[JURIST] The military government of Myanmar [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive] on Saturday rejected a suggestion by UN special envoy to Myanmar Ibrahim Gambari [official profile] that the upcoming May referendum on a new constitution [JURIST reports] for the country be observed by independent monitors. The government also declined an offer of UN technical support during the vote. Gambari argued that the suggestions would legitimatize the results of the referendum in the eyes of the international community. In rejecting the offer, Myanmar said that the country possessed the resources to carry out the vote, and that monitoring of the process would infringe upon the country's sovereignty. Also on Saturday, Gambari met with opposition groups who expressed an interest in increased communication with the military government and the release of political prisoners. Gambari also met with detained Nobel Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi [advocacy profile], although details of their meeting were not immediately known.

The constitution-drafting process has come under fire [JURIST report] from critics who have urged citizens to reject the proposed referendum, saying it is a "sham" to legalize military rule. Other opponents, including supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi, have stopped just short of calling for a boycott. The country has been governed without a constitution since the military regime took power in 1988 and talks on a new national charter [JURIST report] have been underway for 14 years. AP has more.

[JURIST] Chinese prosecutors plan to proceed to trial against human rights activist Hu Jia and the trial could begin within a month, a defense lawyer for Hu said Saturday. Hu was formally charged last month with inciting subversion of state power after he made public [JURIST reports] letters and recordings from Chinese lawyer Gao Zhisheng alleging that Gao was tortured into confessing to subversion charges. Reporters Without Borders has called for Hu's release [press release], saying that "the political police have taken advantage of the international community's focus on Pakistan to arrest one of the foremost representatives of the peaceful struggle for free expression in China." Reuters has more.

Also Saturday, Teng Biao, a lawyer who has defended political dissidents and is a Hu supporter, was released by the Chinese government after spending two days in custody. Teng's whereabouts had been unknown [JURIST report] since Thursday evening when witnesses reported seeing an unidentified man, believed to be Teng, dragged into an unmarked vehicle. In September 2007, Teng and Hu wrote an open letter [text] requesting that the international community investigate China's promises to improve its human rights record. In November 2007, rights group Dui Hua reported that the number of political arrests in China more than doubled in 2006 and the country as seen harsh criticism in recent months for cracking down on human rights activists and political dissidents [JURIST reports] ahead of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] China's Supreme People's Court [official website] overturned 15 percent of death sentences imposed by lower courts during 2007, the president of the Supreme Court's criminal law chamber said in a Saturday China News report [text, in Chinese]. Huang Ermei also said that 2007 was the first year in which fewer prisoners were executed outright than those granted "death penalties with reprieve." She said, however, that China plans to keep the death penalty [JURIST news archive] "for a considerable time to come." Reuters has more.

In response to wrongful convictions and international criticism, China implemented reforms [JURIST report] at the beginning of 2007 requiring that all death sentences be approved [JURIST report] by the Supreme People's Court. High court vice-president Jiang Xingchang [official profile] said in September that death sentences handed down by Chinese courts were at a ten-year low in 2006 and the trend continued [JURIST report] in 2007.

[JURIST] Bolivia's National Electoral Court [official website] on Friday blocked a national referendum [JURIST report] on the country's new draft constitution which was to take place on May 4. The new constitution, supported by Bolivian President Evo Morales [official website, in Spanish; BBC profile], was passed [JURIST report] by the Bolivian Constitutional Assembly [official website, in Spanish] on December 10, and gives the president more power over natural resources, collapses Bolivia's legislature into one body, and allows the president to seek election to two consecutive five-year terms. The court found that the proposed referendum failed to satisfy a constitutional provision which requires the national vote to be held within 90 days of congressional approval of the new legislation. Reuters has more.

The national referendum was narrowly approved by the National Congress of Bolivia [official website, in Spanish] last week and Morales supporters rallying outside of the congressional building Thursday prevented many of the opponents of the draft constitution from entering the building and participating in the vote. The Constitutional Assembly first gave preliminary approval [JURIST report] to the new draft constitution in November 2007 amid protests that the constitution gave the president indefinite power; the current constitution [text, in Spanish] prohibits a president from seeking election to consecutive terms. 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].

[JURIST] US President George W. Bush said in his weekly radio address [transcript; recorded audio] Saturday that he has vetoed an intelligence funding bill [HR 2082 materials] that would restrict CIA interrogators to using only interrogation techniques explicitly authorized by the 2006 Army Field Manual. Though the US Senate approved [JURIST report] the measure on February 13, it failed to approve it by the two-thirds majority necessary to override a presidential veto. The US House agreed to the measure [JURIST report] in December. In explaining his veto, Bush said Saturday:

Limiting the CIA's interrogation methods to those in the Army Field Manual would be dangerous because the manual is publicly available and easily accessible on the Internet. Shortly after 9/11, we learned that key al Qaida operatives had been trained to resist the methods outlined in the manual. And this is why we created alternative procedures to question the most dangerous al Qaida operatives, particularly those who might have knowledge of attacks planned on our homeland. The best source of information about terrorist attacks is the terrorists themselves. If we were to shut down this program and restrict the CIA to methods in the Field Manual, we could lose vital information from senior al Qaida terrorists, and that could cost American lives.

The bill Congress sent me would not simply ban one particular interrogation method, as some have implied. Instead, it would eliminate all the alternative procedures we've developed to question the world's most dangerous and violent terrorists. This would end an effective program that Congress authorized just over a year ago.

The fact that we have not been attacked over the past six-and-a-half years is not a matter of chance. It is the result of good policies and the determined efforts of individuals carrying them out. We owe these individuals our thanks, and we owe them the authorities they need to do their jobs effectively.

[JURIST] US District Judge Reggie B. Walton of the District of Columbia on Friday held former USA Today reporter Toni Locy [profile] in contempt of court [opinion, PDF] and ordered her to personally pay a daily fine for continuing to violate an August 2007 order to testify [memorandum opinion, PDF; JURIST report] about government sources who provided information about former US Army germ-warfare researcher Dr. Steven J. Hatfill [Washington Post profile]. Walton had previously threatened [JURIST report] to hold Locy in contempt in February. He ruled Friday that the District Court's contempt citation and monetary sanction against Locy need not be stayed pending Locy's appeal to the DC Circuit and that the Court can legally preclude Locy from accepting reimbursement to pay the monetary sanction. Beginning Tuesday, Locy will be fined $500 a day; the fine will increase to $1000 a day after one week and then up to $5000 a day after two weeks. Walton also indicated in his ruling Friday that the District Court will not address whether former CBS reporter James Stewart will also face contempt charges for refusing to divulge his sources until after March 31.

Locy, who now holds the Shott Chair of Journalism at West Virginia University, has refused to cooperate in Hatfill's suit against the Department of Justice (DOJ) for its alleged violation of the US Privacy Act [text], arguing that the information Hatfill is seeking has not been demonstrated to be central to the lawsuit. Hatfill was identified as a "person of interest" in the investigations of the 2001 anthrax attacks [GWU backgrounder]. He contends that FBI and DOJ officials violated federal privacy laws [complaint, PDF; JURIST report] by providing personal information and information about the investigation to journalists. Locy and Stewart refused to comply with orders to reveal their sources, saying that Hatfill's own lawyer revealed his identity in connection with the investigation. AP has more.

Editor's Note: Toni Locy served as a JURIST student staff member while pursuing her MSL at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law in 2006-07.