An Egyptian court on Saturday acquitted former culture minister Farouq Hosni, who had served under ousted president Hosni Mubarak , on charges of corruption and illegal enrichment. Prosecutors alleged in September that Hosni had illegally acquired $3 million and had failed to account for $1.5 million. Hosni was referred to criminal court after an investigation [...]

A judge for the US District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee ruled Friday that a Tennessee law that restricts online sex advertising is unconstitutional. The law came in response to concerns of human trafficking in Tennessee and created criminal penalties for advertising commercial sex acts. Despite acknowledging that the state has an interest [...]

The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) on Friday filed a lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase & Co. for the sale of $2.2 billion of faulty residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) to credit unions. The securities were sold by Washington Mutual bank and its subsidiaries which were ultimately acquired by JPMorgan in 2008. The suit alleges that the [...]

A Nepalese army officer was arrested and charged in the UK on Friday with two counts of torture during his country’s civil war in 2005. Colonel Kumar Lama, a 46-year-old officer currently serving in the UN mission in Sudan, was arrested at his East Sussex home by Metropolitan Police officers on Thursday. Lama appeared before [...]

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said Friday that it has received “credible reports” of armed groups in the Central African Republic (CAR) recruiting and including children in the country’s conflict. UNICEF reported that both pro-government and rebel forces have utilized children, and called for all groups to immediately stop involving children. They reported that [...]

The US Supreme Court granted certiorari in three cases on Friday. In Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl the court will consider whether the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) allows a non-custodial parent to block an adoption by their non-Indian partner. In this case, a woman put her baby, who was fathered by an American Indian, [...]

A judge for the Provincial Court of British Columbia on Friday ruled that the federal government’s mandatory-minimum sentence for the possession of a loaded and prohibited firearm is arbitrary and fundamentally unjust. Judge James Bahen ruled in the case of Glenn Harley Tetsuji Sheck, a 29-year-old male with no prior criminal record who was arrested [...]

The Constitutional Court of Hungary on Friday struck down an electoral law requiring voters to register to vote at least two weeks before elections in 2014. The new rules had been proposed by the conservative Fidesz party of Prime Minister Viktor Orban . The new electoral law was passed by the Hungarian Parliament last November [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Christina Fialho of Community Initiatives for Visiting Immigrants in Confinement speaks out against the isolation of immigrants in confinement across the US…

The chief US military judge overseeing the trial of the accused 9/11 conspirators, including Khalid Shaikh Mohammed , has ruled that lawyers cannot make public any material involved in the trial, including unclassified documents. The decision by Judge Army Col. James L. Pohl was issued on December 20 but was just released this week. The [...]