[JURIST] Leaders of right-wing anti-government paramilitaries in Colombia said Friday that Thursday's decision by the country's Constitutional Court [official backgrounder] throwing out a part of last year’s controversial Justice and Peace Law [JURIST report] giving lesser punishments to paramilitary leaders who voluntarily disarm would disrupt the peace process in the country. The legislation, formally known as Law 975, had specified that paramilitary leaders would serve no more than eight years for crimes such as drug smuggling, massacre, rape and torture if they complied, but it now seems that must serve their full original terms. Paramilitary spokesman Ernesto Baez told local radio that “[t]he only benefits that the law offered and that motivated the laying down of arms have been abruptly canceled by the Constitutional Court.” The Colombian government has made some progress with right-wing paramilitary groups, but has made little progress with left-wing rebels who want to bring socialism to the country.

Human Rights Watch [advocacy website] previously criticized [JURIST report] the Justice and Peace Law, but openly welcomed Thursday’s ruling as upholding the rule of law in the face of what it said was a political "giveaway." The high court decision came just one week before elections in which President Alvaro Uribe [official website in Spanish] is widely expected to win a second term. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The White House Friday responded to a report [PDF text; JURIST report] by the UN Committee Against Torture (CAT) [official website] calling on the US to shut down its Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detention facility by reinterating President Bush's statement [JURIST report] that he hopes to close it at some point, and insisting that "everything that is done in terms of questioning detainees is fully within the boundaries of American law." Press Secretary Tony Snow [BBC profile] incidentally chided the Geneva-based committee by adding "the United States government had on a number of occasions invited this UN panel to go down to Guantanamo. They chose not to do so...", an apparent reference to the decision last year of UN rights rapporteurs not to visit the prison [JURIST report] after being told they would not be allowed to interview detainees [JURIST report]. Read the full text of Friday's White House "press gaggle" here.

The US appeared before the CAT for the first time in six years earlier this month. US Department of State legal adviser John Bellinger [official profile] informed the panel that US intelligence agencies internal policies follow the law under the consultation of the US Justice Department, and specifically follow the Detainee Treatment Act [JURIST document]. The panel's report on its annual review [JURIST report] of US compliance with the Convention Against Torture [text], released earlier Friday, said Guantanamo should be shut down, the US should disclose the locations of alleged secret prisons connected with the practice of extraordinary rendition, and expressed concern that the US has denied the International Committee of the Red Cross access to terror detainees held in secret locations.

7:55 PM ET - In a related development, Bellinger told reporters at the State Department Friday:

we are disappointed that despite the fact that the committee acknowledges the extensive materials that we gave to them, that they don't seem to have relied on information that we gave to them in preparing their report... In many ways, it appears that the report was written without the benefit of the materials, the information that we gave them, and, in fact, they seem to have ignored a good deal of the information that we did give to them.... [As a result there are] numerous errors of fact, just simply things that they've got wrong about what the U.S. law or practice is.

The committee also seems to have stretched in a number of areas to address issues that are well outside its mandate and outside the scope of the Convention Against Torture... We know these issues are out there. These are issues that you've all heard before. But we did not think that it's in the scope of this particular committee to go try to address every issue relating to detainees or Guantanamo and try to somehow squeeze it into the mandate of the Convention Against Torture.

[JURIST] Police in Zimbabwe [JURIST news archive] arrested opposition leader Arthur Mutambara [BBC backgrounder] and 70 supporters on Friday for allegedly campaigning for a Saturday byelection in violation of Zimbabwe’s Public Order and Security Act [text], which makes it illegal to hold a political meeting of any size without written approval from police four days in advance of a political event. Mutambara’s faction of the Movement for Democratic Change [political party website] has candidates campaigning for a legislative seat vacated by the death of another lawmaker in February. Mutambara is president of one of two factions of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, which split from a faction led by Morgan Tsvangirai [BBC profile] last year in a bitter dispute. Both Tsvangirai’s faction and the party led by President Robert Mugabe [BBC profile] have candidates running for the legislative seat as well.

