Today, the Supreme Court denied certiorari over a mandamus action filed by Syrian Abdul Rahim Abdul Razak Al Ginco. While this was the first detainee challenge to be acted on since last week's Boumediene decision, it was a mandamus action rather than a habeas action and so Boumediene probably did not affect the justices’ deliberations. […]
In yet another resounding slap in the face to the Bush administration on its policies during the so-called war on terror, the U.S. Supreme Court Thursday ruled 5-4 that foreign nationals held at Guantanamo Bay have a right to challenge their detention in civilian courts. “We hold these petitioners do have the habeas corpus privilege,” […]
The ICC's first trial, against Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, will be delayed. Lubanga, a leader of the Union of Congolese Patriots, is accused of command responsibility for hundreds of civilian deaths and the large-scale recruitment or impression into service of child soldiers. Critical case documents are available here, though the judges’ written explanation of […]
BELGRADE (AFP) ‚ Stojan Zupljanin, wanted by the UN war crimes tribunal in connection with atrocities against Muslims and Croats during the Bosnian war, has been arrested near Belgrade, officials said Wednesday.He was among the most-wanted Serbs indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia — alongside Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic […]
KSM (who has confessed) and his codefendants had a preliminary hearing Thursday. The Washington Post notes that, far from a secret undertaking in a dark room, it was attended by two dozen members of the international press, some of whom blogged about the proceedings. Aside from rejecting appointed counsel, KSM weighed in on same-sex marriage […]
Khalid Sheik Mohammed faces the U.S. military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Thursday. The Pentagon charged KSM, along with several other co-conspirators, with terrorism and one count of murder for every victim of the Sept. 11 attacks on New York, Pennsylvania and Washington D.C. If convicted, each faces the death penalty. KSM claims, among other […]
On the heels of the International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor's report released earlier this week, which implicated the Sudanese government in the ongoing genocide in Darfur, a coalition of human rights groups released this video fleshing out the charges against Harun and Kushayb with testimony from victims and calling on the UN Security Council to […]
In the historic first case transferred to Croatian courts by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), General Mirko Norac was convicted and General Rahim Ademi acquitted of war crimes on theories of command responsibility. The historic conviction is a major step forward for Croatia, whose government long resisted responsibility for war crimes […]
The Associated Press reports that International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo issued a new report today to the UN Security Council describing evidence that high officials in the Sudanese government are directly linked to the ongoing genocide in Darfur. The report said a pre-trial hearing would be held next month. Evidence of Sudanese government […]
Reuters reports today that as chief plotter Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other 9/11 defendants, it is not clear whether inculpatory statements made by the defendants will be admissible into evidence at their trials or which statements prosecutors will seek to introduce. Since many defendants will likely allege such statements were only made as a result […]
Thursday, May 29, 2008 – 12:55 PM Manchester, Britain (SANA) The environmental campaigner and journalist George Monbiot last night tried and failed to make a citizen's arrest of the former Bush administration official John Bolton over war crimes committed during the invasion of Iraq in 2003. As Bolton ended an hour-long discussion at the Hay […]
The three remaining Presidential candidates in the two major parties – Senators Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and John McCain – issued a highly unusual joint declaration today on Darfur. In a statement coordinated by the activist group Save Darfur, the candidates said they “stand united” on Darfur, repeatedly condemned the Sudanese government's failure to take […]
Most of the year, this blog is dedicated to covering violations of the laws of war – but it's appropriate for us, as Americans, to take a moment today and thank our countrymen in the Armed Forces who serve us with honor and courage. We are, now and ever, deeply in their debt. Happy Memorial […]
Serbian media reports that the Serbian government is investigating accusations by former ICTY Chief Prosecutor Carla del Ponte that Serbian Kosovars were kidnapped and murdered and had their organs harvested by Kosovar Albanian paramilitaries during the 1998-99 war. The tribunal itself has refused to reinvestigate the allegations, averring that a 2004 investigation had not turned […]
The Simon Wiesenthal Center has located an alleged war criminal from World War 2, in Australia. 87-year-old Karoly Zentai is accused of murdering a Jewish teenager in Budapest during the Holocaust while he served in the pro-Nazi Hungarian army. Hungary has been seeking his extradition since 2005, and Zentai has avoided extradition before. Now, the […]