The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on Thursday urged the US Department of Justice (DOJ) to take action against the government of Puerto Rico for alleged civil rights violations. In a letter addressed to Assistant Attorney General Thomas E. Perez, the ACLU asked the DOJ to conclude its investigation into rights abuses reported by the [...]
A grand jury in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on Thursday indicted 14 suspects for overtaking a yacht containing four Americans. The Americans, taken as hostages, were later killed by the pirates, the first US citizens to die in the recent wave of international maritime piracy . The suspects, 13 [...]
Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh promised Thursday to create a new constitution guaranteeing parliamentary and judiciary freedoms, but protesters were not satisfied, flooding the streets in response. In a speech given to supporters in Sana’a, Saleh promised various reforms: The initiative includes transferring government power to an elected parliamentary system by the end 2011, shifting [...]
A military court in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has sentenced 11 army officers to prison for raping more than 20 women last year, a court official said Thursday. Three officers were sentenced to 15 years in prison , while eight others were sentenced in absentia to life. UN envoy on sexual violence, [...]
King Mohammed VI of Morocco on Wednesday announced plans for a series of constitutional reforms , which, if enacted, would result in more power being given to elected officials, as well as an independent judiciary. Under the plan, the prime minister would be chosen based on the political party elected to a majority of seats [...]
The Oklahoma House of Representatives voted 94-2 Wednesday to approve a bill that would ban abortion after 20 weeks of gestation. The “Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act,” similar to a bill passed in Nebraska last year, is based on evidence suggesting that a fetus can feel pain after 20 weeks . The legislation would permit [...]
The Kenyan government announced Wednesday that they will challenge the admissibility of cases relating to the 2007-2008 post-election violence in the International Criminal Court (ICC) , as well as the jurisdiction of the court. The ICC on Tuesday issued summons for six Kenyans accused of inciting the violence, including current Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Muigai [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Moira A. Imong, a research assistant at the Arcadia Center for East African Studies in Tanzania says that when the Trial Chamber of the Special Court for Sierra Leone refused to accept the late filing of the Charles Taylor’s closing brief, it violated the right of the defendant to be heard…. On [...]
Illinois Governor Pat Quinn signed Senate Bill 3539 on Wednesday, absolishing the death penalty in Illinois. Two months after the Illinois Senate approved the bill , Quinn signed the bill into law. Justifying his decision in a statement , Quinn said: Since our experience has shown that there is no way to design a perfect [...]
Former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich on Wednesday asked a federal judge to cancel his retrial and sentence him on the single charge on which was originally convicted. Blagojevich was found guilty last year of making false statements to the FBI, but the jury remained deadlocked on 23 additional charges. In the motion to dismiss the [...]
