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News

News: July/August 2012

Socrates Cleared on Appeal • Robots Taught to Talk • Alan Saunders • See You in Court, Professor! • Congratulations – You’ve Failed! • It Beats Digging a Tunnel • Singer Given Top Aussie Gong — News reports by Sue Roberts

Socrates Cleared on Appeal

Athens: Socrates has been sensationally cleared of all charges at a re-trial held in Athens on May 25, 2012 at the Onassis Cultural Centre. According to a court official: “Socrates was acquitted in a historical trial which was not a re-enactment but a modern perspective based on current legal frameworks supplemented with ancient Greek elements and comical theatrics.”

In his original trial in Athens in 399BC, the father of Western philosophy was found guilty of ‘inventing new gods and corrupting the youth’ by a majority vote of the jury of 500 Athenian citizens and was sentenced to death. In this re-run, Socrates was tried (in absentia, presumably) before a panel of ten jurists including senior judges from Greece, America, Britain, and Switzerland. Supreme Court lawyer Ilias Anagnostopoulos and barrister Dr Anthony Papadimitriou conducted the prosecution on behalf of the City of Athens.

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