[JURIST] Justice George Gelaga King, newly-elected president of the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) [JURIST news archive], has dismissed [decision, PDF] a defense challenge [JURIST report] to a prosecutor’s motion to move the trial of former Liberian president Charles Taylor [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] from Freetown, Sierra Leone, to the International Criminal Court (ICC) [JURIST news archive] at The Hague in the Netherlands. Taylor, who is being tried on 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity under an revised amended indictment [PDF] argued that the venue change would affect the availability of scheduled witnesses and insisted there was no evidence that a Freetown trial would be unfair. King dismissed the challenge because such motions for venue shift are part of the administrative functions of the president of the SCSL and are not matters for the appeals chamber of the court to resolve.

Authorities in the Netherlands have said they will grant the request to relocate the trial to the ICC, but only on the condition that another country accept custody of Taylor immediately after proceedings conclude on the presumption he is convicted. So far UN negotiators have been unsuccessful in finding a country willing to take custody of Taylor [JURIST report], with Denmark refusing to take custody of Taylor [JURIST report] after the trial in April. Both Austria and Sweden have also rejected custody requests [JURIST report]. AFP has more.

[JURIST] President Bush Wednesday pledged to aid the Rwandan government in apprehending individuals involved in the 1994 genocide [BBC backgrounder] during a meeting [transcript] with Rwandan President Paul Kagame [official website; BBC profile] at the White House. Bush also offered to reimburse Rwanda for sending some of its troops to help quell the conflict in Darfur [JURIST news archive], where what the administration claims is another genocide has already caused the deaths of about 180,000 people.

Bush commended Kagame for his work rebuilding Rwanda and compared the reconciliation moves by the Rwandan president to the plans Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki [BBC profile] has for his own country. AP has more.

[JURIST] A preliminary investigation [AFPS report] by the US Department of Defense (DOD) [official website] in February and March uncovered evidence that the killings of 24 Iraqi civilians [JURIST report] by US Marines in Haditha in November were without warning or provocation, US officials said Wednesday. The evidence from the probe did not square with the accounts of the Marines involved, who originally claimed that the civilians were killed by a roadside bomb detonated by a terrorist. Forensics showed that gunfire caused the civilians’ deaths.

Allegations that Marines killed the civilians were first publicly reported [text] by TIME magazine, prompting the military to launch a follow-up investigation [JURIST report]. US Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace [official profile], chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff [official website], has confirmed that the military is currently conducting two official investigations [JURIST report] -- one concerning the Iraqis' deaths and another to determine if there was a cover-up. Pace also promised that the results of the probes, which are expected in June, would be made public. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] A former Enron [JURIST news archive] broadband executive was found guilty Wednesday on one count of falsifying records and conspiracy and three counts of wire fraud, and another was acquitted on the same five charges, one year after their first trial ended in a hung jury [JURIST report]. Former CFO Kevin Howard, who was convicted, and senior accounting director Michael Krautz [Houston Chronicle profiles], who was acquitted, were re-indicted [JURIST report] in November on fewer charges stemming from allegations that they illegally put millions in profits on the books of Enron's broadband division by selling an interest in the future profits of a video-on-demand deal with Blockbuster Video that collapsed shortly afterwards.

Howard faces a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison. The original trial was split into three parts. The insider trading and money laundering trial of former VP Scott Yeager [Chronicle profile] is postponed pending an appeal, and the conspiracy, fraud and insider trading trial of former CEO Joseph Hirko and former senior VP Rex Shelby [Houston Chronicle profiles] is scheduled to begin on Sept. 5. The sentencing of former Enron executives Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, found guilty last week [JURIST report], is scheduled for Sept. 11. AP has more.

[JURIST] A leader of the Islamic Action Front [party website], the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood [official website; FAS backgrounder] in Jordan, Wednesday criticized Jordan's draft anti-terrorism legislation as an oppressive, US-influenced bid to stifle Jordan's government reform movement and encourage the establishment of a police state in the country. The bill, first proposed last November [JURIST report] in response to the deadly Amman hotel bomb [CTV report] that killed 57 people in 2005, was approved by the government last Sunday [UPI report], and will be presented to the Jordanian parliament [official website] in July for final approval. The Islamic Action Front currently holds 20 of Jordan's 84 parliamentary seats.

