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HM Advocate V Sheridan And Sheridan
''Her Majesty's Advocate v Thomas Sheridan and Gail Sheridan'' was the 2010 criminal prosecution of Tommy Sheridan, a former Member of the Scottish Parliament and his wife Gail Sheridan for perjury in relation to the earlier civil case '' Sheridan v News Group Newspapers''.In Scotland criminal prosecutions in the High Court are normally brought in the name of the Lord Advocate. Tommy Sheridan was found guilty and sentenced to three years in prison, whereas Gail was acquitted. Background In 2006, Tommy Sheridan, formerly convenor of the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP), successfully sued the newspaper ''News of the World'' for defamation after they printed a series of articles containing allegations that an MSP had had affairs and visited a sex club. Sheridan was awarded £200,000 in damages, which he has still not received pending an appeal. Controversy over the case led to a split in the SSP shortly afterwards, with Sheridan forming a breakaway party, Solidarity. In August 2006, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
High Court Of Justiciary
The High Court of Justiciary is the supreme criminal court in Scotland. The High Court is both a trial court and a court of appeal. As a trial court, the High Court sits on circuit at Parliament House or in the adjacent former Sheriff Court building in the Old Town in Edinburgh, or in dedicated buildings in Glasgow and Aberdeen. The High Court sometimes sits in various smaller towns in Scotland, where it uses the local sheriff court building. As an appeal court, the High Court sits only in Edinburgh. On one occasion the High Court of Justiciary sat outside Scotland, at Zeist in the Netherlands during the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial, as the Scottish Court in the Netherlands. At Zeist the High Court sat both as a trial court, and an appeal court for the initial appeal by Abdelbaset al-Megrahi. The president of the High Court is the Lord Justice General, who holds office '' ex officio'' by virtue of being Lord President of the Court of Session, and his depute is the Lor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bob Bird
Bob Bird is the former editor of the Scottish edition of the defunct ''News of the World'' tabloid. He is best known for the widespread media coverage over his role in two trials involving former Scottish MSP Tommy Sheridan: the 2006 Sheridan v News Group Newspapers defamation case and the 2010 HM Advocate v Sheridan and Sheridan perjury case. Sheridan v News Group Newspapers In the original trial in 2006, Sheridan sued News International, publishers of the Sunday newspaper the News of the World, for defamation, after it published stories making allegations that the married MSP had been indulging extramarital affairs. During the trial, Bob Bird, as editor of the newspaper, testified that he had authorised the payment of £14,000 to two women in return for their story. Sheridan won the case, and was awarded £200,000 in damages. The News of the World launched an immediate appeal against the verdict. HM Advocate v Sheridan and Sheridan The Scottish News of the World subsequentl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alan McCombes
Alan William McCombes (born 1955) has been a leading member of the Scottish Socialist Party for several years, and was the editor of the ''Scottish Socialist Voice'' until 2003. With Tommy Sheridan, he was also author of Imagine: A Socialist Vision for the 21st Century, described by Tony Benn as "one of the very best books I have ever read on the subject of socialism". Political career Militant tendency McCombes first became involved in socialist politics in the 1970s, as a member of the Militant group. Together with Tommy Sheridan he played a leading role in the anti-poll tax movement. His 1988 pamphlet, ''How To Beat The Poll Tax'', written a year before the tax was introduced, set out the strategy of a Scotland-wide united mass non-payment campaign. In 1992 McCombes was a leading figure in the persuading Militant in Scotland to break with Labour resulting in the creation of Scottish Militant Labour. Throughout the 1990s, he challenged the traditional "British Road to Social ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alan Mccombes
Alan William McCombes (born 1955) has been a leading member of the Scottish Socialist Party for several years, and was the editor of the ''Scottish Socialist Voice'' until 2003. With Tommy Sheridan, he was also author of Imagine: A Socialist Vision for the 21st Century, described by Tony Benn as "one of the very best books I have ever read on the subject of socialism". Political career Militant tendency McCombes first became involved in socialist politics in the 1970s, as a member of the Militant group. Together with Tommy Sheridan he played a leading role in the anti-poll tax movement. His 1988 pamphlet, ''How To Beat The Poll Tax'', written a year before the tax was introduced, set out the strategy of a Scotland-wide united mass non-payment campaign. In 1992 McCombes was a leading figure in the persuading Militant in Scotland to break with Labour resulting in the creation of Scottish Militant Labour. Throughout the 1990s, he challenged the traditional "British Road to Social ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trial By Jury In Scotland
Trial by jury in Scotland is used in the courts of Scotland in solemn procedure for trial on indictment before a judge and jury for serious criminal cases, and in certain civil cases (mainly personal injury claims) Criminal procedure in Scotland is generally regulated by the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 (as amended) and various Acts of Adjournal passed by the High Court of Justiciary. Juries in these cases consist of 15 people; if jurors drop out e.g. because of illness the trial can continue with a minimum of 12 jurors. In criminal trials conviction is on the basis of a majority verdict, with eight jurors required to decide that the accused is guilty; should fewer than eight jurors declare a guilty verdict then the accused is acquitted, so a hung jury is an impossibility in Scottish criminal law. In the past some people were executed on majority verdicts in Scotland, such as Susan Newell, who had one juror dissenting. The jury has a choice of three verdicts: gui ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amicus Curiae
