[JURIST] The American Bar Association [profession website] called on President Bush Monday to stop warrantless domestic surveillance [JURIST news archive] or change the laws to make it legal. At the Association's midyear meeting in Chicago [press release] the ABA's policy-setting House of Delegates voted on several policy proposals [JURIST report] set out in the report of a special ABA task force [ABA Journal report; member profiles] set up to investigate the domestic surveillance initiative and adopted a resolution stating that both national security and constitutional freedoms need to be protected.

The resolution opposed "any future electronic surveillance inside the United States by any US government agency for foreign intelligence purposes that does not comply with provisions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act" and asked President Bush to abide by the constitutional limitations placed on the president or work with Congress to enact new legislation if he believes current laws are inadequate. ABA President Michael Greco [official profile] stressed that the issue is not that surveillance should be stopped per se but it should not be done unilaterally. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Recent race riots [JURIST report] in the Los Angeles jail system [official website] have prompted authorities to begin transferring county prison inmates to the state corrections system. After several riots in various jail facilities left two inmates dead and many others injured, the latest fatality being Sunday at the Men's Central Jail [official website], 200 prisoners were transferred and another 400 are expected to be moved later this week. All seven Los Angeles County jails were placed on lockdown after the brawls, which means restricted movement and a loss of privileges for the county jail system's 18,425 inmates.

The riots erupted [JURIST report] earlier this month between black and Latino prisoners, with officials citing retaliation for the stabbing of a Latino man at a downtown jail as the possible catalyst. AP has more.

[JURIST] Government investigators told the US Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee [official website] in a hearing [prepared testimony] Monday that the relief effort for Hurricane Katrina [JURIST news archive] had been plagued by fraud [JURIST news archive] and abuse costing taxpayers millions.

Alice Fisher, the Justice Department official chairing the Hurricane Katrina Fraud Task Force [official website] set up in September [JURIST report] by US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, reviewed a range of prosecutions [PDF] brought for contract fraud, benefit fraud, identity theft and public corruption. Some 212 people have so far been charged [HKFTF report, PDF] across the country with frauds related to the fall hurricane that ravaged the Gulf Coast, with over 40 pleading guilty. Also Monday, a GAO report [PDF] presented to the Senate committee concluded that up to 900,000 of the 2.5 million applicants who received Katrina aid under the federal emergency cash assistance program used duplicate or invalid Social Security numbers, or false addresses and names. MSNBC has more.

[JURIST] The principals of a US contracting company accused of defrauding the US government during the Iraq war will appear Tuesday in a federal court in Virginia in the first Iraq contract civil fraud case to go to trial. Scott Custer and Michael Battles were hired by the US government to help distribute a new currency in Iraq and guard [press release] the Baghdad International Airport [GlobalSecurity.org backgrounder]. They stand accused of passing inflated invoices through their US-based security firm Custer Battles [corporate website] to defraud the government of millions of dollars.

The case is proceeding under the Federal False Claims Act [text], which allows individuals to sue privately on behalf of the government. In October 2005 the US Department of Justice [official website] declined without comment to join the two former Cluster Battles employee complainants in the case but nonetheless let the suit go ahead. Custer and Battles have denied all wrongdoing [press release]. The trial is focused on the Iraqi currency contract and is expected to last two weeks. The Washington Post has more.

Previously in JURIST's Paper Chase...

• Federal judge refuses to dismiss Iraq contract fraud case under False Claims Act
• DOJ says Iraq CPA contractors can be sued for profiteering in US

[JURIST] Members of the Knesset [official website], Israel's parliament, debated a draft national constitution at a special session Monday but came away sharply split. The Knesset's Constitution, Law and Justice Committee [official website] presented a 9,000 page report on CD containing various proposals for the Constitution, explanatory materials, and other supporting documents. Currently a series of Basic Laws [texts] provides the foundation for the state but there is no constitution proper [JVL backgrounder], in part because Israelis are split on whether to highlight the "Jewish" or "democratic" character of their dual national identity as described by Israel's Proclamation of Independence [text].

