An International Criminal Court prosecutor said Thursday that the court would not withdraw controversial indictments against leaders of Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) . Alluding to a call for a review of the charges by the Ugandan government, ICC Deputy Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda was quoted by AFP as saying that "this idea of 'because we [...]
UN Special Rapporteur on torture Manfred Nowak Friday called on the government of Indonesia to step up efforts at stopping ill-treatment and torture of individuals under police detention. Nowak concluded a two-week visit to the country where he toured various correctional facilities, meeting with government officials and NGOs to make recommendations regarding the legal system's [...]
Courthouses in the northern Indian cities of Lucknow, Varanasi, and Faizabad were hit Friday with bombings that killed at least 13 lawyers and injured over 50 other people. The blasts occurred in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh , where lawyers decided earlier this year not to defend terrorist suspects. Indian authorities say they suspect [...]
The Supreme Court of Pakistan Friday upheld President Pervez Musharraf's November 3 Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) and accompanying proclamation of emergency. The seven member bench of the court ruling on the issue – made up entirely of judges named to their posts after the emergency decree – additionally condemned the "judicial activism" of the superior [...]
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour Thursday urged Pakistan to reinstate all of the judges dismissed under President Pervez Musharraf's November 3 declaration of emergency rule before parliamentary elections slated for January. In Dublin to attend a human rights conference, Arbour told reporters that it is not enough to hold free and fair [...]
Commonwealth foreign ministers meeting in Uganda announced Thursday that they had agreed to suspend Pakistan from the group of 53 nations "pending the restoration of democracy and the rule of law in that country." A statement issued by the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) said that despite progress in Pakistan since President Pervez Musharraf imposed [...]
The Supreme Court of Chile on Wednesday upheld an appeals court decision to drop embezzlement charges brought against the widow and five sons of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet . The six were originally indicted along with 17 others on October 4 in connection with allegations that Pinochet had embezzled $25 million in government funds. [...]
The UN General Assembly Third Committee Wednesday approved a draft resolution imploring the government of Belarus to uphold its "obligation to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms and to fulfil international obligations." The draft expressed concern about ongoing human rights violations in Belarus, including the continued detention and harassment of political dissenters and [...]
Abdelhaleem Ashqar, a former associate professor of business at Howard University in Washington DC who was one of three men indicted in 2004 by a US federal grand jury on charges of engaging in a 15-year conspiracy of providing funds to Hamas , was sentenced Wednesday to eleven years in prison for his refusal to [...]
The bankruptcy administrator for the embattled Russian oil company Yukos announced Thursday that the company no longer legally exists. The Moscow Arbitration Court completed Yukos' liquidation this month and removed it as a legal entity Wednesday. Once Russia's largest oil company, Yukos was forced to declare bankruptcy in August 2006 when it could not pay [...]
