[JURIST] Maurice Strong [Canada Foreign Affairs profile], a special adviser for North Korea to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and a prominent Canadian business executive, will not continue his position as top UN envoy to North Korea, according to UN officials. In recent months, Strong has been implicated in the Iraq oil-for-food scandal [JURIST news archive] based on his ties to South Korean businessman Tongsun Park, charged [PDF complaint] by the US Attorney's Office in April with conspiracy to defraud the United States on behalf of the oil-for-food program. Strong said Park had advised him on Korean issues, but denies any involvement in the program. AP has more.

[JURIST] The National Rifle Association [advocacy website] Monday announced plans to relocate its 2007 national convention from Columbus, Ohio after the Columbus City Council approved an assualt weapons ban. The ban [text], extends the Federal Assault Weapons Ban, which expired on September 13, 2004 [JURIST report], and outlaws 19 types of military-style assault weapons in the city. In a press release [text] posted to the group’s website, NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre said that the NRA would return to Columbus when the "[state] Legislature enacts a preemption law that would override the Columbus ban". Columbus Business First has local coverage.

[JURIST] The Lebanese parliament [official website] voted Monday to grant amnesty to former militia leader Samir Geagea [Lebanese Forces profile]. Geagea, Lebanese Forces militia leader during the 1975-90 civil war, was arrested in 1994 and sentenced to three consecutive life terms for his involvement in crimes during Lebanon's civil war, including the murder of a prime minister. Lebanese President Emile Lahoudand [official website] and lawmakers called the vote for amnesty a symbol of "national reconciliation" following the end of Syrian domination of Lebanon. Once word of Geagea's scheduled release reached the streets, clashes between members of the Shia Amal movement and Christian Maronites erupted, leaving at least one person dead [Aljazeera report]. Geagea is expected to be released from prison this weekend. AP has more.

[JURIST] US officials at Guantanamo Bay Monday extradited Moroccan Lahcen Ikassrien to Spain to answer charges that he assisted al-Qaida cell leader Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas in planning the September 11 attacks. Ikassrien was arrested and sent to the prisoner camp in late 2001. Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon [BBC profile] first petitioned the US to extradite Ikassrien, later identified by Spanish authorities as Chej Hasan, and three others in December 2003. Yarkas went on trial in late April in Madrid on charges of using Spain as a staging ground to help plot the US attacks. AP has more.

[JURIST] Leading Monday's securities and corporations law news, the SEC has charged three men with conning investors in a microcap [SEC backgrounder] scam. The scam involved sending faxes that were designed to look like a confidential stock tip from a financial planner to a client. In a press release, the SEC said that in 2 separate scams the accused men sent over a million spam faxes, including one to the SEC's San Francisco office. The original fax said that the stock of AVL Global, Inc. [corporate website] was set to triple in price. The man charged by the SEC owned stock in the company and sold it soon after the fax message was sent. In December 2004, AVL issued a press release denying involvement with the fax. A second, copycat scam touted the stock of 3 other companies. The SEC says that the men made over $600,000 from the scam. AP has more.

In other corporations and securities law news...

• US District Judge Harold Baer has ruled that Merrill Lynch [corporate website] did not defraud Allegheny Energy [corporate website]. Allegheny Energy was seeking to recoup $490 million that it spent purchasing Global Energy Markets from Merrill Lynch in 2001 and was arguing that Merrill knew Global was ran by a corrupt manager. The manager, Daniel Gordon, pleaded guilty to fraud in 2003. The judge's ruling also requires Allegheny to pay $115 million to Merrill to complete the terms of the sale and for Merrill to return the 2% stake in Global the bank kept after the sale. Bloomberg has more.
  
  
• UK insurer Equitable Life [corporate website] has lowered its claim against former auditor Ernst & Young [corporate website] from over £2 billion to roughly £700 million. The change represents the lost sale that Equitable claims it would have made had Ernst & Young properly informed the company of possible legal problems. Equitable will maintain its remaining suit, claiming that Ernst & Young was negligent in advising the company, resulting in the £700 million loss. In a press release, Equitable Life said that the change does not affect the strength of its remaining claims. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] Leading Monday's states brief, the California Supreme Court ruled [PDF text] today that a boss's sexual affairs with subordinates may result in the sexual harassment of other employees in violation of the state's Fair Employment and Housing Act [PDF text]. In the case, two former state prison employees alleged that the warden was having affairs with several women who were treated in a favored manner. The Supreme Court stated that when such sexual favoritism is widespread it may constitute a hostile work environment. The decision reversed the Court of Appeals, which had affirmed the lower courts grant of summary judgment in favor of the Defendants. AP has more.