In debate Monday, politicians from the main Likud and Labor parties welcomed the draft but left and right-wing groups condemned it. A left-wing Meretz party representative said it gave insufficient protection to minorities, while a spokesman for the right-wing National Religious Party insisted it would destroy the "spirit and soul of Israel" by legitimizing the separation of church and state. The debate ended with the Knesset voting 30-19 to pass the issue on to the next session of the assembly, scheduled to meet after March elections. The Jerusalem Post has more.

[JURIST] Pakistani police Monday fired tear gas to stop approximately 7,000 students from protesting controversial and allegedly-blasphemous caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad [JURIST news archive] that have now been re-published in newspapers in Europe [JURIST report] and around the world. The police took action to prevent students from marching on the Governor's residence in Peshawar, and the students also marched to several nearby universities and threw stones at a Christian school and shops located in the main business district. Initial reports say a number of protestors were detained.

The Pakistan march was one of several large rallies and mass protests [JURIST report] that have been in Muslim and some Western countries in reaction to the cartoons first published by a Danish newspaper in September, and came after calls by Western and Muslim leaders for a halt to violent protests. AP has more.

[JURIST] Yahoo! Inc. [corporate website] issued a statement [text] Monday supporting freedom of speech in China in anticipation of its Wednesday testimony [hearing agenda] before the human rights subcommittee [official website] of the US House Committee on International Relations. The company, along with Google [corporate website], Microsoft [corporate website] and Cisco [corporate website], has recently come under fire for cooperating with the Beijing government in efforts Setting out what it called "Our Beliefs as a Global Internet Company", Yahoo! said: The statement said:

Doing business in certain countries presents US companies with challenging and complex questions. We are deeply concerned by efforts of governments to restrict and control open access to information and communication. We also firmly believe the continued presence and engagement of companies like Yahoo! is a powerful force in promoting openness and reform.

[JURIST] Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki [official profile] Monday accepted the resignations of Education Minister George Saitoti [CAD profile] and Energy Minister Kiraitu Murungi [official profile] in a televised announcement [text] in connection with their role in two separate corruption scandals which angered foreign donors and damaged Kibaki's government.

Saitoti is accused of playing a role in Kenya's largest corruption scheme, the billion dollar Goldenberg affair [BBC report]. A report by an independent committee pushed for the prime minister to consider filing criminal charges against Saitoti for his involvement. Kiraitu Murungi is accused of pressuring former anti-corruption tsar John Githongo to slow investigations surrounding his role in the Anglo-Leasing scandal [Wikipedia backgrounder]. President Kibaki urged Kenyans to be patient while the government thoroughly investigates the roles of the former ministers in the corruption schemes. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The European Court of Justice (ECJ) [official website; BBC backgrounder] found that Greece failed to implement or comply with EU directives in twenty cases in 2005, the most of all European Union [official website] member states, according to statistics [press release, PDF] released Monday by the court. Greece was followed closely by Luxembourg, France, Germany, and Italy, while Sweden boasted the least amount of offenses. The statistics showed a pattern similar to recent years.

Meanwhile, judges in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands referred the most cases to the court asking for interpretations of EU law [ECJ jurisdiction backgrounder]. The court has also seen a 12 percent decrease in pending cases in 2005, with the court completing more cases than it has received for the second year in a row. The ECJ has also reported a larger number of fiscal and social cases rather than the traditional economy-based case load which dealt typically with agriculture and consumer protection concerns. The EUObserver has more.

[JURIST] Members of the UN Stabilization Force in Haiti [official website] have fired on Haitians protesting election results [AP report], killing at least one protester and injuring four. Demonstrators supporting presidential candidate Rene Preval [Wikipedia profile] erected flaming roadblocks on Monday, demanding that the candidate be declared the winner in last week's election.

