An Afghan Guantanamo Bay detainee believed to be an al Qaeda leader, was found dead in his cell in what appears to be a suicide , the US Southern Command announced Wednesday. Guards found the 37-year-old Inayatullah not breathing and unresponsive in his cell. They immediately began rescue treatments and summoned emergency medical personnel, but [...]
US Army prosecutors charged a sixth soldier on Tuesday for his involvement in a murder plot that led to the deaths of three Afghan civilians. Staff Sgt. David Bram of Joint Base Lewis-McChord is charged with solicitation to commit premeditated murder, failure to report crimes including murder, planting evidence near the body of an Afghan [...]
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and the UN Security Council called Wednesday for continued reforms in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in order to strengthen the country’s rule of law. President of the Security Council, Gerard Araud, spoke on the DRC’s “peace and security, the forthcoming elections, governance and institution building, and economic development”: [...]
Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara has asked the International Criminal Court (ICC) to launch an investigation into alleged crimes committed as a result of the disputed presidential elections last November, according to a letter dated May 3 and published to the ICC website Wednesday. The letter asks ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo to bring an [...]
The Bulgarian government passed a long-delayed bill on Wednesday that allows “civil confiscation” of assets before conviction. This allows the Commission for Establishing of Property Acquired from Criminal Activity to launch investigations of people who cannot account for their income , in a move designed to target organized crime. The bill has yet to be [...]
The International Criminal Court (ICC) Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo declared on Wednesday that any authority attempting to cover up crimes in Libya will be held accountable. In a letter sent to Libyan Foreign Minister Abdelati Obeidi , Ocampo warned against diplomats covering up crimes for Libyan leader Mummar Gaddafi . Further, Ocampo alleged that cover-ups [...]
Judges at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) on Wednesday ordered a prosecutor to retract statements requesting further investigation into those responsible for war crimes committed under the Khmer Rouge regime. Co-Investigating Judges You Bunleng and Siegfried Blunk issued the order demanding that Co-Prosecutor Andrew Cayley retract his statement within three days. [...]
Rhode Island’s House Judiciary Committee sent Bill 2011-H6103 to the House floor after a 9-3 vote in favor of it on Tuesday. The bill was introduced earlier this month and is modeled after similar laws in Illinois, Delaware and Hawaii , granting all rights of marriage to same-sex couples. The bill, considered a compromise between [...]
Former Israeli president Moshe Katsav had his seven-year prison sentence for rape and sexual assault delayed Wednesday pending the completion of his appeal . The Supreme Court of Israel also ruled earlier that the 300-page appeal will be made public in the future under court restrictions. The Tel Aviv District Court convicted Katsav in December, [...]
Eight former Argentine military officers were convicted on Monday of liability for the massacre of Margarita Belen during the nation’s 1976-1983 “Dirty War” . The massacre involved the torture and execution of 22 political prisoners mostly belonging to the Montoneros, an urban guerrilla rebel group, on December 13, 1976, as they were transported between prisons. [...]
