[JURIST] The Venezuelan National Assembly [official website, in Spanish] gave preliminary approval Tuesday to comprehensive constitutional reforms introduced by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] last week. No word was available on how many legislators voted for the reforms, but National Assembly president Cilia Flores said they received "majority approval." The proposed reforms extend the presidential term from six to seven years, eliminate the limit on the number of terms a president may serve, bring the currently independent Central Bank under the control of the government, and give the government greater authority to expropriate private property without court approval. After passing through the National Assembly, the reforms must receive popular backing in a national referendum to become law.

Critics have accused Chavez of seeking to further consolidate his power [JURIST report], while Chavez has defended his proposal as democratic because it will allow the Venezuelan people to keep their president in power as long as they like. In July, Chavez sought to reassure Venezuelans that the constitutional reforms will protect private property rights [JURIST report], and threatened to expel [AP report; Union Radio report, in Spanish] any foreign nationals who publicly criticized Chavez or his government. Chavez won re-election last December and was granted the power to enact laws by presidential decree [JURIST report] until mid-2008. He has pushed for "revolutionary laws" to nationalize sectors of the economy including mining, telecommunications, utilities, and the petroleum industry. AP has more.

[JURIST] The European Union (EU) [official website] on Tuesday urged Texas Gov. Rick Perry [official website] to halt all executions in the state [statement], and to consider introducing a moratorium on death sentences in Texas. According to the statement from Portugal, acting as current Presidency of the EU:

The European Union is unreservedly opposed to the use of capital punishment under all circumstances and has consistently called for the universal abolition of this punishment. We believe that elimination of the death penalty is fundamental to the protection of human dignity, and to the progressive development of human rights. We further consider this punishment to be cruel and inhumane. There is no evidence to suggest that the use of the death penalty serves as a deterrent against violent crime and the irreversibility of the punishment means that miscarriages of justice - which are inevitable in all legal systems – cannot be redressed. Consequently, the death penalty has been abolished throughout the European Union. ...

the European Union welcomes the United States Supreme Court rulings of June 2002 and March 2005 declaring the execution of persons with mental retardation and the execution of juveniles respectively, to be unconstitutional. The European Union urges the US authorities to extend these restrictions, in particular, to the execution of persons with severe mental illness.

[JURIST] The US Defense Department's controversial Threat and Local Observation Notice system, or TALON database [Wired report; JURIST news archive], will be discontinued on September 17 [press release; official report] but the data it has collected will be retained in accordance with intelligence oversight requirements, Pentagon spokesman Army Col. Gary Keck said Tuesday. Keck said that TALON is being suspended because it no longer has "analytical value." Keck announced that a new reporting system has not yet been implemented and, in the interim, the Department of Defense [official website] will use the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Guardian reporting system.

TALON, created after the September 11 terrorist attacks [JURIST news archive], was designed to consolidate information regarding threats against the US military into one database. NBC News revealed [NBC report] in December 2005 that the military maintained a database of "suspicious incidents" that included peaceful anti-war protests and groups. The Pentagon launched an investigation [DOD press release; JURIST report] into possible misuse of the program, which revealed that about 260 entries were improper and subject to removal [JURIST report]. In April, Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. recommended to US Defense Secretary Robert Gates that the TALON database be shut down [JURIST report], but a final decision on whether to continue the program was postponed. AP has more.

[JURIST] Lawyers in Kenya are now ranked as the ninth most corrupt group in the country, according to the Kenya Bribery Index 2007, a report released Tuesday by Transparency International (TI) [advocacy website]. The annual Kenya Bribery Index [TI materials] has never in its previous five years of publication listed lawyers as top solicitors of bribes in Kenya. For the sixth year in a row, the police were listed as the top corrupt political branch in the 2007 study. The judiciary, which was ranked sixth in the Kenya Bribery Index 2006 [PDF text], moved out of the top ten this year. AP has more.

