The US government has turned down requests from two separate UN investigators to visit the prison facility at Guantanamo Bay , the Washington Post reported Thursday. UN special rapporteur on torture Manfred Nowak and UN special rapporteur on human rights and counterterrorism Martin Scheinin had each requested access to the facility as well as detailed [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Wednesday called on the pre-trial chamber of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) to determine the scope of its prosecutions "to thwart growing perceptions that court decisions are directed by the government." HRW's urging comes in response to a statement made by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen [...]

The US Senate on Wednesday dismissed articles of impeachment for former federal judge Samuel Kent . The decision to terminate impeachment proceedings came after the White House accepted Kent's resignation last month. Kent resigned at the end of June after the US House of Representatives voted to impeach him . Kent is the first federal [...]

Computer chip maker Intel Corp. on Wednesday filed an appeal with the European Court of First Instance challenging a May European Commission (EC) ruling fining Intel €1.06 billion for violating European Union antitrust laws. The EC ruled that Intel violated the laws by giving computer companies rebates to purchase nearly all of their supplies from [...]

Sonya Sceats : "Claims by Binyam Mohamed that the UK security service colluded in his 'medieval' torture while detained in Pakistan, Morocco and Afghanistan have reignited an important debate about the standing of the torture ban in UK foreign policy. According to Mohamed, British officials not only failed to protect him from torture they probably [...]

Russian officials announced on Wednesday that the body of Russian human rights activist Andrei Kulagin had been found in a quarry. Kulagin, the former head of rights group Spravedlivost, had been missing since May . Although officials did not comment on the cause of death, Spravedlivost director Andrei Stolbunov believes Kulagin was murdered. The announcement [...]

Former Credit Suisse broker Julian Tzolov pleaded guilty Wednesday to multiple counts of fraud and conspiracy before the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York . Tzolov is accused of defrauding clients out of more than $400 million by selling high-risk, mortgage-backed securities to clients who requested low-risk investments, in violation of [...]

The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Wednesday summoned former president Pervez Musharraf to appear before the court and justify his November 2007 declaration of emergency rule in the country. Under the rules, Musharraf had dismissed many members of the country's judiciary, including Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry . Musharraf had argued that the courts had [...]

The US Senate on Wednesday rejected a proposed amendment to a military appropriations bill that would allow individuals with permits to carry concealed firearms across state lines. The amendment was proposed by Senator John Thune (R-SD) and had been a hotly contested issue, reflected by the 58-39 vote. Sixty votes were needed for passage. Thune [...]

Implementing the Responsibility to Protect, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, July 22, 2009 . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here. Latest commentary available here. JURIST has more on the war crimes.