[JURIST] The US House of Representatives [official website] passed its first piece of legislation for the 110th Congress late Tuesday, a bill [HR 1 text] to implement the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission [official website] remaining after the enactment of the Intelligence Reform bill [JURIST report] in 2004. The bill provides for additional intelligence oversight and sets out an ambitious screening program for shipping cargo coming into the US. HR 1 [Pelosi backgrounder] passed with bipartisan support by a vote of 299-128 [roll call], though several Congressional Republicans assailed the bill's passage as a Democratic effort to appear tough on terrorism without considering the financial implications.

Tuesday's passage of HR 1 marks the first of several key votes [calendar, PDF] scheduled [JURIST report] by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) [official website] and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) [official website] to occur during the Democrats first 100 hours [Pelosi schedule] in office. Later this week the House will vote on legislation to raise the federal minimum wage and expand embryonic stem cell research [JURIST news archive]. AP has more.

[JURIST] US District Judge Reggie B. Walton denied a request Tuesday from several news organizations seeking the daily release of audio recordings of arguments and testimony in the upcoming CIA leak trial [JURIST news archive] of former vice presidential aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby [defense website; JURIST news archive]. Walton ruled that the US District Court for District of Columbia [official website] will not follow the lead set by the US Supreme Court [official website], which now makes audio recordings of arguments available to the public.

Libby faces charges of perjury and obstruction of justice [indictment, PDF; JURIST report] when his trial begins January 16. One of Libby's defense lawyers said last month that his client plans to call [JURIST report] his former boss, Vice President Dick Cheney [official website], to testify. AP has more.

[JURIST] Iraqi government officials have discovered the identity of the individual who shouted out the name of Moqtada al-Sadr [BBC profile], a militant Shiite cleric and head of the Mehdi Army militia, during the December 30 execution [JURIST report] of Saddam Hussein [JURIST news archive], according to a government spokesperson speaking Tuesday. Ali al-Dabbagh said the individual has been turned over to court magistrates, so the judicial system can decide whether there is sufficient evidence to send the individual to trial, adding according to VOI "What this person did is an insult. It is an individual act. Filming the execution has created a storm in the Iraqi street." The government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki [BBC profile] launched an investigation [JURIST report] January 2 to discover the identities of the individuals responsible for the taping and release of the controversial camera phone video [WARNING: graphic images; JURIST report] showing Saddam's execution and for shouting out "Moqtada, Moqtada, Moqtada." Iraqi officials subsequently questioned two Iraqi Justice Ministry guards and arrested [JURIST reports] another official who supervised Hussein's execution. AFP has more. VOI has local coverage.

In related news, British Prime Minister Tony Blair [JURIST news archive] spoke personally about Hussein's execution for the first time Tuesday. Blair had previously said through a spokesperson that the filmed execution was "completely wrong" [JURIST report]. Blair Tuesday reaffirmed his criticism of the conduct of Hussein's execution, but also said the circumstances of Hussein's hanging "should not blind us to the crimes he committed against his own people." BBC News has more.

[JURIST] Four US federal appeals court nominees requested Tuesday that their names be withdrawn from consideration by the Senate [official website], according to Republican party officials. Each of the nominees, Michael Wallace, William Haynes, William Myers and Terrence Boyle [official profiles], were opposed by Democrats and failed to gain confirmation before the Senate began its vacation in December. With the installation of the majority Democrat Congress, the nominees would have faced heavy scrutiny during subsequent Senate confirmation hearings. In May 2006, the American Bar Association [group website] voted unanimously [JURIST report] that Wallace, former aide to US Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS), was "not qualified" [ratings, PDF] to sit on the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit [official website].

Despite the withdrawals, Republican officials confirmed that President Bush will nominate 33 more candidates for federal judgeships. AP has more.

6:45 PM - The new White House judicial nominations [letter; additional letter] have now gone forward to the Senate.

