[JURIST] UN Human Rights Commissioner Louise Arbour [official profile; JURIST news archive] on Thursday called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website] act more aggressively in prosecuting those suspected of war crimes in Sudan's Darfur region [JURIST news archive] shortly after her return from a visit [JURIST report] there. Although the UN Security Council has granted the ICC the authority to prosecute suspected war crimes in Darfur and has forwarded to the court the names of more than 50 suspects, the court has so far made little headway. The Sudanese government has resisted its efforts to intervene [JURIST report], maintaining it can handle any lawless activity in the region and can try accused abusers in a court of its own making [JURIST report].

The UN Security Council agreed last year to send any accusations of war crimes in the Darfur region to the ICC for investigation and prosecution. The US, a vocal opponent of the new Hague-based international criminal tribunal, chose to abstain [JURIST report] rather than veto the move. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Pope Benedict on Thursday explicitly condemned same-sex marriage [speech, in Italian] or any legal recognition of same-sex couples as Italy's new center-left government [JURIST report] prepared to take office as early as next Wednesday. His statement echoed a speech he gave last year [JURIST report] in which he described such departures from traditional families as "anarchical freedom." The Pope's statements drew immediate criticism from liberal lawmakers who say he is attempting to influence Italy's secular political process. The new Italian administration of Prime Minister-elect Romano Prodi [campaign website] is not currently working on any legislation that would extend marriage rights to same sex couples, but is expected to address the issue in the future.

The Vatican has previously weighed in on other social issues taken up by the Italian government. Last year the Pope urged Catholic voters [JURIST report] to boycott a referendum [JURIST report] that would have liberalized Italy's fertility and stem cell laws. That referendum lost by a substantial margin [JURIST report]. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The UK High Court on Thursday ruled [judgment text] that a group of Indian Ocean islanders known as the Chagossians [Wikipedia backgrounder; advocacy website] must be allowed to return to the group of islands from which they were exiled in the 1960s in order to make way for the Diego Garcia naval base [official website]. Overall roughly 2,000 Chagossians were removed after the British government leased the island to the US government in order to for it to develop the strategic staging area. Although the islanders will not be able to return to Diego Garcia itself, the largest of the islands, the court ruled that the Chagossians do have a right to return to the other 65 islands making up the archipelago. Despite Thursday's win for the Chagossians, the US and British governments still have a right to veto the decision under the contract between the two nations which provides that they have control over who lives on the islands.

The US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit [official website] last month ruled [PDF opinion; JURIST report] in a similar suit against the US Department of Defense that federal courts lacked the authority to grant compensation to the Chagossians for losses they incurred because of the development of the military base. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] The Italian newspaper La Repubblica [website, in Italian] reported Thursday that an Italian policeman has confessed to participating in the 2003 kidnapping of an Egyptian cleric [JURIST report] from the streets of Milan. The Italian government responded by denying any involvement in the abduction, and prosecutors say the Italian government is not under investigation.

Last December, an Italian judge issued European arrest warrants [JURIST report] for the 22 CIA operatives accused of participating in the kidnapping and subsequent rendition. The victim, Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr [Wikipedia profile], is a suspected member of an Islamic military group who has said that he was flown by the CIA to Egypt, where he claims he was abused [JURIST report] and tortured. An Italian judge ruled last November that the CIA's former Milan station chief will be prosecuted [JURIST report] in the case, having forsaken his diplomatic immunity by leaving his post, but in April outgoing Italian Justice Minister Roberto Castelli said the Italian government would not validate Milan prosecutor Armando Spataro's request [JURIST report] to extradite the 22 CIA personnel from the US. US authorities have consistently declined to comment on the case. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The US Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday voted 10-8 along party lines to send the circuit court nomination of White House aide Brett Kavanaugh [White House backgrounder] to the full Senate for a confirmation vote. Kavanaugh, who has been nominated to the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, faced probing questions [JURIST report] from committee members during a hearing Tuesday, one day after the American Bar Association [group website] lowered its rating [JURIST report] of Kavanaugh from "well qualified" to "qualified" [ratings, PDF; White House response]. Though it appears unlikely that Democrats will attempt to filibuster Kavanaugh's nomination, they have been vocal in their opposition to what they see as a nomination to a lifetime court appointment that carries political overtones, as Kavanaugh is a key aide in the Bush administration.

A filibuster is more likely for two other Bush nominees currently in the pipeline however, Judge Terrence Boyle [US DOJ backgrounder] to the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and Michael B. Wallace [official profile] to the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Boyle allegedly presided over cases during which he should have recused himself, including a case where he allegedly bought General Electric stock midway through presiding over a pension lawsuit against the company. Wallace has garnered criticism from Democrats and the NAACP [advocacy website] among others for working to secure tax exemptions for the then-segregated Bob Jones University and also working with US Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS) to require that plaintiffs in voting rights cases prove an intent to discriminate, rather than simply the effects of discrimination. AP has more.

