[JURIST] The US Federal Election Commission [official website] is asking for public approval of new proposed policies [press release], one of which would reduce penalties for politicians and contributors who voluntarily report their own potential violations of campaign finance laws. The draft proposal for sua sponte submissions [text, PDF] has two separate recommendations for penalties:

The first recommendation is to reduce penalties by up to 50 percent (depending on the individual facts of the case) for respondents who alert the FEC before the violation had been or was about to be discovered by any outside party, amends reports or disclosures to correct past errors, returns any ill gotten funds, immediately ceases the violation upon discovery, and fully cooperates with the FEC. If the respondent meets the previous criteria but also hires independent experts to conduct a thorough review, provides the FEC all documentation of the expert’s audit, and take appropriate corrective actions such as disciplinary action against those responsible, then penalties may be reduced up to 75 percent.

The second recommendation would set the reduction at 50 percent, and use the above mitigating factors to lower the penalty down to 25 percent of damages, or use other aggravating factors to raise the damages up to a 75 percent discount, all depending on the situation. The FEC will be seeking public comment until January 29th.

Other policy proposals forwarded by the FEC include setting up an 8-month pilot program to allow hearings [policy draft, PDF] for those under investigation before the commission determines if there is enough probable cause to prosecute. While some argue this is fairer than the current system, which only allows parties to make their case using legal briefs, others say that the commission is already notoriously slow in resolving complaints, and the hearings will only further weaken the enforcement process. AP has more.

[JURIST] Authorities in India [JURIST news archive] have charged 30 people for their connections to the July 11 Mumbai train bombings [JURIST news archive] which left 185 dead and approximately 700 injured. The suspects, mostly Muslims, include 15 Pakistanis and 17 Indians. Only 13 of the suspects, all Indian, were present in court, while the others were charged in absentia. Two of those charged in absentia are known to be dead, one having died in the blasts, the other killed by police later. All in all, the court in Mumbai - formerly Bombay - received over 10,000 pages of charges from Mumbai police [official website], covering conspiracy, illegal possession of arms and explosives, aiding terrorist acts, and waging war against the state.

Alleged attack mastermind Azam Cheema [official wanted poster] is one of the named Pakistani suspects, and is believed to be the head of Pakistan based Islamic militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba [FAS backgrounder]. While Lashkar-e-Taiba is officially banned in Pakistan, the US, India, and other nations have claimed that Pakistan is allowing the group to operate under other names, and India has blamed Pakistan for the blasts, claiming links between the blasts, the militant group, and Pakistan’s spy agency. India and Pakistan’s peace talks stalled during the public outcry after the attacks, however has recently resumed. BBC News has more. AFP has more.

[JURIST] Liberia's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) [UN Mission in Liberia news release, PDF] has denied reports that it has shut down operations due to lack of funding [JURIST report], with a spokesperson telling the Voice of America Thursday that a suspension of field research was previously scheduled. Though TRC spokeswoman Juliane Westphal acknowledged that lack of adequate funding is a problem, she said that the decision to recall workers is part of a plan to evaluate procedures. After any revisions are made, TRC researchers will resume taking statements from witnesses to crimes that occurred during Liberia's 14-year civil war [Globalsecurity.org backgrounder]. VOA has more.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission formally began its work [JURIST report] in June after being inaugurated [JURIST report] in February. TRC workers began taking witness statements [JURIST report] in October, but last week a UN rights expert urged the TRC to accelerate its efforts [JURIST report]. According to Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf [BBC profile], the commission is intended to heal the war-torn country and uncover the truth about the civil war. It has nonetheless been criticized by human rights groups [JURIST report] who advocate the establishment of a war crimes court in Liberia that would have prosecutorial powers.

[JURIST] An appeals chamber at the International Criminal Court for the former Yugoslavia [official website] Thursday sentenced a former Bosnian Serb Army general to life imprisonment [judgment; summary; press release] for leading troops in attacks against civilians during the 1992-1994 siege of Sarajevo [BBC backgrounder]. Stanislav Galic [ICTY case backgrounder; case summary] was convicted [judgment] in 2003 on five crimes against humanity and war crimes charges and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. The appeals chamber dismissed all of Galic's arguments, but affirmed the prosecution's appeal of the sentence, extending the term to life in prison, marking the first time the appeals chamber has handed down the maximum sentence.