[JURIST] Faced with possible indictment by an Italian judge, US and Italian intelligence agents implicated in the 2003 kidnapping and extraordinary rendition [JURIST news archive] from Milan of Egyptian cleric Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr [Wikipedia profile; JURIST news archive] Tuesday pressed for a political resolution of their case. Hearings [JURIST report] to decide the legal fate of some 30 operatives have begun after a December request by Italian prosecutors that Judge Caterina Interlandi take legal action [JURIST report] against 26 US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) [official website] agents and five officials from the Italian Military Intelligence and Security Service (SISMI) [official website], including former SISMI chief Nicola Pollari. Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, claims he was tortured after being grabbed off a street in Milan and ultimately sent to Egypt. If Interlandi determines that there is enough evidence to proceed to trial in the case, the trial would be the first criminal prosecution stemming from US rendition practices.

Daria Pesce, the lawyer for accused CIA agent Robert Seldon Lady, withdrew from the case [AP report] Tuesday, stating that the former CIA station chief did not want to cooperate. Pesce told AP that her client believes "this case should have had a political solution and not a judicial solution. The Italian government could have decided it was a state secret - remember, this was a terror suspect. It would have been possible if the Italian government had had the courage to reach an agreement with the US government." None of the agents charged attended the closed session hearings; the next hearing is scheduled for January 29.

In October, prosecutors said they had completed their investigation [JURIST report] into the incident and would once again press for the extradition of the 26 American agents [JURIST report] believed to be involved in the case. If extradition is once again denied, Milan prosecutor Armando Spataro has said he would be forced to try the US agents in absentia [JURIST report]. This summer, several Italian intelligence agents were arrested [JURIST report], and last month the Italian cabinet removed Pollari [JURIST report] from his post, despite his denials of involvement [JURIST report] in the incident. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] handed down decisions in three cases Tuesday, including US v. Resendiz-Ponce [Duke Law case backgrounder; JURIST report], where the Court upheld the conviction of Juan Resendiz-Ponce on charges of attempting to re-enter the United States illegally from Mexico after being deported. The indictment in the case did not allege an overt act showing that he tried to enter the US, but the Supreme Court ruled that the indictment was not defective as it "need not specifically allege a particular overt act or any other 'component par[t]' of the offense." Read the Court's opinion [text] per Justice Stevens, along with a dissent [text] from Justice Scalia. AP has more.

In MedImmune v. Genentech [Duke Law case backgrounder], the Court ruled that MedImmune did not need to breach its patent license agreement with Genentech before challenging the patent's validity, overturning a Federal Circuit decision [PDF text]. Read the Court's opinion [text] per Justice Scalia, along with a dissent [text] from Justice Thomas. AP has more. In a statement Tuesday the industry group Coalition for Patent Fairness [advocacy website] said that the ruling demonstrated yet again that "the patent system needs to be modernized. Fair patent protections deliver innovative products for consumers and strengthen America's international competitiveness. This ruling is a positive step, but it is clear that a legislative remedy is needed to strengthen our overall patent system."

Finally, the Court remanded Burton v. Stewart [Duke Law case backgrounder] back to the lower courts, saying that Lonnie Lee Burton's appeal should be dismissed for lack of jurisdiction. The Court had agreed to hear the case to determine whether Blakely v. Washington [PDF text], the 2004 decision which limited judges' discretion in criminal sentencing, "announced a new rule and, if so, whether it applies retroactively on collateral review." Despite hearing oral arguments [transcript, PDF] on those issues, the Court ruled that Burton never complied with the jurisdictional requirements of 28 US 2244(b) [text]. Read the Court's per curiam opinion [PDF text]. AP has more.

[JURIST] The Pitcairn Supreme Court [Wikipedia backgrounder] found two more men guilty Tuesday of rape and related offences against children as young as seven. The latest conviction of Shawn Christian and Brian Young follow the six other men convicted in October 2004 of committing sexual abuse [JURIST report] against women and underage girls on the British possession of Pitcairn Island [government website] over a period of 30 years. The six men lost their appeal [JURIST report] to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council [official website] in October. The men, including the island's mayor, had asserted that English law did not apply to their case as Pitcairn Island never ratified or approved the British legal system, but the Judicial Committee rejected this argument.

The string of sexual abuse charges implicates about a third of all adult men on Pitcairn Island, whose population is about 50 people. Pitcairn Island [CIA backgrounder] was originally settled by descendants of Fletcher Christian who led the 1789 mutiny against Captain William Bligh on the HMS Bounty. AFP has more.

