[JURIST] A federal jury Wednesday convicted [US DOJ press release] Shahawar Matin Siraj of conspiracy and other charges Wednesday for his role in a failed plot to bomb a New York City subway station in 2004. Siraj, a Pakistani immigrant who first drew authorities' attention for expressing anti-American sentiments after 9/11 [JURIST news archive], and another suspect, James Elshafay, were arrested in 2004; Elshafay cooperated with police. An informant, Osama Eldawoody, posed as an accomplice and testified against Siraj, who claimed that an undercover officer suggested the bomb plot and incited him with photographs of US prisoner abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison [JURIST news archive]. The prosecution presented videotape surveillance [MSNBC report] of Siraj and Elshafay discussing the plot in which Siraj said he would not plant the explosive device.

Siraj, 23, could face life imprisonment. AP has more.

[JURIST] US Marines involved in the deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians in Hadithah last November will face charges and possible courts-martial, according to US Marine Corps Gen. Michael W. Hagee [official profile], who said on Wednesday that a criminal investigation was underway. He did not say who will be charged or what they will be charged with. According to allegations revealed [report] by TIME magazine in March, the soldiers are suspected of killing civilians without warning on Nov. 19, 2005, after a roadside bomb killed Lance Cpl. Miguel Terrazas. Most of the Iraqis were unarmed, and at least seven were women and three children. Hagee promised that reports would follow -- one on administrative issues and one on criminal charges -- and he confirmed that the incident has been under investigation for more than six months.

Three officers allegedly involved in the incident, including two company commanders, were relieved of duty on April 7, but military officials have not stated the reason for their discharges. Army Times has more.

[JURIST] US Marines involved in the deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians in Hadithah last November will face charges and possible courts-martial, according to US Marine Corps Gen. Michael W. Hagee [official profile], who said on Wednesday that a criminal investigation was underway. He did not say who will be charged or what they will be charged with. According to allegations revealed [report] by TIME magazine in March, the soldiers are suspected of killing civilians without warning on Nov. 19, 2005, after a roadside bomb killed Lance Cpl. Miguel Terrazas. Most of the Iraqis were unarmed, and at least seven were women and three children. Hagee promised that reports would follow -- one on administrative issues and one on criminal charges -- and he confirmed that the incident has been under investigation for more than six months.

Three officers allegedly involved in the incident, including two company commanders, were relieved of duty on April 7, but military officials have not stated the reason for their discharges. Army Times has more.

[JURIST] Former US President Jimmy Carter [official profile] told a conference of human rights leaders [backgrounder] at the The Carter Center [advocacy website] in Atlanta Wednesday that immigration was a human rights issue and that he backed the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act [S 2611 summary] now advancing through the Senate [JURIST report].

In an op-ed [text] that appeared in the Miami Herald and other newspapers earlier this week, Carter said:

The guest worker program put forward by President Bush ... can provide a reasonable solution to the longstanding conflict of having overly restrictive American laws technically violated by hundreds of thousands of employers and millions of undocumented workers.

This proposal creates a reasonable balance between the need for greater border security and more orderly regulation of immigrant workers. It will double the number of agents for border patrol and interior enforcement and restrict the passage of illegal migrants in North America both from Mexico into the United States and from other countries into Mexico.

[JURIST] A magistrate in Sierra Leone Wednesday granted bail of $8,000 each to three men charged with inspecting a prohibited area and conspiracy to assist former Liberian president Charles Taylor [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] escape from prison at the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) [official website; JURIST news archive], a war crimes tribunal. The suspects were reportedly caught photographing the jail [Reuters report] earlier this month and were originally released for lack of evidence [Awareness Times report]. The three men, former US soldier Michael Chemidlin and Sierra Leoneans Felix Rogers and Collins Kamara, were re-arrested and charged last week. Chemidlin claims he is innocent, and his lawyer requested that he be admitted to a hospital for symptoms of malaria. The court set a hearing for May 30.

Taylor, indicted by the SCSL for war crimes and crimes against humanity [indictment, PDF] and now facing trial after his capture [JURIST report] in March, is fighting requests [JURIST report] to have his own proceeding moved from Freetown, Sierra Leone, to the International Criminal Court at The Hague in the Netherlands. He escaped from prison in Massachusetts in 1985. AP has more.

