[JURIST] Detainees being held in Guantanamo Bay claim they were sold into captivity, according to new US government documents released to AP [JURIST report] under the Freedom of Information Act [text]. The CIA and the US Defense, State and Justice departments deny any knowledge of bounty payments being made for random prisoners. The US Rewards for Justice Program [official website] openly pays for the capture of suspected terrorists identified by name and currently has high rewards for the capture of Osama bin Laden and militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Pakistan has handed over hundreds of suspects to the US - most recently, erstwhile al Qaeda number-three Abu Faraj Farj al Liby [Reuters report] - and many detainees say they were wrongfully handed over to US military personnel for money but Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed maintains no one in Pakistan has taken money in exchange for prisoners. AP has more.

[JURIST] The UN Security Council [official website] Tuesday for the first time condemned acts of sexual abuse and exploitation [UN press release] committed by UN peacekeepers and urged countries contributing troops to work to prevent such behavior from occurring in the future. A statement drafted by the US was read encouraging member states to avoid situations such as that seen in the Democratic Republic of Congo [BBC country profile] where peacekeeping personnel and civilian staff are accused of rape, pedophilia, and bribing hungry children to trade sex acts for food or money [JURIST report]. Internal UN investigations [JURIST report] beginning in December 2004 have resulted in the dismissal of five UN staff members and nine more being subjected to disciplinary proceedings. The Security Council's statement asks Secretary-General Kofi Annan [official website] to include in his reports the ways in which a zero-tolerance policy [JURIST report] is being implemented. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari [Wikipedia profile] told the UN Security Council Tuesday that Iraq will allow the International Advisory and Monitoring Board [official website] to keep monitoring its oil production and spending related to oil revenues. Zebari said that oversight from the group would demonstrate that oil revenues are used for the benefit of all Iraqi citizens. The Board, created by the Council in 2003, aims to rectify problems such as those identified in a recent audit [JURIST report] that showed $69 million in unaccounted oil and contracts granted without bidding competition. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The Massachusetts legislature Tuesday overrode a Friday veto by Gov. Mitt Romney [official website] on a bill [Senate bill text] allowing scientists seeking to do stem cell research in Massachusetts to bypass approval from the local district attorney. The new law does, however, give the state Department of Public Health [official website] some regulatory controls and prohibits human cloning. Both the state House and Senate defeated the veto by the two-thirds vote necessary to override a gubernatorial veto but the vote in the House was close at 112-42. The Senate vote was 35-2. Critics claim the new law is a slippery slope to human cloning, a claim supporters see as unfounded. AP has more.

[JURIST] Former Montreal advertising executive Paul Coffin [CBC profile] pleaded guilty Tuesday to 15 counts of fraud in a corruption scandal [CBC backgrounder; JURIST report] that has nearly brought down the government of Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin [Wikipedia profile]. Coffin, originally charged with 18 counts until 3 were dropped by the Crown, admitted to repeatedly creating fake invoices in a sponsorship scam that overbilled the Canadian government millions of dollars between 1997 and 2002 for work never done on programs in support of Canadian unity. Sentencing arguments are set to begin on August 16. CBC has local coverage. AP has more.

[JURIST] Following claims circulated by Vanity Fair earlier Tuesday [JURIST report; Vanity Fair article], the Washington Post has confirmed that retired FBI deputy director W. Mark Felt, now 91, was Watergate's "Deep Throat". Reporters Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein and former editor Ben Bradlee acknowledged Felt's hitherto-secret identity, with Woodward and Bernstein saying in a statement that "W. Mark Felt was 'Deep Throat' and helped us immeasurably in our Watergate coverage." The Washington Post has more.

[JURIST] Leading Tuesday's international brief, the leading opposition party in Ethiopia [DC Embassy website] has filed suit with local courts in the capital city of Addis Ababa seeking to prevent the official certification of the results of the disputed national elections [JURIST report] held 15 May. The Coalition for Unity and Democracy [party website] claims that nation-wide fraud and electoral misconduct denied it the majority it actually won in the Ethiopian Parliament [government website] and has claimed that an official tally released Monday by the ruling party Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front [Wikipedia entry] was actually tampered with to ensure a slim majority for the EPRDF. CUD claimed that the announcement of the tally by the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia [official website] was improper in light of its currently filed complaints which have not been addressed. CUD is also seeking to have a one month post-election ban on public demonstrations lifted. CUD claims that the ban, imposed by Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi [official profile], is illegal and should be struck down by the court. Read CUD's official press release [PDF text]. Ethiomedia has local coverage.

