On October 13, 2012, the U.S. Court of Appeals in a unanimous (3-0) decision overturned the conviction of Salim Ahmed Hamdam, a former driver and bodyguard for Osama bin Laden whose case has been in the Military Commission Tribunal in Guantanamo and heavily litigated in the U.S. Article III courts.  In Salim Ahmed Hamdan v. U.S., the appellate court held that the Military Commissions Act of 2006 does not authorize retroactive prosecution of crimes that were not prohibited as war crimes triable by military commission under U.S.

On October 5, 2012, after a legal battle covering 8 to 14 years years in each case, five suspected terrorists, including radical cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri, will be extradited to the US, UK judges have ruled. 

The other men being sent to the US are Babar Ahmad, Syed Talha Ahsan, Adel Abdul Bary and Khaled al-Fawwaz, in cases that are not linked to Abu Hamza's case.

In their ruling, the judges said there was no further avenue of appeal open to the five men. The Home Office said it was working to "extradite these men as quickly as possible."

Prior to the meeting of the UN General Assembly in New York, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Vienna published a report, "Transnational Organized Crime in Central America and the Caribbean."

Ahigh-level presentation to ministers and ambassadors from the Central American region discussed the report on September 28, 2012  in New York on the margins of the 67th session of the General Assembly.

Griffith University's Centre for Governance and Public Policy has just released a report titled 'Global Shell Games: Testing Money Launderers’ and Terrorist Financiers’ Access to Shell Companies', authored by Michael Findley, Daniel Nielson, and Jason Sharman.

In a report to Congress on Friday, September 7th, 2012, Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton formally designated the militant Haqqani network, an organization responsible for several attacks against American military in Afghanistan, as a terrorist organization, two days before a Congressional deadline.

On August 22, 2012, INTERPOL released its annual report for the 2011 year. With the addition of three new countries, Curaçao, Sint Maarten and South Sudan, INTERPOL's membership has risen to 190 different countries. The annual report highlights some of the major achievements of the year, including the construction of the INTERPOL Global Complex for Innovation (IGCI) in Singapore, and a new Command and Coordination Center in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

On Thursday morning, the government of Ecuador announced its decision to grant asylum to WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, who had been hiding out in the Ecuadorian embassy in London since June 19, 2012. The decision to grant asylum means that Assange will only have protection from arrest while on Ecuadorian territory, making his travel to Ecuador dependent on British cooperation.

On August 7, 2012, the New York State Department of Financial Services issued an order, alleging that for almost ten years Standard Chartered Bank (SCB), a wholly owned subsidiary of Standard Chartered plc conspired with the Government of Iran and hid from regulators roughly 60,000 secret transactions, involving at least $250 billion, and making SCB hundreds of millions of dollars in fees.

After successfully arguing to Interpol that Idonesia had been abusing the red notice system for political purposes, Interpol has removed the red notice for Benny Wenda, leader of the West Papuan independence movement. This removal signifies and urgent need to address the abused red notice system within Interpol. After escaping from an Indonesian prison in 2002, Wenda was granted asylum in the United Kingdom and has continued to represent the West Papuan movement as a leader in exile.

The Camorra, one of Europe's largest criminal organizations, has had five key leaders designated today by the U.S. Department of the Treasury today (under its authority to impose sanctions targeting transnational organized crime). The list of the criminal activity within the Camorra is long and recent incidents have included money laundering, extortion, alien smuggling, robbery, blackmail, kidnapping, political corruption, and counterfeiting. While based in Italy, the Camorra conducts its operations all over the world.