The French Senate and National Assembly voted 560-181 at a special parliamentary session Monday to pass an amendment to the French Constitution that paves the way for France to adopt the new EU reform treaty , properly known as the Treaty of Lisbon . The amendment deletes reference in the French Constitution to the failed [...]
Lawyers for Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr Monday argued that the US military commission responsible for trying him lacks jurisdiction over the case , saying that Khadr did not commit a war crime by allegedly throwing a grenade that killed one US soldier and wounded another while fighting with the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2002 [...]
The European Commission (EC) said Monday that new EU members Bulgaria and Romania must do more to achieve judicial reform and fight corruption and organized crime. An interim report on Bulgaria criticized Bulgarian efforts to counter high-level corruption and organized crime for not demonstrating "convincing results." Another interim report on Romania praised the Romanian government's [...]
The Moscow City Court on Monday rejected the appeal of exiled business tycoon Boris Berezovsky . Berezovsky has been sentenced to six years in prison, after being found guilty last November of embezzling 214 million rubles from Russian national airline Aeroflot. Berezovsky was tried in absentia, as he now resides in the UK as a [...]
Former Khmer Rouge official Nuon Chea made his first public appearance before the Extraordinary Chambers in the Court of Cambodia (ECCC) on Monday, though the court quickly adjourned the pre-trial hearing. The adjournment was due to a dispute over Nuon Chea's Dutch lawyer, Victor Koppe , who has been denied admission to the Cambodian Bar [...]
A Spanish court on Monday ordered the release of 10 suspected terrorists accused of participating in a plot to bomb the Spanish National Court in Madrid, several days before the court is scheduled to announce the verdicts and sentences of all 30 suspected conspirators on charges of membership in a terrorist organization, conspiracy to commit [...]
The Supreme Court of Indonesia on Monday announced it will consider a second appeal of the convictions of three men found responsible at trial for the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings . The Supreme Court ordered a lower district court to assemble a panel of judges to review the merits of the bombers' latest appeal, after [...]
A Bangladesh trial judge on Monday adjourned proceedings and admonished defense lawyers for former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed after they accused the judge of partiality in open court for refusing to allow cross examination of the main witness against Hasina. The witness is a businessman who accused Hasina and her cousin of extorting [...]
Max Jeganathan : "Civil Liberties Australia unequivocally and unconditionally rejects Mr Keelty's call for media restrictions on coverage relating to all and any operations by the Australian Federal Police Force. Clearly, the arms of law enforcement and the judicial process need to operate freely and impartially without incumberance. However, the cruciality of a free press [...]
UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Kyung-wha Kang said Sunday that unchecked human rights violations in Nepal remain a barrier to achieving sustainable peace in the country. Nepalese Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala and Maoist rebel leader Prachanda signed a peace agreement in November 2006 formally ending the decade-long Maoist guerilla insurgency against the [...]