[JURIST] Three Egyptian journalists and a lawyer have been charged with slandering a local election commission chief by alleging fraud in Egypt's November parliamentary election and publishing the names of two judges accused of rigging results in a runoff poll [JURIST report]. The journalists - two writing for the independent Sawt al-Umma weekly and a third being the editor of Afaq Arabiya, the journal of the Muslim Brotherhood - were charged a week after a judicial disciplinary panel acquitted one judge of whistleblowing and censured the second [JURIST report] for saying that fellow judges had conspired with a local election official to change the election results.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak [official profile] has denied that the government was behind the judicial prosecutions, describing them as a clash between the Judges Club [JURIST report] and the Supreme Judiciary Council. Aljazeera has more.

[JURIST] Regulators at the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) [official websites] have announced a $400 million settlement [press release] with the Federal National Mortgage Association, or Fannie Mae [official website]. A 348 page report [text] issued by the OFHEO on Tuesday found the federally-backed, shareholder-controlled lender guilty of violating reporting and accounting provisions of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 [text] and anti-fraud provisions of the Securities Act of 1933 [text].

The report specifically said that Fannie Mae fraudulently reported future earnings so that top executives would receive maximum performance bonuses. The OFHEO probe was expanded [JURIST report] last April after the OFHEO determined that the company accounted for trusts as "qualifying special purpose entities" to keep the trusts' assets and liabilities off the corporate balance sheet. Fannie Mae has agreed [press release] to correct its accounting practices. The Washington Post has more.

[JURIST] A lawyer for the government of Sudan urged the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit [official website] Wednesday to dismiss a lawsuit brought by families of the 17 sailors killed in the 2000 terrorist attack on the USS Cole [Wikipedia backgrounder; US DOD inquiry report] alleging that Sudan helped finance the attack and allowed an al-Qaeda operative to ship explosives to Yemen, where the attack occurred. In August a federal judge in Virginia ruled [JURIST report] that there was enough evidence to allow the lawsuit to proceed. The lawyer representing Sudan on appeal stated that the lawsuit did not directly connect Sudan to al-Qaeda, the terrorist network largely held responsible for the attack. In response, the lawyer representing the families argued that the specific facts surrounding the allegations do not have to be established until the district court trial.

Sudan cannot claim sovereign immunity in the suit under the general terms of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act [text] because it is subject to an amendment contained in the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 [text] exposing US-defined state sponsors of terrorism [US State Department list] to potential liability. AP has more. Read a 2005 Congressional Research Service overview of lawsuits against state supporters of terrorism [PDF].

[JURIST] A federal judge on Wednesday gave final approval to a $6.6 billion settlement [JURIST report] between former Enron shareholders and the three banks accused of helping Enron [JURIST news archive] hide financial shortcomings to deceive investors. Lead plaintiff's attorney William Lerach said the money will be paid as soon as possible to shareholders, with the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, JP Morgan Chase, and Citigroup [corporate websites] responsible for payments of $2.4 billion, $2.2 billion, and $2 billion, respectively [press releases PDF]. Lehman Brothers and Bank of America have already settled shareholder claims.

Lerach has received no word from other banks named in the lawsuit as to whether they will settle before the trial date, now set for October. The civil lawsuit [plaintiff website] also names Enron and former executives Ken Lay, Jeffrey Skilling and Andrew Fastow [Chronicle profiles] as defendants, and the plaintiffs seek to recover as much of the claimed $40 billion in damages claimed as possible. The jury in the ongoing criminal fraud and conspiracy trial of Lay and Skilling is still deliberating [JURIST report]. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit [official website] on Tuesday remanded a case involving a permanent government ban on speech when an individual receives a National Security Letter (NSL) [PDF form letter; ACLU backgrounder], stating that the ban pursuant to the Patriot Act as now amended by the USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005 [HR 3199 PDF text; DOJ fact sheet; JURIST news archive] may be contrary to the First Amendment. The law applies retroactively to NSLs issued before the Reauthorization Act.

The case involved an unidentified internet access firm that received an NSL seeking to review its phone and internet records because they were relevant to a terrorism investigation. Judge Richard Cardamone stated:

While everyone recognizes national security concerns are implicated when the government investigates terrorism within our nation's borders, such concerns should be leavened with common sense so as not forever to trump the rights of the citizenry under the Constitution.

