The French Court of Cassation [official website, in French], the country's highest appeals court, ruled in May that the corruption trial against Chirac could continue, rejecting a constitutional challenge [JURIST report] brought by one of his co-defendants. Last September, the Paris city council accepted a settlement deal [JURIST report] in which the former president agreed to pay USD $741,000 in compensation for the money paid out for false jobs. In exchange, the city agreed to drop out of the corruption suit. Chirac stated that the settlement was not an admission of guilt. A French judge placed Chirac under preliminary investigation [JURIST report] in December 2009. Chirac's trial on corruption charges marks the first time [JURIST comment] a former French president will have to answer to charges against him in a court of law. The trial is a combination of two separate corruption-related cases, in which Chirac allegedly financed the Rally for the Republic (RPR), now renamed as the Union for a Popular Movement [party website, in French], by illegally establishing fake city positions between 1977 and 1995 for party members to collect salaries totaling several million dollars.

Mubarak's trial began on August 3 [JURIST report] with Mubarak and his sons pleading not guilty to all charges. Presiding Judge Ahmed Rifaat last month decided to end live TV broadcasts [JURIST report] of subsequent proceedings amid protests from the families of victims and praise from several courtroom lawyers who opposed the broadcasts. Officials chose a new location for Mubarak's trial for security reasons after reporting [JURIST reports] that the trial would take place at a convention center in downtown Cairo. In July, an Egyptian criminal court postponed the trial [JURIST report] of former interior minister Habib el-Adly, who also faces murder charges in relation to the pro-democracy demonstrations, so it would coincide with Mubarak's trial. In March, a commission of Arab and Egyptian human rights groups accused Mubarak [JURIST report] and the police of murdering protesters during the demonstrations in Egypt. Mubarak could face the death penalty [JURIST report] if convicted of ordering attacks on protesters. Amnesty International (AI) [advocacy website] reported that at least 840 people were killed [JURIST report] and more than 6,000 injured during the Egyptian protests.

Our relationship with the new Libya must of course deal with a series of problems from the past...[S]ignificant accusations have been reported today that under the last government relations between the British and Libyan Security Services became too close, particularly in 2003. It was because of accusations of complicity by the British Security Services in the mistreatment of detainees overseas, including rendition, that I took steps last July to sort this whole problem out. As the House will remember we took steps to bring to an end the large number of court cases being brought against the government by former inmates of Guantanamo. We have issued new guidance to security service personnel on how to deal with detainees held by other countries. And we have asked Sir Peter Gibson to examine issues around the detention and treatment of terrorist suspects overseas and the Inquiry has already said it will look at these latest accusation very carefully. My concern throughout has been to deal with these accusations of malpractice so as to enable the Security Services to get on with the vital work they do.

Last month, The Guardian [media website] released a top secret document [JURIST report] revealing details about the interrogation policies of UK intelligence officials. The document indicated that officers from the UK security and secret intelligence agencies, MI5 [official website], and MI6, respectively, were instructed to weigh the severity of the mistreatment of a detainee with the benefits of possibly obtaining information from the prisoner. The agencies "do not participate in, solicit, encourage or condone the use of torture or inhuman or degrading treatment," the document said, though the agencies would "consider applying caveats or seeking prior assurances" if they foresee a risk of possibly mistreating or torturing a detainee. In November, the UK government announced a settlement [JURIST report] with 16 Guantanamo Bay detainees over allegations of torture. In return, the 16 detainees, 12 of whom had filed suit and four of whom were planning to, agreed to drop a lawsuit [JURIST report] against MI5 and M16. The government issued a new set of regulations regarding the use of information obtained via torture in July 2010 shortly after the human rights group Reprieve [advocacy website] filed a lawsuit [JURIST report] seeking a review of the country's torture policy.

Last September, the Icelandic Parliament [official website, in Icelandic] referred charges to the Landsdomur after the SIC released a report claiming that seven Icelandic government officials acted with gross negligence in their management of the country's financial system prior to a 2008 bank collapse. The SIC determined that Haarde and former central bank head David Oddsson [official profile, in Icelandic] knew that banks were assuming overseas debt but took no action to prevent or mitigate the effects of the accumulation. The SIC also found that former minister of finance Arni Mathiessen, then-banking minister Bjorgvin Sigurdsson, former Financial Services Authority [official website] director Jonas Jonsson and central bank officials Eirikur Gundason and Ingimundur Fridriksson failed to take appropriate action when presented with information about the poor state of the country's financial sector. Iceland was hit hard [BBC backgrounder] by the financial crisis that emanated from securities related to the US mortgage market. When Kaupthing, Landsbanki and Glitnir [corporate websites] were taken over by the Icelandic government in 2008, they were holding debt equal to more than 900 percent [AFP report] of Iceland's gross domestic product, causing the country's economy to collapse and the government to rely on loans [IMF materials] from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) [official website] to meet its obligations.