[JURIST] A top official with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) [official website] said Sunday that an unsuccessful bid by a French charity to fly 103 children out of Chad [ZA backgrounder, in French] late last month violated international law. UNICEF Executive Director Ann Veneman [official profile] was quoted by Reuters as saying that it was “simply unacceptable to see children taken out of their home countries without complying with national and international laws” and that the airlift was “not consistent with international norms or practices or laws.” Chadian authorities foiled an attempt by French group Zoe's Ark [advocacy website, in French; BBC backgrounder] to fly the children - alleged to be orphans from Sudan's Darfur region - from Chad to Europe for anticipated placement with French families and arrested 17 people allegedly associated with the effort. Six French nationals have been charged with kidnapping [JURIST report] and face five to 20 years in prison if convicted. Three members of a Barcelona-based flight crew, along with a Belgian pilot, were charged with complicity in the alleged kidnapping. The other seven Europeans were released [JURIST report] Sunday following a meeting between visiting French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Chadian leader Idriss Deby.

Zoe's Ark maintains that its intentions were purely humanitarian. French Prime Minister Francois Fillon has ordered an investigation into the charity. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] US Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) [official website] said Sunday that he will support the nomination [CNN transcript] of former federal judge Michael Mukasey [WH profile; JURIST news archive] as US attorney general. Mukasey's nomination has come under fire over his refusal [JURIST report] to call waterboarding [JURIST news archive] torture. Specter, the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said on CNN's Late Edition that Mukasey could have provided more assurances on the subject but that:

he is intelligent; he's really learned in the law. He's strong, ethical, honest beyond any question. He's not an intimate of the president.

And you have to balance it off with where we are today. The Department of Justice is dysfunctional. It is not performing. And every day that passes, we do not have someone in charge of the investigation against terrorism, the fight against violent crime.

And it is very important, in the national interest, that we have a strong attorney general.

So I would have liked better assurances. And I think Congress ought to take a firm stand on waterboarding.

[JURIST] Chadian authorities Sunday freed seven Europeans - three French journalists and four Spanish flight attendants - held in connection with a French charity's attempted airlift from Chad of 103 children alleged to be Darfur orphans. French President Nicolas Sarkozy [official profile] flew to Chad Sunday to personally intervene with the Chadian government over its handling of the case and returned to Paris with the seven on his official jet. Ten other Europeans remain in jail in Chad and will stand trial [JURIST report] for charges of fraud and child abduction. The charges stem from an attempt by French charity Zoe's Ark [advocacy website, in French; BBC backgrounder] to fly 103 children believed to be Darfur orphans [ZA backgrounder, in French] from Chad to France, where they would be placed with French families. In the Chadian capital of N'Djamena Sunday, Sarkozy told reporters that he wants the charged French nationals to be tried in France. Chadian President Idriss Deby said that the issue was 'purely a judicial problem' and did not impact overall relations between Chad and France, the African country's former colonial power. Bloomberg has more.

Sarkozy's trip came on the heels of an announcement by French Prime Minister Francois Fillon on Saturday ordering an investigation into Zoe's Ark. The investigation will determine how the group was able to operate in Chad without the knowledge of the French embassy in N'Djamena. Two UN agencies and the Red Cross have determined [press release] that the children to be airlifted were actually not orphans, as originally claimed by Zoe's Ark. Most of the children, aged one to 10, came from villages in Chad [JURIST news archive] near the Sudan border. Some parents have said they were persuaded by foreigners to give up their children in return for promised education in nearby towns. The botched flyout occurred just before the European Union planned to deploy a 4,000-man peacekeeping force [IHT report] in Chad and the Central African Republic [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive] to aid in the refugee crisis created by the conflict in neighboring Sudan. Reuters has more. Le Parisien has local coverage.

[JURIST] Pakistani police and security services detained hundreds of lawyers, rights activists and opposition figures Saturday and Sunday in a clampdown following President Pervez Musharraf's Saturday proclamation of emergency rule [JURIST report]. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said Sunday that up to 500 people had been arrested in the previous 24-hour period. Among the current detainees are former Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry (reportedly under house arrest after being dismissed from office [JURIST report] Saturday), Supreme Court Bar Association President Aitzaz Ahsan [Post report], and Asma Jehangir, chairman of the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan [advocacy website]. Jehangir was detained Sunday after some 200 police reportedly stormed the commission's Lahore headquarters, arresting some 50 activists. Sindh High Court Bar Association President Abrar Hasan and Malir Bar Association President Zahoor Mehr were also arrested as police conducted raids on lawyers' houses. Other prominent lawyers were arrested in Peshawar and Quetta.

ARE YOU IN PAKISTAN?  Have you had legal colleagues arrested? Will you take part in protests? Email JURIST@pitt.edu

The Supreme Court Bar Association and other Pakistani bar groups have called a nationwide lawyers strike and courts boycott [ANI report] on Monday to protest the emergency, the suspension of the constitution, and the dismissal of the Supreme Court. The mobilization of the lawyers follows the success of their movement [backgrounder] earlier this year for the reinstatement of now former chief justice Chaudhry after he was suspended by Musharraf in March for alleged misconduct.

Despite the mass detentions, Pakistani Attorney General Malik Mohammed Qayyum continued Sunday to reject claims by legal experts and prominent opposition figures that martial law had been imposed in the country. Echoing comments made by another government minister Saturday, Qayyum pointed out that the Prime Minister was still in office and that the country's parliament would complete its term. AP has more.

[JURIST] New Pakistan Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar Sunday effectively set aside dismissed Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry's last-ditch attempt to block [JURIST report] President Pervez Musharraf's Saturday emergency declaration and Provisional Constitution Order (PCO) [text], saying that the Supreme Court of Pakistan had issued no order on the matters. A declaration [text] issued Saturday by an 8-member Supreme Court bench led by Chaudhry and smuggled out of the high court in Islamabad to reporters outside while security services barricaded the building labeled any effort to interfere with the independence of the judiciary invalid and directed civilian and military official not to comply with the PCO. Chaudhry was dismissed from his position immediately after the government crackdown and Dogar was personally sworn in by Musharraf hours later. Security services eventually entered the court building and removed the former justices. The Supreme Court of Pakistan now officially consists of Dogar and three other judges of the original 19 who chose to take oaths under the new PCO. In an associated move, Dogar cancelled all court sessions [notice text] which had been scheduled for this week and replaced the Court registrar. PTI has more. ANI has additional coverage

Pakistani emergency laws have generally required sitting judges to take new oaths to continue in office. Although official information is still unavailable, figures quoted in news reports Sunday suggest that many provincial high court judges were following their federal colleagues in declining to swear oaths under the new constitutional regime. In Punjab only 12 of 31 judges were sworn, in Sindh only 4 of 27, in the North-West Frontier Province 7 out of 15 and in Balochistan six out of 11 judges. IAN has more.