Giovanni Di Stefano : "The situation in Iraq is complicated and difficult. Death is common and murder ripe. I am of the view that in the investigation of any criminal matter in Iraq at the moment cannot be investigated by applying the normal standards. There is no question of adopting 'beyond reasonable doubt' or even [...]
The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will not investigate allegations made last year that several large telephone companies handed over customer phone records to the government as part of the domestic surveillance program conducted by the National Security Agency (NSA), according to a letter from FCC Chairman Kevin Martin. In the letter sent Friday to [...]
A US House of Representatives resolution labeling the World War I-era killings of over one million Armenians by Turkish soldiers as genocide would strain diplomatic ties between the US and Turkey, Turkish head of Parliament Koksal Toptan warned in a letter to US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi on Sunday. Toptan warned that passage [...]
Case Concerning Territorial and Maritime Dispute Between Nicaragua and Hondras in the Caribbean Sea (Nicaragua v. Honduras), International Court of Justice, October 8, 2007 . Read the full text of the judgment . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.
The military government of Myanmar said Monday that opposition leader and democracy advocate Aung San Suu Kyi would likely not be released from house arrest until a new constitution for the country is approved. In a piece published in the state-run New Light of Myanmar , the junta also said that recent protests will not [...]
Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Monday urged China to institute a moratorium on capital punishment in preparation for the 2008 Beijing Olympics . HRW commended China for the reported decrease in the number of executions , but expressed concern that "systemic weaknesses in the trial process" remain a serious issue throughout the country. HRW urged [...]
The registrar of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia has expressed concern over the refusal of Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect Zdravko Tolimir to accept medical treatment in prison while awaiting trial. Hans Holthuis described the situation as "fragile and highly alarming" and told the tribunal in a submission Friday that Tolimir is [...]
Spanish anti-terror judge Baltasar Garzon ordered 17 leaders of the Batasuna party to remain in jail Sunday, after Spanish police arrested 23 senior members of the political organization last week. Though no explanation for their arrest was released last week, Garzon said Sunday that the leaders of Batusuna were "not willing to end terrorist violence," [...]
JURIST Contributing Editor Marjorie Cohn of Thomas Jefferson School of Law says that the Bush administration's repeated insistence that it has not endorsed the torture of prisoners rings hollow in light of newly-disclosed US Department of Justice memos supporting the harshest techniques the CIA has ever used… The April 2004 publication of grotesque photographs of [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Benjamin Davis of the University of Toledo College of Law says that instead of fighting over whether or not to release newly-reported US Department of Justice memos supposedly endorsing torture, the Bush administration should simply release the Red Cross's report on actual US interrogations of prisoners held at secret so-called CIA "black [...]
