[JURIST] Top members of Pakistan's government coalition Wednesday failed to reach an agreement on restoring judges ousted by President Pervez Musharraf last year after he declared emergency rule [PDF text; JURIST report], but vowed to continue discussions Thursday. The two leading coalition parties, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and the Pakistan People's Party [party websites], reportedly disagree [JURIST report] on the amount of power that the restored judges should wield, whether judges should be subject to term limits, and whether ousted Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry [JURIST news archive] should be among the judges reinstated. The coalition government had earlier pledged to reach an agreement on restoring the judges by the end of April.

The coalition government, sworn in last month after parliamentary elections earlier this year, has vowed to establish a fully independent judiciary [JURIST reports]. One of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani's first actions upon taking office was seeking Chaudhry's and other ousted judges' immediate release from house arrest [JURIST report]. Pakistan's attorney general has said that reinstating the ousted judges would require a constitutional amendment [JURIST report] with a two-thirds majority vote in parliament. AP has more.

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[JURIST] US military judge Navy Capt. Keith Allred Wednesday set down terms under which Guantanamo Bay detainee Salim Ahmed Hamdan [DOD materials; JURIST news archive] can question suspected al Qaeda leaders currently in US custody at Guantanamo as part of his defense effort. Hamdan's defense team had asked for "two-way" communications to be allowed between Hamdan and several other detainees, but the government argued that allowing such a communication would jeopardize national security. Allred ruled that Hamdan's signature could be included on requests for information drafted by the government, and that any responses to Hamdan's questions would be screened by the government before being turned over to the defense team. Hamdan's defense lawyers hope to show that he was merely an employee of Osama bin Laden, and not a high-level al Qaeda terrorist. Wednesday's decision follows an earlier ruling [JURIST report] allowing questioning of certain Guantanamo detainees.

Allred said Wednesday that he hoped the ruling would encourage Hamdan to resume an active role in his defense. As pre-trial hearings in his case got underway this week, Hamdan announced that he planned to boycott his military commission trial [JURIST report]. During a Tuesday hearing, he appeared apologetic for the decision, but said that he did not believe the military commission system would bring justice [Miami Herald report]. Hamdan did not attend Wednesday's hearing. His trial by military commission is set for June 2, and Allred said Wednesday that it would proceed whether or not Hamdan participates. AP has more.

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 [DOD materials], which established the current military commissions system.

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[JURIST] A federal judge Wednesday set January 6, 2009 for the third terrorism prosecution [JURIST report] of six men charged with conspiring [DOJ press release] to bomb the Sears Tower in Chicago and the FBI headquarters in Miami after two previous prosecutions ended in mistrials. Earlier this month, US District Judge Joan A. Lenard declared the second mistrial [JURIST report] after the jury was unable to reach a verdict after 13 days of deliberations. In December 2007, Lenard declared an initial mistrial [JURIST report] when the jury was deadlocked after nine days of deliberations. A seventh man was acquitted in that proceeding.

The seven were indicted [JURIST report] in 2006 on charges [indictment, PDF] of conspiring to provide material support to al Qaeda; conspiring to provide material support, training, and resources to terrorists; conspiring to maliciously damage and destroy by means of an explosive; and conspiring to levy war against the government of the United States. The indictment alleged that ringleader Narseal Batiste recruited the six other initial defendants to "organize and train for a mission to wage war against the United States government," and that they pledged an oath to al Qaeda in an attempt to secure financial and logistical backing. Lawyers for some of the men have said that their clients were entrapped [JURIST report] by an FBI informant posing as an al Qaeda operative. AP has more. The Sun-Sentinel has local coverage.

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[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on Wednesday dismissed [opinion, PDF] a lawsuit filed by the city of New York against gun manufacturers, ruling that gun makers were immune from suit under a 2005 federal law [JURIST report] that shields the firearms industry from civil lawsuits brought by cities, municipalities and victims of gun crimes. The ruling overturns a decision by a lower court that found the court had jurisdiction to hear the case.

New York originally filed the lawsuit in 2000, arguing that gun makers and dealers should be more closely regulated to stem the flow of illegal guns into the city. In 2006, New York City filed another lawsuit [JURIST report] against 15 rogue out-of-state gun dealers; that suit sought to compel the dealers to undergo mandatory training and to pay compensatory damages to the city and punitive damages to victims. Reuters has more.