In other state legal news ...

• The Connecticut Supreme Court ruled [PDF text] Monday that man's right to a fair trial was not violated during the prosecutor's closing arguments in which the prosecutor said the defendant deserved to die for his involvement in a car crash which killed three people. The opinion stated that the comment "improperly appealed to jurors' passions and emotions," but did not require a new trial. An appeals court had ordered a new trial [opinion, PDFt] after finding the comment to be an improper appeal to jurors' emotions. AP has more.
  
  
• The Texas House of Representatives has passed legislation banning the government's use of eminent domain for private economic-development projects. The bill [text] prohibits state and local governments as well as the corporations created by them from condemning land for economic-development, if it aids a private party or "is for a public use that is merely a pretext to confer a private benefit on a particular private party." The legislation was passed in response to the recent US Supreme Court decision in Kelo v. New London [JURIST report]. The House has already passed a constitutional ban [text] on such use of eminent domain that is currently being debated in the Senate. Texas's Dallas Morning News has local coverage.
  
  
• Effective Monday, Illinois police departments will be required to record all interrogations in homicide cases. The requirement is meant to ensure that police do not obtain false confessions through torture or promises of leniency, and will also allow jurors to see the interrogations. Steven Drizin, the legal director of Northwestern University's Center for Wrongful Convictions [center website], called the requirement "one of the most important safeguards in the criminal justice system in the last 40 years." The law was enacted in 2003 and makes Illinois the third state with such a requirement. The Chicago Sun-Times has local coverage.

[JURIST] The US Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia will take up the case of Jose Padilla [JURIST news archive] Tuesday, the latest in a series of twists and turns the litigation has taken. The proceeding comes after the US Supreme Court refused to hear Padilla's expedited challenge [JURIST report] to his "enemy combatant" status in June, instead directing the case to the federal appeals courts first. The Supreme Court had dismissed an earlier challenge filed by Padilla on jurisdictional grounds [JURIST report]. At issue now is a habeus corpus writ granted in February [JURIST report] by a South Carolina federal judge. The Washington Post has more.

[JURIST] In an about-face from an earlier decision [JURIST report], the US Department of Justice is appealing to the US Supreme Court in an attempt to reinstate $280 billion in damages in its lawsuit against tobacco companies. Government lawyers previously defended their decision to drastically reduce the amount sought [JURIST report] in response to a ruling that federal law did not permit them to seek past profits [JURIST report]. Today marked the deadline for the government to appeal the ruling. AP has more.

[JURIST] Giovanni di Stefano [Wikipedia profile], a lawyer for Saddam Hussein, said once again [JURIST report] Monday that the insurgency in Iraq has created an unsafe environment for the trial of the former dictator and that the venue should be changed to a more stable country. Di Stefano argued that because some in Iraq feel strongly that Saddam should be executed while others are, as he put it, just as strongly calling for him to regain control of the country, "defense and prosecution would both be in danger there." Though di Stefano claims Saddam's defense team has made contact with the Swedish government about possibly holding the trial in Sweden, Swedish Ministry of Justice [official website] spokesman Alexander Valentin said that he was unaware of any official request. Raed Juhi, the tribunal's top investigating judge, said Sunday [JURIST report] that a trial date for Hussein would be set in the next few days. AP has more.

