All Briefs
Every Brief The Brief has published. Search by case name, person, or location.
The Wagner Group mutiny and Prigozhin's death
Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the Wagner Group private military company, died on August 23, 2023, when his Embraer Legacy 600 business jet crashed in Tver Oblast, Russia, killing all ten people on board — including Wagner's top military...
The Beirut Port Explosion
Beirut, 4 August 2020
A documented seven-year retention of ammonium nitrate, a state that did not act, and a post-event obstruction pattern formally recognised by a Lebanese court.
The Carlos Ghosn Case
Tokyo and Beirut, 2018–present
A two-phase case: a contested takedown anchored in immunity-deal cooperator testimony, and an operationally documented escape.
The Assassination of Marielle Franco
Rio de Janeiro, 14 March 2018
A councillor executed by former police, with Brazil’s Supreme Court convicting the militia-linked masterminds in 2026 — and a militia-state system the conviction illuminates but does not exhaust.
The Assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia
Malta, 16 October 2017
An investigative journalist killed by a car bomb, the hitmen and a businessman charged, and a public inquiry finding the state created a climate of impunity that enabled the murder.
The Murder of Berta Cáceres
Honduras, 2 March 2016
An Indigenous land defender killed after her campaign against a dam — hitmen and a company executive convicted, with the state-corporate structure behind the killing documented but not exhausted.
Monsanto, Glyphosate, and the Manipulation of the Scientific Record
United States, 2000–2025
A ghostwritten safety study, a cultivated regulator, and a coordinated campaign against an adverse finding — corporate manipulation of the science established, the underlying cancer question left open.
The Assassination of Boris Nemtsov
Moscow, 27 February 2015
An opposition leader shot within sight of the Kremlin by operatives of a state security unit, in an investigation halted precisely at the foot soldiers.
The Forced Disappearance of the 43 Ayotzinapa Students
Iguala, Mexico, 26 September 2014
Forty-three students disappeared in a night of coordinated police action, an official “historical truth” later discredited, and a state that remained the sole custodian of the record.
The Disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370
Indian Ocean, 8 March 2014
A physical-evidence-vacuum case anchored by a single piece of remarkable inferential evidence — and a strong circumstantial reading whose missing element is precisely what would elevate it.
The Killing of Alexander Litvinenko
London, November 2006
A weapons-grade isotope, a deathbed accusation, a public inquiry and an international court each finding Russian state responsibility — and no criminal conviction.
The Assassination of Rafik Hariri
Beirut, 14 February 2005
A UN tribunal convicted the Hezbollah operatives who executed the bombing but found no evidence reaching the leadership — a finding about prosecutable proof, not about what happened.
The Collapse of World Trade Center Building 7
New York, 11 September 2001
An unprecedented fire-induced collapse finding, an investigating agency that was also the sole holder of the physical evidence, and serious unresolved questions raised by credentialed engineers.
The Crash of EgyptAir Flight 990
Atlantic Ocean off Nantucket, 31 October 1999
An evidentiary stalemate. Both readings are compatible with the recorded data. Both investigations were conducted by interested states. Neither is independent.
The Prosecution of Anwar Ibrahim
Malaysia, 1998–2018
A recurring prosecution pattern across two governments and two decades — the pattern itself becomes the evidence.
The Death of Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed
Paris, 31 August 1997
A closed historical event whose every formal investigation was conducted by the candidate organised power or its close ally — and the structural problem that creates.
The Execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Ogoni Nine
Port Harcourt, Nigeria, 10 November 1995
Nine Ogoni activists hanged after a military tribunal widely judged a sham — the Abacha state the executioner, and Shell’s role as enabler documented but held short of direct authorship.
The Tiananmen Square Crackdown
Beijing, 3–4 June 1989
A deliberate state-directed military operation against unarmed civilians — and a perpetrator that remains the sole custodian of every record of the toll.
The Bombing of Pan Am Flight 103
Lockerbie, Scotland, 21 December 1988
A completed criminal trial with a conviction later found possibly unsafe. A single forensic fragment that the case turned on. A known bomb-maker released before the attack.
The Assassination of Olof Palme
Stockholm, 28 February 1986
A head of government shot dead on a city street, an investigation that fixated on the wrong lead for a decade, and an apartheid state with the power, motive, and documented history to have done it.
The Death of Roberto Calvi
London, 18 June 1982
“God’s banker” found hanged beneath Blackfriars Bridge, ruled suicide then forensically re-determined a murder — Cosa Nostra operating through the P2 lodge, with a 2007 acquittal that did not exonerate.
Thalidomide and Chemie Grünenthal
West Germany, 1957–1970
A blockbuster drug, accumulating reports of harm met with legal threats rather than recall, and a criminal trial settled on terms that sealed the evidence.
The Assassination of Patrice Lumumba
Katanga, Congo, 17 January 1961
Two organised external powers with motive, on-the-ground presence, and self-investigated admissions of culpability — and a “Congolese internal politics” narrative the record cannot sustain.