Members of the Serbia-Montenegro parliament have passed a law to authorize the freezing of assets of fugitives accused of war crimes in an effort to comply with requirements of the European Union and International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) . Serbia has promised the ICTY that it will turn over fugitive Ratko Mladic [...]

In a report read in court as the Saddam Hussein trial resumed in Baghdad Monday, handwriting experts testified that some of the signatures on documents connected with the execution of 148 Shiite villagers belonged to Hussein. The documents include an execution order allegedly signed by Hussein and Barzan Ibrahim , Hussein's brother-in-law and former director [...]

Nepal security forces on Monday fired on a group of pro-democracy protesters in Nijgadh, killing at least one person and wounding five, marking the fifth incident where police have fired upon protesters since widespread demonstrations against the rule of King Gyanendra began over a week ago. Gyanendra seized power in a bloodless coup last year [...]

JURIST Special Guest Columnist Kathleen Duignan, Executive Director of the National Institute of Military Justice, says that the prosecution and conviction of low-ranking soldiers like US Army dog handler Sergeant Michael J. Smith for abusing prisoners at Abu Ghraib should not be allowed to hide or distract from the legal accountability of officers higher-up the [...]

Philippines President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo announced Sunday that she would commute all death sentences to life imprisonment. With the decision affecting 1,200 convicts currently on death row, Arroyo said, "I wish to announce that we are changing our policy on those who have been imposed the death penalty. We are reducing their penalty to life imprisonment." [...]

Over 100 Muslim Brotherhood members were detained by Egyptian police Sunday, continuing the ruling government's persecution of party members. According to a source from the Interior Ministry, these latest arrests were in response to planned demonstrations by members of the Muslim Brotherhood to protest Egypt's emergency laws. Emergency laws , first instituted in 1981, were [...]

The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) is urging French prosecutors to open a judicial inquiry into allegations that CIA-operated rendition flights stopped at French airports. A local French prosecutor has already opened a preliminary investigation into claims that CIA planes which landed at Le Bourget airport outside Paris carried terror suspects being transported to [...]

Former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky has been hospitalized in Russia after being stabbed in the face by another prisoner while he slept, Khodorkovsky's lawyer Yury Schmidt said Saturday. The injury to Khodorkovsky's left nostril required stitches, but the Federal Prison Service dismissed the injury claims as a result of an argument with another inmate. A [...]

The Spanish Supreme Court has overturned the convictions of three men found guilty last year of collaborating with or belonging to al Qaeda in connection with the Sept. 11 terror attacks . The three men, Driss Chebli, Sadik Merizak, and Abdelaziz Benyaich, were convicted along with 15 other men in what was Europe's largest trial [...]

Belarus opposition politician and former foreign economic relations minister Mikhail Marinich was released from prison Friday, after having served nearly two years of a two and a half year sentence. Arrested in April 2004 and convicted of theft of equipment the US government provided to his NGO "Business Initiative," Marinich's case has been widely criticized [...]