The Liberian Supreme Court ruled Friday that former interim Liberian President Gyude Bryant can stand trial on embezzlement charges. Bryant was charged in February with embezzling $1.3 million during his tenure from October 2003 until January 2006. The indictment was based on an audit conducted by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) , [...]
US Bankruptcy Judge Louise DeCarl Adler ordered 42 clergy sex abuse cases against the Catholic Diocese of San Diego to go to trial Friday, accepting arguments by plaintiffs lawyers that the move could push pressure on the diocese to settle the claims. The trials were suspended in February – the night before they were scheduled [...]
Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej formally signed the country's new constitution into law Friday. The constitution, put forward by the military-backed interim government, was approved in a national referendum last week. The interim government has praised the constitution as a step toward democracy, but supporters of deposed former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said the new [...]
A US judge Friday refused to reject a French extradition request for former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega to face charges of money laundering through French banks. Noriega and his wife were sentenced in absentia to 10 years in jail in 1999, but France has agreed to hold a new trial if he is extradited. Noriega's [...]
The War Crimes Chamber of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina sentenced a Bosnian Serb former reserve policeman to 12 years in prison for crimes against humanity committed during the 1992-95 Bosnian civil war. Nenad Tanaskovic was convicted for taking part in an organized attack on Muslim villages, during which thousands of Muslims were killed [...]
An investigating judge who was to be transferred from the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) to serve as the head of Cambodia's Appeals Court will still remain on the ECCC, filling both roles simultaneously, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said Friday. The UN had expressed concern that removing Judge You Bun Leng [...]
US military lawyers appearing at the first sitting of the new US Court of Military Commission Review Friday urged the court to overturn a ruling dropping charges against Canadian Guantanamo detainee Omar Khadr . In June, a military commission judge held that he had no jurisdiction over Khadr because a Guantanamo Combatant Status Review Tribunal [...]
James Ford Seale , alleged to have been a member of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) , was sentenced to three life sentences Friday for his role in the kidnapping and death of two 19-year old teens in Mississippi in 1964. Seale was convicted in June of two counts of kidnapping resulting in death and [...]
A UK judge Thursday ordered British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith to hold off deportations of failed asylum seekers to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) pending a determination by an Asylum and Immigration Tribunal (AIT) on whether the DRC is a safe destination. Ten rejected asylum seekers scheduled to be deported on August 30 [...]
US Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell has confirmed that telecommunications companies have provided vital cooperation to the warrantless domestic wiretapping program , the New York Times reported Friday. In an interview with the El Paso Times last week, McConnell called for Congress to grant immunity from prosecution to the companies that helped in the [...]
