[JURIST] Portugal's Parliament [official website, in Portuguese] Thursday approved holding a national referendum allowing voters to decide on making abortion legal up until the 10th week of pregnancy. Current Portuguese abortion law [text, in Portuguese] allows the procedure up until the 12th week of pregnancy, but only in cases of rape, fetal malformation, or risk to the mother’s health. Parliamentary approval of the referendum comes only a month after the ruling Socialist Party [party website, in Portuguese] first proposed it [JURIST report]. Before a date for the vote is set, both President Cavaco Silva [official website, in Portuguese] and the Constitutional Court [official website, in Portuguese] of the conservative Catholic country must formally approve it.

Portugal, which has one of the most restrictive abortion laws in Europe, has made several unsuccessful attempts in the last 10 years to ease restrictions on abortion, so success is by no means guaranteed. In 1998, a referendum on legalizing abortion was declared void due to low voter turnout, yet there was a slight majority voting against the referendum. A second referendum was proposed in November, 2005, but the Constitutional Court held that the vote could not be held [JURIST report] before September of this year, because the same referendum had been rejected in current legislature by the now-former president. A referendum result can only be valid only if 50 percent of Portugal's registered voters cast ballots. Although affluent Portuguese women can travel to abortion clinics in Spain, abortion rights groups estimate that approximately 10,000 Portuguese women are hospitalized each year from complications to failed backstreet procedures. AP has more.

[JURIST] International Committee of the Red Cross [advocacy website] President Jakob Kellenberger [ICRC profile] said Thursday that certain provisions of the newly-signed [JURIST report] Military Commissions Act of 2006 (MCA) [PDF text; S 3930 summary] are too vague and could weaken protections guaranteed under the Geneva Conventions [ICRC materials]. In an interview [transcript], Kellenberger expressed particular concern with the Act's broad definition of "unlawful enemy combatant" and the lack of an express prohibition on using evidence obtained through coercion. He also highlighted the importance of preserving the integrity of Common Article 3 [text] of the Conventions, which he said that the act does not fully accept, omitting some violations such as a prohibition of humiliating and degrading treatment, and a prohibition of the denial of a right to a fair trial.

The Bush Administration has promoted the MCA [White House fact sheet] as a law that will save American lives, primarily by allowing the CIA's prisoner interrogation program to keep operating. On Wednesday US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales insisted once again [JURIST report] that the measure provides every suspect with a full and fair trial, consistent with America's obligations under international and domestic law. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The New York State Supreme Court [official website] Thursday ordered former New York Stock Exchange [corporate website] chairman Richard A. Grasso [BBC profile] to pay back a major portion of the compensation paid to him while he held that position between 1995 and 2003. Justice Charles E. Ramos [official profile] held that Grasso "failed in [his] duty" to keep the other directors appraised of his ballooning compensation package. Ramos' opinion [PDF] also rejected Grasso's claim to a $95 million severance package and his countersuit against current NYSE chair John S. Reed [Wikipedia profile]. The New York state attorney general's office now says that Grasso must pay back over $80 million.

For the past 3 years, Grasso has fought [JURIST report] New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer [official profile] over Grasso's controversial $139.5 million dollar compensation arrangement. Spitzer has contended [complaint] that the amount was unreasonably high and violated state non-profit law. Grasso has countered that his fellow directors were aware of his pay and approved it. Ramos' ruling that "Year after year, [the other directors] made decisions to pay [Grasso] without knowing his true compensation.” would seem to severely undercut Grasso's defense. Spitzer's charge regarding New York's not-for-profit law is scheduled to be addressed in a subsequent trial this fall, but those proceedings are now likely to be delayed while this decision is appealed. Two of Ramos' other decisions in the case have been similarly delayed [JURIST report]. The New York Times has more.

[JURIST] A Superior Court of Ontario judge Thursday threw out part of a secrecy law invoked to search a reporter's home for the source of the story she published on Maher Arar [advocacy website; CBC timeline]. Juliet O'Neill [CBC interview], a journalist with the Ottawa Citizen [official website] newspaper, had her home raided [Reuters report] in 2004 after she published a story in 2003 about Arar, the Canadian citizen who on suspicion of being linked to Al Qaeda was deported from the US to Syria in 2002 and tortured there. The legal authority for searching O'Neill's garbage, monitoring her emails, conducting surveillance, and the search warrant for her house came from provisions of the Security of Information Act [CSIS backgrounder; text] passed as part of a wide-ranging anti-terrorism law three months after the Sept. 11 attacks [JURIST news archive] in the US.

