The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) announced Thursday that it has referred the case of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi , the only person convicted in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am 103 over the Scottish village of Lockerbie, to Scotland's High Court of the Justiciary , after identifying six grounds for a possible [...]
Diplomats from the United States and the European Union (EU) said Wednesday they have reached a provisional agreement on the US use of financial data from the Belgian-based Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) , formulating more EU oversight of the US Terrorist Finance Tracking Program . The agreement ensures that the US adheres [...]
The US Senate voted against limiting debate on the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill for a second time Thursday, leaving doubt that the bill will be revisited in the fall or even next year. The 46-53 vote was far short of the two-thirds majority needed to clear way for the bill's passage, and came following rejections [...]
Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori told the Associated Press Wednesday that he will run for office in Japan's House of Councillors under the People's New Party (PNP) banner despite being subjected to house arrest in Chile and facing possible extradition to Peru to face corruption and human rights charges. PNP leader Shizuka Kamei says the [...]
The White House Thursday rejected congressional subpoenas for the testimony of former White House counsel Harriet Miers and former White House Political Director Sara Taylor and their documents relevant to the ongoing probe of the US Attorney firings controversy . In a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and House Judiciary Committee [...]
Eric Linge, Pitt Law '09, files from Mumbai: While Pakistani Prime Minister Musharraf sacks Chief Justices who disagree with him, and while Bangladesh continues under emergency military rule, India's judiciary remains steadfastly independent. So steadfastly, in fact, the Indian Supreme Court has a history of making the Indian government very mad. Through India's 60 year [...]
The US Supreme Court handed down decisions in the last three cases of its 2006 Term Thursday, including the consolidated cases of Meredith v. Jefferson County Board of Education and Parents Involved v. Seattle School District , where the Court struck down public school consideration of race when assigning students to public schools. In the [...]
Serge Brammertz , the former Belgian federal prosecutor who currently heads the UN investigation into the February 2005 assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, is expected to replace Carla Del Ponte as the next chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) , UN officials said Wednesday. The officials [...]
The Supreme Court in the Russian federal republic of Kabardino-Balkaria filed criminal negligence charges Wednesday against two police officers who headed a police department in the neighboring federal republic of Ingushetia for allegedly failing to prevent the terrorists responsible for the 2004 Beslan hostage seizure from setting camps in their jurisdiction. The court said that [...]
Former US Attorney Paul K. Charlton testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on the Constitution Wednesday that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales did not give enough consideration to the quality of evidence or the recommendations of the US Attorney and prosecutors involved in a case when pushing for the use of the death penalty in [...]
