[JURIST] Pakistani Attorney General Malik Qayyum [JURIST news archive] has reversed a decision to cut the size of the Supreme Court of Pakistan [official website] in the wake of the November 3 declaration of emergency, according to Pakistan's News daily Thursday. Qayyum told the News that he was acting at the behest of new Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar, who had told him that an 11-judge bench would be unable to keep up with the workload assumed by the pre-emergency bench of 17. The government is reportedly in the process of recruiting new judges from the provinces who would swear oaths under the post-emergency Provisional Constitution Order [text as amended]. Three days after President Pervez Musharraf's imposition of emergency rule Qayyum said that the government had decided to reduce the size of the Supreme Court [JURIST report] to 12 and would elevate lower court judges to fill out the complement of the restructured court as most of its original justices had refused to take a new oath under the PCO. The News has more.

Also Thursday, Qayyum said that contrary to his own previous statements, the 37 Supreme Court and High Court judges who were involuntarily retired [JURIST report] by the government Tuesday would receive full retirement benefits. The News has more.

[JURIST] The US Senate Judiciary Committee [official website] Thursday approved a bipartisan bill that would allow television coverage of all open US Supreme Court hearings. The Sunshine in the Courtroom Act of 2007 [S 352 text] would permit the Supreme Court [official website] to televise all open sessions, unless there is a majority vote amongst the justices that coverage in a particular case is determined to be a violation of the due process rights of any party. Eight Democrats and three Republicans voted for the bill, with a bipartisan group of seven senators - including leading California Democrat Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) - voting against. A date has not yet been set for a full Senate vote on the legislation. A broader proposal by Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) to televise federal appellate and trial court proceedings was withdrawn in the face of heavy oppositon.

This is the second time such legislation has been endorsed by a Senate panel. In March 2006, the Senate Judiciary Committee under the leadership of Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) [official website] approved an amendment to 28 USC 45 [text] that would have permitted Supreme Court proceedings to be televised [JURIST report], "unless the Court decides by a vote of the majority of justices, that allowing such coverage in a particular case would constitute a violation of the due process rights of one or more of the parties before the Court." The bill failed to pass the full Senate. This past October, Justice Samuel Alito publicly criticized [JURIST report] the possibility of televising the court's proceedings. Other justices, including Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Anthony Kennedy and Clarence Thomas [JURIST reports], have also spoken publicly against allowing cameras [AP report] in the Supreme Court. A bill [HR 2128 text] identical to the Senate measure advanced Thursday has been proposed in the House of Representatives [official website] but has not been voted on there yet. CNN has more.

[JURIST] Russia has extradited an Uzbek man sought on charges of religious extremism to his native Uzbekistan [JURIST news archive] in defiance of a request by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) [official website], a representative from the Russian advocacy group Civic Assistance said Thursday. The ECHR had formally requested that Russia refrain from deporting Abdugani Kamaliyev until after a court hearing could be held. The ECHR and Civic Assistance have expressed concerns that the charges against Kamaliyev are bogus and that he may be tortured upon returning to Uzbekistan. AP has more.

In August 2006, Russian prosecutors approved a request [JURIST report] from Uzbekistan to extradite 13 people accused of terrorist acts in connection with the 2005 uprising in Andijan [JURIST news archive] that resulted in the massacre of unarmed Uzbek civilians [BBC backgrounder] in spite of protests from a Moscow-based human rights group Memorial [advocacy website] that the cases against the 13 men were false and that they would face torture when they returned to Uzbekistan.

[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit [official website] ruled [opinion, PDF] Thursday that Shirley Phelps-Roper, a member of the controversial Westboro Baptist Church [WARNING: readers may find material at this church website offensive; BBC report], is entitled to a preliminary injunction preventing the enforcement of a Missouri state statute [text] banning protesters from picketing near funerals while the law is under constitutional review. The appeals court found that the district court, which denied Phelps-Roper's original motion on its merits, did not engage in a "meaningful analysis of whether section 578.501 [Missouri's 'Funeral Protests Prohibited' law] is narrowly tailored or overbroad; it found only that the statutory language has plain meaning, which a person of ordinary intelligence could ascertain." The preliminary injunction enables Phelps-Roper and other members of her church to resume picketing at military funerals, pending a decision by the federal trial court in Kansas City.

