[JURIST] Opposing groups of Pakistani lawyers clashed with each other in the city of Karachi Wednesday, prompting widespread rioting that led to at least seven deaths. Lawyers supporting Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf who gathered to protest the Tuesday lawyers' beating in Lahore [JURIST report] of former Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Sher Afgan Niazi were confronted after their meeting by anti-Musharraf lawyers; fighting broke out near the city's main court complex which then spread to other areas. Most of the dead were killed when they were trapped in a nearby building containing some lawyers' offices that was set ablaze. A local bar association office was gutted.

New Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani immediately denounced the violence, which Musharraf supporters quickly blamed on the lawyers movement pressing for reinstatement of superior court judges dismissed when Musharraf proclaimed emergency rule in the country last November. Niazi was instrumental in the dismissals. AP has more. From Pakistan, the News has local coverage.

[JURIST] The Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs [official website] announced Tuesday that it will not allow the new UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) [official website] envoy on Israeli human rights to enter either Israel or the Palestinian territories after he called current Israeli actions against Palestinians a "Holocaust in the making." In a Tuesday BBC interview, Richard Falk [academic profile], who is scheduled to begin his position as Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories in May, defended comments [text] made last year criticizing Israel for policies he said indiscriminately punished an entire group of people and comparing them to Nazi actions in World War II. Israeli officials accused Falk of bias and said that they will bar him from entering the country until a meeting scheduled for September. At the meeting, they plan to ask for an expansion of the investigator's powers that would allow the investigation of both Israeli and Palestinian human-rights violations. BBC News has more. AP has additional coverage.

In October, current Special Rapporteur John Dugard [academic profile] said that the UN must better address human rights violations committed in the Palestinian territories [JURIST report]. He has also previously criticized Israel's continued military presence in the region, comparing it to South African apartheid [JURIST report]. Dugard was appointed in 2001 as an independent expert by the now-defunct UN Commission on Human Rights to investigate Israeli rights violations. Israel and the US have dismissed his reports as one-sided.

[JURIST] The US House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform [official website] issued a subpoena [press release] Wednesday to compel the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) [official website] to turn over documents relating to White House involvement in the EPA decision to deny California's request for a greenhouse emissions waiver in December 2007 [JURIST report]. In a statement, Committee Chairman Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) [official website] said:

The Committee has found evidence that EPA officials met with the White House regarding California's motor vehicle regulations. Subsequently, EPA blocked California from moving forward with its landmark program to address climate change. Unfortunately, EPA has refused to disclose the substance and extent of its communications with the White House. The Committee must have these documents in order to understand how the agency's decision was made.

[JURIST] The Nebraska Supreme Court [official website] Wednesday rejected a motion for rehearing [JURIST report] filed by state Attorney General Jon Bruning asking the court to reconsider its February ruling [PDF text; JURIST report] that execution by electric chair is "cruel and unusual" punishment and therefore prohibited by the Nebraska constitution [text]. Bruning said he would appeal the decision to the US Supreme Court [press release, PDF].

The February decision held that since unconsciousness and death are not instantaneous, many condemned prisoners will consciously suffer when electrocuted. The court's majority wrote that the ruling was based solely on state law, making the decision unlikely to be reviewed by the US Supreme Court. Last month, the Nebraska legislature rejected [JURIST report] a bill [LB 1063, PDF] that would have banned the death penalty altogether, replacing it with a sentence of life in prison without parole. Omaha's KETV has more.

[JURIST] A four-member Iraqi judiciary committee has dismissed terrorism-related charges against Associated Press (AP) [media website] photographer Bilal Hussein [AP materials; JURIST news archive] and ordered his release. Hussein has been held by the US military since his arrest in April 2006 for allegedly possessing equipment to construct roadside bombs. The panel's ruling comes under a new amnesty law passed [JURIST report] by the Iraqi Council of Representatives [official website, in Arabic]. Hussein's release is not necessarily imminent, as US military authorities in Iraq say that a UN mandate allows them to hold any detainee deemed a security risk. AP has more.

In November 2007, the US Department of Defense pushed for terrorism charges against Hussein [JURIST report]. AP has repeatedly called for his release and has accused the military of denying Hussein his due process rights. In December 2006, the Committee to Protect Journalists released a report [text; JURIST report] noting that the US is currently detaining three journalists, including Hussein and Al Jazeera cameraman Sami al-Haj [CPJ report].

[JURIST] A judge in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York [official website] ruled Wednesday that an Afghan tribal chief charged [PDF text; JURIST report] with conspiring to violate US narcotics laws must face trial even though US officials lured him into the United States. Drug Enforcement Administration officials arrested Bashir Noorzai [IHT profile] in April 2005 after agents told him in 2004 that he would be given safe passage to and from the United States in return for meeting with American authorities. The judge held that even if US officials made the promises Noorzai contends, those promises did not include official immunity. The trial will begin in Manhattan on May 19. Reuters has more. AP has additional coverage.