Zimbabwean police, who are tightly controlled by Mugabe’s administration, often use the Public Order and Security Act to stifle dissent, shut down independent newspapers, and arrest protesters. Applications for rallies and other political meetings are frequently turned down even when presented far in advance. Mutambara party spokesman Maxwell Zimugo stated that they applied on Monday to hold a campaign rally on Thursday, and were granted oral approval without written documentation to hold the rally on Friday. The Washington Post has more. Newzimbabwe.com has local coverage.

[JURIST] The French National Assembly [official website] has postponed until at least October debate on a controversial bill [National Assembly background's] sponsored by the opposition Socialist Party [political party website; bill backgrounder, in French] that would make it a crime to deny that the 1915 mass killings of Armenians [ATI backgrounder] in Turkey was genocide. French Socialists had pushed for a bill that would impose fines similar to the €45,000 fine and possible five year jail sentence under French law on anyone denying that the Holocaust occurred. As many as 1.5 million Armenians were killed in the then-Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1917 in what Armenians refer to as genocide, but Turkey has insisted that the deaths numbered a few hundred thousand and do not constitute genocide [Turkish DC Embassy backgrounder]. Turkey on Monday threatened to impose trade sanctions [JURIST report] on France if the French parliament adopted the bill. Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy [official profile] told the National Assembly Thursday that "the bill you have submitted today would, if passed, be considered as an unfriendly gesture by a large majority of Turks, whether you want this or not."

More than 400,000 people of Armenian descent reside in France, prompting allegations that the Socialists wanted the bill to win them votes ahead of next year's French presidential election. Other European Union countries and the European Parliament [text of 1987 resolution] have passed similar bills recognizing the Armenian massacre as genocide, and in 2005 the European Parliament endorsed an additional non-binding resolution [text] requiring Turkey to recognize the killings as genocide before Turkey can join the EU. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] Somali MPs on Friday asked Prime Minister Ali Gedi [BBC profile] to expel several warlords from the Somali cabinet after 150 people were killed in Mogadishu last week during fighting between Islamic factions and the warlord militias. The MPs say the warlords, including the Ministers of the Departments of Security, Commerce, Religious Affairs, and Militia Disarmament, broke ceasefire agreements signed when the current transitional Somali constitution [JURIST report] was signed in 2004 after 13 years of relative anarchy.

Protesters chanted anti-US slogans during demonstrations in Mogadishu this week, as many critics believe the warlords are secretly funded by the US to resist Islamic fundamentalists from gaining control of sections of the war-torn country. The interim Somali government [JURIST report] led by President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed [BBC profile] is too politically and financially weak to effectively confront the warlord militias. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The US Senate on Thursday passed the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act of 2005 [PDF text], which would increase the maximum FCC indecency [JURIST news archive] fines per station by a multiple of ten, from $32,500 to $325,000 per violation. The bill was discharged by unanimous consent from the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation [official website], and was unanimously passed Thursday evening by an almost empty Senate chamber under a seldom-employed parliamentary rule used by Sen. Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) that permitted official Senate approval in the absence of a 'nay' vote. The bill was sponsored by Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KA) [press release], who said, "[r]adio and television waves are public property, and the companies who profit from using the public airwaves should face meaningful fines for broadcasting indecent material." The House version of the bill [PDF text], passed in early 2005, would increase maximum fines to $500,000, and would require the FCC to hold a license revocation hearing after a broadcaster accumulates three fines.

In March, the FCC proposed a record $3.6 milion fine [JURIST report] for CBS for airing a graphic sex scene on the show Without a Trace, which was later reduced on appeal [JURIST report] to $3.3 million. After the House broadcast indecency bill was passed in 2005, the National Association of Broadcasters announced their disapproval of increased indecency penalties, saying in a brief statement [text] that "voluntary industry initiatives are far preferable to government regulation when dealing with programming issues." The Los Angeles Times has more.

[JURIST] A Russian court-martial sitting at a military base outside Khabarovsk in the far east of the country has sentenced Sergeant Dmitry Nagaitsev to five years in prison after he was convicted of abusing his rank and degradation for beating a private at an eastern Russian military base. Private Yevgeny Koblov suffered a nervous breakdown as a result of the hazing and was found unconscious in the basement of a building at the base after hiding from his tormentor for 23 days without food or protection from the elements. Koblov's legs were surgically removed to stop the spread of gangrene that had developed while he hid frm Nagaitsev. The court-martial also awarded Koblov around $7,500 USD in "moral" compensation. AFP has more.

