JAG CENTRAL

Dragan Zelenovic, Bosnian Serb Fugitive (UN.org)

From the NY Times, Bosnian Serb Sought By Tribunal Arrested ("Russian investigators have detained a Bosnian Serb wanted by the international tribunal in The Hague, officials told news agencies. The suspect, Dragan Zelenovic, a paramilitary commander during Bosnia's civil war, faces 14 counts of rape and torture stemming from the Serbian seizure of the town of Foca in 1992. He reportedly lived for several years under an assumed name with a Serbian passport in Khanty-Mansisk, a region in western Siberia, where he was detained on Thursday, the region's police chief, Anatoly Vorotov, told the official RIA Novisti news agency.").

From the Washington Post, Lawyers Seek Release of U.S. Detainee in Iraq:

An Iraqi-born U.S. resident who was arrested in Baghdad in April after a mortar attack on American forces has been detained for months despite a finding by a military tribunal that he had nothing to do with the attack, according to the man's attorneys.

American Civil Liberties Union and private lawyers are demanding the release of Numan Adnan Al Kaby and seeking a declaration that his detention has violated his right to counsel and his right to due process. They are to file a lawsuit in federal court in Washington today.

Al Kaby's plight appears similar to problems faced earlier this year by Cyrus Kar, an Iranian American filmmaker who was arrested in Iraq on suspicions that he was involved in a terrorist plot.

Only after his family petitioned a federal court did the military move to release Kar, a naturalized U.S. citizen and Navy veteran. Like Al Kaby, Kar had been cleared by a military panel but remained in jail even though the military panel had recommended his release.

The two men were housed in adjacent cells at Camp Cropper near Baghdad and were, at least nominally, in solitary confinement. But they were allowed to talk to each other because they had both been "cleared" and they came to know each other quite well, according to the petition.

It was Kar who, after his release in mid-July, told Al Kaby's family what had happened to Al Kaby after his arrest.

Categories: War+Crimes, Iraq, Bosnia, Newspapers