January 2008 Archives

[JURIST] The Zimbabwe High Court Wednesday ruled against an appeal filed by the legal team defending Simon Mann [BBC profile] seeking to prevent Mann's extradition [JURIST report] for trial in Equatorial Guinea. Judge Rita Makarau held that the government had enough evidence that Mann was involved in a plot to overthrow Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Ngeuma [BBC profile] to allow the extradition order. Lawyers for Mann, who is currently serving a four-year sentence after being convicted on weapons charges [JURIST report] in Zimbabwe in 2004, argued that Mann will likely face torture and possibly the death penalty if he is extradited to Equatorial Guinea, but the judge ruled that his defense failed to establish a sufficient likelihood of torture.

In 2004, Mann and over 60 mercenaries were sentenced [JURIST report] in Zimbabwe for plotting a coup against Ngeuma. In 2005, Sir Mark Thatcher [BBC profile], son of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, pleaded guilty in South Africa to charges related to the failed coup and was fined [JURIST reports]. AP has more.

[JURIST] Seven Islamic militants involved in multiple bombing attacks on a town in northwestern Bangladesh were sentenced to life in prison by a Bangladeshi court Thursday. The attacks were part of a larger bombing plot [JURIST report; BBC report] allegedly organized by the Islamic group Jamaat-ul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) [SATP backgrounder] that set off more than 400 bombs nearly simultaneously throughout the country in 2005. No one was injured in the five bombings orchestrated by the seven men sentenced Thursday.

Six top JMB members were executed by hanging last year after the Bangladesh High Court in 2006 confirmed death sentences imposed by a trial court for the murder of two judges [JURIST reports] during the bombings. In 2006, three other JMB members were sentenced to death [JURIST report] and five others sentenced to life in prison for their involvement in the bombings. AP has more.

[JURIST] The US Department of Justice asked US District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper Wednesday to lift a preliminary injunction restricting the US Navy's use of sonar along the coast of Southern California. President Bush granted an exemption [JURIST report] earlier this month allowing the Navy to continue using sonar, after which Cooper eased portions of the order [order, PDF]. The DOJ argued that the exemption fell within Bush's scope of duties and asked the court to remove the injunction or, in the alternative, maintain the current partial restrictions. Lawyers for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) [advocacy website] say that Bush's action was unconstitutional and asked the court to re-impose the full injunction [PDF text] creating a 12-nautical mile zone along the coast in which the use of sonar is forbidden.

Bush's order came despite a November 2007 ruling [PDF text; NRDC press release] by the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that the Navy should limit its use of high-powered sonar. Bush exempted the Navy from the requirements of several environmental laws, including the Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA) [text], on the basis of national security, but the NRDC warned that sonar is harmful to whales and other marine animals [press release], characterizing the presidential waiver as "an attack on the rule of law." AP has more.

[JURIST] A federal judge in the US District Court for the District of Columbia Wednesday ruled [PDF text] that the US Department of the Interior (DOI) [official website] "unreasonably delayed" the accounting of billions of dollars of American Indian money [DOI Indian Trust Fund website], adding that it is now impossible for the DOI to remedy the breach. The decade-old Indian Trust case [Cobell v. Norton litigation website; JURIST news archive] returned to court [JURIST report] in October when US District Judge James Robertson held an evidentiary hearing. The class-action suit involves the DOI's alleged mismanagement of Native American money, including lease and sales revenues, permit fees and interest received and held for Native Americans by the US government over the last 120 years. Lead Plaintiff Elouise Cobell called the ruling "a great day in Indian Country" [press release], and said the plaintiffs looked forward to the next hearing in February to form a solution.

In March, the Native American plaintiffs rejected [JURIST report] a $7 billion settlement proposal from the US government. Some read the offer as a governmental acknowledgment of liability, but DOI officials disputed that interpretation. The plaintiffs criticized the settlement offer as "pennies on the dollar" in respect of the value of their claim as well as for its attempt to preclude further claims. AP has more.

[JURIST] A federal judge on Wednesday dismissed a class action lawsuit [JURIST report] brought by residents of New Orleans against the US Army Corps of Engineers [official website], ruling that the Flood Control Act of 1928 [text] grants immunity to the Corps. The residents of New Orleans sued the Corps alleging that the Corps had been negligent in the collapse of a flood wall and levee caused by Hurricane Katrina [JURIST news archive], arguing that the levee had been damaged prior to Katrina and that the Corps was negligent in maintaining it. While US District Judge Stanwood Duval, Jr. dismissed the suit, he also berated the Corps for their actions in building the levee system, saying that "millions of dollars were squandered in building a levee system...which was known to be inadequate by the corps' own calculations."

In a separate canal breach case [LAED case materials], Duval ruled in February that those plaintiffs could proceed with claims [JURIST report] that the Corps ignored warnings that the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet contained defects that exacerbated flooding during Katrina. AP has more. The New Orleans Times-Picayune has local coverage.

[JURIST] The extortion trial of former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed [party profile; JURIST news archive] resumed Wednesday in Dhaka, after the Bangladesh Supreme Court last week rejected Hasina's appeal of the proceedings [JURIST report]. Hasina had argued that she could not be tried under the current state of emergency rules because the alleged crimes occurred before the state of emergency [JURIST report] was declared last January. Hasina was formally charged [JURIST report] earlier this month with two counts of extortion for allegedly taking nearly $1.16 million from two businessmen while in office between 1996 and 2001. In October, Hasina denied the accusations [JURIST report] during questioning by officials. If convicted, she would be banned from running for office for 10 years. Also on Wednesday, the court ruled that the detention of Tarique Rahman [JURIST report], the son of former Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia [UN profile], was illegal.

The current interim government in Bangladesh, led by former central bank chief Fakhruddin Ahmed [official website; TIME interview], has arrested over 170 high-profile citizens since the military-backed government declared a state of emergency due to concerns that fraud would mar scheduled national elections. Both Hasina's sister, Shaikh Rehana, and her cousin, Shaikh Selim, a former minister in her cabinet, have also been charged with extortion. AFP has more. BBC News has additional coverage.

[JURIST] Jailed Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky [defense website; JURIST news archive] said Wednesday that he would begin a hunger strike [statement, in Russian] to protest denial of medical treatment to Vasily Aleksanian [statement], an imprisoned former executive and lawyer at the now-defunct Yukos [JURIST news archive] oil company, who has AIDS. Khodorkovsky said officials were denying medical treatment to Aleksanian, whose health is deteriorating, to coerce him into making false confessions. BBC News has more. Bloomberg has additional coverage.

Aleksanian was arrested in 2006 for charges of money laundering and embezzlement and was diagnosed with HIV a few months later. Khodorkovsky was convicted of tax evasion [JURIST report] in 2005 and is currently imprisoned in Siberia. Russian prosecutors indicted Khordorkovsky on new money laundering charges [JURIST report] in early 2007. Khodorkovsky, an opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has always insisted that the charges against him are politically motivated, although Russian prosecutors say otherwise [JURIST report].

[JURIST] Iran's chief judge issued a ban [IRNA report] Wednesday against all public executions not specially permitted by the head of the judiciary. Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi [Wikipedia profile] also banned the publication of pictures and videos of executions and ordered state prosecutors to enforce the bans. Commentators said that Shahroudi probably wants to remove executions from the public eye [BBC report] following harsh international criticism of Iran's execution practices, including stoning [JURIST report] and the execution of juveniles [JURIST report]. Shahroudi, who is a moderate conservative, was also responsible for issuing a 2002 moratorium against stoning and declaring a ban on using torture to force confessions.

Iran has reportedly hanged 20 people this year for crimes such as murder and drug smuggling, and human rights groups said that the country executed about 300 people in 2007. Last April, an Amnesty International report [text; JURIST report] named Iran as having one of the three highest execution rates in the world, along with China and Pakistan. Most executions in the country are carried out by hanging and are related to traditional capital crimes including murder and rape, although an Iranian airport customs was executed for corruption [JURIST report] earlier this week. AP has more.

[JURIST] The International Judges and Prosecutors Programme [backgrounder] of the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) [official website] has failed to meet international standards to ensure fair trials, according to a report [PDF text, press release] released Wednesday by Amnesty International [advocacy website]. The report blamed "flaws in the concept, limited resources and the low priority that international justice has been given" for systemic failures that could result in scores of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the 1990s conflict in Kosovo [JURIST news archive] going unpunished.

The report concludes that "the structure and operation of the Programme have been so flawed that the example in Kosovo cannot serve as a model for internationalizing national judicial systems without major changes." UNMIK officials declined to comment on the report Wednesday. AP has more.

[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit [official website] on Tuesday reversed [opinion, PDF] a controversial trial court judgment in favor of a plaintiff class of cattle ranchers claiming that defendant meat-packing companies underpaid them based on erroneous price data provided by the US Dept. of Agriculture (USDA) [official website]. The class action plaintiffs filed suit under the Packers and Stockyards Act (PSA) [text], alleging that the meat-packing companies knew or should have known that the USDA incorrectly reported the price of select and choice cuts of meat during a six-week period from April 2, 2001, to May 11, 2001. The USDA figures, which determine the prices that meat-packers pay to cattle producers, were underestimated, resulting in lower prices being offered to the plaintiffs. According to the Eighth Circuit, the trial court erred by instructing the jury that the PSA did not require the plaintiffs to show intent to manipulate prices by the defendants. Instead, the court ascertained the legislative intent behind the PSA and ruled that the liability under the PSA requires a showing of intentional manipulation or control over prices:

In the absence of a statutory definition or clear contrary legislative intent, statutory terms are given their plain, ordinary, and commonly understood meaning. This court often turns to a commonly used dictionary to ascertain a word's ordinary meaning. Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary defines "manipulate" as follows: "to manage or utilize skillfully," or "to control or play upon by artful, unfair, or insidious means esp[ecially] to one's own advantage" or "to change by artful or unfair means so as to serve one's purpose." "Control," according to the same dictionary, means "[t]o exercise restraining or directing influence over," or "to have power over." By using words such as "manage," "artful," "insidious," and "exercise," both definitions suggest that some culpability, such as intent, is required to violate the PSA.

[JURIST] Jakob Kellenberger, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) [advocacy website], Wednesday expressed optimism [press release] after completing a two-day visit to Washington DC to speak with top US officials, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Attorney General Michael Mukasey, and National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley, about ICRC concerns regarding the status and treatment of US terror detainees. Kellenberger said that talks between the US and the ICRC had led to "tangible progress," but emphasized that some issues still remained unresolved, particularly in regard to protecting detainees' legal rights at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive]. The talks also addressed the need for the US intelligence community to interact with the ICRC, and the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan, Darfur, Iraq, and Israel and the Palestinian territories. AP has more.

The ICRC is formally entrusted under the Geneva Conventions [ICRC materials] with visiting prisoners of war and inspecting the conditions of their detention. The ICRC in Iraq [ICRC materials] currently has arrangements with US forces allowing access to some 20,000 detainees and with Kurdish authorities to allow visitation with another 1,500 detainees.

[JURIST] Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty [official profile] Tuesday called for restrictions on media coverage of terrorism cases, saying that media disclosure should be delayed until judicial proceedings have been completed. In a speech [transcript] entitled "Terrorism: Policing's New Paradigm" delivered to the Sydney Institute [official website], Keelty said:

In the United Kingdom, to provide a contrast with Australia, contempt of court laws prevent journalists from reporting proceedings in open court. In fact, even reporting information that has previously been in the public domain might also not be exempt from contempt of court laws. Although in the UK there is debate around when exactly proceedings become active, it is understood to be at the time a person is arrested; a warrant is issued for the arrest of a person or a person is charged with a crime. This media blackout remains in place until after the case is disposed of, abandoned, discontinued or withdrawn.

I am not saying that correct processes and procedures should be cast aside, nor should public institutions be immune from public accountability in the discharge of their public service, but I am saying that a public discussion about them should be delayed, in deference to judicial process. Not subjugated, not quashed, not silenced; just delayed, until the full gamut of judicial process has been exhausted.

If charges are laid, the right of the alleged offender to the presumption of innocence should take precedence over the public interest in knowing how the investigation was conducted and a person’s right to freely discuss elements of the crime and its investigation. Information about the investigation and wider discussion about elements of the crime become available as part of the open court processes or after the legal process has been completely exhausted.

[JURIST] Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] was acquitted of false accounting by a Milan court on Wednesday. The charges were related to Berlusconi's membership in a group trying to buy the SME state food conglomerate in the 1980s, but the court found that the allegations against Berlusconi did not amount to a crime under amendments made to the criminal law in 2002 while Berlusconi was in power. Despite his legal woes, the former prime minister hopes to return to office and has been pushing for early elections since Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi [official profile] resigned last week after losing a vote of confidence [BBC report] in the upper house of parliament.

Berlusconi, a media mogul and Italy's richest man, has faced trial on at least six occasions involving charges of false accounting, tax fraud, money laundering, embezzlement, and giving false testimony [JURIST reports]. In October, Italy's highest court of appeal upheld Berlusconi's April acquittal [JURIST reports] on bribery charges. That trial was initially blocked in 2004 by a bill drafted by Berlusconi ally and later defense lawyer Gaetano Pecorella but went ahead after the bill was struck down as unconstitutional. Berlusconi has continually maintained his innocence, accusing prosecutors of conducting a political vendetta against him. AP has more.

[JURIST] Kenyan opposition candidate Raila Odinga [campaign profile] has condemned as illegal the latest "shoot to kill" order given to Kenyan police in response to continued violence across the country after last month's disputed presidential election [JURIST report], according to Wednesday media reports. Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in the country to help mediate [JURIST report] the conflict between supporters of Odinga and Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki [official profile], says he hopes the political issues can be resolved within four weeks and that the country can heal from this latest crisis within a year. Speaking Wednesday on the sidelines of a conference in Ethiopia, however, US Undersecretary of State Jendayi Frazer claimed that the violence had constituted "ethnic cleansing."

The controversial presidential vote has sparked simmering ethnic tensions in Kenya [JURIST news archive], where Kibaki has long been accused of using his position to favor members of the Kikuyu tribe. Fueling accusations of malfeasance, Kibaki won the December 27 election despite early opinion polls that placed rival candidate Odinga in the lead. Thousands of opposition supporters took to the streets following the election, which prompted the government to temporarily ban public rallies and institute a curfew in Nairobi, the capital city. In all, almost 1,000 people have been killed and 250,000 displaced since protests began. Thirteen nations, including several European Union members and the United States, have threatened to cut off aid [JURIST report] to Kenya's government until the crisis is resolved and democracy is restored. Odinga's opposition party, the Orange Democratic Movement [party website] earlier this week filed a formal complaint [JURIST report] with the International Criminal Court [official website], alleging that Kibaki's administration has committed crimes against humanity while using force against demonstrators. The Kenyan National Commission on Human Rights [official site] on Saturday launched an official investigation [KNCHR brief; Standard report] into the alleged human rights violations. AFP has more.

