[JURIST] AP is reporting that the Florida Supreme Court has refused to overturn Judge George Greer's order of earlier this afternoon [JURIST report] blocking the Florida Department of Children and Familes from taking custody of Terri Schiavo. Read the order [PDF].

[JURIST] The former head of security for fallen Russian oil giant Yukos [corporate website] has been convicted of murder and attempted murder in a Russian court, the first conviction among former Yukos executives being held in Russia. Lawyers for Alexei Pachugin, who was accused of carrying out murders for Leonid Nevzlin [JURIST report], Yukos' second-largest shareholder, have announced that they will appeal the ruling, which was reached in a secret retrial after the initial jury was dismissed by the Moscow City Court. Pachugin's lawyers said that if the Russian Supreme Court [court website, in English] declines to annul the verdict, they will appeal to the European Court. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] The Federal Election Commission [agency website] took tentative first steps in regulating Internet political activity Thursday by calling for public input on limited campaign guidelines for the medium. While commissioners expressed a reluctance to regulate online speech in any way, draft guidelines [PDF] issued by the commission suggest making campaign finance rules and other regulations found in other media applicable to certain Internet-based political advertising and e-mails, focusing on paid advertising and spam e-mail. Despite the restrained nature of the proposed regulations, many groups have spoken out against any regulation of the Internet, citing its capacity to present an unlimited viewpoints and to act as a resource for people seeking out certain kinds of content. AP has more. See statement [PDF] by Commissioner Ellen Weintraub, one of the leading forces behind the draft guidelines.

[JURIST] France said Thursday that it will delay a UN Security Council [official website] vote on its proposed resolution that would ensure that any Darfur war crimes trials are held at the International Criminal Court [official website]. France drafted its resolution to counter the US position [JURIST report] in favor of establishing an ad-hoc tribunal operating from Tanzania. The delay puts off a direct political confrontation with the US and makes way for a Security Council vote late Thursday on a separate resolution that would send a 10,000-strong peacekeeping force to Sudan [JURIST news archive]. The peacekeeping resolution is expected to be approved. AFP has more.

6:12 PM ET - The UN Security Council approved 10,000 peacekeepers to monitor the January peace accord that ended 21 years of civil war in Sudan.

[JURIST] Canada's Immigration and Refugee Board [official website] Thursday denied the asylum claim of Jeremy Hinzman [advocacy website], the US soldier who deserted his unit before being deployed to Iraq and subsequently fled to Canada, saying that Hinzman did not make a convincing argument that he faced persecution in the US. Hinzman had accused the US of committing war crimes in Iraq [JURIST report] and argued before the IRB that, because the war was illegal, any violent acts he would have committed if forced to go to Iraq would have amounted to atrocities. The IRB also denied the asylum claims of Hinzman's wife and son, saying "Removal to the U.S. would not subject them personally to a risk to their lives or to a risk of cruel and unusual treatment or punishment." Hinzman's lawyer said Thursday that he would ask Canada's Federal Court to review the IRB decision [text, executive summary]. If Hinzman returns to the US, he will face a military court-martial for desertion with the possibility of a five-year jail sentence. Canadian Press has more.

[JURIST] AP is reporting that a Florida state judge has ruled that Governor Jeb Bush and Florida's social services agency do not have any legal grounds for taking protective custody [JURIST report] of Terri Schiavo [JURIST news archive].

2:56 PM ET - Greer said in his ruling that "The requested intervention ... appears to be brought for the purpose of circumventing the courts' final judgment and order setting the removal date in violation of the separate of powers doctrine." ABC WTSP-TV in Tampa has posted this video report.

3:20 PM ET - A WTSP print report on the Greer ruling in now online, saying that Governor Bush has said he will not violate Greer's order by sending state officers in to take Terri Schiavo by force. His office, is, however, said to be "frantically" looking over state laws to find some other recourse.

[JURIST] In Thursday's environmental law brief, a Jakarta Indonesia court has ruled that the travel ban on the six Newmont Mining Co. [company website] executives that has been in place since last October is illegal. Despite the ruling, the executives are still being detained in the country as objects of an ongoing criminal case into alleged pollution of the Buyat Bay. The Rocky Mountain News has the full story including an interview with one of the executives.

