Legal Dialogue

Russia’s Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case against the police officers who arrested Russian journalist Ivan Golunov. Golunov was arrested on June 6, 2019, when he said police planted drugs on him and framed him for intent to distribute.

Source: Meduza

A court in Hamburg sentenced a 69-year-old entrepreneur to seven years in prison for supplies of materials for the production of missiles bypassing EU sanctions against Russia.

Source: Vedomosti

Three Belgian doctors go on trial for murder for helping a woman end her life, in the country’s first criminal case concerning euthanasia.

Source: Reuters

Britain is preparing to activate a new post-Brexit sanctions regime, with foreign secretary Dominic Raab planning to freeze the assets of Russian citizens and those of other countries deemed responsible for human rights abuses.

Source: Financial Times

Malta’s incoming leader Robert Abela promised to strengthen the rule of law and said the country would emerge stronger after recent events, in an address a day before he is due to succeed Joseph Muscat as prime minister. Muscat is stepping down following an investigation into the 2017 murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

Source: Reuters

Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny said that the forcible military conscription of one of his allies to a remote air base in the Arctic amounted to kidnapping and illegal imprisonment.

Source: Reuters

Three years of falling weapons and military hardware exports have gone into reverse, reaching almost €8 billion in 2019. The figures have been criticized as proving that controls on weapons deliveries are not working.

Source: DW

The news agency Sputnik Estonia, which is owned by the Russian state media conglomerate Russia Today, has ground to a halt after every one of its 35 employees resigned.

Source: Meduza

A Romanian court has upheld the acquittals of 25 men accused of running a major child-trafficking operation. The men were arrested in 2010 as part of a large joint operation with British police where children were rescued in London raids.

Source: BBC