[JURIST] The Israeli Supreme Court [official website] ruled Wednesday that the Israeli government can continue to cut supplies of fuel and electricity to the Gaza Strip [BBC backgrounder], rejecting legal challenges [press release; JURIST report] by human rights groups that the blockade deprived Gaza residents of basic humanitarian needs in violation of international law. Israeli officials say that withholding fuel and energy supplies is the only option open to the Israeli government aside from a full-scale military operation against Hamas [BBC backgrounder], which has refused to halt indiscriminate rocket attacks against Israeli positions from Gaza. In its ruling [unofficial English translation, PDF], the court held that Israel is required to act against terror organizations in accordance with the norms of international law but that the reduced supplies currently allowed into Gaza "fulfill the vital humanitarian needs of the Gaza Strip at this time." In November 2007, the Israeli Supreme Court blocked government plans to cut electricity [JURIST report] in the Gaza Strip, while allowing fuel supply cuts. Israel currently supplies all of Gaza's fuel and more than two-thirds of its electricity.

Last week, the UN Human Rights Council [official website] adopted a resolution [draft text, PDF; JURIST report] criticizing Israel for recent military attacks and a week-long blockade against the Palestinian-controlled Gaza Strip that the Council said amounted to human rights violations. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour [official profile] has also said that Israel's policy of collective punishment, disproportionate use of force and targeted killings, coupled with the Palestinian militant practice of indiscriminate firings of bombs and rockets, has led to the current crisis [transcript; JURIST report] in the Gaza Strip. The latest Israeli blockade began mid-January, when Israel closed crossings into Gaza and cut off electricity, fuel and emergency aid to the area after more than 45 rockets hit Israeli towns. AP has more.

[JURIST] US Attorney General Michael Mukasey [official profile] on Wednesday refused to provide the Senate Judiciary Committee an opinion on whether waterboarding constitutes an illegal form of torture. Wednesday's hearing [SJC materials] is Mukasey's first appearance before the Judiciary Committee since being sworn in as attorney general in November. On Tuesday, Mukasey sent a letter to the committee confirming that he has completed his investigation [JURIST report] into CIA interrogation methods used on terror suspects and found that the agency's current methods to be legal. Despite criticism from committee chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) [official website] on his non-answer, Mukasey refused to characterize waterboarding [JURIST news archive] as torture, saying that, since the technique was not currently in use by the CIA, it would be not be responsible for him to make a final decision on its legality.

Waterboarding was a major issue during Mukasey's confirmation hearings last year when he refused to take a stance on whether the practice constitutes torture [JURIST report]. In the midst of the hearings, he wrote in a letter [PDF text; JURIST report] to Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee that he did not know if waterboarding was illegal, and that it would be "irresponsible" of him to provide a legal opinion on any specific interrogation technique without an in-depth analysis of relevant laws and more information about its use. Earlier this month, both former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge [official profile] and US Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell [official profile] expressed their opinions that the controversial interrogation technique should be considered torture [JURIST report]. AP has more.

[JURIST] The judicial panel of the UK House of Lords unanimously ruled [opinion, PDF] Wednesday that a sexual assault victim could sue a convicted attacker who later won £7 million in the National Lottery even though the six-year limitation for bringing compensation claims had expired. The Lords held that the victim could bring the claim against Iorworth Hoare [Wikipedia profile]. Writing in favor of the appeal, Baroness Hale od Richmond wrote:

the injustice to a claimant who may be deprived of his claim, perhaps as a result of the very injuries which gave rise to it, can be balanced against the injustice to a defendant who may be called upon to defend himself a long time after the event when important evidence may no longer be obtainable ... A fair trial can be possible long after the event and sometimes the law has no choice. It is even possible to have a fair trial of criminal charges of historic sex abuse. Much will depend upon the circumstances of the particular case ... Nor are the difficulties faced by a defendant, whose breach of a strict statutory duty may have resulted in some insidious industrial disease, necessarily less deserving of consideration than the difficulties faced by a defendant, whose deliberate and brutal actions towards a vulnerable person in his care may have resulted in immediate physical harm and much later serious psychiatric sequelae.

[JURIST] Ousted Pakistani Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry [JURIST news archive] labeled Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf an "extremist" on Wednesday, chiding Musharraf for deposing 60 judges, slandering judges, and keeping Chaudhry under house arrest [JURIST report]. The government of Pakistan has kept Chaudhry and several other judges and lawyers under preventative detention since Musharraf declared emergency rule [text; JURIST report] on November 3. According to a letter [DOC] released by lawyers on behalf of Chaudhry, as part of the house arrest, barbed-wire has been placed around Chaudhry's home, phone lines have been disconnected, and the family has been unable to go onto their front yard.

Last week, Pakistani lawyers demonstrated in Islamabad [JURIST report] to protest Chaudhry's continued detention. Also last week, a report [text] by Pakistan's The News suggested the government may be skirting constitutional limits on detentions [JURIST report]. The Pakistani constitution requires that preventative detention be limited to 90 days unless a review board has extended the detention. The detention period will expire as of January 31, but the government has not referred Chaudhry's case to a review board, instead saying that because Chaudhry and other deposed judges are not being held under court-ordered detention they therefore do not qualify for review. AP has more.

[JURIST] The US Attorney's Office for the Central District of California [official website] has recommended that former Milberg Weiss [firm website] partner William Lerach receive two years in prison for his part in the firm's illegal kickback scheme. Lerach pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy to obstruct justice after reaching an agreement [JURIST reports] with prosecutors in September. In court documents filed Monday, the US Attorney's Office disagreed with a 15-month recommendation by probation officers, saying that it would inadequately deter others. Sentencing is scheduled for on February 11.

In October, Milberg Weiss co-founder Melvyn Weiss pleaded not guilty [JURIST report] to federal charges of conspiracy, racketeering, obstruction of justice and making false statements. In May 2006, a federal grand jury indicted [JURIST report] the firm and two name partners, David J. Bershad and Steven G. Schulman, on charges of conspiracy to make false statements and obstructing justice. Lerach was named as "Partner B" in the indictment [PDF text]. As part of the scheme, certain individuals who agreed to serve as class action representatives were promised 10 percent of the attorney fees eventually gathered by Milberg Weiss. Three individuals pleaded guilty [JURIST report] in connection with the scheme in May 2006, and Bershad pleaded guilty [JURIST report] to conspiracy charges in July. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Lawyers for former Khmer Rouge official Nuon Chea [GenocideWatch report] on Wednesday filed a motion with the Extraordinary Chambers in the Court of Cambodia (ECCC) [official website; JURIST news archive] requesting the removal of Cambodian military court chief Ney Thol from Nuon Chea's scheduled February 4 pre-trial hearing and all future proceedings relating to war crimes and crimes against humanity charges [statement, PDF] against Nuon Chea because of alleged impartiality. According to the motion, Ney Thol, who is a member of the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) [party website, in English], sentenced an opposition leader to jail in a questionable 2005 trial which was biased against the defense. The opposition leader was later pardoned. The motion claims that Ney Thol's "participation in highly questionable judicial decisions" indicates his biases and justifies his removal.

The Khmer Rouge is generally held responsible for the genocide of an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians [PPU backgrounder] who died between 1975 and 1979. Nuon Chea was known as Brother Number Two in the Khmer Rouge, indicative of his high position in the communist movement led by Pol Pot, who died in 1998 having never been prosecuted for alleged war crimes. He was arrested and charged [JURIST report] in September and said that he was never in the position to order the deaths attributed to him, but that he will cooperate with the ECCC [JURIST report]. The ECCC was established by a 2001 law [text as amended 2005, PDF] to investigate and try surviving Khmer Rouge officials, but to date, no top officials have faced trials. The first trials are expected to begin this year. AP has more.

[JURIST] United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon [official website] on Tuesday issued a report [text] pushing for the enforcement of sanctions against more than 12 countries who continue to use child soldiers in armed combat. According to the report, child soldiers continue to be used in African and Asian countries, including in Iraq, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Sudan and Sri Lanka, in violation of international laws that protect children in armed conflict. Ban noted that the use of child soldiers violates in particular the Geneva Convention of 1949 and its 1997 protocols, the Convention on the Rights of the Child of 1989 and its optional protocol, and the International Labour Organization Convention No. 182 [texts].

Ban listed several recommendations for the Security Council [official website] in combating child soldier recruitment in the listed countries, including imposing sanctions against those who continue to recruit children for combat. Also in his report, Ban identified ongoing abuses committed against children, including sexual assaults, abductions, and the denial of humanitarian aid, food and education. The report urges the Security Council to "give equal weight to all categories of grave violations" against children. Ban also urged individual UN member states to crack down on parties in their countries that systematically use child soldiers or commit abuses against children. Reuters has more. The UN News Centre has additional coverage.

[JURIST] A Spanish prosecutor on Tuesday filed an anticipated request [JURIST report] before the Supreme Court of Spain [official website, in Spanish] to ban two Basque political parties for alleged ties to ETA [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive], the armed Basque separatist movement. Spanish Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega [official profile, in Spanish] has said the government has evidence that both the Basque Nationalist Action Party (ANV) [party website] and the Communist Party of the Basque Lands (PCTV) [Wikipedia backgrounder] have close ties to Batasuna [BBC backgrounder], ETA's banned political arm. The government wants to prevent the parties from fielding candidates for a general election scheduled for March, and prosecutors are expected to file a formal demand to the court in the coming days.

The Supreme Court of Spain banned Batasuna in 2003 for its refusal to cut ties with ETA. ETA has been blamed for more than 800 deaths in bombings and attacks since the 1960s. AFP has more. Reuters has additional coverage.

[JURIST] US Attorney General Michael Mukasey [official profile] said in a Tuesday letter [PDF text] to the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee that he had completed his investigation into CIA interrogation methods used on terror suspects, finding the agency's current methods to be legal. In the letter to Senator Patrick Leahy [official website], Mukasey again refused to characterize waterboarding [JURIST news archive] as torture, saying that, since the technique was not currently in use by the CIA, it would be not be responsible for him to make a final decision on its legality. Mukasey is scheduled to testify [witness list] at an oversight hearing before the committee on Wednesday. AP has more.

Waterboarding was a major issue during Mukasey's confirmation hearings last year, when he refused to take a stance on whether the practice constituted torture [JURIST report]. In the midst of the hearings, he wrote in a letter [PDF text; JURIST report] to Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee that he did not know if waterboarding was illegal, and that it would be "irresponsible" of him to provide a legal opinion on any specific interrogation technique without an in-depth analysis of relevant laws and more information about its use.

[JURIST] The US House of Representatives Tuesday voted to extend the Protect America Act of 2007 [S 1927 materials; JURIST report] for an additional two weeks past its original February 1 expiration date. The extension was passed as a last-minute compromise between House Democrats and Republicans to give the Senate time to pass new surveillance legislation that Republicans hope will include a provision granting civil immunity to telecommunications companies [JURIST report] that cooperate with the government on surveillance. To date, more than 40 lawsuits have been filed against telecom companies that participated in the NSA warrantless surveillance program [JURIST news archive]. US President George W. Bush reiterated his threat [JURIST report] to veto any legislation that did not include an immunity provision in his State of the Union address [text; JURIST report] on Monday. AP has more. The Washington Post has additional coverage.

Currently, the temporary Protect America Act, which was enacted as a stopgap measure as Congress works on passing long-term legislation to "modernize" the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) [text; JURIST news archive, expands FISA to allow the US government to eavesdrop inside of the US without court approval as long as one end of a telephone or computer conversation is reasonably perceived to have been outside of the US. The Protect America Act had been set to sunset on February 1. Both Bush [press release] and Vice President Dick Cheney [JURIST report] have recently called for Congressional action to do away with the need for future renewals by making FISA permanent.

[JURIST] The Portuguese government helped in the rendition [JURIST news archive] of more than 700 prisoners to Guantanamo Bay by allowing the US to use Portuguese territory and airspace, a British prisoner rights group reported [PDF text] Tuesday. Reprieve [advocacy website] said that 728 out of the 774 prisoners processed at Guantanamo came through Portuguese jurisdiction and that a significant number were tortured before their arrivals in Guantanamo. The report relies on information from Portuguese flight logs, prison arrival data from the US Department of Defense, and declassified prisoner testimony. Reprieve legal director Clive Stafford Smith said that the prisoners could not have reached Guantanamo without Portuguese complicity [press release, PDF] and urged the Portuguese government to conduct a public inquiry into possible breaches of international law.

A 2006 report [DOC text] by a European Parliament committee [official website] investigating the US Central Intelligence Agency's alleged use of European countries for the transport and illegal detention of prisoners found that many European countries were aware that the CIA operated secret prisons [JURIST news archive] or used their territory for the transfer of terror suspects. The committee found that Portugal was among 16 EU countries that had cooperated with the CIA [JURIST report] "passively or actively" in the transport and illegal detention of prisoners. In 2007, the Portuguese government opened its own investigation [JURIST report] into secret CIA rendition flights. The government has denied Reprieve's charges. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] An influential UK Conservative Party donor has launched a legal effort to force the UK government to put the ratification of the new EU reform treaty [JURIST news archive] properly known as the Treaty of Lisbon [official website; PDF text] to a public vote, the BBC reported Tuesday. Stuart Wheeler [BBC profile] argues that Prime Minister Gordon Brown [official website] has broken a pledge to hold a referendum on the pact warranting judicial review; Brown has said that a referendum is unnecessary because the treaty does not affect the UK constitution or impinge on British sovereignty. MPs are currently scheduled to begin debate on whether to ratify the treaty, but Wheeler, who said he expects review to be granted, said the treaty could not be ratified while judicial review, if granted, is pending. The treaty must be ratified by all 27 EU member state signatories before it can take effect.

