[JURIST] A study by the independent Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission [advocacy website], headed by former UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix [UN profile; BBC profile], has called for a total ban on the possession and use of nuclear weapons [press release, PDF]. At a UN press conference, Blix said the report, titled “Weapons of Terror: Freeing the World of Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Arms” [text, PDF], contained 60 concrete recommendations to address problems posed by weapons of mass destruction and outlined major roles for the United Nations and the UN Security Council based on foreign policy rather than military action. Leading the list were worldwide acceptance of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty [text, PDF] and a commitment by current nuclear weapons states to reduce their arsenals and stop producing plutonium and highly-enriched uranium for weapons use. Addressing the issue of Iran [JURIST news archive] and its nuclear program, Blix said [press release] that “the first line of defense against the spread of nuclear weapons is to make States feel like they don’t need them.”

Regarding US rejection [JURIST report] to date of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, Blix said that US ratification could induce China, India, Pakistan and Iran into signing on as well, though he acknowledged that was unlikely under the Bush administration. AP has more.

[JURIST] After re-examining the costs of cleaning up remaining oil from the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill [BBC report], the US Justice Department and the state of Alaska said Thursday that they would use a "reopener" provision [DOJ fact sheet] in an earlier agreement with ExxonMobil [corporate website] and seek $92 million in unforeseen damages. "After extensive review it is clear that populations and habitat within the oil spill area have suffered substantial and unanticipated injuries that are attributable to the Exxon Valdez oil spill," Alaska Attorney General David Marquez said [press release]. ExxonMobil's initial reaction was one of skepticism. The company has seen no evidence that justifies additional damages, a spokesman said, and even if more money is needed for the cleanup, the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council [advocacy website] can cover the costs.

The Valdez dumped 11 million gallons of crude oil into Prince William Sound and contaminated about 1,300 miles of coastline. ExxonMobil is appealing $5 billion in punitive damages [company press release] awarded in a civil case brought by Alaskan fishermen and property owners. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger [official website] has agreed to support President Bush's deployment of National Guard troops along the Mexican border [JURIST report] by sending 1,000 Guard members from California to join the effort. As part of the agreement, the federal government will reportedly cover the cost of sending the troops, who will aid the US Border Patrol.

Schwarzenegger was initially reluctant to allow the California National Guard to assist the Border Patrol, and insisted in remarks [text] Thursday that "the mission that I will assign to our California National Guard will be significantly different from the plan laid out by President Bush." In particular, Schwarzenegger plans to sign an executive order that calls for the California troops' withdrawal by the end of 2008. The deployment of up to 6,000 Guard members in cooperation with state governors, which Bush announced in a prime-time address [JURIST report] last month, is a key element in the president's immigration reform [JURIST news archive] strategy. AP has more.

[JURIST] AP is reporting that a military jury has found US Army Sgt. Santos A. Cardona guilty of abusing detainees at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison [JURIST news archive]. Cardona was charged with maltreatment of prisoners, dereliction of duty and assault in connection with the use of unmuzzled dogs [JURIST report] when questioning detainees at Abu Ghraib. Sgt. Michael Smith was convicted and sentenced to six months in prison [JURIST reports] on similar charges in March.

The military jury heard testimony that Cardona and Smith competed with each other to see who could make detainees soil themselves first but Cardona's attorneys portrayed him as a low-ranking soldier following orders from above. There have been allegations that Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller [Wikipedia backgrounder], the former commander of military intelligence at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive], recommended the use of dogs during interrogations at Abu Ghraib during a visit to the prison in 2003. In testimony during Cardona's court-martial, however, Miller denied recommending the use of dogs [JURIST report] for interrogation purposes.

5:06 PM - BBC News is reporting that Cardona has been convicted of two counts of abuse and dereliction of duty and faces a possible three-and-a-half year prison sentence.

[JURIST] A spokesperson for German spy agency Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) [official website in German] on Thursday said that a low-ranking agent knew in January 2004 that German citizen Khalid el-Masri [JURIST news archive] had been arrested in Macedonia and turned over to American authorities, but failed to report the story to his superiors. The spokesperson said the agent overheard a conversation in a Macedonian security building about Masri's arrest and transfer to US custody, but did not find it important. The BND has previously asserted that Germany did not know of the alleged extraordinary rendition [JURIST news archive] incident until May 2004.

