[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] on Monday heard oral arguments in Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railroad v. White [Duke Law case backgrounder; merit briefs], a case in which it will decide which of the three tests adopted by US courts of appeal should determine employer liability for a retaliation claim under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act [text; EEOC backgrounder]. Specifically, the Court will decide between the Sixth Circuit's test, applied in the present case [6th Circ. ruling, PDF], under which any "materially adverse change in the terms of employment" subsequent to a discrimination complaint establishes liability, the Ninth Circuit's test that adverse treatment "reasonably likely to deter" the employee from participating in a protected activity establishes liability, or the test from the Fifth and Eight Circuits prohibiting only an "ultimate employment decision."

After filing a sexual harassment complaint against her foreman Sheila White, a forklift operator at Burlington Northern [corporate website] was suspended for 37 days without pay for insubordination; an investigation later resulted in a reversal of the suspension and reinstatement of back pay. Following the reversal, White filed a harassment and retaliation claim with the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission [official website], and a jury awarded her $43,000 for the retaliation claim. During oral arguments the more conservative members of the bench, including Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Antonin Scalia and Samuel Alito [Oyez profiles], expressed concern over the appropriate gauge for employer action, with Scalia worrying aloud whether an employer's refusal to say "good morning" could result in litigation. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg [Oyez profile], however, stated that White's suffering expanded beyond her temporary suspension to include financial and emotional strain on her family. AP has more.

[JURIST] After serving 19 months in a Chinese prison on charges of disclosing military secrets and being told the charges would be dropped [JURIST report] last month, New York Times researcher Zhao Yan [HRIC profile, PDF] learned Monday that he may still be tried for his work on an article that appeared in the Times. Chinese prosecutors told lawyers for Zhao that the although the charges have technically been dropped, the government plans to "revive" the case. Zhao's lawyers speculated that because "reviving" a case after it has been dropped is without legal precedent in China, the decision to hold him to trial likely came from the highest levels of the Communist Party, outside the framework of the ordinary legal system.

Zhao was arrested after a Sept. 7, 2004 article in the Times suggested that former Chinese President Jiang Zemin [Wikipedia profile] would resign from his position as head of the military. Within ten days after the article was published, Jiang did step down, and Zhao was sent to a Beijing prison. The case is an issue expected to be raised by US officials when current Chinese President Hu Jintao [official profile] visits Washington on Tuesday. Hu has previously insisted that Zhao was being held legally [JURIST report]. Reuters has more. The New York Times has additional coverage.

[JURIST] Reformist Egyptian judges Mahmud Mekki and Hisham Al Bastawissi face disciplinary hearings before Justice Minister Mahmud Abuleil, a judicial source reported Monday. The judges may possibly be terminated for leaking information to the press during last year's parliamentary elections [JURIST news archive] when they accused other judges of election fraud [JURIST report].

While the Egyptian constitution [text] provides that judges supervise the polls, the Judges Club, a professional association of Egyptian jurists, rejected last years' parliamentary election results as riddled with irregularities and influenced by "aggression and acts of thuggery" by the ruling National Democratic Party [official website, English version]. In addition, members of the association demonstrated in support of greater judicial independence [JURIST report] last month after the government stripped 6 judges of their immunity [JURIST report] for challenging the poll. AFP has more.

[JURIST] A social worker testified Monday that convicted Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] led a troubled childhood and adolescence that ultimately led him to radical Islamic beliefs, although Moussaoui spurned the testimony as he was led from the courtroom for a lunch recess. Jan Vogelsang testified that Moussaoui was shuffled among French orphanages during his earliest years, and that his family struggled through both abuse and mental illness. Moussaoui began to drift toward radical Islam while studying business in the UK in the early 1990s, according to Vogelsang. Vogelsang did not interview Moussaoui personally, but based her testimony on interviews with family members, friends and others who knew Moussaoui.

Testimony resumed Monday only after District Judge Leonie Brinkema [official profile] held a 45-minute closed hearing. The defense has struggled to make its case, with Moussaoui most recently taking the stand [JURIST report] Thursday and offering damaging and wandering testimony. The sentencing trial [JURIST news archive; case docket] will determine whether Moussaoui receives a death sentence or life in prison. The jury has already decided that Moussaoui is eligible for the death penalty [JURIST report]. AP has more.

