acquitted

Oct. 31 (UPI) — Three activists with “Just Stop Oil” were acquitted Friday by a British court for spraypainting Britain’s ancient Stonehenge site.

Following a 10-day trial at Salisbury Crown Court, Oxford University student Niamh Lynch, Rajan Naidu and Luke Watson were acquitted on charges of causing a public nuisance.

Naidu, 74, and Lynch, 23, along with Watson, 36, were taken into custody last summer after spray-painting the ancient site at Stonehenge — the prehistoric megalithic structure — the color orange to protest the country’s ongoing use of fossil fuels.

Stonehenge sits in southern England roughly 88 miles southwest of the country’s capital London.

The incident took place as thousands were expected to descend on the area the next day for the summer solstice, the earliest in 228 years since 1796.

The three climate activists denied all charges in the ongoing global protest against use of fossil fuels.

They cited “reasonable excuse” in their defense under articles of free speech part of the European Convention on Human Rights.

“If individuals disagree with what our government is doing on certain matters they are entitled to protest,” stated Judge Dugdale.

Aug. 22 (UPI) — Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra avoided a likely prison term Friday after his royal defamation case was dismissed.

Shinawatra was indicted last year on charges he defied the country’s lese majeste law, which prohibits anyone from insulting the Thai monarchy.

He was accused by a general from the military regime that took power in 2014, in a coup that deposed the prime minister at that time, his sister Yingluck Shinawatra.

Shinawatra allegedly disrespected the monarchy in an interview he gave in 2015 to a South Korean newspaper in which he said people connected to the “palace” helped overthrow Yingluck.

Shinawatra was living in Dubai at the time in a self-imposed exile, and out of reach for prosecution. The 76-year-old could have seen as many as 15 years in prison if found guilty.

The charges against Shinawatra, who was elected prime minister in 2001 but removed himself in a 2006 coup, were widely believed to be politicized due to his hold on power despite being absent.

Even while he remained outside Thailand’s borders, political parties tied to Shinawatra won national elections until 2023.

It was then he returned and was indicted over the defamation charges in June of 2024. He was also charged with violating Thailand’s Computer Crime Act because the interview in question ran online, but that was also dismissed Friday.

Acquittals in Thai lese majeste cases are rare, as 87% lead to convictions.

Shinawatra will next face a judge in September, as he was hospitalized upon returning to Thailand and is accused of using that stay to avoid being imprisoned.

Ron Carey, the reformist Teamsters president who was ousted from the union in a fund-raising scandal five years ago, was acquitted Friday of lying to investigators during several corruption probes.

A federal jury in Manhattan found Carey, 65, not guilty of seven counts of perjury. Each count carried a maximum five-year sentence.

“I’m just so delighted,” Carey told reporters outside the courtroom. “It obviously opens lots of doors and possibilities, which I’ll be looking at.”

A former truck driver who ran the 1.4-million-member International Brotherhood of Teamsters union for five years, Carey narrowly won reelection against James P. Hoffa in 1996. But the vote was invalidated when it was learned that aides laundered nearly $1 million in contributions to Carey’s campaign. Hoffa handily beat Carey in a new election.

Carey, who had pledged to continue efforts to clean up the scandal-plagued union, told investigators at the time that he had no knowledge of the scheme. He said it was orchestrated by professional campaign consultants.

During the trial, Assistant U.S. Atty. Deborah Landis said Carey knew about the plan, did nothing to stop it and then lied about it to numerous federal and union investigators over a six-month period.

The aides contributed $885,000 in Teamsters funds to several political action organizations. In turn, wealthy donors contributed similar amounts to Carey’s campaign. Federal law prohibits the use of union funds to promote the candidacy of any individual.

The union, which was placed under federal trusteeship long before the Carey presidency, still is monitored by the government.

Matt Noyes of the Assn. for Union Democracy, a New York-based civil rights group that has monitored the Teamsters and other corruption-plagued unions, said he was not surprised by the acquittal. The prosecution “seemed a little gratuitous,” he said, because Carey already had been removed from the union and the architects of the scheme had been found guilty and were sentenced.

Teamsters spokesman Bret Caldwell said the acquittal would not change the union’s position toward Carey. “He’s banned from the union and that’s not changing.”

Caldwell also said the union planned to continue pursuing a civil racketeering case against Carey. That effort seeks the return of the $885,000. The case was dismissed by a federal judge two weeks ago, but Caldwell said the union plans to appeal the dismissal as well as file a new, rewritten case. “Ron Carey’s not off the hook yet,” he said.

Friday’s acquittal came as Teamsters members began receiving mail-in ballots for the latest union election. Hoffa is running for reelection against Tom Leedham, who ran as a reformer in Carey’s place during the rematch five years ago. Members have until mid-November to return ballots.

Leedham supporters said the acquittal could help their campaign, because Leedham and Carey espouse similar reforms and pull from the same supporters. “It really undercuts a lot of what Hoffa has said” about Carey, said Ken Paff, national coordinator of the Teamsters for a Democratic Union. “Whatever mistakes Carey made–including allowing unsavory consultants into his campaign–his legacy is one of reform, power and hope for Teamsters.”

But Hoffa campaign spokesman Rich Leebove disputed that. “We don’t think it will have any impact, because Ron Carey’s not on the ballot,” he said. “This is an issue from five years ago, and most people have moved on. This election’s going to be decided on leadership. . . . We feel comfortable. Leedham’s support is less now than it was three years ago.”