[JURIST] Two Albany, New York men convicted in a money laundering scheme set up as an FBI sting [JURIST report] were each sentenced Thursday to 15 years in prison. Former imam at Masjid as-Salam mosque Yassin Aref and mosque co-founder and pizzeria owner Mohammed Hossain were convicted [AP report] in October for their roles in a money laundering scheme involving an FBI informant who pretended to be an illegal arms dealer. According to a USAO press release [text], the two agreed to launder money which they believed came from the sale of a shoulder-fired missile to a terrorist group to be used to assassinate a Pakistani diplomat. Aref and Hossain were also ordered to forfeit $40,000, and pay special fines of $1,000 and $4,000 respectively

An initial terrorism charge against Aref and Hossain was later dropped when it was found to be based on a Defense Department mistranslation of evidence [NYT report]. The men's defense had filed a motion to dismiss the case alleging that evidence in the case may have been illegally obtained through National Security Agency (NSA) wiretaps under the controversial domestic surveillance program [JURIST news archive]. In a highly unusual move, the judge refused the motion in a secret ruling [JURIST report]. AP has more.

[JURIST] The Sudanese trial of Ali Kushayb [Trial Watch profile], one of the two suspects accused by the International Criminal Court (ICC) of committing war crimes in Sudan's Darfur region, and two other security officials has been delayed after Kushayb filed an appeal in the case, Sudanese court officials said Thursday. Kushayb, Hamdi Sharafeddin and Abdel Rahman Daoud Hamida were due to face trial [JURIST report] Wednesday in a Sudanese criminal court on charges of kidnapping, sequestration, arson and murder against civilians in Darfur [JURIST news archive]. Court officials said Thursday the delay in the trial had been caused by an appeal being forwarded to the Sudanese attorney general.

ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo last week asked the international court to issue summonses [JURIST report] for Kushayb and former Sudanese Interior Minister Ahmad Muhammad Harun in what was the first action taken against individuals in the ICC's ongoing investigation [ICC materials; JURIST news archive] of the Darfur situation. Under the ICC's governing Rome Statute [PDF text], the ICC can prosecute individuals for war crimes, genocide or crimes against humanity only when a state is unwilling or unable to genuinely do so. Sudan has repeatedly rejected the ICC's jurisdiction [JURIST report] over the Darfur situation, and if Sudan tries Kushayb on the same charges he faces at the ICC, the ICC may lose jurisdiction over the case. Moreno-Ocampo has previously said that the Sudanese investigation against Kushayb does not overlap with the ICC's case [press briefing transcript]. Kushayb has rejected the ICC's accusations [JURIST report]. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] A new law to protect private property in China was presented to the Chinese legislature on Thursday. The law, in the making [JURIST news archive] since 1993, would define the scope of public and private property to advance the developing socialist market economy, according to its proponents. In his speech [text] to the fifth session of the Tenth National People's Congress [official website] now underway in Beijing, NPC Standing Committee Vice Chairman Wang Zhaoguo [official profile] said protecting "lawful property accumulated through hard work" would help economic development and improve the living conditions of the Chinese people

The absence of clear-cut property laws in China [JURIST news archive] has meant that local officials can expropriate property from businesses and private citizens without compensation and convert it into commercial real estate. The draft law is supported by China's entrepreneurial community; it is expected to pass the legislature [People's Daily report], although its margin of support is uncertain. AP has more. The People's Daily has additional coverage.

[JURIST] The Disability Law Center of Massachusetts [advocacy website] filed a lawsuit against the Massachusetts Department of Correction (DOC) [official website] on Thursday, saying the state's treatment of mentally ill prisoners violates the Constitution and the Americans with Disabilities Act [text]. According to the suit filed in the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts [official website], the state isolates mentally ill prisoners in separate units for up to 23 hours per day, causing severe psychological damage and elevating the risk of suicide. Seven Massachusetts inmates committed suicide last year, and an estimated twenty-five percent of all inmates suffer from mental illness.

The suit seeks reforms that include special training for guards and increased monitoring of mentally ill inmates by mental health experts. The DOC says it plans to follow recommendations produced from its own study [press release], which includes a Corrective Action Plan [PDF] to reduce suicides. AP has more.