[JURIST] UK Home Office [official website] Secretary Charles Clarke [official profile] said on Monday that the three main political parties in the UK - Labour, the Conservatives, and the Liberal-Democrats - have reached an agreement in principal regarding new anti-terrorism legislation in the wake of the London bombings. Legislation targeting preparation for and planning of terrorist attacks will be introduced in October. Controversial provisions such as any invokving so-called "control orders" [JURIST report] will be introduced separately. The new measures are expected to become law by December [Guardian report]. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] Amnesty International [advocacy website] on Monday called for Spain to formally confront its past and provide justice for victims of former fascist Spanish dictator General Francisco Franco [Wikipedia profile]. In February, prominent Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon [BBC profile] had urged the creation of a "truth commission" [JURIST report] to investigate past abuses, but dealing with the Franco era is still a contentious matter [JURIST report] in Spanish society and government. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women [official website] Yakin Erturk said Monday [UN press release] that the difficulties faced by Afghani women, from abusive child marriages to public executions ordered by local councils, are still dramatic problems that need to be addressed despite the passing of the strict Taliban regime. To combat these issues, Ertürk and her group are working to promote a campaign that denounces the marriage of girls to adult men as anti-Islamic and urges police and prosecutors not to send girls and women back into an abusive environment without first taking steps to protect their safety. According to Ertürk, the dire situation can be seen most dramatically in the increased frequency of self-immolation among desperate women. UN News has more.

[JURIST] As part of a plea deal reached in April [JURIST report], Eric Rudolph [Wikipedia profile] was sentenced Monday to life in prison without parole for his role in the 1998 bombing of an abortion clinic in Birmingham, Alabama [Court TV backgrounder]. Rudolph has also pleaded guilty to three bombings in the Atlanta area, including an attack at the 1996 Summer Olympics. Victims of the Birmingham attack spoke out at Monday's sentencing [AP report]. AP has more.

[JURIST] AP is reporting that US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has said that military trials of two suspected terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay will resume as soon as possible and charges will be filed against eight other detainees.

2:25 PM ET - Rumsfeld's comments, made at a news conference with visiting Australian Prime Minister John Howard, addressed concerns expressed earlier by the Australian government [JURIST report]. One of the two Guantanamo detainees already charged is Australian national David Hicks [advocacy website; charges, PDF]. The other is Yemeni national Salim Ahmed Hamdan, the alleged former driver of Osama bin Laden who was at the center of the appeals court ruling [PDF] last Friday which held that trials of Gitmo detainees by military commission were legally permissible [JURIST report]. Read the full US DOD press release on the resumption of the military commissions. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Sunday's announcement [JURIST report] that the Iraqi Special Tribunal [official website; JURIST news archive] has charged former dictator Saddam Hussein in connection with the 1982 killing of some 150 Shiites in the village of Dujail [NPR report] and statements by chief investigating judge Raed Jouhi that a date for the trial would be set within days have prompted concerns that insurgent violence will only increase as the trial gets underway. Though US officials continue to hope that Hussein's trial and possible execution will help bring a sense of finality to a dictatorship that included torture and mass killings, many Iraqis living in fear of suicide attacks by Sunni fighters and former members of Saddam's regime believe more instability is the more likely result. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia [official website] on Monday upheld a 13-year jail sentence [ICTY press release] for Milan Babic [Wikipedia profile], the wartime leader of Croatia's rebel Serbs who took part in a campaign of ethnic cleansing in the early 1990s. Babic, who for a short time led the Krajina Serb republic after Croatia gained independence, had pleaded guilty to one count of persecution [ICTY text] in a deal where prosecutors dropped four other charges of murder, cruelty and wanton destruction of villages. Regarded as a key ally of Slobodan Milosevic during the effort to expel non-Serbs from parts of Croatia, Babic testified against the former Yugoslav president at his trial in The Hague in 2002. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] After Chief Justice William Rehnquist's strong denial of retirement rumors [JURIST report] Thursday made it clear that only one new US Supreme Court justice will be selected this summer, President Bush is said to be close to announcing a successor for retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor [JURIST report]. White House strategists have suggested that someone might be named within the next few days. Bush wants a replacement on board by the start of the Supreme Court's new term in October. Reports over the weekend suggested that the President's advisors are currently focusing on female or minority candidates [Washington Post report]. The Washington Post has more.

[JURIST] Leading Monday's international brief, New Zealand Foreign Affairs Minister Phil Goff [official profile] has announced that the New Zealand government [official website] is currently investigating the possibility of bringing charges against Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe [Wikipedia profile] before the International Criminal Court [official website]. Goff said that New Zealand was conducting its own investigation into Mugabe's actions in "Operation Murambatsvina" [Wikipedia backgrounder], the redevelopment and eviction program that has left tens of thousands homeless, and would be contacting neighboring African nations as well as the European Union for more information. Goff did not specify what charges would be brought against Mugabe. Goff also declared New Zealand's intent to see Zimbabwe expelled from the International Monetary Fund [official website] for failing to make payments on its debts, unless "there’s change in Zimbabwe." Zimbabwe is already strapped for funds to meet its daily operating costs, and Zimbabwe Foreign Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi is meeting Monday with South Africa’s Finance Minister Trevor Manuel to appeal for a financial rescue package [ZimOnline report]. JURIST's Paper Chase has continuing coverage of Zimbabwe [JURIST news archive]. ZimOnline has local coverage.

