[JURIST] US Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy [LII profile; JURIST news archive] underwent a "routine" stent replacement procedure at Washington Hospital Center [hospital website] on Saturday after complaining of chest pains, spokesperson Kathy Arberg revealed in a Tuesday statement [via SCOTUSblog, DOC]. The 70-year-old Kennedy had a similar procedure performed in November, and has returned to work at the court. Although a stent [AHA profile] is used to open an artery, Kennedy showed no signs of heart damage, Arberg reported.

Kennedy has recently been a vocal proponent of international human rights [JURIST report], urging lawyers to take steps to prevent genocide from occurring in Darfur [JURIST report] and spread the rule of law worldwide. Kennedy's hospitalization comes a year after the death of former Chief Justice William Rehnquist [JURIST report], and he is now recognized as the Court's "swing vote." Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The Iranian parliament [official website, in Persian] on Tuesday approved a draft of a bill to bar inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) [official website] from entering the country if the UN Security Council [official website] imposes sanctions on Iran for continuing to enrich uranium past the August 31 deadline imposed by Resolution 1696 [PDF text, JURIST report]. Details of the bill are being finalized by the parliament's Commission on National Security and Foreign Policy, said commission spokesman Kazem Jalali.

On August 31, the IAEA confirmed [press release] that Iran had not taken steps to comply with the Security Council resolution, and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad [official profile, BBC profile] marked the deadline by expressing his country's defiance [JURIST report]. Negotiations are scheduled [AP report] between European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana [official profile] and top Iran negotiator Ali Larijani [BBC profile] in Vienna on Wednesday, and the five UN Security Council members and Germany will meet on Thursday to discuss the results. AP has more.

[JURIST] New York Times researcher Zhao Yan [HRIC profile, PDF; JURIST news archive] is appealing the three-year prison sentence [JURIST report] he received last week from a Beijing court that convicted him of fraud. Zhao was charged with accepting $2,500 from an official, and his appeal maintains that he was acting as a reporter when the incident took place. Zhao lawyer Guan Anping also contends that a key witness was not permitted to testify on Zhao's behalf. Initially filed on Monday, the appeal was rejected on the basis of a clerical error and resubmitted.

More serious charges of disclosing state secrets to the foreign media, which could have entailed 10 years in prison, were dismissed. Guan predicted that the Beijing High Court was unlikely to review those charges, although such a move is possible. The charges were based on a 2004 New York Times report involving the upcoming resignation of Chinese President Jiang Zemin. AP has more. The New York Times has additional coverage.

[JURIST] Danish police Tuesday charged seven men with planning a terror attack in the country after arresting them and two others in a raid on an Odense suburb [Danish Justice Ministry press release, in Danish] populated largely by immigrants. Justice Minister Lene Espersen [official profile] told AP that "the clues police found indicate that they were very likely planning an attack somewhere in Denmark." Danish authorities have been on heightened alert since an international furor erupted in February over the 2005 publication by a Danish paper of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad [JURIST news archive]. Espersen said it was unclear whether the alleged plot was related to the cartoons controversy in any way.

Danish officials did say, however, that law enforcement had been monitoring the group for some time and that Tuesday's raid was unconnected to an alleged terror plot to blow up trains in neighboring Germany, for which six suspects were charged [JURIST report] by Lebanese authorities on Saturday. AP has more.

[JURIST] US Bankruptcy Judge Adlai Hardin [official profile] Tuesday approved [Delta press release] a request by Delta Airlines [corporate website] to end its pension plan for pilots. Delta reached a settlement with a group of retired pilots on Monday, agreeing to pay $500,000 for fees and expenses if the group ceased its opposition to Delta's proposal to terminate the plan. In order to officially end the pension plan, Delta must still report to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. [official website].

Delta filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection [JURIST report: Delta materials] last year. The company filed to drop the pension plan in August, saying it had insufficient funds to cover it. The plan had offered pilots who retired half of their pension benefits in a lump sum. AP has more.

