All posts tagged: Prison

French diplomat in Mali sentenced to 20 years in prison for ‘undermining state security’

French diplomat in Mali sentenced to 20 years in prison for ‘undermining state security’

Published by Sam Flores

A Malian court has jailed a French embassy official for 20 years for “undermining state security” in a new blow to relations between the west African nation and its former colonial ruler, judicial sources told AFP on Friday. France lambasted the “baseless accusations” made by the junta against the official who was detained in August last year. The verdict was handed down on Thursday by a specialised anti-terrorist court, with one source telling AFP the proceedings were held behind closed doors. Read moreMali, immigration and DR Congo: Five takeaways from Macron’s FRANCE 24 interview The French official was also hit with a $6,225 fine and a 20-year ban on entering Mali, according to three separate court sources, all speaking on condition of anonymity out of security concerns. At the time of his arrest, Malian authorities accused the official, identified as Yann V., of working for French intelligence, and railed against “foreign states” trying to destabilise the jihadist-plagued country. The official was detained on August 13 in the company of Malian officers, who have since been …

Israel must allow ICRC to visit Palestinians in prison, Supreme Court rules | Israel-Palestine conflict News

Israel must allow ICRC to visit Palestinians in prison, Supreme Court rules | Israel-Palestine conflict News

Published by Sam Flores

Israel’s Supreme Court rejects government ban on prisoner visits, affirming Red Cross access under international law. Published On 4 Jun 20264 Jun 2026 Israel’s Supreme Court has unanimously rejected a government policy banning representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) from visiting Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons. The court ruled on Wednesday that by preventing the Red Cross from visiting prisoners, the government had contravened Israeli and international law, and therefore the policy must be repealed. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list It also ruled that the government failed to present a legal foundation for its policy on annulling all visits after the Hamas-led attack on October 2023, in which more than 1,100 people were killed and more than 240 were taken captive. The assault triggered a brutal war in Gaza, which has been defined as a genocide by several prominent scholars and an independent United Nations inquiry. The Israeli army killed more than 72,950 people in the enclave, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, and reduced most of the besieged …

‘Like a Klingon prison’: inside Barack Obama’s audacious, near-windowless, 0m presidential library

‘Like a Klingon prison’: inside Barack Obama’s audacious, near-windowless, $850m presidential library

Published by Sam Flores

The Egyptians had their pyramids. The Anglo-Saxons had their barrows. And the Americans have their presidential libraries – the chief difference being that the leaders the US venerates are usually still alive at the opening. Lacking a royal family or a state religion, the US presidency has swelled to fill the void, transforming over the decades into a national personality cult, complete with its own secular temples to these powerful men. The latest pharaonic edifice is about to open on Chicago’s south side, where it looms on the skyline as a towering totem to the 44th president, Barack Obama. He might have seemed humble in office, but in his post-presidential, Netflix-producing afterlife, Obama has erected the largest, costliest and most audacious complex of them all. Behold the $850m Obamalisk – or, as it sometimes feels morbidly like, the Obamausoleum. Obama was very, very hands on with the design. He wanted to make things more angular and cut Previous presidential libraries have taken many forms, reflecting the values of their creators. Franklin D Roosevelt began the …

Former abbot of China’s famous Shaolin Temple sentenced to 24 years in prison for corruption

Former abbot of China’s famous Shaolin Temple sentenced to 24 years in prison for corruption

Published by Sam Flores

BEIJING (AP) — A Chinese court on Friday sentenced a former abbot of China’s famous Shaolin Temple to 24 years in prison after he was found guilty of offences including misappropriation of funds and bribery, state broadcaster CCTV reported. Shi Yongxin, whose original name is Liu Yingcheng, was also fined 3.5 million yuan (about $516,000) by the court in central Henan province after a trial. The court found that Shi used his positions, including as the temple abbot, to illegally embezzle over 131 million yuan ($19 million) alone or in conspiracy with others, between 2003 and 2025, CCTV reported. The court also discovered that Shi misappropriated funds amounting to over 151 million yuan (about $22 million) for personal use for more than three months without repayment between 2012 and 2022, among other findings, the report added. The court said Shi’s crimes involved huge amounts, his bribery offenses were particularly serious and his criminal conduct lasted for a long period. “They caused severely harmful consequences and adverse social impact,” CCTV reported the court as saying. Shi …

Colorado Elections Clerk Released From Prison After Governor Commutes Sentence

Colorado Elections Clerk Released From Prison After Governor Commutes Sentence

Published by Sam Flores

DENVER (AP) — Tina Peters, the former county clerk convicted of participating in a scheme to chase election conspiracy theories promulgated by President Donald Trump, was released from state prison Monday after the president successfully pressured Colorado’s Democratic governor into commuting her sentence. Shortly after her release was confirmed by the Colorado Department of Corrections, Peters appeared on the program of Steve Bannon, a former Trump adviser who was part of the right-wing campaign to free Peters. Gov. Jared Polis said he would shorten Peters’ sentence if she expressed regret about her actions. But in her interview with Bannon, Peters repeated the debunked conspiracy theory that voting machines cheated Trump out of reelection in 2020 and portrayed herself as a martyr to the effort to expose it. “I know that the Democrats are going to cheat, and no one is really addressing the problem that I spent my time in prison as retribution for,” Peters said. Multiple reviews, recounts and audits in the battleground states where Trump disputed his 2020 loss have all affirmed that …