[JURIST] Fazul Abdullah Mohammed [FBI profile], one of the FBI's most wanted terror fugitives, was the target of two US air strikes in Somalia [AFPS report] on Monday. Believed to be a member of al-Qaida and to have trained with Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, Fazul is listed as the alleged mastermind behind the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania [US State Department backgrounder]. The US acted on information leading US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer [official profile] to believe he was being sheltered in Somalia by the Council of Islamic Courts [official website, in Somali].

It has not yet been determined if Fazul was killed in the air strikes, although there were casualties reported on the ground. AP has more.

[JURIST] The former head of the Iraqi Ministry of Electricity Ayham al-Samaraie [Wikipedia profile], who escaped from a Baghdad prison [JURIST report] in December, has said he plans to return to his home in the United States. Al-Samaraie, a member of the 2004-2005 interim Iraqi government [BBC backgrounder], was serving a two-year sentence after being convicted on corruption charges [AP report] brought by Iraq's Commission on Public Integrity [US State Dept. backgrounder; CPA press release] when he escaped from police custody at a prison in Baghdad. Speaking from the United Arab Emirates, al-Samaraie defended his escape Monday by claiming that his conviction was politically motivated and that he feared being killed or kidnapped. Since he holds dual US-Iraqi citizenship, al-Samaraie stated that he did not break any US laws and plans to return to the US sometime next week. Although al-Samaraie wants assurances that he will not face charges in the US related to his offenses in Iraq, Lou Fintor, spokesman for the US Embassy in Baghdad [official website], said at the time of his escape that the US would try to help recapture him.

Al-Samaraie is so far the only post-war Iraqi cabinet member to have been found guilty of corruption, despite its status as a massive public policy problem widely acknowledged by top Iraqi and US [JURIST reports] officials. He still faces another 12 corruption charges stemming from over $2 billion in funding for Iraq's electrical infrastructure which has gone missing. The Ministry of Electricity [official website] has been a focal point of massive problems and several probes since the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. Arrest warrants on various corruption charges have been issued for about 90 former Iraqi officials, including 15 ministers. AP has more.

[JURIST] Opening statements were made Tuesday in insurance lawsuits brought against State Farm Fire & Casualty [corporate website] brought by policyholders who were denied claims after Hurricane Katrina [JURIST news archive]. Judge L.T. Senter Jr. of the US District for the Southern District of Mississippi [official website] denied State Farm’s motion for change of venue, stating that State Farm’s claim that juries in the district were unfairly biased by the media did not pass the legal burden needed to justify such a change. State Farm is reportedly considering a settlement [AP report] with the Mississippi Attorney General [official website] that would require the company to pay policyholders $50 million initially, and potentially more as State Farm reviewed claims.

Courts have been split on insurance providers' liability to policyholders affected by Katrina. In the first Katrina-related insurance lawsuit to go to trial, a federal judge in Mississippi ruled in August that Nationwide Insurance was not obligated to cover a policyholder's claims [JURIST report] for water damage caused by the hurricane. In November, a federal judge held [JURIST report; opinion] that flood damage caused by Katrina may be covered under those insurance policies that do not specifically exclude from coverage damage caused by negligence. State Farm policies, however, carry a categorical exclusion. AP has more.

[JURIST] US President George Bush announced Tuesday that Fred F. Fielding [official profile] will serve as the new White House counsel [statement text]. Fielding, who has advised Bush throughout his presidency and sat on the 9/11 Commission [official website], will replace Harriet Miers [official profile], who announced her resignation [JURIST report] last week. Bush praised Miers, saying "she has devoted herself to the rule of law and the cause of justice," and called Fielding "uniquely qualified" to replace her.

Fielding served as General Counsel to President Reagan from 1981-86 and deputy counsel under President Nixon from 1970-72, and is regarded by observers as having the political experience that Bush may need to face challenges to executive authority from the new Democratically-controlled Congress. Fielding, 67, leaves his position as a partner at Wiley, Rein and Fielding [partner profile] in Washington, DC. The New York Times has more.

