Lt. Ehren K. Watada v. Lt. Col. John Head, et al., US District Court for the Western District of Washington, October 21, 2008 . Read the full text of the order . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

The US Department of Defense announced Tuesday that the Office of Military Commissions Convening Authority has dismissed charges without prejudice against five Guantanamo Bay detainees. Noor Uthman Mohammed, Binyam Mohammed, Sufyiam Barhoumi, Ghassan Abdullah al Sharbi, and Jabran Said Bin al Qahtani remain in custody, and Chief Prosecutor Army Col. Lawrence Morris has appointed teams [...]

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates confirmed Tuesday that the military prison at Guantanamo Bay would remain open for the duration of President George W. Bush's administration. The New York Times reported earlier in the day quoted unnamed senior administration officials as saying Bush had decided not to close the prison before the end of his [...]

The Ecuadorean Supreme Court of Justice and the Constitutional Tribunal of Ecuador on Tuesday published a statement laying out the first steps in enacting a system of oral arguments, as required by the new Ecuadorean constitution . The constitution, which took effect Monday upon publication in the country's official gazette following its approval last month [...]

The Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Tuesday ruled on two separate appeals filed by the Office of the Chief Prosecutor , reversing for now the Trial Chamber's decision to release former Congolese militia leader Thomas Lubanga but dismissing a request that it lift an indefinite stay on his trial. The Appeals Chamber [...]

Mexico and Cuba on Monday signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at combating the rising number of Cuban illegal immigrants attempting to reach the US through Mexico. The agreement requires Mexican authorities to deport any illegal Cuban immigrants taken into custody by Mexican authorities, including immigrants who have illegally entered Mexico directly or through Central [...]

Indonesia's Constitutional Court on Tuesday ruled that the country's constitution allows the firing-squad execution of three men sentenced to death for their roles in the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings . The three members of the southeast Asian terror group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) , Mukhlas, Imam Samudra and Amrozi Nurhasyim , had argued that death by [...]

Human Rights Watch on Monday accused the Sudanese government of using a special prosecutor as "window dressing" to thwart an International Criminal Court (ICC) investigation of war crimes in Sudan's Darfur region . ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo applied for an arrest warrant in July for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir alleging genocide, crimes against humanity [...]

The Bolivian National Congress Tuesday ratified proposed reforms to the country's constitution, paving the way for a national referendum on the changes on January 25, 2009. Bolivian President Evo Morales engineered the endorsement Monday by agreeing not to seek reelection in 2014 . Morales' conservative opponents had sought such an assurance before approving the constitutional [...]

Amnesty International and the Nigerian Legal Defense and Assistance Project (LEDAP) condemned Nigeria's capital punishment practices in a joint report released Tuesday, claiming that death row inmates are being denied their rights to proper representation and appeal and calling for a moratorium on executions. According to the report, capital punishment can only be used after [...]