Le Nouvelliste says man has been under medical care for psychiatric problems
SION, SWITZERLAND – A Sion judge was attacked and suffered multiple injuries Saturday night 28 January in the city centre. Le Nouvelliste reported Monday morning that a man who has been under medical treatment and who suffers severe psychiatric problems has been arrested and taken to a special detention centre. Police confirmed at 11:00 Monday that a 29-year-old Swiss German who lives in Valais sought medical treatment Sunday morning for injuries he suffered Saturday night. He told medical staff that he was the man who attacked the judge, and he then turned himself into police.
The attack appeared in some way linked to the “Luca” case that has received heavy media attention, particularly in Valais, because the attacker called out “Luca, Luca” and was reported by the judge to say he would pay the magistrate back in kind.
Luca Mongelli is a youth who was badly injured, the victim of a bizarre and vicious attack in Veysonnaz in 2002. The case received heavy media attention at the time and, recently made it back into the news. The boy, age 7 at the time, was found injured and naked, in the snow, in Veysonnaz, after taking the family dog, Rocky, for a walk with Luca’s younger brother Marco. Luca was able to say immediately after the attack that humans had done this to him, but legal and medical analyses at the time showed Rocky to be the attacker, and a drawing done by the very young Marco, as well as his words at the time, pointed to the 30 kg 7-month-old dog. The case was suspended in 2004 and the family has called publicly for further investigation. Luca today is tetraplegic as a result of his injuries.
The Valais attorney general held a press conference on the affair 26 January (details below).
Saturday’s attack was violent and wrongly evoked the Luca case
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A fight or an argument? Pushes and shoves or verbal abuse or just heated words? A Geneva judge will have the task in early February of deciding whose word to believe: Mark Muller, Geneva cantonal council member or the bartender at the Moulin dance hall, concerning what really happened in the early hours of 1 January. Cantonal Attorney General Daniel Zappelli will hear the arguments of both sides and decide if charges filed by the bartender should be pressed against Muller.
The bartender filed charges 6 January, saying that Muller had hit him. Muller denies this and he, in turn, filed charges against the bartender 12 January. Muller’s charges have not for now led to an investigation being opened, as is the case with the bartender’s charges.
Meanwhile, reports the Tribune de Geneve, Muller has had a case taken away from him and given to another council member, that of the Moulin à danses, near the old Jonction usine à gaz, which has to move to make way for Geneva’s new green neighbourhood, or éco-quartier.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Media in the Italy, Britain and the US are heavily covering the release from prison of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito, following the judge’s decision in Italy to overturn their murder convictions in the November 2007 death of Meredith Kercher. Coverage of the trial and release continue to follow national lines, with American media often portraying Knox as an innocent victim, British media emphasizing the prosecution’s description of her as a liar with a split personality, and Italy media incensed that their justice system is being called faulty by Americans.
Knox sobbed as she left the courtroom. Sollecito’s father gave an emotional TV interview outside. And Kercher’s family quietly left, telling journalists briefly of their disappointment, appearing stunned by the verdict. They will give a press conference later today.
Rudy Guede, 24, from Cote d’Ivoire, was also accused of the murder in a separate trial and his appeal was upheld although he, too, claims innocence.
A fourth person involved in the court case, bar owner Patrick Lumumba, was once Knox’s employer, and while under interrogation she accused him of the murder. He was detained for two weeks based on her evidence. Know was found guilty 3 October of slander and was sentenced to three years, which she has served, and ordered to pay him several thousand dollars. Knox is likely to quickly sign an agreement worth at least $1 million with a US television network, according to Britain’s Sky News.
Links to other sites: Guardian, UK, Seattle PI, Sky News, Zimbio images
BASEL, SWITZERLAND – A 32-year-old woman who shot her husband in March 2011 was found guilty of homicide by negligence and sent home without sentencing. The judge declared she had suffered enough in losing her husband.