Preval, a former president and close ally of former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide [BBC profile; JURIST news archive], took an early lead [JURIST report], but current figures [PDF text] from the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) [official website] show that Preval has 48.76 percent of the vote, less than the outright majority he needs to avoid a runoff election. Two members of the nine-member CEP said Sunday that the vote was being manipulated [JURIST report]. Election officials have said they will postpone the announcement of official results [MercoPress report], reversing an earlier announcement from the head of the CEP that results would be released Sunday evening. No explanation has been given for the delay. AFP has more.

[JURIST] An Iranian Foreign Ministry [official website, English version] spokesman Sunday confirmed the country's ongoing commitment to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty [text] after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad [official website] threatened to walk away from the treaty [JURIST report] on Saturday. Hamid Reza Asefi said that Iran would not accept the US and Europe using the treaty as a "political instrument," but said Iran "will cooperate in the treaty and the safeguards' framework." US President George W. Bush has not rejected the possibility of using force on Iran if the country does not cooperate with the efforts International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) [official website] to regulate its nuclear activities. Iran maintains that its uranium enrichment program [IAEA backgrounder] is being used only to create electricity, but the US claims the country is trying to build nuclear weapons.

Meanwhile, a diplomat said Saturday in Vienna that IAEA cameras and seals have been removed from several nuclear buildings in Iran over the last few days, implying that it was not done under IAEA supervision. AP has more.

[JURIST] In anticipation of the upcoming Commonwealth Games [official website] scheduled to start in Melbourne March 15, the Parliament of Australia [official website] has rushed through a bill [PDF text; legislative materials] making domestic deployment of the Australian Defence Force [official website] faster and easier in the event of a terrorist attack. The new legislation authorizes the Australian prime minister, defense minister or attorney general to verbally call out the country's military in the event of a security emergency, freeing them from their former obligation to submit a long written request. The bill also provides more legal protection to soldiers carrying out domestic security duties. Read a Defence Ministry press release. AAP has more.

[JURIST] In its final session before dissolution, the lame-duck Palestinian Parliament [official website] Monday gave Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] the authority to appoint a constitutional court empowered to cancel any law approved by the newly-elected Hamas-led assembly considered contrary to the Palestinian Constitution [text]. The move is seen by many to be a concerted effort by the old assembly, dominated by Abbas' Fatah Party [party website], to strengthen Abbas' authority and thwart potential conflicts that will likely arise after the new parliament is sworn in Thursday. Hamas leaders immediately condemned the 11th-hour move. Incoming legislator Abdel Aziz Duaik said "I think this session was illegal. It is a kind of bloodless coup." The new law is not definitively entrenched, but would require a 2/3 vote of new members to change it, and observers doubt that Hamas could muster that level of parliamentary support.

Hamas [ICT profile] gained control of parliament after its surprise victory [JURIST report] during last month's elections. The win is viewed as a major victory for the group, but could hinder peace efforts in the Middle East. The European Union, the United States and other countries view Hamas as a terrorist organization, and the group has been linked to many deadly terror attacks and calls for the destruction of the Israeli state. The Israeli government has taken the position that it will not deal with the incoming Palestinian government. AP has more.

[JURIST] The trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] entered its fifth year Monday as proceedings resumed at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia [official website], leaving only 22 working days left before the trial comes to a close. The former Serbian leader has defended himself, after winning an appeal against a court-appointed defense team, throughout much of the proceedings during which nearly 350 witnesses have been called. The trial has been frought with delays [JURIST report], mainly due to the former leader's health issues [JURIST report], and since 2003, the court has only met three times per week to allow Milosevic periods of rest.

Many anticipate that the verdict will be announced by year's end, after a panel of three judges takes several months to deliberate. Milosevic faces 66 charges [ICTY case backgrounder] of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions [ICRC backgrounder] during the Balkan wars in the 1990s. Last December, Milosevic requested a transfer to Moscow [JURIST report] to receive a medical check-up and a ruling is expected in the near future. The Independent has more.

