The Cambodian government is interfering with the adoption of court rules to govern the upcoming Khmer Rouge genocide trials, advocacy group Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Tuesday. Tribunal judges convened last month to establish court rules for the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) , which is scheduled to begin trials for surviving [...]
Fiji military commander Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama declared a state of emergency Wednesday and appointed a new prime minister and head of police in the South Pacific island nation after overthrowing the government in a military coup Tuesday. In a statement released over the radio Tuesday evening, Bainimarama dismissed criticism of the coup and vowed that [...]
Saddam Hussein appeared in court Wednesday, despite an earlier vow not to attend future proceedings in his genocide trial, and looked on as presiding Judge Mohammed Oreibi al-Khalifa called a final witness for the prosecution. The prosecution has presented more that 70 witnesses, including several US forensic experts describing mass graves believed to be the [...]
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) said Tuesday that it will appeal a November ruling ordering the agency to reinstate certain housing payments for victims of Hurricane Katrina due to FEMA's failure to clearly explain to evacuees why they were denied housing assistance under the Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act . US District [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist George Williams of the University of New South Wales Faculty of Law in Sydney, Australia, says that although Australians have historically shied away from establishing a national Bill of Rights to protect individual liberties, the recent proliferation of tough Australian anti-terrorism laws strengthens the case for such a document… Australia is the [...]
Australia's Federal Court has agreed to hold a hearing next week to consider a petition filed Wednesday by lawyers for Australian Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks . Hicks' lawyers have asked the court to direct the federal government, including Australian Attorney-General Philip Ruddock and Foreign Minister Alexander Downer , to negotiate Hicks' release from the [...]
A US District Court judge has refused to entertain a motion to stay the execution of Saddam Hussein that was filed by Italian advocate Giovanni di Stefano , an advisor to Hussein's defense team. US District Judge Emmet Sullivan rejected the motion because di Stefano is not admitted to practice before the US District Court [...]
Lawyers for several Chinese detainees still held at Guantanamo Bay have filed a lawsuit in US federal court seeking their release due to the flawed process by which they were determined to be enemy combatants. The group of seven ethnic Uighurs were deemed enemy combatants by Guantanamo's Combatant Status Review Tribunals , while five other [...]
The US military is close to charging at least five US Marines in connection with the deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha last November, a military spokesperson said late Tuesday. Though specific details have not yet been disclosed, some Marines may be charged with murder and others with the lesser charge of negligent homicide. [...]
Doe v. Rabago, US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, December 5, 2006 . Read the full text of the ruling . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.
