The Zimbabwe Supreme Court announced Monday that it would refuse to hear a civil rights case brought by Finance Minister Tendai Biti over his 2008 arrest on treason charges because he did not file an appeal in time. Biti, who is secretary general of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) , was seeking a ruling [...]
A Vietnamese court on Monday sentenced former deputy director of the Ministry of Transportation Huynh Ngoc Si to life in prison for accepting bribes while managing a Japanese-funded road project, according to state news agencies. Si was convicted of receiving USD $262,000 from the Japanese company Pacific Consultants International (PCI) in exchange for negotiating the [...]
The US Supreme Court on Monday granted certorari in Ashcroft v. al-Kidd to determine whether former US attorney general John Ashcroft is entitled to absolute or qualified immunity against claims that he used the material witness statute as a “pretext” to preventatively detain terrorism suspects. Ashcroft appealed the September 2009 ruling of the US Court [...]
A judge for the US District Court for the District of Columbia on Friday extended the deadline for Congress to approve the $3.4 billion settlement concerning the US government’s alleged mismanagement of funds held in trust for American Indian landowners . Judge Thomas Hogan set a new deadline for January 7, 2011, reasoning that this [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Kevin Govern of Ave Maria School of Law says that despite the recent District Court decisions enjoining the Department of Defense from enforcing or applying “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” there remains a significant body of law allowing the military to demand what it considers “exemplary conduct” from its members… On October 12, [...]
A US soldier accused of killing three Afghan civilians in an unprovoked rogue assault earlier this year will face a court-martial for premeditated murder, the US Army announced Friday. Specialist Jeremy Morlock of Joint Base Lewis McChord is one of five soldiers accused of murdering the civilians in separate incidents between January and May in [...]
The Dubai Court of First Instance has ruled that a former Nigerian Delta state governor can be extradited to the UK to face charges of money laundering, fraud and embezzlement. James Ibori was arrested in the United Arab Emirates by INTERPOL in May. Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) accused Ibori of stealing Delta [...]
The former president of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan , Ichiro Ozawa, filed a lawsuit Friday seeking to overturn corruption charges brought against him last month. The Tokyo No. 5 Committee for the Inquest of Prosecution, an 11-member body composed of members of the public without legal backgrounds , voted for the second time [...]
Amnesty International (AI) released a report outlining fairness concerns the group has with the 2001 conviction of the “Cuban Five” . The men – Fernando Gonzalez, Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labanino, Antonio Guerrero and Rene Gonzalez – were convicted of acting as Cuban intelligence agents. The men are currently serving sentences ranging from 15 years to [...]
California’s Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) on Thursday issued a rule that will require sponsors of “thinly veiled” political ads reveal their funding sources. The FPPC said disclosure is no longer precluded in the absence of certain key words such as “vote for,” “oppose,” and “elect,” but instead will be based on a reasonable interpretation [...]
