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 , [...]
A South African judge Wednesday gave prosecutors leave to appeal a ruling dismissing corruption charges against Jacob Zuma , head of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) . Zuma is expected to become president after next year’s elections, although he has pledged to resign if convicted. Zuma contends the charges were motivated by ANC rival [...]
JURIST Contributing Editor Jordan Paust of the University of Houston Law Center says that instituting a special "national security court" to try terrorism and related cases outside of the regular federal court structure would perpetuate illegality and serve neither our traditional values nor the best interests of the United States…. JURIST noted in June that [...]
The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) Wednesday sentenced former Bosnian Serb special police officer Vaso Todorovic to six years in prison for committing crimes against humanity in the Srebrenica massacre . Todorovic was previously charged with genocide before accepting a plea agreement reducing the charge to crimes against humanity. As part of the agreement, [...]
A Canadian government inquiry has found that officials of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the Canada Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) "indirectly contributed" to the torture of three citizens while in Syria between 2001 and 2004. The men, Ahmed Al Maati, Abdullah Almalki and Muayyed Nureddin, claimed they were detained and tortured by Syrian [...]
A judicial panel of the UK House of Lords Wednesday ruled that the British government acted within its power in denying a group of Indian Ocean islanders known as Chagossians the right to return to an archipelago under British control. The group had challenged a 2004 order prohibiting permanent residence on the Chagos Islands , [...]
New York Supreme Court Judge Jacquelyn Silbermann Wednesday rejected a petition brought by two members of New York City Council trying to prevent a council vote on a resolution to extend New York mayoral and city council term limits from eight to 12 years. Council members Bill de Blasio and Letitia James filed the complaint [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit has ruled that a physician who was accused of writing illegal prescriptions could pursue claims of false arrest, false imprisonment and malicious prosecution against the federal government. The court held Tuesday that a provision of the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) permitted such claims as an [...]
The death sentence of Afghan journalism student Sayad Parwaz Kambaksh was reduced Tuesday to 20 years' imprisonment by an Afghan appeals court. Kambaksh was sentenced to death in January for distributing papers questioning gender roles under Islam. In May, Kambaksh appealed his death sentence before the appeals court. He denied the accusations in front of [...]
