[JURIST] The outgoing government of British Prime Minister Tony Blair has run into stiff criticism of a proposal to give police new "stop and question" powers under toughened anti-terror laws [JURIST report]. The proposal, which was leaked to the media late last week before all government MPs were aware of it, would confer on law enforcement officers the power to stop and quiz people at random in association with terrorism investigations under threat of fines up to £5000. First reports indicated that it would not even be necessary to be a "suspect" in order to be legally targeted under the scheme, although Home Office officials later backtracked, saying that a "reasonable suspicion" would be required. Under current law, police already have power under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 to stop and search persons suspected of involvement in criminal activity.

Critics - including some cabinet ministers - have expressed alarm at the plan, which some have said smacks of an emerging "police state" and on a more prosaic level could do serious damage to community relations, especially relations with the UK Muslim community. Others have said that the plan itself is suspect as being rather more than the police themselves had sought. A government minister told the BBC over the weekend that the actual legislation containing the controversial "stop and quiz" provisions would be presented to parliament in the next couple of weeks. BBC News has more. The Evening Standard has additional coverage.

[JURIST] Only a handful of deportations sought by US immigration authorities between 2004 and 2006 resulted from terrorism charges, according to a study [text] released Sunday by a research institute at Syracuse University. The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse [research website] examined the rulings of 200 immigration court judges employed by the Justice Department and examined DOJ records of criminal cases brought in US district courts. It found that notwithstanding Bush administration rhetoric on the "war on terror," deportation cases based on terrorism-related charges were brought against only 12 people, and that of the 14 terror charges laid, only four charges were upheld by immigration courts. Six other charges were withdrawn by Homeland Security and at least two are still pending.

Broader national security-related charges were brought against some 114 other people over the same period. The overwhelming majority of deportation actions followed from traditional immigration law violations, including unauthorized border crossings and visa breaches. AP has more.

[JURIST] A Pakistan judge Monday ordered two women who have publicly acknowledged their same-sex relationship jailed for perjury after one initially claimed to be a man. Sixteen years ago Shumail Raj had herself surgically altered to remove her breasts and uterus, but medical examiners found that she was still a woman. She and her partner Shahzina Tariq have been sentenced to three years in separate women's prisons. Judge Kahawaja Mohammed Sharif described his ruling as lenient because the couple had apologized, avoiding a seven-year sentence. He also rejected a charge of committing the unnatural act of marrying a person of the same gender, indicating that Section 377 of the Pakistan Penal Code did not go that far. A hearing has been scheduled for June 22 to determine whether the "marriage" of the two is valid, and police have been ordered to undertake a criminal investigation of the surgeon who performed the procedures on Raj.

Pakistani law and strict Islamic practice both reject homosexual unions. Rights activists say the perjury conviction is a byproduct of the strict rules against same-sex relationships, which pressured people in them to lie. The Times has more. The Daily Times has local coverage.

[JURIST] Francois-Xavier Byuma, 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 the Rwandan Association for the Protection and Promotion of the Child, was sentenced to 19 years in prison Sunday by a local gacaca court [official website; Wikipedia backgrounder] for colluding with criminals, and beating and injuring a woman during the 1994 Rwanda [JURIST news archive] genocide. Byuma says he will appeal the sentence.

Prior to his May 16 arrest [JURIST report], Byuma had been investigating the rape of a 17-year-old girl. Amnesty International [advocacy website] reported that an initial investigation suggested that the presiding judge of the gacaca court was the rapist [AI report]. Byuma's organization has in the past been critical of the gacacas, which were established to ease the strain of genocide cases on Rwanda's official criminal courts, characterizing some to be corrupt or dangerous [LIPRODHOR reports, in French]. AFP has more.

[JURIST] Russian police arrested dozens of demonstrating gay rights [JURIST news archive] activists Sunday, including European lawmakers who wanted to present a letter to Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov [MosNews profile], who had rejected a request by gay rights activists to hold a parade to mark the 14th anniversary of the decriminalization of homosexuality in Russia [JURIST news archive]. The group of activists encountered violent gay rights opponents, but were arrested by Moscow police for various offenses and for their "protection." Moscow police spokesperson Yevgeny Gildeyev confirmed the arrest of 31 people, most of whom were later released, adding that two Italians were detained for jaywalking and that a German was removed from the crowd to protect him from being beaten. Gildeyev said that no gay rights opponents were arrested. German lawmaker Volker Beck [official website, in German], who was among the arrested, told AP that Russian police had beaten him and other activists and had seized their passports. European Parliament deputy Marco Cappato [official website, in Italian] denied that he had jaywalked, saying that he was "trying to defend a friend from violent people because the police were not doing that."

In April, the Moscow City Court upheld Moscow's ban on gay parades [JURIST report], dismissing an extraordinary appeal by gay rights activists challenging a ruling by a district court. AP has more.

[JURIST] A Libyan court acquitted six foreign medics [JURIST news archive] of criminal defamation Sunday. The five Bulgarian nurses and one Palestinian doctor, previously convicted [JURIST report] of knowingly infecting over 400 Libyan patients with the HIV virus and sentenced to death, faced defamation charges stemming from the medics' accusations that their confessions were obtained by torture [HRW report] by Libyan police officer Jumaa al-Mishri and doctor Abdul-Majid al-Shoul. Al-Mishri and al-Shoul sued the foreign medics, seeking $4 million in compensation. The Libyan court did not elaborate its reasoning for its decision.

The six medics have been imprisoned in Libya [JURIST news archive] since 1999 but have consistently maintained their innocence, saying that they are being scapegoated for unsanitary conditions in the Libyan hospitals where they worked. Bulgaria and its allies, including the US [JURIST report] and the European Union, contend that the nurses are innocent. The death sentence against the medics is still under appeal [JURIST report], but the a top Libyan official has said that the six will not be executed [JURIST report]. AP has more.

[JURIST] Yemen has agreed to receive most Yemeni detainees held at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive], a senior Yemeni official told Reuters Sunday. The official said that "there are continuous talks with the Americans to hand over the Yemenis in Guantanamo to the Yemeni government," although the official did not specify how many prisoners would be transferred to Yemen [JURIST news archive] or when the transfers would take place. A team of US lawyers representing Yemeni nationals at Guantanamo estimates that approximately 100 detainees currently held at Guantanamo are Yemeni citizens, and called for the Yemeni government to be "assertive and affirmative" to help secure the release of Yemeni detainees.

In June of last year, Yemeni officials called for investigations [JURIST report] into the Guantanamo suicides of three detainees [JURIST report], including one Yemeni national, saying that the deaths exemplified the "inhumane conditions of detainees" at the US military prison. Earlier this month the US House of Representatives passed an amendment to a defense spending bill that would require the Pentagon to develop a Guantanamo shutdown plan [JURIST report]. Reuters has more. DPA has additional coverage.