A federal judge for the US District Court for the District of Columbia ruled Friday that the US government can indefinitely hold an Afghan detainee at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility. The detainee, Shawali Khan , is accused of belonging to Hezb Islami Gulbuddin (HIG) , an anti-American insurgency group active in Afghanistan with ties [...]

The Supreme Court of Sri Lanka on Tuesday approved a proposed constitutional amendment to eliminate presidential term limits, holding that the amendment is not inconsistent with the Sri Lankan Constitution . The proposed amendment, which would allow current President Mahinda Rajapaksa to run for an unlimited number of terms in office, will next be presented [...]

A Somalia native pleaded not guilty Tuesday in an Oslo District Court at Norway’s first trial under its 2002 terror financing law. The unidentified Somali-born Norwegian citizen has been accused of sending at least USD $33,000 to senior commanders of the al-Shabaab rebel movement between August 2007 and February 2008. According to Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten, [...]

Delphine Perrin : “In July 2010, the death of a young man killed by gendarmes when he was trying to break a roadblock was followed by two days of riots by members of the gypsy community to which he belonged. After the riots, French President Sarkozy announced a series of repressive measures against travelers and [...]

JURIST Special Guest Columnist Cdr. Tom Emerick (USCG), former counsel to National Incident Commander (NIC) for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, retired Admiral Thad Allen, explains how existing regulatory rules and agency practices affected the response to the spill and says they need to be changed to better address large oil spills in the future… [...]

Romana St. Matthew-Daniel : “In its 2003 report on the administration of justice in Equatorial Guinea (Equatorial Guinea: At the Crossroads ) the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) uncovered little respect for the rule of law and separation of powers, torture, failure of proper trial processes and lack of an independent judiciary. It [...]

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Monday his government would proceed to draft a law that would make it easier to deport illegal immigrants and strip immigrants accused of violent crimes of their French citizenship. The proposal targets immigrants who kill or attempt to kill public officials or police officers within 10 years of having gaining [...]

Prosecutors in Bahrain on Saturday charged 23 Shiite Muslims with terrorism-related offenses and conspiring to overthrow the government, claiming that they were acting under the direction of an unnamed foreign government. The suspects, who have been under arrest since August, are charged with undermining national security and planning violence, intimidation and subversion through an international [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued a decision Friday allowing two people to file habeas corpus petitions against removal orders from the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) despite provisions of the REAL ID Act (RIDA) removing jurisdiction from federal courts to hear such claims when they are late. The government had [...]

Sara Totonchi : “Wednesday, a federal judge upheld the murder conviction of Georgia death row inmate Troy Davis. This ruling followed an unusual evidentiary hearing that was ordered by the US Supreme Court to examine evidence of Davis’ innocence. Despite the ruling from Judge William T. Moore, Jr., questions and doubts about the Davis case [...]