[JURIST] The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) [advocacy website] filed nationally-coordinated complaints on Wednesday against telecommunications companies and the attorneys general of twenty states requesting investigations into the legality of information sharing between phone companies and the National Security Agency (NSA) [JURIST report; USA Today report]. Unlike the complaint filed by Illinois residents [JURIST report] Monday asking AT&T to stop handing over information to the NSA, the ACLU complaints demand public investigations into the NSA surveillance program [JURIST news archive] that reportedly involves accumulating the calling patterns of millions of Americans into NSA databases for further study. The ACLU also sponsored a advertisement [image] in papers across the US Wednesday asking the public to participate in the litigation by filing a complaint [form] with the Federal Communications Commission.

The ACLU has also sent a letter [text] to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) calling on the FCC to reverse its decision not to investigate [JURIST report] telecom information-sharing activities. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said that the FCC cannot adequately investigate the claims because they do not have access to classified documents, but FCC Commissioner Michael Copps last week said that a probe was necessary [JURIST report] to determine whether a violation of Section 222 [text] or any other provisions of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 [text] occurred. During Senate confirmation hearings last week on his nomination to head the CIA, former NSA director Gen. Michael Hayden refused to comment [JURIST report] on the alleged data pooling program revealed by USA Today two weeks ago. AP has more.

[JURIST] US Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert (R-IL) [official website] and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (CA) [official website] on Wednesday demanded [statement] that the Federal Bureau of Investigation [official website] return all evidence seized in its search of the congressional office [JURIST report] of Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA) [official website] last weekend in connection to Jefferson's alleged involvement in a $3 billion fraud scam. Hastert and lawmakers from both political parties have called the congressional office search unconstitutional and in violation of the separation of powers, and Hastert personally voiced his objections to the raid [JURIST report] to President Bush on Tuesday. The search warrant obtained by the FBI for the search of Jefferson's office described protective measures to ensure the search did not illegally seize privileged material, including a team of prosecutors and FBI agents not connected to the investigation that monitored the search to review any items seized.

In connection to the fraud allegations against Jefferson, where the FBI used a videotape of Jefferson accepting a $100,000 bribe from an informant to obtain the search warrant for Jefferson's congressional office, Pelosi also asked Jefferson to resign from the House Ways and Means Committee Wednesday. Jefferson said that he will not resign from the post [Times-Picayune report] because it is vital for the citizens of New Orleans to have him on the committee. AP has more.

[JURIST] Pro-unification advocates favoring the continuation of Montenegro's association with Serbia announced Wednesday that they will challenge results of Sunday's referendum vote [JURIST report; CDT materials] that resulted in 55.5% of the Montenegrin population voting for independence. Bloc for Joint State leader Predrag Bulatovic said he plans to file an appeal with the referendum commission [official website] before the Wednesday appeal deadline based on alleged voting discrepancies in heavily pro-independence towns, including alleged double voting and illegal registrations. The vote narrowly met the controversial EU-endorsed threshold [JURIST report] of 55% of the population required for independence, which critics said violated the democratic principle of the simple majority.

The election monitoring branch of the Organization for Security and Co-Operation of Europe (OSCE) [official website] released a preliminary report [PDF text] on Monday acknowledging the legitimacy of the vote and expressing satisfaction with the lack of reported voting rights complaints and the 86% turnout. The US ambassador to Montenegro and Serbia has announced that the US supports both the OSCE report and Montenegro's push for independence [press release], and has congratulated Montenegro on the peaceful referendum process. EU Envoy Miroslav Lajcak, who negotiated the 55% threshold with Montenegrin officials, said that opposition groups are free to challenge the results of the election with the referendum commission and the constitutional court, which will decide any appeal within 24 hours. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) [official website] warned that ongoing sectarian violence is significantly hindering human rights progress in the country in a bi-monthly report [DOC text; press release] released Tuesday. Execution style killings reached 70 a day in Baghdad in the wake of the February Shiite shrine bombing in Samarra [Washington Post report; JURIST report]. Iraqi officials and international rights workers have blamed gangs within the Iraqi police force and Shiite religious party militias for much of the violence. UNAMI noted particular concern about relatives of judges, politicians, and public administration officials such as police, soldiers, doctors, journalists and academics. Gunmen killed the son of the leader of the Higher Judicial Council [JURIST report] in mid-May. UNAMI called for the creation of an independent National Human Rights Commission to ensure stronger protection of rights within Iraq.

