Corruption allegations have plagued Niger in recent years. In May, an appeals court in Niger's capital Niamey ordered the release [JURIST report] of former president Mamadou Tandja [BBC profile] after dropping all corruption charges against the ousted leader who has been in custody for 14 months following a military coup [JURIST report] in February 2010. The military junta charged Tandja with corruption [Reuters report] following his removal, based on a junta investigation that found USD $128 million was stolen during Tandja's 10-year presidency. In September 2009, members of Nigerien opposition parties said that police had detained 30 former opposition lawmakers allegedly at the behest of Tandja. The 30 former members of parliament were arrested on charges of embezzlement [JURIST report], but were likely being targeted for their dissidence, as they refused to recognize Tandja's expansion of powers. In February of last year, the United Front for the Safeguard of Democratic Assets (Fusad), a Nigerien rights group, pushed for the prosecution [JURIST report] of Tandja on treason charges and corruption violating the constitution shortly after the coup.

The Ivory Coast has already issued international arrest warrants [JURIST report] for Gbagbo aides, most notably for Charles Ble Goude, the leader of Gbagbo's youth militia, accusing him of inciting ethnic violence and attacks against UN workers. Other members of Gbagbo's government also had warrants issued including the government spokesman Ahoua Don Mello, industry minister Phillipe Attey, and the ambassador to Israel Raymond Koudou Kessie. Twenty-one others already in detention were charged for violence and inciting tribalism and xenophobia. In June, ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo [official profile] officially requested permission from ICC judges [JURIST report] to begin investigation into the Ivory Coast after determining that war crimes and crimes against humanity may have been committed during the violence. Since the Ivory Coast is not a member state of the ICC because it is not a signatory of the Rome Statute [text, PDF], the ICC can only investigate with the Ivory Coast's express permission. In April, Gbagbo was captured and forced from office [JURIST report] after refusing to leave despite losing last November's election to Ouattara, which resulted in months of fighting between Ouattara's and Gbagbo's forces.

Russia's Presidential Council on Civil Society and Human Rights announced in February that it will look into the verdicts [JURIST report] handed down against Lebedev and Khodorkovsky. Prior to this conviction, Khodorkovsky and Lebedev were already serving eight-year prison sentences for fraud and tax evasion [JURIST report]. International human rights organizations and numerous governments criticized Russia's justice system following the guilty verdict [JURIST reports]. Last year, former Russian prime minister Mikhail Kasyanov [BBC profile] testified [JURIST report] that former president and current prime minister Vladimir Putin [official website; JURIST news archive] ordered Khodorkovsky's arrest for political reasons, indicating that Khodorkovsky had funded the Communist Party [party website, in Russian] without first getting approval to do so from the president. Some critics of the Russian government have argued that the charges against Khodorkovsky and Lebedev are politically motivated [JURIST op-ed] due to Khodorkovsky's opposition to Putin. In March 2010, Khodorkovsky criticized Russia's justice system [JURIST report] as an "assembly line" that inevitably finds the government's political enemies to be guilty. The statement echoed concerns Khodorkovsky had previously expressed about the fairness of Russian trials and the need for widespread reform of the Russian court system [JURIST reports].

The ACLU and the Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama [advocacy website] filed a motion for a preliminary injunction [JURIST report] to block the implementation of HB 56 which is set to take effect on September 1. The rights groups argue that they are entitled to a preliminary injunction because of their substantial likelihood of success on the merits, irreparable injury to plaintiffs and because the injunction would not be adverse to the public interest. Alabama Governor Robert Bentley [official website] signed HB 56 into law last month, just one week after it was passed by the legislature [JURIST reports]. In addition to authorizing detention of individuals on reasonable suspicion they are illegal immigrants, the law provides harsh restrictions on employment for illegal immigrants. Businesses cited multiple times for hiring undocumented workers could lose their business licenses. Furthermore, undocumented immigrants are prohibited from applying for a job, and anyone transporting or harboring undocumented immigrants will be punished by a fine or jail time. Similar laws have been passed in Indiana, Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia, Oklahoma and Utah [JURIST reports]. Federal courts have enjoined laws in Arizona, Indiana, Georgia, Oklahoma and Utah [JURIST reports].

