International Criminal Court (ICC) Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda on Tuesday agreed to delay the trial of four Kenyans accused of committing crimes against humanity. Kenyan presidential candidate Uhuru Kenyatta , who is one of the four men charged, asked the ICC earlier this month to postpone his trial . Kenyatta, a former finance minister, argued [...]
US Army Colonel Denise Lind, who is presiding over the prosecution of Bradley Manning , on Tuesday dismissed a defense motion arguing that Manning should be released based on a lack of a speedy trial. Lind indicated that Manning had been arraigned within the legal parameters, and the time between his arraignment and trial was [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit on Tuesday ruled that a lower court was correct in blocking a Florida law that had required welfare applicants to pass a drug test before receiving benefits. The US District Court for the Middle District of Florida ruled that the law violated applicants’ Fourth Amendment protection [...]
Attorneys for Edith Windsor , the respondent in US v. Windsor , filed a brief with the US Supreme Court on Tuesday arguing that the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is unconstitutional. Windsor, the surviving spouse of a same-sex couple, initiated the legal challenge to DOMA after she was denied the spousal deduction for federal [...]
Judge Gerard van Ham of The Hague District Court on Tuesday rejected a request to block the extradition of suspected al Qaeda terrorist Sabir Khan to the US. Justice Minister Ivo Opstelten gave final approval for Khan’s extradition in December after the Supreme Court of the Netherlands ruled in April that his extradition is legal. [...]
The Ivory Coast national army is committing human rights violations against supporters of former president Laurent Gbagbo , Amnesty International (AI) reported Tuesday. According to AI, the national army, formed by President Alassane Ouattara in response to election violence in 2010, as well as militia groups, “are carrying out extra-judicial executions, deliberate and arbitrary killings, [...]
The Constitutional Court of Hungary on Tuesday struck down a law that outlines how churches are given official designation, finding that it was too political. Under the law, only Parliament could give churches official status. The law did not contain an appeals process, and there was no justification for Parliament’s decisions. The court called on [...]
A group of UN independent experts on Monday urged the government of Honduras to increase its oversight of the 706 registered and numerous unregistered private security companies operating in the country. The Working Group on the use of mercenaries , recently returned from a five-day mission to Honduras, commended certain progress in establishing national police [...]
Sri Lankan authorities are using rape as a technique to extract confessions from suspected members or supporters of the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) , Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported Tuesday. The LTTE opposed the Sri Lankan government during the country’s 26-year, but HRW noted that “since the government’s defeat of the LTTE [...]
Judge Consuelo Marshall of the US District Court for the Central District of California on Monday allowed a US Army veteran’s challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) to move forward. Marshall refused to dismiss the lawsuit despite the Department of Justice (DOJ) calling for the case to be dropped. The case arises out [...]
