[JURIST] Suspended Romanian President Traian Basescu [official website, English version; BBC profile] Wednesday continued to speak out against political corruption while facing a Saturday impeachment referendum. Basescu was suspended [JURIST report] by the opposition-dominated parliament in April for allegedly abusing his powers; earlier this month, the nation's Constitutional Court [official website] upheld an opposition-sponsored bill making it easier to remove Basescu [JURIST report] by reducing the number of popular votes required for his impeachment. Existing legislation required more than half of Romania's citizens to support removal, making impeachment almost impossible. According to polls, Basescu is supported by over 70% of voters.

In a Wednesday interview with AP, Basescu said he believes his suspension was a response to his attempts to reduce political corruption and the influence of prosecutors and judges. In a February speech [PDF text, in Romanian], Basescu called for a national referendum [JURIST report] to allow citizens to vote on constitutional amendments aimed at reducing corruption. Romania's January 1 entrance into the European Union [JURIST report] carried an accompanying mandate to reduce corruption. AP has more.

[JURIST] US mining executive Richard Ness [defense website], the regional chief executive of Denver-based Newmont Mining Corporation [corporate website; JURIST news archive], filed a civil lawsuit [statement] against the New York Times (NYT) [media website] in Indonesia Wednesday. Last month Ness and Newmont were acquitted [JURIST report] by an Indonesian court of criminal pollution charges [JURIST report] that the now-closed mine had dumped dangerous elements into Indonesia's Buyat Bay. Ness' suit stems from a front page article [text] in the Times which Ness says convicted him in "the court of public opinion." Ness is seeking unspecified monetary damages and an apology from the paper. Although Indonesian prosecutors are pursuing appeal of the Indonesian ruling [JURIST report], the majority of tests at trial found the pollution concentrations in the Indonesian bay to be within normal levels.

In a statement, the NYT said that it plans to defend the suit "vigorously" and stood behind the story as accurate and fair. AP has more.

[JURIST] Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) called for the resignation [press release] of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales Wednesday, a day after hearing testimony [transcript, PDF; JURIST report] from former US Deputy Attorney General James Comey [official profile] regarding an attempt by Gonzales to persuade former Attorney General John Ashcroft [official profile; JURIST news archive] to reauthorize the warrantless domestic surveillance program [JURIST news archive] while he was incapacitated in the hospital, critically ill with pancreatitis [JURIST report]. Although the event did not relate to the firings of nine US attorneys [JURIST news archive] for which Gonzales is currently being criticized, Hagel said that it showed Gonzales lacks the unquestionable honesty an Attorney General needs to act as the nation's chief law enforcement officer. Hagel also said that Gonzales lacks the "moral authority to lead."

Comey testified Tuesday to the Senate Judiciary Committee that then-White House Counsel Gonzales and former White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card [official profile], angry that Comey refused to reauthorize the program while he was temporarily acting as Attorney General, went Ashcroft's hospital room with the authorization form in hand. From his hospital bed, Ashcroft reminded the two that Comey was acting Attorney General [JURIST report] and refused to approve the program. For the next several months, the White House ran the program without Justice Department approval. AP has more.

[JURIST] Fifteen activists involved in a prayer vigil calling for the release of Myanmar Nobel laureate and political prisoner Aung San Suu Kyi [advocacy website; BBC profile] were arrested Wednesday and released later in the day by the military government of Myanmar [government website; JURIST news archive]. The activists joined a group of 31 others who were arrested Tuesday for similar vigils, although the earlier arrested activists remain in custody. Suu Kyi, leader of the National League for Democracy [Wikipedia backgrounder], has spent 11 of the past 17 years in prison or under house arrest for alleged violations of an anti-subversion law [text]. Suu Kyi's house arrest is set to end on May 27, but experts expect it to be extended.

On Monday, 59 former world leaders, including former US Presidents Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, and Jimmy Carter, sent a letter urging the government of Myanmar to "[immediately] release the world's only imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize Laureate." Suu Kyi, with the exception of her housemaid or doctor, is prohibited from contact with any outside visitors or telephone conversations. AP has more.