[JURIST] US Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) [official website] and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) [official website] on Thursday announced [Frist press release; Reid press release] a bipartisan agreement to resume debate next week on immigration reform, which also covers the 14 Republicans and 12 Democrats who will negotiate a compromise proposal with the House of Representatives. Last December, the House passed [JURIST report] the Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act [PDF text; bill summary], a strict immigration control act that focuses on law enforcement by making unlawful presence in the US a felony subject to deportation, and could punish humanitarian groups aiding the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants currently in the US.

Debate on the Senate version of the legislation, S 2454 [summary] stalled [JURIST report] last month, but earlier this week senators indicated they had tentatively agreed [JURIST report] to toughen rules on the hiring of illegal immigrants by forcing employers to check Social Security numbers and investigate the immigration status of potential employees. Frist said Thursday that Senate debate on the immigration reform bill [JURIST news archive], will resume next week and will focus on a "considerable" number of amendments. AP has more.

[JURIST] US President George W. Bush on Thursday insisted that "the privacy of ordinary Americans is fiercely protected" as the government conducts anti-terrorist surveillance in the US. Bush's comments [transcript] were in response to a report [text] in Thursday's USA Today that calling patterns of millions of Americans are being collected and examined [JURIST report] by the National Security Agency (NSA) [official website], but he did not directly confirm or deny the allegations. Bush said:

Today there are new claims about other ways we are tracking down al Qaeda to prevent attacks on America. I want to make some important points about what the government is doing and what the government is not doing.

First, our international activities strictly target al Qaeda and their known affiliates. Al Qaeda is our enemy, and we want to know their plans. Second, the government does not listen to domestic phone calls without court approval. Third, the intelligence activities I authorized are lawful and have been briefed to appropriate members of Congress, both Republican and Democrat. Fourth, the privacy of ordinary Americans is fiercely protected in all our activities.

We're not mining or trolling through the personal lives of millions of innocent Americans. Our efforts are focused on links to al Qaeda and their known affiliates. So far we've been very successful in preventing another attack on our soil.

As a general matter, every time sensitive intelligence is leaked, it hurts our ability to defeat this enemy. Our most important job is to protect the American people from another attack, and we will do so within the laws of our country.

[JURIST] The Libyan retrial of five Bulgarian nurses [JURIST report] accused of infecting over 400 patients, primarily children, with the HIV virus, resumed on Thursday morning in Tripoli before being adjourned for procedural reasons until June 13. Prosecutors objected to defense lawyer Othman al-Bizanti's motion for the medics to be released on bail and presiding Judge Mahmud Huwaissa ruled [Guardian report] that they will be detained until the trial resumes. Dimitar Tsanchev, a spokesman for the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry, urged the court to resume the trial as quickly as possible. The six defendants had been sentenced to death by firing squad before Libya's Supreme Court overturned [JURIST report] the convictions [JURIST report] in dramatic fashion on Christmas Day 2005 and ordered a retrial.

Last month, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pressed the Libyan government [JURIST report] to release the captive nurses, saying, "this is a humanitarian case and it is time for them to come home." Tension has mounted between Bulgaria and Libya over the situation. Tripoli has hinted that the nurses could be released if a group of international donors pays compensation to the families of the victims. The families of the victims are demanding $10 million for each child allegedly victimized by the nurses, an amount equal to the compensation paid by Libya to the families of the 270 victims of the 1988 Pan Am terrorist bombing over Scotland [BBC backgrounder]. AFP has more.

[JURIST] Less than a year before Germany takes over the European Union presidency in January 2007, German Chancellor Angela Merkel [official website in German; BBC profile] said again Thursday that she plans to revive the European constitution [JURIST news archive], on hold since major referendum setbacks in France and the Netherlands [JURIST reports] last year. Merkel told members of the German Bundestag [recorded video] in a major policy address that if ratification of the constitution were not resolved earlier, "the German presidency [would] focus on this" issue, though she urged the EU not to "rush things." Merkel first expressed an interest in reviving the charter [JURIST report] soon after succeeding Gerhardt Schroeder as Germany's chancellor in November 2005.

Merkel's remarks came the day after European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso [official website] called for another year of reflection on the EU constitution, suggesting that although the charter should not be abandoned, it might not be appropriate to reconsider it until 2008 or later [AFP report]. In the meantime he added that the "period of reflection" should "be a discussion not an extended siesta." BBC News has more.

