[JURIST] Pakistan People's Party (PPP) [party website] spokesman Farhatullah Babar dismissed suggestions Saturday that the party was wavering on its commitment to restore judges fired by President Pervez Musharraf [official profile; JURIST news archive]. Influential Pakistan newspaper The News [media website] reported Saturday that "the issue of restoration of the deposed judges is already causing cracks and friction not only in the grand political coalition but within the ranks of the PPP as well." Barber said the report did not present an accurate depiction of events and reiterated the party's pledge to restore judges [JURIST report]. AP has more.

The coalition government, formed by the Pakistan People's Party and the Pakistan Muslim League [party website], has vowed to establish a fully independent judiciary and work together to reinstate judges [JURIST reports] ousted by Musharraf's declaration of emergency rule [proclamation, PDF; JURIST report]. Pakistani Attorney General Malik Qayyum has said reinstating the judges would require a constitutional amendment [JURIST report] with a two-thirds majority vote.

[JURIST] Former Afghan parliamentarian Malalai Joya [BBC profile] said Saturday that she has hired a lawyer and is now fighting her controversial May 2007 removal from the Wolesi Jirga [IRIN backgrounder], the lower house of the Afghan parliament [official website]. Joya was expelled [JURIST report] after she compared the parliament to a stable in a private television interview. In a petition filed in February, Joya challenged the constitutionality of her removal, arguing that it violated the principles of democracy and her freedom of speech. Joya said that her case is progressing and that she has also met with the chief justice of Afghanistan's Supreme Court to discuss her case. Joya waited nearly a year to challenge her removal because she said she feared for her safety and did not have enough money to hire a lawyer.

In 2005, Joya won a seat in the first democratically elected Afghan parliament in 30 years, and has since made a reputation for her outspoken criticism of human rights abusers. At the parliament's inaugural session [BBC report] Joya called for Afghanistan's "criminal warlords" to be brought to justice [JURIST report], prompting pounding fists and shouts from other members. AP has more. AFP has additional coverage.

[JURIST] The Harare High Court on Saturday postponed a hearing on a lawsuit [JURIST report] seeking to compel the country's Electoral Commission [official website] to release the results of last Saturday's elections [JURIST report] after lawyers for Zimbabwean opposition party Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) [party website] were barred from entering the court. Armed police blocked the entrance to the court and forced journalists to leave the area. The commission has said that the ruling Zanu-PF party lost the majority in the Parliament, but has not yet announced a winner in the presidential election. Independent observers say that opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai [BBC profile] won the most votes but not enough to win the election outright. Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] and his Zanu-PF party Friday agreed to a runoff election with Tsvangirai. Saturday's court hearing was postponed until noon on Sunday.

On Thursday, Zimbabwean security forces detained journalists [CPJ press release; JURIST report] working for the New York Times and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and raided offices belonging to opposition candidates in what some see as indications that Mugabe may refuse to relinquish power if he is found to have lost last week's general election. Opposition parties allege that the government rigged the country's local, senate, assembly and presidential elections. Mugabe's administration has denied any improper delays in the vote count, with Electoral Commission officials attributing the lag to the task of tallying all the results together for the first time in the country's history. Reuters has more. AP has additional coverage.

[JURIST] The Constitutional Court of Chile [official website] on Friday blocked a government-sponsored program that distributed emergency contraceptives to women as young as 14 free of charge. The program [IPS report], approved by the Supreme Court in February, was introduced by Chilean President Michelle Bachelet [official website], who called it essential to creating equality among Chilean women. It was immediately met with criticism by the conservative opposition party which characterized the use of emergency contraceptives as abortion, and brought the case to the Constitutional Court. The program was struck down [press release, in Spanish] by a vote of 5-4, and the decision cannot be appealed.

Emergency contraceptives will still be available at pharmacies with a doctor's prescription, but supporters of the program say that the ruling unfairly targets poor Chilean women who cannot afford the pills. They also contend that the use of the "morning-after" pill does not constitute an abortion, which is illegal in Chile. AP has more. Bloomberg has additional coverage.