[JURIST] A lawsuit by former Australian Guantanamo detainee Mamdouh Habib [BBC profile] against the Australian government could become the first court challenge to new security secrecy laws passed in 2004 [text]. Australian prosecutors say that some of the evidence used in any trial of Habib's case may be secret, but Justice Rodney Madgwick noted in a preliminary hearing Tuesday that this could raise the constitutional issue of whether a designation by Australian Attorney General Philip Ruddock - also the defendant in Habib's case - could be challenged in court. In particular it appears that the laws might be deemed overbroad, as they allow for the "mere presence" of a certain witness to be a national security issue.

Habib was detained in 2001 Pakistan, Egypt, and Afghanistan, before being held at Guantanamo Bay for three years, where the US accused him of aiding terrorist militants. He was never charged by the US and was eventually released in 2005. The Sydney Morning Herald has more.

[JURIST] Two owners of a Louisiana nursing home who were charged [JURIST report] last year with negligent homicide for the deaths of 34 people [NYT report] in flooding caused by Hurricane Katrina [JURIST news archive] have sued a number of state and local government officials claiming that they did not evacuate residents at the home before the storm landed, the attorney for the owners announced Tuesday. While no grand jury proceedings have commenced against Salvador and Mabel Mangano, owners of the St. Rita's nursing home in St. Bernard Parish, their attorney maintains that if any liability should be attributed to the Manganos, it should be shared by the government.

Families of the victims have filed 34 civil lawsuits against the Manganos to date. The Manganos turned themselves in to authorities in Baton Rouge last year before the announcement of any criminal charges against them. AP more.

[JURIST] Leading Tuesday's international brief, Rwandan Justice Minister Tharcisse Karugarama has confirmed that the Rwandan Parliament [official website] would be presented a bill in December aimed at abolishing capital punishment in the African nation. The legislation, immensely unpopular with the majority of Rwandan citizens, is necessary to qualify Rwanda as a legally permitted partner in extradition proceedings [Interpol backgrounder] with European nations. Several European countries are currently holding alleged "masterminds" of the 1994 genocide and Rwanda has repeatedly requested that these individuals be extradited to face charges of genocide in Rwandan courts. The European Convention on Human Rights [official text], however, prevents extradition to countries that still allow the death penalty, preventing European governments from returning the suspects to stand trial. Karugarama said that the measure was necessary to obtain closure for the population of Rwanda, especially as the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda [official website] is scheduled to close at the end of 2008, though current estimates project that it will not have finished the trials of all the suspects it currently detains. The Rwandan government wants those suspects extradited from UN facilities in Tanzania to Rwanda, but the UN has refused to permit extradition as long as the death penalty is in place. The East African has local coverage.

In other international legal news...

• Sudanese officials have given the African Union [official website] until next Monday to declare whether they will remain committed to handing over the current Darfur peacekeeping mission to the UN or decide to stay in the region themselves. Sudan [government website, in Arabic; JURIST news archive] informed the AU that it will require complete removal of all African Union peacekeepers by the end of September if the regional organization continues to support the transfer of the peacekeeping mission to the UN, which Sudan has rejected as a valid overseer of the peacekeeping process. The Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs [government website] said that the government would be assuming responsibility for peacekeeping in the Darfur region [JURIST news archive] if the AU remains committed to handing over their peacekeeping role to the UN. The UN Security last week adopted a resolution [text; JURIST report] authorizing the deployment of UN peacekeeping troops to Darfur, but the resolution cannot take effect until the Sudanese government consents to the presence of the UN troops. The Sudan Tribune has local coverage.
  
  
• A Zimbabwean judge has found Zimbabwean Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa not guilty in his criminal case for obstruction of justice [JURIST report] on the grounds that the state had "failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt." Chinamasa, said to be a forerunner for the presidential office after the planned retirement of current Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe [JURIST news archive] in 2008, was charged with trying to prevent a prosecution witness from presenting testimony against Zimbabwean State Security Minister Didymus Mutasa. Zimbabwean Attorney General Sobuza Gula-Ndebele pushed for the prosecution of Chinamasa to preserve the integrity of the judicial system, while critics claimed the prosecution was motivated by the opposition between the two about who should sucked Mugabe. Minutes after the trial ended, the lead prosecutor received three different threatening phone calls, warning him of impending violence for pursuing the state's case. ZimOnline has local coverage.
  
