Former Australian High Court chief justice Sir Gerard Brennan Wednesday denounced anti-terrorism laws being used to detain an Indian doctor believed to be connected to last week's attempted terror attacks in London and Glasgow. Dr. Mohammed Haneef has been held in Australian police custody since Sunday, when he was stopped as he was about to [...]
Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra told Japan's Kyodo News Thursday that he will not return to Thailand to face charges of corruption unless he can be sure that his trial would be fair. Thai officials have ordered Thaksin and his wife to return to the country by July 23, and have said if they [...]
The government of Turkmenistan published a law defining the president's powers and duties for the first time in Turkmenistani history Wednesday. The law, printed in the official state newspaper, gives the president the power to appoint the Cabinet and leaders of the armed forces. With the approval of the legislative Halk Maslahaty , the president [...]
The trial of former police chaplain Christian Von Wernich began Thursday in Argentina , where the Roman Catholic priest is alleged to have been involved in human rights abuses including torture and murder during Argentina's "dirty war" from the late 1970's to early 1980s. Von Wernich has been accused of visiting detention centers and pressuring [...]
The Turkish criminal justice system continues to tolerate and condone the use of torture and ill-treatment by police and investigators despite the government's official "zero tolerance for torture" policy, according to a report released Thursday by Amnesty International . The report found that the an institutionalized culture that violates human rights with impunity is a [...]
Prosecutors at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) Thursday filed an urgent motion seeking to move the trial of former Bosnian army commander Rasim Delic out of the international court at The Hague. The move comes in response to an order limiting the number of witnesses allowed to be called. Prosecutors wish [...]
Malaysian former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim Thursday appealed a lower court judge's decision dismissing his defamation suit against former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad in connection with renewed allegations that Anwar is homosexual. The appeal challenges Judge Tengku Maimon's order awarding Mahathir legal costs, and also seeks to reverse Tengku's ruling so that Anwar may [...]
The Chinese Supreme Court will standardize guidelines for when provincial level courts should impose the death penalty, court vice-president Zhang Jun said Wednesday. Zhang also outlined the top court's intention to strengthen its precedential value and increase oversight over intermediate and lower courts. Ni Shou-ming, spokesperson for the high court, told China Daily that sentencing [...]
US Navy Rear Adm. Mark H. Buzby , commander of Joint Task Force – Guantanamo Bay, has said that the US military plans to improve conditions by providing low-risk detainees at Guantanamo Bay more educational and recreational opportunities, according to an AP interview published Thursday. Buzby acknowledged that there are benefits to giving detainees external [...]
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has warned that women's rights activists should not attempt to reconcile or replace the Sharia with international conventions or western ideals of women's rights, saying Wednesday that the current Islamic jurisprudence may only be altered if new insight is supported by the Qur'an and Sunnah . Khamenei's comments, made [...]
