[JURIST] Pakistani Attorney General Malik Qayyum [JURIST news archive] told Geo-TV Friday that emergency rule in Pakistan would be lifted and the country's constitution restored on December 15, one day earlier than the date set [JURIST report] last week by President Pervez Musharraf in a televised address after being sworn into office for a third term. Qayyum said that two constitutional amendments would be made by Presidential Order to validate the emergency retroactively, and that the restoration of the constitution would also restore a number of fundamental rights abrogated under the Provisional Constitution Order (PCO).

Qayyum also confirmed that the government was pursuing the appointment of new superior court judges. Pakistani media reported Thursday that at the instance of new Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar Qayyum had decided to shelve a plan [JURIST report] to reduce the size of the Supreme Court of Pakistan from 17 to 12 out of concern that s smaller bench could not keep up with the institution's workload. Qayyum said, however, that the new judges would swear oaths under Pakistan's constitution after it is restored rather than under the controversial PCO. The News has more.

[JURIST] Four of the five UK residents being detained at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] are scheduled to be released, the BBC reported Friday. Jordanian Jamil el Banna, Libyan Omar Deghayes and Algerian Abdennour Sameur will return to the UK, while Saudi Arabian Shaker Abdur-Raheem Aamer will return to his native country. A fifth detainee, Ethiopian Binyam Mohammed al Habashi, will stay in US custody. The US government has asked for assurances that the men will not pose any terrorist threat after release, but has not conditioned their release on any promise by UK authorities to detain the men. An official announcement is expected in the coming weeks.

In August, the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office [official website] asked the United States to release the five [press release; JURIST report] who were legal residents in the UK prior to their detention at Guantanamo. The Foreign Office said that they had previously been granted either refugee status, indefinite leave or exceptional leave to remain in the UK. The UK government also "welcomed recent steps taken by the US Government to reduce the numbers of those detained at Guantanamo Bay and to move towards the closure of the detention facility." British officials under the government of former Prime Minister Tony Blair had refused to seek the release of the British resident aliens held at Guantanamo Bay, and el Banna and Deghayes were among a group of detainees who lost a court bid [JURIST report] to force the UK government to lobby the US for their release. The UK government has said that all UK nationals detained at Guantanamo were returned to the UK by January 2005. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] The Rhode Island Supreme Court [official website] Friday ruled [opinion, PDF] that a lesbian couple legally married in Massachusetts does not have the right to divorce in Rhode Island because Rhode Island does not explicitly recognize same-sex marriage. In Chambers v. Ormiston [GLAD amicus brief, PDF; additional case materials], Rhode Island residents Cassandra Ormiston and Margaret Chambers sought to end their 2004 Massachusetts marriage. Lawyers for the couple had argued [JURIST report] that if the divorce was not permitted in Rhode Island, the couple's only recourse is to move to Massachusetts and establish residency for a divorce in that state, which lawyers said would be an unfair burden. AP has more.

In September 2006, a Massachusetts court ruled [JURIST report] that same-sex couples from Rhode Island must be allowed to wed in Massachusetts because Rhode Island does not expressly prohibit same-sex marriage through its state constitution, statutes or appellate court decisions. In February, Rhode Island Attorney General Patrick Lynch [official profile] issued a nonbinding advisory letter [PDF text; JURIST report] saying that Rhode Island will recognize same-sex marriages of state employees performed in Massachusetts. Lynch said that same-sex employee partners married in Massachusetts would be granted the same benefits as heterosexual married couples.

[JURIST] The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda [official website] Friday sentenced [press release] Francois Karera [ICTR materials] to life imprisonment for his role in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Karera, the former prefect of Kigali-Rural, was found guilty on three of four genocide and crimes against humanity counts brought against him, but was acquitted of complicity to commit genocide. In determining the sentence, the court took into account Karera's presence at a church in Ntarama sector where he directly encouraged the slaughter of several hundred Tutsis. Karera also ordered the murder of Tutsis on at least two other occasions, although it is not believed that he was present when the acts were carried out.

