Some jury trials may be axed in plan to ease court backlog – The Guardian

The Guardian page this morning – summarised

The front page of The Guardian this morning leads with a report that some jury trials may be axed under new plans to ease the court backlog. The front page features an image of a funeral for a victim of the Assad regime. 

1. Jury trials could be abandoned for some criminal cases in England and Wales under a radical overhaul proposed by ministers as the crown courts backlog hit a record high.

   A review, to be led by the former high court judge Sir Brian Leveson, will consider creating “intermediate courts” where cases could be heard by a judge flanked by magistrates, in an attempt to speed up the length of trials.

2. The streets of Damascus have been filled with celebrations since Bashar al-Assad fled to Russia last Sunday in the face of an unexpected rebel offensive, ending more than 50 years of his family’s brutal rule over Syria. But at a public funeral for Mazen al-Hamadah – before his disappearance in 2020 one of the most vocal survivors of torture in the regime’s prisons system – the joy gave way to sorrow, as the country begins to grapple with the fact that many of the estimated 130,000 people missing may be lost forever.