The new UK Ministry of Justice began operations Wednesday, as a controversial split of the traditional Home Office that is setting the British government against the judiciary went into effect. Lord Falconer of Thoroton , serving as the first Secretary of State for Justice, said that the new focus of the Justice Ministry "provides the [...]
The appeals chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) reduced the sentence of former Bratunac brigade commander Vidoje Blagojevic from 18 to 15 years for his role in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre . The court reversed Blagojevic's conviction on charges of complicity in genocide, holding that Blagojevic should have been acquitted [...]
Three US lawmakers introduced legislation Tuesday to close the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay , calling the prison a symbol of US failure and hypocrisy. Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA) announced the legislation with a statement Tuesday, asserting: Guantanamo has become a liability. The real and perceived injustices occurring there have given our enemies an [...]
A federal judge dismissed the indictment against anti-Castro militant Luis Posada Carriles on Tuesday, holding that the government purposefully manipulated Carriles' statement in order to charge him with lying to immigration authorities. The government alleged that Carriles confessed to illegally crossing the Mexican border, but US District Judge Kathleen Cardone held that the interpretation of [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit Tuesday denied a request by the city government of Washington, DC for an en banc rehearing of the court's March decision invalidating the city's handgun ban . DC Mayor Adrian Fenty expressed disappointment with the decision, saying that "The District's gun control laws have been a [...]
With Serbia poised to assume the rotating presidency of the Council of Europe this week, several human rights groups have spoken out against the country's new role, asserting that a country in violation of the 1948 Genocide Convention should not be allowed to lead the European human rights watchdog. In February, the International Court of [...]
The Administrative Court in Egypt ruled Tuesday that a presidential order that forty top members of the Muslim Brotherhood be tried before a military court was invalid, holding that the members must be tried instead in civilian court. According to a statement from the Muslim Brotherhood, the decision was a "historic ruling" as it was [...]
Jury selection concluded Tuesday in the terrorism trial of Jose Padilla and two co-defendants. Prosecutors have accused the defense of trying to exclude all white and Hispanic men from the jury, while the defense accused prosecutors of excluding any person with ties to Islam. US District Judge Marcia Cooke , however, determined that neither side [...]
Tennessee executed its first death row inmate Wednesday after a moratorium on executions imposed by the governor in February expired earlier this month. Philip Workman's execution had been postponed five times, and last minute appeals by his lawyers arguing that lethal injection constitutes cruel and unusual punishment and that the state's new lethal injection protocols [...]
Scotland Yard arrested four suspects in London on Wednesday in connection with the London transit bombings on July 7, 2005 that left 52 people dead. Police arrested Mohammed Sidique Khan, Mohammed Shakil, Sadeer Saleem, and Waheed Ali on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism under the UK Terrorism Act 2000 [...]
