A similar case arose last year when two men were detained for posting messages on the Internet criticizing Middle East rulers on social media websites Twitter and YouTube [media website]. Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] called [JURIST report] on the government to immediately release them, calling the detention merely an "illegal effort to punish him and intimidate others who might dare be critical about Kuwait's fellow Gulf monarchs." Such practices are not only found in Kuwait. In April of last year, an Egyptian military court convicted [JURIST report] blogger Maikel Nabil and sentenced him to three years in prison for criticizing the army and raising questions over reform in the wake of revolution.

Tension between Bahrain's government and opposition groups has escalated recently. Last week pro-democracy activist Al-Khawaja ended his hunger strike [JURIST report] weeks after he and 20 other incarcerated protestors were granted a retrial by a Bahrain appeals court. Earlier in May, Al-Khawaja's daughter, Zainab Al-Khawaja, was sentenced [JURIST report] to one month in prison for trying to organize an anti-government protest. Also in May, Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] called for the immediate release [JURIST report] of the leaders of last year's anti-government protests, including Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja. In April, HRW issued a report claiming that Bahraini police were abusing detained protesters [JURIST report]. Earlier in April, Amnesty International [advocacy website] declared that Bahrain's government committed human rights violations [JURIST report] against anti-government protesters.

The UNCCT Strategy was first introduced in 2006 after UN leaders failed to meet their goal of completing it in 2005 [JURIST report]. In 2011, a contribution agreement was signed between the UN and the Permanent Mission of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the UN for the creation of UNCCT. Terrorism has become a concern around the world. In May, a Canadian resident pleaded guilty [JURIST report] for being involved in fundraising for a banned terrorist group. In March, the trial started [JURIST report] against the retired Turkish General Ilker Basbug [official website, in Turkish]. He was charged with terrorism. In January, a Norwegian court convicted [JURIST report] under the country's anti-terror laws two men accused of planning an attack against a Danish newspaper.

Hajiyev was arrested on March 4, 2011. After his arrest he was able to send a hand-written letter [RFE/RL report, in Azeri] to friends indicating that he had been abused and threatened by Azerbaijani police. Sarah Paulsworth, JURIST contributor and University of Pittsburgh Law student, criticized [JURIST Dateline] the government's treatment of Hajiyev and called for reform of the government's treatment of all COs seeking alternative public service.

Kazakhstan has been criticized for its failure to comply with international human rights standards. In April, 47 individuals were sentenced [JURIST report] to 15 years imprisonment for their involvement in terrorist attacks and financing extremist activities. However, the trial and information pertaining to it were not entirely accessible to the public, and the lack of transparency has raised concerns of possible human rights violations. In October, Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev [official website, in Kazakh; BBC profile] signed [JURIST report] into law a bill dissolving religious organizations and requiring re-registration. This new bill and its endorsement by the president drew a number of criticisms that the law unnecessarily limits the freedom of religion. The president's signing came after the country's parliament approved [JURIST report] the bill few weeks earlier. In April of last year, the president also fired [JURIST report] six supreme court justices for corruption.

Authorities in the past year have come close to ending the investigation and prosecution of suspects in the 1995 gas attacks. In January, police arrested Makoto Hirata [BBC report], another Aum Shinrikyo member connected to the attacks. To date, 200 members of the cult have been convicted of crimes relating to gas attacks, with 13 facing the death penalty. Among those sentenced to death are prominent member Seiicho Endo [JURIST report] and cult leader Shoko Asahara [BBC profile; JURIST report].

The Muhammad cartoon controversy has sparked numerous terror attack attempts on the newspaper. In January, a Norwegian court convicted [JURIST report] two men accused of planning an attack against JP. The case constituted the first case under the country's anti-terror laws. Earlier last year, a Danish court sentenced [JURIST report] Somali Islamist Muhideen Mohammed Geelle to nine years in prison for his 2010 attack on Kurt Westergaard, illustrator of the cartoon after the prosecution amended [JURIST report] the complaint by adding charge of terrorism in January.

The court heard oral arguments [JURIST report] in March. The petitioners had appealed from an Indiana Supreme Court [official website] ruling for the city [opinion text]. Indianapolis assessed a property tax [SCOTUSBlog report] on citizens in a certain residential area to fund a new sanitation project in 2001. Residents were given the option of paying the $9,278 tax in full, or paying it in increments over several decades. Several paid in full, while others paid considerably under the installment plan. In 2005, the city decided to revise the tax policy to fund the plan, and forgave the remaining balances on all of the residents. This put many in the position where they had paid above the new $2,500 fee for the sanitation project. The city government refused to refund those taxes, but property owners were refunded in a private suit. They then pursued litigation against the forgiveness policy that had allowed other property owners to pay below the initial tax.

BP has faced numerous lawsuits and is still involved in litigation, especially in the wake of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive] in the Gulf of Mexico. In May, the US District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana [official website] signed [JURIST report] a case management order for the upcoming trial between BP and the victims in 2013. In April, the judge accepted the terms of a settlement reached in March [JURIST reports] between BP and the plaintiffs in which BP is required to pay around $7.8 billion in two separate agreements, one to resolve economic loss claims and another to resolve medical claims.

Hartman injected uncertainty into the law governing retaliatory arrests, particularly in light of Hartman's rationale and the close relationship between retaliatory arrest and prosecution claims. This uncertainty was only confirmed by subsequent appellate decisions that disagreed over whether the reasoning in Hartman applied similarly to retaliatory arrests. Accordingly, when Howards was arrested it was not clearly established that an arrest supported by probable cause could give rise to a First Amendment violation. Petitioners Reichle and Doyle are thus entitled to qualified immunity.

