[JURIST] The US Army Court of Criminal Appeals (ACCA) [official website] issued a partial stay Friday in the court-martial of US Army 1st Lt. Ehren Watada [advocacy website; JURIST news archive] after the defense filed a motion to dismiss asserting that the February mistrial [JURIST report] and that subsequent refiling of charges [JURIST report] against Watada constituted double jeopardy and a second trial would violate Watada's constitutional rights. Watada, a US Army officer who publicly refused to deploy to Iraq [JURIST report] in June 2006, is charged with four counts of conduct unbecoming an officer and one count of missing movements. If convicted, Watada could be sentenced up to six years in prison and receive a dishonorable discharge from the Army. Lt. Col. Joseph Piek, spokesperson for Fort Lewis, said that the Army expected the defense motion and believes that the court-martial, scheduled to begin July 23, will proceed without delay.

Watada, a 28-year old Honolulu native who is the first commissioned officer in the US military to publicly refuse deployment to Iraq, has refused to be classified as a conscientious objector because he does not object to war in general, just to the "illegal" war in Iraq. He offered to serve in Afghanistan, but the US Army refused. His vocal protests and participation in rallies by Veterans for Peace [advocacy website] and Courage to Resist [advocacy website] led to the charges of conduct unbecoming an officer and the original charge of contempt toward officials. AP has more. The Seattle Times has additional coverage.

[JURIST] A New York jury found the Long Island Diocese of Rockville Centre [diocesan website] negligent in the hiring and retention of a youth minister who repeatedly molested two victims between 1999 and 2002 on Friday, and was ordered to provide $11.4 million in damages. Paul Mones, an attorney for the plaintiffs, characterized the decision as a powerful message to the Catholic diocese, telling AP that "over 99 percent of the cases that have been brought since 2002 have settled in the quiet of lawyers' offices, and none of these cases have seen the light of day."

In April, the US Conference of Bishops [official website] released an annual report [PDF text; press release] finding that sex abuse claims levied against the US Roman Catholic Church decreased for the second year in a row and recent cases involving claimants under age 18 have dropped significantly. The report also found that money spent by the dioceses and religious orders on support, settlements and litigation fees also dropped from $467 million in 2005 to $399 million last year and estimates that lawsuits arising from claims of clergy sex abuses [JURIST news archive] have exceeded $1.5 billion dollars. AP has more.

[JURIST] US Navy Lt. Cmdr. Matthew M. Diaz, a former staff judge advocate stationed at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive], was sentenced Friday to six months in prison and is to be dismissed from the US Navy for leaking detainee names to a human rights lawyer. Diaz was convicted [JURIST report] at a court-martial Thursday of one count of communicating secret information that could be used to injure the United States, and three counts of leaking information to an unauthorized person. Diaz had faced a maximum of up to 14 years in prison.

Prosecutors argued during Diaz's court-martial [JURIST report] that he endangered the lives of detainees and of US soldiers in the war on terror. Diaz's lawyers said the information leaked was not marked classified and that Diaz had no reason to believe the names of detainees "could be used to injure the United States." In February 2005, Diaz leaked the printouts of approximately 550 detainee names to Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) [advocacy website] lawyer Barbara Olshansky, months before AP forced the Department of Defense to officially release the detainee lists [JURIST report] through Freedom of Information Act requests. In a statement [text] Friday, CCR condemned Diaz's conviction and sentencing, saying that his actions "were grounded in a strong sense of morality and commitment to the rule of law." The Virginian-Pilot has more. AP has additional coverage.

[JURIST] Spanish National Court prosecutors Friday appealed investigating magistrate Santiago Pedraz's indictment of three US soldiers with homicide and "a crime against the international community" in the 2004 death in Iraq of cameraman Jose Couso [advocacy website, in English; JURIST news archive], saying that soldiers did not commit a crime because the death was an "accident of war." Sgt. Shawn Gibson, Capt. Philip Wolford, and Lt. Col. Philip DeCamp [TrialWatch profiles] were indicted in April [JURIST report] for their role in Couso's death, who was killed along with an Ukrainian journalist when the US soldiers' tank fired a shell on the Baghdad Hotel. Spanish investigating magistrates typically file charges and prosecutors can appeal indictments if they feel prosecution is inappropriate.

In 2003, then-Secretary of State Colin Powell said the soldiers only fired in self-defense after shots were fired at them from the hotel, and a US review of the incident found that the soldiers did not act improperly. Spain has issued several warrants against the three [JURIST report], but the United States has refused to extradite them. The first warrant was issued [JURIST report] in October 2005 after a Spanish judge stated that US officials had failed to cooperate in an investigation into the incident [JURIST report] and did not respond to requests to question the soldiers [JURIST report]. The three are not the first US soldiers to be indicted in foreign courts for actions in Iraq. Earlier this month, US Army Spc. Mario Lozano was put on trial in absentia before an Italian court [JURIST report] for the murder of Italian intelligence agent Nicola Calipari and attempted murders of agent Andrea Carpani and Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena in Iraq after confusion at a US checkpoint after Sgrena's release by kidnappers. AP has more.

[JURIST] The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) [advocacy website] has filed a lawsuit on behalf of 16 lawyers who once represented Guantanamo Bay detainees to force US government agencies to turn over recordings allegedly made of the lawyers while meeting with their clients. The CCR filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit [complaint, PDF; case summary] in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York Thursday, asking a federal judge to force the Department of Justice (DOJ) and National Security Administration (NSA) [official websites] to disclose the information. Under FOIA, the government is required to produce documents within 20 days.

In 2006, CCR filed a lawsuit, CCR v. Bush [CCR synopsis], seeking an injuction against the US government conducting warrantless surveillance [JURIST news archive] within the US. CCR said at the time that because there were "no safeguards put in place to ensure that attorney-client privileged communications are not being monitored, it is almost certain that confidential communications between CCR staff and our clients have been caught up in this massive web of illegal surveillance." That case is currently pending. UPI has more.