[JURIST] The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) [advocacy website] Thursday released data obtained under a June 2006 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, documenting civilian casualties [searchable database; press release] caused by US military personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan [JURIST news archives]. The 479 files from Iraq, and 17 files from Afghanistan, are compensation requests filed with the US Foreign Claims Commissions [statutory basis] by surviving family members. While some claims were denied because the incidents arose from enemy action or occurred during combat situations, other incidents resulted in cash payments. When the military admits fault, the payments are labeled as "compensation." "Condolence" payments, which the military offers as expressions of sympathy, can be awarded without military admission of fault and are capped at $2500.

Marc Garlasco [Mother Jones profile], a senior military analyst at Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website], commended the US for paying compensation to family members of civilians killed by US forces, but urged the military to establish "clear and fair standards" for such awards. Currently claims can be denied if the soldier has not reported the combat action or known civilian casualty in the military's "significant actions" database. HRW points out that sometimes soldiers are unaware that a death has been caused by a stray bullet, or may simply fail to record an incident. HRW also denounced the fact that claims against civilian contractors are denied, even when the contractors are "operating under the US military umbrella". HRW has more.

[JURIST] The Mississippi Supreme Court [official website] Thursday upheld [opinion, PDF] the manslaughter convictions of former Ku Klux Klan organizer Edgar Ray Killen [Wikipedia profile]. Killen, now 82, was sentenced to 60 years in prison [JURIST report] in 2005, receiving one 20-year sentence for each of the 3 young men who were killed in 1964 after assisting African-Americans in registering to vote. Killen appealed his sentence on a number of grounds, including prejudice in the 41-year pre-indictment delay resulting in, among other things, faded witness memories. The court rejected any contention of actual prejudice from the delay, citing the fact that Killen's own witnesses had testified live about the events of 1964, and none claimed problems with faded memories.

The court further rejected Killen's argument that the delay was intentionally used to gain a tactical advantage. Killen claimed in his brief that the political climate in Mississippi in the 1960s would have made a conviction back then far less likely. The court expressed surprise that Killen would even attempt to claim present prejudice stemming from the fact that he was not tried by a white-prejudiced jury. AP has more.

[JURIST] Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] said Thursday that the government of Sri Lanka [official website] is using its anti-terror legislation [JURIST report] to silence journalists [press release] who expose governmental human rights abuses and corruption or question how Sri Lanka is handling fighting with the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) [COFFER backgrounder; LTTE website], or "Tamil Tigers." Late last month Sri Lanka forced the closure of Standard Newspapers Ltd., publisher of two of Sri Lanka's most popular weekly papers, after seizing the company's assets. In late February, company spokesman and financial director Dushantha Basnayake was arrested under the anti-terror laws [BBC report], which enable broad arresting power and detention of individuals for up to a year without charges. Basnayake is still being held without charge.

Tiran Alles,owner of Standard Newspapers, is a close associate of two former government ministers who were fired by Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa [official website] in February after being accused of plotting against the government. The ministers, who had previously criticized the government for perceived human rights abuses, were dismissed two days before the freezing of Standard Newspaper assets. HRW also noted that all sides of the Sri Lankan civil war, including LTTE, have restricted free speech and freedom of press in areas of their control. AP has more.

[JURIST] A special panel of the Japanese House of Representatives [official website] Thursday approved a bill authorizing a national referendum on revisions to the country's pacifist constitution [text]. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe [official website; BBC profile] initiated the bill [JURIST report], hoping it would become law before the current parliamentary session adjourns on June 23. Opposition Social Democrats voiced strong dissent in the panel discussions, even scuffling with ruling party members. The bill will be taken up on Friday before the full House, which has a conservative majority; if passed, it will then be presented to the House of Councillors [official website, in Japanese]. Each house requires a two-thirds approval. AFP has more.

The proposed revisions are particularly focused on Article 9 [text; Wikipedia backgrounder], which has been interpreted to bar Japan [JURIST news archive] from maintaining military forces and from using force in international conflicts except in self-defense. Some fear the article may potentially hinder Japan's ability to respond to crises [JURIST report]. A poll released last week by the daily Yomiuri Shimbun [media website, English version] newspaper showed that only 46 percent of Japanese now want to amend Japan's constitution, a drop of 9 percentage points since 2006.

4/13/07 - The full House of Representatives approved the legislation Friday. AP has more.

