"Opposition groups in Kuwait say a leading political activist has been arrested on charges of criticizing the Gulf nation's ruler during protests. The detention of former lawmaker Musallam al-Barrack is likely to raise tensions between Kuwait's ruling system and opposition factions led by Islamists, which seek to regain control of parliament in Dec. 1 elections." (10/30/12)
http://tinyurl.com/9gduyrd"A Cambodian court on Monday sentenced a dissident radio station owner to 20 years in prison on insurrection charges that critics claim are part of a political vendetta by the government. Judge Chaing Sinat of the Phnom Penh Municipal Court said 71-year-old Mam Sonando was convicted and sentenced on four counts related to an alleged secessionist movement in eastern Cambodia. He was charged with instigating an alleged insurrection in Kratie province in May this year and inciting armed rebellion." (10/01/12)
http://tinyurl.com/9fxlh8v"The US military has designated Julian Assange and WikiLeaks as enemies of the United States -- the same legal category as the al-Qaeda terrorist network and the Taliban insurgency. Declassified US Air Force counter-intelligence documents, released under US freedom-of-information laws, reveal that military personnel who contact WikiLeaks or WikiLeaks supporters may be at risk of being charged with 'communicating with the enemy,' a military crime that carries a maximum sentence of death." (09/27/12)
http://bit.ly/Sn6OjH"The Megaupload file-sharing piracy case may be in jeopardy as the New Zealand prime minister ordered an inquiry into the illegal bugging of Kim Dotcom before his arrest in January. ... The illegal interceptions related to 'Mr Dotcom' and some of his colleagues who were facing extradition to the US to face charges of internet piracy and breaking copyright laws, Dotcom’s lawyer, told the FT." (09/24/12)
http://bit.ly/Sqnnkc"A political cartoonist who was jailed on sedition charges for drawings that mocked corruption in the Indian government was released on bail Wednesday. Supporters cheered and waved flags as Aseem Trivedi walked out of Mumbai's Arthur Road Jail after a high court said there was no need to hold him in prison. Trivedi had earlier refused bail until all charges against him were dropped. The local government has promised to review the charges against him. Sedition is punishable by up to life in prison." (09/12/12)
http://cbsn.ws/OGJWfB"The arrest of an Indian anti-corruption cartoonist on sedition charges has sparked widespread criticism. ... Mr Trivedi was arrested on Saturday for a series of cartoons lampooning politicians. He refused to apply for bail at Monday's hearing, and said if telling the truth made him a traitor then he was happy to be described as one." (09/10/12)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-19540565
SC Magazine [Australia] "The hacktivist group Anonymous is taking credit for a series of attacks that took down the websites of the UK's Ministry of Justice and Home Office. A popular Anonymous Twitter account said the attacks were launched out of solidarity with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange .... Meanwhile, on Tuesday, hackers defaced the website for the Russian court where last week three members of punk rock band Pussy Riot were sentenced to two years in prison." (08/21/12)
http://bit.ly/NZDalk
CBS News "WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has called on President Obama to end a "witch hunt" against his secret-spilling website, after appearing in public for the first time since he took refuge inside Ecuador's embassy in London two months ago. ... He also called on the U.S. to release Pfc. Bradley Manning, the U.S. soldier who has been charged with aiding the enemy by passing the secret files to WikiLeaks and is awaiting trial." (08/19/12)
http://cbsn.ws/PIenps"The boss of file-sharing site Megaupload has the right to see US evidence against him so he can defend a bid to extradite him from New Zealand on online piracy charges, an Auckland court ruled on Thursday. ... [Kim Dotcom] was arrested in January when armed police cooperating with a US copyright investigation into his Megaupload file-sharing business raided his Auckland mansion. The raid was subsequently found to be illegal by a New Zealand court, a ruling that prosecutors are also appealing." (08/17/12)
http://bit.ly/QHrMJq Guardian [UK] "Britain has told the Ecuadorean authorities it believes officials can enter its embassy in London and arrest Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, according to Ecuador's minister for foreign affairs, Ricardo Patino. ... An Ecuadorean government spokesman said: 'We are deeply shocked by the British government's threats against the sovereignty of the Ecuadorean Embassy and their suggestion that they may forcibly enter the embassy. This a clear breach of international law and the protocols set out in the Vienna Convention.'" (08/15/12)
http://bit.ly/R34OAR"New Zealand Judge David Harvey has stepped down from the Kim Dotcom trial after making remarks that could cast doubt on his impartiality. Harvey was to oversee the extradition case against the internet entrepreneur, who is wanted by the US. ... Harvey, who is also an internet law expert, was a featured speaker at a conference discussing the TPP treaty .... Harvey noted that under the terms of the treaty, those who change regions on region-restricted DVDs would be classed as criminals. 'We have met the enemy, and he is US,' summed up Harvey." (07/18/12)
http://www.rt.com/news/kim-dotcom-megaupload-judge-quirs-481/"Kim Dotcom and his Megaupload associates are seeking to break the legal impasse between him and the FBI, by offering to fly to the United States without an extradition hearing in New Zealand. In return, Dotcom demands a fair trial guarantee and return of money to support their families and to pay legal fees which are thought to be in the millions of dollars after several months of court battles. ... Having made the offer, however, Dotcom says the FBI will never agree to the deal as it can’t win the case against him and Megaupload and knows this already." (07/10/12)
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/07/dotcom-surrender/"Search warrants used when 70 New Zealand police raided the mansion of the suspected kingpin of an Internet piracy ring were illegal, a New Zealand court ruled on Thursday, dealing a blow to the FBI's highest profile global copyright theft case. ... 'The warrants did not adequately describe the offences to which they related,' [High Court Judge Justice Helen] Winkelmann said in her ruling. 'Indeed they fell well short of that. They were general warrants, and as such, are invalid.'" (06/28/12)
