September 2008 Archives

[JURIST] Former CIA executive director Kyle Foggo [JURIST news archive] pleaded guilty Monday in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia to one count of wire fraud [18 USC s. 1343 text] relating to charges that he accepted bribes in return for granting federal defense contracts. Foggo was originally indicted [text, PDF; JURIST report] in February 2007 on charges of conspiracy, wire fraud, and money laundering in connection with allegations that his friend and defense contractor Brent Wilkes [Newsweek profile] gave him gifts and promised him a job in return for the granting of CIA defense contracts. In May 2008 the indictment was amended [indictment, PDF] to include counts of conflict of interest and additional counts of fraud, but following Foggo's guilty plea Monday, prosecutors agreed to drop the other charges against him. Foggo could face up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, but the prosecutors said they will recommend a jail sentence of no longer than 37 months. Sentencing is scheduled for January 8. The Washington Post has more. The New York Times has additional coverage.

In November 2007, Wilkes was convicted [JURIST report] of 13 felonies, including money laundering, fraud, and conspiracy, in connection with bribes he paid to former congressman Randy Cunningham [official profile]. Both Wilkes and Foggo came under investigation when Cunningham pleaded guilty in 2005 [JURIST report] to taking $2.4 million in bribes in return for federal contracts.

[JURIST] The All Party Parliamentary Group on Extraordinary Rendition (APPG) [official website] released a legal opinion [text, PDF] on Monday which examines UK governmental liability under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) [text, PDF] and the UK Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA) [text] for its participation in the CIA extraordinary rendition [JURIST news archive] program. The opinion states that a human rights violation under both the ECHR and the HRA would occur where "an individual in British detention in Iraq is handed over to US military personnel despite substantial grounds for considering that there is a real risk of that person being subjected to torture or inhuman and degrading treatment." The opinion also determined that US assurances that suspects handed over by the UK would not be tortured would not be sufficient to absolve the UK of its obligations under the ECHR and the HRA:

The United States Government has registered reservations to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention Against Torture stipulating that it considers itself bound by the prohibition of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment only to the extent that it is prohibited by the Fifth, Eighth and/or Fourteenth Amendments to the US Constitution and, moreover, the reservation also sets out a definition of torture that is narrower than that accepted by courts in the United Kingdom (in particular, in referring to an act intended to inflict severe physical pain and suffering). An undertaking not to engage in inhuman and degrading treatment or torture would not therefore necessarily be sufficient to discharge the United Kingdom’s obligations under the ECHR. ... The US military, which would be responsible for the detention of detainees handed-over by the British military authorities, are known to have applied “enhanced interrogation techniques” to those within their custody believed to have intelligence value. These techniques are capable of amounting to inhuman and degrading treatment and torture in domestic law. In A (No. 2), Lord Hope, in considering what conduct is capable of amounting to torture, stated that some of the interrogation techniques authorized for use in Guantanamo Bay, “would shock the conscience if they were ever to be authorized for use in our own country” (A (No.2) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [...]. Lord Bingham stated that the interrogation techniques used by British authorities in Northern Ireland during the troubles, which were categorized as “inhuman and degrading” by the ECtHR in Ireland v United Kingdom (1978) 2 EHRR 25, would today be regarded as torture [...]

[JURIST] The US Senate voted Saturday to approve spending legislation [H.R. 2638 text, PDF] approving the expiration of a Congressional moratorium on offshore oil drilling [JURIST news archive]. The spending bill, known as the Consolidated Security, Disaster Assistance, and Continuing Appropriations Act, was approved in the Senate by a vote of 78-12 [roll call vote]. The moratorium, first enacted in 1982 as the Outer Continental Shelf Moratorium, denied the US Department of the Interior [official website] the funds to pursue oil and natural gas exploration off of the US Pacific and Atlantic coasts. The expiration of the moratorium via the Senate vote follows a House of Representatives vote two weeks ago passing a comprehensive energy bill [H.R. 6899, PDF] that would partially lift the offshore oil drilling ban [JURIST report]. The House bill would authorize drilling activities 50 miles beyond the Pacific or Atlantic coastlines, part of the 85 percent of US coastal waters which have been off-limits for drilling since 1981. The Washington Post has more.

In July, President George W. Bush lifted an executive ban on offshore oil drilling [JURIST report] put in place during his father's presidential administration. In June, Bush called on Congress to relax restrictions on oil exploration [statement text; JURIST report], saying that it should also allow drilling to begin in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge [official website] in Alaska. Bush argued that resources currently off-limits to energy companies could offset rising fuel prices. Environmental organizations have criticized efforts to expand oil drilling [WWF report] in the Arctic, calling for increased research into energy conservation and renewable resources instead. Critics have also said that offshore development will require several years and a massive infrastructure that could impact local wildlife.

[JURIST] The US House of Representatives on Monday rejected a financial rescue bill [PDF text; summary] that would have allowed courts to review purchases of troubled assets made by the US Treasury Department [official website]. The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, defeated by a vote of 228-205, would have permitted courts to set aside Treasury actions that were "arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or not in accordance with law." The bill further shielded the Treasury secretary from injunctive relief except for constitutional violations and provided that any requests for restraining orders or injunctions be considered on an expedited basis. CNN has more.

Last week, Senate Democrats questioned the legality [JURIST report] of the Bush administration's proposed version of the legislation, which would have precluded judicial oversight of the asset purchases. Led by US Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-CT), chairman of the Senate Banking Committee [official websites], the Democrats put forth their own proposal that included the judicial review language. Some observers had expressed concern that the Bush proposal would represent an unconstitutional delegation of the spending powers granted to Congress by Article I of the US Constitution [text].

[JURIST] In a national referendum on Sunday, Ecuadorean voters overwhelmingly approved a new constitution which consolidates and significantly broadens the powers held by leftist President Rafael Correa [official website, in Spanish; BBC profile]. The new constitution [text, in Spanish] gives the president the power to remove Congress in the middle of a four-year term, to control monetary policy, and to seek re-election for an additional term. The constitution also includes plans to tighten control of Ecuador's vital mining and oil industries. President Correa called the vote a 'historic victory,' commenting [Reuters report; official statement, in Spanish], "Today, Ecuador has decided on a new nation, the old structures are defeated." AP has more. BBC has additional coverage.

The special assembly charged with rewriting the constitution provisionally approved the document in July [JURIST report]. The success of Correa's referendum fulfills Correa's pledge to rewrite the country's constitution [JURIST report] after his leftist coalition's landslide victory [JURIST report] in October 2007. Correa's Alianza PAIS party [official website, in Spanish] has a majority in the Constituent Assembly. Critics continue to fear the 444-article constitution gives the president too much control over the economy and the judiciary, which would allow Correa to follow the example set by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez [BBC profile] in using the reform to further expand his powers.

[JURIST] Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] on Sunday urged [Reuters report] lawmakers to reintroduce a clause guaranteeing a certain number of legislative seats to Christians and other religious minorities into the country's controversial provincial elections bill [JURIST news archive]. The bill had originally contained the clause, but lawmakers said it was taken out because of uncertainty on how to determine the number of seats to be set aside for the groups. Al-Maliki said that the representation guarantee would help assuage minority fears of oppression, and on Sunday hundreds of Iraqi Christians protested the deletion of the clause. The provincial elections bill was passed [JURIST report] by the country's parliament last week, but still must be approved by a three-member Presidency Council before becoming law. AP has more.

The Iraqi Parliament [official website, in Arabic] has debated the elections bill for months, with a main point of disagreement being over provisions relating to the ethnically-diverse Kirkuk [GlobalSecurity.org backgrounder] region in the north of the country. After several failures [JURIST report], the parliament accepted a UN-proposed compromise [White House press release] allowing elections in the rest of the country to proceed, as former opponents of the plan said they were confident an agreement could be reached to carry out elections in Kirkuk. Earlier this month, Iraqi lawmakers agreed to temporarily divide control of Kirkuk [JURIST report] among the city's ethnic groups until a permanent governing plan is established.

[JURIST] The Assembly [official website] of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) on Saturday revoked two lawmakers' prosecutorial immunity for crimes allegedly committed during the country's 2001 ethnic conflict. Hajrula Misini and Hisen Dzemaili [official profiles], both members of the Democratic Union for Integration (BDI), the largest ethnic-Albanian political party in the nation, were allegedly involved in cases that the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website] returned for domestic prosecution. BDI member Rafiz Aliti commented [IDIVIDI report], "We will respect the will of the parliament, but we will remain consistent in the position that the amnesty law should be fully respected." AP has more.

The BDI was formed immediately after the 2001 conflict [BBC backgrounder] between the ethnic-Albanian National Liberation Army (Ushtria Çlirimtare Kombëtare) [HRW backgrounder] and the FYROM regular military [official website, in Macedonian]. Although the conflict lasted only 10 months, it prompted numerous war crimes allegations and an investigation by the ICTY [BBC report], which specifically examined the events of a rebel ambush in Vejce, where eight FYROM soldiers were killed.

[JURIST] US Attorney General Michael Mukasey [official profile; JURIST news archive] on Monday announced [statement text] that he had named a prosecutor to determine whether criminal charges are warranted in connection with the removal of nine US attorneys, as recommended in a new report [PDF text] by investigators at the US Justice Department (DOJ) [official website]. Mukasey said he had named Acting US Attorney Nora R. Dannehy [official profile] of Connecticut to investigate the removals, as well as senior DOJ officials' testimony about them, because he had concluded that the matter "would be best overseen by an attorney outside Main Justice." Although the report by the DOJ Offices of Inspector General and Professional Responsibility [official websites] "dispelled many of the most disturbing allegations" arising from the firings, Mukasey said, it made clear that the removals were "haphazard, arbitrary and unprofessional." The attorney general continued:

It is true, as the report acknowledges, that an Administration is entitled to remove presidential appointees, including U.S. Attorneys, for virtually any reason or no reason at all. But the leaders of the Department owed it to those who served the country in those capacities to treat their careers and reputations with appropriate care and dignity. And the leaders of the Department owed it to the American people they served to conduct the public's business in a deliberate and professional manner. The Department failed on both scores.

Today's report is an important step toward acknowledging what happened, and holding the responsible officials to proper account. I hope the report provides a measure of relief to those U.S. Attorneys whose reputations were unfairly tainted by the removals and their aftermath. They did not deserve the treatment they received.

[w]e also determined that the U.S. Attorneys were not given an opportunity to address concerns about their performance or provided the reasons for their removal, which led to widespread speculation about the true reasons for their removal, including that they were removed for improper partisan political reasons....

We believe the primary responsibility for these serious failures rest with senior Department leaders – Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty – who abdicated their responsibility to adequately oversee the process and to ensure that the reasons for removal of each U.S. Attorney were supportable and not improper. These removals were not a minor personnel matter – they were an unprecedented removal of a group of high-level Department officials that was certain to raise concerns if not handled properly. Yet, neither the Attorney General nor the Deputy Attorney General provided adequate oversight or supervision of this process.... Moreover, they and other Department officials are responsible for failing to provide accurate and truthful statements about the removals and their role in the process.

[JURIST] Egypt's Abbaseyya Appeals Court on Sunday upheld [Daily News Egypt report] the conviction of the former editor of weekly newspaper al-Dustour [media website, in Arabic] for spreading "rumors" about the health of Egyptian President Hosny Mubarak [official profile] in an August 2007 newspaper report. Ibrahim Eissa [al-Ahram profile] originally faced a maximum sentence of three years in jail when his trial began [JURIST report] in Cairo in October 2007, but his sentence has since been reduced to six and now two months despite objections [JURIST report] by prosecutors. Rights groups continue to protest his prosecution [AI release], and Eissa's lawyers are seeking to have the sentence further postponed until a final appeal of the conviction is heard. In June 2006, Eissa was sentenced [JURIST report] to one year in prison for publishing a separate report critical of Mubarak, but an appeals court reduced the sentence to a $4,000 fine. AP has more.

In recent months, public critics of Egyptian government policies have been the target of multiple lawsuits for publicly discussing sensitive issues. In August, the US State Department [official website] criticized [press release] Egypt's sentencing [JURIST report] of rights activist Saad Eddin Ibrahim [professional profile] to two years in prison for defaming the country. In October 2007 , two journalists were convicted of libel in absentia [JURIST report] for writing a story about an illegal land transaction involving the Ministry of Religious Endowments at a secret auction. Under Egyptian law, citizens may file lawsuits against individuals who make statements that harm society, and the accused can face criminal punishment if found guilty. Mubarak previously pledged to decriminalize press offenses [JURIST report] in Egypt, but has yet to do so.

[JURIST] Judges for the criminal division of the Supreme Court of Chile [official website, in Spanish] Friday reduced the sentences of two men convicted of the 1973 deaths of 15 Chilean farmers [Truth Commission backgrounder]. A lower court had sentenced former Army Col. Hugo Guerra Jorquera to 18 years in prison and civilian businessman Luis García to five years and one day for their roles in the killings, which occurred just weeks after former dictator Augusto Pinochet [JURIST news archive] took power. Friday's ruling reduced Jorquera's sentence to five years and García's to three, both to be served under modified house arrest. From Chile, La Nacion has more.

