[JURIST] Updating a story reported earlier today in JURIST's Paper Chase, a US State Department spokesman said Monday that the weekend auction sale of Russian oil giant Yukos' main production arm to satisfy back taxes in the face of a US bankruptcy court order eroded confidence in Russia's business, tax and court system. Richard Boucher said "Conduct of the case has raised serious concerns at the lack of transparency and the independence of Russia's investment and tax laws and the courts", and indicated that American officials would be discussing it with their Russian counterparts. AFP has more. Yukos has said meanwhile that it will "pursue every legal and commercial remedy available to it to recover the corporate value that will be unjustifiably destroyed if the auction of its largest production unit...becomes a completed transaction." Read the Yukos statement here. Yukos has posted the transcript of Saturday's US District Court proceeding upholding the Thursday TRO against sale of any Yukos assets here [PDF].

[JURIST] The Department of Defense announced Monday that according to a DOD panel a detainee held at Guantanamo Bay was wrongly classified as an enemy combatant and would be released soon. Navy Secretary Gordon England refused to identify the man or where he was from. The determination by a combatant status review tribunal sitting at Guantanamo is only the second finding that a detainee has been wrongly held. In 228 other hearings already decided, the military has upheld the enemy combatant designation. Other detainees have been released by the US prior to their detention being reviewed by the tribunal. The Pentagon provides recorded video of today's press briefing by Secretary England here. JURIST's Paper Chase has more coverage on legal developements at Guantanamo Bay. AP has more.

[JURIST] Hungary became the second nation to ratify the European Constitution with a parliamentary vote Monday, only seven months after joining the EU. After Hungary's approval, 23 EU member states have yet to ratify the constitution, with a negative vote from any of them derailing the document. Approval is in question in the UK, the Netherlands, Denmark and France. Spain is expected to be the first country to hold a popular referendum on the constitution, which was signed by EU leaders in October. JURIST's Paper Chase has more on developments on the European Constitution. BBC News has background on the constitution and more on Hungary's ratification.

[JURIST] Defense lawyers for Saddam Hussein are preparing legal challenges to his upcoming war crimes trial to be filed in US courts, according to leaked memos. The Sunday Times reported that a brief titled "The Iraqi Special Tribunal as Victors’ Justice — the Inherent Illegality and Bias of the Whole Process" was prepared by leading UK human rights lawyer Clive Stafford Smith and argues that US law should apply in the case because the trial is being held by US initiative. The brief also argues that Saddam should be granted basic rights held by US citizens such as access to counsel and an independent judge and jury in his trial. The first trials of Saddam's former lieutenants are expected to begin this week. JURIST's Paper Chase has ongoing coverage of legal developments in the case. From the UK, the Sunday Times has more.

[JURIST] KGW-TV in Portland is reporting that WA State Democrats have said the WA Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal over 700 disputed King County in a hand recount for the gubernatorial race. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports that WA Republicans have accused King County election officials of misleading the public about the disputed ballots. JURIST's Paper Chase has more on the superior court ruling in the case. Results from the recount are available here.

2 PM ET - KGW-TV now has a story (registration required) available on the appeal. The WA Supreme Court is slated to hear arguments in the case Wednesday morning. The Seattle Times has more on training that King County poll workers received to deal with absentee ballots.

[JURIST] The US government has agreed to settle a class action brought by Hungarian Holocaust survivors over an estimated $200 million in jewelry, gold and other property that was seized by the US at the end of World War II but never returned to the rightful owners. Lawyers in the case announced Monday that a settlement was reached, although final details remain to be determined. The property filled about 24 boxcars of a train, but much of it was requisitioned or sold by US soldiers, according to the government. The case was originally filed in 2001 in the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida, and calls became widespread for the Department of Justice to settle the case. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Ukrainian opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko opened a 2-hour live TV debate Monday with rival and prime minister Viktor Yanukovych by accusing him of trying to steal the November 21 Ukrainian presidential election, which led to allegations of massive fraud and weeks of protests in Kyiv, resulting in the Ukrainian Supreme Court setting aside the result and calling for new elections. It now also appears that Yushchenko was intentionally poisoned by dioxin in the weeks leading up to the vote; Yanukovych has, however, denied any involvement in the poisoning, which observers say may have been conducted by state security agents. BBC News has background on today's debate and the state of the election contest, which will take Ukrainians to the polls again on December 26 in a race that will be watched very closely by international observers. JURIST is currently carrying the debate broadcast here [via UTR, Ukrainian state television].

