Amnesty International said in a media statement on March 30 that it is calling on Greek authorities to to address long-standing problems in policing in the wake of this year's youth uprising. The briefing highlights patterns of alleged human rights violations by police against civilians, including excessive use of force and firearms, torture or other ill-treatment, arbitrary detention and denial of prompt access to lawyers.

US military judge Colonel Patrick Parrish ruled April 7 that Pentagon officials lacked the authority to dismiss Lieutenant Commander William Kuebler as defense counsel for Canadian Guantánamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr. Chief defense counsel Colonel Peter Masciola reassigned Kuebler earlier this month after Kuebler filed a formal complaint alleging that Masciola had a conflict of interest in overseeing the case. Parrish ruled that, under the rules of military tribunals, only a judge could remove a lawyer under such circumstances. Kuebler further alleges that he was barred from accessing files and resources that he needed to work on Khadr's defense. Kuebler continues to maintain that Khadr should be sent back to Canada.

A jury of US Marines acquitted Sgt. Ryan Weemer April 9 of one count of murder and one count of dereliction of duty for his involvement in the shooting death of a detained Iraqi insurgent during a Multi-National Force-Iraq (MNF-Iraq) November 2004 offensive in Fallujah. Weemer's defense lawyers argued that he acted in self-defense. The jury deliberated for more than four hours before reaching their verdict. Weemer would have faced life in prison, had he been convicted of murder.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) April 9 issued rulings in four cases ordering Russia to pay a total of €282,000 to compensate six families who claimed government agents abducted their Chechen relatives between 2001 and 2003. In three of the four cases, Dokayev and Others v. Russia, Dzhabrailova v. Russia, and Malsagova and Others v. Russia, masked men clad in camouflage and armed with machine guns abducted five men from their Chechen Republic homes in 2002 and 2003.

A Navy missile destroyer, the USS Bainbridge, has arrived to help end an ongoing standoff between four Somali pirates and their American hostage off the east coast of Somalia. The hostage, the captain of the container ship, the Maersk Alabama, is being held captive in a lifeboat after a hijacking attempt early April 8.

Hundreds of families in Somalia's self-declared republic of Somaliland have fled inter-clan fighting in the mid-west Satiile area in Gabiley region, local officials report. The fighting, the second flare-up in three months, started on 7 April after a group of men drove into Satiile settlement area and shot dead a local farmer and wounded his brother.

The US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit ruled April 7 that US courts cannot prevent the government from transferring detainees held at Guantánamo Bay to foreign countries on the grounds that detainees may face prosecution or torture in the foreign country. The three-judge panel found it had jurisdiction to hear the habeas corpus claims brought by nine Uighur Muslim detainees under Boumediene v. Bush. Relying heavily on the US Supreme Court opinion Munaf v. Geren, the court then overturned a DC District Court decision that would have required the government to give a 30-day notice before sending detainees to foreign nations, ruling that the executive branch has broad authority to order transfers. The court noted that the US government has in place policies against sending detainees to countries that may torture them and concluded "the district court may not question the Government’s determination that a potential recipient country is not likely to torture a detainee."

Former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori was found guilty of committing human rights abuses during his 1990-2000 rule by a special court in Lima April 7. Fujimori, who maintained his innocence throughout the proceedings, was convicted on charges of approving the November 1991 killing of 15 people in Lima's Barrios Altos neighborhood and the July 1992 kidnapping and murder of 10 people from Lima's La Cantuta University. Fujimori was sentenced to 25 years in prison and plans to appeal.