ALSO ON JURIST  Text: Milosevic trial severance ruling | Op-ed: Meltdown at the Milosevic Trial: A Much Delayed Rush to Judgment

[JURIST] Iraqi officials have suspended business with the Australia Wheat Board (AWB) [corporate website] while an Australian judicial inquiry [Cole Commission website] investigates allegations that AWB paid bribes of up to $300 million to the former government of Saddam Hussein in the oil-for-food scandal [JURIST news archive]. The scandal prompted the resignation of AWB chief executive Andrew Lindbergh [JURIST report] last week, after a document from a former AWB director given to the inquiry revealed the company's connection [JURIST report] to Hussein.

Australian Trade Minister Mark Vaile [official website] has called for the Iraqi Grains Board to reconsider the suspension [AAP report], saying that the Australian government would reassure Iraq that it would take any appropriate action against AWB after the inquiry has released its findings. AFP has more.

[JURIST] Presidents Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono [official profile] of Indonesia and Xanana Gusmao [BBC profile] of East Timor will meet this week to discuss a report alleging widespread human rights violations during Indonesia's 24-year occupation of East Timor. The meeting, originally to have taken place last month, was postponed after Gusmao delivered the report [JURIST report], issued by the East Timor Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation [official website] to the United Nations. Gusmao had previously indicated that he would withhold the report [JURIST report] in order to maintain positive ties with Indonesia.

The 2,500-page report accuses Indonesian security forces of rape, torture, deliberate starvation and use of Napoleon, resulting in the deaths of 180,000 people. Indonesian leaders have rejected the report [JURIST report], claiming that its findings are "exaggerated." BBC News has more.

[JURIST Europe] UK Chancellor Gordon Brown [official profile], widely expected to succeed Tony Blair [JURIST news archive] as British Prime Minister before the next election if not sooner, delivered a major policy address Monday calling for a toughening-up of the Terrorism Bill [amended text] currently before the UK Parliament. Insisting that the threat of terror had not abated, he said police should be able to detain terror suspects without charge for more than 28 days and he backed reinstatement of a clause outlawing "glorification of terrorism".

An initially proposed 90-day detention period for terror suspects was defeated in a House of Commons vote in November, when the 28-day period was substituted [JURIST report]. In January, the House of Lords rejected the proposed "glorification of terrorism" offense [JURIST report], calling it unworkable and "not sufficiently legally certain." Speaking at the Royal United Services Institute [official website] in London, Brown nonetheless declared that a balance between individual liberties and security must be struck in legislation. MPs will reconsider the Terrorism Bill Wednesday. Brown also advocated for national ID cards [JURIST report] on the eve of Monday's key Commons vote on that issue. Read the full text of Brown's speech. BBC News has more.

Tatyana Margolin is an Associate Editor for JURIST Europe, reporting European legal news from a European perspective. She is based in the UK.

[JURIST] The trial of former South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma [official profile] for rape began in Johannesburg Monday, though proceedings were cut short when presiding Judge Bernard Ngoepe stepped down from the case. The defense had argued that Ngoepe's issuance of search warrants in relation to separate corruption charges Zuma is facing affected the judge's objectivity, but Ngoepe said he withdrew from the trial [Reuters report] not in response to the defense but because he wanted to ensure that the judiciary was beyond reproach in such a key trial.

A popular figure in the ruling African National Congress (ANC) [party website], Zuma was seen as the obvious successor to President Thabo Mbeki [BBC profile] until the conviction of his financial advisor [JURIST report] for corruption prompted his removal from office [JURIST report] last year. Zuma currently faces charges of raping an AIDS activist [JURIST report]. A separate trial on corruption charges [JURIST report] will take place later this year. Zuma denies the charges, claiming they are based on a vendetta of his rivals within the ANC. Reuters has more. South Africa's Mail & Guardian Online has local coverage.

