Bout's trial lasted three weeks, and he was convicted after two days of jury deliberation. Defense counsel accused the US government of entrapment and presented Bout, an ex-Soviet officer and current Russian citizen, as a political prisoner. Russia's foreign ministry has rejected the 25-year sentence, framing the order as political and agenda-driven. Bout pleaded not guilty in November 2010, days after the Thai government extradited him [JURIST reports] to the US to stand trial. A month earlier Bout filed an appeal challenging the Bangkok Criminal Court's decision to dismiss [JURIST reports] money laundering and fraud charges against him, which removed obstacles to his US extradition. According to Bout's lawyer Lak Nitiwatanavichan, the arms dealer was seeking to have these charges reinstated [Bangkok Post report] to avoid extradition to the US. In August of that year an appeals court in Thailand ruled that Bout could be extradited [JURIST report], overturning a decision it issued a year earlier refusing to extradite Bout [JURIST report] on the basis that the accusations made by the US were not cognizable under Thai law. Bout was the subject of the book "Merchant of Death" [Reuters report], which inspired the 2005 movie of the same title, and is suspected of involvement in arms trafficking to conflict zones in Africa, South America and the Middle East.

The dispute over who will try Saif al-Islam has soured relations between Libya and the ICC. Earlier this month Saif al-Islam said that he would prefer a trial in the ICC [JURIST report] because he felt he could not get a fair trial in Libya. In June four ICC staff members who traveled to Libya to speak with Saif al-Islam were detained [JURIST report] by Libyan security forces. They were in custody for nearly four weeks. Upon her release [JURIST report], ICC lawyer Melinda Taylor said she did not believe Saif al-Islam would receive a fair trial in the country. Three officials from the ICC and the Australian ambassador to Libya were able to visit [JURIST report] and assess the condition of the four detained ICC staff members after their detention. A judicial source in Libya told reporters shortly after their detention that the four could remain in "preventative" detention [JURIST report] for 45 days while an investigation is conducted. The four staff members were detained after Taylor was accused of attempting to give documents to Saif al-Islam that were from his former aid, Mohammed Ismail, who has been in hiding since the Libyan conflict [JURIST backgrounder] began.

Habre fled to Senegal after being deposed in 1990 and denies charges of killing and torturing tens of thousands of his opponents after coming to power in a bloody coup in 1982. The AU began talks with Senegal to come up with a plan for Habre's trial after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) [official website] ruled [JURIST report] in July that Senegal must either try Habre promptly or extradite him to Belgium for trial. The court's legally binding order also noted that Senegal had failed to make serious efforts to prosecute Habre, who has been been under house arrest there since 2005. In March lawyers for the Belgian government asked [JURIST report] the ICJ to force Senegal to bring Habre to trial in Belgium. In July 2011 Senegal reversed its decision to deport Habre [JURIST report] back to Chad after UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay [official profile] warned of possible torture. That month Pillay issued the plea [JURIST report] to stay Habre's deportation to Chad after the nation's courts sentenced him to death in absentia.

Abortion rights have been a contentious issue in the international community. Last year voters in Liechtenstein rejected a proposal [JURIST report] to legalize abortion in the country after the acting Head of State expressed displeasure with the law and threatened to veto the proposed change. In 2010 the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) [advocacy website] criticized [JURIST report] the restrictive abortion laws of the Philippines as a "human rights crisis," resulting in the death of thousands of women annually. In January 2010 Human Rights Watch [advocacy website] argued that Ireland's restrictive abortion laws increase health risks to women [JURIST report] and expose them to deliberate misinformation about abortion procedures. In July 2009 Amnesty International [advocacy website] called on Nicaragua to end its total ban on abortions [JURIST report], calling for the country to eliminate severe criminal punishments for those who seek or perform abortions.

The House of Worship Protection Act is so vague that our plaintiffs don’t know if their actions will now be considered disruptive under it. Law enforcement officers will also have trouble determining exactly what constitutes profane discourse or rude behavior.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the Surviors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) and Voice of the Faithful [official websites], two organizations that engage in peaceful protests that the ACLU claims would be illegal under the HWPA. Both organizations have engaged in protests outside of churches that have included leafleting and holding signs. The ACLU alleges that the vague and broad language of the HWPA may prohibit these activities.

Tension between Bahrain's government and protesters has been on the rise since government forces clashed with protesters last year during pro-democracy demonstrations, which have taken place on an almost daily basis since the February 2011 Shiite majority uprising seeking greater political rights from the Sunni monarchy. The Bahrain Information Affairs authority announced last month that they had brought charges against 15 police officers [JURIST report] for alleged "mistreatment of inmates in custody." In June the government announced that it would pay $2.6 million in restitution [JURIST report] to citizens who lost family members during the violent protests to comply with recommendations of an independent commission who concluded that Bahrain authorities had used excessive force and tortured detainees involved in the pro-democracy demonstrations.

