Ebulletin Year Archives: 2007
Philippines: New anti-terror legislation comes into force
The Human Security Act adopted last March, containing a new definition of terrorism offences and activities, entered into force on 15 July. The former Vice-President and several NGOs filed petitions to the Supreme Court alleging its unconstitutionality.
Thailand: Interim Government proposes new Internal Security Act
In mid-June, the Interim Government proposed a new Internal Security Act, which would give broad law enforcement and administrative powers to the Royal Army Commander, as the Director of a revived Internal Security Operations Command. These exceptional powers would be permanent and cover all of Thailand, amounting to permanent state of emergency powers with little […]
Argentina: New law criminalizes financing of terrorism
On 13 June, the Argentinean Congress adopted a new bill to criminalize financing of terrorism. The bill was strongly criticised by NGOs for containing a very vague definition of the offence of “illicit terrorist association”. The Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales (CELS), the ICJ Argentinean affiliate, submitted a memorandum to Congress expressing concern that […]
United States: Court rules that “enemy combatant” Ali Al-Marri must be charged
On 11 June, the DC Circuit Court ruled that neither the Constitution nor US legislation could authorize military detention of US resident Ali Al-Marri as an “enemy combatant”. The Court ruled that the Military Commissions Act did not strip US residents of their constitutional right to challenge their detention.
United States: Court requests access to classified information on Guantánamo Bay detainees
On 20 July, the DC Circuit Court ruled that the Government should allow the Court and defence lawyers to access all information available on Guantánamo Bay detainees, recognizing that lawyers have a “right to know”, except when the information is “highly sensitive”. The Court will issue a new “protective order” to ease lawyers’ access to […]
United States: Supreme Court decides to review detainees’ rights to challenge their detention
Reconsidering its 2 April 2007 decision, the US Supreme Court decided on 29 June to review the cases of two groups of Guantánamo Bay detainees later in the year. Following this ruling, lower courts have refused to dismiss other habeas corpus cases, pending the Supreme Court decision.