Lawyers for late Iraqi ex-president Saddam Hussein issued a statement Saturday in response to his dawn execution declaring that the former leader "died a martyr" and condemning the trial as a "political assassination" that was a "flagrant violation of international law." The statement said that the defense team "will not close the book on this [...]

Video and pictures released by Iraqi state television Saturday confirmed the execution of Saddam Hussein which took place around 6 AM Saturday local time (10 PM Friday ET) at an Iraqi facility nicknamed Camp Justice in Baghdad's Shiite neighborhood of Kazimiyah. Hussein, who had been held by the US military with other high-security detainees at [...]

Bulgaria has urged a speedy appeal in the retrial of five Bulgarian nurses and one Palestinian doctor accused of infecting over 400 Libyan patients, primarily children . The medics were convicted and sentenced to death in their second trial on December 19 after the initial guilty verdict was overturned by the Libyan Supreme Court in [...]

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved the proposed $86 billion AT&amptT-BellSouth merger Friday, after several months delay. The telecom merger was approved 4-0 by the FCC commissioners, who found that "significant public interest benefits are likely to result from this transaction." The merger has been delayed three times as the proposal has failed to gain [...]

Saddam Hussein defense lawyer Curtis Doebbler, one of the two Americans on Hussein's Dujail trial team, has condemned the ousted Iraqi president's execution in a statement sent to JURIST only minutes after his client was hanged in Baghdad at dawn Saturday local time:The execution of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is an unfortunate display of arrogant [...]

Iraqi television is reporting that Saddam Hussein has been executed. The hanging, reported by US-operated al-Hurra TV as having taken place around 6 AM Saturday local time (10 PM Friday ET), fulfills the death sentence handed down by the Iraqi High Tribunal last month following the former dictator's conviction on charges of crimes against humanity. [...]

A US federal judge has rejected an eleventh-hour bid by lawyers for Saddam Hussein seeking a direct stay of execution. US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly issued a 6-page ruling late Friday evening following a telephone conference with lawyers in the wake of court papers filed around 1 PM Friday afternoon. Kollar-Kotelly wrote:As Judge Reggie Walton [...]

Iraqi officials have said that final preparations are underway for the execution by hanging of Saddam Hussein before 6 AM local Baghdad time (10 PM Friday ET). Observers eligible to witness the execution have been told to be in attendance by 5:30 AM local time and are said to be already gathering in Baghdad's fortified [...]

A three-judge panel of the US DC Circuit Court of Appeals Friday rejected an amicus brief filed by seven retired judges who argued that portions of the new Military Commissions Act affecting Guantanamo detainees were unconstitutional on the grounds that the brief's description of the amici as "judges" was inappropriate. Citing Advisory Opinion No. 72 [...]

An Iraqi judge on the appeals bench of the Iraqi High Tribunal that earlier this week rejected Saddam Hussein's appeal of his November death sentence for crimes against humanity said Friday that Hussein would be executed "today or tomorrow," adding to the prevailing confusion about when and even if the ousted Iraqi dictator will be [...]