[JURIST] New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg [official profile] testified at the outset of congressional field hearings [JURIST report] on federal immigration reform [JURIST news archive] Wednesday that competing bills passed by the US House and Senate are both unrealistic. Speaking [recorded video; prepared text] before a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing [committee materials] in Philadelphia, Bloomberg described the House bill [HR 4437 summary], which makes unlawful presence in the US a felony subject to deportation, as "pure fantasy." But he said the Senate bill [S 2611 summary] was equally "naive" because it requires some people to "report to deport" through guest-worker programs. Bloomberg continued:

There is only one practical solution, and it is a solution that respects the history of our nation: Offer those already here the opportunity to earn permanent status and keep their families together.

For decades, the Federal government has tacitly welcomed them into the workforce, collected their income and Social Security taxes, which about two-thirds of undocumented workers pay, and benefited immeasurably from their contributions to our country.

Now, instead of pointing fingers about the past, let’s accept the present for what it is by bringing people out of the shadows, and focus on the future by casting those shadows aside, permanently.

[JURIST] Thirty-eight people were convicted of corruption Wednesday for rigging public works contracts to finance political parties while now-French President Jacques Chirac [official profile; BBC profile] was mayor of Paris in the late 1980s and early '90s. Prosecutors alleged that companies kicked back money spent by the regional Ile-de-France Council for secondary school construction to political parties including Chirac's Rally for the Republic (RPR), the Republican Party (PR) and the Socialists (PS). After nearly a decade of investigation, the trial began [JURIST report] in March 2005. Most of the convicted defendants, who were business executives and public housing officials, were ordered to pay damages. Charges were dropped against 11 others.

Chirac refused to appear before the court and was not legally required to do so following a High Court of Appeals ruling [text, in French] that sitting presidents are immune from judicial proceedings. Chirac did, however, deny allegations that he knew about the kickbacks. Voice of America has more. AP has additional coverage. Le Monde has local coverage.

[JURIST] UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories John Dugard [official website; Wikipedia profile] told an emergency session [announcement] of the UN Human Rights Council [official website] Wednesday that Israel's military offensive in the Palestinian-populated Gaza Strip [CIA backgrounder] launched Tuesday in response to the seizure of an Israeli soldier [JURIST report] by militants, violates "fundamental norms" of human rights and humanitarian law. According to a UN summary of proceedings, Dugard said that

In Gaza, people were without water, food was scarce and medicines were running out. Operation “Summer Rains”, as Israel had cynically labeled its siege of Gaza, offended the prohibition on collective punishment. It likewise violated the prohibition on “measures of intimidation and terrorism” contained in Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, while the arrest of Hamas Cabinet ministers and legislators seemed to constitute the “taking of hostages” prohibited in Article 34.

[JURIST] The UN Security Council [official website] held an emergency meeting Wednesday to consider a draft resolution [text] to impose sanctions on North Korea following Tuesday's missile launches [VOA report]. The five permanent members agreed that the Council should respond to the missile launches, but disagreed on how severe that response should be. The draft resolution, circulated by Japan and joined by the United States, France, and Britain, would block UN member states from providing North Korea with money, materials or technology that contribute to a nuclear program. Russia, however, opposed sanctions, instead advocating a strongly worded condemnation of Tuesday's missile tests. Japan's ambassador to the UN on Wednesday called for a "swift, strong and resolute" response [recorded video] from the Council, noting that the missile launches were in violation of a September 2005 agreement [JURIST report] reached during six-party talks on North Korea's return to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty [PDF text; IAEA backgrounder].

During a Tuesday press conference [transcript] on the missile launch, US National Security Advisor Steve Hadley [official profile] also expressed concern that North Korea's actions violated the moratorium agreed to last year. Hadley said the agreement "committed all the parties to the security and enhancing the security of Northeast Asia and, of course, we think that this kind of activity does not enhance the security of Northeast Asia and therefore is inconsistent with at least the spirit and maybe even the letter of the September 2005 agreement." According to a joint statement [text] released following that meeting, North Korea "committed to abandoning all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs and returning, at an early date, to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and to IAEA safeguards." Reuters has more. The UN News Centre has additional coverage.

