A British judge announced Wednesday that he has dropped charges against five British soldiers accused of abusing Iraqi detainees in Basra, while continuing charges against two British co-defendants in their ongoing court-martial. The ruling was issued Tuesday, but was kept secret until Justice Stuart McKinnon read it to the jury of military officers on Wednesday [...]
The European Parliament voted 382-256 Wednesday to approve a report condemning member states for cooperating with the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in operating illegal secret prisons and extraordinary rendition flights in Europe. Seventy-four MEPs abstained from the vote. The report condemns the European countries who allowed the CIA to forcibly remove terror suspects from [...]
Neely Burks : "On Monday, Feb. 12, Nashville Mayor Bill Purcell vetoed the "English first" bill, saying "this is not who we are." The Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce applauds Mayor Purcell's decision to reaffirm Nashville as a welcoming and inclusive city that celebrates diversity. The Nashville Chamber, which remains for legal immigration and comprehensive [...]
US Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-CT) on Tuesday introduced in the Senate the Restoring the Constitution Act of 2007 , legislation that would restore habeas corpus rights to all US-held detainees, ban the use of evidence gained by torture or coercion, and redefine "enemy combatant" in a more narrow light. If the bill is passed, it [...]
US military branches continue to accept a greater number of recruits with criminal records, granting recruiting waivers , according to data compiled by the US Defense Department. The Army accepted over twice as many recruits with criminal records in 2006 than it did in 2003, granting 901 felony waivers in 2006 as compared to the [...]
Argentina has made a formal request that Spain extradite former Argentine President Isabel Peron , officials from the Argentinean Foreign Ministry said Tuesday. The request was made in connection to Federal Judge Raul Acosta's investigation into Peron's alleged involvement in the disappearance of political opponent Hector Aldo Fagetti Gallego in 1976. Peron was arrested last [...]
Bec Hamilton : "In April 2006, the UN General Assembly established the Human Rights Council to replace the much beleaguered Commission on Human Rights. In December 2006, the 47-member Council held a special session to discuss the situation in Darfur. Its decision to send an independent mission of experts to assess the situation in Darfur [...]
Islamic American Relief Agency v. Gonzalez, US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, February 13, 2006 . Read the full text of the ruling . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.
Aziz Huq : "When does the Bush Administration love international law? For those who have followed the Administration's seemingly implacable hostility to the International Criminal Court and the Kyoto Protocol, the answer has seemed to be "never." But when it comes to its quest for unchecked powers in the name of national security, international law [...]
Freed Egyptian cleric Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr , the victim of an alleged 2003 CIA kidnapping and extraordinary rendition from Milan, is planning a lawsuit against the United States and Italy, according to his lawyer Montasser al-Zayat . Zayat told the Washington Post Monday after Nasr's release that he would be seeking damages for kidnapping, [...]
