[JURIST] The Russian State Duma [official website] approved a draft law Wednesday that would permanently move the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation [RIN backgrounder] from its current location in Moscow to the city of St. Petersburg, the former Russian imperial capital. The Constitutional Court will nonetheless maintain a Moscow office "to ensure cooperation with the federal authorities," a provision which is seen as allowing some perhaps-recalcitrant judges [Kommersant backgrounder] to continue working from a Moscow base.

Russian President Vladimir Putin [official profile] supports moving the court, and he will set a future date for the beginning of court operations in the northern city, expected to be sometime in 2007 or 2008. The move is seen as a boost to the status of Russia's second largest city, which is also Putin's home town. Quick approval of the measure by the Russian upper house, the Federation Council, is anticipated. Itar-Tass has more.

[JURIST] An appeals court in Austria [JURIST news archive] Wednesday ordered the release of British historian David Irving [BBC profile, personal website], who was sentenced to three years in jail [JURIST report] in February for three counts of denying the Holocaust [BBC backgrounder] in two speeches he delivered in Austria 1989. Irving will serve out the rest of his sentence on probation after having already spent 13 months in jail. The court said it took into consideration the fact that Irving no longer denies the Holocaust and the fact that the statements were made several years ago.

Irving was arrested in Austria [JURIST report] in November 2005 based on a 1989 warrant executed under Austrian laws that make Holocaust denial a crime. Austrian prosecutors subsequently filed charges [JURIST report] against Irving. He pleaded guilty [JURIST report] at a one-day trial. AFP has more.

[JURIST] Ugandan officials said Wednesday that Joseph Kony [BBC profile], leader of the rebel Lord's Resistance Army [MIPT backgrounder], has expressed a willingness to face justice in Uganda rather than at the International Criminal Court [official website]. ICC prosecutors charged [JURIST report] Kony and four LRA lieutenants last October with orchestrating the killing of thousands of civilians and the enslavement of thousands more children over two decades of conflict with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni's government. To this point, Kony and the LRA have made the lifting of the ICC arrest warrants [PDF text] a condition of participating in peace negotiations being mediated by Sudan [UNMIS official website]. After the latest meeting with the rebel leader, however, Ugandan officials said that Kony has now indicated that he is "ready for accountability in Uganda" for his alleged crimes.

The ICC has refused [JURIST report] to cancel the indictments, despite requests [JURIST report] from the Ugandan government [official website], which has asserted that most Ugandans are willing to sacrifice prosecution of LRA leaders in exchange for successful peace negotiations. The rebel leader has denied the ICC charges [JURIST report], claiming the crimes were committed by the Ugandan military. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] US District Judge David Lawson of the Eastern District of Michigan [official website] has ruled [PDF text] that the University of Michigan, Michigan State University and Wayne State University can delay until July 1, 2007 implementing Proposal 2 [text], an amendment to the Michigan Constitution [PDF text] banning affirmative action [JURIST archive] in public employment, public education and state contracting. Lawson's ruling, which came in a lawsuit [complaint, PDF] filed [JURIST report] just days after the amendment's passage, gives the universities time to complete the 2006-2007 admissions cycle under current procedures. Michigan voters approved [JURIST report] the constitutional amendment Nov. 7, and it was expected to take effect later this week. The Center for Individual Rights [advocacy website] immediately criticized [press release] the ruling, and filed a motion [PDF text] seeking an emergency hearing to intervene in the lawsuit so the group can challenge Tuesday's ruling. AP has more.

In addition, a coalition of civil rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Detroit Branch of the NAACP [advocacy websites] filed a lawsuit [complaint, PDF; ACLU press release] in federal court Tuesday challenging the constitutionality of Proposal 2 based on the US Supreme Court's 2003 ruling that the federal constitution permits the University of Michigan to consider race as a factor in the admissions process [JURIST symposium]. The Supreme Court upheld the University law school admissions policy [Grutter opinion text], while rejecting the more rigid undergraduate admissions system as discriminatory [Gratz opinion text]. The Detroit Free Press has more.

[JURIST] Judges on a US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit [official website] panel questioned how the Federal Communications Commission [official website] enforces indecency standards [FCC materials] during oral arguments Wednesday in a challenge brought by the Fox television network. The FCC ruled that Fox violated indecency standards [FCC order] when two unscripted expletives were aired during the 2002 and 2003 Billboard Music Awards. The FCC did not impose a fine [DWT bulletin] for the violations because they predated a change in FCC precedent allowing the agency to levy fines for isolated incidents.