[JURIST] Finland's prime minister began the country's six-month presidency of the European Union [official website] on Wednesday by promising not to push for the ratification of the stalled European Constitution [official website, text; JURIST news archive] without building consensus among all member nations. During a speech [transcript] before the European Parliament, Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen [official website] said:

Finland wants to take the discussion on the Union's future forwards. This will include debate on the very concrete question of the future of the Constitutional Treaty and enlargement.

I welcome the decision taken by the European Council in June to move on from mere reflection on the Constitutional Treaty to a more active stage. This twin-track approach is right; we will improve the way the Union works on the basis of the existing Treaties at the same time as we consider the future of the Constitutional Treaty.

Finland will start consultations on the future of the Treaty during its Presidency. These consultations with the Member States and the EU Institutions will form the basis of the report to be presented in the first half of 2007 under the German Presidency.

I am convinced that an enlarging Union needs the Constitutional Treaty that was negotiated by its Member States. In Finland, the Government presented a proposal for ratification of the Constitutional Treaty to the Finnish Parliament at the beginning of June. The Finnish Parliament will deliberate on the matter during its autumn session. Thus, Finland has come out in favour of the Treaty as negotiated.

[JURIST] The supposed abductors of Sunni Iraqi legislator Tayseer al-Mashhadani have offered to release her in exchange for the release of all Shiite detainees, a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troops, and an end to all attacks on Shiite mosques, Iraqi co-Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi told reporters Wednesday. Al-Hashimi did not say whether the group making the demands offered proof that she was in their custody.

After Saturday's kidnapping of al-Mashhadani in an eastern Shiite-controlled section of Baghdad, several Sunni legislators initiated a boycott of legislative proceedings [CBC report] in protest. The Sunni Iraqi Accordance Front, which controls 44 of the 275 seats in the national assembly, has announced they will boycott the assembly, and have asked other lawmakers to do the same. AP has more. VOI has local coverage.

[JURIST] European countries need to improve extradition and criminal cooperation procedures in order to face the growing threat of international crime, Russian Prosecutor General Yury Chaika told the seventh session of the Conference of Prosecutors General of Europe [COE materials] in Moscow on Wednesday. Chaika, who was installed as prosecutor general [JURIST report] by the Russian parliament last month, took the lead in recommending that European countries work together to update their methods of cooperation on multinational criminal investigations. Chaika also applauded last year's decision by the Council of Europe to transform the conference into a permanent body, the Consultative Council of European Prosecutors (CCPE) [COE materials], which will hold its inaugural meeting Thursday. RIA Novosti has more.

Russian President Vladimir Putin also addressed the conference [transcript] Wednesday and questioned Britain's 2003 decision to grant asylum to a Chechen rebel suspected on murder and kidnapping charges [Pravda report], saying "We find it hard to explain, for example, why some countries refuse to extradite terrorism suspects and even go as far as to give them some kind of 'political' status. I am convinced that in such affairs there should be strict and complete compliance with the relevant international agreements." Putin also said that other governments' use of Russia's oft-criticized human rights record to apply political pressure is "unacceptable." US Vice President Dick Cheney lambasted Russia [JURIST report] in May and urged it to renew efforts to adopt democratic reforms. Itar-Tass has more. The Moscow Times has additional coverage.

[JURIST] Six former Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainees now on trial [JURIST report] in Paris were interviewed by French authorities while they were still being held at the US prison, according to a French newspaper. A French diplomatic telegram published in the Liberation daily Wednesday referred to intelligence agents who conducted interviews with the suspects at least twice while at Guantanamo [Liberation report, in French]. The prosecution in the Paris trial failed to disclose the secret interviews in preparation for their trial, however, and defense lawyers claim those violated their defendants' rights because no lawyer was present when they took place. The failure to disclose the interviews could render the case invalid, but Judge Jean-Claude Kross refused to halt the proceeding over the diplomatic document because its authenticity has not been established.

