Think tank calls for urgent judge-led inquiry into NPA
As concern grows over the National Prosecuting Authority's (NPA) string of high-profile court losses, the Centre for Development and Enterprise (CDE) has called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to institute an urgent inquiry into the body's 'structure, integrity and performance'.
According to the think tank, the goal of the inquiry – which it said should be conducted by a retired judge – would be 'to identify the specific causes of the NPA's underperformance with regard to successfully prosecuting major cases of state capture and corruption'.
The inquiry should assess the NPA's performance, structure, independence, and overall leadership, it said.
In a second report on the NPA, the CDE also called on Ramaphosa to use a new appointment model to find a replacement for outgoing National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) Shamila Batohi, who is due to retire in January.
That model should be inspired by the 2019 SA Revenue Service (SARS) commissioner selection process, it said.
According to the CDE's director, Ann Bernstein, this 'would involve the president selecting one or more candidates, who would then be interviewed by a high-level, independent and widely respected panel'.
'This panel should interview the potential candidates in private – away from the glare of television cameras – and then deliberate carefully on the basis of clearly defined criteria before making their recommendations to the president,' Bernstein said.
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History from New Journal archives: Coons as NCCo executive, rescue of last covered bridges
"Pages of history" features excerpts from The News Journal archives including The Morning News and The Evening Journal. See the archives at June 22, 2005, The News Journal The small green-and-white signs outside the New Castle County Government Center beckon visitors and employees to 'please play on the grass.' It's more than a friendly sentiment from County Executive Chris A. Coons, who commissioned the signs shortly after he took office in January. The message is symbolic of his leadership and what he hopes is a sea change from the previous administration, when the signs in front of the glass-front building read 'please stay off the grass.' Former county executive Tom Gordon and his chief administrative officer Sherry Freebery are under federal indictment for alleged corruption. Since Coons took the helm, he has been working to establish a different tenor inside the halls of county government. He has tackled some of the big things: getting County Council approval of a $214 million budget; examining the operations of major county departments, including police; starting programs to address rentals, neglected and abandoned property; and coming up with nontraditional employee incentives. He's also pounced on some little things, such as the new 'please play on the grass' signs, to set himself apart from his predecessor. In fact, there is a growing list of actions Coons has taken to dismantle what Gordon and Freebery left behind. Gordon renamed the Newark Free Library when it became part of the county system. Coons gave it back the old name. Gordon removed the nonprofit Friends of Rockwood volunteers from the historic Rockwood Mansion after disagreements over the mansion's contents and operation. Coons invited the group back into the house. ... Gordon has openly criticized Coons, saying the new executive is trying to steal his legacy instead of creating one of his own. But Coons says it's not about Gordon. 'If you look at how I conducted my campaign, it wasn't about any of my opponents,' Coons said. 'Some things were done right. Some things were done wrong. You take the right and build on it, and leave the wrong and move on.' As president of County Council during Gordon's tenure, Coons often found himself at odds with the two top leaders. But now that he's in the executive's chair, he's forging ahead with some initiatives once blocked by Gordon. For example, the council is poised to approve a new code to regulate rental properties. Coons failed to get the measure through council when he was president because, he said, Gordon lined up support against him. ... Gordon says Coons has done nothing of substance yet and is still enjoying the honeymoon that comes with being newly elected. ... 'He didn't set the world on fire as president of council,' Gordon said. 'We changed the course of county government. We're the reason the Newark Library is there. We built Rockwood Park. We changed land use procedures. I upgraded the salaries of women who were not being paid commensurate with the men. He'll never accomplish half of our accomplishments.' Recent news about Chris Coons: 'This is life and death': How Trump's proposed Medicaid cuts could impact Delawareans June 24, 1925, The Evening Journal Somewhere in the West, a Wilmington boy in whose veins there lurks a drop of Nomadic blood, is learning the ways of the men who have become the most romantic figures of American song and story – the western cowboy. The boy is Charles A. Wilson, 17, of Concord Street, who has been missing from his home since May 20. His mother has heard indirectly that the youth is in Oklahoma and that he intends to become a cattleman like the heroes of the screen and stories of the plains which he has seen and read since childhood. Charles' father died six days after the boy left home, presumably with Ringling Brothers' Circus. His uncle sent out word of the missing youth, and the news of his father's death was radioed from stations in Philadelphia and the West. The boy learned in this manner of the death of his father, but wrote to one of his companions in Wilmington that he couldn't get home