[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] Wednesday heard oral arguments on whether a patent on a two-step technique used to measure Vitamin B deficiencies allows its owners to monopolize an unpatentable scientific principle or natural phenomenon. Bush administration lawyers urged the Court not to consider the broader questions raised by Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings v. Metabolite Laboratories Inc., et al. [Duke Law case backgrounder]. Metabolite Laboratories, the holder of the patent, argued that the patent merely protects a practical application of the scientific discovery, an argument frowned upon by Associate Justices Antonin Scalia and Stephen Breyer during Tuesday's oral arguments. While Breyer was concerned over the potential for companies to establish monopolies over "every useful idea," Scalia attacked the patent itself, saying it seemed to cover a scientific discovery. The ABA has merit briefs filed in the case. USA Today has more.

Also Tuesday, the Court reheard oral arguments in Garcetti v. Ceballos [Duke Law backgrounder], in which it will consider whether government employees are protected by free speech rights during the course of their employment. In that case, a Los Angeles county prosecutor claimed he was demoted for testifying that a deputy sheriff lied in a search warrant affidavit. Oral arguments were rescheduled [JURIST report] after the first arguments ended in a 4-4 deadlock in conference, as Samuel Alito had yet to be confirmed. The ABA has merit briefs filed in the proceeding. AP has more.

[JURIST] Mikhail Khodorkovsky [MosNews profile; JURIST news archive; Khodorkovsky defense website], the former owner of Russian oil giant Yukos [corporate website] who was convicted of tax fraud last year and is now incarcerated in a Siberian prison [JURIST report], filed an appeal [press release] Tuesday in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) [official website] alleging that the Russian courts violated his due process rights. Khodorkovsky's lawyers announced their intention to appeal [JURIST report] last September, but estimate that the European court may not hear the appeal for as many as three years. Khodorkovsky has previously alleged that the Kremlin instigated his prosecution to keep him from growing too powerful and politically ambitious. Reuters has more.

Lawyers for Platon Lebedev [defense website], the former head of Russia's Menatep bank and a shareholder in Yukos who was tried concurrently with Khodorkovsky, also announced their own ECHR appeal [press release] Tuesday . Both Khodorkovsky and Lebedev were sentenced to 8-year prison terms. Radio Free Europe has more.

[JURIST] French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin [official website; BBC profile] indicated Tuesday that he might back off from his previous insistence [JURIST report] on a provision of the First Employment Contract (CPE) [FAQ, in French] he guided through Parliament earlier this month that would allow employers to fire any worker under 26 years old without cause during the first two years on the job. Instead, he may shorten the trial period to 12 months and require employers to explain job dismissals.

While President Jacques Chirac supports the bill [Washington Post report] as an "important element" in the fight against youth unemployment, which is currently at 23 percent, labor unions say the law would create a "generation of disposable workers." Labor unions and teachers have already protested the legislation [JURIST report] in demonstrations across France, with a rally in Paris ending Saturday in a clash with riot police [JURIST report] where 167 people were arrested. Unions are organizing a one-day nationwide strike for March 28 [JURIST report], which the entire public sector is expected to join. Reuters has more. Le Monde has local coverage [in French].

[JURIST] The US has welcomed [State Department statement] a weekend agreement by the eight main political parties of Bosnia and Herzegovina [official website] on changes to the country's constitution [text] at the end of negotiations that began four months ago [JURIST report]. The final outstanding issue involving procedures for presidential elections was resolved by Bosnian Muslims and Serbs accepting the request of Croats that a president and two vice-presidents be elected by both houses of parliament. The deal will now be sent before parliament for approval, which supporters hope will be approved before the October 2006 elections.

The Council of the European Union [official website] issued a statement [text] Monday similarly applauding the agreement, and encouraging Bosnia and Herzegovina lawmakers to ensure it takes effect by the October elections. DTT-NET has more [subscription required].

[JURIST] Chinese prosecutors are refusing to release a New York Times researcher despite receiving a court order last week dismissing the charges [JURIST report] against him, the researcher's lawyer said Tuesday. Zhao Yan has been detained since 2004, accused of leaking confidential state information to foreigners [JURIST report], but the charges were unexpectedly dropped last week, reportedly in anticipation of a visit by Chinese President Hu Jintao [official profile] to the US.