The six terror defendants stand accused of attending combat training at an al Qaeda camp in Afghanistan. France freed five of the suspects after their repatriation to France from Guantanamo in July 2004 and March 2005 [BBC reports]. The prosecution alleges that the six suspects were recruited by Rachid Boukhalfa, an Algerian held in a British prison also known as Abu Doha. France formally charged the six defendants [JURIST report] in April. Reuters has more. Liberation has local coverage.

[JURIST] The editors of seven independent newspapers in Egypt [JURIST news archive] plan to go on strike Sunday to protest the lack of legal protection afforded to journalists, the independent daily Al-Masry Al-Youm [media website, in Arabic] reported Tuesday. The strike is scheduled for the same day the Egyptian parliament is expected to discuss a draft publications law touted by the government as affording journalists greater protection from jail time. The Federation of Arab Journalists, however, has announced its opposition to the bill [JURIST report], which allows judges to determine whether imprisonment is appropriate rather than abolishing jail sentences completely. The newspaper editors say a provision of the draft law that authorizes jail time for journalists who discuss the private property or financial information of public figures is particularly egregious.

Human rights groups have condemned [JURIST report] last week's court decision to sentence a controversial newspaper editor to a year in prison for criticizing Mubarak. Three journalists are now on trial [JURIST report] for publishing the names of two judges accused of rigging results in a runoff poll [JURIST report] in last year's parliamentary elections. AFP has more.

[JURIST] Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra [official profile; BBC profile] has said in a television broadcast that his Thai Rak Thai party [party website; Wikipedia backgrounder] is innocent of election fraud allegedly committed in an abortive general election this spring. Prosecutors, acting on a unanimous recommendation [JURIST report] by an investigative committee, are expected to ask Thailand's Constitutional Court [official website] on Thursday to dissolve Thai Rak Thai, the opposition Democrats [party website] and three smaller political parties because of irregularities in the April vote [JURIST report]. Legal analysts, however, view such a move as unlikely because it would destabilize the Thai government.

The Constitutional Court annulled the elections [JURIST report] in early May, and Thailand's three principal courts have repeatedly called for the Election Commission to resign [JURIST report] over the election problems. A new election [JURIST report] is scheduled for Oct. 15, but Thaksin said it could be delayed because of the political turmoil. AFP has more. The Bangkok Post has local coverage.

[JURIST] CNN is reporting that former Enron founder Kenneth Lay [defense website; Houston Chronicle profile; JURIST news archive] is dead. According to a spokesman for Lay's family, Lay suffered a massive heart attack in Aspen, Colorado on Tuesday evening. Lay, along with former Enron executive Jeffrey Skilling [Houston Chronicle profile], was convicted [JURIST report] in May on fraud and conspiracy charges [indictment, PDF] for providing investors with false and misleading financial information from 1999 up until Enron [JURIST news archive] filed bankruptcy in late 2001.

The 64-year-old Lay was awaiting sentencing [JURIST report] and faced a maximum sentence of 45 years in prison.

[JURIST] Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki [BBC profile] on Wednesday called for an independent Iraqi inquiry into allegations that US soldiers raped an Iraqi woman and murdered her and her family near the town of Mahmudiya in March. Al-Maliki said during a visit to Kuwait that he believes "immunity granted to international forces has emboldened them to commit such crimes" and called for a review of the UN Security Council [official website] mandate that grants coalition forces immunity from Iraqi law. Iraqi Justice Minister Hashim Abdul-Rahman al-Shebli has also demanded international supervision of the US probe [JURIST report]. Reuters has more.

US military officials have meanwhile said that their criminal probe [JURIST report] into the incident will focus on unit leadership to determine how the five soldiers suspected in the deaths were allowed to operate on their own. The suspects are in the same platoon as the soldiers who were abducted and killed [London Times report] in June after insurgents attacked a humvee that was also on its own. Because of the inherent danger in Iraq, regulations generally prohibit military vehicles from traveling alone. Marine Gen. Peter Pace [official profile], chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, promised on Tuesday to "get to the bottom" of the allegations and to hold service members accountable for their acts.

