An Arizona federal district court ruled Wednesday that conditions in Maricopa County corrections facilities violate the constitutional rights of its prisoners. US District Judge Neil Wake's order demanded that Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio take standards steps to address the jails' overcrowded and unhygienic conditions. Sheriff Arpaio, who took office in 1993 and has called [...]
The High Criminal Court in Istanbul, Turkey, Thursday continued the trial of those accused of attempting to destabilize and overthrow the government of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) . Turkish prosecutors have charged 86 people with involvement in the attempted coup, but Thursday's proceedings were limited to the 46 defendants who are being [...]
A Burundi military court Thursday sentenced Colonel Vital Bangirinama to death for his role in the 2006 killings of 31 civilians in Muyinga province. Human rights groups, which had previously criticized the Burundi government for not actively prosecuting its own military officers for war crimes, applauded the prosecution. Bangirinama is reported to have fled the [...]
Hu Jia , a Chinese human rights activist convicted in April on charges of inciting subversion of state power , was awarded the Sakharov Prize on Thursday by the European Parliament , for his fight for democracy. Hu has become prominently known as an advocate for HIV/AIDS awareness and a defender of religious freedom and [...]
The Constitutional Court of Turkey on Wednesday published its decision striking down recent amendments to the Turkish Constitution to allow the wearing of headscarves in universities. Explaining the reasoning for its ruling in June, the court held that lifting the ban "indirectly changes and makes nonfunctional the basic features of the republic." In the decision, [...]
UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights Martin Scheinin Wednesday urged the UN to restructure or eliminate the existing terrorist "blacklisting" system . Currently, the Security Council's Al-Qaida and Taliban Sanctions Committee maintains a list of people and entities associated with the Taliban, al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, and may [...]
The German Federal Foreign Office on Wednesday rejected a ruling by Italy's highest court ordering Germany to pay damages to relatives of civilians killed in the town of Civitella during World War II. The Italian Court of Cassation on Tuesday awarded 1 million euros (US $1.3 million) to family members of some of the 203 [...]
The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) has denied requests by former Khmer Rouge officials Nuon Chea and Ieng Sary to receive court-appointed medical experts who would determine whether the men are fit to stand trial to face war crimes and crimes against humanity charges. Chea, known as Brother Number Two in the [...]
The European Court of First Instance on Thursday struck down a decision by the Council of the European Union freezing the assets of the prominent Iranian opposition group People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) . The court annulled the 2007 decision as applied to PMOI, ruling that the council had failed to sufficiently justify designating [...]
The US Department of Defense announced Wednesday that it has filed new war crimes charges against two Kuwaiti men held at the US detention center in Guantanamo Bay . Fouad Rabia, a US-educated aeronautical engineer suspected of running a supply depot at Tora Bora, and Fayiz Kandari, an alleged adviser to Osama bin Laden , [...]