A German parliamentary committee in April opened an investigation [JURIST report] into allegations that BND intelligence contributed to the seizure of el-Masri [JURIST report]. El-Masri has alleged [statement] that he was kidnapped in Macedonia in 2003, held by the CIA in Afghanistan where he was subjected to inhumane conditions and coercive interrogation, and finally dumped in Albania in 2004 without ever being charged. A US judge last earlier this month dismissed el-Masri's civil suit against the CIA [JURIST report] for the alleged rendition, citing state secrecy concerns. Aljazeera has more.

[JURIST] Defense lawyers in the Saddam Hussein trial [JURIST news archive] on Thursday accused US and Iraqi officials of illegally detaining four witnesses who testified Wednesday that chief prosecutor Jaafar al-Musawi had tried to bribe them to testify against Hussein [JURIST report], and that Musawi was present for a 2004 celebration of the Dujail massacre that is at issue in the trial. Musawi has denied any involvement in the 2004 Dujail celebration.

According to a US official close to the trial, the four suspects were not arrested, but they were detained overnight in Baghdad to be investigated for possible perjury. Hussein lawyer Khalil Dulaimi told reporters Thursday that the witnesses were detained to intimidate other defense witnesses from testifying. Hussein and his seven co-defendants are charged [JURIST report] with killing, torturing and illegally detaining Dujail residents in a crackdown prompted by an alleged 1982 assassination attempt against Hussein. AFP has more.

[JURIST] The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website] on Thursday issued an order lifting the confidentiality of its health records for Slobodan Milosevic [JURIST news archive], the former Yugoslav leader accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity who died suddenly [JURIST report] in the ICTY detention facility at Scheveningen on March 11, in the fifth year of his trial.

The final report [PDF] of an internal investigation released Wednesday concluded, consistent with independent findings [JURIST report], that Milosevic died of natural causes [JURIST report] and was not poisoned as some had speculated, although apparently he had self-medicated, worsening his medical condition in hopes that officials would allow him to seek medical care in Russia. The lifting of the confidentiality order in respect of the records had been requested by his son. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The Swedish Riksdag [official website] has approved a law that could allow the country to incarcerate former Liberian President Charles Taylor [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] if he is convicted by the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) [JURIST news archive], government officials said Thursday. The parliament gave unanimous approval Wednesday to an agreement with the SCSL, which will take effect July 1, that paves the way for Taylor to serve his possible sentence in Sweden. Taylor has been indicted [PDF text] by the SCSL for crimes against humanity and violations of international humanitarian law, including murder, rape and the recruitment and use of child soldiers during the war in Sierra Leone. The SCSL wants to move Taylor's trial to The Hague [JURIST report] for security reasons, but the Netherlands has said that it will only agree to host the trial if the SCSL finds a country willing to imprison Taylor if he is found guilty [JURIST report] and a country that will grant him asylum if he is acquitted.

Sweden has previously said it could not accept custody of Taylor [JURIST report] because no assistance agreement, such as those Sweden has with other international courts, existed with the SCSL. Wednesday's vote removes this legal impediment, but the government has not yet indicated whether it will actually agree to accept Taylor. AP has more.

[JURIST] The Swedish Riksdag [official website] has approved a law that could allow the country to incarcerate former Liberian President Charles Taylor [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] if he is convicted by the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) [JURIST news archive], government officials said Thursday. The parliament gave unanimous approval Wednesday to an agreement with the SCSL, which will take effect July 1, that paves the way for Taylor to serve his possible sentence in Sweden. Taylor has been indicted [PDF text] by the SCSL for crimes against humanity and violations of international humanitarian law, including murder, rape and the recruitment and use of child soldiers during the war in Sierra Leone. The SCSL wants to move Taylor's trial to The Hague [JURIST report] for security reasons, but the Netherlands has said that it will only agree to host the trial if the SCSL finds a country willing to imprison Taylor if he is found guilty [JURIST report] and a country that will grant him asylum if he is acquitted.

Sweden has previously said it could not accept custody of Taylor [JURIST report] because no assistance agreement, such as those Sweden has with other international courts, existed with the SCSL. Wednesday's vote removes this legal impediment, but the government has not yet indicated whether it will actually agree to accept Taylor. AP has more.

[JURIST] An additional 14 Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainees have gone on hunger strike, Navy Cmdr. Robert Durand said Thursday, bringing the total number of detainees on hunger strike to 89 after it was announced Monday that the number of detainees on hunger strike ballooned from three to 75 [JURIST report]. Six of the 89 hunger strikers are being force-fed under close watch from medical staff. The US considers a detainee on hunger strike when they refuse nine meals in a row, and Durand speculates [Xinhua report] that the ballooning number of hunger strikers is a move to gain media attention ahead of the resumption of war crimes trials at Guantanamo on June 12.

