The UN Security Council Friday abandoned a resolution on a UN-supervised independence plan for Kosovo out of concern that Russia would veto the proposal. Previous proposals have been rejected by Russia and Serbia, which oppose independence. Further negotiations will instead be held by the Contact Group on Kosovo. Kosovar Prime Minister Agim Ceku has urged [...]
A military jury sitting at Camp Pendleton, California, sentenced US Marine Cpl. Trent Thomas Friday to a bad-conduct discharge and reduced his rank to private for his role in the 2006 kidnapping and murder of an Iraqi civilian in Hamdania . On Wednesday, the jury found Thomas guilty of kidnapping and conspiracy , but acquitted [...]
Former Serbian state prosecutor Rade Terzic was arrested Friday for allegedly assisting members of a criminal gang connected with the murders of various Serbian officials escape prosecution while in Terzic was in office. Terzic is believed to have belonged to Belgrade's "Zemun clan," which acted as a hit squad for former Serbian President Slobadan Milosevic [...]
The Nigerian government Friday withdrew and then filed an updated $7 billion lawsuit against pharmaceutical giant Pfizer , adding a new charge of fraud stemming from a drug experiment conducted in the 1990s that allegedly killed or disabled children. A Nigerian government lawyer told AP that the fraud charge was added after recently uncovered evidence [...]
US President George W. Bush Friday signed an executive order prohibiting cruel and inhuman treatment during the interrogation terror suspects detained by the CIA. The White House did not reveal what specific interrogation techniques were now disallowed, but the order prohibits "acts intended to denigrate the religion, religious practices, or religious objects of the individual", [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit unanimously ruled Friday that federal appeals courts reviewing "enemy combatant" designations of Guantanamo Bay detainees must review all evidence regarding that detainee . The Bush administration argued that the Pentagon should be able to select which evidence is presented to the court and may [...]
Haji Bismullah and Haji Mohammad Wali v. Robert M. Gates, Secretary of Defense, US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, July 20, 2007 . Read the full text of the decision . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.
The UK's Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said Friday that no charges would be filed against associates of former Prime Minister Tony Blair , some of whom had been arrested during an investigation into whether political honors were exchanged for monetary contributions to Blair's Labour Party . CPS Special Crime Division chief Carmen Dowd said that [...]
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) said Friday that it will conduct a joint trial of Bosnian Serb cousins Milan Lukic and Sredoje Lukic . This revokes the planned referral of Sredoje's case to the War Crimes Chamber of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina . The court justified the decision on [...]
Lawyers representing Canadian Guantanamo detainee Omar Ahmed Khadr filed a motion Thursday to suspend the proceedings of the Court of Military Commission Review , arguing that the appellate court's three military judges were illegally appointed. The motion alleges that Defense Secretary Robert Gates did not personally appoint the judges as required under the Military Commissions [...]
