The Iraq Inquiry , charged with investigating UK involvement in Iraq, began its public proceedings in London on Tuesday. The committee is expected to assess the legality of the UK’s participation in the Iraq War, although several legal authorities have questioned its ability to thoroughly evaluate the issue, since none of the five members are [...]
The US Justice Department (DOJ) on Monday unsealed charging documents against eight defendants for recruiting for and providing financial support to the Somali terrorist organization al-Shabaab . The defendants are being charged with recruiting approximately 20 individuals in the Minneapolis area on behalf of al-Shabaab, providing financial support for travel and weapons, and conspiring to [...]
The chairwoman of Russia's Council for Promoting Civil and Human Rights on Monday called the death of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky a murder and a tragedy. Magnitsky, who was arrested on allegations of tax fraud and held for over a year without a trial after representing London-based hedge fund Hermitage Capital in a suit against [...]
The Iraqi parliament approved a new election law following last Wednesday's veto of a similar bill by Sunni Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi . Al-Hashemi indicated that he plans to veto the bill a second time because it has not adequately addressed his concerns, including representation for Iraqis living abroad. An estimated 1.5 million Iraqis live [...]
China announced on Tuesday that two people had been executed for their roles in last year's melamine tainted milk scandal , in which almost 300,000 children were sickened and at least six were killed. The two men, Zhang Yujun and Geng Jinping, were found responsible for selling at least three million pounds of the tainted [...]
A three-judge panel for the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Monday affirmed a lower court decision which held that Congressional restrictions on organizations receiving federal grants through the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) do not violate the First Amendment . In a 2-1 ruling, the Ninth Circuit found that limiting these legal aid [...]
JURIST Contributing Editor Marjorie Cohn of Thomas Jefferson School of Law says the clear message of the recent 125-page majority opinion from the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upholding the convictions of civil rights lawyer Lynne Stewart will undoubtedly chill the willingness of criminal defense attorneys to handle terrorism cases. … In [...]
The Trial Chamber of International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on Monday denied a motion filed by former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic requesting appellate review of the court's decision to assign standby counsel . Karadzic's motion argued that the court did not give appointed counsel enough time to prepare a defense and [...]
A US military court at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait convicted Sergeant Jarret Taylor of abusing fellow troops and making a false official statement on Friday. Taylor's rank was reduced to private, he was sentenced to six months in jail, and was fined nearly $6,000. The behavior was discovered during the investigation of Private Keiffer Wilhelm's [...]
Reported hate crimes in the US increased by approximately two percent in 2008, the greatest reported increase since 2001, according to the 2008 Hate Crime Statistics released by the FBI on Monday. The FBI reported 7,780 single-bias hate crime incidents in 2008, up from the 7,621 reported in 2007 . The FBI noted that the [...]
