[JURIST] The US military announced Sunday that following a preliminary inquiry, the US Naval Criminal Investigations Service [official website] has been asked to launch a formal probe into the killing by US Marines of a relative of Iraq's UN ambassador during a June house raid. Engineering student Mohammed al-Sumaida'ie, the 21-year-old son of the first cousin of Ambassador Samir al- Sumaida'ie [official profile], was shot at his home in Haditha, a village in western Iraq. Shortly afterwards, Ambassador al-Sumaida'ie condemned the "cold blood murder" [statement] and called for an investigation [JURIST report]. The US military in Iraq routinely conduct raids looking for arms and insurgents, and has increased them since May; US officials insist that the raids are conducted with restaint, but many Iraqis have complained about the use of excessive force. Read the MNF Iraq press release. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] In a letter written by Saddam Hussein to a Jordanian and delivered through the offices of the International Committee of the Red Cross the former Iraqi president, facing trial this fall and possible execution, says that he will be "sacrificed for our precious Palestine and our beloved, patient and suffering Iraq." The letter, censored by the US authorities holding the ousted Iraqi dictator, is reported to be the first message to a non-family member sent by Saddam through the Red Cross; a spokesman for the Jordanian Arab Baath Socialist Party said it was directed to an "independent Jordanian political figure who wished to remain anonymous." Read the full text of the letter as translated from the Arabic for AP. AP has more.

In a related development, and as anticipated [JURIST report], former Saddam deputy Tariq Aziz [BBC profile] over the weekend received what is believed to be the first family visit allowed a senior Iraqi detainee at a secret detention center in Iraq. Meeting Saturday with his wife, two daughters and another relative for 30 minutes in a visiting area where they were separated by glass under the supervision of two Arabic-speaking US soldiers, Aziz reportedly said he was "not anxious" about eventually standing trial: "I did not hurt anybody and my page is clean." Aziz is being investigated for his role in Baath party purges and other events during the Hussein regime, but has not yet been charged with any offenses. AP has more.

[JURIST] An influential son of Libyan leader Colonel Muhamar Gaddaffi [BBC profile] has said that the Libyan government will soon free 131 political prisoners, and will also provide compensation to citizens who had their assets, properties or homes confiscated in the 1970s at the time of Gaddaffi's so-called "Green Revolution." The reform-minded, UK-educated second-eldest of seven Gaddaffi sons, Saif al-Islam [Independent profile] is considered a likely successor to his father and currently heads the Gaddafi Charity Foundation [official website], an organization dedicated to improving Libya's rights record and international image. Libya has taken a number of high-profile diplomatic and political initiatives in recent years - including the abandonment of weapons of mass destruction [BBC report] - as part of a broader effort to reach a rapprochement with the West and end Libya's reputation as a "rogue nation" supporting international terrorism. In April 2004 Amnesty International issued a scathing report on Libyan human rights [AI text] and called on the government to improve its conduct. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Indicted former Rwandan government official Michel Bagaragaza has been transferred from the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda [official website; JURIST news archive] to The Hague due to security concerns. Earlier this week, Bagaragaza pleaded not guilty to genocide charges after surrendering himself [JURIST report] to the UN-backed tribunal in Tanzania. Bagaragaza has been indicted on charges of conspiracy to commit genocide, genocide and complicity in genocide and is alleged to have ordered his own subordinates and others to kill hundreds of Tutsi civilian refugees seeking shelter in a tea factory he supervised. The transfer to The Hague was a condition for Bagaragaza’s surrender, according an ICTR statement [text]. Bagaragaza was transferred to the detention unit at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, where he has a permit to remain in detention there is valid for six months. The permit is renewable for one additional six-month period. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair, London’s chief of police, is defending his handling of the investigation into the fatal shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes [JURIST report], by his officers July 22. In an interview [NOTW article] Sunday with British tabloid News of the World, Blair says that his actions following the shooting were not inappropriate, as members of de Menezes' family are claiming. Relatives of the victim are calling for Blair’s resignation [JURIST report], in part because they say Blair tried to block a public inquiry [JURIST report] into the incident. Blair says that he initially resisted turning the investigation over to the Independent Police Complaints Commission [official website] due to a potential conflict between national security concerns and the IPCC's obligation to keep the victim's family fully informed. However, Blair says the investigation was referred to the IPCC when it became known that de Menezes was not a terrorist. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The Iraqi government Sunday defended its decision to reinstate the death penalty, saying that without sufficient punishment there will be no security in the country. The statements come a day after Ashraf Qazi, special representative of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, asked Iraq to reconsider [JURIST report] executing three convicted felons. Last week, Iraqi vice president Adel Abdel Mehdi signed a decree authorizing the hanging of three men [JURIST report] who received death sentences for kidnapping policemen and raping Iraqi women. The executions will likely happen within the next few days. AFP has more.

[JURIST] A spokesperson for Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari said Sunday that Iraq's constitutional committee [official website] may seek more time to work on the draft constitution [JURIST news archive] if they cannot meet Monday's deadline to submit the document to the country's parliament. Iraqi leaders are already working under an extended deadline [JURIST report] after they missed the original August 15 date. It was thought that the August 22 deadline was a one-time extension [JURIST report], but it now seems that Iraq may seek multiple extensions before an agreement is reached. Negotiators remain divided on several issues, including the role federalism should play [JURIST report], the role of Islam [NYT report] and Kurdish self-rule [JURIST report]. Sunni Arabs, who oppose federalism, are warning that they will vote to defeat the constitution in October's referendum if their demands are not met. Under the Transitional Administrative Law [text], the constitution will not be accepted if two-thirds of voters in any three provinces vote against it in the national referendum. AFP has more.

4:32 PM ET - Sunni leaders late Sunday appealed to the US, the United Nations and other members of the international community to head off any draft Iraqi constitution proposed or adopted without Sunni agreement. The 15-member Sunni bloc of delegates [JURIST report] to the Iraqi constitutional committee said that although meetings on the charter involving Shiites and Kurds had been ongoing since last Monday's seven-day extension [JURIST report], they had only participated in a single session on Friday, and said that going ahead without unanimous agreement which included Sunnis would "make the current crisis more complicated." AP has more. Iraqi government officials meanwhile suggested that dissolving the current Iraqi assembly and calling new elections, this time involving more Sunnis, might be one way out of the current impasse. Under one reading of the TAL, the Assembly will have to be dissolved if the new draft deadline of midnight Monday is not met. Reuters has more.