On April 15, 2019, a U.S. District Court for the Central District of California unsealed a civil lawsuit against former Sir Lankan Defense Minister Gotabay Rajapaska, a dual U.S.-Sri Lankan citizen, seeking damages for his alleged involvement in the 2009 killing of journalist Lasantha Wickramatunga. On April 4, 2019, Ahimsa Wickramatunga, the journalist’s daughter, filed the suit under seal. The complaint against Rajapaksa alleges that he led a broad campaign against journalists during his ten years or so as defense minister, from 2005 to 2015.  On January 9, 2009, Mr. Wickramatunga, editor of The Sunday Leader at the time, was beaten to death, after he exposed alleged corruption by Rajapaksa.  The complaint alleges that men allegedly part of the Tripoli Platoon, which operated under Rajapaksa’s command, carried out the beatings.

On April 10, 2019, Balkan Insight reported that the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Sarajevo Canton allocated over 350,000 euros of its 2019 budget to providing legal assistance to those charged with war crimes. Approximately 230,000 euros have gone to funding defendants’ lawyers, while 128,000 euros have funded legal assistance-oriented NGOs working alongside Bosnia’s ex-soldiers and former officers. Members of the Bosnian legal community praised the decision, recognizing that war crimes cases can run for years and accumulate steep legal bills. Since more than 50 ex-soldiers and former officers are currently on trial in Sarajevo, many view these funds as key to carrying out the trials against this large number of defendants. Other Balkan states, such as Croatia and Serbia, partially fund the defense of certain war crimes suspects, making the move fairly uncontroversial. Yet some members of the Serb-majority Republika Srpska have spoken out against the plan, as it only aids former members of the Bosniak-led army

On April 17, 2019, the United States government announced new sanctions against Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua. While giving a speech in Miami, National Security Advisor John Bolton announced that the Trump administration is re-imposing limits on the amount of money Cuban Americans can send to relatives in Cuba and ordering new restrictions on U.S. citizen, nonfamily travel to Cuba. Also on April 17, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the administration will remove restrictions that have prevented lawsuits from U.S. citizens seeking compensation for property expropriated by the Cuban governments when it came to power in 1958.

On March 20, 2019, Trial Chamber III of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) sentenced Radovan Karadžić to life in prison on appeal, an increase from his original 40 year sentence. Karadžić will not be able to appeal this verdict and the President of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals will decide the location of the imprisonment. Though the trial – which began in October of 2009 following Karadžić’s July 2008 arrest – has finally come to a close, feelings of justice are lacking.

On April 17, 2019, the European parliament adopted a resolution approving a new Directive intended to facilitate law enforcement authorities' access to and use of financial information held in other jurisdictions within the EU for investigations related to terrorism and other serious crimes. The Directive grants competent authorities direct access to bank account information contained in centralized registries set up in each Member State, according to the provisions of the Fifth AML Directive. The new instrument also aims to strengthen domestic and cross-border exchange of information between EU Member States' competent authorities, including law enforcement authorities and financial intelligence units, as well as with Europol. Financial information represents a valuable instrument for law enforcement authorities in the fight against crime and terrorism. As a basis for financial investigations, in particular in the area of money laundering and terrorist financing, financial data facilitates the identification of criminals and terrorists, as well as the tracing of proceeds of crime in view of their freezing or confiscation, and may serve as evidence in criminal proceedings.

On April 17, 2019, Ying Lin pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, New York to serving as an agent for the People’s Republic of China without notifying the Attorney General, by working at the direction and control of military officers assigned to the Permanent Mission of the PRC to the United Nations. Lin, a former manager with an international air carrier headquartered in the PRC (the Air Carrier) improperly facilitated the transport of packages from John F. Kennedy International Airport to the PRC aboard Air Carrier flights at the behest of the PRC military officers and in violation of Transportation Security Administration (TSA) regulations.

On March 28, 2019, Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen M. Nielsen signed, on behalf of the United States, a Memorandum of Cooperation (MOC) on border security cooperation in Central America. Almost simultaneously, U.S. President Donald Trump said that he was planning on cutting U.S. assistance to the three countries and has threatened to close the border with Mexico. HSA Secretary Nielsen met with Guatemalan Minister of Government Enrique Degenhart, Honduran Security Minister Julian Pacheco, and Salvadoran Minister of Justice and Public Security Mauricio Landaverde. The MOC – the first ever multilateral compact on border security – has the goal of improved synchronized cooperation between the countries to strengthen border security, prevent the formation of new migrant caravans, and address the root causes of the migration crisis through synchronized efforts.  It touches on the following:  human trafficking and smuggling; combating transnational criminal organizations and gangs; expanding information and intelligence sharing; and strengthening air, land, and maritime border security.

On March 28, 2019, the U.S. Department of State released the 2019 edition of the annual International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR) to Congress. This two-volume, Congressionally-mandated report assesses foreign governments’ efforts to reduce illicit drug production, trafficking, and use, as well as their work to counter drug trafficking-related money laundering. The INCSR was first published in 1986, and this edition covers calendar year 2018. This year’s INCSR stresses that the synthetic opioid-fueled drug crisis still gripping the United States represents a crisis across the globe. It also points to the continued growth in overseas production of cocaine as a problem that requires urgent international action. The report highlights not only increases in trafficking and abuse of fentanyl and other deadly synthetic ethamphetamine, but rampant heroin production in Afghanistan as well.

On April 11, 2019 WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange was arrested at the Ecuadorian embassy in London. Upon Ecuador’s invitation, British authorities entered the embassy and detained Assange, charging him with failure to surrender to the court in a previous case. Yet British authorities eventually commented that they arrested Assange on the United States’ behalf. The U.S., who unsealed an indictment against Assange the same day that he was arrested in the UK, is pursuing his extradition for his efforts to disclose classified information that the government believes would have injured the U.S. But even this potential outcome faces complications. Prior to confirming Assange’s exit from the embassy, President Moreno of Ecuador insisted that the UK refuse to extradite Assange to a country in which he could face torture or the death penalty as a form of punishment. The UK confirmed this agreement in writing. Although Assange would only face a maximum sentence of five years if convicted of the U.S. charges against him, this condition nevertheless complicates a case that already crosses multiple borders and fosters intense emotional polarization.