June 2008 Archives

[JURIST] Thana Tansiri, a lawyer for former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive], began serving a six-month prison sentence Monday for his role in an attempt to bribe officials [Nation report] overseeing a corruption case against Thaksin. Thana is one of three lawyers sentenced [Nation report] last week for delivering a paper bag containing $60,000 to a court official. The two other lawyers involved are already in prison, but Thana's sentence had been delayed while he was hospitalized for "stress." All three lawyers say the bag was delivered by mistake, and Thaksin has denied that he was part of any bribery plan [Nation report]. The Nation has more. Reuters has additional coverage.

Also Monday, Thailand's Constitutional Court [official website, in Thai] ruled that the Assets Examination Committee, a panel formed to investigate corruption charges against Thaksin, was not rendered invalid after voters approved a new constitution [JURIST report] last year. Last week, the Committee recommend that two new charges be brought [AP report] against Thaksin, one for using his position to secure a $127 million loan to benefit a company owned by his family, and another for corruption related to the purchase of approximately $43 million worth of rubber trees. In March, Thaksin pleaded not guilty [JURIST report] to separate corruption charges stemming from a 2003 land purchase by his wife Pojamarn from a government-directed institution despite a ban on officials making business deals with government agencies. In February, Thaksin returned to Thailand from self-imposed exile to face corruption charges laid against him after he was ousted in a military coup [JURIST reports] in September 2006. AFP has more.

[JURIST] Iran's Revolutionary Court sentenced an Iranian electronics salesman to death Monday after convicting him of espionage, according to a state media report [FNA report]. Ali Ashtari, who was arrested last year, was charged with using his sales connections in the military to pass information on Iran's Atomic Energy Organization [official website, in Persian] to Israeli intelligence agents. Israeli officials denied knowledge of Ashtari's case. Ashtari has 20 days to appeal the ruling. AP has more. Reuters has additional coverage.

Last year, Iranian police arrested twenty people [JURIST report] near the Iraqi border on suspicion of participating in an international spy ring. The arrests came several months after the Iranian government first accused four Iranian-Americans [JURIST news archive] of belonging to a US-organized spy network. In May 2007, Iran formally charged [JURIST report] Iranian-American scholar Dr. Haleh Esfandiari [WWC profile] with allegedly plotting "against the sovereignty of the country," and charged Dr. Kian Tajbakhsh [OSI press release] and Radio Farda [media website] correspondent Parnaz Azima with allegedly engaging in an espionage conspiracy [JURIST report]. In June last year, an Iranian judge said that Esfandiari and Tajbakhsh admitted to carrying out some "activities" [JURIST report], although it was unclear if their statements were tantamount to an admission of spying.

[JURIST] The Dutch Public Prosecution Service (OM) [official website, English version] will not prosecute politician Geert Wilders [personal website, in Dutch] for his video and printed statements against the Quran and Islam because the statements are not punishable under anti-discrimination laws [OM statement]. Wilders, who is an official with the right-wing People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) [party website, in Dutch], released written statements in 2006 and 2007 that elicited more than 40 criminal complaints against him. A film released by Wilders on the Internet last March led to dozens more criminal complaints. In its statement, the OM said:

The fact that statements are hurtful and offensive to a large number of Muslims does not necessarily mean that such statements are punishable. It is true that some statements insult Muslims, but these were made in the context of public debate, which means that the statements are no longer of a punishable nature.

[JURIST] Malaysian opposition politician Anwar Ibrahim [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] filed a lawsuit [The Star report] on Monday against a former aide who had accused him of sodomy [JURIST report] on Saturday.  In the lawsuit, Anwar said that the aide's allegations against him were baseless and politically motivated. Also on Monday, Anwar left the Turkish Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, where he had taken refuge [Anwar blog post], fearing for his personal safety in the wake of the sodomy allegations. On Sunday, Anwar had indicated through Datin Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, the president of Anwar's Parti Keadilan Rakyat [party website, in Malay] that he would not leave the Turkish Embassy unless Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi [official profile] guaranteed Anwar's safety [New Straits Times report]. BBC has more. AFP has additional coverage.

Under Malaysian law, sodomy is punishable by 20 years in prison regardless of whether or not it was consensual. Anwar was Malaysia's Deputy Prime Minister under former Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad until he was fired in 1998 as the result of earlier sodomy charges of which he was initially convicted but later cleared. He only recently reentered Malaysian politics following the expiration of a ten-year ban [JURIST report] against him for unrelated corruption charges. Earlier this month the Federal Court of Malaysia ruled he could challenge the constitutionality [JURIST report] of his original dismissal from office.

[JURIST] The US House Judiciary Committee [official website] has issued a subpoena [text, PDF; press release] to Attorney General Michael Mukasey for documents relating to the Valerie Plame leak scandal [JURIST news archive] and other Committee investigations. The Committee specifically requested transcripts of interviews with US President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and five White House aides, all of whom were questioned during the criminal investigation into the leak. In addition, the Committee is seeking all unclassified documents relating to legal counsel the Administration received on detainee interrogation methods and the legal ramifications of domestic counter-terrorism efforts [JURIST news archives]. The Committee also asked for documents relating to the firing of a US attorney, voters' rights investigations, and selective prosecution allegations. Concluding that a subpoena was the only way for the Committee to obtain the requested documents, chariman John Conyers (D-Mich) [official website] Friday wrote:

Although the Committee seeks to obtain information necessary for its oversight responsibilities cooperatively whenever possible, utilizing subpoenas as a last resort, we have concluded that a subpoena is warranted in this instance in light of our many prior requests for these documents. We trust that this subpoena will now facilitate the prompt production of the requested documents.

[JURIST] International leaders and human rights groups have criticized last Friday's presidential run-off election in Zimbabwe [Harare Tribune election results], calling the elections unfair and characterizing the government of newly sworn-in president Robert Mugabe [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] as illegitimate. A committee of the Pan-African Parliament (PAP) [official website], the legislative branch of the African Union, reported Monday that killings, intimidation and violence were common [report text] in the lead-up to the elections, and that the election itself had a low voter turnout and was neither transparent nor impartial. Through a spokesperson, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon [official profile] indicated in a press statement [text] that the voting results "did not reflect the true and genuine will of the Zimbabwean people or produce a legitimate result." Meeting in Kyoto, Japan for the 2008 G8 Kyoto Foreign Ministers' Meeting [summit website], foreign ministers from the G8 countries issued a joint statement [text] on Zimbabwe, saying:

We deplore the actions of the Zimbabwean authorities - systematic violence, obstruction and intimidation - which have made a free and fair Presidential run-off election impossible. We strongly urge the Zimbabwean authorities to work with the opposition to achieve a prompt, peaceful resolution of the crisis in accordance with the democratic wishes of the Zimbabwean people and, for that purpose, to cooperate fully with the international efforts.

[JURIST] Malaysian law enforcement authorities have launched an investigation into a new sodomy complaint against opposition politician Anwar Ibrahim [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] filed by an aide Saturday. Under Malaysian lawyer sodomy is punishable by 20 years in prison regardless of whether or not it was consensual. Anwar was convicted for sodomy in 1999 in the midst of political scandal before an appellate court overturned his conviction and sentence in 2004. Asserting his innocence of the latest allegations in a statement [text] on his blog Sunday, Anwar wrote:

The police report lodged against me...is a complete fabrication. I believe we are witnessing a repeat of the methods used against me in 1998 when false allegations were made under duress. This is clearly a desperate attempt by the Barisan Nasional regime to arrest the movement of the Malaysian people towards freedom, democracy and justice.

