[JURIST] Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert urged Israeli President Moshe Katsav [official profile] to step down Wednesday in the face of possible charges of rape and sexual harassment [JURIST report]. Haaretz quoted Olmert as saying that "In these circumstances there is no doubt in my heart that the president cannot continue to fulfill his role and must leave the President's Residence." Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi Livni was even more direct, saying in other statement quoted by Haaretz:

Moshe Katsav the person enjoys the presumption of innocence. But given the nature of the charges, the evidence and the timing of the decision, it is more appropriate that the battle over his innocence not be waged from within the President's Residence. I therefore believe resignation is the correct thing to do.

[JURIST] The US House of Representatives [official website] Wednesday passed a resolution [text] which would amend House rules to grant limited voting rights to federal lawmakers from five US nonstate territories. The resolution, introduced January 19, would extend certain Congressional voting rights to delegates from the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Virgin Islands, and American Samoa, to allow:

each Delegate and the Resident Commissioner . . . the same powers and privileges as Members of the House. Each Delegate and the Resident Commissioner shall be elected to serve on standing committees in the same manner as Members of the House and shall possess in such committees the same powers and privileges as the other members of the committee.

Whenever a recorded vote on any question has been decided by a margin within which the votes cast by the Delegates and the Resident Commissioner have been decisive, the Committee of the Whole shall rise and the Speaker shall put such question de novo without intervening motion.

[JURIST] The International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website; JURIST news archive] will rule January 29 [ICC press release] on whether war crimes charges [indictment, PDF; additional case materials] will be confirmed against Congolese militia leader Thomas Lubanga [JURIST news archive; TrialWatch backgrounder], a move that would make Lubanga the first ICC defendant. As founder of the militant Union of Patriotic Congolese [Global Security backgrounder], Lubanga is accused of enlisting child soldiers [BBC report] in the Democratic Republic of Congo's violence-plagued Ituri district [HRW backgrounder].

Following a pre-trial hearing [JURIST report] in November, ICC judges have been deliberating over whether there is sufficient evidence to proceed against Lubanga. Lubanga has maintained his innocence, claiming that the prosecution has withheld evidence necessary to prepare a full defense. Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo [official profile] has said that if the charges are confirmed, the ICC could hold its first formal trial in 2007 [JURIST report]. Prosecutors are also preparing to submit evidence [JURIST report] to ICC judges in February regarding crimes committed in Darfur [JURIST news archive]. AFP has more.

[JURIST] Turkish prosecutors have charged five people in connection with the murder of Hrant Dink [BBC profile], the Turkish-Armenian journalist who was shot and killed [JURIST report] last week. The five are accused of belonging to an armed gang, and prosecutors are investigating whether other political or illegal organizations are tied to the group. Dink was convicted last year [JURIST report] of "insulting the Turkish identity" in violation of Article 301 [JURIST news archive; Amnesty International backgrounder] of Turkey's penal code after writing about the killings of an estimated one million Ottoman Armenians [ANI backgrounder; Turkish DC Embassy backgrounder] in the early 20th century. Dink was awaiting a retrial [JURIST report] after his conviction had been overturned, and his writings had prompted death threats from Turkish nationalists.

Ogun Samast, 17, has confessed to the shooting, and another member of the group charged admitted having provided Samast with money and the weapon. Samast told journalists that he was "bothered" by Dink's writings and speeches and that he felt no remorse for the killing. AP has more. Turkish Weekly has additional coverage.

[JURIST] Ex-Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega [Wikipedia backgrounder], who has spent the last 17 years in US custody, including 15 years in federal prison on drug trafficking and racketeering charges, is to be released on September 9, 2007 [official release date], according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons [official website]. Noriega, a former US ally who ruled Panama as a military dictator for six years, was ousted by US troops in 1989 [BBC report]. After going into self-exile in Panama City, he was flushed out by US troops in 1990, surrendered and was taken to Miami, where he was put on trial. His initial sentence of 40 years in prison was later reduced to 30 years [New York Times report] after he persuaded officials that he helped promote US interests in Latin America during the Cold War.

Although Noriega's lawyer has said the ex-leader wishes to return to his family in Panama after release, he faces additional charges in both Panama and France, where he and his wife were sentenced in absentia [AP report] to ten years in jail for money laundering in 1999. In 2001, a Panama judge convicted Noriega of corruption [AP report], bringing his sentence time in that country to 90 years, following a previous conviction in 1995 for conspiracy to commit murder, which prompted calls for his extradition back to Panama [BBC report]. Noriega hopes to challenge the murder charge after his release this year. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals [court website] heard oral arguments Wednesday on whether criminal conspiracy charges brought against former US Rep. Tom Delay [JURIST news archive] were properly dismissed at trial. Charges of conspiracy to violate election law and conspiracy to commit money laundering were dismissed [JURIST report] last December after the trial court found that the Texas campaign finance statute was explicitly extended to allow the laying of criminal conspiracy charges only after DeLay's alleged wrongful acts. In April, the Texas Third Court of Appeals affirmed that decision [JURIST report] but refused to dismiss actual money laundering charges [JURIST document] against DeLay.

