[JURIST] Italy is set to become the latest country in Europe to criminalize Holocaust denial [JURIST news archive] after the cabinet of Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi [official website, in Italian] unanimously approved a draft bill [notes, PDF in Italian] Thursday. The draft, written by Justice Minister Clemente Mastella [official website, in Italian], will now be given to parliament for debate. It makes it a crime punishable by up to four years in prison to defend, justify, or otherwise instigate crimes against humanity.

Earlier this month, Germany announced that as part of its 2007 EU presidency [official website], it would propose EU-wide laws criminalizing Holocaust denial [JURIST report]. A prior German attempt at such a law was blocked by Italy, which has since softened its opposition. It is currently illegal to deny the Holocaust in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany and Spain. DPA has more. ANSA has additional coverage.

[JURIST] Bangladesh Attorney General [official website] AJ Mohammad Ali stepped down from his post Wednesday in what is believed to be a response to demands for his resignation from a left-leaning 14-party coalition led by the Awami League (AL) [party website]. The AL accuses Ali of instituting policies for a currently-suspended national election that would have favored the center-right Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which led the government until late 2006. Ali declined to disclose reasons for his resignation. Ali's resignation comes just two days after the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner MA Aziz [JURIST report]. Both men are thought to be casualties of an attempt by new interim government Chief Advisor Fakhruddin Ahmed [official website] to rid the administration of politically-charged influence.

The politically-unaffiliated Ahmed was appointed [New Age report] earlier this month by President Iajuddin Ahmed [Wikipedia profile] following the declaration of a state of emergency [JURIST report] and suspension of January elections. Zee News has more.

[JURIST] Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] urged Senegal to accelerate the process of bringing former Chadian dictator Hissene Habre [HRW materials; JURIST news archive] to justice in a briefing paper [HRW backgrounder] released Thursday. Following a recommendation [JURIST report] from the July 2006 African Union assembly [official website], Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade [official profile, in French; BBC profile] agreed that Habre should be tried in Senegal, but Senegal has yet to legalize such a trial, nor has it proposed a budget securing the international aid that will be required to fund the probably complex and expensive proceedings.

Habre was the dictator of Chad from 1982 until 1990 when he was deposed and fled to Senegal. He is accused of committing widespread atrocities during his reign. In 2000, he was indicted in Senegal, but it was determined he could not be tried in Senegalese courts. In 2005, families of his victims won an international arrest warrant [JURIST report] in Belgium that resulted in Habre's arrest. Before extradition, the African Union made its recommendation for the trial to take place in Senegal. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Indonesia Attorney General Abdul Rahman Saleh announced Thursday that by the end of the month the state plans to bring a civil action against former president Haji Mohammad Suharto [CNN profile] for alleged misuse of charitable funds. The suit will concern the Supersemar foundation, created by Suharto in 1974 as a scholarship fund for students, and could be followed by as many as six others.

Suharto was ousted from power in 1998 amid violent protests against his three-decade dictatorship of Indonesia [JURIST news archive]. The Jakarta Court of Appeals ruled [JURIST report] in August last year that the Attorney General was correct to drop criminal charges of corruption [JURIST report] against Suharto for misuse of charitable monies, citing Suharto's inability to speak or write as a result of permanent brain damage [JURIST report]. AFP has more.

[JURIST] A Seoul court ruled Thursday that cancer patients suing South Korean tobacco firm Korea Tobacco and Ginseng Co. (KTG) [company backgrounder] do not have enough evidence to link their diseases to negligence on the part of the companies. The court conceded the link between smoking and the plaintiffs' illnesses, but said that there was insufficient evidence to show that their diseases were explicitly caused by smoking the defendant's cigarettes. In addition, the court said that there was no evidence to support assertions that the companies provided inadequate warnings about their products.