[JURIST] US-based rights monitoring group Freedom House said Monday in its annual report on human rights conditions in countries around the world that Russia had dropped into the category of "not free" in the wake of various authoritarian moves this past year by the government of President Vladimir Putin. FH Executive Director Jennifer Windsor said:

Russia's step backwards into the Not Free category is the culmination of a growing trend under President Vladimir Putin to concentrate political authority, harass and intimidate the media, and politicize the country's law-enforcement system, These moves mark a dangerous and disturbing drift toward authoritarianism in Russia, made more worrisome by President Putin's recent heavy-handed meddling in political developments in neighboring countries such as Ukraine.

[JURIST] AP is reporting that Jewish settler leaders have endorsed a call for civil disobedience against Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's planned evacuation of Gaza Strip and West Bank settlements. Pinchas Wallerstein, a former leader of the Yesha Settlers' Council, had previously circulated a letter calling for evacuation to be resisted even if it meant defying the law and going to prison. The Yesha Council offers its views of the diplomatic and legal aspects of the settlement issue here. Israel Attorney General Menahem Mazuz is investigating whether Wallerstein has already broken Israeli law by calling for civil disobedience against the Gaza pullout. The Jerusalem Post has more.

[JURIST] AP is reporting that a Chilean court has upheld the indictment and house arrest of former president General Augusto Pinochet on human rights charges, according to a judge's announcement. BBC News has background on the appeal.

[JURIST] Two Albanians who hijacked an Athens bus and took 23 passangers hostage last Wednesday in a standoff that went on for 18 hours before they surrendered apologized in court Monday for what they themselves called a "stupid act." The men had demanded a $1 million ransom and threatened to blow up the bus, but admitted later they were bluffing. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] In a statement circulated Monday, jailed former Yukos Oil CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky said that the auction sale of Yukos' main Yuganskneftegaz production arm to little-known Baikal Finance Group Sunday had "destroyed" the company and had given the Russian authorities a "wonderful Christmas present." Khordorkovsky is currently on trial in Moscow for tax fraud (official trial website in English here). Meanwhile, controversy still surrounds the putative buyer of the Yukos asset, now alleged by various stories in the Russian press to be a front for Gazprom, the Russian state energy company, or at the very least a company that Gazprom might buy out. From Russia, MosNews.com has local coverage in English.

[JURIST] Lawyers representing former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, now held by the US in Iraq and expected to be tried for war crimes, have relayed a message from him calling on Iraqis to unite. Ziad Khasawneh, a Jordanian lawyer who is spokesman for his defence team, told reporters Sunday that the former dictator "urged the unity of his Iraqi people, regardless of their religious and ethnic creed, to confront U.S. plans to divide their country on sectarian grounds." The message was brought from jail by fellow defense counsel Khalil Dulaimi, an Iraqi lawyer who met with Hussein for some four hours on Thursday, but whose identity was kept secret until yesterday for fear of threats on his life. Dulami reported that Hussein had been kept ignorant of the news, but was "high-spirited" and was wary of the plan for January elections in Iraq. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] An Islamic militant on trial for treason Monday before a Turkish court denied involvement in a 1998 plan to crash an airplane into the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, expected to be crowded with visitors on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of his founding of the Turkish secular state. Metin Kaplan (BBC profile here), sometime called the Caliph of Cologne, head of a group called the Caliphate State which allegedly operated in both Germany and Turkey, was extradited to Turkey in October. During Monday's proceeding he read various verses from the Koran, noted that Islam means "peace" and insisted that "jihad" had several meanings other than "holy war." His trial has now been adjourned to April 2005, when liberalizing reforms to the Turkish penal code take effect. BBC News has more.