The law criminalizes a wide range of behavior as an acts of terror, including financing, interacting with or recruiting for any terrorist group, and possessing, making, or transporting any material that can be used to produce chemical weapons. The law has also been criticized by human rights groups for providing for indefinite detention of terrorist suspects, though UPI is reporting that the law as currently drafted only allows for detainees to be held for two weeks without being charged. UPI has more. The Jordan Times has local coverage of the legislation.

[JURIST] A group of survivors of the September 2004 Beslan school siege [BBC backgrounder; MosNews report] in the Russia's North Ossetia republic announced Wednesday that they will appeal the guilty verdict [JURIST report] against Nurpashi Kulayev [Wikipedia profile], the sole surviving attacker, to the Russian Supreme Court [official website]. The survivors, part of the Voice of Beslan (Golos Beslan) [advocacy website, in Russian], told the Itar-Tass news agency that the verdict should be cancelled and the investigation resumed because "the court did not take into account all testimonies of the witnesses and did not determine the actual cause of the death of the majority of hostages."

The Voice of Beslan has previously complained that the government's role in the siege has not been properly investigated. Three Russian police officers have been indicted for criminal negligence [MosNews report] for failing to increase security during the beginning stages of the siege, and the government has been criticized for using heavy artillery before all hostages were rescued, and for failing to provide adequate medical support in the incident. Other victims are against the appeal, saying that the investigation must proceed independent of the Kulayev case.

Kulayev was sentenced to life in prison [JURIST report] last week for his role in the attacks, though prosecutors requested the death penalty [JURIST report], asking for a special reinstatement of capital punishment due to the extreme nature of the Beslan siege. Kulayev's lawyers have also announced their intention to appeal the verdict, saying their client is innocent of all charges and that no evidence was presented that implicates Kulayev. 317 hostages, including 186 children, were killed during the attack, and another 728 hostages were injured. Itar-Tass has more.

[JURIST] US President George W. Bush on Wednesday publicly expressed concern about the alleged killings of 24 Iraqi civilians by US Marines [JURIST report] in the city of Haditha in November 2005, declaring that any soldiers found guilty would be punished. Asked about the incident at a White House photo op, Bush said:

I am troubled by the initial news stories. I am mindful that there is a thorough investigation going on. If, in fact, the laws were broken, there will be punishment. I know this: I've talked to General Pete Pace about the subject, who is a proud Marine, and nobody is more concerned about these allegations than the Marine Corps. The Marine Corps is full of men and women who are honorable people who understand rules of war. And if, in fact, these allegations are true, the Marine Corps will work hard to make sure that that culture, that proud culture will be reinforced, and that those who violated the law, if they did, will be punished.

[JURIST] A Spanish judge asked the Spanish Constitutional Court [official website, in Spanish] on Wednesday to reopen an investigation into corruption charges against former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi [official profile] stemming from Berlusconi's holdings in Spanish television channel Telecinco [corporate website, in Spanish], which Spanish prosecutors believe exceeded the 25 percent television channel ownership cap imposed by Spanish law. Prosecutors halted the proceedings, which began in the early 1990s, when Berlusconi became Italian prime minister and therefore gained immunity from prosecution. Berlusconi, who lost a parliamentary election against Romano Prodi in April, lost his right to immunity early in May when he officially resigned [JURIST report].

Spanish prosecutors allege that Berlusconi used offshore companies to garner more than 50 percent of Telecinco holdings, while committing tax fraud and breaching anit-trust laws. Berlusconi's eight business partners will begin a trial Monday on charges of tax and document fraud relating to their involvement with Berlusconi's business empire. In addition, Berlusconi is likely to face new corruption charges in Italy [JURIST report], where prosecutors accuse Berlusconi of bribing a former legal advisor to withold evidence relating to other corruption charges in the 1990s [BBC Q/A], including setting up offshore accounts for his holding company Fininvest [BBC report]. The Guardian has more.

