[JURIST] A US Army sergeant from Georgia faces a court martial [JURIST report] Thursday at Fort Stewart on charges of refusing to obey his redeployment order [JURIST report] and serve in Iraq after his first eight-month tour. The Army rejected a request by Sgt. Kevin Benderman [defense website] for conscientious objector status [DOD directive, PDF text] and charged him with deserting his unit and missing movement. If found guilty, Benderman faces up to seven years in military prison, possible demotion to private, and a dishonorable discharge. Benderman has said that the atrocities he saw during his first tour in Iraq left him morally opposed to the Iraq war, and he has spoken out repeatedly about the conflict and his decision. Read his columns,A Matter of Conscience [text], A Right to Life [text], and Why I Refused a 2nd Deployment to Iraq [text]. Benderman's case will be heard by a military judge sitting alone, not a jury of soldiers. If convicted, he faces up to seven years in prison. AP has more.

[JURIST] Spc.Sabrina Harman [Wikipedia profile], 27, will become the latest soldier in the Abu Ghraib scandal to stand trial in military court when she appears Thursday before a Fort Hood judge on charges of mistreating detainees in the military prison. A pretrial hearing was held Wednesday [Reuters report] to determine the admissibility of photographic evidence. Harman is accused of taking many of the photographs of detainee abuse that became public in early 2004, writing "rapeist" on one detainee's leg, and forcing another detainee to stand on a small box with a hood over his head and wires attached to his outstretched arms, which he was told were not to be lowered or he would be electrocuted. A charge against Harman for failing to prevent the sexual abuse of prisoners was dropped in February [JURIST report]. Harman has stated that she was never informed of the regulations for treatment of prisoners set by the Geneva Convention [text]. AP has more.

[JURIST] Musa Hilal, suspected leader of the Janjaweed militia [backgrounder] active in the Darfur, said Wednesday that he would stand trial in Sudan rather than face trial outside the country. Hilal, who has consistently denied involvement [BBC News report] in alleged Darfur atrocities, nonetheless insisted if there was any indication he was being tried fairly, he would fight with all means necessary. The UN has passed a list of possible Darfur crimes indictees [JURIST report] to the International Criminal Court [official website] pursuant to a March Security Council resolution [JURIST report], but the Sudanese government [official website] has rejected that option [JURIST report], although it has hinted that it could accept a possible collaboration between the ICC and a Sudanese court. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Kuwaiti prosecutors announced Wednesday that they will shortly be handing over to the Iraqi Special Tribunal [governing statute] a list of crimes committed by Saddam Hussein, whose forces invaded and occupied the country in 1990-1, precipitating the Gulf War. Kuwaiti news agency KUNA [official website, in Arabic] says the already-prepared list has been sent to Kuwait's prime minister for final review before being forwarded to the tribunal in Baghdad. Kuwait previously said it would ask for the death penalty [SA report] for Hussein, and a Kuwaiti respresentative will be present when proceedings against Hussein and 11 of his aides finally begin. Crimes alleged to have been committed by the deposed Iraqi president against the Kuwaiti people include the use of armed force against Kuwait, the disappearance of over 600 Kuwati citizens, and the killing and torture of another 600 Kuwaitis. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Hate crimes and civil rights violations against Muslims in the United States have reached their highest point since right after September 11, according to a report released Wednesday by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) [advocacy website]. As reasons for the recent surge [2005 CAIR press release] the report cites increasing political rhetoric used against Muslim figures and lingering hatred towards Muslims in the US. The Council reported 1,522 incidents of Muslim civil right violations in 2004, a 49 percent increase over 2003. The latest FBI hate crimes report [PDF text] pooling information from 11,900 law enforcement says that hate crimes against Muslims remained relatively the same in number from 2002 to 2004. AP has more.

