[JURIST] A US district judge ruled [PDF text] Wednesday that two provisions of the USA Patriot Act [JURIST news archive] that deal with physical search and electronic eavesdropping are unconstitutional. Brandon Mayfield [JURIST news archive], the Oregon attorney arrested [JURIST report] and detained for two weeks in May 2004 after the FBI mistakenly concluded that his fingerprints matched [JURIST report] those found on a bag containing detonators used in the 2004 Madrid train bombings [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive], challenged the USA Patriot Act provisions which amended the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and allowed investigators to search his home and office. The judge Wednesday held that the search had violated Mayfield's Fourth Amendment [Fourth Amendment, text] rights against unreasonable search and seizure.

Lawyers for the Justice Department had argued that Mayfield's Patriot Act challenge could not continue after the the US government agreed to pay $2 million in November 2006 in a settlement agreement [PDF text; JURIST report], and that the government's retention of Mayfield's family records would not harm the family. Mayfield originally alleged that the FBI orchestrated his arrest because of his religious beliefs as a Muslim, though a 2006 DOJ Inspector General report [text] refuted those claims [press release]. After an investigation into his arrest and detention, the DOJ Inspector General [official website] cleared FBI agents involved in the incident of any wrongdoing and made several suggestions for improvements to the fingerprint identification process that have since been implemented by the DOJ. The US also formally apologized [PDF text] to Mayfield per the agreement. KGW has more.

[JURIST] Somalia and Myanmar rank as the world's most corrupt nations in 2007 according to the latest annual Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index [corruption index; press release] released Wednesday. The index ranked 180 countries based on observations by businesspeople and analysts, giving each a score between 1 and 10. Myanmar and Somalia tied for the lowest score of 1.4 out of 10. Transparency International chairman Huguette Labelle said that impoverished countries or countries torn apart by conflict are at the highest risk for persistent corruption, as unscrupulous officials may take advantage of desperation to line their own pockets.

The report did find significant improvement in many African and South East Asian countries from last year's report:

Scores are significantly higher in several African countries in the 2007 CPI. These include Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa and Swaziland. These results reflect the positive progress of anti-corruption efforts in Africa and show that genuine political will and reform can lower perceived levels of corruption.

Other countries with a significant improvement include Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Czech Republic, Dominica, Italy, FYR Macedonia, Romania and Suriname. Countries with a significant worsening in perceived levels of corruption in 2007 include Austria, Bahrain, Belize, Bhutan, Jordan, Laos, Macao, Malta, Mauritius, Oman, Papua New Guinea and Thailand.

[JURIST] A Russian court began hearings against a renowned political commentator Tuesday, with prosecutors using expanded anti-extremism laws originally designed to combat racism and xenophobia but broadened in July [JURIST reports] to include activities taken for "political or ideological hatred." Prosecutors claim that several books by author Andrei Piontkovsky [fellowship profile; Jamestown Foundation writings], a visiting fellow at Washington DC's Hudson Institute [think tank website], incite violence against Russians, Jews, and Americans. At the hearing, prosecutors refused to give concrete examples of Piotkovsky's extremism, but referenced reports that said Piotkovsky's book "Unloved Country" was insulting to Russians because it contained a fictional conversation in which Russian President Vladimir Putin [official website] called opponents "shameful goats." Neither the prosecutors nor the reports explained where the allegations of incitement of hatred against Americans and Jews came from.

Piontkovsky, who denies the allegations, is a leader of Russian opposition party Yabloko [party website], and has described the administration of President Vladimir Putin as a combination of authoritarianism and "bandit capitalism." Investigations of "extremism" have also been brought against other Putin critics, including a human rights activist, a Russian newspaper, and a political analyst who was writing a book on Putin. The Washington Post has more.

