[JURIST] The Venezuelan National Assembly [official website] on Wednesday debated a set of proposed amendments to the constitution, including reforms that would eliminate presidential term limits and augment the president's emergency powers. In August, the proposed amendments passed a preliminary vote [JURIST report] in the Assembly; after the current round of debates, the constitutional reforms will be subject to a national referendum on December 2. The Assembly has already passed 33 amendments, and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] proposed 25 additional amendments on Tuesday. These include provisions allowing the president to declare an indefinite state of emergency, lowering the voting age from 18 to 16, reducing the working day to six hours, and prohibiting discrimination.

Chavez has touted the proposed changes as necessary to advance the socialist revolution in Venezuela [JURIST news archive]. Human Rights Watch [advocacy website] warned that the proposed amendments would violate international law [press release] by allowing the president to suspend due process guarantees during times of emergency. Members of the opposition party have accused Chavez [JURIST report] of using the constitutional reforms to consolidate his power over Venezuela. The National Assembly is overwhelmingly comprised of Chavez supporters, as opposition parties boycotted elections in 2005. The Guardian has more. El Pais has additional coverage, in Spanish.

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website] on Wednesday afternoon issued an order [DOC text] staying the execution of Virginia death row inmate Christopher Scott Emmett [advocacy profile], who had been scheduled to be put to death at 9 PM ET. The Court stayed the execution "pending final disposition of the appeal by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit or further order of this Court." Emmett has been convicted of capital murder and robbery.

The Supreme Court has agreed to consider Baze v. Rees [docket; cert. petition, PDF], a case challenging lethal injection as unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment. Since the Court granted certiorari, several states have stayed executions pending the outcome of that case, including a Nevada court, which on Monday issued a stay of all executions in the state [JURIST report]. Reuters has more. The Washington Post has additional coverage.

[JURIST] The High Administrative Court of Ukraine has delayed validating the results of the Sept. 30 parliamentary election [JURIST report] pending the outcome of a legal challenge by the Communist Party of Ukraine [party website], a court spokesperson said Wednesday. The Communist Party argues that the vote was invalid due to alleged violations surrounding voting abroad. The announcement came as President Viktor Yuschenko approved a coalition [press release]
this week between his Our Ukraine-People's Self-Defense Bloc [party website] and the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc [party website] of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko [personal website; BBC profile]. Together, the two parties won 228 seats in the 450-member Verkhovna Rada, while the opposition Party of Regions [party website], led by Yuschenko's long-time chief rival Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych [BBC profile], won 175 seats, although the court has not yet confirmed these results. AP has more.

The court's delay could create further tensions in the Ukraine, which was engulfed in political turmoil in recent months. A constitutional crisis erupted in April when Yushchenko issued a degree dissolving parliament [JURIST report]. Yanukovych and leaders of the Ukrainian parliament filed a legal challenge before the Constitutional Court of Ukraine [official website; JURIST news archive]. Yushchenko subsequently dismissed three Constitutional Court judges for alleged oath and ethnics violations [JURIST report], and appointed replacement judges [JURIST report] without consulting either Yanukovych or the Justice Ministry. In May, Yushchenko sought a lower court order to block the Constitutional Court from ruling on his April 2 decree following his rejection of the Constitutional Court's authority [JURIST reports].

[JURIST] Former Khmer Rouge official Nuon Chea [GenocideWatch report] on Wednesday asked the Extraordinary Chambers in the Court of Cambodia (ECCC) [official website; JURIST news archive] to release him on bail. Nuon Chea's family earlier this week expressed concern over his health and urged the tribunal to release him [AFP report] into their custody. He is currently being held at a tribunal detention center awaiting trial for charges [statement, PDF] of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Nuon Chea was known as Brother Number Two in the Khmer Rouge, indicative of his high position in the communist movement led by Pol Pot, who died in 1998 having never been prosecuted for alleged war crimes. The Khmer Rouge is generally held responsible for the genocide of an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians [PPU backgrounder] who died between 1975 and 1979. The ECCC was established by a 2001 law [text as amended 2005, PDF] to investigate and try surviving Khmer Rouge officials, but to date, no top officials have faced trials. The first trials are expected in 2008. AFP has more.

[JURIST] US Attorney General nominee Michael B. Mukasey [White House fact sheet; firm profile] told the Senate Judiciary Committee [official website] Wednesday that he opposes presidential authorization of torture, calling the controversial "Bybee Memo" [PDF text; PBS backgrounder] "unnecessary" and "a mistake." The 2002 memo, in which the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel 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," was never repudiated by former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales [JURIST news archive]. Mukasey addressed other topics of concern [JURIST report] during the confirmation hearing questioning, stating that he will recuse himself from matters related to close friend and presidential candidate Rudolph Giuliani [official profile], and that he is willing to resign if his legal and ethical objections to administration policy are ignored. AP has more.

