[JURIST] Two Kuwaiti nationals held for four years in the US military prison in Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive], Cuba, are set to be sent home to stand trial, the head of the Kuwaiti Family Committee [advocacy website], a group lobbying for the release of Kuwaiti detainees, said Sunday. The two prisoners to be released have been identified as Omar Rajab Amin, 39, and Abdullah Kamel al-Kandari, 33 [Project Kuwaiti Freedom profiles].

Some 12 Kuwaitis have been detained in Guantanamo Bay since the US ousted the Taliban from Afghanistan [JURIST news archive] in 2001. Five were released [JURIST report] in November 2005 and then acquitted [JURIST report] by a court in Kuwait in May 2006. It is unclear when exactly the remaining Kuwaitis will be released, although Kuwait's Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah [BBC profile] met with US President Bush at the White House last week to discuss the matter. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] CIA operatives taking over the interrogation of captured top al Qaeda operative Abu Zubaydah [BBC News backgrounder] from FBI agents in 2002 had him stripped, exposed to extreme cold and subjected to loud rock music in an effort to extract sensitive information, the New York Times reported Sunday. The interrogation of Zubaydah at a secret safe-house in Thailand prompted tension between the two agencies and laid the foundation for the CIA secret prisons system [JURIST news archive], the existence which was only disclosed by President Bush [JURIST news archive] last week.

The Times says FBI [official website] officials initially used standard interrogation tactics to get information from Zubaydah when CIA [official website] operatives presented a classified directive signed by President Bush on Sept. 17, 2001, which authorized the CIA to detain and interrogate prisoners using more aggressive techniques. It's unclear whether the harsher tactics resulted in more useful information or if the standard measures were working. Bush denied having authorized torture in his Wednesday speech. AFP has more.

[JURIST] Palestinian refugees in Iraq face danger from Shiite militias [CFR backgrounder] and harassment from the Iraqi government, Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] said in a new report [text; press release] released Sunday. The monitoring group found that the security of the approximately 34,000 Palestinian refugees in Iraq [JURIST news archive] has drastically deteriorated since the fall of Saddam Hussein's government in April 2003: "Militant groups, mostly Shi`a, have targeted this predominantly Sunni minority community, attacking their communal buildings, committing several dozen murders, and threatening harm unless they immediately leave Iraq." HRW said the Iraqi government has done little to protect the refugees but has instead subjected them to "extremely burdensome registration requirements" which requires them to constantly renew short-term residency permits.

The report points out that since the bombing of the Shiite Askariyya mosque [Washington Post report] in Samarra on February 22, attacks on Palestinian refugees by Shiite militias have intensified as more than a dozen refugees have been murdered. HRW has called on Syria and Jordan to open their borders to Palestinian refugees and is urging the international community to provide those countries with financial assistance. AFP has more.

[JURIST] China Sunday released new media regulations [text] governing the domestic release of news and information by foreign news agencies. The regulations give China's official Xinhua News Agency [official website] ultimate rights of approval over the distribution and release of foreign news content in China [JURIST news archive]. The new rules designate foreign news agencies as agents of Xinhua and are subject to an annual review. Xinhua is specifically granted the right to ban [Xinhua report] all news content that will "undermine China's national unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity" or "endanger China's national security, reputation and interests."

The measures come in the wake of several other high-profile steps taken by Chinese authorities in recent months to limit free expression and silence dissent. These include:

• the conviction of Ching Cheong [advocacy website; Wikipedia profile], chief China correspondent for Singapore's Straits Times [media website], sentenced to five years [JURIST report] in jail after being convicted on charges of selling state secrets and spying for Taiwan [BBC report]
  
  
• the conviction [JURIST report] of Zhao Yan [HRIC profile, PDF], a former New York Times researcher, on fraud charges but who was also initially indicted for providing state secrets [JURIST report] to foreigners
  
  
• a crackdown on US Internet companies that prompted them to be accused [JURIST report] in the West of complying with so-called "Internet oppression"; and
  
  
• the jailing of Chinese journalists [JURIST report] for inciting subversion.

[JURIST] Former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami [BBC profile] has been served with a summons for a lawsuit by a group of Jewish Iranians while on a two-week visit to the United States [VOA report]. The lawsuit was filed Thursday in federal court in New York by seven families, located in Los Angeles and Israel, who claim that the Iranian government kidnapped and tortured other now-missing family members between 1994 and 1997 while they were trying to flee Iran [JURIST news archive] for Pakistan. The suit, which names 12 missing Iranians, requires Khatami to respond within 20 days.

The plaintiffs are allowed to sue using the Alien Tort Claims Act [text] which grants US district courts original jurisdiction of "any civil action by an alien for a tort only, committed in violation of the law of nations or a treaty of the United States" and the Torture Victims Protection Act of 1991 [text] which establishes a civil action "for recovery of damages from an individual who engages in torture or extrajudicial killing." AP has more.

[JURIST] UN humanitarian coordinator Jan Egeland [official profile] said on a visit to a refugee camp in northern Uganda Saturday that indicted leaders of the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive] should be brought before the International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website] despite a recent offer of amnesty [JURIST report] by the Ugandan government [official website] in exchange for their agreement to a truce and their willingness to sign a comprehensive peace agreement. The ICC has come under pressure [JURIST report] to drop its indictments of five LRA leaders, with many critics arguing that, while the writs may technically serve justice, they are keeping peace from finally coming to the war-torn region. Last week a court spokesperson told a Ugandan paper that the ICC would not pull the indictments [JURIST news archive] at the LRA's behest.

Joseph Kony [BBC profile] was indicted by the ICC [JURIST report; PDF arrest warrant] along with Vincent Otti [MIPT profile] and three other 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 the Ugandan government. AFP has more.