First Independent Mena Newspaper
On Monday, November 10, 2025, Lebanese authorities released Hannibal Gadhafi, the son of late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, after he paid a reduced bail of $900,000, bringing an end to his decade-long detention. Gadhafi was accused of withholding information about the disappearance of prominent Lebanese Shiite cleric Moussa al-Sadr, who vanished during a visit to […]
Niger’s military junta, which took power in a coup in July 2023, has released around 50 individuals, including former government ministers and soldiers linked to past coup attempts, following recommendations from a national conference in February. Those freed include high-profile figures such as former oil minister Mahamane Sani Issoufou, ex-defense minister Kalla Moutari, and former […]
Former French President Sarkozy remained defiant during his trial at a Paris court on Thursday (9 January), as he told the judges that the supposed illegal Libyan financing of his successful 2007 presidential bid was a “conspiracy,” stating “You will never find a single Libyan euro or cent in my campaign.” Sarkozy has gone on […]
The Court of Appeal in Nouakchott, Mauritania, has decided to establish a specialized medical team to assess the health condition of former President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz. This decision comes amid ongoing legal proceedings and concerns over the former leader’s health, as raised by his family and legal representatives. In a live broadcast on December […]
Four executives from the Barrick Gold Corporation have been detained in Mali, the Canadian mining company has confirmed, adding that all these employees of its Loulo-Gounkoto mining complex had been charged and detained pending trial. The arrests come as the Sahel country’s military regime intensifies efforts to impose additional taxes on foreign mining companies by […]
The trial of Ousman Sonko, a Gambian ex-interior minister accused of crimes against humanity committed under the regime of a former dictator Yahya Jammeh from 2006 until 2016, began in a federal court in Switzerland on Monday (8 January). Sonko is the highest-ranking official under Jammeh’s dictatorship, to be prosecuted for widespread rights abuses. Sonko […]
The 46 Ivorian soldiers suspected of being “mercenaries” and detained in Mali since July have appeared before the Court of Appeal in the capital city Bamako on Thursday. Their trial comes in the run-up to a deadline on 1 January 2023 set by West African leaders for Mali to demand the release of the troops […]
A United Nations’ International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals in The Hague opens a trial with a frail 87-year-old Rwandan accused of encouraging and bankrolling the country’s 1994 genocide on Thursday (29 September), nearly three decades after the 100-day massacre left 800,000 dead. Félicien Kabuga is one of the last fugitives charged over the genocide […]
A Moroccan court decided Thursday to postpone until May 16 the hearing of the case against the suspects involved in the killing last December of two Scandinavian tourists in the High Atlas mountains. A total of 24 persons, including a Spanish-Swiss convert to Islam, are expected to appear before a criminal court in the city […]
A court in Blida, 45 km South-west of capital Algiers, has put on trial a 30-year old blogger over posting on Facebook classified documents revealing the country’s procurement of 200,000 canisters of tear gas in 2016. The blogger, Abbelhakim Mohandi, was arrested on July 16 in the city of Blida after security authorities accused him […]