The report has been organized by interested parties to attack me in retaliation for evidence I have recently obtained implicating IGP [Inspector General of Police] Musa Hassan and the AG [Attorney General] Gani Patail in misconduct including fabrication of evidence in the cases launched against me in 1998-1999. This vile attack will not prevent me from releasing this dossier to the public.

[JURIST] The Canadian Human Rights Commission [official website] has dismissed a Muslim group's complaint against Maclean's [media website], Canada's leading newsmagazine, for publishing an article it alleged exposed Muslims to abuse or contempt. The Canadian Islamic Congress [advocacy website] brought the complaint in respect of a 2006 article published by Mark Steyn entitled "The future belongs to Islam" [text]. In its ruling, put online late Friday by Maclean's but not yet available on the Commission's own website, the Commission said that the article was "polemical, colourful and emphatic, and was obviously calculated to excite discussion and even offend certain readers, Muslim and non-Muslim alike" but that that was not enough to constitute a discriminatory practice under Section 13(1) of the Canadian Human Rights Act, which provides:

It is a discriminatory practice for a person or a group of persons acting in concert to communicate telephonically or to cause to be so communicated, repeatedly, in whole or in part by means of the facilities of a telecommunication undertaking within the legislative authority of Parliament, any matter that is likely to expose a person or persons to hatred or contempt by reason of the fact that that person or those persons are identifiable on the basis of a prohibited ground of discrimination.

[JURIST] Former Cambodian Foreign Minister Ieng Sary [Trial Watch profile; JURIST news archive] is set to appeal his provisional detention in a June 30 open hearing to be broadcast on radio and TV stations, according to documents [scheduling order, PDF; hearing invitation, PDF] released by the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) [official website; JURIST news archive]. Sary and his wife, Ieng Thirith, who served as minister for social affairs, were arrested [PDF press release; JURIST report] in November 2007 and charged [JURIST report] with crimes against humanity and war crimes for breaches of the Geneva Conventions [text] based on their role in the Khmer Rouge [JURIST news archive] communist regime of the 1970s. Sary and his wife have cited health concerns in their appeals against detention orders. Sary has been hospitalized twice [JURIST report] so far this year.

Sary was pardoned in 1996 [NYT report] by King Norodom Sihanouk, but in a response [PDF text] to the hearing by the civil party in the case, the pardon was said to violate international law, and is non-binding on the ECCC, which was established by in 2001 to investigate and try surviving Khmer Rouge officials. According to published proceedings [PDF text], Sary is punishable under articles 5, 6, 29, and 39 of the Law on the Establishment of the ECCC [text]. 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. To date, no top Khmer Rouge officials have faced trial. Sary and Thirith are two of five former Khmer Rouge leaders in the custody of the court.

[JURIST] The Afghan juvenile justice system is in serious need of reform, according to a study [PDF] conducted by the Afghan Independent Human Right Commission (AIHRC) [official website] in collaboration with United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) [official website]. The report, released on Thursday, says that child detainees in Afghanistan face ongoing rights violations and are deprived of access to education, legal services, and health care. One of the worst problems in the country’s juvenile justice system is reportedly its inability to ensure due process:

Only 8% of juveniles were explained their rights upon arrest. 56% of respondents reported that they had not given their statement voluntarily, while only 38% of juveniles had seen ‘their’ statement. In detention only 23% of respondents had access to a lawyer (17% of males and 62% of females) while in court this increased to only 38% of juveniles having a defence lawyer. In relation to their status as juveniles, only 7% were presented before a children’s court, while only 8% of children had a parent, guardian or social worker present when their statement was taken, and only 43% had a parent or guardian present during the trial.

[JURIST] US firearm ownership advocacy groups filed lawsuits in Chicago and San Francisco [court documents] late this week seeking to overturn laws which ban handguns within the cities. The lawsuits were filed within a day of the US Supreme Court decision [JURIST report] in District of Columbia v. Heller [Duke Law backgrounder; JURIST report], in which the Court ruled 5-4 that the Second Amendment [text] to the US Constitution prohibits the District of Columbia ban on private handgun ownership. Four residents of Chicago joined by the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) [advocacy website] and the Illinois State Rifle Association (ISRA) [official website] filed suit against the City of Chicago and Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley [official website] in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, seeking to overturn the citywide handgun ban [municipal code text]. SAF's founder, Alan Gottlieb, said in a statement [press release] "Chicago’s handgun ban has failed to stop violent crime. It’s time to give the Constitution a chance." The National Rifle Association (NRA) [advocacy website] filed suit in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, seeking a ruling against the city's ban on handguns in public housing. The lawsuit was joined by the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) [advocacy website] and a resident of one of San Francisco's housing projects. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom [official website] said in a recent press release [text] that despite the Supreme Court decision, the laws will be upheld. AP has more.

The Supreme Court ruling was the first that directly addressed the Second Amendment since 1939's US v. Miller [case materials]. In September 2007, Washington DC Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and DC Attorney General Linda Singer [official profiles] formally appealed a March 2007 federal court ruling which invalidated the District of Columbia's handgun ban [JURIST reports]. The decision affirms the March DC Circuit holding [opinion, PDF] that the city's 30-year-old ban on private possession of handguns was unconstitutionally broad.

[JURIST] A proposal by the Italian government [JURIST news archive] to fingerprint the country’s Roma minority drew fierce criticism from the human rights community and Roma advocates [European Roma Rights Centre website] on Friday. Interior Minister Roberto Maroni [OECD profile] announced plans on Thursday to fingerprint thousands of Roma children, saying that the process would help to reduce street begging and keep children in school. The plan would also involve fingerprinting all adult Roma, and was immediately criticized by officials as a method of "ethnic screening." Vincenzo Spadafora, head of UNICEF in Italy [official website], said UNICEF was "deeply concerned" by the proposal, commenting that "[i]f this is being brought in to protect the rights of Roma children, Italian children should also be fingerprinted to protect them as well.” Amos Luzzarto, the former president of Italy's Union of Jewish Communities [official website, in Italian], condemned the plan as a form of "ethnic surveying,” stating that “[t]he racism of this initiative is evident and unacceptable.” Reuters has more.

In November 2005, the European Monitoring Center on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) [advocacy website] reported that Roma minorities are the ethnic group most susceptible to racism in the European Union [JURIST report]. Two years later, in November 2007, the European Court of Human Rights ruled [opinion text] rejected the educational separation of Roma children in the Czech Republic, holding that the practice amounted to racial discrimination and violated principles of human rights.