An ''amicus curiae'' (; ) is an individual or organization who is not a party to a legal case, but who is permitted to assist a court by offering information, expertise, or insight that has a bearing on the issues in the case. The decision on whether to consider an ''amicus'' brief lies within the discretion of the court. The phrase is legal Latin and the origin of the term has been dated to 1605–1615. The scope of ''amici curiae'' is generally found in the cases where broad public interests are involved and concerns regarding civil rights are in question. In American law, an ''amicus curiae'' typically refers to what in some other jurisdictions is known as an intervenor: a person or organization who requests to provide legal submissions so as to offer a relevant alternative or additional perspective regarding the matters in dispute. In the American courts, the amicus may be referred to as an ''amicus'' brief. In other jurisdictions, such as Canada, an ''amicus curiae'' is a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aamer Anwar
Aamer Anwar (born 30 December 1967) is a Scottish political activist and lawyer of Pakistani background. He was an active participant in the Stop the War Coalition, and campaigned against the 31st G8 summit at Gleneagles. He has been a longstanding critic of the Dungavel Detention Centre for failed asylum seekers, and is a trustee of the Time for Inclusive Education charity for LGBT-inclusive education in Scottish schools. Early life Anwar was born in England and lived in Liverpool before moving to Glasgow, Scotland, in 1986 to study mechanical engineering at the University of Glasgow to join the Royal Air Force. He became a student activist and led a campaign against alleged racism at the city's Dental Hospital, which helped introduce anonymous marking across all faculties at the university. He left engineering to study sociology and politics and was still a student when he was arrested by police officers for illegally flyposting on Ashton Lane in 1991. During Anwar's a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paul McBride
Paul McBride QC (13 November 1964 – 4 March 2012) was a Scottish criminal lawyer based in Edinburgh. He was a board member of the Scottish Legal Aid Board, and a former vice chairman of the Faculty of Advocates Criminal Bar Association. He died suddenly on a trip to Pakistan. Education McBride, an only child from a working-class family, attended the private Catholic Jesuit school St Aloysius' College, Glasgow and thereafter studied law at the University of Strathclyde from the age of 16. He graduated with an LLB aged 19, and joined a solicitors firm in Ayrshire. After completing his two-year traineeship with the firm he devilled with a practising advocate for nine months, and was admitted advocate in 1988. He was appointed Queen's Counsel in 2000 aged 36, one of the youngest ever in the UK. Legal career McBride was very well known for his intelligence, his skilful advancement of the merits of Scottish Law as well as his courage. He often represented high-profile clients ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lockerbie Bombing
Pan Am Flight 103 was a regularly scheduled Pan Am transatlantic flight from Frankfurt to Detroit via a stopover in London and another in New York City. The transatlantic leg of the route was operated by ''Clipper Maid of the Seas'', a Boeing 747-121 registered N739PA. Shortly after 19:00 on 21 December 1988, while the aircraft was in flight over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, it was destroyed by a bomb that had been planted on board, killing all 243 passengers and 16 crew in what became known as the Lockerbie bombing. Large sections of the aircraft crashed in a residential street in Lockerbie, killing 11 residents. With a total of 270 fatalities, it is the deadliest terrorist attack in the history of the United Kingdom, as well as its deadliest aviation disaster. Following a three-year joint investigation by Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), arrest warrants were issued for two Libyan nationals in November 1991. In 1999, L ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Abdelbaset Al-Megrahi
) , birth_date = , birth_place = Tripoli, Kingdom of Libya , death_date = , death_place = Tripoli, Libya , cause = Prostate cancer , nationality = Libyan , race = Arab , gender = Male , height = , weight = , occupation = , parents = , siblings = Zeinab (eldest sister) and others , spouse = , children = 4 sons, 1 daughter , conviction = Murder (270 counts) , conviction_penalty = Life imprisonment , conviction_status = Died following compassionate release , added_date = 23 March 1995 , caught_date = 5 April 1999 , remove_date = , number = 441 , status = Captured Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi ( ar, عبد الباسط محمد علي المقرحي, ; 1 April 1952 – 20 May 2012) was a Libyan who was head of security for Libyan Arab Airlines, d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maggie Scott, Lady Scott
Margaret Elizabeth Scott, Lady Scott (born 1960, Nairobi, Kenya) is a Scottish lawyer who was appointed a judge in 2012. Early life and education Scott was born in 1960 in Nairobi, Kenya. She graduated from University of Edinburgh with a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree and from the University of Strathclyde with a Diploma in Legal Practice (DipLP). Legal career Scott was admitted as a solicitor in 1989, and she was called to the bar in Scotland (the Faculty of Advocates) in 1991. She "took silk" (became a Queen's Counsel) in 2002. She has acted as lead counsel in a number of high-profile appeal cases such as the Lockerbie bombing and the Glasgow Ice Cream Wars, in which she defended Abdelbaset al-Megrahi and Thomas "TC" Campbell, respectively. She was also successful in the appeal case of Kim Galbraith, whose murder conviction for shooting her policeman husband was reduced to diminished responsibility. Megrahi's second appeal On 6 November 2008, Scott applied to the Court of Cri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
