The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) warned that ongoing sectarian violence is significantly hindering human rights progress in the country in a bi-monthly report released Tuesday. Execution style killings reached 70 a day in Baghdad in the wake of the February Shiite shrine bombing in Samarra . Iraqi officials and international rights workers [...]
The Iraqi government announced Wednesday that it had apprehended Saddam Hussein nephew Bashar Sabawi Ibrahim Hassan al-Tikriti with the assistance of Lebanese police. The statement was ambiguous as to whether al-Tikriti was extradited from Lebanon, and did not specify what Hussein's nephew will be charged with, though it generally referred to crimes against the people [...]
The US Senate on Wednesday voted 73-25 in favor of invoking cloture on the Immigration Reform Bill and limiting debate on the bill. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) has indicated that he would like to hold final vote on the immigration bill by the end of the week. The vote to limit debate on [...]
Government officials in the Congo said Wednesday that 32 American, South African, and Nigerian nationals have been arrested in connection with an alleged coup attempt aimed at destabilizing the country before the July 30 national elections, though critics allege the arrests were politically motivated. Those arrested were employed in Congo by the US firm Omega [...]
Saddam Hussein Accusation Document, Republic of Iraq, Iraqi High Tribunal, Office of the Head of the First Criminal Court, May 15, 2006 . Read the full text of the charging instrument via Grotian Moment (CWRU Law School). Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.
US Secretary of State spokesperson Sean McCormack on Tuesday blasted Syria for arresting human rights leaders and called for Syria to release all political prisoners . Syrian security police last week arrested human rights lawyer Anwar al-Bunni , prominent writer Michel Kilo and Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt in what McCormack characterized as a crackdown [...]
Government officials have asked the Supreme Court of Chile to place a gag order on former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori to prevent him from discussing the upcoming presidential election in Peru. Fujimori was released on bail last week while Chile courts decide whether he should be extradited to Peru, where he faces corruption and human [...]
The Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct , an independent state agency charged with investigating judicial improprieties, has admonished Texas Supreme Court Justice Nathan L. Hecht for using the prestige of his office to promote the nomination of Harriet Miers to the US Supreme Court. An admonition is the least severe punishment the Commission may deliver. [...]
A court in Croatia on Wednesday indicted former Yugoslav Defense Minister Veljko Kadijevic and former airforce commander Zvonimir Jurjevic on charges of indiscriminate shelling of civilians during Croatia's 1991-95 war of independence from the former Yugoslavia. At least 30 people died in eastern Croatia as a result of the shellings. The indictment comes at the [...]
A US military spokesperson said Tuesday that the condition of two of the Guantanamo Bay detainees who attempted suicide last week is improving and both are expected to make full recoveries. The two men, neither of whom were prescribed antidepressants, overdosed on anti-anxiety medication they had stockpiled in an attempted suicide. On the same day, [...]
