Justice

Fans who were bummed out at the cancellation of Day 3 of the Release Athens Festival due to Jamiroquai frontman Jay Kay's health problems, which also meant that a scheduled appearance by Michael Kiwanuka did not go ahead will be pleased to hear that the British soul singer will be coming to Greece after all, appearing at Thessaloniki's Fix Factory of Sound on September 29 and Athens's Gazi Musi

Turkey's Council of State has stopped the execution of a regulation on chemical castration, which was introduced last year against sex offenders, on the grounds that it can "lead to hard-to-recover and unrepairable damages."

The early released this year will reach a record number. From the beginning of the year to July 21, prisoners released before serving their entire sentence were 632, according to Directorate-General for Execution of Penalties. If the pace persists, by the end of the year there will be another 451 people. This will lead to a record 1083.

Police in Halkidiki, northern Greece, seized more than 4,500 contraband goods in a crackdown at tourist resorts in the area between August 7 and 11, according to a police statement released on Saturday.

The raids led to the arrest of eight people believed to have been touting the goods - seven Bangladeshi nationals and a Senegalese man.

An Istanbul court on July 21 issued a detention warrant for four human rights activists who had previously been released on probation after having been accused of aiding a terror group.

The warrants were issued for Nalan Erkem, Şeyhmus Özbekli, Nejat Taştan and İlknur Üstün following an appeal to their release by the Istanbul Public Prosecutor's Office. 

Two Serbian citizens and one Greek, detained as suspects in the killing of an American tourist in Greece, have been released pending the outcome of the trial.

Each of the three suspects deposited EUR 5,000 in bail money.

A homeless man has been sentenced to house arrest for using and selling drugs in Istanbul's Kadıköy district, Doğan News Agency reported.

Barış Alkan, 31, is not allowed to step outside the boundaries of a confined public area near a city bus station in the Söğütlüçeşme neighborhood because it is listed as his address in court records. 

Bangladeshi authorities removed a statue from the country’s Supreme Court premises representing Lady Justice depicting an iteration of Greek goddess Themis, after caving in to intense pressure by Islamist hardliners. The operation took place under tight security overnight.

Greek prisons remain overcrowded despite a drop in the number of inmates due to a law introduced in 2015 that allows the release of certain convicts, particularly those with serious health problems.

According to the latest official figures, there are currently 9,815 inmates in Greek prisons, slightly above the maximum capacity of those institutions, which is 9,573 people.

Police have detained two educators, Nuriye Gülmen and Semih Özakça, who have been on hunger strike for 75 days in protest at being dismissed from their posts through a decree-law issued under the state of emergency rule in Turkey.  

The special operation police have also searched their house and confiscated some belongings in a late night raid on May 21.