[JURIST] German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble [BBC News profile; personal website, in German] said it was imperative not to underplay the gravity of terrorist threats and raised the possibility of "targeted killings" of terror suspects like Osama Bin Laden and the indefinite detention of others in a controversial interview [text, in German] with Der Spiegel [media website] magazine published Monday. Pointing to similar United States policy, he noted that classification of suspects as enemy combatants [JURIST news archive] would offer a solution for indefinitely interning those who cannot be deported. He emphasized that Germany must "try to resolve such constitutional issues as precisely as possible and create a legal foundation to have the necessary liberties in the struggle against terrorism."

The interview has already drawn criticism. Parliamentary Social Democrat leader Peter Struck decried Schaeuble's comments as endorsing a "police state" evocative of Germany's fascist past. The terrorism debate in Germany recently grew heated as Chancellor Angela Merkel [official website] last week remarked that the German army should be deployed in the event of an impending terror attack. The nation's Basic Law [text] allows for military deployment only in response to a disaster or to give medical back-up. Thomas Steg, deputy spokesman to Merkel, said that there are no immediate plans to implement Schaeuble's proposals, but did not rule out the possibility in the future. AFP has more.

[JURIST] Former Alaska state Representative Tom Anderson [official profile] was convicted Monday on seven counts of bribery and corruption by an Anchorage federal jury. Anderson, a Republican, was accused of accepting nearly $26,000 he believed to be from private correctional facilities firm Cornell Industries, Inc. [corporate website] in exchange for Anderson's influence on then-pending measures on halfway houses. The deal was in fact arranged by an FBI informant inside Cornell who recorded incriminating conversations with Anderson and former lobbyist Bill Bobrick. Anderson's lawyers called the conduct entrapment, but an 11-person jury found him guilty on all counts, including extortion, bribery and money laundering.

Anderson and Bobrick were accused of conspiring to arrange payments to Anderson from a false website dedicated to legislative issues. Bobrick, who was charged and convicted on one count of bribery, faces up to two and a half years in prison. Bobrick has cooperated with government officials throughout the investigation and last week testified against Anderson [KTUU report]. Anderson's wife, Sen. Lesil McGuire [official profile], is also an Alaska state legislator; she was not accused of any wrongdoing. Three other Alaska state congressmen currently face federal bribery charges related to oil field services company VECO Corp [corporate website]. AP has more. KTUU has local coverage.

[JURIST] Iranian police arrested twenty people near the Iraqi border on suspicion of participating in an international spy ring, according to state news agency IRNA [official website, in Persian] Monday. The arrests come several months after the Iranian government first accused four Iranian-Americans [JURIST news archive] of belonging to a US-organized spy network. The latest sweep included some foreigners, but so far specific nationalities have not been disclosed. The arrests allegedly uncovered five separate spy networks [Press TV report], and a regional Iranian intelligence officer said the detainees were trained by "enemy" intelligence services for economic, military, political, cultural and social purposes. AP has more.

In May, Iran formally charged [JURIST report] Iranian-American scholar Dr. Haleh Esfandiari [WWC profile] for an alleged plot "against the sovereignty of the country," and charged Dr. Kian Tajbakhsh [OSI press release] and Radio Farda [media website] correspondent Parnaz Azima for an alleged espionage conspiracy [JURIST report]. In June, an Iranian judge said that Esfandiari and Tajbakhsh admitted to carrying out some "activities" [JURIST report], although it was unclear if their statements were tantamount to an admission of spying.

[JURIST] Former Zambian President Frederick Chiluba [Wikipedia profile] Monday challenged the $58 million (USD) fine imposed upon him [opinion text; Xinhua report] last month by a London judge, asking a Zambian court to throw out the fine because the UK court had no jurisdiction over Zambian affairs. Last month, High Court judge Peter Smith ordered Chiluba to pay the sum to compensate for money stolen during Chiluba's decade in power, which ended in 2001. The suit was brought in Britain [BBC report] by Zambian officials because Chiluba and his associates held the assets in the UK and other European countries. Chiluba's request was made to the Lusaka High Court, where last month an earlier verdict against Chiluba was recorded [Xinhua report], before the fine was reduced slightly.