[JURIST] The Nigerian Federal High Court on Friday formally charged rebel Henry Okah with treason based on an alleged coup plot. Okah, a member of the militant Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND) [BBC backgrounder], was arrested and charged in Angola in September after attempting to buy weapons and explosives. Friday's closed court hearing was the first trial proceeding since Okah was secretly extradited to Nigeria in February. Okah's lawyers took the opportunity to condemn the court for preventing themselves, Okah's family, and the International Red Cross from meeting with him while he has been detained. They also argued that the court violated Nigerian law when it failed to notify the defense of the charges against Okah before Friday's session. The court adjourned until April 22 in order to consider the defense's objections.

MEND has promised to renew attacks in the Nigeria Delta region if Okah does not receive a fair trial. He faces the death penalty if convicted. BBC News has more. This Day has local coverage.

[JURIST] A military tribunal in Suriname [government website, in Dutch] ruled Friday that all suspects involved in a 1982 massacre in Paramaribo must stand trial, including former military dictator Desi Bouterse [backgrounder]. Led by Bouterse, the armed forces seized power in 1982 and then executed 15 prominent citizens accused of plotting against the government. The Suriname military tribunal rejected an effort to dismiss charges against 11 of 26 suspects, and the court can now begin hearing testimony. Bouterse has objected to the charges, saying they are politically motivated. Bouterse, who ruled the tiny South American country until 1987, has accepted political responsibility for the killings but denies personal involvement. AP has more.

In 2005, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights [official website], part of the judicial branch of the Organization of American States [official website], ordered the Suriname government to pay $13,000 (USD) to each of the 130 survivors [JURIST report] of a 1986 massacre at the N'djuka Maroon village of Moiwana by Suriname military forces. Bouterse denied reports of soldiers slaughtering innocent villagers, but acknowledged that the military had been looking for "rebel fighters and sympathizers" in the area.

[JURIST] The US military has charged [press release] a civilian contractor working with the military in Iraq with aggravated assault, marking the first time the military has charged a civilian since a 2006 amendment to Article II of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) [text] granting the military jurisdiction over civilians accompanying US troops in a combat zone. The Multi-National Force-Iraq said Saturday that Alaa "Alex" Mohammad Ali, a civilian with dual Iraq-Canadian citizenship, was charged in the stabbing death of another contractor in February. The charges mark the first time since the Vietnam war that a civilian has been charged under military law. He faces a preliminary Article 32 hearing on Thursday. AP has more. Reuters has additional coverage.

Prior to the 2006 UCMJ amendment, contractors working in Iraq were exempted [PDF text] from prosecution in that country. The amendment, found in Section 522 of the 2007 defense authorization bill [2 2766 materials; LawReader backgrounder], significantly changed the military's jurisdiction to bring civilian contractors within the military's jurisdiction during a "contingency operation" rather than its previous requirement that Congress actually declare war. Last fall, Congress took further steps [JURIST report] to bring US contractors within the jurisdiction of the military with the 2008 defense authorization bill [HR 1585 materials]. The issue of criminal jurisdiction over US military contractors working in Iraq gained notoriety last fall when several Blackwater USA [corporate website; JURIST news archive] employees allegedly killed at least eight Iraqi civilians [JURIST report] last fall. The US Department of Justice has run into legal hurdles [JURIST report] trying to bring criminal charges against the Blackwater employees.

[JURIST] The US Department of Justice [official website] on Friday sued Fox Broadcasting Company to collect unpaid fines issued for the broadcast of the controversial 2003 reality show "Married by America." Amending an earlier order, the Federal Communications Commission Enforcement Bureau [official website] issued a Forfeiture Order [PDF text] in late February ordering the the licensees of the 13 stations against whom complaints were lodged to pay $7,000. The FCC returned [FCC order] Fox's appeal of the order without consideration Friday because it was 14 pages over the recognized limit. Eight of the thirteen stations have yet to pay the fine; the DOJ brought suit against these stations in Washington DC, Iowa, West Virginia, and Tennessee. AP has more.