In other international legal news ...

• A provisional peace agreement [Jakarta Post report] called the Helsinki Accord between the Indonesian government [official website] and the Free Aceh Movement [Wikipedia profile], the largest rebel group in the northern Indonesian province of conflict-riddled Sumatra, has met strenuous opposition in the Indonesian parliament, as it would require changing the national law on political parties. As part of the peace agreement, the government seems to have acceded to rebel demands that the rebels be allowed to form their own political party. Indonesian Law No. 31/2002 on the establishment of political parties currently prohibits the creation of any political party that does not have representation in at least half of Indonesia's 33 provinces. Vice-President Jusuf Kalla [Wikipedia profile] warned that the peace deal would require a constitutional amendment to allow for the creation of a local political party, and many legislators have expressed concern that allowing one local political party will cause other separatist groups to demand the same right, perhaps leading to further succession attempts from the Jakarta government. JURIST's Paper Chase has continuing coverage of Indonesia [JURIST news archive]. The Jakarta Post has local coverage. BBC News has more.
  
  
• The Sudanese Council of Ministers [government website] was dissolved Sunday following its final meeting in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum. As part of the changes mandated by the recently adopted [JURIST report] interim constitution [draft PDF text], the new transitional Sudanese government, made up of many of the rebel groups that spent the last two decades fighting against the central government, will select representatives from accross the political spectrum to serve as ministers in a new Council. Outgoing Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail [Sudan Online profile] said the dissolved council was happy to see the change, and viewed it as the "threshold of a new era." Ismail also revealed that while some of the current ministers will be returning, he will not be in the newly constructed council. JURIST's Paper Chase has continuing coverage of Sudan [JURIST news archive]. The Sudan Tribune has local coverage.
  
  
• The Lebanese Parliament [official website in Arabic] has granted full amnesty to Samir Geagea [profile, advocacy website] during its first legislative session since the recent national elections. Geagea, former leader of the Lebanese Forces [Wikipedia profile], a paramilitary group that fought in the country's long civil war, was a staunch opponent to Syrian involvement in Lebanon and formed an alliance with Israel to fight against Syrian intrusions, and current popular disdain for Syria in Lebanon, along with a majority of parliament belonging to a coalition made up of former LF members, led to his life sentence being waived. Geagea is expected to be released this weekend and travel directly to Europe. Geagea had been convicted of four counts of ordering the assassination of political figures and was sentenced to death for all four. His death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment at hard labor. Lebanon's Daily Star has local coverage. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] A British court has convicted Afghan warlord Faryadi Sarwar Zardad [Wikipedia profile] of torture and the taking of hostages in Afghanistan in what may be the first conviction of an individual by a UK court for crimes committed abroad, a doctrine generally known as universal jurisdiction [Wikipedia profile]. UK Attorney General Lord Goldsmith [official profile], speaking about the trial, said that both "international convention and English law allow the trial in England of anyone who has committed torture or hostage-taking, irrespective of where those crimes were committed." Zardad is believed to have controlled key road checkpoints in the mid-1990s on the main route from Pakistan to Kabul where the alleged tortures took place. Zardad, whose first trial [JURIST report] in 2004 ended in a hung jury, maintains he did not kidnap or torture any travelers. The 42-year-old resident of south London is due to be sentenced Tuesday. BBC News has more. France applied universal jurisdiction for the first time last month in a similar context, convicting a Mauritanian military offer for torture [JURIST report].

[JURIST] Egypt has extended the detention period for four leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood [backgrounder] arrested in May [JURIST report] after the group held nationwide protests for political reform. Hundreds of group members were arrested during protests in favor of multi-candidate presidential elections. The arrests have drawn criticism from human rights groups [Human Rights Watch press release] and the number of political detainees still being held is in dispute. Laws passed in 1981 allow the Egyptian government to hold suspects for six months without trial and allows them to be re-arrested indefinitely. AP has more.

