Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Tuesday called Tunisia’s military justice law repressive after blogger Yassine Ayari was sentenced to three years for “defaming the army” and “insulting military high command” for posting criticisms of government officials on Facebook. HRW criticized the Tunisian government for trying and convicting Ayari a month before his arrest on December [...]
Judge David Campbell for the US District Court for the District of Arizona on Monday ruled Maricopa County officials may not enforce two Arizona identity-theft laws used to convict hundreds of undocumented immigrant workers. The court ordered an immediate halt to the state’s enforcement of identity theft laws that penalize undocumented immigrants for seeking employment, [...]
Environmental conservation group, Haw River Assembly , filed a lawsuit in the Wake County Clerk of Superior Court in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Monday, seeking to vacate new rules adopted to regulate hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in North Carolina, claiming that the lawmaking panel that developed the rules was formed in violation of the state [...]
Indiana state senator Lonnie Randolph introduced Senate Bill 136 to end the death penalty in the state. The proposed legislation would repeal the state’s death penalty statute and reduce the punishments of those awaiting execution to life imprisonment without parole. The bill provides that, “when a defendant is charged with a murder for which the [...]
The Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation (CCHRN) reported on Monday that the Cuban government detained 8,899 dissidents and activists in 2014. These detentions mark a significant increase from previous years—2,000 more than in 2013 and four times the number in 2010. Detentions vary in length from a few hours to a few [...]
Pennsylvania prison officials announced a settlement Tuesday promising specialized treatment for mentally ill inmates. The lawsuit was filed by the Disability Rights Network in March 2013. In an effort to deliver safe and appropriate mental health services, the state has agreed, “to divert inmates with serious mental illness who have demonstrated problematic behavior to specialized [...]
The retrial of former Guatemalan dictator Efrain Rios Montt on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity was delayed on Monday. Two of the three judges on the panel accepted the defense’s motion that the third judge, Judge Jeannette Valdez, should recuse herself from the trial on the grounds that she is biased because she [...]
Pakistan’s parliament passed legislation on Tuesday that will enable military courts to prosecute terrorism-related cases, the latest in a series of anti-terrorism government efforts in the wake of the school massacre by the Pakistani Taliban (TTP) last month in Peshawar. The Pakistan National Assembly passed the 21st Constitutional Amendment Bill and the Pakistan Army (Amendment) [...]
Israel-based rights organization Shurat HaDin Law Center announced Monday that it has filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC) accusing three Palestinian leaders of war crimes. The complaint brings accusations of terrorism, torture and civil rights violations against Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) leaders Jibril Rajoub and Majid Faraj and current Palestinian Prime Minister [...]
A Turkish parliamentary commission on Monday voted not to send four ex-ministers to trial on charges of corruption. The charges relate to a massive corruption and graft scandal which began in December 2013, accusing President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and three other ministers. The commission, consisting of 14 members, nine of whom belong to Erdogan’s ruling [...]