She shot her husband in their apartment while he was showing her how to handle the gun, of which she was afraid. The previous day, while high on cannabis, he had put a bullet in the chamber, most likely unintentionally and while distracted, the court concluded. His wife was looking for documents and her husband called to her to hand him the gun that was kept in the same place. She jokingly pointed it at him and said “Hands up!” and he joined in the game, taking the pistol and holding it to his head, telling her there was nothing to be afraid of, while explaining how it worked.
He assured her the gun was empty but when, under his instructions, she pulled the trigger, it went off, killing him.
The woman told the judge she had had faith in her husband’s word, but the judge said where guns are concerned confidence in another person is not enough: pointing a gun at someone or at one’s head is an act that lacks common sense.
DSK release, May 2011 (cartoon ©2011 Patrick Chappatte, Globe Cartoon)
Update 23:45 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The rape charges in criminal court against former IMF (International Monetary Fund) head Dominique Strauss-Kahn have been dropped: an appeals court refused to appoint a special prosecutor, allowing a judge’s decision to drop charges, earlier in the day 23 August, to go ahead.
The prosecution had requested that charges be dropped on the basis that they were “no longer convinced of the defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt”.
The prosecution said in its filing in New York that there was evidence that Strauss-Kahn and Nafissatou Diallo, a maid at a New York hotel, had engaged in a sexual encounter, but whether it was consensual or rape was less clear.
The prosecution noted that Diallo, who has allowed her name to be used, had not been entirely truthful in tax documents and in her application for asylum from Guinea, and the case with a jury would rest on their ability to believe she was telling the truth.
Her lawyers argued that the prosecution was ignoring strong physical evidence.
Strauss-Kahn, who has been under house arrest since soon after his arrest in May, will be free to return to France. He was considered a leading candidate from the Left for the French presidential elections in 2012. Le Monde late Tuesday, in reporting on the charges being dropped, noted that his candidature has been “definitively compromised”, although the New York Times says that his political career is far from over.
Diallo has filed a civil case against the former IMF head, but since these are not criminal charges they will not keep him in New York. France does not allow its own citizens to be extradited, so once on French soil DSK, as he has become known since the case started, would not be obliged to return to the US.
Strauss-Kahn motion to dismiss, NY court (pdf)
Commentaries:
Guardian, “DSK walks, but Nicolas Sarkozy will run”
Le Monde (Fre), “Malgre le non-lieu, une affaire ‘impitoyable’”
New York Times, “End of Rape Case Brings the French Relief, and Political Questions”
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s not guilty plea in a New York court Monday 6 June has opened the door to a long court case in the US, with a possible 25 years in prison as the outcome, according to US legal experts cited by several American media. DSK, as the former head of the IMF is popularly called in his home country of France, has pleaded not guilty to seven charges filed against him 15 May, including rape.
Several hotel employees shouted “shame on you” outside, to show their solidarity with the maid at the Hotel Sofitel whom he is accused of having sexually attacked 14 May. The process of pleading not guilty lasted from 15:05 when he entered the court building to 15:46, when his lawyer announced as they were leaving that DSK pleads not guilty.
His next hearing is scheduled for 18 July and the trial, which promises to be lengthy given his not guilty plea, is expected to start in the autumn.
Meanwhile, his movements are limited outside the apartment where he is staying and he is paying $200,000 a month for a security team that has the right to “to use force should he attempt to flee”, reports The Guardian.
The New York Post, whose headlines about the case have pushed a number of journalists to ask if the tabloid has gone too far, surprisingly was not one of the first to report his guilty plea Monday.
Links to other sites: Guardian, Liberation, Wall St Journal
Jim Lacey, a former National Irish Bank (NIB) director, has been disqualified for “gross negligence” and “various breaches of duty”, with a high court judge finding that “his conduct made him unfit to be concerned in the management of a company”. The ruling followed an investigation of 10 years of the bank’s activities, with the inspectors concluding in 2004 that the bank was involved in widespread tax evasion. Lacey’s tenure as chief executive and director ran from 1988 to 1994 and the ruling comes 17 years after the event.
