PARIS – A Human Rights Watch report released yesterday said France's legal framework for prosecuting terror suspects is too broad, resulting in too many arrests based on minimal evidence and too many convictions based on circumstantial evidence.
The U.S.-based group said France's pre-emptive approach to fighting terror and lack of appropriate safeguards within the criminal justice system have put the country “on the wrong side of human-rights law.” Its interrogation tactics, the use of foreign intelligence and suspects' limited access to legal counsel deepen the problem, the 84-page report said.
“All our laws on counterterrorism were taken in response to a threat,” government spokesman Luc Chatel said yesterday.
Associated Press
Mongolian soldiers on guard after riots
ULAN BATOR, Mongolia – Rifle-toting soldiers and armored vehicles guarded Mongolia's capital yesterday, one day after at least five people died and 220 others were injured in rioting sparked by allegations of fraud in parliamentary elections.
President Nambaryn Enkhbayar declared a four-day state of emergency after thousands of rock-throwing protesters clashed with police Tuesday and set afire the headquarters of the ruling Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party.
Associated Press
Canada recognizes abortion champion
TORONTO – The doctor who led the fight to legalize abortion in Canada two decades ago said yesterday that he was proud to be receiving his country's highest civilian award – the Governor General's Order of Canada.
Henry Morgentaler, 85, a Holocaust survivor born in Poland, began the fight for abortion rights in Canada when he opened an illegal clinic in Montreal in 1969. He went on to challenge abortion laws, leading to a 1988 Supreme Court ruling that struck down anti-abortion provisions of the Criminal Code as unconstitutional.
Reuters
