Headline

Access, Again An Issue At Federal Trial In Floyd’s Killing

Published

4 years ago

January 22, 2022

A closed hearing in the federal trial of three former Minneapolis police officers in George Floyd’s killing was canceled Friday after prosecutors and the media objected, the second time in just days that access to the proceedings became an issue.

U.S. District Judge, Paul Magnuson scheduled the conference on the admissibility of some evidence that attorneys for Tou Thao, J. Kueng and Thomas Lane sought to block.

After prosecutors and news media objected, Magnuson canceled the hearing and met with attorneys in chambers instead.

No details of the meeting were immediately released.

Opening statements are set for Monday in the trial of the three officers, who are broadly charged in federal court with depriving Floyd of his civil rights while acting under government authority as Derek Chauvin used his knee to pin the Black man to the street for 9½ minutes on May 25, 2020. The videotaped killing triggered worldwide protests, violence and a reexamination of racism and policing.

Media groups earlier this week raised concerns about restrictions on journalists and spectators in the courtroom.

Magnuson, citing the coronavirus pandemic, initially set aside just two seats for reporters and none for family members during jury selection, which was completed in one day.

He raised that to four seats for reporters during jury selection — the same as planned for the trial phase — but rejected other media requests, including sharing of evidence exhibits.

Leita Walker, an attorney for the media groups, said she was “concerned that the court purported to cancel an evidentiary hearing but went forward with a meeting and we don’t know what happened at that meeting.”

The original hearing was set to deal with defense motions to exclude certain evidence, including still images from videos the day of Floyd’s death; side-by-side exhibits that will play two videos at once; and dispatch and 911 calls, according to a filing late Thursday from prosecutors objecting to Friday’s closure.

On Thursday, a jury of 18 people who appeared mostly white was picked for the trial, in contrast to the state court jury that convicted Chauvin of murder and manslaughter last April, a panel that was half nonwhite.

This group appears to include a woman of Asian descent among the 12 jurors, and a man of Asian descent among the six alternates. The court declined to provide demographic information.

In objecting to the closure of Friday’s hearing, prosecutors had said neither side had requested the closure.

Walker followed up Friday morning for a coalition of media organizations, including The Associated Press, with the group’s request to the judge to open the proceeding.

She wrote that excluding the press and public from an evidentiary hearing amounted to “a closure of the courtroom that violates the First Amendment.”

“Presumably the Court is concerned about publicity surrounding inadmissible evidence. But it is a standard practice to instruct jury members not to listen to or read news reports on the case they are considering” to avoid the outside influence, Walker wrote.

Magnuson specifically admonished the jurors before he sent them home Thursday evening to avoid media coverage of the proceedings.

Walker wrote that many, and perhaps all, of the jurors were already familiar with the events, including Chauvin’s murder conviction and guilty plea to federal civil rights charges last month.

The judge in Chauvin’s murder trial made an exception to Minnesota’s normal limits on audiovisual coverage, citing the need for public access during the pandemic, and the livestreamed proceedings drew a large audience.

Thao, Kueng and Lane also face a separate state court trial June 13, on charges of aiding and abetting both murder and manslaughter.

(AP)

Headline

UK Police Arrest Asylum Seeker Sex Offender Mistakenly Freed

Published

7 hours ago

October 26, 2025

Editor

The UK police on Sunday arrested an Ethiopian asylum seeker and convicted sex offender, whose crimes had sparked anti-immigration protests, after he was accidentally released from prison in an embarrassing blunder by British authorities.

London’s Metropolitan Police said officers arrested Hadush Kebatu in the north of the capital on Sunday morning, nearly 48 hours after he was mistakenly freed around 30 miles (48 kilometres) away.

Kebatu, 38, had served the first month of a one-year sentence for sexually assaulting a teenage girl and a woman, but was reportedly due to be deported when the Prison Service error occurred on Friday.

His high-profile case earlier this year in Epping, northeast of London, sparked demonstrations in various English towns and cities where asylum seekers were believed to be housed, as well as counter-protests.