Justice Lynn Ratushny said the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) [official website] used the criminal charges as a tool to uncover O'Neill's confidential sources and cast a chill over the entire media, "The RCMP was entitled to enforce the Security of Information Act against O'Neill, but when it did, it's purpose was an abuse. Given the importance of freedom of expression and the press in our democracy, this is conduct that has caused great prejudice to those freedoms." Ratushny also questioned the vagueness of the anti-leakage provisions in the Act, stating: "In their present state, the impugned sections give the state the ability to arbitrarily protect whatever information it chooses to classify as 'secret official' or 'official' or unauthorized for disclosure - and to punish by way of a criminal offence those 'speakers,' 'receivers' and 'listeners' who come within that protected sphere." The court's decision is seen as a landmark victory for the freedom of press in Canada.

Arar [JURIST news archive] was detained in 2002 during a layover at New York's JFK airport on a flight home to Canada from Tunisia; he was detained by US immigration officials for two weeks and then deported on a US government plane to Jordan and then taken to Syria, where he was born. Arar alleged he was deported so that he could be tortured in Syria, where he eventually made false admissions of terrorist activity. He was released from Syrian custody in 2003. The official Arar Commission [official website] inquiry concluded [commission materials] in September that the US "very likely" acted upon inaccurate and misleading information [JURIST report] about Arar provided by the RCMP. AP has more.

[JURIST] The US Defense Department Office of the Inspector General [official website] has concluded that the US military's use of a propaganda program in Iraq was legal, a Pentagon spokesman said Thursday. While the program involved planting and paying for favorable news about US operations in Iraqi newspapers, the IG report - not yet publicly available - concludes that no laws or regulations on psychological operations were broken. The IG investigated three contracts awarded to the Lincoln Group [official website], a Washington DC based public relations firm, which call for Lincoln to monitor English and Arabic media outlets and produce talking points and speeches to be used by US forces in Iraq. Lincoln was embroiled in controversy last year when news surfaced that Lincoln worked with the US military to run positive stories [NYT report] about the US occupation of Iraq. US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld [official profile] has defended the military's use of "nontraditional means" while Gen. Peter Pace [official profile], chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has questioned the program, saying people should know whether what they are reading is done by an independent reporter or by someone paid by the government.

Last year, the Inspector General's office concluded that websites like the Southeast European Times [media website] operated by the US military that pay journalists to write articles and commentary supporting military activities are legal and do not infringe laws or government policies [JURIST report]. The IG investigation determined that two websites aimed at audiences in the Balkans and the Maghreb region of northern Africa are not covert propaganda and are properly identified as US government products [SET "About Us"], although the identifications are not prominent. AP has more.

[JURIST] The US District Court for the District of Columbia [official website] on Thursday denied an emergency motion [text, PDF; declaration, PDF] to prevent the US military [JURIST report] from surrendering translator and accused kidnapper Mohammad Munaf, a US citizen, to Iraqi officials to face the death penalty. Munaf was convicted and sentenced to death by an Iraqi judge after being arrested in Romania on kidnapping charges [JURIST report] for allegedly kidnapping and detaining three Romanian journalists for 55 days in Iraq. Munaf is currently in the custody of the Multi-National Force - Iraq [official website], and the District Court denied Munaf's motion [opinion, PDF] because Munaf is "in the custody of a multinational entity and not the United States" and "cannot invoke this Court's jurisdiction." US District Court Judge Royce Lamberth [official profile] wrote: "In time of actual hostilities or war, as in Iraq, courts should tread lightly and give the president, as commander in chief, the full power of his office."

Munaf's lawyers sought the emergency motion [JURIST comment] to delay his transfer "until the court could properly adjudicate his habeas petition and his claim that his detention and threatened transfer violate the Constitution and laws of the United States." Munaf has asserted that the Iraqi trial violated his due process protections as a US citizen because he was not confronted with the evidence brought against him, and he was prevented from presenting his own exculpatory evidence. Munaf can appeal Thursday's decision and ask a federal appeals court to block his transfer. AP has more.