The warrant for Ntaganda's arrest was originally issued in 2006 but was not made public by the ICC [JURIST report] until 2008. The arrest warrant was issued under seal because "public knowledge of the proceedings in this case might result in Bosco Ntaganda hiding, fleeing, and/or obstructing or endangering the investigations or the proceedings of the Court," but ICC judges determined that those circumstances have since changed. HRW urged the Congolese government to arrest [press release; JURIST report] Ntaganda in October 2010. Ntaganda lives and moves openly in Goma, a city in the eastern bloc of the DRC. He gained leadership of the National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP) rebel group in 2009 as a result of a coup against former leader Laurent Nkunda [BBC profile; JURIST news archive]. Ntaganda became a general of the Congolese army after promising to integrate the rebel forces into the Congolese troops. As a result, the government has refused to execute the ICC arrest warrant against him, claiming that his presence is needed in order to maintain peace withing the troops.

Federal funding for embryonic stem cell research has been a long uphill battle for the Obama administration. In 2009, President Barack Obama [official website] signed [press release] an executive order [text; JURIST report] which removed the previous administration's eight-year restriction on federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research. After the preliminary injunction on stem research was granted last year, the Obama administration appealed [JURIST report] the injunction, arguing that the ruling was overbroad, endangering an array of research across multiple programs and centers while only serving a very attenuated economic interest of the plaintiffs in the case. While the appeals process was underway, the court granted a long-term stay which allowed federal funding to continue [JURIST report] while the court reached a decision.

Immigration has long been a controversial topic in the UK. The number of UK employers prosecuted for hiring illegal immigrants has spiked [JURIST report] since changes to British immigration laws were implemented in February 2008. In 2006, the Home Office [official website] announced plans to overhaul [JURIST report] Britain's immigration system in a review [text, PDF] outlining how the Home Office's Immigration and Nationality Directorate [official website] will respond to the impact of globalization, changing travel patterns and evolving international crime and terrorism. The Labour Party government of former prime minister Gordon Brown pursued plans to institute a national ID card system [JURIST news archive] as part of the UK's effort to clamp down on illegal immigrants [JURIST report].

those self-perpetuating associations of individuals who operate transnationally for the purpose of obtaining power, influence, monetary and/or commercial gains, wholly or in part by illegal means, while protecting their activities through a pattern of corruption and/or violence, or while protecting their illegal activities through a transnational organizational structure and the exploitation of transnational commerce or communication mechanisms. There is no single structure under which transnational organized criminals operate; they vary from hierarchies to clans, networks, and cells, and may evolve to other structures.

Other countries are taking steps to combat organized crime. Last May, Bulgaria passed a bill that allows "civil confiscation" [JURIST report] enabling law enforcement to launch investigations of people who cannot account for their income, a move designed to target organized crime. Last July, Italian police arrested more than 300 individuals [JURIST report] and seized millions of euros worth of assets in a countrywide raid on the 'Ndrangheta [CNN backgrounder] crime organization. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) [official website] released a report last June detailing the globalization of international organized crime [JURIST report] and its threat to international security. The report specifically addressed the global economic impact of human and drug trafficking, sale of illicit firearms, piracy, identity theft and the illegal exploitation of natural resources. The report found that while countries such as Afghanistan and Colombia supply the majority of the world's illegal drugs, the profits from the drugs are primarily found in the countries where the drugs are being sold. Human trafficking is reported to generate a profit of USD $3 billion, with 140,000 victims being exploited in Europe alone. Piracy reportedly doubled over the prior year resulting in an annual income of US $100 million, the majority of which goes to organized crime.