[JURIST] German Federal Minister of Justice Brigitte Zypries [official profile, in German] said at a press conference Monday that Germany will attempt to make denial of the World War II-era Holocaust in which millions of Jews died at the hands of the Nazis illegal throughout the European Union. The plan is part of Germany's platform [PDF text, in German] for its 2007 EU Presidency [EU backgrounder]. Speaking on Germany's plan for justice matters, Zypries stated that "denial of the Holocaust is an example of what would be punishable by law if standardization took place."

It is currently illegal to deny the Holocaust in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany and Spain. Germany once before pressed for similar EU law, but was blocked by Italy. The National Post has more.

[JURIST] The number of detainees on hunger-strike at Guantanamo Bay has increased this month to 11 from five as the detention center's fifth anniversary [Amnesty International press release] approaches on Thursday. US military spokesman have in the past insisted that hunger strikes are a typical tactic of Al-Qaeda members, designed to achieve their release so that they can return to the battlefield. Extensive hunger strikes began at Guantanamo in the summer of 2005, and by September 2005 the number of participants had reached 128 [JURIST reports]. In response, the Pentagon adopted a policy of force-feeding the strikers [JURIST report]. As many as 89 prisoners [JURIST report] were on hunger strike this past June, when the US military released new comprehensive guidelines [JURIST report] for the treatment of detainees directing doctors to force-feed detainees who endanger their own lives as a result of a hunger strike. The number dropped dramatically afterwards. The guidelines have drawn harsh criticism from some international medical groups, with Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) [advocacy website] calling them "an assault on medical ethics, the professional integrity of military health personnel, the Geneva Conventions, and on US military tradition and discipline."

Since its inception, Guantanamo has seen 770 prisoners, only 10 of whom have been charged. Today, 395 captives remain, and revised charges against a group of prisoners are expected to be brought in February [JURIST report]. AP has more.

[JURIST] Lawyers for Awad Hamed al-Bandar [Wikipedia profile], former chief judge of Iraq's Saddam Hussein-era Revolutionary Court, and former Iraqi intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim al Tikriti [GlobalSecurity profile; BBC profile], the two Saddam Hussein [JURIST news archive] co-defendants sentenced to death [JURIST report] alongside Hussein for crimes committed in the Iraqi village of Dujail in 1982, are continuing last-ditch efforts to stop Iraqi officials from carrying out the executions, expected this week [JURIST report] even in the face of UN protests, according to an Iraqi government spokesman. Giovanni Di Stefano, a UK-based Italian advocate representing al-Tikriti, told JURIST Tuesday that he has filed an urgent appeal [DOC text] with the Iraqi High Tribunal (IHT) [official website] arguing that al-Tikriti and al-Bandar may not be executed until the judgment against them becomes final. Although the IHT appeals chamber upheld the verdict [JURIST report] against Hussein and his co-defendants, Di Stefano says that under Paragraph 266 of the Iraqi Code of Criminal Procedure [PDF text], his clients "may request the correction of a legal error in the decision of the Cassation, provided the request is submitted within 30 days, counted from the date a convicted, imprisoned or detained person is notified of the Court of Cassation decision." Di Stefano asserts that the judgment is not final until the Court of Cassation issues its decision in the case and has asked "the Court to prohibit any such execution until the time frame contained within the law is completed and the decision becomes unappealable."

Separately, Di Stefano also said:

On Sunday at 17.45pm a Judge of the Iraqi High Tribunal accepted the urgent application filed by myself and wrote 'and agrees with it'. In short this means that as a matter of pure law (Iraq law) both Barzan Al Tikriti and Awad Al Bandar cannot be executed until such time as the statutory time limits have elapsed. That means that until 25th January 2007 both detainees should not be executed. If they are the Government of Iraq and/or whomsoever assisted the executions may be subject to an investigation by the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court.

I have today prepared a further application to the Iraqi High Tribunal submitting that to date both my clients have certainly 'heard' of the decision of the Appeal Court dated 26th December 2006 but clearly have not, to date, been 'notified' since the Iraqi Authorities have clearly, based upon their own law, failed to comply with the necessary regulation regarding 'notifications' which as we all know who practice the legal corridors has both a common sense and legal meaning. I am thus of the view and will request the Iraqi High Tribunal (Appeal Chamber) to rule on exactly WHEN were my clients actually legally 'notified' because to date Art.206 the Iraqi Authorities have failed to abide and as a consequence para.266 can only commence when legal notification has occurred. That to date has not occurred.

