The Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) has increased to approximately $100,000 a month the funds available for former Liberian president Charles Taylor to defend himself in his ongoing war crimes trial. The allocation includes money for a legal team and an investigator, as well as office space in The Hague, Sierra Leone, and Liberia. [...]

US military prosecutors have filed an appeal against a military judge's decision to dismiss charges against Guantanamo detainee Omar Ahmed Khadr , according to the Department of Defense (DOD) Friday. In late June, Judge Peter E. Brownback III reiterated his earlier ruling dismissing charges against Khadr on grounds that the Combatant Status Review Tribunal that [...]

A Bangladeshi court jailed UN human rights expert Sigma Huda Thursday, pending a trial over allegations connecting her to a government corruption case . Prosecutors allege Huda assisted her husband, former Bangladeshi communications minister Nazmul Huda, in extorting almost $300,000 USD from a construction company while in office. The Bangladesh Supreme Court overturned a lower [...]

Alien Detention Standards: Telephone Access Problems Were Pervasive at Detention Facilities; Other Deficiencies Did Not Show a Pattern of Noncompliance, Government Accountability Office, July 6, 2007 . Read the full text of the report . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Russia expressed displeasure with the UK Friday over British refusal to prosecute exiled business tycoon Boris Berezovsky for his calls to overthrow Russian President Vladimir Putin . Berezovsky, who has been living in the UK since 2001 as a refugee, called for a regime change in an April interview with the Guardian . While Berezovsky [...]

Response of the US Department of Justice to the Declaration of a former Combatant Status Review Tribunal officer, US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, July 6, 2007 . Read the full text of the response . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

The Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court on Friday convicted former Pharmaceutical Registration Department Director Cao Wenzhuan of corruption and dereliction of duty for receiving approximately $316,000 in bribes from two pharmaceutical companies in exchange for certifying substandard drugs at the State Food and Drug Administration . The court sentenced Cao to death on both [...]

American Civil Liberties Union, et al. v. National Security Agency, et al., US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, July 6, 2007 . Read the full text of the decision . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

South Dakota is preparing to hold its first execution in 60 years next week, AP reported Friday. The execution was halted last year by Governor Mike Rounds , but the passage of new lethal injection protocols in February cleared up the legal concerns that led to its suspension. While the former law, written in 1984, [...]

Italy's Superior Council of the Magistracy (CSM) , the country's top self-governing judiciary body, has accused the Italian Intelligence and Security Service (SISMI) under the government of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of spying on approximately 200 judges and magistrates that were deemed "politically unreliable" by the government. The CSM accused Nicolo Pollari, head of [...]