[JURIST] The Supreme Court of New Jersey [official website] on Tuesday ruled [opinion and syllabus text, PDF] 5-1 that the state's Charitable Immunity Act [text], which protects non-profit organizations from ordinary negligence claims, permits plaintiffs to sue non-profits on sex abuse claims stemming from willful, wanton or grossly negligent conduct. The underlying case, Hardwicke v. American Boychoir School, involved an adult male suing his former school based on allegations of sexual abuse by several employees while he was a student there. The ruling allows Hardwicke's suit to proceed, but the Supreme Court remanded the case to the trial court to determine whether the school is liable.

The ruling affirms a decision of the New Jersey Superior Court handed down in March. AP has more. The Asbury Park Press has local coverage.

[JURIST] The UN Security Council [official website] approved a resolution Tuesday that encourages Secretary-General Kofi Annan [official profile] to work more closely with the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) [official website]. All 15 Security Council members voted for Resolution 1699 [press release and text], co-sponsored by the US, Britain and Denmark, which says that more cooperation would increase the effectiveness of UN sanctions such as arms embargoes, travel restrictions and asset freezes.

Last year, the Security Council adopted another resolution [text] requesting that Interpol add the names of suspected terrorists to its databases to aid the UN fight against al Qaeda and the Taliban [UN materials]. Since then, the Security Council has listed nearly 500 individuals and groups [UN list] with Interpol. Reuters has more. The UN News Centre has additional coverage.

[JURIST] Zimbabwean Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa's obstruction-of-justice trial began Tuesday, eight days after the charges were tentatively dropped [Financial Gazette report] because of alleged intimidation of magistrates by Security Minister Didymus Mutasa. Chinamasa is accused of pressuring witnesses not to testify about political violence linked to Mutasa before parliamentary elections in Zimbabwe [JURIST news archive] last year. After magistrates in Manicaland recused themselves last week, the attorney general's office subpoenaed Chinamasa to appear in Rusape on Tuesday before a new magistrate. The initial dropping of charges prompted human rights groups to raise concerns about the independence of Zimbabwe's judiciary [Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum press release].

In court on Tuesday, a witness testified that Chinamasa had asked him not to pursue the allegations against Mutasa, a leader of the ruling Zanu-PF party [party website; Wikipedia profile] of President Robert Mugabe [JURIST news archive]. BBC News has more. ZimbabweJournalists.com has local coverage.

[JURIST] Former US House Majority Leader Tom DeLay [JURIST news archive] will withdraw his name from the Texas ballot in this fall's congressional elections, a Republican strategist told AP on Tuesday. DeLay's move comes one day after US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia [OYEZ profile] denied a request [JURIST reports] from the Texas Republican Party to stay a federal appeals court ruling [text, PDF] preventing the party from replacing DeLay with another GOP candidate. According to the decision handed down last week by the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit [official website], the state Republican Party cannot replace DeLay even though he now resides in Virginia because he could return to Texas before election day. Without a candidate on the ballot, the GOP could throw its hopes behind a write-in candidate to oppose Democrat Nick Lampson.

DeLay resigned from Congress [JURIST report] earlier this year after winning a March primary for his congressional seat. He is awaiting a Texas trial on money laundering and conspiracy charges [JURIST report] for allegedly using corporate money to fund legislative campaigns. AP has more. The Houston Chronicle has local coverage.

5:11 PM ET - In a statement released later Tuesday, DeLay said:

Earlier this year, I resigned from the U.S. House of Representatives and became a resident of the State of Virginia to establish my new business, and where I now legally reside, pay taxes and vote.

This decision was and is irrevocable, which I made clear from Day One.

My action was taken in accordance with Texas law, federal precedent and common sense. I felt it was my duty to allow Texas Republicans to choose a new candidate for the Fall Election Ballot. ...

Unfortunately, the Federal courts have slammed the door shut on a fair ballot choice between two 22nd District residents representing our two major parties. ...

Voters should be concerned. While judges are denying Texas voters a fair choice this Fall, the courts allowed the Democrat Party in New Jersey to withdraw Robert Torricelli and substitute Frank Lautenberg in a similar case just weeks before the 2002 U.S. Senate election.