Last year, UK Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs David Miliband [official profile] similarly rejected calls for a general referendum on the treaty, instead insisting [transcript] that it was sufficiently "different...in absolute essence" from the earlier draft European Constitution [JURIST news archive] that would have been put to a popular vote [JURIST report]. Former Prime Minister Tony Blair rejected the referendum option [JURIST report] earlier last year before leaving office. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] Hate crimes [JURIST news archive] in Russia rose 13 percent in 2007 over 2006, but police have done little to stop attacks, according to a Tuesday report by the SOVA Center [advocacy website] rights group. Deputy Director Galina Kozhevnikova told reporters that race-related crime resulted in 67 deaths and 550 injuries in 2007, with African students, Asian visitors, and anti-Nazi activists the most frequent victims. He criticized Russian authorities for not adequately responding to the increase in violence, saying that many hate crimes were only prosecuted as incidents of hooliganism, which would carry a lighter sentence. Kozhevnikova added that while hate group leaders were prosecuted last year for distributing "xenophobic materials," many pro-government groups, including popular youth group Nashi [group website, in Russian], have adopted ethnocentric and racist slogans.

Last June, rights watchdog Human Rights First [advocacy website] reported that hate crimes are on the rise throughout Europe [JURIST report], after conducting a study examining recent hate crimes in France, Germany, Russia, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom. That study found a "proliferation of violent hate crimes directed against ethnic, religious and national minorities" in Russia especially. AP has more.

[JURIST] A bill to lift a ban on women wearing headscarves [JURIST report] in universities was submitted Tuesday to the Turkish Grand National Assembly [official website, in Turkish] amidst protests by secular groups. Last week, an agreement [JURIST report] between Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party and key opponent Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) [party websites] propelled the bill forward after decades of strict enforcement of the ban. The proposal, made in response to recent calls [JURIST report] from Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan [IHT backgrounder] for the government to lift the ban immediately, would alter the constitution [text] and the Higher Education Law No. 2547 [HRW backgrounder] to allow scarves tied at the chin. Chadors, veils and burqas reportedly will still be banned. The alliance between the two parties is expected to produce the requisite two-thirds majority needed to amend the constitution in a parliamentary vote scheduled for next week.

Headscarves and other forms of Muslim traditional religious dress [JURIST news archive] are banned from many public places in modern Turkey, a majority Muslim country despite official secularism. Supporters of the ban, largely secularists, say the ban on headscarves is necessary to protect the separation of religion and state. Erdogan has repeatedly called for an end to the ban, saying it effectively denies some Muslim women access to higher education [JURIST report], but Turkish secularists believe that his insistence on ending the ban is a political statement against secular principles. Members of secular parties, including the Republican People's Party and the Democratic Left Party [party websites, in Turkish], have threatened to appeal to the judiciary if parliament approves the bill. AP has more.

[JURIST] An Iranian airport customs contractor convicted of corruption has been executed and three other customs workers are scheduled to face the death penalty [JURIST news archive], according to comments from the Iranian judiciary [official website] reported by Reuters Tuesday. The convicted individuals apparently accepted bribes totaling more than $1 million in connection with their positions at the Mehrabad airport in Tehran. Few other details were given about the offenses, described as "office corruption and other economic crimes" by Iranian judiciary spokesman Alireza Jamshidi. Jamshidi could not confirm whether the execution was Iran's first administered for an economic crime. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad [official profile; BBC profile] has taken a tough stance again corruption and bribery, but to date violators have reportedly been sentenced only to prison time and public lashings. An appeal is under review as the three workers seek to commute their death sentences to life in prison.

Last April, an Amnesty International report [text; JURIST report] named Iran as having one of the three highest execution rates in the world, along with China and Pakistan. Most executions in the country are carried out by hanging and are related to more traditional capital crimes including murder and rape. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The European Court of Justice [official website] Tuesday ruled [judgment; press release, PDF] against Promusicae [trade website], a Spanish music industry coalition, finding that telecommunication companies have no duty to disclose the names and addresses of people suspected of engaging in illegal file sharing. A lower Spanish court had asked the European Court of Justice to issue an opinion on whether EU law required member states to impose such an obligation. The court held Tuesday that European Union directives contained no such obligation in the context of civil proceedings, but also found that EU law did not preclude member states from imposing such an obligation. Under Spanish law [PDF text, in Spanish], the obligatory disclosure of such personal information sought by the nonprofit group is permitted only in a criminal investigation, or if necessary for national security.

Last July, European Court of Justice Advocate General Juliane Kokott [official profile] told the European Court of Justice in an advisory opinion [text, in Spanish; JURIST report] that EU governments should resist disclosing Internet user information sought by copyright industry groups for civil lawsuits. Promusicae had filed a lawsuit against Spanish Internet service provider Telefonica (corporate website] to obtain customer information linked to IP addresses that Promusicae suspected were involved in illegal peer-to-peer music sharing. AP has more.

[JURIST] US Office of Special Counsel (OSC) [official website] head Scott J. Bloch [official profile] has accused the Department of Justice (DOJ) of impeding an investigation into the "politicization" of the DOJ under former US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales [official profile; JURIST news archive] during the 2006 US Attorney firings [JURIST news archive], the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday. The Office of Special Counsel is the independent federal agency in charge of enforcing the Hatch Act [OSC materials], which prohibits the use of government resources for political purposes. According to Tuesday's report, Bloch wrote a letter to Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey last week asserting his department's independent authority to investigate "political intrusion into personnel decision making" at the DOJ, and accusing the DOJ of denying his request for evidence and documents relating to the dismissal of nine US Attorneys in 2006. The DOJ has said that Bloch may conduct his own investigation after the DOJ has completed its own probe, which Bloch says could take many more months.

The Los Angeles Times reported [JURIST report] last May that the DOJ Office of Professional Responsibility [official website] was expanding its internal investigation [JURIST report] into whether department aides illegally made hiring decisions based on consideration of applicants' political beliefs. In June, former DOJ aide Monica Goodling [JURIST news archive] testified [JURIST report] in front of the House Judiciary Committee, where she admitted making hiring decisions based on political party affiliation. The DOJ has also said that it found no evidence to support Goodling's claim that the practice was approved by officials in the department. The Los Angeles Times has more.

[JURIST] Moroccan authorities have arrested Abdelilah Hriz, an alleged participant in the 2004 Madrid train bombings [JURIST news archive], a Spanish judicial source said Monday. Hriz, whose DNA and fingerprints linked him to a house where explosives were prepared and an apartment where several suspects killed themselves after being pursued by police, will be tried in Morocco. According to Reuters' source, this is the first time a Moroccan court has agreed to try a Moroccan citizen for crimes committed outside of the country.

Spain's highest court of appeal said earlier this month that 25 appeals, both from defendants and from victims, have been filed against verdicts handed down in Spain against participants in the Madrid bombings. In November 2007, victims vowed to appeal [JURIST report] after a Spanish court acquitted seven of the 28 co-defendants accused of participating in the attacks, including alleged mastermind Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed [CBC profile]. In all, 28 co-defendants [BBC backgrounder] were charged in Spain with 192 counts of murder and upwards of 1,800 counts of attempted murder related to the March 11, 2004 bombings. Three defendants were convicted of murder [JURIST report] and 18 others were found guilty of lesser charges. The three men convicted of murder - Jamel Zougam, Otman el Ghanoui, and Emilio Trashorras - each received sentences of up to 40,000 years imprisonment, but under Spanish law can only serve a maximum of 40 years each. The defendants have all protested their innocence and condemned the attacks. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The Syrian government has detained former parliamentarian and dissident Riyad Sayf [MEIB profile], the National Organization for Human Rights in Syria (NOHR) said Tuesday. Sayf is a prominent member of the "Damascus Declaration" group, which in 2005 issued a declaration [text] urging Syria to embark on democratic transition and improve relations with Lebanon. In December, the Syrian government arrested nine members of the group [AP report] after it held a conference of opposition groups and activists in favor of democratic reform.

The Syrian government routinely issues travel bans against dissidents and last August, the US Department of State [official website] urged the Syrian government to lift a travel ban [press release] against Sayf, who is suffering from prostate cancer, so that he could seek medical treatment. Another pro-democracy activist, Kamal Labwani, was sentenced to 12 years in prison last year for "encouraging attacks against Syria" after contacting a foreign country. Labwani met with White House officials during a visit to the US in 2005, and was arrested [JURIST reports] at the airport when he returned to Syria. AP has more.

[JURIST] Ten activists who led anti-government protests against fuel prices [BBC Q&A; JURIST report] in Myanmar last August and September have been charged under Myanmar's Printing and Publishing Act with the crime of making illegal statements. Myanmar's ruling military junta has detained the ten activists pursuant to its emergency powers since their arrests in September. According to Amnesty International, 700 dissidents are still in custody [JURIST report] from the August protests, a claim the government denies. Three thousand protesters were initially arrested. BBC News has more. Reuters has additional coverage.

The UN General Assembly Third Committee approved [JURIST report] a resolution [press release] in November condemning the recent crackdown and calling on the junta to release all political prisoners. The US Senate passed a bill [JURIST report] in December imposing new sanctions and travel restrictions on junta leaders, but it was never signed into law. Myanmar has been governed without a constitution since the military regime took power in 1988. Talks on a new national charter [JURIST report] have been underway for 14 years. It is not yet clear who will draft the actual constitution or how that process will occur, but the Myanmar government has pledged to put the resulting document to a vote in a national referendum.

[JURIST] Three Indonesian Islamic militants sentenced to death for their roles in the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings [BBC backgrounder] have filed a second appeal with the Indonesian Supreme Court, a spokesperson for the Indonesian attorney general's office said Tuesday. The three militants - Mukhlas, Amrozi, and Imam Samudra [BBC profiles] - are not entitled under Indonesian law to a second review from the Indonesian Supreme Court, but their executions could now be delayed because authorities must wait until the appeal is formally rejected. The militants' lawyers say that Indonesia's anti-terrorism laws, enacted following the 2002 Bali bombings, should not have retroactive effect.

In December, the Indonesian Supreme Court rejected the militants' appeal [JURIST report], giving the defendants one month to seek clemency from the Indonesian president. They have said they will not seek clemency. In August 2007, the Indonesian government reduced the sentences [JURIST report] of 10 other Islamic militants convicted for their roles in the 2002 and 2005 Bali bombings [BBC report]. Originally serving between eight to 18 years, six of the militants received a sentence reduction of five months, while the other four received a reduction of two months. Terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah [MIPT backgrounder; JURIST news archive] has been blamed for both Bali bombings. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Former Malaysian Chief Justice Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim [Wikipedia profile] told a Royal Commission inquiry panel Monday that a December 2001 video [YouTube video] that appears to show prominent Malaysian lawyer VK Lingam brokering Halim's appointment to become chief justice is a fabrication. Former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who released the first part of the video [JURIST report] in September, asserts that Halim is the voice on the other end of the line with Lingam in the first part of the video. On Monday, Halim denied that claim, suggesting that Lingam might have been trying to impress his friends by pretending to know the high-ranking politicians involved in the now-scandal. On the tape [PDF transcript], Lingam says he is working hard to get Halim appointed to the second highest judiciary position in Malaysia, the presidency of the court of appeal; Halim received that post soon thereafter prior to becoming the chief justice of the Malaysian Supreme Court from 2003 to 2007.

The video's release prompted 2,000 lawyers and activists to protest judicial corruption [JURIST report; press release], calling for an official investigation. The Royal Commission began its sessions last week, when Lingam told the panel that he was intoxicated [JURIST report] when the video was filmed. Lingam also told the panel that Halim was not on the other end of the line [Bernama report] in the first video. On Monday, Anwar released the third part of the video [JURIST report], which allegedly shows Lingam admitting to having bribed former Chief Justice Dzaiddin Abdullah. AFP has more.

[JURIST] US President George W. Bush [JURIST news archive] signed an executive order Tuesday implementing promises on earmarks made in his final State of the Union address [text; JURIST report] delivered Monday. Executive Order 13457 [text; fact sheet] commands heads of federal agencies to take "all necessary steps" to ignore earmarks that are not explicitly written into law. The policy portion of the order reads:

To ensure the proper use of taxpayer funds that are appropriated for Government programs and purposes, it is necessary that the number and cost of earmarks be reduced, that their origin and purposes be transparent, and that they be included in the text of the bills voted upon by the Congress and presented to the President. For appropriations laws and other legislation enacted after the date of this order, executive agencies should not commit, obligate, or expend funds on the basis of earmarks included in any non-statutory source, including requests in reports of committees of the Congress or other congressional documents, or communications from or on behalf of Members of Congress, or any other non-statutory source, except when required by law or when an agency has itself determined a project, program, activity, grant, or other transaction to have merit under statutory criteria or other merit-based decisionmaking.

there's a practice here in Washington, and I'm not sure many of our citizens understand it takes place, where members just put in special spending projects into what's called report language. That means that these projects never were voted on, never really saw the light of day. And this executive order says that any such earmarks this year and into the future will be ignored by this administration and, hopefully, future administrations, unless those spending projects were voted on by the Congress.

[JURIST] US President George W. Bush said in Monday evening's State of Union address [text; recorded video] that he would issue an executive order Tuesday directing the federal government to ignore any future earmarks [White House fact sheet] included in legislation that are not explicitly voted on by Congress, and that if Congress does not reduce the level of earmarks by 50 percent in next year's appropriations process, he would veto any bill not meeting that goal. Bush has repeatedly pressed for earmark reductions [JURIST report], having also raised the issue in his 2007 State of the Union message [text].

The President also called on Congress to extend the Protect America Act, which allows the federal government to eavesdrop inside of the US without court approval as long as one end of a conversation is reasonably perceived to have been outside of the US:

To protect America, we need to know who the terrorists are talking to, what they are saying, and what they are planning. Last year, the Congress passed legislation to help us do that. Unfortunately, the Congress set the legislation to expire on February 1. This means that if you do not act by Friday, our ability to track terrorist threats would be weakened and our citizens will be in greater danger. The Congress must ensure the flow of vital intelligence is not disrupted. The Congress must pass liability protection for companies believed to have assisted in the efforts to defend America. We have had ample time for debate. The time to act is now.

[JURIST] Alleged French "rogue trader" Jerome Kerviel [BBC profile] was released on bail Monday after French judges filed preliminary charges of "breach of trust," "falsifying and using falsified documents," and "breaching IT access codes" against him relating to $73 billion worth of unauthorized trades he made while working for French bank Societe Generale [bank website]. The judges refused a request by prosecutors to include a charge of attempted fraud in their formal investigation. Kerviel, who has since been dismissed from Societe Generale, turned himself over voluntarily [JURIST report] to French police on Saturday. On Sunday, French authorities extended his detention for an additional 24 hours [JURIST report]. In addition to holding Kerviel, authorities seized evidence including computer disks and documents from his home and the offices of Societe Generale. AP has more, as well as a timeline of the events. AFP and Reuters have additional coverage.

