sentencing in absentia

(Newser) - Apparently one death sentence wasn't enough for Tariq al-Hashemi. An Iraqi court today convicted the country's Sunni vice president on charges of ordering bodyguards to assassinate a senior government official and sentenced him to death—the second death sentence for al-Hashemi in less than two months. Both sentences...

(Newser) - Tunisia took less than a day to convict its deposed former ruler, reports Reuters, sentencing Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and his wife in absentia to 35 years in prison and ordering them to pay fines totaling $65.5 million. The convictions revolve around theft and unlawful possession of cash...

(Newser) - Roman Polanski today asked a Los Angeles judge to sentence him in absentia for his 1977 conviction for statutory rape—a move suggested earlier by an appellate court after it dismissed the director’s request to have the charges dismissed. Polanski, 76, is under house arrest in Switzerland as a...