[JURIST] Iran's Supreme Court [Iranian Judiciary website] has lifted a ban that has kept reformist newspaper Neshat from publishing since 1999. The newspaper was shut down [RFE/RL report] after it criticized the country's penal system, which is based on Islamic Sharia law. Many of the newspaper's staff were arrested in the crackdown, including a two-and-a-half year jail term for publisher Latif Safari, eventually released early in 2001 [Guardian report]. Safari says he hopes to resume publication of the paper as soon as possible and has invited former journalists to return. Reporters Without Borders [advocacy website] has more on media issues in Iran. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] Federal lawmakers from Florida have introduced legislation that would allow federal courts to hear habeas petitions involving an incapacitated person whose life support is expected to be removed, allowing the parents of Terri Schiavo to challenge state court rulings allowing her husband to have her feeding tube removed. FL Sen. Mel Martinez, with support from FL Rep. Dave Weldon, filed Tuesday S. 539 [bill summary], which would extend federal habeas protections to incapacitated persons. Martinez said incapacitated persons such as Schiavo should have the same due process protections as those on death row. Terri's husband Michael Schiavo's attorney said the bill would lead to never-ending petitions for review of state court decisions. Previously, Florida state courts have ruled that Michael Schiavo could have Terri's feeding tube removed, although a judge issued a stay of that order that has delayed any action until March 18. Terri's parents Bob and Mary Schindler, who oppose removing the feeding tube, sought a new battery of medical tests [AP report] Tuesday to determine whether there is a chance Schiavo could regain brain function. Schiavo suffered severe brain damage when her heart stopped beating for several minutes in 1990. AP has more.

[JURIST] Indonesia [JURIST Countries archive] and East Timor's presidents agreed Wednesday to establish a commission to investigate human rights abuses that led to the deaths of more than 1,000 East Timorese in 1999. The Truth and Friendship Commission will be made up of five delegates from each country, and is expected begin its work in August. The Commission will not have the power to prosecute those it determines were responsible for any abuses. Violence broke out in tiny East Timor after a successful referendum on independence from Indonesia, which had controlled the country for the past 24 years. Following the vote, pro-Indonesia militias backed by the Indonesian military launched a violent campaign that led to the deaths. Despite the establishment of the joint commission by the two countries, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has moved ahead with plans to set up an independent commission [UN press release] to review the human rights violations. The Jakarta Post has local coverage. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Florida Tuesday opened its case against Alliance Capital Management [corporate website], the company charged with investing the state's employee pension fund in plunging Enron stock. The Florida State Board of Administration [official website] alleges gross negligence, breach of contract and three other state charges stemming from the fund's $313 million dollar loss caused by continued investment in the troubled company. A fund attorney testified Tuesday that Alliance continued to buy stock even though its own analysts warned the company was about to "blow-up." Florida also alleges Alliance's portfolio manager failed to scrutinize Enron's finances and that the state was misled because Board member Frank Savage also sat on Enron's board. Alliance has denied any wrongdoing and is countersuing for $1.1 million in unpaid investment management fees. Florida had employed Alliance since 1984 and employed about 70 other companies to manage the state's $100 billion retirement fund. Florida's retirement fund was one of the most severely impacted by Enron's downfall; in comparison, Georgia lost $127 million and Arizona lost $35 million. AP has more.

[JURIST] In a warning that could portend further legal trouble, Japan's Fair Trade Commission [official website] said Tuesday that computer chip manufacturer Intel [corporate website] should cease practices that violate Japan's Anti-Monopoly Act [text] by pressuring Japanese companies to buy its chips. The commission based its ruling on deals Intel offered to Japanese computer makers, providing discounts if they purchased exclusively from Intel, and barring manufactures from mixing and matching chips in the same line of computers. While not imposing any fines, the ruling benefits competitors AMD [AMD press release supporting the decision] and Transmeta by making Intel liable to private lawsuits and further governmental proceedings. Intel has issued a statement denying that its practices violated worldwide anti-trust principles. The corporation has 10 days to appeal. AFP has more.

[JURIST] In a Supreme Court report to the National People's Congress, China's Chief Justice Xiao Yang [Xinhuanet profile] said the Supreme People's Court would "further perfect second-instance judgments for criminal cases and death penalty review procedures." The government has suggested that the Supreme Court establish a special tribunal to review death penalty decisions. Currently, the lower courts administer death penalty sentences, which critics claim are inconsistently applied. Officials say these reforms could reduce death penalty convictions by 30 percent. There are 68 crimes punishable by execution in China [JURIST Countries archive], many of them non-violent. It is estimated that China executes between 5,000 and 12,000 people per year, more than any other country. The People's Daily Online has more.