In July, a judge sentenced [JURIST report] former Chilean secret police head Gen. Manuel Contreras [TrialWatch profile] to two consecutive life terms in prison for a 1974 car bombing that killed another general and his wife. In April, Contreras was sentenced [JURIST report] to 15 years in prison for his role in the 1974 disappearance of a political dissident. In November 2007, Chile's Supreme Court affirmed seven convictions and overturned one [JURIST report] in cases involving murders committed by state agents during Pinochet's 1973-90 regime. The court based that decision on the Geneva Conventions [ICRC materials], finding that Chile was in a state of internal armed conflict when the murders occurred.

[JURIST] The 2500-member People's Council of Turkmenistan Friday adopted a new constitution for Turkmenistan [official website; CIA backgrounder] envisioning a new multi-party political process and providing for limits on presidential power two years after the death of longtime autocrat Saparmurat Niyazov [BBC profile]. Turkmen leaders are hopeful that the changes in the country's charter would encourage investment in the Central Asian state, a leading regional producer of natural gas. Included in the new constitution are provisions for a five-year presidential term and a 125-seat elected legislature. Parliamentary elections are expected in December. BBC News has more.

Turkmenistan gained its independence upon the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Last year it was cited [JURIST report] by the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF) [advocacy website] for widespread interference in judicial affairs, using torture, and suppressing political opposition, media, and civil society. The Democratic Party of Turkmenistan (DPT), which was previously called the Communist Party of the Turkmen SSR, is the ruling and only legal political party in Turkmenistan.

[JURIST] More than 30 US pastors planned to preach about the "moral qualifications" of political candidates [news release] Sunday, challenging federal tax laws [IRS backgrounder] that prohibit tax-exempt entities from engaging in political campaigns. The conservative Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) [advocacy website] recruited the pastors as part of its Pulpit Initiative [ADF materials], which the group says is "designed to protect the First Amendment rights of pastors in the pulpit." The restriction originated with a 1954 amendment to the tax code [25 USC 501(c)(3) text], which defines a tax-exempt organization, in part, as one that "does not participate in, or intervene in ... any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for public office." In a white paper [PDF text] about the initiative, ADF said it

believes that the Johnson amendment is unconstitutional in restricting the expression of sermons delivered from the pulpits of churches. This initiative is designed to return freedom to the pulpit by allowing pastors to speak out on the profound and important issues of the day.

[JURIST] British music royalty collection society MCPS-PRS Alliance [corporate website] on Friday challenged a European Commission (EC) antitrust [backgrounder] decision limiting the control such organizations have over copyright use agreements. In July, the EC ruled [press release; FAQ] the current exclusivity deals the single-country societies had were effectively domestic monopolies in violation of Article 81 of the European Commission Treaty and Article 53 of the European Economic Area Agreement [text downloads, PDF]. The EC made the ruling after a challenge to the deals brought by radio broadcasting company RTL Group [corporate website], in which it sought the ability to make multinational use agreements with a single rights holder. The Financial Times has more.

In January, the EC dropped an antitrust case [press release; JURIST report] against Apple's iTunes [JURIST news archive] after Apple announced it would equalize music download prices across Europe [press release]. A UK consumer protection organization had filed a formal complaint with the Commission, which launched an investigation [press release; JURIST report] in April 2007 into whether sales restrictions based on the buyer's country of residence violated EU antitrust laws. Apple [corporate website] blamed the disparity on copyright holders charging more at the wholesale level in the UK than other countries.

[JURIST] A judge for the US District Court for the Southern District of Indiana [official website] ruled Friday that the US Army will be able to complete its shipment of chemical waste from a location in western Indiana to Port Arthur, Texas, where the material will be incinerated. The Sierra Club [advocacy website] and other citizen groups had filed the lawsuit in an attempt to block the Army from hauling the neutralized remains of the Cold-War era chemical weapon called VX. The groups had argued that the Army characterized the material, also called hydrolysate, as having less of an amount of VX and other toxic byproducts than it actually did. Chief Judge Larry McKinney held that the waste being shipped was not a munition or chemical agent, and rejected the argument that the Army had not fully considered the risk of shipping the material across the country. Most of the 1,513,994 gallons of the waste had already been shipped [Environmental News report] and the last portion had left the Newport Chemical Depot [globalsecurity backgrounder] in Indiana on September 4. A spokesman for the Chemical Weapons Working Group [official website] said the groups would not appeal the ruling since the shipment was essentially complete. AP has more.

The destruction of the VX nerve agent began in May 2005, in accordance with the requirements of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) [text, PDF; US CWC official website]. Over 180 nations [OPCW list] have signed on to the Convention since it entered into force in 1997. Under the Convention, banned weapons, including nerve and mustard gases, had to be destroyed by June 2007, though countries could apply for a five-year extension.

[JURIST] The head of India's Human Resources Development Ministry [official website], Arjun Singh [official website], said Friday that he advocates giving legal aid to two university students from the Jamia Millia Islamia [official website] who are suspects in the New Delhi serial bombings [AFP report] investigation. Singh's statement was in support of the university's Vice Chancellor, Professor Mushirul Hasan [official profile], who had said [press release] earlier this week that the students would receive legal aid. Hasan described legal aid as a constitutional right and in the interest of the nation. He was also supported by Union Minister and National President of the Lok Jan Shakti Party (LJP), Ram Vilas Paswan, who described Hasan as a person with the country's best interests in mind. PTI has more. IANS has additional coverage.

The two students, Mohammad Shakil and Zia-ur Rehman, were arrested last week and are among five suspects in the September 13 bombings which resulted in the deaths of 24 people. The police said the two were members of the Indian Mujahideen, the group which claimed responsibility [Rediff India Abroad report] for the bombings. The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) [official website] has criticized Hasan's decision and called for his removal.

[JURIST] Business research firm TM Group [corporate website] released a report [press release] on Friday saying that the majority of UK lawyers are using client identification methods which do not comply with the county's anti-money-laundering regulations. According to the report, 65% of those polled reported using only visual checks of identification, a method not endorsed by the country's 2007 Money Laundering Regulations [PDF text]. The majority of those polled also said they believed the regulations to be unnecessary, but had been trained in the methods they recommended.

As a sign of increasing concerns over money laundering, even some Swiss banks who are well known for strong privacy protections have recently released information on certain clients. In 2006, the Swiss Justice Ministry [official website] granted US investigators access to information [JURIST report] about bank accounts of terrorism suspects. Prosecutors in the US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia [official website] requested the information in a four-year old investigation into money laundering to support terrorist activities. The same year, the Swiss Supreme Court denied a Russian request [JURIST report] for the transfer of bank documents to Russia [JURIST news archive] which were relevant to an ongoing investigation into Russian oil giant Yukos [corporate website; JURIST news archive].

[JURIST] Telecommunications executives told the US Senate Commerce Committee [official website] Thursday that their companies would refrain from using certain surveillance technology without users' permission but stopped short of endorsing legislation to outlaw the practice. The committee hearing [materials] to investigate the privacy practices of American Internet service providers (ISPs) focused on deep packet inspection (DPI) [Securityfocus.com backgrounder], a technique of compiling information about users' browsing and online behavior for security and advertising purposes, generally without consent. Among the witnesses testifying was Thomas J. Tauke, executive vice president for Verizon Communications [corporate website], who said in his prepared remarks [PDF text]:

We can commit – and believe that all companies should commit – to a set of best practices in the area of online behavioral advertising. The principles and best practices should apply to all online companies regardless of their technology or the platform used. ... Verizon believes that before a company captures certain Internet-usage data for targeted or customized advertising purposes, it should obtain meaningful, affirmative consent from consumers.

[JURIST] The Pre-Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website] on Friday authorized the Office of the Prosecutor to proceed with the prosecution [press release; decision, PDF] of Congolese rebel militia leaders Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui [arrest warrants, PDF], confirming that there is sufficient evidence to establish that Katanga and Ngudjolo Chui jointly committed the crimes against humanity of murder, sexual slavery and rape, and other war crimes. AFP has more.

Katanga, a former commander in the Front for Patriotic Resistance of Ituri (FRPI), and Ngudjolo Chui, a former commander in the Nationalist and Integrationist Front (FNI) [backgrounders], allegedly planned and carried out an attack against the village of Bogoro in 2003, killing some 200 persons. The two defendants are currently detained in The Hague.

[JURIST] The Judge David L. Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law [advocacy website] this week released a guide [text, PDF; press release] addressing the legal rights of students seeking help for mental illness or emotional distress. The report, Campus Mental Health: Know Your Rights!, provides guidance to students on privacy, academic and disciplinary issues associated with mental health treatment at American colleges and universities. The guide advises students who are placed on involuntary leave or refused re-admission because of mental or emotional health issues to file grievances with their school's disability compliance officer. The Bazelon guide echoes the concerns of US Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), who introduced legislation [S 3311] in July to improve mental and behavioral health services on college campuses. The bill is being reviewed by the Senate Committee on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions [official website].

On Tuesday, Congress passed legislation [H.R. 6983 text, PDF; JURIST report] to reduce inequities in the insurance coverage of mental health and addiction treatment by amending the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) [text]. The bill would bring insurance payments for such treatment in line with those for treatment of physical disorders. Mental health advocacy groups and insurance industry groups applauded the legislation, praising it as a step forward in the legal and social protection of those suffering from mental illness.

[JURIST] The US Senate Judiciary Committee [official website] on Thursday voted in favor of the Deaths in Custody Reporting Act [HR 3971 text, PDF], which as passed by the House reauthorizes a program requiring states receiving criminal justice assistance grants to report to the US Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] information about people who die while incarcerated or in police custody. The Senate committee amended the bill to ensure that federal detention center authorities report deaths under the same circumstances. Joanne Lin, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) welcomed the revisions [press release]:

Today, senators closed the loophole that allowed deaths of immigration detainees in federal detention facilities to go unreported. The lack of transparency and accountability on the federal level under the current law meant that the public and advocacy groups have had to rely on word-of-mouth and media accounts to find out about deaths of immigration detainees. At least 69 people have died in immigration detention since 2004. A significant number of these deaths occurred in federal detention facilities.

[JURIST] A former US Marine filed a lawsuit [complaint, PDF] Thursday alleging that US Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) [official website] defamed him and violated his constitutional rights by suggesting that he had participated in killing innocent Iraqi civilians. In a complaint filed in the US District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania [official website], former Lance Cpl. Justin Sharratt [defense website] accused Murtha of slandering him by saying in televised comments [CNN report and video; JURIST report] that Marines had killed women and children "in cold blood" in the city of Haditha [USMC timeline; JURIST news archive] in November 2005. According to Sharratt's complaint,

Sharratt, as a direct result of Murtha's false, defamatory statements, has lost significant employment opportunities. ... Sharratt, also as a direct result of Murtha’s false, defamatory statements, has lost and will continue to lose significant associational opportunities. ... Sharratt, in being labeled repeatedly by Murtha as a "cold-blooded murderer", and by Murtha outrageously claiming that the Haditha incident was comparable to the infamous My Lei massacre of Vietnam, has suffered permanent, irreversible damage to his reputation.

[JURIST] A judge of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice [official website] on Thursday convicted one of the "Toronto 18" terrorism suspects for participating in a group which allegedly plotted to behead Prime Minister Stephen Harper [official website] while attacking parliament. Justice John Sproat [profile] rejected arguments that the defendant had known nothing of the plot even though he had attended a military-style training camp. Sproat found that the defendant had received clear direction from a "mentor" regarding the purpose of the camp and had "a full appreciation of the nature of the terrorist group." The defendant has not been publicly identified pursuant to the Youth Criminal Justice Act [text] because he was a minor at the time of his arrest [JURIST report] in 2006. Prosecutors have said they would seek an adult sentence of up to 10 years. AP has more. The Toronto Star has local coverage.

Thursday's conviction was the first under Section 83 [Canadian DOJ backgrounder] of the Anti-Terrorism Act [text], passed in 2001. The law allows the Canadian federal government, subject to judicial approval, to arrest and jail citizens to prevent terrorism. Although little information was released about the minors arrested among the Toronto 18 [defense website], the charges against the 12 adult males included participating in a terrorist group, receiving training from a terrorist group, training terrorists, and importing weapons and ammunition for terrorism. Trials for most of the adult defendants are expected to take place next year.

[JURIST] The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) [official website] declared Thursday that leaving a child at a hospital does not constitute per se termination of parents' legal rights. Nebraska's safe haven law (LB 157) [PDF text], which went into effect in July, prohibits prosecution when a child is left in a licensed hospital. LB 157 was enacted to protect infants, but the measure was expanded to include the undefined word "child." The director of the DHHS Department of Children and Family Services said [DHHS press release]:

If abuse or neglect is uncovered that occurred before the child was turned over to a hospital, County Attorneys do have the option of filing charges. The law only protects people from prosecution against the actual act of leaving the child at a hospital. There seems to be a misconception that when a child is dropped off at a hospital, the parents are absolved of responsibility. That couldn’t be further from the truth.