South Korea [JURIST news archive] has an extremely high smoking population, at 12 million out of 47 million people, according to a 2005 report [text] by Euromonitor International [official website]. Widespread anti-smoking campaigns [BBC report] have been largely ineffective. The suit dismissed Thursday was the first brought by cancer patients against tobacco companies in South Korea and was a consolidation of two separate lawsuits filed in 1999 against KTG, which was then a government-run company. Lawyers for the plaintiffs have said they will appeal the decision. Asia Pacific News has more. The Korea Herald has local coverage.

[JURIST] UK Prime Minister Tony Blair said Thursday that the increasingly-controversial issue of whether Catholic adoption agencies would have to permit adoptions by same-sex couples under new equality regulations will be decided in cabinet next week. The rules would ostensibly prohibit discrimination against same-sex couples wishing to exercise their new right to adopt children [JURIST report], but after British Catholic Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor suggested that this might force Catholic adoption agencies opposed to same-sex unions to close, Blair earlier this week floated a compromise that would respect the "sensitivities" of the Catholic Church [CBC report]. A phalanx of senior cabinet ministers objected to the idea however, insisting that regulations under the Equality Act [text, PDF] had in fact to be applied equally.

In a statement read to reporters at a press conference, the Prime Minister's spokesman said:

These new regulations provide a massive step forward in ending discrimination against gay people. They build on previous measures, such as equalising the age of consent...and the introduction of civil partnerships. Now we want to ensure equality in the provision of goods and services, such as hotels and housing. This is about regulations which will extend further anti-discrimination legislation. We are clear about what we want to do.

There is one last aspect within the new regulations to resolve, and it concerns adoption. I have always personally been in favour of the right of gay couples to adopt. Our priority will always be the welfare of the child. That is why the Adoption Act in 2004 sought to extend the field of potential adoptive parents to include unmarried and gay couples. Catholic adoption agencies represent one third of the voluntary sector operating in this area, and have a proven track record with the most difficult to place children. Both gay couples and the Catholic agencies have high levels of success in adopting hard to place children. It is for that reason we have taken time to ensure we get these regulations right. How do we protect the principle of ending discrimination against gay people and at the same time, protect those vulnerable children who at the present time are being placed through an aftercare provided by Catholic agencies who everyone accepts do a great job with some of the most disturbed youngsters? We will announce a decision next week, and then vote.

[JURIST] A North Carolina state judge on Thursday issued an injunction blocking two executions until Gov. Mike Easley issues new procedures to execute capital defendants without the presence of doctors. The new execution protocol is required after the North Carolina Medical Board last week changed their capital punishment policy [text], taking the position that "physician participation in capital punishment is a departure from the ethics of the medical profession." The new policy threatens participating doctors with the loss of their license. Lawyers for the two defendants have argued that only physicians can ensure that executions do not cause undue pain to the victim in violation of the state and US constitutions. North Carolina law requires the presence of a physician at all executions. WRAL.com has local coverage.

Earlier this week, a group of Democrats in the North Carolina legislature called for the suspension of all executions [JURIST report], pointing to the recent statewide moratorium on executions [JURIST report] issued by Florida Governor Jeb Bush in that state. A letter to Gov. Easley [DOC text] said a moratorium is required "in response to the mounting evidence that the procedure used to execute prisoners in North Carolina has the potential to cause undue and excruciating pain."

Several other states have been confronted of late with death penalty issues. Earlier this month, a New Jersey State commission recommended [JURIST report] that New Jersey abolish the death penalty completely, replacing it with a life sentence without the possibility of parole. If the commission's report makes its way into law New Jersey will become the first US jurisdiction to ban capital punishment in over 35 years. In December, a federal judge in California effectively suspended capital punishment there [JURIST report] by ruling that that state's lethal injection procedure creates "an undue and unnecessary risk" of cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment of the US Constitution. In its 2006 year-end report [PDF text; press release], the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) [advocacy website] noted that the number of death sentences issued in 2006 reached the lowest level in 30 years [JURIST report].