[JURIST] The US Department of Justice announced [press release] Friday that it has settled a lawsuit [settlement text, PDF] brought by former US Army germ-warfare researcher Dr. Steven Hatfill [WP profile], a development that may moot a landmark contempt case against former USA Today reporter Toni Locy [JURIST news archive] now awaiting a ruling by the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit. Under the settlement, Hatfill would drop all damages claims against the government in return for a lump sum payment of $2.825 million and a 20-year annuity of $150,000 amounting to $3 million. Hatfill had initially sued [complaint, PDF; JURIST report] the Department alleging that it violated the US Privacy Act [text] by providing personal information and information about him to journalists - including Locy - during its investigation of the 2001 anthrax attacks [GWU backgrounder] in which he was at one point named a "person of interest". Locy had refused to disclose her sources in discovery, arguing that the information Hatfill was seeking was not central to his lawsuit. In a letter [PDF text] to the Court of Appeals Friday informing it of the settlement, Hatfill lawyer Christopher Wright said that Locy's evidence was no longer needed by his client. Bloomberg has more

In March, US District Judge Reggie Walton found Locy in contempt of court [order, PDF; JURIST report] for not disclosing her sources and ordered her to pay a fine of $500 a day, increasing to $1000 a day after one week and then up to $5000 a day after two weeks, the costs of which could not be covered by her former employer. Locy obtained an emergency stay of that order from the Court of Appeals and oral arguments [JURIST reports] on the merits of the sanctions were heard last month. The appeals court has yet to make a formal ruling on the status of the contempt case in light of the Hatfill settlement, but Locy said late Friday that she and her lawyers are hopeful that the deal would end the matter. Locy will be a professor at Washington & Lee University's journalism school this fall.

Editor's Note: Toni Locy served as a JURIST student staff member while pursuing her MSL at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law in 2006-07.

[JURIST] A South African magistrate Thursday set April 14, 2009 as the start of the corruption and fraud trial of suspended police commissioner Jackie Selebi [BBC profile, JURIST news archive]. The South African National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) [official website] charged Selebi, the former president of INTERPOL [organization website], with corruption [charge sheet, PDF; JURIST report] in connection with his alleged relationship with Glenn Agliotti [Mail and Guardian report], a convicted drug smuggler suspected of involvement in the murder of South African mining head Brett Keeble. AP has more. Reuters has additional coverage.

Selebi is a close political ally of South African President Thabo Mbeki [official profile] and on Thursday the South African government extended Selebi's contract [BBC report] for an additional year. Selebi was suspended from his police post and forced to resign as INTERPOL president [JURIST report] after the NPA announced the allegations last month. Selebi is accused of receiving $170,000 in bribes from Agliotti. The NPA has alleged that Selebi ignored Agliotti's drug trafficking and warned Agliotti that he had been identified in the Keeble murder investigation.

[JURIST] An HIV-positive soldier has challenged his upcoming dismissal from the Indian Army, the Supreme Court [official website] announced Friday. A Human Rights Law Network [advocacy website] lawyer who is representing the soldier argued that the policy barring HIV-positive personnel from military service was "retrograde," pointing to a March 2008 ruling by the South African High Court that struck down a similar South African policy [PlusNews report]. He also noted that other nations, including the United States [US military policy text, PDF], already allow HIV-positive people to serve in their armed forces. IANS has more.

Other countries have also rejected policies banning all HIV-positive individuals from serving in the military. Last year, the Supreme Court of Mexico [official website] ruled [JURIST report] such a policy was an unconstitutional infringement on principles of equality. The Mexican military may now only expel soldiers if a doctor certifies that their condition prevents them from performing their duties.

[JURIST] The Canadian Federal Court [official website] ruled in two separate opinions Thursday that media comments by Quebec Justice John Gomery [CBC profile], who led the inquiry into the sponsorship scandal [CBC backgrounder] involving the Liberal Party [party website] and the administration of former prime minister Jean Chrétien [official profile], indicated bias against Chrétien [opinion, PDF] and his chief of staff Jean Pelletier [opinion, PDF]. The court also set aside a portion of the inquiry's findings, including a conclusion by Gomery that Chrétien and Pelletier had erred in their oversight of a sponsorship program, in which millions of dollars were given to advertising agencies friendly with the then-ruling Liberal Party, in return for little or no advertising work. In rebuking Gomery and setting aside a substantial portion of his report on the scandal, Judge Max Teitelbaum [official profile] wrote:

I am convinced that an informed person, viewing the matter realistically and practically and having thought the matter through would find that the Commissioner’s statements to the media during the Phase I hearings, after the release of the Report and upon his retirement, viewed cumulatively, indicate that the Commissioner prejudged issues under investigation and that he was not impartial toward the Applicant. The nature of the comments made to the media are such that no reasonable person, looking realistically and practically at the issue, and thinking the matter through, could possibly conclude that the Commissioner would decide the issues fairly.

[JURIST] Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer [official website] promised in an open letter [text, in German; SPÖ statement, in German] Thursday that he would push for Austria to hold national referenda in deciding whether to accept future modifications of the EU reform treaty [JURIST news archive], properly known as the Treaty of Lisbon [PDF text; website]. The announcement came two weeks after Irish voters rejected [JURIST report] the reform treaty in a referendum. A June European Commission Eurobarometer report [PDF text] found that Austrian citizens are among those least satisfied with EU membership. Bloomberg has more.

In April, the upper house of the Austrian parliament [official website, in German] voted 151-27 [press materials, in German; JURIST report] to approve the treaty. The treaty must be ratified by all 27 EU member states before it can take effect, though each country may choose the method of ratification. Leaders from the 27 countries signed the reform treaty [JURIST report] last December, and 14 countries have ratified the document [JURIST news archive]. In 2005, an earlier draft for a European constitution [JURIST news archive] failed when voters in France and the Netherlands [JURIST reports] rejected the proposal in national referenda.

[JURIST] A German court [Bavarian justice system website, in German] Friday ruled that a sports utility vehicle manufactured in China bore an unacceptable resemblance to a model manufactured by German automaker BMW [corporate website], ordering the SUV's importers to stop sales of the infringing SUV, destroy all remaining cars, and pay compensatory damages to BMW. China Automobile said it would appeal the ruling to the European Court of Justice [official website], arguing that Germany could not ban a vehicle that was legal throughout the rest of Europe. AP has more.

This is not the first time Chinese automakers has been accused of imitating foreign car design. Last year, DaimlerChrysler threatened to sue Shuanghuan Automobile [Forbes report] over a car it alleged infringed on its designs. Counterfeit luxury goods have been an increasing problem [AutoChannel report] for many countries in recent years and many have taken steps to crack down on Chinese "copycat cars."

[JURIST] Unidentified assailants Thursday shot and killed a top Iraqi judge while he was traveling on a Baghdad highway. Kamel al-Shewaili was the president of the al-Rasafah Court of Appeal, one of two appeals courts in Baghdad, and presided over criminal cases for the city's eastern district. Reuters has more. Voices of Iraq has local coverage.

In January, Iraqi federal court of appeal judge and Supreme Judicial Council member Amir Jawdat al-Naeib was also assassinated [JURIST report] by gunmen in the capital. The Judicial Council said in August 2007 that 31 Iraqi judges have been assassinated since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's regime. The Iraqi Lawyers Association reported in April last year that at least 210 lawyers and judges have been killed [IRIN report] since the US-led invasion, with dozens more injured in attacks which have prompted hundreds to leave the country. Many key Iraqi judges and their families now live in the fortified Green Zone in Baghdad or in the so-called Rule of Law complex [NYT report], a secure compound in the northern Baghdad neighborhood of Rusafa where they are supposedly safe from outside threats.

