On February 16, 2021, the European Court of Human Rights (the Court or ECHR), Grand Chamber, delivered its judgment in the case Hanan v. Germany. The ruling concerns the procedural aspects of the responsibility of the government of Germany under Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) deriving from the activities of its armed forces in Afghanistan in 2009.

On March 1, 2021, the United States Government extradited Michael Taylor and his son Peter to Japan to answer charges for helping former Nissan head Carlos Ghosn flee Japan for Lebanon.[1]

On March 3, 2021, Fatou Bensouda, the International Criminal Court (ICC or the Court) Prosecutor announced that her Office (OTP) will open an investigation respecting the Situation in Palestine. The investigation will cover crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court that are alleged to have been committed in the Situation since June 13, 2014 the date to which reference is made in the Referral of the Situation to the OTP.

On February 26, 2021, the U.K. Supreme Court delivered a judgment in a highly publicized case of Shamima Begum, a British-born citizen who left the U.K. to join the Islamic State. As a result, she will not be allowed to return to the United Kingdom to fight her legal case about the revocation of citizenship.

Yagnesh Devani, the former managing director of Triton Petroleum Limited, is set to be extradited to Kenya after ten years of exile in the United Kingdom. Devani was arrested in London in 2009 for conspiracy to defraud. He has since been engaged in an ongoing court battle in which he thwarted extradition efforts for over a decade.

On February 22, 2021, the Foreign Affairs Council of the European Union, the organ bringing together the Member States’ Ministers for Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Development, debated, among other matters, the situation in the Russian Federation. Participants took the view that the country is moving towards becoming an authoritarian State and distances itself from the European values of rule of law, democracy, and human rights.[1] Discussions concerned how relations with Russia could develop within the so-called “five guiding principles,” agreed by EU Foreign Ministers and the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy in March 2016,[2] and focused on, inter alia, pushing back on Russia’s infringements of international law and human rights.[3] In particular, they agreed to: (a) work on future “restrictive measures” (a term which is euphemism for sanctions) to respond to serious violations of human rights committed by the Russian government and (b) increase support for those defending political and civil freedoms in the county.[4] Without naming anyone in particular, the latter reference primarily concerned Alexei Navalny,[5] a Russian opposition politician and leader of the Russia of the Future party. The EU had already castigated the early February 2021 judgment of a Russian court of justice ordering a custodial sentence against Navalny and had promised “possible further action” against the Russian government.[6] This action, which was adopted for the first time under the new EU’s sanctioning regime targeting specifically human rights abuses worldwide (EU ‘Magnitsky Act’) in late February 2021, is the focus of this article.  

On February 25, 2021, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) issued a report, urging governments to target the professional enablers who actively pursue opportunities for, and hide the commission of tax crimes and other financial crimes, in order to disrupt a crucial part of the planning and pursuit of criminal activity.[1]

On February 22, 2021, United States law enforcement authorities arrested Emma Coronel Aispuro, the wife of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Loera, the head of the Sinaloa Cartel. She was arrested at Dulles Airport in Virginia for her alleged involvement in international drug trafficking.[1]

On February 17, 2021, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) unsealed an indictment and returned by a grand jury in the Central District of California, charging the same DPRK programmer, as well as two newly-identified DPRK conspirators, with a campaign of cyber heists and extortion schemes, targeting both traditional currencies and cryptocurrencies.[1]

On February 17, 2021, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) unsealed an indictment and returned by a grand jury in the Central District of California, charging the same DPRK programmer, as well as two newly-identified DPRK conspirators, with a campaign of cyber heists and extortion schemes, targeting both traditional currencies and cryptocurrencies.[1]