Friday, January 1, 2016
Thursday, December 31, 2015
South African king sentenced to 12yrs in prison for cruelty towards his subjects
South African king Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo has been sentenced to 12-years in prison for arson, kidnap and assault of his subjects. King Dalindyebo handed himself over to the Mthatha Correctional Center in Eastern Cape province minutes before midnight on Wednesday, December 30, after failing in an 11th-hour bid to evade incarceration by seeking a retrial or a presidential pardon.
In a statement, Justice spokesperson Mthunzi Mhaga said:
"We confirm that King Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo handed himself to the head of Mthatha Corresctional Centre at 23h40 in the presence of the Regional Commissionerof the Eastern Cape"
In 2009, the controversial king was convicted of manslaughter, arson and assault charges for offenses committed more than two decades ago. He was sentenced to 15 years in 2009, but in October the Supreme Court dropped the manslaughter charge and reduced his sentence to 12 years on appeal.
This week he sought to further extend his bail, but a High Court judge in Mthatha threw out the request. The king's daughter, Yasmin Omar, stated that the judge had not given them reasons for his decision.
"No indication was given for when we can expect the reasons for the dismissal of the application and we will continue with the case," said Omar.
He is expected to serve his sentence in Wellington Prison, outside Mthatha.
The 51-year-old king, a self-confessed marijuana smoker, was found guilty of torching dwellings that housed some of his subjects and tenants who had resisted eviction.
He was also convicted of publicly assaulting three young men who had already been brutally beaten by his henchmen, and of kidnapping a wife and children of one of his subjects whom he considered a dissident.
The Supreme Court concluded that the king "ruled with fear and trepidation" and that "his behavior was all the more deplorable because the victims of his reign of terror were the vulnerable rural poor." It also accused him of "obstructive" action for changing his lawyers 11 times, causing 34 postponements of the case.
Dalindyebo became king of the Thembu, a Xhosa ethnic group that boasted Mandela as its most prominent clan member, in 1989. The royal family will meet next week to discuss whether a successor should be chosen due to their monarch's imprisonment.
Rwandan pastor sentenced to life imprisonment for genocide crimes
A Rwandan pastor accused of leading and coordinating attacks on minority Tutsis during Rwanda's 1994 genocide has been jailed for life, Rwanda's high court said on Wednesday, December 30.
An estimated 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed by dominant Hutu forces in the genocide in 100 days.
Jean Uwinkindi,64, who once led the Kayenzi Pentecostal church in the rural outskirts of the capital Kigali, was convicted of crimes of genocide and crimes against humanity committed during the slaughter.
Source: Reuters
An estimated 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed by dominant Hutu forces in the genocide in 100 days.
Jean Uwinkindi,64, who once led the Kayenzi Pentecostal church in the rural outskirts of the capital Kigali, was convicted of crimes of genocide and crimes against humanity committed during the slaughter.
"The court finds that there were killings of the Tutsi at Rwankeri and Kanzenze hills and that the attacks were led by Uwinkindi," said Judge Kanyegeri Timothee.Uwinkindi was arrested in Uganda in 2010 and the following year his case was referred from the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, in Tanzania, to the Rwandan national court system. It was the first such referral. The pastor said he plans to appeal.
Source: Reuters
Breaking news: Fire engulfs Dubai tower before New Year celebrations
A huge fire engulfed a Dubai skyscraper on Thursday just hours before New Year's celebrations were to be held in the city. UAE's Civil Defence officials said there were no casualties.
The massive blaze quickly shot up the 63-story Address Hotel in the downtown area of the Gulf metropolis, covering nearly the entire structure and sending hundreds of people fleeing for safety.
The founder of one of Mexico's most violent cartels was found tortured to death
The body of the founder of one of Mexico's most violent drug cartels, La Familia Michoacana, has been discovered on a motorway with signs of torture. Carlos Rosales Mendoza's body was found with three others near a motorway in the western state of Morelia, after he was shot dead.
Rosales Mendoza founded the cartel, infamous for its extreme violence. He was one of the world's most wanted criminals, featuring on the US Drug Enforcement Agency's most wanted list. La Familia's violent hit men were said to believe they had a "divine right" to kill and dismember their enemies.
There are disturbing and detailed allegations in the new criminal case against Bill Cosby
On Wednesday, Bill Cosby was charged with aggravated indecent assault, a first-degree felony.
The charge relates to a sexual assault alleged to have happened more than a decade ago. The 78-year-old comedian previously admitted under oath that he had sexual contact with the woman, as part of the lawsuit she filed claiming that Cosby drugged her and forced himself on her at his home near Philadelphia in 2004.
The woman, former Temple University employee Andrea Constand, reported the alleged assault in 2005.
Skeletal remains found in a shallow grave in Soweto confirmed as that of a girl who went missing three years ago


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