[JURIST] Hearings to confirm war crimes charges [press release] against two former Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) militia leaders began at the International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website] Friday. Germain Katanga [BBC report; ICC materials] is accused [JURIST report] of using child soldiers and orchestrating violence against women; former Nationalist and Integrationist Front leader Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui [ICC materials; JURIST report] is accused of planning and carrying out an attack against the village of Bogoro in 2003, allegedly killing some 200 persons. Prosecutors argued that the trial would help victims to "move forward" with their lives in the DRC's violence-plagued Ituri district [HRW backgrounder], where many of the alleged war crimes took place.

A scheduled May hearing to confirm the charges against Chui and Katanga was delayed [decision, PDF; press release] in April to allow the defense more time to prepare. Another accused war criminal, Thomas Lubanga [ICC materials; BBC profile], was taken into ICC custody in March 2006, becoming the first DRC war crimes defendant to appear before the ICC [JURIST reports]. Lubanga is charged [JURIST report] with enlisting child soldiers in the Ituri district.

[JURIST] Banu Altunbasof, the Sudan head of international aid group Doctors Without Borders (MSF) [advocacy website], was ejected from the country's Darfur region [JURIST news archive] Thursday, after authorities said that she blocked state investigations into alleged MSF transgressions. The Sudanese government has long alleged that aid agencies have falsely accused the government of human rights abuses in Darfur for political purposes [JURIST report], while aid groups accuse the government of being hostile toward their work [HRW backgrounder] in the region. In 2005, two MSF workers were detained [JURIST report] over a report [PDF text] alleging mass rape in the Darfur region. Reuters has more.

A report [materials] released by the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) [official website] last week named Sudan as one of the worst violators of refugee rights. The report graded [grade report, PDF; report grading policy, PDF] countries based on their adherence to the UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees [text], specifically evaluating refugee policies on physical protection, detention and access to courts, labor, and freedom of movement. According to a report [text] by Human Rights Watch (HRW) [official website], as of April 2008 2.5 million people have been displaced by the government's war against rebel forces and another 2 million are considered to be otherwise affected by the conflict.

[JURIST] UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour [official profile; JURIST news archive] Thursday sharply criticized [press release] Zimbabwean political groups for violence surrounding the country's ongoing presidential elections and said that mediation efforts should be based on the need for accountability and justice. Members of both the ruling ZANU PF party and occasionally the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) [party websites] commit serious human rights violations, she said, and must be held accountable. Arbour added that current conditions make meaningful elections impossible and she called on both the Zimbabwean government and international groups to restore order. Also Thursday, the UN Special Procedures mandate holders [UN materials] reiterated concerns about rights violations in Zimbabwe and urged the government to postpone the elections until the rule of law had been restored. In a statement [text], the group wrote:

We strongly urge the Government of Zimbabwe to ensure respect for human rights and to abide by democratic principles and practices, in accordance with Zimbabwe's own domestic law and international human rights standards.

[JURIST] Controversial US interrogation policies outlined in two 2002 and 2003 memoranda [PDF texts; JURIST report] were reviewed by top Department of Justice (DOJ) officials, including former Attorney General John Ashcroft [official profile], according to two former Bush administration officials testifying before the House Judiciary Committee [official website] Thursday. The documents advised the Department of Defense (DOD) that the military could use a wide range of interrogation methods to question foreign detainees outside the US without fear of criminal liability or constitutional limitations. Vice Presidential chief of staff David Addington and former DOJ lawyer John Yoo [profiles] denied that the memos were written without Ashcroft's knowledge or input. Addington did not prepare formal testimony [background documents, PDF], but told the panel that he would not be responsible for US interrogation policy if a court later found it to be illegal. Yoo, who wrote the 2002 memorandum, told the Committee [PDF text]:

In facing the questions that were posed to us, we appropriately kept in mind that the homeland of the United States had been attacked by a dangerous, unconventional enemy. But we did not make policy, and we called the legal questions as we saw them.

[JURIST] East Timorese President Jose Ramos-Horta [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] Friday declined what he described as an offer to become the next UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, despite having told parliament last week [AP report] that he had accepted the position. Ramos-Horta said he changed his mind because resigning from the presidency would force new elections to be held within 90 days, something he feared could destabilize the newly-formed country. The UN has made no official statement on the matter. Ramos-Horta, who won the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize [Nobel Prize website], had been considered a leading candidate for the position since surviving an assassination attempt [JURIST report] in February. Current UNHCHR Louise Arbour [official profile; JURIST news archive] will be formally stepping down next week. AP has more. BBC News has additional coverage.

Ramos-Horta is only the second president of East Timor and previously served as the country's first foreign minister. He was wounded in a February assassination attempt by anti-government rebels. Rebel leader Alfredo Reinado was killed during the attacks, while Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao [BBC profile] escaped unharmed. The National Parliament of East Timor [official website] subsequently declared a national state of emergency [AP report], prohibiting public gatherings and establishing a curfew. The parliament initially established the state of emergency for one month at the end of February, but extended it [JURIST reports] in late March, saying some parts of the country remained unstable following the assassination attempts.

[JURIST] A judge in the US District Court for the Northern District of California [official website] Wednesday granted a motion [order, PDF] to enforce a previous settlement agreement between two social networking websites, Facebook [corporate backgrounder] and ConnectU [corporate website]. The ruling effectively ends the two companies' ongoing legal battle [case materials] concerning ownership of source code forming the basis of Facebook. The two sides had agreed on a settlement in February, but ConnectU had sought to annul that agreement [Bloomberg report], arguing that Facebook had committed fraud in the procurement, material terms were missing, and the agreement did not reflect the parties' intentions. Judge James Ware rejected ConnectU's arguments asserting unclear terms and fraud:

In sum, the Court finds that the Agreement reached by the parties does not display on its face a failure to agree or any uncertainty regarding its material terms. Accordingly, the Court finds that the Agreement is enforceable...[T]he Court finds that Defendants have failed to tender sufficient evidence of fraud in the circumstances proffered to the Court to create a genuine dispute as to whether the Agreement was fraudulently induced.

[JURIST] Belarusian online news services and journalist organizations have denounced a proposed new law [BAJ report] that would restrict online press freedom by requiring news services to register with the government. The House of Representatives of Belarus' National Assembly [official website, English version] approved the "On Mass Media" law Tuesday after its second reading. Belarusian online news sources Wednesday posted black banners and some temporarily stopped posting material in response. The Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ) [official website] wrote [press release] that "it is unacceptable to consider and adopt a legal act that infringes upon this fundamental right," protected by articles 33 and 34 of the Belarus constitution [text]. Reporters Without Borders [official website] also criticized the passage, writing [press release]: "The Internet has until now been one of the few spaces where Belarusians could express themselves freely. We fear that censorship will be stepped up." The proposal must be passed by the upper house of the Assembly and then signed by the president before it becomes law. AP has more.