[JURIST] Five United Nations [official website] rights experts have concluded that detainees being held at the US prison base in Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] have been subjected to physical and mental abuse amounting to torture in some cases, according to an unreleased draft report obtained by the Los Angeles Times. The report is the result of an 18-month investigation ordered by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights [official website], and calls on the US to close the facility in Cuba and move the detainees to US soil for trial. Manfred Nowak [official profile, DOC], the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture [official website] and one of the five envoys who worked on the report, explained the conclusion of the report by saying:

We very, very carefully considered all of the arguments posed by the US government. There are no conclusions that are easily drawn. But we concluded that the situation in several areas violates international law and conventions on human rights and torture.

[JURIST] The top US Central Intelligence Agency [official website] counter-terrorism official was fired last week because he expressed opposition to CIA rendition practices [JURIST news archive] in sending al Qaeda suspects to secret prisons for interrogation, according to intelligence sources cited in a UK Sunday Times report. Agency officials have said that Robert Grenier was terminated because he was "not quite as aggressive" as he should be in pursuing terror cells, but sources contend that Grenier, who was terminated after one year as the head of the CIA counter-terrorism center [official website], was let go because he openly opposed excessive interrogation methods. Sources claim that CIA Director Porter Goss [official profile] blamed Grenier for recent leaks from the CIA regarding secret interrogation sites in Europe where al Qaeda members reportedly were taken for questioning. Last week, Goss accused [New York Times op-ed] those disclosing information of hindering the CIA's ability to combat terrorism by saying:

I take seriously my agency's responsibility to protect our national security. Unauthorized disclosures undermine our efforts and abuse the trust of the people we are sworn to protect....Our enemies cannot match the creativity, expertise, technical genius and tradecraft that the CIA brings to bear in this war. Criminal disclosures of national security information, however, can erase much of that advantage. The terrorists gain an edge when they keep their secrets and we don't keep ours.

[JURIST] Leading Monday's international brief, the Nepal Supreme Court [official website] has handed down an historic decision holding that the Royal Commission for Corruption Control (RCCC) [JURIST report], created by King Gyanendra [official profile, BBC profile] following his dismissal of the elected government [JURIST report], is unconstitutional and ordering the body to cease and desist all investigations and prosecutions. The RCCC, which had been given the power to investigate, charge, and prosecute government officials suspected of corruption, had been routinely accused of targeting political opposition leaders such as former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and former minister Prakash Man Singh, who are currently being detained by the RCCC. The court ruled that under Article 127 of the 1990 Constitution [text], the king has no authority to form such a body and ordered the Nepal government to declare the RCCC "null and void;" the court ruling also vacates all decisions made by the body. The ruling is a sharp response to the monarchy of Gyanendra and is seen as a rebuke by the judiciary towards Gyanendra's frequent attempts to guarantee judicial outcomes. JURIST's Paper Chase has continuing coverage of Nepal [JURIST news archive]. BBC News has more. eKantipur.com has local coverage.

In related news, Nepalese Maoist leader Prachanda, in a rare interview [BBC report] with BBC News, has said that allowing the people of Nepal to decide the fate of the country would result in King Gyanendra facing either a trial by a people's court or exile from the nation. Prachanda said that the Maoists were willing to accept any result from a truly democratic election by the people of Nepal. The Maoist rebellion has been challenging the Kathmandu government [official website] for ten years and most external observers believe that neither side has the military might to force a concession from the other. BBC News has more.

In other international legal news ...

