[JURIST] Jordan's King Abdullah II [official website] has urged the Jordanian parliament to quickly approve new anti-terrorism legislation, drafted two weeks ago [JURIST report] in the wake of last month's hotel bombing [Reuters report] that left 57 people dead. During the Thursday opening of the third parliamentary session since 2003 elections, King Abdullah II said that "we do realize that Jordan's location, its message and positions are the reasons that it was targeted and that these attacks impose upon it the largest security challenges to ever confront it." Terrorists loyal to the Jordanian-born al-Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi [BBC profile] claimed responsibility for the Amman hotel bombing. The anti-terrorism bill allows the government to hold suspected terrorists indefinitely, and would impose penalties on any person who "would expose the lives and properties of citizens to danger inside and outside the country." Deputy Prime Minister Marwan Muasher said last week [Jordan Times report] that “[Jordan] is not a police state and we won't be turned into one. The new law is being examined carefully and it will take into consideration similar anti-terrorism bills in other countries." However, he stressed that Jordan would "no longer tolerate an opinion that condones or supports the killing of innocent civilians under any pretext.” AFP has more.

[JURIST] Convicted drug trafficker and Australian citizen Van Tuong Nguyen [Wikipedia profile] was executed by Singapore Thursday, despite a strong plea for clemency submitted by the Australian government to the president of Singapore. Nguyen was caught with 14 ounces of heroin at Singapore's Changi Airport in 2002, a crime invoking a mandatory death sentence under the Misuse of Drugs Act [text]. Singapore has executed over 100 people for drug related offenses since 1999, and has granted clemency to 6 people, all Singaporean citizens, since 1965. Nguyen's death sentence by hanging has been a cause celebre for the Australian people, hundreds of whom participated in a candlelight vigil [AAP report] outside Australia's Parliament House in Canberra to pray for clemency. A group of several hundred lawyers convened [AAP report] in the middle of Melbourne's legal district to protest the mandatory death penalty and show support for the Australian lawyers who spent three years fighting to block Nguyen's execution. Aa recent Morgan Poll survey nonetheless found that 47 percent of Australians believe Nguyen should be put to death, compared to 46 percent who believe he should not, with six percent unsure. Australia eliminated the death penalty in 1973. Reuters has more. News.com Australia has local coverage.

[JURIST] Conrad Black [CBC Profile], press baron and former chairman of Hollinger International, pleaded not guilty to eight fraud charges during his arraignment in Chicago Thursday. Along with other former Hollinger executives, he is accused by the US government of diverting more than $80 million from Hollinger International and its shareholders during Hollinger's $2.1 billion sale of several hundred Canadian newspapers. Black also faces charges of misusing Hollinger funds for actions such as throwing a $40,000 birthday party for his wife with company money. Black, who was indicted [JURIST report; PDF text] on November 17th, failed to appear at the first scheduled arraignment [JURIST report] after his lawyers asked for more time to prepare the case. Hollinger International, the owner of the Chicago Sun-Times among other media holdings [Columbia Journalism Review report], is also currently suing Black [JURIST report] for diverting company funds for his own personal gain. Black could be sentenced to 40 years in prison and fines up to $2 million if convicted on all charges. CBC has more.

[JURIST] Leading Thursday's environmental law news, James Hardie Industries [corporate website] signed an agreement [press release] Thursday with the government of New South Wales [official website] to pay $4.5 billion to compensate Australian asbestos victims. Hardie, a building products company, will make payments capped at no more than 35 percent of the company's cash flow in any year into a compensation fund for at least 40 years, provide $5 million to fund medical research into asbestos diseases and pay $750,000 for an asbestos education campaign. There is no overall cap on the liability of Hardie to make funding payments, and no caps on payments to individual victims. AAP has more.

In other environmental law news...

• The Kyoto Protocol [text] has become operational [PDF press release] following the adoption of the final regulatory "rule book" by its 35 signatory nations at the UN Conference on Climate Change [official website] Wednesday. The rule book establishes a Joint Implementation board to oversee emissions trading, the clean development mechanism which grants credits for investing in foreign sustainable development projects, and other operational guidelines. AFP has more.
  
