[JURIST] Back from their summer recess, US House and Senate lawmakers are considering bills this week that address the legality of the Bush administration's domestic surveillance program [JURIST news archive], which involves warrantless wiretapping by the National Security Agency [official website]. The House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security [official website] Wednesday considered [hearing materials] a bill [summary] proposed by US Rep. Heather Wilson [official website] (R-NM) Wednesday. Wilson's legislation would update the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act [text], most notably increasing the time period in which the government can conduct surveillance before obtaining a secret warrant from three to five days. US Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-PA) [official website] has sponsored one of several bills to be taken up in committee Thursday which would increase the secret warrant time limit from three to seven days and require progress reports from the US attorney general twice a year.

Acting Assistant Attorney General Steven Bradbury [SourceWatch profile] said President Bush has tentatively offered his support for the Republican legislation to be introduced in the House and Senate. AP has more.

[JURIST] The Belgrade District Court [official website] announced Wednesday that a new presiding judge has been named in the trial of 13 suspects charged with the March 2003 assassination [JURIST report] of former Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic [BBC obituary; memorial website]. Judge Nata Mesarovic will fill the presiding judge position, vacated by Judge Nata Mesarovic last week without comment, when the trial resumes Thursday. Rumors have circulated in Serbia that the defense put pressure on Mesarovic, prompting his resignation. The trial can not extend to a fourth year, or the suspects will be released. AP has more.

The 13 alleged assassins reportedly had ties to former leader Slobodan Milosevic [JURIST news archive]. In May, one of the suspects, Zvezdan Jovanovic, claimed [JURIST report] he was impermissibly forced to sign a confession to Djindjic's murder.

[JURIST] Twenty-eight days after initially detaining five British Muslim men among almost two dozen others arrested early last month in connection with an alleged terror plot [JURIST report] to blow up US-bound planes over the Atlantic, Scotland Yard [official website] has formally charged two of the still-jailed suspects, Donald Douglas Stewart Whyte and Muhammed Usman Saddique, with "preparing an act of terrorism." Police released a third suspect Wednesday and continued to hold the final two as the legal deadline to either charge or release the suspects approached. The Terrorism Act of 2006 [text] allows British law enforcement officials to detain and question suspected terrorists for up to 28 days before the suspects must be either charged with a crime or released. A total of 17 suspects have now been formally charged for their alleged ties to the terrorist plot.

A High Court judge in London granted British police [JURIST report] a final seven-day extension last week, which allowed for the continued detention of the five suspects until Wednesday, marking the longest detention [JURIST report] to date of suspects under the new Terrorism Act. British Home Secretary John Reid [official profile; BBC profile] indicated recently that he will appeal to British members of parliament to increase the maximum permissible detention period. AP has more.

[JURIST] US District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer Wednesday sentenced former Illinois Governor George Ryan [Wikipedia profile; defense website] to 6 1/2 years imprisonment after dropping 2 of the 18 counts against him, holding that there was not enough evidence to convict Ryan on those charges. Defense attorneys stated that a term of 2 years or less was appropriate due to Ryan's age and poor health; however, the prosecution maintained that a sentence less than 8 to 10 years would be inappropriate.

Ryan's trial [JURIST report] began last year. In April, a jury found him guilty [JURIST report] on multiple counts of corruption and fraud [indictment, PDF] in connection with a bribes-for-licenses scandal that occurred during Ryan's term as Illinois Secretary of State. The Chicago Tribune has more. Ryan made national headlines and won praise in some quarters in January 2003 when just before leaving office he commuted the executions of all Illinois inmates then on death row [CNN file report; Ryan speech]. At his sentencing hearing, Ryan asked the court to balance his faults against the good he said he had done.

[JURIST] US President Bush on Wednesday presented the Military Commissions Act of 2006 [PDF text; White House fact sheet], proposed legislation that would authorize military commissions [JURIST news archive] for terror detainees and enemy combatants. The Bush administration agreed to work with Congress [JURIST report] to authorize military commissions for terror detainees after the US Supreme Court ruled in June in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld [opinion text] that military commissions as initially constituted lacked proper legal authorization [JURIST report]. According to Bush's message to Congress [text]:

This draft legislation responds to the Supreme Court of the United States decision in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, 126 S. Ct. 2749 (2006), by establishing for the first time in our Nation's history a comprehensive statutory structure for military commissions that would allow for the fair and effective prosecution of captured members of al Qaeda and other unlawful enemy combatants. The Act also addresses the Supreme Court's holding that Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions applies to the conflict with al Qaeda by providing definitions rooted in United States law for the standards of conduct prescribed by Common Article 3.

