Amid a soaring number of murders connected to escalating drug gang conflicts, Mexico on Monday launched a system of “virtual” judges who are to respond online and within 24 hours to requests for search warrants, preventive arrests or telephone tapping of organized crime suspects.
The six new “control” judges — five men and one woman — are intended to speed up efforts against crime and work under a cloak of anonymity, Mexican Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora said.
They will have their headquarters in a high-technology, top-security building in southern Mexico City and the whole country will be under their jurisdiction. They are to respond quickly in favor of or against requests by public prosecutors in relation to organized crime and national security issues,” he said.
The judges are set to each work for 24 hours followed by 48 hours off. Requests, documents and decisions are to be managed online and will go through few hands.
As he launched the program, Medina Mora said it was “indispensable” that requests from public prosecutors and judges’ decisions in the fight against organized crime be kept absolutely confidential.
“[Information leaks] not only endanger the respective investigations, but also put at risk the life and the physical integrity of honest public servants who are committed to the consolidation of the rule of law and the security of all Mexicans,” Medina Mora said.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday declared martial law in an unannounced late night address broadcast live on YTN television. Yoon said he had no choice but to resort to such a measure in order to safeguard free and constitutional order, saying opposition parties have taken hostage of the parliamentary process to throw the country into a crisis. "I declare martial law to protect the free Republic of Korea from the threat of North Korean communist forces, to eradicate the despicable pro-North Korean anti-state forces that are plundering the freedom and happiness of our people, and to protect the free
CHAGOS ISLANDS: Recently elected Mauritian Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam told lawmakers that the contents of negotiations are ‘unknown’ to the government Mauritius’ new prime minister ordered an independent review of a deal with the UK involving a strategically important US-UK military base in the Indian Ocean, placing the agreement under fresh scrutiny. Under a pact signed last month, the UK ceded sovereignty of the Chagos archipelago to Mauritius, while retaining control of Diego Garcia — the island where the base is situated. The deal was signed by then-Mauritian prime minister Pravind Jugnauth and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Oct. 3 — a month before elections in Mauritius in which Navin Ramgoolam became premier. “I have asked for an independent review of the
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