  
• The US Departments of Commerce [official website], Labor [official website], Transportation [official website], and Veterans Administration [official website] have settled a case for violating the federal Energy Policy Act [text] which requires that 75 percent of the new cars and light trucks bought by federal agencies run on alternative fuels. The agencies agreed to specific plans to increase purchases of alternative fuel vehicles over the next three years, and will provide the plaintiffs with their purchasing reports. AP has more.
  
  
• The head of the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy [official website] and the British Energy Minister [official website] signed [press release] an agreement [PDF text] Wednesday to develop a system for injecting carbon dioxide into oil fields under the North Sea. The proposed system would decrease the amount of carbon dioxide that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere. AFP has more.
  
  
• The Tokyo High Court ordered the Japanese government Wednesday to pay 3.25 billion yen (approx. US$27M) to an estimated 6,000 residents living near the US Yokota Air Base [official website] for noise pollution violations. The ruling will compensate people living around the base, regardless of when they moved there, but the court said it was unable to order the suspension of early morning or night flights, an action sought by the plaintiffs. The Japan Times has more.

[JURIST] The Bush Administration Thursday asked the US DC Circuit Court of Appeals to reinstate the US Defense Department's mandatory anthrax vaccination program [official website]. The anthrax vaccine is currently labeled for use by individuals who are at high risk for exposure to the disease; however, the Bush Administration argued that that definition is broad enough to include military personnel. In October 2004, a US federal district court ordered the DOD to suspend its mandatory vaccination program [PDF opinion; JURIST report] because of faulty approval by the Food and Drug Administration [official website]. In March 2005, a federal district court ruled [PDF opinion; JURIST report] that DOD could administer anthrax vaccinations on a voluntary basis. AP has more.

[JURIST] Lebanese Defense Minister Elias al-Murr announced Thursday that Lebanon will ask the UN Security Council to extend for another six months its investigation into the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri [UN materials; JURIST news archive]. UN chief investigator Detlev Mehlis was scheduled to deliver his final report on the investigation on December 12, after which he planned to leave his position. Ibrahim Gambari, the UN under-secretary for political affairs stated that he expected the Security Council to extend the investigation beyond the deadline, even if Mehlis leaves his post. Reuters has more.

On Wednesday, Syria's UN Ambassador Fayssal Mekdad also demanded further investigation into the Hariri murder after Syrian witness Hosam Taher Hosam, who provided testimony in the investigation, accused [JURIST report] the Hariri family and Lebanese officials of offering him money to implicate Syria in Hariri's murder. Hosam also recanted the testimony he gave in Mehlis' investigation. In response, Mehlis accused the Syrian government [Reuters report] of using Hosam as a "Communist-like propaganda tool." He also asserted that Hosam's false testimony did not undermine his investigation. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] New trials have begun in Uzbekistan [JURIST news archive] for fifty-eight people charged with terrorism, religious extremism and other serious crimes stemming from the death of as many as 1,000 villagers in the Uzbek city of Andijan, the country's Supreme Court announced in a statement Thursday. This second round of trials follows the government's successful prosecution [JURIST report] of 15 Andijan villagers accused of leading the May 2005 uprising [JURIST report]. According to the court statement, the defendants will be tried in closed proceedings to ensure the safety of the victims and witnesses, though New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] maintains that the Uzbek officials are simply refusing to allow rights groups to monitor the trials. Uzbek officials say the death toll in the May Andijan uprising [HRW backgrounder] is no greater than 187, but rights groups say that closer to 1,000, mostly unarmed civilians, may have been killed when government forces violently suppressed mass protests in the city. Earlier this week, HRW issued a statement [text] condemning the Uzbek government's handling of the atrocity. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Members of the European Parliament [official website] on Thursday criticized EU leaders for failing to push the United States on recent reports of a secret network of CIA prisons in Europe [JURIST report] used to hold suspected terrorists. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw [official profile] has, on behalf of the EU, written to Washington seeking clarification [JURIST report] on the alleged prison system, but European parliamentarians retorted that such action was insufficient given the gravity of the accusations. Thursday's announcement adds to the pressure the EU has attempted to exert on the US regarding the CIA prison allegations. The European Commission [official website] recently announced its plans to investigate the allegations of the secret CIA prisons [JURIST report], and EU officials have threatened sanctions [JURIST report] against any member nation found to be housing one of the CIA prisons. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The Connecticut General Assembly [official website] passed a tough new campaign finance law [PDF text] Thursday that strictly limits campaign contributions for all state offices and creates a public campaign finance system. Once enacted, the bill will ban political contributions from lobbyists, their spouses, and state contractors, limit contributions of political action committees, and close a loophole that previously allowed unregulated corporate donations. The Connecticut State Senate overwhelmingly passed the legislation Wednesday, by a margin of 27-8, and the House passed the legislation Thursday morning with a margin of 82-65. Connecticut Governor M. Jodi Rell [official website] has promised to sign the legislation into law [press release], which Rell says will make the state a "national model for reform." The campaign finance bill comes in the wake of the corruption scandal surrounding former governor John G. Rowland [archived official website; JURIST news archive], who in March was sentenced to one year in prison violating federal corruption laws [JURIST report]. The Hartford Courant has local coverage; AP has more.