Phelps-Roper has argued that the Missouri statute is not sufficiently clear in defining how far from funerals church members can picket, contending that vague language, including phrased like "in front of" and "about," offers too much discretion to law enforcement officers and other officials. The Eighth Circuit acknowledged these First Amendment concerns in its opinion Thursday, recognizing that "Phelps-Roper has a fair chance of proving any interest the state has in protecting funeral mourners from unwanted speech is outweighed by the First Amendment right to free speech." Several states have enacted similar laws intended to prevent Westboro from picketing at military funerals and in 2006, President Bush signed into law [JURIST report] the Respect for America's Fallen Heroes Act [HR 5037 summary; PDF text], prohibiting any demonstration within 300 feet of the entrance of a national cemetery and within 150 feet of an entrance into the cemetery for one hour before and after a military funeral. In October, a federal jury awarded the father of a fallen Marine almost $11 million [JURIST report] in damages for harm caused by Westboro's protests at his son's funeral. The Topeka Capital Journal has more.

[JURIST] International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website] Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte [official profile] said Thursday she will work to block a formal signing of the European Union's pre-membership deal with Serbia if the country does not apprehend fugitive former Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] and turn him over to The Hague by December 10. The EU has made Serbia's cooperation with the ICTY a key element of its membership negotiations. In related news, Serbian War Crimes Prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic [official website] was quoted in an article [text, in English] published by Serbian newspaper Blic [media website] Thursday as saying he believes Mladic is likely hiding in Serbia, though his current whereabouts are unknown. Vukcevic told the newspaper it is unlikely Mladic will be turned over to the ICTY, which originally indicted him on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity [ICTY case backgrounder] in 1995, before Del Ponte steps down at the end of this year. Reuters has more. AP has additional coverage.

Del Ponte has long criticized Serbia for its seeming reluctance to cooperate with the ICTY and said in October that Serbia must do more to apprehend fugitive war crimes suspects [JURIST report] before she could give a positive report on the country's work with the ICTY to the European Union. She earlier chided Serbian authorities [JURIST report] for failing to bring to justice Mladic, former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic [ICTY case backgrounder], former Croatian Serb rebel leader Goran Hadzic [JURIST report], and Bosnian Serb police commander Stojan Zupljanin [ICTY indictment], saying that Serbia's cooperation with the tribunal is "still too slow and not yet sufficient." Serbia said in September it would increase efforts [JURIST report] to locate and arrest the four war crimes suspects believed to be hiding in the country in order to receive a favorable report from Del Ponte at her meeting with EU officials concerning the EU's pending pre-membership deal with the country.

[JURIST] US House and Senate negotiators agreed Thursday to remove language that would broaden federal hate crimes legislation from a defense reauthorization bill currently being finalized in Congress. In September, the Senate approved an amendment [JURIST report] to the 2008 Defense Reauthorization Bill [HR 1585 materials] that would have expanded hate crimes laws to cover violent attacks against people based on their gender or sexuality and would have made it easier for federal law enforcement to become involved in hate crimes cases. Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA), author of the legislation, said Thursday that he was "disappointed that the House has decided not even to have a vote on the Conference Report on the Defense bill if it contains the hate crimes provision." In a statement, Kennedy also said:

The inclusion of the hate crimes provision in the Defense bill was appropriate. Our military stands for America's ideal and fights for America's ideals. The inclusion of the hate crimes provision in the Defense bill was appropriate. Our military stands for America's ideals and fights for America's ideals. At a time when our ideals are under attack by terrorists in other lands, it is more important than ever to demonstrate that we practice what we preach, and that we are doing all we can to root out the bigotry and prejudice in our own country that leads to similar violence here at home. Now more than ever, we need to send a strong message here at home and around the world that we will strengthen our laws against hate crimes.

[JURIST] A US Army major testified Thursday at a pretrial hearing to determine whether Yemeni Guantanamo Bay detainee Salim Ahmed Hamdan [Trial Watch profile; JURIST news archive] qualifies as an unlawful enemy combatant [JURIST news archive], describing the circumstances under which Hamdan was taken into custody in Afghanistan in November 2001. If Hamdan, allegedly a driver for Osama bin Laden before his capture and incarceration, is found to be an unlawful enemy combatant, he can face trial under the Military Commissions Act of 2006 [PDF text; JURIST news archive]. Army Maj. Henry Smith testified as to whether Hamdan was wearing any insignia that would mark him as a soldier at the time of his arrest, the manner in which he was arrested, and conditions on the ground at the time. Smith was the first witness to testify before a military commission since Congress passed the revised Act last year.