LB 157 was intended to protect helpless children who are in immediate danger, such as an infant who is left outside or unattended. It was not intended for those having difficulty parenting older youth who may be defiant, unruly or who have behavior problems.

[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit [official website] on Thursday affirmed [opinion, PDF] a district court's grant of judgment as a matter of law (JMOL) to Microsoft Corp. [corporate website] in a suit involving alleged infringement of digital music patents held by Alcatel-Lucent [corporate website]. The court ruled that of the two patents, Microsoft had not infringed one and had a license for the other. The court reasoned:

A grant of JMOL is appropriate when 'the evidence, construed in the light most favorable to the non-moving party, permits ony one reasonable conclusion and that conclusion is contrary to the jury's...A patentee may rely on either direct or circumstantial evidence to prove infringement. In order to prove direct infringement, a patentee must either point to specific instances of direct infringement or show that the accused device necessarily infringes the patent in suit. Lucent did not show specific instances of direct infringement. Instead, Lucent relied on circumstantial evidence to attempt to show that Microsoft's Windows Media Player necessary infringes [its] patent.

The district court found, however, that the circumstantial evidence presented by Lucent established only uncertainty and speculation as to whether [its technology] had run even once [in Windows Media Player]...Lucent has failed to provide sufficient evidence to establish that [its technology] actually runs on Windows Media Player and thus it would be too speculative to conclude that Windows Media Pladecisionyer necessarily infringes [Lucent's] patent.

[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit [official website] on Wednesday upheld [opinion, PDF] as constitutional a former National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS) [DOJ backgrounder] program which required non-immigrant adult males from 25 predominantly Muslim nations and North Korea to register with immigration authorities and re-register annually or face deportation. Four men who have since been deported filed suit in 2006 arguing that Attorney General John Ashcroft [official profile] lacked statutory authority to pass such a measure, and claiming also that their constitutional rights had been violated because they were deported "based on their religion, ethnicity, gender, and race." The court disagreed, holding:

[I]mmigration regulation differs fundamentally from the legal contexts relied upon because classifications on the basis of nationality are frequently unavoidable in immigration matters . . . Indeed, the very concept of 'alien' is a nationality-based classification . . . [T]here is no tension whatsoever between Congress passing specific laws targeting terrorism and the Attorney General using broad powers granted under existing statutes toward the same end.

There was a rational national security basis for the Program. The terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 were facilitated by the lax enforcement of immigration laws. The Program was designed to monitor more closely aliens from certain countries selected on the basis of national security criteria. The individual subject to special registration under the Program were neither citizens nor even lawful permanent residents. They were asked to provide information regarding their immigration status and other matters relevant to national security . . . In sum, . . . [we conclude] that the Program does not violate Equal Protection guarantees.

[JURIST] A judge for the US District Court for the District of Minnesota [official website] Wednesday ordered [decision, PDF] a new trial for a woman who had been ordered to pay [JURIST report] $222,000 to record companies for illegally posting copyrighted music on the file-sharing network Kazaa [corporate website]. Jammie Thomas had sought the new trial on the grounds that the court erred by instructing the jury [instructions, PDF] that making the music available on the network alone was enough to violate the Copyright Act [text], and that the damages imposed against her were excessive. Judge Michael Davis granted the request, holding that the plaintiff, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) [association website], would have to persuade the jury that others had actually accessed the songs in order to recover from Thomas. Without reaching the issue of whether or not the damages were excessive, Judge Davis urged Congress to distinguish damage amounts reasonable for personal users from those assessed for commercial use:

The Court would be remiss if it did not take this opportunity to implore Congress to amend the Copyright Act to address liability and damages in peer?to?peer network cases such as the one currently before this Court. The Court begins its analysis by recognizing the unique nature of this case. The defendant is an individual, a consumer. She is not a business. She sought no profit from her acts. The myriad of copyright cases cited by Plaintiffs and the Government, in which courts upheld large statutory damages awards far above the minimum, have limited relevance in this case. All of the cited cases involve corporate or business defendants and seek to deter future illegal commercial conduct. The parties point to no case in which large statutory damages were applied to a party who did not infringe in search of commercial gain.

[JURIST] Western lawyers involved with the trial of the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein [JURIST news archive] for crimes against humanity [JURIST report] in the Iraqi town of Dujail [JURIST news archive; BBC verdict summary] alleged in a New York Times exclusive [text] Wednesday that due process was violated in the trial, and that Iraqi government interference clouded the verdict and eventual execution [JURIST report] of Hussein. In the article, Canadian lawyer William H. Wiley, who assisted the Iraqi High Tribunal (IHT) during the trial of Hussein, claimed that Judge Munthur Hadi, one of the judges on the panel that issued the verdict [text, PDF] and death sentence against Hussein, was removed from the proceedings at the behest of the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki [BBC profile]. While the alleged rationale behind Hadi's removal is a recent revelation, a number of similar objections were raised at the time by Hussein defense counsel and others writing op-eds on the Hussein trial [JURIST Forum archive] for JURIST. Hussein lawyers Curtis Doebbler and Giovanni Di Stefano [JURIST op-eds] repeatedly complained of political interference with the IHT judiciary allegedly brought about by those seeking to secure a death sentence for Hussein. Chibli Mallat [JURIST op-ed], who was asked to serve on the special tribunal trying Hussein but declined to do so, also expressed process concerns.

The trial and execution of Hussein was met with widespread condemnation by international organizations and rights groups [JURIST reports], including Amnesty International (AI) and Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy press releases]. HRW released a briefing paper [text, PDF; JURIST report] in June 2006 detailing factual and legal errors in the trial, including sole reliance on the political affiliation of the defendants to determine knowledge of the Dujail crimes, and failure of the judgment to establish clear lines of operation control needed to prove the culpability of the higher officials for the acts of the military. The report also found serious flaws in the decision issued by IHT Appeals Chamber, including instances where it came to faulty legal conclusions based upon factual findings never made by the Trial Chamber. HRW says that the trial was also plagued by political interference from the Iraqi government and emphasized that the procedural and substantive deficiencies in the Dujail trial remain prevalent in the Anfal genocide trial [JURIST news archive; BBC trial timeline], where six former Hussein-era defendants are facing genocide charges for their alleged involvement in the slaughter of thousands of Kurds during the 1988 "Anfal campaign" [HRW backgrounder].

[JURIST] Minority Rights Group International (MRGI) [advocacy website] released a report [PDF text; press release] Wednesday criticizing the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights [official website] for its failure to effectively institute a court to adjudicate human rights issues on the continent. MRGI said the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights [AICT backgrounder] has not yet begun to hear cases despite its establishment 10 years ago, attributing the delay to disputes between the court and the commission and a lack of strong support from African Union (AU) [official website] countries. According to the report,

[t]here is no doubt about the scale of the needs. In the time that has elapsed, countless human rights violations have taken place on the African continent, with minorities and indigenous peoples particularly affected. As some of the poorest and most vulnerable communities on the continent, minority and indigenous people experience multiple human rights violations on a daily basis. Yet, due to their marginalized position, states are often indifferent to their plight. A strong legal mechanism is therefore essential if the rights of Africa’s minorities and indigenous peoples are to be realised. [sic]

[JURIST] The UN Human Rights Council completed its ninth session [UNHRC materials; UNOG report] in Geneva Wednesday by adopting 24 texts, one of which included a decision [press release; UN News Centre report] to extend the mission of the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Sudan, Sina Samar [official website], until June 2009. The President of the Council, Martin Ihoeghian Uhomoibi, said that the decision was reached through sponsorship by both the EU and the African Group. Uhomoibi added praise for the work of both sides in renewing the mandate, saying that the resolution

gives room and recognition to some of the positive steps that the Sudanese Government has taken. The idea is not to be punitive. The idea is to encourage. It is meant to do what is needed in the interest of human rights and the rights of all citizens.

[JURIST] A US military prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] filed a declaration with the US military commissions [DOD materials; JURIST news archive] Wednesday stating that he is resigning because of ethical concerns. Army Lt. Col. Darrel Vandeveld said potentially exculpatory evidence had been withheld from defense attorneys for Afghan detainee Mohammed Jawad [DOD materials; JURIST news archive], who is accused [JURIST report] of throwing a grenade at US soldiers and an interpreter. As quoted in media reports, Vandeveld wrote in the sworn statement:

My ethical qualms about continuing to serve as a prosecutor relate primarily to the procedures for affording defense counsel discovery. I am highly concerned, to the point that I believe I can no longer serve as a prosecutor at the Commissions, about the slipshod, uncertain "procedure" for affording defense counsel discovery.

[JURIST] The Iraqi Parliament [official website, in Arabic] on Wednesday approved a controversial bill providing for provincial elections in much of the country. Kurdish legislators had strongly opposed a provision establishing a provincial council in Kirkuk [GlobalSecurity.org backgrounder] made up of equal numbers of Kurdish, Arab and Turkmenian representatives. After several failures [JURIST report], the parliament accepted a UN-proposed compromise [White House press release] allowing elections in the rest of the country to proceed, as former opponents of the plan said they were confident an agreement could be reached to carry out elections in Kirkuk. The legislation is expected to be approved by the three-member Presidency Council, allowing for elections by January. Earlier this month, Iraqi lawmakers agreed to temporarily divide control of Kirkuk [JURIST report] among the city's ethnic groups until a permanent governing plan is established. AP has more. AFP has additional coverage.

In July, Kurdish parliamentarians staged a walkout [JURIST report], delaying a vote on the proposed provincial election bill that they said was unconstitutional. The bill passed despite the boycott, but Iraqi President Jalal Talabani [official website, in Arabic; party profile] and the two other members of the Iraqi Presidency Council later refused to sign it [JURIST report] because it had been passed by an incomplete parliament. In February, Iraq's Presidency Council rejected an earlier draft elections law [JURIST report] that detailed the relationship between Iraq's central and local governments, sending the legislation back to parliament. The draft law was part of a package of legislation, approved [JURIST report] by the parliament earlier that month, that also included the 2008 budget and an amnesty bill [JURIST report] allowing the release of roughly 5,000 prisoners.

[JURIST] Jury selection began Wednesday in US District Court for the Southern District of Florida [official website] for the torture trial of Charles McArthur Emmanuel [JURIST news archive], son of former Liberian President Charles Taylor. Earlier this month, Emmanuel pleaded [JURIST report] not guilty after he was indicted [JURIST report] in December on charges that he was involved with killings and torture in Liberia. Emmanuel, a US citizen raised in Boston, was the first person indicted under a 1994 federal anti-torture statute [18 USC 2340A text]. The eight-count indictment [PDF text; DOJ press release] accused Emmanuel of using electric shocks, lit cigarettes, stinging ants, molten plastic and bayonets to torture victims from 1999 to 2002. More specifically, he was accused of shooting three random victims at a April 1999 bridge checkpoint and then ordering another's throat slit after he attempted to escape. AP has more. The Miami Herald has local coverage.

In July, US District Judge Cecilia Altonaga upheld [JURIST report] the torture charges, rejecting Emmanuel's argument that the federal statute under which he was charged exceeds Congressional authority because it criminalizes behavior of foreign government officials outside the territorial jurisdiction of the United States. Last December, a federal judge denied bail [JURIST report] for Emmanuel, ruling that he was a flight risk and a danger to the community.

[JURIST] Thirteen state attorneys general urged the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) [official website] Wednesday to withdraw a proposed rule [PDF text] that they said could threaten women's access to abortion [JURIST news archive] and birth control. The Provider Conscience Regulation, published [HHS press release] last month, is intended to reinforce federal statutes [CRS backgrounder, PDF] protecting healthcare providers who refuse to take part in abortions or other healthcare services on moral or religious grounds. Specifically, the proposed rule would require certain recipients of HHS funds to certify compliance with the conscience requirements and would strengthen mechanisms for enforcing them. In their formal comments [press release and text] filed with HHS, the attorneys general wrote:

Health care institutions should not be penalized and stripped of vital federal funding for ensuring that victims of rape and other sexual assault are provided prompt and adequate birth control and other medically necessary health care services. Vagueness and broad application, together with the penalty of withdrawal of critical federal health care funding to a health care entity that violates - even inadvertently - the proposed regulation may have substantial and significant consequences for the provision of health care to many Americans.

The proposed regulation completely obliterates the rights of patients to legal and medically necessary health care services in favor of a single-minded focus on protecting a health care provider's right to claim a personal moral or religious belief. [sic]

[JURIST] The Thailand Court of Appeals ruled against former Thai prime minister Samak Sundaravej [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] Thursday, upholding defamation convictions against him and an associate, Dusit Siriwan. The charges stem from a 2006 television appearance in which both men allegedly insinuated that former Bangkok deputy governor Samart Rajpolasidhi was involved in a vote-rigging scheme. Samak and Dusit were convicted of four counts of libel and sentenced to two years in prison. Samak was ousted [JURIST report] by the Constitutional Court of Thailand [official website, in Thai] earlier this month on charges that he violated the constitution when he accepted payment for his appearance on a television cooking program [SkyNews report, with video]. At trial, the court unanimously rejected Samak's defense that he received only an honorarium [Bloomberg report] as a freelance actor when he appeared on the show. AP has more. The Nation has local coverage.