as he had only 70 cents. He is said to have expressed regret at the death of his father but wrote that it was impossible to get home. Mrs. Wilson said today she would not try to induce her son to return as he would be of little use to her when under restraint and that since early childhood he had always wanted to become a cowboy. The family paid little attention to the boy's threats to run away until the day he failed to come home. Mrs. Wilson said he was a reader of western stories and loved to go see western pictures at the movies. ... She said he was always a dutiful son. Catch up on history: History April 27-May 3 from News Journal: Explosion kills 2, lottery $186,000 over budget June 26, 1975, The Morning News The only two covered bridges left in the state, long-time victims of neglect and vandalism, soon should be rescued. The bridges over Red Clay Creek near Ashland and Wooddale were probably built before 1850, according to Edward F. Heite, historic registrar in the state division of historical and cultural affairs. Vandals have hacked their initials into both bridges, and in March, someone set fire to the Wooddale bridge. ... Heite and Robert McDowell, the state's bridge engineer, explained what is being done to keep the last two covered bridges in the state from following 34 others into history books and old photographs. At Ashland, the state plans to build a new bridge alongside the old one, to detour heavy traffic from it. Then the state will renovate the covered bridge for pedestrians. Money for the 1976 project is in the state's bond bill. At Wooddale, repairs would come under the federally funded National Register of Historic Places program. The project will include repairs, paint and installation of a fire alarm. A separate, modern bridge would not be built because the Wooddale bridge is only used for access to a few private homes and does not carry as heavy a traffic load as the Ashland bridge does. Reach reporter Ben Mace at rmace@ This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: History from New Journal: Coons as NCCo executive, last covered bridges
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an hour ago
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Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil is released after spending over three months at a Louisiana detention center
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The judge said it's 'highly unusual' to be seeking his detention at this point. The judge also cited several 'extraordinary circumstances' in Khalil's case that led him to order his release, including 'that there is a due process violative effort to punish' the Columbia University graduate who played a central role in negotiations on behalf of pro-Palestinian student protesters last year. Khalil 'is not a flight risk, and the evidence that has been presented to me at least is that he is not a danger to the community, period, full stop,' Farbiarz said. Khalil, a lawful permanent resident who is married to a US citizen and has not been charged with a crime, was one of the first arrestees in the Trump administration's immigration crackdown targeting student activism. As his case dragged on for over 100 days, several other student activists targeted for deportation by the Trump administration were released. Khalil said he is leaving behind immigrants still in detention who are 'in a place where they shouldn't have been.' 'The Trump administration are doing their best to dehumanize everyone here,' he said. 'Whether you are a US citizen, an immigrant or just a person on this land, doesn't mean that you are less of a human.' Khalil's wife, Noor Abdalla, said in a statement that she can 'breathe a sigh of relief' knowing that Khalil will be reunited with his family after missing the birth of his first child during months of detention at a facility over 1,000 miles away. Judge Farbiarz previously ruled the government can't hold Khalil on the premise that his presence in the country is against the national interest, and on Friday found that Khalil doesn't need to be detained based on a second allegation against him that he failed to give required information in his application to become a legal permanent resident of the US. 'It's overwhelmingly unlikely, I found, that a lawful permanent resident would be detained on the remaining available charge' of failing to accurately fill out an immigration application, the judge said during Friday's hearing. At the hearing, Khalil's attorneys argued that the court should allow him to be released on bail or transferred to a detention center closer to his wife and newborn son. They said the chilling effect of his detention has made it an 'extraordinary case.' 'I'm aware, of my 20 years of representing immigrants, of no other case where the government announced the day that it detained someone that they were detaining them in order to send a message that their arrest would be the first of many, that they were going after student protesters,' Khalil's attorney Alina Das argued before the court. The federal government requested to temporarily halt Khalil's release, which the judge denied Friday. 'The court concluded there's no reason he should continue to be detained given the serious harms that are happening, the chill that is happening to his speech and other people's speech as a result of his detention,' one of his attorneys Baher Azmy told CNN Friday. In response to the ruling, the Department of Homeland Security said that 'The Trump Administration acted well within its statutory and constitutional authority to detain Khalil.' As the case played out in immigration and federal courts, the administration has argued that Khalil should be deported because his presence in the United States threatens the administration's foreign policy goal of combatting antisemitism. His lawyers contended that he was targeted for his pro-Palestinian views in violation of his constitutional rights. 