A US military judge Wednesday denied [JURIST report] a request by lawyers for Hamdan to meet with top terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive], citing security concerns. Lawyers had hoped that the suspects, including alleged Sept. 11 architect Khalid Sheikh Mohammed [BBC profile], would be allowed to testify that Hamdan was not a devoted member of al Qaeda and should not be tried as an unlawful enemy combatant under the US military commission system. AP has more. Reuters has additional coverage.

12/7/07 - In additional testimony before the military commission Thursday, FBI Special Agent George Crouch testified that Hamdan admitted to FBI interrogators that he served as bin Ladin's chauffeur. Crouch also testified that Hamdan knew about al Qaeda's role in the Sept. 11 attacks. AP has more.

[JURIST] Alaskan state officials said Wednesday that they are presently building a civil case against oil giant BP [corporate website] for two oil spills in Prudhoe Bay in March and August of 2006. The announcement by the environmental division of the Alaska Department of Law [official website] comes less than a week after BP subsidiary BP Exploration Alaska (BPXA) pleaded guilty [JURIST report] to violating the Clean Water Act [text] with the March 2006 spill. Both spills resulted from ruptured oil pipelines, stemming from BP's failure to properly inspect and maintain the pipes. The civil suit will include claims not only for environmental damages to state land, but also for lost revenue to the state. Approximately 85 percent of the state's general funding comes from oil company income taxes, and BP was forced to cut production immediately following the spills.

As part of BPXA's plea agreement [PDF text] on the federal charges, the company will pay $20 million in fines and restitution for the spill of an estimated 134,000 to 267,000 gallons of crude oil on Alaska's North Slope, the largest spill ever in that region [BBC report]. It is unknown when Alaska will file its civil suit. AP has more.

[JURIST] Corrupt police and court systems are the most common institutions to demand bribes [press release], according to a report [PDF text] released Thursday by Berlin-based corruption watchdog Transparency International (TI) [advocacy website]. The TI Global Corruption Barometer 2007 [TI website] found that globally "25 per cent of respondents who came in contact with the police were asked to pay a bribe." TI said the figures cast "serious doubts about citizens being guaranteed their democratic right to equal access to courts."

The TI study received 63,199 responses in 60 countries between June and September 2007. Worldwide, approximately one in every 10 people had to pay a bribe in the last year. Overall by region, most demands for bribery came from Africa, where 45 percent of respondents reported paying a bribe in the last year, followed by the Post-Soviet newly independent states, where reported 25 percent of respondents reported paying a bribe in the last year. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Riot police and blockades prevented former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif [BBC profile] and hundreds of supporters from marching Thursday to the home of ousted Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry [JURIST news archive], who has been under virtual house arrest since Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's November 3 declaration of emergency rule. Sharif and his supporters disbanded peacefully. Meanwhile lawyers across Pakistan engaged in new anti-Musharraf protests [AP report] in Islamabad and a number of other cities Thursday and continued to stay away from the courts, demanding an end to emergency rule, restoration of the constitution, and reinstatement of the dismissed judges. Pakistani lawyers' groups have urged a boycott [JURIST report] of the upcoming parliamentary elections on the grounds that transparent and fair elections are impossible given the state of emergency rule [JURIST news archive] in Pakistan. AP has more. The News has local coverage.

Also Thursday, Pakistani Supreme Court Bar Association President Aitzaz Ahsan sent [News report] a letter [text] to the country's legal community considering the effectiveness of the boycott call in various political scenarios:

in the context of ultimately achieving our one point goal of restoring the pre-November 3 status quo and the fact of a form of elections being upon us, ...I propose the following:

ONE: Our stand for boycott would be vindicated if ALL major parties also boycott.
TWO: Our stand would also be vindicated if even one of the two major political alliances (ARD or APDM), decides to boycott.
THREE: IF however ALL major parties decide TO CONTEST elections, we must devise a strategy to use the momentum to our own advantage. How? My proposal is that:

In situation THREE the hustle and bustle of the nation-wide election campaign may suck in all politically active persons within a few days. Local issues, of roads, water, sewage, schools and other services, may begin to engage people seeking promises of redress of their immediate miseries. Our one demand may go onto the back-burner of the public mind. People will become pre-occupied with other issues. That is what the regime is counting upon.