[JURIST] Samsung [corporate website], the world's largest maker of computer memory chips, has pleaded guilty to criminal antitrust charges [indictment text] and was ordered pay a $300 million fine, the second largest fine in a criminal antitrust case, for conspiring to fix the price of its personal computer chips. The South Korean-based company was charged with artificially inflating the price of its semi-conductors which led to higher prices of some personal computers. Under the plea agreement [PDF text] seven people, including Samsung President Y.H. Park, are specifically excluded from the settlement and could still face civil and criminal charges. The Samsung settlement, first announced by the USDOJ [JURIST report] in October, is part of the DOJ's ongoing investigation into price-fixing in the dynamic random access memory industry. Prosecutors received complaints from PC makers, such as Dell [corporate website] and Apple [corporate website], when the price of memory chips began to climb in 2001, even though the tech industry was suffering its worst downturn in history. Hynix Semiconductor [corporate website] in April pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges [JURIST report] for the role it played in the price-fixing scheme. In December, 2004, four Infineon executives pleaded guilty to similar charges of price-fixing [JURIST report]. AP has more.

[JURIST] Senegal President Abdoulaye Wade has called for the creation of an African tribunal that would hear abuse charges against the continent's "dictators", similar to those leveled against former Chad President Hissene Habre [HRW profile]. Wade's comments come as Habre resides in Senegal awaiting a decision from the African Union [official website] as to whether he must be extradited to Belgium [JURIST report]. Belgian prosecutors have charged Habre with crimes against humanity [JURIST report] under that country's universal jurisdiction laws for the murder and torture of political opponents during his time in power. A Senegalese court recently held it did not have the power to decide on his extradition [JURIST report]. Habre has lived in Senegal for 15 years and denies knowledge of any atrocities allegedly committed under his 1982-90 rule of Chad. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] Australia's Labor Party leader Kim Beazley [official profile] said Thursday that the controversial sedition provisions [JURIST report] set to be included in Australia's new anti-terror laws lower the country "to the standard[s] of North Korea, Syria and Cuba." On Wednesday, Australian Prime Minister John Howard [official profile] bowed to pressure [JURIST report] from back-benchers and agreed to several amendments [interview transcript] to the proposed anti-terror legislation [text; JURIST report] that will soften several of its provisions but he has refused to fully remove sedition offenses [AAP report] from the bill. Beazley, who claimed the proposals will hurt Australian workers, said he would give like-minded senators every opportunity to vote to separate the sedition elements from the bill, through Labor amendments. The Herald Sun has more.

Previously in JURIST's Paper Chase...