The military commission procedures contained in this draft legislation reflect the result of an extended deliberation both within the executive branch and between representatives of my Administration and Members of Congress. The draft legislation would establish a Code of Military Commissions that tracks the courts-martial procedures of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, but that departs from those procedures where they would be impracticable or inappropriate for the trial of unlawful enemy combatants captured in the midst of an ongoing armed conflict, under circumstances far different from those typically encountered by military prosecutors.

Five years after the mass murders of 9/11, it is time for the United States to begin to prosecute captured al Qaeda members for the serious crimes that many of them have committed against United States citizens and our allies abroad. As we provide terrorists the justice and due process that they denied their victims, we demonstrate that our Nation remains committed to the rule of law.

[JURIST] Leading Wednesday's international brief, a spokesperson for the International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website] has told the Ugandan paper Daily Monitor [media website] that the ICC would make no move to cooperate with demands by Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) [MIPT backgrounder] rebels wanting a cancellation of ICC indictments in exchange for surrendering to authorities. Since the demands on Tuesday, the ICC has come under pressure to permit the amnesty of the five LRA leaders, with many critics arguing that, while the indictments may serve justice, they are keeping peace from finally coming to the war-torn region. Christian Palme from the ICC Office of the Prosecutor [official website] said that the ICC would not heed calls by LRA second-in-command Vincent Otti [MIPT profile], who issued a statement that no LRA fighters would surrender until the indictments were lifted, and would only consider such a proposal after the successful completion of a peace agreement. The ICC is dependent upon local law enforcement to capture and extradite its indicted suspects, as it has no police force of its own. Uganda's Daily Monitor has local coverage.

In other international legal news ...

• Lawyers for former South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma [party profile] told the court hearing his case today that the corruption charges brought against Zuma [JURIST report] were unconstitutional and should be dismissed. Zuma's defense team told the court that the decision of the South African National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) [official website] to reopen investigation into and consideration of corruption charges against Zuma required that the agency contact Zuma and permit him to respond. According to the lawyers, the NPA's lack of contact and Zuma's lack of opportunity to respond represents a constitutional breach of Zuma's rights and that the case has thus been irretrievably biased against Zuma. The NPA and state prosecutor are asking for a postponement to handle the volume of material gathered during their investigation of Zuma, as well as to address issues raised by the appeal of Schabir Shaik, Zuma's former financial advisor, against his criminal conviction [JURIST report]. The Mail & Guardian Online has local coverage.
  
  
• UN Secretary General Kofi Annan [official profile] has warned the Sudanese government that it alone would bear the responsibility for the pending humanitarian crisis in the country's Darfur region [JURIST news archive] if they refuse to permit the African Union (AU) [official website] to hand over control of the current peacekeeping mission to a UN peacekeeping force approved by the Security Council [JURIST report]. Annan's warning was a response to Monday's declaration by Sudanese officials [JURIST report] that if the AU peacekeeping force remained committed to handing over control of the mission, Sudan would require the withdrawal of all AU forces from the region by the end of September. Critics of the Sudanese government allege that officials want time to finish off rebel forces before peacekeepers arrive and that certain Sudanese officials fear the possibility of being tracked down and arrested for prosecution before the International Criminal Court [official website] for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. The Sudan Tribune has local coverage.
  
  
• Amnesty International [advocacy website] has released a report [text] alleging the Turkish government [Ministry of Foreign Affairs website] has continued to apply its anti-terrorism laws in contravention of the European Convention on Human Rights [text, PDF], despite holdings by the European Court on Human Rights (ECHR)[official website] requiring retrials for several individuals in Turkish custody. The report cites continuing criminal cases against individuals arrested as long ago as 1993, as well as the use of evidence obtained through torture in Turkey's Heavy Penal Courts. The report also claims that judges are violating procedural protections meant to ensure a fair trial for defendants and are often sitting in judgment of the same case they presided over prior to the ECHR's ruling requiring new trials. The report comes at a crucial time when the Council of Europe is considering Turkey's human rights record in preparation for potential accession to the European Union. Read the official press release from Amnesty International.

[JURIST] The Shiite United Iraqi Alliance [BBC profile] presented a draft plan for dictating the division of Iraq into autonomous regions to the Iraq National Assembly [official website] on Wednesday. The draft law reportedly provides for autonomy for the Shiite-majority south and recognizes the existing autonomy of the three northern Kurdish provinces. This arrangement possibly leaves the Sunni Arabs, who comprise most of the population of the oil- and resource-scarce center of the country, without access to Iraq's oil-generated wealth. The draft law is subject to parliamentary review, but Shiite and Kurdish members dominate the Assembly.

The Assembly voted Tuesday to renew the country's state of emergency [JURIST report], in place since November 2004 [JURIST report] and calling for a civilian curfew and a total ban on the carrying of arms, for an additional 30 days. AFP has more.

