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Europe
Bosnia
Herzegovina
Secrecy
still shrouds Srebrenica - 22 October
Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic has told The Hague he
will boycott the start of his trial on Monday. The most serious
charge against him is of genocide in the 1995 massacre of 8 000
people at Srebrenica. Olenka Frenkiel considers whether the trial
will air the full facts about what happened at Srebrenica, and set
the record straight over the alleged complicity of Western
governments. - BBC News
website
Court
told Karadzic wanted "ethnic cleansing" - 28 October
Radovan Karadzic led a genocidal campaign to make Bosnian Muslims
"disappear from the face of the earth" and carve out a
mono-ethnic state for Bosnian Serbs, war crimes prosecutors told a
UN tribunal Tuesday. - Eye
Witness News website
France
Chirac
ordered to face trial in France - 30 October
An investigating magistrate on Friday ordered the former French
president, Jacques Chirac, to stand trial on corruption
charges dating to his time as mayor of Paris, reinforcing the
whiff of alleged malfeasance swirling around the political elite
here. - New York Times
website
French
court fines Scientologists, allows operations - 27 October
A Paris court on Tuesday fined the French branch of the Church of
Scientology a total of 600 000 euros ($902,200) after finding it
guilty of fraud but allowed the group to continue operating in
France. When the hearing opened, there were expectations that the
court could order the group to be banned in France but due to a
mix-up over a law that passed in parliament just before the start
of the trial in May, that option was ruled out. - Reuters
website
Italy
Berlusconi
faces early tax trial - 26 October
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is to go back on trial
in November, accused of tax fraud. It follows a recent decision
by Italy's highest court to lift his immunity from prosecution
while serving in office. He is to stand trial on 16 November -
much earlier than expected - on charges linked to the purchase
of TV and film rights by his family company, Mediaset. Mr
Berlusconi denies the charges. He also faces another trial, yet
to be set, for bribing a British tax lawyer. - BBC
News website
Switzerland
US
asks for Polanski extradition - 22 October
The US has formally asked Switzerland to extradite film director
Roman Polanski on sex charges, Swiss officials say. - BBC
News website
Polanski
victim seeks dismissal - 26 October
The victim of the sexual assault committed by Roman Polanski has
called for charges against the film director to be dismissed,
court documents show. Lawyers for Samantha Geimer, who was 13 when
Polanski had sex with her in 1977, urged a dismissal in a motion
filed at a California appeals court on Friday. The papers filed on
behalf of Ms Geimer, who lives in Hawaii, ask judges at
California's 2nd District Court of Appeal to rule on a previous
motion to dismiss the charges against Polanski. Claiming that
Polanski had been forced to flee by a "corrupt" judge,
they state : "No matter what his crime, Polanski was entitled
to be treated fairly ; he was not". - BBC
News website
Swiss
to tackle 'suicide tourism' - 28 October
The Swiss government has laid out the details of proposals to ban
or severely restrict assisted suicide as part of plans to tackle
"suicide tourism". Justice Minister Eveline
Widmer-Schlumpf has called for organisations like Dignitas to face
stricter controls. The proposals will now be subject to
consultation, with a draft law due to be sent to parliament in
March. - BBC News website
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