Noorzai challenged the indictment in part because he cooperated with and provided information to US authorities after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks [JURIST news archive], and said he was led to believe that the 2005 meeting would only be a discussion of Afghanistan's future. Prosecutors said that at the time of the arrest, Noorzai was classified as one of the world's most wanted drug kingpins [press release, PDF]. Noorzai could face a mandatory minimum prison sentence of 10 years and a maximum possible sentence of life in prison if convicted.

[JURIST] The Court of Appeal in London Wednesday blocked two separate orders to extradite two terror suspects to Libya and another convicted terrorist to Jordan, citing concerns that they would face torture and be denied a fair trial on arrival. The ruling overturned a February 2007 decision [JURIST report] by the Special Immigration Appeals Commission [official backgrounder] to deport Islamic cleric Abu Qatada [BBC profile] to Jordan, but upheld an April 2007 ruling [JURIST report] that two Libyan terror suspects could not be deported to Libya due to similar concerns.

The UK has signed agreements with Jordan and Libya [JURIST reports] under which those countries guaranteed that deportees would not face abuse on their return, but the court ruled that those agreements, much maligned by rights groups, were insufficient. The British government says it will continue to push for the extraditions. Bloomberg has more. BBC News has additional coverage.

[JURIST] A Saudi Arabian Guantanamo Bay detainee said during a pre-trial hearing Wednesday that he plans to boycott his upcoming military commission trial and does not wish to attend or have legal representation. Ahmed Mohammed Ahmed Haza al-Darbi [DOD materials] described the proceedings as a "sham" and argued that the US military commissions system constitutes a "crime against humanity." A military judge said that he could still be tried and convicted in absentia should he refuse to attend future proceedings. AP has more.

Military prosecutors filed charges [PDF text, JURIST report] in December against al-Darbi for his alleged role in a plan to bomb a ship off the coast of Yemen or in the Strait of Hormuz. He is accused of conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism under Sections 950v(b)(28) and (25) of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 [PDF text]. He also allegedly attended and worked at an al Qaeda terrorist training camp and traveled to various locales in Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar to buy materials and recruit help for terror activities. In March, the US Department of Defense referred two charges [JURIST report] against al-Darbi. He has been held at Guantanamo Bay since March 2003 and faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted.

[JURIST] Chief Justice of the Federal Court of Malaysia Abdul Hamid Mohamad [official profile] indicated his support Wednesday for the creation of an independent body to govern the appointment and promotion of judges, reportedly telling a group of judges that it would help "regain the confidence of the public in the judiciary." In March, newly appointed Malaysian Law Minister Zaid Ibrahim [firm profile] proposed creating an independent appointment body [JURIST report] to ensure both an independent judiciary and greater transparency in the appointment process. Zaid's proposals were immediately backed by the Malaysian Bar Council.

In September 2007, approximately 2,000 lawyers and activists protested [press release; JURIST report] in Malaysia's capital, calling for an investigation into judicial corruption. The protest was sparked by the release of a 2001 video [Malaysian Bar Council report and streaming video] showing prominent Malaysian lawyer V.K. Lingam on the phone with someone who is believed to be former Malaysian Chief Justice Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim brokering Halim's appointment to become chief justice. In January, Lingam claimed he must have been intoxicated [JURIST report] in the video when he appeared to be arranging for the appointment of "friendly" senior judges during an official inquiry into the incident. An inquiry panel has yet to release its findings about the incident. AP has more.

[JURIST] Police in China [JURIST news archive] have detained 953 people, of which 403 have been formally arrested, in connection with protests against Chinese rule in Tibet [BBC backgrounder] last month, Chairman of the Government of the Tibet Autonomous Region Qiangba Puncog [CIIC profile] said Wednesday. Last Friday, a top Tibetan official was quoted as saying that Tibetan courts would prosecute more than 1,000 protesters [JURIST report] before May 1.

Chinese officials have blamed the exiled Dalai Lama [personal website] for organizing the protests by Buddhist monks in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa last month. China says that 19 people died after skirmishes between pro-Tibet protesters and Chinese authorities last month, but the Tibetan government-in-exile [official website] said that 130 had died [JURIST report]. The Dalai Lama has denied accusations that he was behind the riots and has said that he supports true autonomy for Tibet, not outright independence. AFP has more.

[JURIST] Myanmar's 45-member Referendum Holding Commission has scheduled a planned national constitutional referendum [JURIST reports] for May 10, the military government announced Wednesday. Opposition groups like the National League for Democracy (NLD) have urged citizens to reject [JURIST report] the proposed constitution put forth by the military government, labeling the referendum a "sham" to legalize military rule. AP reported last month that the draft constitution reserves 25 percent of parliamentary seats for the military [AP report; JURIST report] and would also block pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] from seeking office.

