[JURIST] Hundreds of conversations between lawyers and their incarcerated clients have been secretly taped by British police, according to a report in the UK Telegraph daily published Saturday. The tapings came to light after a a former police detective revealed that he had recorded conversations in 2005 and 2006 between Muslim Labour MP Sadiq Khan [official website] and Babar Ahmad, a childhood friend of Khan's held at Wood­hill prison in Milton Keynes on terrorism charges. Justice Secretary Jack Straw [official profile] has launched an investigation into that bugging while denying that he or any other government ministers had any knowledge of the operation, although officials in his department apparently found out about the recording allegations two months ago.

The UK prison eavesdropping is believed to be the result of stepped-up security efforts following the 9/11 attacks on the US. An unidentified source told the Telegraph that initially the secret bugging scheme was used only at the Woodhill and Belmarsh prisons, but over the last year and half has been in operation across Britain. AP has more.

[JURIST] The military government of Myanmar [JURIST news archive] announced in a television broadcast Saturday that it will hold a constitutional referendum in May, with multi-party elections to follow in 2010. Last September a National Convention originally called in 1993 concluded [JURIST report] work on guidelines for a new national charter. The exact subject-matter of the referendum has yet to be declared, however.

The last general elections in Myanmar were held in 1990. The National League for Democracy (NLD), lead by Aung San Suu Kyi, won that election easily, but the ruling military government did not recognize the result and placed Suu Kyi under house arrest. AFP has more. BBC News has additional coverage.

[JURIST] UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour [official website; JURIST news archive] said Friday that waterboarding [JURIST news archive] is clearly torture, echoing comments Wednesday by UN Special rapporteur on torture Manfred Nowak [official website; JURIST news archive], who sharply criticized the White House for defending the use of waterboarding [JURIST report] in remarks earlier this week. Arbour said Friday that she had "no difficulty" describing the practice as torture under international definitions of the term. AP has more.

The comments by both UN officials came in the wake of a Tuesday Senate Intelligence Committee hearing in which CIA Director Michael Hayden confirmed that US interrogators had used waterboarding on three terror detainees [JURIST report].

[JURIST] A former Senior Advisor for Legislative Framework in the Iraq Reconstruction Management Office set to depart from the US embassy in Baghdad after a year-long posting told US Ambassador Ryan Crocker [official profile] in a memo [PDF text] obtained by Fox News and published Friday that US officials in the country had

mostly ignored legal culture institutions that address underlying requirements for the very success of the rule of law, such as the confidence of citizens, a preventive rather than punitive program against corruption, and the qualifications of the legal profession.

America's Rule of Law effort in Iraq has focused almost entirely on training police, building prisons, and supporting prosecutions. This is understandable. These areas are important to security but they represent a policeman's and a prosecutor's definition of what Rule of Law means. This definition is limited to law enforcement... [O]ur legal culture is in need of assistance and America's millions of dollars have done little to assist our institutions...If you think that "implanting" the Rule of Law in Iraq is limited to your current Rule of Law efforts, then you are receiving poor advice.

[JURIST] The US Department of Defense [official website] announced Friday that two more Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainees have been charged with war crimes. Ali Hamza Ahmad Suliman al Bahlul [DOD press release], alleged to be Osama bin Laden's personal assistant and media secretary, is charged [charge sheet] with conspiracy, solicitation to commit murder and attacks on civilians, and providing material support for terrorism. He is accused of, among other things, researching the financial impact of the 9/11 attacks and releasing the "martyr wills" of 9/11 hijackers Muhammed Atta and Ziad al Jarrah as propaganda videos. Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi [DOD press release], suspected of being Osama bin Laden's body guard and driver, is charged [charge sheet] with conspiracy to target and attack civilians and providing material support for terrorism. Al Qosi is suspected of helping bin Laden and his family escape to the Tora Bora mountains in Afghanistan in the wake of the attacks. Both men had previously been charged [JURIST report] in 2004 and were initially expected to face military commissions [DOD materials] at Guantanamo Bay convened by the Bush administration, but those charges were dropped after the Supreme Court found the initial commissions to be in violation of military law and the Geneva Conventions [ICRC materials] in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld [Duke Law case backgrounder; JURIST report]. The new charges have been brought under the 2006 Military Commissions Act (MCA) [PDF text].

The separate trials are expected to raise allegations by both defendants of prisoner abuse and torture in US detention centers. Al Qosi claims that he was draped in an Israeli flag, an act meant to humiliate him during interrogations, while al Bahlul's previous attorney told a military commission judge that his client had been tortured. The US military says it eventually hopes to try as many as 80 Guantanamo detainees for war crimes; on Saturday, the New York Times reported that a major prosecution of up to six more Guantanamo detainees, including Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, is in the works. Prior to Friday, only four had been formally charged [JURIST report] under the MCA. AP has more.

[JURIST] The Grand National Assembly of Turkey [official website] Saturday formally passed the first of two proposed amendments to the country's constitution [text] that would ease a current ban on Islamic headscarves [JURIST report] and allow women to wear headscarves in universities. The measure, which passed by a final vote of 403-107, requires that everyone receives equal treatment from state institutions. The second amendment, recognizing equal rights to higher education, is expected to pass later today with the support of both Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party and the conservative Nationalist Movement Party [party websites]. The measures, preliminarily approved [JURIST report] earlier this week, must next go to Turkish President Abdullah Gul [official profile] for approval. Opposition parties have threatened to appeal to the judiciary if the amendments are adopted.

Meanwhile, for the second time this week, tens of thousands of secular Turks rallied in Ankara to protest the constitutional revisions. Headscarves and other forms of Muslim traditional religious dress [JURIST news archive] are banned from many public places in modern Turkey, a majority Muslim country despite official secularism. Supporters of the ban, largely secularists, say the ban on headscarves is necessary to protect the separation of religion and state. Erdogan has repeatedly called for an end to the ban, saying it effectively denies some Muslim women access to higher education [JURIST report], but secularists believe that Erdogan's insistence on ending the ban is a political statement against secular principles. The amendments would alter the constitution and Higher Education Law No. 2547 [HRW backgrounder] to allow scarves tied at the chin. Chadors, veils and burqas reportedly will still be banned. AP has more.