• Australian PM backs down in face of party revolt on terror laws
• Former Australian PM says government reversing human rights advances
• Australian House passes terror law without amendment
• Australian senators call for changes to proposed anti-terror law
• PM says Australian anti-terror proposals won't limit press freedoms
• Australia continues to push new anti-terror measures

ALSO ON JURIST   Op-ed: Rights at Risk: My Dissent from the Australian Anti-terror Bill [Jon Stanhope, ACT Chief Minister]

[JURIST] Iraq Interior Minister Bayan Jabr [CBS profile] on Thursday fired Nouri al-Nouri, the country's senior inspector handling human rights issues, in connection with a torture scandal involving dozens of prisoners at a Baghdad prison, according to an Iraqi official. Al-Nouri, the ministry's lead inspector for corruption and human rights violations since Iraq regained sovereignty in June 2004, was dismissed on the orders of Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari [BBC profile; JURIST news archive], the official said on condition of anonymity. Jabr himself has not been immune from scandal. He has been accused of running secret prisons [JURIST report] and controlling death squads, charges he has downplayed or denied [JURIST report]. AP has more.

[JURIST] UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour [official profile; JURIST news archive] has warned [press release] that the Nepalese government and Maoist rebels must take "steps towards lasting peace" in order to avoid "grave violations of human rights and international humanitarian law" being committed by both sides. Arbour also cautioned that Nepal [JURIST news archive] faces a real possibility of a full-scale armed conflict if its government fails to extend a ceasefire with Maoist rebels and that the government's recent clampdown on the media [JURIST report] and political parties like the Maoists violates international human rights standards and further frustrates efforts to re-negotiate the ceasefire agreement, which is due to end this week. The Nepalese government has banned a Maoist protest scheduled for Friday, after the communist party agreed to join other opposition parties to attempt to restore democracy to the Himalayan kingdom. Civil unrest and government restrictions on the media and civil liberties [JURIST report] have been on the rise in Nepal since King Gyanendra [official profile] sacked the government and assumed total control of the country in February. AFP has more.

[JURIST] Nigeria's Kaduna Code of Conduct Tribunal on Thursday began legal proceedings against Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, governor of the oil-rich state Bayelsa [profile], on charges of corruption. The tribunal, an anti-corruption body that has the power to strip elected officials of immunity, has begun investigating alleged failures by Alamieyeseigha to declare properties and bank accounts. He fled to Nigeria from the UK [BBC report] where he faced charges for money-laundering after more than $3 million was found in his London home. Alamieyeseigha is seen as an ally of Nigeria's Vice President Atiku Abubakar who is vying with President Olusegun Obasanjo [profile] for control of the ruling People's Democratic Party [BBC backgrounder]. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] Walgreens [corporate website] said Thursday it has suspended four Illinois pharmacists without pay for refusing to fill prescriptions for the morning-after pill in violation of a state rule. The pharmacists said their objections stemmed from religious or moral beliefs. Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich [official website] issued a rule April 1, 2005 demanding that pharmacists make the pill available [press release] "without delay." Blagojevich's spokeswoman said at the time that once a pharmacist begins selling some contraceptives he must sell all products in that category regardless of moral beliefs. An attorney for the pharmacists has called the discipline "pretty disturbing" and said they were contemplating taking legal action. Other pharmacists have sued [JURIST report] over the rule, claiming it forces them to violate their religious beliefs. AP has more.

[JURIST] The city of York, Pennsylvania, will pay a $2 million settlement to the relatives of a black woman shot to death during race riots in 1969. The two children and two sisters of Lilly Belle Allen will get a total of $200,000 annually for a decade in a deal that would end their federal lawsuit filed against the city and five former police officers. Allen, a 27-year-old woman from Aiken, South Carolina, was shot repeatedly and killed while getting out of her family's stalled car in a predominantly white neighborhood. Thirty-three years later, the former mayor of York, Charlie Robertson, was accused of inciting the violence [PDF criminal complaint] and went on trial [CNN report] in the killing along with two other men in 2002. Robertson was acquitted [AP report]; the others were convicted of murder. Current mayor John Brenner [official profile] could not immediately comment on the case but is expected to do so after the case's status conference, which is set for Friday before US District Judge Yvette Kane [official profile]. AP has more. The Patriot-News has local coverage.

