Former Bosnian Croat soldier pleads not guilty to war crimes at The Hague News
Former Bosnian Croat soldier pleads not guilty to war crimes at The Hague

[JURIST] Former Bosnian Croat soldier Miroslav Bralo pleaded not guilty Tuesday to war crimes charges at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia at The Hague. Bralo faces nine counts of grave breaches of the Geneva conventions and 12 counts of violating the laws and customs of war for the murder, rape and torture of civilians. ICTY prosecutors say Bralo belonged to a special Bosnian Croat force known as the Jokers that attacked Muslim villages in central Bosnia during the 1993 conflict and subsequently imprisoned and tortured civilians. Bralo's indictment (in French) was made public in October; an ICTY press release in English is here. The ICTY has background on the case and Reuters has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

China passes current constitution

On December 4, 1982, the Fifth National People's Congress passed the current Constitution of China.

FDR established Federal Alcohol Control Administration

On December 4, 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt established the Federal Alcohol Control Administration (FACA) by executive order under the National Industrial Recovery Act just prior to the formal end of Prohibition. FACA was charged with guiding legitimate wineries and distilleries under a system based on brewers' voluntary codes of fair competition. It effectively vanished from history after just twenty months, when President Roosevelt in August 1935 signed the Federal Alcohol Administration (FAA) Act, lodging alcohol regulation exclusively with the US Treasury Department, where it currently remains under the jurisdiction of the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, formerly the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF).