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The Independent Police Complaints Council released a report looking into the handling of the anti-government protests that erupted in summer 2019. While some Hongkongers demanded an independent commission of inquiry into the police force, council chairman Anthony Neoh said the council had 'no legal foundation' to co…
Wang Quanzhang, a Chinese human rights lawyer arrested in the “709” crackdown in 2015, has reunited with his wife and son after almost five years in jail for “subverting state power”. He is one of the last lawyers arrested in the roundup to be released from prison.
Wang Quanzhang, a Chinese human rights lawyer who has just served four and a half years in prison for state subversion, finally reunited with his wife in Beijing on April 27, 2020, because of her ill health.
Clinical trials on human subjects using an experimental new coronavirus vaccine got under way at Oxford University in the UK on April 23, 2020. Scientists in a lab at one of the world’s top universities have an ambitious goal of preparing a vaccine by autumn 2020 if all goes well. Around the world, more than 100 res…
President Moon Jae-in’s Democratic Party in South Korea won a landslide victory in parliamentary elections on April 15, 2020, in what was widely seen as a referendum on the government’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak in the country. The ruling party won 163 seats in the 300-member National Assembly, while the …
More than 4,000 judges in China have become live-streaming hosts as court auctions have gone online amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Carlo Navarro, a Filipino tax lawyer tested positive for Covid-19 in early March 2020 after travelling to Japan with his family. After his recovery, the 48-year-old decided to share his experiences fighting the disease caused by the deadly coronavirus. Navarro says he was aware of others dying from the disease in th…
A fireman from eastern China’s Shanghai was filmed kicking a ball into the basket from outside the court. His kick amazed many online.
China’s most decorated swimmer, Sun Yang has received an 8-year ban for a drug-testing violation, the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled on February 28, 2020.
A dozen people staged a demonstration in support of the Philippines’ largest television network ABS-CBN on February 26, 2020. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has filed a court case aiming to deny renewal of the media group’s franchise, which would mean their television and radio broadcasting arms would have to …
A Chinese court has sentenced Hong Kong bookseller Gui Minhai to 10 years in prison for “providing intelligence overseas”. The Swedish national was one of the five booksellers detained on the mainland for selling banned books in 2015.
Malaysia was plunged into political chaos on February 24, 2020 after Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad submitted his resignation and his Bersatu party quit the ruling Pakatan Harapan coalition. It followed reports that members of the coalition were trying to bring it down from within and form a new government, because…
A Russian court on February 17, 2020, ordered a 32-year-old woman to return to a hospital in St Petersburg after she escaped from a coronavirus quarantine at the facility. Alla Ilyina said she was upset with arrangements and conditions in the isolation room, before she short-circuited an electronic lock and fled on …
Lawyer and citizen journalist Chen Qiushi disappeared on February 7 whiledocumenting life in Wuhan, the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak. Chen, 34, got into Wuhan on the last train before the lockdown. He also attended protest in Hong Kong last year and posted videos of pro-democracy rallies. Authorities shut d…
The impeachment trial of US President Donald Trump started on January 21, 2020, in the Republican-controlled Senate.
At a ceremony to open the legal year in Hong Kong, the city’s chief justice promised he would continue to uphold judicial independence. Chief Justice Geoffrey Ma Tao-li also said a task force has been set up to study how Hong Kong’s courts can cope with the increased volume of cases brought about by the ongoing soci…
Former Nissan and Renault CEO Carlos Ghosn announced on December 31, 2019, that he had fled Japan and arrived in Lebanon. Ghosn had been on bail awaiting trial in Japan on charges he raided Nissan’s corporate resources for personal gain and under-reported his own salary.
Chinese scientist He Jiankui, who created the world’s first “gene-edited” babies, has been sentenced to three years in prison and fined 3 million yuan (US$430,000) on charges of illegally practicing medicine. State media said on December 30, 2019, that a court in Shenzhen convicted him and two others of carrying out…
Members of a powerful family were found guilty of killing 57 people in the Philippines’ worst political massacre. At a special court in Taguig City, five members of the Ampatuan clan, which has governed the southern province of Maguindanao for decades, were sentenced to life in jail for the killings. The verdict fol…
Donald Trump has become only the third US president in history to be impeached in a simple majority vote along a sharply divided political party line in the Democratic-led House of Representatives. The House vote on December 18, 2019, moved the two articles of impeachment on for a trial in the Senate as early as in …
A Japanese court has ordered Noriyuki Yamaguchi, a prominent TV reporter and acquaintance of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, to pay 3.3 million yen, or US$30,000, in damages to a journalist who accused him of rape. Shiori Ito accused Yamaguchi of raping her in 2015 while she was unconscious. Prosecutors said the…
The World Trade Organisation's Appellate Body has ceased to function, after the United States refused to nominate new judges to replace those who . Critics say this will further disrupt global trade and the undermine the multilateral trading system.However, the death of the appeals court is, for many, the "tip of th…
Myanmar state counsellor and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi left home on December 8, 2019, heading to the UN's International Criminal Court of Justice in The Hague. The nation’s de facto leader is expected to defend Myanmar against genocide charges related to its military crackdown on Rohingya Muslim mi…
A 23-year-old woman in India was set on fire by a gang of men, including two alleged rapists, on December 5. She was on her way to a court hearing of her rape complaint, according to the police.
