In May, an Egyptian criminal court convicted [JURIST report] the country's former tourism minister, Zoheir Garranah, of corruption and sentenced him to five years in prison. In April, Egyptian prosecutors charged [JURIST report] Boutros-Ghali, former prime minister Ahmed Nazif and former interior minister Habib el Adly with corruption. In March, a commission of Arab and Egyptian human rights groups accused the former president [JURIST report] and the country's police of murdering protesters during the demonstrations. The joint commission submitted their report to Egypt's top prosecutor for further investigation. The Supreme Military Council of Egypt, which assumed power after Mubarak's resignation, instructed Egypt's top prosecutor to investigate the death of protesters [RIA Novosti report] during the three weeks of demonstrations in the country. Amnesty International has reported that at least 840 people were killed [JURIST report], and more than 6,000 were injured, during the Egyptian protests.

In February, the appeals chamber of the STL issued a unanimous ruling [summary, PDF; press release] on several procedural issues, including the definition of terrorism [JURIST report], in judicial proceedings. The STL began debate on the issue [JURIST report] to determine which laws to apply in the case against persons accused of involvement in the February 2005 truck bomb that killed Hariri and 22 other people. Using the Article 314 of the Lebanese Criminal Code [text, PDF] the court held that a conviction on the charge of terrorism requires proof of an act intended to spread terror and use of a means "liable to create a public danger," that the only requirement is that "the means used to carry out the terrorist attack be liable to create a common danger" and that the trial judges should be given latitude in determining whether the requirement was met after having considered the facts presented in the case. In August, Hezbollah submitted evidence to the STL [JURIST report] linking Israel with the bombing. The STL asked for the evidence [JURIST report] a week earlier after Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah [BBC profile] claimed to have proof that Israel was behind the bombing.

Relatives of the victims filed the complaint [JURIST report] with the Dutch prosecutor's office in July 2010 alleging that three Dutch soldiers, operating as UN peacekeepers, were complicit in the commission of war crimes and genocide during the 1995 Srebrenica massacre. The complaint argued that the soldiers knew the victims would be killed if they were handed over to Serbian troops. Relatives of the victims of the Srebrenica massacre had previously sought justice for the actions of Dutch peacekeeping forces, which they say led to the massacre. In March, The Hague Appeals Court upheld [JURIST report] the UN's immunity from prosecution by rejecting claims [JURIST report] brought by relatives of victims of the massacre. The relatives, known as the Mothers of Srebrenica, alleged that the Netherlands should be liable for the deaths because Dutch soldiers operating under the UN flag negligently failed to protect civilians by forcing the victims out of "safe area" and turning them over to Bosnian Serbs. Ratko Mladic was arrested [JURIST report] in May and is currently on trial in the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website] for charges of genocide and crimes against humanity. He was thrown out of his latest court appearance [JURIST report] earlier this week for causing a disruption and refusing to issue a plea.

Last month, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] initiated a grand jury investigation into the torture and death of Manadel Al-Jamadi, a detainee at Abu Ghraib. In 2006, Australian television published additional photographs [JURIST report] and video depicting abuse of prisoners by US personnel at Abu Ghraib. The photographs drew criticism from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) [official website], which said they showed clear violations of international humanitarian law. The Red Cross had previously criticized US practices at Abu Ghraib, saying that in some instances the abuse of Iraqi prisoners was "tantamount to torture" [ICRC report, PDF; JURIST report]. The original Abu Ghraib photographs led to the jailing of several US soldiers including Charles Graner [JURIST report], who appears in some of the new images, and Lynndie England [JURIST news archive]. The Australian producer of SBS television's Dateline program defended the decision to broadcast the photographs [AFP report] and videos. Mike Carey dismissed criticism from the Pentagon that the pictures could increase the danger to American soldiers, saying that his team, as journalists, had a responsibility to air the images.

Dadkah was involved in some other high-profile cases. In 2007, he represented three university students students [JURIST report] who were ultimately sentenced to two to three years in prison for insulting Islam and Islamic clerics. Iran continues to silence opposition leaders and dissidents. Earlier this year, Iranian opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi [NYT profile; JURIST news archive] was placed under house arrest after security forces took control of the area outside of Karroubi's residence and barred all family members, except his wife, from entering. In January, 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. 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.