On Monday, federal prosecutors arrested former soldier Steven Green [JURIST report; press release] in connection with the rape and murder allegations. The criminal complaint [FindLaw image] alleges that Green was the ringleader of the four soldiers who took part in the violence while a fifth soldier remained in a humvee to stand guard. The complaint also alleges that the soldiers had been drinking alcohol beforehand and had changed into civilian clothes, indicating that the alleged acts were not spontaneous. Green, who was honorably discharged from the Army because of a personality disorder before the allegations arose, will have a preliminary hearing on July 10 in Charlotte before he is transferred to Louisville, KY, near Fort Campbell, where his former unit is based. The other four suspects have been confined to a US base in Iraq, but their names have not been released. The New York Times has more. AP has additional coverage.

[JURIST] Joseph Kony [BBC profile], leader of the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) [Global Security backgrounder; BBC backgrounder] in Uganda, will be granted amnesty if upcoming LRA negotiations with the southern Sudanese government proceed smoothly and if he renounces terrorist activity, according a statement released Tuesday by the press secretary for Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni [official website; BBC profile]. Kony was indicted by the International Criminal Court [JURIST report; PDF arrest warrant] along with four LRA lieutenants last October on charges that they orchestrated the killing of thousands of civilians and the enslavement of thousands more children over two decades of conflict with Museveni's government.

The semi-autonomous southern Sudanese government is holding talks with LRA leaders next week in its capital, Juba, in hopes of ending civilian killings in the region. The LRA, once supported by the Sudanese government, has maintained a presence in southern Sudan since its formation in 1986. Though Sudan has pledged to aid the ICC in arresting Kony [JURIST report], it has so far failed to arrest him, and southern Sudanese officials seem more interested in ending the bloodshed with Kony's help rather than sending him to the ICC. Museveni said in Tuesday's statement that if the ICC wants to arrest Kony, UN troops should do so. AP has more. Uganda's Daily Monitor has local coverage and an editorial.

[JURIST] The retrial [BBC Q/A] of five Bulgarian nurses [JURIST report] and one Palestinian doctor accused of infecting more than 400 Libyan patients, primarily children, with HIV resumed Tuesday in Tripoli. The court heard testimony from three prosecution witnesses - parents of infected children - who identified the defendants as the medical workers who infected their children. Judge Mahmoud al-Huweissa then adjourned the trial for the fourth time, until July 25, when the defense will call witnesses. Al-Huweissa adjourned the trial in June [JURIST report] because the prosecution and defense both needed more time to prepare evidence and witness lists, even after he postponed the retrial in May [JURIST report] because the lawyers lacked the proper papers to proceed.

The six health workers were convicted in May 2004 and sentenced to death [JURIST reports] for deliberately infecting the children, but the Libyan Supreme Court overturned the convictions [JURIST report] last December and ordered a retrial. Bulgaria and its allies, including the US and the European Union, contend that the nurses are innocent and maintain that their confessions were coerced through torture. The defendants, detained since 1999, previously argued that the children were infected with the virus before treatment. AFP has more. Bulgaria's Sofia News Agency has additional coverage.

[JURIST] Claiming that some ballots were counted twice and others not at all because of fraud, Mexico's Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) [party website, in Spanish] is demanding a full recount of votes in last weekend's presidential election. Preliminary results [JURIST report] showed the PRD's candidate, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador [campaign website, in Spanish; Wikipedia profile], trailing Felipe Calderon [campaign website, in Spanish; Wikipedia profile], of the conservative National Action Party (PAN) [party website], by about 1 percent of the 41 million votes counted. Leonel Cota, president of the PRD, vowed on Tuesday to "launch a battle for the legitimacy of the election," and a coalition of the PRD and two other parties held a press conference [transcript, in Spanish] and issued a statement [text, in Spanish] that questioned the system used to compile the preliminary results, known as PREP [official backgrounder]. The president of Mexico's Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) [official website, in Spanish] cast doubt on the prospects of a full recount, saying that the sealed ballots could be reopened only in "exceptional cases" and that the preliminary count had been done in the presence of the parties. Mexican election laws [PDF text, in Spanish] permit a manual recount only if the ballot packages have been unsealed or if the initial tallies are faulty.

