of people across the country on Wednesday in an investigation of the Italian 'Ndrangheta organised crime group, German public prosecutors and state police said. REUTERS/Timm... Read moreMILAN, June 27 (Reuters) - Dozens of people have been arrested in a new police raid against the 'Ndrangheta mafia that has revealed how its multiple illegal activities have spread as far as Austria and Germany, Italian authorities said on Tuesday. Suspects, including politicians from the 'Ndrangheta home region of Calabria, face charges including mafia association, murder, extortion, fraud, rigging of public contracts, bribery and vote buying, police said in a statement. Prosecutors from the German town of Stuttgart and the German federal police cooperated with the investigation, they added. The alleged 'Ndrangheta network ran illegal trades from the south to the north of Italy in real estate, catering, fruit and vegetable and livestock trading, security services and video-poker, Italian police said.
Persons: Timm, Read, Nicola Gratteri, Emilio Parodi, Stephanie van den Berg, Alvise Armellini, Christina Fincher, William Maclean Organizations: Police, REUTERS, Mafia, Prosecutors, Europol, Austrian, Cosa Nostra, Thomson Locations: Mainz, Germany, MILAN, Austria, Calabria, Stuttgart, Italy, Austrian, Europe, Italian, The Hague
THE HAGUE, June 14 (Reuters) - A lawyer for Russia on Wednesday dismissed Ukraine's account of the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 in World Court hearings earlier this week as "fiction". Ukraine repeated the Dutch court findings in its case before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), but Russia's lawyer Michael Swainston dismissed it as "fiction". "This did not happen, no BUK Telar came from Russia," he told the court on the final day of hearings. In its final submissions on Monday, Ukraine asked the ICJ to find Moscow guilty of breaching its treaty obligations and order it to pay reparations. It has asked the court to throw out Ukraine's claim which stems from 2017 and was filed well before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Persons: Michael Swainston, Stephanie van den Berg, William Maclean Organizations: HAGUE, Russia, Wednesday, Malaysian Airlines Flight, International Court of Justice, ICJ, Thomson Locations: Ukraine, Russia, Russian, Tatars, Crimea
THE HAGUE, June 7 (Reuters) - Judges at a U.N. war crimes court ruled that elderly Rwandan genocide suspect Felicien Kabuga is unfit to stand trial but said slimmed-down legal proceedings in his case can continue, in a decision published on Wednesday. "The trial chamber finds Mr. Kabuga is no longer capable of meaningful participation in his trial," a decision published on the Hague court's website said. "It is simple: when a person is deemed unfit for trial, then the court case should end and that person should go home," he said. Kabuga has denied the charges of genocide and crimes against humanity. Prosecutors say Kabuga promoted hate speech through his broadcaster, Radio Television Libre des Milles Collines (RTLM), and armed ethnic Hutu militias.
Persons: Felicien Kabuga, Kabuga, Emmanuel Altit, Eric Emeraux, Felicien, Benoit Tessier, Prosecutors, Stephanie van den Berg, Charlotte Van Campenhout, Jason Neely, Andrew Heavens Organizations: HAGUE, Hague, Office, Reuters, REUTERS, Radio Television Libre, United Nations, Thomson Locations: France, Paris, Hague, United, Rwanda
The Ukrainian prosecutor general's office said on Tuesday it was investigating the blast at the Nova Kakhovka dam, situated in Russian-occupied territory, as a war crime and possible act of environmental destruction, or "ecocide". Kyiv said this was a war crime, while Moscow said the targets were legitimate. WHAT DOES INTERNATIONAL LAW SAY? The Geneva Conventions and additional protocols shaped by international courts say that parties involved in a military conflict must distinguish between “civilian objects and military objectives”, and that attacks on civilian objects are forbidden. IS ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE MILITARY OR CIVILIAN?