[JURIST] Tyco. [corporate website; JURIST news archive] has agreed to pay the US Securities and Exchange Commission [official website] a $50 million civil penalty [Tyco press release] and a $1 disgorgement fee for fraudulent accounting procedures used between 1996 through 2002, Tyco and SEC officials announced Monday. In exchange, the settlement allows Tyco to avoid admitting any of the allegations [SEC press release] in the SEC's complaint [PDF, text]. According to the SEC, Tyco executives inflated key figures - including its operating income by more than $567 million and its cash flow by $719 million - in official reports to the SEC. Tyco was also charged with making false and misleading public statements to investors and analysts and with bribing foreign officials in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act [text].

Former Tyco CEO Dennis Kozlowski and former CFO Mark Swartz were found guilty of looting the company and its shareholders out of more than $150 million in unauthorized personal compensation, and have been sentenced to prison [JURIST report] for 8 to 25 years. An appeal [JURIST report] of the conviction is pending. The company still faces a likely onslaught of shareholder litigation, which analysts predict could cost the company up to $4 billion. Bloomberg has more.

[JURIST] A Serbian war crimes prosecutor on Monday announced an investigation into alleged war crimes [JURIST news archive] committed by 10 Kosovo Albanian rebels during the 1999 conflict in the region. According to the announcement, three crimes involving two missing people and two others who were robbed are being probed. The events are said to have taken place near Pec and Djakovica in Kosovo [JURIST news archive] in the first part of 1999. The Kosovo administration [official website], which is overseen by the UN, did not comment on the investigation.

Also on Monday, Frank Wisner, the US representative to Kosovo, called on Serbia to play a "constructive role" in negotiations on the province's future. Serbia has said it will put forth a proposal for autonomy for the province, which has been under UN administration since Serb forces were forced to withdraw in 1999. Aljazeera has more.

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] on Monday issued a summary opinion [PDF text] in Gonzales v. Thomas, 05-552, holding that the 9th Circuit had prematurely decided the asylum claims of a South African family. The 9th Circuit granted asylum [PDF opinion] to Michelle and David Thomas and their children based on claims that they were threatened due to their racist father-in-law's actions. In a per curiam opinion, the Court ruled that the appeals court should have sent the case to the Board of Immigration Appeals to determine whether family could constitute "membership in a particular social group" sufficient to qualify for asylum under the Immigration and Nationality Act [text]. Reuters has more.

Also Monday, the Court also issued an order list [PDF text] in which it granted certiorari in three cases. In Carey v. Musladin, 05-785, the Court will consider whether the 9th Circuit properly overturned [PDF opinion] a murder conviction and life sentence of a man because the victim's family members wore buttons with a picture of the victim in the courtroom throughout the trial. AP has more. The Court also granted certiorari in US v. Resendiz-Ponce, 05-998, in which the Court will consider whether leaving an element of a crime out an indictment can be harmless error, and BP American Production Co. v. Watson, 05-669, in which the Court will decide whether a six-year statute of limitations on lawsuits to recover money applies to agency enforcement actions. Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Breyer are both recused from the latter case. SCOTUSBlog has more.

The Court denied certiorari in Schneider v. Kissinger, 05-743, in which family members of deceased Chilean General Rene Schneider sued former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger [BBC profile], arguing that the US backed a plot to kill Schneider in 1970. AP has more.

[JURIST] A federal jury has found former Illinois Governor George Ryan [Wikipedia profile; defense website] guilty on multiple counts of corruption and fraud [indictment, PDF]. Ryan was charged along with lobbyist Lawrence Warner in connection with a bribes-for-licenses scandal originating in the Illinois Secretary of State's office which Ryan occupied for eight years before running for Governor in 1998. Ryan's former campaign manager and chief of staff is already serving a six-and-a-half year prison term in connection with the scandal, uncovered during a federal investigation called Operation Safe Road [US DOJ materials].

Neither Ryan nor Warner took the stand during the trial, which began last September [JURIST report], though both repeatedly asserted their innocence. AP has more. The Chicago Tribune has local coverage.

