On January 23, 2025, the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) filed two applications for warrants of arrest before Pre-Trial Chamber II in the Situation in Afghanistan.[1] These filings have benefited from the contributions of the dedicated Afghanistan Unified Team under the supervision of Deputy Prosecutor Nazhat Shameem Khan, and multiple experts.

On January 8, Cecilia Sala, an Italian journalist, was released from Iran after being detained for twenty-one days. Sala, 29, arrived in Tehran in December on a journalist visa. For two years, she had attempted to visit Iran, but her visa application was always rejected.[1] However, after the 2024 election in Iran, her visa was finally approved. Sala, who had not been to Iran since the 2021 protests, sought to observe how the country had changed after learning that the new government was more progressive and open to foreigners.[2]

On January 23, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court stayed a nationwide injunction of the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA).  As a result, pending a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and possibly the U.S. Supreme Court, if a writ of certiorari is timely sought, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).

On January 20, 2025, President Trump on his first day in office issued four executive orders  (E.O.s) concerning foreign terrorists, national security, and migration and a proclamation. The Trump Administration has also removed and demoted high-level officials in the Department of Justice.

On January 16, 2025, police in Thailand announced they had issued an arrest warrant for Somwang Bamrungkit, 42, a Thai-Cambodian dual national known in Cambodia as Ly Ratanakraksmey, in connection with the murder of Lim Kimya, 73.[1]

The death of Samuele Landi while seasteading off the coast of Dubai in an apparent effort to avoid criminal prosecution in Italy evokes the issue of a recent novel way to facilitate fugitivity.

As a still relatively new legal institution in Brazil, inserted by the National Constituent Assembly in Chapter IV of the 1988 Federal Constitution (On the Functions Essential to Justice), alongside the Federal Prosecutor General's Office (Procuradoria-Geral da República – PGR) and the Federal Public Defender's Office (Defensoria Pública da União - DPU), the mission of the Federal Attorney General's Office (Advocacia-Geral da União - AGU) is to represent the national government (the Union), both judicially and extrajudicially, i.e. all the bodies of the federal public administration, including those in the legislative and judicial spheres, as well as the other institutions essential to justice. It must also provide legal advice (general counseling functions), but in this latter case, this is limited to the bodies of the federal executive branch.[1]

On Thursday, January 16, 2025, Ian Cleary, an American man accused of sexual assault in 2013 was extradited to the United States from France. Cleary, who is infamous for sending a “So I Raped You Message” to his victim, Shannon Keeler, on Facebook disappeared shortly after the incident. Cleary’s whereabouts were unknown until May 14, 2023, after French authorities announced Cleary had been taken into custody the previous month in Metz, France for a stolen goods case. After detaining him, French authorities discovered that there was a warrant issued for his arrest in 2021 over sexual assault charges and agreed to extradite him to the U.S. Cleary refused his extradition to the U.S. in an attempt to avoid facing the charges against him but was unsuccessful.

On January 7, 2025, the United States Department of State declared that the leaders of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and RSF-aligned militias in Sudan have committed genocide in the armed conflict occurring in that country. In particular, the U.S. named RSF leader Mohammad Hamdam Daglo Mousa, known as Hemedti, for his role in systematic atrocities committed against the Sudanese people. The U.S. also designated several RSF-owned companies located in the United Arab Emirates and one individual for their roles in procuring weapons for the RSF.[1]

On January 14, 2025, President Joseph Biden issued an executive order that removed Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism and announced other steps to ease economic penalties. On the same day, Cuba’s Foreign Ministry announced that Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez would “gradually” free 553 persons after meeting with Pope Francis.[1]