[JURIST] US Army Pfc. Corey R. Clagett pleaded guilty during his court-martial on Thursday to charges of murder, attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder and conspiracy to obstruct justice, relating to the killing of several Iraqi detainees [JURIST report] after a May 9 2006 raid in Thar Thar, a town near Samarra, in Iraq's Salahuddin province. The soldiers, members of the Third Brigade Combat Team of the 101st Airborne Division [GlobalSecurity backgrounder], initially covered up the murders [JURIST report], saying the Iraqis were attempting to flee, a story they later recanted. Clagett on Thursday told the military judge that his squad leader, Staff Sgt. Raymond Girouard, ordered the murders, and that Clagett knew it was an unlawful order.

Girouard is the only soldier of the four still awaiting his court-martial, which is expected to begin soon. US Army Specialist William Hunsaker received an 18-year prison sentence [JURIST report] earlier this month after pleading guilty to murder, attempted murder and obstruction of justice charges [JURIST report]. Specialist Juston Graber received a nine-month sentence after pleading guilty [JURIST report] to aggravated assault with a dangerous weapon. The Army demoted Hunsaker and Graber to the rank of private and gave Hunsaker a dishonorable discharge. A US Army investigator had recommended that all four US soldiers should face the death penalty [JURIST report]. AP has more.

1/26/07 - Clagett received an 18-year prison sentence and will be dishonorably discharged from the Army after being demoted to private. AP has more.

[JURIST] US District Court Judge Melinda Harmon on Wednesday granted a motion to dismiss seven defendants from the Enron shareholder derivative lawsuit [class action website], scheduled to go to trial in April. The lead plaintiff in the case, the University of California Board of Regents, has already negotiated settlements with Lehman Brothers, Bank of America, Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, and CIBC [press releases, PDF], for a total of over $7 billion in recovery.

Those defendants dismissed from the case include the estate of former Enron founder Ken Lay [Houston Chronicle profile; JURIST news archive]; Lou Pai [Wikipedia profile], former director of Enron's energy division; Joe Hirko, Ken Rice, and Kevin Hannon [Houston Chronicle profiles], all former executives of Enron Broadband Services; Lawrence "Greg" Whalley, a commodity trader; and the law firm of Vinson & Elkins [firm website], counsel to Enron during court proceedings. The UC Regents moved to dismiss Pai [Houston Chronicle report] in December, shortly after requesting the dismissal of Vinson & Elkins. The Board of Regents moved to dismiss the other defendants [Houston Chronicle report] in January. Lay, convicted [JURIST report] in May of fraud and conspiracy charges [indictment, PDF] for providing investors with false and misleading financial information from 1999 up until Enron [JURIST news archive] filed bankruptcy in late 2001, died suddenly [JURIST report] of a heart attack in July.

The remaining defendants include Merrill Lynch and Credit Suisse First Boston [corporate websites]; former CEO Jeff Skilling; former CAO Richard Causey; former Chief Risk Officer Richard Buy; former Treasurer Jeff McMahon; and former investor relations chief Mark Koening [Houston Chronicle profiles]. The Houston Chronicle has more. The Houston Business Journal has additional coverage.

[JURIST] Italian police Chief Superintendent Chiara Giacomantonio said Wednesday that a four month-long investigation has turned up nearly 2,000 suspects believed to be involved in human trafficking [HRW backgrounder; JURIST news archive] in Italy. According to police, most of the human trafficking involved both minors and adults who were forced into sweatshops and prostitution. Giacomantonio also stated that most of those involved are Eastern Europeans, as well as some from Asia and Africa. Speaking on the investigation, Italian Interior Minister Giuliano Amato [Wikipedia profile] said that "fighting these criminal groups...is a matter of civic conscience of all of us even before it becomes a matter of law."

Of the people suspected, 784 are currently in Italian custody, while the remaining have been released until further proceedings. AP has more.

