Swiss Prosecutor General Daniel Zappelli announced on Monday that he will not pursue money-laundering charges against Pakistani presidential candidate Asif Ali Zardari , who is the widower of the assassinated former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto . Zappelli explained that Geneva was left with insufficient evidence to continue after authorities in Pakistan dropped their own corruption [...]

Eleanor McCullen, et al. v. Martha Coakley, US District Court for the District of Massachusetts, August 22, 2008 . Read the full text of the opinion . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

British nationals and former Guantanamo Bay detainees Shafiq Rasul, Asif Iqbal, Rhuhel Ahmed and Jamal Al-Harith have petitioned the US Supreme Court to hear a lawsuit in which they seek religious rights and protection from torture for those still at the facility. In the petition, docketed Monday, the men argue that a lower court's dismissal [...]

The US will begin providing direct financial aid to the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) once the genocide tribunal takes adequate measures against corruption, stated outgoing US Ambassador Joseph Mussomeli on Monday during his final press conference in Phnom Penh. The UN-sponsored court was established to try former Khmer Rouge leaders accused [...]

Arkansas Secretary of State Charlie Daniels has certified a ballot measure which could prohibit gays, lesbians and other unmarried cohabiting couples from becoming either foster or adoptive parents. Daniels announced Monday that the Arkansas Family Council Action Committee had submitted petitions containing the valid signatures of more than 85,000 registered voters – nearly 25,000 more [...]

JURIST Contributing Editor Ali Khan of Washburn University School of Law says that the nomination of Asif Zardari, the widower of assassinated former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, to contest Pakistan's next presidential election in the wake of General Pervez Musharraf's resignation is a disturbing development that would muddle the presidency's authority rather than restore its [...]

Prosecutors in Thailand have asked the nation's Supreme Court to seize over $2 billion from the frozen accounts and holdings of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his wife Pojamarn Shinawatra , who already forfeited nearly $400,000 when they fled to the UK while on bail from corruption charges. Earlier this month, the Court announced [...]

Former Pakistani prime minister and Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) head Nawaz Sharif on Monday followed through with threats to withdraw his party from the coalition government. Sharif had set Friday as the deadline for the PML-N and the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) to agree on the reinstatement of all of the judges ousted [...]

Officials from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) said Friday that notes found in the clothes of three Guantanamo detainees who committed suicide in 2006 indicated that they were seeking martyrdom. Military investigations of the suicides began immediately after the two Saudi and one Yemeni men were found in their cells, and the military quickly [...]

The Texas Third Court of Appeals has allowed money-laundering indictments to stand against two alleged co-conspirators of former US House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) , rejecting their argument that the state laws used to prosecute them were unconstitutionally vague or overbroad. The Austin-based intermediate appellate court on Friday affirmed a trial court's denial of [...]