The Supreme Court granted certiorari in the case in December and heard arguments [JURIST reports] in March. Monday's ruling overturns the decision [text] of the US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, holding that the First Amendment claim is not barred and that petitioners are not entitled to qualified immunity on the First Amendment claim.

China is still criticized for its lack of human rights protection and its actions against human rights activists. On Sunday, Amnesty International (AI) [advocacy website] urged [JURIST report] the Chinese government to release Tibetan protesters who had been imprisoned for demonstrating against Chinese rule over Tibet. In May, Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] asked [JURIST report] the US to "try harder" to promote the rule of law in China. He revealed that Chinese officials are corrupt and engage in unlawful activities that would deprive citizens of their basic human rights. During the same month, Human Rights Watch [advocacy website] reported [JURIST report] that the Chinese para-police organization is abusing its power by using excessive force against civilians and arresting them despite their lack of authority to do either. In April, a Beijing court sentenced [JURIST report] a Chinese housing activist and lawyer who assisted victims of governmental land seizures to two years and eight months in prison for fraud and "inciting disturbance" in the city.

Also on Monday, the court declined to hear two related cases, Scrushy v. United States [docket; cert. petition, PDF] and Siegelman v. United States [docket; cert. petition, PDF], involving allegations of bribery against former Alabama governor Don Siegelman [personal profile; JURIST news archive] and former HealthSouth [corporate website] CEO Richard Scrushy [JURIST news archive]. Scrushy and Siegelman were originally convicted [JURIST report] in 2006 on multiple counts of misconduct and bribery in connection with a $500,000 payment from Scrushy for Siegelman's 1999 campaign debts in exchange for a seat on a state-operated review board that regulates hospitals. The US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit reversed two of the convictions [JURIST report] in May of last year, while upholding the other convictions.

The court also declined to hear the case of four former employees of Blackwater [JURIST news archive], now known as Academi, challenging the reinstatement of manslaughter charges against them. Slough v. United States [docket; cert. petition, PDF] revolves around a 2007 shooting incident [JURIST report] in the Nisour Square area of Baghdad that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead. A subsequent FBI [official website] investigation revealed that 14 of the deaths were unjustified acts of excessive force [NYT report]. The US District Court for the District of Columbia initially dismissed the charges [JURIST report] because it found the decision to prosecute the men was "tainted" by the use of immunized statements. The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit reinstated the case [JURIST report] in April 2011.

HRW has called numerous times for Ntaganda's arrest. In April HRW strongly urged [JURIST report] Congo President Joseph Kabila to arrest Ntaganda immediately and deliver him to the ICC so that he could face charges. It also called the DRC in 2011 and 2010 [JURIST reports] to bring the general to justice. The arrest warrant was unsealed [JURIST report] by the ICC in 2008 although the warrant was issued two years before. ICC stated that it postponed to make the arrest public to prevent Ntaganda to flee, hide and obstruct the investigations.

Enkhbayar lost the presidential election [JURIST report] in 2009 when Mongolia Democratic Party [party website, in Mongolian] candidate Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj [Taipei Times profile] defeated him in the country's general election. Educated in the US, Elbegborj ran on a platform of fighting corruption and redistributing profits from the country's mining operations to Mongolian residents. Enkhbayar's Communist Party had originally refuted claims that Elbegdorj had won the election, but later accepted the results [BBC report]. In 2008, Enkhbayar declared a state of emergency [JURIST report] following protests against the results of parliamentary elections in the country. At least five people were killed and more than 700 people were detained as a result of the protests. The Democratic Party had called for new elections [Reuters report] because of alleged fraud, but Enkhbayar has said that both parties have agreed to address the riots under established law [Xinhua report].

This marks a unique opportunity for the judiciary in Libya to assert its independence and act in its capacity as a monitor of the powers of the lawmakers in the country. This is an opportunity for the judiciary to state clearly to all Libyans and to the world at large that the new Libya will be one where the rule of law is upheld, the separation of power is enforced and Libyans' rights and freedoms are protected.

Libya is still attempting to recover from the effects of its months-long conflict [JURIST backgrounder] and the fall of Gaddafi's regime. While the country is in the process of bringing the parties responsible to justice, it is still facing criticism for numerous human rights violations. Last week the International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website] postponed [JURIST report] the transfer of Gaddafi's son, Safi al-Islam Gaddafi [BBC profile; JURIST news archive], to the ICC's jurisdiction after the Libyan government challenged the admissibility of the case in the ICC. On the same day, the Libyan government began its prosecutions [JURIST report] of various senior officials who had served Gaddafi. Among them is Libya's ex-intelligence chief, Abdullah al-Senussi, who faces charges [JURIST report] of illegally entering the country of Mauritania. In addition to these proceedings, the NTC has faced criticism for enacting laws that opponents claim are not based on the rule of law, such as a law passed [JURIST report] in May that allows police to detain people who are considered "threats to security" for up to two months. In March, the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon [official profile] urged [JURIST report] Libya to investigate into the alleged human rights violations committed during the Libya conflict.

Mubarak's ten-month trial marks the first time a former Arab leader has been held accountable [Reuters report] for his actions in a court of law. Rights group Amnesty International [advocacy website] released a statement on Saturday criticizing the verdict [press release] as failing to deliver full justice because Mubarak's sons and security officials were not punished for their alleged participation in the violence. Human Rights Watch [advocacy website] also commented on Mubarak's sentence [press release], believing the verdict sends a message to future Egyptian leaders that they are not immune from the law. Mubarak's trial ended in February [JURIST report] after the lead prosecutor in the case asked the presiding judge for a death sentence in his closing remarks. The prosecution began presenting its case [JURIST report] against Mubarak in January. Mubarak's trial started [JURIST report] in August 2011 and made slow progress.