Persons: Dmitry Peskov, general's, Marko Milanovic, Michael Schmitt, Milanovic, Katharine Fortin, Stephanie van den Berg, Anthony Deutsch, Mark Heinrich Our Organizations: Reuters, REUTERS, HAGUE, Russia, Criminal, European, of International, University of Reading, ICC, Lieber Institute for Law & Warfare, United States Military Academy West, Utrecht University, Thomson Locations: Nova, Kherson region, Ukraine, Geneva, Ukrainian, Dnipro, Russia, Moscow, Rome
THE HAGUE, June 6 (Reuters) - The Dutch supreme court on Tuesday ruled that a man facing charges of genocide and crimes against humanity for his alleged role in the 1994 Rwandan genocide should not be extradited to Rwanda because it cannot be guaranteed his trial will be fair. In its judgment the Supreme Court confirmed a lower court ruling of November last year that said extradition to Rwanda risked "a flagrant infringement of the right to a fair trial" for Pierre-Claver Karangwa because he is an opposition politician. The Dutch authorities, who have extradited at least three Rwandan genocide suspects to stand trial in Kigali since 2016, had appealed that decision but that appeal was denied by the Supreme Court. Karangwa has already had his Dutch nationality revoked over the genocide accusations. He is now in a legal limbo where he is officially not wanted in the Netherlands but cannot be extradited.
Persons: Pierre, Claver, Karangwa, Stephanie van den, Christina Fincher Organizations: HAGUE, Dutch, Supreme, Thomson Locations: Rwanda, Kigali, Mugina, Netherlands
THE HAGUE, June 6 (Reuters) - Ukraine and Russia face off at the top United Nations court on Tuesday over Moscow's alleged backing of pro-Russian separatists blamed for the shooting down of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 in 2014. It will be the first time lawyers for Ukraine and Russia meet at the ICJ, also know as the World Court, since Moscow launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. Ukraine will first present its case and Russia will then have an opportunity to respond. It also found that Russia had "overall control" over forces in the breakaway Donetsk People's Republic in eastern Ukraine since mid-May 2014. A finding by the World Court that Russia equipped and funded rebels in eastern Ukraine responsible for the MH17 disaster would be a defeat for Moscow, which repeatedly denied sending troops or military equipment to eastern Ukraine in 2014.
Persons: Moscow's, MH17, Vladimir Putin, Stephanie van den Berg, Mark Heinrich Our Organizations: HAGUE, United Nations, Malaysian Airlines Flight, International Court, Russian, ICJ, Russian Embassy, Donetsk People's, Court, Moscow, International Criminal Court, Kremlin, Thomson Locations: Ukraine, Russia, Moscow, Amsterdam, Kuala Lumpur, Russian, Ukrainian, The Hague, Donetsk People's Republic, Kyiv
[1/5] Former head of Serbia's state security service Jovica Stanisic appears in court at the UN International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) in The Hague, Netherlands May 31, 2023. REUTERS/Piroschka van de Wouw/PoolTHE HAGUE, May 31 (Reuters) - U.N. judges on Wednesday expanded the convictions of two former Serbian spymasters who worked for Yugoslav ex-president Slobodan Milosevic and sentenced them to 15 years in the final case before the tribunal in The Hague dating from the Balkan wars of the 1990s. The former head of Serbia's state security service, Jovica Stanisic, and his subordinate Franko "Frenki" Simatovic could be held responsible for crimes in several Bosnian municipalities and one Croatian one due to their role in financing and training Serb militias during the break-up of Yugoslavia, appeals judges said. The Appeal chamber found Stanisic and Simatovic "shared the intent to further the common criminal plan to forcibly and permanently remove the majority of non-Serbs from large areas of Croatia and Bosnia", presiding judge Judge Graciela Gatti Santana said, reading a summary of the verdict expanding their convictions. Reporting by Stephanie van den Berg; Editing by Toby Chopra and Philippa FletcherOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Persons: Stanisic, de, Serbian spymasters, Slobodan Milosevic, Jovica Stanisic, Franko, Frenki, Graciela Gatti Santana, Stephanie van den Berg, Toby Chopra, Philippa Fletcher Organizations: UN, REUTERS, HAGUE, Yugoslav, Thomson Locations: The Hague, Netherlands, Serbian, Bosnian, Yugoslavia, Croatia, Bosnia
THE HAGUE, May 16 (Reuters) - Ukraine and Russia will face off before the United Nations' top court on June 6, when judges will hear Ukraine's claim that Moscow violated a U.N. treaty by supporting pro-Russian separatists who were identified by a Dutch court as being responsible for the 2014 downing of flight MH17. The Dutch ruling also found that Russia had "overall control" over the forces of the Donetsk People's Republic in Eastern Ukraine from mid-May 2014. The International Court of Justice, as the World Court is formally known, has set four days of hearings on June 6, 8, 12 and 14 to hear both sides in the case. This case, filed in 2017, is one of two Ukraine brought against Russia at the court. The other case, filed just after the 2022 Russian invasion, centers on Moscow's claim they invaded Ukraine to prevent genocide.
