BANNON INDICTED
United States
On Nov. 12, one of former President Trump’s closest advisers paid for his noncompliance.
Stephen K. Bannon was indicted by a federal grand jury on two counts of contempt of Congress stemming from his failure to comply with a subpoena issued by the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 breach of the U.S. Capitol.
Bannon, 67, is charged with one contempt count involving his refusal to appear for a deposition and another involving his refusal to produce documents, despite a subpoena from the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol. An arraignment date has not yet been set in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
“Since my first day in office, I have promised Justice Department employees that together we would show the American people by word and deed that the department adheres to the rule of law, follows the facts and the law and pursues equal justice under the law,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “Today’s charges reflect the department’s steadfast commitment to these principles.”
“As detailed in the indictment, on Sept. 23, 2021, the Select Committee issued a subpoena to Mr. Bannon,” said U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves for the District of Columbia. “The subpoena required him to appear and produce documents to the Select Committee, and to appear for a deposition before the Select Committee. According to the indictment, Mr. Bannon refused to appear to give testimony as required by subpoena and refused to produce documents in compliance with a subpoena.”
In its subpoena, the Select Committee said it had reason to believe that Bannon had information relevant to understanding events related to Jan. 6. Bannon, formerly a Chief Strategist and Counselor to the President, has been a private citizen since departing the White House in 2017.
Each count of contempt of Congress carries a minimum of 30 days and a maximum of one year in jail, as well as a fine of $100 to $100,000. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
An indictment is merely an allegation and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
The case is being investigated by the FBI’s Washington Field Office. The case is being prosecuted by the Public Corruption and Civil Rights Section of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.
PFIZER SHARING COVID-19 DRUG: WORLD
Access to a new COVID-19 drug will be expanded in low- and middle-income countries following a voluntary licensing agreement between the pharmaceutical company Pfizer and a UN-backed global health initiative, announced in Geneva on Nov. 16.
The oral antiviral therapy PF-07321332 is designed to block the activity of the SARS-CoV-2-3CL protease, an enzyme the coronavirus needs to replicate.
It is administered together with low dose ritonavir, used in some treatments for HIV and hepatitis C.
The agreement will allow the UN-backed Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) to sub-license PF-07321332 for production and distribution by qualified generic medicine manufacturers worldwide, pending regulatory authorization and approval.
“This is the first license allowing generic manufacturing of this drug,” said Hervé Verhoosel, spokesperson with Unitaid, the global health agency that created the MPP a decade ago.
“It is an important first step to help ensure that the latest tools for fighting COVID-19 are available in low- and middle-income countries at the same time as they become available in the wealthiest nations.”
PF-07321332 is administered with ritonavir so it can remain active in the body for longer periods of time at higher concentrations to help combat coronavirus.
The combination was found to reduce risk of hospitalization or death by nearly 90 per cent, according to an interim analysis of phase two trials of non-hospitalized high-risk adults with COVID-19.
Under the agreement, qualified generic medicine manufacturers that are granted sub-licenses will be able to supply PF-07321332, in combination with ritonavir, to 95 countries, covering around 53 percent of the global population.
They include all low- and middle-income countries in sub-Saharan Africa, as well as nations which have achieved upper-middle-income status in the past five years.
Mr. Verhoosel said Pfizer will not receive royalties on sales in low-income countries. The company will also waive royalties on sales in all countries covered by the agreement while COVID-19 remains a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, as classified by the World Health Organization (WHO).
DEATH PENALTY FOR ABORTION? MIDDLE EAST
A new Iranian law that raises the prospect of the death penalty for abortion has been condemned by independent human rights experts, who have declared that is in “clear contravention of international law.”
In a statement released on Nov. 16, the experts called on the Iranian authorities to repeal the ‘Youthful Population and Protection of the Family’ law, which was ratified by Iran’s Guardian Council on the first of November.
The law, said the experts, severely restricts access to abortion, contraception, voluntary sterilization services and related information, in direct violation of women’s human rights under international law, and contains a provision stating that if carried out on a large scale, abortion would fall under the crime of “corruption on earth” and carry the death penalty.
“The Iranian Government is taking further steps to use criminal law to restrict the rights of women, for the sake of increasing the number of births, which will effectively force many women and girls to continue unwanted pregnancies to term which would be inherently discriminatory,” the experts declared.
Abortion in Iran is effectively banned, apart from a few exceptions. The new law puts the final decisions on therapeutic abortion – in case of threat to the life of the pregnant woman or fetal anomalies – in the hands of a panel consisting of a judge, medical doctor and forensic doctor, rather than on the pregnant women, supported by the medical doctor.
For the UN experts, the law violates the rights to life and health, the right to non-discrimination and equality, and to freedom of expression by making it illegal to access a range of reproductive health services and share reproductive rights information.
The law also prohibits free distribution of contraceptive goods, and imposes a ban on voluntary sterilizations for men and women, aside from very exceptional cases. The move, said the experts, will disproportionately impact women in situations of marginalization, and victims of sexual violence.
The package of measures contained in the law could, therefore, amount to gender-based violence because women denied safe abortions can incur mental and physical suffering, according to the UN experts.
Moreover, the criminalization of abortion can constitute cruel, degrading, and inhumane treatment, and may amount to torture.
“We urge the Government to immediately repeal the law on ‘Youthful Population and Protection of the Family’ and to take measures to end the criminalization of abortion and to ensure that all women can access all necessary health services, including sexual and reproductive health care, in a manner that is safe, affordable, and consistent with their human rights,” the experts said.
