[JURIST] Canadian opposition parliamentarians Dennis Coderre (Liberal) and Paul Dewar (NDP) [official websites] Friday called for Canada's government to stop allowing detainees captured by Canadian forces in Afghanistan to be transferred to Afghan custody, alleging that once transferred, suspects are subjected to conditions that violate the Geneva Convention. Heavily redacted documents [text] released by the government earlier this week under a court order appear to show that even before press reports this spring Canadian officials had significant evidence that transferred suspects had been abused and that some had disappeared altogether. During question period [official transcript] in the House of Commons Friday, Dewar and Coderre engaged in a heated debate with government MP Laurie Hawn [official website], Parliamentary Secretary to Canada's Minister of National Defence:

Dewar: Mr. Speaker, the Conservative government has been forced by a judge to release documents the NDP has been demanding for months. In the heavily censored documents, we have confirmed three key facts. One: the government was aware of conditions in Afghan prisons at the same time ministers claimed they knew nothing. Two: Canada is incapable of tracking all of its prisoners in over 600 Afghan prisons. Three: the detainee agreement is not being respected.... Is the government finally willing to admit it has been caught? Is it willing to admit that it is in violation of the Geneva Convention or do the Conservatives believe the Geneva Conventions are simply a suggestion list?

Hawn: Mr. Speaker, that question is ridiculous. Canada abides by the Geneva Convention. The primary responsibility rests with the democratically elected government of Afghanistan. It is obliged to abide by the Geneva Convention. We brought forward an arrangement in May of last year that is superior to the one that was in place previous to that. We are abiding by all measures. We are abiding by all requirements....

Coderre: Mr. Speaker, Canada violated the Geneva Convention in Afghanistan. Even worse, by setting out to hide the truth that it has known since the start, this Conservative government has deliberately violated the convention. It must immediately stop the transfers and repatriate the prisoners who have already been transferred....

Hawn: Mr. Speaker, and that is more of the same. The challenges highlighted in the recent reports just indicate that Canada is required to be there to continue helping the Afghan authorities to build their judicial system, to build their prison system, to build their governance systems, to rebuild their country and give them back the country that was stolen from them, and to give Afghan women, children and men back their lives. We are not abusing anybody's rights. We are working together with the Afghan authorities to ensure that those rights are sustained under the Geneva Convention and every other agreement we have entered into.

[JURIST] Former Iraq Deputy Health Minister Hakim Zamili [Iraq Ministry of Health website] and another top ministry official will be put on trial for allegedly assisting Shi'ite militias, the Iraqi government said Saturday. A spokesman said that the trial shows that the government Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki [BBC profile] is serious about enforcing the rule of law. In February, US and Iraqi forces arrested [BBC report] Zamili, who allegedly channeled government funds to Shi'ite militiamen. A trial date has not yet been set.

Zamili was arrested in February in a security crackdown in Baghdad, according to a statement [text] by the US military. According to military officials, Zamili had been infiltrating members of the Mehdi Army militia [BBC backgrounder], headed by militant Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr [BBC profile], into the Iraq ministry. Zamili's brother, another Health Ministry employee, has denied the allegations. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Lawyers in Karachi, Pakistan's largest city, went on strike Saturday in protest at President Pervez Musharraf's emergency rule. Members of the Karachi Bar Association and other local bar associations followed an earlier strike call from the Pakistan Bar Council [official website] (PBC) and the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA). Over 350 prisoners from all around the city could not have their cases heard due to the absence of lawyers. Pakistan's News daily has local coverage.

Pakistani lawyers kept up intermittent protests and strike action this week after the PBC urged them to return to the lower courts while maintaining their boycott [JURIST reports] of superior courts staffed by judges appointed under Musharraf's Provisional Constitution Order [text]. Hundreds of lawyers - including many bar association leaders [Daily Times report] - have been been detained by the authorities [JURIST report] and jailed in Karachi [HRCP list] and elsewhere for protesting the emergency, the suspension of the Pakistan's constitution, and the effective removal of the country's Supreme Court justices.

[JURIST] The Zimbabwean government has introduced a draft bill meant to reform the country's election procedures, the state owned Harare Herald [media website] reported Saturday. The Electoral Laws Amendment Bill 2007 would combine presidential and legislative elections and allow candidates to demand vote recounts. The bill would also prohibit the military, police, and prison officers, from interfering with elections, require that public broadcasters allow equal airtime to all candidates and report impartiality issues, and compel the state-run electoral commission to confer with parties before drawing constituency and ward boundaries. The bill is the result of an agreement [Dzimba report] reached in September by President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF [Wikipedia backgrounder] party and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) [Party website] and is expected to be submitted to parliament within 30 days.

Election procedures in Zimbabwe [JURIST archive] have been harshly criticized over the years by both the MDC and Western governments, largely stemming from the circumstances surrounding Mugabe's re-election in 2002. The European Union contended that the election was rigged in order to ensure Mugabe's victory and imposed sanctions [JURIST report] on Zimbabwe's senior officials in 2005 as retaliation. The US took similar steps in 2003 [State Department press release]. AFP has more.

[JURIST] The Federation Council of Russia voted unanimously on Friday in favor of a measure that would suspend the nation's responsibilities under the 1990 Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty [text; backgrounder]. The Russian upper house's vote follows a unanimous vote in favor of suspending the CFE that occurred in the State Duma last week. The Russian government first threatened to temporarily withdraw [JURIST report] from the treaty in June, amid tensions between the US and Russia over US plans for an anti-missile defense shield in central Europe, which Russia perceives to be a threat to Russian national security. The measure legislatively reinforces a presidential decree [JURIST report] issued by Russian President Vladimir Putin [official website] in July. The bill must still be signed by Putin in order to take effect and Russia could return to the CFE if the president reverses parliament's decision. RIA Novosti has local coverage.

The CFE Treaty, concluded in 1990 by the 22 members of NATO and the former Warsaw Pact, regulates deployment of non-nuclear forces in Europe. In October, Putin also threatened to withdraw [JURIST report] Russia from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty [US DOS backgrounder] unless that treaty is expanded to include neighboring countries such as China, India, and Pakistan. AFP has more.

[JURIST] Over 10,000 protesters, most of them African-American, marched in front of the US Department of Justice [official website] building Friday to highlight what they claim are inadequate efforts to prosecute a spate of recent race-related crimes across the country. A focal point of the march was the prosecution of six black teenagers in Jena, Louisiana [DN backgrounder] for beating a white teen in December 2006 after white students hung nooses from a tree where black students congregated. No white students have been prosecuted in connection with the incident.

The Justice Department responded that it is actively investigating incidents of noose hangings. New Attorney General Michael Muskasey [DOJ profile] said in a statement [text]:

The Justice Department shares with those who demonstrate today their objective of bringing to justice those who commit criminal acts of hate; it shares their vision of eradicating hate in our society. At the same time, the Department must follow the law and the principles of federal prosecution in every case it investigates and prosecutes. Although there are limitations and challenges in bringing successful hate crimes prosecutions, the Department takes each case seriously, and is prepared to vindicate the rights of the victims when prosecution is warranted by the facts and by federal law.