UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and counterterrorism Martin Scheinin on Tuesday cited the case of Canadian citizen and former US detainee Maher Arar in presenting a report critical of international counterterrorism practices to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva. Scheinin flagged Arar's deportation from the US as an example of how intelligence [...]
The French National Assembly on Tuesday began considering a bill that would allow the government to shut off internet access for those who repeatedly share or download copyrighted music and movies illegally. The bill, supported by French Minister of Culture Christine Albanel and passed by the country's Senate in October 2008, has been criticized by [...]
Victor Comras : "Classified information and court rooms usually just don't mesh. And, this factor is at the very heart of the continuing dilemma we face in using our judicial system to deal with terrorism and terrorists. Terrorism cases pose very special investigative and court room challenges. The objective in many of these cases is [...]
US President Barack Obama issued a memorandum Monday that proposes to limit the use of attaching presidential signing statements which raise constitutional or other legal questions before bills are signed into law. The memorandum suggested parameters for the disregard of statutory provisions based solely on differences in policy, yet at the same time recognized the [...]
Turkish police on Tuesday arrested 56 people charged with plotting to overthrow the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) , including two retired generals. They were arrested after the Istanbul prosecutor issued an indictment linking them to the Ergenekon group case. The group is allegedly responsible for bombing the headquarters of the newspaper Cumhuriyet , [...]
The Italian government on Tuesday asked the country's Constitutional Court to dismiss kidnapping charges against US and Italian intelligence officers, arguing that allowing the case to go forward would harm the country's national security interests. The case involves 26 Americans being tried in absentia and five former Italian intelligence officials charged in the 2003 abduction [...]
A judge in the US District Court for the District of Columbia on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit by Saudi Guantanamo Bay detainee Ghassan Abdullah al-Sharbi that challenged his confinement based on a request from al-Sharbi himself. According to al-Sharbi's attorney, Judge Emmet Sullivan made the decision after a private hearing conducted Friday through a video [...]
Spain's General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) on Tuesday said that there will be an investigation into the failure of Judge Baltasar Garzon to report his earnings while on sabbatical in the US. Garzon, famed for indicting Osama bin Laden and former Latin American dictator Augusto Pinochet , took a leave of absence and accepted [...]
The Supreme People's Court of China will take steps to eliminate judicial corruption, according to a report delivered Tuesday to second session of the Eleventh National People's Congress by Chief Justice Wang Shengjun . Wang reported that that 712 court officials were punished for misconduct in 2008 and that such corruption has negative social impacts [...]
Head of the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) Ziaul Islam said Tuesday that there are no plans in place to lift the ban on several websites that have posted a recording in which Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is criticized by army officers over how she handled the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) mutiny in late February. The [...]