The Kenyan government has been at the forefront of corruption claims in recent years, especially after Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki [official profile] promised to clean up widespread government corruption after being elected to office in 2002. Last year, Kenya charged [JURIST report] four former senior Kenyan government officials and a top businessman with corruption for their roles in a $1 billion scam known as the Goldenberg affair [BBC report; Wikipedia backgrounder]. The charges came one month after Kibaki's education and energy ministers both resigned [JURIST report] after being implicated, but not charged, in the Goldenberg case while serving in the previous regime.

[JURIST] An Indonesian court Tuesday dismissed a class action lawsuit that sought to dismantle the Indonesian police's anti-terror unit, ruling that the allegations that the department violated human rights by targeting Muslims and torturing suspects were too vague to proceed. The lawsuit was brought by Abu Bakar Bashir [BBC profile], a militant cleric who has been accused of being the spiritual leader of the Southeast Asian extremist group Jemaah Islamiyah [CFR backgrounder], which has ties to al Qaeda and has been blamed for the 2002 and 2005 Bali bombings [BBC reports]. The court said that Bashir's lawsuit against the anti-terror unit, known as Department 88, did not meet the legal requirements to go forward.

Bashir has long been a controversial figure in southeast Asia. He was convicted on conspiracy charges [JURIST report] in early 2005 in connection to the 2002 Bali bombings [BBC backgrounder] but was released from prison [JURIST report] in 2006 after serving 26 months of his initial 30-month sentence. He received a reduction in sentence [JURIST report] in August 2005 as part of the celebration of Indonesia's Independence Day. It is Indonesian custom to reduce the sentences of inmates who exhibit good behavior on national holidays, with the exception of those serving life sentences. After his release, the Indonesian Supreme Court later overturned Bashir's conviction [JURIST report] in December 2006. AFP has more.

[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit on Tuesday upheld [PDF text] the conviction of former Illinois Gov. George Ryan [defense website] on fraud and corruption charges, ruling that the district court judge acted properly when she replaced two jurors after it was discovered they had concealed their criminal backgrounds. Ryan may now begin his 6 1/2 year prison sentence [JURIST report]. Co-defendant Lawrence Warner, who was convicted and sentenced to 3 1/2 years for his role in the fraud, also had his sentence affirmed.

Ryan's trial began in 2005, and in 2006, a jury found him guilty [JURIST reports] on multiple counts of corruption and fraud [indictment, PDF] in connection with a bribes-for-licenses scandal that occurred during Ryan's term as Illinois Secretary of State. Ryan made national headlines and won praise in some quarters in January 2003 when just before leaving office he commuted the executions of all Illinois inmates then on death row [CNN file report; Ryan speech]. The Chicago Tribune has more.

[JURIST] Lawyers for five Cubans jailed for spying in the United States urged a federal appeals court Monday to order a new trial in the case, arguing that the defendants were convicted on flimsy evidence. Lawyers representing the so-called Cuban Five [advocacy website] - Rene Gonzalez, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando Gonzalez, Ramon Labanino and Gerardo Hernandez - also argued that their clients' original trial was flawed because prosecutors made improper statements.

The men were convicted in 2001 of spying and sentenced to 15 years in prison. They admitted they were Cuban spies, but said they were watching the activities of exile groups opposed to Cuban leader Fidel Castro [BBC profile], rather than the US government. In 2005, the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit ruled [PDF text; JURIST report] that the trial in Miami was biased due to community prejudice and extensive media coverage. The government appealed that decision and during a rehearing [JURIST reports] before the full appeals court, the defendants argued that "the pervasive community prejudice against the Cuban government and its agents and the publicity surrounding the trial that existed in Miami prevented them from obtaining a fair and impartial trial." The full federal appeals court upheld [opinion, PDF; JURIST report] the convictions. Cox News Service has more.

[JURIST] The Supreme People's Court of China [official website] has determined that the death penalty can be ordered in cases where a defendant is convicted of sabotaging electricity supply in a manner which leads to serious injury of at least three people or the death of at least one person. In a new judicial interpretation [press release, in Chinese] made public Monday, the court has also authorized the death penalty when damaging the power supply causes direct economic losses over $131,500, a loss of power for six hours or longer that results in disruption of industrial production or service to more than 10,000 households, or when the sabotage causes "other serious consequences" that harm public safety. Defendants convicted of negligently damaging the power supply now face up to seven years in jail. The new guidelines take effect Tuesday.

Earlier this year, Chinese officials said the government planned to lesson the number of executions carried out in the country, and the Supreme Court last month said that guidelines for imposing the death penalty would be standardized [JURIST reports]. According to Amnesty International, China executes more prisoners than any other country [press release], but government statistics released in June indicate that China's use of the death penalty is declining [JURIST report]. Earlier this month, a Chinese Communist Party spokesperson defended the use of the death penalty [JURIST report] in political and economic corruption cases, saying it was both appropriate and effective. AP has more. Xinhua has local coverage.

[JURIST] US Army Lt. Col. Steven L. Jordan [CBS profile; JURIST news archive] has pleaded not guilty to cruelty and maltreatment and other charges stemming from the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal [JURIST news archive]. Jordan is the only commissioned officer charged in connection to the abuse that occurred at the Iraqi prison. Before Jordan entered his plea Monday, prosecutors dropped two charges [JURIST report] against him, cutting the maximum jail time he could face if convicted to over eight years in prison.

Prosecutors dropped the two charges after new evidence came to light that Jordan provided statements to an official investigating the Iraqi prison abuse allegations without being properly read his rights, making his statements inadmissible. In his 2004 report [PDF text; JURIST report], Maj. Gen. George R. Fay recommended that Jordan and Col. Thomas Pappas [official profile], Jordan's superior, be punished for their roles in the abuse scandal. Pappas was granted immunity in exchange for his testimony against Jordan. Pappas testified during Jordan's Article 32 hearing [JURIST report] that Jordan was concerned that he did not have the proper training or experience to assume his role running the Joint Interrogation and Debriefing Center [backgrounder] at Abu Ghraib. AFP has more.

[JURIST] Lawyers for detained Iranian-American scholar Haleh Esfandiari [WWC profile; JURIST news archive] have been informed that she will be released from custody once $320,000 in bail has been paid, an anonymous source from the Iranian judiciary said Tuesday. Though one of Esfandiari's lawyers told Reuters that he has not yet been informed that Esfandiari has been granted bail, the source said that Esfandiari could be released as early as Tuesday evening. Esfandiari, director of the DC-based Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars' Middle East program, has been detained since May [WWC timeline, DOC] and is accused of being involved in an alleged plot "against the sovereignty of the country." August 15 marked her 100th day in Iranian custody [WWC press release, DOC].

Also detained is Open Society Institute consultant Dr. Kian Tajbakhsh [OSI press release]. The two scholars are alleged to have been involved in a plot against the government and prosecutors said earlier this month that they have completed their investigation [JURIST report] into the two detainees. Prosecutors in June expanded [JURIST report] their investigation into the alleged conspiracy after they said they found evidence supporting charges of endangering national security. In June, Iranian 2003 Nobel Peace Prize laureate and human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi [advocacy website, in Persian] accused the Iranian government of interfering in judicial affairs to prevent Esfandiari's release [JURIST report]. Ebadi has also accused the Iranian government of denying lawyers access to Esfandiari [JURIST report]. Reuters has more.

10:38 AM ET - AP is reporting that an Iranian official has said that Esfandiari has now been released on bail.

[JURIST] The Federal Court of Australia ruled [text] Tuesday that Australian Immigration and Citizenship Minister Kevin Andrews improperly revoked the work visa of Mohammad Haneef [JURIST news archive], who was detained by Australian authorities last month in connection with the attempted UK car bomb terror attacks [JURIST report]. Andrews revoked Haneef's work visa and placed him under "immigration detention" shortly after he was granted bail by a magistrate, and later said that he revoked the visa on "character test" grounds under the Migration Act [text] due to Haneef's "associations with people who have been involved in criminal conduct." Haneef had been accused of leaving a subscriber identity module [Wikipedia backgrounder] with his second cousin, one of the alleged bombers, when Haneef left the UK over a year ago and of borrowing money from one of the terrorist suspects.

The Federal Court overturned Andrew's decision, and according to the court's explanatory statement:

The central question in these proceedings concerns the construction of the provision that "a person does not pass the character test if: ... the person has or has had an association with someone else, or with a group or organisation, whom the Minister reasonably suspects has been or is involved in criminal conduct."

Dr Haneef claims that the requirement for "not passing the character test" in s 501(6)(b) of the Migration Act requires that there be some nexus between the relationship that the visa holder has to the other person, and the criminal activity of that other person. An "innocent" association is not enough.

The Minister says that there is no such requirement, and that any association is sufficient. Alternatively, the Minister says that on its proper construction, all that the "association test" requires is that the visa holder be a "friend" or a "good mate". ...

I reject the submission by the Solicitor-General for the Minister that the "character test", which a person does not pass if the person has or has had an association with a person or group or organisation that the Minister reasonably suspects has been or is involved in criminal conduct, does not involve any question about the character of the person. In my opinion s 501(6)(b) is a composite phrase and has to be construed as such. In my opinion it has the connotation that there is an alliance or link or combination between the visa holder with the persons engaged in criminal activity. That alliance, link, or combination reflects adversely on the character of the visa holder. Such a meaning would exclude professional relationships, or those which are merely social or familial. It would exclude the victim of domestic violence.

The Minister cancelled the visa by adopting a wrong criterion; he fell into jurisdictional error by applying the wrong test. That error infects the cancellation decision. It follows that the decision must be set aside.

Nonetheless I am of the opinion that, had the Minister applied the right test, it would have been competent for the Minister to cancel Dr Haneef's visa.

This is because, in addition to the matters which the Solicitor-General identified as supporting the Minister's view of the "association" of Dr Haneef with the Ahmed brothers, there was before the Minister:

(a) advice from the Metropolitan Police Services Counter Terrorism Command that Dr Haneef was a person of interest to their investigation through his association with two of the United Kingdom suspects believed to have been involved in the London incident and the Glasgow bombings; and

(b) On 14 July 2007, Dr Haneef was formally charged with intentionally providing resources to a terrorist organization consisting of persons including Sabeel Ahmed and Kafeel Ahmed, and being reckless as to whether the organization was a terrorist organization, contrary to s 102.7 of the Criminal Code.

These matters would have permitted the Minister to conclude that the association between Dr Haneef and the Ahmed brothers went beyond a purely familial, social, "innocent" relationship. On that material, it would have been open to the Minister, applying the proper construction of s 501(6)(b), to cancel Dr Haneef's visa.

[JURIST] Fifteen former Iraqi officials went on trial Tuesday for crimes against humanity [JURIST report] for their role in attacks against the Iraqi civilian population following the 1991 Persian Gulf War. The defendants - including Saddam Hussein's cousin and former Iraqi defense minister Ali Hassan al-Majid [BBC profile; JURIST news archive], Hussein's personal secretary and bodyguard Abed Hameed Hmoud, former defense minister Sultan Hashim Ahmad al-Tai, and former deputy director of operations for Iraq's military Hussein Rashid Mohammed - are charged in connection with the violent response to the predominately Shi'a uprising [HRW backgrounder] in Southern Iraq, during which tens of thousands of civilians were killed. Iraqi High Tribunal [official website] chief judge Mohammed Oreibi al-Khalifa told the defendants Tuesday that they could face the death penalty if convicted of the crimes against humanity charges. Prosecutor Mahdi Abdul-Amir called the 1991 attacks "one of the ugliest crimes ever committed against humanity in modern history." Some 90 witnesses are expected to testify over the course of the trial.

Al-Majid, also known as Chemical Ali, and several other defendants in the current trial have already been sentenced to death [JURIST report] for their role in the 1988 Anfal campaign [HRW backgrounder] that slaughtered hundreds of thousands of Kurds. Five defendants in the Anfal trial are currently appealing [JURIST report] their sentences to the Iraqi High Tribunal's Appeals Chamber. If the death sentences are upheld, Iraqi law requires the executions to take place within 30 days of the court ruling. The new case is the third in a series of trials involving Hussein-era officials [JURIST news archive]. The first was the Dujail case [BBC timeline] involving crimes against humanity committed in that Iraqi town in 1982, which resulted in the hangings of Hussein and his co-defendants. AP has more.