  
• KB Gurung, head of the Nepali Congress, one of the major political parties involved in restructuring the Nepalese government, told protestors on Tuesday that he favored keeping the role of king as the head of state in a largely ceremonial position in the planned democracy. Gurung said that the role would be similar to that of other monarchs in Nepal's history that retained their position to ensure the continued peace and prosperity of the nation. The monarchy would be ceremonial but should have a clearly defined role laid out in the new constitution, a position that many Nepalese citizens dislike after protesting strongly [JURIST news archive] against King Gyanendra's heavy-handed rule during the declared state of emergency. The main factions involved in the drafting of the proposed constitution [PDF text, in Nepali; JURIST report] have yet to agree on the level of involvement [JURIST report] the monarchy should have in the new government. NepalNews.com has local coverage.

[JURIST] An Indonesian court on Tuesday handed down the first sentence in connection to the 2005 Bali bombings [BBC report] of three restaurants, which killed two dozen people and injured 200 others. Abdul Aziz, convicted of harboring Noordin Mohammed Top [Wikipedia profile], a suspected terrorist linked to other bombings, was sentenced to eight years in prison. Prosecutors are also seeking jail terms of up to 15 years for the other three Islamic militants arrested [JURIST report] in connection with the bombings. Prosecutors sought a minimum 10-year sentence for Aziz, but judges gave a more lenient sentence due to the 30-year-old's showing of remorse and relative young age.

Noordin Top, along with Azahari Husin [Wikipedia profile], are leading figures in the terrorist group Jemaah Islamiah [BBC profile], which is suspected of several other bombings in Indonesia. The group has been blamed for the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings [BBC report] that killed more than 50 people. AP has more. The Australian has additional coverage.

[JURIST] Mexico's Federal Electoral Tribunal [official website, in Spanish] on Tuesday certified Felipe Calderon [campaign website, in Spanish; Wikipedia profile] as the winner of Mexico's disputed July 2 presidential election [JURIST news archive]. Calderon's opponent, leftist candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador [campaign website, in Spanish; Wikipedia profile], who argued before the court that preliminary results [JURIST report] giving Calderon a victory by just 0.6 percent of the vote were marred by fraud [JURIST report], has already promised to ignore the ruling and has said that he will refuse to recognize Calderon as winner. Earlier Tuesday, court president Leonel Castillo recommended [Reuters report] that the judges vote to approve a final tally that gave Calderon the lead by 233,831 votes. In earlier rulings, the court rejected most of Lopez Obrador's challenges [JURIST report], ruling there was no evidence of systematic fraud. The decision to certify Calderon as president-elect is final and cannot be appealed.

Lopez Obrador over the weekend indicated he plans to organize a constitutional convention [JURIST report] to draft a new constitution, saying Mexico's current constitution [text] is in need of a "radical transformation." Lopez Obrador has said that he will introduce an "alternative government," of which he will serve as president, at a rally scheduled for September 16, Mexico's Independence Day. AP has more.

[JURIST] The Iraqi National Assembly [official website] voted on Tuesday to renew the country's state of emergency, in place since November 2004 [JURIST report], for an additional 30 days. The emergency measures are applicable throughout the country, except for the northern autonomous Kurdish region. After a month long summer recess, 180 out of the 275-member parliament voted 161-19 to extend the measures. Several lawmakers raised doubts about the validity of the vote, questioning the required parliamentary procedures as outlined in the 2005 national constitution [PDF text].

The emergency measures call for a civilian curfew and a total ban on the carrying of arms. In addition, the government has authorization to issue any military orders to enforce security in rebel territories and make arrests without warrants when it deems them necessary. AP has more. VOI has local coverage.

[JURIST] The Foreign Affairs Committee [official website] of the European Parliament [official website] approved a report Monday taking Turkey to task for slow progress on a variety of legal and other reforms agreed to by Ankara as part of its bid [EU backgrounder] for membership in the European Union [JURIST news archive]. Among other things, Turkey was criticized [press release] for its “persistent shortcomings in areas such as freedom of expression, religious and minority rights, the role of the military, policing, women’s rights, trade union rights and cultural rights.” The parliamentary committee also called for Turkey to acknowledge responsibility for the Armenian genocide [JURIST news archive] that took place during World War One, an admission Turkey has until now rejected. On the positive side, however, the report also acknowledged Turkey’s progress [EU Observer report] in opening the first chapter of EU legislation, introducing new laws to fight corruption and broadcasting in minority Kurdish.