Karera's sentencing brings the total of those tried and convicted since 1997, when the ICTR heard its first case, to 30. The ICTR recently announced that it will be unable to complete its work [JURIST report] before its mandate expires in December 2008. The ICTR was established to try genocide suspects for crimes occurring during the 1994 Rwandan conflict [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive] between Hutus and Tutsis in which approximately 800,000 people, primarily Tutsis, died. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] US State Department officials Friday announced the resignation of State Department Inspector General Howard Krongard [official profile], following a long controversy over allegations that he obstructed inquiries that could harm the Bush administration. Last month, Krongard testified before the US House Oversight and Government Reform Committee [official website] and denied allegations [opening statement, PDF] that he politicized the Inspector General's Office. The allegations brought against Krongard [Oversight Committee report, PDF] included claims that he blocked investigations of fraud and mismanaged spending in Iraq and Afghanistan, and interfered with a Justice Department investigation into whether Blackwater USA [corporate website; JURIST news archive] was smuggling weapons into Iraq. Concerns were also raised that Krongard had a conflict of interest in the Blackwater case, as his brother serves on Blackwater's advisory board [invitation, PDF]. Reuters has more.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee announced [JURIST report] its investigation into Krongard in September. At that time, Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) [official profile] sent notice to Krongard asking for his cooperation, but the committee report notes that Krongard refused to provide requested documents, even after the committee issued a subpoena for them. In addition, employees of the Inspector General's Office have said that Krongard's congressional liaison Terry Heide told them that they could lose their jobs [Post report] if they cooperated with the committee's investigation. Heide admitted to the committee that she had made statements to that effect, but denied they were meant to intimidate witnesses.

[JURIST] US Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) [official profile] sent a letter [text] to US Attorney General Michael Mukasey Friday, asking that the US Department of Justice [official website] launch an investigation into whether the CIA's destruction of videotaped recordings of two terror suspects in 2002 could be considered obstruction of justice. Existence of the videotapes was verified in November after the CIA admitted it had mistakenly denied [JURIST report] that it had recorded interrogations, and in a letter to CIA employees on Thursday, CIA Director Michael Hayden confirmed that the tapes had been destroyed in 2005 [JURIST report]. In his letter to Mukasey, Durbin wrote:

I urge you to investigate whether CIA officials who destroyed these videotapes and withheld information about their existence from official proceedings violated the law. ...

The CIA apparently withheld information about the existence of these videotapes from official proceedings, including the 9/11 Commission and a federal court. ...

CIA Director Hayden asserts that the videotapes were destroyed "in line with the law." However, it is the Justice Department's role to determine whether the law was violated.

[JURIST] Former interim Liberian President Gyude Bryant [BBC profile] was arrested Friday after he failed to appear in court on charges of corruption this week. Bryant was charged [JURIST report] in February with embezzling $1.3 million during his tenure from October 2003 until January 2006. The indictment was based on an audit conducted by the Economic Community of West African States [official website], which monitored the interim government after former Liberian President Charles Taylor [JURIST news archive] stepped down in August 2003. VOA has more.

Bryant's defense lawyers had urged the court to block his prosecution, arguing that Bryant was entitled to presidential immunity under the Liberian constitution [text]. Government lawyers, however, successfully argued that Bryant should not be entitled to immunity [Inquirer report] because he served as a caretaker and not a democratically elected president. Bryant was appointed by regional peace brokers to head Liberia as the country emerged from 14 years of civil war.

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] granted certiorari in six cases [Order List, PDF] Friday afternoon, including the consolidated cases of Munaf v. Geren (06-1666) [docket; cert. petition, PDF] and Geren v. Omar (07-394) [docket], where the Court will decide whether US citizens held by US forces in Iraq can challenge their detention and seek to prevent US forces from turning them over to Iraqi custody. Mohammad Munaf [JURIST news archive] has been convicted and sentenced to death for the kidnapping of three Romanian journalists in Baghdad, and the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled in April that it lacked authority to interfere [opinion, PDF; JURIST report] with the Iraqi court case. Two months earlier, however, the same court ruled that Shawqi Omar [JURIST news archive], arrested for allegedly harboring insurgents in Iraq, has a right to argue his case in US courts. The appeals court blocked Omar's transfer to Iraqi courts [opinion, PDF; JURIST report]. AP has more.

