100 posts
The multi-million euro gorilla
NEW
Leaked wiretaps implicate Slovakia's political elite in a bribery scandal...
The “carnage” on our roads.
NEW
I’m posting this on New Year’s Eve. Here’s a prediction about the weekend: The AA or the Gardai will have issued a “Call” for drivers to “exercise caution” over the weekend. By Monday night, a number of youn...
Criminal Charges Brought in Italy Against 5 Men Accused of Murdering Passengers On Disabled Migrant Boat
NEW
Italian authorities in Agrigento have brought criminal charges, including charges of unlawful killing, against 5 men from Ghana and Nigeria who are accused of throwing fellow migrant passengers into the sea from a disabled migrant boat this past Augu...
Today’s agenda: Cybercrime
NEW
I’ve spent the day in various meetings, starting off with my fellow Commissioners. The hot topic was growth, and of course the situation in Greece and Italy, among other issues for discussion. It seems that it will still take some time before...
Russian Criminal Case No. 144,128 - "The Putin Affair"
NEW
"while serving as the Chairman of the City’s Committee on Foreign Economic Relations he routinely took bribes. And I’ve spoken to many people myself who were a party to such transactions with him. You couldn’t establish a joint venture in the C...
Extracting fraud investigation documents from the OLAF, Tillack, 943/2007/PB
NEW
Fraud is an old problem of the EU. After the memorandum of whistleblower Paul van Buitenen dated 07/03/2002, and inaction of the OLAF (Office of Anti-Fraud Fight), journalist Hans-Martin Tillack published 2 articles on the subject in Stern. The OLAF...
Combating sexual abuse of children
NEW
2011-05-20 In Sweden 23 women and one man have been charged today on involvement in a children pornography case. This is a major case in Sweden and due to the fact that there are so many women special attention is given to this case. The proposal I...
Nadine Dorries says child sex abuse victims should “just say no”
NEW
All is not well on Planet Dorries. Two weeks after the Mid Bedfordshire MP introduced a sexist private member’s bill which would teach only girls the virtue of sexual abstinence and “how to say no”, Nadine has helped to advance the...
Cybercrime in Europe and the European Union: A personal affair?
NEW
Update: See also the follow-up to this post "Cybercrime in Europe and the European Union: No personal affair!" "[T]he author of this paper is reasonably confident that by banning a certain kind of criminal activity throughout a large number of co...
EU issues warning over ICC Kenya process
NEW
The European Union has warned Kenya leaders against politicising the International Criminal Court process.The 13 EU envoys, at the same time, revealed that investors in their countries were keenly watching how the country will respond to ICC Prosecut...
Sanaderisation in Montenegro
NEW
Three days after the PM steps down, a wave of arrests of senior politicians in Montenegro...
Why Wikileaks didn’t surprise me much
NEW
This tide of cables revealed by newspapers in the last two weeks, didn't really impress me. The reason is not that, as many people said, there was nothing new, nothing shocking or nothing interesting. The reason is that it happened at the same time I...
EU-money to the mafia, the tobacco industry and multinationals?
NEW
Journalists have dug out the beneficiaries of EU-farmsubsidies for citizens to see them at Farmsubsidy.org. Now a new team of journalists has dug out the recipients of the other large lump on the EU-budget: The regional funding. In a unique cooperati...
Fighting cyber crime
NEW
By Claudia Hillebrand One of the topics discussed earlier this week at the JHA Council were EU-wide measures to fight cyber crime. The European Commission presented a legislative proposal to the Council with the aim of revamping the EU’s anti-cyber...
We need an EU Attorney General and a EBI rather than the Europol
NEW
The title of this post is fairly self-explanatory. By "EBI" I mean a European Bureau of Investigation, à la FBI. The EBI should investigate and the EU Attorney should investigate. He should be appointed by the European Commission upon confirmation b...
The Body Shop campaigns against Trafficking
NEW
As I got off the Eurostar on Thursday I popped into The Body Shop as I sometimes do since shopping isn’t always easy in my line of work. I was instantly and happily struck by their latest campaign, a global effort to stop sex trafficking...
(In)Famous at last ...
NEW
Finnish police are trying to track down a small-time conman said to resemble EU commission president Jose Manuel Barroso.BM's Finnish is sadly wanting, but the fraud in question appears to involve the exchange of money in return for clothing purporte...
OLAF Activity Report 2010: the Usual Suspect
NEW
We now have the 2009 report of the European anti-fraud office, OLAF. The report outlines a number of case studies – misuse of Parliamentary expenses by an ex-MEP, embezzlement by the director of an NGO, widespread corruption and fraud in the ma...
ACTA negotiators inform the Parliament in secret
NEW
The ACTA negotiators from the Commission came to the European Parliament today, to inform the Parliament about what happened in the last round of negotiations in Luzern. However, the meeting where the information was to be given was declared ”i...
22 EU parliamentarians withdraw signatures from controversial declaration - update
NEW
Update (17 June): It seems like the declaration has been adopted. Here it is, on the list of adopted declarations. What a disgrace! According to Europaportalen.se, MEPs have started to withdraw their signatures from a controversial EP declaration.
UN prosecutor still critical of Serbia and Croatia
NEW
A highly anticipated report by the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Serge Brammertz, on Serbia's and Croatia's cooperation with the court appears less positive than both countries were expec...