[JURIST] The highest court in the Netherlands, the Hoge Raad der Nederlanden [official website, in Dutch; Wikipedia backgrounder], on Tuesday affirmed the use of intelligence information in terror prosecutions by sustaining the convictions of three defendants charged with terrorist activity. The court also said that intelligence information could be used as a basis for an investigation, search and arrest. Although such evidence is generally admissible, judges are empowered to make case-by-case rulings on admissibility, accounting for verification of the evidence and following European human rights law.

The three were originally acquitted in 2002 because the intelligence information was ruled inadmissible due to questions of improper acquisition by intelligence authorities. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] A Danish court on Wednesday ordered the detention of two men arrested during a police raid on an Odense suburb [Danish Justice Ministry press release, in Danish] on Tuesday morning. The court determined that there was enough evidence to hold the two for four weeks while the investigation into an alleged terror plot continues, but ruled that the five others arrested must be released within three days unless the prosecution can compile more evidence against them. Troels Oerting Joergensen, a senior member of the Danish Security Intelligence Service (PET) [official website], stated that officials were "satisfied that we have been able to get the main suspects jailed."

The seven men were charged [JURIST report] on Tuesday in connection with an alleged terror plot with the target somewhere in Denmark. It is unclear whether the alleged plot was related to the worldwide controversy over cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad [JURIST news archive] published by a Danish newspaper in 2005 which in early 2006 prompted attacks on Danish embassies abroad. AP has more.

[JURIST] US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales [official profile; JURIST news archive] Tuesday identified increasing financial costs in the war on terrorism as the reason that additional federal funding for local and state law enforcement is not forthcoming. Mayors and police chiefs for several US cities have criticized the lack of federal spending on law enforcement at the state and local level, citing the Preliminary Annual Crime Report [FBI press release] released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) [official website] in June. The report indicated a 2.5 percent increase in violent crimes across the nation, which is the largest jump since 1991. Responding to their concerns, Gonzales did suggest that law enforcement could expect greater support from federal enforcement agencies.

The FBI has so far declined to confirm whether the increase in violent crime represents a typical annual increase or an irregular jump in crime signalling a deeper problem with law enforcement. AP has more.

[JURIST] US President Bush on Wednesday acknowledged [speech transcript] that the US Central Intelligence Agency [official website] has operated secret prisons outside the US where high-value terror suspects [DNI backgrounder, PDF] were detained, and said that 14 of those suspects [DNI profiles, PDF] have now been transferred to the Defense Department's military prison at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] where they will face trial. The suspects transferred to Guantanamo include alleged Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed [BBC profile] as well as key al Qaeda members suspected of designing the bombings of the USS Cole and US embassies in Africa. Bush said that it was necessary to keep the "small number" of detainees in secret facilities where they could be "questioned by experts and - when appropriate - prosecuted for terrorist acts" due to the threat posed by the detainees or because they may possess "intelligence that we and our allies need to have to prevent new attacks."

Bush also stressed that US Justice Department and CIA lawyers have determined that program complies with US law, saying:

This program has been subject to multiple legal reviews by the Department of Justice and CIA lawyers; they've determined it complied with our laws. This program has received strict oversight by the CIA's Inspector General. A small number of key leaders from both political parties on Capitol Hill were briefed about this program. All those involved in the questioning of the terrorists are carefully chosen and they're screened from a pool of experienced CIA officers. Those selected to conduct the most sensitive questioning had to complete more than 250 additional hours of specialized training before they are allowed to have contact with a captured terrorist.

I want to be absolutely clear with our people, and the world: The United States does not torture. It's against our laws, and it's against our values. I have not authorized it -- and I will not authorize it. Last year, my administration worked with Senator John McCain, and I signed into law the Detainee Treatment Act, which established the legal standard for treatment of detainees wherever they are held. I support this act. And as we implement this law, our government will continue to use every lawful method to obtain intelligence that can protect innocent people, and stop another attack like the one we experienced on September the 11th, 2001.

The CIA program has detained only a limited number of terrorists at any given time -- and once we've determined that the terrorists held by the CIA have little or no additional intelligence value, many of them have been returned to their home countries for prosecution or detention by their governments. Others have been accused of terrible crimes against the American people, and we have a duty to bring those responsible for these crimes to justice. So we intend to prosecute these men, as appropriate, for their crimes.

[JURIST] A new US Army Field Manual on intelligence interrogations [Human Intelligence Collector Operations text, PDF] released [US Army press release] Wednesday specifies that the Geneva Conventions [ICRC materials] apply to all detainees and eliminates separate standards for the questioning of prisoners of war and enemy combatants [JURIST news archive]. The new manual also abandons plans to keep specific interrogation techniques classified [JURIST report]. Military officials said in June that the revised manual would not contain a classified section [JURIST report], despite warnings from some in the Department of Defense that disclosing certain techniques would undermine the ability of interrogators to extract information. Members of Congress and the State Department had expressed concern about the possibility of including classified techniques, saying that it would cast doubt on US compliance with the Geneva Conventions and raise suspicions that the US was allowing torture.