Early this month, Samak imposed a state of emergency [press release] in Bangkok following weeks of anti-government protests. Members of the opposition People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) party refused to recognize the order as they demanded Samak's resignation. Samak resisted those calls and instead proposed a national referendum [JURIST report] on whether he should continue in office. PAD announced plans to seek Samak's impeachment [JURIST report] in July after a series of court decisions against key officials in the government and the PPP. Three weeks ago, Thailand's Election Commission voted to recommend [JURIST report] that the PPP be disbanded for election fraud allegedly committed by one of its former top officers.

[JURIST] Former Rwandan deputy state prosecutor Siméon Nchamihigo [TrialWatch profile] was sentenced to life imprisonment Wednesday by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) [official website; JURIST news archive]. Nchamihigo was charged with four counts of genocide, murder, extermination, and other crimes against humanity. According to an amended indictment [text, PDF], Nchamihigo ordered an accomplice to kill a Tutsi victim by lighting a mattress on fire, and ordered the same person to kill a Tutsi family by lighting their car on fire. Other allegations, contained in the amended indictment and the original indictment [PDF text] filed in 2001, allege that Nchamihigo ordered the deaths of other Tutsis and drafted a list of opposition leaders to be murdered. After the 1994 Rwandan genocide [BBC backgrounder], Nchamihigo worked as an investigator for the ICTR under an assumed name. BBC News has more. AFP has additional coverage.

In 2006, the ICTR settled [JURIST report] a dispute with the Rwandan government [JURIST report] over the hiring of employees having connections with the 1994 genocide [BBC backgrounder] by agreeing to run more background checks. Nchamihigo was taken into custody by court security staff in 2001 while working as an investigator [Dowjones report] for the legal team defending former Rwandan army officer Samuel Imanishimwe.

[JURIST] Congress passed legislation [H.R. 6983 text, PDF] Tuesday to reduce inequities in the insurance coverage of mental health and addiction treatment, bringing the insurance costs for such treatment in line with those of conventional medical procedures. The bill, known as the "Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008," and often referred to as mental health parity legislation, passed in the Senate as part of a tax amendment bill by a vote of 93-2 [H.R. 6049 roll call vote] and in the House of Representatives by a vote of 376-47 [roll call vote]. The bill now heads to a joint committee for arrangement in a final form to be presented to President George W. Bush for signature. The legislation amends the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) [text] to provide that insurance and group health care plans that provide both medical and surgical benefits as well as mental health or substance abuse benefits ensure that:

the financial requirements applicable to such mental health or substance use disorder benefits are no more restrictive than the predominant financial requirements applied to substantially all medical and surgical benefits covered by the plan (or coverage), and there are no separate cost sharing requirements that are applicable only with respect to mental health or substance use disorder benefits; and ... the treatment limitations applicable to such mental health or substance use disorder benefits are no more restrictive than the predominant treatment limitations applied to substantially all medical and surgical benefits covered by the plan (or coverage) and there are no separate treatment limitations that are applicable only with respect to mental health or substance use disorder benefits.

[JURIST] The Finnish Interior Ministry [official website, English version] on Wednesday announced [press release] that it is drafting new gun control legislation [JURIST news archive] in response to the fatal shootings [police press release; BBC report] of 10 people at a vocational school in the Finnish city of Kauhajoki. Interior Minister Anne Holmlund [official profile] said the amendments to the Firearms Act of 1998 [PDF text], to be presented to the Finnish Parliament [official website, English version] by spring, will give officials more information about the health of applicants for handgun licenses and will address firearm storage. According to an Interior Ministry statement,

In Ms Holmlund's view, it is important that the licence procedure in Kauhajoki will be investigated by a prosecutor. Only this way can we ascertain whether the instructions and regulations have been followed and whether the police have had information on such matters in the light of which the licence should not have been granted in the first place or the validity period should not have been extended.

[JURIST] A judge for the US District Court for the Southern District of New York [official website] on Tuesday entered a not guilty plea and ordered a psychiatric evaluation in the trial of Aafia Siddiqui [FBI materials], a Pakistani woman with alleged ties to al Qaeda. Siddiqui was charged [complaint, PDF; JURIST report] in August with assault and the attempted murder of a US officer after allegedly opening fire on agents at the Afghan detention facility where she was being held in July. Judge Richard Berman entered the not guilty plea on her behalf as Siddiqui did not attend her arraignment after refusing to undergo a mandatory strip search. US Attorney Michael Garcia [official profile] requested the psychiatric evaluation [Reuters report] Monday on suspicions that Siddiqui is mentally unfit to stand trial, with defense attorney Elizabeth Fink agreeing that such evaluation is appropriate. A December 17 hearing will determine Siddiqui's mental competence, with a tentative trial date set for March 9. AP has more.

Siddiqui, who was extradited to the US in August, was shot in the abdomen during the July skirmish leading to her charges. She has since refused proper medical care as well as communication with her legal counsel. Siddiqui's family has insisted that she is not an al-Qaeda agent and that the FBI has publicized misleading information about her. They say that Siddiqui, a former student at Brandeis University and MIT in Boston, may have been a victim of extraordinary rendition [JURIST news archive] after she vanished from Karachi, Pakistan in 2003. Defense lawyers have alleged that Siddiqui may have been wrongly detained and tortured [Washington Post report] at Bagram air base in Afghanistan.

[JURIST] Prosecutors in the case of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic [ICTY materials; JURIST news archive] filed a motion to amend [text, PDF] his indictment in the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website; JURIST news archive] on Tuesday, as was planned [JURIST report] earlier this month. The indictment [text] in question was issued in 2000, and contains 11 charges against Karadzic, including genocide, murder, persecution, deportation and "other inhumane acts." If granted, the motion would cause several significant changes, such as dropping allegations that Karadzic breached the Geneva Convention and was complicit in genocide, reducing the number of alleged municipalities in which Karadzic committed criminal activity, and bifurcating the genocide charge to create one count for his alleged involvement in the 1995 Srebrenica [JURIST news archive] massacre and another count for his alleged role in the killing of Bosnian Muslims and Croats during ethnic conflicts [timeline] in the former Yugoslavia during the early 1990s. Amending the indictment would mean calling fewer witnesses to testify, and prosecutors hope it will simplify the trial process.

Last week, Karadzic reiterated his desire to represent himself, as well as his claim [JURIST report] that Richard Holbrooke [PBS profile], former US ambassador to the UN, had promised him immunity conditioned upon removing himself from public life. Karadzic was arrested [JURIST report] in July after evading capture for nearly 13 years. He was originally indicted in 1995 but had been in hiding under an assumed identity as an alternative medicine practitioner [BBC report]. He repeatedly refused to enter a plea on the charges, with an ICTY judge eventually entering a not-guilty plea [JURIST reports] on his behalf. If the court approves the amended indictment, Karadzic will be asked to enter new pleas.

[JURIST] The Federal Bureau of Investigation [official website] is currently investigating Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers, and AIG [corporate websites] along with 22 other financial institutions for possible mortgage fraud [FBI backgrounder], US media outlets reported Tuesday. The investigations follow a market collapse that led to a Bush administration proposal [fact sheet; JURIST report] circulated over the weekend that would authorize the Treasury Department to acquire as much as $700 billion in mortgages and other loans. Though FBI officials would not comment on which firms are involved in the ongoing inquiries, ABC News reported [text] that FBI spokesman Richard Kolko has confirmed 26 "pending corporate fraud investigations involving subprime lenders." AP reported [text] that the investigations are in the "early stages." The Wall Street Journal has more.

In June, the FBI announced that more than 400 people had been indicted [press release; JURIST report] in connection to what has been termed the US "sub-prime mortgage collapse." The vast majority of the indictments involved fraud related to individual mortgages, with the FBI focusing on lending fraud, foreclosure rescue scams and mortgage-related bankruptcy schemes, which account for more than $1 billion in losses. Earlier month, mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were placed into a conservatorship under the Federal Housing Finance Agency [CNN report], investment bank Lehman Brothers filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy [AP report], and the Federal Reserve took control of nearly 80% of the shares [Reuters report] of leading insurer AIG. New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has also announced a state investigation [JURIST report] into whether some investors used illegal methods to profit from the recent declines in banking and insurance stocks, possibly by short-selling [Forbes backgrounder] stock and spreading of false information to illegally gain from the devaluations in Lehman Brothers, AIG and other stocks.

[JURIST] US Marine Col. Ralph Kohlmann [JURIST news archive], chief judge of US military commissions [DOD materials; JURIST news archive], said Tuesday at a pretrial hearing for five suspects in the September 11 attacks [JURIST news archive] that he is scheduled to retire next April. During voir dire, in which defense attorneys questioned Kohlmann about potential bias, the judge said he had submitted retirement paperwork this past February. Kohlmann refused to speculate about whether the trials would conclude before his retirement, telling the attorneys he would reassign the cases if necessary. Among the suspects who appeared before Kohlmann on Tuesday was Khalid Sheik Mohammed [JURIST news archive], suspected of coordinating the 9/11 attacks, who asked Kohlmann [AP report] about his religious affiliation and his ability to preside impartially as a military officer. The Miami Herald has more.

Kohlmann has served as chief judge of the military commissions since last year. After his appointment, the New York Times noted [report] that Kohlmann had criticized the concept of military commissions in a paper [text] he had written in 2002 as a master's student at the US Naval War College [official website]. Kohlmann wrote that US district courts would be a better venue for terrorism suspects' trials because of a perception that military commissions lack independence and credibility. In another recent personnel change at the military commissions, US Air Force Brig. Gen. Thomas Hartmann [official profile; JURIST news archive] was reassigned [JURIST report] to the newly-created position of director of operations of the Office of Military Commissions. In his former position as legal advisor to the military commissions, Hartmann had been barred from taking part in certain detainees' trials on grounds that he was biased toward the prosecution [JURIST report].

[JURIST] Serbia submitted a draft resolution to the UN General Assembly [official website] Tuesday seeking an International Court of Justice (ICJ) [official website] advisory opinion on the legality of the unilaterally-proclaimed independence of Kosovo [JURIST news archive]. The draft resolution was presented following an address to the General Assembly by Serbian President Boris Tadic [official website; JURIST news archive]. The draft resolution and Tadic's address follow a letter to UN members from Tadic sent two weeks ago urging support for the Serbian ICJ advisory opinion request. In Tuesday's address [text, PDF], Tadic said:

Your vote in support of this resolution would serve to reaffirm another key international principle at stake: the right of any member State of the United Nations to pose a simple, elementary question - on a matter it considers vitally important - to the competent court. To vote against is in effect to vote to deny the right of any country—now or in the future—to seek judicial recourse through the UN system. To vote against means to accept that nothing could be done when secessionists in whichever part of the world proclaim the uniqueness of their cause, and claim exception to the universal scope of international law. Such an attitude could lead to the end of the UN system as we know it.

[JURIST] The US Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] on Tuesday announced [press release] that it would not post criminal prosecutors at the polls for the November 4 presidential election, responding to concerns raised by civil rights groups. The decision represents a departure from the DOJ's longstanding practice. Grace Chung Becker [profile], assistant attorney general for the DOJ's Civil Rights Division [official website], issued the following statement:

On Election Day, the primary responsibility of the Civil Rights Division is to ensure all eligible voters are able to cast their ballot in an environment free of discrimination, suppression or intimidation. The Division has and will use every statute within its purview to provide all voters with a free and fair electoral process.

On November 4, 2008, hundreds of federal government employees will be deployed in counties, cities and towns across the country to monitor polling places and to ensure compliance with federal voting statutes. In light of questions we have been asked regarding who will serve as election monitors, I want to inform the public that no criminal prosecutors will be utilized as election monitors on Election Day this year. This decision was made as a precaution and is not the result of any instance of intimidation or complaint regarding any specific incident.

[JURIST] The US Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] will amend proposed investigation guidelines [JURIST report] to comport with the concerns of Congress and civil liberties groups, according to testimony by Assistant Attorney General Elisebeth Cook [official profile] given Tuesday before the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence [committee website]. The proposed rules, referred to as the Attorney General Guidelines, are intended to shift the focus of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) [official website] from fighting crime to preventing terrorism in the US. In a joint written statement [text, PDF] with FBI General Counsel Valerie Caproni [official profile], Cook wrote:

Over the last seven years, the FBI has altered its organizational structure, and the Attorney General has issued new policies to guide the FBI as it seeks to protect the United States and its people from terrorism, intelligence threats, and crime, while continuing to protect the civil liberties and privacy of it citizens. The changes reflected in the new guidelines are necessary in order for the FBI to continue its important transformation to being an intelligence-driven organization. We believe that using intelligence as the strategic driver for the FBI’s activities will improve its ability to carry out its national security, criminal law enforcement, and foreign intelligence missions.