In United States v. Ressam (07-455) [docket; cert. petition, PDF], the Court will consider federal prosecutors' appeal of a decision to dismiss a charge against "millennium bomber" Ahmed Ressam, convicted in 2005 and sentenced to 22 years in prison [JURIST report] for plotting to blow up Los Angeles International Airport on New Year's Eve 1999. The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit dismissed one of the counts [opinion, PDF] on which Ressam was convicted - carrying explosives during the commission of a felony - saying that prosecutors did not show that the explosives were carried "in relation to" the underlying felony, lying on customs papers. AP has more.

In Burgess v. United States (06-11429) [docket], the Court will consider mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenders. Defendant Keith Lavon Burgess is arguing that he should not be subjected to a 20-year minimum sentence reserved for offenders with a prior felony drug conviction because his prior South Carolina conviction for cocaine possession is treated as a misdemeanor under state law even though it is punishable by more than a year in prison.

In Indiana v. Edwards (07-208) [docket; cert. petition, PDF], the Court will consider whether states may impose a high standard to determine whether a defendant is competent to stand trial than the standard put forth by the Supreme Court in Dusky v. United States [text].

In Florida Dept. of Revenue v. Piccadilly Cafeterias (07-312), [docket; cert. petition, PDF], the Court will decide whether an exemption from state and local transfer taxes provided under federal bankruptcy code for reorganization plans confirmed in court applies only after the plan has been approved by a bankruptcy court.

Finally, in Huber v. Wal-Mart (07-480) [docket; cert. petition, PDF], the Court will consider whether a disabled employee who requires transfer to an equivalent position can be required to compete with other employees for the new position. SCOTUSblog has more on all of Friday's cert. grants.

[JURIST] The Austrian Parliament [official website, in German] passed legislation setting a complete ban on cluster munitions [FAS backgrounder] Thursday, and making a disarmament goal to destroy Austria's stockpile of approximately 10,000 devices over three years. Austria is the second country to ban cluster munitions. In 2006, Belgium banned the manufacture and use of cluster munitions [JURIST report] and criminalized the investment and financing of cluster munition manufacturers. At least 34 countries have produced more than 200 types of cluster munitions, while at least 23 countries have used cluster munitions.

In November, representatives from 102 state parties to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons [PDF text] agreed to a new pact [JURIST report] regarding "the humanitarian impact of cluster munitions", but failed to agree on a complete ban. The US has said that it will not support a cluster munitions ban [JURIST report] but that it is open to negotiations to reduce the humanitarian impact by requiring the increased reliability, accuracy, and visibility of unexploded munitions. In February, 46 of 49 countries participating in the two-day Oslo Conference on Cluster Munitions agreed to an action plan to develop a new international treaty [press release] to ban the use of cluster munitions by 2008. Romania, Poland and Japan refused to sign the Oslo Declaration [PDF text], while the United States, Russia, Israel and China chose not to attend the conference. The International Herald Tribune has more.

[JURIST] A legal challenge has been filed to the eligibility of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto [personal website; JURIST news archive] as a candidate in the upcoming January parliamentary election, an Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) [official website] official said Friday. The challenge, filed by a Bhutto rival from President Pervez Musharraf's Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) [party website], says that Bhutto cannot run in the election because she has been convicted of corruption in the past. The ECP is expected to rule on Bhutto's eligibility before December 10, and will issue a final approved list of parliamentary candidates on December 16.

On Monday, the ECP ruled that former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif [BBC profile] cannot run as a candidate because of a 2000 criminal conviction. Sharif was convicted for his involvement in an attempt to prevent a plane carrying then army chief and current President Pervez Musharraf [JURIST news archive] from landing in Pakistan during Musharraf's 1999 coup against Sharif's civilian government. Pakistani lawyers' groups have urged a boycott [JURIST report] of the upcoming vote on the grounds that transparent and fair elections are impossible given the state of emergency rule [JURIST news archive] in Pakistan. Xinhua has more.

[JURIST] Sudanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Samani Al-Wasilla on Thursday dismissed as politically motivated the latest report [PDF text] from the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website] condemning Sudan for failing to arrest crimes against humanity suspects wanted by the ICC and accusing the Sudanese government of continuing to commit crimes in Darfur [JURIST news archive]. ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo issued a scathing assessment of Sudan's cooperation with the ICC Wednesday, asking the UN Security Council to press Sudan to execute outstanding arrest warrants [JURIST report]. In a statement [text], the ICC also said:

Massive crimes continue to be committed in Darfur today. All information points not to isolated acts but to a pattern of attacks by Sudanese officials against civilians, in particular the 2.5 million displaced people.