Freedom of expression is an international concern. Earlier this month Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] released a report alleging that the government of Angola [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive] is responsible for undermining freedom of speech protections [JURIST report] for its citizens, noting that the "political violence, intimidation of protesters, and crackdowns on peaceful demonstrations" might have a detrimental effect on the upcoming parliamentary election this month. In July HRW reported that a draft Iraqi cybercrime law would violate the international standards [JURIST report] protecting due process, freedom of speech and freedom of association, stating that the Information Crimes Law represents a tool for the Iraqi government to suppress dissidents, journalists and other human rights defenders who are increasingly utilizing the Internet for information and resources. Also in July the UN Human Rights Council [official website] passed the its first-ever resolution to protect the free speech of individuals online [JURIST report]. The resolution is written to guarantee Internet freedom, including the free flow of information and freedom of expression.

Very few of the convicted perpetrators are effectively serving a sentence, due to the low penalties imposed or other benefits granted. The Declaration on the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance requires that acts of enforced disappearances are sanctioned in accordance with the gravity of the crime.

Disappearances [JURIST news archive] have been a prevalent legal issue in recent years. In October 2010 a Guatemalan judge sentenced two former national police officers to 40 years in prison for the 1984 forced disappearance of Fernando Garcia [JURIST report]. In June 2010 a Colombian judge issued a landmark judgment [JURIST report] against army colonel Luis Alfonso Plazas Vega for the forced disappearance of 11 people after the 1985 hostage situation at the Palace of Justice in Bogota, sentencing him to 30 years in prison. In November 2009 the Argentine Senate approved a law [JURIST report] that authorizes the government to obtain DNA samples from individuals suspected to have been born to forced disappearance victims of the 1976-1983 "Dirty War" [GlobalSecurity backgrounder; JURIST news archive]. In September 2009 a Guatemalan paramilitary was convicted [JURIST report] and sentenced to 150 years in prison for the enforced disappearance of six indigenous persons during the Guatemalan civil war [GlobalSecurity backgrounder].

Abuses by soldiers took place in full view of the Thai public and the world’s media, yet the Thai army chief is now trying to intimidate investigators and critics into silence. The government should prosecute all those responsible for crimes during the 2010 violence, including members of the military, who should not be above the law.

Earlier in August a Thai court postponed its verdict [JURIST report] in the case against leaders of the "red shirt" [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive] movement for violating terms of their bail. Those defendants were among the nine who were released [JURIST report] in February of last year amid organized peaceful rallies calling for the release of the remaining red shirt leaders. A month earlier the red shirts petitioned [JURIST report] the International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website; JURIST backgrounder] to launch a preliminary investigation into whether the government committed crimes against humanity during the 2010 protests. The application for petition [text, PDF] cited specific evidence developing a substantial basis to show that international crimes of murder, imprisonment and other severe deprivation of physical liberty, other inhumane acts and persecution were committed in conjunction with the suppression of red shirt protest. In 2010 the red shirts initiated the protests [JURIST report] against the Thai government calling for elections. The protests ended two months after when protesters surrendered [JURIST report] to the police.

[E]ach of the Petitioners demonstrates existing and ongoing economic harms as well as other burdens on their valid and existing marriages. Any continued delay in the resolution of the clear constitutional question presented by this case and this petition for review only exacerbates those harms unnecessarily for these Petitioners and for all other legally married same-sex couples throughout the country.

Last month Bryant denied a motion by the Bipartisant Legal Advocacy Group (BLAG) to stay the lawsuit [JURIST reports] pending a Second Circuit ruling in another case. Edith Schlain Windsor, 83, successfully sued the US government [complaint, PDF] in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) [official website], which in June also ruled on summary judgment that under a rational basis standard [Cornell LII backgrounder] of judicial scrutiny that DOMA is unconstitutional [JURIST report]. Last month the elderly New York woman petitioned the Supreme Court to expedite her DOMA challenge [JURIST report] and bypass the Second Circuit appeal. That same week a lesbian couple filed a lawsuit in the US District Court for the Central District of California [official website] in a DOMA challenge that seeks to achieve for gay and lesbian couples the same federal immigration rights afforded to heterosexual couples [JURIST report] under the Immigration and Nationality Act [materials]. Also that week 132 members of the US House of Representatives [official website] filed an amicus brief [JURIST report] stressing that the House is "not united on DOMA's validity" and arguing that statutory classifications based on sexual orientation should be subject to heightened judicial scrutiny, but that DOMA should be overturned as unconstitutional under any level of judicial scrutiny. The brief was filed in the appeal of Karen Golinski v. Office of Personnel Management, the landmark case in which the US District Court for the Northern District of California [official website] ruled that DOMA is unconstitutional [JURIST report].