A court in China today sentenced a man to death for crimes which another person, Huugjilt, was wrongly executed for before. It is also reported that China has embarked on legal reforms, including reducing the use of the death penalty, as public discontent mounts over wrongful punishment. The terrible history of wrongful executions, which have not only happened in China, should make them abolish capital punishment.

Many European politicians are working hard on what can be described as selling out Europe, through the planned TTIP agreement including the controversial ISDS mechanism and through NATO cooperation or expansion. In both cases, the principle of equality before the law is violated. NATO’s eastward expansion also breaks its promise from 1990.

Yesterday, news were published about Russia’s involvement in the murder. Alexander Litvinenko was in 2006 poisoned by polonium-210, a rare and highly radioactive isotope. This type of poisoning is very hard to detect, or even impossible if long time passes. Polonium-210 will decay to lead-206, while it emits alpha radiation. The remaining lead cannot be distinguished from lead from other sources. Polonium seems to be the perfect poison for those who can get hold of it, which is probably very difficult, except for assassins working for a government.

There is more to this story than the murder itself. In the book Death of a Dissident about Alexander Litvinenko, it is claimed that a Russian government agency was behind Russian apartment bombings. If that is true, it would be one of the many false flag operations, which governments have carried out.

See, for example, his ‘Letter to a Young Army Ranger (From and Old One)’ on TomDispatch.

Earlier this week, The Guardian revealed a GCHQ document, describing journalists and reporters as a potential threat to security, in particular investigative journalists. It is a shocking statement, which should cause a large reaction. However, sometimes media is surprisingly quiet. For example, as NewsVoice has pointed out, many Swedish newspapers published only very short reports about this revelation. Svenska Dagbladet was one of the newspapers that totally missed the point, that a UK government agency has compared journalists with terrorists and this particular agency has a cooperation with the Swedish equivalent, FRA. When you read such poor reporting in a country like Sweden, which has long tradition of free press, you understand that something is very wrong. At least Reporters Without Borders has something sensible to say on their international web page: JOURNALISM IS NOT A THREAT TO NATIONAL SECURITY

The Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet reveals strange Swedish aid, which must probably be classified as abuse or even as illegal, in the Caucasian country Georgia. Read the article and watch the video in Swedish. The text can also be translated online, for example with with Microsoft/Bing Translator (however, be aware that the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency is abbreviated Sida, which is sometimes translated as ‘page’).

Joseph Hickman, former US Army staff sergeant, has written the book Murder at Camp Delta. See Newsweek and Democracy Now!

Read about the Argentinian prosecutor, for example on CNN or The Guardian. In this world with a wilderness of mirrors, as it is called in the intelligence business, it is difficult to know what to believe until the work of government and their agenceis becomes much more transparent.

In Saudi Arabia, blogger Raif Badawi has been sentenced to 1000 lashes, 10 years in prison and a hefty fine. The whipping has already started. If it will continue, he may be tortured to death. His lawyer Waleed Abu al-Khair has also been sentenced. Both are considered to be prisoners of conscience. While we encourage you to join Amnesty’s campaign for Raif Badawi, we also encourage you to join us at Accoun in demanding that those responsible for torture must be held accountable.

However, many governments around the world are instead cooperating with Saudi Arabia. Even the Swedish government has, behind the back of their citizens and against Swedish law, wanted to help Saudi Arabia build a weapons factory (read more in Swedish).

Again, we see a whistleblower facing trial, instead of the real criminals. Read more about this case on RootsAction, where you can also sign a petition.