Spain’s National Court convicted Ex-El Salvador military leader, Inocente Orlando Montano Morales, to 133 years in prison for the murder of five Spanish Jesuit priests. Justice was carried out nine years after Mr. Montano was first taken into custody in the U.S. for immigration fraud charges and subsequently extradited to Spain in 2017. The decision vindicated Spain’s universal jurisdiction law and may ultimately lead to reconciliation for the people of El Salvador.

                On September 22, 2020, a federal grand jury in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York indicted a trader at the U.S. subsidiary of a multinational oil distributor and trading company (Trading Company) for his alleged participation in a five-year international bribery and money laundering scheme involving corrupt payments to Ecuadorian officials.[1]

                On September 23, 2020, the European Securities and Market Authority (ESMA) issued a report, calling for more robust exchange of information on request to counter the increasing amount of alleged large-scale tax fraud schemes known as “Cum/Ex.”  ESMA’s report responded to the Resolution 2018/2900 (RSP) adopted on November 29, 2018 by the European Parliament, requesting ESMA to perform a study into dividend arbitrage, Cum/Ex and Cum/Cum schemes.[1]

On September 22, 2020, the British government shared evidence with the United States Department of Justice to prosecute the ISIS ‘Beatles’ after the Queen’s Bench Division of the High Court of Justice ruled that the mother of El Shafee Elsheikh, one of the defendants, has no more grounds to block the transfer of criminal evidence to U.S. prosecutors.[1]

The Republic of South Sudan is the newest sovereign state in the world. It was created in record time in the summer of 2011 and it was also in record time that it was admitted to membership in the United Nations (UN) and the African Union (AU). Unfortunately, soon after gaining independence, South Soudan met the fate that so many other African states have experienced upon gaining independence, namely hostilities between government forces and opposition forces, coups d’état, and ethnic tensions (unavoidable in Africa) leading to civil wars with an enormous human toll. Given that the civil war in South Soudan lasted from December 2013 until February 2020, the history of this country has been intricately linked to the perpetration of atrocious crimes on a large scale, including the alleged used of starvation as a tactic for collective punishment of population groups, sexual violence, the use of children as soldiers, etc. While in the past impunity of those accused of committing atrocities was the order of the day, in more recent times Africa has made strides in ensuring that alleged perpetrators will be brought to trial and, if found guilty, punished. This brief article will examine the establishment of a court of justice with criminal jurisdiction to determine culpability in the South Sudanese Civil War. This judicial institution, if and when it becomes operative, will be the Hybrid Court for South Sudan.

On September 21, 2020, the Jerusalem District Court ruled Malka Leifer, a former educator who is accused of sexually abusing several former students, can be extradited to Australia on charges of child sex abuse. Leifer has fought extradition from Israel since 2014. The length of the extradition proceedings have strained relations between Israel and Australia.[1]

On September 17-18, 2020, U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo made the first visit  of any U.S. Secretary of State to Suriname and Guyana. It coincided with promises that the U.S. would increase its technical assistance with respect to law enforcement and national security issues in both countries.

                In a joint sitting on September 16, 2020, Pakistan’s parliament approved three anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financial enforcement (AML/CFT) bills in an effort to get off the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF’s) blacklist.[1]

On September 10, 2020, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District Virginia brought a criminal complaint against a Russian national for his alleged role in a conspiracy to use the stolen identities of real U.S. persons to open fraudulent accounts at banking and cryptocurrency exchanges.[1]  Also on September 10, 2020, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions against Andriy Derkach, a member of the Ukrainian Parliament, saying he has been “an active Russian agent for over a decade” and accusing him of disseminating “edited audiotapes” and “unsubstantiated allegations against U.S. and international political figures.” The Treasury Department also imposed sanctions against three employees of the Internet Research Agency (IRA).  IRA is a troll farm in Russia that disseminated disinformation on social media as part of the Russian election interference campaign in 2016.

On August 14, 2020, the United States Department of Justice issued its first opinion on the applicability of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). The request emanated from an investment advisor’s managing private funds serving institutional investors (the Requestor”).[1] On November 5, 2019, Requestor initially submitted its request (the “Request”). On January15, 2020, February 10, 2020, June 18, 2020, and July 17, 2020, the Requestor furnished supplemental information. Pursuant to 28 C.F.R. § 80.4, Requestor, a U.S. “domestic concern,” requested an opinion inquiring  whether certain specified, prospective conduct conforms to DOJ’s present enforcement policy concerning the anti-bribery provisions of the FCPA.