Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak promised Tuesday to repeal Egypt's ongoing 25-year state of emergency once a new terrorism law is passed and to amend the Egyptian Constitution to formally recognize the people of Egypt as the source of sovereign power and permit parliamentary parties to nominate presidential candidates. Mubarak made similar promises last December, though [...]

The Saudi Arabia Interior Ministry announced Tuesday that the government has freed eighteen former Guantanamo Bay detainees "after meeting necessary legal conditions." A spokesperson for the ministry stated that the government will continue to try to urge repatriation of Saudis from Guantanamo Bay , but was unclear as to how many Saudis are still detained [...]

The Russian Supreme Court Tuesday upheld a sentence of life imprisonment for Nurpashi Kulayev, the only terrorist survivor convicted in connection with the 2004 Beslan school siege . Kulayev filed the appeal in June, arguing that his conviction was "unlawful and groundless" as the prosecution failed to present evidence implicating him in the terrorism and [...]

British troops supported by Iraqi forces raided a Basra prison unit early Monday morning, freeing 127 prisoners detained in squalid conditions by a rogue Basra police squad suspected of torturing its prisoners. Following the raid, UK military spokesman Maj. Charles Burbridge said the serious crimes unit of the southern section of Basra was a front [...]

The appeals chamber of the Iraqi High Tribunal has affirmed Saddam Hussein's death sentence for crimes against humanity committed in the Iraqi town of Dujail in 1982. A spokesperson for the court said Tuesday that the decision still had to be ratified by President Jalal Talabani and Vice Presidents Adil Abdul-Mahdi and Tariq Al-Hashimi before [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia rejected the new federal rules for smog reduction on Friday, stating that the Environmental Protection Agency "has failed to heed the restrictions on its discretion set forth in the Act." The smog standards were introduced in 2004 and required roughly 470 counties designated as "non-attainment" [...]

Policy Review: Crime, Justice and Cohesion, UK Home Office, November 2006 . Read the part 1 and part 2 of the report . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Iran's parliament has voted to review the terms of the country's cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) , the UN's nuclear watchdog, following a weekend approval of sanctions ]JURIST report] by the UN Security Council ordering Tehran to halt uranium enrichment. The bill gives members of parliament 48 hours to decide whether to [...]

US Defense Department Administrative Review Boards (ARB) reviewing the status of prisoners held by the US at Guantanamo Bay cleared 46 detainees for transfer to the custody of their home countries, according to new figures posted on the DOD website. Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England , the civilian in control of the review boards, [...]

A recent UK Home Office report prepared for Prime Minister Tony Blair details the country's first increase in crime since the mid-1990s and predicts a massive 25% increase in its prison population over the next five years, according to the Sunday Times. The report also observes a growing gap between Britain's poorest and wealthiest residents [...]