[JURIST] Human Rights Watch (HRW) confirmed [HRW report] for the first time Thursday that Hezbollah [BBC backgrounder] used cluster bombs [FAS backgrounder] during the recent conflict with Israel. According to HRW:

International humanitarian law (the laws of war) obliges warring parties to distinguish between combatants and civilians (the principle of distinction) and, when attacking legitimate military targets, to ensure that the military advantage gained in the attack outweighs any possible harm caused to civilians.

Hezbollah launched cluster attacks that were at best indiscriminate, i.e., they violated the principle of distinction by using unguided and highly inaccurate cluster munition models against populated areas. At worst, Hezbollah deliberately attacked civilian areas with these weapons.

[JURIST] A massive demonstration attended by thousands of people protesting the disappearance of Jorge Julio Lopez clogged the streets of Buenos Aires, Argentina [JURIST news archive] on Wednesday. The protest represents the third time such a demonstration has taken place since the 77-year-old witness went missing last month after testifying against a former police official sentenced [JURIST report] last month to life in prison for crimes committed during the country's Dirty War [GlobalSecurity backgrounder]. Human rights groups speculate that Lopez was kidnapped because he testified against Miguel Etchecolatz [Project Disappeared profile], the former chief investigator of the Buenos Aires province police. During the trial, Lopez said he had been kidnapped in 1976 and taken to a police station where he was tortured by Etchecolatz and other officers.

The government has offered a $60,000 reward for information about Lopez's disappearance. AP has more. BBC News has additional coverage.

[JURIST] Four US Army soldiers have been ordered to face court-martial for allegedly murdering Iraqi detainees in Thar Thar, a town near Samarra, some 60 miles north of Baghdad. Pfc. Corey R. Clagett, Spc. William B. Hunsaker, Staff Sgt. Raymond L. Girouard and Spc. Juston R. Graber allegedly released several detainees after a May 9 raid on a suspected insurgent camp only to shoot them as they fled. Military prosecutors have also alleged that Girouard stabbed Hunsaker to cover up the killings. The soldiers have said that they only shot at the prisoners as they tried to escape and that they were ordered by their officers to "kill all military-aged males" in the raid. All four are charged [JURIST report] with premeditated murder [JURIST report], attempted murder, and conspiracy. Girouard, Hunsaker and Clagett face additional obstruction of justice charges while Graber is also charged with making a false official statement. An Army investigator recommended the death penalty [JURIST report] for the four if convicted, but in deciding to refer charges for court-martial Wednesday, Maj. Gen. Thomas R. Turner determined that the soldiers will not be eligible for the death penalty.

The four soldiers from the Third Brigade Combat Team of the 101st Airborne Division [GlobalSecurity backgrounder] will be court-martialed at Fort Campbell [official website]. The Tennessean has more.

[JURIST] Judge Richard Posner of the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit [official website] expressed skepticism Wednesday that an Indiana law requiring voters to show ID cards [Indiana SOS backgrounder, PDF] at the polls would prevent some citizens from casting ballots. During oral arguments in a lawsuit challenging the Indiana law [JURIST report] as disproportionately burdensome for the poor, elderly, minorities, and individuals who are handicapped, Posner identified the failure of the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana [advocacy website] to find a single person who would be disenfranchised by the new law. Republicans say requiring ID cards [JURIST news archive] at polls will prevent voter fraud [JURIST report], which Democrats dispute by pointing out that voters do not require ID cards to cast absentee ballots. Opponents also contend that the law will burden voters, particularly the elderly and the poor, who possess driver's licenses or passports in fewer numbers.

Courts in Missouri and Georgia have rejected the controversial voter ID laws, while a judge in Arizona recently granted an emergency injunction to suspend the state's voter ID law [JURIST reports]. It is unlikely that the federal appeals court will reach a decision in the Indiana case before the November 7 general election. AP has more.

[JURIST] Hussein Rasheed, one of five co-defendants facing charges [JURIST report] in the Saddam Hussein genocide trial [JURIST report], on Thursday claimed Iraqi court guards beat him in the presence of US witnesses after Chief Judge Mohammed Oreibi al-Khalifa threw both Hussein and Rasheed out of court last week [JURIST report]. A spokesman for the court denied Rasheed's allegations saying that the court guards are "well trained" and respect human rights. Rasheed also complained that the defendants felt that the trial was rigged and that the verdict against them has already been determined.