Previously on JURIST's PaperChase:

• Indonesian high court rules Newmont exec detentions legal
• Indonesia to proceed with charges against Newmont execs
• Newmont officials still detained in Indonesia despite new study
• Gold mine at center of court battle not polluting Indonesian bay, says WHO

• The Canadian government has reached an agreement with automobile manufacturers requiring greenhouse gas emissions for all cars sold in the country to be reduced by 25 percent of 1995 levels by 2010. The deal was reportedly reached after Canadian officials threatened to copy the California auto emission standards which have been adopted by a handful of US states despite being more stringent than US federal standards. The Los Angeles Times has the full story.
  
  
• The New Hampshire State Senate [official website] is currently considering a bill [text] that would issue more stringent mercury emission controls on the state's power plants than the new EPA limits, and would ban the trading of pollution allowances to meet those standards. Last week, the EPA issued mercury regulations [JURIST report] that both set limits and allowed trading allowances. The New York Times has more.
  
  
• The US Fish and Wildlife Service [official website] seeks comments on a proposed rule [text] that would reclassify the American crocodile [FWS factpage](Crocodylus acutus) in Florida as a threatened species. Currently, it is listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act of 1973 [text], but since its listing in 1975, the American crocodile population in Florida has more than doubled, its distribution has expanded, and land acquisition has provided protection for many important nesting areas. Comments can be made here until May 23.

[JURIST] Chile's Supreme Court [official website] ruled Thursday that ex-dictator Augusto Pinochet [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] cannot be prosecuted over the killing of his predecessor as Chile's army chief, General Carlos Prats [profile in Spanish]. The ruling reverses a lower court ruling that had stripped Pinochet of his immunity from prosecution in the 1974 car bombing assassination of Prats. The Supreme Court reversed the Santiago Appeals Court because the appeal court had already refused an Argentine judge's request to have his immunity removed. The Court did not address the allegations made in the case. Former Chilean secret police agent Enrique Arancibia is currently serving a life sentence for his role in Prats' assasination. Pinochet still faces various other charges. Last year, the Supreme Court removed Pinochet's immunity in the case of his role in Operation Condor [Wikipedia profile], a conspiracy by six South American regimes kill their left-wing opponents. From Santiago, La Nacion has local coverage. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] ABC WFTS-TV in Tampa is reporting that the Florida Department of Children and Families [official website] may have lost an opportunity - perhaps its only opportunity - to take Terri Schiavo into protective custody and restore her feeding tube contrary to a court order. Early Thursday morning around 8 AM the Department appealed Judge George Greer's injunction against its intervention, automatically staying the injunction and opening a legal window during which it could act. As a morning hearing began around 11:15, however, no action had been taken and Greer restored the injunction, although the Department continues to try and stall for time. Greer is expected to rule on the original DCF petition [JURIST report] later today. WFTS has more [video report].

1:19 PM ET - A WFTS-TV print report is now available.

2:04 PM ET - A copy of the DCF appeal and Judge Greer's order restoring the stay [PDF] is now online from DCF.

[JURIST] The Austrian Justice Ministry [official website] has dropped its case against a former Nazi psychiatrist accused of killing children at a Vienna clinic after he was ruled unfit for trial. The government said Wednesday that Heinrich Gross, 89, suffers from dementia and could not stand trial. Gross worked at a children's clinic in Austria where 789 children were killed as part of a Nazi euthanization campaign. He was jailed briefly following the war, but he was never convicted in subsequent criminal trials, with the most recent in 2000 being halted [BBC News report] due to Gross' poor health. A justice ministry spokesman said Gross was the last Nazi against whom charges were being investigated in Austria. Gross managed to escape notice and worked as a forensic psychiatrist in Vienna courts as late as 1997. Deutsche Welle has more.

[JURIST] Leading Thursday's corporations and securities law news, Adelphia Communications Corp. [corporate website] is reportedly close to settling claims made by the US Department of Justice [official website] and the SEC related to the massive accounting and management scandal at the company. Adelphia will pay about $725 million making it one of the largest penalties paid in recent years. The claims arise from the cable company's collapse in 2002 amid claims the company's founders used millions of dollars of company funds for personal use and misrepresented its financial condition. Investors have lost billions of dollars due to the collapse. Reuters has more. In related news, Adelphia founder John Rigas [Wikipedia profile], and his son, who were convicted of fraud and conspiracy last year, have had their sentencing postponed by a federal judge until April 18. Read the Rigas indictment [PDF]. Read the SEC complaint against Adelphia and Rigas. AP has more.

In other news...

• A Florida court has ruled that Morgan Stanley [corporate website] helped Sunbeam Corp. inflate its financial condition as it was pursuing a takeover of Coleman Co. in 1998. According to the lawsuit brought by Coleman, Morgan Stanley knew or should have know about Sunbeam's deteriorating financial condition. Coleman is asking for almost $900 million in damages which could be tripled under the state court's rules. Reuters has more.
  