During his opening statement [text; JURIST report] of the hearing on his nomination [witness list], Mukasey said that he will hold Constitutional limits in high regard and will work to balance national security and civil liberties. On Tuesday, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) [official website] said that the Senate will likely approve Mukasey without undue delay [JURIST report].

[JURIST] A Philippines military tribunal Wednesday dismissed charges against four military officers connected with a failed mutiny [BBC report] in July 2003 in which 300 soldiers from elite special forces took over buildings in Manila in an effort to overthrow the government of President Gloria Arroyo [official website; JURIST news archive]. An army officer and a navy ensign were released after the tribunal declared there was insufficient evidence to try the pair on charges of conduct unbecoming and failure to suppress mutiny. Two other army officers were cleared of the same charges, though they remain in custody for charges of conspiracy and absence without leave.

In April, a military tribunal sentenced 54 military officers [JURIST report] to seven years and six months in jail for involvement in the same mutiny. An additional 30 officers face pending courts-martial [JURIST report] for another alleged coup attempt against Arroyo in February 2006. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Japan's cabinet Wednesday approved new anti-terror legislation which would grant a one-year extension to a Japanese refueling mission in the Indian Ocean. The bill, which restricts its application to allied ships on anti-terrorism patrols, is a compromise [AFP report] between the leading Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) [official website, in Japanese] and the opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DJP) [official website], which wishes to scrap the mission entirely. The changes to the anti-terrorism bill would prohibit Japanese support of US and other allied ships engaged in military, rescue, or humanitarian operations in Afghanistan. Critics of the bill say that it would effectively sideline Japan in the war on terror. The refuelling mission has also been criticized by those who say it violates the country's pacifist constitution by involving Japan in military operations in the Middle East.

The bill, a limited renewal [JURIST report] of the current Anti-Terrorism Special Measures Law [text], will now move on to the DJP-controlled upper house of Japan's parliament. Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe resigned last month [JURIST report] amidst controversy over renewal of a broader version of the anti-terror law. Present Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda [official website] has pushed for renewing the law [JURIST report]. AP has more.

[JURIST] The US Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website; JURIST news archive] has increasingly turned its focus to terrorism and immigration offenses since 2000, according to a Washington Post report Wednesday. Statistics from the Executive Office for US Attorneys [official website] provided to the Post showed significant decreases in prosecution under the Bush administration of organized crime (down 38 percent), white collar crime (down 10 percent), environmental crimes (down 12 percent), bankruptcy fraud (down 46 percent), and drug money-laundering crimes (down 25 percent). The data also showed an 876 percent increase in terrorism and national security prosecutions, a 36 percent increase in immigration prosecutions, and near 300 percent increase in child pornography and obscenity prosecutions. The reported figures were similar to those published monthly by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse [group site], an independent DOJ tracker.

The DOJ shifts have been criticized as further examples of the politicization of the department [JURIST news archive], as the administration's national security priorities have displaced more traditional prosecutions. In addition, local law enforcement agencies complain that the DOJ has delegated non-terrorism prosecution while decreasing local police budgets, from $2.5 billion in 1997 to $1.1 billion in the 2008 proposal. The US violent crime rate [JURIST news archive] rose in 2005 and 2006, the first such increases in over a decade. FBI Director Robert Mueller addressed [speech text] these concerns Monday in a speech to the International Association of Chiefs of Police [association website], saying that federal agencies have realized that "national security is as much about reducing the number of homicides on our streets as it is about reducing the threat of terrorism," though emphasizing that resources were limited on all levels.

[JURIST] An Iranian court sentenced three university students to prison terms ranging from two to three years for insulting Islam and Islamic clerics, the students' lawyer said Tuesday. Officials arrested the students [AFP report], Majid Tavakoli, Ahmed Ghassaban and Ehsan Mansouri, in May along with five other students on charges of endangering national security and insulting Islam. Lawyer Mohammad Ali Dadkhah said the trial opened September 22 and closed Tuesday with sentences of three years in prison for Tavakoli, two-and-one-half years for Ghassaban and two years for Mansouri. Dadkhah, a human rights lawyer who is part of the team of Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi [Nobel profile; JURIST news archive] team, said he is unsure whether the court intended suspended terms or prison time. The students all attend Amirkabir University of Technology [official website] in Tehran and are leaders of Daftar-e Tahkim-e Vahdat (the Office for the Consolidation of Unity) [HRW profile], the largest-known Iranian student reform group. Group officials and the three students maintain [AFP report] that the newsletter that contained the "insults" was made by more conservative people to frame the group. Dadkhah said the students plan to appeal the judgments.

