British Prime Minister Tony Blair intervened Friday in a renewed furor over criminal sentencing that broke out after a judge cited the Home Secretary's recent urgings to keep non-dangerous offenders out of overcrowded prisons in suspending the sentence of a man who pleaded guilty to downloading child pornography. The suspended sentence issued Thursday prompted an [...]
Rwanda plans to release 8,000 prisoners implicated in the country's 1994 genocide , despite warnings from human rights groups that their liberation could produce violence against genocide survivors. Chief prosecutor Martin Ngoga told Reuters that the releases will "exclude key masterminds of the genocide" and that those released will undergo a month-long program of "sensitization." [...]
The new constitution of Thailand will be finalized and ready to face a referendum by July 6, according to an announcement Friday from the Constitutional Drafting Committee. The 35-member committee began work on the document on Friday and project that a first draft will be complete by April 15. A final draft will be sent [...]
North Korea accused South Korea of Internet censorship Friday, saying that preventing the South Korean public from accessing pro-North Korea websites violates their citizens' basic human rights and freedom to access information. Since 2004, South Korea has blocked more than 30 such websites, including the website of North Korea's official news agency, KCNA . Few [...]
The UK House of Commons passed the Fraud (Trials Without a Jury) Bill 281-246 on its third reading Thursday, sending the bill to the House of Lords . The proposed bill will allow defendants in serious and complex fraud cases to be tried before a single High Court judge, subject to the approval of the [...]
Both the Maine House of Representatives and Senate approved a joint resolution Thursday refusing to implement the federal Real ID Act . The resolution had broad support across both parties, with the House of Representatives approving the resolution 137-4 and the Senate 34-0. The federal act, scheduled to take effect in 2008, mandates that state [...]
The US Department of Justice asked the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit Thursday to drop the DOJ's appeal of a lower court ruling declaring the NSA domestic surveillance program unconstitutional. The Justice Department argued that the lawsuit is moot because "electronic surveillance not subject to the FISC court" no longer exists. Ann [...]
Some non-Cambodian judges involved in the multinational Khmer Rouge genocide trials may resign because of a protracted dispute over procedural rules among the various jurists overseeing the upcoming tribunal, the International Herald Tribune reported Thursday. Tribunal judges convened in November to establish court rules for the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) scheduled [...]
Italy is set to become the latest country in Europe to criminalize Holocaust denial after the cabinet of Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi unanimously approved a draft bill Thursday. The draft, written by Justice Minister Clemente Mastella , will now be given to parliament for debate. It makes it a crime punishable by up to [...]
Bangladesh Attorney General AJ Mohammad Ali stepped down from his post Wednesday in what is believed to be a response to demands for his resignation from a left-leaning 14-party coalition led by the Awami League (AL) . The AL accuses Ali of instituting policies for a currently-suspended national election that would have favored the center-right [...]
