Recent Updates
-
Thai club owner sentenced for deadly New Year fire
Legal World 09/20/2011A Thai court sentenced a nightclub owner and a lighting effects company executive Tuesday to three years' imprisonment each for a fire that killed 67 people in Bangkok on New Year's Day in 2009.The Bangkok Criminal Court found Santika nightclub owner...
-
Court extends Norway killer's detention, isolation
Legal World 09/18/2011Confessed mass killer Anders Behring Breivik was ordered to remain in pre-trial detention for eight weeks Monday during a closed court hearing in which he was cut off from making statements irrelevant to the case, a judge said.The 32-year-old right-w...
-
Court voids Australia's refugee deal with Malaysia
Legal World 08/31/2011Australia's highest court Wednesday voided a transfer of asylum seekers to Malaysia, ruling the government's attempt to stem an influx of boat people from poor, war-torn countries could not assure their legal rights would be protected. The High Court...
-
Lawyers wrap up Int'l Court's first trial
Legal World 08/25/2011Prosecutors began wrapping up the International Criminal Court's landmark first trial on Thursday by urging judges to convict a Congolese warlord of recruiting hundreds of child soldiers and sending them to fight and kill in his country's brutal conf...
-
Lawyer: Norwegian attacker makes demands
Legal World 08/03/2011The confessed killer in Norway's twin terror attacks that claimed 77 lives has presented a long list of "unrealistic" demands, including the resignation of the government and that his mental condition be investigated by Japanese specialists, his defe...
-
Court upholds Chinese journalist's jail sentence
Legal World 08/01/2011The lawyer for a Chinese journalist behind bars after writing about suspected corruption says a court has rejected an appeal against a new sentence ordered just before the reporter was to be released. Beijing attorney Wang Quanzhang says he received ...
-
Lawyer: Massacre defense is to protect democracy
Legal World 07/26/2011The defense lawyer for the man who confessed to the Norway massacre said he agreed to take the case because he felt the tragedy underscored the need to safeguard democratic traditions like the right to defense counsel. Geir Lippestad said at his firs...
-
Strauss-Kahn's French accuser heard by police
Legal World 07/12/2011A French writer who contends that former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn tried to rape her gave a statement to French police investigators on Monday, a judicial official said. Tristane Banon brought a criminal complaint last ...
-
Dutch anti-Islam lawmaker acquitted of hate speech
Legal World 06/25/2011The boundaries of free speech in Europe widened Thursday after a Dutch court acquitted politician Geert Wilders of inciting hatred against Muslims when he compared Islam with Naziism and called for a ban on the Quran.Political analysts say the ruling...
-
Spanish court upholds ban on face-covering veils
Legal World 06/09/2011A Spanish court has upheld a ban by a city on face-covering Islamic veils worn in municipal buildings.In 2010, the city of Lleida became the first Spanish one to impose such a ban. But the Catalan regional Superior Justice Tribunal suspended it follo...
-
M'sian transsexual asks court to say she is woman
Legal World 05/26/2011A 25-year-old Malaysian transsexual wants a court to affirm she is a woman following sex-change surgery so she can change her name and gender on her identification documents, her lawyer said Thursday.Sex-change surgery is legal in mainly Muslim Malay...
-
Former UK minister to take police to court
Legal World 05/24/2011Britain's former deputy prime minister won the right Monday to a legal review of the way London's Metropolitan Police handled the wide-ranging phone hacking campaign mounted by a British tabloid newspaper.John Prescott — who was the deputy of former ...