[JURIST] A senior official in a Rwanda [JURIST news archive] human rights organization was arrested Wednesday in the capital of Kigali after being implicated by a local gacaca [Wikipedia backgrounder] court in the 1994 genocide. The official, Francois-Xavier Byuma, is vice president of the board of the Rwandan League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights (LIPRODHOR) [advocacy website, in French] and president of Turengere Abana, the Rwandan Association for the Protection and Promotion of the Child. LIPRODHOR has in the past been critical of gacacas, which were set up to ease the strain of genocide cases on Rwanda's official criminal courts, finding some to be corrupt or dangerous [LIPRODHOR reports, in French].

Just before being detained, Byuma was investigating the rape of a 17 year-old girl. Amnesty International [advocacy website] reported that leads suggested that the presiding judge of the gacaca court was the rapist [report text]. Amnesty expressed concern for the safety of Byuma, and does not believe he will receive a fair trial. AFP has more.

[JURIST] Members of the Ukranian Parliament [official website] have requested that the Ukrainian Constitutional Court [official website] rule on the legality of President Viktor Yushchenko's dismissal of three judges from its bench, according to the court's information office Tuesday. The request came after last Friday's dismissal of Volodymyr Ivashchenko, the third Constitutional Court judge removed for alleged oath and ethics violations [JURIST reports]. The court is currently considering the constitutionality of Yushchenko's April 2 decree [text; JURIST report] dissolving parliament and calling for new elections. He has since issued a second decree, which is also under review by the court [JURIST reports], moving the elections to late June. A majority of legislators objected to the initial decree, filing an appeal with the 18-judge Constitutional Court. Xinhua has more.

Yushchenko has insisted [JURIST report] that his dissolution decree was proper under the Ukrainian constitution [DOC text] and has said that officials who refuse to comply with his decree could face criminal prosecution [press release; JURIST report].

[JURIST] A US district judge gave the State of Tennessee permission Wednesday to perform an autopsy on executed Seventh Day Adventist Philip Workman [Wikipedia backgrounder], despite Workman's pre-execution objections to the procedure on the grounds that it would conflict with his religious beliefs. Chief District Judge Todd Campbell [FJC profile] of the US Middle District of Tennessee [official website] found that although Workman's religious beliefs warranted consideration, the state had a compelling interest in verifying the success of the lethal injection [JURIST news archive] protocol. Workman was the first inmate to be executed [JURIST report] earlier this month under Tennessee's revised lethal injection procedures [PDF text; JURIST report].

The new Tennessee protocol includes more detailed guidelines for administering lethal injections, but still uses a controversial three-drug "cocktail" of a pain killer, a paralytic to stop the lungs, and drug to stop the heart. Some say the cocktail may be ineffective in preventing inmates from suffering a painful death [JURIST report]. Dr. Jay Chapman, who created the cocktail in the 1970s, now believes that there are better drugs that could be used [CNN report]. Despite this, he still believes that if implemented properly, there is no problem with using his creation in lethal injections. AP has more.

[JURIST] Judge Thomas E. Connolly of the Massachusetts Suffolk County Superior Court has ruled [judgment, PDF] that the marriages of more than 170 same-sex couples from New York who married in Massachusetts before the New York Court of Appeals upheld a ban on New York same-sex marriage [JURIST report] on July 6, 2006, are valid because a 1913 Massachusetts statute [text] only forbids the marriage of couples who are "expressly prohibited" from marrying in their home states, AP reported Wednesday. The Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) [advocacy website; press release] welcomed the May 10 ruling, describing it as having "[lifted] a legal cloud from these marriages."

In September of last year, Connolly ruled [opinion, PDF] that Massachusetts must allow same-sex couples from Rhode Island to marry [JURIST report] because Rhode Island did not expressly prohibit same-sex marriages [JURIST news archive]. Massachusetts became the first US state to legalize same-sex marriage [JURIST report] in 2003. In April, New York governor Eliot Spitzer introduced a bill to legalize same-sex marriage in New York [JURIST report]. AP has more.

[JURIST] Syed Sharifuddin Pirzada [official profile; Wikipedia backgrounder], one of Pakistan's most renowned lawyers, presented the government's case against ousted Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry [official website; JURIST news archive] Wednesday to a panel of Supreme Court [official website] judges. Dismissing Chaudhry's claims that his March 9 suspension order [JURIST report] was illegal and that Pakistan's Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) [governing constitutional provisions] lacked competence to try him, Pirzada cited several Pakistani cases upholding the procedure for investigating judicial conduct. He also cited cases from around the world, including the United States and India, to justify the SJC investigation. The disciplinary probe is currently suspended [JURIST report] pending the outcome of Chaudhry's challenge.