Fox appealed the FCC ruling, arguing that the FCC standards are arbitrary. The federal appeals court questioned why certain words are considered indecent in the context of an awards show but wouldn't be indecent in other contexts, such as a news program. The FCC lawyer told the court that context plays a role in determining indecency and noted that if the offensive language was used in the news context, it would not likely be used to "pander, titillate, or for shock value." Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The Mexican judge who last month ordered the arrest of former Mexican President Luis Echeverria [Trial Watch profile; JURIST news archive] did so after finding there was probable cause to believe that Echeverria ordered an attack on student protesters [backgrounder] in 1968 while he was the country's Interior Minister, according to a Mexican court report obtained by El Universal. Judge Ricardo Paredes' report indicates that Echeverria ordered officials to repress the student revolt, during which at least 25 but as many as 350 people were killed, without any justification in an effort to destroy a "national group" of dissent. AP has more. El Universal has local coverage, in Spanish.

A Mexican appeals court cleared the way for charges to be brought against Echeverria [JURIST report] last month. In addition to ordering the student massacre, Echeverria is also 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].

[JURIST] Thai Army Commander-in-Chief General Sonthi Boonyaratglin [BBC profile] said Tuesday that martial law will remain in force in 35 of Thailand's 76 provinces. Martial law [JURIST news archive] was imposed nationwide after the Thai military seized power from civilian prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra [JURIST news archive] in a bloodless coup [JURIST report] in September. The government approved a measure in late November lifting martial law in Bangkok and 40 other provinces [JURIST report]. Sonthi said that the additional measures are necessary in the remaining 35 provinces because lifting martial law would hinder officials in carrying out security duties and would "give advantages to violent instigators."

Sonthi stressed that coup leaders do not intend to hold on to power once a new civilian government is in place. Members of Thailand's National People's Assembly (NPA) [Nation report] are meeting this week to select a preliminary list of NPA members who will participate on a committee to draft a new constitution and a military official has said that only one or two military officers would be included [JURIST report] in the latter group. AP has more.

[JURIST] The Cobb County School District [official website] on Tuesday agreed to remove anti-evolution stickers [ACLU press release] from its high school biology textbooks. In 2002, parents sued the suburban Atlanta school district claiming the stickers violated the separation between church and state by promoting religion in the classroom. In January 2005, a federal district court ordered the removal of the stickers [text; JURIST report]. The school board appealed the decision and in May the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit remanded the case [JURIST reports] to the district court on the issue of whether the school district's actions were "religiously neutral."

The settlement ends the legal battle which began when the district placed a sticker in 35,000 biology textbooks calling evolution "a theory, not a fact." To settle the case, the school district also agreed not to take any action which would undermine the teaching of evolution in high school classrooms. The Atlanta Journal Constitution has more.

[JURIST] A court in the Netherlands [JURIST news archive] has approved the extradition of a Dutch national to the United States to face trial for conspiring to participate in insurgent attacks on US troops in the Iraqi city of Fallujah in 2003. Wesam al Delaema [DOJ press release] will be the first person tried in a US federal court for participating in the Iraqi insurgency. If convicted on the conspiracy charges [DOJ press release; JURIST report], he faces life in prison and may be permitted to serve his sentence in the Netherlands.

Al Delaema's lawyers argued that the US did not have jurisdiction to try their client and that the American legal system cannot be trusted, but a Dutch court ruled Tuesday that there is no reason to believe that US authorities would deprive al Delaema of his fundamental rights. US officials seized video evidence of al Delaema preparing to make a roadside bomb in support of the insurgency group "Warriors of Fallujah," but al Delaema maintains he was forced to make the video after being kidnapped and beaten. AP has more.

[JURIST] US Justice Department (DOJ) [official website] prosecutors tasked with investigating allegations that US civilians abused detainees [JURIST news archive] in Iraq and Afghanistan have decided not to press charges in the bulk of the cases, according to the New York Times. Some 20 cases have been investigated by a team of prosecutors formed in 2004, but problems collecting forensic evidence and reaching key witnesses have prevented any indictments from being brought in the investigations. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) [official website] has meanwhile urged the DOJ to provide an update to Congress [AP report] on the investigations, expressing concern over the lack of indictments.

The DOJ is investigating a range of civilian government employees, including CIA officers and contract employees. The New York Times has more.

[JURIST] Iraqi authorities executed 13 convicted terrorists Tuesday after they were found guilty by the Central Criminal Court of Iraq (CCCI) of murder, rape and burning bodies. The CCCI has held 1,767 trials of insurgents since being re-organizing in 2004, leading to the conviction of 1,521 individuals with sentences ranging up to death. The Iraqi death penalty was restored [JURIST report] in 2004 after a moratorium under the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority, and the first official executions of insurgents [JURIST report] were carried out earlier this year.

Iraqi officials said that one of the men executed Tuesday had admitted killing 10 people while another confessed to killing four members of the same family. Reuters has more.