Lawyers for a detainee at Guantanamo Bay issued an appeal to the D.C. Circuit Court to delay his war crimes trial. Omar Khadr, a 21-year-old Canadian, faces the war crimes tribunal sitting at Guantanamo Bay for the death of a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan. The appeal challenges the tribunal's authority to determine his combatant status […]
The Bush administration is considering several proposals granting more legal rights to detained terrorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. U.S. officials say the legal considerations are a move to close the detention facility at the U.S. naval base and transfer some of the detainees to other facilities in the United States. One proposal being considered […]
The Bush Administration's choice to for U.S. Attorney General, Michael Mukasey, refused to address the legality of the interrogation technique known as waterboarding, skirting a potential legal watershed regarding prosecution against Central Intelligence Agency officers. At confirmation hearings before the Senate Wednesday, Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Penn., said that questioning directed at declaring waterboarding a form […]
The U.S. State Department sent a leader to leaders in the U.S. Senate declaring opposition by the Bush administration to a proposed bill that would punish U.S. foreign investors in Sudan. The bill would require U.S. states to divest from their investment portfolios any interests linked to foreign investment in Sudan. The bill punishes entities […]
The U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said that the occurrence of sexual violence against woman has reached “hideous and pandemic proportions.” Speaking at an open meeting discussing the implementation of a security council resolution passed in 2000 dealing with sexual violence, Ban said “violence against women has reached hideous and pandemic proportions in some […]
An independent investigator on human rights for the United Nations expressed grave concern regarding the detention of “unlawful enemy combatants” at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay. Martin Scheinin's report to the United Nations called on the United States to release the detainees or try them in civilian courts in a move aimed at […]
The chief prosecutor in the Iraqi High Tribunal examining the death of 180,000 in Iraqi Kurdistan from chemical weapons attacks said the death sentences against three former ministers should proceed. Munqith al-Faroon rejected the arguments that one minister, Sultan Hashim al-Tai, should be pardoned because he was only following orders. Al-Tai negotiated the cease-fire in […]
The death sentences against Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as “Chemical Ali,” and three others, including Ahmad al-Tai, who negotiated the cease-fire ending the 1991 Gulf War, are in legal limbo amid fears the executions could spark further sectarian violence and hamper efforts at reconstruction. The Iraqi High Tribunal sentenced the men to hang for genocide, […]
Serbia's minister for the war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia said Serbian officials had obstructed the investigation. Rasim Ljajic said that Serbia had in the past denied the existence of evidentiary documents, though they later surfaced and were handed over to officials at The Hague. On Monday, chief prosecutor to the tribunal Carla del […]
U.S. immigration officials are holding a former military officer of Sierra Leone's government on war crimes charges for cooperating in the deaths of 29 dissenters there. Samuel Komba Kamba, 39, was detained following a green card interview in Texas that he attended with his wife. Kambo was twice released on bond for similar charges and […]
An Argentinian Roman Catholic priest was sentenced to life imprisonment for being a “co-participant” in seven killings, 31 torture cases, and 42 kidnappings during the military dictatorship of Jorge Rafael Videla from 1976 – 1983. Christian von Wernich, 69, was the former police chaplain to the Buenos Aires police force who participated in the “disappearances” […]
Serbia's National Security Council said it is offering a $1.4 million reward for information leading to the capture of wanted war crimes suspect Gen. Ratko Mladic. Rasim Ljajic, who heads the council, said there is also a $355,000 reward for Goran Hadzic, a former rebel leader, and Stojan Zupljanin, a Bosnian Serb police officer. The […]
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) issued a report Thursday calling for the United States government to prosecute private security contractors accused of killing civilians, stating that indiscriminate civilian killings amount to war crimes or crimes against humanity. An uproar of criticism surrounds two high-profile incidents in which scores of Iraqi civilians were […]
The U.N.-backed court examining atrocities committed during the 1991-2002 civil war in Sierra Leone handed down two sentences to former militia leaders Tuesday. Moinina Fofana and Allieu Kondewa received sentences of six and eight years respectively for murder, cruel treatment, pillage, and issuing collective punishment. Kondewa received additional penalties for his role in conscripting child […]