Former US State Department (DOS) lawyer Vijay Padmanabhan criticized the administration of former president George W. Bush for approving the use of extreme interrogation techniques against terrorism suspects, in an interview with the Associated Press reported Friday. Padmanabhan, who now teaches at Cardozo School of Law in New York, served as the DOS's chief counsel [...]
The Israeli Cabinet voted in a meeting Sunday to deny Hamas prisoners privileges not required by law, such as education, entertainment and some visitation. The move, recommended by Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann , is intended to pressure Hamas into releasing Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit , who was captured in Gaza in 2006. The new policy [...]
Human Rights Watch (HRW) called Sunday for the US and Yemen to agree on a repatriation plan that provides "meaningful legal process" for the nearly 100 Yemeni detainees still at Guantanamo Bay . A new HRW report criticized any proposal involving indefinite suspension at a Yemeni facility and expressed fears of detainee mistreatment after repatriation. [...]
Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari Saturday announced the formation of a parliamentary committee to examine the revision of key terms of the Pakistan Constitution . The revisions would include the elimination of the controversial 17th Amendment and Article 58-2(B), which give the president extraordinary power over Pakistani elected bodies, including the power to dissolve the [...]
Crusading Spanish judge Baltazar Garzon has asked prosecutors to examine the US lawyers reportedly behind the establishment of the Guantanamo Bay detention center, Spanish media reported Saturday. Garzon's request comes after a criminal complaint was filed last week in the Audiencia Nacional against six lawyers from the administration of former US president George W. Bush, [...]
Humans Rights Watch (HRW) Friday criticized the resumption of activities by Syria's Supreme State Security Court (SSSC), and called for its dissolution. HRW called the court's activities a violation of the right to a fair trial in part because it does not follow procedural rules of Syria's criminal courts and does not allow defendants to [...]
A judge in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York on Friday ordered the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to release reports on the destruction of 92 videotapes of high value terrorism suspect interrogations within the next 30 days or alternatively, explain why it should not do so. Judge Alvin Hellerstein directed [...]
A judge in the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas issued an order Friday setting a July 30 date for the resentencing of former Enron Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Skilling and setting up a system for victims to share their accounts with the court. Skilling was convicted in 2006 on 19 counts [...]
The UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on Friday passed a resolution condemning Myanmar for human rights violations and calling on the military junta to desist from politically motivated arrests and release nearly 2,100 political prisoners, which include Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi . The resolution was condemned by countries in Asia and Russia as [...]
Russian trials decided by juries are currently restricted, creating hopeless situations for those accused of crimes who choose not to plead guilty, according to former oil executive Mikhail Khodorkovsky on Friday. In a statement released on his defense website, Khodorkovsky, who is currently on trial for embezzlement, expressed his hope that this, his second trial, [...]