Earlier this month, an Iraqi general serving in the Interior Ministry and 17 others were arrested [JURIST report] in connection with kidnappings and death squads [JURIST report]. The Washington Post has more.

[JURIST] The Iraqi government announced Wednesday that it had apprehended Saddam Hussein nephew Bashar Sabawi Ibrahim Hassan al-Tikriti with the assistance of Lebanese police. The statement was ambiguous as to whether al-Tikriti was extradited from Lebanon, and did not specify what Hussein's nephew will be charged with, though it generally referred to crimes against the people of Iraq [JURIST news archive]. Aljazeera has more.

Last summer, the US Treasury Department froze al-Tikriti's assets [press release; JURIST report] based on intelligence suggesting that he and his five brothers may have provided material help and support to the insurgency. Al-Tikriti's brother Yasir Sabhawi Ibrahim was arrested for financing the insurgency [JURIST report] last October.

Al-Tikriti's father and Hussein's half-brother and co-defendant Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti gained notoriety earlier this year for appearing in court in underwear [JURIST report] to protest the proceedings against Hussein and himself, and was on another occasion removed from the courtroom [JURIST report] for complaining about his medical condition.

[JURIST] The US Senate on Wednesday voted 73-25 in favor of invoking cloture [Senate backgrounder] on the Immigration Reform Bill [S 2611 summary] and limiting debate on the bill. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) [official website] has indicated that he would like to hold final vote on the immigration bill by the end of the week.

The vote to limit debate on immigration reform [JURIST news archive] comes the day after the Senate approved an amendment to the proposal that would impose fines up to $20,000 [AP report] on employers if they hire undocumented workers once a new screening system outlined in the legislation takes hold. The amendment, approved by a margin of 58-40 [roll call], also fines employers $200 to $600 for failing to use the new screening system, doubles the present level for employers that fail to screen and document new hires, and subjects employers who repeatedly violate the law to possible prison terms of up to three years. Employers will also have to submit new hire information to the computer system within three days of hiring the worker and wait for the Department of Homeland Security to confirm the worker is a legal resident. Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) [official website], one of the amendment's co-sponsors, called the system an important tool to reduce the numbers of undocumented workers in the US [floor statement]. Opponents have criticized the computer system because illegal immigrants will be able to keep their jobs throughout all appeals. AP has more.

[JURIST] Government officials in the Congo [JURIST news archive] said Wednesday that 32 American, South African, and Nigerian nationals have been arrested in connection with an alleged coup attempt aimed at destabilizing the country before the July 30 national elections, though critics allege the arrests were politically motivated. Those arrested were employed in Congo by the US firm Omega Risk Solutions [corporate website], a security provider hired by presidential candidate Dr. Oscar Kashala [campaign website], who is running along with 32 other candidates [Xinhua report] against current Congolese President Joseph Kabila [BBC profile] in the first elections in Congo in forty years. The government did not provide details about the alleged planned coup; one anonymous security official suggested the coup may never have been planned at all, and opposition leaders say the arrests were planned by the government to disrupt legal political activity.

Kabila's eligibility as a presidential candidate was challenged [JURIST report] in court last month by a political group alleging that his ties to the military prohibit him from holding office under a 2005 constitutional referendum [JURIST report] that makes army, police and civil service workers ineligible to seek public office unless they procure a letter from the government indicating that they have been dismissed from service. The Congolese Independent Election Commission has defended Kabila's eligibility because the Army does not list him as an active member. Congo adopted the constitution [JURIST report] mandated by the referendum last February, which many hope will bring stability to the war-torn country. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] US Secretary of State spokesperson Sean McCormack on Tuesday blasted Syria for arresting human rights leaders [JURIST report] and called for Syria to release all political prisoners [press briefing transcript]. Syrian security police last week arrested human rights lawyer Anwar al-Bunni [AI backgrounder], prominent writer Michel Kilo [BBC report] and Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt [BBC profile] in what McCormack characterized as a crackdown on "Syrians who seek to defend their rights and to bring democratic change to their country."