[JURIST] An en-banc panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit [official website] on Monday clarified [decision, PDF] the test to be used to determine whether a design patent [government backgrounder] has been infringed. The issue came before the court in a dispute over an alleged infringement of US Design Patent No. 467,389 [patent materials], a design for a four-sided nail buffer, in which a three-member panel [opinion, PDF] of the court had found no violation. The court had originally denied the claim because it found that the allegedly infringing design did not include a non-trivial "point of novelty." In the rehearing, the court again found no infringement, but broadly rejected the widely-used "point of novelty" test. Instead, the court held that an "ordinary observer test" designed to include relevant knowledge of design trends in a particular field was a better application of legal precedent:

We think, however, that...predecessor cases...are more properly read as applying a version of the ordinary observer test in which the ordinary observer is deemed to view the differences between the patented design and the accused product in the context of the prior art. When the differences between the claimed and accused design are viewed in light of the prior art, the attention of the hypothetical ordinary observer will be drawn to those aspects of the claimed design that differ from the prior art. And when the claimed design is close to the prior art designs, small differences between the accused design and the claimed design are likely to be important to the eye of the hypothetical ordinary observer.

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website] on Tuesday stayed the execution [order, PDF] of Georgia death row inmate Troy Anthony Davis "pending the disposition of the petition for a writ of certiorari." Davis had been scheduled to be executed [AG news release] at 7 PM EDT on Tuesday. According to his lawyers, key witnesses who claimed they saw Davis kill an off-duty police officer in 1989 have recanted their testimony and others say another person has since confessed to the killing. A stay will terminate automatically if Davis's petition for certiorari is denied. The US Supreme Court had previously denied a petition for certiorari in the case, and the Georgia Supreme Court [official website] in March denied [court docket; opinion summary] Davis's request for a new trial. AP has more. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has local coverage.

Davis would have been the third prisoner in Georgia to be executed since September 2007, after resuming executions in May following an effective moratorium [JURIST reports] on the death penalty in the United States as many federal courts, state courts, and state governors put executions on hold pending the US Supreme Court's ruling in Baze v. Rees [Duke Law case backgrounder; JURIST report], which allowed the Court to consider whether the three-drug lethal injection "cocktail" [DPIC backgrounder] used in most states violates the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. The Court upheld the procedure [opinion, PDF] in April. Several other US states have since resumed executions by lethal injection, including Texas [JURIST report], Virginia [Times-Dispatch report], Mississippi, and Florida, which on Tuesday executed Richard "Ric Ric" Henyard [AP reports] by lethal injection.

[JURIST] Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines (CHRP) [official website] chair Leila de Lima [official profile] said Tuesday that torture is prevalent in the country's prison system and that her organization has documented over 300 cases of abuse in the past three years. De Lima said that in an effort to end the mistreatment, her office has tried to plan unscheduled visits to prisoners suspected of being tortured, but last week was denied access to three military prisoners. In response to the lack of access and prevalence of abuse, De Lima sent a letter to General Alexander Yano [official profile] demanding access to military detention facilities under the CHRP's constitutional mandate [text], and has urged lawmakers to ratify the Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention Against Torture (OPCAT)[PDF text]. The Senate of the Philippines [official website] was expected to ratify the protocol, which would establish stronger monitoring standards, later this year, but on Tuesday Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita [official profile] said the government would likely seek to defer the implementation of OPCAT [GMANews report] for at least three years in order to ensure compliance with the agreement. Reuters has more.

With the support of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo [official website; BBC profile], the Philippines signed on to OPCAT in April, but the agreement will not take effect until it is ratified by the country's senate. In March, Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] urged the United Nations to scrutinize the government's response [JURIST report] to accusations that the military has engaged in extrajudicial killings of left-wing activists, as the UN Human Rights Council [official website] asserted in its Universal Periodic Review of the Philippines [UN backgrounder, PDF].

[JURIST] Myanmar state media outlets announced Tuesday that the state's ruling junta released 9,002 prisoners for good behavior, including U Win Tin [BBC report; AI backgrounder], a founder of Myanmar opposition group the National League for Democracy (NLD) and the state's longest-incarcerated political prisoner. Officials for the state newspaper New Light of Myanmar wrote:

The government terminated the prison terms of 9,002 prisoners with good conduct and discipline for social consideration of their families and released from the respective jails on 23 September 2008 to enable them to serve the interests of the regions and their own and the fair election to be held in 2010 together with the people after realizing the government's loving kindness and goodwill.

[JURIST] A US district judge in enjoined the Dallas suburb of Farmers Branch [official website; JURIST news archive] on Monday from enforcing an ordinance [DOC text] that prohibits illegal immigrants from occupying leased property. US District Judge Jane J. Boyle of the Northern District of Texas [official websites] issued a preliminary injunction, replacing a temporary restraining order [Dallas Morning News report] entered earlier this month, as she set an expedited schedule that would bring the case to trial by early December. A spokeswoman for the ACLU of Texas [advocacy website], which is representing some of the plaintiffs, said [press release] after the judge's decision that

[e]very court in the country that has reviewed these local anti-immigrant housing ordinances has put a stop to them. Farmers Branch has taken the curious approach of recreating their ordinance to be even more intrusive and offensive, to the point of subjecting everyone to an intrusive, Big Brother-like licensing regime. The city has lost sight not only of the law, but of common sense, in this case.

[JURIST] A spokesman for South African President Thabo Mbeki [official profile; ANC profile] said Tuesday that Mbeki has challenged in the county's Constitutional Court [official website] allegations that he interfered with a case against Mbeki's political rival and current African National Congress (ANC) [party website] leader Jacob Zuma [JURIST news archive], calling the accusations unjust. Earlier this month Judge Chris Nicholson of the Pietermaritzburg High Court effectively dismissed [JURIST report] the latest case against Zuma on the grounds that Zuma had been deprived of the chance to respond to claims made against him and that "political meddling" in the case by Mbeki and others could not be excluded. ANC officials called for Mbeki's resignation on Friday, and during his resignation speech [text; JURIST report] Sunday, Mbeki insisted that the allegations were without merit. According to AFP, Mbeki wrote in his court filing:

It is unfair and unjust for me to be judged and condemned on the basis of the findings in the Zuma matter. ... These adverse findings have led to my being recalled by my political party, the ANC -- a request I have acceded to as a committed and loyal member of the ANC for the past 52 years.

[JURIST] Complaints filed with a Senegal prosecutor [JURIST report] last week by fourteen Chadian and Senegalese citizens alleging that former Chadian dictator Hissene Habre [HRW materials; JURIST news archive] was responsible for war crimes and torture are merely "judicial persecution," lawyers for Habre said in a statement [text, in French] Tuesday. Habre counsel Francois Serres of France and El Hadj Diouf of Senegal called the latest action as "unacceptable" and "poorly founded" [Le Monde report, in French] as previous complaints against Habre, and argued that the complainants' central grievance is against Habre's political police force, Direction de la documentation et de la securite (DDS), rather than Habre himself. The case has not yet been opened, with concerns that trial costs may reach $40 million. AFP has more.

Habre fled Chad for Senegal after being overthrown in 1990, and has been accused of involvement in the murder or torture of more than 40,000 political opponents during his rule from 1982 to 1990. Last month a Chadian court sentenced him to death in absentia [JURIST report] for crimes committed against the state. The latest complaints filed against Habre are seen as an attempt to hasten Habre's Senegal trial. Senegal courts have long refused to extradite Habre, despite the issuance of an international arrest warrant [JURIST reports] by Belgium pursuant to its universal jurisdiction laws [HRW backgrounder]. Under growing international pressure to either try Habre locally or extradite him to Belgium, Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade [official profile, in French; BBC profile] agreed in April 2006 to try him in Senegal and the Senegalese government later determined [JURIST report] he would face charges in a criminal court, rather than in front of a special tribunal. Previously the Senegalese courts dismissed an action against him in 2001 [HRW case backgrounder], claiming that they lacked jurisdiction over crimes committed elsewhere. In July this year Senegal formally adopted [JURIST report] a constitutional amendment giving the nation's courts jurisdiction over Habre's trial.

[JURIST] International Criminal Court (ICC) chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo [official profile] traveled to New York Monday to seek support [press release] from members of the United Nations and the African Union for the arrest of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir [BBC profile, JURIST news archive], as the UN General Assembly opened its 63rd annual session Tuesday. Moreno-Ocampo has faced criticism from international leaders and organizations [JURIST reports] for his July application for a warrant to arrest Bashir [JURIST report] on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes for atrocities committed in Darfur. On Monday, the Organization of the Islamic Conference joined calls [IHT report] for the ICC to delay any prosecution until peace negotiations with Sudan have been exhausted. The UN Security Council (UNSC) has authority [Rome Statute Article 16 text, PDF; HRW backgrounder] to suspend ICC prosecution for one year, [AFP report] if the move is backed by a majority vote and a consensus among its five permanent members. Last week, France - a UNSC permanent member - suggested that such suspension may be appropriate as a "gesture" [AFP report] to encourage more Sudanese cooperation in peacekeeping efforts.

In August, Bashir threatened to ignore any ICC-issued arrest warrant, saying he would not "deal with or respond to" the ICC. Moreno-Ocampo has criticized Sudan's own investigation [JURIST reports] of war crimes in Darfur, calling it "part of the cover-up." Sudan's justice minister recently appointed several prosecutors to locally investigate and try war crimes suspects in internationally monitored courts [JURIST reports]. Criticism of Moreno-Ocampo's warrant application from the African Union (AU) and Arab League [official website, in Arabic], among others, stems from the belief that the move threatens to destabilize the region and poses a risk to joint AU-UN peacekeeping forces in the country.

[JURIST] Human Rights Watch(HRW) [advocacy website] on Monday called on the Saudi Arabian government to end its 'systematic discrimination' against its Ismaili religious minority [official website; Global Security backgrounder]. HRW urged Saudi officials to create a national institution to recommend remedies for discriminatory policies and to consider individual claims. HRW's deputy Middle East director said [HRW press release]:

The Saudi government preaches religious tolerance abroad, but it has consistently penalized its Ismaili citizens for their religious beliefs. The government should stop treating Ismailis as second-class in employment, the justice system, and education...State-sponsored and officially tolerated discrimination against the Ismailis of Najran seriously threatens their identity and denies them basic rights

Official discrimination in Saudi Arabia against Ismailis encompasses government employment, religious practices, and the justice system. Government officials exclude Ismailis from decision making, and publicly disparage their faith. Following the clashes in April 2000, Saudi authorities imprisoned, tortured, and summarily sentenced hundreds of Ismailis, and transferred hundreds of Ismaili government employees outside the region. Underlying discriminatory practices have continued unabated.

This report calls for the end to religious and ethnic discrimination against the Ismailis of Saudi Arabia, and accountability for the abuses Ismailis suffered following the clashes of 2000. Over the past 10 years, Ismailis have repeatedly sent delegations and addressed petitions to the governor of Najran and the central authorities in Riyadh, including the Human Rights Commission (an official body), but found little attention to their concerns.

[JURIST] Stable, wealthier countries like Denmark, Sweden, and New Zealand have the least perceived corruption and poorer, less stable countries like Haiti, Iraq, Myanmar and Somalia have the most, according to government accountability advocacy group Transparency International (TI) [advocacy website] in a report published Tuesday. TI's 2008 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) [press release, PDF; TI materials], was a survey-based study of perceived governmental corruption in 180 states. TI called for international support to allow poorer countries to institute oversight reforms and anti-corruption enforcement, and for wealthier countries which have fallen in the rankings, most notably the UK [Deutsche Welle report], to take the threat of corruption more seriously. TI chair Huguette Labelle said that not only does poverty lead to corruption, but that the corruption itself often worsens economic and humanitarian problems in the most vulnerable countries:

In the poorest countries, corruption levels can mean the difference between life and death, when money for hospitals or clean water is in play... The continuing high levels of corruption and poverty plaguing many of the world’s societies amount to an ongoing humanitarian disaster and cannot be tolerated. But even in more privileged countries, with enforcement disturbingly uneven, a tougher approach to tackling corruption is needed.

[JURIST] A legal adviser to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) [official website; JURIST news archive] issued an opinion [ECJ materials] Tuesday that UK regulations permitting mandatory retirement policies do not violate an EU anti-discrimination law. ECJ Advocate General Jan Marzak concluded that although the UK's Employment Equality (Age) Regulations [text] fall within the scope of the European Directive on Equal Treatment [text, PDF], age-based classifications are justifiable in some circumstances. Marzak wrote:

[A] rule such as that at issue in the main proceedings, which permits employers to dismiss employees aged 65 or over if the reason for dismissal is retirement, can in principle be justified under Article 6(1) of Directive 2000/78 if that rule is objectively and reasonably justified in the context of national law by a legitimate aim relating to employment policy and the labour market and it is not apparent that the means put in place to achieve that aim of public interest are inappropriate and unnecessary for the purpose.

[JURIST] US Senate Democrats [party website] on Monday questioned the constitutionality of the Bush administration's proposal [fact sheet] to stabilize financial markets and introduced their own plan [materials] allowing courts to review purchases of troubled assets by the Treasury Department [official website]. The administration's proposed legislation, submitted to Congress [White House statement; AP report] on Saturday, would authorize the Treasury to acquire as much as $700 billion in mortgages and other loans. US Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-CT), chairman of the Senate Banking Committee [official websites], criticized a provision in the administration's proposal that would preclude judicial oversight of the purchases, which Dodd said "may be illegal." An alternative proposal by Dodd and other Democrats would permit courts to set aside purchases found to be "arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or not in accordance with the law." That language was written by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who said [press release]:

I would like to see progress toward a balanced bill to address the disastrous effects of eight years of the Bush administration's hands-off economic policies. But passing legislation that eliminates the role of the courts in reviewing the decisions and policies of the administration invites abuse.