[JURIST] Violence erupted in Myanmar [JURIST news archive] Wednesday as police opened fire on a crowd of 10,000 demonstrators, leaving as many as eight dead. Up to 300 protesters were arrested in the fray, including many Buddhist monks. The violence broke out just one day after the nation's military government banned public gatherings [JURIST report] of more than five people and imposed a curfew in response to the anti-government protests [BBC Q&ampA]. The government acknowledged via state media that the "minimum force" employed by police caused one death; it was the first official admission of the use of force against government protesters. In response to the violence, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon dispatched [UN press release] his Special Envoy to Myanmar and urged peaceful dialogue with the junta leaders. The United States and the European Union issued a joint statement [text; AFP report] calling for an end to the violence and looking to "China, India, ASEAN [Association of Southeast Asian Nations] and others in the region to use their influence in support of the people of Burma/Myanmar." AP has more.

The protests are being led by Buddhist monks who object to rights abuses by the government, including the detention of demonstrators who peacefully protested a sharp rise in fuel prices in August. Tens of thousands of citizens have joined the marching monks in what has become the largest demonstration in the country since a pro-democracy uprising in 1988. US President George W. Bush announced US sanctions against Myanmar [speech text, PDF; JURIST report] Tuesday, supplementing the current visa ban on alleged perpetrators of human rights abuses. Myanmar has been governed without a constitution since the military regime took power in 1988. Talks on a new national charter [JURIST report] have been underway for 14 years. It is not yet clear who will draft the actual constitution or how that process will occur, but the Myanmar government has pledged to put the resulting document to a vote in a national referendum.

[JURIST] The European Union is monitoring possible human rights violations in Bangladesh [JURIST news archive], the Bangladeshi New Age reported Wednesday. The paper quoted Netherlands EU ambassador Bea Ten Tusscher as saying that the EU is concerned about several particular human rights cases, despite claims by the the interim military government that the rights situation has improved. If the EU finds that Bangladesh has violated EU human rights guidelines [official texts, PDF], it can suspend cooperation with or impose sanctions on the country. Tusscher's comments came during a round-table discussion on human rights that included local Bangladeshi activists, reporters and others.

Bangladesh's human rights record has been the focus of broad criticism in recent months. In August, Reporters Without Borders [advocacy website] criticized Bangladeshi censorship and violence against journalists, calling on the government to guarantee journalists' safety [press release] during a government-imposed curfew [JURIST report]. Last week, the US State Department [official website] expressed concerns about due process for people detained under Bangladesh's emergency rules [JURIST report], which were imposed in January. AFP has more.

[JURIST] Haitian President Rene Preval Tuesday declared his intent to continue investigating former Haitian president Jean-Claude Duvalier [BBC backgrounder], despite the latter's recent plea for forgiveness from the people of Haiti [JURIST news archive]. Duvalier, who became president in 1971 at the age of 19, is accused of embezzling money from the national treasury and of killing and imprisoning thousands of dissenters. He has been living in exile in France since his ouster in 1986. Over the weekend, a recorded message from Duvalier was broadcast around Haiti [Guardian report] saying that the former president accepted responsibility for wrongdoing during his administration and suggesting that he might attempt to return to power.

Preval said Tuesday that prosecutors are collecting evidence to begin a trial aimed at recovering the stolen national funds from Duvalier. His assets have been frozen, and Preval is collaborating with the World Bank [official website] to locate assets that Duvalier has placed in foreign countries. The Bank and the United Nations are working with Haiti as part of the new Stolen Asset Initiative [press release], which will assist developing nations in recovering money stolen by former leaders. BBC News has more. Reuters has additional coverage.

[JURIST] Approximately 2000 lawyers and activists, led by the Malaysian Bar Council [profession website], launched a large protest [press release] in Malaysia's capital, Wednesday, calling for an investigation into judicial corruption. Unrest has grown in the country following last week's release of a 2002 video [Bar Council report and streaming video] showing a prominent lawyer on the phone with someone who is believed to be current Malaysian Chief Justice Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim [Wikipedia profile], arranging the appointment of "friendly" senior judges. The lawyer discusses the possibility of Halim's own promotion to chief justice, which later occurred in 2003. The Bar Council ignored government requests [Bar Council report] to call off the protest.