[JURIST] The South African Constitutional Court [official website] on Thursday ruled that it is unconstitutional to prohibit gay couples from marrying and gave parliament one year to amend the 1961 Marriage Act to allow same-sex marriage [JURIST news archive]. According to the court's judgment [PDF text; summary], if the legislature does not act to recognize same-sex unions, the definition of marriage will automatically be changed to include same-sex couples. Once the legal definition is changed, South Africa [JURIST news archive] will become the first African nation to recognize same-sex marriage, and the fifth worldwide, joining Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and Canada. One of the court's 11 judges dissented from the judgment, saying that the Court should ruled to immediately recognize same-sex marriage. Gay and lesbian groups on Thursday welcomed the ruling [SABC report], but questioned the 12-month waiting period. Reuters has more. The Mail and Guardian has local coverage.

[JURIST] The Japanese government is preparing a legislative proposal that would amend the country's succession law, the 1947 Imperial Household Law [text], to allow female monarchs. Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said Thursday that a 15-member team has been established to work on a bill to be submitted when parliament reconvenes in January. The proposal will mirror a recent report that endorsed changing the succession law [JURIST report] to allow an emperor's first-born child, irrespective of gender, the right to ascend to the throne. AP has more.

[JURIST] Defense lawyers for Zacarias Moussaoui [JURIST news archive] are seeking to ask jurors in the upcoming sentencing trial for their opinions on Islam, the FBI's performance in several high-profile investigations and for their personal reactions to the September 11 attacks [JURIST news archive], according to proposed jury questions submitted to the court Wednesday. Earlier this year, Moussaoui pleaded guilty [JURIST report] to conspiracy charges [indictment] in connection with the September 11 attacks, and a jury will now decide whether he should receive the death penalty. The 306-item defense questionnaire [PDF text] is much more extensive than the proposed questionnaire submitted by the prosecution [PDF text; JURIST report], which contains 89 questions focused on potential jurors' religious beliefs and views on the death penalty. US District Judge Leonie Brinkema will determine which questions may be asked when 500 potential jurors are summoned for jury duty on February 6 [JURIST report]. AP has more.

[JURIST] The final round of Egypt's legislative elections began Thursday, though riot police in some towns blocked access to polling stations in contradiction to government promises of free and fair elections. The cordoning-off of polling stations is thought to be related to the success of the Muslim Brotherhood [Wikipedia backgrounder] in earlier stages in the election. During the first two rounds of polling, candidates from the Islamic party won 76 seats in the 454-member parliament, more than five times its seats in the outgoing parliament, prompting the arrest of several hundred Brotherhood supporters [JURIST report] earlier this week. An advisor to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak [official profile] has said that the government will not allow the Brotherhood to become a legal political party [JURIST report] despite its gains in the elections. Mubarak's office says the ban is meant to keep religion from mixing with politics. AP has more.

Previously in JURIST's Paper Chase...

• Egypt keeping ban on Muslim Brotherhood despite electoral gains
• Egyptian judges reject parliamentary election results
• Hundreds detained in Egypt parliamentary election runoff
• Over 200 arrested in second round of Egypt parliamentary elections

[JURIST] The Argentinean Congress [official website in Spanish] passed a law Wednesday making all Argentinean citizens potential organ donors unless they specifically reject that status. Argentine President Nestor Kirchner [BBC profile] first proposed the bill to his Congress last year; it was previously approved by the Chamber of Deputies [official website in Spanish] before being unanimously passed by the Senate [official website in Spanish] on Wednesday. Argentine Vice President Daniel Scioli [official profile in Spanish] said the law will enable more lives to be saved, since approximately 6,000 Argentinean citizens are currently on the waiting list for organ transplants. Argentina is the first country in Latin America to approve this type of organ donor law, following Spain, Belgium, and Austria. Reuters has more. The Buenos Aires Herald has local coverage [registration required].