In other international legal news ...

• ZimOnline [media website] reports that Zimbabwe soldiers have seized the personal property and furniture of the tens of thousands of residents evicted from their illegal makeshift dwellings [JURIST report] in the capital Harare and burnt the items in bonfires beside checkpoints on the roads out of the city. The residents have complained to the government, saying that the furniture and private property were not subject to seizure under the government's recent crackdown on illegal housing. Defence Minister Sydney Sekeremayi told reporters that no orders had been given to soldiers authorizing this conduct and that an official investigation would be opened if the reports were credible. The Harare State Commission spokesperson Lesley Gwindi told ZimOnline that the tens of thousands of now-homeless individuals would not be relocated by the government and must "sort themselves out." An American national was arrested Monday [ZimOnline report] under Zimbabwe's Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act for filming scenes of police in the Zimbabwean city of Mutare enforcing the government's crackdown on illegal merchants and housing. The AIPPA prohibits private individuals from acting as journalists in Zimbabwe unless they have a journalist's license. Howard Smith Gillman could face two years in jail, if convicted. JURIST's Paper Chase has continuing coverage of Zimbabwe [JURIST news archive]. ZimOnline has local coverage.
  
  
• The Nepal Bar Association [official website] announced Tuesday that its members would no longer represent clients before the Royal Commission on Corruption Control as it views the body as unconstitutional. The RCCC, created [JURIST report] by King Gyanendra [official profile] following his 1 February declaration of a state of emergency [JURIST report], has the power to indict, try, and punish government officials and former government officials it believes to have violated graft and corruption laws. The Commission is currently hearing charges against former Nepalese Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba [Wikipedia profile], former Interior Minister Prakashman Singh, and other members of the democratic government dissolved by Gyanendra for allegedly accepting bribes in the Melamchi Drinking Water Project. The RCCC announced Tuesday [Kantipur Online report] that it was demanding nearly $71,000 USD in bail from each of the five defendants. Dueba, Singh, and the others maintain that the prosecutions are politically motivated and recently sued the RCCC [JURIST report] for its continued prosecution of the former government officials. JURIST's Paper Chase has continuing coverage of Nepal [JURIST news archive]. Kantipur Online has local coverage.
  
  
• Kenyan Director of Medical Services James Nyikal announced on Monday that the Kenyan government would be seeking approval of the Tobacco Control Bill 2004, which would outlaw all public smoking in the entire country of Kenya [government website]. The bill also includes a 15% tax increase on tobacco products and contains provisions that would funnel money raised from tobacco taxes back to educating and treating those hospitalized with tobacco related diseases. Nyikal said that, unlike neighboring countries' bans, which are rarely enforced, the Kenyan ban would be strictly adhered to, with heavy fines and even possible imprisonment as penalties for offenders. Kenya's Daily Nation has local coverage.

[JURIST] Members of an Alabama jury apparently split [JURIST report] over whether to convict former HealthSouth Corp. [corporate website] CEO Richard M. Scrushy [Wikipedia profile] have agreed to add an hour of work to their daily deliberations, according to a federal court official's statement Tuesday. The jury has typically worked for four and a half hours daily since getting the case on May 19 and is at an impasse with regards to the conspiracy charge. Scrushy has also been charged with mail and wire fraud, money laundering, and violations of the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act [summary]. He faces up to life in prison for what government prosecuters contend was massive fraudulent activity done to artificially inflate stock prices. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] In a White House press conference [transcript] Tuesday US President George W. Bush slammed a report from rights group Amnesty International [JURIST report, AI press release] as "absurd" after the organization referred to US detention facilities abroad as an international "gulag." Bush stressed that the US "promotes freedom around the world" and that every instance of abuse - involving a very small percentage of the thousands of people detained - had been investigated. The President went on to say that some of the allegations were made by detainees "who hate America." US Vice President Dick Cheney also denounced the report [AP report] in a CNN interview Monday night saying, "Frankly, I was offended by it," while also stressing that he didn't take the rights group seriously. The AI claims have similarly been rejected [JURIST report] by General Richard Myers, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. AFP has more.

