The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor asked judges on Wednesday to issue an arrest warrant for the head of Myanmar’s military regime for crimes committed against the country’s Rohingya Muslim minority.
Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, who seized power from elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021, is accused of crimes against humanity for the persecution of the Rohingya.
Nearly a million people were forced into neighboring Bangladesh to escape what has been called an ethnic cleansing campaign involving mass rapes, killings and the torching of homes.
From a refugee camp in Bangladesh, the court’s top prosecutor, Karim Khan, said in a statement that he intended to request more warrants for Myanmar’s leaders soon.
“In doing so, we will be demonstrating, together with all of our partners, that the Rohingya have not been forgotten. That they, like all people around the world, are entitled to the protection of the law,” the British barrister said.
The allegations stem from a counterinsurgency campaign that Myanmar’s military began in August 2017 in response to an insurgent attack. Min Aung Hlaing, who heads the Myanmar Defense Services, is said to have directed the armed forces of Myanmar, known as the Tatmadaw, as well as the national police to attack Rohingya civilians.
Khan was in Bangladesh where he met with members of the displaced Rohingya population. About 1 million of the predominately Muslim Rohingya live in Bangladesh as refugees from Myanmar, including about 740,000 who fled in 2017.
Rohingya face widespread discrimination in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, with most denied citizenship. Myanmar’s government refuses to recognize the Rohingya as one of the country’s 135 lawful ethnic minorities, instead calling them Bengalis, with the implication that their native land is in Bangladesh and they are illegally settled in Myanmar.
Human rights groups applauded the decision to seek a warrant. The dire situation of the Rohingya has received less attention as the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza have grabbed headlines. “The ICC prosecutor’s decision to seek a warrant against Sr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing comes amid renewed atrocities against Rohingya civilians that echo those suffered seven years ago. The ICC’s action is an important step toward breaking the cycle of abuses and impunity,” said Maria Elena Vignoli, senior international justice counsel at Human Rights Watch.
A legal challenge by Sun Yang against one of the judges who banned the Chinese swimmer for eight years in a now-overturned ruling has not been accepted by a Swiss federal judge.
Switzerland’s supreme court said Monday it deferred to the Court of Arbitration for Sport to decide if Romano Subiotto is eligible to serve on the judging panel at Sun’s retrial.
Subiotto was picked by the World Anti-Doping Agency last year to sit on the panel of three arbitrators that imposed the ban on three-time Olympic champion Sun for violating rules at a sample collection.
The ban was voided last week by the Swiss Federal Tribunal, whose bench of five judges upheld an appeal by Sun’s lawyers that CAS panel chairman Franco Frattini was biased. It did not consider the merits of the evidence.
Frattini, the former foreign minister of Italy, had posted anti-China comments on social media before Sun’s CAS hearing held in November 2019.
Because the first CAS process was quashed, the federal judge ruled she did not have authority over a request for an arbitrator to be recused, the supreme court said.
Subiotto and the other judge at the original hearing, Philippe Sands, a British barrister selected for the hearing by Sun’s legal team, could be picked for the retrial due next year.
However, Sun’s lawyers would likely object to them — at a CAS panel that assesses such challenges — because they were already part of a unanimous 3-0 verdict against him.
Sun’s lawyers have consistently objected to lawyers involved in the case.
Subiotto was selected by WADA after its original choice stepped aside during repeated challenges by Sun’s lawyers, and WADA’s American lead prosecutor stayed on the case despite a failed appeal to federal court that he had an alleged conflict of interest.
The retrial faces a tight schedule and complications during the coronavirus pandemic to be decided before the Tokyo Olympics.
The 29-year-old Sun is the current world champion in the men’s 400-meter freestyle, which is among the first Olympic events scheduled to begin competition on July 24.
Branch MacMaster LLP and Hordo Bennett Mounteer LLP report that the Federal Court of Canada has certified the BIM Class Action against Business in Motion International Corporation and Alan Kippax. By order dated November 10, 2011 , Mr. Justice Rennie of the Federal Court officially certified the action on behalf of the national class, as represented by the Plaintiff, Mr. Mark Cuzzetto .