[JURIST] The judges of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website] held a plenary session Tuesday to consider revisions to the Tribunal's Rules of Procedure and Evidence [text] in which they "discussed methods to better organise trials, particularly at the pre-trial stage, in order to ensure more expeditious proceedings," according to an ICTY press release [text]. The rules, which have been amended frequently since the Tribunal was established in 1994 to prosecute Yugoslavian war criminals, have been criticized as inefficient and needlessly complicated in the wake of the trial of former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic [JURIST news archive]. Milosevic died suddenly earlier this year, just weeks after his trial entered its fifth year [JURIST report].

At least 10 judges must agree to a change in the rules, and any change will take effect seven days after the ICTY issues an official document detailing the amendment.

[JURIST] The parliament of Nepal [JURIST news archive] has unanimously adopted a resolution that would guarantee citizenship papers to children in their mother's name only, even if the father is away or divorced, and require more-proportionate representation of women in the state work force. The resolution, passed Tuesday, is not yet law, but women's rights groups nonetheless hailed its passage.

The measure follows other recent advances for Nepalese women's rights [DAIC backgrounder]. The Supreme Court of Nepal [official website] earlier this year struck down a law [JURIST report] that allowed men to divorce infertile women and last year forbade [BBC report] discrimination against menstruating women. BBC News has more. From Kathmandu, Gorkhapatra Sansthan has local coverage.

[JURIST] The Thailand Supreme Court on Wednesday stepped up its efforts to pressure Thailand's Election Commission (EC) [official website] to resign over failed parliamentary elections [BBC report] in April, which the Constitutional Court annulled [JURIST report] in early May, by rejecting two nominees to serve on the panel. Thailand's three principal courts have repeatedly called for the EC to resign [JURIST report] amid allegations that it favors the ruling Thai Rak Thai party [Wikipedia backgrounder]. In overturning the April election results, the Constitutional Court found that the EC unconstitutionally organized the parliamentary elections too soon after Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra [official website] dismissed parliament, leaving new candidates little time to prepare. The EC faces several lawsuits filed by the main opposition Democrat Party and other adversaries of Thaksin, who returned to power last week after a "political break," for favoring the Thaksin's Thai Rak Thai party.

The Supreme Court voted 72-4, in an unusual sitting of the entire court, to reject nominees to two empty seats on the EC. Thailand's Cabinet on Tuesday approved October 15 as the date for new elections, after the three principal courts initially rejected October 22 [JURIST reports]. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Montenegro's referendum commission [official website] Wednesday officially confirmed [press release] the results of the country's May 21 referendum on independence from Serbia [JURIST report], verifying that 55.5% of the population of Montenegro voting had voted in favor. Because voters met the controversial threshold requirement of 55% approval set by the EU [JURIST report], the referendum will be incorporated into a declaration of independence during a special parliamentary session scheduled for today. Sources suggest that the declaration will be made official on Saturday.

In response to the announcement, the government of Serbia declared [press release] that Serbia is the legal and political successor of Serbia-Montenegro, and that the government and parliament of Serbia itself will soon adopt a new constitution [press release]. EU High Representative Javier Solana on Monday said [press release] that the EU endorses Montenegrin independence, and the US ambassador to Montenegro and Serbia has also announced US support for Montenegro's push for independence [press release], and has congratulated Montenegro on the peaceful referendum process. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The Law Commission [official website], the independent legal reform body of the United Kingdom, has recommended creating limited legal rights for couples who live together but are unmarried, in a consultation paper [PDF text; overview, PDF] released Wednesday titled "Cohabitation: The Financial Consequences of Relationship Breakdown." The paper proposes that a limited category of unmarried couples be afforded legal remedies distinct from divorce remedies when the relationship ends. The paper suggests that when a same-sex or opposite-sex couple lives together for more than two years, or if they have a child together, the law should allow for a limited division of wealth when the couple separates. The paper also recommends that cohabitants be allowed to inherit when their cohabitant dies intestate, be afforded certain pension rights, and be allowed to enter into contracts providing for benefits upon separation. Under current UK law, cohabitants may claim maintenance payments for their child when their partner leaves, but not for themselves. Supporters of the proposals say reforms are needed, as the number of unmarried couples living together is expected to double in the next fifteen years. Critics fear the changes would undermine the institution of marriage.

