[JURIST] The Iraqi Special Tribunal [official website] announced Sunday that five as-yet-unnamed judges have been selected to preside over the trial of Saddam Hussein [JURIST news archive] and seven of his associates for the 1982 killings of 143 Shiite Muslims in the village of Dujail [JURIST report]. The trial is set to begin on October 19 [JURIST report], despite motions filed by Hussein defense lawyer Khalil Dulaimi last week requesting a delay [JURIST report]. Dulaimi claims that Hussein’s due process rights have been repeatedly violated by the court because the defense was not “duly informed about any certain date for the trial,” and it had not been given access to all investigation files. The prosecution insists that it has provided Dulaimi with all prosecution documents. If convicted, all eight defendants could be sentenced to death. AFP has more.

[JURIST] The UN-Afghan Joint Electoral Management Body (JEMB) [official website] announced Sunday that it will investigate allegations of voting fraud in last month’s legislative elections [JURIST report]. The JEMB decision [text] says that the instances of fraud, including ballot stuffing and proxy voting, were isolated, not systematic, and will not affect the integrity of the overall results. JEMB chairman Peter Erben said that the organization will audit the ballot boxes of about four percent of the 26,000 polling stations countrywide. The European Union Election Observation Mission [official website] released a report [text] last week praising the election results overall, but characterized the reported fraud cases as “worrying.” Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Lawyers acting on behalf of former New Orleans prisoners have filed papers asking the US Department of Justice [official site] to immediately assume direct supervision over a temporary holding facility at a closed juvenile prison in Jena, Louisiana, the source of more than two dozen complaints of prisoner abuse. Other affidavits filed by defense lawyers based on hundreds of inmate interviews claim widespread abuse by Louisiana prison guards in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina [JURIST archive]. The affidavits allege that prison guards beat, starved, and verbally abused prisoners, forced them to perform sex acts, and locked them in holding cells while floodwaters rose around their necks. Many inmates are still in custody five weeks or more after being charged with minor crimes where they normally would have been released within a few days of arrest. The Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections [official website; Katrina-related press releases] says that it has received no complaints of abuse and has praised the work of Corrections employees during prisoner evacuations [LDPSC releaae]. The New York Times has more.

Previously in JURIST's Paper Chase:

• New Orleans prisoners left in locked cells during Katrina, rights group says
• Violence, chaos at New Orleans jail after guards fled from Katrina, survivor says
• Law and order returning to New Orleans, but justice system still shaky

[JURIST] Connecticut joined Vermont Saturday as the second US state that recognizes civil unions for same-sex couples [JURIST report; a third state, Massachusetts, recognizes full gay marriage]. The development was marked by special Saturday hours at Hartford’s City Hall [press release, PDF], where 26 same-sex couples applied for their licenses. A New Haven spokesperson reported that only 10 couples applied for the licenses there on the first day of availability. In April, Republican Governor M. Jodi Rell [official profile] endorsed [press release] a 80-67 House of Representatives vote [JURIST report] amending the state statute that previously defined marriage as between a man and a woman. The new civil unions act [text; summary] grants civil unions the same “rights, protections, and responsibilities” as married couples. The Washington Post has more.

[JURIST] Yevgeny Adamov, the former minister in charge of the Russian Federal Atomic Energy Agency (FAAE) [backgrounder] has gone on hunger strike in a Swiss prison, where he has been held since May 2. Adamov, 66, is demanding that Swiss authorities extradite him to Russia on fraud charges. He is also wanted by the US, and was originally arrested in May under a US warrant [JURIST report]. Switzerland's Department of Justice [official website, in German] has not yet decided which request will get priority. MosNews has more.

[JURIST] US ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad [official profile] has started new negotiations with Shiites and Kurds in a last-ditch attempt to achieve a political compromise on the provisions of the draft Iraqi constitution [JURIST news archive] creating a federal structure for the country. Humam Hammoudi, the Shiite head of the country's constitutional drafting commitee, said American representatives had met with northern Kurds to discuss a set of Sunni proposals. Arabic News has more. Distribution of 5 million copies of the draft constitution has been delayed while talks are ongoing [RIA Novosti report]. Meanwhile leaders of Iraq's Kurdish Alliance [Wikipedia backgrounder], including Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, have accused Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari of "violating the laws" by breaking promises on Kurdish resettlement around Kirkuk and not consulting with the Kurds on key issues. Kurdish representatives said Saturday they would consider pulling out of the coalition government if their demands remain unmet. Aljazeera has more.