Prosecutors Wednesday asked the court to either overrule or distinguish those cases. Lawyers for DeLay argued that DeLay would not have had fair notice that his conduct was illegal at the time it occurred unless the statute then explicitly contemplated criminal conspiracy charges, which it did not, and that the legislature's subsequent amendment of the statute to include those charges showed that criminal conspiracy to violate election laws was a crime at the time of DeLay's actions. The Austin American-Statesman has local coverage.

DeLay and two other Republicans are accused of transferring $190,000 in corporate money directly to the Republican National Committee, which then donated the same amount to local Texas campaigns. DeLay and the other suspects have denied raising or spending money illegally. After he was indicted [JURIST report], DeLay stepped down as House majority leader and later resigned from Congress [JURIST reports]. DeLay withdrew his name from the November ballot [JURIST report] after several courts ruled that the Texas Republican Party could not name a new candidate to run in his place.

[JURIST] Ukraine political leaders have reached a compromise in a dispute over recently passed legislation that Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko [official website; BBC profile] threatened to challenge in court after claiming that it would illegally expand the cabinet's power at the expense of the presidency. Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych [BBC profile] said Wednesday that, following a Tuesday conversation between himself, Yushchenko, and the chairman of Ukraine's parliament, the parliament will consider amendments to the cabinet law proposed by the President, if he submits the amendments prior to the upcoming parliamentary session.

In December, the parliament enacted the bill into law [JURIST report], overriding a previous presidential veto and rejecting all 42 of Yushchenko's amendments. Yushchenko then threatened to challenge the law in the country's Constitutional Court. The standoff between parliament and Yushchenko was only worsened by the fact that government leader Yanukovych is Yushchenko's political arch-rival [JURIST report], having been defeated [JURIST report] by Yushchenko in a bitter 2004 presidential election that had to be re-run after mass protests and allegations of fraud, precipitating Ukraine's so-called Orange Revolution [Wikipedia backgrounder]. Pravda has local coverage.

[JURIST] UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon [official website] said Wednesday in response to a press question about Italy's recent push for an international death penalty moratorium [IPS report] that he supports the international trend towards abolishing the death penalty. Ban came under fire from human rights groups earlier this month after he told the press [JURIST report] January 2, in the immediate wake of the Saddam Hussein execution and one day after his tenure as secretary-general began, that "[t]he issue of capital punishment is for each and every Member State to decide."

Earlier this month, Iraq executed two Hussein co-defendants [JURIST report] over Ban's objections [JURIST report]. Ban had released a statement [text] "strongly [urging] the Government of Iraq to grant a stay of execution to those whose death sentences may be carried out in the near future." Ban is a citizen of South Korea, which is one of 84 sovereign states that practice capital punishment [Amnesty International list]. AP has more.

[JURIST] Sri Lanka is "complicit or willfully blind" to the child conscription efforts of the rebel group Karuna [Wikipedia backgrounder], according to a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report [text; press release] published Wednesday that alleges the government has helped Karuna abduct children to fight against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) [faction website; CFR backgrounder], also known as the "Tamil Tigers." The report alleges the Karuna group has "abducted and forcibly recruited" at least 200 Tamil children throughout 2006, and that the government has not seriously investigated kidnapping reports or made a significant effort to prevent them from happening. The report notes that in November, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse [official website] agreed to investigate [press release] the allegations, but argues that the government has an overriding interest to strengthen an opponent of the Tamil Tigers.

UNICEF [official website], which has previously accused the Tigers of illegally recruiting child soldiers [JURIST report], has said that the Tigers have nearly 1,600 underage soldiers, while the Karuna group has recruited 142 children. Last year, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution [PDF text; JURIST report] allowing the UN to monitor governments and rebel organizations that abuse children in any way or recruit children as soldiers. The HRW report urges the Security Council to implement the resolution by insisting that Karuna "immediately adopt and implement an action plan to end all recruitment and use of child soldiers." AP has more.

[JURIST] The Russian Constitutional Court [RIN backgrounder] will now hold its sessions in St. Petersburg, rather than its current Moscow location, after Russia's Federation Council [official website; MosNews backgounder] voted 147-2 to approve the authorizing bill. The bill, which was approved by the Russian State Duma [JURIST report] in December, was revised to permit the Court to hold visiting sessions anywhere in the Russian Federation. The Court is also authorized to maintain a Moscow office "to ensure cooperation with the federal authorities," a provision seen as allowing some perhaps-recalcitrant judges [Kommersant backgrounder] to continue working from a Moscow base.

Russian President Vladimir Putin [official profile], a St. Petersburg native, has previously said that the Court is expected to begin operations in St. Petersburg in late 2007 or early 2008. Interfax has more. Prime-Tass has additional coverage.

