[JURIST] Khasan Yandiyev, deputy head of the Supreme Court in Russia's Ingushetia province [official website, in Russian; BBC backgrounder] was shot dead Sunday while changing a car tire near the town of Karabulak, according to a regional interior ministry spokesman quoted by Russian media. His killers have not yet been identified. Local media said Yandiyev had chaired trials of both corrupt officials and Islamic rebels. RIA Novosti has local coverage. Reuters has more.

In recent months, Ingushetia has seen an upsurge of violence, particularly targeted towards police and the military. Local authorities blame Muslim rebels from both Ingushetia and neighboring Chechnya [JURIST news archive], but government opponents blame increasingly harsh policing tactics including the alleged abductions, beatings, and even killings [advocacy report, PDF] of suspected militants.

[JURIST] Internecine conflict among factions of the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) [MIPT backgrounder; JURIST news archive] in Uganda has killed a rebel commander wanted [arrest warrant] by International Criminal Court [official website] prosecutors, according to sources speaking to Reuters Sunday. Okot Odhiambo had been charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes associated with the LRA attacks on Ugandan refugee camps in 2003 and 2004.

Sources say that disagreements over a pending peace deal between the LRA and the Ugandan government prompted the infighting, as a result of which LRA leader Joseph Kony [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] failed to attend a signing ceremony this past week on the remote Sudan-Congo border. Kony fired the head of his negotiating team earlier in the week, citing a need for stronger guarantees of safety and financial security in the final deal. Kony was indicted [ICC materials; JURIST report] by the ICC for war crimes and crimes against humanity in 2005 but has requested that the ICC indictments be withdrawn in exchange for his cooperation. The Ugandan government has said it would use a traditional mediation system [JURIST report] or a special war crimes court [JURIST report] to counter the arrest warrants issued by the ICC, but has acknowledged that any decision to drop international charges would have to be approved by judges at The Hague. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Former Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim [personal website; BBC profile] will return to political life Monday as the leader of opposition coalition Pakatan Rakyat, marking the expiration of his 10-year ban from public office arising from corruption and now-overturned sodomy convictions [JURIST reports]. In the country's March 8 elections [results website; BBC backgrounder], the recently formed coalition won a third of the parliamentary seats and control of five of 13 Malaysian states in what is being called the largest blow to Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's ruling Barisan Nasional [campaign website] alliance in half a century. Anwar's own party, Parti Keadilan Rakyat [party website, in Malay], ran on a platform of ending judicial corruption and reforming the country's controversial affirmative action policies. AFP has more. The Star has local coverage.

Since his release from prison in 2004, Anwar has held teaching positions at various universities, most recently the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, before returning to Malaysia in December 2007. He has also played a significant roll in sparking protests of judicial corruption in the country by releasing video excerpts [JURIST reports] allegedly showing former Malaysian Chief Justice Dzaiddin Abdullah admitting to accepting bribes in return for judicial appointments.

[JURIST] Zimbabwe's High Court Sunday ordered the country’s Electoral Commission [official website] to refrain from recounting the results of the combined March 29 elections [JURIST report] until the presidential poll results are announced. Zimbabwean opposition party Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) [party website] sought to enjoin the Electoral Commission following the official announcement that a recount in 23 out of 210 constituencies would be undertaken. The Electoral Commission, which had called for a recount under pressure [JURIST report] from the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) [party website], cited “reasonable grounds” for suspecting that votes were miscounted in a way that could affect the outcome.

The MDC filed a lawsuit [JURIST report] earlier this month to compel the Electoral Commission to release the results of the presidential elections. A High Court ruling in that case is expected on Monday. Though no official tally has been released, independent observers say that MDC candidate Morgan Tsvangirai [BBC profile] won more votes than sitting President Robert Mugabe but likely not enough to reach the 50 percent plus one needed for outright victory. A run-off presidential election is widely expected. The March elections combined local, senate, assembly and presidential polls. BBC News has more. The Independent has additional coverage.

[JURIST] A Pakistani rights group Sunday urged Pakistan's new government to immediately release dozens of people its security agencies have secretly detained as part of President Pervez Musharraf's cooperation with the US [USIP backgrounder] in its "war on terror" [JURIST news archive]. Defense of Human Rights and other critics of Musharraf claim his administration has detained dozens of militant suspects without formal charges since Sept. 11, 2001, handing some of them over to the US illegally. Pakistan's new coalition government - led by Musharraf opponents - has promised to make freeing the secretly detained a priority, but Pakistani authorities are still said to be detaining suspected militants.

The ruling coalition in Pakistan was elected on a platform of opposing Musharraf's authoritarian rule, his ousting of the country's superior court judges after his November proclamation of emergency, and his handling of the war on terror. Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani [official profile] reiterated [JURIST report] earlier this month that he will restore Pakistan's constitution [text], ensure the supremacy of the country's parliament, and preserve judicial independence [JURIST report]. AP has more.

[JURIST] Several top military officials in the Philippines on Sunday called for Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo [official website; BBC profile] to pardon the nine officers sentenced [JURIST report] this week for their role in a failed 2003 coup [BBC report]. General Hermogenes Esperon, head of the armed forces and Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro [official profiles] said they recommended pardoning the officers, stressing the importance of achieving national peace. The government has traditionally gone easy on military coup plotters and coup attempts have been relatively commonplace in Philippines history.

No shots were fired during the 2003 incident, in which 31 officers commandeered a Manila hotel, threatened to set off explosives, and held off police for 19 hours before surrendering. All nine officers changed their pleas to guilty last week, though no plea agreement had been struck with prosecutors. Two officers were given life sentences, while the other seven each received 12-year sentences. In April 2007, a Philippine military tribunal sentenced 54 military officers [JURIST report] to seven years and six months in prison for their involvement in the 2003 coup attempt. Charges were later dismissed [JURIST report] in October against four additional military officers connected to the same mutiny. Reuters has more.