In its ruling, the appeals panel said that "terrorisation of the civilian population was the primary purpose of the campaign of sniping and shelling and that Galic, who held the position of commander of the Bosnian Serb Army Sarajevo-Romanija Corps (SRK), had the intent to spread terror among the civilian population." AP has more. The UN News Service has additional coverage.

[JURIST] The UN Human Rights Council [official website] agreed Thursday to hold a special session to look into human rights abuses committed in the Darfur region [JURIST news archive] of Sudan. The rights body, established [JURIST report] earlier this year to replace the beleaguered Human Rights Commission, has so far focused mostly on the conflict in the Middle East, holding two special sessions on the Arab-Israeli conflict. In a statement [text] delivered to the HRC Wednesday, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged the Council to avoid "political maneuvering" [JURIST report] and stressed that the atrocities in Darfur deserve the group's attention.

Earlier this week, the HRC rejected a measure that would have called on the Sudanese government to try individuals charged with killing, raping and injuring civilians in Darfur. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Serb nationalist war crimes suspect Vojislav Seselj [BBC profile; ICTY case backgrounder], who has been on hunger strike [JURIST report] for close to three weeks, has forbidden staff of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website] to force feed him, provide medical treatment or resuscitate him should it become necessary, the tribunal said Thursday. Seselj, who has been refusing food for 21 days, was transferred to a Dutch prison hospital [JURIST report] adjoining the tribunal's detention center [ICTY backgrounder] at Scheveningen near The Hague Wednesday so that his medical condition could be more closely monitored. According to an ICTY press release:

Seselj, who continues to drink water, has been declining food and medical care since 11 November 2006. Nonetheless, he has throughout had contact with a Dutch doctor who works with inmates at the Tribunal's Detention Unit. However, Seselj has maintained that he will not be treated by this or any other doctor of Dutch nationality.

In response to his refusal to allow Dutch doctors to assess his medical condition the Tribunal has sought to identify with Seselj a doctor or doctors whom are agreeable to him. Seselj advised the Tribunal that he would agree to doctors from a number of countries, including France and Serbia. Today, Seselj refused to meet with a French doctor who had traveled to the Dutch prison hospital specifically to assess his medical condition. While taking this measure, the Tribunal has also requested both Seselj and those he identifies as his associates to name a Serb physician or team of doctors that is acceptable to him. To date, Seselj has not provided any name despite the Tribunal's willingness to accommodate his request for medical assistance of his choosing, in accordance with Rule 31 of the Tribunal's Rules of Detention. ...

The reasons provided by Seselj for his refusal to accept food have been various and changing. A number of requests he has made in pre-trial proceedings have been addressed by the Tribunal's Registry including unmonitored visits by his wife, the facilities to be made available for the preparation of his defence and recognition of his legal associates. But he has also made other less publicized demands, such as that the Tribunal approach a foreign state in order to unfreeze assets he holds in overseas bank accounts.

Faced with a shifting group of demands, the Tribunal has sought from the outset to protect Seselj's human rights. It has entered into extensive dialogue with him and endeavoured to impress upon him that the proper forum for many of his complaints is before the court where they will be given a fair and impartial hearing according to the highest standards of international law. Contrary to misinformation in some media where it is alleged that Seselj is isolated in a Dutch prison hospital, the situation is that Seselj enjoys frequent contact with the hospital and the Detention Unit staff, as well as unimpeded 24-hour access to a telephone.

The Tribunal is committed to securing all rights guaranteed to Seselj by the Tribunal's Statute and Rules of Procedure and Evidence. However, Seselj has chosen to persist with a course of action that has seriously jeopardized his health and attempts to impede the Tribunal in its exercise of its duty of care.

[JURIST] The Entertainment Software Association [trade website], the trade group representing video game companies, won two more legal battles this week against laws aimed at restricting the sale of violent games to minors. On Tuesday, the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit upheld the 2005 ruling that the "Safe Games Illinois Act" was unconstitutional [JURIST report]. The appeals court agreed that the labeling requirements and restrictions on the sale of objectionable games to minors were overbroad and not narrowly tailored [opinion, PDF]. Under the original district court order in the case, Illinois also owes the ESA over $500,000 in legal fees - an amount which has not been paid [AP report]. A spokesman for Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich said the state "will comply with any court order" but didn't provide a timetable for payment or a reason for the delay. The ESA has gone to court to request a deadline for payment and is seeking an additional $7,800 in interest; a ruling on their motion is expected next month.