Lacey had argued that being disqualified would have major consequences for him; the Irish Times notes that “since leaving NIB, he was appointed to various State boards, including the Dublin Docklands Development Authority, worked with the World Bank and was a director of two International Financial Service Centre companies.”
The judge’s lengthy report came down hard on Lacey for at best being unaware of certain practices at the bank which, as CEO, were his responsibility. “While noting Mr Lacey had said he was unaware of various improper practices within the bank, the judge described as ‘bordering on incredulity’ Mr Lacey’s insistence he did not know what a senior NIB official meant in 1989 when describing non-resident accounts as ‘a sensitive issue’ and referring to ‘this thorny subject’ of Revenue concerns,” according to the Irish Times. “Mr Lacey should have been aware – and in some cases was aware – of a practice of treating certain accounts as non-resident accounts when they were not, the judge said. Mr Lacey ought to have known that practice facilitated the evasion of Dirt by the bank.”
Dirt is the acronym for Deposit Interest Retention Tax.
RTE, Irish broadcast company, notes that the length of the disqualification period will be set in May.
Julian Assange could soon be free from Wandsworth Prison on £240,000 bail, once the cash is collected, in a London Westminster Magistrates Court bail hearing marked by more than just the news about the his freedom. The judge agreed to let journalists covering the case tweet the news directly from the courtroom. Assange’s temporary near-freedom was almost secondary news in the face of astonished reporters’ coverage of their own “freedom”. Metro, a UK online paper, notes that “Direct, live reporting from within court is not normally allowed in British courtrooms. Making sound recordings, taking pictures or even making sketches are all explicitly against the law (court sketch artists have to work from memory), and those present are often ordered to turn any mobile devices off before proceedings start.”
Links to other sites: Atlantic on how many tweets Assange gets you, BBC
The biggest love story of recent history or a mega-scam: the court battle over the will of Nina Wang, one of Hong Kong’s wealthiest women, who died of cancer in 2007, has been closely followed in the greater Hong Kong region and southern China, with crowds fighting for space at the hearings. Wang was a colourful figure during her lifetime, known as “Little Sweetie” and famous for wearing pigtails. Monday the judge presiding over the case ruled in favour of Nina Wang’s family, who have been contesting a will her former feng shui master and married lover of 14 years presented. He has claimed that in 2006 she signed over her fortune to him but the family has argued that an earlier will, signed in 2002 and which left her money to the family’s charitable foundation, was the valid one.
CNN quotes the court statements as saying “”Giving him gifts or even large sums of money during Nina’s lifetime when he made her happy is one thing. Making him sole heir in respect of her entire estate (carrying with it the responsibility of running the Chinachem business empire and implementing her objectives) is quite different. The court finds that the first defendant was not a suitable candidate for discharging such responsibilities.”
Nina Wang’s husband Tony was abducted in 1990 and disappeared; he was declared dead in 1999. She met Tony Chan in 1992. In the years after her husband’s disappearance she built his company into one of Hong Kong’s major real estate companies, although for the first eight years she fought her father-in-law for control of the company. She was 69 when she died.
Links to other sites: China Post, CNN, stuff.co.nz
BMW Oracle left California 15 December for Valencia, Spain
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Alinghi sailing team is preparing to defend its World Cup title in the chilly winter waters of Valencia, Spain in 2010, following a decision Tuesday 15 December by a panel of New York Supreme Court judges to uphold an earlier decision. A judge ruled 30 October against the choice by Société Nautique de Genève’s of Ras Al Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates for the next America’s Cup. The four-judge panel also upheld an earlier decision to exclude rudders from the measurement of the load waterline length of the race yacht.
Alinghi will face BMW Oracle in February 2010 in Valencia. The BMW team, based in San Francisco, left California Tuesday for Valencia, to start preparing for the race.