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[JURIST] Zimbabwean police have launched investigations into at least 100 cases of alleged fraud in the March 29 contested presidential election [JURIST report], officials said Wednesday. Police have arrested voters accused of voting multiple times in the election, as well as several Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) [official website] officials accused of accepting bribes to miscount votes in favor of Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) candidate Morgan Tsvangirai [BBC profile]. The government of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] has pledged to root out the alleged fraud, but opposition supporters say the allegations are an attempt by Mugabe to hold onto power. AFP has more.

Official results of the presidential race have long been delayed, but a government official told CNN Wednesday that Tsvangirai had won 47 percent of the presidential vote and Mugabe had won 43 percent, forcing a runoff election [CNN report]. An MDC spokesman rejected the need for a runoff [AP report], saying that only a rigged election would produce the results that would necessitate one. Violence has wracked the country since the March election, with frequent clashes between opposition forces and government supporters. Human Rights Watch [advocacy website] Wednesday accused the Zimbabwean army of working with the ruling party [HRW report] to detain, torture, and murder political opponents, and urged the African Union and the UN Security Council to push for an end to the violence. AP has more.

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[JURIST] UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown Wednesday vowed to push for the passage of a new anti-terror bill [BBC Q/A] that would allow British authorities to detain terror suspects up to 42 days without charge. Current law only authorizes detention without charge for 28 days [JURIST report], but bill proponents have argued that this time limit endangers national security. The Counter-Terrorism Bill 2008 [draft text, PDF; bill materials] also includes provisions creating a registry of convicted terrorists and making terrorism an "aggravating factor" in sentencing for non-terrorism offenses. Tory and Liberal Democrat MPs have opposed the legislation, fearing it could infringe on civil liberties. The Guardian has more.

UK Home Secretary Jacqui Smith [official profile] first proposed a 42-day detention period [JURIST report] in December 2007. The proposal followed statements made in June 2007 by former UK Home Secretary John Reid calling for longer pre-charge time limits, and a proposal [JURIST reports] floated last July that would have allowed the extension of the 28-day limit after a declared state of emergency and permitted judges to authorize weekly extensions for up to 56 days subject to parliamentary notification.

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[JURIST] A US military judge Wednesday rejected arguments that Canadian Guantanamo detainee Omar Khadr [DOD materials; JURIST news archive] was a child soldier when he was captured in Afghanistan and that the US military commission responsible for his trial lacks jurisdiction over the case. In a motion filed with US military judge Col. Peter Brownback in January, Khadr's lawyers had asked for the case to be dismissed [JURIST report] saying that it violated the Optional Protocol of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child [text], which gives special protection to children under 18 involved in armed conflicts. Khadr's lawyers had also argued that the US Congress did not grant Guantanamo Bay military commissions the authority to hear cases involving child soldiers charged with juvenile crimes. UN officials and rights groups have also argued against Khadr's prosecution [JURIST report], saying it violated the protocol.

On Tuesday, Khadr military lawyer Lt.-Cmdr. William Kuebler asserted before a Canadian parliamentary committee [CBC report] that the Guantanamo tribunal is determined to find Khadr guilty despite what he said was a lack of evidence, and urged the Canadian government to press the US to extradite Khadr. Khadr, now 21, faces life imprisonment for crimes allegedly committed at the age of 15 when he supposedly threw a grenade that killed one US soldier and wounded another while fighting with the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2002. He was charged [charge sheet, PDF; JURIST report] in April 2007 with murder, attempted murder, conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism, as well as spying. Earlier this week, former Guantanamo Bay chief military prosecutor Col. Morris Davis [official profile, PDF] testified [JURIST report] at a pre-trial hearing for another detainee that top US Department of Defense officials said that there could be no acquittals at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] military commissions.

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[JURIST] The Australian government will introduce legislation to amend over 100 federal laws [press release] to remove discrimination against same-sex couples [JURIST news archive], Australian Attorney General Robert McClelland [official profile] said Wednesday. The legislation, which will be introduced during the winter sitting of parliament and is expected to be implemented by mid-2009, will not allow same-sex marriages. Many of the amendments to be proposed are based on a June 2007 report [text] by the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission [official website], recommending legislative changes to 58 federal laws [JURIST report] to end discrimination against same-sex couples in areas such employment, workers' compensation, veterans' entitlements, health care subsidies, family law, senior care and immigration law. AP has more.

