The UK Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) ruled Monday that a convicted terrorist from Jordan must return to his home country despite his arguments that he risks being tortured upon returning to Jordan. SIAC chairman Justice Ouseley said there was no real threat of persecution for Islamic cleric Abu Qatada , basing the commission's decision [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Kevin Govern, Assistant Professor of Law at the US Military Academy, West Point, NY, discusses the evolution of rule of law challenges in Iraq post-2003 and proposes new criteria for achieving and assessing Iraq's status as a "rechtsstaat", i.e. a law-based state… Since 19 March 2003, when Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) commenced, [...]
Eleven South Koreans filed a lawsuit Monday asking the Tokyo District Court to order the removal of their relatives' names from the Yasukuni Shrine , a controversial memorial which many argue is a symbol of Japan's past as a military-driven nation. The plaintiffs include a former soldier and 10 other South Koreans whose fathers were [...]
The Iraqi Oil Ministry indicated Sunday that a recently proposed law regulating oil revenues may be in jeopardy. Members of the ministry have expressed doubt that the Kurdish administration in the north of the country will approve the current draft despite making positive remarks about the law Saturday. Iraqi legislators delivered the law to Iraq's [...]
Egyptian cleric Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr said in a live television interview with Al Jazeera Sunday that he was "savagely tortured by the CIA when kidnapped" and taken from Milan to Egypt in 2003. Nasr, who has been at the heart of Italian judicial proceedings against US and Italian intelligence agents implicated in his alleged [...]
Lawyers for Australian Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks are filing a claim Monday in the Federal Court of Australia in an attempt to secure Hicks' release. Hicks' Australian defense team, headed by David McLeod, will charge the government with breaching its duty to protect Hicks, as a citizen, by failing to call for a fair [...]
The Virginia General Assembly passed an unanimous resolution Saturday apologizing for the state's involvement in slavery and the "exploitation of Native Americans". Virginia is the first state to pass such a measure but Missouri legislators are also considering a similar bill. The Virginia measure was introduced in conjunction with the 400th anniversary of Jamestown, the [...]
Seven more high-profile persons suspected of corruption were arrested in Bangladesh Sunday as government officials announced that trials will begin in March as part of the nation's move to curb the problem. Last week Bangladeshi authorities published a list of several hundred people suspected of graft; the top 50 suspects, many of whom are prominent [...]
The US military lawyer for Australian Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks said Saturday that Hicks would spend years in court and could not get a fair trial before a US military commission. In remarks at a rally in Adelaide, US Marine Corps Maj. Michael Mori noted that the revised military commissions system could not be [...]
The US government has refiled charges against US Army 1st Lt. Ehren Watada , a US Army officer who failed to deploy to Iraq in June, after the military judge overseeing his court-martial declared a mistrial two weeks ago. The judge declared a mistrial after throwing out a pretrial agreement in which Watada admitted that [...]