  
• San Diego's District Attorney's Office [official website] has informed top officials at City Hall that it launched a criminal probe into the city's pension system and its 13-member board of trustees. The focus of the probe relates to pension board votes in 2002 in which a majority of trustees, including several city employees, endorsed a plan to let the city underfund the retirement system. The San Diego Union-Tribune has more.
  
  
• Timothy Despain, a former Enron assistant treasurer who pleaded guilty to conspiracy [plea bargain, PDF] for participating in a scheme to falsely claim cash flow of at least $5 billion at Enron [corporate website; JURIST Hot Topic news archive], had his sentencing postponed for a year from now to March 2006. The judge reset the sentencing date because Despain is cooperating with prosecutors and is a potential witness in the trial of other Enron defendants. Read the charges against Despain [PDF]. The Houston Chronicle has more and continuing coverage of the Enron trials.
  
  
• Kmart Holding Corp. [corporate website] shareholders have approved the company's acquisition of Sears, Roebuck and Co [corporate website]. The $11 billion deal is part the combined company's plan to reverse lagging sales. AP has more.
  
  
• As previously reported in JURIST's Paper Chase, a French appeals court found billionaire investor George Soros [official biography] guilty of insider trading upholding a 2002 conviction. The court ruled Soros broke French insider trading laws when he purchased shares of Societe Generale SA shares with the knowledge that the bank may be a takeover target. The court ordered Soros to pay back his 2.2 million euros in gains. Bloomberg has more.

[JURIST] A French appeals court on Thursday affirmed a 2002 conviction of investor George Soros [Wikipedia profile] for insider trading, including a $2.9 million penalty. The court ruled that Soros' 1988 purchase of French bank Societe Generale SA [corporate website] stock with knowledge that the bank might be the object of a takeover bid broke insider trading laws. Soros has maintained his innocence and claimed that the takeover rumors were widely known at the time. Soros' appeal options are now limited to arguing the law was wrongly applied or to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. Bloomberg has more.

[JURIST] A United Nations report on peacekeeper sex abuse released Thursday has described its military arm as deeply flawed. The report, authored by Prince Zeid al Hussein, Jordan's UN ambassador, was issued as a response to repeated allegations of sexual abuse [JURIST story] by UN peacekeepers in missions ranging from Bosnia and Kosovo to West Africa and Congo. The report makes a host of recommendations designed to make peacekeepers drawn from the militaries of UN member states more accountable. Currently the UN has few if any legal options to take action against accused peacekeepers; peacekeepers accused of wrongdoing are generally sent to their home country to face punishment but rarely have displinary or other legal action taken against them. Zeid has recommended having military court martials in the country where the claims were made, asking nations to refer cases to national courts for prosecution if peacekeepers did commit abuse, and withholding salaries of the guilty. Zeid has set a target date of 2007 to complete his recommendations. The full text of the report is not yet available online. AP has more.

[JURIST] Canadian citizens may be subjected to expanded "control measures" such as house arrests currently being developed for use against immigrant terror suspects, Canadian Justice Minister Irwin Cotler [official profile] has said. The proposed detention rules are meant to expand authorities' options in dealing with immigrants arrested on suspicion of terrorism other than jailing them. However, Cotler said Wednesday that the control measures could also be used for Canadian citizens suspected of terrorism ties. Under the Anti-Terrorism Act [text], passed in 2001, the government, subject to judicial approval, can arrest and jail citizens if it is believed that such action will prevent terrorist acts. The control measures were inspired by recent legislation approved in the UK [JURIST report] that gives authorities more flexibility in dealing with terrorism suspects. Irwin said the proposal offers a middle ground between indefinite imprisonment and release. The Globe and Mail has more.

[JURIST] Itar-Tass is reporting that the Kyrgyz Supreme Court has invalidated disputed parliamentary elections. Kyrgyzstan President Askar Akayev had been flown to Russia and his family had been taken to Kazakhstan just hours after protestors, demanding Akayev's resignation after allegations of fraud, stormed the presidential compound. Court chairman Kurmanbek Osmonov is quoted as saying that the court recognizes the former parliament as the legitimate legislature. The Kyrgyz government website is currently offline. AP has more on the resignation and the invalid elections.

1:42 PM ET - AP is reporting Kyrgyzstan's parliament elected former opposition lawmaker Ishenbai Kadyrbekov as the country's interim president.