In defiance of a 2016 Supreme Court ban, animal sacrifices have gone ahead at Nepal’s Gadhimai Festival, which draws tens of thousands of devotees to Bara in the nation’s southeast. Held every five years, the two-day Hindu festival opened starting December 3, 2019. One of the world’s largest events involving mass sa…
A court in northern China has sentenced one fentanyl trafficker to death and eight others to jail on November 7. It was the first big joint fentanyl bust between China and the United States.
An American on drug dealing charges escaped a courthouse with two other prisoners in Pattaya, Thailand on November 4. The shackled inmates fled in a pickup truck after stabbing and shooting guards.
Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong’s bid to run in the city’s coming district council elections remains in limbo as, according to a government source, election officials avoided his candidacy ruling. After Dorothy Ma, the election officer in charge of vetting his candidacy, went on indefinite sick leave th…
Sixteen people were sentenced to death on October 24 for burning alive a 19-year-old Bangladeshi student, Nusrat Jahan Rafi, who refused to withdraw sexual assault charges against her principal, Siraj Ud Doula. Rafi made a sexual harassment complaint against the principal in March. After being arrested over the hara…
Hong Kong and Taiwan clashed over the surrender of suspect Chan Tong-kai, whose case sparked Hong Kong’s extradition bill crisis four months ago. Chan offered to surrender himself to Taiwan to face charges over the murder of his pregnant girlfriend on October 18. Taiwan’s justice minister says Hong Kong authorities …
Hundreds of protesters gathered at Hong Kong's High Court on October 6, 2019 to support jailed independence activist Edward Leung Tin-kei as he launched an appeal against his six-year prison term for rioting in 2016.
More than 500 people were arrested after clashes between student protesters and riot police in Indonesia’s capital Jakarta on September 30, 2019. The clashes were part of nationwide protests which have been under way since September 23.
A 21-year-old Indonesian student is one of two people who reportedly have been killed during ongoing protests in Indonesia.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has challenged opposition MPs to call a confidence vote in his government, in a defiant response to a September 24, 2019, Supreme Court ruling that he broke the law by suspending parliament.
Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou attended a hearing at the British Columbia Supreme Court in Vancouver on Monday. Her lawyers asked for additional disclosure in the case and documents regarding her arrest on December 1. The hearing is expected to last eight days.
Ho Iat-seng was confirmed as Macau’s next chief executive in a ceremony at the Beijing headquarters of China’s ruling Communist Party on September 11, 2019.
LGBT couples in India say they continue to struggle to be accepted by their families and society one year since a September 2018 decision by the nation’s supreme court to overturn a British colonial-era law that made homosexuality illegal.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte acknowledged that he is running out of options in his efforts to press Beijing to adhere to an arbitration decision that favoured Manila in its dispute with Beijing over claims in the South China Sea.
About 1.9 million people have been left out of the National Register of Citizens published by authorities on August 31, 2019, in India’s northeastern state of Assam. Those not included in the list identifying a total of 31.1 million people as legal residents of the state could be considered stateless and staying in …
Alia Eyres is a mother, lawyer and CEO of one of Hong Kong’s most renowned charities, Mother’s Choice, which supports families in crisis and pregnant teenagers, and also finds homes for young children without parents. From her three decades of experience with the organisation, Alia has handled some of the most chall…
Karst cave in Bijie, southwest China’s Guizhou, was converted into an indoor playground for villagers.
An injunction order was granted by Hong Kong’s High Court to ban demonstrations in all but two designated areas of the city’s airport. Additional security measures have also been put in place to allow only staff and passengers with boarding passes to enter terminals. On August 13, violence erupted at one of the worl…
About 3,000 members of Hong Kong’s legal profession staged a silent march on August 7, 2019, calling on the government to safeguard the city’s rule of law after 44 extradition bill protesters were charged with rioting shortly after being arrested. With a total of 589 arrested protesters, the lawyers fear that the pr…
Despite the rapid approach of powerful Tropical Storm Wipha, hundreds of protesters have gathered outside a Hong Kong court to support more than 40 demonstrators who face rioting charges. The 28 men and 16 women were arrested on Sunday, July 28, 2019, in connection with a demonstration that turned violent in the cit…
Protests have erupted in the Indian capital New Delhi, after a car crash critically injured a teenager whose has levelled rape accusations against Kuldeep Singh Sengar, a lawmaker with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
Forty-four protesters arrested during earlier confrontations were charged with rioting and will appear at Eastern Court in Sai Wan Ho on July 31. At around 10.30pm outside Kwai Chung Police Station on July 30, crowds that had gathered to greet*protesters being released on bail turned rowdy, with some throwing eggs a…
Li Na became the first Asian-born player to be inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame on July 20. She was enshrined along with France’s Mary Pierce and Russia’s Yevgeny Kafelnikov in an on-court ceremony in Rhode Island. Li, from Wuhan, China, enthralled the world after winning two Grand Slams and reach…
Hong Kong is in the midst of its biggest political crisis since the former British colony was handed over to Chinese sovereignty in 1997. Millions of people have taken to the streets to protest against a controversial extradition amendment that would allow for the transfer of suspects to face trial on the Chinese ma…
Human rights lawyer Wang Quanzhang was detained during a 2015 crackdown when Chinese authorities arrested some 300 lawyers and activists. For over four years, his family was denied visitation rights.
The annual Yulin Dog Meat Festival in China involves up to 100,000 dogs being butchered for their meat. The SCMP's Luisa Tam says the Chinese government should give dogs full protection by allowing the animals to have legal status as "companion animals" and by not allowing the event to be promoted as a cultural fest…