[JURIST] Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul [official website, English version] has called for change to the controversial Article 301 [Amnesty backgrounder; JURIST news archive] of Turkey's penal code, which makes "insulting the Turkish identity" a crime. Gul, who last December conceded that the law could be changed if necessary [JURIST report] to protect Turkey's reputation, admitted Wednesday that the law in its current state causes problems. On Friday, Turkish-Armenian author Hrant Dink, journalist and editor of the newspaper Agos [media website, English version], was shot and killed [JURIST report] in Istanbul. In October 2005, Dink was given a six-months suspended sentence [JURIST report] for his conviction of violating Article 301, but his conviction was subsequently overturned.

Other writers such as Turkish novelist Elif Shafak [personal website] and Orhan Pamuk [JURIST news archive] have all been charged under Article 301 for discussing the alleged Armenian genocide. Gul criticized the state's case [JURIST report] against Pamuk last year, calling his prosecution for "public denigration of Turkish identity" contrary to the efforts of the government to extend greater individual rights to citizens, including freedom of religion and expression. Turkey, which hopes to join the EU, faces pressure from the EU to abolish Article 301 [JURIST report] because it infringes upon the freedom of expression. The New York Times has more.

[JURIST] A parliamentary committee of the Israeli Knesset [official website] voted 13-11 Thursday to grant the request of Israeli President Moshe Katsav [official website; JURIST news archive] for a three-month temporary suspension. The Knesset vote preserves Katsav's immunity even though he faces possible charges of rape, sexual harassment, abuse of power and obstruction of justice [JURIST report] since he was granted a leave rather than resigning. Outraged lawmakers, however, vowed to have Katsav dismissed and said they will initiate impeachment proceedings against him if he does not resign. Israeli Attorney General Menahem Mazuz [official profile] said Tuesday that there is enough evidence to indict Katsav but that formal charges will only be made once a hearing is held [Reuters report] in which Katsav will be allowed to present his case. Katsav went on Israeli television on Wednesday and maintained his innocence, claiming these charges are a result of a "vicious campaign by journalists, police and the state prosecution." Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert [official website; BBC profile] has also urged Katsav [JURIST report] to step down.

Under Israeli law, a president may be subject to prosecution only if impeached by parliament, which requires 90 of 120 total votes. Police initially recommended the indictment following a three-month investigation covering at least 10 complaints against Katsav by former employees. The Israeli presidency, which Katsav has held since 2000, is largely ceremonial with real power vested in the prime minister. Parliamentary speaker Dalia Itzik [Knesset profile] was appointed as acting president - the first woman in Israel to hold the post. AP has more. The Jerusalem Post has local coverage.

[JURIST] US District Judge Marcia Clarke did not sanction a defense lawyer for alleged terrorist Jose Padilla [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] during Wednesday court hearings for violating a protective order that bars distribution of sensitive documents, but instead had all defense lawyers sign agreements not to leak any other protected documents. Clarke also threatened the press with contempt proceedings if any other documents are published. On Tuesday, prosecutors accused the defense of violating the protective order [JURIST report] by leaking court transcripts, leading to a January 4 New York Times report that found weaknesses in the wiretap evidence against Padilla. A defense lawyer admitted to the leak. AP has more.

Padilla, a US citizen initially suspected of planning to set off a radioactive "dirty bomb" [NRC factsheet] in the United States and classified in 2002 as an enemy combatant subject to indefinite detention, was indicted [JURIST report] in late 2005 on unrelated terrorism charges. He was transferred to civilian custody [JURIST report] in January of last year and has pleaded not guilty [JURIST report]. His trial is scheduled for April 16.

[JURIST] Sentencing proceedings in the case against Saddam Hussein-era Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan [Trial Watch profile] were postponed until February 12 Thursday after lawyers for the survivors of Ramadan's crimes failed to show up in court. The lawyers had not been given notice to appear. Ramadan is expected to receive a death sentence [JURIST report].

