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 [...]
Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheal Martin has said that Ireland would likely accept detainees released from the Guantanamo Bay military prison if US President-elect Barack Obama closed the facility. In an interview with the Irish Examiner published Monday, Martin noted that Ireland supports closure of Guantanamo and said it was a "logical follow-through" for [...]
Four criminal trials began Monday in China's Hebei province for persons accused of involvement in the country's recent melamine-tainted milk scandal. The four are generally accused in connection with the manufacture of two hundred tons of melamine-containing protein powder and adding it to raw milk before selling the mixture to Chinese dairies between November 2007 [...]
The Supreme Iraqi Criminal Tribunal on Sunday commenced a new trial of two Saddam-era officials, including senior figures of Hussein's government, for their alleged involvement in the execution of thousands of political opponents during Hussein’s rule. The defendants include Hussein’s cousin, Ali Hassan al-Majid , better known in the Western media as “Chemical Ali,” who [...]
JURIST Contributing Editor Ali Khan of Washburn University School of Law says that an international tribunal should be formed to prosecute persons involved in the Mumbai terrorist attacks in order to avoid the politically unworkable alternatives of retaliatory surgical strikes and the extradition of Pakistani militants to India… Although a war between India and Pakistan [...]
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay Sunday condemned what she called Israel’s “disproportionate use of force” against Hamas targets in Gaza and urged the Israeli government to “uphold international humanitarian law principles, especially those relating to proportionality in the use of military force and the prevention of collective punishment and the targeting of [...]
Egyptian Deputy Interior Minister Hamid Rashid Sunday announced the suspension and investigation of 280 police officers alleged to have abused their power and committed human rights violations. In a statement before the Egyptian Parliament, Rashid said as many as 1,164 police officers have already been fired for similar reasons. Egypt has recently come under increased [...]
The Taiwan High Court on Sunday overruled a district court decision to release former Taiwanese president Chen Shui-bian pending his trial on corruption charges, citing risks of flight, collusion and interference with other witnesses. The Taipei district court’s decision to release Chen was originally overruled on December 17 by the High Court. Sunday’s reversal was [...]
Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski expressed reservations Saturday over the prospect of accepting detainees released from Guantanamo Bay as part of a US strategy to close the prison. In an interview with the Dziennik daily, Sikorski ventured that "the establishment of prisons outside the US legal system was one of the more serious errors of [...]