The US District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana has meanwhile delivered a similar victory for the ESA, ordering a permanent injunction against a Louisiana law that would ban the sale of violent video games to minors. Judge James Brady made the ruling from the bench with no written opinion; in issuing a temporary injunction in August, he wrote "the evidence that was submitted to the legislature in connection with the bill that became the statute is sparse and could hardly be called in any sense reliable" [Ars Technica report]. Assistant Attorney General Burton Guidry said "We did everything we could to defend the law, but, as the judge said, the law was practically unenforceable as written" [AP report]. Outspoken video game critic Jack Thompson had drafted the law, although he later feuded with Guidry [GamePolitics report] over the case and even accused Guidry of not adequately presenting the government's side. Thompson's conduct in a failed Florida lawsuit [JURIST report] to block release of the game Bully last month prompted the judge who presided over that case to file a complaint against Thompson with the Florida Bar [GamePolitics report].

[JURIST] A Kentucky judge on Wednesday ordered the state to hold public hearings on its lethal injection [DPIC backgrounder] protocol, which the state changed two years ago after two death row inmates challenged it as a form of cruel and unusual punishment. Though the Kentucky Supreme Court [official website] last week upheld lethal injection as the state's method of execution [JURIST report], ruling that the prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment "does not require a complete absence of pain" in the challenge [JURIST report] brought by inmates Thomas Bowling and Ralph Baze, Franklin County Circuit Judge Sam McNamara's Wednesday ruling refers to procedures the state must follow before implementing administrative changes. Kentucky altered both the mix of drugs used in lethal injections and the administration procedures in response to Bowling and Baze's lawsuit when the two inmates brought the action in 2004. Kentucky has not declared a moratorium on the death penalty [JURIST news archive], but McNamara's ruling may successfully halt executions pending resolution of the controversy surrounding the state's new lethal injection protocol.

Kentucky's lethal injection protocol, like several other states, requires a first drug to make the inmate unconscious, a second drug to paralyze the inmate, and a third drug to stop the inmate's heart. Several constitutional challenges [JURIST news archive] to the procedure have arisen across the country, arguing that the first drug fails to make the inmate fully unconscious, thereby making the inmate feel excruciating pain when the heart-stopping drug is injected. Inmates in Missouri and South Dakota have successfully challenged the lethal injections, while challenges in Florida and Texas [JURIST reports] have failed. Ohio recently executed its first inmate under a new lethal injection protocol [JURIST report] after a problematic execution last May prompted the state Department of Rehabilitation and Correction to review their methods. AP has more.

[JURIST] Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina must arrest former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic [ICTY case backgrounder; BBC profile] and his military commander Ratko Mladic [ICTY case backgrounder; JURIST news archive], both wanted on war crimes charges, in order to be further integrated into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) [official website], US officials said Wednesday. The US State Department comments came after a two-day NATO summit [summit website] in Riga, Latvia and NATO's decision to invite [press release] Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina to join the Partnership for Peace Program [official website]. A State Department spokesman warned that both nations can expect no further integration [press briefing transcript] into NATO, the European Union or other Euro-Atlantic organizations until Karadzic and Mladic are captured. Deputy State Department Spokesman Tom Casey said that while "both countries have turned over dozens of people indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal," they need "to do more to insure that the six remaining fugitives, which includes Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic, are apprehended as quickly as possible. And I do think it's pretty clear, if you look at what decisions have been made here, that further integration, not only into NATO but into some of the other Euro-Atlantic institutions, is going to be contingent on the full resolution of those cases."

Carla Del Ponte [official profile], chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia [official website], has repeatedly criticized Serbia's lack of progress [JURIST report] in capturing Mladic and Karadzic and has discouraged [JURIST report] the European Union [official website] from resuming membership talks with Serbia. Mladic and Karadzic are wanted by the ICTY for alleged crimes committed during Bosnia's 1992-95 war, including organizing the 1995 slaughter of 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica [JURIST news archive]. VOA has more.