[JURIST] The CIA [official website] operated a secret interrogation and short-term detention facility for suspected terrorists from 2002 to 2004 in a Polish intelligence training school with the explicit approval of British and US authorities, according to a Raw Story investigative report. British and Polish intelligence officials familiar with the story placed the facility in a Soviet-era military compound [Wikipedia backgrounder] near the Polish town of Stare Kiejkuty [Wikipedia backgrounder]. CIA rendition flights [JURIST news archive], often crossing the airspace of various European countries, landed at a nearby airport. Raw Story quoted an intelligence memo from British Prime Minister Tony Blair to Poland's then-Prime Minister Leszek Miller [Wikipedia profile], asking Miller to keep the facility's existance secret from his own government. CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano would not confirm or deny any allegations about the Polish facility, but said the rendition program was legal and conducted “with great care.” Raw Story has more.

In February of this year, the European Parliament condemned member states [JURIST report] - including Poland - for cooperating with the CIA's rendition program. In December 2005 Human Rights Watch claimed that Poland was the location of the main secret CIA prison facility in Europe; then-Polish Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz ordered an investigation into the report which was later dropped [JURIST reports]. European Parliament lawmakers later accused Poland of obstructing their own investigation [JURIST report]. The Chicago Tribune has additional coverage.

[JURIST] Police surrounded the Congress of Ecuador [official website] on Thursday following a decision by the country's highest electoral court to dismiss 57 of its 100 lawmakers. In a questionable exercise of authority, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal [official website] ruled that the congressmen had illegally interfered with a referendum pushed by President Rafael Correa [official website, in Spanish; BBC profile] on whether to draft a new constitution [text, in Spanish]. In February, the Congress voted to hold a referendum [JURIST report] on April 15 on whether to elect a constitutional assembly to rewrite the constitution. Last week, the Congress and Correa submitted different versions of the referendum to the court; the court approved Correa's version. In response, the 57 Congressmen voted to impeach four members of the court, including its president, Jorge Acosta Cisneros.

Correa became the eighth president [JURIST report] of Ecuador [JURIST news archive] in ten years on January 15, promising to overhaul the nation's economy to fight poverty. A self-described member of the "Christian left," Correa has characterized the unicameral congress as a "sewer of corruption" and has expressed admiration for the policies of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez [JURIST news archive]. Correa has said he supports the electoral tribunal's decision, but Congressional President Jorge Cevallos attacked it as having "no legal basis." AP has more. Reuters has local coverage.

[JURIST] A Nigerian court held Wednesday that Vice President Atiku Abubakar [official profile; JURIST news archive] can run in next month's presidential election, throwing out a decision by the Independent National Electoral Commission [official website] (INEC) to ban Abubakar after he was indicted for corruption. Only the court has the authority to ban a candidate from contesting elections under the country's 2006 Electoral Act [text], said Justice Babs Kuewumi of the Federal High Court in Abuja [official website].

The People's Democratic Party (PDP) [BBC profile] expelled [Afrol report] Abubakar from the party over corruption allegations [AP report] linking him to US Congressman William Jefferson [JURIST news archive]. Abubakar is currently running as a presidential candidate for the opposition Action Congress (AC) [Wikipedia backgrounder] party in the April 21 poll. In February, Abubakar was indicted [JURIST report] on corruption charges by Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). AFP has more. The Daily Independent has local coverage.

[JURIST] The Bangladeshi interim government arrested six politicians, including the son of former prime minister Khaleda Zia [Virtual Bangladesh profile], for alleged corruption Thursday, according to local media. Tarique Rahman [party profile, in Bengali] was detained at his mother's house in Dhaka. Rahman, a senior member in the Bangladesh Nationalist Party [party website], was widely expected to succeed his mother, who stepped down at the end of her term last October to make way for the interim government. The interim administration did not immediately explain the charges against Rahman.

In recent weeks, security forces have arrested more than 60 politicians [JURIST news archive], mostly members of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the Awami League [party website]. Transparency International [advocacy website], a Berlin-based global corruption watchdog, has listed Bangladesh as one of the world's most corrupt nations. Several major corruption trials are already scheduled to begin this month [JURIST report]. Bangladeshi President Iajuddin Ahmed [Wikipedia profile] declared a state of emergency [JURIST report] in the country on January 11 in the face of unrest over upcoming national elections and later cancelled a scheduled national poll. The interim military-backed government has promised to hold new elections, but no date has yet been set. AP has more.

[JURIST] Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe [BBC profile; official website, in Japanese] said his government will fully cooperate with an investigation by ruling Liberal Democratic party lawmakers into allegations that the Japanese military forced women into prostitution [JURIST report] in army-operated brothels during World War II. Despite widespread evidence to the contrary, Japanese politicians have repeatedly denied the use of so-called "comfort women" [Amnesty International report] to provide sexual services to Japanese soldiers during Japan's WWII occupations of countries like China, Korea, and the Philippines, although in 1993 Japanese leaders issued an apology [text] in 1993 for government involvement in the scandal. That apology was never ratified by the Japanese parliament.