I am pleased Senator Dodd has included my language to allow for court review in his proposal. As the Congress considers this important legislation, I hope we are careful to ensure that the American taxpayers’ money is not misspent, misplaced, and mishandled, without even so much as the possibility of review and recourse for bad decisions.

[JURIST] The Canadian Federal Court [official website] granted a last-minute stay of removal Monday for US Army deserter Jeremy Hinzman [JURIST news archive]. Hinzman fled to Canada from the US in January 2004 after leaving his unit, rather than deploy to Iraq. Hinzman had applied for asylum [JURIST report] in Canada and accused the US of war crimes in Iraq [JURIST report]. Federal Court Justice Richard Mosley [official profile] issued the stay of removal after hearing evidence [Canadian Press report] that an Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB) [official website] official had made serious errors in assessing the hardships Hinzman and his family would face if forced back to the US. CBC News has more.

Last November, the Supreme Court of Canada [official website] declined to hear the appeals of Hinzman and another US deserter, Brandon Hughey, of the IRB denials of their asylum applications. Both Hinzman and Hughey cited moral objections to the war in Iraq and the punishment they would likely face if they returned to the US as grounds for asylum. The Immigration and Refugee Board had concluded [decision text; JURIST report] that the two men would receive a fair trial if they were returned to the US and that they would not face persecution or cruel and unusual punishment. It is estimated that up to 200 former US military personnel are in Canada avoiding war service [WRSC selected profiles] and that roughly 20 of them have applied for refugee status. In early July, Canada's House of Commons passed a non-binding resolution to grant US military deserters asylum [Globe and Mail report].

[JURIST] The chief judge for the US District Court for the District of Columbia [court website] granted a government motion [order, PDF] Friday to extend from August 30 to September 30 its deadline to file the first fifty factual returns in the habeas corpus [JURIST news archive] appeals of more than two hundred Guantanamo [JURIST news archive] detainees. Judge Thomas F. Hogan [official profile] nonetheless said [memorandum opinion, PDF] he granted the government's motion reluctantly, writing:

Upon review of the public and ex parte declarations, the Court is satisfied that the government is not dragging its feet in an attempt to delay these matters beyond what is necessary to protect the national security concerns associated with releasing classified information. These cases are not run of the mill; they involve significant amounts of sensitive, classified information concerning individuals whom the government alleges were part of or supporting the Taliban or al Qaida or other organizations against which the United States is engaged in armed conflict. ... Going forward under the revised schedule resulting from the Court’s granting of its motion, consequently, the government cannot claim as a basis for failing to meet deadlines imposed by this Court that it 'simply did not appreciate the full extent of the challenges posed ...'

[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit [official website] ruled [decision, PDF] Monday that the US Department of Defense [official website] must release certain photographs of alleged detainee abuse committed by US soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) [advocacy websites] and other civil rights groups sought the release [CCR backgrounder] of the photographs under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) [text], but the government had claimed that the photos were exempt from disclosure because their release would either invade the privacy of the detainees or insight retaliation against US forces abroad. The Second Circuit held that redactions of the photographs ordered by a lower court sufficiently protected the detainees' privacy, and that safety exemptions to disclosure requirements were intended to cover reasonable safety risks to specific individuals rather than to any member of a larger group:

We hold that in order to justify withholding documents... an agency must identify at least one individual with reasonable specificity and establish that disclosure of the documents could reasonably be expected to endanger that individual. We need not shape the precise contours of the exemption today, as it is not a close question whether the government has identified any relevant individual with reasonable specificity. It is plainly insufficient to claim that releasing documents could reasonably be expected to endanger some unspecified member of a group so vast as to encompass all United States troops, coalition forces, and civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan. The structure of FOIA and the applicable legislative history, both of which contemplate a far narrower role for [the exemption] than that envisioned by the defendants, amply confirm our holding.

[JURIST] The US-led Multi-National Force - Iraq (MNF) [official website] announced Monday that it had released an Afghan freelance journalist detained since last year as an enemy combatant [JURIST news archive]. A military spokesman said Jawed Ahmad, who had been working as a videographer for Canadian television network CTV, was freed Sunday because he was no longer considered a threat. Ahmad's family sued the Bush administration [JURIST report] in June, alleging his detention violated his rights to due process and counsel. Ahmad said in an interview [Globe and Mail report] that he was subjected to beatings and sleep deprivation while in US custody. AP has more. Canadian Press has local coverage.

Ahmad, also known as Javed Yazamy, was detained by coalition forces at a NATO airbase in Kandahar last October. US officials designated him an enemy combatant [JURIST report] in February, alleging he had Taliban phone numbers and videos in his possession when he was detained. Ahmad is one of several journalists whom the US military has detained without charge in Iraq and Afghanistan [JURIST news archives]. In December 2006, the Committee to Protect Journalists released a report [JURIST report] noting that the US was detaining three journalists, including Al Jazeera cameraman Sami al-Haj and AP photographer Bilal Hussein.

[JURIST] Lawyers in Nepal [JURIST news archive] began a boycott of court proceedings Sunday to protest the suspension [Nepalnews.com report] of the national bar association's leader by the Nepalese Supreme Court [official website]. The court last week suspended Bishwa Kanta Mainali, president of the Nepal Bar Association [profession website], for six months after he suggested that many Nepalese judges accept bribes. A bar association official said the boycott would continue until the court reverses the suspension, although some local media reported the boycott would end Tuesday. One Supreme Court justice has called the suspension "erroneous," saying in an interview [Himalayan Times report] that the court should reconsider the decision after hearing from Mainali. AP has more. Kantipur Online has local coverage.

Questions about the integrity of Nepal's judiciary have been raised before. Last year, the International Commission of Jurists [advocacy website] urged Nepalese lawmakers to amend the country's interim constitution [JURIST report] to create a fully independent judiciary. The Nepalese Supreme Court has also voiced concerns [JURIST report] about judicial independence, pointing to a constitutional provision giving the prime minister sole discretion in appointing the chief justice.

[JURIST] The Federal Reserve Board on Sunday preliminarily approved [press release] applications by independent investment banks Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley [corporate websites] to convert to bank holding companies, which would put the banks under Federal Reserve regulation, grant them increased access to bank funds and allow them to build their deposit bases. The move will place both companies, which are now regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), under the tighter regulations of the FDIC and the Bank Holding Company Act [text], effectively lowering the amount of debt the companies can risk in relation to the amount of money they actually have and requiring a higher amount of capital. Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein said [press release] of the transition:

When Goldman Sachs was a private partnership, we made the decision to become a public company, recognizing the need for permanent capital to meet the demands of scale. While accelerated by market sentiment, our decision to be regulated by the Federal Reserve is based on the recognition that such regulation provides its members with full prudential supervision and access to permanent liquidity and funding. We believe that Goldman Sachs, under Federal Reserve supervision, will be regarded as an even more secure institution with an exceptionally clean balance sheet and a greater diversity of funding sources.

The Firm does not expect significant adverse tax or accounting effects from this new status, nor does the Firm expect there to be limitations on its activities that would have a material impact on Morgan Stanley’s overall business.

[JURIST] South African President Thabo Mbeki [official profile; ANC profile] insisted in an official resignation speech [text] Sunday that allegations of his interference with the judiciary in the context of the Jacob Zuma case were incorrect. Top ANC officials called for Mbeki's resignation Friday, and on Saturday Mbeki said that he would resign [JURIST report]. Mbeki said Sunday:

I would like to restate the position of Cabinet on the inferences made by the Honourable Judge Chris Nicholson that the President and Cabinet have interfered in the work the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA). Again I would like to state this categorically that we have never done this, and therefore never compromised the right of the National Prosecuting Authority to decide whom it wished to prosecute or not to prosecute.

This applies equally to the painful matter relating to the court proceedings against the President of the ANC, Comrade Jacob Zuma.

More generally, I would like to assure the nation that our successive governments since 1994 have never acted in any manner intended wilfully to violate the Constitution and the law.

[JURIST] A US federal judge has issued a preliminary injunction [order, PDF] requiring US Vice President Dick Cheney [official website; JURIST news archive] to preserve all his official records pending resolution of a lawsuit alleging that his office has failed to maintain records as required by law. In an opinion [PDF text] released Saturday, US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly [official profile] of the US District Court for the District of Columbia [official website] wrote that it was "unmistakably clear that Defendants apply a narrowing interpretation" to the Presidential Records Act of 1978 (PRA) [materials], which governs the official records of presidents and vice presidents. Calling the pleadings filed by Cheney's office "bereft of any legal analysis," Kollary-Kotelly found that

the public interest is undoubtedly served by ensuring that all documentary material potentially encompassed by the PRA's statutory language is actually preserved as Congress saw fit in enacting the PRA. ... These public interests are of the utmost significance and, as discussed above, are not and will not be fully protected if Defendants' narrowed interpretation of the PRA's statutory language is incorrect as a matter of law. ... The American public, however, has a right to the preservation of all records encompassed by the PRA’s statutory language. As such, until the Court is able to determine whether Defendants’ narrowed interpretation is legally supported, the public interest favors the issuance of a preliminary injunction.

[JURIST] Pakistani Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar [official profile] swore in four previously ousted judges as new members of the country's Supreme Court [official website] Saturday, bringing the number of the judges on the reconstituted court to 29. Justice Sardar Mohammad Raza Khan and Justice Nasirul Mulk were members of the top court when they were effectively dismissed in November last year under former President Pervez Musharraf's proclamation of emergency. Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed and Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany were previously members of the Sindh High Court and were ousted from their positions by the same measure. Given existing rules of seniority, Khan will succeed Dogar when the latter is required to leave office on March 21, 2009. In the wake of this latest reinstatement, only six of the pre-emergency Supreme Court justices remain unrestored, most notable among the former Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry [JURIST news archive]. After Saturday's reinstatements Law Minister Farooq H. Naek reiterated that under the Pakistan Constitution, only one Chief Justice could sit at any one time. The current Pakistan People's Party government has made no move to replace Dogar. From Pakistan, Dawn has local coverage.

Three other judges ousted from the Pakistani Supreme Court were reinstated [JURIST report] earlier this month. Critics of the government have described the piecemeal reinstatements [JURIST report] as evidence of a "conspiracy" to undermine support for total reinstatement. Last week lawyers in Islamabad and other centers boycotted legal proceedings [JURIST report] and held protests calling for the restoration of all judges ousted by Musharraf last November.

[JURIST] A judge in the US District Court for the District of Columbia [official website] on Friday ruled [opinion, PDF] that the civil rights of former Army Special Forces officer Diane Schroer [profile] were violated after a job offer to serve as the senior terrorism research analyst at the Library of Congress [official website] was rescinded following Schroer's disclosure to her future supervisor that she was undergoing a gender transformation. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) [advocacy website] filed [ACLU news release] a lawsuit [complaint, PDF; materials] on behalf of Schroer in June 2005 under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 [text; EEOC backgrounder], claiming the Library of Congress made it clear they thought Schroer was the best person for the job in extending the offer, but immediately changed its mind after Schroer voluntarily disclosed her intent to undergo a sex change operation. The complaint also argued that Schroer's right to due process and equal protection rights were violated. The Library of Congress countered that federal anti-discrimination laws do not extend to transgender people. The judge found "compelling evidence" that the hiring decision was "infected by sex stereotypes," and concluded:

it is not necessary to draw sweeping conclusions about the reach of Title VII. Even if the decisions that define the word “sex” in Title VII as referring only to anatomical or chromosomal sex are still good law...the Library’s refusal to hire Schroer after being advised that she planned to change her anatomical sex by undergoing sex reassignment surgery was literally discrimination “because of . . . sex.”

[JURIST] The Pentagon on Friday announced [news release] that US Air Force Brig. Gen. Thomas Hartmann [official profile; JURIST news archive], the controversial legal advisor to the US military commissions at Guantanamo and supervisor of the Office of Military Commissions-Prosecution (OMC-P), has been reassigned to the newly-created position of director of operations of the Office of Military Commissions. As director of operations, Hartmann will be responsible for the initiation, review, staffing, coordination and execution of all planning and development matters relating to military commissions. Deputy legal advisor Michael Champan will become the new legal advisor to the military commissions. AP has more.

Earlier this year military judges presiding over the military commission [JURIST news archive] trials of Guantanamo detainees Omar Khadr and Mohammed Jawad [JURIST reports] barred Hartmann from taking any part in the trials of those detainees on grounds that he was unduly biased towards the prosecution. US Army Gen. Gregory Zanetti [official profile], deputy commander at Guantanamo Bay, testified in August [JURIST report] that Hartmann routinely bullied his counterparts and was inappropriately aggressive in seeking indictments against detainees. In May, Hartman was disqualified [JURIST report] from participating in the military commission trial of detainee Salim Ahmed Hamdan [DOD materials; JURIST news archive].

