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 Legal news from Saturday, March 01, 2008 |
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Saturday, March 01, 2008 |
Serbia seeking ICJ opinion on Kosovo independence
David Frueh at 4:04 PM ET
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Armenia president declares state of emergency after election protests
Steve Czajkowski at 4:03 PM ET
[JURIST] Armenia President Robert Kocharian [official website] declared a state of emergency Saturday, as police forced approximately 15,000 demonstrators to disperse from the capital city of Yerevan. The protests are the result of the contested February 19 presidential election in which Prime Minister Serzh Sarksyan [official profile], a Kocharian ally, was declared the winner [BBC report]. Supporters of the opposition candidate and former president, Levon Ter-Petrosian [official website], have alleged fraud, however, and have held daily rallies [IHT report] since the election in order to force a new vote. The rallies drew tens of thousands of people to the city's square each day. Ter-Petrosian petitioned the Constitutional Court [official website] Friday in order to overturn the election results. On Saturday, Ter-Petrosian was not allowed to leave his house, but he told reporters that he was not under formal house arrest.
The state of emergency is set to be in place until March 20. It imposes bans on all rallies and protests while also placing restrictions on the media. The declaration gives police the power to restrict movement, and to search private and public vehicles. AP has more.
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Pakistan police file charges against Taliban leader in Bhutto assassination
Steve Czajkowski at 3:17 PM ET
[JURIST] Pakistani police on Saturday filed preliminary charges against Baitullah Mehsud [BBC profile], the top Taliban leader in Pakistan, and four others in the assassination of former prime minister Benzhair Bhutto [BBC obituary; JURIST news archive]. The charges were filed at an anti-terrorism court in the city of Rawalpindi and arrest warrants were issued for Mehsud, Ibadur Rehman, Imramullah, Faiz Muhammad and Abbdullah in connection with the planning and financing of Bhutto's assassination. Meshud is the commander of Tehrik-e-Taliban, a group of Islamic militants with links to al Qaeda. He has denied involvement in the attack.
Five men have already been arrested for their alleged involvement with the assassination [JURIST report], part of a suicide attack at a political rally in Rawalpindi. Two were arrested in January [JURIST report], one of whom told investigators he was sent by Meshud. The two men admitted to supplying the suicide bomber, known as Bilal, with a bomb vest and a pistol. Two additional suspects were arrested earlier this month [JURIST report] and were identified by the Pakistani government as "two very important alleged terrorists." AP has more.
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Iraq appeals court overturns conviction of US citizen facing death penalty
Nick Fiske at 11:42 AM ET
[JURIST] An Iraqi appeals court on Friday overturned the conviction and death sentence of Mohammad Munaf [JURIST news archive], a US citizen and former translator charged with orchestrating the kidnapping of three Romanian journalists [Guardian report] held for 55 days in Iraq in 2005. Munaf's lawyer said that the charges were dismissed after the court could not determine the role that Munaf and several other defendants played in the kidnappings from the evidence contained within the record. Following his conviction in 2006, Munaf sought to prevent US forces from handing him over to Iraqi custody [JURIST report] and he is now part of an ongoing Supreme Court case [JURIST report] that will decide whether US citizens held by US forces in Iraq can challenge their detention and block their transfer. It was not immediately clear whether the Iraq court's decision would affect the Supreme Court case.
Munaf has argued that the Iraqi trial violated his due process protections as a US citizen because he was not confronted with the evidence brought against him, and he was prevented from presenting his own exculpatory evidence. The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled in April that it lacked authority to interfere [opinion, PDF; JURIST report] with the Iraqi court case, however, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in the case in December. AP has more.
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Haditha Marine squad leader court-martial postponed
Nick Fiske at 11:18 AM ET
[JURIST] The court-martial of US Marine Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich [advocacy website] was postponed indefinitely on Friday to allow prosecutors time to appeal a judge's decision to throw out a subpoena for unaired footage from a CBS interview with Wuterich. Military prosecutors argued that the additional footage contains information vital to the case, and that Wuterich may have admitted to his role in the killing 24 Iraqi civilians at Haditha [USMC timeline; JURIST news archive] in November 2005. In throwing out the original subpoena, the judge said last week that prosecutors possessed alternative means for acquiring any evidence relevant to the case. Wuterich was ordered [JURIST report] to face court-martial on December 31, and faces charges of voluntary manslaughter, aggravated assault, reckless endangerment, dereliction of duty and obstruction of justice. AP has more.