Following a long national history of military conscription [HRW backgrounder], current Russian law provides for a two-year mandatory draft, but most candidates manage to avoid this by bribery or doctors' certficates, leading to low-quality intake and frustrated officers. Many who are conscripted have to be forcibly detained [HRW backgrounder]. The Russian Defense Ministry [official website] says that in 2005 16 Russian soldiers died of bullying and some 256 committed suicide [MosNews report]. The Union of Soldiers' Mothers Committees [advocacy website] claims that over 80% of abuse incidents go unreported, and those which are made public are generally disclosed by relatives, doctors or rights groups. Earlier this year Russian defense minister Sergei Ivanov blamed Russian society for fostering a culture of military abuse [JURIST report] following disclosure of the torture and disfigurement [JURIST report] of another conscript, Andrei Sychev, on New Year's Eve. In February, a Russian military court convicted a senior officer [JURIST report] in the country's elite missile corps of modern-day slavery and contracting out conscripts under his command for personal gain.

[JURIST] UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour [official profile; JURIST news archive] Friday wrapped up her first visit to Cambodia by saying [statement text] that the country must develop an independent judiciary and allow NGOs to operate effectively in order to protect the human rights of Cambodian citizens. The visit was arranged to strengthen ties between the UN and Cambodia, which were strained in March when Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen requested the dismissal [JURIST report] of the UN human rights envoy to Cambodia after he publicly criticized the government's record of stifling criticism. Human Rights Watch released a report in January that called attention to Cambodia's ongoing human rights violations [JURIST report].

Cambodia's judiciary has received increased international scrutiny in recent months as the "killing fields" genocide trials of the surviving leaders of Communist Khmer Rouge [Wikipedia backgrounder] regime of the 1970s nears. Earlier this month the Cambodian government named 30 judges [JURIST report] to hear the genocide cases, but rights groups have already said they lack confidence [ABC Australia report] in several of the jurists named, several of whom have no formal legal training. VOA has more.

[JURIST] The US Attorney's Office for the Central District of California [official website] Thursday released a grand jury indictment [text, PDF; press release, PDF] of leading US class-action law firm Milberg Weiss Bershad & Schulman [law firm website] and partners David J. Bershad and Steven G. Schulman for allegedly paying over $2.4 million to Palm Springs attorneys Seymour Lazar and Paul Seltzer and others since 1984 in exchange for being named as plaintiffs in class action lawsuits. According to the indictment, the firm paid the plaintiffs to purchase securities that were expected to decline in value so that they could be named in subsequent class action litigation. Milberg Weiss has denied any wrongdoing [statement], saying that the firm is "particularly incensed that the prosecutors decided to indict the firm itself" subjecting its employees to "serious personal and professional harm." Indicted partners Bershad and Schulman [statements] have taken leaves of absence from the firm. Lazar and Seltzer, who received and passed on payments, respectively, were previously indicted [DOJ press release] in June 2005 for their involvement in the scheme.

The indictment, which includes charges of money laundering, mail fraud and conspiracy, follows months of investigation into Milberg Weiss, which is one of the largest litigators of shareholder class action lawsuits in the country. AP has more.

[JURIST] The United Nations Committee Against Torture (CAT) [official website] said Friday in a report [PDF] on its annual review [JURIST report] of US compliance with the Convention Against Torture [text] that the United States should shut down its prison for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive]. The report also urged the US to end the practice of extraordinary rendition [JURIST news archive] and release the location of alleged secret US prisons. The panel additionally expressed concern about the US denying the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) [official website] access [press release] to terror detainees held in the alleged covert prisons.

The appearance by the US before the panel earlier this month was its first in six years. During the review, US Department of State legal adviser John Bellinger [official profile] told the panel that US intelligence agencies have consulted with the US Justice Department to make certain that internal policies follow the law, including the Detainee Treatment Act [JURIST document], but he refused to discuss specific interrogation practices with the committee. AP has more.

[JURIST] Four detainees at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] attempted to commit suicide on Thursday, and several other prisoners attacked US soldiers who tried to intervene, according to a US military spokesman. Three of the detainees ingested a large amount of prescription drugs they had stockpiled, and were treated with activated charcoal. The last detainee tried to hang himself, but guards were able to stop the attempt despite the efforts of other detainees to repel them using fans, lighting fixtures and other items as makeshift weapons. The detainees were moved to a maximum security area of the facility after the attempts, while two of the prisoners who overdosed on medication were held for observation at the prison hospital.