All those arrested allegedly signed a petition advocating improved relations with neighboring Lebanon, which coincides with a unanimous UN Security Council resolution [text; UN News report] to "strongly encourage" Syria to end the flow of weapons over the border to Lebanese militias, and to respond to a request by Lebanon to delineate their common border and establish full diplomatic relations. The Syrian government has condemned [SANA report] both the petition and the resolution as a violation of international law. VOA has more.

[JURIST] Government officials have asked the Supreme Court of Chile [official website] to place a gag order on former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] to prevent him from discussing the upcoming presidential election in Peru. Fujimori was released on bail [JURIST report] last week while Chile courts decide whether he should be extradited to Peru, where he faces corruption and human rights charges [Trial Watch backgrounder; JURIST report], including authorizing an illegal death squad and abuse of power. Chile's government said it made the request to the high court Tuesday in response to a diplomatic note from the government of Peru. Since his release last week, Fujimori has given a number of media interviews regarding his extradition and Peru's upcoming election.

The former leader had been living in exile in Japan until he arrived and was arrested in Chile [JURIST report] in November 2005. He returned to South America with hopes of competing in Peru's presidential election, despite having been banned from holding public office [JURIST report] until 2010, but was arrested by Chilean authorities complying with an Interpol warrant. Peru's extradition request is still pending. Reuters has more. The Santiago Times has local coverage.

[JURIST] The Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct [official website], an independent state agency charged with investigating judicial improprieties, has admonished Texas Supreme Court Justice Nathan L. Hecht [Wikipedia profile] for using the prestige of his office to promote the nomination of Harriet Miers [JURIST news archive] to the US Supreme Court. An admonition is the least severe punishment the Commission may deliver. Hecht, who introduced Miers to President Bush in the 1980s, has said will appeal the decision to a panel of three Texas judges who were selected on Tuesday through a lottery process.

According to the decision, Hecht communicated with the White House shortly before her nomination was announced, agreeing to speak with conservative groups about Miers' views on abortion, and to have interview requests forwarded to his office. Hecht, the longest tenured member of the Court, has said that any statements made by him on "matters of national public interest" are protected by First Amendment free speech guarantees, and that many of his peer judges routinely offer advice on nominations. The Houston Chronicle has local coverage.

[JURIST] A court in Croatia [JURIST news archive] on Wednesday indicted former Yugoslav Defense Minister Veljko Kadijevic and former airforce commander Zvonimir Jurjevic on charges of indiscriminate shelling of civilians during Croatia's 1991-95 war of independence [Wikipedia backgrounder] from the former Yugoslavia. At least 30 people died in eastern Croatia as a result of the shellings.

The indictment comes at the heels of several cases dealing with low-ranking members [JURIST report] and is one of the first cases to be brought in Croatia against high-ranking officials. Croatian trials of war crimes suspects are part of the country's bid to become a member [EU materials] of the European Union [official website]. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] A US military spokesperson said Tuesday that the condition of two of the Guantanamo Bay detainees who attempted suicide [JURIST report] last week is improving and both are expected to make full recoveries. The two men, neither of whom were prescribed antidepressants, overdosed on anti-anxiety medication they had stockpiled in an attempted suicide. On the same day, other detainees also seemed to attempt suicide, but military officials determined [press release, PDF] this was a "a ruse to get the guards to enter the compound in order to be attacked." Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] officials have said that 25 Guantanamo prisoners have made 41 suicide attempts since the facility opened in 2003, but defense attorneys say the military is under-reporting suicide attempts. In November 2005, the repeated suicide attempts [JURIST report] of detainee Jumah Dossari [AI case sheet] were highly publicized.

In recent weeks, both the UN and the UK Attorney General [JURIST reports] have called for the detention center to close, though the Red Cross in April said that conditions have "greatly improved" [JURIST report] since the facility began operations. AP has more.

[JURIST] US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales [official profile] has said the government does not need court approval to obtain domestic telephone records because they are not protected by the US Constitution's Fourth Amendment [text] according to the Supreme Court's 1979 decision in Smith v. Maryland [opinion text]. Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Gonzales said that under Smith v. Maryland there is no reasonable expectation of privacy in such records. In the 1979 case, the court held that the government did not need to secure a search warrant before installing a device at a phone company's central office to collect numbers dialed by a customer. Because the customer was transmitting the numbers to the phone company, the court reasoned, he could not have considered the information private, and therefore it was not protected by the Fourth Amendment.