'There is at least something to the underlying claim that there is an effort to use the immigration charge here to punish the petitioner. And of course, that would be unconstitutional,' Farbiarz said Friday. As part of his release conditions, Khalil's lawyers were required to surrender his passport to immigration authorities in Louisiana and he was prohibited from traveling internationally, limiting travel to a handful of states. The government was ordered to provide Khalil his green card and a copy of his passport, allowing him to board a plane home to New York Friday. Khalil will however not have to report to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement in New York, Magistrate Judge Michael Hammer ordered. Though he's been released, Khalil's immigration proceedings will continue. Azmy, Khalil's attorney, said the legal team learned immigration Judge Jamee Comans in Louisiana separately reaffirmed her removability ruling an hour into Friday's hearing. Khalil's lawyers will appeal her decision through immigration court – a long process his lawyers say will be easier now that he is out of detention. 'I'm confident that on appeal, we will prevail,' Johnny Sinodis, one of Khalil's attorneys, told CNN's Laura Coates Friday, noting Khalil's insistence throughout court proceedings that he 'committed no misrepresentation, no fraud' during his green card application. Khalil's wife said the ruling doesn't begin to address the injustices their family has been through but said she's 'celebrating Mahmoud coming back to New York to be reunited with our little family, and the community that has supported us since the day he was unjustly taken for speaking out for Palestinian freedom.' The ruling comes exactly one week after Farbiarz ruled Khalil can remain in detention. After the judge said the government could no longer hold Khalil on the premise that his presence in the country is against the national interest, attorneys for the Department of Justice said the judge's decision did not prevent them from continuing to hold Khalil on a second claim – that he failed to give required information in his application to become a legal permanent resident of the US. The judge ruled last week that the administration's interpretation of his order is correct, keeping Khalil in detention. Khalil's attorneys at the time accused the administration of using 'cruel, transparent delay tactics' to keep Khalil in custody. Azmy on Friday said the charges still pending that Khalil made misrepresentations on his green card application are 'baseless' and will be litigated. When asked if Khalil will continue to protest when released, Azmy said: 'He's a peace activist, he's an international human rights activist, and he's Palestinian, and I don't expect he will ever stop advocating for justice for Palestinian people and an end to their continued slaughter and starvation.' This story has been updated with additional information. CNN's Gloria Pazmino contributed to this report.
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Grandfather pens letter to PM after death in custody
The grandfather of a 24-year-old man who died in custody has drafted an open letter to the prime minister calling on Canberra to step in and address "madness" in the Northern Territory's justice system. The senior Warlpiri leader and kin of Kumanjayi White, who died after being forcibly restrained by two plain clothes officers inside a supermarket in Alice Springs in May, said justice in the Territory was "in crisis". "Your government in Canberra has total power over the NT," Ned Jampijinpa Hargraves, a Yuendumu man, wrote. "The prisons are so full they need private security guards; guards on buses and public housing officers are being given guns - this madness must stop." The letter addressed to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese landed ahead of protests in Sydney and Alice Springs on Saturday to demand justice for Mr White. The senior Indigenous leader renewed his call for an independent investigation into the death of his grandson. The family has also been calling for the release of CCTV footage and for the officers involved to be stood down while the investigation takes place. Federal minister for Indigenous Australians, Malarndirri McCarthy, backs an independent inquiry but despite broad support, the NT government has rejected the proposal, saying NT Police are best-placed to investigate the death. Police allege Mr White, who had a mental disability and was in care, was shoplifting and assaulted a security guard. In his letter, Mr Hargraves demanded immediate action from the Commonwealth, including withholding funding to the NT government until it agreed to an independent probe. "You used this power to take away all our rights, our jobs and our assets with the NT Intervention 18 years ago today," he said. "Now we demand action from Canberra to see that our rights are restored and we are protected from the racist Country Liberal Party government." Speaking ahead of a meeting of the Joint Council on Closing the Gap in Darwin on Friday, Senator McCarthy said deaths in custody had to end and the federal government was deeply concerned about the issue. The Yuendumu community also lost 19-year-old Kumanjayi Walker in 2019 when he was shot by then-NT police officer Zachary Rolfe during a botched arrest. Mr Rolfe was found not guilty of all charges over the death in 2022. Protesters in Sydney gathered to respond to a policing conference involving the former police officer but the first responders event has since been cancelled, according to the rally organisers.
