NGO calls on ECtHR to intervene in military commissions case of Al Nashiri

The Open Society Justice Initiative is calling on the European Court of Human Rights to intervene urgently in the first death penalty case to be tried by US military commissions at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, involving Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri. In an application to the Court, OSI argues that Poland violated al-Nashiri’s rights under articles 2, 3 [...]

al-Asad v Djibouti

The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights should require Djibouti to answer for abuses it committed as part of the CIA’s secret detention and rendition program, said the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice (CHRGJ) at NYU School of Law and the international human rights law organization, INTERIGHTS in a legal filing today.  [...]

New details emerge about CIA agents involved in rendition and secret detention operations

Adam Goldman and Matt Apuzzo have new insights about the role of CIA officials who were involved in extraordinary renditions and secret detentions. 1. El Masri The article describes how Frances, a “counterterrorism analyst with no field experience pushed ahead” with El Masri’s rendition, despite the doubts some at the CIA’s Counterterrorism center had whether [...]

George Bush calls off trip to Switzerland amid fear of violence at demonstration… or an arrest warrant

The Guardian reports that George W Bush has had to call off a trip to Switzerland next weekend amid planned protests by human rights groups over the treatment of detainees at Guantánamo Bay and the threat of a warrant for his arrest. The visit would have been Bush’s first to Europe since he admitted in [...]

El Masri sues Macedonia over alleged CIA kidnapping

Khaled el-Masri is seeking 50,000 euro in compensation — and an apology — from the government in Macedonia, where he says he was abducted while on a trip in 2003. His action follows failed attempts to have his case heard in court in the United States and Germany. El-Masri, who is of Lebanese descent, says [...]

Secretary General’s report under Article 52 ECHR on the question of secret detention and transport of detainees suspected of terrorist acts, notably by or at the instigation of foreign agencies

This 2006 report was just released by Statewatch and it contains the results of an analysis of the replies received from 45 of the 46 States Parties to the ECHR in response to the Secretary General’s inquiry of 21 November 2005. The Article 52 inquiry was launched against the background of reports alleging involvement by [...]

UN report confirms gap between law and reality, torture, secret detentions and police harassment in Tunisia under Ben Ali

The United Nations just published a report on its website which describes the fact-finding mission of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the protection of human rights while countering terrorism in January 2010. On the basis of the evidence he gathered, he observed a pattern of unacknowledged detention being used vis-à-vis terrorist suspects. During the [...]

DC Circuit: No need to release full info on high value detainees (ACLU v. U.S. Dep’t of Def)

(ASIL) The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has upheld a lower court ruling in favor of the U.S. government regarding the release of documents related to fourteen “high value” detainees held at the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay. The request for the release of the documents was filed by the [...]

Justice Department Refuses Cooperation With Polish Prosecutors Investigating Torture at CIA Black Site

Scott Horton reports that the U.S. Department of Justice has rejected a request from prosecutors in Warsaw for assistance in the investigation into the alleged CIA prisons in Poland, where captives claim they were tortured. On 18 March, the Prosecutor’s Office of Appeal in Warsaw filed a motion for legal assistance from the US Department [...]

Italy Appeals Court Ups US Sentences In CIA Trial

(AP) – An Italian appeals court on Wednesday increased the sentences against 23 Americans convicted in the kidnapping of an Egyptian terror suspect who was part of the CIA’s extraordinary renditions program. In upholding the convictions, the court added one year to the eight-year term handed down to former Milan CIA station chief Robert Seldon [...]