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Weekly Africa Legal News Watch Issue no:875 IBA - The global voice of the legal profession. Monday 01 June 2020 View in browser Not a subscriber? Today's Headlines Subscription is FREE. Register here Regional News: Former first lady’s bail revoked Graft accused blamed for economic woes CLICK TO UNSUBSCRIBE Tensions soar after Chinese nationals murdered Africa International: Deep divisions over graft-accused AfDB boss • Visit the Legalbrief Africa site Senegal scraps ‘unbalanced' Mauritius treaty • Contact Us • Advertise with Us Top Rwandan genocide suspect denies any role • About IBA General: Bowmans expands its Africa footprint • IBA Membership Uganda sued over Lake Victoria flooding • International Practice Diploma (Distance Police target lockdown violators Learning) • Terms & Conditions Africa Analyses: Expat backlash reshapes Chinese perceptions How conspiracy theory gained traction Arrest of genocide fugitive brings some closure Africa Focus Criminal: A tale of three tragedies … ‘I will code what I really want to say to Donald Trump. It's two words … it begins with “f” and it ends with “you”.’ – Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot Quotes of the Week 16 June 1976: 13-year-old Hector Peterson is shot dead by police in Soweto 'The murder of George Floyd in and a full-blown revolution to end Apartheid begins. Minneapolis has sent a wave of grief and anger around the world. The US was built on African 17 December 2010: The self-immolation of Tunisian Mohamed Bouazizi who slavery and indigenous genocide had his fruit confiscated by a municipal inspector was the catalyst for the and remains a fundamentally escalation of protests that spread across the Middle East and became known racist country.' as the Arab Spring. – Analyst Imraan Buccus 25 May 2020: The murder of black Mineapolis resident George Floyd by a ‘We are happy, it's important that these restrictions are lifted. We white policeman has sparked violent protests across the US that has thrown are waiting for the date of his the nation into unprecedented chaos. return. We will welcome him.’ – The Ivorian Popular Front Party (FPI) spokesperson The common thread is that the senseless deaths of three unknown people in Franck Anderson on news that different parts of the world sparked massive revolutions that dramatically the International Criminal altered the political landscape and re-wrote history. In just one week, notes Court said the country’s former Legalbrief, the US has been ripped apart by an incident that now threatens President Laurent Gbagbo can leave Belgium under certain the White House and President Donald Trump. Africa’s testy relationship with conditions following his the US (which began 520 years ago) has been in sharp focus since George acquittal last year over post- Floyd was crushed to death on a Minneapolis street. election violence that killed 3 000 people. US embassies across Africa have taken the unusual step of issuing critical Book Review statements, saying no one is above the law. The statements came as the head of the AU Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, condemned the ‘murder’ of The Murder of Ahmed Timol: Floyd and noted that the continental body rejects the ‘continuing My Search for the Truth discriminatory practices against black citizens of the USA’. A report on the By Imtiaz A. Cajee Jacana. $20 News24 site notes that Mahamat ‘strongly condemned’ the murder and extended his condolences to the victim’s family and loved ones. And Kwesi Follow Ahmed Timol’s nephew, Quartey, deputy chairperson of the AU Commission, said ‘Africa demands a Imtiaz Cajee, on his 20-year full investigation into this killing’. TIME reports that the US ambassador to journey to find his uncle’s killer Congo, Mike Hammer, highlighted a tweet from a local media entrepreneur and bring him to justice. In 1971, who said ‘your country is shameful … how many black people must be a state inquiry found that Timol, killed by white police officers before authorities react seriously?’ held by the apartheid security Hammer said he was ‘profoundly troubled’ by the killing and ‘no one is above branch on the 10th floor of John Vorster Square, committed suicide the law’. Similar statements were tweeted by the US embassies in Kenya and by jumping to his death. Forty-six Uganda, while the embassies in Tanzania and Kenya tweeted a joint years later, a new inquiry found statement from the Department of Justice office in Minnesota on the that Timol was murdered. Only investigation. one man remained alive who could Full report on the News24 site tell the truth, a lowly clerk from Full TIME report the police, who was in the room when Timol was pushed. Joao And SA’s Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has condemned Floyd’s ‘ruthless Rodrigues has now