[JURIST] A Marine Corps General Friday declined to press charges against two US Marines involved in a March 2007 incident [CENTCOM press release] in which 30 US Marines opened fire on civilians alongside a road in Nangahar province, Afghanistan, after a suicide bomber drove a vehicle carrying explosives into their convoy. Lt. Gen. Samuel Helland made the decision after hearing the recommendation of a court of inquiry proceeding [Marine Corps News report], the first convened in 50 years, about whether charges should be brought against platoon leader Capt. Vincent J. Noble and Maj. Fred C. Galvin, who commanded the 120-person unit at the time of the incident. A Marines spokesperson said that the two Marines and a third man will still face administrative action.

A preliminary US military investigation [JURIST report] found that the Marines began firing at bystanders, including women and elderly men, along a several mile stretch of road as they left the scene. As many as 19 civilians were killed and another 50 injured. The soldiers are members of a Marine Corps Special Forces unit under the command of the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) [official website] and were sent to Afghanistan to carry out special reconnaissance, intelligence and commando missions. The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) [official website] released a report [PDF text] last year claiming the soldiers violated international humanitarian law [JURIST report] by using indiscriminate and excessive force in its response to the suicide bombing. AP has more.

[JURIST] The International Court of Justice (ICJ) [official website] Friday ruled [text, PDF; press release, PDF] that a small uninhabited island on which Singapore operates a light beacon does in fact belong to the country, ending a 38-year long dispute between it and neighboring Malaysia [JURIST news archives]. The court held that the strategically important island had originally belonged to Malaysia, but because Singapore had been operating the beacon on the rock for 130 years before Malaysia protested the claim in 1980, possession of the island had passed to Singapore. AFP has more.

The ICJ accepted the dispute [ICJ materials] from the two countries in July 2003. The court is also currently considering maritime disputes between Peru and Chile and Costa Rica and Nicaragua [ICJ materials].

[JURIST] The Supreme Court of Canada [official website] unanimously ruled [text] Friday that Canadian Guantanamo detainee Omar Khadr [DOD materials; JURIST news archive] has a constitutional right to see confidential documents compiled by Canadian officials following interviews with Khadr in prison, but found that the government could withhold some information for national security purposes. Lawyers for Khadr expressed disappointment with the verdict, saying that it is unlikely that the government will turn over many of the documents they were seeking. Khadr sought documents that Canada allegedly provided to US authorities, along with videotapes of Khadr's 2003 interrogations at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] and uncensored transcripts. In May 2007, the Canadian Federal Court of Appeal overruled a lower court decision [judgment text] barring Khadr's access to government documents. In October 2007, the Supreme Court agreed to hear [JURIST report] the appeal by Canadian Justice Department lawyers opposing the access. CTV News has more. CBC News has additional coverage.

Khadr, now 21, faces life imprisonment after allegedly throwing 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. Khadr is one of four [JURIST report] Guantanamo detainees prosecuted under the Military Commissions Act of 2006 [PDF text]. On March 13, a US military judge ruled [JURIST report] that some correspondence between US and Canadian government officials regarding Khadr must be turned over to Khadr's defense team. In an affidavit released earlier this month, Khadr said that US interrogators in Afghanistan threatened him with rape, physically abused him, and forced him to swear to false statements [JURIST report].

[JURIST] A court in the Democratic Republic of the Congo [JURIST news archive] Thurday sentenced three members of the Bundu dia Kongo (BDK) [group website, in French; GlobalSecurity backgrounder] separatist movement to death after finding them guilty of assassination and murder in a mass trial. A defense lawyer said the convictions were politically motivated and vowed to appeal the decision. A researcher for Human Rights Watch [advocacy website] also expressed doubt at the legitimacy of the convictions due to the heavy reliance on confessions and rumors of torture. BDK was banned last month after a series of violent clashes with police [BBC backgrounder]. On Thursday, another 15 BDK members were sentenced to jail terms of up to 20 years for attempting to overthrow the government. Reuters has more.

