acquitted - The African Mirror

Dec

2023

Three Washington state police officers acquitted in killing of Black man

THREE Tacoma, Washington, policemen were acquitted of homicide charges in the 2020 killing of Manuel Ellis, a Black man whose dying pleas for breath during a struggle with officers bore grim parallels to the murder of George Floyd weeks later. Officers Christopher Burbank and Matthew Collins were found not guilty of murder and manslaughter charges, while a third officer, Timothy Rankine, was found not guilty of manslaughter following a trial that lasted more than two months. Ellis' family members and their supporters expressed anger at the outcome of the first such case brought against law enforcement officers under a new…

Nov

2023

By The African Mirror

Mendy sues Man City over unpaid wages after rape charges

FOOTBALL

FORMER Manchester City defender Benjamin Mendy has sued the Premier League club over nearly two years of unpaid wages after he was charged with sexual offences in 2021, the player's lawyer said. The France international has filed a "multi-million-pound" claim with the Employment Tribunal, seeking the return of pay up until the end of his contract with the English champions, which ended in June. Mendy was found not guilty of one count of rape and one of attempted rape by a British court in July after being acquitted of six counts of rape and one count of sexual assault in January following allegations made…

May

2023

By The African Mirror

ZIMBABWE: Prize-winning novelist acquitted

NEWS

NYASHA CHINGONO ACCLAIMED Zimbabwean novelist Tsitsi Dangarembga was acquitted on Monday by the country's High Court for staging an anti-government protest in 2020, for which she had initially received a six-month suspended jail sentence and a fine. Dangarembga was found guilty by a lower court in 2022 on charges of participating in a public gathering with intent to incite public violence while breaking COVID-19 protocols, after a protest criticising the government's efforts to deal with corruption and a struggling economy in July 2020. Dozens of political activists were arrested at the time. "I can confirm that she has been acquitted. As her…

Jun

2021

By The African Mirror

Gbagbo back home after decade of exile

NEWS

ANGE ABOA and LOUCOUMANE COULIBALY IVORY Coast's former president Laurent Gbagbo, ousted during a civil war in 2011 and acquitted of war crimes in The Hague, is back home from a decade in exile as thousands took to the streets to welcome him. A small number of loyalists allowed into the airport in Ivory Coast's main city Abidjan cheered and screamed as the commercial flight from Brussels landed. Gbagbo, wearing a blue shirt and white face mask, got into a black SUV for the ride to his party's headquarters. Along the route, overjoyed supporters cheered and ran alongside his convoy…

Feb

2021

By The African Mirror

U.S. Senate acquits Trump, for 2nd time

WORLD

RICHARD COWAN, DAVID MORGAN and MAKINI BRICE DONALD Trump was yesterday acquitted by the U.S. Senate in his second impeachment trial in 12 months, as his fellow Republicans shielded him from accountability for the deadly assault by his supporters on the U.S. Capitol, a shrine of American democracy. The Senate vote of 57-43 fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to convict Trump on a charge of incitement of insurrection after a five-day trial in the same building ransacked by his followers on January 6 shortly after they heard him deliver an incendiary speech. In the vote, seven of the…