The bank, which lost $7 billion when it was forced to unload the fraudulent positions, has filed a criminal complaint against Kerviel, and described the methods he supposedly used to commit the fraud in an explanatory note [PDF text] released Sunday. Kerviel has maintained his innocence and says that he is being made a scapegoat [Telegraph report] by the bank, which he alleges was aware of his activities. Additionally, BusinessWeek reports [text] that the Eurex derivatives exchange [exchange website] warned Societe General in November about Kerviel's unauthorized transactions.

[JURIST] The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio [advocacy website] filed a motion for a preliminary injunction [PDF text] Monday in the US District Court for the Northern District of Ohio to prevent Cuyahoga County, Ohio from conducting any election using a paper balloting system. The motion comes in a lawsuit [complaint, PDF; case materials] filed earlier this month against Secretary of State of Ohio Jennifer Brunner, the Cuyahoga Country Board of Elections, and various members of the Board of Elections and the Cuyahoga County Board of County Commissioners [official websites]. US District Judge Kathleen O'Malley will hold a hearing on February 5 to consider the motion for an injunction.

At issue is a decision by Brunner and the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections to use ballots that do not notify voters of any errors on the ballot at the time of voting. According to the ACLU's brief in support of the motion for preliminary injunction [PDF text]:

In the March 2008 primary election, Cuyahoga County voters - in contrast to those in other Ohio counties - will be denied the benefits of voting technology that provides notice of and the opportunity to correct errors. The predictable result of this step backward is that more Cuyahoga County residents will have their votes rejected in comparison with voters elsewhere in the state. This violates Plaintiffs' fundamental right to have their votes count on an equal basis with those cast by other citizens.

[JURIST] US District Judge Andrew Hanen of the US Southern District of Texas [official website] Monday released a Friday order directing 10 property owners in Cameron County, Texas [official website] to provide the federal government access to their land for 180 days so it can begin surveying for a 670-mile fence along the US-Mexico border [JURIST news archive]. The federal government had asked Hanen to rule on the case without informing the property owners, a permissible move under eminent domain law, but the judge ordered that the owners should be alerted before the hearing held last Friday. On January 16, in contrast, US Western District of Texas [official website] Judge Alia Moses Ludlum ordered [JURIST report] the City of Eagle Pass, Texas [official website] to temporarily turn over 233 acres of its land to the federal government for the border fence project without providing the city with any notice. Earlier this month, US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) [official website] officials said DHS is preparing over 100 court cases [JURIST report] against landowners along the US-Mexico border who have refused to allow construction of the border fence on their properties. The Cameron County and Eagle Pass cases are the first DHS lawsuits to have been decided by a judge. AP has more.

US President George W. Bush signed the Secure Fence Act of 2006 [PDF text; JURIST report] in October 2006. The legislation authorizes the construction of approximately 700 miles of fencing along the 2,000-mile US-Mexican border. Critics of the fence include locals in border communities, who feel that a border fence could interfere with irrigation, harm wildlife, and disrupt Mexican consumers and investors that positively contribute to the local economy. In May 2007, the International Boundary and Water Commission [official website] said that construction of the fence could violate a boundary treaty [JURIST report] between the United States and Mexico.

[JURIST] A three-judge panel of the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled [opinion, PDF] Monday that Arizona residents should be able to purchase specialty license plates bearing the slogan "Choose Life." The Ninth Circuit held that the Arizona License Plate Commission violated the First Amendment free speech rights of the Arizona Life Coalition [advocacy website] when it refused an application to print the group's anti-abortion message on state-issued license plates in 2002. The Ninth Circuit overturned a lower court summary judgment in favor of the state License Plate Commission. Reuters has more. The Arizona Star Daily has local coverage.

Last week, a federal judge ruled [opinion, PDF; JURIST report] that the state of Missouri cannot deny an anti-abortion group's application for a specialty license plate with an anti-abortion message, holding that the Missouri law that allowed the denial was unconstitutionally vague. Choose Life of Missouri [advocacy website] had applied to get specialty license plates with the message "Choose Life," but its application was rejected when two senators on the license plate approval committee objected. US District Judge Scott Wright found the Missouri law unconstitutional because it did not include protections against state officials denying application based on viewpoint discrimination. The Missouri attorney general's office has not decided whether it will appeal that decision.

[JURIST] Judge Royce Lamberth of the US District Court for the District of Columbia sentenced [DOJ press release] Colombian rebel Ricardo Palmera [advocacy website] to 60 years in prison Monday for his role in a hostage-taking conspiracy involving three American citizens in Colombia [JURIST news archive]. Palmera, aka Simon Trinidad, is a senior member of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) [CDI backgrounder], Colombia’s largest guerrilla group which uses drug profits to finance its mission to overthrow the Colombian government. A federal jury convicted [DOJ press release] Palmera in July of conspiracy to take hostage three civilian Pentagon contractors who were captured when their counter-drug surveillance plane crashed in Colombia in 2003. They have reportedly been held by FARC forces ever since.

Palmera was originally extradited [JURIST report] to the United States in December 2004 to face drug smuggling and kidnapping charges. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe [BBC profile], a staunch supporter of the US, agreed to Palmera's release to US authorities after FARC failed to release any of the more than 60 hostages it was known to be holding. AP has more.

[JURIST] UN Office on Drugs and Crime Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa [official profile] Monday opened a week-long UN anti-corruption conference in Bali with a plea [text; UN News Centre report] that nations take serious steps to enforce the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) [text]. Costa warned that efforts to recover stolen national assets are being hindered in many countries by politicians and bureaucrats who have an entrenched interest in maintaining the status quo. In addition, Costa called on private businesses to also take an active role in fighting institutionalized corruption [JURIST news archive], saying that in the past too many had encouraged or profited from government graft. Costa proposed a Corporate Integrity Charter to promote businesses' conformity to the UNCAC, as well as a body to review corporate compliance. The UNCAC was ratified by 107 nations, including the United States, and entered into force in 2005.

The conference is expected to take special interest in the case of former Indonesian President Haji Mohammed Suharto [BBC profile; JURIST news archive], who was the subject of corruption investigations before his death [JURIST report] Sunday. Suharto, who ruled Indonesia as President from 1967 to 1998, was sued by the government on charges that he embezzled $440 million from the Yayasan Supersemar [official website], a state-funded scholarship fund, between 1974 and 1998. Prosecutors began proceedings [JURIST report] in September seeking to recover $440 million in diverted states funds and $1.1 billion in damages from Suharto. On Monday, a human rights lawyer was quoted as saying that Indonesian law permits recovery from a decedent's estate of funds that were illegally converted during the person's lifetime. The government dropped criminal corruption charges against Suharto when several strokes rendered him unable to speak or write [JURIST reports]. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] A French bill aimed at reducing violent crimes committed by repeat offenders violates international fair trial standards [press release], Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Monday. The proposed law, sponsored by the administration of French President Nicolas Sarkozy [official profile; BBC profile], would allow three judges to decide whether a convicted violent offender is still dangerous. After a multi-disciplinary panel, including a psychologist, assesses the convict's risk, the judges may grant an additional one-year sentence in a "socio-medico-legal detention center." Such sentences are renewable indefinitely and have limited appeal options. HRW said that "locking people up on speculation that they might commit some future crime undermines hundreds of years of criminal justice in France," and that the law violates the European Convention on Human Rights [text] Article 6 fair trial guarantees. The bill was approved [DPA report] earlier this month by the French National Assembly [official website, in French] and now goes to the French Senate [official website, in French] for debate Wednesday.

Sarkozy, who campaigned on a tough anti-crime platform, last year began to push draft legislation instituting minimum sentences for repeat offenders [JURIST report]. French Justice Minister Rachida Dati [official profile, in French] later appeared before the National Assembly [JURIST report] in support of the bill, which also allows minors as young as 16 to be treated as adults when charges are serious. Critics argue that the already-overcrowded French prisons, which house approximately 61,000 inmates but were designed for only 50,000, cannot withstand the additional pressure.

[JURIST] The Bush administration warned Democratic leaders over the weekend that US President George W. Bush will veto any attempt to extend the temporary Protect America Act [S-1927 materials; JURIST report] beyond its February 1 expiration date that does not include liability protection for telecom companies, according to the Washington Post Sunday. The Protect Act, enacted as a stopgap while Congress worked on long-term legislation to "modernize" the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) [text; JURIST news archive], currently allows the US government to eavesdrop inside of the US without court approval as long as one end of a conversation is reasonably perceived to have been outside of the US. Senate Republicans defeated an attempt by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid [official website] to extend the Protect Act without the immunity provision for companies that might face lawsuits over data-sharing for an additional month on January 22. Reid then sent a letter to President Bush asking that he support an extension to the Protect Act [JURIST report] as it appeared unlikely Congress would agree to reauthorize FISA before February 1. He has since reportedly denounced Bush's expressed intent to veto such an extension.

In his weekly radio address [transcript; recorded audio] Saturday, Bush urged Congress to approve the Senate's proposed Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Bill [S 2248 materials; JURIST news archive] designed to revise and extend FISA so as to - among other things - expand the oversight of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) [official backgrounder], giving it greater powers to monitor the government's use of eavesdropping on American citizens. The US Senate voted [JURIST report] last Thursday against an amendment [Leahy press release] to the bill which would have incorporated several changes to the legislation that were previously approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee. The Washington Post has more.

8:20 PM ET - On Monday, the US Senate voted down [roll call] an attempt by Senate Republicans to end further debate on extending the Protect Act.

[JURIST] A Turkish court on Monday sentenced political science professor Atilla Yayla Monday for "insulting the legacy" of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of modern Turkey. Yayla was charged [JURIST report] last March after suggesting in a November 2006 speech that Ataturk's regime from 1925 to 1945 was not as progressive as suggested by official Turkish literature. Yayla's lawyers say they will appeal the verdict. Yayla was charged under Law No. 5816 [HRW backgrounder], which prohibits "crimes committed against Ataturk." Individuals who publicly "insults or curses the memory" of Ataturk may be subject to a prison term of up to three years.

Many prominent Turkish journalists, authors, and academics have also been tried for insulting "Turkishness" [JURIST report] under the controversial Article 301 [Amnesty backgrounder; JURIST news archive] of Turkey's penal code [text, in Turkish]. Critics accuse Turkey of using the law to silence government critics, which has posed a major stumbling block [JURIST report] to Turkey's accession to the European Union. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] French prosecutors asked a judge to file preliminary charges on Monday against alleged "rogue trader" Jerome Kerviel [BBC profile] in connection with what is being called the largest bank fraud in history. Prosecutors asked for preliminary charges of forgery, breach of trust, and fraud against Kerviel, who turned himself in [JURIST report] on Saturday and denies any wrongdoing. Societe Generale [bank website], Kerviel's former employer, says it lost $7 billion when it was forced to unload over $70 billion in fraudulent positions acquired by Kerviel. The bank explained how Kerviel hid his fraudulent activity from bank auditors in an explanatory note [PDF text] released Sunday.

If the judge approves some or all of the preliminary charges, prosecutors will have additional time to build their case against Kerviel before deciding whether to proceed to trial. Kerviel's lawyer has suggested that the bank is scapegoating Kerviel to cover up substantial losses suffered in connection with the US sub-prime mortgage crisis. Prosecutors extended Kerviel's weekend detention [JURIST report] on Sunday to continue his interrogation. AP has more.

[JURIST] The Israeli Supreme Court [official website, in Hebrew] on Monday rejected an appeal by Omri Sharon [JURIST news archive] to reduce his seven-month prison sentence, saying that it found no reason to lighten Sharon's sentence after a lower court reduced his sentence [JURIST report] from nine months for good behavior. Sharon, who will begin serving his sentence on February 27, was convicted in February 2006 of illegally raising money [JURIST report] for his father's re-election campaign.

Sharon, son of former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, has renounced his parliamentary immunity and has given up his seat in the Knesset [official website]. Lower courts have previously delayed the start of Sharon's prison sentence so he may spend time with his comatose father [JURIST report]. Haaretz has more.

[JURIST] Several prominent Indonesian lawyers told AFP on Monday that a civil corruption case against former Indonesian President Haji Mohammed Suharto [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] could continue after Suharto's death [JURIST report] on Sunday. Suharto, who ruled Indonesia as President from 1967 to 1998, was sued by the government on charges that he embezzled $440 million from the Yayasan Supersemar [official website], a state-funded scholarship fund, between 1974 and 1998. Prosecutors began proceedings [JURIST report] in September seeking to recover $440 million in diverted states funds and $1.1 billion in damages from Suharto. On Monday, a human rights lawyer was quoted as saying that Indonesian law permits recovery from a decedent's estate of funds that were illegally converted during the person's lifetime.

The government dropped criminal corruption charges against Suharto when several strokes rendered him unable to speak or write [JURIST reports]. AFP has more.

[JURIST] A French criminal court on Monday sentenced six French aid workers, convicted in Chad for attempting to kidnap [JURIST reports] 103 African children, to eight years in French prison, agreeing with French prosecutors' recommendations [JURIST report] to convert their sentences handed down by a court in Chad. The six were originally sentenced to eight years of hard labor in Chad, but were returned to France [JURIST reports] in late December 2007 after a formal request from the French Foreign Ministry under the 1976 France-Chad Agreement on Judicial Matters [PDF text]. The French criminal court did not retry the case, and lawyers representing the six have said they will appeal the sentence.

The aid workers, affiliated with Zoe's Ark [advocacy website], claimed they were attempting to airlift orphaned children [JURIST news archive] from the war-torn Sudanese region of Darfur, but investigations revealed that most of the children were not Sudanese or orphans. In January, another aid worker was charged [JURIST report] in French court with conspiring to allow illegal residents into the country in connection with the foiled airlift. AP has more.

[JURIST] A Malaysian opposition leader released the third part of a video [YouTube video; PDF transcript] Monday that allegedly shows prominent Malaysian lawyer VK Lingam admitting to having bribed former Chief Justice Dzaiddin Abdullah. Abdullah was Chief Justice from 2000 to 2003. According to a press release [text] from opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim accompanying the video, Lingam is quoted as saying, "And we have given him [Abdullah] the most expensive gift. Don't ask about it lah. I have given him and Vincent Tan has given him." Vincent Tan is another lawyer involved in the scandal.

Ibrahim, Malaysia's former Deputy Prime Minister and opposition leader, released the first part of the video [JURIST report] in September, sparking a large protest led by the Malaysia Bar Council against judicial corruption. The first video allegedly shows Lingam bragging about arranging the appointment of "friendly" judges to the bench. Earlier this month, Lingam denied the accusations and claimed to have been intoxicated [JURIST report] when the video was captured.