Iran has recently made a number of high-profile arrests of scholars accused of endangering national security, including Iranian-American Dr. Haleh Esfandiari [JURIST news archive]. Esfandiari, director of the Middle East program at the US-based Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, was arrested in May, detained for over 100 days, but was released on bail and left Iran [JURIST reports] in September. Charges against her still stand. AP has more.

[JURIST] The planned execution [JURIST report] of Ali Hassan al-Majid [BBC profile; JURIST news archive], better known in Western media as "Chemical Ali," has been further delayed while Iraqi lawmakers debate the role of the country's Presidency Council and the scope of the authority of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki [BBC profile], a judicial source said Wednesday. Several members of the council, made up of Kurdish President Jalal Talibani, Shi'ite Vice-President Adel Abdul-Mahdi, and Sunni Vice-President Tareq al-Hashemi are believed to have refused to sign the execution order. Although an Iraqi judge said last month that presidential approval is not required [JURIST report] to carry out an execution, debate continues as to whether council approval is required and if that approval must be unanimous. It is also unknown if al-Maliki's Shi'ite-led government can establish a new execution date unilaterally. An Iraqi appeals court upheld al-Majid's death sentence on September 4 and Iraqi law requires executions to take place within 30 days, but the execution was delayed [JURIST reports] so that it would not occur during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. Reuters has more.

Another legal issue that has arisen from al-Majid's planned execution is whether anyone in the country has the legal authority to pardon him. On Tuesday, Iraqi Chief Prosecutor al-Anfal Munqidh Al Firaoun told the Italian news wire AKI that the Iraqi constitution forbids the president from modifying the death penalty for the crime of genocide. Al-Majid lawyer Giovanni Di Stefano [legal website] told JURIST Tuesday that since the initial 30-day execution window had expired, Iraqi officials were required to respond to an application for a pardon filed with Talabani and the Iraqi High Tribunal [official website] or else the execution would amount to what he called premeditated murder [JURIST comment]. AKI has more.

[JURIST] The US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) [official website] Tuesday revised security procedures relating to headwear [press release], merging procedures involving headwear with the broader category of bulky clothing. The move came less than a week after the TSA and the Sikh Coalition [advocacy website] held a "community meeting" [press release] in Washington DC to discuss Sikh criticism [JURIST report] of security procedures enacted in August as "disturbingly vague" and likely to lead to "religious profiling." The "bulky clothing" category provides TSA screeners with new options, including using trace detection and pat downs, when dealing with passengers who choose not to remove their headwear for religious, medical, or other reasons. If the headwear, like any other form of bulky clothing, still cannot be cleared through security after those options are exhausted, TSA officials can ask that the item be removed in a private screening area. The new guidelines are effective Oct. 27.

The August revisions specifically included the turban [statement, DOC] - worn by Sikhs as a article of faith [Sikh Coalition backgrounder] - as an example of a type of headwear that could potentially hide non-metallic threat items, and subjected those wearing head coverings to secondary screenings at checkpoints. Earlier TSA guidelines [PDF text] had recognized that "Sikhs view their turbans as an important connection to God that covers a very private and personal part of the body" and "removal of a turban is considered one of the most invasive acts imaginable." AP has more.

[JURIST] The United States has gained ground as a country protecting press freedom, according to the sixth annual Worldwide Index of Freedom [press release] issued Tuesday by Reporters Without Borders (RWB) [advocacy website]. RWB listed Eritrea, North Korea, and Turkmenistan at the bottom of the survey, while Iceland and Norway tied for first. The US moved up the list to rank 48 out of 169 countries, after being ranked 53rd last year [JURIST report]. The US had started out at the 17th spot in 2002, the first year of the Index's publication. RWB said of the US and other G8 countries' 2007 rankings:

After falling steadily in the index for the past three years, the G8 members have recovered a few places. France (31st), for example, has climbed six places in the past year. French journalists were spared the violence that affected them at the end of 2005 in a labour conflict in Corsica and during the demonstrations in the city suburbs. But many concerns remain about repeated censorship, searches of news organizations, and a lack of guarantees for the confidentiality of journalists' sources.