In the current trial, Hussein and six co-defendants [AP profile] face crimes against humanity charges, and Hussein and his cousin are also charged with genocide for the 1988 deaths of 180,000 Kurdish villagers in the so-called "Anfal" campaign [HRW backgrounder]. Hussein is also awaiting a verdict in the separate Dujail crimes against humanity case [JURIST report]. The verdict in the Dujail case was originally expected to be announced on October 16 [JURIST report], but has since been delayed [JURIST report] to give judges more time to review evidence. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Florida Judge Janet E. Ferris of the Leon County Circuit Court [official website] ordered [PDF text; press release] that election supervisors be prohibited from affixing signs at polling places warning that votes for former US Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) [JURIST news archive] will be counted for replacement candidate Joe Negron. Dawn Roberts of the State Elections Division previously told election supervisors to post warning signs at polling places throughout the 16th Congressional District. The Florida Democratic Party [party website] challenged [complaint, PDF] the prohibition, arguing that it violated a state statute requiring the original candidate's name to appear on the ballot after the primary results have been certified. Ferris' decision comes just days in advance of Florida polls opening for the state's early voting system.

Foley resigned September 29 at the outset of an e-mail sex scandal involving congressional pages [CRS program backgrounder]. The New York Times has more. The Miami Herald has local coverage.

[JURIST] Several domestic and foreign non-governmental organizations (NGOs) operating in Russia will be forced to shut down after missing Wednesday's deadline to obtain the necessary permits required by a controversial new law. Foreign-funded NGOs are required to register with the Ministry of Justice [official website] and provide detailed financial data and program plans for approval. Up to 500 NGOs are affected by the new regulations and will be forced to shut down operations even though they may continue submitting approval requests until January 18. Although over 80 NGOs have been approved, organizations like Amnesty International [advocacy website] and Human Rights Watch [advocacy website] failed to register. Approved organizations face another deadline on October 31 when they must submit financial and program plans for next year. Russian officials blame the NGOs for the missed deadlines, while the NGOs claim that the documentation requirements for registration are too severe with some critics positing that the government is using the law to quell opposition before the 2007 parliamentary elections and 2008 presidential election.

Last week, a Russian court used the new law, which was signed [JURIST report] by Russian President Vladimir Putin [official website] and approved [JURIST report] by the parliament in January, to shut down the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society [JURIST report]. The law implements strict registration requirements, imposes financial oversight on NGO operations, and provides for dissolution if an organization's activities "threaten Russia's independence or sovereignty" or if a group participates in activities deemed to deviate from its explicit mission statement. The NGO law has been widely criticized by the US [JURIST reports] and the international community. The Washington Times has more. MosNews has local coverage.

[JURIST] Britain's High Court [official website] on Thursday overturned a lower court ruling that London Mayor Ken Livingstone [official profile] brought his office into disrepute by making controversial comments to a Jewish journalist. The court ruled [text] that Livingstone's comments did not breach the Greater London Authority [official website] Code of Conduct. The court said Livingstone brought disrepute on himself but not the mayor's office. Finding Livingstone's behavior "unnecessarily offensive," the panel suggested that he apologize to the reporter, Oliver Finegold. In a related ruling last week, the High Court quashed Livingstone's four-week suspension [JURIST report] imposed by the Adjudication Panel for England [official website].

The incident occurred when Livingstone, leaving a private party, responded to Finegold's questions by telling him he was "like a concentration camp guard - you are just doing it because you are paid to." Livingstone later defended his comments [JURIST report] by saying he was not talking about the reporter but his employer, the Evening Standard, a tabloid paper that supported the Nazis in early 1930s. The Guardian has more.

[JURIST] Lawmakers in the southern California city of Escondido [official website] approved an ordinance [Union-Tribune report] Wednesday that will prohibit landlords from renting their properties to illegal immigrants [JURIST news archive]. The measure requires landlords to submit documentation to city authorities to prove their tenants' immigration status. If found in violation, landlords could face suspension of their business licenses and fines. Opponents called the new ordinance racist and said immigration enforcement should be handled by the federal government, not local governments. The ordinance takes effect Nov. 18, but opponents said they plan to challenge the law in court before city officials begin enforcement.

Escondido's ordinance follows passage of similar local immigration enforcement laws in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The City Council of Hazleton, Pennsylvania [official website] gave tentative approval to revisions [JURIST report] to its controversial Illegal Immigration Relief Act [text, PDF] in September in an attempt to survive legal challenges. The Hazleton law, as original passed, punishes landlords and employers that lease property to or employ illegal immigrants, with or without knowledge of their illegal status, but the revisions would shift burdens originally placed on businesses, making it the city's responsibility to determine immigration statuses. The Council will vote Tuesday on whether to give the revised law final approval. Reuters has more. The San Diego Union-Tribune has local coverage.