The Law Commission is soliciting suggestions through September and will publish a final report next summer, but it does not plan to publish draft legislation. Last December, the UK opened civil partnership registrations [JURIST report] for same-sex couples under the Civil Partnership Act of 2004 [text]. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] Lawmakers in Afghanistan [JURIST news archive] have called for the prosecution of US soldiers for a vehicle accident that killed as many as five Afghans and set off deadly riots [AP report] earlier this week in the capital of Kabul. The nonbinding motion, passed in the Afghan Parliament Tuesday, calls for the soldiers to be handed over to Afghan authorities. A US military spokesman said that the driver of the truck, which slammed into a line of cars on Monday, had not been arrested and that a brake failure is the likely cause of the accident. The spokesman said the US Defense Department [official website] was investigating whether the soldiers had fired at or toward angry demonstrators. After stoning the US convoy, the mob looted the offices of international aid organizations.

The Afghan Health Ministry estimates that 20 people were killed in the violence, which was the worst in Kabul since the fall of the Taliban in late 2001. While condemning the violence, the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission [advocacy website] has likewise urged military and Afghan authorities [press release] "to identify and prosecute the perpetrators of the incident." AP has more.

5:18 PM ET - US President Bush on Wednesday told Afghan President Hamid Karzai that the US would conduct a full investigation into the accident and ensuing riots. AP has more.

[JURIST] The Conservative Party government of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper introduced new legislation in the federal House of Commons Tuesday that would set fixed dates for regular federal elections [Privy Council Office backgrounder; Bill C-16 text] and would potentially limit members of the country's weak Senate [official website; CBC Senate reform backgrounder] to eight-year terms. Under the legislation, national elections would take place every four years on the third Monday in October, theoretically precluding the party in power from adjusting the election date short of the actual expiry of its mandate to its own electoral advantage. The fixed date would not, however, affect immediate election calls required after the fall of a government in a Commons vote. The Senate term limit will require a formal constitutional amendment to be effective; federal advisors say that the amendment could, however, be adopted by the federal Parliament without needing the consent of the provinces, generally required for changes affecting provincial power. The question is not entirely clear-cut, however, as Canadian senators are appointed on a regional basis under the Constitution Act [text], and the country's Supreme Court ruled in 1980 that changes affecting the essential character of the Senate must be approved by seven of the ten Canadian provinces representing 50% of the population.

The new Conservative proposals are part of a democratic reform [Harper speech transcript] package promised by Harper in January's federal election. More legislation is expected to follow. Canadian Press has more.

[JURIST] A federal judge has denied a request for a temporary restraining order that would have forced the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) [official website] to continue a housing voucher program for evacuees from Hurricane Katrina [JURIST news archive]. Without the restraining order, about 2,000 evacuees will lose their benefits on Thursday, as FEMA shifts to a program with more stringent eligibility requirements. As he denied the restraining order Tuesday, US District Judge David Hittner [official profile] ordered FEMA to expedite consideration of voucher extensions for those evacuees. The request arose from a class-action lawsuit [JURIST report] that was filed on behalf of 12 evacuees earlier this month in the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas [official website] by Houston-based law firm Caddell & Chapman [firm website] and a collection of public interest groups.

The suit alleges that FEMA's system of denying benefits to evacuees resulted in arbitrary or unfair outcomes. It requests that FEMA be required to continue the rent voucher program [FEMA backgrounder] through at least June 30, enlarge the program to cover utilities as well as rent, and to develop clear decision-making criteria for the administration of benefits. Hittner has scheduled another hearing in the case for June 20. AP has more. The Houston Chronicle has local coverage.

[JURIST] Shortly after a meeting with President Bush, new Iraqi ambassador to the United States and former Iraq ambassador to the United Nations Samir al-Sumaida'ie [UN profile] said in a CNN interview Tuesday that US Marines intentionally killed [CNN transcript] his 21-year old cousin, Mohammed al-Sumaida'ie, in Haditha last June during a routine house search. Al-Sumaida'ie added that the second-year engineering student never showed any signs of violence and that he would like to see further investigation into his cousin's death [JURIST report], beyond the probe opened last August [JURIST report]. US Defense Department [official website] officials have said that the boy was shot in self-defense.

Al-Sumaida'ie's accusations come at the heels of two investigations [JURIST report] into the death of 24 civilian Iraqis in Haditha last November. TIME magazine reported in March that the deaths may have been carried out by US Marines in retribution [TIME report] for a roadside bomb that killed one of their comrades. The investigation is still ongoing [JURIST report] but several sources in the military have indicated that criminal charges [JURIST report] will likely be brought against those involved. AFP has more.