[JURIST] The British Columbia Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) [advocacy website] said Wednesday that it may file for an injunction to prevent the Canadian military from transferring Afghan detainees to Afghan police custody after the Canadian government failed to meet a court-ordered deadline Tuesday to answer claims that its transfer policy exposed detainees to torture. Amnesty International Canada [advocacy website] and the BCCLA had filed an application in Federal Court in Ottawa seeking judicial review of the transfer policy, saying that it violated Canada's obligations under international human rights law [Geneva Convention text] and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms [text]. Both the Canadian Justice Department and the Department of National Defence [official websites] declined to explain their silence, although BCCLA president Jason Gratl [BCCLA profile] expressed hope that the government might still voluntarily end the practice.

In filing for a judicial review of the legality of Canada's detainee policy, Amnesty and BCCLA said that the current Canada-Afghanistan Detainee Agreement [text] did not do enough to ensure detainees would not be tortured by Afghan forces [BCCLA press release, PDF; JURIST report]. The two groups say that the Canadian military should build a prisoner-of-war camp in Afghanistan to hold battlefield detainees rather than turn them over to Afghan secret police. Legal experts have suggested that the government's silence may indicate an intent to argue that the Charter of Rights doesn't apply to Canadian military operations overseas rather than dispute whether torture is widespread in Afghanistan's prisons. The Globe and Mail has more.

[JURIST] A federal grand jury in the US Southern District of Ohio [official website] on Wednesday charged [DOJ press release] Christopher Paul, from Columbus, Ohio, with conspiring to aid terrorists and use weapons of mass destruction to bomb European tourist sites and US military and government facilities overseas. The indictment [text, PDF] charges Paul with conspiring to provide material support and resources to terrorists, conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction, and providing material support and resources to terrorists. According to investigators, Paul traveled to Pakistan and Afghanistan in the early 1990's to receive military training at an al Qaeda [BBC backgrounder] training camp and, upon his return to the US, continued to funnel money and other resources to al Qaeda. The indictment also alleges that Paul provided explosives training to co-conspirators in Germany to carry out future attacks on European and United States targets. If convicted of all charges, Paul could receive a maximum penalty of life in prison. AP has more.

Two other men from Columbus have also been indicted on terrorism charges. In 2003, Iyman Faris [Global Security profile] was sentenced to 20 years in prison for conspiring to destroy the Brooklyn Bridge. In 2004, Nuradin Abdi, a Somali, was charged [JURIST report] with plotting with other al Qaeda operatives to blow up a Columbus-area shopping mall. He currently is awaiting trial. Last October, a man from California was indicted [JURIST report] on charges of treason and providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization, namely al Qaeda.

[JURIST] Haider Hossein, the Bangladeshi lawyer who prosecuted six Islamic militants executed [JURIST report] two weeks ago for the 2005 murders of two judges [JURIST report], was shot and killed Thursday in Jhalakathi, in southern Bangladesh. Jhalakathi police chief Habibur Rahman told AFP that Hossein had sought protection from authorities after receiving a threat on Tuesday. Police are currently investigating the murder, but cannot yet say whether the killer had any association with the militants that Hossain prosecuted. The executed militants had been convicted in the 2005 murders of two judges [JURIST report] and were members of the banned Jamaat-ul Mujahideen Bangladesh and the Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh [SATP backgrounders]. They had admitted to attacking judges because they wanted to replace the secular legal system with Sharia law [CFR backgrounder]. All six had unsuccessfully appealed for clemency from Bangladesh President Iajuddin Ahmed [official profile] last month after the Bangladesh Supreme Court [official website] rejected their appeal in November.

The Court previously stayed the execution [JURIST report] of the militants, who had been sentenced to die [JURIST report] by hanging in May 2006. Seven men were convicted for their role in the killings, but one remains at large. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] US Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) [official website] on Wednesday blasted the White House for failing to turn over all documents, including emails, requested by the Committee in its investigation into the US Attorney firing scandal [JURIST report], and suggested that White House reports that certain emails had been lost were untrue. Leahy said [transcript]:

There remain several obstacles to the ability of the investigating committees to learn the truth about what occurred with these firings and why. The selectivity and incompleteness of the highly redacted set of documents we have received so far from the Department of Justice present one set of obstacles.

The refusal of the White House to provide relevant documents and access to White House staff who played a role in these firings and replacements are other obstacles. The announcement by the White House last night that they and the Republican National Committee have lost an undisclosed number of relevant emails that political operatives were using on RNC accounts presents yet another obstacle. I am beginning to wonder whether the White House has any interest in the American people learning the truth about these matters.