The wave of hunger strikes began last July when 52 detainees stopped eating with the number more than doubling by September [JURIST reports]. Numbers dwindled to the single digits in February after guards enforced aggressive force-feeding measures [JURIST report], including restraining detainees for extended periods of time after feeding them through a tube in the detainee's nose. AP has more.

In a related development Thursday, the European Parliament [official website] postponed a vote on a proposed resolution that would call on the US to shut down the prison facility at Guantanamo Bay. Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik urged parliament to adopt the resolution [Expatica report] on Wednesday, calling the prison an "anomaly," but MEPs decided to delay vote on the resolution until June in order to allow time for a group of MEPs who visited Guantanamo last month to release their findings. EUPolitix.com has more.

[JURIST] A federal judge on Thursday ordered [opinion text, PDF] Associate Attorney General Robert McCallum [official profile] to comply with discovery requests related to a lawsuit filed by legal watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) [advocacy website] against the Department of Justice seeking to reveal why the government suddenly lowered its demands for relief [JURIST report] in its landmark civil racketeering case against the tobacco industry [DOJ backgrounder]. In June 2005, CREW submitted Freedom of Information Act requests asking for relevant communication records between the White House and the DOJ and between McCallum and his former law firm Alston & Bird, where McCallum represented several tobacco companies, and filed a lawsuit [complaint, PDF; CREW case materials] earlier this year when those requests were not answered by the DOJ.

US District Judge Emmet Sullivan said that given the volume of materials provided by the DOJ to Congress on a yearly basis, the DOJ should have promptly responded to the document requests. Sullivan also ruled that McCallum must submit to deposition requests in the case, which will hinder his nomination as ambassador to Australia, which has been blocked by Sen. Rick Durbin [Reuters report] pending the outcome of an investigation [JURIST report] by the DOJ's Office of Professional Responsibility into allegations of improper conduct in the decision to reduce damages sought in the tobacco case. AP has more.

[JURIST] Former Russian nuclear minister Yevgeny Adamov [Kommersant profile; JURIST news archive] suffered from a heart attack Thursday while in custody [JURIST report] on fraud and abuse of office charges. Adamov's lawyers told Interfax news that although Adamov has received treatment, his health is deteriorating and he needs immediate medical care, but investigators have ignored recommendations from Adamov's doctors.

Adamov was arrested [JURIST report] in Switzerland last year on a US warrant alleging that Adamov diverted $9 million [JURIST report] given to Russia by the US Department of Energy [official website] for nuclear security improvement to various improvement projects in US firms he controls. He was extradited to Russia last December after a series of legal battles [JURIST report] between the US and Russia. A trial date in Russia has not been set yet. MosNews has more.

[JURIST] The Supreme Court of Spain [official website] on Thursday overturned the Sept. 11 conspiracy conviction [JURIST report] of Syrian-born Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas [BBC profile], but upheld his conviction as the leader of an al Qaeda cell in Spain. Yarkas has repeatedly denied [JURIST report] alleged connections with Sept. 11 orchestrator Mohamed Atta, the basis of his overturned conspiracy conviction [BBC report]. Yarkas will remain in jail to serve his 12-year sentence for leading the Spanish al Qaeda cell.

Last month, the Supreme Court overturned [JURIST report] the al Qaeda convictions of three of Yarkas' co-defendants, though Spanish prosecutors believe the convictions of 14 other men convicted along with Yarkas and the other three exonerated defendants should stand. CNN has more. El Mundo has local coverage.

[JURIST] Kenya's National Assembly has unanimously approved a sex-crimes law after a month of heated debate over several controversial provisions, most of which were dropped in order to pass the bill [AllAfrica.com report]. Legislators dropped provisions criminalizing marital rape and female genital mutilation, as well as a provision shifting the burden of proof from the accuser to the accused. The bill does, however, set the age of consent at 16 and extend jail sentences to five years to life for sex crimes, as well as include provisions for child prostitution and sex trafficking. The bill will now advance to Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki [official profile] for approval.

The new sex-crimes legislation, the first revision of an outdated 1930 rape law, comes in response to the "epidemic of rape" in Kenya, where a woman is raped every 30 seconds. Though most of the female MPs negotiating the bill wanted to include the stronger marital rape and female genital mutilation provisions, they are happy that Kenya has "taken a step in the right direction," according to Jane Onyango, chair of the International Federation of Women Lawyers [advocacy website]. More than half of Kenya's 18 female MPs walked out of negotiations [BBC report] believing that some male MPs made sexist remarks, particularly lawmaker Paddy Ahenda, who suggested that the sex-crimes bill unfairly punished men because women often say no to sex when they mean yes. Reuters has more. Africa's Mail & Guardian has local coverage.

