[JURIST] Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] said Saturday that a bid by the country's top prosecutor to disband his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) [party website, in Turkish] and to bar him and President Abdullah Gul [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] from political office was a "step against the national will." Chief prosecutor Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya [official profile, in Turkish] petitioned the Constitutional Court of Turkey [official website, English version] on Friday for the banishment of the party, which controls the offices of the prime minister and president and dominates the 550-seat Parliament with 340 lawmakers. Yalcinkaya accused the AKP of being "the focal point of anti-secular activities," writing in his indictment that the party "has tried to chip away at the principles of secularism." The Islamist-leaning AKP has long been at odds with Turkey's secular establishment, prompted backlash from the Republican People's Party [official website] most recently for the passage of a constitutional amendment easing a ban on Islamic headscarves [JURIST report] in universities.

The AKP, which emerged in 2001 from a banned Islamist party, took 47 percent of the vote in the national parliamentary elections last July. The Constitutional Court has banned several Islamist parties in the past, including the Welfare Party, which lead Turkey's first pro-Islamist government for nearly a year, for violating constitutional obligations to respect Turkey's strict secular principles. The court will meet Monday to decide whether to accept the prosecutor's complaint. AFP has more. AP has additional coverage.

[JURIST] The US Department of Defense (DOD) announced [press release] Friday that an alleged top al-Qaeda operative has been transferred from CIA custody to Guantanamo Bay. Muhammad Rahim, a former messenger for Osama bin Laden said to have helped the terrorist leader escape from Afghanistan in 2001, was captured by local authorities in Pakistan last summer and turned over to the CIA in August. Rahim is the second detainee to be transferred to military custody since the administration confirmed [JURIST report] 18 months ago that it had maintained a network of secret CIA prisons to interrogate key suspects. The DOD statement did not say where the CIA had held Rahim prior to his transfer. The last transfer of a "high-value" CIA detainee to Guantanamo was that of Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi [DOD profile, PDF], which occurred last April [JURIST report]. Neither the CIA nor the DOD have disclosed the details of Rahim's capture, or revealed how he was interrogated. The New York Times has more.

Under the Geneva Conventions [text], the International Committee of the Red Cross must be permitted to visit with Rahim and the other 277 detainees in Guantanamo. The Bush administration continues to differ with the Red Cross over how quickly such visits are required and has refused to allow its delegations inside the CIA's secret prisons. This past week, the ACLU filed a lawsuit [JURIST report] seeking to compel the US government to release unredacted transcripts of military hearings for 14 of the "high value" detainees, during which the prisoners allegedly described torture and abuse experienced while confined in CIA secret prisons. None of the "high value" detainees, including Rahim and al-Iraqi, have been been formally charged with any crime.

[JURIST] US Attorney General Michael Mukasey [official profile; JURIST news archive] told an audience in London Friday that he hopes those accused in the 9/11 attacks [JURIST news archive] do not receive the death penalty if found guilty because it would make them martyrs. Mukasey made the comment in response to a question after a speech [prepared text] at the London School of Economics on Anglo-American law enforcement. Mukasey did say the punishment would be fitting if they are convicted of the crime, but he believes it would allow the accused to portray themselves as victims. He emphasized that he was merely expressing a personal opinion, not stating US government policy.

The US is planning military commission trials of the six men currently accused in the attacks at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive]. Those six include Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Walid Bin Attash, Ramzi Binalshibh, Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi, and Mohammed al-Qahtani. Mukasey defended the military commission process in his remarks Friday, saying:

The military commissions established by our Congress are closely modeled on tribunals that the United States uses in courts-martial to try U.S. citizens in uniform. They include all the protections that we regard as fundamental, they exceed those used at Nuremberg, and they compare favorably with international war crimes tribunals.

Under the Military Commissions Act, for example, the accused enjoys the right to counsel; the presumption of innocence unless guilt is proved beyond a reasonable doubt; and the right to a trial before impartial military judges—the same military judges who preside at courts-martial—and an impartial jury. The accused enjoys the right to see all of the evidence presented against him—including any classified evidence presented to the members of the military commission. And the act ensures that the military judge deems statements admitted to be reliable and in the interest of justice.

Moreover, there will be no secret trials—rather, all trials will be open and public, with only a narrow exception to protect national security. Finally, for those convicted, the Military Commissions Act provides several levels of appeal, including to our civilian courts, and ultimately to the U.S. Supreme Court. Like many of the rights provided in the act, this access to our domestic courts for direct appellate review is an unprecedented protection for convicted war criminals.

We recognize that the use of military commissions has been regarded as controversial by some of our allies. But we hope that as the trials go forward—and the first of them, of a man named Hamdan, who served among other things as Osama bin Laden's driver, is scheduled to begin this Spring—some of the misimpressions about the system will laid be to rest, and the world will see not only the crimes of al Qaeda put upon display, but also a justice system fully consistent with our shared Anglo-American legal tradition as well as the standards of international law. That's why international conversations like this one are important, because they provide the opportunity for a discussion grounded in fact.

[JURIST] Hundreds of Serbs took control of a UN courthouse in the northern Kosovo city of Mitrovica Friday in an apparent protest against Kosovo's recent declaration of independence [text; JURIST report] from Serbia. The group initially demanded a deal with UN authorities, but it was not immediately clear what the details of those demands were. The regional UN representative held talks with Serb leaders over the situation but those broke off during the night. Joachim Ruecker [official profile], head of the UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) [official website], said in a statement [press release]:

Those who turned to violence in North Mitrovica have crossed one of UNMIK’s red lines. This is completely unacceptable. I have instructed UNMIK Police to restore law and order in the North and to ensure that the Court House is again under UN control.

[JURIST] The Norwegian government [official website] brought forward a draft law Friday that would grant same-sex couples the same rights as heterosexual couples, replacing a 1993 law which merely granted gay couples the right to enter into civil unions. The proposal would allow gay couples to be married in a church but does not require a minister or religious organization to perform the ceremony. It also gives lesbians the right to assisted pregnancies and allows gay couples to be considered adoptive parents. It is unclear whether the measure, supported by Minister of Children and Equality Anniken Huitfeldt [official profile], will pass the parliament without changes.

Denmark became the first country to allow gays to enter into civil unions in 1989. The Netherlands was the first country to give gay couples the full right of marriage in 2001. AP has more. The International Herald Tribune has additional coverage.

[JURIST] Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom [official profile] vetoed a bill [press release, in Spanish] Friday that would have restored the country's death penalty [AI backgrounder]. Decree 06-2008 [AI backgrounder] would also have given Colom, sworn into office just last month [AP report] the power to decide whether to grant clemency and commute the sentences of the 34 inmates currently on death row to 50 years in prison, or to order their executions to take place. In vetoing the measure Colom said cases in the United States showed that the death penalty did not deter crime, and that strengthening security institutions was the best way to fight crime in Guatemala. The Guatemalan Congress [official website], which passed the bill in February with 140 out of 158 lawmakers supporting it, can override the veto with a two-thirds supermajority vote.

The last execution Guatemala took place in 2000. In 2002, then-President Alfonso Portillo directed the Constitutional Court [official website] to set a capital punishment moratorium in the country, concluding that a 1892 law permitting commutation was unclear as to which part of the government had jurisdiction to grant clemency. The Constitutional Court granted the moratorium, stating that it was Congress' job to amend the law. AP has more.