The military spokesman said 23 Guantanamo prisoners have made 39 suicide attempts since the facility opened in 2003. In November 2005, the repeated suicide attempts [JURIST report] of detainee Jumah Dossari [Amnesty International case sheet] were highly publicized. Several detainees have also participated in hunger strikes, prompting guards to use force-feeding [JURIST report] to keep them alive. Reuters has more, and provides additional coverage.

7:52 PM ET - US military officials said [US Southern Command statement, PDF] later Friday that the suicide attempt was a ruse to lure US guards into a medium-security Camp 4 [DOD photos] cell where inmates were waiting to ambush them, and that the intensity of the assault on guards by inmates armed with improvised weapons. [US Southern Command photos] was such that at one point "we were losing the fight", in the words of Army Col. Mike Bumgarner. Guards used pepper spray and fired a 12-gauge shotgun loaded with rubber balls to stop the fight, which last four to five minutes. Six prisoners were treated for what were described as "minor injuries." A military spokesman also said that inmates in three of the five units at Camp 4 had rioted, and that it took an hour to quell that disturbance. Inmates were moved from there into a maximum security facilty.

US officials added that only two detainees had made suicide attempts by ingesting pills, and both were still unconscious although in stable condition. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Judge Patricia Williams of the US Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Washington [official website] on Thursday rejected a $45.7 million settlement agreement [JURIST report] offered by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Spokane [diocesan website] to 75 clergy sex abuse [JURIST news archive] complainants in February. William ruled that because the settlement only covered 75 of approximately 185 abuse complaints against the diocese, which is only one of three US dioceses to declare bankruptcy due to abuse allegations [Seattle Times report], it did not satisfy the standard for an equitable settlement under bankruptcy law. Williams urged lawyers in the case to enter into mediation to reach a deal that accounts for the named plaintiffs and future complainants. Reaction to the settlement rejection has been mixed, with some parties favoring the intent of the court to ensure fairness for all victims, while others are disappointed with the continuation of the case and need for more mediation.

The Spokane diocese filed for bankruptcy in December 2004 in the face of sex abuse claims for $76 million against assets of $11 million. Earlier this week, the complainants not covered by the settlement proposed an alternative plan that would assess parish land at two-thirds of its value so that the parishes could avoid foreclosure. AP has more. The Seattle Times has local coverage.

[JURIST] Fifteen Saudi detainees who were being held at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] arrived in Saudi Arabia on Friday. The US transferred the detainees to Saudi custody [DOD press release] after the transfers were approved by a Guantanamo Administrative Review Board [DOD backgrounder]. Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal on Wednesday said that 16 Saudi detainees would be returned [JURIST report; press release] to the country, where they would be jailed and put on trial if evidence warranted.

According to the US Department of Defense [official website], 460 detainees remain at Guantanamo, approximately 120 of which have been declared eligible for transfer or release. The DOD earlier this week released the names of 759 current and former Guantanamo prisoners [PDF; JURIST report], over 100 of whom are from Saudi Arabia. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The US Senate [official website] on Thursday approved two controversial amendments to the immigration reform bill [JURIST news archive] on the status of English in the United States. The first amendment, proposed by Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) [official website] and passed 63-34 [roll call], would make English the national language of the United States. The measure drew some heated opposition, most notably from Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) [official website] who called it "racist." The Senate also approved by 58-39 [roll call] an alternative amendment introduced by Sen. Ken Salazar (D-CO) [official website] that would declare English "the common and unifying language of the United States." The effect of the amendments is unclear as the bill already requires illegal immigrants to exhibit English proficiency as a prerequisite for citizenship.

Also on Thursday, the Senate approved 63-34 [roll call] an amendment by Sen. John Cornyn [official website] that imposes greater fees on illegal immigrants applying for citizenship to reimburse states for money expended on health care, education and other costs. A proposed amendment that would have abolished Social Security benefits that immigrants earned under illegal status was tabled after a close 50-49 [roll call] vote. The Star-Telegram has more.