In March, the Belarus KGB [official website] detained at least 16 journalists [JURIST report] and searched their homes and offices for materials that allegedly libeled Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko [official website; BBC profile]. The Belarus Deputy Prosecutor General said that the searches related to an animated Internet cartoon that allegedly insulted Lukashenko and had been broadcast on Belsat TV [media website], a Polish-funded satellite television channel. The BAJ argued that the searches were retaliation for media coverage of anti-Lukashenko protests [JURIST report] in Minsk earlier that week. In 2004 the Council of Europe severely condemned [Resolution 1372 text] the Belarusian government for its oppression of journalists, the Council will again evaluate the status of journalists [BAJ report] in the country following the approval of the proposed law.

[JURIST] US President George W. Bush Thursday announced plans [statement] to remove North Korea [JURIST news archive] from a State Department list of terror sponsors [text]. The move comes after the North Korean government presented China with a detailed report outlining its nuclear energy and weapons programs, in accordance with international efforts to end its nuclear ambitions. Other sanctions against North Korea, including those imposed by the UN Security Council [JURIST report], will remain in place. The New York Times has more. AP has additional coverage.

In February 2007, North Korea agreed [JURIST report] to end its nuclear weapons program, shut down and seal any reactors, and completely declare the extent of its nuclear activities in exchange for 50,000 tons of heavy fuel. International efforts to end North Korea's nuclear programs have taken place in the context of the Six-Party Talks [US State Department backgrounder], a group that includes North Korea, South Korea, the US, Russia, Japan, and China. The group has also focused on normalizing US-North Korean relations, relations between Japan and North Korea [JURIST news archive], peace and security in northeast Asia, energy and the economy, and the status of North Korea's de-nuclearization. AFP has more.

[JURIST] Officials from the UK Government Equalities Office (GEO) [official website] introduced a new equality bill [bill framework, PDF; BBC Q/A] Thursday designed to combat discrimination based on age or gender. Equalities Minister Harriet Harman told [statement, PDF] the House of Commons that 40 years of anti-discrimination laws have not sufficiently reduced inequality in the UK:

This package will see us make further progress towards a fair and equal society. A single statute to replace the complex web of legislation that has grown up over the years will make it easier for people to know their rights and their obligations.

[JURIST] Amnesty International [advocacy website] marked International Day in Support of Victims of Torture [UN backgrounder] by protesting [press release] in front of the European Parliament [official website] in Brussels on Thursday. The protest criticized European Union states for failing to condemn alleged abuses in countries like the United States and Tunisia, warning that many governments were using the threat of terrorism as a justification for repression and torture. The group called on EU governments to publicly condemn torture and hold its practitioners accountable. Al Jazeera has more.

Earlier this month, Amnesty accused [report text; JURIST report] Tunisia of committing wide-spread human rights abuses under overly-broad anti-terrorism legislation [Amnesty backgrounder]. In January, Canadian Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier [official profile] said that the Canadian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade would remove the US from an internal document that lists countries that employ interrogation methods that amount to torture [JURIST reports] and where prisoners risk being tortured.

[JURIST] The Supreme Court of Canada [official website] ruled [judgment] Thursday that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) [official website] improperly destroyed recordings of agent interviews with terror suspect Adil Charkaoui [case summary], but the justices refused to stop Charkaoui's extradition to Morocco. The Court found that the loss of evidence hampered judicial review:

As things stand, the destruction by CSIS officers of their operational notes compromises the very function of judicial review. To uphold the right to procedural fairness of people in Mr. Charkaoui’s position, CSIS should be required to retain all the information in its possession and to disclose it to the ministers and the designated judge. The ministers and the designated judge will in turn be responsible for verifying the information they are given. If, as we suggest, the ministers have access to all the undestroyed "original" evidence, they will be better positioned to make appropriate decisions on issuing a certificate. The designated judge, who will have access to all the evidence, will then exclude any evidence that might pose a threat to national security and summarize the remaining evidence — which he or she will have been able to check for accuracy and reliability — for the named person.

[JURIST] A Canadian Federal Court judge ruled [opinion, PDF] Wednesday that the government must release evidence to Canadian Guantanamo detainee Omar Khadr [DOD materials; JURIST news archive] that could assist in his defense. The decision followed last month's Supreme Court of Canada ruling [text; JURIST report] that Khadr had the right under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms [text] to see confidential documents and videos compiled by Canadian officials following interviews with Khadr that possibly involved torture. The Federal Court judge held that Canadian officials violated Khadr's human rights under the UN Convention against Torture (UNCAT) and the Geneva Convention [texts] when they knowingly allowed interviews of Khadr to continue at Guantanamo. Justice Mosley wrote:

Canada cannot now object to the disclosure of this information. The information is relevant to the applicant’s complaints of mistreatment while in detention. While it may cause some harm to Canada-US relations, that effect will be minimized by the fact that the use of such interrogation techniques by the US military at Guantánamo is now a matter of public record and debate. In any event, I am satisfied that the public interest in disclosure of this information outweighs the public interest in non-disclosure.

[JURIST] India's National Human Rights Commission [official website] should create a special department to investigate deaths in police custody, the Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR) [advocacy website] said in a Wednesday report [PDF text; press release]. The report found that over 7,000 people, many of whom were allegedly tortured, have died in the custody of Indian police between 2002 and 2007. ACHR called on India to enact legislation to criminalize torture, to repeal all laws granting immunity to torturers, and to ratify the UN Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment [text] and permit visits to the country by the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture. BBC News has more.

India came under criticism from South Asians for Human Rights (SAHR) [advocacy website] in October 2006 when the group pressed both India and Pakistan to abolish the death penalty [JURIST report]. In December 2006, an Indian police officer was sentenced to death [BBC report] for killing a man while in police custody.

[JURIST] The US House voted 402-17 [roll call] to approve the Americans with Disabilities Amendments Act of 2008 [HR 3195 materials] Wednesday. The bill makes it easier for employees with mental or physical handicaps to prove they are victims of workplace or hiring discrimination. Bill co-sponsor Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) [official website] said that the new legislation closed gaps in the law [press release; floor statement, recorded video] that denied protections to workers with many handicaps, including epilepsy and diabetes. Bill co-sponsor Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-WI) [official website; press release] said the bill was necessary because the Supreme Court interpreted the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) [official website] in an overly restrictive manner in Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Kentucky Inc. v. Williams [opinion] in 2002, severely limiting the range of handicaps that qualified for protection. The Senate is expected to pass similar legislation. President George W. Bush has expressed concern that the bill could lead to excessive litigation. The New York Times has more.

The US is one of only 45 countries in the world with disability legislation, having adopted the ADA in 1990. In 2006, the UN General Assembly Wednesday adopted by acclamation an international treaty on the rights of persons with disabilities [official website; JURIST report]. The US said that it would not sign [New Standard report] the international accord, insisting that US domestic measures on the federal, state and local levels are already adequate for the purpose.