Myanmar [JURIST news archive] 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. The last general elections in Myanmar were held in 1990. The NLD, led 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. AP has more.

[JURIST] The US Department of Defense has assigned Navy Captain Prescott Prince [Miami Herald profile, PDF] to defend confessed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] before a US military commission, the Miami Herald reported Tuesday. In February, the US government said it would seek the death penalty [JURIST report] for Mohammed and five other Guantanamo detainees accused of involvement in the Sept. 11 attacks. Last week, the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers said they have teamed up to provide experienced civilian defense attorneys [press release; JURIST report] to assist military-appointed lawyers in defending several Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainees who are facing military commission trials, including Mohammed.

Mohammed admitted under oath during his first hearing [JURIST report] before a Combatant Status Review Tribunal (CSRT) [DOD backgrounder] in March 2007 that he masterminded the 9/11 attacks [JURIST report]. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] A 2003 US Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel memorandum [PDF text] demonstrates that the detention of Illinois resident and Qatari native Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri [Brennan Center case materials; NYT profile] "lacks legal basis" as the detention was based on now-discredited legal opinions, a lawyer for al-Marri argued in a letter [PDF text] submitted to the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Tuesday. The now officially-repudiated memo written by the Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Yoo, declassified and released [JURIST report] last week, advised the US Department of Defense that military interrogators could employ a wide range of interrogation methods when questioning foreign detainees outside the United States without fear of criminal liability or constitutional sanction. In addition, the 2003 memo cited an unreleased 2001 memorandum [JURIST report], also since repudiated, asserting that the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches and seizures did not apply to "domestic military operations" conducted in pursuit of terrorism suspects."

Al-Marri's lawyer wrote:

The President relied on an an OLC opinion in designating al-Marri an "enemy combatant" in June 2003, merely three months after the Memo issued, ... and the government says that opinion formed part of the "extremely careful[]" Executive process that produced this designation....

The Memo - later repudiated by the Justice Department... - further demonstrates that al-Marri's detention lacks legal basis. ...

In sum, the President designated al-Marri an "enemy combatant" based upon erroneous legal analysis, and to uphold his detention is to endorse the result of an analysis that even the Justice Department has repudiated.

[JURIST] The Assembly of Kosovo [official website] Wednesday adopted the country's new draft constitution [text] without a vote, which was signed [press release, in Albanian; JURIST report] earlier this week by top Kosovo officials. Last week, the European Union certified [JURIST report] that the seceded Serbian province's constitution is in line with its international obligations, guaranteeing the individual and community rights of all its citizens.

Kosovo's constitution is slated to come into effect on June 15, close to the date that EULEX Kosovo [planning website], a 1,800-strong European Union police and justice mission [Reuters report], will assume authority from the UN Mission in Kosovo [official website]. The transition is taking place despite reservations from some EU member states that have declined to recognize [JURIST reports] the Assembly of Kosovo's February unilateral declaration of Kosovo's independence [text; JURIST report] from Serbia. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] A Peruvian court Tuesday convicted four former Peruvian military officers of kidnapping and murder for their roles in the 1992 La Cantuta massacre [MIT backgrounder], which left one professor and nine students at Lima's La Cantuta University dead. The military general and three military death squad soldiers convicted each received prison sentences ranging from 15 to 35 years, while four other soldiers were acquitted on charges of aiding in the massacre. Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] is currently being tried for allegedly authorizing the military death squad's attacks, which were likely part of a campaign against Shining Path rebels [FAS backgrounder] in the country.

In December, Fujimori apologized [JURIST report] for his role in two massacres, including the one at La Cantuta, which both occurred during his administration in the early 1990s. Fujimori said that he did not authorize or have any knowledge of the killings. Prior to the public apology, Fujimori was sentenced to six years in prison [JURIST report] for abuse of authority in the last months of his 1990-2000 rule. He currently faces three other trials in Peru, stemming from his actions during three presidential terms in office from 1990-2000. AP has more.

[JURIST] The judicial members of the House of Lords making up Britain's highest court on Wednesday denied a request [judgment] by two mothers of soldiers killed in Iraq for a public inquiry into the legality of UK's decision to go to war in Iraq [JURIST report]. The mothers had requested an inquiry into the decision to go to war based on the right to life guaranteed by Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights [PDF text]. Lord Bingham of Cornhill wrote:

It may be significant that article 2 has never been held to apply to the process of deciding on the lawfulness of a resort to arms, despite the number of occasions on which member states have made that decision over the past half century and despite the fact that such a decision almost inevitably exposes military personnel to the risk of fatalities. There are, I think, three main reasons for this:

(1) The lawfulness of military action has no immediate bearing on the risk of fatalities...