The videos prompted a Royal Commission investigation into broader charges of corruption in Malaysia's judiciary. In the press release accompanying the video, Ibrahim says:

while the creation of the Royal Commission gave the Malaysian public some hope that the credibility and integrity of the Judiciary might be restored, we are unimpressed with the proceedings and the procedural decisions made by the Commissioners thus far. The Royal Commission must operate with the highest level of integrity and transparency so as not to be seen as feeding the rot which has tarnished the Malaysian Courts.

[JURIST] Two former Iranian presidents and an ex-parliamentary speaker said Sunday that they plan to appeal to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei [official website] to overturn a ban prohibiting moderates and reformists in Iran [JURIST news archive] from running in the March 2008 parliamentary election. Former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami [official website, in Persian; BBC profile], a reformist, former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani [official website], a pragmatic conservative, and ex-speaker Mehdi Karroubi [Wikipedia profile] met late Saturday to discuss proposals to lift the ban. The Interior Ministry [official website, in Persian] announced last Wednesday that nearly one-third of the 7,240 candidates who applied to compete in the March 14 legislative elections would be barred from running for office. Among those banned were 190 of 200 candidates from the main reformist group in Iran, the Islamic Participation Front [Wikipedia backgrounder], 230 of approximately 300 candidates by the National Trust Party established by Karroubi, and all candidates affiliated with the Islamic Revolution Mujahedin Organization. Officials from the Interior Ministry stated that some of those disqualified were in involved in embezzlement or fraud, had sympathetic ties to terrorist organizations, or displayed a "tendency toward perverted cults."

Rejected candidates had until Sunday to file appeals with Khamenei, who has been unsympathetic to the reformists' cause and refused to reverse similar disqualifications before the 2004 parliamentary election [JURIST op-ed]. In that election, the Guardian Council, the upper parliamentary chamber composed of twelve members, banned 2,000 reformist candidates from entering the race, resulting in a landslide victory for conservatives. The 290-seat Iranian Parliament [official website, in English], known as the Majlis, has the power to propose and pass legislation and serves as a check on the office of the president. Political analysts have suggested that a reformist swell in the March election could challenge Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's socially conservative domestic program. AFP has more.

[JURIST] French authorities on Sunday ordered alleged "rogue trader" Jerome Kerviel [BBC backgrounder] to be held for an additional 24 hours while police investigate the $73 billion worth of unauthorized trades Kerviel made while working for the French bank Societe Generale [bank website]. Since news of the fraud - the largest bank fraud in history - broke on Thursday, police have seized computer disks, documents, and other evidence from Kerviel's home and Societe Generale's offices. Under French law, prosecutors must either place Kerviel under formal investigation or release him from custody when the extension expires on Monday.

The bank, which lost $7 billion when it was forced to unload the fraudulent positions, has filed a criminal complaint against Kerviel, and alleged the methods he used to commit the fraud in a explanatory note [PDF text] released Sunday:

-firstly, he ensured that the characteristics of the fictitious operations limited the chances of a control: for example he chose very specific operations with no cash movements or margin call and which did not require immediate confirmation;

-he misappropriated the IT access codes belonging to operators in order to cancel certain operations;

-he falsified documents allowing him to justify the entry of fictitious operations.

-he ensured that the fictitious operations involved a different financial instrument to the one he had just cancelled, in order to increase his chances of not being controlled.

[JURIST] Former Indonesian President Haji Mohammed Suharto [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] died Sunday at age 86. Suharto, a former US Cold War ally, presided over what is considered to be one of the most brutal dictatorships of the 20th century with as many as one million political opponents killed during his time in power. Reaction across the country is split with hundreds traveled to Suharto's family home in Jakarta to mourn his death while many others criticized Suharto's corruption and brutality.

In recent years, both Suharto and his son Tommy Suharto [BBC profile] have been subject to a series of corruption charges [BBC backgrounder]. In September, Indonesian prosecutors began court proceedings [JURIST report] against the elder Suharto in a civil action alleging that he embezzled $440 million from the Yayasan Supersemar [official website], a state-funded scholarship fund, between 1974 and 1998. Earlier criminal corruption charges were dropped because Suharto was rendered unable to speak or write [JURIST reports] as a result of several strokes. AP has more.

[JURIST] The Russian Central Election Commission [official website] issued a unanimous decision Sunday to ban former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov [BBC profile] from running in the March presidential election. The Election Commission found that hundreds of thousands of signatures he had to submit in support of his candidacy were either forged or incorrect. Under Russian law, no more than 5 percent of signatures in support of a candidate can be disqualified if that candidate is to run in the election. In Kasyanov's case, 13.36 percent were rejected. Russian prosecutors said earlier this month that they had launched a forgery investigation [JURIST report] into Kasyanov.

Kasyanov has accused Russian President Vladmir Putin of directly refusing to register his candidacy. Dmitry Medvedev [BBC profile], chairman of Russian gas company Gazprom [corporate website], and Putin's handpicked successor is leading all major opinion polls, while Kasyanov was polling at less than 1 percent. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] A Sudanese aid worker formerly held at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] was among a group of ex-prisoners that demanded money and an apology from the US government Saturday for physical and mental torture they say they were subjected to at the prison. Adil Hassan Hamad, freed last December [JURIST report], told a conference in Khartoum that he and his colleagues would seek damages in US courts. The conference was held by local rights groups to demand the release of the seven Sudanese still imprisoned at Guantanamo.

One of the remaining seven Sudanese prisoners is Al Jazeera [media website] journalist Sami al-Haj [advocacy website], arrested [CPJ report] in Pakistan in 2001 while traveling as a cameraman for Al Jazeera. He has been detained at Guantanamo for over five years without charge. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Jerome Kerviel, a former trader at the French bank Societe Generale [official website], turned himself in to French police Saturday in connection with an investigation of what caused the bank to lose more than $7 billion. Kerviel has been accused of carrying out a scheme which amounted to the largest bank fraud in history. Societe Generale, where Kerviel worked since 2000, said it discovered the plan on January 18. The bank stated that Kerviel acted alone and that his strategy involved betting billions of dollars of the bank's money on European stock index futures.

French officials have pressured Societe Generale to explain how Kerviel's actions did not draw the attention of his supervisors or the bank's internal officers. The bank's chief executive, Daniel Bouton, said in an interview [Le Figaro report, in French] "...when the control systems detected an anomaly, he managed to convince control officers that it was nothing more than a minor error.” The New York Times has more. Le Figaro has additional coverage, in French.

[JURIST] Afghan Ambassador to Canada Omar Samad [official profile] said Friday that his country still considers its agreement with Canada regarding the transfer of detainees to be in effect and is working closely with NATO forces to ensure the safety of prisoners in Afghan custody. The statement [press release] comes two days after reports surfaced that Canada had ceased turning over detainees to Afghan authorities [JURIST report; press release, PDF] in November amid concerns that prisoners were being abused in at least one Afghan detention center. Samad said that Afghanistan is currently investigating the allegations. He also said that earlier this month, Afghan President Hamid Karzai [official profile] issued a decree "reinforcing the prohibition on human rights violations" in Afghan prisons. Samad said that the Afghan government was only made aware of Canada's decision this week, and characterized it as "operational [in] nature." AP has more.

The British Columbia Civil Liberties Association [advocacy website] on Monday released internal Canadian government documents [JURIST report; full text, PDF] detailing evidence of continued mistreatment and abuse of detainees transferred by Canadian forces to Afghan authorities. The documents, originally distributed to senior officials of the Canadian government and officers of the Canadian military, detail an investigation conducted by Canadian officials last November which found circumstantial evidence that detainees were abused at a facility belonging to the Afghan National Directorate of Security in Kandahar.

[JURIST] Suspected Russian crime lord Semyon Y. Mogilevich has been arrested in Moscow on tax evasion charges, Russian officials said Friday. Mogilevich was arrested late Wednesday and a court approved his arrest on Thursday. Mogilevich is also wanted in the US [FBI profile] on unrelated charges for allegedly manipulating the stock of the billion dollar Pennsylvania corporation YBM Magnex International.

Mogilevich and two associates were indicted [press release, PDF] in 2003 on 45 counts of racketeering, securities fraud, wire fraud, mail fraud and money laundering charges. At the time charges were filed, US Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania Patrick Meehan said that the defendants inflated the value of YBM stock "so that they could profit at the public's expense. Books were cooked, auditors were deceived, bribes were offered to accountants. The defendants profited to the tune of more than $33 million, while the total loss to investors was more than $150 million." The US and Russia do not currently have an extradition treaty. AP has more. The New York Times has additional coverage.

[JURIST] Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan [official profile] expressed concern Saturday about "gross and systematic abuses of human rights" taking place in Kenya in the wake of last month's disputed presidential election [JURIST report]. Annan is in the country to help mediate the conflict between Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki [official profile] and opposition candidate Raila Odinga [campaign profile]. Annan acknowledged that the violence in the country initially stemmed from protests concerning Kibaki's re-election, but said that it had evolved into "something else." Annan also said, "We cannot accept that periodically, every five years or so, this sort of incident takes place and no-one is held to account. Impunity cannot be allowed to stand," adding that Kenyans should "respond with sympathy and understanding, and not try to revenge."

The controversial presidential vote has sparked simmering ethnic tensions in Kenya [JURIST news archive], where Kibaki has long been accused of using his position to favor members of the Kikuyu tribe. Fueling accusations of malfeasance, Kibaki won the December 27 election despite early opinion polls that placed rival candidate Odinga in the lead. Thousands of opposition supporters took to the streets following the election which prompted the government to temporarily ban public rallies and institute a curfew in Nairobi, the capital city. In all, over 700 people have been killed since protests began and thirteen nations, including several European Union members and the United States, have threatened to cut off aid to Kenya's government until the crisis is resolved and democracy is restored. Earlier this week, Odinga's opposition party, the Orange Democratic Movement [party website] filed a formal complaint [JURIST report] with the International Criminal Court [official website], alleging that Kibaki's administration has committed crimes against humanity while using force against demonstrators. The Kenyan National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) [official site] on Saturday launched an official investigation [KNCHR brief; Standard report] into the alleged human rights violations. BBC News has more. The Standard has local coverage.

[JURIST] The military government of Myanmar continues to arrest political dissidents [press release] despite assurances given by Prime Minister Thein Sein in November that the arrests had stopped and no more would take place, Amnesty International [advocacy website] reported Friday. There have been 96 arrests [Amnesty materials] since November and at least 700 of those arrested during September protests and 1,150 political prisoners held before the protests have yet to be released. In a statement [text] Catherine Baber, director of Amnesty's Asia-Pacific programme, said:

Four months on from the violent crackdown on peaceful demonstrators, rather than stop its unlawful arrests the Myanmar government has actually accelerated them. The new arrests in December and January target people who have attempted to send evidence of the crackdown to the international community, clearly showing that the government's chief priority is to silence its citizens who would hold them to account.

In view of the accelerating rate of arrests and other human rights violations four months on, the international community should press the government of Myanmar to immediately invite Prof. Pinheiro back to the country to conduct the full-fledged fact-finding mission he has requested.

[JURIST] A senior Spanish official said Friday that Spanish authorities have initiated legal proceedings to ban two Basque political parties for ties to ETA [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive], the armed Basque separatist movement. Spanish Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega [official website, in Spanish; backgrounder] said the government has evidence that both the Basque Nationalist Action Party (ANV) [party website] and the Communist Party of the Basque Lands (PCTV) [Wikipedia backgrounder] have close ties to Batasuna [BBC backgrounder], ETA's banned political arm. The government wants to prevent the parties from fielding candidates for a general election schedule for March.

The Supreme Court of Spain [official website, in Spanish] banned Batasuna in 2003 for its refusal to cut ties with ETA. ETA has been blamed for more than 800 deaths in bombings and attacks since the 1960s.

[JURIST] Vidoje Blagojevic [ICTY case backgrounder, PDF], former commander of the Bratunac Brigade of the Bosnian Serb Army, was transferred to Norway [press release] Friday to serve the remainder of his 15-year sentence for his role in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre [BBC timeline, JURIST news archive]. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in 2005 sentenced [JURIST report] Blagojevic to 18 years in prison after convicting him of complicity in genocide, murder, and other crimes. The ICTY appeals chamber reduced Blagojevic's sentence to 15 years when it reversed [judgment summary; JURIST report] his conviction of complicity in genocide, holding that Blagojevic should have been acquitted on those charges because he was not aware that the massacre was going to take place. The court upheld his other convictions on aiding and abetting the persecutions, killings and forcible transfer of Bosnian Muslims.

The ICTY has determined that the 1995 killings of more than 7,000 Bosnian Muslims by government forces at Srebrenica constituted genocide. The two men believed to have masterminded the massacre, Ratko Mladic [ICTY case backgrounder; JURIST news archive] and former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic [ICTY case backgrounder], have yet to be captured. The UN News Service has more.

[JURIST] US Attorney General Michael Mukasey [official profile] said Friday that he does not plan to appoint a special counsel to investigate allegations that the US Central Intelligence Agency ordered the destruction of videotapes showing the interrogation of terror suspects [JURIST news archive], despite requests by some in Congress. At a press briefing, Mukasey said the investigation was opened merely on "some indication - which is a lot less than probable cause - some indication that there was any violation of any federal statute."

Earlier this month, US House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) [official website] sent a letter [text; JURIST report] to Mukasey urging him to either appoint the outside counsel, or to explain why he refrains from doing so. The Department of Justice announced its criminal probe [JURIST report] into the destruction of the tapes earlier this month. The CIA videotaped the interrogation of two al Qaeda suspects in 2002, but said that the tapes were destroyed in 2005 amid concerns that they could be leaked to the public and compromise the identities of the interrogators. AP has more.

[JURIST] Slovenian Interior Minister Dragutin Mate said Friday that a European Union plan to archive and exchange air passenger data [JURIST report] had general support among EU ministers and could take effect as early as 2009. Interior ministers from EU member countries discussed the Passenger Name Record (PNR) plan at a Friday conference [press release] in Slovenia, the current holder of the Presidency of the EU [official website]. Privacy advocates have been critical of the plan and EU officials have expressed similar concerns. EU Commissioner for Justice, Freedom and Security Franco Frattini [official profile], meanwhile said the system was "absolutely necessary."

