Mike Dubrasich : "With her most recent decision, Magistrate Laporte is playing a game of judicial chicken, perverting NEPA, and causing catastrophic harm to the environment. Background: the Clinton (Dombeck) Roadless Rule was rushed through (by proclamation) in the waning days of that administration. It was immediately litigated in more than a dozen courts. In [...]
War crimes and other human rights violations are being committed in the ongoing Somali conflict , according to a report released Monday by Human Rights Watch (HRW) . The report, titled "So Much to Fear: War Crimes and the Devastation of Somalia," accuses all parties to the conflict of committing war crimes, including the Transitional [...]
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) on Monday unsealed indictments for five Blackwater USA guards involved in the September 2007 killings of 17 Iraqi civilians . The 35-count indictment, which was returned under seal last Thursday, charges each defendant with 14 counts of voluntary manslaughter, 20 counts of attempt to commit manslaughter, and one count [...]
Pakistani police on Sunday night raided a militant camp and arrested the alleged plotters of the Mumbai terror attacks . Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi , head of the Pakistani terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) , was arrested, along with several other individuals believed to be responsible for the November attacks that left more than 170 dead. Lakhvi was [...]
Five Guantanamo Bay detainees, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed , the self proclaimed architect of the 9/11 attacks , indicated at a military commission pre-trial hearing on Monday that they wished to plead guilty to the charges against them. The judge, Army Col. Stephen Henley , read a letter from the defendants out loud in court [...]
A judge in the Court of First Instance of the High Court of Hong Kong ruled on Monday that inmates have a constitutional right to vote while serving sentences. The court's decision stipulates that the justice department and the electoral commission must find a way to implement it within 14 days. A spokesman from the [...]
Human rights conditions are worsening in 12 Arab nations, according to a report published Friday by the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) . The publication, which is the group's first annual report , is titled "From Exporting Terrorism to Exporting Repression," and was released to coincide with the 60th Anniversary of the Universal [...]
The Dong Da district court in Vietnam on Monday convicted eight Catholics of disturbing public order and destroying property during protests over disputed land, but gave them light sentences, letting them all go free. Seven defendants received suspended sentences of 12-15 months , and the remaining defendant received a warning. The defendants, who denied all [...]
An Iranian court has sentenced 16 former employees of the Central Bank of Iran to jail and lashes for accepting bribes. According to an Iranian state radio broadcast , the staff members were convicted of accepting cash, foreign currency, and gold in exchange for bank credit. The harsh sentences, including a reported 10 years of [...]
Leyla Zana , a Kurdish spokesperson and member of the European Union Turkey Civic Commission (EUTCC) , was sentenced Saturday to 10 years in prison for supporting the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) . A Turkish court in the city of Diyarbakir ruled that Zana had violated article 314 of the Turkish Penal Code and anti-terror [...]