Fraud charges against Zhao still remain, and prosecutors claim they released the state secrets charge to gain additional time in investigating the fraud allegations. Zhao's attorney, however, is arguing that this is not a justification to keep him in prison and has threatened to file charges against the illegal detention if prosecutors continue to hold his client. AP has more.

[JURIST] A Connecticut Superior Court [official website] on Tuesday began hearing a lawsuit brought by eight same-sex couples who claim that the state's marriage law is unconstitutional because it treats heterosexual couples differently than same-sex couples by defining marriage as existing only between a man and a woman. The lawsuit [GLAD case documents] was filed in 2004 with the assistance of the Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD) [advocacy website]. Connecticut Assistant Attorney General Jane Rosenberg defended the marriage law Tuesday, saying gays do not have a fundamental right to marry. Last year, the state approved civil unions for same-sex couples [JURIST report], giving them the same legal rights as heterosexual married couples, but the eight couples are arguing that the marriage law still causes them to be treated as a separate class of citizens.

The Supreme Court of Connecticut [official website] is currently deciding whether to allow the Family Institute of Connecticut [advocacy website] to intervene in the case. The anti-gay marriage group claims that the Connecticut Attorney General's Office [official website] has not been vigorous enough in defending the state's marriage laws. AP has more.

[JURIST] Approximately 100 opposition activists in Belarus [JURIST news archive] have been detained for protesting the country's presidential elections over the weekend, which locked in a third term for Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko [official website; BBC profile], a lawyer for the Belarus People's Front party [Wikipedia backgrounder] said Tuesday. The party's lawyer said the activists are being held at a prison outside Minsk. No official arrests have been yet reported in Minsk's Oktyabrskaya Square where protestors who claim the election was fraudulent have been demonstrating [JURIST report] since Sunday night. Leading opposition candidate Alexander Milinkevich [official website] called for the protests, but the number of demonstrators has continued to diminish from the thousands on Sunday night to mere hundreds on Tuesday. Nonetheless, Milinkevich on Tuesday called for a weekend protest [Reuters report] to push for a new election.

On Monday, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) [official website] said that the election was "severely flawed" [JURIST report] and led to the harassment and detention of political activists [JURIST report], despite the presence of 500 international observers. AP has more. From Russia, MosNews has local coverage.

[JURIST] A new report issued Tuesday by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe [official website] says that a resurgence in Serb nationalism evident after the death in detention of ex-Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic [JURIST news archive] makes it unlikely that fugitive Bosnian Serb war crimes indictee Ratko Mladic [JURIST news archive] will soon be handed over to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia [official website]. The European security organization said that the circumstances of Milosevic's death, coming after the suicide of the convicted Milan Babic, former wartime leader of Croatia's rebel Serbs during the Balkan wars, "will not improve the credibility of the tribunal among the Serbian public." The European Union has threatened to suspend negotiations with Serbia on joining the Union if Mladic is not handed over by March 31. The next round of negotiations was scheduled to take place April 5.

Milosevic died at The Hague [JURIST report] earlier this month from a heart attack [JURIST report] in the fifth year of his genocide and war crimes trial before the ICTY. He was buried this past Saturday after a farewell in Belgrade that drew tens of thousands. The Irish Examiner has more.

[JURIST] A Sri Lankan man seeking asylum in the US is expected to be released shortly after being held in prison for four years. The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit [official website] ordered the release of Ahilan Nadarajah Friday, holding that the US government was violating federal law by detaining Nadarajah without charge or the possibility of deportation. Nadarajah fled to the US in 2001 after he was abused by government forces in Sri Lanka and accused of being a member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam [CFR profile], which is considered a terrorist group by the US.

The court ruled that the US government does not have the power to detain aliens indefinitely under the Supreme Court's ruling in Zadvydas v. Davis [text]. Instead, the government may only hold aliens without charge while deportation was reasonably foreseeable. Nadarajah had been granted asylum twice by immigration judges, but the government refused to release him. Read the court's opinion [PDF text]. AP has more.

[JURIST] A military jury has found US Army Sgt. Michael J. Smith guilty on six counts of abusing detainees at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison [JURIST news archive] for using his unmuzzled dog to intimidate inmates. Smith was found guilty of two counts of maltreatment of detainees, conspiring to make a contest of making detainees soil themselves, dereliction of duty, assault, and an indecent act in violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice [text].