Frattini announced the plan last November as part of a package of counter-terrorism proposals [press release, JURIST report]. In July, the EU and US reached a new agreement on passenger data-sharing [JURIST report] under which air carriers will transmit passenger data directly to the US Department of Homeland Security within 15 minutes of a European flight's departure for the US. Reuters has more. AP has additional coverage.

[JURIST] Pakistani lawyers demonstrated in Islamabad Thursday to protest the continued detention of ousted Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry [JURIST news archive]. The government of Pakistan has kept Chaudhry and several other judges and lawyers under preventative detention since President Musharraf declared emergency rule [text; JURIST report] on November 3. According to a CBC News report, a lawyer present at the protest blamed Musharraf for many of the country's problems and said "when there is a free election, all the militancy will stop." With general elections slated for Feb. 18, opposition leaders have said that without an independent judiciary to supervise the vote, there is likely to be rigging.

Earlier this week, a report [text] by Pakistan's The News daily suggested the government may be skirting constitutional limits on detentions [JURIST report]. The Pakistani constitution requires that preventative detention be limited to 90 days unless a review board has extended the detention. Chaudhry has been under virtual house arrest [JURIST report] since at least November 5, when an Army major locked him in his residence and took the keys. The 90-day detention period expires January 31, but the government has not referred his case to a review board, instead saying that because Chaudhry and other deposed judges are not being held under court-ordered detention they therefore do not qualify for review. The Pakistan Bar Council continues to protest the removal of Chaudhry and refuses to recognize the legitimacy of replacement judges who had taken oaths of office under President Pervez Musharraf's now-abrogated Provisional Constitutional Order [text]. CBC News has more.

ALSO ON JURIST  Comment: What future for Pakistan's lawyers' movement?

[JURIST] US District Judge Richard W. Roberts on Thursday ordered [PDF text] the government to submit a report to the court by February 14 detailing why the CIA destroyed videotapes showing the interrogation of terror suspects [JURIST news archive], whether other evidence connected to a Guantanamo Bay detainee's lawsuit may have been destroyed, and what steps the government has taken to preserve relevant evidence. Roberts' ruling is in response to a motion [PDF text; SCOTUSblog report] filed on behalf of Guantanamo Bay detainee Hani Abdullah asking the court to compel the government to report on its compliance with a July 2005 order [PDF text] issued by Roberts requiring the government to "preserve and maintain all evidence, documents, and information, without limitation, now or ever in respondents' possession, custody or control, regarding the individual detained petitioners" in cases brought by several detainees. Several similar motions have been brought in federal court, but Roberts' order is the first to require the government to explain its actions in destroying the tapes. Earlier this month, US District Judge Henry H. Kennedy, Jr. refused to order an inquiry into the CIA's destruction of the tapes and District Judge Alvin Hellerstein is currently considering a motion [JURIST reports] brought on behalf of detainees to hold the CIA in contempt of court for destroying the interrogation videos.

Existence of the videotapes was verified in November after the CIA admitted it had mistakenly denied [JURIST report] that it had recorded interrogations in a court declaration during the trial of 9/11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui. CIA Director Michael Hayden acknowledged [statement text] last month that the CIA had videotaped the interrogation of two al Qaeda suspects in 2002, but said that the tapes had been destroyed in 2005 amid concerns that they could be leaked to the public and compromise the identities of the interrogators. The US Justice Department has opened a criminal probe [JURIST report] into the matter, and multiple congressional inquiries are underway. AP has more.

[JURIST] The Mexican military has committed grave human rights abuses, including the torture, rape and murder of civilians, according to a report [press release] from the Mexican National Human Rights Commission [official website] submitted to the Mexican National Congress. According to Commission President Jorge Luis Soberanes Fernandez, the military committed these offenses while trying to combat drug-related crime committed by gangs in areas near the border of the United States. He attributed the abuses to the lack of training that soldiers receive to prepare them to deal with civilian populations.

According to the Commission's Wednesday report, state agents were also responsible for abuses during the 2006 uprising in Oaxaca [BBC backgrounder; JURIST report], as well as for mistreatment of indigenous people and migrant workers. Soberanes Fernandez also denounced the state's failure to protect journalists and media workers from violence in the past year, citing 84 reports of attacks against journalists in 2007 which included four deaths and three disappearances. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The Bangladesh Supreme Court [official website] ruled on Thursday that the extortion trial of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina [party profile; JURIST news archive] could continue, rejecting arguments by Hasina's lawyers that she could not be tried under the current state of emergency rules because the alleged crimes occurred before the national state of emergency [JURIST report] was declared last January. Hasina was formally charged [JURIST report] in Dhaka earlier this month with two counts of extortion for taking nearly $1.16 million from two businessmen while in office between 1996 and 2001. In October, Hasina denied the accusations [JURIST report] during questioning by officials. A verdict is expected to be handed down within 60 days. If convicted, Hasina would be banned from running for office for 10 years. Reuters has more.

The current interim government in Bangladesh, led by former central bank chief Fakhruddin Ahmed [official website; TIME interview], has arrested over 170 high-profile citizens since the military-backed government declared a state of emergency due to concerns that fraud would mar scheduled national elections. Both Hasina's sister, Shaikh Rehana, and her cousin, Shaikh Selim, a former minister in her cabinet, have been charged with extortion as well. Hasina's rival, former Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia [profile], was charged with corruption [JURIST report] in September 2007.

[JURIST] Dutch parliamentarians called for changes to the country’s terrorism laws Thursday in response to a Wednesday appeals court decision overturning the convictions of seven men [JURIST report] suspected of belonging to the Dutch Muslim Hofstad Network [Wikipedia backgrounder]. The Hague Appeals Court dismissed charges that the men were part of a terrorist network that included Muslim extremist Mohammed Bouyeri [Wikipedia profile], who confessed to the 2004 murder [JURIST report] of Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh [Wikipedia profile]. Fred Teeven, a former justice ministry official and a member of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy [party website, in Dutch] criticized current Dutch anti-terror law for restricting justice ministry officials from effectively convicting members of groups like the Hofstad Network. Haersma Buma of the Christian Democrats [party website, in Dutch] also pushed for reform, saying that he would back changes to the law if the Council of State, the highest court in the Netherlands, upholds the appeal court's decision. Dutch prosecutors at the Public Prosecution Service [official website, in English] expressed disappointment in the ruling and said it would study the verdicts carefully before deciding whether to appeal the case to the Council of State.

The Hague Appeals Court declined to classify the Hofstad Network as a terrorist organization because it had no lasting and structured cooperation and members did not share a common ideology. In response to rising terrorism activity, the Dutch parliament [official website] amended the country's terrorism laws in 2006, approving an anti-terror bill [JURIST report] that dramatically lowered the amount of evidence needed for Dutch police to arrest terror suspects and allowed officials to hold suspects for up to two weeks without charge. DutchNews has more.

[JURIST] US President George W. Bush will request an additional $200 million dollars in federal funding to help state and local authorities combat violent crime, US Attorney General Michael Mukasey [official profile] announced Thursday in remarks [full text] to the US Conference of Mayors in Washington, DC. The earmarked funds will be used to strengthen the Department of Justice's Violent Crime Reduction Partnership, a program that combines federal and state resources for crime-prevention and prisoner re-entry initiatives. Although the $200 million is a significant increase over the $75 million earmarked for the program in 2007 [DOJ press release], many mayors expressed concern that the money would only be enough to bolster existing programs and would likely not cover the cost of hiring any new police officers. Mukasey also warned against the potential dangers associated with implementing a December 2007 decision by the US Sentencing Commission [official website] to retroactively reduce penalties for crack cocaine offenders [JURIST report; press release] that was handed down last month. He said that as many as 1,600 inmates may be eligible for immediate release, many of whom may be violent offenders or have failed to complete community re-entry programs, although some mayors said the released prisoners would be more likely to be nonviolent offenders.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation released statistics [FBI fact sheet; JURIST report] earlier this month that showed that although violent crimes in the first half of 2007 were generally down for the first time in two years, small cities and rural areas did see a rise in violent offenses. Mayors have long requested help from Washington to battle budget cuts that have limited the size of the police forces in their cities, as well as rising gang activity. AP has more. Reuters has additional coverage.

[JURIST] Turkey Thursday lifted a nationwide ban imposed last week on the popular video-sharing website YouTube [corporate website]. Last week, a Turkish court ordered Turk Telecom [corporate website] to block access to YouTube [JURIST report] in reported response to video clips insulting the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk [Turkish News profile]. It was not immediately clear whether access to the website was resumed because the controversial clips were removed. A Turkish court issued a similar order [JURIST report] in March 2007 in response to a “virtual war” on YouTube between Turkey and Greece, in which citizens of both countries posted videos mocking each other. AP has more.

In Turkey, insulting Ataturk is an imprisonable offense. Similarly, "insulting the Turkish identity" is also a serious crime under the controversial Article 301 [Amnesty backgrounder; JURIST news archive] of Turkey's penal code [text, in Turkish]. Critics say Turkey has used Article 301 to silence government critics [OSCE review of the Draft Turkish Penal Code, PDF], which has presented a stumbling block [JURIST report] to the country’s proposed accession to the European Union.

[JURIST] The US Senate on Thursday voted 60-36 [roll call] against an amendment [Leahy press release] to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Bill [S 2248 materials; JURIST news archive] which would have incorporated several changes to the legislation that were previously approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee. The bill is designed to revise and extend the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) [text; JURIST news archive] so as to - among other things - expand the oversight of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) [official backgrounder], giving it greater powers to monitor the government's use of eavesdropping on American citizens. Currently, the temporary Protect America Act [S 1927 materials; JURIST report] expands FISA to allow the US government to eavesdrop inside of the US without court approval as long as one end of a telephone or computer conversation is reasonably perceived to have been outside of the US. That act is set to sunset on February 1 and both President George W. Bush [press release] and Vice President Dick Cheney [JURIST report] have recently called for Congressional action to do away with the need for future renewals by making FISA permanent. They have also urged Congress to amend FISA to grant immunity to telecommunications companies [JURIST report] from lawsuits related to their participation in the NSA warrantless surveillance program [JURIST news archive], saying that government agencies did not have the resources to fight terror without cooperation from private telecom providers. Bush has threatened to veto any revised surveillance bill that does not include the immunity provisions. The version of the legislation rejected by the Senate Thursday did not contain an immunity provision. AP has more.

Meanwhile, congressional leaders announced Thursday that the White House has agreed to release documents pertaining to the government's warrantless domestic surveillance program to members of the House of Representatives Judiciary and Intelligence Committees. The announcement ends months of heated discussion between Congress and the White House regarding the government's use of secret wiretapping, which culminated last fall when the White House refused to comply with subpoenas [JURIST report] demanding the release of the FISA documents. Bush had agreed in October [JURIST report] to allow Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and ranking Republican Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) to see the documents. AP has more.

[JURIST] The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) [official website] will not overturn its rejection [press release; JURIST report] of California's request for a waiver that would have allowed it to impose stricter greenhouse gas emissions standards on cars and light trucks, EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson testified [recorded video] Thursday in front of the US Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works [official website]. Johnson reiterated the EPA's opinion that it is preferable to implement a single, unified national standard for greenhouse gas regulation, as opposed to a state-by-state network of regulations, and pointed to the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 [HR 6 materials; WH fact sheet], signed into law in December by President George W. Bush. The act will require automakers to reach an industry-wide average fuel efficiency for cars, SUVs and small trucks of 35 miles per gallon by 2020. Earlier this week, the EPA denied a request [JURIST report] for full explanation of the emissions waiver rejection. AP has more.

Johnson's testimony at the hearing [committee materials] was requested by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) [official profile] after her environmental committee opened an investigation into the EPA's rejection. According to excerpts of documents [text] turned over to the Senate Committee by the EPA following the waiver rejection, EPA officials had told Johnson that California had met the "compelling and extraordinary conditions" requisite to justify the federal waiver, in contrast to the EPA's December statement when it denied the waiver that California didn't have "compelling and extraordinary conditions." Boxer responded to the documents, saying:

As our investigation of the EPA record continues, it is clear that EPA's own experts told Administrator Johnson that California's case for the waiver is solid. His decision was not supported by the facts, by the law, by the science, or by precedent. [Thursday's] hearing provides an important opportunity to closely question the Administrator on this unconscionable decision. I look forward to the reversal of this decision as soon as possible.

[JURIST] Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party and the key opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) [party websites] agreed Thursday to lift a ban on women wearing headscarves [JURIST report] in universities and public offices. The agreement is in response to recent calls [JURIST report] from Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan [IHT backgrounder] for the government to lift the ban immediately and not wait for a proposed amendment to the constitution [text]. Erdogan has repeatedly called for an end to the ban, saying it effectively denies some Muslim women access to higher education [JURIST report], but Turkish secularists believe that his insistence on ending the ban is a political statement against secular principles. Opponents say the ban on headscarves is necessary to protect the separation of religion and state. The Turkish parliament must vote on lifting the ban, though a date for a vote has not yet been set.

Traditionally worn by Muslim women, headscarves and other forms of religious dress [JURIST news archive] are banned from many public places in modern Turkey, a majority Muslim country despite official secularism. In 2006, a Turkish court acquitted [JURIST report] retired archaeologist Muazzez Ilmiye Cig [personal website] of charges of insulting religion after postulating in her book that headscarves were originally worn before the founding of Islam by ancient Mesopotamian priestesses who initiated young men into sex. The case also drew criticism from the International Association for Assyriology (IAA) [group website; IAA appeal] and from the European Union, which had warned Turkey that its laws infringing freedom of expression may delay its entry into the union. Reuters has more.

ALSO ON JURIST  Comment: Lifting Turkey's headscarf ban: freedom of choice, or Islamist Trojan horse?

[JURIST] The Japanese National Police Agency (NPA) [official website, in Japanese] on Thursday issued guidelines for police behavior during suspect interrogations. The Japanese police have frequently been accused of forcing confessions from suspects [BBC report] using questionable or overly aggressive tactics; in one case, police pressured an innocent man into admitting to committing a rape, a confession that ultimately earned him two years in prison until the actual perpetrator was caught. The guidelines mark the first attempt by the body to curb such abuses. The guidelines include prohibitions against touching, threatening, bribing or verbally harassing suspects. Interrogations are now also limited to only eight hours in length. Police departments will also be required to install one-way mirrors in interrogation rooms so that outside observers can monitor the process, and to establish an internal supervising board to investigate complaints.

Critics have long decried the Japanese justice system's reliance on confessions, which they say allows prosecutors to push cases forward without collecting compelling evidence. More than 99 percent of cases in Japan [JURIST news archive] that go to court end in conviction, but defendants usually receive much lighter sentences if they confess. Some lawyers said that the new guidelines do not do enough to protect suspects, insisting that defense lawyers should be allowed to be present during interrogation. AP has more.

