[JURIST] Israeli security forces late Saturday detained the speaker of the Palestinian parliament [official website, in Arabic] after surrounding his home in the West Bank town of Ramallah. Aziz Dweik [official profile in Arabic; JMCC profile] is a senior member of Hamas [CFR backgrounder], the movement now in control of the Palestinian government, and an Israeli army spokesman told Reuters that "Since Hamas is a terrorist organization, he is a target for arrest." Israeli troops surrounded Dweik's home twice before without taking him into custody; on at least one occasion he was away. Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya has denounced what he called Israel's act of "piracy."

Israel seized eight Palestinian government ministers and some 20 legislators [JURIST report] on June 29 following the abduction of IDF Cpl. Gilad Shalit [Wikipedia backgrounder] in Gaza. On Wednesday two of the men arrested - the Palestinian Minister for Prisoners' Affairs and a deputy speaker in the Palestinian Legislative Council who were released from Israeli custody earlier this week - told reporters that they had been abused while detained [JURIST report]. Israeli officials said in June that the captured Palestinian lawmakers would be tried under standard criminal warrants [JURIST report] for membership in or leadership of a terrorist organization. BBC News has more. From Israel, Ynet has local coverage.

[JURIST] The Interior Ministry [official website] of Iran [JURIST news archive] has prohibited a human rights group led by 2003 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi [BBC profile] from operating in the country, saying the group has neglected to obtain an appropriate permit, according to Iranian media reports Saturday. The Defenders of Human Rights Center [Wikipedia backgrounder] was created four years ago by six lawyers and works to promote the rights of prisoners of conscience and dissidents in Iran, but the government has been critical of the rights advocate and has promised to prosecute any further activities by the group. Ebadi said the group has applied for a permit, which was denied with no explanation, and further contends that the Iranian constitution [text] does not mandate permits for "non-governmental organizations that observe the law and do not disrupt public safety."

One of the group's members, Abdolfattah Soltani [Amnesty International appeal; Wikipedia profile], was sentenced to five years in prison [JURIST report] last month for disclosing confidential information and engaging in propaganda against the regime despite never having stood trial for the charges against him. The center has also represented the family of Canadian-Iranian photographer Zahra Kazemi [CBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive], who died in Iranian custody in July 2003. Ebadi said her group plans to fight the ministry's decision using all available legal options. AFP has more.

[JURIST] Mexico's Federal Electoral Tribunal [official website, in Spanish] on Saturday rejected a request by leftist presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador [campaign website, in Spanish] for a full ballot-by-ballot recount of all votes cast in the July 2 presidential election [JURIST news archive], which Obrador lost by less than a percentage point to conservative Felipe Calderon, instead authorizing a partial recount of returns at 11,839 of the country's approximately 130,500 polling stations. Obrador's lawyers argued [JURIST report] before the tribunal's seven judges last week that there were errors, falsifications and other problems at over half of Mexico's polling places, and that a recount would clarify any dispute concerning the election. Representatives of the Obrador campaign walked out of the tribunal Saturday after the ruling was announced. Reuters has more. AP has additional coverage.

Last month Obrador also filed a criminal complaint [JURIST report] against the Federal Electoral Institute [official website, in Spanish], the commission that oversaw the vote. Obrador has encouraged "peaceful civil resistance" pending a resolution of the electoral crisis. A Monday protest in Mexico City, where Obrador was formerly mayor, brought out several hundred thousand demonstrators [JURIST report].

[JURIST] Inaccurate statements [JURIST report] presented to the 9/11 Commission [official website] by senior Pentagon officials regarding the Sept. 11 attacks [JURIST news archive] were not provided intentionally, but rather were the result of poor record-keeping, according to a newly-disclosed report by the US Defense Department Office of the Inspector General [official website]. The report was made in May 2005, but it was not released then because the Department claimed it contained classified information. It was ultimately made public after a request under the Freedom of Information Act [text] submitted by the New York Times.

Pentagon commanders provided testimony to the 9/11 Commission in 2003, including information that the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) [official website] was aware that United Airlines Flight 93 [Wikipedia backgrounder] was off-track and that the US military would take the plane down if it reached Washington. But other information revealed later showed the Defense Department was unaware of the flight until it crashed down in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The Inspector General's Office said Friday that inadequate record-keeping at military air traffic control centers, often by handwritten logs, caused the misstatements. Saturday's New York Times has more.

[JURIST] US-based monitoring group Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] Saturday called on Hezbollah [CFR backgrounder] to immediately stop launching rockets into civilian areas [HRW statement] within Israel, saying their actions constitute "war crimes." The rights watchdog said Hezbollah's assertions that it is targeting military bases within Israel are offset by the fact that most attacks have been aimed at schools, hospitals and businesses. While HRW also released a report [text] earlier this week condemning Israel's attacks on Lebanese civilians [JURIST report] during the Middle East conflict [JURIST news archive], the group said that did not excuse Hezbollah's actions.

Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, said:

Lobbing rockets blindly into civilian areas is without doubt a war crime. Nothing can justify this assault on the most fundamental standards for sparing civilians the hazards of war.

