EL SALVADOR
Police to be tried for murder
Three police officers are to be tried for the murder of a transgender woman who was deported from the US two years ago after failing to prove her life was at risk in the Central American country. The unidentified officers, who all deny the charges, face prison sentences of up to 30 years. Camila Diaz, a 29-year-old sex worker who fled the country following repeated threats on her life from a gang, was killed early last month after she was kidnapped and beaten. Judge Sidney Blanco said in court proceeding on Wednesday that sufficient evidence existed to implicate the police officers for the crime of aggravated homicide. The accused officers on Jan. 31 arrested Diaz for supposedly creating a public nuisance and then forced her into a police vehicle, the attorney general’s office said. Once in the vehicle, Diaz was severely beaten and then thrown out onto a highway, prosecutors said. She died of her injuries in hospital three days later. Diaz had turned herself over to US immigration agents in August 2017 to apply for asylum protection, saying she had received death threats from members of the Salvadorean gang Barrio 18. However, she was deported in November 2017 after her asylum request was rejected.
NETHERLANDS
Mladic appeal postponed
International judges on Wednesday postponed an appeal hearing for former Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic, 78, against his convictions on charges including genocide because he is to undergo surgery. The hearing had been scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday next week at the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, a court that handles appeals and other cases from the now closed UN war crimes tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. Mladic was on Nov. 22, 2017, given a life sentence after being convicted of crimes including genocide for leading troops who massacred more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys at the Srebrenica enclave in Bosnia in 1995. He appealed and remains in custody in The Hague. Prosecutors have also appealed to overturn Mladic’s acquittal over a second count of genocide. According to filings released on Wednesday by the residual mechanism, Mladic is to undergo surgery to remove a benign polyp from his colon. Judges did not set a new date for the hearing, but indicated they want to hold it about six weeks after Mladic’s surgery.
POLAND
Chopin competition set
Culture authorities on Monday said that the 18th edition of the international Frederic Chopin piano competition is to take place from Oct. 2 to 23 in Warsaw. Eliminations for the competition, which is famous for launching world careers for its laureates, are to be held from April 17 to 28 in Warsaw and select about 80 pianists who are to compete in the fall. Addressing concerns over the spread of COVID-19, National Frederic Chopin Institute head Artur Szklener said that the eliminations would only be postponed until September if a large number of those who qualified were unable to visit the nation next month. A total of 164 pianists from 33 nations are to perform before a jury at the Chamber Hall of the Warsaw Philharmonic in the qualifications for the fall event. Fans will be able to follow the competition live on www.chopin2020.pl and watch the finals from Oct. 18 to 21 in special fan zones in New York, London, Paris, Tokyo, Budapest, Moscow, Jerusalem and Seoul. The winner is to receive a gold medal and 40,000 euros (US$45,248).
Kouri Richins, a Utah mother who published a children’s book about grief after the death of her husband is to serve a life sentence for his murder without the possibility of parole, a judge ruled on Wednesday. Richins was convicted in March of aggravated murder for lacing a cocktail given to her husband, Eric Richins, with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl at their home near Park City in 2022. A jury also found her guilty of four other felonies, including insurance fraud, forgery and attempted murder for trying to poison her husband weeks earlier on Feb. 14, 2022, with a
‘PERSONAL MISTAKES’: Eileen Wang has agreed to plead guilty to the felony, which comes with a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison A southern California mayor has agreed to plead guilty to acting as an illegal agent for the Chinese government and has resigned from her city position, officials said on Monday. Eileen Wang (王愛琳), mayor of Arcadia, was charged last month with one count of acting in the US as an illegal agent of a foreign government. She was accused of doing the bidding of Chinese officials, such as sharing articles favorable to Beijing, without prior notification to the US government as required by law. The 58-year-old was elected in November 2022 to a five-person city council, from which the mayor is selected
DELA ROSA CASE: The whereabouts of the senator, who is wanted by the ICC, was unclear, while President Marcos faces a political test over the senate situation Philippine authorities yesterday were seeking confirmation of reports that a top politician wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) had fled, a day after gunfire rang out at the Philippine Senate where he had taken refuge fearing his arrest. Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, the former national police chief and top enforcer of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs,” has been under Senate protection and is wanted for crimes against humanity, the same charges Duterte is accused of. “Several sources confirmed that the senator, Senator Bato, is no longer in the Senate premises, but we are still getting confirmation,” Presidential
HELP DENIED? The US Department of State said that the Cuban leadership refuses to allow the US to provide aid to Cubans, ‘who are in desperate need of assistance’ US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday said that Cuba’s leadership must change, as Washington renewed an offer of US$100 million in aid if the communist nation agrees to cooperate. Cuba has been suffering severe economic tumult led by an energy shortage that plunged 65 percent of the country into darkness on Tuesday. Cuba’s leaders have blamed US sanctions, but Rubio, a Cuban American and critic of the government established by Fidel Castro, said the system was to blame, including corruption by the military. “It’s a broken, nonfunctional economy, and it’s impossible to change it. I wish it were different,” he told
RSS