A military tribunal in Suriname ruled Friday that all suspects involved in a 1982 massacre in Paramaribo must stand trial, including former military dictator Desi Bouterse . Led by Bouterse, the armed forces seized power in 1982 and then executed 15 prominent citizens accused of plotting against the government. The Suriname military tribunal rejected an [...]
The US military has charged a civilian contractor working with the military in Iraq with aggravated assault, marking the first time the military has charged a civilian since a 2006 amendment to Article II of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) granting the military jurisdiction over civilians accompanying US troops in a combat zone. [...]
The US Department of Justice on Friday sued Fox Broadcasting Company to collect unpaid fines issued for the broadcast of the controversial 2003 reality show "Married by America." Amending an earlier order, the Federal Communications Commission Enforcement Bureau issued a Forfeiture Order in late February ordering the the licensees of the 13 stations against whom [...]
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 [...]
