David O. Stewart : “I spent way too much time following the Thomas Porteous impeachment trial, having defended an impeachment trial in 1989 (Judge Walter Nixon) and having written a book about another (Impeached: The Trial of President Andrew Johnson and the Fight for Lincoln’s Legacy). There were some novel issues in the Porteous trial. [...]
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The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled Thursday that Ireland failed to provide “effective and accessible procedures” to allow a Lithuanian women to assert her constitutional right to a lawful abortion . Ireland has some of the most conservative abortion laws in Europe, prohibiting abortions except where there is a real and substantial risk [...]
Lawyers for Guantanamo Bay detainee Abu Zubaydah on Thursday asked Polish prosecutors to investigate claims that he was abused in a secret CIA prison in the country. Zubaydah, a top al Qaeda suspect, alleges that he was transferred to Poland and subjected to enhanced interrogation techniques. Zubaydah’s lawyer said he is hoping that his client’s [...]
A judge for the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York on Wednesday sentenced former Guyana parliament member Abdul Kadir to life in prison for plotting to blow up John F Kennedy International Airport . Kadir and coconspirator Russell Defreitas, originally arrested in 2007, were convicted by a federal jury in July [...]
Nigerian national Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab , accused of attempting to set off an explosive device on a flight last December, was arraigned Thursday in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan on two new federal charges. A federal grand jury charged Abdulmutallab Wednesday on two new counts of conspiracy and firearm possession, [...]
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights has ruled that a 1979 Brazilian amnesty law is invalid and that Brazil is responsible for the disappearance of 61 people during its 1964-1985 military dictatorship. In a decision announced Tuesday, the court found that the law, which shielded military officials from prosecution, was incompatible with the American Convention [...]
The UN Security Council on Wednesday voted to remove sanctions imposed on Iraq between 1991 and 2003 during the country’s wars under former Iraqi dictator Suddam Hussein . The Security Council approved three resolutions that eliminated the Development Fund for Iraq, lifted sanctions prohibiting civil nuclear projects and ended the controversial Oil-for-Food program . UN [...]
An Italian appeals court on Wednesday upheld the convictions of 23 former CIA agents for the 2003 kidnapping and rendition of Egyptian terror suspect Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, increasing their sentences. Former Milan CIA station chief Robert Seldon Lady was originally sentenced to eight years in prison, while 22 other Americans were sentenced to five [...]
Christina Fialho, Santa Clara Law ’12, is an immigrant rights advocate and co-founder of the Detention Dialogues, a graduate student-led organization affiliated with Detention Watch Network. Christina writes about the detention of non-criminal immigrants in US jails… Behind razor-sharp barbed wire fences and inside cement-block buildings, reality is harsher, confusion greater and the future dauntingly [...]
The US House of Representatives voted 250-175 Wednesday to repeal the military’s controversial “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy (DADT) , which prohibits openly gay men and women from serving in the armed forces. The Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Repeal Act of 2010 , a piece of stand-alone legislation, was passed less than a week after [...]
