Human Rights Watch decried conditions at Guantanamo Bay as contrary to international norms of humane treatment in a report released Tuesday, saying that detainees face extreme isolation that can cause mental trauma. The group found that many are housed alone in windowless, cramped cells for months or years on end and are denied access to [...]

Fifteen members of Myanmar's National League for Democracy (NLD) were released from custody Monday, two weeks after their arrests at a demonstration in support of detained party leader Aung San Suu Kyi . The activists had staged the event to support Suu Kyi on the day she was scheduled to be released from house arrest, [...]

Fourteen accused Zayidi Shi'ite rebels, among them outspoken Yemeni journalist Abdel Karim al-Khaywani , were sentenced in a Yemeni court Monday for their roles in an ongoing Shi'ite uprising. Thirteen of the rebels received sentences of up to ten years in prison and one was sentenced to death for plotting attacks on Yemeni military bases. [...]

The US District Court for the District of Columbia began hearings Monday in Cobell v. Kempthorne , a class-action suit brought in 1996 alleging US government mismanagement of trust funds for a group of some 500,000 Native Americans and their heirs. Judge James Robertson will decide how much the government owes the class members for [...]

The Supreme Court of Virginia has upheld a woman's visitation rights regarding a child who was born to her former lesbian partner while the two were engaged in a same-sex union under Vermont law . Without reaching the merits of the case , the court ruled Friday for Janet Jenkins against Lisa Miller, finding that [...]

Sahr MuhammedAlly : "An arraignment of a defendant facing the death penalty should be done in accordance with the highest standards of due process, yet the arraignment on June 5th of the five September 11 defendants at Guantanamo Bay was purely political. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM), Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarek bin Attash, Ramzi bin al [...]

Former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will be released from detention Monday to seek US treatment for health issues including high blood pressure and severe ear and eye conditions. Bangladesh's emergency government charged Hasina with corruption for allegedly receiving illegal kickbacks in a scheme to award lucrative gas contracts and a power-plant deal . She [...]

The Pentagon has said that an additional 108 military lawyers and paralegals will be assigned to work on the cases of prisoners detained at Guantanamo Bay , twice the current number. Air Force Brig. Gen. Thomas Hartmann , legal advisor to the Office of Military Commissions, made the announcement last Thursday, the same day as [...]

The US Supreme Court handed down four decisions Monday, including Allison Engine v. United States , where the Court ruled that the Federal False Claims Act is not limited to claims of misspent funds submitted to a federal government agency, but also applies to claims submitted to a federal contractor that will ultimately be paid [...]

Lt. Cmdr. William Kuebler, the military defense lawyer for Guantanamo detainee Omar Khadr (DOD materials; JURIST news archive] said Sunday that personnel at Guantanamo Bay were ordered to destroy hand-written notes made during the interrogations of terror suspects. He stated that the Pentagon's "standard operating procedures" manual required hand-written notes to be destroyed after a [...]