[JURIST] AP is reporting that Hummam Hammoudi, a Shiite Muslim cleric who is a senior aide in the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq [Global Security.com backgrounder], will likely be announced as head of the Iraqi constitution committee. The formal announcement is expected Tuesday during a meeting of the National Assembly [Wikipedia profile]. It is also expected that legislator Fouad Massoum, a Kurd, and Sunni Arab legislator Adnan al-Janabi, will be named as Hammoudi's deputies. The appointment of a Sunni deputy is a positive move toward more Sunni inclusion [JURIST report] in both the government and in the process to draft the constitution [JURIST news archive]. Under the Transitional Administrative Law [text], the constitution must be drawn up by mid-August and put to a nationwide referendum by October. Earlier this month, the National Assembly appointed [JURIST report] a 55-member committee of legislators from Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish groups to draw up the charter. AP has more.

[JURIST] President Bush and Afghan President Hamid Karzai [Wikipedia profile] met in the White House East Room Monday to discuss US military operations in Afghanistan [meeting transcript]. The leaders were able to agree on a joint declaration [text] that US and coalition forces will continue to have "the freedom of action to conduct appropriate military operations". The measure fell short, however, of Karzai’s stated desire to have coalition forces consult the Afghan government before conducting any raid to search for members of Al Qaeda and the Taliban, and also contained no promise that Afghan prisoners in US custody would be turned over to his government. Over the weekend, amid recent reports of prisoner abuse, Karzai said he wanted all Afghan prisoners in US custody handed back to Afghan authorities [JURIST report]. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] AP is reporting that a bipartisan group of Senators has reached a deal to avert a showdown over judicial nominees. Sources state that under the agreement, Democrats would pledge not to filibuster any of Bush's future appeals court or Supreme Court nominees, except in "extraordinary circumstances."

[JURIST] In a sure sign that Republicans are prepared to spend all night debating the filibuster, workers Monday set up dozens of cots in the Strom Thurmond Room of the Capitol. The session to decide President Bush's nomination of Pricilla Owen, a Texas Supreme Court justice, to the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals has been scheduled through Tuesday. If Owen's nomination is blocked, Republican leaders are expected to strip Democrats of their ability to utilize the filibuster [JURIST report] to block up or down votes of judicial nominees. Senate minority leader Harry Reid [official website] stated Monday that the prospects of something being worked out are very remote. Colorado Senator Ken Salazar [official website], a Democrat who has been trying to arrange a bipartisan deal to avoid a filibuster showdown, stood side by side with Reid and gave his own pessimistic view, saying a last-ditch compromise was now only "a remote possibility". In a rare public appearance, Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist, whose health has been deteriorating in recent months, made a visit [MSNBC report] Monday to Capitol Hill in a wheelchair. Rehnquist's visit serves as a reminder that the current debate could have implications on an expected upcoming Supreme Court nomination. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Leading Monday's international brief, the Egyptian Parliament [government website] has unanimously approved a decision by Egyptian President Hosny Mubarak [official profile] to send Egyptian troops to Sudan [government website] under the UN peacekeeping mandate in Security Council Resolution 1590 [official PDF text]. The troops are expected to be in place by 1 June and the Parliament authorized a continued Egyptian military presence for six years. The UN is paying for all expenses incurred by nations providing military troops to the Sudan peacekeeping mission. JURIST's Paper Chase has continuing coverage of Sudan [JURIST news archive]. ReliefWeb has more.

In other international legal news ...

• A UN investigative team issued a report Monday confirming that the final elements of the Syrian military have withdrawn from Libya in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 1559 [official PDF text] which required complete withdrawal by the beginning of May 2005. The team found no "Syrian military forces, assets or intelligence apparatus" inside the Lebanese border, but noted that there was a Syrian regiment deployed at Deir al-Ashayier, an area currently the subject of border negotiations between the two countries. The team was unable to verify the complete withdrawal of intelligence agents, due to their normal status as clandestine and not clearly marked. JURIST's Paper Chase has continuing coverage of Syria [JURIST news archive]. Reuters has more.
  
  
• Palitha Kohona, Chief of the Treaty Section in the UN Office of Legal Affairs [official website], Monday announced the focus for the annual UN treaty signing event scheduled for 14 - 16 September. The theme for the treaty event will be "Focus 2005: Responding to Global Challenges" and Kohona said that the event would be aimed at encouraging nations specifically to sign 32 treaties highlighted during the event. Among these is the International Criminal Court's Rome Statute, and several anti-terrorism conventions. Read the official Office of Legal Affairs press release. The UN News Centre has more.
  
