Turkey Detains 12 Suspected Of Aiding Al Qaeda: Official

(Reuters) Turkish police have detained 12 people in Istanbul suspected of providing support to al Qaeda militants fighting NATO forces in Afghanistan, a senior security official told Reuters on Tuesday.The detentions come just days after four men were arrested in west and southwest Turkey on suspicion of fundraising for militants and a fifth on suspicion [...]

C-306/09 – European Court of Justice ruling on Article 4(6) and 5(3) European Arrest Warrant

Last year the Belgian Constitutional Court referred the following questions to the Court: ‘(1)      Is a European arrest warrant issued for the purposes of the execution of a sentence imposed in absentia, without the convicted person having been informed of the date and place of the hearing, and against which that person still has a remedy, [...]

Case C‑205/09 – European Court of Justice ruling on standing of victims in criminal proceedings

The Hungarian Szombathelyi Városi Bíróság decided to refer to the Court the following questions for a preliminary ruling: (1) The court wishes to  know, in connection with the criminal proceedings pending before it,  whether “a person other than a natural person” falls within the definition of “victim” in Article 1(a) of the Framework Decision …, [...]

Intelligence spending at record $80.1 billion in first disclosure of overall figure

The Washington Post reports that the US Government announced Thursday that it had spent $80.1 billion on intelligence activities over the past 12 months, disclosing for the first time not only the amount spent by civilian intelligence agencies but also by the military. The so-called National Intelligence Program, run by the CIA and other agencies [...]

Bomb Plot Said to Contain ‘Hallmarks of Al Qaeda’

The New York Times reports that a day after two packages containing explosives, shipped from Yemen and addressed to synagogues in Chicago, were intercepted in Britain and Dubai, setting off off a broad terrorism scare, Janet Napolitano, secretary of the Homeland Security, said that the plot “has the hallmarks of Al Qaeda.” Ms. Napolitano and [...]

The U.N. Security Council’s 1267 Regime and the Rule of Law in Canada

New paper by the BC Civil Liberties Asssociation. The paper considers, inter alia, whether Canada’s implementation of the 1267 Regime is consistent with its due process obligations under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Bill of Rights, using the experience of Abdelrazik as an example of Canada’s domestic implementation at work. Read it [...]

Federal court rules government not required to disclose Bagram detainee information

[JURIST] The US District Court for the Southern District of New York denied a request Monday for documents regarding the detention and treatment of prisoners being held at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. Judge Barbara Jones granted summary judgment for the government, denying the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) access to the documents under the [...]

ECHR Grand Chamber to Hear Case Challenging Legality of UN Security Council Sanctions

The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has been asked to decide a case which challenges the legality of national measures implementing Security Council measures taken against persons associated with the Taleban and Al Qaeda. The chamber to which the case - Nada v. Switzerland (application no. 10593/08) - was  originally allocated has [...]

75% of Pakistani terrorism cases result in acquittals

The La Times reports that in Punjab Pakistan’s  largest and wealthiest province, nearly three of every four terrorism cases in 2009 and the first six months of this year ended with acquittals, according to provincial court records. And while army offensives have dented militant activity in the restive Swat Valley and parts of the largely [...]

Remarkable statement by Human Rights Watch on targeted killings

Is there a rift in the human rights community on targeted killings? Benjamin Wittes suggests there is one after reading Tom Malinowki’s comments on the use of drones in Yemen here. “Our position on targeted killing is that its use can be legally justified so long as it is limited to situations involving a combatant [...]