Despite his comments on the legality of the government obtaining phone records without a warrant, Gonzales did not confirm reports [USA Today report] that the National Security Agency asked phone companies to turn over records [JURIST report] containing the numbers dialed by millions of Americans. Also Tuesday, Gonzales appeared to back off an earlier statement that journalists could be prosecuted for reporting leaked information [JURIST report]. The Washington Post has more.

[JURIST] The Dutch parliament official website] has approved a new anti-terror bill that dramatically lowers the amount of evidence needed for Dutch police to arrest terror suspects and allows officials to hold suspects for up to two weeks without charge. The law will go into effect immediately and allows prosecutors to approve various surveillance methods for terror suspects without any reasonable suspicion of criminal activity. The measure also allows police in the Netherlands to spot search a suspect's person, vehicle and belongings without probable cause in some public places, such as airports, industrial complexes, sports stadiums and government buildings. The bill passed the lower house [JURIST report] of parliament last year.

The new anti-terror measure is in response to a rise in terrorist activity, most notably the 2004 murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh [BBC report]. Nine Muslim radicals of the Hofstad terrorist network were convicted in March [BBC report] of the murder under anti-terror laws. AP has more.

[JURIST] US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) [official website] Commissioner Michael Copps [official profile] has said the FCC is authorized under Title 1 of the Communications Act of 1934 [text] to create agency rules to combat breaches of "net neutrality." Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Copps suggested that the FCC would be protecting the public interest by writing and enforcing clear agency rules designed to prevent broadband service providers from accepting money from content providers in exchange for preferential bandwidth treatment, or from interfering with the content of competitors. In contrast to the approach advocated by Copps, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin in August 2005 succeeded in passing a set of broad net neutrality principles for service providers to abide by, favoring a more deregulatory approach than Copps.

Legal precedent suggests that the FCC may have the authority to draft strict net neutrality regulations. Justice Clarence Thomas, writing in 2004 for the majority in National Cable & Telecommunications Association vs. Brand X Internet Services [opinion text; Duke law case backgrounder], said that Internet service providers can be subjected to FCC-imposed "special regulatory duties" under Title 1.

The House Judiciary Committee is currently marking up the Internet Freedom and Nondiscrimination Act of 2006 [PDF text], sponsored by committee chairman Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI), that would apply federal antitrust law to alleged neutrality violations. A sister bill, the Internet Freedom Preservation Act [PDF text] is currently in the Senate Commerce Committee. That proposal, sponsored by Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Byron Dorgan (D-ND) and Daniel Inouye (D-HI), would amend the Communication Act of 1934 to obligate internet service providers to not "block, interfere with, discriminate against, impair or degrade" access to any internet content, or from bargaining with content providers to provide faster service. Multichannel News has more.

[JURIST] The trial of David Safavian [Wikipedia profile], former chief of staff at the General Services Administration (GSA) [official website] and former White House chief procurement officer, begins Wednesday. Safavian is charged with making false statements to Senate and GSA officials in an investigation [JURIST report] into to Safavian's relationship with former Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff [JURIST news archive] during a 2002 golf trip to Scotland where Abramoff allegedly was trying to purchase property owned by the GSA. Prosecutors are expected to rely on mass amounts of e-mail correspondence between Safavian and Abramoff to prove that the pair were in fact doing business together. Safavian's lawyers maintain that the golf trip, valued at $100,000, was not a gift because Safavian paid $3,100 towards his own hotel and golf fees, but prosecutors allege that the chartered plane they took to Scotland constitutes a gift.