The specific reference to the Geneva Conventions marks a departure from previous drafts of the revised manual, which omitted references [JURIST report] to common Article 3 [text] of the Conventions. Pentagon officials had been concerned that including references to Article 3, which bans "cruel treatment and torture" and "humiliating and degrading treatment" of detainees, could allow established interrogation techniques, such as segregating detainees or questioning a male detainee's manhood, to be challenged in US courts. After the US Supreme Court's June ruling in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld [text; JURIST report], however, the Pentagon said that the Geneva Conventions would be applied to all detainees [DOD memo, PDF; JURIST report] held in US military custody around the world, reversing the Defense Department's policy of classifying detainees as "enemy combatants" outside the protections of Article 3.

The new field manual and accompanying policy directives will apply to all detainees and interrogators in military facilities, as well as to CIA prisoners held at DOD facilities. CIA interrogators working from foreign facilities are not bound by the field manual, but they are barred from treating prisoners inhumanely under the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 [JURIST document]. Wednesday's Los Angeles Times has more.

[JURIST] A federal judge in Argentina [JURIST news archive] Tuesday ruled unconstitutional a presidential pardon extended to Jorge Rafael Videla [Wikipedia profile], who prosecutors say led Argentina's military junta during the worst periods of the so-called "Dirty War" [Globalsecurity.org backgrounder] crackdown on dissidents between 1976 and 1983 that resulted in an official "missing" count of 13,000 people. Videla was tried and convicted in 1985 along with eight other junta leaders on abduction, torture, and murder charges, but was pardoned in 1990 by former president Carlos Menem [BBC profile]. On Monday, the same judge ruled two other pardons unconstitutional. Videla, who is accused of "disappearing" a businessman and his son between 1976 and 1977, is expected to appeal the ruling to the Argentina Supreme Court [official website, in Spanish].

Last year, the Supreme Court annulled controversial amnesty laws [JURIST report] passed in the 1980s aimed at easing the national transition from a dictatorship to a democracy by protecting low-ranking security officers from prosecution for possible Dirty War crimes. In August, an Argentine court convicted [JURIST report] a former police officer of human rights violations during the Dirty War, and arrested three others [JURIST report]. The trial of another former official, who was the first to stand trial [JURIST report] since the laws were annulled, is still underway [JURIST report]. AP has more.

[JURIST] The Court of Appeals of Virginia [court website], the state's second-highest court, upheld the nation's first felony conviction for computer spamming on Tuesday, ruling that Virginia's anti-spamming statute [text] does not violate the First Amendment or the so-called Dormant Commerce Clause, and is not unconstitutionally vague. On appeal, admitted spammer Jeremy Jaynes [Wikipedia profile] argued that the Virginia statute violates the US Constitution [text] because the First Amendment protects anonymous free speech, and that the Dormant Commerce Clause [academic backgrounder] extends to the federal government exclusive jurisdiction over electronic transactions that took place, in part, outside of Virginia.

In its ruling [PDF text], the court wrote:

The statute criminalizes the intentional falsification of a sender's identity so as to gain access to a service provider's network. Thus, the statute does not prevent anonymous speech, as appellant argues, but prohibits trespassing on private computer networks through intentional misrepresentation, an activity that merits no First Amendment protection.

That anti-spam laws, in general, produce local benefits is unquestionable...[and] Congress, in enacting CAN-SPAM, expressly accorded the States the right to regulate false and misleading e-mail transmissions...any burden to interstate commerce is incidental and clearly not excessive.

[JURIST] Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador [campaign website, in Spanish; BBC profile], the defeated Mexican presidential candidate, said Tuesday that he refused to recognize the officially-declared victory of president-elect Felipe Calderon [campaign website, in Spanish; BBC profile] and confirmed plans to establish a parallel government [press release, in Spanish] representing what he called a "true, authentic republic." Lopez Obrador rejected Tuesday's decision by the Federal Electoral Tribunal [official website, in Spanish] to certify Calderon as the winner [JURIST report] of the disputed July 2 presidential election [JURIST news archive] in which the court largely dismissed his allegations of fraud. The tribunal's certification of Calderon as president-elect is final and cannot be appealed.

Calderon, meanwhile, promised to unify the country [BBC report], saying that he would incorporate many of his opponents' ideas into his government's agenda and would work to fight crime, reduce poverty and improve the economy. AP has more. El Universal has local coverage, in Spanish.