[JURIST] Germany's Federal Constitutional Court [official website in German; Wikipedia backgrounder] blocked the extradition of a suspected al-Qaeda financier to Spain on Monday, ruling that the European Union arrest warrant [EU backgrounder] against him violated his rights. Mamoun Darkazanli, charged with supporting and financing al-Qaeda activites, holds both Syrian and German citizenship. The court ruled that since German law prohibits the handover of its own citizens, the warrant was invalid. Other EU states have been slow to work provisions of the EU arrest warrant [JURIST report] into their own laws, and some have even objected outright [JURIST report] to it, complaining of inequity, unfairness, or vagueness [Deutsche Welle report]. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] After US courts approved military trials [JURIST report] for terrorism suspects, Australian Attorney-General Philip Ruddock [official website] said his government now wished for a speedy trial for David Hicks [Wikipedia profile, advocacy website], an Australian who was captured in Afghanistan fighting for the Taliban and is now being held at Guantanamo. Ruddock had earlier called in March for the US to move the process along [JURIST report]. While the AG's questions about the appropriateness of military commission trial were satisfied by the appellate ruling, the Law Council of Australia [official website] is still not satisfied [press release] and says the process is unfair. They want Hicks to either receive a trial in the US civilian court system, or be returned to face charges in Australia. Lawyers for Hicks [JURIST news archive] say the charges against him have no basis in international law [JURIST report]. AAP has more.

[JURIST] Polish Jews in Israel are strenuously objecting to a proposal now in the Polish parliament to return private property to Jews because it may also offer some validity to the Nazi Nuremberg laws [Wikipedia backgrounder] put in place leading up to and during World War II. The bill seeks to provide compensation to Polish Jews who had their property confiscated by the the Communist regime that ruled Poland starting in the years following WWII by offering them a percentage of the property's value. The Israeli association of former Poles is opposed not only to the lack of restitution provided to those who earlier lost property to the invading Nazis who overran Poland in 1939, but also to legislative wording which describes the property taken as "abandoned property and former German property." According to the World Jewish Restitution Organization, the bill has majority support in the Polish parliament and is likely to pass. Haaretz has more.

[JURIST] The Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission [official website] said Monday that the government of Afghanistan is considering creating a war crimes court to deal with allegations of human rights abuses dating back to the Soviet invasion in the 1970s. Earlier this month Human Rights Watch [advocacy website] issued a report [text] calling for investigation of several high-level government officials [JURIST report], accusing them of having committed abuses during Afghanistan's civil war in the early 1990s. Afghan President Hamid Karzai [Wikipedia profile] had no immediate comment, but a AIHRC commissioner said he expected a decision "in the coming weeks". AP has more.

[JURIST] A Serbian court Monday convicted eight former members of special police unit that took orders from then-Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic [JURIST news archive] of killing ex-Serb President Ivan Stambolic [Guardian obituary] in August 2000. The eight men were also convicted of the attempted asssassination of opposition leader Vuk Draskovic [Wikipedia profile]; Milosevic saw both Stambolic and Draskovic as threats to his power. Unit commander Milorad Ulemek "Legija" received the maximum sentence of 40 years in prison while the seven others received between 40 and 4 years for their roles in the murder, assasination attempt and cover-up. Milosevic, facing charges of war crimes from the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia [official website], has denied a role in the crimes and has refused to testify. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] In the wake of a lawsuit from groups including the ACLU [advocacy website] and Greenpeace [advocacy website], the US Department of Justice [official website] has admitted that the FBI [official website] has thousands of pages of records on file from scrutinizing US civil rights, environmental and other advocacy groups. The groups want the documents released and contend the files were compiled by FBI counterterrorism agents. Though the FBI has not said specifically what the files contain, it has identified 1,173 pages on the ACLU and 2,383 pages about Greenpeace, and it says it needs months to review the documents, according to a court filing. Several documents already released indicate that FBI agents acting for the counterterrorism division monitored websites [Washington Post report] urging protests at the 2004 Republican and Democratic convention in New York and Boston. ACLU executive director Anthony Romero [ACLU profile] said he knows "for an absolute fact that we have not been involved in anything related to promoting terrorism." Government spokesmen declined to comment on the ongoing case. AP has more.