Escalating tensions at Newark migrant prison draws ire of lawmakers

Escalating tensions at Newark migrant prison draws ire of lawmakers

Published by Sam Flores

Calls for the closure of a notorious private immigration jail in Newark, New Jersey are growing by the day after 300 Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees launched a hunger and labor strike over the Memorial Day holiday and issued a letter that drew attention to their miserable plight inside the facility that’s owned by The GEO Group, a private prison corporation and major Trump donor. For months, detainees, their families and advocates have said GEO Group was serving up inedible food and was failing to provide essential medical care despite the fact GEO Group has a billion dollar contract with the federal government. Detainees are paid $1 a day if they help maintain the facility, while GEO Group CEO George Zoley gets $11.2 million in annual compensation. Many of the detainees are without any legal counsel or fallen prey to fly-by-night immigration attorneys. Advocates say that others have secured court orders for their release but remain incarcerated. Some have actually signed voluntary self-deportation papers but have languished for months while GEO profits from their incarceration. …

Baby crocodile smuggler from Oxnard headed to federal prison

Baby crocodile smuggler from Oxnard headed to federal prison

Published by Sam Flores

An Oxnard man has been sentenced to more than five years in prison for smuggling at least 1,700 reptiles worth more than $739,000 into the U.S. over six years, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Friday. The animals, including baby crocodiles and Yucatán box turtles, were bought and sold over social media and came from Mexico, Hong Kong and elsewhere, an investigation led by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service revealed. From January 2016 to February 2022, Perez and co-conspirators brought in wild animals without the permits required by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora — and without declaring them, the Justice Department said. In August 2022, Jose Manuel Perez pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of smuggling goods into the country and one count of wildlife trafficking. The animals smuggled from Mexico were advertised on social media, with defendants posting photos and videos of the reptiles being captured in the wild. People working with Perez would collect the reptiles including Mexican box turtles and Mexican …

What happened when Richard Madeley visited the world’s most dangerous prison in El Salvador

What happened when Richard Madeley visited the world’s most dangerous prison in El Salvador

Published by Daniella Wilson

Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Youth Hostelling with Chris Eubank, Arm Wrestling with Chas and Dave and Richard Madeley: Inside the World’s Mega Prison. They all sound like Alan Partridge’s TV pitches and yet, just two of them are. The third is an actual programme that aired on Channel 5 last night, presented by the closest real-life presenter we have to Steve Coogan’s comedy creation: Richard Madeley. The gloriously gaffe-prone broadcaster, who once told Russell Watson he thought his music was “a bit crap” and said “there are not many better things than seeing an older woman skipping”, headed to El Salvador for the documentary to visit CECOT – a 57-acre prison that’s considered to be the harshest and most controversial in the world. The largest maximum security prison in Latin America, CECOT can hold up to 40,000 inmates, all of whom will spend the rest …

Wolverhampton people smuggler who called migrants ‘chickens’ to be monitored after prison release

Wolverhampton people smuggler who called migrants ‘chickens’ to be monitored after prison release

Published by Sam Flores

Three convicted people smugglers have been warned that they will stay on a watchlist even after serving their prison sentences. This means the trio – including failed asylum seeker Ramal Briem from Wolverhampton – won’t be able to talk to criminals after their time inside, according to the National Crime Agency. A spokesman for the force said the ancillary orders are designed to prevent further offending, limiting opportunities for those subject to them to take part in illegal activity and making them less attractive to organised crime gangs. Among the 30 people added to the list issued by the NCA are Dilshad Shamo and Ali Khdir from South Wales, who were jailed for 19 years each in April for their roles in a multi-national people smuggling ring moving migrants from Iraq, Iran and Syria into Europe and onwards to the UK. READ MORE: Cameras at Midlands M5 junction will fine drivers over ‘confusing’ rule Get breaking news on BirminghamLive WhatsApp Shamo and Khdir used WhatsApp to communicate with people smugglers across Europe, often using messaging …

Tesla driver infamous for California road rage attacks goes to prison for another one in Hawaii

Tesla driver infamous for California road rage attacks goes to prison for another one in Hawaii

Published by Sam Flores

A Tesla driver who became infamous for a series of road rage attacks captured on camera in Southern California is headed to prison after being convicted of a similar attack in Hawaii. Nathaniel Radimak, 40, was previously convicted and jailed in Los Angeles over two incidents of road rage, during which he was seen threatening women with a pipe in 2022 and 2023. But after serving less than a year of his five-year sentence, he was paroled and released due to overcrowding. Then last May, he was arrested in connection with an attack in Hawaii. Honolulu police arrested Radimak after he exchanged words with an 18-year-old woman parking her car on Halekauwila Street, officials said. Radimak was accused of getting out of his car and assaulting her and a 35-year-old woman before fleeing. He was charged with one count of unauthorized entry into a car and two counts of assault in the third degree. His attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment. After initially pleading not guilty in the case, Radimak entered …