[JURIST] Leading Monday's international brief, Japan [JURIST news archive] has raised concerns that a navigation ban on commercial ships in part of the East China Sea may actually violate Japan's sovereignty and international law under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea [text]. China's navigation ban covers part of Japan's Exclusive Economic Zone [Wikipedia backgrounder], a demarcation that China doesn't recognize. The ban is intended to allow Chinese workers to lay pipes for accessing natural gas reserves beneath the ocean floor. Japan has alleged that the ban is a violation of its territorial sovereignty and argues that the existence of the EEZ is recognized by international law. The Japanese Embassy in China has stated that it is seeking clarification of the exact location of the navigation ban and Japanese politicians have announced their intent to lodge a formal complaint if the report is confirmed. The Japan Times has local coverage. BBC News has more.

In other international legal news...

• The African Union [official website] opened a Committee of Inquiry [press release, PDF] on Sunday to investigate allegations that AU troops were committing sexual assault and rape against residents of the Darfur region [JURIST news archive] in Sudan, where the AU is currently leading an ongoing peacekeeping mission. The committee is chaired by a leading women's rights expert and includes experts in human rights and women's rights from the UN, the EU, and other civil and human rights organizations. The AU Special Representative to Sudan Baba Gana Kingibe said that the committee would have full investigative powers and would also be involved in making recommendations for sanctions to be imposed against any individuals convicted of a crime. The Sudan Tribune has local coverage.
  
  
• Nearly two dozen journalists in Nepal [government website] were given 90 detention orders on Monday after they protested the Nepalese government's treatment of journalists engaged in pro-democracy protests over the weekend. The continued pro-democracy protests [JURIST news archive] in Nepal have resulted in the government using detention orders to remove civic leaders and protest officials from the public and keep them away from other demonstrators. The newspapers and television stations of the detained journalists have called on Nepalese citizens to continue protesting King Gyanendra [official profile, BBC profile and have called on Gyanendra to abdicate the throne. NepalNews.com has local coverage.
  
  
• A lawyer for former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky [JURIST news archive] has said that no criminal charges will be sought [press release] against a cellmate that attacked Khodorkovsky [JURIST report] over the weekend, causing him to received stitches for a wound to his face. The cellmate is currently in solitary confinement while the prison conducts an investigation. Supporters of Khodorkovsky have alleged that the Russian government is behind repeated instances of difficulty in prison for the former oil tycoon, now serving a sentence for tax evasion. Khodorkovsky maintains his innocence and has alleged that Russian President Vladimir Putin [official profile] has intentionally framed him due to his outspoken political ideals. MosNews.com has local coverage.

[JURIST] A controversial Russian law imposing restrictions on domestic and foreign nongovernmental organizations operating in the country took effect Monday. The new law, signed [JURIST report] by Russian President Vladimir Putin in January, implements strict registration requirements, imposes financial oversight on NGO operations, and provides for dissolution if an organization's activities "threaten Russia's independence or sovereignty" or if a group participates in activities deemed to deviate from its explicit mission statement. Putin has defended the law as necessary to protect against "puppeteers abroad" [JURIST report].

The law has been widely criticized [JURIST report] by the US and the international community. In January, US diplomats at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe [official website] said the NGO law fails to meet human rights standards [speech, PDF] and fails to fulfill Russia's OSCE commitments. Reuters has more. RIA Novosti has local coverage.

ALSO ON JURIST  Topic: Russia | Video: The New NGO Law in Russia [AEI]

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] on Monday refused to hear the appeal of two Chinese Uighur detainees who continue to be held at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] despite a determination that they are not enemy combatants. In December, US District Court Judge James Robertson ruled [opinion, PDF] that the Uighurs' detention was unlawful, but that the courts had no relief to offer the men as they could be tortured if released to China due to their Muslim faith [HRW report]. The detainees' lawyers appealed directly to the Supreme Court [JURIST report], but the Court on Monday denied certiorari, indicating that it would not hear the case before the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit considered the case.

A Guantanamo Combatant Status Review Tribunal [DOD materials] determined last March that the men were no longer deemed enemy combatants [CCR materials; JURIST report]. Though efforts have been made to improve conditions of their detention [JURIST report], US officials have been unwilling to return the men to China where they could face torture, and authorities have been unsuccessful in finding a country willing to provide refuge to the men. German media reported last week that the US has asked German Chancellor Angela Merkel to accept the detainees [JURIST report], but there has not been word whether Germany has agreed to any such request. AP has more. Read the Court's full Order List [PDF]

