Prosecutors from six world criminal courts released a joint statement Sunday urging the continued support and cooperation of the international community in aiding special tribunals in the prosecution of international criminals. The Sixth Colloquium of International Prosecutors took place over two days in Freetown, Sierra Leone, and included international prosecutors from the International Criminal Court [...]
A Malaysian court ruled Monday that prosecutors have enough evidence to pursue a sodomy case against opposition leader and former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim . The Kuala Lumpur High Court ruling forces Anwar to enter his defense to the charge that he sodomized a former male political aide. Judge Zabidin Mohamad Diah said the [...]
The US Supreme Court on Monday ruled 5-3 in Schindler Elevator Corp. v. US ex rel. Kirk that a written response to a Freedom of Information Act request is a “report” within the exception to a federal whistleblower law. Daniel Kirk brought a qui tam suit under the False Claims Act (FCA) alleging that his [...]
The US Supreme Court ruled Monday in CIGNA Corp v. Amara that a district court incorrectly ordered relief under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) . The court had been asked to determine what “showing” is required to entitle participants in the pension plan to recover benefits where there has been an alleged inconsistency [...]
The US Supreme Court on Monday ruled 8-1 in Kentucky v. King that the exigent circumstances rule applies when the police do not act or threaten to act in a way that violates the Fourth Amendment . The case involved a situation where police smelled marijuana outside an apartment door and then knocked on the [...]
The US Supreme Court on Monday granted certiorari in Minneci v. Pollard to decide whether to allow a cause of action against private contractors running a federal prison. The issue is whether the court should imply a cause of action under Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of Federal Bureau of Narcotics against individual employees [...]
The International Criminal Court (ICC) Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo announced Monday that he is seeking arrest warrants for Libyan leader Mummar Gaddafi and two others in his “inner circle” on charges of crimes against humanity. Ocampo said his office has gathered evidence that Gaddafi, his son Saif al-Islam and his brother-in-law Abdullah al-Sanussi, plotted together [...]
Belarus’s Minsk City Court on Saturday sentenced former presidential candidate Andrey Sannikau to a five-year maximum security prison sentence for organizing protests following the re-election of President Alexander Lukashenko in December 2010. Lukashenko reportedly won 80 percent of the vote, while Sannikau was second with a distant 2.5 percent . Currently, four other presidential candidates [...]
Voters in the Swiss city of Zurich on Sunday rejected proposed bans on assisted suicide for foreigners seeking an end to their lives. The ban was aimed at stopping a phenomenon known as “death tourism” or “suicide tourism” where people travel to Switzerland from abroad to take advantage of its legal assisted suicide. Voters rejected [...]
The Supreme Court of Bangladesh on Sunday struck down the nation’s Seventh Amendment which legitimized the military rule of General HM Ershad. The court declared Ershad’s martial law rules, regulations and orders to be illegal, void and unconstitutional, upholding a decision by the lower court. The court said, however, that international treaties formed during that [...]
