[JURIST] A Louisiana state court jury Friday found nursing home owners Salvador and Mabel Mangano not guilty of the drowning deaths of residents at St. Rita's Nursing Home in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina [JURIST news archive]. Lawyers representing the Manganos, who pleaded not guilty [JURIST report] to 35 charges of negligent homicide and 64 charges of cruelty last October, had argued that the owners did what they thought would keep the residents safe by keeping the residents at the home with food, water, and generators. Thirty-five residents drowned in the flood waters [NYT report; victim list, PDF] that overtook the one-story nursing home in less than 20 minutes.

Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti [official website] charged the Manganos in September 2005, but the couple was not indicted [JURIST report] until last September due to the extensive damage in the area. AP has more.

[JURIST] The Catholic Diocese of San Diego [diocesan website] Friday announced an agreement to pay $198.1 million to settle 144 claims of sexual abuse by its clergy. In February, 42 clergy sex abuse cases were suspended - the night before they were scheduled to begin - after the diocese sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection [JURIST report]. US Bankruptcy Judge Louise DeCarl Adler ordered [JURIST report] the cases to go to trial last month, accepting arguments by plaintiffs lawyers that the move could put pressure on the diocese to settle the claims. The $198.1 million settlement is the second largest ever paid by a diocese.

In January 2007, the Catholic Diocese of Spokane [diocesan website] agreed to settle molestation claims [JURIST report] against its own priests for $48 million as part of its Chapter 11 reorganization plan. The Archdiocese of Portland filed for Chapter 11 [JURIST report] in 2004, and the dioceses of Tuscon, Spokane, and Davenport soon followed suit in the wake of hundreds of sexual abuse lawsuits [JURIST news archive] against clergy. AP has more.

[JURIST] CIA Director Michael Hayden [official profile] defended the United States' secret overseas detention and interrogation policy Friday, saying that the program had obtained vital information about the terrorist threat against the US detailed in a July report [PDF text]. Hayden also said that fewer than 100 people total had been detained at secret overseas facilities since the 2002 capture of Abu Zubaydah [BBC profile]. Hayden criticized reports by the European Parliament that at least 1,245 CIA flights used European airspace or airports, saying they as misleading because they assume that all of those flights were for rendition [JURIST archives] purposes. AP has more.

In June, Council of Europe investigator Dick Marty [personal website] concluded in a report [COE materials; JURIST report] for the Legal Affairs Committee of the Council of Europe that the CIA directly ran secret detention facilities in Europe with the "requisite permissions, protections or active assistance" of European governments, and that the framework for the cooperation was developed secretly among NATO members. The report was part of the COE's investigation into alleged secret detention centers [COE materials] and illegal rendition flights [JURIST news archive] operated by the CIA in Europe. Some European lawmakers have criticized [JURIST report] Marty's findings for failing to cite sources. US President George W. Bush acknowledged the existence of the secret CIA prison program [JURIST report] last year, but did not disclose any details.

[JURIST] A federal judge ruled [opinion, PDF] Friday that Iran must compensate the families of 241 US military personnel killed in the 1983 bombing of the US Marine barracks in Beirut [Washington Post backgrounder]. Iran has been blamed for supporting Hezbollah [organization website], the militant group behind the bombing, but the country has denied responsibility. The holding awarded $2.65 billion - the largest such judgment ever awarded by a US court against a foreign country, according to US District Judge Royce Lamberth [JURIST news archive] - to survivors and relatives of the victims and allows them to make a bid for Iranian assets held around the world. The American death toll in the terror attack was the highest recorded prior to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

State acceptance of liability for terrorist acts is not totally unprecedented; in 2003, Libya agreed to accept responsibility [US DOS press release] for the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am flight 103 [Wikipedia backgrounder] over Lockerbie, Scotland, and compensate victims' families. AP has more.

[JURIST] Iraqi President Jalal Talabani [BBC profile] Friday objected to the planned execution of former Saddam-era Defense Minister Sultan Hashim Ahmad al-Tai [TrialWatch profile], saying that al-Tai should receive clemency because he was only acting under the threat of death from Saddam and had worked with the the Kurdish community while he was an official in Saddam's regime. Talabani said that he will not approve al-Tai's death sentence; a prosecutor told the Associated Press that executions had to be approved by the government and the president's office. The Appeals Chamber of the Iraqi High Tribunal [official website] upheld [JURIST report] Al-Tai's death sentence earlier this week.