[JURIST] Israel's High Court has urged the country's military to reconsider its ban on entry by Palestinians and allow a Palestinian woman to study in Israel [JURIST news archive]. Sawsan Salameh was denied entry to Israel by the military after she was accepted to study chemistry and pursue a doctoral degree at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem [academic website]. A three-justice High Court panel on Wednesday gave both sides seven days to negotiate a plan to allow Salameh to attend the university before the High Court issues its final ruling. Justice Elyakim Rubinstein urged Israel to "encourage seeds of cooperation," saying, "at some point we would like to achieve a measure of normalcy in ties with our neighbors." Several Israeli university officials signed a letter [press release] sent to Minister of Defense Amir Peretz [BBC profile] saying, "The universities protest the sweeping ban and call upon the security establishment to examine all such instances on an individual basis and enable students, who are not suspected of involvement in activities that threaten the security of Israel, to enter the country for academic purposes."

The Palestinian entry ban was instituted in September 2000 in an effort to increase security following a break down in peace talks. In May, the Supreme Court of Israel [official website] upheld [JURIST report] the legality of the Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law [text], which limits the rights of Palestinians to live in Israel, and allows only Palestinian women 25 years or older and men 35 years or older to join their families in Israel and eventually be eligible for full citizenship. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales [official profile] insisted Wednesday that the newly-signed [JURIST report] Military Commissions Act of 2006 [PDF text; S 3930 summary] that has drawn harsh criticism from rights groups [JURIST news archive] and many legal experts cannot be used to infringe on the rights of US citizens and provides every suspect with a full and fair trial, consistent with America's obligations under international and domestic law. In an "Ask the White House" forum [transcript] on the White House website, Gonzales said in response to questions:

The Military Commissions Act does not apply to American citizens. The military commissions established under the Act may try only alien unlawful enemy combatants, and the new law does not restrict the rights of United States citizens to file writs of habeas corpus in federal court. Every detainee who is detained at Guantanamo Bay has had, or will have, a hearing before a Combatant Status Review Tribunal, which is a fair military tribunal designed to determine whether an individual is properly detained as an enemy combatant. If the tribunal determines that he may be detained, then the individual may appeal that decision to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. We provide even greater rights to individuals who go to trial before our military commissions. That trial would be presided over by an independent military judge. The accused will have the right to counsel; he will be presumed innocent unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt; he may see and respond to all the evidence introduced; and he may introduce evidence and witnesses on own his behalf. If convicted, he may appeal the commission's decision. This extensive array of procedures and protections are designed to ensure, and will ensure, that we do not detain or prosecute by military commission anyone other than captured terrorists and other alien enemy combatants.

As the President has made clear, we cannot discuss the specific methods that our intelligence agents use to question captured terrorists because doing so would help the terrorists train against our techniques. I want to assure you that while our interrogation methods may be tough, they are carefully reviewed to ensure that they are safe and that they are lawful. The United States does not engage in torture, which is flatly prohibited under United States law and international law, and we do not engage in cruel and inhumane treatment falling short of torture, as prohibited by the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005.

Back in 2002, the President determined that Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, a provision that had previously been applied in civil wars, did not apply to the War on Terror. In June 2006, the Supreme Court issued a decision in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, which disagreed with that interpretation. Common Article 3 is notoriously vague, however, and there was considerable uncertainty over what it meant to commit an "outrage upon personal dignity" or "humiliating and degrading treatment." The new law, however, provides clear guidance as to what specific conduct under Common Article 3 constitutes a war crime, and it allows the President to define these ambiguous terms so as to provide United States personnel with clear guidelines for their conduct.

[JURIST] Three more US Marines will face courts-martial [press release] for their roles in the April kidnapping and murdering of an Iraqi civilian in Hamdania [USMC timeline; JURIST news archive]. Camp Pendleton officials said Wednesday that Lance Cpl. Tyler Jackson, Lance Cpl. Robert B. Pennington and Cpl. Trent D. Thomas will face charges [DOC text] of murder, kidnapping, conspiracy, housebreaking, and larceny, but that none of the three will be eligible for the death penatly. Thomas is also charged with making a false official statement.

