Law

A judge has handed down a reduced sentence to a cannabis grower in the U.K. after sympathizing with his predicament. 20-year-old Joshua Hughes made a bosh job at his first attempt to grow cannabis indoors in order to maintain his 20-a-day joint habit. His defense lawyer pleaded his case by calling him “dim witted” for flooding his flat which led to his arrest. The judge agreed with the defense and called the defendant “incompetent” in maintaining a grow, and gave him a suspended sentence.

A security tribunal in the U.K. has ruled that the British spy agency GCHQ is in the clear when it comes to spying and hacking into people’s computers and smart phones. Human rights “watchdog” organization, Privacy International, has lost a court case questioning the legality of government snooping. The Investigatory Powers Tribunal in the U.K.

Disgraced TV star Rolf Harris faces seven indecent assault charges, according to British prosecutors. Harris, who is currently serving a jail sentence at Stafford Prison, is to be charged by the Crown Prosecution Service with seven counts of indecent assault on women and girls aged between 12 and 27, dating from between 1971 and 2004. TVNZ reports: The 85-year-old Australian-born artist and musician is currently serving a term of nearly six years at Stafford Prison on similar charges.

Four Palestinian human rights organisations have formally submitted evidence to the International Criminal Court (ICC) proving Israeli war crimes committed against Palestinian civilians during the war on the Gaza Strip in 2014.  The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, Al-Mezan Centre for Human Rights, Al-Haq and Aldameer said that they provided evidence of these war crimes being committed in Rafah between 1-4 August 2014.

Sirhan Sirhan, the man accused of assassinating Robert F. Kennedy almost 50 years ago, has been denied parole for the 15th time following a parole hearing in San Diego on Wednesday.  Paul Schrade, a witness of the  June 5, 1968 assassination at the Ambassador Hotel and friend of Kennedy, insisted to the parole panel that Sirhan Sirhan was innocent but his words fell on deaf ears.