Intergalactic Summit

Um, pretty sure no one called the Gallente racist "for no reason".

You know, the attacks on him AND on Midular were both fueled by racist sentiment.

Glad he's free. Maybe our justice system could learn a few things here?

I consider myself a true Gallente, and don't give a **** what he did. I mean, the Federation has hundreds of planets and billions of people with a near-infinite amount of opinions. He could even buy an island on Synchelle III and he will be forgotten about.

Planets are big. Let's not forget that. This has all been localized to the Synchelle system, since there have been no reports of riots beyond.

It would be stupid, anyway. "Let's riot against our local planetary government that had nothing to do with something that took place in a jurisdiction lightyears away!"

Dealing with federal incompetence is actually part of the system.

Perhaps Elokur was not a purely Federal Case, but there was certainly direct Federal Involvement with the Investigation as he was handed straight to the SDII by the Local Police for Questioning.

Question is whether the decision to lay charges was purely a decision from the Synchelle Authorities, or if they brought the case to trial following pressure from the SDII.

News Source
This may bring more trouble to the matter.

The Federation has gained a measure of survival from the alliance with the Republic. Speaking based on the political situation ten years ago, if it hadn't been for that alliance we would likely have decided to shatter you as a threat and brought our Amarrian friends along for the ride.

A lot of the other stuff that politician had to say is certainly a valid way of interpreting things, though.

Ten years ago, hell, even five years ago, an Amarr-Caldari coalition could easily dominate the Federation, with or without the Minmatar as our allies. Now? Not so much, provided we play our cards right and stay on the defensive. Our military is stronger than ever.

And besides, the Republic has ironically proved to be a greater threat to the Federation than the Empire ever was. I sincerely hope every day that the situation turns around. The Republic and Federation were great friends for a while, Shakor ruined that.

It's not quite that simple.

Contrary to what you suggest, the Federal Constitution mandates for a presumption of innocence in all the criminal proceedings of its member states leaving the burden of proof with the prosecution. You are correct, however, that an alleged crime, regardless of its nature, must be investigated and prosecuted if it is determined there is a case to answer.

To use Elokur's case as the example, there were two alleged crimes committed. The first was by the three men that attacked him - this is common assault, referred to under whatever legal term the local Synchelle jurisdiction decides to designate and define it as. The accused in this case were deceased, so there was no need to prosecute it.

The second alleged crime relates to the deaths of those three men at Elokur's hands - in this case the potential outcomes needing to be decided upon included murder, manslaughter or self-defense. That was the reason for the trial - via counsel Elokur pleaded not guilty to murder/manslaughter on grounds of self-defense, and the prosecution's attempts to prove him guilty were dismissed by a jury of peers.

I am not familiar with what specific legal rights the Synchelle jurisdiction where this incident took place extends to those accused of major crime.

It may be they have a 'bail' system. It may that they do not and are legally within their rights to hold the accused indefinitely while awating trial.

It is more likely to be somewhere between those two extremes - why?

Because the Federal Charter - the foundation document of the Federation - stipulates its member state's right to self-governance only so long as their laws respect and abide by the titles of the Constitution. The titles pertaining to Freedom, Equality and Justice in particular would seem to mandate against local legislation that proposes indefinite incarceration for those awaiting trial without some form of objective judicial oversight or review system in place.

As to the involvement of SDII - this probably eventuated as a result of recent events and the particulars of this case. There has been an upsurge in racial tensions within the Federation, sparked by the assassination of a prominent Minmatar politician by a deranged Gallente nationalist before becoming inflamed by the breakdown of diplomatic relations that followed it, the tragic consequence of the actions of the Republic military forces in Colelie and the terrorist actions involving Minmatar extremists which resulted in further loss of life for Federal citizens after that.

It's in this context of destabilised internal political security and under their responsibility for pro-actively identifying incidents, groups or individuals that might lead to further destabilisation that I believe SDII were invited by local authorities to become involved. To my knowledge, there is no objective evidence of this invitation to be involved having any direct impact on either the local authority's investigation, the decision to prosecute or the outcome of the trial.