The Vietnamese government has announced plans to release 8,000 prisoners, including religious activists and political dissidents, as part of its annual amnesty accompanying Tet, the Lunar New Year, which falls on February 9. The government releases a number of prisoners every year as part of the Tet celebration. Notably among those freed this year will [...]

Following up on a story that ran earlier today in JURIST's Paper Chase, a much-anticipated and as-yet-unreleased UN investigation into human rights abuses in the Darfur region of Sudan does not characterize them as "genocide", according to a spokesman for the Sudanese government, which has seen the report. The study is expected to be made [...]

In re: Guantanamo Detainee Cases, United States District Court for the District of Columbia, Judge Joyce Hens Green, January 31, 2005 .Excerpt: Of course it would be far easier for the government to prosecute the war on terrorism if it could imprison all suspected "enemey combatants" at Guantanamo Bay without having to acknowledge and respect [...]

Julian Ku, Hofstra University School of Law: "This Reuters story suggests that a district court judge has held the Guantanamo Bay military tribunals unconstitutional. As usual, Reuters (and other news agencies) are overstating the scope of the decision. Rather, it is more accurate to say that the district court judge has refused to grant all [...]

Leading Monday's corporations and securities law news, Marsh & McLennan Cos. , the world's biggest insurance broker, has agreed to pay $850 million to settle charges that the company conspired with insurers to rig bids. Under the agreement with New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer , Marsh will fully disclose all forms of compensation to [...]

Thousands of illegal immigrants fled Malaysia Monday as the Malaysian government prepared to launch a campaign to round up and deport illegal foreign workers. January 31 is the last day of a three-month amnesty granted to illegals to leave the country without punishment. On Tuesday, the government plans to launch a task force of 500,000 [...]

In Monday's international brief, the United Kingdom's Special Immigration Appeal Commission has granted bail to three terror suspects individuals being held without charge or trial in London's Belmarsh Prison . The only individual to be named, Abu Rideh, was recently moved to Broadmoor Mental Hospital for treatment for mental health problems. Rideh and the other [...]

Citing "information… that made me question Mr. Ross's competency," the attorney hired by convicted serial rapist and murderer Michael Ross to expedite his execution filed a motion Monday to delay what would be New England's first execution in 45 years. The attorney, T.J. Paulding, said in his motion that psychiatrist Michael Norko, who previously declared [...]

The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia Monday sentenced former Yugoslav general Pavle Strugar to eight years in prison for his role in the 1991 shelling of Dubrovnik , the historic Croatian city that UNESCO had declared a World Cultural Heritage site. Strugar, who commanded Yugoslav forces during the 1991 siege, was found guilty [...]

US District Judge Joyce Hens Green has ruled that the Guantanamo military tribunals for terror suspects are unconstitutional, and that Guantanamo prisoners have constitutional protections under the law. Judge Green said that the eleven plaintiff before her in a co-ordinated habeas proceedings had valid Fifth Amendment claims and that the proceedings conducted by Combatant Status [...]