There were slightly fewer press freedom violations in the United States (48th) and blogger Josh Wolf was freed after 224 days in prison. But the detention of Al-Jazeera's Sudanese cameraman, Sami Al-Haj, since 13 June 2002 at the military base of Guantanamo and the murder of Chauncey Bailey in Oakland in August mean the United States is still unable to join the lead group.

The Internet is occupying more and more space in the breakdown of press freedom violations. Several countries fell in the ranking this year because of serious, repeated violations of the free flow of online news and information.

In Malaysia (124th), Thailand (135th), Vietnam (162nd) and Egypt (146th), for example, bloggers were arrested and news websites were closed or made inaccessible. "We are concerned about the increase in cases of online censorship," Reporters Without Borders said. "More and more governments have realized that the Internet can play a key role in the fight for democracy and they are establishing new methods of censoring it. The governments of repressive countries are now targeting bloggers and online journalists as forcefully as journalists in the traditional media."

At least 64 persons are currently imprisoned worldwide because of what they posted on the Internet. China maintains its leadership in this form of repression, with a total of 50 cyber-dissidents in prison. Eight are being held in Vietnam. A young man known as Kareem Amer was sentenced to four years in prison in Egypt for blog posts criticizing the president and Islamist control of the country's universities.

[JURIST] US Attorney General nominee Michael B. Mukasey [WH fact sheet; PBWT profile] told the Senate Judiciary Committee [official website] Wednesday that he will work to balance national security and civil liberties if confirmed as the next attorney general. During a hearing on his nomination [witness list], Mukasey said in his opening statement [text] that he will hold Constitutional limits in high regard:

[T]he Justice Department's mission includes advising the other departments and agencies of government, including the President, on what choices they are free to make and what limits they face. Here too, the governing standard is what the law and Constitution permit and require.

I am here in the first instance to tell you, but also to tell the men and women of the Department of Justice, that those are the standards that guided the Department when I was privileged to serve 35 years ago, and those are the standards I intend to help them uphold if I am confirmed.

The dilemma is because the conflict is between two rights, each in its own way important. That is why I have told you during those discussions, and may have occasion to repeat again here today, that protecting civil liberties, and people’s confidence that those liberties are protected, is a part of protecting national security, just as is the gathering of intelligence to defend us from those who believe it is their duty to make war on us. We have to succeed at both. It is the honor and the privilege of the men and women of the Justice Department to help us do that, and if I am confirmed it will be my honor and privilege to try to help them help us.

Restoring the Department of Justice begins by restoring integrity and independence to the position of Attorney General of the United States. The Attorney General’s duty is to uphold the Constitution and the rule of law — not to work to circumvent it. Both the President and the Nation are best served by an Attorney General who gives sound advice and takes responsible action, without regard to political considerations — not one who develops legalistic loopholes to serve the ends of a particular administration. The Attorney General cannot interpret our laws to mean whatever the current President wants them to mean. The Attorney General is supposed to represent all of the American people, not just one of them. ...

We need a new Attorney General. We need someone who understands that the responsibilities and duties of that office are not to act as a mouthpiece or validator for the Administration, or as the chief defense lawyer for the White House. We are reminded by the examples of Elliot Richardson and William Ruckelshaus from the Watergate era -- and more recently the examples of James Comey, Jack Goldsmith, and Alberto Mora -- that law enforcement officials must enforce the law without fear or favor to their benefactors at the White House or their political party. We have now seen what happens when the rule of law plays second fiddle to a President’s policy agenda and the partisan desires of political operatives. ...

This is a job interview for a big job that has become even bigger. Along with helping keep Americans safe, protecting their rights, combating crime and enforcing the law, and managing more than 100,000 employees and a budget extending into the tens of billions of dollars, the next Attorney General must regain public trust and begin the process of repair and restoration.

This nomination can begin the repair process. I hope all Members of the Judiciary Committee, Democrats and Republicans alike, will join to restore the constitutional checks and balances that have been systematically eroded by this Administration, and I hope that we can begin that process this week.

[JURIST] Pakistani Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Sher Afgan Niazi said Tuesday that martial law may be declared in the country if the Supreme Court of Pakistan [official website] rules against President Pervez Musharraf's bid for re-election. Niazi said that his statement should not be regarded as a threat, but rather an indication that the possibility for martial law remains should the court rule against the president. The court is scheduled to hear legal arguments [JURIST report] against Musharraf's re-election campaign on Wednesday. Opponents have challenged that Musharraf should not have been allowed to run for president while still retaining his position as chief of the Pakistan's army.