[JURIST] Saddam Hussein [JURIST news archive] on Thursday rejected forensic evidence of mass graves presented by US experts in his genocide trial [JURIST news archive] for the "Anfal" campaigns [HRW backgrounder] against ethnic Kurds in northern Iraq between 1987 and 1988. Hussein said that pictures of the graves are "irrelevant to the Anfal case" and that he "refute[s] all the testimonies submitted by the Americans" in the Anfal case, but expressed willingness to accept evidence offered by coalition countries other than the United States. Also on Thursday, Chief Judge Mohammed Oreibi al-Khalifa admitted testimony of Michael Trimble, an American forensics expert with the US Army Corps of Engineers. Trimble offered an account of his discovery of corpses of hundreds of Kurdish women and children in three mass graves [NYT report].

On Tuesday, Khalifa rejected an attempt by Hussein to bar testimony by American forensics expert Clyde Snow [JURIST report] after Hussein demanded a neutral witness from a country that was not involved in the 2003 Iraq invasion. Hussein was sentenced to death [JURIST report] earlier this month for crimes against humanity [charging instrument, PDF] committed in the Iraqi town of Dujail [JURIST news archive; BBC trial timeline]. An appeals panel is expected to rule [JURIST report] on the verdict and sentence by mid-January 2007. Prosecutors hope to complete the Anfal trial before Hussein's execution. The Anfal trial has now been adjourned until Monday. Xinhua has more.

[JURIST] The European Union [official website] may face a legal challenge from the US over plans to extend the EU's greenhouse gas emission allowance trading program to cover all international flights to and from Europe. The European Union's Greenhouse Gas Emission Trading Scheme (ETS) [EU materials], based on European Commission Directive 2003/87/EC [text], began in October 2005 as the largest multi-country, multi-sector greenhouse gas emission trading scheme world-wide. Senior US officials quoted in British media reports Thursday said that the EU's plans to apply the ETS to civil aviation would be a violation of the 1947 Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation [text] and has called for the ETS extension to be limited only to internal EU flights. The US fears that a more comprehensive scheme would cause financial hardship on airlines and airports by adding 35 euros to the cost of international flights. EU Environmental Commissioner Stavros Dimas [official website] has said that the plan is consistent with International Civil Aviation Organization [official website] rules and that it complies with the Chicago convention because it will be applied on a non-discriminatory basis to all airlines.

The plan to extend the ETS to civil aviation is due to be adopted by the full European Commission on December 12. The Guardian has more.

[JURIST] The UK High Court ruled [judgment] Thursday that two British citizens charged with terrorism offenses can be extradited to the US to face terrorism charges. Haroon Rashid Aswat [Wikipedia profile; JURIST report], wanted in the US on suspicion of setting up a terrorist training camp, and Babar Ahmad [advocacy website; BBC profile; JURIST report], wanted for conspiring to kill Americans and running a website used to fund terrorists and recruit al Qaeda members, had argued that they should not be extradited to the US because they would be mistreated or tried as enemy combatants. The extraditions were approved only after the US offered assurances that it would not seek the death penalty, try the suspects before military tribunals or declare them enemy combatants. Lord Justice John Laws dismissed the appeal and held that possible mistreatment by the US "would require proof of a quality entirely lacking here" and that the US is a country" in which the United Kingdom has for many years reposed the confidence not only of general good relations, but also of successive bilateral treaties consistently honoured."

Aswat was arrested in August 2005 [JURIST report] by Zambian police and returned to the UK [JURIST report] in connection with the July 7 London bombing attacks [JURIST news archive]. He was later arrested under a US warrant on the suspicion of setting up a terrorist training camp in Oregon five years ago. Ahmad was indicted in the US [arrest warrant and criminal complaint, PDF] in October 2004. Both extradition cases were heard under a "fast track" extradition procedure under the UK Extradition Act 2003 [text] that decreases the burden of proof on certain countries, including the United States. AP has more. BBC News has local coverage.