Congolese courts have been under increased scrutiny in recent days. On Thursday, both UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour [official profile; JURIST news archive] and UN Special Envoy Alan Doss condemned [UN News Centre Report] the death sentences that a Congolese military court imposed on three other men for the June 2007 murder of reporter Serge Maheshe, saying that witnesses and defense lawyers were subjected to intense intimidation. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] Argentine prosecutor Alberto Nisman filed a petition Thursday for the arrest of former Argentine President Carlos Menem [BBC backgrounder] and five others accused of covering up the possible involvement of businessman Alberto Jacinto Kanoore Edul in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires. In 2004, an Argentine judge conducted an investigation [JURIST report] into the possible connection between Swiss bank accounts allegedly held by Menem and the bombing. Argentine prosecutors have alleged that the bombing, which killed 85 and injured more than 200, was planned by Iranian officials and carried out by Hezbollah [BBC backgrounder]. AP has more.

In 2006, Argentina sought the arrests [JURIST report] of high-ranking members of the Iranian government, including former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani [official website, in Farsi], in connection with the bombing, but Interpol's Executive Committee [official website] denied the request and voted to issue arrest notices [press release; JURIST report] for only five Iranians and one Lebanese man. In response, Iranian prosecutors issued court summonses [JURIST report] for five Argentinians they accused of falsely implicating an Iranian group with planning the bombing.

[JURIST] The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website] Friday provisionally released [press release] a Kosovar journalist indicted [PDF text; JURIST report] on contempt of court charges for allegedly publishing the identity of a witness in the war crimes trial of former Kosovar Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj [TrialWatch profile; JURIST Forum op-ed]. Baton Haxhiu was arrested Tuesday and pleaded not guilty [Reuters report] in the Hague on Wednesday.

Haradinaj was acquitted [JURIST report] in April, but former Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte’s claims of witness intimidation have cast doubt on the proceedings and the judgment is now being appealed. Haradinaj was a senior commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), the ethnic-Albanian guerrilla force that opposed Slobodan Milosevic [JURIST news archive] during the 1998-1999 Kosovo war [BBC backgrounder]. He was indicted [initial indictment, PDF] by ICTY prosecutors in 2005.

[JURIST] US military judge Col. Ralph Kohlmann [JURIST news archive] Thursday denied a request by military-appointed defense lawyers to postpone the arraignment of the five Guantanamo Bay detainees charged with plotting the Sept. 11 attacks [JURIST news archives]. The lawyers had asked for more time to mount defenses for their clients, but the arraignments are still scheduled for June 5 [JURIST report]. If convicted, the five men, including the alleged lead conspirator behind the attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed [BBC profile; JURIST news archive], could be sentenced to death [JURIST report]. The International Herald Tribune has more.

Mohammed's military defense lawyer, US Navy Capt. Prescott Prince, expressed concern about the fairness of Mohammed's trial [JURIST report] in an April interview. He added that the trial's legitimacy could be undermined if the government introduces into evidence statements Mohammed made while he was being subjected to harsh interrogation tactics, including waterboarding [JURIST news archive].

[JURIST] The US will re-check its detention records to verify the accuracy of a report [text, DOC; JURIST report] filed last week by US officials with the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child [committee website] concerning the number of minors it has detained in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay, Department of Defense officials said Thursday. According to the report, approximately 2,500 minors under the age of 18 have been detained as illegal enemy combatants by the US military since 2002. The review comes after the AP reported that documents obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request indicated that several additional detainees were minors when they were first detained.

On Wednesday, Human Rights Watch [advocacy website] praised the work of the US with respect to child soldiers in conflict areas where it was not directly involved, but urged [HRW press release] US forces in Iraq to respect the rights of child detainees in Iraq. AP has more.

