The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) sentenced a former top official in Rwanda's Ministry of Defence and two other former Rwanda army officers to life imprisonment Thursday after convicting them of genocide and crimes against humanity in connection with 1994 mass killings that left over 500,000 people dead in gruesome ethnic violence. Colonel Théoneste [...]
Julien Ball : "The State of Tennessee wants to execute Gary Cone on a technicality. It is beyond dispute that the prosecution withheld crucial evidence in the case. Cone argued that he suffered from amphetamine psychosis when he committed a double murder and should be spared the death penalty. The prosecution withheld a witness statement [...]
The Illinois Supreme Court Wednesday rejected a bid by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan to have Governor Rod Blagojevich temporarily removed from office in the wake of corruption charges laid against him last week in connection with his naming of a replacement to fill President-elect Barack Obama's now-vacant Senate seat. The order rejecting Madigan's motion [...]
A Muslim woman in the US state of Georgia was arrested Tuesday and ordered to serve 10 days in jail for contempt of court after she refused to remove her headscarf , or hijab, upon entering a security checkpoint in an Atlanta courtroom. Douglasville Municipal Court Judge Keith Rollins found Lisa Valentine in contempt for [...]
Russian civil rights activists Wednesday issued a statement warning that a proposed law that would change the definition of treason would allow the government to arrest any government critic . The proposed legislation extends the definition of treason to include damage to Russia's constitutional order, sovereignty, or territorial integrity. Rights activists including Moscow Helsinki Group [...]
Two prominent Kosovar Albanians were found guilty of contempt Wednesday in the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) . Former Kosovo minister for Culture, Youth and Sport Astrit Haraqija was sentenced to five months in prison, and Bajrush Morina, former political advisor to the Deputy Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport and a [...]
The Turkish Supreme Court on Tuesday overturned the conviction of a lawyer accused of killing a judge and merged the case with the trial of a right-wing group accused of plotting a coup. Alparslan Arslan was sentenced to life in prison in February for the May 2006 killing of Judge Mustafa Yucel Ozbilgin in protest [...]
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) on Tuesday called for greater judicial cooperation to combat piracy off the coast of Somalia. UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa said that while pirates should ideally be tried in their home country or in the country that owns the seized ship, this is not always feasible [...]
The legislature in the Papua province of Indonesia announced Tuesday that it will postpone a decision on whether to implant certain individuals infected with HIV/AIDS with microchips to monitor their movements. A vote scheduled for next week will be put off in response to human rights concerns . The bill would have attempted to monitor [...]
The Iraqi cabinet on Wednesday approved draft legislation that would require most non-US foreign troops to leave Iraq by mid-2009. The legislation must now be submitted to the Iraqi parliament for approval. A government spokesperson said that Iraq would retain the right to ask some countries to stay . Also on Wednesday, UK Prime Minister [...]
