Military police arrested at least 37 human rights defenders and activists since January 31 and held them from periods ranging from 12 to 48 hours. On the afternoon of February 3, military police, accompanied by a uniformed policeman and plainclothes security officers, raided the Hisham Mubarak Law Center (HMLC), a human rights organization, and arrested 28 Egyptian and international human rights researchers, lawyers, and journalists. The HMLC also houses the FDP, which provides legal support to arrested protesters and documents the violations against them.

Egyptian Vice President Omar Suleiman [Al Jazeera profile] stated Tuesday that President Mubarak approved the formation of a committee to oversee changes [JURIST report] to Egypt's constitution [text]. Egypt's government has reached out to various opposition leaders [JURIST report] since demonstrations erupted in the country, including the Muslim Brotherhood, the oldest and largest Islamic political group in the world and currently banned from Egypt. Cooperation in the constitutional review, the Brotherhood said, will only continue if the current regime continues to meet other demands. These demands include the removal of President Mubarak and the repeal of emergency laws that have been in place for more than thirty years.

[JURIST] The Pentagon announced Wednesday that a senior Department of Defense (DOD) [official website] official has reduced the sentence of Ibrahim al Qosi [DOD materials; JURIST news archive], the former al Qaeda cook and accountant who pleaded guilty [JURIST report] before a military tribunal last July to crimes of conspiracy and supporting terrorism. His sentence reduced to just two years, al Qosi could return to his native Sudan as soon as summer of 2012, and he will serve the balance of his sentence in a minimum-security Guantanamo Bay facility until then. Unbeknownst to the 10-officer jury that sentenced him to 14 years last August, al Qosi had struck a secret plea deal [JURIST reports] with Pentagon officials that will remain sealed until his eventual release. Under the terms of the deal, the Convening Authority for Military Commissions (CAMC), which has final review authority over military tribunal sentences, agreed to cut al Qosi's jury sentence to the extent that it exceeded the bargained-for term. Senior CAMC overseer Bruce MacDonald [official profile] had the authority to reduce al Qosi's sentence further, but adhered to the two-year maximum term in the plea agreement.

Al Qosi, one of the first to be detained at Guantanamo Bay in the war on terror [JURIST news archive], has been in US custody for nine years. His July sentencing marked the fourth time a Guantanamo detainee had been convicted by a military tribunal since the detention center opened in 2002 and the first time a captive had been convicted since the Obama administration ordered the facility shut down [JURIST report] in 2009. In December 2009, a military judge ruled that the US government could partially amend the charges [JURIST report] against al Qosi by changing his jurisdictional basis but could not include four additional years of alleged activities under the charges. In October 2009, military judges granted continuances [JURIST report] for prosecutors in the case against al Qosi. At the time, it was expected that the continuances would make way for a decision on whether to hold the remaining Guantanamo detainee proceedings in civilian or military court.

Last month, Iranian chief prosecutor Abbas Jafari-Dolatabadi delivered a speech at Tehran University indicating that he would prosecute opposition leaders for political unrest that took place after the country's 2009 presidential election [JURIST news archive]. Dolatabadi threatened to prosecute [NYT report] Mousavi and Karroubi and former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami [BBC profile]. Mousavi and the other leaders called for continuing protests [JURIST report] to oppose the results of the 2009 presidential election, arguing that it was fraudulent. The three leaders would join a long line of individuals detained or already prosecuted for their roles during the election protests. In September, Shiva Nazar Ahari, a journalist arrested after the 2009 elections, was sentenced to six years in prison [JURIST report] for charges including "warring against God" and distributing anti-government propaganda. Also in September, Nasrin Sotoudeh, a prominent Iranian human rights lawyer known for representing political activists following the 2009 election, was detained for allegedly spreading propaganda and colluding against national security [JURIST report]. In August, an Iranian court sentenced Qorban Behzadianejad, Mousavi's campaign manager, to five years in prison [JURIST report]. The Iranian government detained hundreds of protesters and sentenced several to death [JURIST report]. Khamenei pardoned or commuted the sentences of 81 protesters [JURIST report] in June.

Serbia has undertaken an ongoing effort to apprehend those responsible for the atrocities that occurred in the region during the 1992-95 Bosnian civil war [JURIST news archive]. Suspected Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) war criminal Dragan Crnogorac was arrested [JURIST report] in November in connection with the Srebrenica massacre. In August, the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina [official website] issued genocide charges [JURIST report] against four former Bosnian Serb soldiers, accusing them of participating in the murder of more than 800 Bosnian Muslims during the massacre. In April, the court convicted [JURIST report] two men of genocide, Radomir Vukovic and Zoran Tomic, for their roles in the massacre and sentenced each to 31 years imprisonment. The BiH war crimes court was set up in 2005 to relieve the caseload of the ICTY and is authorized to try lower-level war crime suspects.