War crimes trial postponed for former Afghan intelligence chief News
War crimes trial postponed for former Afghan intelligence chief

[JURIST] Afghan Judge Abul Basit Bakhitari has postponed the trial of Assadullah Sarwari [TrialWatch profile] for twenty days so that he may hire a lawyer. Sarwari, the former director of Afghanistan's intelligence service, faces charges stemming from his operation under the country's Soviet-supported communist regime [Wikipedia backgrounder] in 1979, where he allegedly killed and tortured regime opponents. Sarwari claims that he has no money to hire a lawyer, and Bakhitari called upon international organizations to provide a lawyer for Sarwari so that the war crimes trial [JURIST report], the first of its kind in Afghanistan, may continue. Xinhuanet has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

South Africa becomes first country on continent to legalize same-sex marriage

Same-sex marriages became legal in South Africa on November 30, 2006 as the country's Civil Union Act, 2006 went into effect, making South Africa the only country on the African continent to legalize same-sex marriage. Read the Civil Union Act, 2006.