[JURIST] The International Labor Organization [official website] said Wednesday that some 12.3 million people worldwide are enslaved. The figure was publicized in a new ILO study [PDF text; ILO press release] of forced labor and modern slavery across the globe. The study says 2.4 million people, mostly women and children, have been forced into trafficking, generating a profit of over $30B. This practice is most prevalent in conflict zones, where children {AFP report] are forced into the sex trade or abducted to become soldiers. The report proposes better laws and stronger law enforcement, and encourages countries to work locally in the poorest regions to get to the base of the privately-exacted forced labor. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] Senators and others critical of the sweeping powers granted to law enforcement autorities under the USA Patriot Act [PDF text] testified Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee on behalf of a proposed SAFE Act [PDF text] to limit those powers, in particular by requiring government officials to inform suspects of secret searches of their homes or businesses within seven days so long as a judge does not intervene. Defenders of the Patriot Act insist that there have been no civil liberties violations to date under the act, so such restrictions are unwarranted. Some 15 key provisions of the Act expire at the end of 2005 [JURIST report]; Bush administration and top law enforcement officials have called for all of them to be made permanent [JURIST report]. The US Department of Justice maintains a comprehensive Patriot Act website [government advocacy website]; the American Bar Association Standing Committee on Law and National Security maintains a weblog of commentary on Patriot Act renewal issues. AP has more.

[JURIST] British Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer [official profile] Wednesday proposed a plan to cut the length of criminal trials and reduce the costs of legal aid [Legal Services backgrounder], which have risen by a third since the Labor Party took power in 1997. Under Falconer's proposal, lawyers will have to bid for contracts to take legal aid cases and then pay costs themselves if a trial runs overtime. The money saved by shortening criminal cases would go towards civil legal aid like family hearings. Civil rights groups like Liberty [press release] are nonetheless concerned that the proposal could lead to cases being rushed through the courts, possibly resulting in wrongful convictions and bad sentencing. The Bar Council, which represents barristers, has generally welcomed the proposal but in a press release Wednesday called for proper funding for trial preparation, suggesting that lawyers were themselves often victims of delay. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] Riots erupted across Afghanistan Wednesday in response to a recent report by Newsweek magazine that in an effort to infuriate Muslim prisoners US troops at Guantanamo Bay had desecrated the Koran by placing copies on toilets and in one case had even flushed a copy down a latrine. Insulting the Koran is blasphemy to Muslime and is currently punished by the death penalty in Pakistan and Afghanistan itself. In the conservative Muslim city of Jalalabad Afghan security forces were unable to contain thousands of rioters [Reuters report] and opened fire, killing four and wounding 52. Rioters set Afghan government officials on fire, destroyed UN buildings, ransacked businesses, and burned US flags along with pictures of George Bush and US-backed Afghan President Hamid Karzai. On a visit to NATO [official website] headquarters in Brussels Wednesday, Karzai praised progress made in Afghanistan, but told reporters later that the riots were evidence that Afghan security forces were still unable to handle protests without the assistance of foreign troops. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] A federal judge Tuesday threatened to take over the California prison health care system [backgrounder], citing "terrible" medical care that prisoners receive. Judge Thelton E. Henderson [profile] cited complaints about bad doctors, wretched facilities, and irresponsible management of HIV patients, all of which are said to have led to inmate deaths. The prison system [CA Department of Corrections official website] has acknowledged the health care crisis and has indiacted that it would welcome private management or a court takeover [San Francisco Chronicle report]. Henderson issued an order giving Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger until July 11 to show why federal courts should not take over prison health care. His jurisdiction stems from a 2001 class-action lawsuit filed by prisoners over deplorable health care conditions; the lawsuit was settled [settlement agreement, PDF] in 2002. Read Judge Henderson's order [PDF]. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] A US bankruptcy judge ruled Tuesday that United Airlines [corporate website] may sever its employees' pension plans, precipitating the largest corporate-pension default in US history. The ruling by Judge Eugene Wedoff [official profile] means that United employees will now receive their pensions through Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) [corporate website] which initially opposed the plan, but later agreed to receive $1.5B in notes and convertible stock in a restructured UAL Corp. [backgrounder], United's holding company. The plan will save United $645M annually, a large chunk of the $2B needed for the company to pull out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy [SEC backgrounder]. Although the employees stand to lose thousands annually in pension benefits, Judge Wedoff said this is a better outcome than the company failing and the employees receiving no benefits. United's competition has expressed concern that the scrapping of its pension may give United a financial advantage over other struggling airlines. AP has more.