[JURIST] The US District Court for the Southern District of New York [official website] Wednesday ruled [decision, PDF] that the National Security Agency (NSA) [JURIST news archive] does not have to tell lawyers for Guantanamo Bay detainees whether it has used electronic surveillance methods to monitor their communications. The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) [advocacy website] filed the lawsuit [complaint, PDF; CCR backgrounder ] on behalf of the lawyers in May 2007, arguing [JURIST report] that under the Freedom of Information Act [statute materials] the agency was compelled to disclose if and when the lawyers' communications were intercepted. The court rejected the Center's argument, agreeing with the NSA that the National Security Agency Act of 1959 [text] and other laws grant it immunity from this kind of request. The court said that granting such requests could expose too much of agency's operations:

If, as a matter of law, defendants are required to respond to plaintiffs' FOIA requests, they must do so no matter who is requesting the information. This might allow potential malfeasants to access sensitive information. Moreover, according to [NSA official Joseph] Brand, the accretion of progressively disclosed information 'would disclose the target and capabilities (sources and methods) of the [Terrorist Surveillance Program] and inform our adversaries of the degree to which NSA is aware of some of their operative[s] or can successfully exploit particular communications.'

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] handed down three decisions Thursday, including District of Columbia v. Heller [Duke Law backgrounder; JURIST report], in which the Court ruled 5-4 that the Second Amendment [text] to the US Constitution prohibits the District of Columbia from banning private handgun ownership. The Court found that the Second Amendment bestows upon citizens an individual right to own firearms for lawful purposes:

There seems to us no doubt, on the basis of both text and history, that the Second Amendment conferred an individual right to keep and bear arms. Of course the right was not unlimited, just as the First Amendment's right of free speech was not, see, e.g., United States v. Williams, 553 US (2008). Thus, we do not read the Second Amendment to protect the right of citizens to carry arms for any sort of confrontation, just as we do not read the First Amendment to protect the right of citizens to speak for any purpose.

There is, however, no constitutional basis for attacking contribution limits on the ground that they are too high. Congress has no constitutional obligation to limit contributions at all; and if Congress concludes that allowing contributions of a certain amount does not create an undue risk of corruption or the appearance of corruption, a candidate who wishes to restrict an opponent's fundraising cannot argue that the Constitution demands that contributions be regulated more strictly.

analysis was flawed or incomplete to the extent FERC looked simply to whether consumers' rates increased immediately upon conclusion of the relevant contracts, rather than determining whether the contracts imposed an excessive burden "down the line," relative to the rates consumers could have obtained (but for the contracts) after elimination of the dysfunctional market.

[JURIST] A number of politicians have denounced Wednesday's US Supreme Court ruling [Kennedy v. Louisiana opinion text; JURIST report] that the death penalty constitutes cruel and unusual punishment for the rape of a child. At a press conference, Democratic Party presidential candidate Barack Obama (D-Ill) said [MSNBC report] that

[T]he rape of a small child, six or eight years old is a heinous crime, and if a state makes a decision that under narrow, limited, well-defined circumstances, the death penalty is at least potentially applicable, that does not violate our constitution.

That there is a judge anywhere in America who does not believe that the rape of a child represents the most heinous of crimes, which is deserving of the most serious of punishments, is profoundly disturbing.

[JURIST] The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) [official website] announced Wednesday that it will prepare a report [press release] on allegations of organ trafficking in Kosovo. Former prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) Carla Del Ponte [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] has alleged in a new book [JURIST report] that about 300 Serbian and other non-Albanian prisoners were victims of organ trafficking during the 1998-1999 war in Kosovo, but that a 2003 probe by her ICTY team failed to obtain sufficient evidence to prosecute. In response, parliamentarians submitted a motion [text] in April requesting that the Assembly investigate the organ trafficking charges. PACE officials forwarded the issue to the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights [official website] earlier this month, according to officials from PACE's Serbian delegation [official website]. B92 has more. AP has additional coverage.

Del Ponte said reliable sources told her that members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) [official website] took the organs of young, healthy prisoners for black-market sales [Kosovo Compromise report]. The Swiss Foreign Ministry later barred Del Ponte from promoting the book because it was inconsistent with her role as the Swiss ambassador. In March, the office of Serbia's war crimes prosecutor [official website] said that it was investigating "informal statements" [JURIST report] received from ICTY investigators alleging illegal organ harvesting. The next month, Serbia announced [JURIST report] that it planned to officially request that the ICTY resume a probe into the organ trafficking allegations, even though Kosovo Justice Minister Nekibe Kelmendi dismissed the allegations as "fabrications." The same month, Human Rights Watch (HRW) [official website] urged [JURIST report] leaders of Kosovo and Albania to launch an investigation into the allegations, but as of May had not received a response.

[JURIST] The New Zealand government and several Maori groups signed a deed of settlement Wednesday worth nearly NZ $196 million to resolve certain indigenous claims concerning land taken by British settlers in the 19th century. The deed of settlement agreement, known informally as the Treelords deal [settlement back-grounder, PDF], restores land rights and nearly 176,000 hectares of forest previously appropriated by the New Zealand government, including rental income from the land, to the Central North Island Forest Iwi Collective [official website], an organization made up of Maori iwi, or social units. Under the settlement, negotiated by the Office of Treaty Settlements [official website], all rental and other income from the land will be held in a newly-established trust holding company, whose shareholders are the Maori iwis. The Treelords deal also gives the Collective the ability to acquire government-owned properties through deferred selection or rights of first refusal. AP has more. The New Zealand Herald has local coverage.

Maori claims to the historical Central North Island forests are based on breaches of the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi [text] by the New Zealand government. The treaty established the sovereignty of the British crown in New Zealand, but guaranteed Maori groups continued use of their land and natural resources. The Maori have fought for remedies for land loss and unequal treatment suffered pursuant to the Treaty since soon after its signing in 1840. Under the Treelords deal, the government of New Zealand officially apologizes for breaches of the Treaty. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] A UK High Court dismissed [opinion, PDF] a lawsuit Wednesday that sought to force the government to put the ratification of the new EU reform treaty [JURIST news archive], known as the Treaty of Lisbon [PDF text; official website], to a public vote. Influential UK Conservative Party donor Stuart Wheeler [BBC profile] launched a legal bid to force a referendum on the treaty [JURIST report] in January, arguing that Prime Minister Gordon Brown [official website] had broken a pledge to hold a referendum on the pact, possibly warranting judicial review. The High Court agreed to consider the suit in May. Brown has said that a referendum is unnecessary because the treaty does not affect the UK constitution or impinge on British sovereignty. In dismissing Wheeler's lawsuit, the High Court ruled:

For the reasons we have given, we are satisfied that the claim lacks substantive merit and should be dismissed. Even if we had taken a different view of the substance of the case, in the exercise of the court’s discretion we would have declined to grant any relief, having regard in particular to the fact that Parliament has addressed the question whether there should be a referendum and, in passing the European Union (Amendment) Act 2008, has decided against one.

At a late stage in the proceedings, a few days before we expected to hand down judgment, we were informed by the Treasury Solicitor that, following Royal Assent to the European Union (Amendment) Act 2008, the government "is now proceeding to ratify the Treaty of Lisbon." We were concerned that the government might be intending to pre-judge or pre-empt the decision of the court by ratifying the treaty while the lawfulness of doing so without a referendum was still in issue before the court. The Prime Minister, however, acted promptly to remove our concern by Foreign Secretary making clear that ratification would not take place before the judgment was handed down.

In the event, the decision of the court is itself clear. We have found nothing in the claimant’s case to cast doubt on the lawfulness of ratifying the Lisbon Treaty without a referendum.