Earlier this month, Musharraf won an overwhelming victory [JURIST report] in presidential elections in the National Assembly of Pakistan, according to unofficial results. The Supreme Court had previously ruled that the controversial ballot could proceed, but it barred the Election Commission of Pakistan [official website] from officially declaring a winner until the high court issues a ruling on whether Musharraf was in fact an eligible presidential candidate. His current term expires November 15. IANS has more.

[JURIST] Representatives in the US House have begun to pull back support for a resolution [HR 106 materials; text] labeling as genocide the World War I-era killings of over one million Armenians by Turkish soldiers [ANCA backgrounder; Turkish DC Embassy backgrounder], with nearly a dozen members of Congress changing their position on the vote since Monday, the New York Times reported Wednesday. US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said Sunday that the House will vote on the resolution [JURIST report], with Senate Majority Leader Steny Hoyer expressing a belief that the bill would pass without difficulty. However, members of the House have now indicated that their support for the bill has waned due to warnings from Turkey that the passage of the bill would affect relations between the US and Turkey.

The resolution was approved by the House Foreign Relations Committee [JURIST report] last week and will go to a vote before the full House. On Sunday, Turkish General and commander of the Turkish Armed Forces Yasar Buyukanit [official profile] warned that US-Turkish ties will be permanently damaged if the House passes the resolution [JURIST report]. Last Wednesday, US President George W. Bush expressed disappointment [press briefing] over the committee decision and urged the full House not to approve the resolution out of concern that it could alienate Turkey, a key US supporter in the war on terror. The New York Times has more.

2:52 PM ET - US Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) said Wednesday that he expects a House vote on the resolution would fail and urged House leadership to reconsider [press release] putting the resolution to a vote on the House floor. AP has more.

[JURIST] Officials in Myanmar [JURIST news archive] have arrested close to 3,000 people for participating in recent peaceful protests, the junta said in a statement published Wednesday in the state-run New Light of Myanmar [official website]. The junta also said that the 500 people still in detention were those who organized or supported "unrest" and will remain there until interrogated. Those who have been released were forced to sign a "pledge," an item the government left unexplained in the announcement.

Myanmar has been sharply criticized for its crackdown on pro-democracy protests, including a recent statement by UN Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Myanmar Ibrahim Gambari slamming Myanmar's detention of four more pro-democracy activists [JURIST reports]. The latest detainees, all members of the 1988 Generation Students group [BBC backgrounder], were detained after Myanmar's military government rejected a UN Security Council statement [text; UN News report] denouncing the country's violent reaction against peaceful demonstrators. Myanmar also rejected the UN Security Council's call for the military junta to release political prisoners and negotiate with the opposition National League for Democracy. The military government has reported only 10 deaths linked to the protests, while dissident groups have suggested that some hundreds and perhaps even thousands have been killed. AP has more.

1:16 PM ET - A source from Myanmar's Buddhist community said Wednesday that monk Eik Darea has been sentenced to seven and a half years in prison after being convicted of inciting public unrest and illegal association for his participation in the protests. In what is the first known sentencing in connection to the protest arrests, the monk was also defrocked and may be sent to a labor camp. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Corporate Officers & Directors Assurance Ltd. (CODA), a subsidiary of ACE Bermuda [corporate website], has filed a petition in a New York trial court requesting an order compelling former Tyco International [corporate website] CEO L. Dennis Kozlowski [JURIST news archive] to pay the insurer approximately $1.97 million. CODA provided directors and officers liability insurance to Kozlowski, and won an arbitration award in the UK for the recovery of money paid in legal fees to the former executive. Kozlowski was found guilty of grand larceny [JURIST report] in 2005 for misappropriating corporate funds and is currently in prison. The petition, filed Friday, seeks to enforce that arbitration award as well as recover costs associated with the UK litigation. Kozlowski previously attempted to recover expenses for his defense from CODA and other insurers in a lawsuit.

Tyco suffered one of the most infamous corporate fraud scandals [JURIST news archive] in modern times relating to the convictions of Kozlowski and former CFO Mark Swartz, who were found guilty of looting the company and defrauding its shareholders out of more than $150 million in unauthorized personal compensation. In 2005, they were sentenced to prison [JURIST report] for 8 to 25 years. Tyco settled SEC charges [JURIST report] of fraudulent accounting in April 2006 for $50 million. In July, a federal judge preliminarily approved [JURIST report] a $3.2 billion settlement agreement [JURIST report] between Tyco International, Tyco's former auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers [corporate website], and investors who were harmed by fraudulent accounting practices orchestrated by Tyco's former top executives. AP has more.