A national poll also released in June 2007 found that a majority of Australians support same-sex marriage [JURIST news archive]. The poll, conducted by Galaxy Research [corporate website] and reported by political group GetUp! [advocacy website] found that in a sample of 1100 Australians over the age of 16, 57 percent support same sex marriage [press release and results, PDF], while 71 percent support giving same-sex couples identical legal rights as "those in a heterosexual de facto relationship."

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[JURIST] The US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence [official website] voted Tuesday to restrict Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) [official website] interrogators to techniques explicitly authorized by the military, approving a measure that would effectively prevent the CIA from using waterboarding [JURIST news archive] during interrogations. The vote came during markup of a bill authorizing intelligence expenditures for the 2009 fiscal year. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) [official website] introduced the measure [press release], which would require the CIA to follow the interrogation rules included in the 2006 Army Field Manual on Human Intelligence Collector Operations [PDF text; press release]. The Field Manual explicitly prohibits the use of waterboarding, electrocution, sensory deprivation, inducing hypothermia, or depriving the subject of food, water or medical care.

This is the second time Congress will attempt to ban waterboarding. In March, President George W. Bush vetoed [JURIST report] the Intelligence Authorization Act of 2008 [HR 2082 materials], which included a similar provision limiting CIA interrogators to interrogation techniques explicitly authorized by the 2006 Army Field Manual, and an attempt to override the veto failed [JURIST report]. In announcing his veto, Bush said [radio address transcript; recorded audio] that techniques outside those allowed in Army Field Manual were crucial to the effective interrogation of terror suspects, and that banning them would put the country at higher risk of attack. CIA Director Michael Hayden told the House Intelligence Committee in February that he had officially prohibited CIA agents from using waterboarding in 2006 [JURIST report], but that the technique has not been used in almost five years. AP has more.

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[JURIST] A New York appeals court has upheld [opinion text] a jury's finding that the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey was negligent [JURIST report] in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center [BBC backgrounder] by Islamic radicals that killed six and injured 1,000. The jury found in 2003 that the Port Authority [official website], which owned the World Trade Center, did not properly maintain the building's garage, where terrorists detonated an explosives-laden van.

The appellate court on Monday affirmed the trial judge's decision not to grant the Port Authority's request to set aside the jury verdict [JURIST report], concluding:

The verdict we now uphold is neither properly nor intelligently understood as absolving the terrorists. The issue before the jury in this civil action was not whether the terrorists had committed the bombing - obviously they had - or whether they should be severely penalized - most of them were - but whether their heinous conduct was foreseeable and avoidable by defendant in the discharge of its proprietary responsibilities. Terrorism has for decades posed a dire threat to ordered life in free and open societies, but certainly its specter cannot justify the view that performance of the duties we have traditionally relied upon as essential to the preservation of our security may be generally excused as futile. It is, of course, entirely possible that terrorists will employ means that not even the conscientious performance of duty would deter and, where that is established, the absence of a causal nexus between the harm and any default by a defendant in the performance of its duty will preclude the imposition of civil liability. But, as this jury recognized, this was not such a case. Here, the evidence overwhelmingly supported the view that the conscientious performance of defendant's duty reasonably to secure its premises would have prevented the harm. This civil jury had no power to decide whether the terrorists should in any meaningful sense be "absolved" of their murderous acts. What it could and did decide was rather that the acts of these terrorists, even while obviously odious in the extreme, were not a cause for the easy absolution of this defendant from its civil obligations.

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[JURIST] The Grand National Assembly of Turkey [official website, in Turkish] voted Wednesday in favor of restricting the controversial Article 301 [Amnesty backgrounder; JURIST news archive] of the country's penal code [text, in Turkish], which makes "insulting the Turkish identity" a crime. Lawmakers voted 250-65 in favor of amending Article 301 by reducing the minimum sentence for denigrating Turkish identity from three years to two, allowing for the suspension of sentences for first-time offenders and requiring the approval by the justice minister of all investigations. The amended provisions, which were proposed [JURIST report] by Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) [party website, in Turkish] in early April, also prohibit insults to the "Turkish nation" rather than "Turkishness."

Many prominent Turkish journalists, authors, and academics have been tried for insulting "Turkishness" [JURIST report] under Article 301. Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk [JURIST news archive] is among the 745 convicted since 2003 for violating the law. Critics accuse Turkey of using the law to silence government critics, making it a major stumbling block [JURIST report] to Turkey's accession to the European Union. On April 11, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso [official profile], in a speech [PDF text; JURIST report] before the Turkish parliament, urged Turkey to speed up political and social reforms to meet the criteria for accession into the European Union [JURIST news archive]. AP has more.

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