[JURIST] Ali Abd al-Aziz [BBC profile], one of 14 "high value" Guantanamo Bay detainees and the nephew of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed [BBC profile], has denied allegations that he transferred funds to the 9/11 hijackers and has insisted he had no prior knowledge that his uncle was planning attacks on the US, according to a Pentagon transcript [PDF text] from a Combatant Status Review Tribunal [DOD materials] held on March 30 to determine whether Ali is properly being held at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] as an enemy combatant. Ali also testified that since his arrest in 2003, he had offered key information to enable US authorities to thwart future terrorist attacks.

Mohammed claimed during his own own March CSRT hearing [PDF transcript] that he had planned the 9/11 attacks [JURIST report]. AP has more.

[JURIST] The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) [official website] have launched a criminal probe into allegations that IDF troops used Palestinians as human shields during an Israeli military operation in the West Bank in late February. An AP reporter caught one February 25 incident on video [BBC recorded video]; the footage was subsequently broadcast on March 15. The IDF investigation was announced shortly after the alleged incidents and is ongoing. The probe is focused on whether the soldiers involved violated a 2005 Israel Supreme Court ruling [JURIST report] prohibiting the use of Palestinian human shields as a violation of the Geneva Conventions and other international agreements. Article 51(7) of the 1977 Additional Protocol 1 to the Geneva Conventions [text] provides:

The presence or movements of the civilian population or individual civilians shall not be used to render certain points or areas immune from military operations, in particular in attempts to shield military objectives from attacks or to shield, favour or impede military operations.

[JURIST] Ecuador's Supreme Court has upheld a 2006 ruling allowing charges against former Ecuadorian President Gustavo Noboa [official profile, in Spanish] for mishandling debt negotiations worth billions of dollars while in office from 2000 until 2003. The Court held Wednesday that Noboa should be charged as an accessory after the fact for his handling of negotiations which cost the country $9 billion. Noboa served 10 months of house arrest [BBC report] before being freed by the 2006 ruling.

Noboa spent two years in exile [BBC report] in the Dominican Republic but returned to Ecuador [JURIST news archive] after a March 2004 Supreme Court ruling exonerated him of pending charges. After his successor, former President Lucio Gutierrez [official profile, in Spanish], was removed from office [JURIST report] by Congress, Vice President Alfredo Palacio [official profile, in Spanish] assumed power and reinstated the charges. AP has more.

[JURIST] A Philippine military tribunal sentenced 54 military officers to seven years and six months in jail Wednesday in connection with a failed mutiny [BBC report] in July 2003 in which 300 soldiers from elite special forces took over buildings in Manila in an effort to overthrow the government. More than 50 of the officers pleaded guilty to violating military order and discipline in a plea bargain in order to avoid the charge of mutiny which carries a 40-year jail term. The officers sentenced Wednesday will actually be freed next January as a result of time already served and other mitigating circumstances. An additional 30 officers, most of whom are of high rank in the military, are facing courts-martial on charges of conduct unbecoming of an officer and of attempting a coup.

In February 2006, police charged [JURIST report] 16 people with rebellion for allegedly planning to oust Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo [official website; BBC profile]. The coup plot involved five members of the Philippines House of Representatives, soldiers, a communist rebel leader, and Philippines Senator Gregorio Honasan [official profile], who participated in other coup attempts during the 1990s. In November 2006, the decision to court-martial [JURIST report] thirty Philippine military officers on mutiny charges in connection with their alleged involvement in the February coup plot was part of a larger Philippine effort to curb so-called "adventurism," the willful disobeyance of official orders, which has characterized the Philippine military's willingness to participate in many coup attempts over the past few decades. AP has more.

[JURIST] The International Panel on Fissile Materials (IPFM) [official website] is developing a global treaty banning the further production of nuclear materials such as weapons-grade uranium and plutonium. The IPFM, which is comprised of independent arms control experts from 15 countries, is working on a treaty and an analysis of the verification issues associated with the treaty that will rival a draft treaty already submitted by the United States. In May 2006, the US introduced [JURIST report] the Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty (FMCT) [FAS backgrounder], presented [press release; prepared statement] by Stephen G. Rademaker [official profile], assistant secretary of the Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation, at a meeting of the United Nations Conference on Disarmament [official website] in Geneva. IPFM member Frank von Hippel [official profile] noted at a meeting of the UN Disarmament Commission [official website] Wednesday that the IPFM treaty would provide for compliance verification while the US draft treaty does not include verification measures but allows each individual government to detect and report violations by other nations.