The text of the report will be debated by the full European Union Parliament [official website] in September and a formal progress report on Turkey’s accession progress is due on October 24; the EU has urged Turkey to make tangible improvements by that time. The European Union Parliament has never vetoed a past accession bid but if the reform process is not “reinvigorated,” the accession talks could be placed on hold. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Federal prosecutors have asked that a judge sentence civil rights lawyer Lynne Stewart [defense website] to 30 years in prison, saying that Stewart's "egregious, flagrant abuse of her profession ... deserves to be severely punished." Stewart was convicted [JURIST report; JURIST video] of conspiracy and providing material support to terrorists [18 USC 2339A text] for helping imprisoned Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman [Wikipedia profile] communicate with his terrorist followers. Stewart was also convicted of defrauding the government for violating rules that had been put in place to prevent Abdel-Rahman from communicating with the outside world following his 1995 conviction of seditious conspiracy for plotting to blow up several New York city landmarks. A federal judge upheld Stewart's conviction [JURIST report] late last year, dismissing her arguments that Abdel-Rahman was engaging in protected speech when he expressed opinions about an Egyptian ceasefire which Stewart passed along in a press release.

In court documents filed last week, prosecutors wrote that Stewart's conduct reflected "a pattern of purposeful and willful conduct, in which she played a central role in repeated fraudulent attempts to pass messages to and from Abdel-Rahman." Stewart's lawyers have said that the judge should consider Stewart's long record of working on behalf of indigent clients and that a harsh sentence should be avoided as it will discourage other lawyers from defending notorious clients. A sentencing hearing in the case is scheduled for October 16. AP has more.

[JURIST] UK Home Secretary John Reid [official profile] has promised to go ahead with Tuesday's planned deportations of 32 Iraqis who sought asylum in the UK, saying that only a court injunction will prevent the plane carrying the Iraqis from leaving and that his office "may decide not to defer removal" despite last-minute applications for judicial review. This is believed to be the first instance in which a British government minister has insisted that asylum seekers be deported while legal challenges to their deportations still remain. In a letter to the judge presiding over appeals while the UK High Court is on break for the summer, Reid wrote that "it is essential that these removals are not disrupted or delayed by large numbers of last-minute claims for permission to seek judicial review," referencing concerns over the "complexities, practicalities and costs" in arranging special charter flights to transport the asylum seekers back to Iraq.

A High Court judge warned last year that forcible returns of failed asylum seekers to Iraq could be unlawful [JURIST report] and rights groups have previously said that UK plans to deport Iraqi asylum seekers would violate international human rights and refugee law [Amnesty press release]. The UK Foreign Office [official website] has warned British citizens against traveling to Iraq [FCO notice] for all but essential purposes due to the unstable security situation, but Home Office officials have said that security concerns are not applicable across all of Iraq. Britain's Refugee Council [advocacy website] said Tuesday that it "isn't possible under these circumstances to guarantee the safety of anyone returned" to Iraq and called for the government to grant the asylum seekers temporary status [press release] until it is safe to return to Iraq. The Guardian has more.

The deportation of asylum seekers has been a controversial issue in Britain recently; in May, UK Attorney General Lord Goldsmith [official profile] said that the British government will ask the European Court of Human Rights to review a long-standing ban [JURIST report] against EU countries deporting individuals to countries where they would be at risk of torture or death, a practice known in international law by the French term refoulement [backgrounder]. Goldsmith's announcement followed a High Court ruling [JURIST document] to grant asylum to nine Afghans who had hijacked a plane to a UK airport but who could not be safely returned. That ruling was upheld on appeal [JURIST report] last month. Also last month, the UK Asylum and Immigration Tribunal [official website] overturned a previous decision [JURIST report] putting a stop to deportations of Zimbabwean asylum seekers because they faced a "real risk of serious harm" if deported. The AIT allowed deportations to Zimbabwe to resume [JURIST report] in August.