[JURIST] AP is reporting that the US Supreme Court has just refused to issue an emergency stay in the Schiavo case, and will not order re-insertion of her feeding tube. From DC, SCOTUSblog reports that the order reads: "The application for a stay of enforcement of judgment pending the filing and disposition of a petition for write of certiorari, presented to Judge Kennedy and by him referred to the Court, is denied." There appear to have no dissents.

10:41 AM ET - AP now has more. The Supreme Court refusal appears to leave only one other immediate legal option for the Schindlers that could keep Terri Schiavo alive - a petition to intervene for a protective order by the Florida Department of Children and Families. Pinellas County circuit court judge George Greer issued an injunction against any such action late Wednesday [JURIST report] but has said he would rule on the formal motion by Noon today. Further federal court action by the Schindlers is still possible however, especially as a suit filed under the federal law passed Sunday remains to be tried.

11:28 AM ET - A copy of the brief Supreme Court order denying the emergency stay is now online [PDF].

1:24 PM ET - Florida attorney Mark Conigliaro has posted a copy of an amended complaint [PDF] filed by the Schindlers with US District Judge James Whittemore, who ruled against them Tuesday in their original request for an injunction that could allow the restoration of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube.

4:40 PM - ABC WTSP-TV in Tampa says a hearing on the amended complaint is scheduled for 6 PM this evening.

7:52 PM ET - Florida attorney Mark Conigliaro has posted the Schindlers' second amended complaint [PDF; adding a Fourteenth Amendment claim that removing Terri Schiavo's feeding tube is opposed to her wish to live] and Judge Whittemore's briefing and hearing schedule [PDF] on his Abstract Appeal weblog.

[JURIST] Hong Kong democratic legislator Albert Chan announced Thursday that he will head a legal challenge against the government's plan to shorten the term of the territory's next chief executive from five years to two. In the wake of the March 10 resignation of chief executive Tung Chee-hwa [official site], the Beijing-backed Hong Kong government says that Chee-hwa's successor would serve out his remaining two years in office rather than serve five years as mandated under Hong Kong's constitution-like Basic Law [full text; official site]. Chan, supported by 24 other pro-democracy lawmakers, fears the government's action damages the "One Country, Two Systems" principle that ensures Hong Kong's autonomy. A constitutional challenge in the form of legal action, however, could hamper July plans for the city's electoral college of 800 Beijing loyalists to select the next leader. AFP has more.

[JURIST] Former Macedonian interior minister Ljube Boskovski surrendered to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website] in The Hague Thursday after being charged with war crimes committed against ethnic Albanians. Boskovski, who had been in prison for charges relating to the murder of seven immigrants while he was the interior minister in 2002, was charged jointly with his former bodyguard Johan Tarculovski, who surrendered to the tribunal last week. The two men, the only Macedonians indicted by the ICTY, are said to be responsible for the murder of seven ethnic Albanian civilians in 2001 during a conflict between local ethnic Albanian guerrillas and Macdeonian government security forces. Read the indictment against Boskovski and Tarculovski. AFP has more.

[JURIST] The United Nations [official website] has admitted it erred Tuesday when it said the reason it would pay the legal fees [UN press release] of the Iraq oil-for-food program [official website] chief Benon Sevan [official profile] was because of the importance an independent investigatory body placed on his cooperation in the investigation of the program. The UN corrected its error after former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker [Wikipedia profile], chair of the independent investigation [official website] into the Oil-for-Food program scandal, disputed the UN statement. Mark Malloch-Brown, chief of staff for UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, said Wednesday that the legal fees were paid by the UN because if they had not been, Sevan would have returned to his home in Cyprus. The reason for the UN paying Sevan's legal fees became an issue because Volcker's initial report [PDF] had accused Sevan of creating a conflict of interest while he was in charge of the program. The UN Iraq's ambassador to the UN said Iraqi oil revenue, which has been paying for the Volcker investigation, should not pay for Sevan to defend himself against the charges that he he bilked the program. AP has more.

[JURIST] A trial court judge in Ohio ruled Wednesday that the state's new constitutional amendment banning gay marriage [text] prevents domestic violence charges from being filed against unmarried people. Ohio's domestic violence law was not limited to married people. The public defender of the accused, however, argued Ohio's constitution prohibits any state or local law which "creates or recognizes a legal status for relationships of unmarried individuals." Prior to the passage of the amendment, prosecutors, under the domestic violence law, defined a family as including an umarried couple living together as would a husband and wife. The judge said the new amendment changes the confines of this law. Ohio's gay marriage amendment is regarded as very broad because it bans legal status to all unmarried couples. Read the trial court opinion [PDF]. AP has more.

