Radical Islamic preacher Abu Qatada was cleared Wednesday of terrorism offenses by a court in Jordan, and was released from prison. The court found insufficient evidence to convict the 53-year-old cleric of helping to plan a thwarted terrorist plot against tourists and diplomats during Jordan’s 2000 New Year celebration. Qatada was accused of writing to [...]
A federal judge on Tuesday sentenced Suleiman Abu Ghaith, son-in-law of Osama bin Laden, to life in US prison for terrorism-related charges. Ghaith, the highest ranking al Qaeda figure to face trial in a US court since the September 11 terrorist attacks, was found guilty in March of conspiring to provide and actually providing material [...]
Amnesty International (AI) said Wednesday that a draft anti-homosexuality bill in Chad will represent a major step backwards for human rights in the country if passed into law. The proposed amendment to the penal code would criminalize same-sex conduct in Chad, carrying the threat of jail sentences of 15 to 20 years and a fine [...]
The US government on Tuesday insisted in a letter to the UN that the American-led airstrikes in Syria against the Islamic State (IS) were legally justified because actions were taken in defense of Iraq. The US, with the support of Bahrain, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, led the airstrikes without first [...]
The French Court of Cassation ruled on Monday that a woman is allowed to adopt the child of her same-sex spouse conceived through in vitro fertilization (IVF). The ruling by the French high court comes following recently enacted laws regarding same-sex marriage rights. The court held each spouse should have joint parental rights to a [...]
Former US House Majority leader Eric Cantor has been subpoenaed in a terrorism financing case against Bank of China, media reported Tuesday. Cantor was subpoenaed by the Israel Law Center based on his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussing why former senior Mossad official Uzi Shaya was kept from testifying against the Bank [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Omar Subat, St. John’s University School of Law, Class of 2015, is the author of the second article in a twelve-part series from the staffers of the Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development. Subat discusses the US Supreme Court’s decision in Hollingsworth v. Perry holding that the proponents of Proposition 8 [...]
A divided New Jersey Supreme Court on Monday ruled that requiring a sex offender to wear a GPS tracking device after he has completed his sentence violates the federal and state constitutions. The 2007 Sex Offender Monitoring Act (SOMA) requires the states highest-risk sex offenders to wear GPS monitoring constantly. However, because plaintiffs offense was [...]
The US Department of State on Tuesday announced it will not use anti-personnel landmines outside of the Korean Peninsula, underscoring its commitment to the aims of the Ottawa Convention , the treaty that prohibits the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of anti-personnel landmines. The Korean Peninsula is an exception to the treaty where US actions [...]
The US District Court for the District of Colorado denied on Monday a request by Citizens United for a preliminary injunction to allow the conservative organization to air a political documentary without disclosing the film’s advertising donors as required by state law . The documentary, Rocky Mountain Heist, which the group hopes to air before [...]