[JURIST] Thabo Mbeki [official profile] announced Saturday that he would resign as president of South Africa in the wake of allegations that he had interfered in a corruption case against political rival and current African National Congress [party website] leader Jacob Zuma [JURIST news archive]. Earlier this month Judge Chris Nicholson effectively dismissed [JURIST report] the latest case against Zuma on the grounds that Zuma had been deprived of the chance to respond to claims made against him and that "political meddling" in the case by Mbeki and others could not be excluded. Zuma had said that the charges were part of a politically motivated effort by Mbeki to upset his plans to run in the 2009 presidential election and that Zuma had both a constitutional and statutory right to state his case before charges were brought. Following a direct call for his resignation by top ANC officials Friday, Mbeki issued a statement [text] saying he "will step down after all constitutional requirements have been met". Observers expect this to be in the next few days following meetings Mbeki has already scheduled at the UN in New York in conjunction with the latest session of the General Assembly.

Zuma has been facing corruption allegations [BBC timeline] and other charges for several years. He was first charged with corruption in 2005, but those charges were later dismissed [JURIST report] because prosecutors failed to follow proper procedures.

[JURIST] Council of Europe (COE) [official website] Commissioner for Human Rights Thomas Hammarberg [official profile] expressed concern with several UK asylum and immigration procedures in a memorandum [text] released Friday. The memorandum was the result of visits by Hammarberg to the UK last February and March, which included visits to the Colnbrook and Yarl's Wood Immigration Removal Centres [corporate websites]. Hammarberg flagged the UK's Detained Fast Track program, under which administrative and judicial proceedings are aimed at an accelerated determination of refugee status applications which are proved to be unfounded. He said the process conflicts with the European Convention on Human Rights [text] and the established case law of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) [official website], and that the acceleration of immigration adjudication proceedings violates rule of law principles in the interest of meeting time objectives set by Parliament. He recommended that the UK "consider regulating this issue by introducing special legislation fully in compliance with the standards laid down by the European Convention on Human Rights," and that the UK Border Agency [official website] "adopt a more cautious and flexible approach towards the 'Fast Track Processes' and its announced policy of making and enforcing the majority of asylum decisions within six months." Hammarberg also recommended that the UK enter into full compliance with Council Directive 2003/9/EC [text] on the minimum standards for the reception of asylum seekers. BBC News has more.

Responding to Hammarberg's memorandum and recommendations, the UK Home Office [official website] said that only a small proportion of all asylum seekers, around ten percent of the total, are subject to the Detained Fast Track process, and insisted that "the operation of the Detained Fast Track process within existing time frames is reasonable and fair." The UK government also asserts in the memorandum that it is in full compliance with the European Convention on Human Rights, the ECHR case law, and that Council Directive 2003/9/EC is already considered to apply to immigration detention facilities in the UK.

[JURIST] The Venezuelan government ordered two senior officials of Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] to leave the country Thursday night after the group released a report [press release] concluding that democracy and human rights have suffered during the presidency of Hugo Chavez [official profile, in Spanish; BBC profile]. According to a statement [text, in Spanish] from Venezuela's Foreign Ministry [official website, in Spanish], HRW Americas director Jose Miguel Vivanco [profile] and deputy director Daniel Wilkinson were expelled because they had "attacked the institutions of Venezuelan democracy" and "illegally interfered in the internal affairs of our country." Escorted by armed soldiers, the men were flown to Brazil, where Vivanco told the New York Times in an interview [report] that the expulsion "reveals yet again the degree of intolerance of this government." The 230-page HRW report [text] stated that "[d]iscrimination on political grounds has been a defining feature of the Chávez presidency." The executive summary [text] of the report concluded:

A country's citizens cannot participate fully and equally in its politics when their rights to freedom of expression and association are at risk. Ensuring these essential rights requires more than constitutional guarantees and political rhetoric. It requires institutions that are capable of countering and curbing abusive state practices. Above all, it requires a judiciary that is independent, competent, and credible. It is also critical that non-state institutions - such as the media, organized labor, and civil society - are free from government reprisals and political discrimination.

President Chávez has actively sought to project himself as a champion of democracy, not only in Venezuela, but throughout Latin America. Yet his professed commitment to this cause is belied by his government's willful disregard for the institutional guarantees and fundamental rights that make democratic participation possible. Venezuela will not achieve real and sustained progress toward strengthening its democracy—nor will it serve as a useful model for other countries in the region—so long as its government continues to flout the human rights principles enshrined in its own constitution.

[JURIST] The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) [advocacy website] on Thursday filed a class action lawsuit [complaint, PDF; EFF press release] seeking injunctive, declaratory and equitable relief from the National Security Agency (NSA) [agency website] warrantless surveillance program [JURIST news archive], which gave government agencies access to over 300 terabytes of data concerning communication sent and received by AT&T [corporate website] customers. Filed on behalf of those customers, the suit names as defendants the US government, the NSA, President George W. Bush [official profile], Vice President Dick Cheney [official profile], and several other officials. EFF alleges violations of the First and Fourth Amendments, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) [text; JURIST news archive], and federal electronic surveillance law. The complaint also argues that the surveillance program violated the Federal Administrative Procedure Act [text] because it exceeded Congressionally-mandated limitations established by FISA, and alleges that it violates the Constitutional separation of powers principle

because it was authorized by the Executive in excess of the Executive’s authority under Article II of the United States Constitution ... and exceeds the statutory limits imposed on the Executive by Congress.

[JURIST] The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) [official website; JURIST news archive] on Friday announced that former Khmer Rouge official Nuon Chea [PBS backgrounder] will be held for another year as prosecutors continue to build a war crimes case against him. Nuon Chea, known as Brother Number Two in the Khmer Rouge [BBC backgrounder], was arrested and charged [JURIST report] in September 2007. He has been in court custody since his arrest, and the court has rejected his lawyers' attempts to have him released [JURIST reports] until trial. AFP has more.

In February, a Cambodian genocide survivor testified against Nuon Chea [JURIST report] at a pre-trial hearing, marking the first time that a victim has ever taken the stand against a former Khmer Rouge official. The ECCC has said it plans to try as many as eight suspects [JURIST report] on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for their roles in the Khmer Rouge regime, which is generally held responsible for the genocide of an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians [PPU backgrounder] who died between 1975 and 1979. In June, the court announced plans [JURIST report] to complete operations a year early and to significantly reduce its budget, but said that it would still be able to prosecute all of its suspects despite the cutbacks.

[JURIST] New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo [official website] Thursday said his department is conducting an investigation [AP report] into whether some investors used illegal methods to profit from recent declines in banking and insurance stocks. It is alleged that some investors combined the short-selling [Forbes backgrounder] of stock with the spreading of false information to illegally gain from recent devaluations in Lehman Brothers, AIG [corporate websites] and other stocks. Cuomo said his office will prosecute those found to have intentionally contributed to the declines under a New York law [Martin Act backgrounder, PDF], which gives him broad authority to investigate financial crimes. On Friday, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) implemented a temporary ban [press release; revised rules, PDF] on certain kinds of short-selling of key financial stocks in an attempt to stabilize their values [NYT report]. Bloomberg has more.

In an effort to better detect other kinds of financial fraud, including insider trading [JURIST news archive], in August the SEC announced [press release; JURIST report] that it had reached a tentative agreement [PDF text] with ten US stock exchanges to centralize insider trading controls among the institutions. Under that plan, the programs to prevent and detect insider trading will be monitored by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and a section of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) [corporate websites], instead of having each exchange run its own program.

[JURIST] The American Psychological Association (APA) [official website] announced Wednesday that it had adopted a measure [petition text; APA press release] prohibiting members from participating in interrogations of terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] and other military prisons where suspects have allegedly been tortured. The resolution, approved by a vote of 8,792 to 6,157 members, represents a reversal in position by the group, which last year rejected a similar ban [JURIST report]. The measure states:

Whereas torture is an abhorrent practice in every way contrary to the APA's stated mission of advancing psychology as a science, as a profession, and as a means of promoting human welfare.

Whereas the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Mental Health and the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture have determined that treatment equivalent to torture has been taking place at the United States Naval Base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

Whereas this torture took place in the context of interrogations under the direction and supervision of Behavioral Science Consultation Teams (BSCTs) that included psychologists....

Be it resolved that psychologists may not work in settings where persons are held outside of, or in violation of, either International Law or the US Constitution, unless they are working directly for the persons being detained or for an independent third party working to protect human rights.

[JURIST] A US Army Special Forces soldier faces court-martial proceedings [JURIST news archive] following his arraignment [press release] in connection with the killing of an Afghan man earlier this year. The Army announced Thursday that Master Sgt. Joseph D. Newell of the 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne) [unit website] based at Fort Bragg, N.C., is charged under the Uniform Code of Military Justice with murder and related offenses [text]. He is accused of fatally shooting an unidentified Afghani near Hyderabad in March and then cutting an ear off the man's body. During an Article 32 preliminary hearing [JAG backgrounder] last month, a defense lawyer contended that the military had insufficient evidence against Newell. A court-martial is scheduled to convene on January 7. AP has more.

Last year, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) released documents [JURIST report] describing alleged crimes committed by US soldiers against civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan [JURIST news archive] but showing that troops believed they were following the law in most instances. The materials were made available in conjunction with a lawsuit the ACLU filed to compel the US military to release all documents relating to the deaths of civilians caused by US troops since January 2005. In 2006, court-martial proceedings against a group of US soldiers implicated in the abuse of detainees at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan ended with only one conviction [JURIST report]. Three other soldiers pleaded guilty [JURIST report] to abusing prisoners at Bagram, two others pleaded guilty at the court-martial and five were acquitted. The Army dropped the charges against three others.

[JURIST] The State Council of China [official website, in English] on Thursday issued regulations implementing ambiguous provisions of the Labor Contract Law [backgrounder] that took effect [JURIST report] at the beginning of this year. Among other clarifications, the regulations provide that contracts without a termination date do not have a lifetime term, instead specifying the circumstances in which employers or employees may unilaterally terminate. Although the law is viewed as a major advancement [IHT report] for employee rights, employers have complained that it has increased operational costs. The law requires workers to have written employment contracts, establishes a right to severance pay, sets a minimum wage and limits the amount of overtime that companies may ask employees to perform. Draft regulations were released [China Law & Practice report] in May. Following public comment, the final regulations were approved September 3 by the State Council, which is China's Cabinet. Xinhua has more.

The law was adopted [JURIST report] last June by the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress [official website] amid revelations that labor officials had failed to report [JURIST report] the enslavement of hundreds of people at brick kilns in Shanxi and Henan provinces. Criminal charges were brought against government officials, and a State Council conference chaired by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao [BBC profile] said that those who had enslaved workers or illegally employed children would be severely punished.

[JURIST] In an indictment unsealed on Wednesday, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) charged [indictment, PDF; DOJ press release] sixteen individuals and companies from Iran [JURIST news archive] and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on thirteen counts related to alleged conspiracies to illegally export electronic components to Iran, in violation of US law and the US economic embargo against Iran. According to the indictment, many of the components were eventually found in improvised explosive devices (IEDs) used against coalition forces in Iraq. Specifically, the indictment alleges that the sixteen individuals and businesses engaged in conspiracies that entailed the ordering of electronic components, including microwave isolators, global positioning system (GPS) units, and microchips from US manufacturers through offices in Egypt, Malaysia, the Netherlands, and the UAE, then transporting them to Iran and eventually Iraq. None of the charged individuals is presently in US custody. The Washington Post has more.

The electronic components named in the indictment are considered "dual-use" technologies by the US, indicating that they have both civilian and military uses. The export of such technologies from the US is regulated by the US Department of Commerce Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) [official website].

[JURIST] The South African National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) [official website] announced Thursday it would appeal [press release, PDF] a Pietermaritzburg High Court judgment invalidating corruption charges [JURIST report] against politician Jacob Zuma [BBC profile; JURIST news archive]. The NPA stated that the appeal will argue that the "court's interpretation of the Constitution and the NPA Act regarding the obligation to solicit representations before recharging was incorrect." The NPA's appeal will also be based on the impact the judgment has on the "operational process of the NPA." The corruption charges against Zuma were invalidated last Friday on procedural grounds [ruling, PDF text] because Zuma was not given the chance to respond to the allegations against him. Zuma was indicted [JURIST report] in December 2007 on charges of corruption, fraud, money laundering, and racketeering. Zuma has said that the charges were part of a politically-motivated effort by outgoing President Thabo Mbeki [official profile] to upset Zuma's plans to run in the 2009 presidential election. Zuma is seen as Mbeki's inevitable successor due to his position as president of the African National Congress (ANC) [party website], the South African ruling party. The New York Times has more. AP has additional coverage.

