[JURIST] Former chess champion and liberal United Civil Front [party website, in Russian] leader Garry Kasparov [personal website, in Russian] was arrested Saturday at a demonstration in Moscow against President Vladimir Putin [official website], two weeks before parliamentary elections. AP reports that Kasparov was sentenced to five days in jail for organizing an unsanctioned protest. He was also charged with resisting arrest, which he denied. Two riot police testified that they were given orders prior to the protest to arrest Kasparov; an assistant told AP he was forced to the ground and beaten before being taken away on a police bus. AP has more.

This is not the first time Kasparov has been arrested at protests against Putin's alleged infringements of rights and constitutional freedoms in the country. He accused police of brutality after being arrested [JURIST reports] at a similar rally in April. Kasparov and fellow opposition leader former Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov [BBC profile] have strongly criticized Putin and his allies in the run-up to December parliamentary elections and March 2008 presidential election. Kasparov has accused Putin of instituting a police state and creating a puppet judiciary [JURIST report] to persecute opposition leaders.

[JURIST] Lawyers across Pakistan's populous Sindh province went on strike Friday to protest President Pervez Musharraf's emergency rule. Lawyers observed a strike call from the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) [official website] at the Sindh High Court [official website] in Karachi, causing cases to be rescheduled. Sindh lawyers had previously engaged in a token one-hour boycott of lower courts. Pakistan's News daily has more. Dawn has additional coverage.

The protest came despite the widely-publicized release of thousands of lawyers and activists [JURIST report] taken into custody earlier this month for protesting the suspension of Pakistan's constitution and Musharraf's effective dismissal of the country's Supreme Court justices.

[JURIST] The UN Committee against Torture [official website] said Friday it was concerned about ill-treatment and torture of detainees by Uzbekistan law enforcement officials. The committee issued a report [text] concluding a three-week meeting in Geneva where it reviewed the compliance of six countries with the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment [text]. It commended Uzbekistan's plan to abolish the death penalty, to prohibit introduction into evidence of testimony obtained under torture, and to distribute to all detainees a pamphlet prepared in collaboration with the American Bar Association (ABA) [profession website] explaining detainee rights. The committee nonetheless said it was "concerned at the numerous, ongoing and consistent allegations concerning routine use of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment committed by law enforcement and investigative personnel." The report called for Uzbekistan to adopt an official definition of torture, to directly prosecute all individuals involved in such practices, and to ensure independent monitoring of detention and custodial facilities. BBC News has more.

The report comes as Uzbek President Islam Karimov [official profile; BBC profile] has recently registered to run for a third term despite a constitutional bar [JURIST report]. Karimov, who has been president of the former Soviet republic since before independence, has come under international fire for his crackdown against anti-government elements since the May 2005 uprising in Andijan [JURIST news archive] that resulted in the massacre of unarmed Uzbek civilians [JURIST report]. The country's cooperation with the ABA is noteworthy considering its 2006 closing of a local ABA liaison office [JURIST report].

[JURIST] Russian Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak was charged Friday with fraud and attempting to embezzle $43.3 million in state funds, according to his lawyer. After an initial investigation [JURIST report] the Russian Prosecutor General's Office [official website, in Russian] accused Storchak of working with Sodexim [corporate website] head Viktor Zakharov and Interregional Investment Bank [bank website] chairman Vadim Volkov to take funds from a Russian bank for Sodexim business expenses. Storchak was arrested November 15, just before his scheduled departure to South Africa with Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin. Kudrin has insisted on Storchak's innocence [St. Petersburg Times report], and has petitioned the court to release Storchak on his personal guarantee. Storchak has been denied bail and Russian prosecutors have said his confinement is necessary to prevent him from leaving the country, destroying evidence, or intimidating witnesses.

Storchak previously oversaw Russia's oil windfall fund and served as Russia's chief liaison to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank [official websites]. He was also instrumental in negotiations which paid off billions in Soviet-era debt. Russian media sources see the arrest as an effort by elements in the Kremlin to control Kudrin's economic policies, particularly those dealing with Russia's oil wealth. AP has more.

[JURIST] French prosecutor Jean-Claude Marin has dismissed a war crimes claim against former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld [official profile] alleging that Rumsfeld authorized US personnel to torture prisoners in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, according to a lawyer for the Paris-based International Federation of Human Rights Leagues (FIDH) [advocacy website] on Friday. The complaint [PDF text; additional materials] was filed [JURIST report] in October on behalf of the FIDH, the US-based Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), the Berlin-based European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), and the French League for Human Rights (LDH) [advocacy websites]. A letter [PDF text] by Morin obtained by AP indicates that the French Foreign Ministry advised him to reject the suit because Rumsfeld is covered by immunity given to government officials during their service.

The rejection follows the path of other recent war crimes cases against Rumsfeld. In March of this year, a federal judge for the District of Columbia dismissed an ACLU complaint [JURIST report] against Rumsfeld in connection with alleged torture and abuse of detainees. The FIDH and CCR previously filed two similar suits [JURIST report] against Rumsfeld in Germany seeking accountability for acts of torture. In April, the office of the German Federal Prosecutor [official website, in German] declined to investigate the latest war crimes claim [ASIL backgrounder; PDF introduction, in English] against Rumsfeld and other high-ranking US officials. The German lawyers subsequently said they would take their case to Spain [JURIST report]. Other complaints were filed against Rumsfeld in Argentina in 2005 and Sweden in 2007. AP has more.