[JURIST] The Republican leadership of the US House of Representatives [official website] on Thursday postponed debate on the Lobbying Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 [HR 4975 summary] in order to allow more time for the bill's supporters to secure enough votes to pass the legislation. Congress has taken up lobbying reform in the wake of a federal corruption scandal [Wikipedia backgrounder] centering on former Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff [JURIST news archive]. The House bill would require more frequent activity reports from lobbyists, strip lawmakers convicted on corruption charges of their retirement benefits, and require appropriations bills to list earmarks, special-interest provisions that legislators include in bills. Democrats have said that the proposal does not go far enough to put an end to lobbying abuses and Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA) [official website], chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said Thursday that the proposed earmark disclosures should also apply to tax and policy bills.

The Senate passed [JURIST report] a separate lobbying reform bill last month, the Legislative Transparency and Accountability Act of 2006 [S 2349 summary], which further restricts gifts and meals members of Congress can accept from lobbyists and bans lawmakers from becoming lobbyists themselves for two years after leaving office, up from the current one. If the House passes the lobbying bill, the two versions will have to be reconciled by negotiators from both houses. AP has more.

[JURIST] Chinese Internet journalist Yang Tianshui, a member of China's chapter of International PEN [advocacy website], an association that promotes freedom of speech, faces up to 15 years in jail on charges that he attempted to "subvert state power" by posting essays on the Internet in favor of a movement entitled the "Velvet Action of China," according to his lawyer. Yang's lawyer also said he has been incriminated on charges of attempting to set up local chapters of the banned China Democracy Party [advocacy website] and receiving unauthorized funds from sources abroad. Yang's trial is set to begin in May. He was previously jailed for 10 years on similar charges of subversion. Reuters has more.

In related news, Reporters Without Borders [advocacy website] claimed [JURIST report; press release] last week that the Internet company Yahoo [corporate website] may be responsible for revealing the identity of pro-democracy activist and Internet journalist Jiang Lijun to Chinese police, which lead to his 2003 guilty verdict [PDF text, in English] for allegedly promoting democracy through "violent means" on the Internet.

[JURIST] US Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) [official website], chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee [official website], said Thursday that he is considering proposing legislation that would suspend funding for the NSA domestic surveillance program [JURIST news archive] if the Bush administration continues "walking all over Congress." Specter said that he is unsatisfied with the answers on the program that administration officials have provided during public hearings and said that he is considering proposing an amendment to a spending bill currently being debated by the Senate. Specter also questioned whether the administration would comply with increased congressional oversight, saying "we have no assurance that the president would follow any statute that we enact." During a House Judiciary Committee hearing earlier this month, committee chairman Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) [official website] accused US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales [official profile] of "stonewalling" the committee [JURIST report] by repeatedly refusing to answer questions about the program. Gonzales had said he couldn't answer questions during the hearing due the program's classified nature.

Specter's comments come the day after the US House passed [roll call vote] the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007 [HR 5020 summary], which authorizes appropriations and increases funding for intelligence activities carried out by the NSA, CIA, FBI and other departments. In passing the bill, the House blocked an amendment, the NSA Oversight Act [HR 4976 summary], which would have clarified that Congress did not intend to authorize or approve domestic surveillance in its 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force [text] and would have required the administration to disclose more information about its use of warrantless surveillance. AP has more.

[JURIST] American-educated Saudi and alleged al Qaeda suspect Ghassan Abdullah al Sharbi [Wikipedia profile] denied before a pre-trial military commission hearing at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] Thursday that he was guilty of war crimes [DOD charge sheet, PDF], but said he was "willing to pay the price" - possibly decades in jail - for admittedly fighting against the United States. Sharbi asked to represent himself before the tribunal and declined the assistance of an appointed military defense lawyer, in addition to rejecting an offer of civilian legal aid. The hearing's presiding officer subsequently set a May 17 hearing to address the issue of Sharbi's counsel's refusal to stay on to aid an unwilling client. Sharbi graduated from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University [university website] in Arizona before travelling to Afghanistan where he allegedly met Osama bin Laden at a training camp in July 2001.