[JURIST] US President Bush on Thursday urged Congress to negotiate a comprehensive immigration reform bill [JURIST news archive] that recognizes that "America can be a lawful society and America can be a welcoming society at the same time." In a speech at the US Chamber of Commerce [group website], Bush said that the final immigration reform bill should include a temporary worker program and provide steps for illegal immigrants to obtain eventual citizenship. The Chamber of Commerce backs [press release] the Senate's Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act [PDF text; S. 2611 summary] and, like President Bush, supports a pathway to citizenship [USCC materials] for law-abiding illegal immigrants and a guest-worker program. Bush said of the controversial pathway to citizenship provision:

There's a rational middle ground between granting an automatic path to citizenship for every illegal immigrant and a program that requires every illegal immigrant to leave. The middle ground recognizes there are differences between an illegal immigrant who crossed the border recently, and someone who has worked here for many years who's got a home, a family, and a clean record. My position is clear: I believe that illegal immigrants who have roots in our country and who want to stay should have to pay a meaningful penalty for breaking the law, to pay their taxes, to learn English, and to work in a job for a number of years. People who meet these conditions should be eventually permitted to apply for citizenship like other foreign workers. But approval would not be automatic. They would have to wait in line behind those who played by the rules and followed the law. This isn't amnesty. It is a practical and reasonable way for those who have broken the law to pay their debt to society and demonstrate the character that makes a good citizen.

[JURIST] Montgomery County Circuit Judge James Ryan has sentenced convicted Washington, DC-area sniper John Allen Muhammad [BBC profile] to six consecutive life terms in prison without the possibility of parole. Muhammad was convicted [JURIST report] by a Maryland jury of six counts of murder earlier this week. Last year, Muhammad was convicted and sentenced to death [JURIST report] in Virginia for shootings there. Maryland prosecutors did not seek the death penalty [JURIST report] but wanted a second conviction in case the Virginia conviction is overturned on appeal.

Accomplice Lee Boyd Malvo [BBC profile], who pleaded guilty [JURIST report] to the Virginia charges and received a life sentence, testified [JURIST report] in the Maryland case that Muhammad pulled the trigger in five of the six killings there. Muhammad has called the government case a frame-up, saying he was in the Washington, DC area to find his ex-wife and children. AP has more.

[JURIST] Mark Corallo [corporate profile], a former spokesperson for ex-Attorney General John Ashcroft, filed an affidavit in federal court in San Francisco on Wednesday criticizing subpoenas issued by current Attorney General Alberto Gonzales [official profile] to compel two San Francisco Chronicle reporters to reveal the source of leaked grand jury testimony. The affidavit was filed in support of the reporters' motion to quash the subpoenas. Corallo told the New York Times in an interview that the subpoenas were "the most reckless abuse of power I have seen in years" and insisted Ashcroft would never have issued subpoenas requiring journalists to divulge sources, even in a situation where the source could face criminal charges for leaking such information.

Gonzales has been pushing for a radical re-interpretation of the historical First Amendment protections afforded journalists and their sources. Last week, Gonzales said the government may have authority to prosecute journalists for publishing classified information [JURIST report] under several "statutes on the book which, if you read the language carefully, would seem to indicate that that is a possibility." The New York Times has more.

[JURIST] Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] on Thursday condemned [press release] the conviction and imprisonment [Reuters report] on last week of 13 Chinese villagers who participated in a riot in Dongzhou [BBC report] last December. The 13 villagers were jailed for up to seven years for disturbing social order, possession of explosives, and illegal assembly while police who abruptly halted the riot by shooting protestors and ultimately killing three were not tried. HRW called for a public investigation into the Dongzhou trial and the public officials responsible for the deaths, saying: "[i]n the absence of public disclosure about the role of officials in the deaths of at least three protesters... the sentencing of villagers involved in the protests undermines confidence in the impartiality of the Chinese legal system."

