El Salvador defended its 1993 amnesty law in a hearing Wednesday before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) dealing with the country's failure to investigate the 1980 murder of Archbishop Oscar Romero . Representatives of the Salvadoran government maintained that the amnesty law has prevented compliance with a 2000 IACHR report recommending that the [...]
A private advocacy group requested a temporary restraining order Thursday to compel the White House to save back-up disks of all e-mails relating to the Bush administration. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) sued the Executive Office of the President and the National Archives and Records Administration last month over their alleged failure [...]
Over 2,000 people died while being arrested by various US state and local law enforcement officers between 2003 and 2005, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) reported Thursday, including over 1,000 deaths caused by the law enforcement officers themselves. The report, which was required by the Death in Custody Reporting Act , showed a 13 [...]
The Tunisian government Thursday condemned torture as "reprehensible," criticizing US District Judge Gladys Kessler for blocking the transfer of a Guantanamo Bay detainee to Tunisia because he faced a threat of torture. In her decision last week, Kessler granted a preliminary injunction preventing the Defense Department from transferring Mohammed Abdul Rahman until the Supreme Court [...]
Aziz Huq : "This Monday, the Supreme Court denied the petition for certiorari review filed by the American Civil Liberties Union in the case of Khaled El-Masri, a German citizen who had been subject to the U.S. practice of "extraordinary rendition." The denial,which was made without comment by the Justices (the usual practice), means that [...]
Zimbabwe Magistrate Tinashe Ndokera on Thursday denied a motion by eleven white farmers to have their state-sponsored eviction notices thrown out, and instead ordered the men to stand trial for failing to vacate their property by the notices' September 30 deadline . David Drury, a lawyer for the farmers, argued that charges of violating the [...]
The US military is reviewing its classification of hundreds of detainees at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba, according to the Associated Press Thursday. The review could allow for new hearings for inmates who were classified as "enemy combatants" and a reduction in the number of prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay. Critics of the military's [...]
A court in Turkey Thursday convicted Arat Dink, editor of the Armenian newspaper Agos and son of the late Armenian journalist Hrant Dink , of violating Article 301 of the Turkish penal code , which bans insults against Turkish identity. Arat Dink's conviction stems from his decision to re-publish remarks written by his father before [...]
Members of parliament in Nepal opened debate at a special session Thursday to address the status of King Gyanendra and the Nepalese monarchy. The Communist Party of Nepal – Maoists (CPN-M) reiterated their desire for the monarchy to be dissolved immediately. The party announced September 18 that it would vacate the interim government and boycott [...]
Defense lawyers representing Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi , the only person convicted in the 1998 bombing of a Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, Thursday requested access to evidence not previously provided to them that they claim could be used to clear al-Megrahi. Specifically, they are seeking disclosure of a "missing document" which allegedly [...]