  
• Zimbabwean police have arrested nearly 10,000 illegal street vendors in the past five days in a concerted effort to eliminate the rampant black market in the capital city of Harare. Police have arrested and fined the vendors either for operating without licenses or for possessing scarce staple items such as maize meal, sugar and petrol intended for resale on the black market. Demonstrations protesting the crack-down have broken out in the streets as residents worry about their ability to obtain scarce items without a black market option. Zim Online is reporting that the Zimbabwe military has been put on alert [Zim Online report] to quell and civil unrest in response to the protests. JURIST's Paper Chase has continuing coverage of Zimbabwe. Zim Online has local coverage.

[JURIST] The European Union [official website] has given software giant Microsoft until the end of May to comply with its antitrust order [Microsoft's implementation plan for the agreement] or face punitive sanctions, officials for both organizations said Monday. The dispute is due mostly to what regulators see as Microsoft's lack of cooperation in providing server software source codes to competitors and whether the Windows package they were forced to produce is up to standard. The EU has the power to fine Microsoft up to five percent of it daily sales globally but Microsoft said it continues to work with the EU towards a goal of full compliance. AP has more.

[JURIST] Following up on a morning report in JURIST's Paper Chase, Iran's leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei [Wikipedia profile] has ordered the Guardian Council [Wikipedia entry] to reconsider a decision to reject all reformist candidates running for the presidency. Specifically, Ayatollah Khamenei, the highest authority in Iran on political and spiritual matters, urged the Council to review the applications of two reformist candidates, Mostafa Moin [Wikipedia profile] and Mohsen Mehr Alizadeh. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] Middle East spokeswoman for Amnesty International [advocacy website] Nicole Choueiry expressed the group's opposition Monday to a recent announcement from Iraq's Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari [Wikipedia profile] that the death penalty would be retained in Iraq and that the new government would be willing to use it to combat serious offenses like murder, kidnapping, and drug dealing. Al-Jaafari vowed to deal especially harshly with anyone trying to incite warfare between Shi'ites and Sunnis, a recent insurgent tactic. The Iraqi Red Crescent Society [profile, PDF] has denounced the use of the death penalty as an abuse of international human rights laws. IRIN has more.

[JURIST] In a 7-2 decision the US Supreme Court [official website] ruled Monday that it is unconstitutional to force capital murder defendants to appear before juries in shackles. The majority said that viewing a prisoner in shackles would be too damaging to the jury's perception of the defendant. Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas claimed in dissent that the risk to court personnel was greater than the benefits to defendants of not appearing in chains. Read the Court's opinion [PDF text] in Deck v. Missouri [backgrounder from Duke Law School's Program in Public Law]. AP has more.

Also Monday, the Supreme Court dismissed an appeal by a Mexican citizen on death row in Texas that he and others like him should have their sentences overturned because they were improperly denied legal assistance from their consulates. The court acknowledged a last-minute move by President Bush ordering state courts to revisit the issue. Read the Court's opinion [PDF text] in Medellin v. Dretke [Duke Law backgrounder]. AP has more.

In Lingle v. Chevron USA [Duke Law backgrounder], the Supreme Court ruled that the state of Hawaii did not overstep its authority when it imposed caps on the rent paid by dealer-run gas stations in an effort to keep gas prices stable. Read the Court's opinion [PDF text]. AP has more.

In Johanns v. Livestock Marketing Association [Duke Law backgrounder], the Court also ruled that the government had a right to force beef producers to pay for a multi-million dollar marketing campaign even though some individual cattle farmers disagreed with the program. Read the Court's opinion [PDF text]. AP has more.

Finally, in Clingman v. Beaver [Duke Law backgrounder], the Court ruled that a state may prevent political parties from inviting voters from other political parties to participate in its primary. Read the Court's opinion [PDF text].

