A Russian court on Wednesday reduced the sentence of the former business partner of jailed Russian oil executive Mikhail Khodorkovsky by three years. Platon Lebedev has been incarcerated since 2003 on various charges associated with his business partnership with Khodorkovsky. Khodorkovsky and Lebedev are each serving prison sentences for fraud, theft and money laundering, scheduled [...]
The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments in two cases Thursday. In Chaidez v. United States the court heard arguments to determine if Padilla v. Kentucky applies retroactively to persons whose convictions became final before its announcement. Padilla held that the Sixth Amendment guarantee of effective assistance of counsel requires a criminal defense lawyer to [...]
The UN Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) criticized Turkey on Thursday for prosecuting activists under the country’s vague counterterrorism law. The UNHRC alleged that Turkey has gone against international law standards by denying due process rights under its 1991 Anti-Terrorism Law . UN rights experts allege that Turkey has been prosecuting activists, lawyers and journalists, holding [...]
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) Inspector General released a report Thursday criticizing US immigration courts as inefficient. Inspector General Michael Horowitz urged the immigration courts to use all resources available to maximize efficiency. The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) conducted an evaluation of the DOJ’s Executive Office for Immigration Review to evaluate the [...]
The Central Criminal Court of Iraq (CCCI) on Thursday sentenced former Iraqi vice president Tariq al-Hashemi to death for the second time after he was convicted for his involvement in a plot to assassinate an interior ministry official. In particular, the Sunni ex-leader and his brother-in-law were sentenced to hang for a charge related to [...]
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) on Wednesday told the US Supreme Court that it does not object to reopening a Christian university’s challenge to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) in the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit . While Liberty University , located in Richmond, Virginia, is arguing that [...]
A spokesperson for the government of Sri Lanka on Thursday announced that the government had begun the process of impeaching the country’s chief justice. The specific charges were not revealed , but spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella, confirmed that the impeachment of Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake was approved by more than 75 members of parliament. Tension continues [...]
The independence of Sri Lanka’s judiciary is under attack by the nation’s government, according to a report released Thursday by the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) , a human rights group composed of lawyers and judges from around the world. In the report, “Authority without accountability: The crisis of impunity in Sri Lanka,” the ICJ [...]
Russia’s upper house of parliament, the Federation Council , approved a bill on Wednesday that would increase the penalties for illegal use of state secrets. The bill, which was approved by Russia’s lower house last week raises the fine for illegally using state secrets from $6000 to $16000, imposes prison terms of up to four [...]
The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday in two cases concerning whether the use of drug sniffing dogs violates the Fourth Amendment rights of defendants. The question in the first case, Florida v. Jardines , was whether police bringing a dog onto the front porch of a suspected grow house to sniff for drugs [...]