[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit Wednesday rejected [opinion, PDF] an appeal of Canadian-born financier and former media mogul Conrad Black [CBC profile; JURIST news archive]. Convicted [JURIST report] of fraud and obstruction of justice in 2007, Black was sentenced to 78 months in prison [JURIST report] and ordered to pay $125,000 and forfeit another $1 million. In February, the court upheld a district court ruling [JURIST reports] rejecting Black's bid to remain free on bail pending the appeal. The appeals court ruled in February that Black's co-defendants, John Boultbee and Peter Atkinson, could remain free on bail because they had not been convicted of a separate obstruction of justice charge. CBC News has more. The Canadian Press has additional coverage.

The US government originally accused [indictment, PDF] Black of diverting more than $80 million [JURIST report] from Hollinger International and its shareholders during the company's $2.1 billion sale of several hundred Canadian newspapers, but in July 2007 he was found not guilty on separate charges of racketeering, wire fraud, and tax evasion. In August 2007, Black and former Hollinger executives Boultbee, Atkinson and Mark Kipnis filed concurrent motions [JURIST report] requesting either new trials or acquittals after their July convictions. US District Judge Amy St. Eve largely rejected the motions [ruling, PDF; JURIST report], overturning one of Kipnis' mail fraud convictions while affirming all of the other convictions against the four.

[JURIST] The Supreme Court of Missouri ruled [opinion text] Tuesday that four physicians associations do not have standing to challenge the constitutionality of a state law that legalizes midwifery [American College of Nurse-Midwifes backgrounder]. The Missouri legislature passed the provision [text] last year as part of a larger health insurance reform act [HB 818 text, PDF]. The Missouri State Medical Association, the Missouri Association of Osteopathic Physicians and Surgeons, the Missouri Academy of Family Physicians and the St. Louis Metropolitan Medical Society [professional websites] challenged the law on the grounds that physicians could be subject to disciplinary action for aiding unlicensed midwives; the groups also argued that the bill violated the Missouri constitution [Article III text] because it had more than one subject and because the midwifery provision changed the bill's original purpose. Officials for Missouri Midwife Supporters said that the ruling gives families more options and freedom in birth methods, but the Missouri State Medical Association said that the provision "needlessly puts at risk the health of mothers and their babies" [press releases].

Missouri law prohibits physicians from aiding or encouraging an unlicensed person to practice medicine, and such actions can lead to the revocation of a physician's license by the state Board of Registration for the Healing Arts [official website]. Practicing midwifery in Missouri was previously a class-C felony that could be punished by up to seven years in prison, but the ruling allows all certified midwives to legally practice in the state. Certified Nurse Midwives, who have training in both nursing and midwifery, can be licensed in all states but usually must practice in association with a physician. Direct-entry midwives [state legal comparison chart] do not have to have formal training and usually do not have to practice in association with a physician, but they are prohibited in 10 states and not legally regulated in four others. AP has more. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has local coverage.

[JURIST] Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai [BBC profile; JURIST news archive], presidential candidate of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) [party website], Wednesday called for the United Nations and African leaders to lead a settlement process aimed at ending the ongoing violent political crisis in Zimbabwe. Tsvangirai's comments came at a press conference held during a temporary departure [Radio Netherlands report] from the Dutch embassy in Harare, where he has been staying since Sunday after announcing his withdrawal from a presidential run-off election [AFP report] against Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] scheduled for this Friday. In withdrawing from the elections, Tsvangirai cited increasing violence against his party by Mugabe's government and said that he would not ask his supporters to risk their lives by voting in the run-off election. In an editorial published Wednesday in The Guardian, Tsvangirai also urged the UN to send an international peacekeeping force to Zimbabwe to oversee the country's presidential elections and end attacks on MDC politicians and activists by the government. BBC News has more. AP has additional coverage.

Mugabe and Tsvangirai are disputing the results of the recent presidential elections [JURIST news archive]. The MDC has estimated that at least 65 of its members have been killed [BBC report] since the first election in March. Human rights groups suggested that state-sponsored violence would only increase as the second presidential vote drew closer, and in the past few weeks the amount of election-related violence has increased, including the beating [ABC News report], torture [National Post report], and killing [NYT report] of MDC supporters throughout Zimbabwe. Last week, Mugabe's government expelled a UN human rights observer [JURIST news report]. Earlier this month, government forces stopped and detained US and UK diplomats [JURIST report], threatening them and beating one of their drivers.

[JURIST] A Polish appellate court Tuesday overturned the conviction of one riot police officer found guilty for the shooting deaths of nine coal miners during a 1981 protest, but affirmed the convictions of 14 other officers convicted in relation to the same incident. The coal miners were protesting the imposition of martial law [Polish government backgrounder] and the jailing of Solidarity [group website] labor movement leaders by the Communist government of General Wojciech Jaruzelski [official website]. The 15 riot police said that they only shot over the heads of the protesters, but a court sentenced [JURIST report] them in 2007 to between two and one-half years and 11 years in prison. Tuesday's ruling, which cannot be appealed, reduced the 11-year sentence of one officer to six years, increased the sentences of 13 other officers by one year each, and remanded the case of a final officer. AP has more.

The prosecutions were part of a plan for "moral renewal" [Washington Post report] pushed by Polish President Lech Kaczynski and his brother, Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski [official websites], which has sought to purge police and military intelligence agencies and require civil servants, academics and others to disclose whether they served as police informants [JURIST report] prior to 1989. The country's Constitutional Tribunal struck down the proposed disclosure law [JURIST report] in 2007, saying that the government could neither require citizens to make such declarations nor publish a list of alleged Soviet collaborators.

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] handed down four decisions Wednesday, including Exxon v. Baker [Duke Law backgrounder; JURIST report], in which the Court ruled 5-3 to reduce a punitive damages award to be paid by Exxon Mobil [corporate website] for the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill [EPA backgrounder] from $2.5 billion to $500 million. Exxon Mobil and its shipping subsidiary had been ordered to pay punitive damages for the spill of 11 million gallons of crude oil in Prince William Sound, Alaska. The award was larger than the total of all punitive damages awards affirmed by all federal appellate courts in US history. The Court found that punitive damages should be predictable based on the harm done:

Our review of punitive damages today, then, considers not their intersection with the Constitution, but the desirability of regulating them as a common law remedy for which responsibility lies with this Court as a source of judge-made law in the absence of statute. Whatever may be the constitutional significance of the unpredictability of high punitive awards, this feature of happenstance is in tension with the function of the awards as punitive, just because of the implication of unfairness that an eccentrically high punitive verdict carries in a system whose commonly held notion of law rests on a sense of fairness in dealing with one another. Thus, a penalty should be reasonably predictable in its severity, so that even Justice Holmes's "bad man" can look ahead with some ability to know what the stakes are in choosing one course of action or another.

The rule of evolving standards of decency with specific marks on the way to full progress and mature judgment means that resort to the
penalty must be reserved for the worst of crimes and limited in its instances of application. In most cases justice is not better served by terminating the life of the perpetrator rather than confining him and preserving the possibility that he and the system will find ways to allow him to understand the enormity of his offense. Difficulties in administering the penalty to ensure against its arbitrary and capricious application require adherence to a rule reserving its use, at this stage of evolving standards and in cases of crimes against individuals, for crimes that take the life of the victim.