Two other Guantanamo detainees [US DOD list] who reportedly conspired with al Sharbi in an al Qaeda bombing plot, Sufyian Barhoumi [DOD charge sheet, PDF] and Jabran Said bin al Qahtani [Wikipedia profile], have also faced pre-trial hearings at Guantanamo Bay this week. Barhoumi is protesting [JURIST report] his transfer to the maximum security Camp Five section of the Guantanamo Bay base, following his removal from Camp Four [DOD photo], a more desirable communal living unit for co-operative detainees. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Several US states, cities, and environmental groups led by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer [official website; press release] filed a lawsuit Thursday against the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) [official website] in the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit [official website] claiming the EPA has violated the federal Clean Air Act [text] by failing to regulate carbon dioxide pollution from new power plants. The parties claim the EPA's failures exacerbate the problem of global warming. The suit comes in response to a 2005 DC Circuit ruling [PDF] in which the court held that under the Clean Air Act the EPA did not have to regulate automobile carbon dioxide emissions. It also follows a March 2006 ruling [PDF] by the same court that the EPA cannot exempt [JURIST report] coal-fired power plants, oil refineries and other older industrial facilities from a requirement to install new pollution controls to keep up with emissions changes.

Parties to the present suit include the states of New York, California, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin, the cities of Washington and New York, the Natural Resources Defense Council [advocacy website], the Sierra Club [advocacy website], and Environmental Defense [advocacy website]. AP has more.

[JURIST] The Supreme Court of Canada [official website] ruled [text] 4-3 Thursday that it is constitutional for a judge to require a convicted sex offender to turn over DNA samples to the Canadian National DNA Data Bank [official website], even if the offender was convicted before the enactment of the 2000 law establishing the bank. The Court's decision reversed a prior ruling by the Ontario Court of Appeal [official website], but Ontario Attorney General Michael Bryant [official profile] has already issued a statement [press release] welcoming the high courts ruling. The Supreme Court did not address whether a mandatory system of requiring sex offenders to donate DNA samples would be constitutional. Canadian Press has more.

The US Senate is still considering a bill [text] entitled the DNA Fingerprinting Act of 2005 sponsored by Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) [official website] that would expand the scope of those who would have to submit samples to the FBI Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) [official website] beyond convicted criminals to those suspected of federal crimes. A similar measure has already been passed by the House.

[JURIST] US District Judge Reggie B. Walton on Thursday rejected [opinion, PDF] a motion to dismiss [PDF text] criminal charges against former vice-presidential aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby [defense profile; JURIST news archive] in connection with the leak of former CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity. Libby had asked that the case be dismissed [JURIST report] because Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald [official website] was improperly appointed to head the CIA leak investigation [JURIST news archive], arguing that Fitzgerald's appointment should have been approved by Congress and that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales should have supervised the investigation.

In his opinion, Walton wrote:

The integrity of the rule of law, which is a core ingredient of the American system of government, is challenged to the greatest degree when high-level government officials come under suspicion for violating the law. And a criminal investigation of any individual, prominent or not, for suspected violations of law must be above reproach to preserve respect for the fairness of our system of justice. There must therefore be a process by which the perception of fairness withstands the scrutiny of the American public when prosecution authority is called upon to investigate public officials. Creating that perception of fairness obviously starts with those who are charged with the responsibility of conducting the investigations. For obvious reasons, the Attorney General recused himself in this case and the Deputy Attorney General concluded that someone removed from the hierarchy of the Department of Justice should investigate individuals holding some of the country's highest executive branch offices. Obviously, the process for selecting who would investigate the underling allegations in this case must comport with the law. For all the reasons set forth above, this Court concludes that the delegation of authority to Special Counsel Fitzgerald violated neither 28 U.S.C. §§ 516 and 519 nor the Appointments Clause of the Constitution. Accordingly, the defendant’s motion to dismiss is denied.

[JURIST] Over one-third of documents held by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) [official website] that have been removed from public access since 1999 should not have been reclassified, according to an audit [text and supporting materials] conducted by NARA's Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO) [official website]. ISOO head J. William Leonard and National Archivist Allen Weinstein said that over 25,000 records have been withdrawn [press release; prepared remarks] since 1999, and that their removal may have "exacerbated any possible damage to national security" by calling attention to the records' sensitivity. The US Air Force withdrew 17,702 records, the most of any government agency, but Weinstein and Leonard noted that more than one billion pages of government documents have been declassified [NARA materials] in the past ten years. NARA, along with several agencies that have reclassified records, is launching a pilot National Declassification Initiative in order to reduce the backlog of records waiting to be declassified by setting standards for determining whether documents should be made public.

Earlier this month, NARA made public a 2002 memorandum of understanding [PDF text; JURIST report] it reached with three federal agencies - the Air Force, CIA and an unnamed agency - to reclassify thousands of previously-public intelligence documents. Thursday's New York Times has more.

[JURIST] China [JURIST news archive] has not overlooked human rights abuses in its quest to find energy sources for its growing economy, a Chinese Foreign Ministry [official website] spokesman said Thursday. Spokesman Qin Gang said China emphasized peace, cooperation and development and that trade with China actually helps improve conditions in struggling countries. Anti-poverty and human rights activists have accused China of overlooking severe human rights abuses and government corruption in countries like Sudan and Myanmar [JURIST news archives], which supply its oil. China also reportedly offered a $3 billion loan to Angola in exchange for oil supplies after the International Monetary Fund [official website] criticized the country for not allowing increased scrutiny of its finances.

Rights activists have said that wealthier countries needed to step in with aid for African nations to stem China's influence in the region. Qin maintained that China was not responsible for human rights abuses abroad. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Leading Belarusian opposition figure Alexander Milinkevich [official website; Wikipedia profile] was arrested Wednesday along with other demonstrators at a rally in Minsk, according to activists. About 7,000 opposition members gathered for what is traditionally the largest rally of the year in Belarus [JURIST news archive] on the anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. At the rally, Milinkevich was reportedly put in a police car and taken to the police station. Milinkevich had been warned by prosecutors not to hold the rally in October Square, where major demonstrations took place [JURIST report] last month over alleged fraud in the presidential elections.

Milinkevich opposed Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko [official website; BBC profile] in the election, which Lukashenko won amid widespread reports of fraud and irregularities. Lukashenko and other officials face a travel ban [JURIST report] in the EU over the elections, and have long been criticized [JURIST report] for their human rights record. EU officials said Thursday that they would consider lifting the travel ban [EUObserver.com report] if Milinkevich and other opposition leaders are released. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] A US Senate panel conducting an investigation into the federal response to Hurricane Katrina [JURIST news archive] has concluded that the Federal Emergency Management Agency [official website] should be abolished and replaced with a new federal agency [recommendations, PDF] with more authority over emergency preparedness. The bipartisan panel recommended 86 changes, including the creation of the National Preparedness and Response Authority, which would be part of the Department of Homeland Security [official website], but with increased congressional oversight over funding and staffing. Some members of the Department of Homeland Security and former FEMA chief Michael Brown [Wikipedia profile], forced to step down over his handling of Katrina, were critical of the suggested change as merely bureaucratic reshuffling.

The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs [official website] conducted the bipartisan investigation [committee hearings]. A White House report [JURIST report] on Katrina called for an increased role for the military in cases of national emergency. AP has more.

[JURIST] Leading Thursday's international brief, Uganda's chief prosecutor Simon Byabakama Mugenyi told the High Court where opposition leader Kizza Besigye [JURIST news archive] is being tried on treason charges [JURIST report] that files detailing the intelligence gathering efforts against Besigye have been "misplaced." Mugenyi was supposed to produce the document Tuesday after state witness Lt. Migadde Ssemakula claimed to have submitted a file of intelligence reports that detailed Besigye's treasonous behavior. The court gave Mugenyi 12 hours to produce the document, and when it was not available, required it's production in cross-examination on Wednesday. After failing to produce the document there as well, Mugenyi obtained permission to search for the file until the next court session, scheduled for May 2. The prosecution has had a number of setbacks [JURIST report] in Besigye's case, which critics claim is simply a method to discredit the popular opposition leader in Uganda [JURIST news archive]. Uganda's Daily Monitor has local coverage.

In other international legal news ...

• Sudanese foreign ministry spokesman Jamal Ibrahim has criticized the Security Council resolution [JURIST report] imposing sanctions against four Sudanese officials for their intentional delay in the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Darfur [JURIST news archive]. Ibrahim called the decision to impose sanctions a "use of the stick and negative statements" and said that sanctions were the last thing needed as the April 30 deadline for peace talks with rebels in Darfur draws closer. Sudan [JURIST news archive] remains reluctant to permit the proposed takeover of UN peacekeepers in Darfur [JURIST report], warning that any attempt at inserting western military forces in the area will be viewed as a violation of the country's sovereignty. The Sudan Tribune has local coverage.
  
  
• South Korean Prosecutor-General Choung Sang-myoung has approved the arrest of Hyundai Motors Group [corporate website] CEO Chung Mong-koo on charges of embezzlement, misappropriation and bribery. Prosecutors are also investigating his son, Kia Motors President Chung Eui-sun, on related charges. The Supreme Public Prosecutor's Office has alleged that the men used their positions [JURIST report] to profit illegally in business deals, pervert the course of justice, and influence elected government officials. JURIST's Paper Chase has continuing coverage of South Korea [JURIST news archive]. AP has more. Chosun Ilbo has local coverage.
  
  
• An ongoing police investigation into alleged corruption by Zanu PF [party website] officials in Zimbabwe [JURIST news archive] has been stalled after government ministers and elected representatives used their power to block the probe. Police were investigating allegations that elected officials and government ministers were taking fuel allocated to them at a subsidized rate for use on government business and selling it on the black market or using it on their personal farms. Two senior Zanu PF officials have already been brought before a court, but a senior police official was quoted as saying that government ministers had thrown up a "brick wall" by refusing to cooperate. Fuel is at a record high cost in Zimbabwe, with even crucial social services like ambulance and fire vehicles often unable to afford gas. ZimOnline has local coverage.

[JURIST Europe] Israeli activist group Peace Now [advocacy website] has condemned Wednesday's directive from Israeli Prime Minister-elect Ehud Omert [BBC profile] to top security officials to block the gaps [official press release] in the controversial security fence [JURIST report; IDF official website] around Jerusalem. Peace Now director Yariv Oppenheimer says that the action was taken before appropriate permission from Israel's High Court [official website] was obtained. Olmert made the order ten days after a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv that killed nine people. The security fence has been considered least protective in the Jerusalem area, and the suicide bomber who staged the latest attack is believed to have entered through one of the gaps there. Olmert ordered temporary fences to be put up until the permanent security fence is fully established. The Jerusalem Post has more.

The building of about a quarter of the fence around Jerusalem has been postponed due to legal disputes [JURIST report] since the fence places most of the city under Israeli control. Recently the High Court upheld the legal legitimacy [JURIST report] of the fence route around Jerusalem. The Palestinian Authority, which hopes to have East Jerusalem as the capital of its future state, has objected to having the fence go through the West Bank. The New York Times 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] At least 600 US troops have been linked to cases of abuse [press release], torture or killing of as many as 460 detainees at various detention facilities around the world, three human rights groups reported Wednesday. According to a report [text] from the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, Human Rights First and Human Rights Watch [advocacy websites], 330 cases of abuse at facilities in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archives] were documented, but only about half of those were completely investigated, and a third were never investigated or were unresolved. The groups argued that the report shows that widely reported abuses at Abu Ghraib [JURIST news archive] were not isolated incidents.

A Defense Department spokesman would not comment on the report, but said that 12 major reviews were conducted of detention operations, and none had found cases of sanctioned or ordered abuse. Researchers for the human rights groups compiled information from government and military documents, interviews with witnesses and other reports about the incidents. Knight Ridder has more.

[JURIST] A US military commission at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] holding a pre-trial hearing in the case against Algerian detainee Sufyian Barhoumi [HRF case summary] Wednesday rejected his motion to be moved to a less restrictive detention area. Barhoumi, who suffered wounds, including the loss of four fingers, in a land mine accident in Afghanistan was originally housed in Camp Four [DOD photos], the communal living section of the base for co-operative detainees, but was moved on March 30 to maximum-security Camp Five ahead of his commission appearance.

Barhoumi testified that the severe conditions of Camp Five had excerbated his wounds and health and were impeding his right to counsel. The military tribunal rejected his protests, accepting the testimony of a Guantanamo official who told the commission "The real baseline for my whole motivation in everything is running a peaceful, safe and secure camp... I feel strongly that I have him in the best place to ensure his safety during this process." Barhoumi is charged [DOD charge sheet] with providing training for building remote detonators for car bombs. Of the 10 Guantanamo detainees facing charges before military commissions, 9 are currently housed at Camp Five, with another being held elsewhere for what a Guantanamo official called "operational reasons." Reuters has more. The American Forces Press Service had additional coverage.

[JURIST] Jurors in the sentencing trial of Zacarias Moussaoui [JURIST news archive; case docket] head into a fourth day of deliberations Thursday after no verdict was reached Wednesday. The jurors, who have been deliberating now for 16 hours over the past three days, asked for a dictionary Tuesday, but that request was denied. Judge Leonie Brinkema [official profile] said that it would be equivalent to introducing extraneous evidence, and that jurors could submit a written question if they wanted to know the meaning of a specific term. The jurors are weighing the options of life imprisonment and the death penalty for Moussaoui after deciding earlier this month that he was eligible for death [JURIST report]. In closing arguments earlier this week, government prosecutors told jurors they could "put an end to his hatred and venom" by electing to have Moussaoui executed. The defense has maintained that Moussaoui is mentally ill [JURIST report]. If the jury does not come to a unanimous decision, he will automatically be awarded a life sentence. Review the special verdict form [PDF] that the jury foreman will fill out. AP has more.

Brinkema, who has been vigilant about keeping the jurors’ identities secret, has also declined a request from 14 news organizations for her to tell jurors after the verdict of the public's interest in knowing how they reached their decision, saying in a letter Wednesday that she thinks it would be inappropriate for the court to “serve as an intermediary between the media and the jurors.” Instructing the jury Monday, Brinkema reminded members of their First Amendment rights to speak or to refuse to speak to the media. AP has more.

[JURIST Europe] The European Commission [official website] Wednesday adopted a proposal for a directive [press release] setting EU-wide criminal penalties for counterfeiting and other intellectual property offenses. If adopted in legislation by the European Parliament [official website], the directive requiring the imposition of four-year jail terms and a fine as high as €300,000 (approximately $373,163) would be the first instance of European criminal sentences being set by an institution other than national governments. The directive was made possible by a controversial ruling [text in French, summary in English, PDF] by the European Court of Justice [official website] last September holding that the EC had the right to impose criminal sanctions in order to enforce EU law and policies. Eleven EU states had argued against that holding, and similar opposition to this latest proposal is expected. If adopted by the European Parliament, however, the sanctions would become binding in all EU member states.

European Commissioner for Justice and Home Affairs Franco Frattini [official profile] has stated that the legislation is necessary and if approved will be a viable tool for combating a what he called a 'serious' crime like counterfeiting. The Times has more.

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