Abe sparked outrage across Asia last week by denying that the comfort women were coerced into prostitution [JURIST report], instead maintaining that most were professional prostitutes acting voluntarily. The issue is particularly sensitive now, as the US House of Representatives considers a resolution urging Japan to formally apologize [JURIST report]. Abe has insisted that that resolution is based on biased and inaccurate information [JURIST report]. AP has more.

[JURIST] Canadian Guantanamo detainee Omar Khadr [Trial Watch profile; JURIST news archive] told his mother Wednesday in the first phone call with his family since his capture in 2002 that he plans to do whatever he can to avoid appearing in front of his military trial in Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] because he believes the military commission [JURIST news archive] is fundamentally unfair. The Toronto Star reported Thursday that Khadr, now 20, also said he no longer wanted to be represented by his appointed US lawyers, and would only accept legal representation from his family's Canadian lawyer, Dennis Edney. Unlike the Australian lawyers for Australian detainee David Hicks [JURIST news archive], Edney has not been allowed to travel to the Guantanamo Bay prison. This would not be the first time [JURIST report] that Khadr has boycotted proceedings against him.

Khadr was only 15 years old when he allegedly trained with and fought alongside al Queda fighters in Afghanistan. His father, Ahmad Khadr, was a close associate of Osama bin Laden and other senior al Queda leaders. Omar Khadr is accused [2004 charge sheet, PDF; JURIST report] of planting mines to blow up US convoys and throwing a grenade that killed a US Green Beret. His charges were renewed [JURIST report] last month. Earlier this week the US Supreme Court rejected his request [JURIST report] to expedite his challenge of the 2006 Military Commissions Act [PDF text]. The Toronto Star has more.

[JURIST] The US Senate voted 51-48 [roll call] Wednesday to adopt an amendment [summary] to a new anti-terror bill [S.4 summary], weakening union rights that would be granted to Transportation Security Administration (TSA) airport screeners under the bill. President Bush said last month that he would veto the anti-terror bill [statement, PDF; JURIST report] if provisions allowing TSA screeners to unionize were included in the final version of the bill. Under the amendment adopted Wednesday, collective bargaining over working conditions would not extend to pay, TSA screeners would not be permitted to strike during times of emergency, and the government would be permitted to "take whatever actions may be necessary to carry out the agency mission during emergencies, newly imminent threats, or intelligence indicating a newly imminent emergency risk."

Other efforts to strike the collective bargaining provision from S. 4 were defeated on Tuesday and Wednesday. Congressional Republicans have said that if Bush vetoes the bill, they will not allow a congressional override, which would require a two-thirds majority vote in both houses. AP has more.

[JURIST] The European Court of Human Rights [official website] held a hearing Thursday to determine the admissibility and merits of a case [press release] filed in 2003 by 159 children of Norwegian mothers and German fathers born during World War II. Many of these "war children" or "krigsbarn", were officially registered as children of "Lebensborn" [Wikipedia backgrounder], a Nazi plot devised by Heinrich Himmler [Wikipedia profile] in 1935 to create children who were "racially and genetically pure." According to the complaint, after the war many of the children were socially ostracized and classified by various public figures, including doctors and clergy, as mentally and genetically defective. The war children claim to have been victims of systematic discrimination, with some wrongly placed in mental institutions or abusive foster homes. One of the case applicants had a swastika scratched into her forehead when she was only nine or ten, while another was burned with a hot iron.

In 1999, seven of the war children brought proceedings to the City Court in Oslo [official website, in Norwegian], claiming numerous violations of the European Convention on Human Rights [text], but the court found, in a ruling upheld in 2002 by Norwegian Supreme Court [official backgrounder, English version], that the 20-year statute of limitations had already run before the filing. The applicants say the violations are ongoing, as they still are "reminded in negative terms of their origin and value." Reuters has more.