What then must be done in situation THREE (and ONLY in situation THREE)? We have to keep the issue of the “deposed” judges alive. We have to keep the spotlight on our demand.

We have a nation-wide network of District Bars. We can make it worth their while for candidates to adhere to our aspiration of restoration of judges. In the process we can, across the country, create a significant and vibrant political activity. And we will also keep the initiative with us. I am sure that within days candidates of parties already committed to the restoration of judges and independent candidates will be jostling for time to take the oath before the full blaze of the media. I can see them printing photos of the oath-taking ceremony on their posters and publicity material to assure the voters that they are committed to us. It will keep the issue of the “deposed” judges right up-front, and may be make it the most inescapable electoral issue.

We are today contesting the most unique case in the history of the world. In this case, our professional fee as lawyers is whatever this country has given each of us to date and our client are 160 million people. But our clients’ interest, our nation’s interest, we must, safeguard at all costs. If one unarmed lawyer could win the independence of this country, I do not see any reason why we, thousands of lawyers, should not be able to achieve victory.

If we put out hearts and souls into this perfectly legitimate and peaceful enterprise we will prevail. We shall overcome.

[JURIST] Bolivian President Evo Morales [official website; BBC profile] has proposed a national referendum on whether he and the country's nine provincial governors should remain in office in response to accusations that the process of creating a new constitution [text] has been illegitimate. Although the text was approved [JURIST report] last week by the Bolivian Constituent Assembly [official website], simultaneous protests in Sucre resulted in three deaths and some 300 injuries. Provincial governors and indigenous leaders have announced hunger strikes [El Pais report], claiming that the new constitution was not approved democratically, as the vote was held in an army compound without the presence of the opposition, many of whom boycotted the vote. The protesters also decried Morales' policies surrounding the natural gas industry and the use of its profits to fund public works.

The Constitutional Assembly was suspended in September after violent protests by students and opposition parties, and governors from the country's six wealthiest provinces have consistently opposed the reforms [JURIST reports]. Although three provincial governors have agreed to put their mandates to a referendum, it is unclear whether or when such a referendum would be held. Next month, a national referendum will determine whether the draft constitution will become law. BBC News has more. La Razon has local coverage, in Spanish.

[JURIST] UK Home Secretary Jacqui Smith [official profile] on Thursday proposed [press release; HO materials] extending the current time limit for the detention of terrorist suspects before charges are filed to 42 days, up from the current limit of 28 days. Smith's proposal follows statements made last June by former UK Home Secretary John Reid calling for longer pre-charge time limits [JURIST report], as well as a proposal [JURIST report] floated in July that would have allowed the extension of the 28-day limit after a declared state of emergency and would have allowed judges to authorize weekly extensions for up to 56 days subject to parliamentary notification. In a letter sent Thursday to a parliamentary committee, Smith wrote:

...the question of whether we should extend the current limit on the detention of terrorist suspects prior to charge has given rise to considerable debate. On one side the police have made the case that in their professional judgement it is likely that, at some point in the near future, the situation will arise in a small number of exceptional cases where there will be a need to hold terrorist suspects for more than the current limit of 28 days. The independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, Lord Carlile of Berriew, has confirmed he shares this judgement. On the other side, concerns have been expressed by community groups and others that there has not yet been any firm evidence to support an extension to pre-charge detention and that any moves to do so could have a detrimental effect on community support for anti-terrorism legislation.

[JURIST] A Bush administration rule aimed at preventing urban forest fires was struck down as arbitrary and capricious by a three-judge panel for the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Wednesday, drawing praise from environmental groups [Sierra Club press release]. The rule would have exempted from environmental review any logging project covering less than 1,000 acres and any forest burn covering less than 4,500 acres. The intent of the rule was to allow the Forest Service to cut brush and use controlled burns to regulate forest fires, but the Ninth Circuit's decision [PDF text] found that the Forest Service failed to properly assess the potential impact the rule would have on the environment before promulgating the rule, thus rendering the rule an unreasoned decision.