The military jury heard testimony [JURIST report] that, for their own amusement, Smith and Sgt. Santos A. Cardona competed to make detainees soil themselves. Col. Thomas Pappas [Wikipedia profile], the former Army commander of military intelligence at Abu Ghraib, also testified during Smith's court-martial that the Army lacked clear rules regarding the use of dogs [JURIST report] during interrogations of prisoners. A sentencing hearing for Smith is scheduled for Tuesday afternoon and Cardona's court-martial on related charges will begin in May. AP has more.

[JURIST] Eighty-five year old Algimantas Dailide, a retired real estate broker from the Cleveland area who was deported from the United States in 2003 for lying about his past, went on trial Monday in his native Lithuania, charged with helping the Nazis commit genocide [BBC backgrounder] against the Jews during World War II. Dailide is accused of being a member of the Nazi-sponsored Lithuanian Security Police, known as the Saugmas, who took part in the arrest of tens of thousands of Jews during the war. Most of the 60,000 Jews in Vilnius, where Dailide allegedly worked, were killed [Vilnius Ghetto backgrounder] during a few months in 1941.

Dailide denied all charges against him in the Vilnius District court, claiming that he did not work for the Nazis, but only as a clerk for the Lithuanian Police Force. If convicted, he faces 5-20 years in prison. AP has more.

[JURIST] Canadian citizen Allen Abney, arrested [JURIST report] earlier this month at a US border crossing for deserting the US Marine Corps [official website] in the Vietnam war, said Monday at his first public appearance since his release [JURIST report] from military custody that he was well-treated while being held at the Marine base at Camp Pendleton [official website], California.

Abney was let go after receiving a less than honorable discharge [JURIST report], but was not court-martialed and therefore will not have a criminal record for deserting in 1968. Abney told reporters: "I was treated with the utmost respect and courtesy by all of the officers, the (noncommissioned officers) and the enlisting personnel that I came in contact with" and said that US officials had even bought him a ticket so he could get home in time for the funeral of his brother, who passed away while he was in custody. CTV has more.

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] ruled Tuesday that anticipatory warrants [NYU Journal of Law & Liberty symposium] executed at some point in the future are allowed under the Fourth Amendment [text]. In US v. Grubbs [Duke Law backgrounder], 04-1414, the Court overruled a Ninth Circuit decision [PDF text] and held that the triggering condition, or the occurrence of a future event that permits the warrant to be executed, does not need to be set out in the warrant. The Court held that the particularity requirement of the Fourth Amendment only applies to the place to be searched and the person or thing to be seized. Read the Court's opinion [PDF text], per Justice Scalia, and a four-person concurrence [PDF text] by Justice Souter.

Also Tuesday, the Court ruled in Merrill Lynch v. Davit [Duke Law backgrounder], 04-1371, that the federal Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act (SLUSA) [PDF text] preempts state law claims based on misrepresentations in connection with holding stocks. The Supreme Court reversed a Second Circuit decision [PDF text] that held that SLUSA only preempted state law claims to the extent they were based on actual sales and purchases of stocks. The Court ruled that the language "in connection with the purchase or sale" of securities should be read broadly in line with its interpretation under Section 10(b) of the Securities Act of 1934 [PDF text]. Read the Court's unanimous opinion [PDF text], authored by Justice Stevens. AP has more.

[JURIST] A former Australian federal judge has offered scathing criticism on the country's newly approved anti-terror laws [JURIST document], saying the measures could lead to the growth of a police state. Former federal court Judge Marcus Einfeld [Claxton Speakers profile] said the legislation eroded human rights in Australia [JURIST news archive] and questioned how much Australians should give up for increased security. Einfeld's comments came during a symposium [event preview] Monday at the University of Western Sydney [official website]. The laws, which were passed in December [JURIST report], allow police to detain terror suspects for up to two weeks without charge and gives police greater search and seizure powers.

Anti-terror legislation has drawn skepticism from jurists around the world over its impact on human rights. Most recently, a panel of the International Commission of Jurists [official website] questioned the Australian laws [ABC News report] and the amount of authority that they give to intelligence agencies. Similar legislation in the UK has raised questions [JURIST report] about oversight by an independent judiciary, and a new anti-terror law under consideration has suffered a setback [JURIST report] over detention of terror suspects without charge. The Sydney Morning Herald has more.

