Rights group slams rendition of Islamist detainees to Egypt News
Rights group slams rendition of Islamist detainees to Egypt

[JURIST] New York-based monitoring group Human Rights Watch [advocacy website] issued a report Wednesday criticizing the US and other governments in the West and Middle East for sending Islamist detainees to Egypt, a country infamous for torture [JURIST report]. The report, entitled Black Hole: The Fate of Islamists Rendered to Egypt [PDF text], tracked 61 individuals turned over to Egyptian custody since 1994, and concluded that the number actually tranferred there must be much higher because transfers usually occur secretly and without granting detainees an extradition hearing. HRW says that sending prisoners to countries where they are likely to be tortured is a clear breach of international law. President Bush insisted in an April 28 press conference [text], "We operate within the law and we send people to countries where they say they're not going to torture the people." Reuters has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Pope Urban II sparks First Crusade

Pope Urban II threw his support behind what would become the First Crusade on November 27, 1095 during the Council of Clairmont. The Pope urged the council's participants to render aid to the Byzantine Empire, which was being attacked by the Seljuks. Pope Urban called for a wide coalition of rich and poor to combat the threat, which eventually resulted in the conquest of much of the Muslim-controlled Levant by the Crusaders and the establishment of the Crusader States. Read Pope Urban's address.  

Catholic Code of Canon Law revised

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