Before the start of the UK trial, Chiluba asked the African Union [official website] to intervene on his behalf [JURIST report]. Chiluba is also on trial in Zimbabwe [JURIST report] on corruption charges. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The government of Zimbabwe [JURIST news archive] has arrested more than 1300 shop owners and managers who refused to comply with price controls imposed more than two weeks ago [AP report], according to Monday police reports. On June 26, Industry Minister Obert Mpofu ordered the prices of all goods and services in Zimbabwe to be halved, saying the measure was necessary to curb runaway inflation, which in 2006 was estimated to be 976.4 percent [CIA backgrounder]. Current estimates believe inflation to now exceed 5000 percent. Many businesses refused to comply with the measure, but were not vocal of their opposition at a time in which Zimbabwe has been cracking down on dissent [JURIST report]. Manufacturers have said the price controls do not allow them to cover costs and have halted work, resulting in shortages of basic commodities like oil and salt.

Last week, Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe [BBC profile] said that businesses found to be profiteering during the current financial situation would be seized and nationalized. A police spokesman told AFP that arrests of those found defying the price controls would continue. AFP has more.

[JURIST] The constitutional scholars who drafted the interim Palestinian constitution spoke out against Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] Monday, saying that although Abbas had the right to dismiss former Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh [BBC profile], he acted against the constitution [Reuters report and statement] in June by appointing the new "emergency" government [BBC report] excluding Hamas [CFR backgrounder] without the legislature's approval and by suspending articles of the Basic Law [text]. Anis al-Qasem, leader of the constitutional drafting committee, told Reuters that the power given to the president was intentionally limited, reflecting a time when Abbas was a prime minister in a power struggle with the late president Yasser Arafat [BBC profile]. Al-Qasem also said that allowing the president to suspend articles of the constitution could lead to a dictatorship.

Another constitutional framer, Palestinian lawyer Eugene Cotran, told Reuters that presidential emergency decrees last for 30 days, but all actions under them must still comply with the constitution. Cotran added that he doesn't believe the fighting in the Gaza Strip [BBC backgrounder] which prompted Abbas to exclude the majority Hamas party from the government constitutes an emergency situation. A spokesman for Abbas's Fatah [official website] party told Palestine Radio that the state of emergency can be extended indefinitely, for as long as the Hamas "mutiny" continues. Several Middle Eastern constitutional experts expressed concern that western nations immediately embraced the emergency Fatah government as legitimate, despite what they see to be glaring constitutional concerns. As a result of the exclusion of Hamas from the government, the US and the European Union restored funding and diplomatic ties [BBC report] to the Palestinian Authority. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] An English court Monday found four men guilty for plotting the failed bomb attacks on London's subway and bus systems [JURIST news archive] on July 21, 2005, two weeks after a similar attack [JURIST news archive] killed 52 people. The jury at the Woolrich Crown Court unanimously found Muktar Said Ibrahim, Yassin Omar, Ramzi Mohammad, and Hussain Osman [Wikipedia profiles] guilty of conspiracy to murder, and the judge said he would accept a majority verdict of at least 10-2 to convict two other defendants. The jury will continue deliberations with regard to the last two defendants Tuesday. The trial began [JURIST report] in January of this year.

The men argued that the bombs were not real, and were intended as a protest against the Iraq war. Prosecutors pointed out the bombs were similar to those used in the July 7 attacks, and said that, had they detonated properly, many people would have been killed. Evidence was also introduced that the men formulated their plan before the July 7 bombings and were not merely making a hasty copycat attempt. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] Ethiopian prosecutors Monday sought the death penalty against 38 opposition members convicted in June of treason and inciting violence for their roles in mass anti-government demonstrations [JURIST reports], saying that the defendants have not demonstrated remorse and therefore should be subjected to the harshest punishment. The opposition members, most of whom belonged to the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) [party website], have not offered any defense to the charges and are expected to be sentenced on July 16.

The defendants, who were previously barred from meeting with their defense lawyers [JURIST report], were convicted for inciting the anti-government protests following Ethiopia's contested 2005 elections [JURIST news archive], which were marred by allegations of fraud [JURIST report]. Last October, an Ethiopian inquiry team charged with investigating the demonstration announced that approximately 193 civilians were killed by Ethiopian security forces [JURIST report] during the violence, an estimate nearly three times the official number initially reported by the government. AP has more.

[JURIST] The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) [official website] have charged two men with murder [press release; Q&A] for their role in the 2005 shooting deaths of four Mounties in an Alberta ambush [JURIST report; Wikipedia backgrounder], the highest death toll suffered by Canada's national police force in over 100 years. Dennis Keegan Rodney Cheeseman and Sean William Hennesey are not believed to have been present for the shootings, but the Criminal Code of Canada [text] allows people to be charged as parties to an offense if they reasonably should have known that commission of the offense was a probable consequence of uniting with an offender in a common illegal cause. The RCMP would not disclose how the suspects were associated with the gunman, 45-year-old James Roszko, saying that such information would amount to evidence "required for the court process." Roszko took his own life after fleeing following the attack.

Investigation into the so-called Mayerthorpe Incident [CBC backgrounder] has cost approximately $2,000,000 CAD and initially involved around 200 investigators. Roszko was aggressively anti-police, and large quantities of marijuana were fond growing on his farm. The officers originally went to the farm to assist bailiffs in repossessing a truck. CBC News has more. CTV News has additional coverage.

[JURIST] House Judiciary Chairman Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) [official website] urged the White House Monday to waive executive privilege concerning its decision to commute the prison sentence for I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby [defense website; JURIST news archive], saying that the House Judiciary Committee [official website] will hold a hearing Wednesday to determine why President Bush commuted Libby's 30-month prison sentence [JURIST report]. Conyers also expressed concerns that Libby will be less inclined to provide additional information for the probe into the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity [JURIST news archive]. Bush had characterized the jury sentence as "excessive," saying that Libby's damaged reputation and the consequences of a felony conviction constituted enough punishment.

Last Monday, Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald publicly questioned [E&P report; JURIST report] Bush's statement that the 30-month sentence was excessive, saying that the sentence was "imposed pursuant to the laws governing sentencing which occur every day throughout this country." AP has more.

[JURIST] The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) [organization website] Monday urged the Filipino government [press release] to revisit the controversial 2007 Human Security Act [press release], saying that "many voices are apprehensive" about the anti-terror legislation. Critics say the law defines terrorism too loosely and gives government authorities too much latitude to restrict civil liberties. The law, which was signed [JURIST report] by President Gloria Arroyo in March and is scheduled to go into effect on July 15, allows police to detain suspected terrorists for three days without charges, and also allows the house arrest of suspects released on bail.

The CBCP, the official organization of the Catholic episcopacy in the Philippines, is highly influential as nearly 81 percent of the Filipino population is Catholic. In March, a United Nations human rights expert urged [statement; JURIST report] the Philippines to amend or repeal the anti-terrorism law because it allows house arrests without strong evidence of guilt and transfers the power to review detentions to the executive branch instead of an independent judicial body. AFP has more.

[JURIST] The White House Monday renewed and elaborated its assertion of executive privilege [JURIST report] as regards testimony and materials wanted by Congressional investigators in connection with the US Attorney firings controversy [JURIST news archive]. In a letter [PDF text] to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) [official websites], White House counsel Fred Fielding rejected allegations that the blanket assertion of executive privilege in the matter belied good faith [JURIST report] and insisted that

the assertion of Executive Privilege here is intended to protect a fundamental interest of the Presidency: the necessity that President receive candid advice from his advisers and that those advisers be able to communicate freely and openly with the President, with each other, and with others inside and outside the Executive Branch. In the present setting, where the President's authority to appoint and remove U.S. Attorneys is at stake, the institutional interest of the Executive Branch is very strong. The Acting Attorney General's letter clearly identifies the subject matter of the deliberations and communications at issue and provides an extensive treatment of the issues implicated by the subpoenas and the legal basis for the President's assertion of Executive Privilege.

ALSO ON JURIST  Op-ed: The US Attorney Subpoenas: Avoiding Constitutional Confrontation

[JURIST] New French President Nicolas Sarkozy [official profile; BBC profile] said in an interview [transcript] published Sunday by the French newspaper Journal du Dimanche [media website] that he will not continue with the tradition of granting mass pardons on Bastille Day, adding that he will not use pardons as a way to reduce overcrowding in the prison system. Sarkozy, who campaigned on a tough anti-crime platform, says he will instead grant pardons on a case-by-case basis.

Sarkozy is currently pushing draft legislation instituting minimum sentences for repeat offenders [JURIST report]. Critics, including prisoners' rights groups and prison guards, allege that the already overcrowded French prisons, which approximately 61,000 inmates but were designed for only 50,000, cannot withstand the additional pressure, and fear that the latest decision will a backlash and possibly even rioting. AP has more.

