The Santiago Court of Appeals Friday dismissed two charges against former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet of forging Chilean Defense Ministry documents and failing to declare assets in a tax return, while upholding his tax evasion indictment on other two other counts, including passport falsification. The indictment stems from an investigation of Pinochet's secret offshore back [...]

US Chamber of Commerce v. SEC, United States Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, April 7, 2006 . Read the full text of the ruling . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Vacating a lesser sentence, the Quebec Court of Appeal has imposed an 18-month prison term on Canadian advertising executive Paul Coffin, who last May pleaded guilty to 15 counts of fraud in the federal sponsorship scandal . The trial court originally ordered Coffin to serve a conditional sentence of two years in the community with [...]

The War Crimes Chamber of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina on Friday found Nedjo Samardzic guilty of committing crimes against humanity and escaping from prison during the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia and sentenced him to 13 years imprisonment. Samardzic, a Bosnian Serb army leader and convicted murderer who escaped prison in 1992 to join [...]

A three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit Friday unanimously ruled against US Securities and Exchange Commission corporate governance regulations that require mutual fund companies to appoint independent chairpersons and compose at least 75 percent of their boards with independent members. The US Chamber of Commerce praised the holding, which [...]

A panel of 11 members of the German parliament began its investigation into the role of German intelligence in the war in Iraq Friday. The committee will focus on 30 questions posed by the Free Democratic Party, the Left Party and the Greens , Germany's opposition parties, in reaction to an internal investigation which found [...]

The United Nations has expressed disappointment in the US decision not to run for a position on the new UN Human Rights Council . Spokesmen for UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and UN General Assembly President Jan Eliasson , however, expressed hope that the US would continue to support the purpose and work of the council, [...]

Guantanamo Bay detainee Binyam Muhammad said Thursday that he had been tortured after United States authorities transported him to a Moroccan prison for interrogation. Muhammad is a suspected al Qaeda member and is charged with conspiring with al Qaeda to commit war crimes in the United States. He made his first appearance before a military [...]

Ruling on petition by Kizza Besigye challenging the presidential election of 23 February 2006 in which President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni was declared elected, Uganda Supreme Court, April 6, 2006. Text: The Petitioner, Rtd. Col. Dr. Kizza Besigye, who was one of the candidates in the Presidential Election held on 23 February 2006, petitioned the Supreme [...]

A bill reflecting what was heralded as a key compromise on immigration reform has stalled in the US Senate. By a margin of 38-60 senators voted Friday morning against a motion to send the existing border security bill back to the Senate Judiciary Committee with instructions to include compromise language agreed to by Senate leaders [...]