Dongzhou residents protested [Wikipedia backgrounder] against the lack of compensation provided for the land residents lost due to the construction of a wind power plant, creating the most violent series of protests in China since Tiananmen Square [Wikipedia backgrounder], according to HRW. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The Federal Election Commission [official website] said Wednesday that it will not appeal [press release] a ruling [PDF text; JURIST report] ordering it to either present a "reasoned explanation" for its case-by-case treatment of campaign contribution issues involving tax-exempt 527 groups [Opensecrets.org backgrounder], or to institute new rules "if necessary." The FEC voted 4-2 to explain how the FEC deals with 527 groups, which have been criticized as vehicles for political interest groups to avoid the soft-money restrictions required by the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act of 2002 [FEC materials], popularly known as the McCain-Feingold law.

FEC Chairman Michael E. Toner [official profile], who has called for 527 rules [Roll Call op-ed] before, dissented in the vote, saying the lack of clear guidelines will result in uncertainty and end-runs around the McCain-Feingold reforms. Like some other Republicans, Toner supports the recategorization of 527 groups as political action committees subject to the soft-money rules. Though both parties took advantage of 527 groups during the 2004 election cycle, groups supporting Democrats spent about $266 million in 527 money, compared with $144 million spent by groups backing Republicans, according to Political Money Line. The New York Times has more. The Washington Post has additional coverage.

[JURIST] Umer Hayat, who was accused of lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation [official website] about his son's terrorism-related activities, pleaded guilty Wednesday to a lesser charge of trying to smuggle $28,000 in cash into Pakistan three years ago. Umer, who will not serve any more prison time after spending nearly a year in custody, would have faced a retrial [JURIST report] in California beginning Monday on charges that he lied to the FBI about his son's attendance at an al Qaeda training camp in Pakistan. The jury deadlocked in his first trial, prompting US District Judge Garland E. Burrell Jr. [official profile] to declare a mistrial [JURIST report].

Umer and his son, Hamid Hayat, were indicted [indictment, PDF] last year after Umer admitted that he paid for Hamid to attend the terror training camp. Hamid was convicted [JURIST report] in April of providing material support to terrorists by attending the camp and lying to investigators. AP has more. The San Francisco Chronicle has local coverage.

[JURIST] The Jordanian government said Wednesday that it intends to introduce a bill in parliament that will eliminate prison sentences for journalism-related crimes, just one day after a court sentenced [JURIST report] two newspaper editors to two months in jail for "attacking religious sentiment" by reprinting cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad [JURIST news archive]. The journalists were arrested in February [BBC report], released on bail, and convicted Tuesday for by republishing the cartoons that incensed the Muslim world earlier this year.

A government spokesman said that King Abdullah [official website] has endorsed the free-press policy of not sentencing journalists to prison for journalism-related offenses. In February, however, the king condemned the cartoons as a crime that "could not be justified on the pretext of freedom of expression." The journalists are free on bail pending appeals. AFP has more.

[JURIST] The Iraqi High Tribunal (IHT) - formerly known as the Iraqi Special Tribunal [official website] - has issued two arrest warrants [press release] for former Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz [BBC profile] for crimes against humanity, according to Aziz's Italy-based lawyers. Aziz is already in custody, but Giovanni Di Stefano says that he has received a letter [PDF] from US Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad [official profile] indicating that the court, which is also trying Saddam Hussein [JURIST news archive], issued a new arrest warrant for Aziz in March based on alleged violations of Article 12 of the IHT statute [PDF text], which covers crimes against humanity, and had issued an earlier one for violations of the same Article in June 2004. The nature of the alleged violations was not disclosed, and Di Stefano says he had previously believed that the "only arrest warrants holding Mr Aziz in custody...were violations of Art.14, namely financial irregularities."

Khalilzad's letter was in response to Di Stefano's continuing efforts to have the former deputy prime minister, a well-known figure in the West and the only Christian in Saddam's former inner circle, released from custody so that he may seek medical treatment [application for compassionate release, DOC] in Russia. His lawyers and members of his family insist that he is in very poor health [JURIST report]. Aziz surrendered to US forces in 2003. Khalilzad said that although the Multi-National Force-Iraq [official website] maintains physical custody of Aziz, the Iraqi court now has legal custody over him and any decision regarding Aziz's detention must come from the court. Last week, Aziz testified in Hussein's defense [JURIST report] and accused the current ruling party of trying to kill Hussein in the 1980s, telling the court that the current government should be on trial instead of Hussein's toppled government.

[JURIST] The probe charged with finding out why top US military officials did not know about the alleged killings of 24 Iraqis by US Marines [JURIST news archive] in Haditha in November 2005 until February 2006 has uncovered two major failures in how the incident was handled, the Washington Post reported [text] Thursday. According to an anonymous military official, the investigation headed by Army Maj. Gen. Eldon Bargewell has found that a Marine squad leader falsely told superiors that 15 Iraqis had been killed by the bomb that killed one of the Marines, and that the team of Marines who collected the bodies later should have realized and reported that the Iraqis were killed by gunshot, not by a bomb.