[JURIST] The Italian Senate [official website], the upper house of the country's parliament, approved public safety legislation [text, PDF, in Italian; Senate Act 692 materials, in Italian] Wednesday containing provisions to suspend older trials for nonviolent crimes, including corruption proceedings against Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi [BBC profile; JURIST news archive]. Berlusconi told the Senate in a letter [text, in Italian] last week that the measures would allow the judiciary to consider more important cases and give the government time to introduce judicial reforms. The bill will suspend trials for crimes that occurred before mid-2002 except for those involving the Mafia, violent offenses, workplace accidents and crimes that could be punished by 10 years or more in prison. The government also plans to propose a bill that would protect high-ranking government officials from prosecution during their terms in office. Berlusconi is currently on trial for corruption charges [JURIST report] dating back to 1997, and critics of the amendment have charged that the move is personally motivated since Berlusconi's trial will be among those suspended. BBC has more.

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 2007, Italy's highest court of appeal upheld Berlusconi's April 2007 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 said he is innocent and has accused prosecutors of pursuing a political vendetta against him.

[JURIST] Russian police have committed serious rights abuses against suspected rebel militants from Ingushetia [government website, in Russian; BBC backgrounder], including abductions, torture, and killings, according to a Wednesday report [HRW materials; press release] by Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website]. HRW alleged that Russia has failed to hold government agents accountable for abuses and compared Russian tactics against suspected rebels to those used during both Argentina's "Dirty War" [GlobalSecurity Backgrounder; JURIST news archive] and the recent conflict in Chechnya [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive]. The group said that Russian abuses had strengthened an increasingly violent militia movement in the region:

These practices evoke, albeit on a far smaller scale, the thousands of enforced disappearances, killings, and acts of torture that plagued Chechnya for more than a decade. They are antagonizing local residents and serve to further destabilize the situation in Ingushetia and more widely in the North Caucasus.

In order to prevent Ingushetia from turning into the full-blown human rights crisis that has characterized Chechnya, prompt and effective measures must be taken by the Russian government to end these human rights violations and hold accountable their perpetrators.

[JURIST] The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) [official website; JURIST news archive] Tuesday announced plans to complete operations a year early and to significantly reduced its budget.  Earlier this year the court announced plans [JURIST report] to operate until 2011, but has been unable to raise the funds necessary to support the plan. The court said that it would still be able to bring those accused to justice despite the cutbacks.  Also Tuesday, the court released a statement [text] saying that it still needs $43.7 million to continue work through the end of 2009. The court was originally scheduled to operate from 2006 to 2009 on a much smaller budget, and financial overruns prompted an April UN audit [audit text, PDF; JURIST report] which eventually cleared the court of mismanagement. The extensions have instead been blamed on long trial delays and frequent appeals. Reuters has more. AFP has additional coverage.

The ECCC was created to try Khmer Rouge [BBC backgrounder] leaders responsible for the country's 1970s genocide, but no Khmer Rouge officials have yet faced justice. In August 2007, the ECCC brought its first charges against Kaing Khek Iev [TrialWatch profile; JURIST report], better known as "Duch," who was in charge of the notorious S-21 prison in Phnom Penh. Former Khmer Rouge official Nuon Chea [GenocideWatch report] is awaiting trial [JURIST report] for charges [statement, PDF] of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Charges have also been brought against former Khmer Rouge head of state Khieu Samphan, who was arrested [JURIST report] in November 2007. In February, Samphan ended his cooperation [JURIST report] with the ECCC.

[JURIST] UK Justice Secretary Jack Straw [official profile] Tuesday held emergency meetings with members of Parliament to discuss possible legislation that would expressly allow anonymous witnesses to testify at some trials.  The recently adopted judicial practice was challenged last week by a Law Lords [government backgrounder, PDF] ruling [Regina v. Davis text, PDF] that it may deny defendants' right to meaningfully challenge the witnesses against them. The judges said that Parliament, rather than the courts, was best suited to balance the rights of the accused with the safety of witnesses:

In these circumstances, while I am very conscious of the problems confronting the authorities which have led them to adopt these measures, in my view it is not open to this House in its judicial capacity to make such a far-reaching inroad into the common law rights of a defendant as would be involved in endorsing the procedure adopted in the present case.

[JURIST] The Supreme Court of Pakistan [official website] on Wednesday agreed to delay a by-election scheduled for Thursday in the district of the leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) [party website] and ex-Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] until the court rules on an appeal of a lower court ruling [JURIST report] that barred Sharif from standing in the by-election. A three-judge panel [cause list] of the Supreme Court heard the government's emergency appeal of the ruling Wednesday, and indicated that it would not deliberate on the case until next Monday, putting on hold elections in Sharif's home district in Lahore until the court resolves the issue. The PML-N's partner in government, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) [party website], instigated the appeal after the PML-N declined to appeal Monday's Lahore High Court (LHC) [official website] ruling against Sharif and rejected the court's decision [Daily Times report]. The Pakistan government said Tuesday that it would file an appeal [JURIST report]. BBC has more.

The Lahore High Court's ruling barred Sharif from the June 26 by-election on the grounds that a prior criminal conviction rendered him ineligible for office. In 2000, Sharif was convicted for his involvement in an attempt to prevent a plane carrying then-army chief and current President Pervez Musharraf [JURIST news archive] from landing in Pakistan during Musharraf's 1999 coup against Sharif's civilian government. Sharif has said that he will not personally challenge Monday's decision since he considers the Supreme Court as currently constituted to be illegitimate. AP has additional coverage.

[JURIST] US Ambassador to Albania John L. Withers [official website] colluded with Albanian officials to hide evidence of an illegal ammunition selling plan [NYT report] from New York Times reporters, Chairman of the House Oversight Committee Henry Waxman (D-CA) alleged in a letter [PDF text; materials] Monday. Government arms contractor AEY allegedly sold ammunition produced in China to the US Department of Defense in violation of a military acquisitions prohibition [clause 252.225-7007 text] against trading Chinese arms; Albanian officials allegedly repackaged the Chinese arms to appear as if they were manufactured in Albania. On Thursday, a grand jury indicted [text, PDF; press release] government arms contractor AEY, Inc., 22-year-old company president Efraim Diveroli, and three other company executives on charges of conspiracy to commit offenses against the US, making false statements to a federal agency, and major fraud against the US [US code sections text]. Withers has denied that he conspired with Albanian officials to hide the operation and said he plans to formally refute the charges [statement]. The International Herald Tribune has more.

In late 2006, AEY responded to an Army solicitation seeking bids on an arms contract for Afghanistan. The Army awarded AEY the contract, which prohibited "delivery of ammunition acquired, directly or indirectly, from a Communist Chinese military company." The indictment said that the company and its executives regularly and fraudulently completed Certificates of Conformance [template form, PDF] certifying that the ammunition was wholly legal. In 2007, Congress enacted the 2008 defense authorization bill [HR 1585 materials] as an additional measure [JURIST report] to bring all civilian contractors [Parameters backgrounder] in Iraq under the military's jurisdiction. Such prosecutions had previously been impossible [USAF guidance document] because of court rulings [Grisham v. Hagan opinion text] that the military did not have such jurisdiction absent a declaration of war by Congress.