Should corporations be held liable for acts of torture committed under their auspices? If that had been the only issue considered by the Supreme Court last week in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum, the logical answer would surely have to be yes.
If corporations are people for the purpose of constitutional rights like free speech -- as per the Citizens United decision -- they ought to be treated as people when it comes to responsibilities as well. If Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) aided the Nigerian government in raping and murdering people in the Ogoni region to keep the oil flowing, as the plaintiffs claim, it would seem monstrous to let the company get away with it just because it is a corporation.
Social Justice: Current Affairs, Business, Politics, and all the reasons in the world to Thrive on Creative Discontent!
Showing posts with label murder. Show all posts
Showing posts with label murder. Show all posts
Monday, March 5, 2012
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Bahrain: More dead from peaceful protests
A 14-year-old Bahraini boy has died after being hit by a tear gas canister during clashes between anti-government protesters and security forces, the Gulf kingdom's main Shia opposition group al-Wefaq has said.
Activists blamed the police for the death of Ali Jawad Ahmad, who was among the protesters in the oil hub area of Sitra on Wednesday.
A police official told the state news agency BNA that the incident was being investigated, without saying how the boy was injured.
Bahrain has been in turmoil for the past few months since protests by the dominant Shia community broke out, demanding great freedom and political rights.
More than 30 people have been killed since the protests began in February inspired by other uprisings across the Arab world.
More than 70 per cent of Bahrain's population is Shia but claim widespread discrimination by the ruling al-Khalifa Sunni dynasty.
Clashes between police and mostly Shia demonstrators have become a near nightly event in the tense Gulf nation since authorities lifted emergency rule in June.
King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa said protest-related trials will continue.
Activists blamed the police for the death of Ali Jawad Ahmad, who was among the protesters in the oil hub area of Sitra on Wednesday.
A police official told the state news agency BNA that the incident was being investigated, without saying how the boy was injured.
Bahrain has been in turmoil for the past few months since protests by the dominant Shia community broke out, demanding great freedom and political rights.
More than 30 people have been killed since the protests began in February inspired by other uprisings across the Arab world.
More than 70 per cent of Bahrain's population is Shia but claim widespread discrimination by the ruling al-Khalifa Sunni dynasty.
Clashes between police and mostly Shia demonstrators have become a near nightly event in the tense Gulf nation since authorities lifted emergency rule in June.
King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa said protest-related trials will continue.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
UAE, dream holiday ends in a body bag!!!
A British tourist was beaten to death by officers in a UAE police station after being arrested for swearing.
Lee Bradley Brown, 39, was on holiday at a £1,000-a-night hotel in the Arab state when he was thrown into a filthy cell.
Police sources say he was ‘badly beaten up’ by a group of police officers, leaving him unconscious on the floor.
Inmates told how they watched officers bundle him into a body-bag and drag him out of the building.
During Mr Brown’s six days in UAE police station, guards refused to give him enough food and water and did not let him see a lawyer, it is alleged.
His sister learned about the attack when she received a phone call from an inmate on Sunday, claiming her brother had been beaten.
The prisoner found her phone number on a photocopy of her brother’s passport which had been left behind in the cell.
She contacted the British Embassy in UAE, and on Monday an official was sent to visit Mr Brown at the police station.
But the official was turned away by an officer who claimed Mr Brown did not want to see him and had ‘declined consular assistance’.
His sister, who did not want to be named, received another phone call from the inmate saying he had seen her brother’s body being taken out in a body-bag.
A source told the Daily Mail last night: ‘He suffered a really bad beating which must have caused some terrible internal injuries.
‘The poor bloke stood no chance at all. At one stage he was thrown against the concrete wall of a cell and landed badly.
‘Then the guards tried to hush it up and pretend nothing had happened.’
The British Embassy officially told his family about his death yesterday.
UAE police station is a notoriously violent place where beatings, starvation, rape and the force-feeding of drugs is common-place.
Foreign prisoners are often kept in cramped cells with up to 20 inmates for weeks for trivial offences.
Human rights charities say police officers regularly refuse to allow inmates to make a phone call or access to a lawyer.
They say prisoners are sometimes beaten and coerced into signing confessions written in Arabic.
‘We were told unofficially on Tuesday it was true, and the worst was confirmed today. We are unable to be out there. All we have had is one call from officials telling us that he’s dead.
Lee Bradley Brown, 39, was on holiday at a £1,000-a-night hotel in the Arab state when he was thrown into a filthy cell.
Police sources say he was ‘badly beaten up’ by a group of police officers, leaving him unconscious on the floor.
Inmates told how they watched officers bundle him into a body-bag and drag him out of the building.
During Mr Brown’s six days in UAE police station, guards refused to give him enough food and water and did not let him see a lawyer, it is alleged.
His sister learned about the attack when she received a phone call from an inmate on Sunday, claiming her brother had been beaten.
The prisoner found her phone number on a photocopy of her brother’s passport which had been left behind in the cell.
She contacted the British Embassy in UAE, and on Monday an official was sent to visit Mr Brown at the police station.
But the official was turned away by an officer who claimed Mr Brown did not want to see him and had ‘declined consular assistance’.
His sister, who did not want to be named, received another phone call from the inmate saying he had seen her brother’s body being taken out in a body-bag.
A source told the Daily Mail last night: ‘He suffered a really bad beating which must have caused some terrible internal injuries.
‘The poor bloke stood no chance at all. At one stage he was thrown against the concrete wall of a cell and landed badly.
‘Then the guards tried to hush it up and pretend nothing had happened.’
The British Embassy officially told his family about his death yesterday.
UAE police station is a notoriously violent place where beatings, starvation, rape and the force-feeding of drugs is common-place.
Foreign prisoners are often kept in cramped cells with up to 20 inmates for weeks for trivial offences.
Human rights charities say police officers regularly refuse to allow inmates to make a phone call or access to a lawyer.
They say prisoners are sometimes beaten and coerced into signing confessions written in Arabic.
‘We were told unofficially on Tuesday it was true, and the worst was confirmed today. We are unable to be out there. All we have had is one call from officials telling us that he’s dead.
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