[JURIST] New York-based monitoring group Human Rights Watch [advocacy website] issued a report Wednesday criticizing the US and other governments in the West and Middle East for sending Islamist detainees to Egypt, a country infamous for torture [JURIST report]. The report, entitled Black Hole: The Fate of Islamists Rendered to Egypt [PDF text], tracked 61 individuals turned over to Egyptian custody since 1994, and concluded that the number actually tranferred there must be much higher because transfers usually occur secretly and without granting detainees an extradition hearing. HRW says that sending prisoners to countries where they are likely to be tortured is a clear breach of international law. President Bush insisted in an April 28 press conference [text], "We operate within the law and we send people to countries where they say they're not going to torture the people." Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Egypt's lower house of Parliament overwhelmingly passed an amendment to the Egyptian Constitution [text] Tuesday setting regulations for multi-candidate presidential elections [JURIST report]. The upper house had passed the regulations [JURIST report] Sunday, which require candidates to be a member of a political party or receive a minimum of 65 recommendations from elected members of the lower house, 25 from the Shura council and 10 from local councils from at least 14 governorates. Egyptian President Hosney Mubarak's party is dominant in all electoral bodies and could effectively refuse to allow serious opposition contenders to run in the elections, especially if they are unaffiliated or outlawed. The amendment is expected to put to a public referendum within the next month. AP has more. Aljazeera has a video report [WM].

[JURIST] The Real ID Act [PDF text; UPI backgrounder] passed the US Senate 100-0 late Tuesday as a rider on an $82B emergency supplemental appropriations bill [PDF text] funding military operations and reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan. The controversial act [CNET FAQ], intended to discourage illegal immigration and increase domestic security, sets federal identification standards for obtaining state driver's licenses and multiplies the number of documents needed to obtain licenses. After 2008, anyone without an approved state ID issued under the act will not be permitted to travel by air or Amtrak, enter federal buildings, or open a bank account. House Judiciary Committee chairman and bill sponsor Rep. James Sensenbrenner failed to get the identity provisions included last year in an intelligence reform package negotiated with the Senate but was promised that he could add them to the next legislative package guaranteed to get overall Congressional approval. In the interim Sensenbrener pushed the provisions through the House again in February as HR 418 [PDF], but the measure became stalled at the Senate committee stage, and no hearings on it were held there.

As part of the appropriations bill the revived Act passed by a narrower 261-161 vote in the House [JURIST report] Thursday after being opposed by some state officials and rights groups [JURIST report]. States, which have 3 years to comply with the act, have expressed concerns about their lack of the financial, infrastructure and personnel resources necessary to implement the act properly. The National Conference of State Legislatures [official website] recently wrote Congress expressing its concern that the act would cost states between $300M and $500M, although Sensenbrenner claims it would cost only $100M to implement; the Congressional Budget Office [official website] predicts it will cost states $50M to $70M annually. UnREALID.com [advocacy website] and other activist groups believe the legislation effectively creates a national ID card and more than 10,800 citizens have filled out the site's on-line petition against the passage of the act. The ACLU [press release] and the Electronic Frontier Foundation [action alert] also mounted unsuccessful last minute drives to stop the Act, which they said would hurt immigrants, asylum seekers, and ordinary citizens. The legislation now heads to President Bush, who is expected to sign it later this month. Read Sensenbrenner's press release on Senate passage of the act. CNET has more.