ALSO ON JURIST  Op-ed: Strengthening Counter-Terrorism Laws in Australia [Australian Attorney-General Philip Ruddock]

[JURIST] Leading Tuesday's international brief, a Spanish judge has issued an indictment against 32 Islamic militants for an alleged attempt to set off explosives at Spain's National Court (Audiencia Nacional governing statute), the heart of its judicial anti-terror activities. Most of the 32 men charged - including alleged mastermind Mohamed Achraf [AP report] - have already been arrested, while others are reportedly being heavily investigated by police officials. The indicting judge handed down charges of membership of a terrorist organization, conspiracy to commit a terrorist act and forgery of documents and said that the bombing could have caused an estimated 900 deaths. No dates have been released for the start of criminal proceedings. JURIST's Paper Chase has continuing coverage of Spain [JURIST news archive]. BBC News has more. From Madrid, El Pais has local coverage [in Spanish].

In other international legal news ...

• Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir [BBC profile] has pledged a renewed commitment to peace in the Darfur region [JURIST news archive] of Sudan [government website] and reiterated Khartoum's rejection of any UN peacekeeping force in the area. Al-Bashir praised the current African Union [official website] peacekeeping force as a model for the growth of African regionalism and warned that 'outside interference' from the United Nations [official website] would only lead to a situation similar to that currently occurring in Iraq and Afghanistan. The AU has tentatively agreed to hand over control [JURIST report] of the peacekeeping mission in Darfur by this September. JURIST's Paper Chase has continuing coverage of Sudan [JURIST news archive]. The Sudan Tribune has local coverage.
  
  
• The Nepalese National Human Rights Commission [official website] (NHRC) sent a petition to King Gyanendra [BBC profile] on Tuesday requesting the immediate release of at least five high-profile human rights campaigners currently being detained by the Nepalese government. Some of the men being held have been charged under heightened restrictions on the right to protest the government, while others are being detained with no charges filed. The NHRC urged the release of all of the men, arguing that even those charged with crimes enjoy special protection from prosecution for human rights protests under the Universal Declaration for Human Rights [official text]. JURIST's Paper Chase has continuing coverage of Nepal [JURIST news archive]. eKantipur.com has local coverage.
  
  
• The Supreme Prosecutor's Office [official website in Korean] in South Korea [government website] has announced several changes to criminal trial procedure in the country that will take effect over the next several months. Included in these changes is a complete reworking of the interrogation style of prosecutors currently permitted in court. Instead of allowing leading questions, courts will now require prosecutors to break questions up in order to allow for witnesses to dispute individual facts, rather than an overly-long question. Additionally, the Prosecutor's office announced its intent to move away from document-based trials and closer to a 'public hearing' style of trial in which judges will form their finding of guilt or innocence based on trial witnesses and evidence, rather than pre-trial written submissions. One of the final major changes will be the expansion of a trial program which requires prosecutors to submit written arraignments when indicting individuals for trial. JURIST's Paper Chase has continuing coverage of South Korea [JURIST news archive]. Chosun Ilbo has local coverage.

[JURIST] Danish prosecutors have charged a spokesman of radical Islamic group Hizb ut-Tahrir [advocacy website; Global Security backgrounder] with threatening the government and for breaking anti-racism laws. Hizb ut-Tahrir preaches in favor of a Muslim state across the Middle East and has been banned in some countries that fear its members include terrorists. The charges against Fadi Abdullatif, a member of the Danish chapter of the group, stem from leaflets he distributed in 2004 that encouraged Muslims to join the insurgents fighting against coalition forces in Iraq, and said rulers who "stand in your way" should be "eliminated." Abdullatif contends that the Danish government has misunderstood the leaflet's message.

Abdullatif has also been charged with postings on the Islamic group's website, calling for the killings of Jews. He was given a 60-day suspended prison sentence for similar postings in 2003. AP has more.

[JURIST] Sixteen Ugandan men who were arrested and charged with treason along with defeated presidential candidate Kizza Besigye [BBC profile, JURIST news archive], claim that they were tortured by state security agents while in custody and are suing the Ugandan government for allegedly violating their "fundamental and non-derogable rights and freedoms," their lawyer said Tuesday. The men allege that they were kicked, beaten and threatened in an attempt to force them to confess to being rebels against Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni [BBC profile]. The group is seeking damages exceeding $1 million (USD) for human rights violations in violation of the 1995 Constitution of Uganda [text]. A spokesman of the Ugandan military has denied the torture allegations.