4:55 PM ET - Responding to President Bush's comments, Amnesty International USA issued a statement saying

At Guantánamo, the US has operated an isolated prison camp in which people are confined arbitrarily, held virtually incommunicado, without charge, trial or access to due process. Not a single Guantánamo detainee has had the legality of their detention reviewed by a court, despite the Supreme Court ruling of last year....US interrogation and detention policies and practices during the "war on terror", have deliberately and systematically breached the absolute prohibition of torture and Ill-treatment. Individuals held in US custody have been transferred for interrogation to countries known to practice torture. If President Bush and his administration are serious about freedom and human dignity they should recommit to the rule of law and human rights.

[JURIST] The Sudanese government Tuesday arrested the Darfur coordinator for the Dutch branch of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) [NGO website], the second arrest of an MSF aid worker in two days. Vince Hoedt was detained over a March 2005 report [PDF text] alleging mass rape in the Darfur region. The Dutch head of MSF Paul Foreman was arrested earlier [JURIST report] in connection with the same document and was later released on bail after being charged with spying, publishing false reports, and undermining Sudanese society. The controversial report contained numerous anonymous accounts by victims of their rape, torture and sometimes arrest at the hands of Janjaweed militiamen. The charges against Hoedt have yet to be specified. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour called Foreman's arrest very disturbing and said that "MSF has done nothing more than record these horrendous crimes and try to focus critically needed attention on them." MSF has issued this statement on Hoedt's arrest. JURIST's Paper Chase has continuing coverage of Sudan. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Government officials in the Netherlands [government website in Dutch] are making a final plea to Dutch voters in an effort to persuade them to support the European constitution in a June 1 referendum, an uphill battle after voters in France rejected the charter [JURIST report] earlier this week. Unlike the French vote however, the Dutch poll is not binding on the government and Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende [Wikipedia profile] has said that a "no" vote would only be accepted if at least 30 percent of registered voters turned out and if at least 55 percent of those voters rejected the constitution. Recent polls indicate that the Dutch are tending towards rejection [JURIST report] as parties on both sides of the political spectrum have found faults with the European pact. AP has more.

[JURIST] Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein [JURIST news archive] could face trial for war crimes within two months according to comments made Tuesday by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani [Wikipedia profile] in a CNN interview. Talabani said that the Iraqi people were "starting to ask for executing Saddam Hussein" but Hussein's lawyer expressed surprise that the trial, which Iraqi prosecutors and their US advisors claim will likely begin in 2006, would be speeded up. Hussein is being held at a high security complex near Baghdad airport and will be tried before the Iraqi Special Tribunal [official website, English version; JURIST news archive]. AP has more.

[JURIST] Venezuelan Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel [Wikipedia profile] has said US officials may not be welcome to visit Venezuela after the president of the Venezuelan Supreme Court [official website in Spanish] Omar Mora [profile in Spanish] had his tourist visa to the United States cancelled by US immigration officials. The statement was made Monday after Mora criticized the visa cancellation as an offense against the dignity of his position and claimed it was done in retaliation against Venezuela's demand for the extradition of Luis Posada Carriles [JURIST report], a Cuban exile and naturalized Venezuelan wanted in connection with an airliner bombing. US Embassy officials in Caracas defended the cancellation as a consular matter that afforded Mora the chance to reapply. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Wire services are reporting that a former FBI official is claiming to be "Deep Throat", the Washington insider who leaked secrets about the Watergate coverup to the Washington Post that eventually led to President Richard Nixon's 1974 resignation, according to an article to appear in the July issue of Vanity Fair magazine. W. Mark Felt, now 91 and living in Santa Rosa California, is the retired head of the agency's investigation division and has lately been in declining health. Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein have repeatedly said they would only reveal their source after his death and have as yet declined to confirm the claim. AP has more. Slate provides background on Felt and the Deep Throat connection. The University of Illinois Department of Journalism reviews some of the theories about Deep Throat's identity, noting that Felt was advanced as the leaker in a 2002 book by former Post reporter Ronald Kessler entitled The Bureau: The Secret History of the FBI.

