A multi-party coalition of Japanese parliamentarians said Monday that they have drafted a bill proposing a four-year moratorium on the death penalty and giving convicts already on death row life sentences without the possibility of parole. The bill is likely to face opposition from Japanese Minister of Justice Kunio Hatoyama, who is a supporter of [...]

Spanish police on Monday arrested 13 suspected members of Batasuna , the banned political arm of the armed Basque separatist group ETA , one month before Spain's March general elections. The same Spanish National Court judge who ordered Monday's arrests last week banned two Basque political parties from fielding candidates in the elections, ruling that [...]

The Pentagon is expected to announce Monday that military prosecutors will seek the death penalty against six Guantanamo detainees accused of involvement in the Sept. 11 terror attacks, according to government sources speaking on condition of anonymity. Under the 2006 Military Commissions Act (MCA) , the convening authority who oversees the military commissions process, former [...]

US Army sniper Sgt. Evan Vela was convicted Sunday of unpremeditated murder for the killing of an unarmed Iraqi civilian near Iskandariyah and sentenced to 10 years in prison. The military jury also found Vela guilty of making a false official statement and of conduct prejudicial to good order and discipline. He had been charged [...]

Bilateral arms control agreements negotiated by the US and Russia during the Cold War should be replaced by multilateral agreements, former Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said Sunday. Ivanov, who now serves as Russian first deputy prime minister, referred to bilateral agreements, including the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (Salt 1) , as relics of the [...]

Former Cambodian Foreign Minister Ieng Sary , accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in the Khmer Rouge communist regime of the 1970s, has returned to ECCC custody after his hospitalization last week, an official for the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) said Sunday. In addition to a [...]

 The Rwandan Chamber of Deputies has passed legislation that would make promoting "genocide ideology" a crime, punishable by life in prison for the worse offenders. The bill was passed unanimously by the country's lower house Friday, and now must be approved by the Rwandan Senate and signed by President Paul Kagame before becoming law. Some of the [...]

Former Chinese newspaper editor Yu Huafeng has been released early from prison after serving four years on corruption charges , Reporters without Borders said Saturday. Yu and his colleague Li Minying were both convicted in 2004 for embezzlement, bribery and corruption. Both men claimed the money in question was obtained legally and used for routine [...]

Retired Argentinean military officers Paccagnini Ruben and Emilio Del Real were arrested by Argentina's Federal Police Saturday in connection with the August 1972 massacre of 16 leftist guerillas on a military base in the southern city of Trelew . Ruben and Del Real face charges of torture, homicide, attempted homicide and illegal detentions for their [...]

Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud Al Qosi and Ali Hamza Ahmad Suliman al Bahlul Charge Sheet, US Department of Defense, February 8, 2008 . Read the full text of the al Qosi and al Bahlul charges . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.