The sixteen men have been associated with Besigye's Forum for Democratic Change [party website], which is challenging [JURIST report] the February 23 presidential elections [JURIST report] in the Ugandan Supreme Court [official website]. The hearings in the election challenge are scheduled to begin Wednesday and Besigye's trial on treason charges [JURIST report] is scheduled to begin in April. Reuters has more. Uganda's Daily Monitor has local coverage.

[JURIST] Maj. Michael Mori, the US Marine Corps lawyer representing Australian terror suspect David Hicks [JURIST news archive; advocacy website] in military commission proceedings at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive], said Monday that the "imbalanced system" at Guantanamo presents a significant risk that innocent individuals will be convicted while truly guilty suspects are given an avenue to challenge their convictions. Speaking during a discussion [event details] on detainee abuse at Guantanamo hosted by George Washington University Law School, Mori said that a civilized justice system should not accept information "acquired potentially under torture or questionable methods." Mori also criticized the lack of clear rules at the prison camp, saying they change on a daily basis. Although military commission [JURIST news archive] proceedings against Hicks have been stayed [JURIST report] pending the outcome of a US Supreme Court case challenging the constitutionality [JURIST report] of the US military commission process, pre-trial hearings have continued in other cases. Earlier this month, presiding judge Col. Peter Brownback said that he will examine potential evidence [JURIST report] to determine if it was obtained through torture before ruling on its admissibility in the military trial for Ali Hamza al Bahlul [charge sheet, PDF].

Also speaking Monday were former prisoners who were once held at the US prison base in Guantanamo, who told of the abuse they suffered while in detention. The former detainees spoke via video link from their home countries and recounted instances of abuse and forced confessions, including having their beards shaved, being shackled and being forced to listen to blasting music for months at a time. The released prisoners said US soldiers sprayed pepper spray into prisoners' eyes and desecrated the Quran, and one detainee also said he was forced to confess to appearing on a video with Osama bin Laden, even though he was in England at the time the tape was made. In 2004, a group of former detainees released a 115-page report [PDF text; JURIST report] detailing the abuse they suffered while held at Guantanamo, including being subjected to sexual and religious humiliations. Earlier this month, Mohammed al-Qahtani, the so-called "20th hijacker" from the Sept. 11 attacks, repudiated information [JURIST report] he provided about 30 fellow Guantanamo Bay detainees, saying that his statements had been coerced through torture. AP has more.

[JURIST] US military investigators are looking into allegations that made by Iraqi police that US troops killed 11 civilians in their home in Ishaqi last week, a military spokesman said Tuesday. US forces said they approached the house to arrest an al Qaeda suspect and that they only opened fire after being fired at first. They also claim that only four people in total were killed, including one guerrilla, but Iraqi police officers said that five children, four women, and two men were shot in their home which was then blown up. The probe was initiated because of the discrepancy in accounts, according to a senior military spokesman.

The new allegations follow a separate investigation into allegations [JURIST report] that US Marines [official website] committed war crimes by killing 15 Iraqi civilians in a November 2005 Iraq firefight after a roadside bomb detonated. The US Navy [official website] is heading the probe into whether the soldiers positively identified the enemy and whether there was hostile intent before firing, as they are instructed to do by the international law of armed conflict [ICRC materials]. Earlier this week, TIME magazine published additional eyewitness accounts by civilians [TIME report] who were present during the November attack. Reuters has more.

[JURIST Europe] A classic legislative tug-of-war between the UK House of Lords and House of Commons continued Monday as peers once again sent the controversial Identity Cards Bill [official PDF text; JURIST news archive] back to MPs after a majority of 36 voted to keep the cards voluntary through 2011, overriding a Commons-endorsed government plan to require ID registration for all British citizens applying for passports. Home Office Minister Baroness Scotland of Asthal [official website], a spokesperson for Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labour government, furtively reminded peers that their role is to “question and test, but not to over-rule.” Commons leaders can use the Parliament Act [official PDF text] to force a bill into law when Parliament's two Houses are deadlocked, but they are hesitant to do so because that could precipitate a constitutional crisis, and in practical terms it would hold up the enactment of the ID cards for at least another year.

This is the fourth time that the ID cards bill has been rejected by the Lords. One of the reasons for the Lords’ opposition is Labour’s earlier promise that the ID cards would be voluntary while later tying them with passport registration, allegedly making them “compulsive by stealth”. The Independent has local coverage.

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