Iceland has offered a residency permit to Bobby Fisher, the US chess champion now detained in Japan and wanted for extradition to the US who beat Russian Boris Spassky in a famous international chess match in Reykyavik in 1972. Fischer accepted the offer Friday, although it's still unclear whether he'll be allowed to take it [...]
Michael Froomkin, University of Miami School of Law: "At Guantanamo, a Prison Within a Prison: Within the heavily guarded perimeters of the Defense Department's much-discussed Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, the CIA has maintained a detention facility for valuable al Qaeda captives that has never been mentioned in public, according to military officials and several [...]
In re: Yukos Oil Company, United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas, Judge Letitia Clark, December 16, 2004. Read the full text of the memorandum opinion and an associated temporary restraining order . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.
DC District Judge John Bates Thursday ruled that a US citizen detained in Saudi Arabia at the apparent request of the US government may have the right to challenge his detention in American courts, rejecting the government's argument that the challenge should be dismissed for lack of jurisdiction. Lawyers for Virginia native Ahmed Abu Ali, [...]
California Superior Court Judge Harry Papadakis ruled Wednesday that the Transportation Security Administration did not violate the Fourth Amendment when it searched the checked luggage of John Perry Barlow, onetime Grateful Dead lyricist and current cyber-rights activist, and had him arrested for drug possession. Barlow's attorney had argued that while TSA searches may look for [...]
Florida Chief District Judge Robert Hinkle ruled Wednesday that a policy subjecting all Florida Department of Juvenile Justice employees to random drug testing was unconstitutionally applied to an office worker, accepting the plaintiff's argument that testing should be reserved for employees who either create a suspicion that they are drug users or work in positions [...]
In a rare political move, 84-year old Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi has refused to sign a justice bill sponsored by the government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, sending it back to Italy's parliament for revision. The President's office issued a brief news release on the refusal Thursday (in Italian). Italian judges and prosecutors had [...]
A and others v. Secretary of State for the Home Department, United Kingdom House of Lords, December 16, 2004 . Excerpt (from the judgement by Lord Nichols): Indefinite imprisonment without charge or trial is anathema in any country which observes the rule of law. It deprives the detained person of the protection a criminal trial [...]
In the wake of the debacle over last month's presidential run-off in Ukraine, the Ukrainian Prosecutor-General's office has begun a criminal investigation into the activity of several members of the country's Central Election Commission, accused of deliberately miscalculating the ballots and deliberately announcing incorrect results. The Ukrainian parliament formally called for the probe Wednesday. MosNews [...]
Michael Froomkin, University of Miami School of Law: "You know you are in trouble when the House of Lords is more protective of civil rights than the US court system: Law lords back terror detainees: Detaining foreigners without trial under emergency anti-terror legislation breaks European human rights powers, law lords ruled today. The decision from [...]