Many Pakistani lawyers and opposition leaders believe Chaudhry's suspension to be an assault on the independence of the country's judiciary and an indirect bid by President Pervez Musharraf to continue his eight-year rule in an election year. Chaudhry is alleged to have misused his influence [JURIST report] to obtain jobs and promotions for his son. AP has more.

[JURIST] US Ambassador to the UN Zalmay Khalilzad [official profile] said Tuesday that the US will submit a draft resolution to the UN Security Council to establish a tribunal under Chapter VII of the UN Charter [texts] to try suspects in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri [JURIST news archive]. According to Khalilzad, the US decided to submit the proposal after Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora [BBC profile] formally requested the UN's unilateral establishment of the tribunal [JURIST report] in a letter to Ban Monday. Siniora told Ban that previous efforts to gain Lebanese parliamentary ratification of the tribunal plan had failed.

At a press conference [transcript] at UN Headquarters in New York, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon supported a Security Council initiative [UN press release], saying:

I am of the view that, after having exhausted all diplomatic efforts by the United Nations, including myself, and having received an official request from the Government of Lebanon, asking the Security Council to take necessary action, I think it is necessary for the Security Council to take necessary action. I hope the Security Council members will debate on this matter and take necessary action. I am of the view, in my capacity as Secretary-General that, as a matter of principle, there should be no impunity for the perpetrators of political assassinations. It is important that there should be firm principles respected.

[JURIST] A panel of three judges on the London Court of Appeal Criminal Division reduced the sentence of convicted bomb plotter Dhiren Barot [BBC profile] from a minimum of 40 years to life to 30 years to life Wednesday because Barot's conspiracy did not amount to an actual attempt and it was unclear whether the plot was viable. Barot pleaded guilty [JURIST report] to conspiracy to murder for his role in the "Gas Limo Project" [Times report] bombing scheme to blow up three limousines filled with explosives in underground parking garages in Britain, as well as a separate plot to detonate radioactive "dirty bombs." The court agreed with lawyers for Barot, who appealed his sentence [JURIST report] in April, saying that the 40-year term was for "the terrorist who has been convicted, after trial, of a serious attempt to commit mass murder by a viable method."

Last November, Barot was sentenced to life in prison [JURIST report] with a minimum term of 40 years. In April 2005, Barot and two other men were indicted [text; JURIST report in New York for US-related bomb plans. Prosecutors allege that Barot planned to attack the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Work Bank [official websites] buildings in Washington DC, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), and Citigroup buildings in New York City, as well as the Prudential [corporate websites] building in Newark, New Jersey. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] Nine defendants in the 2004 Madrid train bombings [JURIST news archive] trial indicated in court Wednesday that they have begun a hunger strike, joining four other defendants who initiated the hunger strike last Thursday. The thirteen defendants are among eighteen who remain in custody during the trial, while eleven other defendants have been released on bail. Judge Javier Gomez Bermudez warned the defendants that the trial would not be suspended because of the hunger strike, and if necessary, the defendants would be subjected to forced feedings.

The trial [JURIST report] of the 29 suspects began in February in the National Court of Spain. The defendants [BBC backgrounder], are charged with 192 counts of murder and upwards of 1,800 counts of attempted murder. Seven defendants are charged with murder and with having belonged to a terrorist organization, while the remaining twenty-two defendants are being charged with collaborating with a terrorist group and the handling of explosives. AP has more.

[JURIST] Fifty-six former Harvard Law School classmates of US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales [official profile; JURIST news archive] have signed an open letter published Tuesday, rebuking Gonzales for his "failure to stand for the rule of law" and failure at doing "the tough job of providing independent counsel" and urging Gonzales "to restore respect for the rule of law." The letter, published in an advertisement [text, GIF] on A13 of Tuesday's Washington Post, was delivered to Gonzales' office prior to its publication.

Gonzales graduated from Harvard Law School [academic website] in the class of 1982. The Harvard Crimson has more.

[JURIST] Jonathan Samkange, senior lawyer for the legal team defending Simon Mann [BBC profile] in his extradition proceedings, was released by Harare police in Zimbabwe Wednesday after being arrested [JURIST report] Monday night for alleged violations of Zimbabwe's Immigration Act [PDF text]. Following applications by fellow lawyers seeking to have charges against Samkange clarified, Harare magistrate Lazarus Murendo ordered the lawyer released from police custody on the grounds that there was insufficient evidence to support the charges.

