A Tunisian court on April 19 dropped charges against a police officer who incited protests in several Arab countries when she allegedly slapped a local fruit vendor. Police woman Fedia Hamdi was accused of slapping Mohamed Bouazizi in December in a dispute during which Bouazizi's cart was confiscated after he was allegedly found without a permit. As a result of the encounter, Bouazizi set himself on fire in front of the governor's office on Dec. 17 and died three weeks later. Pro-democracy protesters generally discontented with unemployment, corruption and repression staged several demonstrations following Bouazizi's death. The mother of the late vendor withdrew her complaint against Hamdi, and the Sidi Bouzid Court of First Instance subsequently dismissed the case.

A former Guantánamo Bay detainee announced April 15 that he is suing members of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak's regime over allegations that he was tortured by the government while in Egyptian custody. Mamdouh Habib, an Australian citizen, was arrested in Pakistan in 2001 following the 9-11 terrorist attacks on the US. He was released from Guantánamo in 2005 without charges being filed against him, after being held at the detention facility for three years. Habib claims that he was tortured and beaten after being taken to Egypt as part of the CIA's "extraordinary rendition" program. He claims Egypt's former vice-president Omar Suleiman and Mubarak's son Gamal supervised the torture, and indicated that he is seeking compensation and that he hopes those responsible will be imprisoned.

French special forces April 11 aided in the capture of Ivory Coast leader Laurent Gbagbo in Abidjan. Gbagbo surrendered after French tanks moved in on his residence while it was surrounded by opposition leader Alassane Ouattara's forces. Gbagbo had refused to leave office since his defeat in presidential elections last November. France deployed forces to the Ivory Coast as part of a UN-backed peacekeeping mission to stem the post-electoral violence. It was reported that French special forces captured Gbagbo and turned him over to Ouattar's forces, but Youssoufou Bamba, UN envoy of president-elect Ouattara, said it was the opposition leader's forces who made the arrest. However, there are still conflicting reports over what forces actually made the arrest. Gbagbo is being held in a hotel with his family under the protection of UN and pro-Ouattara forces. France claims that its intervention in its former colony is only at the UN's request.

A Somali pirate was sentenced by the US District Court for the District of Columbia on April 7 to 25 years in prison for attacking a Danish ship off the coast of Somalia in 2008, for which he and other pirates received a $1.7 million ransom. US Department of Justice officials say Jama Idle Ibrahim, who pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy to commit piracy and conspiracy to use a firearm during a violent crime, and other Somali men were armed with AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades when they seized the Danish vessel MV CEC Future and held its 13-member crew for ransom. Ibrahim's sentence will run concurrent with the 30-year sentence he received in November, stemming from a failed assault on the Navy's USS Ashland.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on April 3 called on the UN to retract the Goldstone Report following statements made by Richard Goldstone in a Washington Post op-ed. Netanyahu said the Goldstone Report, which found that Israel committed war crimes in Operation Cast Lead after a fact finding mission, is called into question by Goldstone's April 1 article, where he wrote: "If I had known then what I know now, the Goldstone Report would have been a different document." According to Goldstone, new evidence has shown that Israel never targeted civilians in the conflict as originally alleged.

US Attorney General Eric Holder announced April 4 that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other co-conspirators will be tried before a military commission for their roles in the 9-11 terrorist attacks. Holder, who wanted the accused be tried before a federal civilian court, referred the cases to the Department of Defense after Congress imposed a series of restrictions barring the transfer of Guantánamo Bay detainees to the US. Holder said he refused to delay the trial any longer for the sake of the victims of the 9-11 attacks and their families, explaining that the restrictions are not likely to be repealed in the immediate future. While deciding to proceed with military commissions, Holder defended the federal judiciary, saying:

The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on March 29 overturned a lower court's decision granting release to Yemeni Guantánamo Bay detainee Uthman Abdul Rahim Mohammed Uthman. Uthman's 2004 habeas corpus petition challenging his basis for detention was granted when the US District Court for the District of Columbia determined that the government had failed to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that Uthman had received and executed orders from al-Qaeda. The appeals court rejected this "command structure test" used by the lower court and struck down the ruling, blocking Uthman's release. The appeals court found that decisions made since Uthman's petition dictate that, regarding the detention authority granted by the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF)], determinations of whether individuals are al-Qaeda members must employ a functional approach on a case-by-case basis, rather than the formal approach used in Uthman's case.

US Representative Justin Amash (R-MI) on March 25 announced legislation requiring an immediate halt to military action in Libya until Congress authorizes its resumption. The Restoring Essential Constitutional Constraints for Libyan Action Involving the Military (RECLAIM) Act cites Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution while declaring that President Barack Obama must obtain authorization before any further military action is conducted. Amash explained the legislation: