Defense lawyers acting for Saddam Hussein in his genocide trial again failed to appear in court Wednesday, despite an agreement with the chief judge allowing them to rejoin the proceedings. The lawyers have been boycotting the trial to protest the behavior of Chief Judge Mohammed Oreibi al-Khalifa, appointed by the Iraqi government after the original [...]

The Turkish Parliament on Tuesday passed a resolution condemning a French bill that criminalizes any refusal to characterize the WWI-era mass killings of Armenians in Turkey as genocide, but did not take any further retaliatory action. The bill passed France's lower house last week but still needs approval by the French Senate and President Jacques [...]

US Army Col. Thomas Pappas testified Tuesday that the senior officer running the interrogation center at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison was concerned when he was chosen that he did not have the proper training or experience questioning prisoners to assume that role at the facility. At the Article 32 hearing , which will determine whether [...]

Advocacy groups and policymakers have reacted strongly to the Military Commissions Act of 2006 , signed into law by President Bush on Tuesday, calling it a denial of civil liberties while predicting it will fold under court scrutiny. The ACLU said the bill denies due process and constitutional protections to detainees, placing Guantanamo Bay and [...]

The air transportation system used by the federal government to deport illegal immigrants and transfer federal prisoners could be more secure and cost-effective, according to an audit report released Tuesday by the Department of Justice Inspector General. Known as the Justice Prisoner and Alien Transportation System (JPATS) , the system leased jets from Boeing to [...]

The Jewish organization Kahane Chai was properly designated as a terrorist organization by the US Department of State in 1997 and former Secretary of State Colin Powell in 2003, a federal appeals court held Tuesday. In 2003, Powell also decided that 20 other organizations were aliases for Kahane Chai, including the website Kahane.org. The group [...]

The government of the Georgian Republic on Tuesday publicly accused Russia of inhuman treatment and committing "gross violations" of international standards while rounding up Georgian nationals for deportation. One Georgian man died at the Moscow airport from an asthma attack after allegedly being denied medical care during five days of detention, according to the Georgian [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist David Harris of the University of Toledo College of Law says that despite calls from some quarters for more aggressive immigration control across the United States, local police want nothing to do with immigration enforcement, and they're right…. As we approach the midterm elections, illegal immigration remains one of the hottest issues [...]

A federal judge on Tuesday permitted a lawsuit, filed on behalf of 3,000 emergency workers who allege health problems resulting from the cleanup of the Sept. 11 attacks at the World Trade Center site, to proceed beyond the summary judgment stage against the city of New York, the Port Authority, New Jersey, and hundreds of [...]

Hate Crime Statistics 2005, Federal Bureau of Investigation, October 17, 2006 . Read the full text of the report. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.