Members of the Independent Inquiry Committee created to investigate the United Nations Oil-for-Food Programme discussed their findings and recommendations with the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee in testimony on Tuesday. The committee, formed in April 2004, investigated the program for more than a year before presenting its final report in early September. Committee chairman Paul [...]

A Chilean judge Tuesday asked that former president Augusto Pinochet be stripped of his immunity from prosecution on embezzlement charges. In his last action before joining the Chilean Supreme Court, Judge Sergio Munoz, who extensively investigated Pinochet for tax evasion and embezzlement, petitioned the Santiago Court of Appeals to force Pinochet to face charges related [...]

Khalil Dulaimi, defense lawyer for Saddam Hussein , announced Tuesday that he plans to ask the Iraqi Special Tribunal for an immediate three-month adjournment in the first trial against Hussein so the defense has an opportunity to fully prepare its case. Dulaimi said he was optimistic the court would grant his request. In the proceeding, [...]

UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers Leandro Despouy Tuesday expressed doubts about the fairness of Uzbekistan's ongoing trial of 15 alleged rebels accused of precipitating the violent May uprising in the town of Andijan that allegedly led to hundreds of casualties when government troops opened fire on protestors. Despouy has requested [...]

New York Times reporter Judith Miller , recently released from an 85-day prison term for contempt after refusing to testify about her sources to a grand jury investigating the Valerie Plame leak, announced Tuesday that she would press for federal shield legislation. Speaking at a conference of the Society of Professional Journalists , Miller defended [...]

Geoffrey Nice, the lawyer prosecuting former Yugoslavian president Slobodan Milosevic at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) , on Tuesday voiced his concern that the trial against the deposed leader will take another four to five years if the court continues to provide Milosevic with further extensions to present his case. Milosevic, [...]

A judge for the US District Court in Northern Georgia granted a temporary injunction Tuesday against the enforcement of a Georgia law that requires voters to show photo identification before casting a ballot. Georgia officials argued the rule, which the governor signed into law in April was necessary to prevent voter fraud. Based on the [...]

Iranian Justice Minister Jamal Karimirad announced Tuesday that his country has sent its own indictment against former dictator Saddam Hussein to the Iraqi government, charging the former dictator with atrocities allegedly committed during the eight-year Iran-Iraq war. The new charges come one day before Hussein is due to appear in Iraqi court to face the [...]

US Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers' responses to the US Senate Judiciary Committee nomination questionnaire, released October 18, 2005. Read the full text of the answered questionnaire . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here. ALSO ON JURIST  Op-ed: Two Cheers for Harriet Miers | Op-ed: In Praise of Treachery: The Relevance of Prior Judicial Experience

US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff promised Senators Tuesday that he would no longer allow non-Mexican immigrants who have entered the United States illegally to be released back into the US if they are apprehended. This so-called "catch and release" policy has allowed tens of thousands of non-Mexican illegal immigrants to remain within the United [...]