[JURIST] Israeli police arrested seven Hamas members of the Palestinian Legislative Council [official website] in Jerusalem on Sunday, including top MP Mohammed Abu Teir. Jerusalem police claimed that the men were violating a decree banning a political rally in the city. The men were briefly interrogated and released without charges. Teir, who was the number two candidate on the Hamas ballot in the January elections [JURIST report], had complained publicly earlier this month when Khaled Abu Arafa, the minister of Jerusalem affairs, was also detained by police [JURIST report] and released without charges. Arafa was supposedly attempting to open an office in east Jerusalem, which is prohibited under current peace accords until a permanent settlement is reached. In response to Teir's arrest, Arafa told the press that the rally was neither a political event nor one that is connected with Hamas, but instead a celebration of the birth of Mohammed. Last month, Israeli officials announced that they would contemplate assassinating top Hamas leaders [JURIST report] if the group resumed attacks in Israel. Hamas [MIPT backgrounder] is still considered a terrorist organization by much of the international community.

The arrests came a day before a Palestinian suicide bomber detonated a bomb in Tel Aviv [AP report], leaving eight other people dead and at least 49 wounded; Islamic Jihad [MIPT backgrounder] has claimed responsibility for the attack. A spokesman for the Palestinian Interior Ministry on Monday called the attack "a direct result of policy of the occupation and the brutal aggression and siege committed against our people."
YNet news has local coverage. AFP has more.

[JURIST] Members of the Serbia-Montenegro parliament have passed a law to authorize the freezing of assets of fugitives accused of war crimes in an effort to comply with requirements of the European Union [official website] and International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website]. Serbia has promised the ICTY [JURIST report] that it will turn over fugitive Ratko Mladic [ICTY case backgrounder; BBC profile] by the end of April and has pledged to find and extradite four other indictees, including Radovan Karadzic [ICTY case backgrounder; BBC profile]. The Council of the European Union [official website] had urged Serbia to adopt the measure, which will render indictees unable to access their money or property.

The EU has made handing over Mladic, who has been indicted [text] for crimes against humanity, including the 1995 Srebrenica massacre [JURIST news archive], a condition of signing the Stabilization and Association Agreement [EU backgrounder] with Serbia and Montenegro. The Southeast European Times has more.

[JURIST] In a report read in court as the Saddam Hussein trial [JURIST news archive] resumed in Baghdad Monday, handwriting experts testified that some of the signatures on documents connected with the execution of 148 Shiite villagers belonged to Hussein. The documents include an execution order [text] allegedly signed by Hussein and Barzan Ibrahim [Trial Watch profile], Hussein's brother-in-law and former director of intelligence, as part of a crackdown effort in Dujail following a 1982 assassination attempt. The two have refused to provide handwriting samples [JURIST report], and Barzan claims that his signature was forged. Saddam refuses to confirm or deny that the signatures are his.

Defense lawyers have complained that the experts chosen have ties to the Interior Ministry and are not impartial, and have called for international experts [AP report] to examine the evidence. At the close of Monday's session, presiding Judge Raouf Abdul Rahman [BBC profile] adjourned the trial until Wednesday in order to give the experts more time to verify the handwriting. If convicted of the Dujail charges [JURIST report], Hussein and his seven co-defendants could face the death penalty. The prosecution is also preparing a second trial in which Hussein will face genocide charges [JURIST report] involving the killings of over 100,000 Kurds in 1980. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Nepal security forces on Monday fired on a group of pro-democracy protesters [JURIST news archive] in Nijgadh, killing at least one person and wounding five, marking the fifth incident where police have fired upon protesters [JURIST report] since widespread demonstrations against the rule of King Gyanendra [official website; BBC profile] began over a week ago. Gyanendra seized power [JURIST report] in a bloodless coup last year and dismissed the elected government, but last week promised to hold elections [JURIST report] by April 2007. This has done little to quell the protests as Gyanendra has made similar promises before, and over eight thousand people gathered in Kathmandu [JURIST report] over the weekend, calling for Gyanendra to step down immediately. AP has more. eKantipur.com has local coverage.

Shrish Shamshere Rana, head of Nepal's Ministry of Information and Communications [official website], meanwhile, said Monday that the government could respond to the protests by declaring a state of emergency and further suspending civil rights. The government has already banned protests in much of the capital city of Kathmandu and imposed curfews. Rana said that the government does not consider the strikes to be a pro-democracy movement, but rather an effort by Maoist rebels [BBC backgrounder] "to capture government." AFP has more.