Saddam Hussein on Thursday rejected forensic evidence of mass graves presented by US experts in his genocide trial for the "Anfal" campaigns against ethnic Kurds in northern Iraq between 1987 and 1988. Hussein said that pictures of the graves are "irrelevant to the Anfal case" and that he "refute all the testimonies submitted by the [...]
The European Union may face a legal challenge from the US over plans to extend the EU's greenhouse gas emission allowance trading program to cover all international flights to and from Europe. The European Union's Greenhouse Gas Emission Trading Scheme (ETS) , based on European Commission Directive 2003/87/EC , began in October 2005 as the [...]
The UK High Court ruled Thursday that two British citizens charged with terrorism offenses can be extradited to the US to face terrorism charges. Haroon Rashid Aswat , wanted in the US on suspicion of setting up a terrorist training camp, and Babar Ahmad , wanted for conspiring to kill Americans and running a website [...]
Chinese authorities have executed the founder of a Chinese Christian church and two of his close associates for allegedly ordering the murders of several members of a rival religious sect, a lawyer for Xu Shuangfu said Wednesday. The death penalty apparently imposed last week on the former head of the Three Grades of Servants Church [...]
South African Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka Thursday approved the country's Civil Unions Bill , making South Africa the first African nation to recognize same-sex unions . Mlambo-Ngcuka signed the measure into law on behalf of President Thabo Mbeki who is at a conference in Nigeria. Both houses of the South African parliament passed the measure [...]
A Mexican appeals court ruled Wednesday that a genocide trial against former Mexican President Luis Echeverria may proceed as long as prosecutors file formal charges against him before Friday, when the 30-year statute of limitations ends. The court effectively reversed previous rulings that the statute of limitations had already expired because Echeverria ended his role [...]
The population of individuals in US prisons rose by 2.7 percent in 2005, according to an annual report released Wednesday by the US Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics . The report indicates that over 7 million people were either in jail, on probation, or on parole by the end of last year, with [...]
Mayfield v. United States, US District Court for the District of Oregon, November 29, 2006 . Read the full text of the settlement . Read the associated US Government apology [PDF}. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) decided Wednesday to move Serb nationalist war crimes suspect Vojislav Seselj to a hospital unit adjoining its detention center at Scheveningen near The Hague to monitor his medical condition. Seselj has been on hunger strike for over two weeks, while demanding that the ICTY dismiss his [...]
Draft report on the alleged use of European countries by the CIA for the transport and illegal detention of prisoners, European Parliament, November 28, 2006 . Read the full text of the report . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.