[JURIST] The US Department of Homeland Security [official website] fails to provide adequate medical care to HIV-positive immigration detainees, according to a report [text; press release] issued Friday by Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website]. HRW said DHS policies do not meet international and domestic standards of care, and that the DHS consistently fails to enforce its own minimum standards. HRW alleges that immigration detainees have died or developed drug resistant-AIDS because DHS either did not provide complete doses of medication or did not administer medication at proper intervals.

US immigration detention has been criticized in the past for providing inadequate medical care. In June, the American Civil Liberties Union [advocacy website] filed a class action lawsuit [petition, PDF; press release] against federal immigration officials, seeking injunctive and declaratory relief on behalf of immigration detainees, alleging that inadequate medical and mental health care [JURIST report] at detention facilities has caused "unnecessary suffering [and] avoidable death." Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Japanese officials executed three death row inmates Friday and publicly disclosed their identities for the first time under a new policy that the Justice Ministry of Japan [official website] says is designed to increase understanding about the death penalty. Previously only the number of prisoners executed and the time of their execution was made publicly available, but victims' families and rights groups had pressed for more information to be released. The three inmates executed by hanging Friday - Seiha Fujima, Hiroki Fukawa, and Noboru Ikemoto - were all convicted murderers. AP has more.

Earlier this year, the Japanese national bar association called for a moratorium on the death penalty [press release, in Japanese; JURIST report] until new safeguards are enacted to prevent wrongful executions based on dubious evidence. The Federation of Bar Associations [group website] said that flaws in the justice system create a high risk for condemning innocent lives.

[JURIST] Representatives from the International Committee of the Red Cross [official website] have visited for the first time with detainees held in Iraqi prisons, according to a statement from the ICRC Thursday. ICRC spokesperson Dorothea Krimitsas said that ICRC monitors met with some of the 1,700 detainees held at Fort Suse [JURIST report], an Iraqi-controlled prison in northern Iraq. The ICRC negotiated for three years with the Iraqi government for access to the detainees, but Krimitsas said that ICRC delegates were able to choose which detainees to meet with at Fort Suse and that the ICRC hopes to reach an agreement with the government which would allow it access to all Iraqi-controlled detention facilities.

The ICRC is formally entrusted under the Geneva Conventions [ICRC materials] with visiting prisoners of war and inspecting the conditions of their detention. The ICRC in Iraq [ICRC materials] currently has arrangements with US forces allowing access to some 20,000 detainees and with Kurds to allow visitation with another 1,500 detainees. AP has more.

[JURIST] CIA Director Michael Hayden [official profile] sent a memo to CIA employees Thursday saying that the agency videotaped the interrogations of two terror suspects in 2002, but that the tapes were destroyed in 2005 amid concerns that they could be leaked to the public and compromise the identities of the interrogators. The videotapes were used as an internal check by the CIA to ensure that interrogations were being conducted in accordance with guidelines permitting harsh interrogation tactics, including waterboarding [JURIST news archive], authorized by President Bush. The tapes were also used to verify information gathered during the interrogations for CIA documentation purposes. After an internal watchdog group verified that the practices were legal in 2003, Hayden said the tapes were destroyed for fear that interrogators and their families could face retaliation from al Qaeda if their identities were ever exposed. Hayden also said that no other CIA interrogations of terror suspects had been videotaped.

Existence of the videotapes was verified in November after the CIA admitted it had mistakenly denied [JURIST report] that it had recorded interrogations in a court declaration during the trial of 9/11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui [JURIST news archive]. Abu Zubayd [BBC profile] was one of the two terror suspects whose interrogations were videotaped; information gathered during the session ultimately led to the capture of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed [BBC profile]. The memo comes amid increased concerns [JURIST op-ed; JURIST news archive] about US interrogation techniques of terror suspects and a proposed intelligence bill [JURIST report] which aims to restrict the CIA's use of harsh questioning tactics, including waterboarding. AP has more.

3:58 PM ET - US President George W. Bush Friday denied knowledge that the CIA had recordings of suspect interrogations or that it had decided to destroy those recordings. AFP/Reuters has more.