In Safavian's indictment [JURIST report], prosecutors allege that he concealed the fact that he was helping Abramoff deal with the GSA and that Abramoff had done business with the GSA prior to the trip. In an unrelated case, Abramoff pleaded guilty [JURIST report; plea agreement, PDF] to two conspiracy and fraud charges stemming from falsification of documents to procure a loan for the 2000 purchase of SunCruz Casino and was sentenced to nearly six years [JURIST report] in prison. Abramoff is now cooperating with prosecutors in corruption investigations of other government officials. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Authorities in five countries have arrested 565 people as part of Operation Global Con [DOJ fact sheet], the US Justice Department [official website] and Federal Trade Commission [official website] announced Tuesday. Officials said the suspects received more than $1 billion from some 2.8 million Americans who thought they were paying to get credit cards, claim sweepstakes winnings, make investments or avoid paying taxes. Many of those arrested were West Africans accused of sending "Nigerian scam" junk e-mails [Snopes.com backgrounder] that promised recipients a windfall if they paid a small amount upfront. Other scams were carried out through telemarketing or mass mailings.

US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said the investigation was the largest of its kind [statement] and at the same press conference, FTC Chairwoman Deborah Platt Majoras [official profile] said that those who commit these sorts of crimes prey on vulnerable consumers, like the elderly or immigrants. AP has more.

[JURIST] Tariq Aziz [BBC profile], the former Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister under Saddam Hussein's regime, testified on behalf of Hussein Wednesday at the Iraqi High Criminal Court [official website], where Hussein and seven co-defendants are on trial [JURIST news archive] for the crackdown against Shiites in Dujail following an assassination attempt in 1982, including the execution of 148 villagers. Aziz was the first witness to testify in favor of Hussein. He accused the current ruling party of trying to kill Hussein in the 1980s and told the court that the current government should be on trial instead of Hussein's toppled government. Aziz also stated that Hussein's seven co-defendants never mentioned the Dujail murders to him and that "no one is guilty of anything." Aziz, who surrendered to US forces in 2003, is currently being held in Baghdad pending possible trial by the Iraqi High Criminal Court. His lawyers have said that he is in very poor health and have requested [JURIST report] that he be allowed to seek medical treatment in Russia.

Judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman [BBC profile] warned everyone in the courtroom to act in a respectful manner as proceedings began Wednesday. Monday's proceedings caused commotion as Abdel-Rahman forcibly removed [JURIST report] Bushra Kahlil, Hussein's only female lawyer, from the courtroom for arguing with the judge. Reuters has more. CNN has additional coverage.

[JURIST] In a newly released five minute audio tape [transcript] found on an Islamist website Tuesday, a man claiming to be Osama bin Laden [JURIST news archive] said that convicted September 11 [JURIST news archive] conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui [JURIST news archive] was not intended to be one of September 11 hijackers as he had not finished his flying training, and that "his confession that he was assigned to participate in those raids is a false confession which no intelligent person doubts is a result of the pressure put upon him for the past four and a half years." The man on the tape, yet to be verified as the al Qaeda leader, also indicated those held in Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] did not play any role in the September 11 attacks either: "all the prisoners of Guantanamo, who were captured in 2001 and the first half of 2002 and who number in the hundreds, have no connection whatsoever to the events of September 11th, and even stranger is that many of them have no connection with al-Qaida in the first place, and even more amazing is that some of them oppose al-Qaida's methodology of calling for war with America."

Last year, Moussaoui pled guilty [JURIST report] to conspiracy charges [indictment text] and was sentenced to life in prison [JURIST report; text, jury verdict] on May 4 with no possibility of release. His motion to withdraw his guilty plea and have a new trial was denied [JURIST report]. He is currently appealing [JURIST report] the denial of the motion and his sentence. Moussaoui is the only person to have been convicted in the United States for the September 11 attacks. BBC News has more.

[JURIST Europe] Former French president and author of the beleaguered European Constitution [official website, text; JURIST news archive], Valery Giscard d'Estaing [Wikipedia profile] is calling for the EU constitution rejected by French and Dutch voters [JURIST reports] in 2005 to be put to new referendums. Citing domestic political issues as the culprit in derailing the ratification of the regional charter, especially in France [JURIST report], he suggested in an interview with the Financial Times published Tuesday that the passage of time might lead to reconsideration by French voters. Giscard disagreed with the idea that the constitution was dead and referred to its recent endorsements by Finland and Estonia [JURIST reports] as proof of a possible revival. He did however concede that Britain would not ratify the instrument, and recommended that the EU develop special provisions for it.

As part of the impending German presidency of the EU in January 2007, German Chancellor Angela Merkel [official website in German; BBC profile] has pledged to revive the European Constitution [JURIST report]. The Financial 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.