3:15 PM ET - Felt's grandson has issued a press statement supporting his claim:

The family believes my grandfather, Mark Felt Sr., is a great American hero who went well above and beyond the call of duty at much risk to himself to save his country from a horrible injustice. We all sincerely hope the country will see him this way as well. My grandfather is pleased that he is being honored for his role as Deep Throat with his friend Bob Woodward. He is also pleased by the attention this has drawn to his career and his 32 years of service to his country. But he believes in his heart that the men and women of the FBI who have put their lives at risk for more than 50 years to keep this country safe deserve recognition more than he.

Mark had expressed reservations in the past about revealing his identity, and about whether his actions were appropriate for an FBI man, but as he recently told my mother, 'I guess people used to think Deep Throat was a criminal. But now they think he’s a hero.' Our family believes older people are our national treasure and should be honored and respected in the declining years of their lives. My grandfather is one of those special people and on behalf of the Felt family we hope you see him as worthy of honor and respect as we do. The Felt family does ask however, that in view of his age and health, you respect his zone of privacy as he enjoys this moment with us.

[JURIST] Pope Benedict XVI [official website] stepped into an ongoing political fray Monday by backing calls for Italian voters to abstain from a June referendum on embryo research, artificial insemination, and egg and sperm donation. At issue in the referendum is Law No. 40, passed in 2004, which bans embryo research and restricts the number of eggs that can be fertilized during each attempt at fertilization. The law also prohibits freezing or screening of frozen embryos and the use of sperm or ova from a man or woman other than the couple undergoing the procedure, or from a deceased spouse. To overturn the law, the referendum must have a 50% voter turnout, with a majority of voters opposing the current rules. Catholic Cardinal Camillo Ruini [Wikipedia profile] has led the fight to maintain the law as-is and had previously called the country's faithful to refrain from voting. Opponents of the law gathered almost four million signatures to force the referendum [JURIST report]. Daniele Capezzone [Wikipedia entry], head of Italy's Radical Party [homepage in Italian] and campaigning for a "Yes" vote, called the Pope's intervention "an unprecedented offensive" by the Vatican. BBC News and IPS have more.

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court Tuesday overturned the conviction of the Arthur Andersen accounting firm for destroying documents related to the Enron collapse, citing faulty jury instructions. According to the Court, the instructions failed to convey properly the elements of a "corrup[t] persuas[ion]" conviction; specifically, the instructions did not convey the requisite state of consciousness. Read the opinion in Andersen v. US [backgrounder from Duke Law]. Bloomberg has more.

In another unanimous ruling Tuesday the Court held in Cutter v. Wilkinson [backgrounder from Duke Law] that the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 (RLUIPA) [official website] gives Congress the power to require officials of state and local prisons and jails to find ways to allow prisoners to practice their religious beliefs. The unanimous opinion, however, relates only to the facial challenge, allowing prison officials to challenge an inmate's religious expression in the future as undermining safety or discipline among prisoners. Read the opinion. AP has more.

Finally, in Tory v. Cochran [backgrounder from Duke Law] the Court voted 7-2 to strike down an order in a libel case permanently forbidding public comments and picketing against Johnnie L. Cochran as it was overly broad. Substituting Cochran with his wife in the suit, the Court found Cochran's death did not render the issue moot. Read the opinion.

The Court also granted certiorari Tuesday in Kansas v. Marsh [Kansas Supreme Court opinion] on the constitutionality of Kansas' death penalty law. The main issue raised on appeal is whether an even balance between mitigating and aggrevating circumstances bars the death sentence. The Court also added two procedureal questions; does it have jurisdiction to review the Kansas Supreme Court decision and whether the state court's ruling was based on state law and thus immune to review. Reuters has more. Read the Court's full Order List [PDF].

