A Turkish colonel has been charged with dereliction of duty for failing to protect Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, who was shot dead outside his Istanbul office in January 2007. If found guilty, former Trabzon Gendarmerie Commander Colonel Ali Öz could be sentenced to two years’ imprisonment. Several other soldiers face the same charge.
In [...]

Nick Kinsella, head of the UK Human Trafficking Centre (UKHTC), has been honoured with a Queen’s Medal.
Check out the unfortunate headline in the Sheffield Telegraph.
Queen’s Medal for human trafficking
THE head of the UK Human Trafficking Centre, based in Sheffield, is awarded the Queen’s Police Medal for services to policing.
Det Chief Supt Nick Kinsella is chief [...]

Since last June, two internationally renowned doctors have been held in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison on charges of communicating with an “enemy government”. At trial yesterday, the prosecutor levied additional charges that he refused to specify, making a cogent defence impossible.
The Iranian government’s December 31 trial of Dr. Arash Alaei and Dr. Kamiar Alaei [...]

An Egyptian girl who was brought to California to work as a domestic slave lived in a garage and was compelled to perform household chores for long hours and pitiful pay.
Shyima was 10 when a wealthy Egyptian couple brought her from a poor village in northern Egypt to work in their California home. She awoke [...]

Pseudonymous British blogger-bobby PC David Copperfield moved to Edmonton, Alberta, about a year ago. Some people have asked him about the main differences between policing in the UK and in Canada.
Much police work remains the same, of course, but there are notable differences. British police have more powers (to stop, search, arrest) but [...]

This year saw three convictions for human trafficking in Canada—the first since a human-trafficking statute was added to the Criminal Code in 2005.  Contrary to expectations, the perpetrators and victims were all Canadian citizens.
A different picture emerged of a flesh trade often thought of as foreign nationals tricked across borders. It became apparent that Canadian [...]

President Bush today signed into law the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act. This legislation is considered so important and valuable that he was applauded by a Democratic Congressional Representative, Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY), co-chair of the Congressional Human Trafficking Caucus.
“Thousands of human trafficking victims are being held in often deplorable conditions in [...]

Yesterday in the British House of Commons, several MPs accused judges and lawyers of using libel laws to clamp down on free discussion of terrorism and its wealthy and powerful financiers.
The Labour MP Denis MacShane, said in Westminster Hall: “The practice of libel tourism, as it is known – the willingness of British courts to [...]

The Russian Duma (parliament) appears set to expand the legal definitions of treason and espionage. Political experts and activists are concerned that the changes could be interpreted as outlawing any criticism of the government.
In the Russian Criminal Code, treason currently is defined as taking action aimed at damaging the country’s external security. Espionage is [...]

Now that he has been arrested and charged with corruption, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich (at right) is a favourite son of Serbia no longer.
Serbs used to be proud of Rod Blagojevich, the Illinois governor now being charged with trying to sell Obama’s Senate seat.
He was the epitome of the immigrant success story: the son of [...]

Cries of outrage have erupted in South Korea as tens of thousands call for the impeachment of a judge who issued suspended sentences to four men found guilty of incest.  The four repeatedly raped during a period of several years a developmentally handicapped teenage girl.
Tens of thousands of angry Internet users signed an online petition [...]

A man in Vernon, BC, has been found guilty of defamation for opinions expressed in his own home.  Jack Aasen and his wife invited a stranger into their house who led them to believe he was thinking of moving to the neighbourhood.  In fact, he was a private investigator hired by Brad Chapman, the owner [...]

Saudi billionaire and banker to the Saudi royal family Khalid bin Mahfouz took a serious dislike to Dr Rachel Ehrenfeld’s book Funding Evil: How Terrorism Is Financed — and How to Stop It. Even though Dr Ehrenfeldt is American and her book was published by an American firm, he decided to sue her for [...]

So says British Conservative MP Nick Herbert.
Shadow Justice Secretary Nick Herbert said the controversial act, brought in by Labour, has had the opposite effect of its intentions by devaluing human rights and led to “distorted prioirities” [sic].
He said the result has been to devalue the very language of rights by associating serious violations and abuses [...]

In 2005 and 2006, Nova Scotia’s judiciary set out guidelines for accreditation of media seeking access to many provincial courts.  At a recent conference on “A Free Press and an Independent Judiciary” held in Halifax, journalists, lawyers, and journalism professors roundly denounced the concept and process of media accreditation.
Dean Jobb, Assistant Professor of Journalism, University [...]