India foreign minister removed after oil-for-food allegations News
India foreign minister removed after oil-for-food allegations

[JURIST] Indian Foreign Minister Natwar Singh [official profile] was removed from his position Monday at his own request after allegations arose that he improperly benefited from the now-defunct UN oil-for-food program [JURIST news archive] in Iraq. According to the government, Singh will remain in the Indian cabinet while Premier Manmohan Singh assumes his position pending a newly-formed judicial commission [AFP report] investigation. According to the report [text] issued last month by the UN's Independent Inquiry Committee [official website], Singh, as well as India's Congress party, was part of an international scheme in which political leaders were given vouchers for Iraqi oil which could then be sold on the open market. The UN report alleges that Singh profited from the scheme in 2001 when he was not in office. Singh has said that the charges have no basis. BBC has more.

ALSO ON JURIST

 Op-ed: Putting Oil-for-Food in Perspective | Text: UN Oil-for-Food manipulation report

THIS DAY @ LAW

Tojo and other Japanese WWII leaders executed for war crimes

On December 23, 1948, former Japanese premier Hideki Tojo and six other Japanese war leaders were executed for war crimes in Tokyo.

Learn more about the Tokyo War Crimes Trials.

Terry Nichols convicted for Oklahoma City bombing

On December 23, 1997, Terry Nichols was found guilty of conspiracy and involuntary manslaughter for assisting Timothy McVeigh in bombing the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. He was later sentenced to life in prison. On April 19, 1995, McVeigh detonated a truck bomb that gutted the building and killed 168 people, making it the deadliest terrorist attack on US. soil until the attacks of September 11, 2001. McVeigh was convicted for his role before Nichols on June 2, 1997. Learn more about the trials of Terry Nichols and Timothy McVeigh.