In late July, the South African Constitutional Court [official website] rejected a motion [opinion, PDF; JURIST report] by Zuma to exclude evidence from the corruption trial. Zuma had argued [JURIST report] that evidence seized in 2005 raids by the Directorate of Special Investigations [official backgrounder; BBC report] should be thrown out because the raids violated his rights to privacy and a fair trial. The court upheld the validity of the warrants used in the raids, confirming a November 2007 decision [JURIST report] by the South African Supreme Court of Appeal. The court also held [opinion, PDF; summary] that papers obtained by the Mauritius government [JURIST report] believed to document meetings between Zuma and arms manufacturer Thint were also admissible. Zuma has been facing corruption allegations [BBC timeline] and other charges for several years. He was first charged with corruption in 2005, but those charges were later dismissed [JURIST report] because prosecutors failed to follow proper procedures.

[JURIST] The US House of Representatives [official website] on Thursday passed the Second Amendment Enforcement Act (H.R. 6842) [bill text], which would repeal multiple parts of the District of Columbia's Firearms Control Regulations Act of 1975, including its semiautomatic handgun ban, its registration requirements, and its mandate that any guns in the home be locked up and inoperable. The National Rifle Association-supported bill was passed despite protests from Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) [official website] who introduced alternative legislation and argued [press release]:

The needless consideration of this issue, when the District was well on its way to substantially altering its gun own legislation, was all the more egregious because the city's representative could not vote on final passage.

[JURIST] Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty [official website] on Thursday urged Canadian officials to embrace his call for an outright ban on handguns. Acknowledging that all federal leaders should use the upcoming October election to discuss the issue, McGuinty commented [The Globe and Mail local coverage]:

We have an opportunity as a distinct Canadian society to say, 'We are not going to do what other countries have. We're going to do everything we can to eliminate handguns.'

Toronto continues to face unacceptable incidents of gun violence. These cannot be fully addressed without a total ban on handguns. Handguns are designed for one purpose and that is to kill people and have no place in our society. Statistics show that in jurisdictions with gun bans, supply is limited and shootings are less common.

[JURIST] US blogger and attorney Gopalan Nair [personal blog; law firm profile] was sentenced to three months in jail Wednesday for insulting a Singaporean judge. Justice Kan Ting Chiu of the Singaporean High Court [official website] told Nair that he had "scandalized" the nation's judiciary by accusing a judge of "prostituting herself" [blog entry] in a defamation case brought by former Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew [official profile] against the Singapore Democratic Party. Nair, who pleaded not guilty [JURIST report] to the charges earlier this month, said he had no regrets about what he had written. Reporters Without Borders [advocacy website] on Thursday condemned the sentence [press release] as "disproportionate." The group said Nair plans to appeal by Saturday, when he is scheduled to begin serving his sentence. AFP has more. The Straits Times has local coverage.

Under a provision of the Singaporean Penal Code [text], insulting a public servant conducting a judicial proceeding is punishable by up to one year in prison, a $5,000 fine or both. Nair faces another trial on a charge of insulting a second judge. He is also appealing a conviction [Straits Times report] on charges of disorderly conduct and using abusive words toward police officers. Before becoming a US citizen, Nair was a Singaporean opposition politician. In July, a report by the International Bar Association's Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) concluded [JURIST report] that Singapore [JURIST news archive] lacks an independent judiciary and fails to meet international standards of human rights by heavily regulating international and domestic press and enforcing extreme defamation laws.

[JURIST] The High Court of Uganda [official website] will not try soldiers from the Ugandan People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) if they are accused of human rights abuses, according to Wednesday statements by Justice Dan Akiiki-Kiiza [official profile], the head of the Court's War Crimes Division. The head justice insisted that the mandate of the court is restricted to the prosecution of members of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) [JURIST news archive] and that the present Juba Peace Agreement, though unsigned, restricts the court to prosecuting only those crimes listed in the International Criminal Court (ICC) indictments [official documents]. On Tuesday, the chief negotiator for the LRA, David Nyekorach Matsanga, said rebel leader Joseph Kony [BBC profile] had agreed to sign the Juba Peace Agreement between his movement and the Ugandan government despite the ICC's outstanding arrest warrants for him and three other LRA leaders. Dropping the arrest warrants had been a major sticking point in the negotiations and a condition to the consent of the War Crimes Division. The Monitor has more.

Critics of the War Crimes Division, including international human rights organization Amnesty International [advocacy website], have accused both the the ICC and the Ugandan special court of unfairly concentrating on only one side of the 22-year conflict by failing to prosecute members of the UPDF. Simon Oyet, a legislator from the war-affected Gulu region, cautioned [The Monitor report] that by "only hold[ing] one side accountable...some UPDF soldiers, known to have tortured and murdered hundreds of people in my region, go free." To date, Ugandan military personnel accused of abuses during the conflict are subject to military tribunals, which have been criticized both for their lack of transparency and lack of an appeals process.

[JURIST] Russian president Dmitry Medvedev [official website] Wednesday signed [statement; press release] military defense agreements with Georgia's breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia [JURIST news archive] despite heavy international criticism. Medvedev said that Russia now recognized the regions as independent countries since its conflict with Georgia [NYT report], and that his country planned to permanently station troops in the regions. In an attempt to preempt criticism of the agreement, Medvedev argued that the deals were of a nature sanctioned by the UN Charter [Chp. VII text]:

The key task now is to ensure Abkhazia’s and South Ossetia’s security. The agreements we have signed contain provisions enabling our countries to take the necessary joint measures to remove threats to peace and respond to acts aggression. We will provide each other will all necessary support, including military support. The treaties provide for this in accordance with Article 51 of the United Nations Charter proclaiming the right to individual or collective self-defence.

I want to take this opportunity here and now to stress that any repeat aggression by Georgia (and revanchist feelings are visible there, unfortunately, and the state is continuing its militarisation) would lead to a regional catastrophe. There should be no doubt in anyone’s mind that we will not allow another military adventure. There should be no illusions on this count. [sic]

[JURIST] The Iraqi Parliament [official website] Wednesday failed to agree on a controversial provincial election bill in light of new disagreements over procedure. Kurdish legislators had strongly opposed the bill's proposal to establish a provincial council in Kirkuk [GlobalSecurity backgrounder] made up of equal numbers of Kurdish, Arab, and Turkmeni representatives. A UN proposal would have compromised by allowing elections in the rest of the country to proceed without the region, but that proposal was objected to by other groups which sought stricter deadlines and greater independence for the committee that would have made a final determination on control of Kirkuk.  Earlier this month, Iraqi law makers reached an agreement to temporarily divide control of Kirkuk [JURIST report] among the city's ethnic groups, but observers have expressed concern that delays in a permanent agreement may push elections past the end of the year.  AP has more.

In July, Kurdish parliamentarians staged a walkout [JURIST report], delaying a vote on the proposed provincial election bill that they said was unconstitutional. The bill passed despite the boycott, but Iraqi President Jalal Talabani [official website, in Arabic; BBC profile] and the two other members of the Iraqi Presidency Council later refused to sign it [JURIST report] because it had been passed by an incomplete parliament. In February, Iraq's Presidency Council rejected an earlier draft provincial elections law [JURIST report] that detailed the relationship between Iraq's central and local governments, sending the legislation back to parliament. The draft law was part of a package of legislation approved [JURIST report] by the parliament earlier that month that also included the 2008 budget and an amnesty bill [JURIST report] that will lead to the release of roughly 5,000 prisoners.

[JURIST] US Army Specialist Belmor Ramos pleaded guilty Thursday to conspiracy for his involvement in the killings of four unarmed Iraqi prisoners [NY Times report] west of Baghdad in 2007. In his confession, Ramos said he willingly took part in the killings as retribution for earlier deaths of US soldiers. As part of a plea agreement, Ramos was sentenced to seven months in prison, a term reduced from what a prosecutor in the case said would have otherwise been closer to 40 years. Ramos is also scheduled to have his rank reduced and to be dishonorable discharged from the army, but his lawyer is appealing those penalties. AP has more. BBC News has additional coverage.

On Wednesday, three other US soldiers were charged [JURIST report] with premeditated murder, conspiracy to commit premeditated murder, and obstruction of justice for their parts in the killings.

[JURIST] The Supreme Court of Thailand delayed a ruling Wednesday regarding corruption charges against former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] and his wife Pojamarn Shinawatra [JURIST news archive]. The couple are being tried in absentia [JURIST report] over a controversial purchase of government land at a below-market price which occurred while Thaksin was in office. The Supreme Court also issued new arrest warrants for the two, who fled to the UK last month and refused to return to Thailand due to alleged judicial bias [JURIST reports]. According to reports, the Supreme Court announced that the verdict would be delayed until October 21 because the couple failed to appear before the court. Reuters has more. The Nation has local coverage.

Last month, Thai prosecutors asked the Supreme Court to seize over $2 billion [JURIST report] from the Shinawatras' frozen accounts and holdings. The Constitutional Court of Thailand [official website, in Thai] rejected [JURIST report] Thaksin's challenge that the commission bringing charges against him is governed by a statute which violates the right to individual liberty. In July, the Thai Attorney General's Office filed corruption charges [JURIST report] against Thaksin for his role in a 2003 resolution reducing fees paid by mobile phone companies to state telecommunications agencies. In April, Pojamarn pleaded not guilty to charges [JURIST reports] stemming from a 2003 agreement with the government-directed Financial Institutions Development Fund [official website] to purchase land said to be worth three times more than the $26 million she paid for it. Lawyers for Thaksin have been jailed [JURIST report] for attempting to bribe court officials in one of Thaksin's cases, and current Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej [BBC profile] is facing possible impeachment proceedings [JURIST report] due in part to his party's close association with Thaksin.

[JURIST] Pakistani lawyers Thursday boycotted legal proceedings in the country and continued to hold protests calling for the restoration of all judges ousted [JURIST report] by former President Pervez Musharraf [JURIST news archive] last November. According to local reports, some proceedings did go ahead [APP report] at the reconstituted Pakistani Supreme Court [official website], but many other courts, including the Lahore High Court [official website] were effectively closed [APP report] by the boycott. Also Tuesday, the Lahore district bar canceled the membership [News report] of Pakistan's new attorney general [JURIST report], Sardar Latif Khosa, for his lack of support for the reinstatements. Particularly contentious is the reinstatement of former supreme court chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry [JURIST news archive], which was ruled out [JURIST report] by law minister Farooq Naek in August. GEO Pakistan has more.

Last week, three judges who had been forced off the Supreme Court were reinstated [APP report; JURIST report] following clashes between lawyers and police [JURIST report] during a demonstration in Islamabad. Critics describe the recent reappointment [JURIST report] of some ousted judges as evidence of a "conspiracy" to undermine support for total reinstatement. The judges' dismissals contributed to Musharraf's resignation and the failure to completely reinstate them precipitated collapse of the coalition government [JURIST report] last month.

[JURIST] New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg [official profile; official website] announced Wednesday that his administration had reached a settlement [press release] in a long-standing lawsuit over homeless families' right to use shelters throughout the city. The main lawsuit, McCain v. Koch [NY Times report], was initially filed in 1983 by the Legal Aid Society [official website]. As that lawsuit progressed through the court system other complaints were filed, prompting the city to declare a right to shelter [Coalition for the Homeless report, PDF] which was enforced through the court system. The new agreement announced Wednesday is supported by many rights groups, including the Coalition for the Homeless [official website], and will allow the City to resume complete control in setting its policy for dealing with an estimated 9,000 homeless families, which include 14,000 children. Bloomberg also spoke highly of the agreement:

Today is a historic day for homeless children and their families in this City. We have been able to reach a break-through settlement of 25 years of litigation that will benefit all the people of this City by ensuring that homeless families with children will be treated appropriately and in accordance with legal requirements to which we have all now agreed," said The Legal Aid Society Attorney-in-Chief Steven Banks who worked on the litigation with the law firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore.

[JURIST] Three US Army [official website] soldiers were charged with murder Wednesday for their alleged roles in the killings of four Iraqis in April 2007 [NY Times report]. Sgt 1st Class Joseph Mayo, Sgt John Hatley, and Sgt Michael Leahy Jr, who were formerly part of the 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry [unit website], were all charged with premeditated murder, conspiracy to commit premeditated murder, and obstruction of justice. The men are accused of blindfolding and shooting the Iraqis, then discarding the bodies in a canal near Baghdad. It is said the killings were committed as revenge for the January 2007 deaths of two US soldiers. Four other soldiers from that unit have been charged with conspiracy to commit murder in connection with the killings. The CBC has more. VOA has additional coverage.

Similar charges are pending in several other actions against US military personnel accused of wrongdoing during their service in Iraq. Eight US Marines were charged in connection with the November 2005 killings of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha [USMC timeline; JURIST news archive]. In June, a military judge dropped charges against battalion commander Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani [JURIST news archive] after Chessani faced court-martial [JURIST report] for dereliction of duty and violation of a lawful order based on allegations that he failed to properly investigate the Haditha shootings. Chessani was the highest ranking of the eight Marines initially charged in connection to the Haditha incident, and charges [text] have since been dropped against all but one. The court-martial of Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich [defense website], leader of the squad implicated in the killings, was postponed indefinitely [JURIST report] in March. Also in June, US Marine Corps 1st Lt. Andrew Grayson [defense website; JURIST