[JURIST] Health officials said Wednesday that state laws which prohibit a mercury-based vaccine preservative could impede efforts to fight an avian flu pandemic should an outbreak occur. At a meeting of the US Department of Health and Human Services National Vaccine Advisory Committee (NVAC) [official website], the healthcare officials said that six states have already enacted legislation preventing the use of thimerosal [FDA backgrounder; FAQs], and over 20 states have similar bills pending. Most doctors believe thimerosal is safe, saying it does not affect the body in the same manner as mercury found in pollutants, but several groups disagree and claim that use of the preservative can be linked to neurological diseases including autism. Creating mercury-free vaccines requires packaging individual doses which is expected to pose a major problem if large batches of the vaccine need to be rushed in the event of an avian flu pandemic. Dr. Melinda Wharton of NVAC said that legislators may not understand the ramifications of the new and proposed laws, and claims that the bills were pushed by activists. Earlier this month, President Bush asked Congress to devise a plan to provide liability protection [JURIST report] for vaccine manufacturers to prepare for a possible bird flu epidemic [White House fact sheet]. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The Iraqi government has said that it has been unable to complete an investigation into allegations that prisoners at an interior department facility were tortured because mistakes made by US soldiers who discovered the site tainted some of the evidence. Sources in the US investigation said that the Iraqi government has blamed the US for not securing detainee files and for mishandling evidence, allegations that the US denied. US troops discovered 169 mostly Sunni Arabs [JURIST report] in a detention facility in Baghdad earlier this month, and many of them showed signs of starvation and physical abuse. Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari [BBC profile] promised to investigate [JURIST report] the abuse and release findings within two weeks, but no results have been forthcoming [Aljazeera report]. Some in the country have accused the interior ministry with collaborating with the Badr Brigade [Wikipedia profile], an Iranian-backed Shiite militia, to detain and torture Sunni Arabs. Iraqi Interior Minister Bayan Jabr [CBS profile] has denied the charges [JURIST report] and accused the media of exaggerating the claims of torture [JURIST report]. VOA has more.

Previously in JURIST's Paper Chase...

• US general blames Iraqi commanders for detainee abuse
• Iraq president rejects rights comparison to Saddam regime
• Former Iraq PM Allawi says rights abuses as bad as under Saddam
• Iraq minister rejects claims of torture, death squads
• Iraqis march in Baghdad torture protest
• UN rights commissioner calls for international inquiry into Iraqi prisons
• Iraqi government admits security forces tortured, abused detainees

[JURIST] A bombing at a Bangladesh [JURIST news archive] court complex Thursday during a strike by lawyers in the country has wounded 25. The blast is the latest in a series of bombings outside courthouses and reportedly occurred near a police checkpoint in Gazipur, north of the capital Dhaka, and at the same site where a bombing on Tuesday killed six. Police arrested 22 [JURIST report] on Wednesday in connection with that attack. Lawyers in the country called for a strike Thursday to push for greater security, as courts in the country have become frequent targets of militant Muslims in the country calling for Sharia law [CFR backgrounder]. Earlier this month, lawyers in the country boycotted the courts [JURIST report] for two days to protest the killing of two judges [JURIST report]. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] UN leaders have largely given up on completing a comprehensive treaty against terrorism [UN backgrounder] before the end of the year, as hoped by UN leaders, with a working committee on the treaty failing to break an impasse over how to define terrorism. UN General Assembly President Jan Eliasson [official profile] attempted to reach a last-minute compromise with members of the treaty-writing committee without success, and the working group adjourned Wednesday until Feb. 27. Thirteen global treaties already touch on the issue of terrorism, but the UN had hoped to create a comprehensive treaty on the issue, a move that has remained stalled since 1996. At the center of the dispute is how terrorism will be defined. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan [official profile] has called for a broad definition that includes any intentional maiming or killing of civilians regardless of motive, but the Organization of the Islamic Conference [official website] has resisted such a definition as inconsistent with the rights of national liberation movements like the Palestinians. Reuters has more.

Previously in JURIST's Paper Chase...

• UN General Assembly working on terrorism definition for global treaty
• Negotiations on UN terror treaty restarted
• UN to re-open anti-terror treaty negotiations
• G8 leaders call for early agreement on UN anti-terror treaty

[JURIST] The government's lead counsel in its lawsuit against the tobacco industry [DOJ backgrounder] on Wednesday withdrew from the case, as an investigation continues into whether political pressure forced the government to lower its demands in the case. Sharon Eubanks, a US Department of Justice attorney, had pursued a racketeering case against the tobacco industry [JURIST news archive] since being named to head the case [DOJ news release] in 2000, but the government has filed a notice of her withdrawal, effective Thursday, with the district court in the case. A DOJ spokesman said the department would not comment on Eubanks' withdrawal unless she waived privacy protection. In June, the government surprised many by lowering its demands for relief [JURIST report] in the case from $130 billion to $10 billion against the advice of its expert, Dr. Michael Fiore [official profile], in the case. Democratic pressure prompted the DOJ to open an inquiry into whether the decision in the case was influenced by high-level political pressure. AP has more.