The lawsuit was initiated in May, 2010 against BIM and its principal, Alan Kippax. BIM operated a plan called the "Time Leverage System", recruiting representatives to sell "Perpetual Motion Products". The lawsuit alleges that the Defendants have been engaged in the operation of an unlawful multi-level marketing scheme and/or pyramid scheme contrary to the Competition Act. The class members seek damages for the money they paid to the Defendants.
Persons who have purchased the product and who wish to participate in the action do not need to do anything at this time. Persons who do not want to participate in the action must opt out by January 18, 2012 by completing the online form on the website.
Bim CLASS ACTION
DID YOU PURCHASE A PERPETUAL MOTION PRODUCT FROM OR THROUGH BUSINESS IN MOTION INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION? IF SO, PLEASE READ THIS CAREFULLY AS IT MAY AFFECT YOUR RIGHTS.
WHAT IS THIS CASE ABOUT?
A class action lawsuit has been certified in the Federal Court of Canada claiming that Business in Motion International Corporation and Alex Kippax ("BIM") ran an illegal pyramid scheme and an illegal multi-level marketing scheme. A copy of the Statement of Claim and Order certifying the action as a class proceeding can be found at www.BIMclassaction.com.
HOW WILL THE LAWSUIT PROCEED?
A trial will be held to determine the common issues in the action. If these issues are determine in favor of the class members, there might still need to be individual hearings to determine the entitlement of each class member to a refund.
WHAT DO I HAVE TO DO TO PARTICIPATE?
There is nothing you have to do right now. Unless you opt out, you will be bound by the result of the common issues trial. However, in order to make sure you are notified of any important developments in the action, we recommend you register on our website at www.BIMclassaction.com.
WHAT IF I DO NOT WANT TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS LAWSUIT?
If you do not want to be part of the class action, you must complete the online form at www.BIMclassaction.com. If you do not have access to the internet, please contact Ulla Herlev at Branch MacMaster LLP. You must complete the online form by no later than January 18, 2012 .
DO I NEED TO PAY ANYTHING?
You will only need to pay legal fees if the action is successful in obtaining you a refund of some of the monies you paid. Those legal fees will be paid directly from the refund you receive. You will not need to pay any legal fees out of your own pocket.
Any fee paid to the lawyers must be approved by the Court as being fair and reasonable. The fee agreement entered into by the representative plaintiff provides for the lawyers to be paid up to 1/3 of any amounts recovered or any benefit obtained from the class action. If and when this occurs, the lawyers will apply to Court for approval of that percentage or some lesser amount.
If the class action is unsuccessful at the common issues trial, you will not pay any legal fees.
WHO ARE THE LAWYERS FOR THE CLASS?
The lawyers for the class are:
BRANCH MACMASTER LLP
Barristers and Solicitors
1410 - 777 Hornby Street
Vancouver , BC V6Z 1S4
HORDO BENNETT MOUNTEER LLP
Barristers and Solicitors
1400 - 128 West Pender St.
Vancouver , BC V6B 1R8
Mark Cuzzetto (the representative plaintiff) has been appointed by the Court to instruct the lawyers for the common issues stage. The lawyers must act in the interest of all class members.
Ontario’s move to allow American-style shareholder class-action lawsuits has attracted a feared and revered Wall Street plaintiffs’ lawyer to the province just as the pendulum is swinging away from similar suits in the United States.
Michael Spencer, a senior partner who sits on the executive committee at Milberg LLP – one of the original class-action firms – is preparing to practise law in Canada.
He was most recently a lead counsel in the Vivendi SA shareholder lawsuit that left the French media company facing an eye-popping $9.3-billion (U.S.) damage award for misleading investors.
The size of that award was reduced by the courts. But Mr. Spencer, who recently led a U.S. class action against a French company on behalf of American, French, British and Dutch investors, is at the epicentre of the globalization of securities class actions.
That epicentre will soon be stationed part-time in the offices of Kim Orr Barristers PC, a Toronto class-action boutique, working on Canadian and cross-border cases.
Mr. Spencer makes no bones about why, at the pinnacle of his career, he is prepared to swap the perks of a privileged life in Manhattan for Toronto. It’s because of Ontario’s Bill 198, enacted in 2005, which allows shareholders who buy stock on the open market to sue if they feel a company misrepresents its financial situation.
Ordinarily, an amendment to provincial securities law would not attract the attention of someone in Mr. Spencer’s ambit, but these are not ordinary times for U.S. class-action lawyers.
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