A former Argentinean army officer and two adoptive parents were convicted Friday of kidnapping and falsifying the identity of Maria Eugenia Sampallo Barragan, a woman who was kidnapped during the 1976-1983 "Dirty War" . The court sentenced Sampallo Barragan's adoptive parents to eight years in prison, and the army officer to ten years. Sampallo Barragan [...]
Lawyers for Guantanamo Bay detainee Salim Ahmed Hamdan on Friday asked a military tribunal to bar the use of statements made by Hamdan that were allegedly obtained through the use of torture and requested that the court declare that Hamdan has been subjected to abusive interrogation techniques. Hamdan contends that he was subjected to prolonged [...]
The Louisiana 4th Circuit Court of Appeal has upheld the dismissal of a wrongful death suit brought by Herbert Freeman, Jr. against the state of Louisiana, the city of New Orleans and public officials. Freeman's 91-year-old wheelchair-bound mother, Ethel Mayo Freeman, died September 1, 2005 at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center where she and [...]
Lawyers for the US Department of Justice defended the six-year detention of Huzaifa Parhat, a Chinese Uighur Muslim, at Guantanamo Bay in oral arguments before the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit Friday. The US claims Parhat is an "enemy combatant" due to his ties with the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) , [...]
Zimbabwean opposition party Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) filed a lawsuit in the Harare High Court Friday to compel the country's Electoral Commission to release the results of last Saturday's elections . The commission has not yet announced a winner in the presidential election, although independent observers say that opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai won the [...]
Tibetan courts will swiftly prosecute demonstrators involved in protests against Chinese rule in Tibet last month, according to Friday state media reports. A top Tibet official was quoted as saying that over 1,000 protesters will face prosecution before May 1. Chinese officials have blamed the exiled Dalai Lama for organizing the protests by Buddhist monks [...]
A Montana death row inmate filed a lawsuit Thursday asserting that the lethal injection protocol used by Montana's Department of Corrections constitutes cruel and unusual punishment under both Article 2 of the Montana Constitution and the Eighth Amendment to the US Constitution. American Civil Liberties Union of Montana lawyers representing Ronald A. Smith, who was [...]
Serbian officials Friday condemned the Thursday war crimes acquittal of former Kosovo Prime Minister and Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) commander Ramush Haradinaj by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) . In a television interview, Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica called the ruling "truly worrisome." Serbian officials said the decision could heighten tensions [...]
Russian President Vladimir Putin Friday renewed assurances that Russia was ready to resume participation in the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty (CFE) , so long as Western nations ratify the 1999 version of the treaty. Speaking at a NATO-Russia Council summit held in Romania, Putin said Russia is "ready to return to the treaty but [...]
South Korean prosecutors Friday questioned Samsung Chairman and CEO Kun-Hee Lee about allegations of corruption, including accusations that Samsung maintained a $200 million slush fund to bribe prosecutors, judges and civil servants. Former Samsung lawyer Yong-Chul Kim first raised the allegations in November 2007, but Samsung and Lee have denied that such a fund exists. [...]
