[JURIST] Six Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainees charged [JURIST report] in connection with the Sept.11, 2001 terrorist attacks [JURIST news archive] will probably not be put on trial by the US military before the end of the Bush administration in January 2009, the Washington Post reported Tuesday. Officials and watchdog groups cited by the Post noted that the current military tribunal system under which the detainees are to be tried, established by the Military Commissions Act of 2006 [text], is essentially untested and many questions remain regarding the discovery process, defendants' access to classified evidence, and other issues. The commissions process itself has also been delayed by legal challenges, including Hamdan v. Rumsfeld [PDF text] in which the US Supreme Court ruled in June 2006 that the military commissions as then constituted under executive order were illegal under military law and the Geneva Conventions.

So far, the only US military commission to have reached a verdict is that established for Australian David Hicks [JURIST news archive], who pleaded guilty to a charge of supporting terrorism [JURIST reports] in March 2007. Fourteen other Guantanamo detainees have been charged with crimes, but none of their cases has yet gone to full trial, although preliminary proceedings are underway in several matters.

[JURIST] Bangladesh's Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) [governing statute] has filed formal charges against former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia [UN profile], officials said Tuesday. Zia and 10 other officials are accused of corruption and abuse of power for an alleged kickback scheme that awarded lucrative gas contracts to Canadian oil company Niko Resources Ltd [corporate website]. PTI has more.

Bangladesh's current anti-corruption crackdown began last February as eight former Bangladeshi ministers were accused of corruption [JURIST report] and 13 other former ministers and senior politicians were arrested in raids on their homes [JURIST report] after Bangladeshi President Iajuddin Ahmed declared a state of emergency [JURIST report] in the country and cancelled a scheduled national election. Zia and her son were arrested on suspicion of corruption [JURIST report] in September. In March of this year, fellow ex-Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed [party profile; JURIST news archive] appeared in court to face charges [JURIST reports] that she received approximately $440,000 in illegal kickbacks on a power-plant deal while in office between 1996 and 2001; she faces up to 14 years in jail if convicted. ACC officials said Tuesday they also expected to file charges related to the Niko Resources case against Hasina and six others.

[JURIST] A British resident still detained at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the UK government alleging that the UK Foreign Office has refused to turn over evidence necessary to his defense before a US military commission, according to the Guardian newspaper. The evidence sought allegedly shows that Binyam Mohamed [Reprieve profile] was the victim of torture and extraordinary rendition [JURIST news archive]. Mohamed has previously claimed that in 2002 US forces transferred him to Moroccan agents, who tortured him; he was later transferred to Guantanamo Bay in 2004. In December, in a letter [DOC text] sent by his lawyer to UK Foreign Secretary David Milliband, he asked the UK government [JURIST report] to ensure that photographic evidence of his alleged torture be preserved. The Guardian has more.

For most of 2007, Mohamed was one of five UK residents detained at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive]. Three of those were released [press release; JURIST report] from US custody in December. A fourth British resident, Shaker Abdur-Raheem Aamer, a Saudi Arabian national, was to be returned there but his current status is unclear.

[JURIST] Former Bosnian Serb Prime Minister Gojko Klickovic [case materials] Tuesday refused to appear before the War Crimes Chamber [HRW backgrounder] of the Court of Bosnia and Herzogovina [official website] to face charges of crimes against humanity allegedly committed during the 1992-1995 Bosnian War. In a statement, Klickovic said that his presence is not necessary for the trial to proceed, although the trial judge adjourned proceedings until Thursday.

Klickovic, who served as Prime Minister of Republika Srpska [government website, in Serbian] after the 1995 Dayton peace agreement [text], is accused of planning and orchestrating the forcible transfer, unlawful detention, and torture of Muslim and Croat civilians. AP has more.

[JURIST] A panel of the US Second Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments Monday in a government appeal against a lower court order [JURIST report] directing the Pentagon to release additional documents revealing the names of Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainees who have either been released or who have alleged abuse [JURIST news archive] by prison guards or other detainees. The order was made pursuant to a lawsuit [JURIST report] brought by the Associated Press [media website] in March 2006 under the Freedom of Information Act [text].

The Pentagon has disclosed the names of present and former Guantanamo detainees in fits and starts since AP first brought its suit. In April 2007, the Pentagon released a list of 558 detainees who had gone through reviews by a first hearing [JURIST report] before a Combatant Status Review Tribunal (CSRT) [DOD backgrounder]. In May 2006, under a separate agreement with AP, the Pentagon provided a list of 759 current and former Guantanamo prisoners [JURIST report]. A military spokesman said at the time that the list contained the names of "every single individual detained under DOD control" at Guantanamo since detention operations began in January 2002, but acknowledged in questioning that he "wouldn't know" of any other detainees who might have been held there by the CIA or other US arms "because I can't speak for other agencies." AP has more.

[JURIST] Five Afghan detainees freed from the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] last week have been taken to Pul-i-Charkhe prison outside the capital Kabul and will likely face trial, Al Jazeera reported Tuesday. The five were among a group of nine detainees released [JURIST report] on Thursday and flown back to their home countries - three to Sudan, five to Afghanistan and one to Morocco. Relatives of the Afghans have expressed concern at their renewed detention, saying they should be released if the US itself found no evidence against them. Rights activists say that local Afghan trials of ex-US detainees are problematic because very often the courts rule based on evidence said to be little more than "allegations" submitted by US officials [JURIST comment]. Al Jazeera has more.

