Sentencing pregnant women in Malawi – judge lays down the law
The case of a heavily pregnant woman accused of stealing from other women at a shopping centre has given one of Malawi’s judges the chance to re-state the law on sentencing first offenders and those who are pregnant. The judge quoted international law on the subject,...
Thumbs down from Constitutional Court for COVID-19 lockdown challenge
No surprises here: the constitutional court, South Africa’s highest judicial forum, has refused an urgent application for direct access from a group that wanted to argue that the COVID-19 lockdown was unlawful. It claimed the virus would not seriously affect SA...
‘No disaster; no grounds for lockdown’ – bizarre new case launched at Constitutional Court
The Hola Bon Renaissance Foundation has launched an application to the Constitutional Court, the highest judicial forum in South Africa. It is asking for direct access to the court so that it may argue that the current lockdown is unconstitutional and unlawful. The...
‘Tragic’ coronavirus case: court says it cannot allow man to attend grandfather’s funeral
A man whose grandfather was burnt to death in a fire on Friday has been refused permission to travel from his home in Mpumalanga to attend the funeral in the Eastern Cape. The man, Karel van Heerden, brought an urgent application in the high court’s Mpumalanga...
Ten additional Western Cape judges refuse to sit with colleague citing ‘unbecoming behaviour’
The scandal around judges of the Western Cape is developing with astonishing speed. Following a dispute between the judge president, John Hlophe, and his deputy, Patricia Goliath, over the latter's claims relating to the JP's alleged inappropriate, even racist,...
Sensational start to 2020 legal year
Few South African courts have yet issued judgments this year, but the legal world is far from bored. A sensational affidavit, sworn by the deputy judge president of the high court in Cape Town, Patricia Goliath, has thrown open the tensions among judges of the Western...
World Day against the Death Penalty – editorial
Our lead story this week is the most extraordinary tale of one man’s devotion to judicial independence. It is about a judge in Thailand who decided on death rather than dishonouring his oath of office. But, like the two other stories, it is also about the death...
Thai judge shoots himself in court: protest at ‘political interference’
When Thai judge Khanakorn Pianchana reached the end of the judgment in a case he had been hearing, he read out a statement. He next walked from the bench to bow before a portrait of Thai King, Maha Vajiralongkorn. Then he took a pistol from his pocket and shot...
We can’t change death penalty – Tanzanian High Court
A full bench of three high court judges has re-affirmed that the mandatory death penalty in Tanzania is constitutionally valid. No new factors had been given to the court to indicate that anything had changed since the last time the issue was considered by the...
Witchcraft trial adds another 7 to Tanzania’s death row
A recent witchcraft trial in Tanzania has led to a further seven people being added to the well over 500 convicts believed to be on death row. The case illustrates the difficult position in which Tanzanian courts find themselves: the death penalty is still applicable...