Human Rights First Monday filed an amicus curiae brief requesting a stay of military commission proceedings against five Guantanamo Bay detainees, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed , the self-proclaimed architect of the 9/11 attacks , until President-elect Barack Obama takes office in January. The group filed the brief to stay the proceedings after Mohammed and the [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Peter Erlinder of William Mitchell College of Law and a Lead Defense Counsel at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), says that if – as the ICTR recently ruled in the "Military I" trial – alleged "masterminds" Colonel Theoneste Bagosora and fellow top Rwandan military officers engaged in no conspiracy and [...]

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Monday appointed a new judge to the Supreme Court of Canada to fill an eight-month vacancy, bypassing public parliamentary hearings established in 2006 and blaming the move on opposition obstruction. Public hearings for the vacancy now being filled by Justice Thomas Cromwell, previously of the Nova Scotia Court of [...]

A Sudanese man charged with aiding an International Criminal Court (ICC) investigation of a Darfur war crimes suspect appeared in court Monday. Mohamed Alsary Ibrahim is charged with working to overthrow the constitutional government, waging war against the state, dealing with an enemy country, spying, and passing on confidential military documents in connection with the [...]

Five men were found guilty Monday in the US District Court for the District of New Jersey of plotting to kill US soldiers at Fort Dix . The five men, Serdar Tatar, Mohamad Ibrahim Shnewer, Dritan Duka, Eljvir Duka, and Shain Duka, were acquitted of attempted murder, but were convicted of conspiracy to commit murder [...]

An Iraqi national living in Maryland on Sunday pleaded guilty to charges of spying for the Iraqi government under Saddam Hussein . Saubhe Jassim Al-Dellemy, a former Baath party member, pleaded guilty to "conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government," and faces up to five years in prison. Al-Dellemy allegedly assisted in [...]

The Iraqi Council of Representatives on Monday delayed a vote to determine the future of non-US foreign troops in the country. On Saturday, the parliament rejected a draft law that would have permitted 6,000 troops from the United Kingdom, Australia, Romania, El Salvador, and Estonia to remain in the country after the current UN mandate [...]

Joseph Logan and Michael Wahid Hanna : "On January 1, 2009, the US-Iraq Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) will take effect, establishing a legal basis for the continuing US military presence in Iraq. The agreement also sets a framework for the drawdown of US forces – the issue, understandably, of greatest interest in the United [...]

Russia's Federation Council , the upper house of parliament, gave final approval Monday to amendments to the Russian Constitution that would extend presidential terms from four to six years and terms for parliament members from four to five years. The Council issued a unanimous resolution approving the amendments after it was approved by all 83 [...]

Australian authorities on Sunday removed the final restrictions against former Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks . Hicks, who served more than five years in the military prison without a trial before pleading guilty to providing material support to al Qaeda, had been under control order since his release last year. The Australian government's surveillance of [...]