Human Rights Watch has documented the Israeli military’s persistent use of indiscriminate force, which has killed hundreds of Lebanese civilians. But war crimes by one side in a conflict never justify war crimes by another. Hezbollah must stop using the excuse of Israeli misconduct to justify its own.

[JURIST] A controversial new clemency law [JURIST report] in Italy [JURIST news archive] reducing some prison sentences by three years to cut down on jail overcrowding is facing criticism after some released prisoners returned to lives of crime this week. One man, who had been convicted of domestic abuse, allegedly attempted to murder his ex-wife after his release, while another tried to rob a restaurant. The legislation [Reuters report] excluded those convicted of certain crimes, including terrorism offenses, pedophilia, rape, or mob activities, but nonetheless the release of nearly 12,000 inmates. Advocates for prisoner rights contend that the freed prisoners are hard-pressed to find places of employment or residence after their release, making a return to crime a real possibility.

Police are closely watching approximately 20 released individuals who were suspected of having links to terrorist organizations but were jailed for other offenses. Italian prisons are able to accommodate 42,500 inmates, but actually held 61,000 prior to the recent wave of releases. AP has more.

[JURIST] The Minsk Central Court in Belarus [JURIST news archive] Friday sentenced four independent election monitors for their affiliation with an "unregistered" organization which infringed on citizens' rights. The four were members of the Partnership monitoring group, which had received monetary assistance from the US-based National Democratic Institute for International Affairs [advocacy website]. The group had been planning to observe the controversial presidential election [JURIST report] in March, which resulted in five more years of power for incumbent Alexander Lukashenko [official website; BBC profile] amidst allegations of fraud, but the monitors were arrested prior to election day.

The election monitors were sentenced to prison for periods ranging from six months to two years, and their convictions have been criticized by the US State Department [official website] which called for Belarus to release all those imprisoned on politically motivated charges. Defeated presidential candidate Aleksandr Milinkevich [campaign website] also voiced his opposition against their detentions, saying they had received a "political punishment." AP has more.

[JURIST] Two days before the 61st anniversary [BBC backgrounder] of the first US atomic bombing of Japan [JURIST news archive], the Hiroshima District Court in Japan ruled Friday that 41 survivors of the 1945 atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were incorrectly denied benefits as sufferers of radiation sickness, but their demands for damages was not approved. The Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers' Organizations [advocacy website] supported the survivors in the suit and their bid for $26,000 each. Japan gives an average of $1,200 per month to radiation sufferers and $300 to other survivors, but the court did not explain their denial of benefits to the 41 survivors.

Approximately 183 individuals have filed suit against the Japanese government to petition for recognition as radiation sufferers as a result of the bombings, according to the confederation for bomb victims. The government has formally recognized 260,000 survivors as of March 2006, according to the Japanese Health Ministry [official website], but just under 3,000 were given status as radiation sufferers. AP has more. The Japan Times has local coverage.

[JURIST] The Vermont Supreme Court [official website] ruled [opinion] Friday that Vermont civil union laws [Vermont Secretary of State backgrounder] govern a child custody battle between a now-separated lesbian couple who were legally joined in a civil union in Vermont, despite conflicting decisions by Virginia courts. Lisa and Janet Miller-Jenkins lived in Virginia but traveled to Vermont to be joined in a civil union in 2000, and Lisa conceived a child through artificial insemination while the two were still together. The couple subsequently moved to Vermont, but in 2003, they separated with Lisa returning to Virginia and suing for full custody of the child.

A court in Virginia granted full custody [JURIST report] to Lisa in 2004, with the judge declaring that since Virginia law does not legally recognize unions between members of the same sex, Lisa was the child's "sole parent." But the Vermont Supreme Court disagreed, saying Vermont has exclusive jurisdiction over the case since the couple's civil union took place under Vermont's laws. The interstate conflicts issue is ripe for consideration [Liberty Counsel press release for Lisa Miller] by the US Supreme Court [official website] as gay rights [JURIST news archive] continue to be evaluated by conflicting state courts. AP has more.

[JURIST] A US military prosecutor said in closing arguments at an Article 32 hearing [JAG backgrounder; UCMJ text] Friday that four US soldiers should face court-martial for violating the laws of war by setting several Iraqi detainees free after a May 9 raid on a suspected insurgent camp near Samarra in Salahaddin province and then shooting them as they ran away. The soldiers - Pfc. Corey R. Clagett, Spc. William B. Hunsaker, Staff Sgt. Raymond L. Girouard and Spc. Juston R. Graber - face charges [JURIST report] of premeditated murder [JURIST report], attempted murder, and conspiracy, and could face the death penalty if convicted of premeditation. They also face obstruction of justice charges for threatening to kill another soldier, Pfc. Bradley Mason, if he told investigators of their alleged plans for murdering the detainees. Reuters has more.

The soldiers from the Third Brigade Combat Team of the 101st Airborne Division [GlobalSecurity backgrounder] claim they only shot at the prisoners as they tried to escape. They also claim they were ordered by their officers to "kill all military-aged males" in the raid. AP has more.