Previously in JURIST's Paper Chase...

• DOJ optimistic about tobacco suit despite high court denial of damages appeal
• DOJ seeks award of legal costs in tobacco trial
• DOJ seeks right to sue for past tobacco profits
• US requests $14 billion in penalties in tobacco trial
• Judge urges settlement in tobacco litigation
• DOJ defends decision to reduce proposed penalty in tobacco case

[JURIST] The California Supreme Court [official website] late Wednesday denied a request by Stanley Tookie Williams [advocacy website], the Crips gang founder turned anti-gang activist, to halt his scheduled execution. Defense lawyers for Williams challenged forensic evidence in the case in a last-ditch effort to halt his execution scheduled for Dec. 13. The Supreme Court denied the petition [conference actions list, PDF] in a 4-2 decision without comment. Williams, who has already challenged his sentence in federal courts, has also petitioned for clemency from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger [official profile], who has agreed to hear the petition. Williams has maintained his innocence after he was convicted in 1981 for killing three people in a motel robbery and for shooting another in a separate crime. Since being imprisoned, Williams has authored a number of anti-gang children's books. AP has more.

[JURIST Europe] Authorities in France and Belgium [government websites] have arrested fifteen suspects connected with a suicide bombing attack in Iraq on November 9 carried out by a woman who has been confirmed as a Belgian national married to an Islamic radical. The suicide attack is thought to be the first by a European female. Fourteen of the suspects were arrested in Brussels [Reuters report] while the fifteenth was discovered in Paris. The fifteen are purported to be part of a network that has been under investigation for four months, but authorities lost track of the suicide bomber until her arrival in Iraq. The London Telegraph has more.

[JURIST Europe] A UK High Court has heard an extradition appeal by three British men charged in connection with the Enron [JURIST news archive] scandal challenging the validity of the British government's approval of a US extradition request [JURIST report]. Britain had granted a US request for the extradition of three former Natwest [corporate website] bank executives, David Bermingham, Gary Mulgrew, and Giles Darby, who have since appealed to the UK High Court alleging their extradition is merely to bolster US cases against other Enron defendants. All three were indicted [PDF text] in 2002 for seven counts of wire fraud in a Houston federal court. Two judges at the hearing Wednesday questioned the US government's request to extradite the thee men as their crimes appear primarily based in the UK and targeted against the Greenwich Natwest unit of the Royal Bank of Scotland instead of Enron. US prosecutors claim that the three bankers were involved in conspiring with former Enron CFO Andrew Fastow [BBC profile] in using an Enron partnership to defraud nearly $7 million from Greenwich Natwest. The action against the three British men marks the first use of the UK-US extradition treaty [PDF text]. The extradition hearing is expected to last for three days. The International Herald Tribune has more.

Previously in JURIST's Paper Chase...

• Three UK bankers to be extradited to US for Enron scandal involvement
• UK bankers allowed to challenge extradition in Enron case
• UK Home Secretary given extension on Enron extradition decision
• UK bankers linked to Enron scandal may be extradited to US, judge rules

[JURIST Europe] British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw [official profile] says he has written a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice [official profile], on behalf of EU nations [JURIST report], questioning the landing of CIA planes in nineteen airports [Guardian report] in England and Scotland as well as in other European Union countries. Straw's letter came the same day as UK-based civil rights group Liberty [advocacy website] demanded [press release] that the British government investigate allegations that the US Central Intelligence Agency [official website] used British airports to transport suspects to countries that allow torture. The Council of Europe, [official website] which monitors human rights violations in the EU, is currently conducting an investigation [COE press release] into the claims against the CIA [JURIST news archive] as such actions would violate the European Convention on Human Rights [text]. Liberty has stated that it will allow the British government two weeks of investigation before bringing legal action [JURIST report]. BBC News has local coverage.