US forces in Iraq have detained an additional 5,000 people in the four months since the "troop surge" instituted by the Multi-National Force – Iraq (MNF-I) , increasing the number of detainees in American custody from approximately 18,000 to 23,000, the Washington Post reported Wednesday. Detainees held in Iraqi-operated detention facilities have also risen to [...]
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and ranking Republican Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) have asked the Department of Justice (DOJ) to postpone its implementation of proposed guidelines intended to limit how federal courts can review state-issued death sentences. In a letter sent to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales obtained by AP Tuesday, the senators [...]
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) should deploy observers to monitor the status of human rights in Zimbabwe, Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged in a briefing paper released Tuesday. HRW Africa director Peter Takirambudde called on SADC members to "take strong and effective action" in order "to deal with one of the region's most grave [...]
Defense lawyers for Jose Padilla said in closing arguments Tuesday that the government had failed to prove its case against their client, saying that Padilla had traveled overseas to study Arabic and not to engage in terrorism as argued by prosecutors. Closing arguments began Monday, with federal prosecutors urging jurors to convict Padilla and co-defendants [...]
Steven J. Hatfill, M.D., v. Alberto Gonzales, et al, US District Court for the District of Columbia, August 13, 2007 . Read the full text of the decision . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.
A German state administrative court affirmed a ban on religious headscarves in the federal district of North Rhine-Westphalia Tuesday, rejecting a teacher's argument that her headscarf was merely a "fashion accessory" and ruling that it was a symbol of her religious belief. In June, the same court upheld the ban , saying that the public [...]
A Bangladeshi court on Tuesday sentenced 15 members of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) to seven years for extortion and three years for manipulating elections. The defendants, twelve of whom were convicted in absentia, include BNP party workers, leaders, and a former lawmaker; they will each serve seven years as the sentences will run concurrently. [...]
Disagreements and rivalries between the US Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have hampered terror investigations, according to a report released Monday by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) . The report, compiled by the Office of Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security , found that the agencies have not [...]
Former Taiwanese opposition party leader Ma Ying-jeou was acquitted of corruption and accounting fraud charges by the Taipei District Court Tuesday. The court ruled that there was no evidence that Ma had misappropriated a special discretionary expense fund for his personal use during his term as the mayor of Taipei . Prosecutors alleged that Ma [...]
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) is working to complete new guidelines limiting how federal courts can review state-issued death sentences, the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday. The guidelines will implement a provision included in the 2006 renewal of the USA PATRIOT Act , which gives the US attorney general the authority to review whether [...]