It is impossible to try hundreds of people at the same time and expect anything resembling a fair trial. The massacre shocked Bangladesh, but each of the accused should only be found guilty if the government provides specific evidence against them. The BDR mutiny was ugly and brutal, but the current approach appears to be a witch hunt against a group rather than an attempt to identify the individuals responsible for specific crimes. The government should rethink its approach to make sure the masterminds and perpetrators of serious offenses are brought to fair trial, but end the prosecutions of the rank-and-file who were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.

A judge in the Court of Metropolitan Sessions, a criminal court in Bangladesh, indicted 430 people [JURIST report] last week for their roles in the mutiny. Last January, the civilian trial of 800 soldiers charged [JURIST report] with crimes stemming from their roles in the 2009 mutiny began in the capital city of Dhaka. The trial involves some of the most serious charges with those found guilty facing the death penalty. The trial is expected to last over a year and to include the testimonies of more than 1,000 individuals. In August 2010, a special Bangladeshi military court sentenced [JURIST report] 14 members of the BDR for their roles in the mutiny. The tribunal, led by BDR head Maj. Gen. Mainul Islam, fined each of the men Tk 100 and sentenced [BDNews24 report] them to prison terms ranging from four months to six years, one year short of the maximum possible sentence for rebellion under Bangladeshi law. About 3,500 other soldiers will face lesser charges in military courts.

In 2008, the court held that same-sex couples should be given the same pension and health benefits [JURIST report] as those held by opposite-sex couples. In its decision [court materials, in Spanish], the court said that to exclude same-sex couples from receiving such benefits would undermine their fundamental right to human dignity and equal protection of the laws. The previous year, the Colombian Senate voted against landmark legislation [JURIST report] that would have given same-sex couples who have cohabited for over a period of two years similar rights as persons in heterosexual common law marriages. Earlier, the court ruled [JURIST report] that same-sex couples must be accorded the same property rights as other unmarried couples.

By refusing to recognize for federal purposes marriages that are valid under state law, DOMA intrudes on matters historically within the control of the States, and undermines and denigrates New York's law designed to ensure equality of same-sex and different-sex married couples. Thus DOMA threatens basic principles of federalism. Moreover, it classifies and determines access to rights, benefits, and protections based on sexual orientation, and also based on sex.

US President Barack Obama has expressed support [JURIST report] for the repeal of DOMA and also support for Respect for Marriage Act [text], which was introduced by Congressional Democrats [JURIST report] in February to repeal DOMA. In March, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) [official website] announced that he was launching a legal advisory group to defend [JURIST report] DOMA, stating "[t]he constitutionality of this law should be determined by the courts, not by the president unilaterally, and this action by the House will ensure the matter is addressed in a manner consistent with our Constitution." Democrats introduced the Respect for Marriage Act following February's announcement by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] that it will no longer defend the constitutionality [JURIST report] of Section 3 of DOMA, which restricts the federal definition of marriage to heterosexual couples, in court cases challenging the provision. The announcement came just one month after the DOJ filed a brief [JURIST report] with the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit [official website] defending the constitutionality of DOMA.

Earlier this month, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) [official website, in Ukrainian] announced that they are launching a criminal investigation [JURIST report] into UESU. Last month, Tymoshenko filed a complaint [JURIST report] with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) [official website], alleging violations of the European Convention of Human Rights [text, PDF]. The complaint argued that the charges against Tymoshenko are politically engineered by current Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych [official website, in Ukrainian], Tymoshenko's political rival. ECHR President Jean Paul Costa refused to comment on the complaint [Korrespondent report, in Russian], but said the matter was before the court. The current combined case against her is not the first time she has been prosecuted. Last May, prosecutors reopened a separate criminal investigation [JURIST report] into allegations that Tymoshenko attempted to bribe Supreme Court judges. Tymoshenko's government was dissolved in March 2010 after she narrowly lost the presidential election to Yanukovych. Tymoshenko had alleged that widespread voter fraud allowed Yanukovych to win the election.