• In an unusual twist in the ongoing controversy surrounding the publication of caricatures of Islamic prophet Muhammad [JURIST news archive], the Syrian government has charged a journalist for suggesting peaceful discussion of the issue as opposed to the recent spate of violent protests [JURIST report] taking place around the world. Adel Mahfouz has been charged with insulting public religious sentiment in Syria, a criminal act punishable with up to three years incarceration. Mahfouz was arrested February 7 after he published an article calling for the use of dialogue instead of protests to resolve the cartoon issue and said that protests were reinforcing the incorrect stereotype that Islam and violence are linked. IRIN News has more.

[JURIST] Saddam Hussein [JURIST news archive] returned to court in Baghdad Monday, though he claimed in several outbursts that his appearance was forced. The former Iraqi dictator called the court trying him for crimes against humanity a "game" because it was formed during the US occupation of Iraq and demanded that the presiding judge sentence him in absentia since he was not willingly present. Hussein also refused to accept a new team of court-appointed lawyers to represent him because his usual group of defense lawyers walked out [JURIST report] last month in protest of the newly appointed [JURIST report] Judge Ra'uf Rasheed Abdel-Rahman [BBC profile], who is now presiding over the trial [JURIST news archive].

Hussein's interruptions continued while the judge read witness testimony against him to the court, with Hussein arguing that the witnesses were politically motivated. Two witnesses also appeared in court, though they too said their presence was compelled and refused to offer testimony. Proceedings have now been adjourned [BBC report] until Tuesday. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Lawyers representing a group of hurricane victims in New Orleans have asked a US federal judge to grant a temporary restraining order preventing the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) [official website] from evicting 12,000 families still left homeless from Hurricane Katrina [JURIST news archive] and Hurricane Rita. FEMA announced on Saturday that it would begin to evict the families [FEMA press release] Monday from federally funded hotels [FEMA report], saying 88 percent of them have been given checks to help pay for apartments, prolonged hotel stays, or to repair their houses. According to the motion filed with Judge Stanwood Duval, FEMA has violated a court order since many of the homeless victims did not receive promised trailers and did not receive the notice of eviction in writing before January 30.

This marks the second round of major evictions by FEMA, which cancelled funding [JURIST report] for approximately 4,500 families staying in hotels last week because they did not register with the agency. AP has more.

1:07 PM ET - AP is reporting that Judge Duval has denied the motion, allowing FEMA to go ahead with its plan to end federally-funded hotel stays for hurricane evacuees.

Previously in JURIST's Paper Chase...

• FEMA ends hotel stays for thousands of Katrina victims
• Judge orders FEMA to extend Katrina hotel stays
• Katrina victims ask for extended hotel stays in FEMA lawsuit
• Katrina victims file class action against FEMA

[JURIST Europe] Islamic leaders in Britain have demanded a speedy prosecution of British soldiers shown beating young Iraqi detainees [JURIST report] and defiling an Iraqi corpse in video images [NW recorded video] that were published [NW report] in the tabloid News of the World Sunday. The leaders expressed concerns that the 2004 video would cause further outrage among UK Muslims, already provoked over the Muslim cartoons controversy [JURIST archive], and would make it more difficult to contain rising anger among Islamic youth. Sir Iqbal Sacranie [Wikipedia profile], Secretary-General of the Muslim Council of Britain [official website], also warned that the outrage could endanger the 8,000 British troops currently stationed in Iraq [MOD official website]. In anticipation of a possible backlash, British troops there have been placed on heightened alert.

UK Prime Minister Tony Blair has promised a full investigation into the incident and the as-yet-unidentified soldiers involved have been urged to turn themselves in. Through a spokesman, Iraq Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari has called [BBC report] for the British government "to bring the soldiers to justice immediately and to institute even more stringent measures of monitoring and assessing and making sure such incidents - that are so tragic - never happen again." The Times of London has more.

9:30 AM ET - The UK Ministry of Defense said Monday that one person has been arrested in connection with the abuse video, but no further details have yet been released. Reuters has more.

Tatyana Margolin is an Associate Editor for JURIST Europe, reporting European legal news from a European perspective. She is based in the UK.