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South Africa’s Jacob Zuma marches with supporters opposed to his jailing

Hundreds of supporters of Jacob Zuma marched alongside the former South African president in his hometown of Nkandla on Saturday, a show of force against a court decision to jail him for 15 months for failing to appear at a corruption inquiry. The constitutional court on Tuesday gave Zuma 15 months in jail for absconding in February from the inquiry led by Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo. Zuma has until the end of Sunday to hand himself in, after which police are obliged to arrest him. “They can give Zuma 15 months … or 100 months. He’s not going to serve even one day or one minute of that,” his son Edward Zuma told Reuters at the gathering. “They would have to kill me before they put their hands on him.” The jail sentence was seen as sign of just how far Zuma, once a revered veteran of...

‘Hotel Rwanda’ hero never joined rebels – co-accused

Paul Rusesabagina, the ex-hotelier immortalised in the film “Hotel Rwanda”, never belonged to a rebel group that sought to overthrow President Paul Kagame, one of the former rebels accused with him of terrorism told a court on Wednesday. “Rusesabagina was never a member of the National Liberation Front (FLN), he was a civilian … He is not a soldier,” former FLN spokesman Callixte Sankara told the court in Kigali. He said the prosecution had presented no evidence to substantiate its claim that Rusesabagina had given orders to the FLN, which has claimed responsibility for attacks in past years that it said were aimed at ousting the president. Sankara is one of 20 Rwandans being tried alongside Rusesabagina, who is 67. Prosecutors describe them as fighters for the FLN. Most were captured in s...

UAE ratifies extradition deal with South Africa as hunt for Guptas intensifies

The United Arab Emirates has ratified a 2018 extradition treaty with South Africa, its embassy in Pretoria said on Wednesday, a move that President Cyril Ramaphosa’s government hopes will lead to the return of the Gupta brothers to face corruption charges. South Africa signed the treaty with the UAE in late 2018, part of Ramaphosa’s effort to crack down on those accused of corruption and influence peddling under his predecessor, Jacob Zuma. It was ratified in April, UAE’s embassy said in a statement. The Gupta brothers – Atul, Ajay and Rajesh Gupta – are accused of using connections with Zuma to win contracts, misappropriate state assets, inappropriately influence cabinet appointments and siphon off billions of rand in state funds. The Indian-born brothers, who have repeatedly denied wrong...

Bulgaria to set up its own ‘blacklist’ after U.S. graft sanctions

Bulgaria will set up its own “blacklist” of companies and people associated with three Bulgarians and 64 entities that the United States has imposed sanctions on over alleged corruption, preventing state dealings with them, the interim government said late on Friday. The United States this week blocked assets and cut off access to its financial system to former lawmaker and media mogul Delyan Peevski, government official Ilko Zhelyazkov and fugitive gambling tycoon Vassil Bozhkov. The interim government, in office until a July 11 parliamentary election, is setting up a group of financial and interior ministry officials as well as tax and intelligence officers to identify and list people and entities associated with those under U.S. sanctions. State administrations and companies with state ...

Guatemalan president says graft fighter biased, ahead of Harris visit

Guatemala’s President Alejandro Giammattei criticized the country’s best-known graft prosecutor for what he said was a left-wing politicization of the fight against corruption, a view at odds with strong U.S. backing for his work. Speaking in an interview with Reuters late on Tuesday, Giammattei nonetheless expressed hope that a visit to Guatemala next week by U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris will produce shared strategies to create prosperity in rural areas prone to emigration. Harris, a Democrat, is in charge of Washington efforts to tackle the causes of mass migration from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, collectively dubbed the Northern Triangle, including a focus on corruption and poor governance that she says limit opportunities. There is a $4 billion U.S. aid package to the reg...

Justice Onnoghen: Why I was sacked as CJN

The Leader Former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Walter Onnoghen, on Friday, stressed that Nigeria as a nation may not record any meaningful achievement in life until they are able to free the nation’s judiciary from the stronghold of politicians. Onnoghen who spoke publicly for the first time since his removal from office two years ago, attributed his sack to political manuevre. The former CJN, who was speaking at the unveiling of a book titled ‘Fundamental Rights (Enforcement Procedure) Rules, 2009, Practice, Procedure, Forms and Precedents’, by a legal luminary, Chief Ogwu James Onoja (SAN), attributed his sack to political intrigues. Onnoghen revealed that prior to his removal, he was accused by the executive of having met with former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar in Dubai, United A...

Thai prosecutor indicts 18 over anti-government protests

A Thai prosecutor on Monday indicted 18 activists for their roles in anti-government rallies last year by a protest movement that has brought unprecedented challenges to the royal palace and military-dominated establishment. The youth-led movement sprang up last year calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, a former junta leader, and reform of the powerful Thai monarchy, breaking a longstanding taboo under the country’s lese majeste law. Those indicted included three prominent leaders charged with sedition and lese majeste during rallies in September, where tens of thousands escalated calls for monarchy reforms. The other 15 protesters face trial for sedition and breaching a ban on public assembly. “There is sufficient evidence that the accused have committed wrongd...

Apple loses copyright infringement claims against security startup

A federal judge in Florida on Tuesday dismissed Apple’s copyright infringement claims against a Florida startup whose software helps security researchers find vulnerabilities in Apple products including the iPhone. U.S. District Judge Rodney Smith ruled in favor of Corellium LLC, saying its software emulating the iOS operating system that runs on the iPhone and iPad amounted to “fair use” because it was “transformative” and helped developers find security flaws. Apple accused Corellium of essentially replicating iOS to create “virtual” iOS-operated devices, whose “sole function” was to run unauthorized copies of the system on non-Apple hardware. But the Fort Lauderdale-based judge said Corellium “adds something new to iOS” by letting users see and halt running processes, take live snapshot...

FIFA lodges fresh criminal complaints against Sepp Blatter

Getty Images FIFA has lodged a criminal complaint against former president Joseph “Sepp” Blatter over the finances of a museum in Zurich, Switzerland bringing the name of the ex-President into the fray. The football world governing body lodged the complaint on Tuesday. The involvement of Bladder and other former officials in the FIFA museum project is the crux of the latest allegation of financial impropriety against the 84-year-old, who resigned from his post as president in 2015 amid a corruption scandal. The Swiss have always denied any wrongdoing. However, football’s world governing body allege that Blatter’s administration cost them £420m in renovation costs for “a building that the organisation doesn’t own”, while also “locking itself into a long-term rental agreement on unfavourable...

Victor Osimhen: Napoli clears Super Eagles medics of any wrong doing

Napoli has denied reports from Italian media that Nigerian doctors complicated Victor Osimhen’s shoulder during the first treatment. Tuttosport claimed Napoli medic revealed that their Nigerian counterparts caused more damage to the shoulder in the process of treatment before he returned to Italy. However, Napoli and the player on Saturday afternoon took to their social media handle to debunk the reports and clear the Super Eagles team doctor of any wrongdoing. “The current situation regarding the injury of Victor Osimhen is only a consequence of the dislocated right shoulder,” Napoli said in a tweet. Osimhen dislocated his shoulder while in action for Super Eagles of Nigeria last month at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium in Benin City. The striker went down in the second under a challenge fro...

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