[JURIST] Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen [official profile; BBC profile] on Tuesday called for the European constitution [official website; JURIST news archive] to be in place before the 2009 European parliamentary elections. Rasmussen acknowledged that some changes to the current draft constitution [text] may be necessary after voters in France and the Netherlands [JURIST reports] rejected the draft in 2006, but stressed that of the 27 EU member nations, 18 have ratified the text. Denmark has yet to hold a national referendum to accept or reject the draft document.

Germany assumed the six-month EU presidency on January 1, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel has promised to put the constitution back on the EU agenda, and has also pushed for ratification before the 2009 elections [JURIST report]. AFP has more. The Copenhagen Post has local coverage.

[JURIST] Over 450 illegal immigrants out of over 750 taken into custody have already been deported by US immigration authorities after a week-long crackdown in five counties in southern California, officials at the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) [official website] announced Tuesday. Of those taken into custody, 338 were arrested in residential raids and 423 were identified while in jail for other crimes. Those now serving sentences will be transferred to federal detention facilities and will not be deported until finishing their sentences. ICE said in a press statement:

The seven-day effort is the largest single enforcement action carried out nationwide so far under Operation Return to Sender, an ongoing ICE initiative targeting criminal aliens, foreign nationals with final orders of deportation, and other immigration violators. Since its launch in June 2006, Operation Return to Sender has resulted in more than 13,000 arrests nationwide. During that same time period, ICE has also lodged nearly 3,000 immigration detainees against criminal aliens incarcerated in state and local jails across the country ensuring they will come into ICE custody when they complete their sentences.

[JURIST] UK Home Secretary John Reid, Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer and Attorney General Lord Goldsmith [official profiles] wrote to British judges [HO press release] on Wednesday urging them to limit imposition of prison sentences to only the most dangerous criminals in order to help the government deal with prison overcrowding [BBC backgrounder; Guardian Q&A]. MPs on the opposition Conservative Party benches say the government is placing the public in danger by making such requests, but the Home Office insists that "By sentencing less serious offenders to tough community sentences instead of short prison sentences, not only would pressure on the prison system be alleviated but communities would also benefit from the work offenders would do as part of their community sentence."

In October, Reid announced an outline of a plan to combat the increasingly urgent problem of prison overcrowding [JURIST report]. According to a January 19 report, there are 79,375 prisoners in facilities in England and Wales, down from the 79,843 in October, but still less than 1,000 under the prison capacity of 80,114. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The trial of 29 people suspected of involvement in the 2004 Madrid train bombings [JURIST news archive] will begin on February 15, according to an announcement from the Spanish National Court Tuesday. At least three of the 29 suspects [JURIST report] are expected to take the stand as a part of the trial, and the seven main suspects face jail terms of thirty years for each of the 191 killings on charges of murder and terrorism.

Spanish prosecutors said in November that they would seek jail terms for convicted suspects that will extend well beyond their lives when the case went to trial in February [JURIST report]. Spanish law required prosecutors to request jail terms amounting to thousands of years because Spain does not allow life sentences without the possibility of parole. Also in November, an Italian court convicted Egyptian Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed [CBC profile] for his role in the 2004 Madrid train bombings, sentencing him to ten years in prison. AP has more. BBC News has additional coverage.

[JURIST] UK Director of Public Prosecutions Ken Macdonald [official profile] said Tuesday that there is no "war on terror" in Britain and warned that inappropriate measures driven by fear threaten an accused's right to a fair trial. In a speech [excerpts, via the Guardian] delivered to the UK Criminal Bar Association, Macdonald, who also heads the Crown Prosecution Service [official website], stressed that anti-terror efforts were properly a criminal matter and cautioned against the "fear-driven" temptation "to abandon our values" due to fear of terrorism. Macdonald said:

The fight against terrorism on the streets of Britain is not a war. It is the prevention of crime, the enforcement of our laws and the winning of justice for those damaged by their infringement...

We wouldn't get far in promoting a civilising culture of respect for rights amongst and between citizens if we set about undermining fair trials in the simple pursuit of greater numbers of inevitably less safe convictions. On the contrary, it is obvious that the process of winning convictions ought to be in keeping with a consensual rule of law and not detached from it. Otherwise we sacrifice fundamental values critical to the maintenance of the rule of law - upon which everything else depends.

[JURIST] A federal judge in Chicago has dismissed [NHLPA press release] a lawsuit [complaint, PDF; JURIST report] filed by a group of NHL players against Ted Saskin, head of the National Hockey League Players' Association [organization website]. Judge Suzanne B. Conlon of the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois ruled Monday that since the NHLPA and most of the witnesses are based in Ontario, Canada, the suit should be brought there. Despite the dismissal, it's unlikely to be the end of the dispute. Both Chelios and Saskin are circulating recorded statements regarding the dispute [London Free Press report] to NHL players to gauge interest in a possible investigation into the actions of the NHLPA's executive board. AP has more.

The suit, filed by players Chris Chelios, Dwayne Roloson, and Trent Klattalleged, alleged improper actions by Saskin, including misappropriation of union money, claimed that Saskin was improperly elected to replace outgoing executive director Bob Goodenow, and called for Saskin's removal and several million dollars in damages.

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