A Tunisian criminal court Friday convicted a nephew of the wife of Tunisia’s ousted former president Zine Al Abidine Ben Ali , immediately pronouncing an 18-year prison sentence for writing over USD $399 million in bad checks. Imed Trabelsi, viewed as the favorite nephew of former first lady Leila Trabelsi, is already in jail for [...]
A Belarus court convicted human rights activist Ales Bialiatski, the president of Viasana and vice-president of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) , of tax evasion on Thursday, sentencing him to a four-and-a-half-year prison term. Viasna is a non-governmental human rights organization in Belarus that is dedicated to reporting on allegations of police and [...]
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled on Thursday that Internet service providers (ISPs) cannot be required by law to monitor their customers’ activities as an attempt to combat illegal sharing of copyrighted material. The court’s ruling comes after a lower court ordered an Internet provider, Scarlet , to make it impossible for its users [...]
Sri Lankan Secretary of Defence Gotabaya Rajapaksa stated on Thursday in a speech that the government has begun counting the number of civilian deaths from its 26-year civil war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) . The counting was initiated to counter several allegations of war crimes against the Sri Lankan military including [...]
Egypt’s Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) on Thursday called for an end to violence against protesters and reiterated that demonstrations were a protected right, as long as they were done peacefully. The SCAF also assured citizens that arrested demonstrators would be released , possibly by Saturday. Protesters have been clashing with Egyptian security [...]
The Supreme Court of British Columbia ruled on Wednesday that a law banning polygamy was constitutional. The law was under challenge by two bishops of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) who claimed that the law infringed on their religious freedom and was not consistent with the Canadian Charter of [...]
Bahrain authorities used excessive force and tortured detainees involved in the pro-democracy demonstrations earlier this year, according to a report released Tuesday by an independent Bahraini government commission. The report, published by the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) , concluded that the security forces “violated the principles of necessity and proportionality” in their choice [...]
A French appeals court ruled Wednesday that former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega can be extradited to Panama. Noriega faces charges of human rights violations in Panama for crimes allegedly committed during his 1981-1989 rule. He was already convicted on three counts of human rights violations in absentia, and each count carries a 20-year prison sentence. [...]
Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber on Tuesday issued a temporary reprieve for death row inmate Gary Haugen and called for an end to the state’s death penalty . The state has executed only two individuals in the last 49 years and each execution was with the prisoner’s consent. Kitzhaber said, “I do not believe that those [...]
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on Wednesday condemned the recent violent clashes between Egyptian security forces and protesters and called for an independent investigation into the situation. Pillay “urge the Egyptian authorities to end the clearly excessive use of force against protestors in Tahrir square and elsewhere in the country, including the [...]