[JURIST] The British government persisted Thursday in refusing to disclose the full legal advice it received from Attorney General Lord Goldsmith [official profile] on the Iraq war despite disclosure of a previously blanked-out text in the 2003 resignation letter of a Foreign Office legal advisor that said he had changed his mind over the legality of the conflict. The claim was made in a letter [text] written by former deputy legal adviser Elizabeth Wilmshurst, who resigned days before the war because she did not believe the invasion to be legal and was in fact a "crime of aggression". In the letter, she says Goldsmith changed his own mind over a ten day period after initially saying the war would be illegal without a second United Nations resolution. Opponents of the Blair government believe Goldsmith changed his mind due to political pressure. Goldsmith meanwhile maintains that his conclusion was independent and his own. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] Lawyers for the parents of brain-damaged Florida woman Terri Schiavo filed a final appeal with the US Supreme Court Wednesday night after the US Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals refused an en banc rehearing of their case [JURIST report]. The emergency petition for stay [PDF text] pending hearing of a petition for certiorari appears to have been put together quickly and at times uses rhetoric that seems more appropriate for a revival meeting or a political rally than a legal plea:

A miraculous event occurred during the weekend after Terri’s feeding tube was removed which fundamentally alters the manner in which Terri’s claims are to be viewed by the federal courts when Congress, in a bi-partisan and dramatic fashion, thundered the message through P. L No. 109-3, that the United States of America must stand for life, accuracy, and fairness in the process afforded to an innocent, incapacitated woman.

On Sunday, March 20, 2005, the House and Senate convened in an
extraordinary, and unprecedented, Sunday session to pass a bill that expressly provides that there will be a full trial on the merits. It strains credulity to assert that Congress intended by this language to confer discretion on the trial court to destroy the jurisdiction created by the P. L. NO. 109-3by standing idly [sic] while Terri Schiavo starves and dehydrates pursuant to the order of a Florida court. Were that the Congressional intent, giving the Schindler family the right to seek review of that order would be little more than a cruel hoax... If Terri Schiavo dies, her federal claims become moot, and the entire exercise of Congressional authority under Article III s.1 and Amendment XIV s.5 – authorization of federal court review of her present condition and federal claims against the State of Florida – was a colossal waste of both Congress’ and this Court’s time.

A woman is dying from dehydration and starvation. President Bush recognized this emergency situation where every minute counts by re-arranging his schedule to be in Washington D.C. immediately upon passage of this bill. We would respectfully request that this Court honor the good and noble intentions of the U.S. Congress and the personal sacrifice of the President with the same commitment to save life. I implore this Court to move immediately to save the life of Terri Schiavo upon the passage of this law, even if that occurs later today or at 12:01 a.m. Monday morning. A tragedy of unbelievable proportions would occur if the Act is passed into law and this Court does not respond in time to save Terri Schiavo’s life.

I plead with you to move immediately on this matter. It is expected that Terri Schiavo’s innocent life will be placed in the hands of this most honorable Court. On behalf of her parents, we respectfully plea for the life of their daughter whom they love more than life itself.

[JURIST] Here's a run-down of law-related events, expected developments and live webcasts on JURIST's docket for Thursday, March 24.

The US Senate and US House [official websites] are in recess until April 4.

American University Washington College of Law will hold a forum on the Geneva Conventions [text] today. Sessions will run from 9 AM to 6 PM ET. View the agenda, and watch a live webcast via C-SPAN 2.

The Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research and the AEI-Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies are hosting a forum titled "The Future of Telecom Deregulation: Two Alternative Views," beginning at 10 AM ET. Watch a live webcast via C-SPAN.

A decision is expected today [Reuters report] by Canada's Immigration and Refugee Board [official website] on whether a US soldier who deserted due to opposition to the war in Iraq qualifies for refuge. Jeremy Hinzman fled to Canada [JURIST report] after being called up for service in Iraq.

Tajikistan is holding a second round of parliamentary elections [CNN backgrounder] today.

The 61st session of the UN Commission on Human Rights [official website] continues in Geneva today. View the daily agenda [DOC].

At the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, the trial of Slobodan Milosevic [ICTY case backgrounder] continues today at 9:30 AM local time [3:30 AM ET]. Also today, the trial of Fatmir Limaj and others [ICTY case backgrounder] continues at 2:45 PM local time [8:45 AM ET]. Watch a webcast of proceedings.