[JURIST] UK Home Secretary John Reid [official profile] said Thursday that the government will appeal a Wednesday High Court decision [text] to grant asylum to nine Afghans convicted of hijacking a plane to the UK in 2002, allowing them to remain in the United Kingdom rather than be deported to Afghanistan. Mr. Justice Jeremy Sullivan based his ruling on the Human Rights Act [text] and the 1998 English codification of the European Convention on Human Rights [PDF text], which prohibits the government from deporting criminals back to home countries that have a history of torturing criminals. The nine hijackers were found responsible for the February 6, 2000 Stansted Airport hijacking [BBC report] and Sullivan found that the government "deliberately delayed" following a 2004 decision that the hijackers could not be sent to Afghanistan. He said the hijackers could stay in the UK until it was safe for them to return home.

In a statement Thursday, Reid said that an appeal is appropriate when a decision "appear[s] inexplicable or bizarre to the general public." UK Prime Minister Tony Blair [JURIST news archive] on Wednesday called the ruling "an abuse of common sense, and it seems likely to increase growing tension between the British government and judiciary [JURIST report] over rights issues in the war on terror. In a separate case last month, Sullivan ruled that government procedures undertaken to restrain a suspected terrorist under the UK's Prevention of Terrorism Act [text] breached the suspect's human rights [JURIST report]. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] A committee of the American Bar Association [group website] has voted unanimously that judicial nominee Michael B. Wallace [official profile] is "not qualified" [ratings, PDF] to sit on the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit [official website]. Wallace, a Mississippi lawyer and former aide to US Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS) [official website], has garnered criticism from Democrats and the NAACP [advocacy website] among others for working to secure tax exemptions for the then-segregated Bob Jones University and also working with Lott to require that plaintiffs in voting rights cases prove an intent to discriminate, rather than simply the effects of discrimination. Wallace is the first appeals court candidate in 24 years to receive a unanimous "not qualified" rating from the ABA.

On Tuesday the ABA lowered its rating [JURIST report] of White House aide and nominee to the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit Brett Kavanaugh [White House backgrounder] from "well qualified" to "qualified" [ratings, PDF] based on more recent interviews with judges and lawyers and questions about his courtroom performance. The New York Times has more.

[JURIST] The US Department of Justice [official website] has ended the internal investigation [JURIST report] into the role its lawyers played in the NSA's domestic surveillance program [JURIST news archive] approved by President Bush. The investigation had been headed by the Office of Professional Responsibility [official website] until department head H. Marshall Jarrett revealed this week that it had been "unable to make meaningful progress" after having been "denied security clearances for access to information about the NSA program." Jarrett had been seeking the necessary clearances since January and was finally informed that they would be denied on Tuesday.

The NSA's warrantless domestic wiretapping program has been a contentious issue since it was first exposed [JURIST report] in December 2005. President Bush's nominee for CIA director [JURIST report], former NSA director General Michael Hayden [official profile], has suggested [JURIST report] that he might welcome a modification to the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act [text] to bring the wiretapping surveillance program under its scope of authority. Thursday's New York Times has more.

[JURIST] Former Enron [JURIST news archive] executives Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling [Houston Chronicle profiles] face an uphill battle after Judge Simeon T. Lake III agreed with prosecutors in the Enron trial Wednesday that jurors should be allowed to find both men guilty because of "deliberate ignorance" or the so-called "ostrich defense" [definition] with respect to conspiracy and fraud that contributed to Enron's 2001 collapse. The standard, increasingly applied in white-collar cases, offers a lower burden of proof to find the men guilty. Though experts expected the lower standard to be used against Lay, some were surprised that the jury also will receive the instruction for Skilling and believe it will give him a stronger appeal if convicted. Skilling's attorney addressed the issue of the "ostrich defense" by saying, "We have said all along this was not a case of hear no evil, see no evil. It was a case of there was no evil [on Skilling's part]." Lake is slated to instruct the jury on Monday after closing arguments.

Lay and Skilling have been charged [indictment, PDF] with multiple counts of fraud and criminal conspiracy for providing investors with false and misleading financial information from 1999 up until Enron filed bankruptcy in late 2001. The New York Times has more.

[JURIST] The Constitutional Court of Colombia [official website; government backgrounder, in Spanish] has handed down a decision [WLW press release, PDF] legalizing exceptions to the country's abortion ban in cases of rape, incest and if the life of the mother or fetus is in danger. Before Wednesday's ruling, women undergoing an abortion procedure and doctors performing the procedure could be criminally charged and sentenced to jail time, although the punishment for abortions necessitated by rape were less harsh. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Velez [BBC profile] has expressed concern that women will seek out abortions when the exceptions do not apply. Uribe faces a presidential contest later this month against opponents who support broader abortion rights in the mostly Roman Catholic country, where an estimated 400,000 illegal abortions are performed annually.

