An appeals court in Thailand ruled Friday that accused Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout can be extradited to the US to face charges including conspiracy to kill US nationals and conspiracy to provide material support to a proscribe terrorist group. The court’s decision overturned a decision issued by the Bangkok Criminal Court last August, refusing [...]

A Guatemalan judge ruled Wednesday that former president Alfonso Portillo and two of his former ministers will stand trial on charges of embezzlement. Portillo, president of Guatemala from 2000-2004, is accused of diverting approximately USD $15 million in funds from the Ministry of Defense. The ministers of finance and defense who served under Portillo face [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Alternatives-Cameroun on Thursday urged the government of Cameroon to decriminalize consensual sexual acts between adults of the same sex . Under Article 347 of the Cameroon Penal Code , same-sex acts are subject to a punishment of six months to five years in prison. The groups called on the Cameroon [...]

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced Wednesday that it has charged the state of New Jersey with securities fraud for failing to disclose to municipal bond investors that it was underfunding two of the state’s largest pension plans. Between August 2001 and August 2007, New Jersey sold more than $26 billion in municipal [...]

Former Sri Lankan army chief Sarath Fonseka said Thursday that he will appeal his recent conviction on charges of engaging in politics while on active duty, but that he has no faith in the government, which he called a dictatorship. Fonseka, who remains in custody, stated that he has no faith in the judiciary and [...]

Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning announced Wednesday that he has agreed to a permanent injunction of a Nebraska abortion law because he believes there is little chance that the law will withstand a court challenge. The law, known as the Women’s Health Protection Act, would have required physicians to evaluate patients to determine that their [...]

Prisoner rights advocates on Tuesday urged US Attorney General Eric Holder to act quickly to implement proposed guidelines to eliminate prison rape . Speaking at a meeting at the National Press Club , Prison Fellowship vice president Pat Nolan said that implementing proposals submitted last year by the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission (NPREC) could [...]

JURIST Special Guest Columnist Andrea Prasow, senior counter-terrorism counsel at Human Rights Watch, says that the players constituting the military commission that tried Ibrahim al Qosi in Guantanamo last week created their own “mini-justice system” to replace the broken system they had originally been handed…. Last week at Guantanamo, while much of the media’s attention [...]

The UK Charity Commission ruled Thursday that the Catholic social services agency Catholic Care may not restrict its adoption services to married heterosexual couples. The commission’s decision came after the UK High Court issued a judgment in March instructing the commission to reconsider a previous ruling on the adoption service’s practice. In its judgment, the [...]

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against a number of federal agencies, including the Department of Justice (DOJ), State Department (DOS), FBI and CIA, seeking information related to the detention of US citizen Naji Hamdan in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 2008. The suit was filed after the agencies [...]