Crusading Spanish judge Baltazar Garzon has asked prosecutors to examine the US lawyers reportedly behind the establishment of the Guantanamo Bay detention center, Spanish media reported Saturday. Garzon's request comes after a criminal complaint was filed last week in the Audiencia Nacional against six lawyers from the administration of former US president George W. Bush, [...]

Humans Rights Watch (HRW) Friday criticized the resumption of activities by Syria's Supreme State Security Court (SSSC), and called for its dissolution. HRW called the court's activities a violation of the right to a fair trial in part because it does not follow procedural rules of Syria's criminal courts and does not allow defendants to [...]

A judge in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York on Friday ordered the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to release reports on the destruction of 92 videotapes of high value terrorism suspect interrogations within the next 30 days or alternatively, explain why it should not do so. Judge Alvin Hellerstein directed [...]

A judge in the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas issued an order Friday setting a July 30 date for the resentencing of former Enron Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Skilling and setting up a system for victims to share their accounts with the court. Skilling was convicted in 2006 on 19 counts [...]

The UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on Friday passed a resolution condemning Myanmar for human rights violations and calling on the military junta to desist from politically motivated arrests and release nearly 2,100 political prisoners, which include Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi . The resolution was condemned by countries in Asia and Russia as [...]

Russian trials decided by juries are currently restricted, creating hopeless situations for those accused of crimes who choose not to plead guilty, according to former oil executive Mikhail Khodorkovsky on Friday. In a statement released on his defense website, Khodorkovsky, who is currently on trial for embezzlement, expressed his hope that this, his second trial, [...]

A Mexican appeals court on Thursday affirmed a lower court ruling that absolved former president Luis Echeverria of any criminal responsibility for the 1968 killings of student protesters in Mexico City's Tlatelolco Plaza. The Fifth Criminal Collegiate Court upheld the Third United Criminal Tribunal's July 2007 finding that the act constituted genocide but that the [...]

Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko called for constitutional changes to provide more separation between parliamentary and presidential powers during a Thursday interview with Reuters. Tymoshenko said that she believed that the presidency should retain certain powers, but that parliament should be given clear ways to check those powers. She said that by amending the country's [...]

The UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) on Thursday said that it has focused on the effects of counter-terrorism efforts and global warming on human rights, as well as effective conflict resolution and the support of international institutions charged with protecting the rights in its Annual Report on Human Rights . Introducing the report, UK Foreign Secretary David [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled Thursday that a South Carolina law requiring convicted first degree sex offenders to submit to a DNA test and pay $250 in processing fees prior to their release does not violate the ex post facto clause of the Constitution. Anthony Eubanks, convicted of criminal sexual [...]