[JURIST] Chinese authorities have executed the founder of a Chinese Christian church [BBC backgrounder] and two of his close associates for allegedly ordering the murders of several members of a rival religious sect, a lawyer for Xu Shuangfu [CSW materials] said Wednesday. The death penalty apparently imposed last week on the former head of the Three Grades of Servants Church without any notification to his family or defense team is part of a crackdown by the government of China [JURIST news archive] on underground religious organizations that authorities label as cults. Making the sects illegal prohibits them from recruiting members or raising money, so the churches go underground to worship. Xu's conviction and July 2006 sentencing [China Aid report] stemmed from the 2002 murders of members of the Eastern Lightning Church, which attempted to steal followers away from the Three Grades of Servants Church. Christian groups say that 15 members of the Three Grades Church have been executed by Chinese authorities so far.

Xu's family does not claim that the murders never happened, but contends that his trial was wrought with flaws [Xu defense statement] and included no physical evidence linking Xu to the deaths. Prosecutors instead relied on confessions of fellow church members, which Xu's lawyer says were garnered by torture. Earlier this year, the Falun Gong spiritual group [Wikipedia backgrounder], also banned by the Chinese government, alleged [JURIST report] that thousands of its followers were being held in a Chinese "concentration camp" to be killed for organ-harvesting. Thursday's New York Times has more.

[JURIST] South African Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka [BBC profile] Thursday approved the country's Civil Unions Bill [JURIST report], making South Africa [JURIST news archive] the first African nation to recognize same-sex unions [JURIST news archive]. Mlambo-Ngcuka signed the measure into law on behalf of President Thabo Mbeki [official profile] who is at a conference in Nigeria. Both houses of the South African parliament passed [JURIST report] the measure this month. The law, without specific reference to heterosexual or same-sex couples, recognizes the "voluntary union of two persons, which is solemnized and registered by either a marriage or civil union." It also includes an opt-out clause, which allows officiants to refuse to perform a same-sex ceremony if it conflicts with his or her "conscience, religion and belief."

The government drafted the new law in response to an October 2005 South African Constitutional Court judgment [summary; JURIST report] that the 1961 Marriage Act [1997 extension text, PDF], effectively precluding same-sex marriages, violates the South African Constitution [text]. The court gave the government until December 1, 2006 to draft the new legislation. SAPA has more.

[JURIST] A Mexican appeals court ruled Wednesday that a genocide trial against former Mexican President Luis Echeverria [Wikipedia profile; JURIST news archive] may proceed as long as prosecutors file formal charges against him before Friday, when the 30-year statute of limitations ends. The court effectively reversed previous rulings [JURIST report] that the statute of limitations had already expired because Echeverria ended his role as the interior minister of Mexico [JURIST news archive] in 1969. Judges instead adopted the prosecution's argument [JURIST report] that the limitations period did not begin to run until December 1, 1976 when Echeverria left the presidency and therefore gave up his immunity against prosecution.

Echeverria is accused [JURIST report; Mexico AG report] of involvement in the murders and disappearances of more than 500 leftist dissidents during a period of time in the 1960s and 1970s called Mexico's "dirty war" [National Security Archive backgrounder]. Echeverria has denied all wrongdoing, including his alleged role in the October 1968 Tlatelolco massacre [backgrounder; BBC report] which left dozens of students dead. Current Mexican President Vicente Fox [official website; BBC profile], who leaves office on Friday, has focused on holding government officials responsible for committing human rights abuses during his administration. The New York Times has more.

[JURIST] The population of individuals in US prisons rose by 2.7 percent in 2005, according to an annual report [DOJ materials] released Wednesday by the US Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics [official website]. The report indicates that over 7 million people were either in jail, on probation, or on parole [press release] by the end of last year, with 2.2 million of them in prison. The Justice Department statistics also show that the percentage of female prisoners is rising - the number of female inmates rose 2.6 percent in 2005 with the male population only increasing by 1.9 percent. Sentencing Project [advocacy website], an advocacy group that promotes criminal justice reform, has blamed the increase in women prisoners on harsh sentences handed down for nonviolent drug offenses.

The report also showed racial disparities among prisoners that are similar among men and women inmates. Among male prisoners ages 25-29, 8.1 percent of black men are in prison, while 2.6 percent of Hispanic men and 1.1 percent of white men are incarcerated. South Dakota accounted for the highest increase in inmate population with a rise of 11 percent, followed by Montana with 10.4 percent, and Kentucky with 7.9 percent. Georgia's prison population dropped the most with a decrease of 4.6 percent, followed by Maryland with a 2.4 percent drop, and Louisiana with a 2.3 percent decrease. AP has more.