[JURIST] The UN Human Rights Council [official website] Thursday adopted a resolution [draft text, PDF] criticizing Israel for recent military attacks and a week-long blockade [JURIST report] against the Palestinian-controlled Gaza Strip that the Council says amount to human rights violations. The resolution, passed by a 30-1 vote with 15 Western states abstaining, calls the military attacks on Palestinian areas "grave violations of the human and humanitarian rights of the Palestinian civilians therein" that "undermine international efforts" in the region. The resolution also:

2. Calls for urgent international action to put an immediate end to the grave violations committed by the occupying Power, Israel, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including the series of incessant and repeated Israeli military attacks and incursions therein and the siege of the occupied Gaza Strip;

3. Demands that the occupying Power, Israel, lift immediately the siege it has imposed on the occupied Gaza Strip, restore continued supply of fuel, food and medicine and reopen the border crossings;

4. Calls for immediate protection of the Palestinian civilians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory in compliance with human rights law and international humanitarian law;

5. Urges all parties concerned to respect the rules of human rights law and international humanitarian law and to refrain from violence against the civilian population...

[JURIST] UK Home Secretary Jacqui Smith on Thursday unveiled the Counter-Terrorism Bill 2008 [draft text, PDF; bill materials; BBC Q&A], which among other proposals to strengthen the country's terrorism laws includes a provision increasing the number of days a terror suspect can be detained without charge to 42 days, up from the current limit of 28. The Home Office described the bill [press release] as "designed to address the constantly changing threat posed to the UK by the violent extremists." In addition to the increased pre-charge detention period [JURIST news archive], the bill also proposes:

• granting the government more power to gather and share information for counter-terrorism purposes;
  
• allowing police to question terror suspects after they have been charged;
  
• enhancing sentences for terror offenses;
  
• strengthening monitoring of convicted terrorists;
  
• amending the definition of "terrorism;"
  
• expanding the use of DNA in terrorism investigations; and
  
• amending UK law on asset freezing proceedings under United Nations terrorism orders.

[JURIST] US Marine 1st Lt. Andrew Grayson [defense website] will face court-martial in May on charges of making false official statements and obstruction of justice in connection to the killing of 24 Iraqi civilians at Haditha [USMC timeline; JURIST news archive] in November 2005. During Grayson's Wednesday arraignment [press release] at Camp Pendleton, a military judge set a trial date of May 28. Grayson did not enter a plea on the charges [JURIST report], which also include attempting to fraudulently separate from the Marine Corps.

A defense lawyer for Grayson, an intelligence officer accused of mishandling an investigation into the killings, said in September 2007 that Grayson rejected a plea offer [JURIST report] from military prosecutors requiring him to admit attempting to cover up the killings in exchange for prosecutors dropping all charges. He is accused of allegedly ordering a subordinate to delete photographic evidence [JURIST report] taken hours after the killings to keep it out of a report being prepared for top-ranking officers and a reporter. Eight Marines were initially charged in connection to the Haditha incident, though charges have since been dropped against four. Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich [advocacy website], leader of the squad implicated in the killings, will face court-martial in February [JURIST report]. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Lead contractor Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff [corporate website] has agreed to a $458 million settlement to end an inquiry stemming from a July 10, 2006 ceiling panel collapse in Boston's $15 billion Big Dig [official website] tunnel project that killed one person, officials said Wednesday. In July 2007, the National Transportation Safety Board [official website] concluded that the ceiling collapse was most likely caused [press release; report, PDF] by the "inappropriate use of an epoxy anchor adhesive" by construction contractors Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff and Gannett Fleming, Inc [corporate website]. A US Attorney told reporters that the settlement did not shield Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff from liability for any possible "future catastrophic events" over the next ten years that cause between $50 and $100 million in damages. Reuters has more.

In September 2007, an anchoring and fastening product manufacturer pleaded not guilty [AG press release; JURIST report] to criminal charges stemming from the collapse. Power Fasteners [corporate website] was indicted [press release; JURIST report] on one count of involuntary manslaughter based on allegations that Powers was aware that the wrong kind of its epoxy product was being used to anchor three-ton cement ceiling tiles but failed to alert project managers either through marketing materials or when specifically asked. Powers has maintained that it was unaware that its epoxy product would be used to support the ceiling of the tunnel. The charge against Power Fasteners was the first criminal action taken in connection with the collapse.

[JURIST] A federal judge ruled [opinion, PDF; ADF press release] Wednesday that the state of Missouri cannot deny an anti-abortion group's application for a specialty license plate with an anti-abortion message, holding that the Missouri law that allowed the denial was unconstitutionally vague. Choose Life of Missouri [advocacy website] had applied to get specialty license plates with the message "Choose Life," but its application was rejected when two senators on the license plate approval committee objected. In Missouri, specialty license plates must be approved by a panel consisting of seven senators, seven representatives and three non-voting state officials. US District Judge Scott Wright also found the Missouri law unconstitutional because it did not include protections against state officials denying application based on viewpoint discrimination. The Missouri attorney general's office has not decided whether it will appeal the decision. The Kansas City Star has more.

Abortion [JURIST news archive] is a hot-button issue in Missouri, where the legislature is dominated by an anti-abortion majority. In May, the Missouri Supreme Court unanimously upheld [opinion; JURIST report] a 2005 law that allows parents to sue people who help their minor daughters get an abortion without parental consent. Planned Parenthood had challenged the law on the basis that it infringed the group's First Amendment right to free speech by blocking it from disseminating information or counseling clients about abortion. In April, the US Supreme Court issued an order [PDF text; JURIST report] vacating a 2005 decision [PDF] by the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit striking down Missouri's 1999 "partial birth" abortion ban [JURIST report]. The Supreme Court's ruling followed its earlier decision in Gonzales v. Carhart [text; JURIST report] upholding the federal Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 [PDF text].

[JURIST] US President George W. Bush issued an executive order [text; press release] Wednesday "reforming how the United States reviews national security concerns that may arise from foreign investments." The executive order is designed to implement the Foreign Investment and National Security Act of 2007 [PDF text; HR 556 materials], which expands the investigative scope of the Treasury Department's Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) [official website] to include foreign investments in vital infrastructure and energy and adding an additional 45-day review of proposed acquisitions from foreign state-owned entities. Foreign investments subject to CFIUS review will require personal approval from the CFIUS chair and senior officials, while all proposed investments subjected to the 45-day review will require presidential authorization.

The law, passed by Congress [JURIST report] in July, stems from congressional criticism [JURIST report] of a proposed acquisition by United Arab Emirates-owned Dubai Ports World [corporate website] that would have allowed the company to manage six major US ports in early 2006. The deal eventually fell through [JURIST report], but prompted Congress to pass the legislation to increase the level of scrutiny of foreign investment proposals. AP has more. The Washington Times has additional coverage.

[JURIST] The Canadian government ceased transferring Afghan detainees from Canadian to Afghan custody in November [press release, PDF] after Canadian monitors in Afghanistan discovered evidence of torture, according to a Canadian Justice Department letter [PDF text] sent this week to two advocacy groups suing the government to halt further transfers. In the letter, made public Wednesday, a Justice Department official wrote:

Canadian authorities were informed on November 5, 2007, by Canada's monitoring team, of a credible allegation of mistreatment pertaining to one Canadian-transferred detainee held in an Afghan detention facility. As a consequence there have been no transfers of detainees to Afghan authorities since that date. The allegation is under investigation by the Afghan authorities. Canada will resume transferring detainees when it believes it can do so in accordance with its international legal obligations.

[JURIST] The Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) [official website] on Wednesday called the European Union and United Nations' practice of blacklisting terror suspects from interstate travel "completely arbitrary" [CoE press release] and urged member states of both organizations to amend their blacklisting practice to "preserve the credibility of the international fight against terrorism." Rapporteur Dick Marty reported [text] that the lists violate basic human rights by not informing individuals or groups when they've been added to the blacklist or giving them an opportunity to respond to the allegations, noting that 370 people world-wide have had their assets frozen by the UN list. In November, PACE made similar criticisms [JURIST report] of blacklisting procedures used by the UN Security Council and the European Union, adopting the draft version [text; press release] of Wednesday's report. EUobserver has more.

In July 2007, the European Court of First Instance overturned [judgment; JURIST report] the EU's decision [Council Decision 2006/379/EC text, PDF] to freeze the assets of Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) chairman Jose Maria Sison [MIPT profile] and the Hamas-affiliated al-Aqsa Foundation [judgment], finding that the Council did not give its reasons or provide an opportunity for the plaintiffs to challenge the legal basis or evidence to justify the seizure. In December 2006, the European Court of First Instance annulled the asset freeze [JURIST report] of Iranian opposition government People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) [organization website, in Farsi]. The judgment prompted the Council of the European Union to revise [press release, PDF; JURIST report] the procedures used in establishing and maintaining the EU's terror lists.

[JURIST] Former Chadian dictator Hissene Habre [HRW materials; JURIST news archive] will not go on trial this year for crimes against humanity, according to an EU official sent to Senegal to advise the court where Habre will be tried [press release]. Bruno Cathala, [official profile] Registrar of the International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website], said Wednesday that the length of time necessary to complete investigations into the charges against Habre, as well as issues regarding the cost and structure of the trial, will delay it until at least 2009. Cathala's comments echoed the statement of Senegalese officials last year who said that a three-year delay was to be expected before Habre was brought to trial [JURIST report]. Reuters has more.

Last July, the government determined that Habre would stand trial in a criminal court [JURIST report] rather than in front of a special tribunal, possibly hastening the trial. Human rights groups, however, have still criticized Senegal for its lack of progress. African Union [official website] leaders decided in July 2006 that Habre would face trial in Senegal [decision, PDF; JURIST report] for committing some 40,000 alleged acts of murder and torture of political opponents during his rule from 1982 to 1990, after which he fled to Senegal. Following an initial attempt to have charges brought against Habre in Senegal failed, victims took their case to Belgium, where prosecutors indicted him on crimes against humanity, war crimes and torture charges in 2005 under Belgium's universal jurisdiction laws. Senegal has since agreed to the AU's determination that Habre should face trial in that country, with Senegalese president Abdoulaye Wade saying that his country was "best-placed" to try Habre. Rights groups have urged Senegal to build on the work of Belgian investigators to speed up the trial. AFP has more.

[JURIST] Addressing a special session [official website] of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour [official profile] said [transcript] Wednesday that Israel's policy of collective punishment, disproportionate use of force and targeted killings, coupled with the Palestinian militant practice of indiscriminate firings of bombs and rockets, has led to the current crisis in the Gaza Strip. Israel had compounded the situation, she said, by blockading Gaza, preventing citizens from getting basic necessities such as food, gas, water, electricity and medicine. Arbour stressed that sovereign states have a primary duty to protect their citizens from war crimes and other crimes against humanity, but agreed with the Syrian and Palestinian representatives that international enforcement through processes such as independent investigation of international law violations is also necessary under the Outcome Document of the 2005 World Summit [text, PDF].

Syrian and Palestinian representatives had requested [meeting order, DOC] a council review of possible human rights violations stemming from Israel's military incursions into the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. A Syrian and Pakistani draft resolution [text, PDF] now before the body cites severe humanitarian and environmental consequences of recent Israeli military action, urges immediate international action to stop the Israeli campaign and requests that Israel itself stop committing human rights violations.

The Israeli blockade began last Friday, when Israel closed crossings into Gaza and cut off electricity, fuel and emergency aid to the area after more than 45 rockets hit Israeli towns. United Nations officials Tuesday chided Israel for its response to the rocket attacks [Zeenews report], saying it was targeting civilians in illegal collective punishment rather than punishing Hamas-led militants. On the same day, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) [official website] warned [AP report] of a pending humanitarian crisis in Gaza following Israel's action, foreshadowing the destruction of the blockade. Israel and the United States boycotted Wednesday's UNHRC session, claiming [Haaretz report] that the draft resolution presented to the council regarding the blockade failed to mention the rocket attacks as a justification.

[JURIST] A federal judge ruled [text, PDF] Wednesday that the healthcare provided in California prisons does not meet constitutional standards even though medical services have improved significantly since the court assumed oversight of the system in 2005. US District Judge Thelton Henderson of the Northern District of California acknowledged the progress of the current supervisory team, led by receiver Robert Sillen [official profile], including the hiring of more clinical workers and licensed nurses and increased contracting with outside medical specialists. But Henderson also said that the prison system needs new oversight to help implement planned improvements and to reintegrate prison leadership into the prison system, and he appointed law professor J. Clark Kelso [official profile] as receiver effective immediately to achieve those goals. Efforts to achieve reform bringing the state's prison system up to constitutional standards could take as long as four years, according to officials at the California Health Care Receivership [official website]. Reuters has more. The Los Angeles Times has local coverage.

Henderson appointed Sillen [order, PDF] in February 2006 after assuming oversight of the healthcare system [JURIST report] in 2005. In July 2007, the court ordered the formation of a special three-judge panel [JURIST report] to supervise and reduce California's prison population after finding that California's prison overcrowding was preventing the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) [official website] from adequately providing mental health care. The receivership was designed to oversee the development of remedies for the systematic constitutional violation and to monitor implementation of court-approved remedies. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger [official website] is now considering a mass release of nonviolent prisoners [JURIST report] to help ease the system's financial strains that contribute to the prison system's poor healthcare performance.

[JURIST] The UK Identity and Passport Service [official website] will delay issuing ID cards [Home Office backgrounder; JURIST news archive] to British nationals until 2010, according to documents leaked from the UK Home Office [official website]. Plans are still underway for foreign nationals living in the UK to be issued biometric visas [eGov backgrounder] later this year, while people in "positions of trust," such as security guards, will be required to have IDs by 2009. The IDs are part of an effort to clamp down on illegal immigration [JURIST report] in the UK, but have met with criticism from both Conservative and Liberal Democrat politicians who fear they will waste government money and infringe on civil liberties. BBC News has more.

The UK House of Lords and House of Commons [official websites] approved [JURIST report] the controversial Identity Cards Bill [PDF text; JURIST news archive] in March 2006. The legislation had bounced back and forth between both houses of parliament for months with the Lords objecting to a Commons provision to effectively make the cards mandatory by requiring ID registration for all British citizens applying for passports. A compromise bill mitigated the provision somewhat by allowing passport applicants to opt out of taking an ID cards until January 2010 so long as they registered in a national computer database.