The Malaysian Bar Council organized the march to show solidarity as it handed two memorandums to Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi [official website]. The first memorandum [PDF in English] calls for the establishment of an independent judicial commission to investigate the state of the judiciary, while the second memorandum [PDF in Malay and English] calls for a commission on judicial appointments and promotion. Prior to the march, the Malaysian government established a three-person panel to investigate the video [Star report], but the Bar Council said this failed to address the broader issues of corruption. AP has more.

[JURIST] Egypt [JURIST news archive] Wednesday called US criticism of its alleged rights violations "unacceptable," labeling a Monday White House statement [text; JURIST report] about the closure of the Association for Human Rights Legal Aid [advocacy website] as "interference" in Egypt's domestic matters. The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said that the statement by the White House reflected its lack of understanding about Egyptian legal affairs.

Egypt has been criticized lately for apparently clamping down on government critics. Last week, the Egyptian government banned an annual gathering [JURIST report] of the Muslim Brotherhood [party website; FAS website] amid increasing tension between the government and critics. Earlier this month, a court sentenced the editors of four tabloids [JURIST report] for publishing criticisms of Mubarak and the ruling National Democratic Party [party website]. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] US President George W. Bush Tuesday withdrew [press release] John Rizzo [official profile] as the White House nominee for CIA general counsel in light of concerns from Democrats over Rizzo's support for certain interrogation techniques. During a hearing on his nomination in June, Rizzo, currently serving as acting CIA general counsel, said he did not object to the definition of torture in the controversial "Bybee Memo" [PDF text; PBS backgrounder]. In that memo, the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel [official website] defined torture as physical pain equivalent in "intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily functions, or even death."

After the hearing, members of the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence expressed reservations [JURIST report] about the Rizzo nomination. In August Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) [official website] said that he would indefinitely block Rizzo's confirmation process [JURIST report] due to Rizzo's remarks on the Bybee Memo. AP has more.

[JURIST] Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi [official website] urged all nations to institute a moratorium on capital punishment in an address [PDF text] delivered to the UN General Assembly Tuesday. Prodi said that such action would mark great progress in ethics and that:

A United Nations resolution against the death penalty will prove that human beings today are better than they were yesterday also in moral terms. An outcome with enormous consequences, heralding a more just future, and a society that has at least freed itself from the spiral of revenge, demonstrating that it has heeded the warning of the ancients: "if you want peace, you must work for justice."

[JURIST] US Army Spc. Jorge G. Sandoval pleaded not guilty at his court-martial in Iraq Wednesday to charges that he and two other soldiers killed three unarmed Iraqis and then placed weapons next to the bodies. Sandoval, along with Staff Sgt. Michael A. Hensley and Sgt. Evan Vela, was charged [press release; JURIST report] with premeditated murder and wrongfully placing a weapon with the remains of a deceased Iraqi for his role in the incident, which took place between April and June 2007 in the vicinity of Iskandariyah, Iraq [GlobalSecurity backgrounder]. If convicted, Sandoval could receive a life sentence.

Earlier this week, Vela's lawyer argued that Vela was simply following orders to "bait" suspected Iraqi insurgents with materials that could be used to aid the insurgency and then kill them. In August, Hensley refused to accept a plea agreement [JURIST report], saying he was innocent of the charges against him. AP has more.

[JURIST] Chinese lawyer and outspoken critic of the Chinese government Gao Zhisheng [JURIST news archive] has been arrested again, this time for writing a letter to the US Congress asking the US to help the human rights situation in his home country, a friend of Gao said Tuesday. According to people close to Gao, he was taken from his home by police on Saturday, five days after he warned friends that police had threatened to arrest him if he made any public statements. Police arrested him for violating the conditions of his parole, which took away any political rights, including the rights to free speech and protest.