[JURIST] The vast majority of Tunisia's 1400 lawyers went on a one-day strike Wednesday to protest alleged police brutality last week when 200 police stormed a Tunis court to remove 50 lawyers gathered in opposition to an upcoming visit by Israli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for the UN-sponsored World Information Summit [official website]. Sharon will be the first Israeli leader in 57 years to come to Tunisia; his visit is supported by the Tunisian government [official website in French] but opposed by Tunisian human rights groups who object to Israel's tratement of Palestinians. Earlier this month the Tunisian government arrested a lawyer and rights activist who posted two articles critical of Sharon's visit on the Internet; 50 lawyers launched a hunger strike Wednesday in his support. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] A Israeli government-commissioned study of Jewish settlements on the West Bank submitted Tuesday [Israel PMO press release] and made public Wednesday has concluded that 105 outposts are illegal, including 54 built on land not belonging to the Israeli state, of which 15 built on established Palestinian property must be removed immediately. The report by former state prosecutor Talia Sasson was ordered by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and surveys the development of illegal settlements with government complicity and in some instances direct, albeit secret, governmental involvement over a course of 13 years. Speaking at a press conference in Jerusalem, Sasson said that "The violation of the law in such a gross manner and from so many different directions could threaten the democratic regime and must be remedied." The Jersualem Post has local coverage. Israeli settlements in occupied territory are already considered illegal under international law. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] Bosnia [government website] opened its own war crimes court in Sarajevo Wednesday in a move hailed by leaders of the international war crimes tribunal at The Hague who anticipate it will absorb some of that court's backlog as well as gradually devolve legal responsibility for prosecuting local war crimes to local authorities. ICTY prosecutor Carla Del Ponte, who spoke [speech text] at Wednesday's ceremony along with ICTY President Theodore Meron [speech text], says she expects to transfer seven cases to the new court soon, which may get an additional three if the ICTY is to remain on track for handling its remaining suspects and ceasing operations by 2010. Four Serb indictees have already objected to the transfer of their cases to the mainly-Muslim jurisdiction. The Bosnian war crimes court is technically a chamber of the Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina and will gradually be staffed by Bosnians, although most of the current staff are international. It will adjudicate crimes alleged to have been committed in the 1992-95 ethnic Bosnia war which claimed more than 200,000 lives. Bosnian lower courts have already tried some 1000 war crimes cases with permission of the ICTY but serious cases had previously been the responsibility of The Hague. AFP has more.

{JURIST] Taiwanese leaders have condemned the proposed Chinese "anti-secession" law outlined Tuesday [JURIST report] at a meeting of the National People's Congress [government website] in Beijing. The law, the full draft of which has still not been made public, endorses "non-peaceful means" of reunification in the event that peaceful processes fail. Taiwan Vice President Annette Lu [official profile] said that the Chinese were trying to sabotage the status quo in the Taiwan Strait in contravention of international law on the peaceful resolution of disputes, and urged international pressure to prevent China from passing the bill, which is expected to be approved Monday. Taiwanese Premier Frank Hsieh indicated that if China passed any law posing an immediate danger to Taiwan, he would support amending the pre-1949 Taiwanese Constitution to counter the proposed legislation, a suggestion understood to mean that Taiwan might formally define inself as an entity independent of China, rather than part of it (the existing constitution, originally adopted when China was controlled by Nationalist forces now limited to Taiwan, claims sovereignty over the Chinese mainland and Mongolia, as well as Taiwan itself). The Taipei Times has more. The Mainland Affairs Council [official website] of the Taiwanese cabinet has now released an official statement on the Chinese anti-secession law. Meanwhile, American officials speaking Tuesday called the law "unhelpful", with the State Department calling it "counterproductive" and recommending reconsideration. The United States has traditionally supported the Taiwan regime, even after recognizing the mainland Communist Chinese government in 1979. AFP has more on the US reaction.

[JURIST] FBI Director Robert Mueller [official profile] suggested to the House Appropriations Committee in testimony [prepared text] Tuesday that terror suspects be legally prohibited from buying guns. Under current federal regulatory practice, highlighted yesterday in a new Government Accountability Office report [PDF], persons suspected of links to terror groups are not included among the categories of persons banned from buying firearms, such as convicted felons, fugitives, convicted drug users, and illegal aliens. Instead, they are simply made subject to a more intensive background check. The GAO study found that 47 people on a terrorism watch list had in fact been approved for weapons purchases in the past year. The head of the National Rife Association [advocacy website] says it is opposed to a comprehensive ban, insisting that the current practice operates satisfactorily. USA Today has more.

[JURIST] UK Home Secretary Charles Clarke offered additional concessions on the British government's proposed Prevention of Terrorism Bill [UK Parliament text] Wednesday after the legislation came back from the upper chamber House of Lords riddled with amendments designed to protect traditional civil liberties [UK Parliament text] against potentially-arbitrary state action. Changes called for by the Lords included the issuance of all so-called "control orders" limiting the movements of terror suspects by judges rather than the government, elevation of the burden of proof for control orders from "reasonable grounds" to "balance of probablities", the prohibition of evidence obtained against suspects by torture abroad, and the introduction of a "sunset clause" on the legislation to take effect at the end of November. The Home Secretary said that the bill would be revised to provide for all control orders to be issued by judges except in emergencies (with judicial review in seven days) and to be renewable on an annual basis. No change is to be made on the burden of proof issue, however. Opposition parties in the Commons Wednesday decried the proposed changes as inadequate and constituting a "formula for the miscarriage of justice." BBC News has local coverage.

[JURIST] Ramush Haradinaj, who resigned yesterday as Kosovo prime minister [official website] after being indicted for war crimes [JURIST report] in connection with his activities while a senior commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army in the late 1990s, flew to the Hague Wednesday on a German military plane to face trial before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia [official website]. The charges against Haradinaj, which are expected to be unsealed once he is registered in the Tribunal's detention facility, are said to include responsibility for the murders of Serbs and Albanian collaborators. After local and international leaders appealed for calm [UNMIK administrator's statement, PDF] in the face of the indictment, Kosovo remained quiet overnight, with only a small protest of several students in the capital, Pristina. German KFOR peacekeeping forces in the west of the region, Haradinaj's power base, have stepped up security. Reuters has more.