[JURIST] Costa Rica's Supreme Court has upheld [press release] a law forbidding same-sex marriage [JURIST news archive], rejecting arguments that the law is unconstitutional. Hearing a lawsuit brought by lawyer Yashin Castrillo Fernandez, the court's Constitutional Chamber [official website] voted 5-2 to reject the argument that the same-sex marriage ban violates the principles of equality and autonomy expressed in Article 28 of the Costa Rican Constitution [text]. The court said that marriage is historically understood to be limited to opposite-sex couples, but Chief Justice Luis Fernando Solano [official profile] suggested that the Legislative Assembly [official website] could pass a law establishing civil unions for same-sex couples in the Central American nation, which is three-quarters Roman Catholic.

Castrillo told reporters he would take his case to the Inter-American Court for Human Rights [official website]. CNA has more. From Costa Rica, La Nacion has local coverage.

[JURIST] A US magistrate judge ruled Tuesday that US Department of Justice [official website] employees must disclose whether they were aware of the government monitoring conversations between Sept. 11 detainees and their attorneys. The judge's ruling comes in a lawsuit [CCR materials] brought by the Center for Constitutional Rights [advocacy website] on behalf of a class of Arab and Muslim men who were detained and deported shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks [JURIST news archive]. CCR asked Judge Steven Gold to order the government to reveal whether they had monitored any form of communication between the detainees and their attorneys after the public disclosure of the National Security Agency's domestic surveillance program [JURIST news archive].

Justice Department lawyers maintained that its lawyers had not received any communications between the detainees and attorneys involved in the case, but stopped short of saying whether Justice Department employees or potential witnesses were aware of any monitoring of communications between the detainees and their attorneys, stating that could be classified information. CCR plans to call former Attorney General John Ashcroft and current FBI Director Robert Mueller [official profiles] to testify in the case. AP has more.

[JURIST] Former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic [JURIST news archive] died of natural causes on March 11 when guards found him dead in his prison cell [JURIST report] at the detention center for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia [official website], and was not poisoned as some had speculated, according to the ICTY's final report [PDF] released Wednesday. Security breaches resulting from accommodations for Milosevic to defend himself, such as a private office with a telephone and computer, however, did allow Milosevic to self-medicate, leaving the question open of whether he deliberately exacerbated his heart problems by hoarding his medication and then taking too much of in hopes that officials would allow him to seek medical care in Russia [JURIST report].

Autopsy results released in March showed "no indications" that Milosevic had been poisoned [JURIST report] and Dutch investigators found similar results [JURIST report] in their independent probe last month into Milosevic's death at the Scheveningen detention unit [BBC backgrounder]. A team of Swedish investigators completed an independent audit [text; JURIST report] of the Scheveningen facility earlier this month. The auditors expressed concern that ICTY administrative orders, such as allowing a detainee to conduct his own defense, often complicate the enforcement of prison rules and recommended increased coordination between the court and prison officials. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Defense lawyers in the Saddam Hussein trial [JURIST news archive] on Wednesday accused a prosecution witness of perjury and urged chief judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman [BBC profile] to stop proceedings at the Iraqi High Criminal Court to investigate the credibility of all the prosecution witnesses. Defense lawyers showed a DVD in court depicting Ali al-Haidari, a witness for the prosecution, saying that there was no assassination attempt on Hussein's life in 1982 and that the gun shots were to celebrate Hussein's visit to Dujail. Hussein and his seven co-defendants are charged [JURIST report] with killing, torturing and illegally detaining Dujail residents in a crackdown prompted by the assassination attempt. Al-Haidari testified last December on behalf of the prosecution that Hussein's government arrested him during the Dujail attack and tortured him.

In response, the prosecution also accused defense witnesses of lying on the stand, after a witness alleged that the chief prosecutor had attempted to bribe him to lie during his testimony. Abdel-Rahman warned the witness against perjury, prompting an outburst from former intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim [Trial Watch profile], one of Hussein's co-defendants. Abdel-Rahman threw Ibrahim out of the court room [AP report] after Ibrahim argued with the judge. AP has more.