jailed

Russell Brand tried to block rape trial before it even began

Russell Brand tried to smear journalists as “criminals” in a doomed bid to avoid standing trial, it can now be revealed.

However, his bid failed when the judge simply ruled the jury could be made up of people who had not seen the 2023 media reporting. He rubbished Brand’s claim that the former comedian’s reputation had been “destroyed”, pointing to a sell-out Wembley show he performed after being publicly accused of rape.

Improving prison conditions for Abdullah Ocalan has been a key Kurdish demand in push to end PKK-Turkiye conflict.

Turkiye has moved the jailed founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Abdullah Ocalan, to a newly-built section of the island prison where he has been held for 27 years, pro-Kurdish legislators said as they urged Ankara to speed up the stalled peace process.

Mithat Sancar, a member of the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM) delegation that regularly visits Ocalan, confirmed the transfer on Saturday in an interview with the Kurdish television channel Medya Haber TV.

He said the move “necessitates an acceleration of the (peace) process”, which he said had been paused for two months. “The process cannot proceed with unilateral expectations and demands,” he said.

Fellow DEM politician Pervin Buldan said on Sunday that Ocalan himself had announced the transfer, but played down its significance.

“This new facility is part of the prison; it is not somewhere outside the prison,” she said, according to the AFP news agency. “The question of status cannot be defined solely by Mr Ocalan having moved to this location.”

Erbil-based broadcaster Kurdistan24 described the facility as a new house built for Ocalan on Imrali island. It said the move was seen as part of preparations to give him a more active role in the peace process. Better prison conditions for Ocalan have been a key Kurdish demand.

The PKK was founded in 1978 by Ocalan and others, initially fighting for an independent Kurdish state, before shifting its demands to autonomy and greater rights for Turkiye’s Kurds, who make up an estimated 15 to 20 percent of the population. The group launched an armed campaign against the Turkish state in 1984 and is designated a “terrorist” organisation by Turkiye, the United States and the European Union.

The conflict has killed more than 40,000 people. Ocalan has been held on Imrali, in the Sea of Marmara, since his capture in 1999.

In February last year, Ocalan called on the PKK to disband and disarm and the group announced its dissolution that May. Turkiye’s parliament adopted a law offering limited amnesty for PKK fighters in August and the PKK leadership has repeatedly demanded Ocalan’s release as part of the process.

Couple say they are ‘prisoners of conscience’ being made into an example by Pakistan’s military-backed authorities.

An antiterrorism court in Pakistan has sentenced prominent human rights lawyers Imaan Mazari and her husband, Hadi Ali Chattha, ⁠⁠to 10 years in prison on terrorism-related charges.

Judge Tahir Abbas Sipra announced the verdict on Thursday, following their trial inside Adiala prison in the garrison city of Rawalpindi.

The couple were found guilty of putting “the security of [the England and Wales Cricket] team at risk”, the judge wrote, adding that it “clearly shows the intentions and objective of the accused to create a sense of terror”, according to a copy of the court judgement obtained by the AFP news agency.

At the same time, the ruling conceded that the security breach was “a very common nature ordinary type of incident apparently of removal of a barrier”.

The case relates to an October 2024 incident in which the couple removed road barriers in the capital, Islamabad, along a route designated for the touring England cricket team.

The couple were indicted on October 7, accused of obstructing police and inciting public interest, and pleaded not guilty.

In statements seen by the Reuters news agency, the couple denied the charges, while calling themselves “prisoners of conscience”, adding that ⁠⁠they were being targeted for their human rights work.

In their defence document, the couple had earlier said they were “being made an example to further cement the chilling effect against those who stand (or want to stand) against tyranny, oppression and injustice”.

Relatives criticise judicial process

Shireen Mazari, who is Imaan Mazari’s mother and served as Pakistan’s human rights minister under incarcerated former Prime Minister Imran Khan, said it was a “sham trial without any due process”.

Mazari told the Reuters news agency the couple “were not permitted to defend themselves through their own lawyer, and were not provided with key legal ⁠⁠documents”, adding that the defence would file a petition against the verdict in the Supreme Court.

Amnesty International called the convictions “an indictment of Pakistan’s justice system.”

“It was a test of the judiciary’s ability to uphold the principles of justice and the right to fair trial. It has failed that test miserably,” said Amnesty’s Yasmine Ahmend.

“It is clear that these ‘anti-terrorism’ charges are being used to punish Imaan and Hadi for their human rights advocacy,” she added.

Mazari and Chattha have been in custody since January 23, in a separate case over their social media posts.

A lower court sentenced ‌‌them each to 17 years the next day under Pakistan’s Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, which critics have said is designed to quash antigovernment dissent online.

Although the Supreme Court later suspended those sentences, police re-arrested ‌‌the couple the same day in the security breach case.

“Imaan and Hadi’s re-arrest dispels any pretence that the charges against them are anything other than a politically motivated attempt to punish them for their human rights work”, said Babu Ram Pant, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for South Asia, adding that the case demonstrates once again the authorities’ willingness to weaponise the legal system against critical voices.

Pakistan’s ⁠⁠law minister, Azam Nazeer Tarar, has repeatedly said the country’s judiciary is independent.

The former British Army member harboured ‘extreme right-wing’ views and was ordering explosives components, say police.

A British court has handed a former army chef a nearly four-year jail term for possessing weapons for “terrorist purposes”.

Mark Broadhurst, 28, was given the sentence on Wednesday at Sheffield Crown Court in England, two years after police uncovered online messages in which he expressed racist views and an intention to sell homemade firearms to right-wing groups.

Police found a stockpile of weapons at Broadhurst’s home address when they took him into custody in September 2024, including knives and crossbows, black powder, ammunition, air pistols and what officials described as “an improvised homemade cannon”.

The former British Army member was also found to be part of an online chat group with three other men who last year were jailed for planning to carry out a “terrorist” attack at mosques or synagogues as part of what they believed to be a coming “race war”.

Frank Ferguson, head of the special crime division of the UK’s public prosecution agency, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), said Broadhurst was “clearly interested in violence and developing weapons that had the ability to cause untold harm to innocent people”.

Detective Chief Superintendent James Dunkerley, who heads “counterterror” policing in the northeastern region, said Broadhurst was found to be harbouring an “extreme right-wing mindset” and was “proactively ordering components to make explosives”.

Broadhurst pleaded guilty to firearm possession and possessing an explosive under suspicious circumstances, but denied they were for “terrorism” purposes. ⁠A judge, however, ruled that Broadhurst’s offences were connected to “terrorism”.

His conviction comes against a backdrop of rising racial tensions and hate crimes in the UK, with marginalised communities increasingly targeted.

British police in July arrested 12 people in connection with an “extreme right-wing terrorism threat” targeting an Islamic gathering in eastern England.

Six months earlier, UK prosecutors said they were handling the highest number of hate crime cases referred by police in its history.