[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit [official website] declined Tuesday to review a US Department of Energy (DOE) [official website] proposal to move nuclear waste to the proposed Yucca Mountain repository [DOE materials] by rail, finding that some claims by the State of Nevada lacked merit while others were unripe. Nevada sued in the DC Circuit to challenge the DOE's Record of Decision (ROD) and Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) [text] governing the transportation of waste to Yucca Mountain, alleging that both violated the National Environmental Policy Act [text].

A unanimous three-judge panel denied Nevada's petition [opinion, PDF], with Circuit Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson [official profile] writing that

[t]he DOE's discussion of the interim transportation plan in the ROD does not represent its final determination regarding the plan. As outlined in the ROD, the plan might be implemented at some future time but the DOE's language is replete with conditional phrases. ... Only when the DOE's plan has sufficiently "crystallized" and the FEIS is used to support a concrete decision will Nevada's challenge to the DOE's failure to prepare an SEIS [Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement] be ripe.

[JURIST] The Russian Prosecutor General's Office [official website, in Russian] has begun a criminal investigation into possible fraud stemming from bankruptcy proceedings for Russian oil giant Yukos [corporate website; JURIST news archive], according to Tuesday reports from the Itar-Tass news agency. The investigation centers on allegations that former Yukos officials embezzled money by securing a $4.5 billion loan from Yukos Capital SARL, a Luxemburg-based subsidiary and major creditor for Yukos, and masterminded a plan to sell crude oil through subsidiaries under their control.

Last week, a Russian arbitration court declared Yukos bankrupt [JURIST report], and said the company could be liquidated to pay creditors. MosNews has more. RIA Novosti has additional coverage.

[JURIST] Prosecutors in Indonesia [JURIST news archive] are seeking jail terms of up to 15 years for four Islamist militants suspected in the 2005 Bali bombings [BBC report], which killed two dozen people. The trial of the four suspects began in May, and prosecutors on Tuesday said they want 15 years in jail for Muhammad Cholily, suspected to have close ties to Azahari Husin and Noordin Top [Wikipedia profiles], two leading figures in the terrorist group Jemaah Islamiah [BBC profile], which has been blamed for several bombings in Indonesia. Prosecutors sought ten years for the three remaining defendants. Indonesian authorities made their first arrest [JURIST report] in the investigation last November.

Jemaah Islamiah has also been blamed for the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings [BBC report] that killed more than 50 people. Three men convicted in connection with the 2002 bombing are awaiting execution [JURIST report] pending final appeal [JURIST report]. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The Bush administration and the US Department of Homeland Security [official website] are considering plans to change some immigration rules for Cubans with relatives living in the United States in an effort to improve the immigration [JURIST news archive] process from the island, but may also refuse visa applications for any Cuban caught illegally crossing the border. The still-incomplete changes, which may be announced later this week, mark an effort to prevent an upsurge of smuggling Cubans into the US during what the US government expects to be an exodus from Cuba [JURIST news archive] when Cuban dictator Fidel Castro [BBC profile] eventually cedes power permanently. Last week Castro temporarily ceded power to his brother [BBC report], Raul Castro, while he underwent intestinal surgery.

The plans would give Cubans awaiting visas to enter the US with family members already in the US priority over Cubans without family in the US. There are currently over 22,000 pending US visa applications from Cubans. The plan would also ease restrictions on Cuban physicians entering the US and prohibit entry for Cuban government officials connected to human rights violations. Bloomberg has more. AP has additional coverage.

[JURIST] Responding to a call by Mexican presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador [campaign website, in Spanish; Wikipedia profile], thousands of the leftist's supporters gathered outside the Federal Electoral Tribunal [official website, in Spanish] Monday night to protest the court's decision not to hold a full recount [JURIST report] of last month's disputed election [JURIST news archive]. The demonstrators obstructed traffic around the court, while others have camped out in major thoroughfares. Lopez Obrador has pledged to continue the demonstrations [JURIST report] until the tribunal orders a recount of all 41 million votes cast, leading the government to increase security at Mexico City international airport, power plants and oil refineries. Last week, the Mexican interior minister criticized Lopez Obrador and his supporters [JURIST report] for setting up an "illegal blockade" that brought parts of the capital to a standstill.

