CJA In The News

Dejó Valencia para defender causas de justicia internacional desde su despacho en San Francisco. Esta abogada de 40 años viaja de Siria a Guatemala; de El Salvador a Madrid, en busca de un mundo mejor para todos.

A federal judge has found a former Somali colonel who lives in Columbus liable for torturing a human-rights attorney more than two decades ago before a brutal civil war fractured his country.

A federal court in Ohio found Colonel Magan liable for the torture, arbitrary detention and cruel treatment of CJA client and former Amnesty International Prisoner of Conscience, Professor Abukar Ahmed (pictured here). Magan was the head of the notorious National Security Service where thousands were unlawfully detained and tortured.

A former military colonel with a Somali security force dubbed the “Gestapo of Somalia” by its critics was responsible for the torture of a human rights advocate in the 1980s, a federal judge ruled Tuesday in a decision that opens the door for a hearing on potential financial damages.

This essay will examine some new developments in the case of one of the most notorious war crimes committed by the Salvadoran security forces during the twelve year long civil war: the massacre on the campus of the José Simeón Cañas University of Central America (UCA) in San Salvador on November 16, 1989. This is an immensely important issue because it could begin to balance the dialectic between impunity and accountability to the side of accountability. For the first time, a high-ranking army officer may soon be tried for this crime.

There is no possibility of immunity for the former Somali prime minister who conceded liability over the mass killing and torture of his people, the 4th Circuit ruled.

In a landmark decision, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals has denied Samantar’s appeal in the first case to consider the “common law immunity” of foreign officials. The decision denies immunity for human rights abuses like torture and extrajudicial killing and denies absolute deference to the executive branch.

In a day peppered with exchanges between the defense, prosecution, and bench on appropriate evidentiary procedures, the Trial Chamber in the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) heard testimony on Monday, November 5, 2012, from former Khmer Rouge foot soldier Sum Chea on events during the evacuation of Phnom Penh.

International Legal Community Appeals to Susan Rice, U.S. Ambassador to the UN, to Protect Haitian Human Rights Lawyers.

Today a lady came to the exhumation because she wanted to give us antemortem information. I spoke to her in English, and a person from the War Crimes Investigation Commission translated to Somali. I started telling her, "I’m a forensic anthropolog