been charged murder,’ saying it represented a deep tradition of racial prejudice and violence with murder and defeating and or against African Americans by law enforcement. A report on the EWN site obstructing the administration of justice. The book is a wonderful notes that the EFF’s Vuyani Pambo said they welcomed the arrest of the evocation of a time and places; policeman Derek Chauvin, who is facing charges of murder and manslaughter. Johannesburg, London, Mecca, The party has also called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to Moscow. The last years of Timol’s immediately convene a meeting with representatives of the US in SA. life, the woman he loved, and his Full report on the EWN site commitment to a non-racial and free SA. His last days are detailed In neighbouring Zimbabwe, the government has summoned US ambassador here; the roadblock that was set Brian Nichols to explain remarks by US national security adviser that up to catch him and his treatment Zimbabwe was stoking anti-racism protests in the country. US National by the security police. Not content Security Adviser Robert O’Brien, in an interview with American broadcaster with finding his uncle’s murderer, Cajee has been on a quest for ABC, said foreign adversaries – including China and Zimbabwe – taking justice for other murdered victims advantage of the ongoing protests and mentioned Zimbabwe and China. BBC of apartheid, whose killers never News reports that he warned that ‘they would not get away with it’. applied to the TRC and who were Zimbabwe's Foreign Minister Sibusiso Moyo said Harare intended to remind never charged, despite the the ambassador that it respected the sovereignty of other nations. information being available. Cajee Full BBC News report investigates the possible deal that was done between the National A HuffPost reports notes that South African celebrity Trevor Noah, who is a Party and the ANC during the early household name in the US, on Friday hit a nerve by saying US police ‘are 90s, and asks how it is possible looting black bodies’. The Daily Show host asked ‘how many George Floyds that so many murderers and torturers were not prosecuted. He are there that don’t die?’ ‘Imagine to yourself if you grew up in a is clear that now is the time to find community where every day someone had their knee on your neck. If every these people and prosecute them. day someone was out there oppressing you, every single day, you tell me The book is unputdownable, and what that does to you as a society, as a community, as a group of people and one that will leave you deeply when you know it’s happening because of the colour of your skin.’ touched. Full report on the HuffPost site Full Review Regional News DRC: Judge in high-profile graft trial dies A Congolese judge handling the graft case against Vital Kamerhe, a former top aide to President Felix Tshisekedi, has died. Judge Raphael Yanyi died shortly after being admitted to a Kinshasa hospital on Wednesday. ‘The judge was a victim of a heart attack. He was not murdered, he was protected by the police,’ said police spokesperson Sylvano Kasongo. This after residents staged a protest outside the judge's home, claiming they suspected foul play. The East African reports that the day before he died, Yanyi had presided over Kamerhe's $50m graft trial in a makeshift court set up within Kinshasa's central prison compound. As previously reported in Legalbrief Today, Kamerhe is charged alongside two others, Lebanese businessman Jammal Samih and Jeannot Muhima, a senior aide to Tshisekedi. They have all pleaded not guilty to the charges. The trio is accused of siphoning funds intended to finance major works under the plan that Tshisekedi launched after he took office in January last year. The funds were earmarked for the construction of 4 500 pre-fabricated homes. Full report in The East African DRC: Militia leader arrested DRC authorities have arrested a militia leader who is one of the main suspects in the murder of two UN experts in 2017. BBC News reports that he has been identified as Trsor Kankonde. A US national, Michael Sharp, and a Chilean-born Swede, Zaida Catalan, were murdered while investigating human rights abuses in the Kasai Region. Kinshasa has blamed the killings on the militia. Full BBC News report Lesotho: Former first lady’s bail revoked Lesotho's Court of Appeal has revoked the bail granted in February to Maesaiah Thabane, the wife of former Prime Minister Thomas Thabane. The New York Times reports that Maseru deputy police commissioner Paseka Mokete said Thabane was currently out of the country with her ‘sick husband’, but would be arrested when she returned. Mokete said police did not need to wait for a court decision to re-arrest Thabane. She has been charged with ordering the murder of Thabane’s previous wife, Lipolelo Thabane, in 2017.