[JURIST] Thousands of Japanese "war orphans" [JURIST news archive], children abandoned in China [Kyoto Journal backgrounder] after World War II, have accepted an aid proposal from the Japanese government in exchange for abandoning all compensation claims, government spokesperson Yasuhisa Shiozaki [official website] announced Monday. The aid proposal will increase the victims' monthly pension from $178 to $535, and the government will also provide an additional $648 monthly subsidy, while also promising to help cover their medical care and housing costs.

Approximately 2,200 "war orphans" have filed suit against the Japanese government seeking compensation for being not being repatriated and assimilated back into Japanese society sooner. Only 61 plaintiffs, who filed their suit in Kobe, have received compensation [JURIST report]. Japanese courts have consistently dismissed their lawsuits [JURIST report], ruling that the current Japanese government has no obligation to compensate the victims because it had no obligation to assist the repatriation and assimilation process. Courts have also ruled that the current Japanese government is not responsible for the actions of the wartime government, which operated under a different constitution.

Approximately 320,000 Japanese citizens were settled in Manchuria to establish a base of operations for Japan's 1937 invasion of China [Wikipedia backgrounder]. Many Japanese settlers were left behind after World War II, however, and many children were raised by Chinese citizens. Many plaintiffs remained in China until 1975 when the government began locating them; they did not speak Japanese and were shunned by surviving relatives, and most continue to rely on public aid as a result of the relocation. AP has more.

[JURIST] Indonesian prosecutors filed a civil action against former President Haji Mohammad Suharto [CNN profile] Monday, alleging that Suharto embezzled $440 million from the Yayasan Supersemar, a state-funded academic scholarship fund, between 1974 and 1998. The suit, which seeks to recover the $440 million and an additional $1.1 billion in damages, represents the latest effort by the Indonesian government to hold Suharto legally accountable for his 32-year reign, which ended in 1998 after public discontent amid the Asian financial crisis erupted into violent protests.

In January, Indonesian Attorney General Abdul Rahman Saleh announced plans to bring the civil action [JURIST report] against Suharto after dropping criminal charges of corruption [JURIST report] because Suharto has been rendered unable to speak or write [JURIST report] as a result of several strokes. AP has more. BBC News has additional coverage.

[JURIST] The Chinese Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate [official websites] jointly published new rules [text, in Chinese] Sunday which broaden the definition of bribery to encompass arrangements where officials do not personally receive money, gifts, or favors and close legal loopholes where family members and other third parties receive the bribe on behalf of government officials. The new regulations will allow authorities to prosecute government officials who either purchase property or services at prices "obviously below" market price or sell property or services at levels "obviously above" market prices in exchange for favors. The rules will also treat instances where government officials enter into a false business "partnership" to receive financial gain without putting forward investments as corruption, and will not differentiate between bribes received prior or after an official has left office, but instead focus on whether illegal benefits were exchanged to influence officials.

The Chinese government is currently engaging a publicized campaign against corrupt public officials [JURIST news archive]. Updated regulations were passed in April in an attempt to ensure the integrity of public servants [JURIST report]. The government also plans to establish [JURIST report] a "National Corruption Prevention Bureau." Chinese President Hu Jintao [BBC profile] in January vowed [JURIST report] to build a cleaner Communist Party of China [official backgrounder], which has been plagued by corruption since China initiated widespread market-economy reforms in the late-1970s. AP has more. Xinhua has additional coverage.

[JURIST] The United Nations observer overseeing the Lockerbie trial, Dr. Hans Koechler, has called for a probe into UK and US handling of the investigation of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am 103 [Wikipedia backgrounder] over the Scottish village of Lockerbie. The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission last week granted an appeal [JURIST report] in the case of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi [Wikipedia profile], the only person convicted in the bombing, after the commission identified six grounds [press release, PDF] for a possible "miscarriage of justice" in Megrahi's trial and conviction.

In a statement following the commission's decision, Koechler said:

In order to avoid bias, such an investigation will require the participation of additional legal experts, to be appointed by the United Nations Organisation, from countries that are not involved in the Lockerbie dispute. Those politicians in the United Kingdom and the United States who have proclaimed an international "war on terror" will not be credible in their strategy if they prevent a full investigation into the causes of the explosion of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie.