Tag Archives: international legal news

Blog, Family, International, Legal News

Dispelling some of the myths of international family law

The laws of the world concerning family relationships are still predominantly national but too often international families face problems, bureaucracy, misunderstandings and simple obstacles in just living as a family in a country.

A decade or so ago, marrying someone from abroad or living and working in another country was a rarity. Now many millions of people are moving across the globe to relocate as families and as individuals to live and work abroad.Living as a family in another country can be difficult at the best of times, but it is even more difficult when there are relationship difficulties. The laws of the world concerning family relationships are still predominantly national but too often international families face problems, bureaucracy, misunderstandings and simple obstacles in just living as a family in a country.England only applies English law but there are many countries, principally within Europe, that apply the law of another country in a process known as ‘applicable law’.Even within the UK there are different laws. England and Wales are one country for family law purposes. Scotland is a very different country in relation to family law matters and regarding the court structure. The Republic of Ireland is a separate sovereign state. The Isle of Man has its own legal system, although much of Manx law is based on the principles of English common law.Some countries like the US and Switzerland have quite different laws between the different states or cantons. Other countries such as Australia have one combined law for the whole country on some aspects regarding international families but different laws in each state on other aspects, whereas India and Israel have different laws dependant on religion. The EU does not include Denmark for some family law legislation. As international family lawyers we are regularly asked to explain what some have described as ‘myths’ about international family law. We have taken a number of the most common questions to try to dispel some of these issues.

I have to divorce in the country where we were married?

No. One can choose in which country to divorce if there is a connection. It does not have to be the country where you were married. When a couple divorce, apart from issues concerning any children which are paramount, the next big issue is to secure the best possible financial outcome. England has been described as the ‘divorce capital of the world’ as we tend to be generous especially to wives in terms of financial settlement. Each case is different.

I can move to another country to live with our children if our marriage is over?

If the other parent does not agree, no move can take place, not even for a short holiday. An application for permission needs to be made to the court before the move takes place. If the other parent agrees, this is fine but we recommend securing permission in writing stating that the move is permanent. If you are a single mother and the father does not have parental responsibility for the child and no contact provisions are in place, you can move but again we never advise this without notifying the other parent. If you take a child abroad, away from his home without consent, you may find yourself facing criminal proceedings for child abduction which may result in a fine or imprisonment. Huge powers are given to the court to track down parents who abduct children. The Data Protection Act has no status in a search for missing children.

Full Read – http://www.relocatemagazine.com/articles/partner-family-dispelling-some-of-the-myths-of-international-family-law

Blog, Criminal, Immigration, International, Legal News, Organized Crime

Deal with mafia not my son, Turkey’s Erdogan tells Italian judges

Erdogan told RAI television that the probe by prosecutors in the northern city of Bologna, where Bilal had been studying, might affect bilateral links. Erdogan, criticised in the West for the scale of a post-coup crackdown, told RAI: “Italy should be attending to the mafia, not my son. If my son came back to Italy at this moment, he could be arrested,”

Erdogan said in an interview with the state broadcaster. “This could even cause problems for our relationship with Italy.”Bilal, 35, went to Italy in 2015 to finish a doctorate. It was not clear when he left, but a legal source said he had been back in Turkey for some time. He denies wrongdoing.

In response, Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said Italy had an independent legal system and “judges answer to the Italian constitution and not the Turkish president.”The money-laundering investigation followed accusations by Murat Hakan Uzan, an exiled member of one of Turkey´s richest families and an opponent of the president, a legal source said.

Italian press reported prosecutors were looking into sums of money allegedly brought to Italy from Turkey. In July, a Bologna court allowed them to extend their investigation by six months.

Bilal’s lawyer Giovanni Trombini said his client declared that “all his economic and financial activity is totally transparent and legal, and the accusations are completely unfounded.”

Bilal, one of the Turkish president’s four children, has shipping and maritime assets and controls several oil tankers through his company and partnerships in other firms.

Sourced From – https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/139692-Erdogan-asks-Italy-to-check-its-mafia-not-his-son

Blog, Criminal, International, Legal News, Organized Crime

Argentina probes ties between ex-presidents, Miami real estate empire

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Offshore corporations have one main purpose – to create anonymity. Recently leaked documents reveal that some of these shell companies, cloaked in secrecy, provide cover for dictators, politicians and tax evaders. Sohail Al-Jamea and Ali Rizvi McClatchy

BY NICHOLAS NEHAMAS AND KYRA GURNEY

nnehamas@miamiherald.com

Where did a mystery man from Argentina get nearly $65 million to spend on ultra-luxury Miami condos, New York apartments and South Florida strip malls?

That’s what Argentine prosecutors want to know, especially because Sergio Todisco doesn’t seem to have a fortune of his own — and because he once acted as an offshore corporate front-man for a top aide to former president Néstor Kirchner.

The controversy again shows how Miami’s gleaming condos attract secret and potentially illicit money from around the world.

Between 2010 and 2015, Florida companies registered in the names of Todisco and his now ex-wife, Elizabeth Ortiz Municoy, a real estate agent in Miami and Buenos Aires, spent about $21 million on luxury condos at some of South Florida’s best-known towers, including Icon Brickell, St. Regis, Turnberry Ocean Colony, Apogee Beach and 900 Biscayne. The crown jewel was a $10.7 million, four-bedroom unit at the Regalia in Sunny Isles Beach. The companies later sold most of the units.

Other companies that listed Todisco and Municoy as officers invested $30 million in South Florida bank branches and a pharmacy, as well as a $13 million unit at Manhattan’s stately Plaza Hotel.

Only two of the transactions involved mortgages, according to public records, meaning the other deals were likely for cash.

In Argentina, major corruption investigations are swirling around ex-president Kirchner, who died in 2010, and his wife, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who subsequently became president. Now, an Argentine federal prosecutor has opened an inquiry to determine if Todisco and Municoy were laundering money for Kirchner associates — or even the Kirchners themselves, although they’re not yet an official target of the investigation.

At the very least, there’s compelling evidence that Todisco and Municoy were buying properties for people who wanted to keep their identities hidden.

“The tax position of Todisco and Municoy revealed by documents obtained [by the prosecutor’s office] makes it impossible to associate them with the million-dollar transactions carried out abroad,” reads a complaint filed as part of the investigation into the Todisco affair.

Here’s why Argentine law enforcement is so suspicious: At the same time Todisco was snapping up luxe Miami condos, he acted as the director of Gold Black Limited, an offshore company based in the British Virgin Islands. Gold Black’s stated purpose was “real estate investment” in the United States, according to documents in the massive leak of confidential offshore files known as the Panama Papers.

The company’s owners? Néstor Kirchner’s personal secretary and close friend, Héctor Daniel Muñoz, who died of cancer earlier this year, and Muñoz’s wife, Carolina Pochetti.

A lawyer for Fernández de Kirchner did not respond to questions and Pochetti could not be reached.

The president’s shadow

Muñoz had been a debt collector at the Kirchners’ law firm before they came to power.

During his time in government, he served as Kirchner’s “body man,” a sort of valet and jack-of-all-trades who answered the president’s phone, handled his medication and stayed by his side when he was hospitalized. Kirchner affectionately called him el gordo (“fatty”) and, according to a press account, once slapped him during an argument. The pair was also fond of play-wrestling. When Kirchner couldn’t sleep, he would wake up his friend to keep him company.

Blog, Civil Rights, Criminal, International, Legal News

We need to send Eritrea to the International Criminal Court

By Joseph K. Grieboski, contributor

As one of the world’s most oppressive regimes, the Eritrean government has committed extensive crimes against humanity over the past 25 years, according to a report released June 8 by the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in Eritrea. President Isaias Afwerki, in power since Eritrea’s independence in 1991 following the 30-year war with Ethiopia, has led an increasingly repressive authoritarian regime. The U.N. commission found that enslavement, enforced disappearance, rape, murder, torture and religious persecution are systematically used to instill fear in Eritreans and maintain the regime’s power. These blatant violations of international law clearly constitute crimes against humanity as widespread, systematic attacks against the civilian population.

The Eritrean leadership’s brutality is particularly evident in its enslavement of up to 400,000 people, primarily through military conscription. Eritrea’s system of open-ended service forces conscripts to serve indefinitely, often for decades at a time. This deprivation of liberty amounts to modern-day slavery and allows for inhumane treatment, which Eritrea currently has no legal mechanisms to redress. In military camps, conscripts are frequently subjected to torture, sexual and gender-based violence, forced labor and domestic servitude. Recent developments could further exacerbate their situation. On June 21, Eritrea accused Ethiopia of contemplating full-scale war, strengthening the Eritrean regime’s justification for compulsory military service as a necessary response to perceived Ethiopian aggression.

full article – http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/international/285937-we-need-to-send-eritrea-to-the-international-criminal-court

Blog, Criminal, International, Legal News

Assange Lawyer: UK and Sweden ‘Violating International Law’

U.K. authorities say they will arrest the Australian national if he leaves the embassy to seek medical treatment.

The United Kingdom and Sweden are “clearly violating international law” for refusing to grant Julian Assange medical attention outside the Ecuadorean Embassy in London without arrest, a lawyer for the WikiLeaks founder told RT Thursday.

Assange, who has been living in asylum in the embassy for over three years, has been suffering from a “deep pain” in his right shoulder since June, for which his doctor has advised a magnetic resonance imaging scan.

U.K. authorities have said that they will arrest the Australian national if he leaves the embassy to seek medical treatment, which Assange’s legal team says is an affront on his human rights.

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“The U.K. and Sweden are clearly violating international law,” lawyer Carey Shenkman told RT in a televised interview. “The U.K. is effectively brushing off its international obligations.”

According to Shenkman, both the U.K. and Sweden are contravening legally binding accords, including the Covenant of Civil and Political Rights, the European Convention on Human Rights, both of which grant the right to medical treatment, while both nations recognize asylum in embassies.

“What they are doing in reality is making Assange choose between his asylum and getting medical treatment. No person should ever have to make that choice,” Shenkman added.

Assange is wanted for questioning by Sweden over sexual assault. If arrested he faces the risk of extradition to the U.S. where there has been an ongoing attempt to prosecute Wikileaks and its founder over the slew of damning revelations made about the U.S. military.

For Full Article and Video – This content was originally published by teleSUR at the following address: http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Assange-Lawyer-UK-and-Sweden-Violating-International-Law–20151016-0002.html