Swedish politicians will urge the European Union to review its sanctions policy on Syria after they learned from a recent investigation by OCCRP and SIRAJ that Swedish-made trucks were being used by the Syrian Armed Forces in internal war fronts.
Six months after the fraud was exposed and Romanian authorities promised to stop it, wood processing companies continue to cheat Europe’s most sophisticated timber tracing system, allowing illegally harvested wood to enter the legal market.
The European Parliament voted in favor of a resolution calling for the EU to stop funding the country of Georgia and sanction individuals responsible for “undermining democracy” there, while personally singling out the influential founder of the country’s ruling party.
A court in Kyrgyzstan today sentenced two journalists to prison in a case that has sparked international condemnation from rights groups, which accuse the government of a widespread attack on freedom of the press.
Italian authorities have arrested four people in Palermo on charges of mafia-linked external competition, extortion, money laundering, self-laundering—where the same person commits both the original crime and the subsequent money laundering—and fraudulent asset deals.