Gao is on parole for a conviction [JURIST report] of "conspiring to topple" the government of China [JURIST news archive] by writing nine "defamatory" articles posted on international websites. He received a three-year suspended sentence [JURIST report] and was put under house arrest with no telephone and limited access to the outside world. Rights groups have recently slammed China [JURIST report] for not keeping its promises to improve human rights and press freedom in preparation for the 2008 Olympics [official website]. In August, Reporters Without Borders [advocacy website] demonstrated in Beijing in protest of the continued detention of nearly 100 journalists and activists. AP has more.

[JURIST] Texas continued with the lethal injection execution of a convicted murderer Tuesday, despite the US Supreme Court's grant of certiorari [cert. petition, PDF] in a case reviewing whether the method is cruel and unusual and therefore unconstitutional. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments in Baze v. Rees (07-5439) [docket] on whether the use of a three-drug mixture [DPIC backgrounder] of an anesthetic, a muscle paralyzer and a substance to stop the heart constitutes cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment. Texas, which executes more inmates that any other state, is one of the 37 states that uses this method. Texas Governor Rick Perry said that officials will continue with executions under the state's current interpretation of the law until the Supreme Court rules otherwise.

The Kentucky Supreme Court [official website] ruled in the Baze case that the current method of lethal injection does not violate the constitution [JURIST report] because the prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment "does not require a complete absence of pain." Several constitutional challenges [JURIST news archive] to the procedure have arisen across the country, arguing that the first drug fails to make the inmate fully unconscious, thereby making the inmate suffer excruciating pain when the heart-stopping drug is injected. AP has more.

[JURIST] US federal Magistrate Judge Joan M. Azrack [official profile] has ruled that the government must obtain warrants in order to place taps on phones that would reveal dialed digits. Under the Patriot Act [JURIST news archive], government agents are permitted to use a wiretap without a warrant so long as it did not include the "contents of any communication." Federal prosecutors had requested that they be able to record what are called post-cut-through dialed digits (PCTDD), the numbers dialed after a call is made, via a warrantless wiretap. In her decision last week, Azrack said that PCTDD information may sometimes contain actual content such as voicemail passwords and credit card numbers, and as such, the government must obtain a warrant in order to survey this type of data.

Earlier in September, the Department of Justice reassured Congress [JURIST report] that the Protect America Act 2007 [S 1927 materials] does not allow the government authorities to conduct warrantless domestic searches. Critics allege that the surveillance law, passed [JURIST report] by Congress in August, does not sufficiently narrow the scope of surveillance because it authorizes electronic surveillance as long as the investigation concerns a "person" outside of the United States. The Center of Constitutional Rights [advocacy website] has already filed a legal challenge to the law, contending it violates the Fourth Amendment [press release; JURIST report] because it removes judicial oversight for spying and "leaves it to the executive branch to monitor itself." CNET News has more.

[JURIST] Micronesian Legal Service Corporation (LSC) [official website] attorney Omar Calimbas said Tuesday that beginning October 15, 2007, the US will permit Micronesians living on the US mainland to receive free legal aid services. The decision will change a 1983 US Congressional act that prevented the representation of aliens, with the exception of certain documented persons, as a condition of US federal LSC funding. LSC regulations were amended [Federal Register text] on September 14, and will now allow citizens of Micronesia both on US mainland and in Micronesia to obtain free legal services from the organization.

The Micronesian LSC, which is partially funded by the US federal government, provides free legal services to indigents and distributes funding to nonprofit legal aid organizations. According to the 2000 US Census [PDF text], there are approximately 400,000 Pacific Islanders living in the United States. Calimbas said that many of these people are living in the US in order to support their families in the various islands and that the lifting of the ban will indirectly help in that support. The Saipan Tribune has more.