A partial recount ordered by the tribunal, involving ballots at 9 percent of polling places, is scheduled to begin Wednesday. According to the official results [JURIST report], Lopez Obrador lost the election by about 220,000 votes to Felipe Calderon [campaign website, in Spanish; Wikipedia profile], who has referred to the demonstrators as "antidemocrats." AP has more. La Jornada has local coverage, in Spanish.

[JURIST] Pfc. Justin Cross told a US military panel in Baghdad Tuesday that combat stress "crushed" troop morale in Mahmudiya [JURIST news archive], the area where four soldiers and one former soldier allegedly raped a 14-year old Iraqi girl and killed the girl and her family on March 12, because the troops had a constant fear of death in the notoriously dangerous region south of Baghdad. The Article 32 hearing [Navy JAG backgrounder] for Pfc. Jesse Spielman, Spc. James Barker, Sgt. Paul Cortez and Pfc. Bryan Howard, which began Sunday [JURIST report], heard testimony [JURIST report] Monday from military investigator Benjamin Bierce, who told the court that he took a sworn statement from Barker saying that former soldier Steven Green raped and shot Abeer Qassim al-Janabi after he shot and killed three of her family members. The military court has banned the media from publicizing the testimony of Iraqi witnesses [JURIST report] because the witnesses fear for their lives.

Spielman, Barker, Cortez and Howard have been charged [JURIST report] with rape and murder, while Sgt. Anthony Yribe has been charged with dereliction of duty for failing to report the incident and making false statements about the incident. Lawyers representing the four core defendants demanded a new hearing Tuesday, arguing that Yribe's lawyer asked incriminating questions. Green, who was discharged from the Army before the allegations arose, has pleaded not guilty to charges [JURIST reports] of rape and murder in the US District Court for the District of Kentucky [official website]. Green's arraignment has been delayed [JURIST report] to avoid complications with evidence used in the investigation [JURIST report] into the five soldiers still in Iraq. Reuters has more. AP has additional coverage.

[JURIST] The National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC) [advocacy website] on Monday filed a federal lawsuit against the state of Illinois, seeking to overturn the state's Act to End Atrocities and Terrorism in the Sudan [text]. The Illinois law bars state pension funds from investing in companies or financial institutions that are connected to Sudan [JURIST news archive], as well as borrowers and other business associations doing business with Sudan, but the NFTC argues that the Illinois law is unconstitutional because sanctions against Sudan have already been imposed at the federal level and therefore state and local governments are pre-empted from imposing separate sanctions. President Bush signed the Sudan Peace Act [PDF text; DS backgrounder] in 2002, federal legislation which codified an earlier executive order issued during the Clinton administration banning US trade with and investment in Sudan. The boards of eight Illinois public employee pension funds joined the lawsuit, saying that the Illinois law forces them to divest international mutual funds.

The lawsuit relies in part on the US Supreme Court's 2000 decision in Crosby v. NFTC [text], where the Court ruled that federal sanctions on Myanmar pre-empted Massachusetts from imposing separate sanctions at the state level. AP has more. The US State Department's Washington File has additional coverage.

[JURIST] Chilean Judge Jorge Zepeda asked the Santiago Court of Appeals [Chilean judiciary website] on Monday to strip former dictator Augusto Pinochet [JURIST news archive] of immunity in a case involving the disappearance of Antonio Llido, a Spanish priest who was a member of a socialist group opposing Pinochet's regime. Pinochet's secret police allegedly detained Llido in 1974 and tortured him, according to witnesses. Several agents have stood trial for Llido's disappearance, though there have been no convictions. If the court strips Pinochet of immunity in this case, Zepeda's investigation into Pinochet's role in Llido's disappearance could lead to an indictment.

Pinochet currently faces a host of other charges including multiple human rights cases stemming from his 1973-1990 rule and separate tax evasion charges [JURIST reports]. Pinochet's lawyers have argued he is unfit to stand trial because of dementia and other ailments, but the Supreme Court of Chile [official website] last year ruled [JURIST report] that Pinochet was fit to stand trial. Reuters has more. From Santiago, La Nacion has local coverage [in Spanish].