Samkange had filed an appeal on Friday with the High Court in Harare seeking to block a recent court ruling permitting Mann's extradition [JURIST report] to Equatorial Guinea, which Samkange alleges would expose Mann to potential persecution and torture, violating his human rights. Mann is wanted in Equatorial Guinea on charges of involvement in a plot to overthrow Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo [BBC profile]. ZimOnline has more.

[JURIST] A crisis meeting of top British judges Tuesday called for constitutional protections in the face of the British government's creation of a new Ministry of Justice [official website]. Members of the Judge's Council [official website] and judges on the UK executive judicial board agreed to press their case with new UK Secretary of State for Justice Lord Falconer of Thoroton [official profile]. Judges have previously expressed concern that oversight of both the courts and the prisons under the new ministry may lead to undue pressure being put on judges [Phillips letter, PDF] over controversial sentencing issues [JURIST report] and may reduce judicial budgetary resources.

The Ministry of Justice began operations last week [JURIST report], as a controversial split of the traditional Home Office [official website] went into effect. Critics of the split have expressed concern over its likely effectiveness, and even doubt its constitutional advisability. Late last month the former Lord Chief Justice of English and Wales Lord Woolf said that shifting the traditional position of Lord Chancellor into the Ministry of Justice represented a major constitutional change [JURIST report] that should be undertaken only after serious study and not rushed through, warning that the responsibilities of the Lord Chancellor in the expanded Ministry might water down his traditionally close relationship with judges. From London, the Times has local coverage.

[JURIST] A High Court in Kenya has denied government objections to a civil lawsuit brought by family members of the 365 confirmed victims of the 1984 Wagalla Massacre by Kenyan security forces. The Kenyan government had filed a motion seeking to dismiss the civil suit [East African Standard report] on the grounds that the plaintiffs lacked legal standing to initiate judicial proceedings. The individuals killed were all males of the Degodia clan whom the security forces had herded onto the Wagalla airstrip [KBC report] and then shot. Allegations from family members and local NGOs put the actual number of victims into the thousands. Lawyers for the family members warned that if the Kenyan courts refused to prosecute the crime, they would seek redress with the International Criminal Court [official website], alleging that the state's actions met the definition of genocide [JURIST news archive].

The High Court held that the family members' claims should be granted hearing before a court to decide the case on merits, rather than dismissing the issue on a technicality of legal standing. Kenya's East African Standard has more.

[JURIST] California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger [official website] submitted a capital punishment proposal [report, PDF; fact sheet] Tuesday in an effort to persuade US District Judge Jeremy Fogel to lift a moratorium on executions in the state. The proposal includes the construction of a new execution chamber [materials] and a revised protocol [PDF text] on the procedure for lethal injections in the state. Speaking on the plan, Schwarzenegger said [press release] that he is "committed to doing whatever it takes to ensure that the lethal injection process is constitutional so the will of the people is upheld."

In December, Schwarzenegger ordered [JURIST report] his administration to "correct court-identified deficiencies in California's lethal injection protocol to ensure the death penalty procedure is constitutional" after a federal court issued a memorandum of intended decision [JURIST report] concluding that California's lethal injection [JURIST news archive] procedure creates "an undue and unnecessary risk" of cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment [text] of the US Constitution. The memorandum came after the execution of Michael Morales was postponed indefinitely [JURIST report] in February 2006 when a court ruling held that medical professionals must monitor executions by lethal injection to be sure that the inmate feels no pain. The ruling imposed a virtual moratorium on executions in California [JURIST report] as anesthesiologists refused to take part [JURIST report] in the execution. AP has more.

[JURIST] Legislation proposed Wednesday by the European Commission [official website] will seek to decrease incentives for employers to hire illegal immigrants [JURIST news archive], threatening fines, closing of businesses, and possibly jail time for those that partake in human trafficking or repeatedly employ illegal immigrants. The proposals [summary memo; press release], if approved, will heighten enforcement and bar employers caught employing illegal immigrants from competing for public contracts or receiving government subsidies. Employers may also be required to reimburse subsidies already received. EU Commission Vice-President and Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini [official profile] told reporters that currently less than three percent of firms are checked every year for compliance, which Frattini says should increase to at least 10 percent. Frattini also proposed the creation of a program of migrant worker "multi-entry visas" so that laborers would be able to fill seasonal labor demands in areas such as agriculture, tourism, and construction in multiple countries. The proposed legislation needs to be jointly adopted by the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament [official websites] to become law.