Al-Tai and two other former officials from Saddam Hussein's regime, including Hussein's cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid - known in the Western media as "Chemical Ali" [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] - were all convicted in June of war crimes and crimes against humanity for their role in the slaughter of tens of thousands of Kurds during the 1988 Anfal Campaign [HRW backgrounder]. Al-Majid has repeatedly denied the allegations [JURIST report], saying that he does not know who used chemical weapons or "if they were ever used." Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein [JURIST news archive] was also a co-defendant in the Anfal genocide trial [JURIST news archive] before he was executed in December 2006. Talabani similarly refused to sign Hussein's death warrant [JURIST report], invoking his general opposition to the death penalty. That death warrant was subsequently signed by Talabani's vice-presidents. AP has more.

[JURIST] Poland will not join the European Charter of Fundamental Rights [European Parliament materials], instead opting for the same exemption clause that allowed the UK to reject the charter [Sky report] this summer, said Polish foreign minister Ana Fotyga Friday during a meeting on the EU's new Reform Treaty [materials, in French]. Poland has objected to the draft charter for its supposed liberal stance on "moral issues," but powerful trade unions have long pushed for the charter's acceptance, citing its social rights guarantees. Poland has also broken ranks with other EU member states over the interpretation of the so-called Ioannina mechanism, by which a country can delay an EU initiative if it feels its vital interests will be affected. Most other countries see the mechanism as something to be invoked only once per issue, but Poland interprets it as something that can be used repeatedly until a more desirable agreement is reached.

The Reform Treaty, essentially a cut-down version of the stalled European constitution [JURIST news archive], has generated much debate between EU members. At the end of June, Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski [official profile] sought to reopen debate on the proposal by insisting on a different interpretation [JURIST report] of the reform agreement [JURIST report] reached by EU leaders, threatening to derail the process. EUobserver has more.

[JURIST] The government of Pakistan said Friday that it has reopened a corruption case [JURIST report] against former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif [BBC profile], the same day that an anti-terrorism court ordered the arrest of his brother, Shahbaz Sharif, in connection with murder charges. Shahbaz Sharif is wanted for allegedly ordering police to kill five men while he was chief minister of Pakistan's Punjab province in 1998. A spokesman for the Sharifs' Pakistan Muslim League-N [party website] blasted the charges as politically motivated. The two brothers, who lived in exile after being deposed in a 1999 military coup led by current Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf [BBC profile], were scheduled to return to Pakistan [JURIST news archive] on Monday to challenge Musharraf's re-election bid. Sharif's return was authorized by the Supreme Court in a ruling [JURIST report] last month.

Musharraf has seen his popularity slipping since he implemented a failed bid to remove suspended Pakistan Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry [official website; JURIST news archive] from office in March for alleged judicial misconduct. Earlier this year Pakistani lawyers led a four-month campaign to reinstate Chaudhry. Many suspected that Chaudhry's dismissal was a pre-emptive move to quash objections to an expected re-election bid by Musharraf. Chaudhry was reinstated in July, with all charges of misconduct [JURIST reports] dismissed. AP has more.

[JURIST] The Supreme Court of Indonesia will not consider an appeal by three men convicted and sentenced to death in the 2002 bombings of two Bali nightclubs [BBC report], a judge said Friday. Lawyers for Amrozi Ghufron [Australian report], Ali Ghufron [BBC profile], and Imam Samudera [BBC profile] had appealed on the grounds that the men were sentenced under a terror law that was passed after the attacks and that should not be applied retroactively.

In August, Indonesia reduced the sentences [JURIST report] of 10 other Islamic militants their roles in the 2002 and 2005 Bali bombings [BBC report]. Originally serving between eight to 18 years, six of the militants received a sentence reduction of five months, while the other four received a reduction of two months. In June, Indonesian police confirmed the arrest [JURIST report] of leading terror suspect Abu Dujana [BBC profile] and seven other suspects who composed the main body of the terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) [MIPT backgrounder; JURIST news archive]. JI, which was responsible for both Bali bombings, is also blamed for the 2004 bombings of the US embassy in Jakarta [BBC report]. Xinhua has more.

[JURIST] Muslim women will be allowed to wear traditional Muslim niqabs or burqas [JURIST news archives] and not be required to show their faces to vote in Quebec by-elections this month, an Elections Canada [official website] spokesperson announced Thursday. The official said that women would not have to show their faces if they were able to sufficiently prove their identity with photo IDs or other documentation. The issue came to a head in an election in March when Quebec's chief electoral officer [official website] refused to allow Muslim women to vote without showing their faces, a move criticized as offensive to their religion by Muslim rights groups. AP has more.

Traditional Muslim face-covering garb and other religious dress [JURIST news archive] has become a controversial topic recently, as lawmakers struggle to balance an individual's right to practice their religion with public policy concerns. In the UK, the High Court in February upheld [JURIST report] a school ban on students wearing niqabs in class, saying the veils could interfere with student-teacher interaction. A UK teacher's aide last October announced plans to appeal a lower UK court's decision [JURIST report] rejecting discrimination claims against her school for refusing to let her wear a niqab in the classroom. Last month it was reported that a panel of senior UK judges have approved new courtroom rules that would ban full Islamic veils in the courts [JURIST report].

[JURIST] Assistant US Attorney General Peter D. Keisler [official profile] announced his resignation [press release] as head of the US Department of Justice's Civil Division [official website] Thursday, effective September 21. During his tenure at the Justice Department, Keisler was responsible for managing litigation over the habeas corpus rights of Guantanamo Bay detainees [JURIST news archive]. He also played a hand in the government's lawsuit [DOJ backgrounder] against the tobacco industry [JURIST news archive] in 2005. Last year, President Bush nominated [JURIST report] Keisler to serve on the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, but the Senate has yet to confirm the nomination.

Keisler's resignation comes on the heels of US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' resignation [JURIST report] last month, though there is no indication that Keisler's resignation is related. Several other top DOJ officials have also resigned recently, including the head of the DOJ's civil rights division [JURIST report]. AP has more. The Baltimore Sun has additional coverage.

[JURIST] The US government has begun setting up a "tent city" at the US detention center in Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive], Cuba, where the US military plans to hold military tribunals [JURIST news archive] for Guantanamo detainees, officials said Thursday. The military believes tribunals could begin as early as March, and the new facility will allow several detainees to be tried together using the same evidence, including the government's "high value" detainees [DOD backgrounder, PDF]. The compound, which will include about 100 tents to house and feed tribunal personnel, journalists and non-governmental organizations as well as try the detainees, is a significant departure from a planned permanent facility [JURIST report] to hold six simultaneous trials.

Last month, the US Department of Defense (DOD) [official website] said that 14 "high-value" detainees have been designated as enemy combatants [press release; JURIST report] based on the recommendations of Combatant Status Review Tribunals (CSRT) [DOD materials]. The detainees, including the alleged masterminds of the September 11 terrorist attacks, the 2000 attack on the USS Cole, and the 1998 US embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, were all previously formerly held in secret prisons [JURIST report] operated by the Central Intelligence Agency and are currently held at Guantanamo. Detainees held as "enemy combatants" will be held indefinitely until they are charged before military commissions under the Military Commission Act of 2006 [PDF text] or are transferred to another location. AP has more.

[JURIST] US District Judge Harold Murphy of the Northern District of Georgia [official website] lifted a stay of the controversial Georgia voter ID law [JURIST news archive] Thursday, enabling the law to go into effect [JURIST report] during Special Elections on September 18. Murphy found that the voter ID law does not impose a significant burden on an individual's right to vote, and that preventing voter fraud serves a greater public interest. In 2005, Murphy granted an injunction [JURIST report] on enforcement of an earlier version of the law, and last year granted an injunction against enforcement of an amended version, stating that law created too much of a burden for some voters. In his latest ruling, Murphy applauded the state's effort to inform voters of the law and notify them of how to obtain free identification cards in order to vote, effectively removing much of the barrier created by the law.

In July, Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel [official profile] announced that the state will begin enforcing the voter ID law during Georgia's September 18 Special Elections, and the state filed a motion to lift the stay [press release] on enforcement of the law. In June, the Supreme Court of Georgia dismissed a challenge [JURIST report] after finding that the plaintiff lacked standing [opinion, PDF] because she had not and could not be harmed by the voter ID law. The court's decision came in the appeal of a September 2006 superior court ruling that the controversial law was not required under the Georgia constitution [text, PDF] and would disenfranchise otherwise qualified voters [JURIST report], who generally have no use for a state-issued ID. The New York Times has more. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has local coverage.

[JURIST] The US Department of State [official website] is satisfied that France will treat former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive] as a prisoner of war if extradited to France upon his release from prison [BOP materials; JURIST report] Sunday, Assistant US Attorney Michael "Pat" Sullivan said in a court filing Thursday. The US has not formally asked France to declare Noriega a POW, but the US State Department concluded from informal talks with France that Noriega will retain the same extra benefits in France that he has enjoyed during his 17 years in US federal prisons, including nicer quarters, telephone privileges and television privileges.

US District Judge William Hoeveler temporarily blocked [JURIST report] the French extradition of Noriega Wednesday to give Noriega's lawyers time to argue that his rights will not be fully protected in France. Noriega is wanted in France to face charges of money laundering through French banks. Noriega and his wife were sentenced in absentia [AP report] to 10 years in jail in 1999, but France has agreed to hold a new trial if he is extradited. Noriega's lawyers had argued that France's request was superseded by his status as a US prisoner of war and that under the Geneva Conventions the US must return him home to Panama upon his release. AP has more.

[JURIST] The Iraqi government named Moussa Faraj as chair of the Commission on Public Integrity (CPI) [ICAC backgrounder] Thursday. Farag will replace Radhi al-Radhi [US DOD OIG profile], who has retired in light of corruption accusations brought by the Iraqi parliament's anti-corruption committee. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has accepted al-Radhi's retirement and temporarily appointed Faraj to the post until Faraj receives approval by parliament. Parliament Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani objected to al-Radhi's retirement, saying al-Maliki only has the power to remove the head of a government organization, not an independent commission. Faraj had served under al-Radhi as the deputy chairman of the CPI.

The CPI was established [press release] in 2004 and has the power to investigate complaints, refer criminal violations to the courts, and propose legislation to address corruption. In April , a US auditor's report [PDF text; JURIST report] found that efforts to combat widespread corruption in Iraq [JURIST news archive] were being hindered by security problems and al-Maliki's reinstatement of a provision of the country's Saddam-era criminal procedure code [PDF text] allowing ministers to block corruption investigations of their own departments. AP has more.

[JURIST] Doctors from 16 countries have chided the US military for its medical care of detainees at the US detention center in Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive], Cuba in a letter [text, registration required] Friday to the UK medical journal The Lancet [journal website]. Referring to the US policy of force-feeding detainees [JURIST report] on hunger strike, the more than 260 signatories to the letter attacked those doctors participating in the force-feeding policy, saying it is "fundamental" for doctors to recognize a patient's "right to refuse treatment." Officials force-fed up to 128 detainees [JURIST report] during an extended hunger strike beginning in 2005. The doctors also suggested that those doctors involved in the force-feeding of detainees should be disciplined by their respective professional medical associations for breaching ethical guidelines, and noted that no doctor or other health care worker has been charged with an offense relating to the mistreatment of detainees.

Dr. David Nicholl, who has already lodged formal complaints with the American Medical Association [organization website] and medical boards in California and Georgia, noted in the letter that no effective response was taken by any of the three medical associations. Nicholl added that independent doctors need to care for detainees at Guantanamo to ensure fair and ethical treatment of the prisoners. Last month, three authors published a similar letter JURIST report] in the Journal of the American Medical Association [journal website], stating that military doctors should not force treatment on detainees who have refused informed consent, while last year a group of more than 250 doctors from seven countries signed an open letter [JURIST report], urging the US government to ensure that Guantanamo detainees are examined by independent physicians and that certain aggressive force-feeding methods [JURIST report] be discontinued. The Independent has more.

ALSO ON JURIST  Op-ed: Guantanamo and Medical Ethics | Comment: More Guantanamo hunger strikes: the silence is deafening