A total of eight US military personnel were initially charged [JURIST report] in the incident, in which they are said to have taken Hashim Ibrahim Awad [Wikipedia backgrounder] from his home, shot him, and then made it seem that he was an insurgent planting a roadside bomb by placing a shovel and rifle next to his dead body. Courts-martial have already been ordered [JURIST report] for three other Marines - Pfc. John J. Jodka III, Cpl. Marshall L. Magincalda and Cpl. Jerry E. Shumate. Jodka and Magincalda have pleaded not guilty [JURIST report] to the charges against them [DOC text]. Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Melson J. Bacos has pleaded guilty [JURIST report] to kidnapping and conspiracy charges, and is expected to testify against the Marines facing courts-martial. A decision as to whether the final Marine charged, Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins III [JURIST report], will face court-martial is still pending. AP has more.

[JURIST] Turkey's broadcasting watchdog urged a boycott Wednesday of French television programs and movies to protest the French parliament's approval [JURIST report] of a bill [legislative materials, in French] that criminalizes denial of an Armenian genocide [ANI backgrounder]. The board of directors of RTUK [media website] unanimously recommended the boycott after the French National Assembly [official website, in French] passed the bill last week. The French measure was approved despite Turkey's threat of trade sanctions [JURIST report] and the proposal of a similar bill against France [JURIST report] that would label as genocide the French colonial killings of Algerians [JURIST report].

Turkey [CIA factbook; JURIST news archive] is currently trying to join the European Union [official website], and the EU has expressed concern [JURIST report] over the timing of the French bill. It is unlikely to become law because French President Jacques Chirac [official profile, in French; BBC profile] and the French Senate oppose the measure. Turkey has admitted that many Armenians died during a period of removal in 1915-23, but denies that the deaths amounted to genocide [JURIST comment]. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo [official website; BBC profile] Thursday declared a state of emergency in the Nigerian state of Ekiti [government website] after Governor Ayodele Fayose was impeached by state lawmakers earlier this week following his conviction for corruption charges. Obasanjo called Fayose's removal unconstitutional because lawmakers replaced the chief judge who had been presiding over Fayose's corruption trial. After confusion began over who would assume the acting governor role, Obasanjo suspended Fayose, who is in hiding, as well as the state assembly and appointed a retired major-general to handle Ekiti's affairs for the next six months, saying the move was necessary to avoid a breach of order and safety.

The political climate in Nigeria [JURIST news archive] has been uncertain in recent months as states have increasingly been accusing their governors of corruption [JURIST report] and attempting impeachment proceedings. The allegations have been seen as a political strategy to gain power in anticipation of the elections scheduled for next April. Obasanjo and Nigerian Vice President Atiku Abubakar [official profile] have even been trading allegations, and critics believe the president is planning to delay the elections to remain in office for a third term. A proposal [bill text, PDF] to revise the Nigerian Constitution [text] to allow Obasanjo to stay in power past his second term of office was defeated [JURIST report] by the Nigerian Senate [official website] earlier this year. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] A former guard at the Nazi Mauthausen concentration camp [Wikipedia backgrounder] in Austria has been released from a Michigan jail after Germany, Romania and Hungary all refused to take custody of him, according to a spokesman for the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) [official website]. Johann Leprich, 81, joined the Waffen-SS [Wikipedia backgrounder] and worked as a guard at the concentration camp in 1943-44. Leprich was an ethnic German born in Romania who came to the US in 1952 and eventually became a US citizen. His citizenship was revoked, however, when federal officials discovered that he lied on his application by not admitting that he had worked at the Mauthausen camp where prisoners were beaten, tortured, starved, and killed. Leprich fled to Canada [Windsor Star report] and in 2003, he was arrested [DOJ press release] after an investigator found him hiding in a secret room in his Michigan house. Earlier this year, the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit refused to overturn [opinion, PDF] a lower court decision allowing the 1987 order revoking Leprich's citizenship to stand.

US immigration authorities allowed Leprich's release earlier this week after his attorney asked a federal judge to free him based on the US Supreme Court's ruling in Zadvydas v. Davis [text; NILC backgrounder], where the Court held that the government may only hold prisoners for six months when they are waiting for deportation. Leprich, who had been in US custody for approximately 40 months, will be required to wear an ankle monitor and check in with US authorities on a weekly basis. The ICE spokesman said the US was still attempting to find a country in Europe to take Leprich. Reuters has more.