The European Union (EU) [official website] estimates that between 350,000 to 500,000 illegal immigrants enter its member states annually, mainly fulfilling jobs in construction and farming. In January, German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble [official profile] said that Germany would place a high emphasis on containing illegal immigration [JURIST report] during the six-month German presidency [official website] of the EU, which will conclude at the end of June. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] US Marine Capt. Randy Stone testified Tuesday that he did not launch an investigation into the killings of 24 Iraqi civilians at Haditha [USMC timeline; JURIST news archive] because he believed that the killings occurred within the bounds of lawful combat. During Stone's Article 32 hearing [JAG backgrounder], he also said that he never lied about his response to the incident, but rather always worked "to shed light on what I knew and when I knew it."

Earlier this week, Col. John Ewers testified [JURIST report] that Stone did not commit criminal dereliction of duty because he never ignored orders by his commander to conduct an investigation. Last week, 1st Sergeant Albert Espinosa testified that Stone and others ignored his multiple requests [JURIST report] for an investigation into the incident. Stone stands accused [JURIST report] of dereliction of duty and violating a lawful order to investigate the incident; three other officers are charged with similar offenses. The Haditha investigation has culminated in the largest US military prosecution involving civilian deaths during the war in Iraq. Iraqi witnesses claim that Marines led by Staff Sgt. Frank D. Wuterich [advocacy website] shot into the homes of civilians after a fellow Marine was killed by a roadside bomb. Wuterich, who faces 13 charges of unpremeditated murder, has maintained that his unit followed the rules of engagement [JURIST report] and did not purposefully attack civilians. AP has more.

[JURIST] The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) [official website] announced Wednesday that the UN-supported Khmer Rouge genocide tribunal will meet for two weeks beginning May 31 to resolve remaining disputes between Cambodian and international judges concerning the internal regulations of the tribunal. Co-investigating judge Marcel Lemonde told AFP that "once the internal rules are adopted, the judicial investigation can start in the following weeks." The meeting follows resolution of a major dispute over fees [JURIST report] payable by foreign lawyers appearing before the court; late last month the Cambodian Bar Association (BAKC) agreed to dramatically lower its proposed fees [JURIST report] after rights NGOs and international judges said that those would discourage volunteer lawyers from offering their services and would prompt complaints that defendants had not been given a free choice of counsel. AFP has more.

The draft rules [PDF] proposed for the tribunal have been a source of intense controversy for months. A meeting of the judges in November failed to reach agreement, as did a subsequent meeting [JURIST reports] in January. A March meeting made progress [JURIST report], but still left the fees issue and other procedural details unresolved.

The ECCC was established by a 2001 law [text as amended 2005, PDF] to investigate and try those responsible for the Cambodian genocide that occurred under the 1975-79 Khmer Rouge [MIPT backgrounder; JURIST news archive] regime. The genocide resulted in the deaths of over 1.7 million people from maltreatment, disease and malnutrition. To date, no top Khmer Rouge officials have faced trial and questions have been raised concerning exactly how many of the Khmer Rouge's top officials will face the tribunal, as several of those responsible for the genocide have recently died [JURIST report] and others are in failing health.

[JURIST] Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos [official profile, in Spanish] acknowledged Tuesday the existence of an illegal police wiretapping program that had targeted journalists, members of the opposition and government, but insisted that Colombian President Alvaro Uribe [official profile, in Spanish; BBC profile] and his administration were unaware of the program and did not utilize transcripts created by the wiretapping. The scope of the illegal wiretapping also included monitoring leftist politician and runner up in the May 2006 presidential elections Carlos Gaviria Diaz of the Polo Democratico Alternativo [party website, in Spanish]. Uribe has forced the resignation of national police chief Gen. Jorge Daniel Castro, the police intelligence chief, and forced the early retirement of 10 other police generals over the wiretapping.

Sen. Juan Fernando [party profile], spokesperson for the opposition Colombian Liberal Party [party website], doubted the Uribe administration's claim that it did not authorize or benefit from the wiretapping. Last May, Uribe was overwhelmingly reelected for a second presidential term, becoming the first president of Colombia [JURIST news archive] to be reelected for a second term in recent history. AP has more.