[JURIST] US President George W. Bush Friday signed into law [press release] a bill that will allow the federal government to prosecute individuals in the US suspected of genocide abroad. The Genocide Accountability Act of 2007 [text, PDF] modifies Section 1091, Title 18 USC [text], which had limited genocide prosecution to US nationals or to offenses by non-nationals committed inside the US. The new law will add aliens lawfully admitted for permanent residence, stateless persons whose habitual residence is in the US, and alleged offenders "brought into, or found in" the US, even if the alleged genocidal conduct occurred outside the country.

The bill was introduced after human rights groups urged Congress to consider the legislation. Testifying [prepared statement] before the Senate Judiciary Committee in February, American University law professor and current Special Counsel to the Open Society Institute (OSI) [advocacy website], Diane Orentlicher, cited the example of Akron Ohio resident Ratko Maslenjak, once a member of an infamous Serb military unit connected to the 1995 Srebrenica massacre [JURIST news archive]. Instead of facing trial in the US for genocide, he was merely convicted of lying about his service in the Srebrenica unit [Cleveland Plain-Dealer report] when he applied for his green card. The bill passed the Senate unanimously in March and the House of Representatives earlier this month. OSI has more.

[JURIST] The US Department of Defense said Friday that newly charged Saudi Guantanamo Bay detainee Ahmed Mohammed Ahmed Haza al Darbi is the brother-in-law of Khalid al Mihdhar [press release], one of the 9/11 hijackers. Mihdhar was on American Airlines Flight 77 [Wikipedia backgrounder], the plane that hit the Pentagon. MCT has more.

Military prosecutors at Guantanamo Bay filed charges [PDF text, JURIST report] Thursday against al Darbi for his alleged role in a plan to bomb a ship off the coast of Yemen or in the Strait of Hormuz. He is accused of conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism under Sections 950v(b)(28) and (25) of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 (MCA) [PDF text]. He also allegedly attended and worked at an al Qaeda terrorist training camp and traveled to various locales in Pakistan, the UAE, and Qatar to buy materials and recruit help. He has denied any involvement with al Qaeda or any other terrorist activity.

[JURIST] A panel of former 9/11 Commission [official website] members say the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) withheld videotapes showing the interrogation of terror suspects, possibly violating federal law. According to a Saturday New York Times report, the panel began to review documents [PDF text] concerning the matter after it was disclosed earlier this month that the agency destroyed the videotapes [JURIST news archive]. The Commission made repeated requests for information on interrogations in 2004 and 2004. The CIA maintains that it was prepared to furnish the tapes, but the commission never specifically asked for interrogation videos. Former commission chairmen Lee H. Hamilton and Thomas H. Kean said the agency acted improperly. The New York Times has more.

CIA Director Michael Hayden acknowledged [statement text] earlier this month that the CIA had videotaped the interrogation of two al Qaeda suspects in 2002, but said that the tapes had been destroyed in 2005 amid concerns that they could be leaked to the public and compromise the identities of the interrogators. Several investigations have been launched into the tapes' destruction, including a joint DOJ-CIA preliminary investigation [JURIST report] and multiple congressional inquiries. The Justice Department initially asked the House Intelligence Committee to defer its investigation [JURIST report] pending the DOJ inquiry, but has since backed off that position.

[JURIST] Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori [BBC profile; JURIST news archive], apologized Friday for his role in two massacres which occurred during his administration in the early 1990s. Fujimori's apology came during his trial on murder and kidnapping charges [JURIST report] stemming from the military killings of 25 people in 1991 and 1992. The victims included a professor and nine students killed at the so-called La Cantuta massacre [backgrounder] at Lima's La Cantuta University, along with 15 people killed in Lima's Barrios Altos neighborhood. Fujimori claimed that he did not authorize and did not have any knowledge of the killings, which were likely part of a war on Shining Path rebels [FAS backgrounder] in the country.

Earlier this month, Fujimori was sentenced [JURIST report] to six years in prison for abuse of authority in the last months of his 1990-2000 rule. He was convicted of ordering a warrantless search in 2000 on the apartment of the wife of former Peruvian Intelligence Director Vladimiro Montesino [BBC profile]. It was the first time that Fujimori has ever been sentenced for a crime. He faces three other trials in Peru, which are a consolidation of six separate charges all stemming from his actions during three presidential terms in office from 1990-2000, including authorizing illegal phone taps, bribing key congressmen and government officials, and misusing government funds. AP has more.