Guillermo Otálora Lozano : "The Italian rulings against Germany for crimes committed during the occupation reflect a growing trend in domestic courts' practice towards the lifting of immunities when international crimes are at stake. The ICJ has already dealt with issues of immunities in the Arrest Warrant (DRC v. Belgium) (2002) and Criminal Assistance (Djibouti [...]
Judge Henry Kennedy for the US District Court for the District of Columbia on Wednesday ruled in favor of three former US soldiers suing North Korea for alleged mistreatment they suffered after the country seized their ship in 1968. According to the ruling, William Massie, Donald McClarren, Dunnie Tuck and other crew members of the USS [...]
William Thomas Massie, et al. v. The Government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, US District Court for the District of Columbia, December 31, 2008 . Read the full text of the opinion . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.
Chinese diary company chairwoman Tian Wenhua on Wednesday pleaded guilty to charges that she allowed her company to sell milk contaminated with the industrial chemical melamine even after she knew of the contamination, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency. Tian and three other executives of Shijiazhuang Sanlu Group , Wang Yuliang, Hang Zhiqi, and [...]
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday signed into law amendments to the Russian Constitution extending presidential terms from four to six years and terms for parliament members from four to five years. The amendments were recently approved by both houses of parliament and all 83 regional parliaments , and will not apply to Medvedev's current presidential [...]
The Bangladesh Election Commission (BEC) on Tuesday released results for the country's Monday elections, in which voters elected Sheikh Hasina as prime minister and members of her Bangladesh Awami League party as 228 of the country's 300 parliamentary representatives. The elections, which end two years of military rule in the country, were said to be generally [...]
The Central Criminal Court of Iraq (CCCI) on Tuesday postponed the trial of Muntadhar al-Zaidi , the journalist accused of throwing his shoes at US President George W. Bush . The trial will resume after the Iraqi High Judicial Council determines whether al-Zaidi should be charged with "assaulting a foreign leader," a crime punishable by [...]
Twenty-two Chinese dairy companies are expected to pay a total of $160 million to compensate the families of nearly 300,000 children harmed by melamine-contaminated milk , according to a Tuesday report by China Daily. Government sources have said that $129 million of the settlement will be made as lump sum payments to families whose children [...]
Matt Belcher : "If it weren't so gallingly embarrassing to the city of Big Shoulders, I would just laugh off the (alleged) Blagojevich exploits as another operatic example of the machine politics of the "Chicago way." For those of you not versed in the "Chicago way" please take note that it is very much like [...]
A Zimbabwean court on Monday delayed ruling on whether leading human rights campaigner Jestina Mukoko and eight other activists charged with plotting to overthrow the government should be released pending trial. Mukoko, the head of the Zimbabwe Peace Project, and eight other activists were charged last week with recruiting or attempting to recruit people to [...]
