European officials have said they are satisfied with assurances by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that US policies on the treatment of terror detainees fall within the bounds of international law. Rice is currently in Europe and on Wednesday met with foreign ministers from NATO and European Union countries. Officials emerged from the meeting [...]
Saddam Hussein's chief lawyer said Thursday that he was threatened by three men when boarding a flight from Baghdad to Jordan, and that the three individuals were escorted from the plane by security personnel. Khalil Dulaimi said he knows the men but will not reveal their names and did not indicate exactly how he was [...]
The Chinese government said Thursday that it will make court proceedings on death penalty appeals open to the public to "improve human rights protection" following a notice from the Supreme Court of China . On January 1, the public will have access to death sentence cases involving "major controversy," and on July 1, the public [...]
House and Senate negotiators are continuing talks to reconcile versions of a defense appropriation bill, with both sides largely agreeing to a torture ban proposed by Sen. John McCain , but with other provisions remaining in dispute. Negotiators hoped to reach a final bill by the end of this week, but additional provisions dealing with [...]
The Congressional Black Caucus is expected to announce Thursday its opposition to the confirmation of US Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr. . The Caucus is made of 42 Democratic House members and Sen. Barack Obama , who said he has not yet decided on whether he will vote for Alito. Caucus Chairman Rep. [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Donna Arzt, Director of the Center for Global Law and Practice at Syracuse University College of Law, says that when the incoming president of Liberia takes office in January she should ask Nigeria to extradite former Liberian president Charles Taylor – indicted for war crimes by the Special Court for Sierra Leone [...]
A former Rwandan mayor on Wednesday pleaded guilty to aiding the 1994 genocide as part of a plea deal with prosecutors for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) . Under the plea deal, Paul Bisengimana, former mayor of Gikoro, pleaded guilty to murder and extermination as crimes against humanity, but three other charges of [...]
US House Rep. Tom DeLay has asked the judge in his case to split the remaining two charges against him and move forward with a trial on one of them. After the judge in the case, Pat Priest , threw out one conspiracy charge against DeLay on Monday, only charges of money laundering and conspiracy [...]
The US House has voted to renew the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002 , under which the federal government guarantees insurance coverage for catastrophic losses caused by terror attacks. The House approved H.R. 4314 on Wednesday by a 371-49 vote, moving the legislation to a conference with the Senate, which earlier approved S. 467 [...]
The UK House of Lords , the country's highest judicial body, ruled against the government Thursday in a case involving the use of evidence that may have been obtained through torture. The ruling prohibits the UK courts, and especially the Special Immigration Appeals Commission, from using evidence that may have been obtained through torture; it [...]
