Vatican pedophilia scandal
Former Vatican archbishop Jozef Wesolowski has been accused of pedophilia after more than 100,000 child porn photos and videos were discovered on a computer in his office at the Holy See diplomatic compound in the Dominican Republic.
Wesolowski, 66, was arrested at the Vatican at the end of September. Charged with sexual abuse of minors and child porn possession, Wesolowski faces up to seven years in the small Vatican prison. Wesolowski is the first top papal representative to receive a defrocking sentence, and the highest-ranking Vatican official to be investigated for sexual abuse.
Approximately 160 videos and 86,000 photos were discovered on the computer in his Santo Domingo office, and authorities believe that another 45,000 photos were deleted. A second collection was found on a laptop that Wesolowski used when travelling.
Wesolowski was recalled to Rome last year, after being found guilty of sex abuse in a canonical court in the Dominican Republic. He has been placed under house arrest in pre-trial detention at the Vatican, awaiting trial set to start in January.
Australian terror laws enable Internet monitoring
Under a new Bill passed through Australian Senate on Thursday, Sept. 25, whistleblowers could face up to 10 years in prison for disclosing classified information.
The National Security Legislation Amendment Bill (No. 1) 2014 is set to pass through the House of Representatives. Under the new laws, journalists, whistleblowers, and bloggers who “recklessly” disclose “information … [that] relates to a special intelligence operation” will face 10 years in jail. An authorized officer of ASIO, a domestic spy agency, can declare any operation “special.”
The bill also gives ASIO the ability to copy, delete, or modify data on computers with a warrant for monitoring, as well as to disrupt target computers and use third-party, untargeted computers in order to access targets.
While the bill passed through Senate with 44 votes to 12, some have expressed dissent. Senator Scott Ludlam, of the Australian Greens, expressed that the passing of the bill could be “a scary, disproportionate and unnecessary expansion of coercive surveillance powers.”
Compiled by Alyssa Ottema