Plata et al. v. Schwarzenegger et al., United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida, Judge Thelton E. Henderson, May 10, 2005 . Read the order . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.
A US Army sergeant from Georgia faces a court martial Thursday at Fort Stewart on charges of refusing to obey his redeployment order and serve in Iraq after his first eight-month tour. The Army rejected a request by Sgt. Kevin Benderman for conscientious objector status and charged him with deserting his unit and missing movement. [...]
Spc.Sabrina Harman , 27, will become the latest soldier in the Abu Ghraib scandal to stand trial in military court when she appears Thursday before a Fort Hood judge on charges of mistreating detainees in the military prison. A pretrial hearing was held Wednesday to determine the admissibility of photographic evidence. Harman is accused of [...]
Musa Hilal, suspected leader of the Janjaweed militia active in the Darfur, said Wednesday that he would stand trial in Sudan rather than face trial outside the country. Hilal, who has consistently denied involvement in alleged Darfur atrocities, nonetheless insisted if there was any indication he was being tried fairly, he would fight with all [...]
Kuwaiti prosecutors announced Wednesday that they will shortly be handing over to the Iraqi Special Tribunal a list of crimes committed by Saddam Hussein, whose forces invaded and occupied the country in 1990-1, precipitating the Gulf War. Kuwaiti news agency KUNA says the already-prepared list has been sent to Kuwait's prime minister for final review [...]
Hate crimes and civil rights violations against Muslims in the United States have reached their highest point since right after September 11, according to a report released Wednesday by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) . As reasons for the recent surge the report cites increasing political rhetoric used against Muslim figures and lingering hatred [...]
The International Labor Organization said Wednesday that some 12.3 million people worldwide are enslaved. The figure was publicized in a new ILO study of forced labor and modern slavery across the globe. The study says 2.4 million people, mostly women and children, have been forced into trafficking, generating a profit of over $30B. This practice [...]
Senators and others critical of the sweeping powers granted to law enforcement autorities under the USA Patriot Act testified Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee on behalf of a proposed SAFE Act to limit those powers, in particular by requiring government officials to inform suspects of secret searches of their homes or businesses within seven [...]
British Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer Wednesday proposed a plan to cut the length of criminal trials and reduce the costs of legal aid , which have risen by a third since the Labor Party took power in 1997. Under Falconer's proposal, lawyers will have to bid for contracts to take legal aid cases and then [...]
Riots erupted across Afghanistan Wednesday in response to a recent report by Newsweek magazine that in an effort to infuriate Muslim prisoners US troops at Guantanamo Bay had desecrated the Koran by placing copies on toilets and in one case had even flushed a copy down a latrine. Insulting the Koran is blasphemy to Muslime [...]