A lawyer for one of the men accused in the killing of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya alleged in his closing statements Tuesday that the prosecution's main pieces of evidence are flawed and have been fabricated. Defense lawyer Murad Musayev pointed out that phone records released by the telephone operator Megafon show evidence of manipulation. Musayev's [...]

JURIST Special Guest Columnist Gail Davidson, Executive Director of Lawyers Rights Watch Canada, says that Canada and the US are duty-bound to act immediately to ensure that Canadian Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr is released and repatriated, his rights are protected and violations of his rights are investigated and remedied, where appropriate, by criminal proceedings [...]

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Tuesday charged four executives from Research In Motion (RIM) , the company that makes BlackBerry, with stock options backdating and reached a settlement agreement. The four RIM executives, co-CEOs James Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis, CFO Dennis Kavelman, and VP of Finance Angelo Loberto, are accused of backdating [...]

A military judge ruled that a US Army sergeant may testify for the prosecution against Sgt. Michael Leahy Jr., who is charged in connection with the killing of four Iraqi prisoners, as court-martial proceedings began Tuesday. Staff Sgt. Jess Cunningham will be allowed to testify , despite defense counsel's objection that its limited time to [...]

Italian authorities Monday began dismantling illegal immigrant camps around Rome heavily populated by members of the Roma minority ("gypsies") following the alleged weekend rape of a 14-year old girl by East European immigrants which led to public outcry and vigilante reprisals. Interior Minister Roberto Maroni meanwhile proposed an emergency decree which would authorize local bodies [...]

Gabor Rona : "For some rule-of-law fans the toasting is over and it's already the morning after. The new administration's recent decision to continue the Bush line that torture victims' claims should be dismissed in order to preserve unspecified "state secrets" was a shocker. But that's small change compared to what's on the horizon. President [...]

The Federal Court of Canada Monday dismissed an application by two Guantanamo Bay detainees requesting access to Canadian interrogation records. Mohamedou Ould Slahi, a Mauritanian with landed immigrant status in Canada, and Ahcene Zemiri , an Algerian permanent resident of Canada, sought disclosure of records of interrogations conducted by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) [...]

Speaker for Italy's Chamber of Deputies  Gianfranco Fini  said Monday that Italy will not accept detainees released from the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay . Fini made the announcement after a meeting with US House speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) in Rome, and it contradicts earlier statements by Italian defense minister Ignazio La Russa in which La Russa said the country may [...]

Paul Stuart Haberman : "A decision like the one recently handed down by the Common Pleas Court of Erie County, Ohio in Oliver v. National Collegiate Athletic Association, et al. was long overdue. For many years, college athletes that dare seek the guiding hand of counsel in negotiation with professional sports teams have done so [...]

The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) on Tuesday began the trial of former Khmer Rouge leader Kaing Guek-Eav . Kaing, also known as "Duch," faces charges  of murder and torture in addition to charges  of crimes against humanity and violations of the Geneva Conventions. Kaing is best known for running the Tuol Sleng (S-21) prison camp  in Phnom Penh [...]