One of the Sudanese prisoners released Thursday was Sami al Haj [advocacy website], a cameraman for Al Jazeera arrested by Pakistani authorities in 2001 while he was attempting to cross the border into Afghanistan; he was later turned over to the US. He had been on a hunger strike since January 2007 to protest the conditions and the indefiniteness of his confinement. On Monday he told a crowd in Khartoum that he had survived 2,340 days in the "most heinous prison mankind has ever known". AP has more.

[JURIST] Myanmar opposition group the National League for Democracy (NLD) Tuesday slammed the country's ruling junta for plans to go ahead with a scheduled May 10 referendum on a draft constitution [JURIST news archives] despite a devastating weekend storm that left at least 15,000 people dead and thousands more homeless. The NLD accused the government of ignoring storm victims' immediate needs in favor of pushing forward with the referendum, behavior it labeled as "extremely unacceptable." Myanmar state television has reported that Saturday's vote will proceed as scheduled in most of the country, although the regime now says in something of a climbdown that the vote will be postponed in districts hardest hit by the cyclone. AFP has more. Australia's ABC has additional coverage.

The NLD and other opposition groups have expressed skepticism at the referendum and urged citizens to reject [JURIST report] the proposed constitution, labeling the referendum a "sham" to legalize military rule. The draft constitution reportedly 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.

[JURIST] Former Rwandan Minister of the Interior Callixte Kalimanzira [case materials; press release] went to trial Monday before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) [official website]. Kalimanzira, who served as interior minister during the 1994 genocide [BBC backgrounder], is accused of inciting the genocide in his public speeches, distributing weapons used in the massacres and participating in some of the killings. In 2005, Kalimanzira pleaded not guilty [JURIST report] to the charges. BBC News has more.

Kalimanzira surrendered [JURIST report] to the tribunal voluntarily in November 2005. The ICTR was established by the UN in 1995 to try genocide suspects for crimes occurring during the 1994 Rwandan conflict between Hutus and Tutsis in which approximately 800,000 people, primarily Tutsis, were killed.

[JURIST] The US House Judiciary Committee [official website] Tuesday voted to issue a subpoena to compel Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff David Addington [US News profile] to testify about a recently released Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel memorandum [text; JURIST report] that 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. Last week, Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) threatened to seek subpoenas [materials; JURIST report] to compel Addington and other current and former administration officials, including former Attorney General John Ashcroft [official profile], to testify. Former Assistant Deputy Attorney General and memo author John Yoo [academic profile] agreed to testify Monday without facing a subpoena; Ashcroft, former Under Secretary of Defense Douglas Feith [personal website], and former Assistant Attorney General Daniel Levin [firm profile] have also agreed to testify, but former CIA Director George Tenet [SourceWatch profile] is still in discussions with the committee. AP has more.

In March, the committee filed a lawsuit [complaint, PDF; press release] to enforce subpoenas seeking information from former White House legal counsel Harriet Miers and White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten [official profiles] regarding the US Attorneys firing scandal [JURIST news archive].

[JURIST] The number of UK employers prosecuted for hiring illegal immigrants has spiked since changes to British immigration laws were implemented in February, the BBC reported Monday. So far, 137 companies have been cited for employing illegal immigrants, 10 times more than were cited in all of 2007. Employers caught hiring illegal aliens could be subject to fines of up to £10,000 per illegal employee; repeat violators could face prison time. BBC News has more.

Illegal immigration has long been a hot topic in the UK. In 2006, the government Home Office [official website] announced plans to overhaul Britain's immigration system [press release; JURIST report] in a review [PDF text] outlining how the Home Office's Immigration and Nationality Directorate [official website] will respond to the impact of globalization, changing travel patterns and evolving international crime and terrorism. The Labour Party government of Prime Minister Gordon Brown is also pursuing plans to institute a national ID card system [JURIST news archive] as part of its effort to clamp down on illegals [JURIST report].

[JURIST] The annual Webby Awards [awards website] in Law and more than 100 other subject categories were announced in New York Tuesday as the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences [profession website] honored excellence in interactive design, creativity, usability and functionality on the Internet in 2008. OUT-LAW.com, an IT/e-commerce news site sponsored by London(UK)-based law firm Pinsent Masons [law firm website] took the judges' Webby; the People's Voice award, decided by online popular vote, went to the ABA Journal.

JURIST was one of a total of five nominees [JURIST report] up for a Law Webby this year; the others were New York law firm Shearman & Sterling's 2007-2008 Recruiting Campaign and LawHelp, which won the judges' Webby in 2007. JURIST won the Webby People's Voice award in 2006 and was named an Official Honoree [JURIST reports] in 2007. JURIST was also an Official Honoree in the Students category in 2008.

JURIST would like to take this opportunity to congratulate this year's Webby winners and thank all its readers and supporters who voted for us in this year's People's Voice competition.