US Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) Stuart Bowen told the US Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday that investigators will be employing stricter standards when dealing with companies performing contract work in Iraq that engage in war profiteering. During the committee hearing , Bowen testified that the "SIGIR will do everything in its power [...]
J. Wells Dixon : "In the last week, the government has released unclassified excerpts of Combatant Status Review Tribunal proceedings for four men who were transferred from secret CIA prisons to Guantanamo Bay in September 2006. These documents are remarkable not only because they reveal confessions to horrible acts of violence — in the cases [...]
British magistrate Timothy Workman ruled Tuesday that Balkan war criminal Milan Spanovic need not return to Croatia to face an international arrest warrant. Workman refused to extradite Spanovic, who was convicted of war crimes in absentia and sentenced to 20 years in prison in 1993 stemming from his conduct during Croatia's 1991-1995 independence war . [...]
Letter from Counsel to the President Fred F. Fielding, March 20, 2007 . Read the full text of the letter . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.
The UK Ministry of Defence announced Tuesday that British armed forces will no longer use certain types of cluster bombs . UK Secretary of State for Defence Des Browne said the military will still use "smart" cluster bombs with self-destruct mechanisms in an attempt to strike a balance between providing troops with adequate weapons and [...]
US President George W. Bush warned Congressional Democrats Tuesday to accept his compromise to allow top White House aides to testify about the firings of US Attorneys before the Senate Judiciary Committee . The Senate Judiciary Committee had called for Bush's close ad visors, including former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and Deputy Chief of [...]
The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday in the case of Fry v. Pliler , 06-5247, a case in which the defendant was convicted on two counts of murder following two mistrials. Fry subsequently filed several habeas appeals, arguing the trial court improperly precluded a key defense witness from testifying. The Supreme Court will [...]
Reporter Rafig Tagi and editor Samir Huseinov, both of the newspaper Senet, went on trial Tuesday in the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan for allegedly insulting Islam. Both claim the prosecution is politically motivated as authoritarian Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev has a reputation for heavy-handed repression of the media. Violent protests broke out last year [...]
France signed an extradition treaty with China Tuesday in Paris over the objections of human rights groups that oppose China's use of the death penalty. After signing the treaty, Justice Minister Pascal Clement explained that France may refuse extradition of suspects to China for political or military offenses. If a crime is punishable by death [...]
The editor of a website in China that called for political reform has been sentenced to six years in prison by the Ningbo Intermediate People's Court in Zhejiang province for defaming the government. Zhang Jianhong wrote some 60 critical articles on Aiqinghai.net and other websites before the government shut down the site in March 2006. [...]
