The Federal Court of Australia ruled Thursday that former Guantanamo Bay detainee Mamdouh Habib can sue the Australian government for complicity in his ill-treatment while incarcerated in Pakistan, Egypt, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay. Habib claims he suffered sleep deprivation, electrocution, and drug injections during his detainment, some of which happened in collusion with or in [...]

Eric Montalvo : "The careless approach to the issues surrounding all things Guantanamo Bay is an affront to the Constitution and the credibility of our legal institutions. As the most recent "flip flop" by Attorney General Holder regarding the prosecution of Khalid Sheik Mohammed (KSM) demonstrates, the original quick and forceful end of Guantanamo has [...]

The Prosecutor v. Ephrem Setako judgment summary, International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, February 25, 2010 . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here. Latest commentary available here. JURIST has more on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

Danilo Reyes : "The decision of the Department of Justice (DoJ) that 197 people can be prosecuted for multiple murders in the deaths of 57 people in the November 2009 Maguindanao massacre, based largely on "positive identification" could be a concern. In order for the case to have the possibility of securing a conviction in [...]

A Turkish court on Thursday released three high ranking military officials detained for questioning over an alleged coup plot, hours after top political and military officials met to discuss the escalating situation. The court released former chief of the Navy, Adm. Ozden Ornek, ex-chief of the Air Force Gen. Ibrahim Firtina, and Gen. Ergin Saygun, [...]

UK Director of Public Prosecutions (DDP), Keir Starmer , published a new policy on Thursday for prosecutors in regards to cases of assisted suicide . While the new policy does not legalize assisted suicide, it introduces six public interest considerations against prosecution, including compassion of the suspect, an effort to dissuade the victim, and reporting [...]

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay publicly supported the final report of the UN Fact Finding Mission of the Gaza Conflict on Wednesday, calling its conclusions sound. The report, originally adopted by the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in October, accused both Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and Hamas fighters of war crimes during [...]

Maryland Attorney General Douglas Gansler said Wednesday that the state of Maryland and its agencies should recognize same-sex marriages performed lawfully in other states. Gansler's opinion, issued in response to a legislator's request for clarification of Maryland law, said that the state's highest court would likely rule that legal same-sex marriages from other states are [...]

Incidents of anti-Semitism in Canada have risen 11.4 percent since 2008, according to a Wednesday report by B'nai Brith Canada . The group found that there were 1,264 incidents of anti-Semitic harassment, violence, and vandalism in Canada during 2009. It also said that anti-Semitic incidents increased globally in 2009, linking them to a rise in [...]

A judge for the US District Court for the District of Columbia ruled Wednesday that the government can continue to hold indefinitely two Yemeni Guantanamo Bay detainees, even though the men had been cleared for release by the Bush administration two years ago. Judge Gladys Kessler denied the petitions for habeas corpus filed by Fahmi [...]