[JURIST] The US Securities and Exchange Commission [official website] said Monday that it will not appeal a federal appeals court decision [PDF text] that invalidated an SEC rule [PDF text] regulating hedge funds, opting instead to focus on drafting new rules and staff guidance for the hedge fund industry. In June, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit struck down [JURIST report] the rule that required hedge fund advisors responsible for at least $30 million in assets to register with the SEC, thus subjecting them to legal scrutiny for potential fraud. The Court said that the rule was arbitrary and also reasoned that hedge funds escape SEC regulation under the Investment Company Act of 1940 [PDF text] because "investment vehicles that remain private and available only to highly sophisticated private investors have historically been understood not to present the same dangers to public markets as more widely available public investment companies."

In a statement [text] Monday, SEC Chairman Christopher Cox said the SEC will work on drafting alternative rules to oversee hedge fund activity instead of appealing the decision because the decision was based on many different factors. Cox added that the SEC will move "aggressively on an agenda of rulemaking and staff guidance...to address the legal consequences from the invalidation of the rule," including a new anti-fraud rule and a possible increase in the minimum asset and income requirements for people seeking to invest in hedge funds. New SEC staff guidance could be released by the end of the week. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan [official profile; JURIST news archive] said in a report Monday that Israel's July 30 air strike on the Lebanese village of Qana [JURIST report] may be part of "a pattern of violations of international law, including international humanitarian law and international human rights law committed during the course of the current hostilities" in the ongoing Middle East conflict [JURIST news archive]. Annan's report called for an independent and more thorough investigation into the Qana bombing, which killed 28 civilians, citing investigation requests by the League of Arab States [advocacy website, in Arabic], the Non-Aligned Movement [advocacy website; BBC profile], and Lebanon. Last week, the UN Security Council [official website] asked Annan for a report [press release] after he had the opportunity to look into the Qana situation, but Annan said there was not enough time to conduct an actual probe into the attack since access to the village is difficult.

Letters from Israel [JURIST news archive] and Lebanon [JURIST news archive] were included with Annan's report. Israel wrote that the Qana attack was a mistake but stressed that military forces were unaware that civilians were inside the building and noted Hezbollah's use of civilians as human shields. Lebanon submitted a letter from the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) [official website] which accused Israel of several violations of humanitarian law and said the civilians found in Qana were unable to escape due to destroyed roads, or they were too old, poor or sick to leave. AP has more.

8/10/06 10:19 AM ET - Annan's report [PDF text] is now available online.

[JURIST] Aziz Dweik [official profile, in Arabic; JMCC profile], the speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council [official website, in Arabic; Wikipedia backgrounder], was taken to the hospital Monday for chest pains and breathing problems, which his spokesman claims are due to beatings by prison guards after his arrest [JURIST report] Sunday in the West Bank by Israeli forces. The Israeli army has denied the allegations, saying he was transferred to a Jerusalem hospital where he will remain until he is in better health, and then will be returned to an Israeli military prison.

Dweik is a senior Hamas [CFR backgrounder] official, and Israeli officials said his affiliation with the militant group prompted his arrest. Last week, two other Hamas officials who have since been released from Israeli custody told reporters that they were abused while detained [JURIST report]. The two officials were part of a group of eight Palestinian cabinet members who were seized [JURIST report] in June by Israeli authorities following the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin [official website] Monday announced an overhaul of the criminal justice system in the city which was severely affected [PBS report] by Hurricane Katrina [JURIST news archive] last year. Prosecutors from a neighboring parish in Louisiana have volunteered to help the New Orleans district attorney's office and the city has created a new system to call witnesses, many of whom were displaced since the storm, to testify in upcoming criminal cases. The Louisiana State Bar Association [group website] is also providing pro bono representation [court order, PDF] for indigent defendants and will pay for a system to track and organize cases. Since Hurricane Katrina ravaged the New Orleans area on August 29 of last year, there have been 83 murders in the city despite the smaller population, but only one murder trial has been held.

The lack of resources to proceed with trials led one judge to say he would begin releasing defendants [JURIST report] on the one-year anniversary of the hurricane if they were not given access to attorneys before that time. A group of judges has sent an emergency request for funding to the US Department of Justice [official website] to cover the costs of representation for indigents, calling the current system unconstitutional, and US Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) [official website] has also requested [statement] that the Justice Department send additional resources to combat the increasing crime in the city. The New York Times has more. The New Orleans Times-Picayune has local coverage.