[JURIST] US military officials have acknowledged that the arrest Monday of Sunni leader Mohsen Abdel Hamid [JURIST report], head of the Iraqi Islamic Party [official website], was a mistake, and that US forces had confused Hamid with someone else. According to Hamid, American soldiers attacked his Baghdad home, seized him, his three sons and four guards and blindfolded them before transporting them by helicopter to another location for a day-long interrogation. Hamid has urged Sunni Muslims [Wikipedia backgrounder], who lost power with the removal of Saddam Hussein, to cooperate with Iraq's Shiite [Wikipedia backgrounder] community, which now dominates the government, and condemned a surge in sectarian killings. US forces released Hamid after Iraqi government officials, including Prime Minister Ibrahim Jafari [Wikipedia profile], criticized the action. As a Shiite Muslim, Jafari has been negotiating with Sunni leaders to avoid violence between the two sects and has vowed to "demand clear accounting" for Hamid's arrest, stating "No civilian should be arrested without just cause." Read the MNF-Iraq press statement on Hamid's release. AP has more.

[JURIST] The Illinois House and Senate [official legislative website] sent a bill to Governor Rod Blagojevich [official website] early Tuesday seeking to lower doctors' medical malpractice insurance rates by capping medical malpractice damage awards. SB 475 [bill status and text] passed the House 68-46 and the Senate 36-22 and would limits victims' pain and suffering damages to $500,000 from individual doctors and $1 million from hospitals while strengthening oversight of insurers and doctors. Blagojevich has pledged to sign the legislation, but caps on lawsuit awards have been thrown out by the Illinois Supreme Court [official website] on two previous occasions. While supporters of the bill argue it is necessary to keep doctors practicing in Illinois, critics claim its arbitrary limits unconstitutionally discriminate against the poor, minorities, the elderly and women. AP has more.

[JURIST] China Tuesday publicly accused Ching Cheong, chief China correspondent for Singapore's Straits Times newspaper [subscription required], of spying for "foreign agencies". According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry [official website, English version], "Ching admitted that in recent years he engaged in intelligence-gathering activities on the mainland on instructions from foreign intelligence agencies and accepted huge amounts of spying fees." Ching was detained by Chinese authorities on April 22 and could face the death penalty if convicted. Ching's wife, however, says her husband has been accused of stealing state secrets because he obtained unpublished interviews with late Communist Party chief Zhao Ziyang [Wikipedia profile]. A source close to Zhao's family said the authorities were determined to prevent the publication of the interviews of the former leader, purged for opposing the 1989 Tiananmen massacre [Wikipedia entry], because it would undermine the legitimacy of the current leadership. According to New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists [official website], China has the most journalists in prison of any country. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] French President Jacques Chirac has accepted the resignation [Elysee Palace press release, in French] of Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin [official profile] just two days after French voters turned down the proposed European constituton [JURIST report] in a referendum that was seen by many as a rejection of the current government. Raffarin, who in a TV address insisted that he took the decision on other grounds, has been replaced by Dominique de Villepin [official profile, in French; BBC profile], the former French Interior Minister and Foreign Minister best known to international observers for his strong stance against the Iraq war at the UN in early 2003. Chirac is due to address the French people on the governmental change on TV Tuesday evening. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] The BBC is reporting that on the twelfth day of verdict-reading, a Moscow court has sentenced Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky [JURIST news archive; defense website in English and Russian], former CEO of Russian oil company Yukos, to nine years in jail after being formally found guilty of charges including fraud and tax evasion at the end of a trial regarded by many international observers as politically-motivated.

6:15 AM ET - Defense lawyers have already said they will appeal. The sentence is one year less than the ten-year incarceration requested by prosecutors. From Moscow, MosNews has local coverage in English. Yukos Oil has issued this statement:

For the vast majority this verdict is a tragic example of the authorities turning a law-enforcement and judicial system against an individual for political ends. We regret that the true value of his achievements have been sullied by those who refuse to appreciate the good he brought Russia.

YUKOS employees view the verdict as a gross travesty of justice produced by judicial system that has not only been content to be manoeuvred to destroy Mikhail Khodorkovsky, but also apparently is intent on bringing down YUKOS.