The suit comes as part of an aggressive campaign to crack down on indecency on television. Last month, the Supreme Court agreed to review [JURIST report] a June 2007 ruling by the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit which vacated [opinion, PDF] a determination [FCC order] by the FCC that two Fox Television broadcasts violated the FCC's indecency and profanity prohibitions. The appeals court ruled that the FCC's "fleeting expletives" standard "represented a significant departure from positions previously taken by the agency and relied on by the broadcast industry," and violated the Administrative Procedure Act [text] because the FCC failed to articulate a reasoned basis for its change in policy.

[JURIST] A former Argentinean army officer and two adoptive parents were convicted Friday of kidnapping and falsifying the identity [JURIST report] of Maria Eugenia Sampallo Barragan, a woman who was kidnapped during the 1976-1983 "Dirty War" [Global Security backgrounder; JURIST news archive]. The court sentenced Sampallo Barragan's adoptive parents to eight years in prison, and the army officer to ten years. Sampallo Barragan recovered her identity in 2000 when she took part in a DNA testing program sponsored by the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo [organization website]. After learning her identity in 2001, she filed charges against her parents.

While several other cases have dealt with the abduction of children [BBC report] by Argentinean military agents in the 1970s, this marks the first in which charges were brought by the adopted child. The most notable case resulted in the 1998 conviction of General Jorge Videla [BBC report], the former leader of Argentina's military junta. Videla is still serving a term of house arrest. AP has more.

[JURIST] Lawyers for Guantanamo Bay detainee Salim Ahmed Hamdan [DOD materials; JURIST news archive] on Friday asked a military tribunal to bar the use of statements made by Hamdan that were allegedly obtained through the use of torture and requested that the court declare that Hamdan has been subjected to abusive interrogation techniques. Hamdan contends that he was subjected to prolonged periods of isolation and beatings at the hands of US interrogators and that any statements he has made while in custody are unreliable. The motion argues that the use of these statements would violate the US Constitution, international law and the 2006 Military Commissions Act [PDF text; JURIST news archive], which allows evidence obtained through coercion to be introduced if it is reliable, but excludes the use of statements obtained through torture. A spokesman for the Pentagon denied the allegations and said that detainees are treated humanely.

Hamdan has been in US custody since 2001 when he was captured in Afghanistan and accused of working as Osama Bin Laden's driver. In 2006 he successfully challenged US President George W. Bush's military commission system when the Supreme Court ruled [opinion, PDF; JURIST report] that the commission system as initially constituted violated US and international law. Congress subsequently passed the Military Commissions Act of 2006, but Hamdan and a number of other Guantanamo detainees [JURIST reports] have argued that the current law still violates their rights. Last month, a military judge affirmed [PDF opinion; JURIST report] a prior ruling [PDF text; JURIST report] that Hamdan's lawyers may send written questions to Khalid Sheik Mohammed [BBC profile] and other alleged high-level al Qaeda detainees to facilitate the discovery of evidence on the issue of whether Hamdan was an al Qaeda agent who conspired in the USS Cole or Sept. 11 attacks. The New York Times has more.

[JURIST] The Louisiana 4th Circuit Court of Appeal [official website] has upheld the dismissal of a wrongful death suit brought by Herbert Freeman, Jr. against the state of Louisiana, the city of New Orleans and public officials. Freeman's 91-year-old wheelchair-bound mother, Ethel Mayo Freeman, died September 1, 2005 at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center where she and her son sought refuge after their home was flooded by Hurricane Katrina [JURIST news archive]. Four of the court's five judges voted Wednesday to uphold the 2007 ruling by Orleans Parish Civil District [official website] Judge Robin Giarrusso dismissing the suit. The majority agreed that the state's immunity statute requires there be a showing of willful misconduct in order to hold the state liable, but dissenting Judge Charles R. Jones said that the immunity issue was being decided prematurely.

Freeman's lawsuit against the federal government - including former FEMA [official website] Director Michael Brown and Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff [official profile] - was also dismissed [JURIST report] last year. AP has more.