Commander James Conway, who oversaw the manhunt for him, said “information from the public” led officers to the Finsbury Park neighbourhood of London, where he was found.

“He was detained by police but will be returned to the custody of the Prison Service,” he added.

Kebatu is now expected to be deported.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Friday he was “appalled” by the “totally unacceptable” mistake that saw him freed rather than sent to an immigration detention centre.

The Telegraph newspaper said he was wrongly categorised for release on licence and handed a £76 ($101) discharge grant.

Police had appealed Saturday for Kebatu to turn himself in, after reports emerged that he had appeared confused and reluctant to leave the prison in Chelmsford, eastern England.

A delivery driver described seeing Kebatu return several times in a “very confused” state, only to be turned away by staff and directed to the railway station.

The driver told Sky News he saw Kebatu outside the jail, asking, “Where am I going? What am I doing?”

“He was starting to get upset, he was getting stressed,” the driver said.

The father of Kebatu’s anonymous teenage victim told the broadcaster that “the justice system has let us down.”

Police arrested the asylum seeker in July after he repeatedly tried to kiss a 14-year-old girl and touch her legs, and made sexually explicit comments to her.

He also sexually assaulted an adult woman, placing a hand on her thigh, when she intervened to stop his interactions with the girl.

He was staying at the time at Epping’s Bell Hotel, where scores of other asylum seekers have been accommodated, and which became the target of repeated protests.

AFP

Headline

Madagascar Revokes Ousted President’s Nationality

Published

8 hours ago

October 26, 2025

Editor

Madagascar’s new government has stripped ousted president Andry Rajoelina of his Malagasy nationality in a decree published Friday, 10 days after he was removed in a military takeover.

According to AFP, the decree means that Rajoelina, who was impeached on October 14 after fleeing the island nation in the wake of weeks of protests, would not be able to contest future election.

The decree published in the official gazette said Rajoelina’s Malagasy nationality was revoked because he had acquired French nationality in 2014, local media reported, as photographs of the document were shared online.

French broadcaster RFI said it had confirmed the decree with the entourage of the new prime minister, Herintsalama Rajaonarivelo, who signed the order.

The decree cited laws stipulating that a Malagasy who voluntarily acquires a foreign nationality loses their Malagasy nationality.

Rajoelina’s French nationality caused a scandal when it was revealed ahead of the November 2023 elections, nearly 10 years after it was granted.

It triggered calls for him to be disqualified but he went on to win the contested polls, which were boycotted by opposition parties.

The 51-year-old politician fled Madagascar after army Colonel Michael Randrianirina said on October 11 his CAPSAT unit would refuse orders to put down the youth-led protest movement, which security forces had attempted to suppress with violence.

Rajoelina said later he was in hiding for his safety, but did not say where.

Randrianirina was sworn in as president on October 14, pledging elections within two years.

Headline

Kamala Harris Hints At Running For President Again

Published

8 hours ago

October 26, 2025

Editor

Former US vice president Kamala Harris said in a British television interview previewed in Saturday that she may “possibly” run again to be president.

Harris, who replaced Joe Biden as the 2024 Democratic presidential candidate but lost to Donald Trump, told the BBC that she had not yet decided whether to make another White House bid.

But the 61-year-old insisted she was “not done” in American politics and that her young grandnieces would see a female president in the Oval Office “in their lifetime, for sure”.

“I have lived my entire career a life of service, and it’s in my bones, and there are many ways to serve.

“I’ve not decided yet what I will do in the future, beyond what I am doing right now,” Harris told the British broadcaster in an interview set to air in full on Sunday.

The comments are the strongest hint yet that Harris could attempt to be the Democratic Party nominee for the 2028 election.

The interview follows the release of her memoir last month, in which she argued it had been “recklessness” to let Biden run for a second term as president.

She also accused his White House team of failing to support her while she was his deputy, and at times of actively hindering her.

AFP