Bosnian court acquits Serb policemen of war crimes charges News
Bosnian court acquits Serb policemen of war crimes charges

[JURIST] A Bosnian court Friday acquitted eleven Serb policeman who had been linked to the murders of a Catholic priest and his parents during the Balkan conflict of the 1990s. Tomislav Matanovic and his parents disappeared in 1995 and their corpses were found in 2001 with close-range gunshot wounds. In the verdict, Banja Luka district court president Dusko Bojovic said that "It was not proved that they committed a criminal offence of illegal detention and keeping in detention of priest Tomislav Matanovic and his parents in Prijedor," and that there was no proved link between the detention of the Matanovics and their murder. The ruling is the first war crimes acquittal by a Bosnian Serb court. Human rights advocates are saying that inadequate investigations into the murders led to Friday's verdict. Reuters has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

International Day Against Fascism and Anti-Semitism

November 9 is the International Day Against Fascism and Anti-Semitism [UNITED factsheet]. On November 9, 1924, American gay activist Henry Gerber and several associates formed the Society for Human Rights, the first gay rights organization in the United States. The Society received a charter from the State of Illinois in December but was disbanded in July 1925 after a police raid which led to Gerber's arrest and trial (albeit not conviction). Pay a virtual visit to Henry Gerber House, now a registered Chicago landmark.

Supreme Court strikes down Massachusetts anti-draft law

On November 9, 1970, the Supreme Court voted 6-3 in Massachusetts v. Laird not to hear the case of the state's anti-draft law. Massachusetts had passed a law, which allowed its citizens to decline to fight in any undeclared war, even if the person was drafted. The law was passed in opposition to the draft and the war in Vietnam. The First Circuit found the war constitutional and thus struck down the law.