Death Sentences and Executions in 2007, Amnesty International, April 15, 2008 . Read the full text of the report . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

An Egyptian military court handed down its final verdict Tuesday in the military trial of 40 senior members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood , sentencing 25 of the accused to prison time and acquitting 15 others. The 40 Brotherhood members were originally charged with terrorism, but those charges were later dropped; the trial, which lasted [...]

The rule of law is a necessary prerequisite to achieving all eight of the UN's anti-poverty Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) , UN Office on Drugs and Crime Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa said in an address Monday at the opening of the 17th session of the UN Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice . [...]

The US Supreme Court handed down decisions in two tax cases Tuesday, including MeadWestvaco Corp. v. Illinois Department of Revenue , where the Court overturned an Illinois state court decision allowing the state to tax a portion of the $1 billion capital gain realized by MeadWestvaco's predecessor when it sold its interest in Lexis/Nexis. The [...]

China has disciplined nearly 3,000 people and imposed criminal penalties on over 530 more for their involvement in illegal land seizures, an official from the Chinese Law Enforcement and Supervision Bureau under the Ministry of Land and Natural Resources said Monday. Bureau director Zhang Xinbao said Monday that the punishments were part of a new [...]

Myanmar's military government has arrested more than 20 peaceful demonstrators protesting the scheduled May 10 national constitutional referendum , the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) said Tuesday. The NLD also said that government security forces have detained a close aide of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi . Opposition groups have urged citizens to [...]

The National Assembly of Pakistan unanimously adopted a resolution late Monday calling for a United Nations investigation into the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto . The resolution now goes to the Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In January, President Pervez Musharraf ruled out the possibility of a UN investigation , saying that [...]

The UK Ministry of Defense confirmed Tuesday that it has reached a settlement with an Iraqi teenage civilian who was paralyzed in an accidental shooting in Basra in 2003. The plaintiff, who was 13 at the time of the shooting, had filed a civil negligence action in the UK High Court after relocating to the [...]

At least 1200 people were executed worldwide in 2007, and 88 percent of those executions took place in five countries: China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and the USA, according to a report released Tuesday by human rights group Amnesty International. Saudi Arabia had the most executions per capita, and China had the highest total at [...]

A federal judge on Monday sentenced Samuel Israel, III, co-founder of collapsed hedge fund Bayou Group , to 20 years in prison. US District Judge Colleen McMahon also ordered Israel to make $300 million in restitution and forfeit interests in a $100 million account. In 2005, both Israel and Chief Financial Officer Daniel Marino pleaded [...]