JURIST Guest Columnist Austin Sarat, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science at Amherst College, says that California Arnold Schwarzenegger's ruling denying clemency in ths case of Crips gang co-founder Stanley "Tookie" Williams disregarded the constitutional foundations of clemency practice… By denying clemency to Stanley "Tookie" Williams Arnold Schwarzenegger did more than allow [...]
Russian prosecutors leading the probe into the September 2004 Beslan school siege issued a report Monday concluding that Chechen terrorists, not Russian authorities, were to blame for the deaths of 330 people, mostly children. Another 783 were wounded. Relatives of the victims have blamed the tragedy on officials who they claim failed to stop the [...]
Khalil Dulaimi, chief Iraqi defense counsel for Saddam Hussein, told the Jordanian newspaper Al Arab Al Yawm in a report published Monday that Saddam Hussein's half brother, Barzan Ibrahim had been offered a high Iraqi government position by the US in exchange for testimony against the former dictactor. The claim was later corroborated by another [...]
In a move to bolster its democratic credentials, the Council of the European Union , the EU's senior decision-making body, will begin to debate and vote more often in public in the new year. Television cameras will be allowed to capture a broad range of council activities beginning in January with test transmissions; internet webcasting [...]
The Supreme Court of Chile on Monday denied the appeal of former dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet on human rights charges, ruling 3-2 in support of a lower appeals court decision that his mild dementia, diabetes, and arthritis do not render him too ill to stand trial. The appeals process having been exhausted, Pinochet must now [...]
Former Bosnian Serb general and indicted war criminal Ratko Mladic is reported to be discussing his surrender with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) , according to an article Monday in the UK Independent, citing a former Belgrade police chief. In exchange for his surrender Mladic is requesting financial protection for his [...]
Cambodian opposition leader Sam Rainsy said Monday he will seek a royal pardon from King Norodom Sihanouk rather than appeal the 18-month sentence he was given last Thursday following an in absentia conviction for two counts of defaming political leaders. Rainsy was found guilty of accusing National Assembly President Prince Norodom Ranariddh of taking millions [...]
The first war crimes trial in the history of Afghanistan began Monday in Kabul as a former Afghan intelligence chief faced charges of authorizing the arrest, torture, and mass killings of hundreds of opponents of the country's Communist government in the 1980s. Assadullah Sarwari has been imprisoned since 1992, when the Soviet-supported communist regime was [...]
State media in China said Monday that a revised Chinese law submitted to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) calls for prison sentences of up to three years and heavy fines for doctors and other health workers who aid in telling the gender of unborn babies, leading to abortions. The new law [...]
Russian military prosecutors said Monday that they had dropped charges against former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko , accused of offering bribes to Russian Defense Department officials while managing Ukraine's state-run gas company. The warrant for Tymoshenko was suspended while she served as prime minister, reinstated after a falling out with President Viktor Yushchenko in [...]
