The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments in two cases on Monday. In District Attorney’s Office v. Osborne , the Court heard arguments on whether a defendant has the right to obtain post-conviction access to the state’s biological evidence under Section 1983 or the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process clause. The US Court of Appeals for the [...]

The UK government's independent reviewer of terror laws on Sunday called for a judicial inquiry into British complicity in US rendition and torture. The reviewer, Lord Carlile of Berriew , specifically cited the case of Binyam Mohamed , the British resident who alleges that he was tortured with the knowledge of MI5 while held in [...]

The EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) said in a report released Monday that incidents of anti-Semitism have increased in the EU since December 2008 after declining in 2007 and 2008. The report found "an increase in anti-Semitic activity between 2001 and 2002, between 2003 and 2004 and again in 2006, but a decrease in [...]

UN special rapporteur on torture Manfred Nowak has told the British government that the United Kingdom may have acquiesced in the mistreatment of terror suspect detainees and thereby violated the UN Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment . The Guardian reported Sunday that, according to Nowak, Britain's MI5 security [...]

A judge from the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) announced on Monday that the ECCC's Cambodian employees will not be paid in March. The UN-backed tribunal is staffed by both local and international workers, and the funding shortage is expected to cause some employees to stop working . The ECCC has seen [...]

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon on Friday pledged his ongoing support for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and stressed that the international community must continue to combat genocide. Ban also asked for help in the search for thirteen people suspected of involvement in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. It is suspected that the fugitives [...]

Israeli Attorney General Meni Mazuz informed outgoing Prime Minister Ehmud Olmert Sunday that he intends to file an indictment against him in the District Court of Jerusalem for receiving illicit funds. Charges stemming from Olmert's alleged acceptance of cash contributions from Jewish-American businessman Morris Talansky could possibly include fraud, violation of public confidence, and the [...]

The UN Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) , tasked with investigating the February 14, 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri , officially began operating Sunday. The STL will be located in The Hague and the prosecution of its cases will be lead by Daniel Bellemare . In an open letter to the [...]

Somali President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed said Saturday that he would support the imposition of a moderate form of Sharia , Islamic religious law, as part of a cease-fire agreement with the country's Hizb al-Islamiya and Al-Shabaab rebels. Ahmed said, however, that he would not agree to provisions that would prohibit girls from attending school, require [...]

Police in Bangladesh on Sunday charged more than 1,000 members of the paramilitary Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) in last week's border guards mutiny , which killed dozens of top BDR officers, including the force's commander. The government plans to organize a special tribunal to try the organizers of the revolt. Among those charged are six accused [...]