[JURIST] British judges have rejected a UK government proposal that government ministers say would simplify sentencing and increase judicial discretion in dealing with serious criminals, calling it a "kneejerk reaction" to an earlier sentencing scandal [JURIST report] over the possibility of parole within six years for a sex offender convicted in June. The proposal [JURIST report], entitled Making Sentencing Clearer [PDF text], was prepared by the Home Office and Department of Constitutional Affairs [official websites] in November. In a rare public pronouncement, Home Secretary John Reid [official profile] had called the original sentence for Craig Sweeney "unduly lenient."

The sixteen proposals included automatic fines rather than community service punishment for certain offenses, measures to prevent serious offenders from being released early, and alternatives to short, custodial sentences. Fourteen of the proposals were rejected by the 600-member Council of Her Majesty's Circuit Court Judges. The Council said, "There is the perception of 'change for the sake of change' in much current policy. This often appears to be kneejerk reaction to particular situations. It gives the impression of crisis management. Frequently, no thought is given to the longer-term consequences of the proposals." The Times of London has more. The South Wales Echo has additional coverage.

[JURIST] A federal judge Monday sentenced a Pakistani man to 30 years in prison after he was convicted [JURIST report] of conspiring to bomb a New York City subway station in retaliation for the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib [JURIST news archive]. Lawyers for Shahawar Matin Siraj [Wikipedia profile] petitioned the judge to impose a lesser sentence of 10 years, saying he had been entrapped by paid police informant Osama Eldawoody, who showed Siraj pictures of abused prisoners in Iraq and told him there is a religious law that allows the killing of US soldiers and law enforcement. Siraj took the stand and admitted that he did consider places to plant a bomb in the Herald Square subway station, but said he was under the "spell" of Eldawoody who encouraged him to do so.

Despite there being no evidence that Siraj was ever linked to a terrorist group or that he ever actually gathered explosive materials, prosecutors were successful in convincing US District Judge Nina Gershon [FJC profile] that he deserved 30 years in jail. Siraj will be deported after serving his sentence in the US. AP has more.

[JURIST] The US Senate [official website] Monday unanimously approved lifting a freeze on pay increases [S. 197 text] for federal judges. The freeze was imposed last month when a bill was passed by Congress to halt yearly cost-of-living raises for lawmakers and judges until February 15. The measure was passed as part of a commitment by Democrats to keep Congressional pay at the same rate until the federal minimum wage of $5.15 [US Department of Labor fact sheet] is increased. If the new bill also passes in the US House of Representatives [official website], judges will receive their 1.7 percent cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) retroactive to January 1.

Earlier this month, US Chief Justice John Roberts [OYEZ profile] called the failure to raise the pay of federal judges a "constitutional crisis" [JURIST report] in his 2006 year-end report on the federal judiciary [text, PDF]. Roberts' plea for increased salaries goes beyond the regular yearly COLA increase, as he cited the fact that pay for federal judges is not keeping pace with the salaries of top law school professors and deans. AP has more.

[JURIST] The voices of Saddam Hussein [JURIST news archive] and his cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid [BBC profile], known in the Western media as "Chemical Ali", were heard discussing the use of chemical weapons to kill thousands in audio tapes played Monday before the Iraqi High Tribunal [official website] during its ongoing genocide trial [JURIST news archive; BBC trial timeline] of six former Hussein regime officials originally charged with the late dictator in connection with the deaths of some 180,000 Kurds during the so-called "Anfal" campaigns [HRW backgrounder] of the 1980s. The trial reconvened Monday with the chief judge dismissing all charges against Saddam [JURIST report] following his December 30 execution [JURIST report]. A voice identified as Saddam discusses how using the chemical weapons would force those affected not to eat or drink and confirms the chemicals would "exterminate thousands." Al-Majid says on the tapes that he would use chemical weapons to kill, and curses any criticism by the international community.

It was unclear in the proceedings Monday why or when the recordings were made. Not guilty pleas [JURIST report] have been entered for all defendants, who have denied [JURIST report] that chemical weapons were used on the Kurds. Reuters has more.