China Sentences Uighur to Life for Reporting Riots

(AP) — A Uighur journalist who worked for an official Chinese radio service was sentenced to life imprisonment for transmitting information about the 2009 ethnic riots in western China — one of dozens jailed since the violence, an overseas Uighur advocacy group said. Memetjan Abdulla, a 33-year-old journalist with the Uighur language service of China [...]

New calls for the increased use of drones in Pakistan, experts worry about side-effects

The United States has renewed pressure on Pakistan to expand the areas where CIA drones can operate inside the country, reflecting concern that the U.S. war effort in Afghanistan is being undermined by insurgents’ continued ability to take sanctuary across the border, U.S. and Pakistani officials said in the Washington Post.The U.S. appeal has focused [...]

U.S. judge rules Bank of China can be sued in terrorism case

Judge Royce Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has allowed a lawsuit to proceed against one of China’s largest banks for allegedly helping finance the terrorist group Islamic Jihad. The case was brought by the parents of Daniel Wultz, a 16-year-old from South Florida who was killed as the result of [...]

Shanghai Cooperation Organisation: Summit final declaration aims at tightening counter-terrorism cooperation

On 11 June, the Member States of the Shangai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) issued a declaration following their 10th annual summit in Tashkent (Uzbekistan). The declaration states that SCO members, namely China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, should further enhance their cooperation in fighting all forms of terrorism and strengthen dialogue between different civilizations and [...]

China bans use of evidence obtained through torture

[JURIST] China’s Supreme People’s Court announced Sunday that evidence obtained through violence or intimidation will be barred from use in criminal trials and death penalty cases. The new regulations require prosecutors to provide the court with records from interrogations and allow defendants convicted in death penalty cases to request an inquiry into the validity of [...]

Cyberattack on Google hit password system

(The New York Times) Ever since Google disclosed in January that Internet intruders had stolen information from its computers, the exact nature and extent of the theft has been a closely guarded company secret. But a person with direct knowledge of the investigation now says that the losses included a password system that controls access [...]

Guantanamo update

Transfers (JURIST) The US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Tuesday 23 March that three Guantanamo Bay  detainees had been transferred to the country of Georgia. The transfer was approved by unanimous consent of the Guantanamo Review Task Force, an inter-agency group that reviewed several factors regarding the detainees, including security. The identities of the released [...]

UN experts conclude major study into use of secret detention in the fight against terrorism

Despite the fact that international law clearly prohibits secret detention, the practice is widespread and “reinvigorated” by the so-called global war on terror, several independent United Nations experts stated, outlining a series of steps aimed at curbing this human rights violation. In a 222-page study which will be presented to the United Nations Human Rights [...]

New HRW report on Chinese secret detention sites

Since 2003, large numbers of Chinese citizens have been held incommunicado for days or months in secret, unlawful detention facilities known as “black jails” by state agents who violate detainees’ rights with impunity, Human Rights Watch said in a new report. Human Rights Watch found that it is usually petitioners who are detained in black [...]

Human Rights Watch says 43 Uighur men disappeared after being detained by Chinese security forces in the wake of protests.

The Chinese government should immediately account for all detainees in its custody and allow independent investigations into the July 2009 protests in Urumqi and their aftermath, Human Rights Watch said in a new report on enforced “disappearances” released today. The 44-page report, “‘We Are Afraid to Even Look for Them’: Enforced Disappearances in the Wake [...]