A lawyer for recently released Iranian-American scholar Haleh Esfandiari said Wednesday that national security charges are still pending against Esfandiari and that a trial is expected. Esfandiari was released from Iranian custody on bail Tuesday, but human rights lawyer and 2003 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi said that although Esfandiari has a right to [...]
The Iraqi High Tribunal judge presiding over the crimes against humanity trial of 15 former Iraqi officials ejected two defendants from the courtroom Wednesday for failing to follow the rules of court. During the first day of witness testimony, chief judge Mohammed Oreibi al-Khalifa threw out Iyad Fathi al-Rawi and Sultan Hashim Ahmad al-Tai and [...]
Sudan has issued a decree abolishing legal immunities that protect police from criminal prosecution, the Sudanese government said Tuesday. The decree, issued by the police director general, allows police officers to be tried for crimes but also guarantees quick legal proceedings. UN rights experts have long criticized Sudan for giving blanket immunity to police and [...]
Declaration by the Presidency on behalf of the European Union on the 400th execution in Texas, August 21, 2007 . Read the full text of the statement. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.
The Venezuelan National Assembly gave preliminary approval Tuesday to comprehensive constitutional reforms introduced by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez last week. No word was available on how many legislators voted for the reforms, but National Assembly president Cilia Flores said they received "majority approval." The proposed reforms extend the presidential term from six to seven years, [...]
The European Union (EU) on Tuesday urged Texas Gov. Rick Perry to halt all executions in the state , and to consider introducing a moratorium on death sentences in Texas. According to the statement from Portugal, acting as current Presidency of the EU: The European Union is unreservedly opposed to the use of capital punishment [...]
The US Defense Department's controversial Threat and Local Observation Notice system, or TALON database , will be discontinued on September 17 but the data it has collected will be retained in accordance with intelligence oversight requirements, Pentagon spokesman Army Col. Gary Keck said Tuesday. Keck said that TALON is being suspended because it no longer [...]
Lawyers in Kenya are now ranked as the ninth most corrupt group in the country, according to the Kenya Bribery Index 2007, a report released Tuesday by Transparency International (TI) . The annual Kenya Bribery Index has never in its previous five years of publication listed lawyers as top solicitors of bribes in Kenya. For [...]
An Indonesian court Tuesday dismissed a class action lawsuit that sought to dismantle the Indonesian police's anti-terror unit, ruling that the allegations that the department violated human rights by targeting Muslims and torturing suspects were too vague to proceed. The lawsuit was brought by Abu Bakar Bashir , a militant cleric who has been accused [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit on Tuesday upheld the conviction of former Illinois Gov. George Ryan on fraud and corruption charges, ruling that the district court judge acted properly when she replaced two jurors after it was discovered they had concealed their criminal backgrounds. Ryan may now begin his 6 1/2 [...]