Father of hundreds gets sperm donation ban from Dutch court
  + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com   time to read: +1 min
THE HAGUE, April 28 (Reuters) - A Dutch court on Friday ordered a man who judges said had fathered between 500 and 600 children around the world to stop donating sperm. The 41-year-old Dutchman, identified by de Telegraaf newspaper as Jonathan Meijer, was forbidden to donate more semen to clinics, the court ruling said. The decision came after a civil case started by a foundation representing the interests of donor children and Dutch parents who had used Meijer as a donor. However, he continued to donate abroad, including to the Danish sperm bank Cryos which operates internationally. Meijer also continued to offer himself as a donor on sites matching prospective parents with sperm donors, sometimes using a different name, according to the Algemeen Dagblad daily.
World Court says it can rule on Guyana-Venezuela border dispute
  + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com   time to read: +2 min
THE HAGUE, April 6 (Reuters) - Judges at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Thursday ruled they had jurisdiction over a long-running border dispute between Guyana and Venezuela, which could determine which country has rights to offshore oil and gas fields. Guyana asked the ICJ, also known as the World Court, in 2018 to confirm that the border was laid down in an 1899 arbitration between Venezuela and the then-colony of British Guiana. The court "by 14 votes to 1, rejects the preliminary objection raised by the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela," said presiding judge Joan Donoghue, while reading the decision. Venezuela does not want the ICJ to rule and instead insists on a bilateral negotiated solution to determine the course of the land border, which may ultimately determine which country has rights to certain offshore oil and gas fields. Offshore oil discoveries in recent years have given Guyana, which has no history of oil production, the potential to become one of the largest producers in Latin America.
However, in a blow for Tehran, the World Court said it did not have jurisdiction over $1.75 billion in frozen assets from Iran's central bank, by far the largest amount claimed back by Iran. The ruling comes amid heightened tensions between the United States and Iran after tit-for-tat strikes between Iran-backed forces and U.S. personnel in Syria last week. The case before the ICJ, also known as the World Court, was initially brought by Tehran against Washington in 2016 for allegedly breaching a 1955 friendship treaty by allowing U.S. courts to freeze assets of Iranian companies. The rulings of the ICJ, the United Nations' top court, are binding, but it has no means of enforcing them. The United States and Iran are among a handful of countries to have disregarded its decisions in the past.
Putin is just the third head of state to be indicted by the International Criminal Court while still in power. The ICC accuses Putin of responsibility for the war crime of deporting Ukrainian children - at least hundreds, possibly more - to Russia. TRAVEL ABROADThe ICC's 123 member states are obliged to detain and transfer Putin if he sets foot on their territory. Kenya's President William Ruto and his predecessor Uhuru Kenyatta were both charged by the ICC before they were elected. Former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci, one of Milosevic's adversaries in the 1990s Balkan wars, left office after being indicted for war crimes by the Kosovo war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
WHO IS INVESTIGATING WAR CRIMES IN UKRAINE? Ukrainian war crimes prosecutors are working with mobile justice teams supported by international legal experts and forensic teams. A total of 296 individuals have been charged with war crimes. War crimes can be defined under customary international law or national law. A number of mostly European states have universal jurisdiction laws that allow them to prosecute Ukrainian war crimes.
AMSTERDAM, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Ukraine's effective use of artificial intelligence (AI) to target Russian forces has pushed the technology onto the agenda of military and political leaders around the world, the CEO of U.S. software firm Palantir (PLTR.N) said on Wednesday. Speaking at the first international summit on responsible military use of AI, CEO Alex Karp said use of AI in war has moved from a "highly erudite ethics discussion" to a top concern since the start of the conflict in Ukraine. "This has now shifted to: your ability to identify the right technology and implement it will determine what happens on the battlefield," he said. "One of the major things we need to do in the West, is realise this lesson is completely understood by China and Russia." Karp has previously said that Planatir is "responsible for most of the targeting in Ukraine", with the company citing the examples of tanks and artillery.
