The Iraqi High Criminal Court (IHCC) (formerly the Iraqi Special Tribunal ) confirmed Thursday that Sayeed al-Hamashi, who was selected to preside over the Saddam Hussein trial on Monday, will retain his position despite allegations that he belonged to the banned Baath party . Ali Faisal, executive manager of Iraq's Debaathification Commission , said Wednesday [...]

The Human Rights Watch annual report released Wednesday alleges an increasing amount of human rights abuses in Iraq, including torture of detainees and attacks on civilians, and assigns some of the blame to the US and its military. The report finds a deteriorating situation in Iraq partly due to US leadership in the country: Counterinsurgency [...]

The European Parliament announced on Wednesday that it would investigate claims that the CIA has been illegally detaining and torturing terrorism suspects in European countries or using European air bases as transit points to send suspects to other countries to be tortured, a process called extraordinary rendition . The 46-member temporary committee will have wide [...]

In the final run-up to next Monday's Canadian federal election that is expected to bring his Conservative Party to power after 13 years in the political wilderness, leader Stephen Harper has backpedaled after suggesting that a Conservative government could not have a "true majority" because the Canadian courts would still be staffed by judges appointed [...]

Memo on rendition and extraordinary rendition, UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, December 2005 . Read the full text of the memo . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

The European Court of Justice ruled on Thursday that Germany may not apply restrictions to workers from outside the European Union sent to Germany by European companies. The German law, passed last year, required such workers to have worked for their company for at least one year before coming to Germany. It was aimed at [...]

The non-partisan Congressional Research Service , the public-policy research arm of the Library of Congress , called the Bush administration's limited briefings on the NSA domestic spying program "inconsistent with the law" in a report released to the House Intelligence Committee on Wednesday. The report, requested by committee member Jane Harman (D-CA) , says that [...]

Lawyers for Tariq Aziz , the former Iraqi deputy prime minister under the Saddam Hussein regime, have asked Italy and Croatia to grant him asylum if Aziz is released from US detention. Aziz's lawyers argue the 69-year-old is in very poor health and have asked several countries to accept him for medical treatment if he [...]

The Electronic Privacy Information Center has announced plans to file a federal Freedom of Information Act lawsuit Thursday against the US Justice Department seeking the release of documents about the department's role in the government's domestic spying program . EPIC has filed FOIA requests asking DOJ officials to release audits and legal opinions relating to [...]

The Nepalese government on Thursday arrested over 52 senior politicians and activists in an apparent attempt to shut down an anti-government rally planned for Friday in the capital. The government banned demonstrations and imposed a night curfew earlier this week in anticipation of the rally, and in reaction to an anti-government rally last week in [...]