Rademaker urged the Conference on Disarmament to conclude a treaty by September since a pressing need exists for a new FMCT because of the developing nuclear programs in Korea and Iran [IAEA backgrounders]. Research scientist Zia Mian testified that while the five nuclear weapon nations have stopped producing enriched uranium and plutonium for nuclear weapons, they have also set aside large amounts of the materials for future military and civilian use. AP has more.

[JURIST] At least two Iraqi lawmakers were killed Thursday after a bomb exploded in the cafeteria of the Iraq parliament building. Saleh al-Mutlaq, head of the Sunni National Dialogue Front [Wikipedia profile], said that party member Mohammed Awad died in the attack. Security officials have said that a second lawmaker was also killed and that at least one other lawmaker and several others were wounded in the bombing.

The bombing came despite increased security at the parliament building. Security officials had been using bomb-sniffing dogs Thursday morning when screening people entering the building. AP has more.

[JURIST] George Christian, one of the librarians who in 2005 challenged a National Security Letter (NSL) [sample text, PDF; ACLU backgrounder] ordering the release of computer records, told the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution in testimony [prepared remarks] Wednesday that government power to probe private library records should be subject to some kind of review process before or after the fact. The ACLU in 2005 filed a lawsuit [JURIST report] on behalf of Christian as well as three other librarians subjected to an NSL, and in September 2006 US District Judge Janet Hall lifted a gag order [JURIST report] restricting the four librarians from even disclosing that they had one, ruling that it unfairly prevented librarians from participating in debate about the proper revision of the USA Patriot Act [JURIST news archive] before the government renewed [JURIST report] the anti-terror legislation in March. Christian testified:

The path we chose in Connecticut is based on a longstanding principle of librarianship - our deep rooted commitment to patron confidentiality that assures that libraries are places of free inquiry, where citizens go to inform themselves on ideas and issues, without fear that their inquiries would be known to anyone else. The freedom to read is part and parcel of our First Amendment rights. To function, the public must trust that libraries are committed to such confidentiality. When the USA PATRIOT Act was signed into law, our Connecticut library community, like the American Library Association, many other librarians as well as booksellers, authors and others, were concerned about the lack of judicial oversight as well as the secrecy associated with a number of the Act's provisions and the NSLs in particular.

Libraries are, of course, subject to law enforcement. Librarians respect the law and most certainly want to do the right thing when it comes to pursuing terrorists and protecting our country. We recognize and accept that, with appropriate judicial review, law enforcement can obtain certain patron information with subpoenas and appropriate court orders. We are not talking about absolute patron privacy. What has disturbed the library community in recent years has been the idea that the government could use the USA PATRIOT Act, FISA and other laws to learn what our innocent patrons were researching in our libraries with no prior judicial oversight or any after-the-fact review.

[JURIST] An Australian court on Thursday ordered that former Serb commander Dragan Vasiljkovic [Trial Watch backgrounder] be surrendered to Croatian authorities, and if Vasiljkovic's appeal of the decision is unsuccessful, Australia will extradite him to Croatia as requested [JURIST report] last January. Vasiljkovic, arrested [JURIST report] in Australia last year, is accused of torturing and killing Croat soldiers, civilians and prisoners of war and of involvement in the forced expulsion of entire villages in Serb-held territories in southern Croatia while he commanded a Serb paramilitary unit.

If Vasiljkovic loses his appeal before the Federal Court of Australia, Justice Minister David Johnston will decide whether he should be extradited. Vasiljkovic maintains his innocence on all charges. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] A US bankruptcy judge on Wednesday ordered an independent audit of the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego [bankruptcy materials], which filed for Chapter 11 protection [JURIST report; diocese Q&A] in light of some some 140 sexual abuse lawsuits currently pending against the diocese. The judge accused the diocese's lawyers of conspiring with the diocese to move funds into the bank accounts of independent parishes and called the church's accounting system Byzantine. A lawyer for the church said the money transfers were not an attempt to shield funds from the bankruptcy court, but were part of the normal course of business for the church, which regularly distributes funds throughout the parishes. AP has more.

Four other dioceses nationwide have filed for bankruptcy to compensate the victims of clergy sex abuse [JURIST news archive]. The US Roman Catholic Church announced on Tuesday that sex abuse claims decreased in 2006 [JURIST report].