Wuterich was initially charged with unpremeditated murder, but the investigating officer in Wuterich's case recommended [JURIST report] last year that the more serious charge be dropped. An official report on the Haditha incident by US Army Major General Eldon Bargewell found "serious misconduct" [JURIST report] on all levels of the US Marine Corps chain of command.
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Myanmar charges rights activists under security law
Kiely Lewandowski at 11:17 AM ET
[JURIST] The military government of Myanmar [JURIST news archive] on Friday brought charges against 20 pro-democracy dissidents under a new security law, charges which carry a penalty of up to 20 years in prison. The dissidents were charged under the so-called 5/96 law [text], which prohibits, among others, any "inciting, demonstrating, delivering of speeches...in order to undermine the stability of the State...and the prevalence of law and order." Defense lawyers for the detained dissidents, including two prominent activists of the 88 Generation Students Group [Asia Times backgrounder], said no trial has yet been scheduled. AP has more.
The detainees were taken into custody during mass protests [JURIST report] last year sparked by rising fuel prices and human rights abuses by the military regime. In early February, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar Paulo Sergio Pinheiro [official profile; JURIST news archive] said that Myanmar has continued to arrest and detain human rights activists [JURIST report], denying them fair trials. In his statement [text], Pinheiro expressed concern about reports that some detainees were in failing health and urgent need of medical treatment.
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Spain court to drops 'Dirty War' genocide case against Argentina ex-naval officer
Nick Fiske at 11:13 AM ET
[JURIST] Spain's National Court on Friday said that it will drop its prosecution of former Argentine naval officer Ricardo Miguel Cavallo [TrialWatch profile; JURIST news archive] and extradite him back to his home country where he will stand trial for for his role in the disappearance of hundreds of people during a 1976 Argentine military coup. Cavallo has been in Spanish custody since 2003 when he was discovered to be living under an assumed name in Mexico City and subsequently transferred to the European country, where he was to be charged under Spain's universal jurisdiction laws [JURIST report]. He was formally charged with genocide [JURIST report], organized terrorism and crimes against humanity in January 2006. Spain's High Court ruled in December 2006 that it did not have jurisdiction [JURIST report] to try Cavallo, however, in July 2007 the Supreme Court overturned that decision [JURIST report] and found that the trial could continue. Nevertheless, the National Court declined to proceed after it determined that charges Cavallo would face in Argentina were similar to those he faced in Spain. AP has more.
Starting in 1976, Argentina's "dirty war" [Global Security backgrounder; JURIST news archive] was a seven-year campaign by the Argentine government against suspected dissidents. It is estimated that between 20,000 and 30,000 people were forcibly kidnapped or "disappeared" following the 1976 Argentine military coup, including approximately 600 Spanish citizens. Cavallo worked at a detention center in Buenos Aires, a prison infamous for its prisoner abuses and executions. Argentinean authorities have been aggressively pursuing former military commanders responsible for human rights violations since two laws providing amnesty for the former officers were struck down [JURIST report] in June 2005.
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Virginia high court upholds first US felony spam conviction
Kiely Lewandowski at 10:32 AM ET
[JURIST] The Supreme Court of Virginia [official website] on Friday upheld the nation's first felony conviction for computer spamming, rejecting admitted spammer Jeremy Jaynes' appeal of a lower court ruling [JURIST report] that Virginia's anti-spamming statute [text] does not violate the First Amendment or the so-called dormant Commerce Clause of the US Constitution and is not unconstitutionally vague. The court held that Jaynes did not have standing to bring a First Amendment challenge to the law for overbreadth and that his other arguments were without merit.
In the ruling [PDF text], the court wrote:There is no question in this case that Jaynes' e-mails "propose a commercial transaction," and are thus some form of commercial speech. As noted earlier, Jaynes makes no claim that his commercial speech, on its own merits, is entitled to any First Amendment protection. Just as clearly, it is self-evident that Jaynes' e-emails are misleading because each contained intentionally false and inaccurate routing and header information intended to shield Jaynes from accountability for his sales schemes. Jaynes does not contest the e-mail routing and header information was false. Thus, Jaynes' commercial speech would fail the initial requirement for First Amendment review. Jaynes was sentenced [JURIST report] to nine years in prison in 2005 but the sentence was stayed pending appeals. AP has more.
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