A Canadian government inquiry has found that officials of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the Canada Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) "indirectly contributed" to the torture of three citizens while in Syria between 2001 and 2004. The men, Ahmed Al Maati, Abdullah Almalki and Muayyed Nureddin, claimed they were detained and tortured by Syrian [...]

A judicial panel of the UK House of Lords Wednesday ruled that the British government acted within its power in denying a group of Indian Ocean islanders known as Chagossians the right to return to an archipelago under British control. The group had challenged a 2004 order prohibiting permanent residence on the Chagos Islands , [...]

New York Supreme Court Judge Jacquelyn Silbermann Wednesday rejected a petition brought by two members of New York City Council trying to prevent a council vote on a resolution to extend New York mayoral and city council term limits from eight to 12 years. Council members Bill de Blasio and Letitia James filed the complaint [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit has ruled that a physician who was accused of writing illegal prescriptions could pursue claims of false arrest, false imprisonment and malicious prosecution against the federal government. The court held Tuesday that a provision of the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) permitted such claims as an [...]

The death sentence of Afghan journalism student Sayad Parwaz Kambaksh was reduced Tuesday to 20 years' imprisonment by an Afghan appeals court. Kambaksh was sentenced to death in January for distributing papers questioning gender roles under Islam. In May, Kambaksh appealed his death sentence before the appeals court. He denied the accusations in front of [...]

US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff Wednesday issued a final rule setting out the details of his department's air passenger screening program . Under the Secure Flight Final Rule , responsibility for vetting the nation's air passengers moves from individual airlines to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Airlines will collect the names, birthdays and genders [...]

US District Judge Benjamin Settle ruled Tuesday that Iraq war objector 1st Lt. Ehren Watada cannot face a second court-martial on all charges for which he already faced court-martial. Settle's order held that a second-court martial of Watada on three of the five charges in his first court-martial would constitute double jeopardy in violation of [...]

Lt. Ehren K. Watada v. Lt. Col. John Head, et al., US District Court for the Western District of Washington, October 21, 2008 . Read the full text of the order . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

The US Department of Defense announced Tuesday that the Office of Military Commissions Convening Authority has dismissed charges without prejudice against five Guantanamo Bay detainees. Noor Uthman Mohammed, Binyam Mohammed, Sufyiam Barhoumi, Ghassan Abdullah al Sharbi, and Jabran Said Bin al Qahtani remain in custody, and Chief Prosecutor Army Col. Lawrence Morris has appointed teams [...]

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates confirmed Tuesday that the military prison at Guantanamo Bay would remain open for the duration of President George W. Bush's administration. The New York Times reported earlier in the day quoted unnamed senior administration officials as saying Bush had decided not to close the prison before the end of his [...]