LONDON (AP) — Aer Lingus pilots launched an industrial action on Wednesday, leading to the cancellation of hundreds of flights and tossing the travel plans of tens of thousands into disarray.
Pilots imposed ‘’work to rule’’ actions, refusing to work overtime, accept changes in set rosters or take out-of-hours management requests. An eight-hour strike is planned on Saturday.
The flag carrier of Ireland and its pilots have been locked in a bitter dispute over pay, with pilots seeking a pay increase of 24% to keep pace with inflation since their last pay raise in 2019. Aer Lingus has said it is willing to offer pay increases of 12.5% or more if “productivity and flexibility” are discussed.
Ireland's prime minister, Simon Harris, said it is “absolutely vital” that a resolution is found.
“My challenge to the parties now is to bring that engagement forward, rather than putting people through a prolonged period of agony and chaos, and then engaging in the end anyway,” Harris said Tuesday. “This dispute will be settled the same way every dispute is settled: compromise, engagement, sitting around a table. That’s what needs to happen.”
FILE - Aer Lingus Airbus A320 plane lands at Dublin airport, Ireland, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2015. Aer Lingus pilots launched an industrial action on Wednesday, June 26, 2024, leading to the cancellation of hundreds of flights and tossing the travel plans of tens of thousands into disarray. (AP Photo/Peter Morrison, File)
PANAMA CITY (AP) — A judge has acquitted 28 people accused of money laundering in an international case known as the Panama Papers, including the co-founder of a law firm that authorities say was at the center of a conspiracy to hide money linked to illegal activities.
Jürgen Mossack founded Mossack & Fonseca with then associate Ramón Fonseca, who died in May. Mossack was acquitted on Friday along with others after a Panamanian judge found that the evidence against Mossack didn't comply with the chain of custody after authorities raided the office of the now defunct firm.
Prosecutors had accused Mossack, Fonseca and others of creating offshore companies and using complex transactions to hide money from illegal activities related to the so-called car wash corruption scandal involving Brazilian construction company Odebrecht, which pleaded guilty in U.S. federal court to a charge related to using shell companies to hide millions of dollars in bribes paid worldwide to win public contracts.
The judge noted that other evidence in the Panama Papers case “was not sufficient and conclusive to determine the criminal responsibility of the accused.”
In addition, the judge lifted personal and property precautionary measures against all the defendants, according to a judicial statement.
“We feel satisfied in the midst of mixed emotions, because many lives were affected along the way,” Guillermina Mc Donald, who was the defense attorney for Mossack and Fonseca, told The Associated Press. Her firm also represented 80% of the accused firm’s collaborators.
Judge Balaoisa Marquínez had decided to combine the Panama Papers case with another known as “Operation Car Wash,” a major anti-corruption investigation that began in Brazil.
On Friday, she ruled that in the car wash case, “it was not possible to determine the entry of money from illicit sources, coming from Brazil, into the Panamanian financial system with the purpose of hiding, concealing, disguising or helping to evade the legal consequences of the preceding crime.”
In June 2022, Mossack, Fonseca and 37 other people were acquitted in a separate money laundering case.
The investigation in Brazil began in 2014, with the Mossack & Fonseca firm later coming under scrutiny after 11 million financial documents tied to the company were leaked.
The repercussions of the leak were widespread: it led to the resignation of a prime minister in Iceland and brought scrutiny to now former leaders of Argentina and Ukraine, Chinese politicians and Russian President Vladimir Putin, among others.
FILE - Juergen Mossack, partner of the law firm Mossack-Fonseca, leaves the Supreme Court during the trial of the "Panama Papers" money laundering case in Panama City, April 8, 2024. On Friday, a Panamanian judge acquitted Mossack and 27 other people who were accused of money laundering in the notorious Panama Papers case. (AP Photo/Agustin Herrera, File)
