After release of the UN report in October, Afghan officials denied the torture allegations [JURIST report], saying there was no basis for the UN's findings. Afghanistan has a history of criticism for human rights abuses. In September, Human Rights Watch [advocacy website] alleged that the Afghan Local Police had been committing serious human rights violations [JURIST report], including rape, murder, abduction, forced land seizures and illegal raids. Last March, the UN released a report alleging that the Afghan government's corruption and short-term security goals were intensifying the country's poverty issues [JURIST report]. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay also delivered a report earlier that month saying that the government was stalling human rights progress [JURIST report] through abuse of power and violence against women.

After being convicted in May, Demjanjuk filed a request in a US court to determine whether the US government withheld evidence that the Nazi ID card used against him could have been a fake made by Soviets. In May 2010 a German judge denied a motion to dismiss [JURIST report] the charges due to lack of evidence. He was found fit to stand trial [JURIST report] in that court in October 2009 against allegations by Demjanjuk and his family that he was too old and sick to go through a trial. He was deported to Germany [JURIST report] from the US in May 2009 after the US Supreme Court refused to hear his appeal of a 2005 deportation order [JURIST reports] by a US Chief Immigration Judge.

In December the EU policy chief criticized the court of appeals [JURIST report] in Tymoshenko's case for not addressing the actual legal issues of the case. Earlier that month, Tymoshenko ended her appeal in Ukrainian courts [JURIST report] in order to focus on appeals in the ECHR. Her initial appeal was denied [JURIST report] that same month.

When a minor removed or diverted married her captor, the latter can not be prosecuted on the complaint of persons entitled to apply for annulment of marriage and can not be sentenced until after the cancellation of marriage has been pronounced.

Last July Moroccan voters overwhelmingly approved a revised version of the constitution [JURIST report], highlighted by fewer powers reserved for their king. The constitutional revisions were a product of a reform process announced last April following peaceful demonstrations [JURIST reports] demanding democratic reforms as part of the wider protests in the Middle East and North Africa [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive].