[JURIST] A Russian military court in the North Caucasus region sentenced Russian Interior Force officers Yevgeny Khudyakov and Sergei Arakcheyev to 17 and 15 years in prison respectively Thursday for killing three construction workers [International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights report] during a January 2003 operation in the war-torn region of Chechnya [BBC backgrounder]. Khudyakov was sentenced in absentia, his whereabouts apparently unknown. Both men were stripped of their commissioned military ranks. The defense said they will appeal, maintaining that the men were not guilty.

Khudyakov and Arakcheyev were acquitted in June 2004 for lack of evidence, but the Russian Supreme Court's Military Board set aside the verdict after a Constitutional Court [official website, in Russian] decision requiring trials of crimes committed in Chechnya to be heard by a military court. In October 2005, the men were found not guilty by a Russian military court [JURIST report], but that decision was later annulled at the request of the Chechen government. Prosecution of soldiers and security officials in Chechnya is rarely successful, though this summer the European Court of Human Rights awarded civil damages [JURIST report] to several Chechen plaintiffs suing Russia for civilian deaths. RIA Novosti has more. AP has additional coverage.

[JURIST] Israeli military officials said Thursday there was a 36 per cent increase in 2007 of investigations of members of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) [official website] for acts of violence committed against Palestinian civilians. The announcement came a week after a report [PDF text; JURIST report] from Israeli human rights group Yesh Din [advocacy website] criticized the Israeli government for only opening 239 investigations into IDF killings of Palestinians, despite thousands of alleged incidents. Thursday's government report said that 207 of those investigations occurred in 2007.

The Yesh Din report also said that only 10 percent of criminal investigations of IDF troops have resulted in any indictment being filed; the group said it will be conducting its own investigation into the low number of indictments. AP has more.

[JURIST] The French Foreign Ministry Thursday formally requested [official press release, in French] that Chadian authorities transfer six French aid workers to a French prison, one day after the workers were sentenced to eight years of hard labor [JURIST report] by a Chadian court for attempting to kidnap 103 African children. The request was made under the 1976 France-Chad Agreement on Judicial Matters [PDF text], which allows for transfer of trials and sentences between the nations. Because hard labor sentences do not exist in France, the aid workers would likely serve their sentences in French prison. French Justice Minister Rachida Dati [BBC profile] now awaits a response from the Chadian government. Reuters has more.

The six, affiliated with the Zoe's Ark [advocacy website] charity, claimed that they were attempting to airlift orphaned children [JURIST news archive] from the war-torn Sudanese region of Darfur to safety in Europe, but investigations revealed that most of the children were not actually orphans. Last month, Chad released three Spanish air crew and a Belgian pilot [JURIST report] held in Chad in connection with the attempted airlift. Three Chadians and one Sudanese national are also facing trial in Chad for complicity in kidnapping and fraud.

[JURIST] Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto [BBC obituary; JURIST news archive] was assassinated in a suicide attack Thursday at a rally in Rawalpindi. Bhutto, head of the opposition Pakistan People's Party [party website], was campaigning in the lead-up to January 8 parliamentary elections, where her party is challenging Pakistani Prime Minister Pervez Musharraf's Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) [party website]. Her candidacy was challenged [JURIST report] earlier this month when PML-Q leaders filed a petition with the Election Commission of Pakistan [official website] seeking a determination that Bhutto's past corruption conviction prevented her from running. The Election Commission rejected that effort, but barred former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif [JURIST report], head of the rival opposition PML-N party [party website], from running. At least 20 other people were killed in Thursday's attack.

Bhutto returned to Pakistan [JURIST report] from exile earlier this year after Musharraf signed [JURIST report] a "reconciliation ordinance" granting her amnesty on pending corruption charges. After Musharraf declared emergency rule [JURIST news archive] on November 3, Bhutto was initially put under house arrest [JURIST report] and prevented from leading protests. AP has more.

[JURIST] Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] will be arrested if he returns home from self-imposed exile in England, despite his party's success in general election earlier this week, according to Thai officials Thursday. Thaksin and his wife Pojamarn, who have been living in exile since a bloodless military coup ousted him last September, have been accused of abuse of power for personal gain [JURIST reports], conflict of interest violations, and dereliction of duty. A Thai court issued one arrest warrant for Thaksin and his wife in August and a second one in September [JURIST reports]. Both have long refused to return to Thailand to face charges because they do not expect to receive a fair trial [JURIST report].

In general elections held Tuesday, the pro-Thaksin People's Power Party (PPP) won nearly half [NPR report] of the seats in the Thai parliament's lower house, spurring the PPP to announce the organization of a new coalition government in 2008 [Xinhua report]. Following the announcement, Thaksin said he would return to Thailand next year [CNN report] to face the corruption charges after the new government was created. AP has more.

[JURIST] Leading legislators from Lebanon's majority party were expected to file a petition in parliament Thursday seeking a constitutional amendment to allow Gen. Michel Suleiman [Xinhua report] to become president of Lebanon. Under the current Lebanese constitution [text, in French], the presidency cannot be held by a sitting military commander [JURIST report]. Anti-Syrian and pro-Syrian members of Lebanon's parliament have been unable to reach agreement on who will replace former Lebanon leader Emile Lahoud, who left office [JURIST report] at the end of his term on November 23 without a successor in place. The petition calls for a "one time" amendment to fill the immediate presidential vacancy, and comes three days after the government presented a draft law to parliament [JURIST report] proposing the same constitutional amendment. The draft cannot become law unless the Lebanese parliament approves it, and parliament speaker Nabih Berri has said he will not consider draft legislation from an "illegitimate" government.

Lahoud purported to declare a "state of emergency" and hand security responsibility to the army in a vaguely worded statement [JURIST report] issued just before leaving office. The emergency was immediately rejected by the government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, which noted through a spokesman that Lebanon's constitution did not permit the president to declare a state of emergency without obtaining the approval of the government under Article 65. Article 62 moreover provides that presidential powers revert to the government if the office of president falls vacant. AFP has more.