Brexit Victims
EU judges have dismissed a case brought by a 97-year-old war veteran and 12 other ex Pats objecting to the UK’s Brexit negotiations.
Harry Shindler and the others argued that it was wrong for the EU to open the Brexit talks because they and many other British expats had been deprived of a vote in the June 2016 referendum.
The 13 plaintiffs have been living outside the UK for more than 15 years.
The opening of Brexit talks did not infringe their rights, the ruling said.
The EU’s General Court in Luxembourg said the EU Council decision authorising the opening of Brexit negotiations “does not directly affect the legal situation of the applicants”.
According to the court, those rights are likely to be affected, however, when the UK withdraws from the EU, with or without a Brexit deal.
Mr Shindler lives in Italy, where he served with British forces in World War Two.
Corruption
A former head of the International Monetary Fund and three other former executive board members of Bankia went on trial in the High Court yesterday accused of fraud over the lender’s ill-fated public listing in 2011.
The trial, expected to last several months, is set to be a politically and socially-charged affair as more than 300,000 retail shareholders lost their life savings investing in a bank that within a year had to be bailed out by the government.
If found guilty, Rodrigo Rato, a former economy minister who led the IMF from 2004 to 2007 and was Bankia’s chairman at the time of the listing, could face up to five years in jail.
Rato is already serving a 4-1/2 year prison term for embezzlement.
He has always denied any wrongdoing.
Migrants
Spain says a fishing vessel that rescued 12 migrants in waters north of Libya on Thursday is awaiting a decision from Italy, Malta and Libya over where the migrants can land.
The migrants are from Senegal, Mali and Libya and were rescued by 13 crew members of the Spanish fishing vessel which is now stranded in central Mediterranean waters north of Libya.
Spain’s Foreign Minister said that Italy and Malta have rejected taking the trawler in because the rescue took place in Libyan territorial waters.
Oscar Camps, the founder of Spanish non-profit Open Arms, has criticized negotiations to send the migrants back to Libya, arguing that the country’s ports can’t be considered safe.
A doctor from the group boarded the Spanish fishing vessel on Saturday and confirmed all passengers were in good health.
Not Funny
A comedian who blew his nose on the Spanish flag during a comedy sketch on a prime-time TV show has appeared before an investigating magistrate at a Madrid court yesterday after a police union lodged a complaint saying he had insulted the flag in what was a possible hate crime.
Dani Mateo issued a statement saying he had not intended to offend anyone.