Haitian prison officers are alleged to have killed 12 detainees “deliberately and without justification,” using “inappropriate, abusive and disproportionate force” during a January 19 prison uprising, according to an independent commission, the New York Times reported Thursday. The Times obtained an exclusive copy of the commission’s report, which said the incident involved “grave violations of [...]
Russian prosecutors asked Friday for a 14-year prison sentence in the second case against former oil executive Mikhail Khodorkovsky , though his sentence could be reduced based on time served for a prior conviction. Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev are charged with embezzling USD $25 billion worth of oil produced by their company [...]
The UN Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) expressed concern on Friday that security forces in Guinea “committed serious human rights violations” in subduing demonstrations that took place this week ahead of the run-off presidential election scheduled for Sunday. The OHCHR stated that security forces indiscriminately shot unarmed civilians, broke into private homes [...]
The Supreme Court of Canada on Friday expanded journalists’ rights to protect sources while testifying.The decision, delivered by Justice Louis LeBel, expanded a May Supreme Court ruling that denied journalists the overarching ability to guarantee anonymity during testimony, instead limiting source disclosure to a case-by-case basis. Friday’s decision did not apply a broad rule to [...]
A Dutch court panel on Friday dismissed the presiding judges in the trial of right-wing politician Geert Wilders in response to claims of judicial bias. Earlier this month, the court rejected Widlers’ claims of judicial bias that were fueled by his accusation that a judge’s remarks cast him in a negative light to the jury. [...]
Indonesian officials on Friday admitted to their soldiers’ involvement in the torture of Papuan detainees, which garnered international outrage after a video of the torture surfaced this week. Security Affairs Minister Djoko Suyanto said that the solders “overreacted,” and promised a thorough investigation . The admission comes four months after Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged [...]
Two French police officers who chased three teens into a power substation, resulting in two of their deaths from electrocution, will stand trial on criminal charges, lawyers said Friday. The officers are charged with “non-assistance to a person in danger” under Article 223-6 of the French penal code for failing to alert anyone that the [...]
US Defense Secretary Robert Gates issued a memorandum on Thursday limiting the authority to discharge openly gay service members to five senior Department of Defense (DOD) officials. The memo is seen as a response to the uncertain future of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) policy, arising from the recent injunction by the US District [...]
The Sri Lankan government on Thursday continued to defend the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), a government mandated probe into alleged rights violations committed during the end of the nation’s civil war , against widespread criticism. The commission is accused of lacking objectivity , showing favor for the ruling party, failing to protect witnesses [...]
The European Parliament on Thursday named Cuban activist Guillermo Farinas as the recipient of its 2010 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought . Farinas has undergone multiple hunger strikes in support of political prisoners and to protest conditions in Cuba, and was the publisher of the now-defunct Cubanacan Press, which sought to raise awareness of [...]
