Europe, Prison | featured news

Interpol has joined the hunt for a French bandit who escaped from prison after taking four guards hostage and blasting through a series of armored doors to a waiting car.

The first clue that things are done very differently on Bastoy prison island, which lies a couple of miles off the coast in the Oslo fjord, 46 miles south-east of Norway's capital, comes shortly after I board the prison ferry. I'm taken aback slightly when the ferry operative who welcomed me aboard just minutes earlier, and with whom I'm exchanging small talk about the weather, suddenly reveals he is a serving prisoner – doing 14 years for drug smuggling. He notes my surprise, smiles, and takes off a thick glove before offering me his hand. "I'm Petter," he says.

A court in Milan Friday convicted former Premier Silvio Berlusconi of tax fraud and sentenced the media mogul to four years in prison, his first prison sentence in years of criminal probes. The 76-year-old billionaire businessman -- who just two days ago said he would not run in Italy's spring election -- is expected to remain free until the appeals process is exhausted. In Italy, cases must pass two levels of appeal before verdicts are final.

The Paris appeals court on Wednesday ordered former Societe Generale trader Jerome Kerviel to spend three years in prison and pay back a staggering (EURO)4.9 billion (about $7 billion) in damages for one of the biggest trading frauds in history....

One of the masterminds behind file-sharing website The Pirate Bay was arrested last week in Cambodia, months after he was due to begin a one-year prison sentence in Sweden.

Amanda Knox arrives at the Perugia court, Italy, Saturday, May 21, 2011. A tearful Amanda Knox said Saturday that being in prison is "very frustrating and mentally exhausting" as the American student convicted of murdering her ...

The Obama administration intends to devise its own policies on how to handle existing and future terror detainees, but that hasn't stopped the world community from adding its two cents on the question