Women's Link Worldwide (WLW) [advocacy website] first filed the constitutional challenge to the abortion law in April 2005, with Human Rights Watch filing an amicus brief [text, in Spanish]. The court dismissed the challenge on procedural grounds, but quickly accepted an amended complaint upon which it made its decision. El Salvador and Chile are now the only countries in Latin America with a complete ban on abortion [JURIST news archive]. AP has more. From Medellin, El Mundo has local coverage, in Spanish.

[JURIST] An Indonesian government official said Thursday that corruption charges against former dictator General Suharto [Wikipedia backgrounder] are expected to be dropped despite criticism from human rights groups, including the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation [advocacy website], which has been outspoken in the pursuit of action against the former dictator. Suharto, 84, who has suffered a series of strokes and other health problems since 1998, has been declared unfit to stand trial [JURIST report] after several examinations. Numerous government officials still support Suharto and have pushed for him to be pardoned because of his ill health and past contributions to Indonesia [JURIST news archive].

Suharto was ousted from power after 32 years in 1998 amid violent protests against his three-decade dictatorship that used security forces to stifle dissent and allegedly embezzled billions [BBC report] of government dollars. AP has more. The Jakarta Post has local coverage.

[JURIST] The National Security Agency (NSA) [official website] has been collecting phone records from major telephone companies AT&T, Verizon, and BellSouth [corporate websites] to study the calling patterns of millions of Americans in an effort to detect terrorist activity, according to a report [text] from USA Today on Thursday. Although the NSA is not recording or eavesdropping on telephone conversations, the agency has data on millions of domestic calls from individuals and businesses with no suspected ties to terrorism. One source told USA Today that the ultimate goal of the program is "to create a database of every call ever made" domestically.

The NSA's warrantless domestic wiretapping program [JURIST news archive] has been a contentious issue since it was first exposed [JURIST report] in December 2005. Responding to criticism of his testimony on the surveillance program and a letter [PDF text] sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee, US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales [official profile] in March claimed that the administration is not conducting any surveillance [JURIST report] beyond what was already acknowledged. President Bush's nominee for CIA director [JURIST report], former NSA director General Michael Hayden [official profile], has suggested [JURIST report] that he might welcome a modification to the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act [text] to bring the wiretapping surveillance program under its scope of authority. Reuters has more.

[JURIST Europe] A Spanish High Court judge was forced to order the release of Moroccan citizen Saed El Harrak [BBC profile], a suspect alleged to be involved in the March 11, 2004 Madrid train bombings [JURIST news archive], due to the government's failure to apply for the necessary extension for further detainment. Harrak was arrested in connection to the bombings in 2004 and Spanish law allows authorities to hold suspects for a maximum of two years without facing trial. Inquiries are to be made into why prosecutors did not file an extension for imprisonment that would have allowed Harrak to be detained for an additional two years. Despite the blunder, Harrak is required to check in twice a day with the police and must remain in the Madrid region indefinitely.

In April, a Spanish judge charged 29 individuals [JURIST report] for the bombing. The trial is expected to begin in early 2007. A trial began [JURIST report] earlier this year in Italy for suspected Madrid bombings mastermind Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed [CBC profile] who allegedly helped to orchestrate [JURIST report] the Madrid attacks and later sought to recruit more extremists in Milan, Italy. Reuters 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.

[JURIST] US officials have dismissed a call [JURIST report] from UK Attorney General Lord Goldsmith [official profile] to close the facility at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] used to detain terror suspects, saying that the US is working to release detainees who no longer pose a threat, but insisting that the prison is a critical part of the war on terror. US State Department Sean McCormack said Wednesday that:

the President has talked about the fact that we'd like nothing better than at some point in the future to close down Guantanamo. Nobody wants to be a jailer for the world. And in fact, we have moved many detainees from Guantanamo back to their home countries or their country of origin, under agreements that would ensure that they're not -- they don't go in the front door and head out the back. And also that they won't be tortured; that they will be treated humanely.

Just the other day, we released several Uighurs; they're now in Albania. So there is a process here for trying to move people through. They do have access to a judicial review, that in the wake of the Supreme Court decision. Again, at some point in the future, we'd like nothing better than to close down Guantanamo. But the fact of the matter is that the people there are dangerous people and we don't -- one thing we don't want to do is release people now who might at some point in the future end up on the battlefield facing our troops or somebody's else's troops or committing acts of terrorism against innocent civilians.