The report is not expected to find that a full-blown cover-up was under way, as US Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) charged [JURIST report] earlier this week, but will likely recommend more training for troops on appropriate conduct. Also Thursday, the top-ranking US officer in Iraq, Army Gen. George Casey [official profile], announced a "core values" training program, which will instruct every US soldier in Iraq on treating of civilians under the military's rules of engagement. A separate inquiry into the circumstances of the killings [JURIST report], run by the Naval Criminal Investigation Service [official website], will conclude this summer. The Pentagon's preliminary investigation in February and March found evidence that the killings were not provoked [JURIST report]. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The United States has again suspended $7 million government-to-government aid to Serbia for failing to turn over Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic [BBC profile; JURIST news archive]. This is the fourth year in a row that the US suspended some aid to Serbia's government [JURIST report] for not handing over war crimes suspects to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website] at The Hague. The US embassy in Belgrade said US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice [official profile] could not certify [press release] that Belgrade cooperated with the ICTY, resulting in the withholding of aid as required by the Foreign Operations, Export Financing and Related Appropriations Act [text]. The act prohibits the US from assisting the Serbian government unless the Secretary of State can certify that the government has taken action to cooperate with the ICTY by allowing access for investigators and surrendering indictees. The US government will, however, continue to aid the Serbian people by spending more than $62 million.

Mladic is wanted [Interpol warrant] in connection with the 1995 slaughter of more than 7,000 Muslims in Srebrenica [indictment text] and other crimes against humanity. The ICTY believes he is hiding somewhere in Serbia [JURIST report]. The European Union last month suspended membership talks with Serbia [JURIST report] over its failure to hand over Mladic to the ICTY, prompting Serbia to renew its efforts [JURIST report] to arrest the fugitive war crimes suspect. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The New York Court of Appeals [official website], the state's highest court, heard oral arguments [recorded video] Wednesday on whether the court should overturn the state's 97-year old statute defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman. On appeal from four consolidated cases - Hernandez v. Robles [text], Samuels v. New York State Department of Health [PDF text; ACLU case materials], Matter of Kane v. Marsolais [PDF text], and Seymour v. Holcomb [PDF text] - attorneys representing 48 gay and lesbian couples argued that law should be overturned on the grounds that it defends sex discrimination, adding that state constitution does not bar gay marriage. While New York Deputy Solicitor General Peter Schiff argued that the state legislature, not the courts, should change the law, American Civil Liberties Union [advocacy website] attorney Robert Kaplan countered that New York has thrown out laws allowing marital rape and criminalizing sodomy, and therefore can throw out the state marriage law as well. The court's opinion is expected in about a month. Reuters has more. The Albany Times Union has local coverage.

If the New York court overturns the law, New York will become only the second state to allow same-sex marriages [JURIST news archive]. Massachusetts became the first state to legalize same-sex marriage [JURIST report] in 2003, while Vermont allows gay and lesbian couples to enjoy the benefits of marriage in civil unions. New York made national headlines last year when New Paltz Mayor Jason West married 24 gay and lesbian couples. New York prosecutors dropped charges against West for violating the state's domestic relations law [JURIST report] by marrying couples without licenses, and the New York Supreme Court banned all 24 marriages performed by West [JURIST report].

[JURIST] The Orleans Parish Criminal District Court [official website] building in New Orleans officially reopens Thursday morning, and the first criminal trials since Hurricane Katrina [JURIST news archive] struck at the end of August are scheduled to start on Monday. According to Chief Judge Calvin Johnson, the court will be able to hear 12 or fewer cases a day in the seven courtrooms of the twelve courtrooms that are currently serviceable. The court already has a backlog of about 5,000 cases and will not be caught up and running normally for about a year. The New Orleans Times-Picayune has more.

Hurricane Katrina has had a devastating impact on New Orleans' criminal justice system [PBS report], forcing Johnson to order the release [Times-Picayune report] of all inmates held on nonviolent misdemeanor and traffic violations to make room for those charged with more serious offenses. In February, Judge Arthur Hunter suspended prosecutions [JURIST report] in most cases involving public defenders because the office could not provide adequate representation, staff numbers having dropped from 48 attorneys and investigators to only seven. AP has more. The Times-Picayune has photos.