The Egyptian government has released two Shiite activists held in Egyptian custody since October who repeatedly criticized the systematic torture of prisoners in Egyptian custody. Mohammed al-Dereini and Ahmed Sobh are charged with “promoting extreme Shi’ite beliefs with the intent of causing contempt of the Islamic religion” and with “spreading false rumors and inciting propaganda [...]

The Bush administration is invoking a secrecy defense known as Glomarization to avoid disclosing hundreds of documents concerning White House visits by former lobbyist Jack Abramoff , according to AP citing court papers filed Friday. The administration is relying on a 1976 US Supreme Court ruling in Phillippi v. CIA, a case which arose in [...]

Protective Order #003, Protection of Identity of Witnesses, US v. Omar Ahmed Khadr, Judge Peter E. Brownback, US Military Commission, October 15, 2007 . Read the full text of the order . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Two major Pakistani lawyers' groups are pressing efforts to encourage a boycott of the country's January 8 general elections, Pakistan's Post daily reported Saturday. Joining ousted Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry's call for opposition political parties to boycott the elections , the Supreme Court Bar Association (SBCA) and the Lahore Bar Association (LBA) [...]

Linda Lay, widow of former Enron chairman Ken Lay , formally rejected a US government claim to his assets in court papers filed Friday. In an answer to the government's civil suit against the Enron founder's estate, Linda Lay maintained her husband did not commit any crimes and that none of the $12.7 million the [...]

President Bush urged Congress in his weekly radio address Saturday to update the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in time to replace the temporary Protect America Act , set to expire February 1. That Act currently allows the US government to eavesdrop inside of the US without court approval as long as one end of [...]

The Pakistani government offered to reinstate all superior court judges sacked under emergency rule except for ousted Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry but the deposed judges rejected the proposal, according to a report in the Pakistani Nation daily Saturday. The Nation said Peshawar High Court Bar Association President Abdul Latif Afridi revealed the failed compromise [...]

US military judge Col. Peter Brownback has issued a blanket order protecting the identities of prosecution witnesses in the military commission trial of Omar Khadr , the New York Times reported Saturday. The order, originally rendered on October 15, was contained within previously unavailable commission documents that were only recently released by the Pentagon. The [...]

Three United Nations human rights experts joined together Friday to voice their distress over the effect planned constitutional reforms in Venezuela may have on civil liberties and the rule of law in the country. Ambeyi Ligabo, Special Rapporteur on Freedom of opinion and expression; Hina Jilani, the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative on Human Rights Defenders; [...]

Seven countries on Friday committed to new efforts to protect journalists and their crews in armed conflicts following the conclusion of a meeting in Switzerland of the 194 signatories of the Geneva Conventions. The 30th International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement focused in part on the role of international humanitarian law [...]