http://technology.canoe.ca/2012/06/28/19929191.html"Chinese police reportedly have detained hundreds of people as part of a security lockdown in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, after two people set themselves on fire there earlier this week to protest Chinese rule. The U.S. government-backed Radio Free Asia cited a local source late Wednesday as saying that Chinese authorities have locked up about 600 Tibetan residents. It said many others from outside the Tibetan Autonomous Region [sic]have been expelled." (05/31/12)
http://bit.ly/KZH0q3 Agence France-Presse "The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange can be extradited to Sweden, but put his deportation on hold to give his lawyers a final chance to reopen the case. After an 18-month legal battle, the court rejected the argument by lawyers for the 40-year-old Australian that the Swedish prosecutor who issued the arrest warrant over sex crime allegations was not entitled to do so." (05/30/12)
http://bit.ly/KczldK Yuma Sun "Britain's Supreme Court is expected to rule Wednesday on whether to approve the extradition of WikiLeaks chief Julian Assange to Sweden, a potential turning point in the Internet activist's controversial career. Assange, 40, has spent the better part of two years fighting attempts to send him to the Scandinavian nation, where he is accused of sex crimes. At least one extradition expert said that his long-running legal campaign may finally yield a victory for the Australian programmer." (05/29/12)
http://tinyurl.com/7tfj853"Sri Lanka's former army chief, who was imprisoned after losing an election to President Mahinda Rajapaksa, was released from prison Monday to thousands of cheering supporters. As firecrackers erupted in the background, Sarath Fonseka promised to carry on with his challenge to the government." (05/21/12)
http://tinyurl.com/7z9h8wr"Ukraine's High Court on Tuesday postponed the appeal of ex-prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko against her seven year jail sentence until well after the Euro 2012 football tournament gets under way, to the fury of her defence. ... Tymoshenko's supporters have accused President Viktor Yanukovych of pursuing the case in an act of revenge against his arch political rival while the European Union has also objected that the case is politically motivated." (05/15/12)
http://bit.ly/Krzybm"The Israel Prisons Service on Thursday agreed to permit two prisoners to leave solitary confinement and be returned to the general prisoner population, Israel Radio reported. The new decision takes place against the backdrop of an almost month-old prisoner hunger strike by approximately 1600 Palestinian prisoners protesting against certain conditions in Israeli jails. ... [a senior official] said that he expects that ongoing negotiations will lead to an end to the hunger strike in about 7-10 days." (05/10/12)
http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=269478"The High Court on Monday rejected an appeal by two Palestinian security prisoners, who have been on a hunger strike for the past 70 days, against their administrative detention. Thaer Halahla and Bilal Diab, both Islamic Jihad members, have been refusing food in protest of their detention. Their petition said the court should free them on medical grounds." (05/07/12)
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4225947,00.html
CounterPunch "That video was the first time most Americans had heard about Wikileaks. Not long after, the name of Bradley Manning also entered the US consciousness. He would be accused of releasing that video and thousands of other documents relating to the US wars on Iraq and Afghanistan, along with thousands of diplomatic cables describing in oftentimes explicit detail the crimes and morally questionable actions and words of Washington officials. Soon, Mr. Manning would be charged with treason and aiding the enemy (among other charges) for his actions. He is currently on trial in a US military court located at Fort Meade, MD. and faces life imprisonment. It is my belief that only an immense and broad popular movement could possibly change that fate." (05/06/12)
http://bit.ly/LqX0a6"The number of Palestinian [Arab] prisoners on hunger strike in Israeli jails has grown to at least 2800, human rights groups say, while two of the inmates hovered close to death as they entered their 69th day without food. The Israeli prison service disputes the numbers. Israel's practice of jailing people without charge -- known as administrative detention -- is the main issue driving the hunger strikers, whose images are seen on posters throughout the West Bank and Gaza as the protests backing the prisoners grow." (05/07/12)
http://bit.ly/KF2iKw"UC-Berkeley law professor John Yoo cannot be sued by [Jose Padilla] for helping to craft the Bush administration's torture and detention policies in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday. ... The 9th Circuit found that Padilla was not entitled to the same constitutional protections as an ordinary prisoner at the time of his confinement because he was a 'suspected terrorist designated an enemy combatant.'" (05/02/12)
http://bit.ly/IAoKWy"A Bahrain court Monday ordered retrials for a prominent hunger striker and 20 others convicted by a military-led tribunal in crackdowns against a 14-month-old uprising in the Gulf kingdom. The decision, which shifts the cases to Bahrain's highest appeals court, was seen as a victory for supporters of rights activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja and other opposition figures sentenced last year under martial law-style rules imposed by Bahrain's rulers." (04/30/12)
http://abcn.ws/IOGXRA
Bradley Manning’s support system
by Kelley B. Vlahos
"Manning’s trial is scheduled for September, but with all the legal wrangling, could easily be pushed back to the winter of 2013, making it even more difficult to keep the public’s attention on the case and the funding stream steadily flowing to defend him, say supporters. Indeed the mission to save Bradley Manning is a race against time and even more importantly, against a wall of secrecy. And apathy." (07/17/12)
http://bit.ly/LnANFWNo Comments »