Background, GenevaLunch
Links to other sites: Alinghi, BMW Oracle
A federal circuit court judge in Texas, Sharon Keller, popularly nicknamed Killer Sharon for her firm stand on the death penalty, is on trial for ethical midconduct in the case of Michael Wayne Richard, who was put to death three hours after the judge’s office closed, despite calls from his lawyers to delay his execution while they tried to lodge an appeal with Keller’s office, an effort held up by computer glitches. Texas has the highest number of executions in the US. BBC, Houston Chronicle
Fribourg, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Two youths, who were 17 when they committed the crime, have been sentenced for sexually abusing two 14-year-old girls in 2008, in a case that was closely followed by Swiss media last year. One has been given a 10-month prison sentence and the other a six-month suspended sentence.
The case made headlines in part because the two were the oldest in a group that included seven others, all minors and about the same age as the victims, as well as three to four other young adults who are still awaiting trial. The ringleaders, one of whom was the target of the affections of one of the girls, are both from Serbia, and the case came to light during a period when the Swiss were considering tightening the law for offenders of other nationalities. They voted in favour of the law. The young man given a firm prison sentence had already had charges dropped in a similar case, but where the girl had consented to sex, but he also had a police record for damaging property and traffic violations.
Switzerland has the highest rate of foreigners in Europe.
Bern, Switzerland (20 Minutes, Fre) – The current mandatory period of two months for couples who are divorcing to reflect on ending their marriage, after their hearing by a judge, could well end for couples divorcing by mutual consent, on “friendly” terms. The judicial commission of the upper house of the Swiss parliament 16 June recommended that the period be abolished, based on its ineffectiveness. The judge would maintain the right to hold several hearings, however, if he senses tha one member of the couple is reluctant.
Alinghi into the water, Lausanne April 2009 (image, Carlo Borlenghi)
New York, NY, USA (GenevaLunch) - Conflicting reports are surfacing about what exactly a New York Supreme Court judge ordered 14 May, in the legal case linked to sailing’s America’s Cup , but it appears that Justice Shirley Kornreich upheld an earlier decision that Alinghi and BMW Oracle must race against each other by February 2010 at the latest. AFP wire service reports that Kornreich insists the two must have what will amount to a rare battle between two boats in the America’s Cup, but the story sheds little light on where this race fits into the planned Cup races that include several other teams.
A jury in Alabama in the US convicted Lam Luong, 37, on four counts of murder Thursday 19 March. Luong pleaded guilty to throwing his four children off of a Gulf Coast bridge after a marital dispute that occurred a week before the murders in January 2008. Luong’s sentencing, a complex process, begins Friday 20 March. Jurors will have to recommend the death penalty or life in prison without parole. The judge is not bound to the decision of the jury, however, and automatic appeals are mandatory in murder convictions. CNN
Update July 2009 New York, NY, USA (GenevaLunch) - The Challenger of the Record for the 33rd America’s Cup sailing race is now the GGYC (Golden Gate Yachting Club) in San Francisco, following a ruling by a judge in New York Tuesday that disqualified the Valencia-based Club Náutico Español de Vela (CNEV).
Photo, Ivo Rivero 2007, Alinghi, Dubai November 2007. Reprinted with permission.
The Spanish club had been named as the Challenger of the Record by Alinghi, the Swiss-based team that won the 32nd race in July 2007, and Valencia was selected as the home for the next race. The America’s Cup is the top event in the sailing world.
Today’s ruling is based on a technicality, that the CNEV had not held its annual regatta before becoming the Challenger of Record, Michel Hodara, chief operating officer of ACM (America’s Cup Management), which oversees the races, told GenevaLunch. Alinghi’s choice was hotly contested from the start by BMW Oracle, which was not the challenger for the 2007 race.
Emirates Team New Zealand was the Challenger of Record in July 2007, having won the Louis Vuitton race series against several other competitors. Alinghi defeated Emirates 5-2 in a very close set of races.
The judge’s decision is a blow to the Société Nautique de Genève (SNG), the yacht club that is home to Alinghi. The SNG was taken to court in August by BMW Oracle, whose home is the GGYC in California.