Diana observes the Karadzic trial at The Hague
NEW
Diana visits The Hague and observes the Karadzic trial at first hand. Here are her remarks:...
Good news from the Engin Çeber case!
NEW
Engin Ceber – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Çeber Case: Life Sentences for 3 Prison Guards and Head of Prison from Bianet :: English Three prison guards and the vice director of Metris Prison were convicted of “causing death by...
Robin Hood robbery at European Parliament
NEW
Twitter is buzzing with tweets signalling that a robbery took place in the cafeteria of the European Parliament, after MEP Alexender Alvaro sent out a short message stating “Another robbery at the European Parliament – how is it possible...
Mathematical Recreations Open Thread
NEW
Obituary: Martin Gardner dies at 95; prolific mathematics columnist for Scientific American - latimes.comMartin Gardner,...
EU Copper Heist freezes Brussels institutions
NEW
The Pentecost weekend was filled with copper thefts, ranging from unsuccessful attempts to Guinness Book of Records achievements. The first, but unsuccessful, attempt happened during the night of Friday to Saturday on the Belgian railway line 140 ‘...
Keeping the Resources to Fight Trafficking
NEW
When I launched my successful campaign to retain specialist staff at the Metropolitan Police tackling trafficking of women in October 2009, I was a little surprised at the number of people who questioned the amount of trafficked women there are in L...
Some disturbing stories from foreign press about Montenegrin criminal ties
NEW
The unsatisfactory security situation in Montenegro and the inefficiency of state and its institutions in the fight against organised crime were once again pointed out by many foreign media. Magazine Economist wrote about „Balkan imbroglio“ an...
Massive crack-down on Argentinean sheep
NEW
On 13 April, the Argentinean police announced the capture of two convicts who escaped from jail by disguising themselves as sheep (as reported by the Telegraph). The two convicts were able to hide from the 300 policemen searching for them for more th...
EU criminal justice: European evidence warrant and beyond
NEW
One of the main aims of the European Union is to offer its citizens an area of freedom, security and justice (FSJ) without internal frontiers. With the Lisbon Treaty in force since 1 December 2009, the provisions on judicial cooperation in criminal...
European arrest warrant: EU & UK
NEW
In the report Justice issues in Europe, the UK House of Commons Justice Committee discusses matters relevant to the development of the European Union’s area of freedom, security and justice (FSJ). This timely report is interesting both generally an...
Let’s Arrest the Pope
NEW
I’ve written before about the antiwar faction’s talismanic reverence for the concept of legality, and it’s this that trips up Liam MacUaid’s argument against arresting the Pope when he makes his publicly funded visit to the...
85.6% of Japanese Public Supports Capital Punishment…Really?
NEW
I have been assessing the extent to which the EU can try and urge Japan to change its accepted norms on human rights regarding capital punishment, and came across this article the other day: Japan Today (2010) “Record High 85.6% in Favor of Death P...
"like, whatever:" today's standards, as Serious People see them
NEW
Pope Offers Apology, Not Penalty, for Sex Abuse Scandal Nowhere in the letter did Benedict...
On the Benchmarks for Reform and Bulgarian Organized Crime
NEW
There is an ongoing crackdown on organized crime in Bulgaria. This should be good news. But the prosecution will have to prove allegations in court. The benchmark is judgments with res judicata. There’s also the Bulgarian Supreme Judicial Counc...
Zionism, anti-semitism, ex-public schoolboys and the left
NEW
Anti-semitic attacks in Britain in 2009 reached their highest level since they were first recorded in 1984. Reported and verified attacks (physical, verbal abuse, bullying of schoolchildren, desecration of graves, etc) on Jewish people, properti...
EU: Criminal enforcement of IPR? Resurrection of IPRED2?
NEW
In the blog post EU IPR enforcement discussion (12 January 2010) we mentioned the conference arranged by the Swedish presidency of the Council of the European Union: Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights, with a Special Focus on Trademarks and...
Framework Decision on Settlement of Conflicts of Jurisdiction in Criminal Proceedings
NEW
The Framework Decision 2009/948/JHA on prevention and settlement of conflicts of exercise of jurisdiction in criminal proceedings has been published in the Official Journal. It establishes a procedure for establishing contact between the competent au...
EUX.TV on 5 billion Euro CO2 emissions trading fraud
NEW
Raymond Frenken who first made me aware of the massive CO2 emissions trading fraud has produced an EUX.TV video on the matter:...
Tackling violence against women
NEW
Domestic violence is at last moving up up the agenda of the EU. As the Swedes come to the end of their presidency of the European Council and the Spanish take over, violence against women looks set to be given a higher priority. It is an area...
Jobs, crime and climate at European Council
NEW
All 27 Heads of State and Government will gather tonight and tomorrow in Brussels for the European Council. Discussions on how to create conditions for new jobs in Europe will on top of the agenda. A new ”EU2020 strategy” is planned to follow on...
Europol: 5 Billion Euro fraud in EU CO2 emissions trading
NEW
Via Raymond Frenken I was made aware of a Europol press release that reports about fraud in the EU CO2 emissions trading, including a graphic that explains how this worked. But the sum is incredible: 5 billion Euros lost for the European taxpayer!!"...