(2) The draftsmen of the European Convention cannot, in my opinion, have envisaged that it could provide a suitable framework or machinery for resolving questions about the resort to war...

(3) The obligation of member states under article 1 of the Convention is to secure "to everyone within their jurisdiction" the rights and freedoms in the Convention. Subject to limited exceptions and specific extensions, the application of the Convention is territorial: the rights and freedoms are ordinarily to be secured to those within the borders of the state and not outside.

[JURIST] Human Rights Watch [advocacy website] accused the CIA Tuesday of transferring terror suspects to Jordan [report; press release] following September 11, saying that the US sent them there for interrogations as part of the CIA's rendition program [JURIST news archive]. HRW reported that at least 14 persons were sent to Jordan, saying that:

From 2001 until at least 2004, Jordan's General Intelligence Department (GID) served as a proxy jailer for the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), holding prisoners that the CIA apparently wanted kept out of circulation, and later handing some of them back to the CIA. More than just warehousing these men, the GID interrogated them using methods that were even more brutal than those in which the CIA has been implicated to date. The prisoners were typically held for several months in GID custody—and in at least one case, for nearly two years.

[JURIST] Pakistani Supreme Court Bar Association President Aitzaz Ahsan [PILDAT profile; JURIST news archive] said Tuesday he was resigning as head of the lawyer's association and then appeared to back away from that statement after a crowd of lawyers and other persons in Lahore beat up former Pakistani Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Sher Afgan Niazi [Dawn report]. Ahsan, who has led the call for reinstatement of the superior court judges ousted by President Pervez Musharraf [JURIST report] last year after he proclaimed a state of emergency, initially said that he was removing himself in order to distance himself from the attacks on Niazi, which he tried to personally stop, but later suggested he would defer his decision after talking with other lawyers.

Before his erstwhile resignation Tuesday, Ahsan renewed his call to reinstate the judges, saying that Pakistan's legal community would not accept any reinstatement unless dismissed Pakistani Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaundry [JURIST news archive], also removed during the emergency, was among the jurists restored. Niazi was instrumental in the dismissals during his time in office. ANI has more.

[JURIST] The National Assembly of Senegal [official backgrounder, in French] on Tuesday amended the Senegalese Constitution [text, in French] to give Senegalese courts jurisdiction over the trial of former Chadian dictator Hissene Habre [HRW materials; JURIST news archive], who is accused of crimes against humanity. Habre was accused in 1992 by a Chadian Truth Commission of committing some 40,000 acts of murder and torture of political opponents during his rule from 1982 to 1990. He has been living is Senegal since he was deposed in 1990, and the Senegalese courts dismissed an action against him in 2001 [HRW case backgrounder], claiming that they lacked jurisdiction over crimes committed elsewhere. Recent pressure from the African Union and the UN Committee Against Torture [official websites] have prompted Senegal to revisit its position on Habre, and the constitutional amendment now gives Senegalese courts the jurisdiction to try him for crimes he is accused of having committed in Chad.

Senegal courts have long refused to extradite Habre, despite the issuance of an international arrest warrant [JURIST reports] issued by Belgium pursuant to its universal jurisdiction laws [HRW backgrounder]. Under growing international pressure to either try Habre locally or extradite him to Belgium, Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade [official profile, in French; BBC profile] agreed in April 2006 to try him in Senegal and the government later determined [JURIST reports] he would face charges in a criminal court, rather than in front of a special tribunal. Human rights groups, however, have still criticized Senegal for its lack of progress. In January, an EU official sent to Senegal to advise the court where trial should take place reported that the trial would not begin in 2008 [JURIST report]. BBC News has more. Reuters has additional coverage.

[JURIST] Daniel Bellemare [Ya Libnan profile], the former Canadian federal prosecutor now heading the United Nations probe into the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri [JURIST news archive], asked the UN Security Council Tuesday to extend his investigative authority beyond its mandated June 15 expiration, saying the investigation was making progress but that no indictments would be issued soon. Bellemere, who took over as commissioner [UN press release] of the UN International Independent Investigation Commission (IIIC) [authorizing resolution; UN materials] in November succeeding Belgian Serge Brammertz and German Detlev Mehlis [JURIST news archives], asked the Security Council to give him the authority to continue the investigation while the UN Special Tribunal for Lebanon [JURIST report], which will eventually take over the commission's work, is being established.

Late last month an IIIC spokesman asserted in a press briefing in conjunction with the release of the commission's latest report that a criminal network may have been responsible [JURIST report] for Hariri's murder. Last June, the Security Council expanded [JURIST report] the Hariri probe to include 17 other attempted or successful political assassinations in Lebanon. Reuters has more.