[JURIST] China accused the US of numerous human rights abuses on Thursday in its Human Rights Record of the US in 2006 [report text, in English; press release], the Chinese state response to US criticism in Tuesday's publication of the 2006 US State Department Country Reports [official website; JURIST report]. The Chinese report, its eighth consecutive annual rebuttal to the US report, cites news stories from around the world as examples of US rights abuses both within the US and in other countries. China said the US uses its strong military to trespass on the sovereignty of other countries and violate the rights of those countries' citizens, drawing from sources such as a John Hopkins University study [text] that estimates more than 655,000 Iraqi deaths since the Iraq war began in early 2003, and US troop actions in Haditha and Mahmudiya [JURIST news archives]. The report also cited alleged Geneva Convention violations, including the detention and alleged torture of prisoners both in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archives]. On the situation within the US, the Chinese report looked at racial and gender inequality, overcrowding in the prison system, poverty, post September 11 government surveillance, political corruption including discussion of former lobbyist Jack Abramoff [JURIST news archive], and the crime rate in general. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice acknowledged that the US has an imperfect human rights record [transcript; Reuters report] when introducing the State Department's report Tuesday, saying "We do not issue these reports because we think ourselves perfect, but rather because we know ourselves to be deeply imperfect, like all human beings and the endeavors that they make. Our democratic system of governance is accountable, but it is not infallible. We are nonetheless guided by enduring ideals: the inalienable rights of humankind and the principles of democracy toward which all people and all governments must continue striving. And that includes us here in America."

The US State Department report on China [text] was just as detailed as the Chinese response, saying that China's human rights record has been steadily declining over the years. The US report looked at China's restrictions on press and speech, Internet censorship, governmental corruption, racial and gender discrimination, and limitations on religious freedom, including the state crackdown on Falun Gong. AP has more.

[JURIST] The UK House of Commons [official website] backed two different proposals [BBC backgrounder] Wednesday on reforming the upper house of parliament [BBC Q/A], the House of Lords [official website]. Members of the House of Lords currently are appointed or hold hereditary peerages, but under the proposals at least 80 percent of members would be elected. Under the first plan approved by MPs by a 113-vote majority, all members of the House of Lords would be elected. Under the second proposal, backed by a 38-vote majority, 80 percent of members would be elected, with the rest appointed. Neither vote is binding, but instead will guide further government discussions on House of Lords reform [white paper, PDF; chronology, PDF]. Government Commons Leader and former foreign secretary Jack Straw said that a cross-party group would be assembled for the next stage of discussions.

UK Prime Minister Tony Blair previously supported a separate proposal [JURIST report] for a half-elected, half-appointed House of Lords, but that plan was not advanced Wednesday. In 2003, cabinet members rejected [BBC report] five different reform initiatives, which varied from an entirely elected to entirely appointed House of Lords. Proposals were again initiated in 2006, with the release of a document [PDF text] by a cross-party working group on Lords' reform that hinted at a half-elected, half-appointed House with 450 Lords sitting in the chamber. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] Australian Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks [advocacy website; JURIST news archive] will be arraigned before a US military commission on March 20, marking his first commission appearance after over five years in US detention. Australian Prime Minister John Howard confirmed the March 20 hearing in an interview with Southern Cross Broadcasting Thursday, expressing frustration at delays in bringing Hicks to trial. Hicks is expected to plead not guilty to charges [PDF text; JURIST report] of providing material support to terrorists. AP has more.

In a related development Thursday, the Federal Court of Australia ruled [text] that Hicks' lawyers may proceed with a lawsuit [JURIST report] against the Australian government. According to Justice Brian Tamberlin's explanatory statement of his ruling:

[Hicks] claims that he should be released and returned to Australia and that the Minsters and the Commonwealth are responsible for his ongoing wrongful internment.

First, he says that he has been unlawfully imprisoned and that the Ministers and the Commonwealth have sufficient control to have him returned to the country of his citizenship. He therefore seeks an order of habeas corpus for reasons to be given as to why he should not be released from internment and returned.

Second, Mr Hicks alleges that the Ministers and the Commonwealth have made statements that they will not request his return because if he is brought back to Australia he may not be able to be prosecuted under Australian law. The consequence of the refusal is to allow the United States to take such action against him as it sees fit. It is alleged by Mr Hicks that these are two operative reasons which the Respondents rely on for not exercising the right of Australia to make the request to the United States.

Mr Hicks submits that these two reasons are irrelevant to a proper consideration of his need for protection and that the executive decision not to make a request should be set aside as invalid. He also says that the Respondents have a "duty" to lawfully consider his request. They have not done so and they should therefore be ordered to consider it in accordance with law by not taking into account irrelevant considerations.

The issues raised by Mr Hicks are in areas of law where principles are still developing, such as, the Act of State doctrine, justiciability and the extent to which the Court can look at matters which concern foreign relations. The submissions for Mr Hicks raise important Constitutional questions as to the relationship of the Judiciary and the Executive, the interaction between the protection of individual liberty and the national interest, and involve questions of foreign affairs. There are no clear authorities which would justify judgment against Mr Hicks at this stage. For his case to be properly considered, it is necessary to look at factual material provided by evidence and hear submissions with the benefit of that evidence.