Maldives President Yameen Abdul Gayoom on Thursday signed into law a controversial bill criminalizing defamation with fines and jail terms despite widespread criticism. The UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression David Kaye issued a warning Wednesday condemning the bill approved by the Maldives parliament. Kaye cautioned that the “Protection of Reputation and Good Name [...]

The Belize Supreme Court on Wednesday struck down a law banning sodomy, declaring it unconstitutional. Section 53 of the Belize Criminal Code banned “carnal intercourse against the order of nature.” The law was challenged in 2010 by Caleb Orozco, whose organization, UniBAM , reported the ruling on Twitter . Section 53 had been law in [...]

A Bangladesh court on Wednesday granted bail to former prime minister Khaleda Zia in 10 pending cases, allowing her to go free. Zia, the head of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) , is facing charges including arson for anti-government protests that turned violent. Zia also faces sedition charges for questioning the official death [...]

The Baltimore Police Department (BPD) has engaged in tactics that violate the First and Fourth Amendments and numerous anti-discrimination laws, according to a report released by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) on Wednesday. The report is centered on the use of excessive force and illegal stops, seizures and searches, especially within the African-American community. [...]

The Brazil Senate officially indicted President Dilma Rousseff on Wednesday, marking the beginning of an impeachment trial against the embattled president. The Senate, which held a 16-hour session while deliberating on how to proceed, voted 59-21 against the suspended president—five more votes than were required to begin the impeachment proceedings. The vote comes less than [...]

The International Crimes Tribunal Bangladesh (ICTB) on Wednesday sentenced a former member of parliament to death and seven others to life in prison for crimes committed during the 1971 war for independence. Sakhawat Hossain, a former lawmaker and member of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, was accused of commanding a group that aided Pakistani soldiers. His lawyers [...]

A judge for the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois ruled Tuesday that former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich must serve the rest of his 14-year sentence in a Colorado prison. Judge James Zagel ruled that Blagojevich’s sentence should not be reduced, rejecting his plea for leniency. Blagojevich’s lawyers said that it was [...]

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein on Tuesday urged the Maldives to abide by a decades-old moratorium on the death penalty. The country has operated according to the de facto moratorium for decades, but last November brought changes to the judicial climate, halting death sentences being commuted into life sentences. There [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on Monday affirmed a lower court ruling that barred Ecuadoran plaintiffs from collecting a USD $8.646 billion Ecuadoran judgment against Chevron Corp. The lower court had concluded in 2014 that the Ecuadoran judgment was obtained through corruption and fraud and barred the plaintiffs’ attorney, Steven Donziger, [...]

The District Court in Braunschweig, Germany, ruled Monday that a collective complaint against Volkswagen AG (VW) may move forward. Like US-style class-action lawsuits, the collective complaint was launched on behalf of multiple investors who lost money following the diesel emissions cheating scandal. Unlike US-style class-action lawsuits, a German court must choose one case to decide [...]