The rule, known as the "hazardous fuels reduction categorical exclusion," was established in 2003 by the Forest Service as part of the Bush administration's Healthy Forests Initiative [official materials]. The initiative was implemented in response to the disastrous 2000 fire season [National Park Service backgrounder], which burned more than 8.4 million acres of land. AP has more.

[JURIST] The number of journalists behind bars decreased from 134 in 2006 to 127 at the end of 2007, according to a year-end report [press release; capsule summaries] issued by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on Wednesday. China incarcerates the most journalists with 29 currently in prison, followed by Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, and Azerbaijan. The report also found that the proportion of journalists jailed without criminal charges - one in six - increased for the third straight year. Eritrea and Cuba accounted for most of those cases, but the US is also currently holding two journalists without charges: Al-Jazeera cameraman Sami al-Haj, who has been detained at Guantanamo Bay for over five years, and AP photographer Bilal Hussein, who has been held in a US detention facility in Iraq for 19 months. In November, the US Defense Department said that the US military will recommend that Hussein be charged in Iraqi courts [JURIST report] with collaborating with Iraqi insurgents. AP has more.

The 2006 year-end CPJ report noted that one-third of all jailed journalists published online [JURIST report]. Another CPJ report found that 67 journalists were killed in 2007 [CPJ report] while directly engaged in reporting. Earlier this month, seven countries committed to new efforts to protect journalists and their crews [JURIST report] in armed conflicts following the conclusion of a meeting in Switzerland of the 194 signatories of the Geneva Conventions.

[JURIST] CIA interrogators may be restricted to using only those interrogation techniques explicitly authorized by the 2006 Army Field Manual if US House and Senate lawmakers succeed in adding the restriction to an upcoming intelligence funding bill, aides working on the bill told AP under condition of anonymity on Wednesday. Army interrogation guide Field Manual 2-22.3 [PDF text; press release] explicitly prohibits the use of waterboarding, electrocution, sensory deprivation, inducing hypothermia, or depriving the subject of food, water, or medical care. The 2006 manual also specifies that the Geneva Conventions [ICRC materials] apply to all detainees [JURIST report] and eliminates separate standards for the questioning of prisoners of war and enemy combatants [JURIST news archive].

The proposed restriction on CIA interrogations may meet a veto challenge from President George W. Bush, who in July 2007 signed [JURIST report] a controversial executive order [text] that prohibits cruel and inhuman treatment during the interrogation of terror suspects detained by the CIA, but allows "enhanced interrogation techniques" and may exempt the CIA from Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions. The order does not specify what specific interrogation techniques are now disallowed, but the order prohibits "acts intended to denigrate the religion, religious practices, or religious objects of the individual", and "torture" as defined in 18 USC 2340 [text]. AP has more.

[JURIST] Over seven million men and women were in prison, in jail or on probation or parole in the US in 2006, accounting for 3.2 percent of the total US adult population, or 1 in every 31 adults, according to a report [press release; PDF text] released by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) on Wednesday. Five million of those 7.2 million people were on probation or parole and the total correctional population incresed by 159,500 people in 2006. While the number of women in prison was at a record high in 2006, increasing to 112,498 prisoners, the report found that the percentage of black men in federal and state prisons dropped to 38 percent, down from a record high of 43 percent in 2000. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities saw a marked increase in the number of prisoners held there, as they housed 43 percent more prisoners in 2006 than in 2005. The report also noted that privately owned prisons housed 113,791 state and federal prisoners at the end of the 2006 year, and 96 percent of the 1,502,179 prisoners under state or federal jurisdiction were serving a sentence of more than one year in prison. The New York Times has more.

Rising numbers of inmates in US prisons has been a concern for years. A report [PDF text] released in November by the JFA Institute [advocacy website] concluded that the US prison population is currently eight times as high as it was in 1970 [JURIST report], but zealous prosecution and tough sentencing guidelines have done little to curb crime. The US prison and jail population added prisoners [press release; JURIST report] from mid-2004 to mid-2005 at a rate of 2.6 percent and more than 1,000 new inmates a week, reaching a total of 2,186,230 inmates behind bars, according to a Justice Department Bureau of Justice Statistics [official website] report [summary; PDF text] released last year. Between 1997 and 2004, the racial makeup of the prison population has remained steady, but the number of women incarcerated in the US has seen a large upswing, growing 757 percent between those years [JURIST report], according to a report [text] released by the Women's Prison Association [advocacy website].