"We're taking the first step in articulating and working toward what responsible use of AI in the military will be." The event may be an early step toward someday developing an international arms treaty on AI, though that is seen as far off. Some 2,000 people including experts and academics are attending a conference alongside the summit, with discussion topics including killer drones and slaughter bots. Hoekstra said the summit will not replace that debate but will look at other aspects of military AI. Examples include definition of terms, how AI could safely be used to accelerate decision-making in a military context, and how it could be used to identify legitimate targets.
THE HAGUE, Jan 30 (Reuters) - Armenia told judges at the World Court on Monday that a blockade of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region by neighbouring Azerbaijan was designed to allow "ethnic cleansing", a claim rejected by Baku. Monday's hearing at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), also known as the World Court, was called to hear an Armenian request for the court to order Azerbaijan to lift the blockade. "Such blatant acts of ethnic cleansing have no place in the modern era and this court is the last hope for the ethnic Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh," Kirakosyan said. Mammadov also said that Armenia's claims of ethnic cleansing were "distorting reality deliberately" and were "fanning the flames" of conflict. On Tuesday the ICJ will hear a competing demand from Azerbaijan for the court to order Armenia to stop planting landmines in territories it once occupied.
ASML: Steps made towards deal on curbing exports to China
  + stars: | 2023-01-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com   time to read: +1 min
THE HAGUE, Jan 28 (Reuters) - ASML Holding NV (ASML.AS) said on Saturday it understood progress had been made towards an agreement among several governments on new restrictions on semiconductor manufacturing equipment exports to China. ASML, a key supplier to chipmakers, has been restricted from selling its most advanced tools to China since 2019. Tensions between the United States and China over semiconductors have steadily worsened since then, prompting Washington in October to impose export restrictions on its own chip manufacturing equipment companies. "It is our understanding that steps have been made towards an agreement between governments which, to our understanding, will be focused on advanced chip manufacturing technology, including but not limited to advanced lithography tools," ASML said. Its statement follows a Bloomberg report on Friday that said the United States, Japan and the Netherlands had reached an agreement following months of talks.
AMSTERDAM, Jan 27 (Reuters) - The Netherlands' Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on Friday that it is not clear whether his government will disclose the result of ongoing talks with the U.S. over new export restrictions for the semiconductor industry. A Dutch delegation is in the U.S. on Friday for talks. "Those talks have been going on for a long time and we're not saying anything about it," Rutte said. Asked whether ASML would not need to be informed of the decision in order to implement new restrictions, Rutte said government communications with the company "are also private." Reporting by Stephanie van den Berg, Toby Sterling, Charlotte Van Campenhout, Editing by Louise HeavensOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
One is making sure Dutch rules are drafted in such a way that they are not actually more restrictive for ASML than for U.S. companies. ASML is expected to post fourth-quarter net income of 1.68 billion euros ($1.82 billion) on record revenue of 6.37 billion euros, according to Refinitiv Eikon data. In November ASML raised its annual revenue estimates by 25% to at least 30 billion euros by 2025. There could be further losses from tougher Dutch rules, if for example, limits are re-applied to sales to China of older technology deep ultraviolet lithography (DUV) equipment. ASML has sold more than 8 billion euros worth of such equipment in China since 2014, when DUV was removed from international lists of goods deemed of possible military use.
REUTERS/Gleb GaranichTHE HAGUE, Dec 16 (Reuters) - Russia's attacks on Ukraine's civilian infrastructure, including energy facilities, have been described as possible war crimes by the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and Amnesty International. The Geneva conventions and additional protocols shaped by international courts say that parties involved in a military conflict must distinguish between "civilian objects and military objectives" and that attacks on civilian objects are forbidden. IS ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE MILITARY OR CIVILIAN? "Simply put, Russian forces are almost certainly striking many targets that do not qualify as military objectives," Schmitt argues. Russia says it attacks military targets including energy infrastructure.
"We are ready to start working with the international community to get the broadest international support possible for this specialised court," von der Leyen said. Ukraine has been pushing for the creation of a special tribunal to prosecute Russian military and political leaders it holds responsible for starting the war. The Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) launched its own investigation into alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes days after Moscow's Feb. 24 invasion, but it does not have jurisdiction to prosecute aggression in Ukraine. The G7 agreed on Tuesday to set up a network to coordinate investigations into war crimes as part of a push to prosecute suspected atrocities in Ukraine. There are several forms the special aggression tribunal could take but legal experts say the most likely is a so-called hybrid tribunal, operating under Ukrainian law with support from the international community.
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