[JURIST] An appeals court for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda [official website] Monday set aside the life sentence of Juvenal Kajelijeli [profile], convicted in 2003 of genocide and incitement to commit genocide, and converted it to 45 years with credit given for seven years served. An ICTR press release cited violations of Kajelijeli's fundamental rights during his arrest and detention for the reduced sentence given to the former mayor of Mukingo. Kajelijeli was found guilty mobilizing troops and ordering them to murder Tutsis and played a key role in setting up roadblocks for more efficient killing. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] In a commencement address at Pace Law School [official website] Sunday, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan's Chef de Cabinet Mark Malloch Brown [UN biography] referred to the US as an "ungainly giant" that prefers to play by its own rules rather than those of the international community. He also pointed to US opposition to the International Criminal Court [official website] and the Kyoto treaty [text] as evidence of its increasing isolation. Malloch Brown's unusually strong statements come as Annan has struck back at opponents who have criticized the UN and his involvement in the oil-for-food scandal [JURIST news archive]. AP has more.

[JURIST] Republican Dino Rossi [campaign website] is challenging the 2004 election victory of Democratic Washington Governor Christine Gregoire [official website], the closest statewide election in history. Rossi, who won the first count by 261 votes and a machine recount by 42 votes, is alleging illegal votes were cast by felons and dead people. A final hand recount gave Gregoire the win by 129 votes [JURIST report] and sparked the legal challenge. Problems involving human error in hand counting votes are expected to be argued, similar to arguments made in the presidential election in Florida in 2000 and in Ohio in 2004. Polls show most citizens of Washington believe Rossi won the race but a majority did not want a new election. AP has more.

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website] said Monday it will decide an unsettled issue of abortion law: the standard to apply when judging the constitutionality of abortion restrictions. That issue and the issue of whether a health exception should exist for parental consent laws for minors are set to be decided in Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood of Northern New England. AP has more. No other cases were granted certiorari; the court's full Order List from Monday is here [PDF].

[JURIST] Staff Sgt. Shane Werst's military trial is set to start Monday in the shooting death of Iraqi detainee Naser Ismail. Werst was charged in November 2004 [AP report] after a soldier in his squad reported that Werst shot Ismail, already in custody after a house raid, and then planted a gun on him to give the appearance of a shooting in self-defense. Werst, who backed out of an earlier plea bargain, faces up to life in prison if convicted of murder and obstruction of justice. AP has more.

[JURIST] A military policeman has pled guilty to assault and two counts of making a false statement in the 2002 beating death of an Afghan prisoner [Army press release]. In a plea bargain Spc. Brian E. Cammack also agreed to testify in other cases related to the deaths of two other prisoners. Cammack admitted to beating prisoner Mullah Habibullah on the legs after he claimed the prisoner spit on him. Habibullah later died of a pulmonary embolism, likely caused by a blood clot in his legs after the beating. Cammack, sentenced Friday at Fort Bliss in Texas, will be demoted to private, fined over $3,000 and given a bad-conduct discharge. AP has more.

[JURIST] Iran's hard-line Guardian Council [Wikipedia article] Sunday rejected all reformist candidates in the upcoming presidential election, disqualifying more than 1,000 potential candidates. Just six conservative candidates were selected to run in the election, prompting a crisis meeting by reform groups who threatened to boycott the election. The decision by the Guardian Council parallels a move last year when more than 2,000 reformists were disqualified from legislative elections [BBC backgrounder], resulting in low turnout and frustration at the lack of moderate candidates. US officials had no immediate comment on the candidate disqualifications. AP has more.

[JURIST] United Nations Director of the Electoral Assistance Division [official website] Carina Perelli said Sunday that Lebanese politicians agree that electoral reform must be a top priority after the upcoming parliamentary elections, the first without a Syrian military presence in 30 years. When the Lebanese go to the polls in four rounds of voting between May 29 and June 19 they will be voting under a much maligned law that was designed to maximize Syrian influence in the 2000 elections [Middle East Intelligence Bulletin report]. Perelli said the UN, which is providing technical assistance and coordinating foreign poll observers, could provide expertise in the area of electoral reform if asked by the Lebanese. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The United Nations has condemned the alleged abuse of Afghan detainees [UN press release] by US military forces and called on the military to allow an investigation by human rights officials inside Afghanistan. The Sunday statement comes in response to a New York Times article Friday [JURIST report] that detailed repeated abuse by US soldiers and the brutal deaths of two detainees. The article focused on a 2,000 page confidential military file on the Army's investigation into the two detainee's deaths. Afghan leader Hamid Karzai, a strong supporter of the US led war against terror, also condemned the report [JURIST report] and urged a strong response by the US and more control given to Afghan authorities in making arrests and detaining prisoners. AP has more.