A judge for the UN Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) has ordered the release of four generals who had been held on suspicion of their involvement in the February 2005 suicide bombing that killed former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri and 22 others. The court's pre-trial decision came after prosecutor Daniel Bellemare announced Monday that he was declining to seek a continuation of the generals' nearly four-year detention because of a lack of evidence and due to the legal principle of presumed innocence. The generals' release was celebrated with cheers and fireworks throughout Beirut.

A judge for the US District Court for the District of Columbia April 1 granted a habeas corpus petition filed by Yemeni Guantánamo Bay detainee Yasin Muhammed Basardh, ordering his release from the prison. His detention came under exclusive review of the court after a panel for the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit suspended its consideration of his case in light of the 2008 Supreme Court decision in Boumediene v. Bush, which it said gave the District Court sole jurisdiction over the matter. Justifications for Basardh's release were kept classified. The US government was ordered "to take all necessary and appropriate diplomatic steps to facilitate the release of petitioner Basardh forthwith." (Jurist, April 1)

A Turkish officer was arrested March 25 in connection with suspected extrajudicial killings in the country's predominantly Kurdish southeast in the 1990s. A court in Diyarbakir issued the arrest warrant for the officer, Col. Cemal Temizoz, pending a trial. Colonel Temizoz served near the town of Cizre, about 40 miles from the Iraqi border, from 1993 to 1996, when hundreds of Kurdish civilians were said to have been killed by security forces. In excavations around Cizre, officials have so far found pieces of clothing and at least 20 bones, which will be subject to DNA examination. (NYT, March 26)

Yemeni security forces March 25 arrested six suspects in the attack nine days earlier that killed four South Korean tourists. Authorities say the cell is also suspected in a bombing a few days later against a convoy carrying South Korean government inspectors that caused no serious injuries. Security forces are hunting other members of the group, which they say was planning further attacks on tourists and oil installations. (Bloomberg, March 25)

A 75-year-old widow in Saudi Arabia has been sentenced to 40 lashes and four months in prison for associating with two young men who are not close relatives, her lawyer said March 9. The newspaper al-Watan said the woman, Khamisa Sawadi, met with two men, both aged 24, in April after she asked them to bring some loaves of bread to her home. The two men, her nephew and his business partner, were arrested by the religious police after delivering the bread, the newspaper said. They were also sentenced to lashes and imprisonment. The verdict against Sawadi, a Syrian who was married to a Saudi, also orders her deportation after her sentence is served. Her lawyer said he would appeal. (AP, March 10)

A Turkish court ordered the arrest of Cumhuriyet newspaper journalist Mustafa Balbay March 5 for his alleged involvement in a plot to overthrow the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). Balbay was arrested along with Internet publisher Neriman Aydin as part of the probe into secular group Ergenekon. The Ergenekon probe has been criticized as an attempt by the AKP to silence opposition and further their imposition of Islamic principles in violation of Turkey's secular constitution.

A judge in Lebanon Feb. 25 granted bail to three men suspected of involvement in the February 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The judge did not explain why he released them within days of the planned start-up date for the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (SLT). Of the three men, who have been detained for three years, Mahmoud and Ahmed Abdel-Aal are Lebanese brothers whose phone records allegedly link them to the bombings, and are members of a pro-Syrian Sunni Muslim group. Ibrahim Jarjoura is a Syrian who was arrested for allegedly misleading the investigation. Four more suspects, who are high ranking Lebanese generals, are still being held. The SLT is expected to request their transfer to The Hague within two months.

A prominent Kurdish lawmaker gave a speech in his native Kurdish in Turkey's Parliament Feb. 24—in defiance of the law. Turkey's state TV network cut off the live broadcast of the official, Ahmet Turk, as he spoke to members of his political party, the Democratic Society Party, known by its Turkish acronym DTP.