Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev Tuesday signed into law amendments to the Kyrgyz constitution approved by citizen vote in a constitutional referendum Sunday. Bakiyev also issued a decree Tuesday setting new parliamentary elections for December 16. The constitutional amendments include increasing the number of seats in parliament from 75 to 90 and changing the election of [...]
US District Judge James Payne of the Northern District of Oklahoma Monday dismissed a federal lawsuit which alleged that a recently approved state law limiting government privileges to illegal immigrants is unfair to all immigrants. The lawsuit was filed last week against Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry and Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson. Payne ruled that [...]
Jennifer Levi : "When Representative Sanchez voted against advancing out of committee the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) she made the understatement, "We could have done better." If passed, the bill advanced by the committee would create law that prohibits discrimination in employment on the basis of sexual orientation. However, it is notably a bill without [...]
Serbia's Security Information Agency has located former Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic and is considering apprehending him, Serbian human rights activist Natasa Kandic said Tuesday. Once captured, Mladic can be turned over to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) , which originally indicted him on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity [...]
Giovanni Di Stefano provides exclusive video commentary for JURIST on the case against his client Ali Hassan al-Majid, Saddam Hussein's cousin and a former military commander and governor of northern Iraq. He argues that al-Majid has a legitimate expectation that he will not be executed because he surrendered to US forces during the administration of [...]
US Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and ranking Republican Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) on Monday sent a letter to White House counsel Fred Fielding demanding the Bush administration's compliance with subpoenas for information about the warrantless domestic surveillance program . The letter asserts that the White House committed to sending the documents [...]
A defense lawyer for Ali Hassan al-Majid , better known in Western media as "Chemical Ali," has told JURIST that he expects to file a petition Wednesday against the planned execution of al-Majid. In the application, Giovanni Di Stefano will argue that the former Iraqi commander and governor of northern Iraq now subject to a [...]
The Parliament of the Republic of Montenegro formally adopted the country's new constitution late Monday night, giving effect to the document's provisions. Parliamentary speaker Ranko Krivokapic welcomed the new constitution as protecting the rule of law as well as minority and human rights. Krivokapic also noted the importance of a constitutional provision which will allow [...]
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer Tuesday denied allegations that the Australian government was involved in negotiating the plea bargain of former Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks , refuting a report in Harper's Magazine that the plea was the result of a secret deal with US Vice President Dick Cheney. Downer said that the Australian government [...]
Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet granted amnesty to 8,066 prisoners, officials from the President's Office said Tuesday. The prisoners, who are expected to be released over the next two days, include 11 individuals convicted of national security crimes. Tuesday's pardons are part of a regular series of presidential amnesties that have freed approximately 80,000 prisoners [...]