Ramadan was convicted [JURIST report; BBC verdict summary] in November in connection with crimes against humanity committed in the town of Dujail in 1982. The Appeals Chamber of the Iraqi High Tribunal [official website] ruled December 26 in its decision upholding Saddam Hussein's death sentence [JURIST report] that a life sentence for Ramadan was too lenient and ordered the trial court to re-sentence him. On Monday, a lawyer for Ramadan filed an appeal [DOC text; JURIST report] against the appeals ruling, arguing that the Tribunal's Appeals Chamber was not authorized to effectively direct its trial court to deliver a death penalty for Ramadan after that court originally accorded him a life sentence. AP has more.

11:13 AM ET - In a statement e-mailed to JURIST Thursday, Ramadan defense lawyer Giovanni Di Stefano said:

In the first proper legal ruling of the Iraqi High Tribunal the Court has decided to adjourn the case of my client Taha Ramadan not only based upon the submissions filed but because as a matter of law no defence lawyer had 'legally' been notified of the hearing. Under normal circumstances and as we have seen in the Saddam Hussein, Barzan Al Tikriti and Awwad Al Bandar cases, the IHT takes no notice whatsoever of their own Rules of Procedure. But the public outcry advanced by those such as myself at political, judicial and legal levels has created a wind of change that although comes too late for Saddam, Barzan and Awwad may just save others.

The question of notification is a fundamentally important factor in the legal process in any jurisdiction. Cases succeed based upon the failure to 'notify' judgments, decisions, sentences, defendants, lawyers. One of the submissions that I had made to the IHT in the case of Barzan Al Tikriti and Awaad Al Bandar was that they had NEVER been legally notified of the Appeal Chamber decision dated 26 December 2006 rejecting their appeal. Thus, in my submission since they had never been notified, Para. 266 of the Law on Criminal Proceedings 1971 could not 'kick in' and as such the 30 day period stipulated for any appeal only started when legal notification had occurred. The Iraqi Government hung my clients the day after I lodged the said submissions and the application to President Talabani for commutation of sentence. The deaths of Saddam Hussein, Barzan Al Tikriti, and Judge Awwad Al Bandar may thus not have been wholly in vain.

The IHT has ruled that since the defence lawyers were not 'notified' legally of any hearing then the proceedings could and should not commence. They have also received my submissions and will no doubt have to try and find a way of answering what is clear, precise and plain law. In the meantime, Taha Ramadan lives on and if there is to be any hearing on 12th February 2007 I will be present but at that time my submission will be quite simple- the time period for any further re-hearings has expired and any Court would not be properly constituted thus making any decisions ultra vires. The dilemma will then be whether Taha Ramadan should be freed or retried.

[JURIST] Federal authorities arrested a Mississippi man Wednesday for the 1964 kidnapping and deaths of two black men in another reopened civil rights-era case [US News backgrounder]. James Ford Seale, now 71 years old, was originally arrested in 1964 on suspicion of kidnapping two young black men, Henry Dee and Charles Moore, who were later found dead in the Mississippi river, but was released due to a lack of evidence after providing information to the FBI. In 2000, after the Clarion-Ledger reported on the contents of Seale's file [report], the US Justice Department reopened the case, but the LA Times and later, the Clarion-Ledger reported that Seale had in fact died. Thomas Moore, brother of Charles Moore, had pushed for the case to be reopened again, but authorities hesitated, until the 2005 conviction of Edgar Ray Killen [JURIST report] for the civil rights era deaths of three civil rights workers.

Seale will be arraigned Thursday in Jackson, Mississippi, on kidnapping charges. AP has more. From Jackson, the Clarion-Ledger has local coverage.

3:38 PM ET - Seale has pleaded not guilty [AP report] to the charges [indictment; press release]. In a press conference [prepared statement] Thursday, US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said that "Seale has been indicted by a federal grand jury for two counts of kidnapping resulting in death, and one count of conspiracy." Gonzales called the case "an example of the Administration's commitment to investigating and prosecuting civil-rights era homicides where evidence supports prosecution and federal jurisdiction can be established."