Also on Tuesday, elections officials said that 3 million ballots that Lopez Obrador had described as "missing" had not been counted because of irregularities. The officials said those votes - which would reduce Calderon's lead to 0.64 percent - will be included in the overall count if deemed valid. Local election officials were to count remaining valid ballots [IFE press release] and review the initial tally beginning on Wednesday. AP has more. El Universal has local coverage, in Spanish.

[JURIST] Police arrested two Italian intelligence officers Wednesday, including a senior official, in connection with the alleged extraordinary rendition [JURIST news archive] of Egyptian cleric Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr [Wikipedia profile], also known as Abu Omar. Judicial sources said that Marco Mancini, a division director of Italy's Military Intelligence and Security Service (SISMI) [official website; Wikipedia backgrounder], the Italian intelligence organization, will be accused of collaborating with CIA operatives who in 2003 allegedly kidnapped Nasr from a Milan street and then flew him to Egypt where he was tortured. Mancini and the second Italian intelligence officer are the first Italians to be connected to the Nasr rendition. Arrest warrants have already been issued for 22 CIA agents said to be involved in the alleged abduction and four additional arrest warrants for Americans were issued Wednesday.

In April, the Italian justice department said it would not seek the extradition [JURIST report] from the US of the 22 CIA agents who are thought to have committed Nasr's alleged kidnapping and subsequent rendition. Instead, Milan prosecutor Armando Spataro, who filed the extradition request, may prosecute the CIA operatives in absentia [JURIST reports]. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has called the alleged kidnapping a violation of Italian sovereignty [JURIST report]. Reuters has more. BBC News has additional coverage.

[JURIST] Microsoft [corporate website; JURIST news archive] has said that it will comply with sanctions imposed by the South Korean Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) [official website] after the Seoul High Court rejected a request by Microsoft to stay the penalties while Microsoft appeals the KFTC ruling [JURIST report; Microsoft press release] in the Seoul High Court. Tuesday's rejection of Microsoft's stay request has no bearing on the pending appeal.

The KFTC in May rejected an appeal [JURIST report] of its antitrust decision against Microsoft. The regulatory panel found last December that Microsoft had abused its dominant market position [JURIST report; KFTC findings, PDF] by bundling its media viewer and instant-messaging software with its Windows operating system. The KFTC fined Microsoft the equivalent of $34 million and ordered it to provide consumers a version of Windows without the bundled software. AP has more.

[JURIST] Republicans from the US House of Representatives [official website] begin a series of immigration hearings Wednesday in order to assess the threats at the country's borders and the labor needs to combat those threats in preparation for final negotiations on comprehensive immigration reform [JURIST news archive]. The House International Relations Committee Subcommittee on International Terrorism and Nonproliferation [official website] will hold a hearing [meeting notice] Wednesday at the San Diego Border Patrol station to look at security lapses, and the same panel will convene a second hearing [meeting notice] at a border patrol station in Laredo, Texas on Friday. In addition, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-PA) [official website] will host a hearing in Philadelphia Wednesday to assess the need for foreign workers. House Republican leaders called for the "field hearings" [JURIST report] in June. The nationwide hearings will continue through mid-August and Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert has said that the hearings will invite public comment on immigration issues [JURIST report]. Congressional negotiations on the immigration reform bill have been put on hold until the hearings are complete.

There are few similarities between the Senate immigration reform bill [S 2611 summary; JURIST report] and the House version [HR 4437 summary; JURIST report], which must be reconciled before a bill can be presented to the president for signature. Last month, President Bush called on lawmakers to find a "rational middle ground" [JURIST report] between the Senate version, which includes a pathway to citizenship favored by Bush, and the House bill, which focuses on law enforcement. The series of field hearings make passage of a comprehensive bill before November's midterm elections unlikely, though Republican House leaders deny that they timed the hearings [JURIST report] to postpone negotiations until after the elections. AP has more.