ICC confirms charges against Congolese rebel leaders News
ICC confirms charges against Congolese rebel leaders

[JURIST] The Pre-Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website] on Friday authorized the Office of the Prosecutor to proceed with the prosecution [press release; decision, PDF] of Congolese rebel militia leaders Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui [arrest warrants, PDF], confirming that there is sufficient evidence to establish that Katanga and Ngudjolo Chui jointly committed the crimes against humanity of murder, sexual slavery and rape, and other war crimes. AFP has more.

Katanga, a former commander in the Front for Patriotic Resistance of Ituri (FRPI), and Ngudjolo Chui, a former commander in the Nationalist and Integrationist Front (FNI) [backgrounders], allegedly planned and carried out an attack against the village of Bogoro in 2003, killing some 200 persons. The two defendants are currently detained in The Hague.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Georgia became first US state to ban lynching

On December 20, 1893, Georgia became the first state in the Union to pass a law against lynching, making the act punishable by four years in prison. The statute was not particularly effective—read the text of the 1899 pamphlet Lynch Law in Georgia by anti-lynching activist Ida Wells-Barnett.