Retired Vice Admiral Bruce MacDonald on Monday notified both prosecution and defense lawyers in the trial of five detainees held at Guantanamo Bay that he will be accepting recommendations until early 2012 on whether the trial should move forward as a death penalty case. MacDonald, who was appointed to oversee the military commissions at Guantanamo [...]
A Bahrain civilian-military court on Tuesday sentenced 26 more protesters to prison terms ranging from 5-15 years, bringing the total number of protesters sentenced in the past 48 hours to 60. Those who were sentenced on Tuesday include prominent members of the Shiite political group who were among hundreds of protesters seeking greater rights for [...]
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak initiated the repeal of Malaysia’s strict security laws in Parliament on Monday. In an effort to protect civil liberties while maintaining a balance of public peace , Razak is expected to repeal the Internal Security Act of 1960 (ISA) , which allowed the prime minister to order the imprisonment of [...]
US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia Judge Mark Davis on Monday ruled that two Somali pirates who killed four Americans will spend their lives in prison. Mahdi Jama Mohamed and Muhidin Salad Omar, the two convicted men, apologized to the victims’ families—who did not attend the sentencing—before being taken away. In August, [...]
The Queen’s Bench Division of the High Court of Justice on Monday rejected a challenge by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) that the UK’s interrogation guidelines are unlawful. The guidelines provide steps that must be taken by intelligence officers before they interview, interrogate or solicit the detention of terror suspects held by foreign [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Dan Burk of the University of California, Irvine School of Law says the America Invents Act unnecessarily disrupts long settled patent law, creates new opportunities for gamesmanship, foments new litigation and introduces new uncertainty for businesses… After seven years of controversy and debate, on September 16, 2011, President Barack Obama signed the [...]
The International Crimes Tribunal in Bangladesh (ICTB) has charged Delwar Hossain Sayeedi, leader of Jamaat e Islami (JI) , with war crimes allegedly stemming from the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War against Pakistan. Bangladesh established the tribunal in March 2010 to address charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The tribunal accepted 20 of 31 [...]
Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli on Friday filed a petition for certiorari asking the US Supreme Court to review the recent Fourth Circuit ruling dismissing Virginia’s challenge of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) . Virginia, among the first to file a challenge to PPACA, challenges the Foruth Circuit’s dismissal for lack of [...]
The US Supreme Court opened its 2011 term Monday with oral arguments in two cases. In Reynolds v. United States , the court heard arguments on the retroactive application of the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA) , which requires convicted sex offenders to register. The attorney general determined in 2007 that all states [...]
A Bahrain civilian-military court on Monday sentenced numerous protesters to lengthy prison terms, including 14 people who were sentenced to life (or 25 years) in prison for their involvement in the death of a Pakistani man that was “committed with a terrorist aim.” The National Safety Court of Appeal, a court composed of military prosecutors [...]