[JURIST] US Vice President Dick Cheney Wednesday urged the US Congress to renew and expand the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) [text; JURIST news archive] when it meets for a scheduled Thursday vote. In a speech [text] to the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank, Cheney called on Congress to amend FISA to grant immunity to telecommunications companies [JURIST report] from lawsuits related to their participation in the NSA warrantless surveillance program [JURIST news archive], saying that government agencies did not have the resources to fight terror without cooperation from private telecom providers.

The temporary Protect America Act [S-1927 materials; JURIST report], enacted as a stopgap while Congress worked on long-term legislation to "modernize" FISA, is set to expire February 1. The Protect Act currently allows the US government to eavesdrop inside of the US without court approval as long as one end of a conversation is reasonably perceived to have been outside of the US. On Tuesday, Senate Republicans defeated an attempt by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid [official website] to extend the Protect Act for an additional month. On Wednesday, Reid sent a letter to US President George W. Bush asking that he support an extension to the Protect Act [The Hill report] as it is unlikely that Congress will agree to reauthorize FISA before the February 1 deadline. AP has more. The Washington Post has additional coverage.

[JURIST] A Dutch appeals court Wednesday overturned the convictions of seven men [BBC report] who were charged with being in a terrorist network that included Muslim extremist Mohammed Bouyeri [Wikipedia profile]. Bouyeri confessed to the November 2004 murder [BBC report; JURIST report] of Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh [Wikipedia profile]. The seven men were suspected of belonging to the Dutch Muslim Hofstad Network [Wikipedia backgrounder] terror group and were convicted of planning attacks on Dutch politicians. The appeals court upheld a separate sentence of 15 years for Jason Walters, the son of a US citizen, for throwing a hand grenade at police during a siege of a barricaded house. The court reduced the sentence of another man, Ismael Aknikh, from 13 years to 15 months. A third man, Nouredine el Fahtni, is serving a four year sentence on a separate terrorism conviction, while the remaining four men have already been freed after serving sentences of less than two years. The Hague Appeals Court declined to classify the Hofstad network as a terrorist organization because the group had no lasting and structured cooperation and members did not share a common ideology.

Bouyeri, who was sentenced to life in prison [JURIST report], said he killed Van Gogh in response to his film, "Submission" [BBC report], which criticized the treatment of women under Islam. As a result of the rise in terrorist activity, the Dutch parliament [official website] in 2006 approved a new anti-terror bill [JURIST report] that dramatically lowered the amount of evidence needed for Dutch police to arrest terror suspects and allowed officials to hold suspects for up to two weeks without charge. AP has more.

[JURIST] The Dutch government plans to ban burqas [Wikipedia backgrounder; JURIST news archive] in schools and government offices, rejecting a proposal by Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders [official website, in Dutch] to prohibit wearing burqas in public altogether, according to Wednesday media reports. Wilders submitted a legislative proposal [JURIST report] in July 2007 which would punish those wearing burqas in public with a fine of up to €3,350 euros or 12 days in jail [press release]. Although the issue will be discussed at next week's cabinet meeting, the cabinet has decided that a general public ban on burqas would violate freedom of religion. Wilders, who has previously made controversial remarks against Islam and Muslims in the Netherlands, criticized the government's decision against a public ban. A final decision has not yet been made on the ban, which will be discussed at a cabinet meeting next Friday.

In November 2006, then-Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk [official profile] announced plans to prohibit the public wearing of face coverings [JURIST report] for "security reasons" and to promote the integration of Dutch society. The proposal was met by protests [JURIST report], and in the wake of a national election, was abandoned [JURIST report] in March 2007 by Verdonk's successor. Among the country's 1 million Muslims, the Muslim community has said that only 50 women wear the burqa. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The US Senate Tuesday passed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008 [HR 4986 materials], a military spending bill that includes a provision exemptimg Iraq from US lawsuits dating back to the regime of ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein [JURIST news archive]. Sponsored by Congressman Ike Skelton (D-MO) [official website], the bill passed the Senate 91-3 [roll call]. The House of Representatives passed an identical bill last week which also authorizes US military programs in 2008. When Congress passed a different version of the bill in late 2007 that would have allowed some lawsuits against Iraq to go ahead, the Iraqi government expressed concern that financial resources needed for the reconstruction of Iraq could be consumed by potential litigation. President Bush used a pocket veto [Senate backgrounder] and rejected the previous version [press release] of the bill, saying that the legislation would "imperil billions of dollars of Iraqi assets at a crucial juncture in that nation's reconstruction efforts and ... would undermine the foreign policy and commercial interests of the United States."

Other law-related provisions of the present bill allow private lawsuits against Libya for actions taken between 1979 and 2000 when the US designated the state as a terror sponsor. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The office of Serbian War Crimes Prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic said Wednesday that Vukcevic has received death threats for his involvement in pursuing war crimes fugitives indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official websites] for their roles in the 1990 Balkan Wars. Four war crimes suspects are still at large, including former Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic [BBC profile; JURIST news archive]. A spokesman for the office said that these are not the first threats that Vukcevic has received in his role as prosecutor.

Serbia said in September it would increase efforts [JURIST report] to locate and arrest the four war crimes suspects believed to be hiding in the country in order to receive a favorable report from the ICTY chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte to the EU concerning the EU's pending pre-membership deal with Serbia. New ICTY Chief Prosecutor Serge Brammertz [JURIST report; ICC profile] has said that he will not alter his predecessor's tough stance on Serbian cooperation [JURIST report]. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Pojamarn Shinawatra, wife of former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra [BBC profile; JURIST news archive], told the Thailand Supreme Court Tuesday that Thaksin will return to Thailand in May to battle corruption charges laid against him after he was ousted in a military coup [JURIST report] in September 2006. Pojamarn herself faces charges of conflict of interest and malfeasance for a 2003 purchase of land from the government-directed Financial Institutions Development Fund [official website] worth three times more than the $26 million she paid for it. She pleaded not guilty to the charges, and requested 90 days to prepare for the hearing.

A Thai court issued an arrest warrant for Thaksin and his wife in August and a second warrant in September [JURIST reports]. Thaksin and Pojamarn have been accused of abuse of power for personal gain [JURIST report], conflict of interest violations, and dereliction of duty for personal gain in charges stemming from the land purchase. Both have previously refused to return to Thailand to face charges, saying they did not expect to receive a fair trial [JURIST report]. AP has more.

[JURIST] Israel and the United States plan to boycott a special session [news release] of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) [official website] in Geneva Wednesday called to discuss possible human rights violations in Gaza in the wake of a blockade imposed by Israel [BBC report] on the area last Friday. Israel closed crossings into Gaza after more than 45 rockets attacks Israeli towns and then cut off electricity, fuel, and emergency aid. United Nations officials Tuesday chided Israel for its response to the rocket attacks [Zeenews report], saying it was targeting civilians in illegal "collective punishment" and not Hamas-led militants. Israel and the US claim [Haaretz report] that the draft resolution [PDF text] presented to the UNHRC regarding the blockade fails to mention the rocket attacks as a justification. Other countries have refused to boycott the meeting, despite pressure from Israel.

On Tuesday the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) [official website] warned of a pending humanitarian crisis in Gaza following Israel's action. Tens of thousands of Palestinians streamed into Egypt [BBC report] Wednesday after militants blasted gaps in a Gaza border wall, allowing people to cross over to buy needed food and supplies. AP has more.

[JURIST] The City Council of Farmers Branch [official website; JURIST news archive], a Dallas, Texas suburb, on Tuesday approved a measure [Ordinance 2952 text, PDF] that would require all adults to apply for a city license before they can lease a house or apartment. The application obliges rental applicants to disclose whether they are a US citizen or a legal alien in the US, and local law enforcement would subsequently cross-check the information with a federal database. Any applicant can move into their rental immediately, but if the database fails to confirm the applicant's legal status, the applicant must prove their legal residency within 60 days or lose the city license.

Ordinance 2952 is the town's second attempt at prohibiting landlords within the city limits from renting housing to illegal immigrants [JURIST news archive], and is designed to appease opponents of an earlier ordinance [Ordinance 2903 text, DOC], which placed the burden of enforcement on landlords rather than the government. In June 2007, a US federal judge extended a temporary restraining order [JURIST report] blocking Farmers Branch from enforcing Ordinance 2903, which had been approved by voters [JURIST report]. The ordinance approved Tuesday will go into effect 15 days after a final judgment is made in the lawsuit [complaint, PDF] challenging the constitutionality of Ordinance 2903. AP has more.

[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit on Tuesday unanimously upheld [ruling, PDF] a 2006 federal court ruling [PDF text; JURIST report] that the state of Missouri must provide inmates with transportation to a medical facility for a non-therapeutic abortion. The Eighth Circuit rejected the trial court's conclusion that a non-therapeutic abortion constitutes a "serious medical need," and therefore may not be intentionally denied by the state under the Eighth Amendment. The Eighth Circuit instead affirmed the judgment under an analysis of the Fourteenth Amendment established by the US Supreme Court's 1987 case Turner v. Safley [text], which states that "prison regulations restricting constitutional guarantees are valid only if the regulations are 'reasonably related to legitimate penological interests.'" The Missouri Department of Corrections [official website] will comport with the decision as it considers an appeal.

The American Civil Liberties Union applauded the decision [press release] as "consistent with rulings from across the country that women prisoners do not lose their reproductive rights once they are incarcerated." The Kansas City Star has more.

[JURIST] An Afghan journalism student charged with blasphemy was sentenced to death Tuesday, following a recommendation from the Afghan Council of Mullahs. A three-judge panel found that papers printed from the Internet by 23-year-old Sayad Parwez Kambaksh, allegedly including discussion of women's role in society, insulted Islam and invoked Article 130 of the Afghanistan Constitution [text], allowing for execution consistent with Hanafi [GlobalSecurity backgrounder] law. Kambaksh showed the papers to a university teacher and classmates, some of whom said Kambaksh wrote the document himself. It was not clear if Kambaksh had legal representation at the trial, and his trial date was not made public. He will remain in prison as the sentence is appealed.

Kambaksh has received public support [RWB report] from Reporters Without Borders [advocacy website], as well as European Parliament President Hans-Gert Pöttering [official website]. On Monday, Afghan prosecutor Hafizullah Khaliqyar said Kambaksh supporters would be imprisoned. AP has more.

[JURIST] The Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) [official website] Tuesday released a report [PDF text; CoE press release] criticizing the United Kingdom's voting system for its vulnerability to fraud. A February 2007 fact-finding trip conducted by a PACE committee found that fraud risks are "mainly the result of the, rather arcane, system of voter registration without personal identifiers." UK voting registers currently list only the voters' names and addresses and do not include such "personal identifiers" as date of birth or signatures. The report said that UK elections are "conducted democratically" and, while not recommending a monitoring procedure, the report said:

The Monitoring Committee should, in its periodic reports on the honouring of commitments by member states, pay special attention to electoral issues in the United Kingdom and, if the vulnerabilities noted are found to undermine the overall democratic nature of future elections in Great Britain, apply to initiate a monitoring procedure with respect to the United Kingdom.

[JURIST] Jury selection began Tuesday in the retrial of six of the seven men charged with allegedly conspiring to bomb [DOJ press release] the FBI headquarters in Miami and the Sears Tower in Chicago. The seven men first went to trial last year, but in December one man was acquitted and a mistrial was declared [JURIST report] for the other six after the case ended in a hung jury. If convicted, each defendant faces up to 70 years in prison.

The seven were indicted [JURIST report] in 2006 on charges [indictment, PDF] of conspiring to provide material support to al Qaeda; conspiring to provide material support, training, and resources to terrorists; conspiring to maliciously damage and destroy by means of an explosive; and conspiring to levy war against the government of the United States. The indictment alleges that ringleader Narseal Batiste recruited the six other defendants to "organize and train for a mission to wage war against the United States government," and that they pledged an oath to al Qaeda in an attempt to secure financial and logistical backing. Lawyers for some of the men said that their clients were entrapped [JURIST report] by an FBI informant posing as an al Qaeda operative. AP has more.

[JURIST] Jose Padilla [JURIST news archive] was sentenced to 17 years and four months in prison Tuesday in connection with his conviction [JURIST report] on terrorism-related charges. US District Judge Marcia Cooke [official profile] handed down the sentence following two weeks of sentencing hearings, during which the government sought life sentences for Padilla and his two co-defendants, Adham Amin Hassoun and Kifadh Wael Jayyousi [GlobalSecurity profiles]. The defense team raised over 90 objections to a prosecutorial report supporting the request for life sentences, arguing it misrepresented the evidence presented at trial; Padilla's lawyers argued for a 10-year sentence, while lawyers for Hassoun and Jayyousi asked for penalties of four to six years and probation, respectively. Hassoun was sentenced to 15 years and eight months while Jayyousi received a 12-year, eight-month sentence. Cooke ruled last week that she could apply enhanced federal terrorism penalties [JURIST report] in the case, which in effect permitted her to consider the death penalty.

Padilla, Hassoun and Jayyousi were convicted in August 2007 of conspiracy to commit illegal violent acts outside the US, conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, and providing material support to terrorists. Padilla, a US citizen, was arrested in 2002 at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport and subsequently detained as an "enemy combatant" [JURIST news archive] at a Navy military brig in Charleston, South Carolina. Initially alleged to have planned the explosion of a "dirty bomb" in the United States, Padilla went from enemy combatant to criminal defendant when he was finally charged in November 2005 and transferred to civilian custody [JURIST report] in January 2006. AP has more.

[JURIST] Kenya's main opposition party, the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) [party website], has filed a formal complaint at the International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website], alleging that the Kenyan government has committed crimes against humanity in using force against demonstrators protesting the recent disputed re-election [JURIST report], an ODM spokesperson said Tuesday. The violence began after the re-election of Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki [official profile], who has has long been accused of using his position to favor members of the Kikuyu tribe. Over 700 people have died since protests began last month, prompting Human Rights Watch to urge the government to ban police from using excessive and lethal force against protesters [press release]. Thirteen nations, including several European Union members and the United States, have threatened to cut off aid to Kenya's government until the crisis is resolved.

The controversial presidential vote has sparked simmering ethnic tensions in Kenya [JURIST news archive]. Kibaki won the election despite early opinion polls that placed rival ODM candidate Raila Odinga in the lead. Thousands of opposition supporters have continued calls for protests against the elections [JURIST report], despite the government's temporary ban on public rallies. The ODM has also threatened to use economic boycotts and strikes [JURIST report] to continue their protests. AFP has more.