[JURIST] The US military has failed to ensure that over $8 billion dollars in Iraq reconstruction contracts awarded between 2001 and 2006 complied with federal anti-fraud laws, according to a report [PDF text] released Thursday by the Department of Defense Inspector General's Office [official website]. The same day, Deputy Inspector General for Auditing Mary Ugone testified [statement, PDF] before the House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform [official website] that inadequate record-keeping and poor oversight in dealing with military contractors made the possibility of fraud more likely:

Ineffective internal controls include such things as missing documentation, missing signatures from certifying officials, receiving officials, and payees; and missing voucher information. Ineffective internal controls could create an environment where duplicative payments, fraudulent activity, or improper use of funds takes place and is not identified and corrected in the normal course of business. A lack of internal controls can result in either no audit trail or in a complex audit trail, which hinders the search for supporting documents. Ineffective internal controls can result in missing or inadequate documentation. Also, ineffective internal controls can result in unreliable accounts payable and expense amounts reported on DOD financial statements.

We identified material internal control weaknesses related to out-of-country payments made in support of the Global War on Terror and for the Iraq Security Forces Fund as defined by DOD Instruction 5010.40, "Managers' Internal Control Program Procedures." The Army's internal controls did not ensure proper support for the commercial payments and that funds were used as intended. Multi-National Security Transition Command – Iraq did not have adequate procedures in place to provide reasonable assurance that equipment, construction, and services procured through the Iraq Security Forces Funds were provided to the Iraq Security Forces.

[JURIST] The German Bundesrat [official website], the upper house of the German parliament, voted Friday [BBC report] to approve the EU reform treaty, known formally as the Treaty of Lisbon [PDF; official website]. All but one of the sixteen states represented in the Bundesrat voted in favor of approval. The treaty was approved by the Bundestag [JURIST report], the lower house of parliament, in April. The treaty has not cleared all major legislative hurdles in Germany, and still needs final approval from German President Horst Koehler [BBC profile]. Deutsche Welle has more.

Leaders from the 27 countries that make up the European Union signed the reform treaty [JURIST report] last December, but all member nations must also ratify the document before it can take effect. Fourteen countries have now ratified the reform treaty [JURIST archive]. Ireland will hold a referendum in June so that citizens may vote on ratification. This month, the UK High Court agreed [JURIST report] to consider whether the British government must also put the treaty to a public vote. AP has more.

[JURIST] The Supreme Court of China and the country's Ministry of Justice [official websites] have released new rules to clarify China's death penalty review procedures, state media reported Friday. Under the new system, three Supreme Court judges must review all death sentences imposed by local courts. The rules also contain provisions meant to ensure that criminal defendants facing possible death penalty convictions receive adequate counsel: courts must promptly inform defense lawyers of prosecution filings, and judges are required to "earnestly listen" to lawyers' complaints and concerns. Xinhua has more.

Last July, the Supreme Court of China announced plans [JURIST report] to standardize guidelines for imposing the death penalty, to strengthen its precedential value, and to increase oversight over intermediate and lower courts. In June 2007, China Daily reported that the number of death sentences handed down by Chinese courts in the first five months of 2007 had decreased [JURIST report] following the implementation of reforms [JURIST report] that required the Supreme People's Court to approve all death sentences. In October 2006, China's National People's Congress [official website] voted to amend the Organic Law on the People's Court [text; JURIST report] after the high court said [JURIST report] it wanted to restrict the authority of lower courts to review death sentences [JURIST report].

[JURIST] The Permanent Representatives Committee of the Council of the European Union [official website] Thursday agreed on a draft proposal [press release, PDF] for new rules to combat illegal immigration. Under the proposal, illegal aliens caught within the EU could be deported and banned from returning for five years. Authorities in member states would be allowed to detain aliens for up to 18 months, a period longer than that currently authorized in most EU states. Amnesty International and the European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE) [Advocacy websites] have issued a joint statement [PDF; press release, PDF] criticizing the proposed detention limit as a threat to human rights. The European Parliament [official website] is reportedly deeply divided about the proposal and it is unclear if it will go through with a vote scheduled for next month. The Times of Malta has more.

The European Union (EU) [official website] estimates that between 350,000 to 500,000 illegal immigrants enter its member states annually, mainly fulfilling jobs in construction and farming.

[JURIST] US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice [official profile; JURIST news archive] Thursday defended the Bush administration's authorization of the use of harsh interrogation tactics, including waterboarding [JURIST news archive], on suspected terrorist detainees. In her comments at the headquarters of the technology company Google, Rice stated that a special legal atmosphere existed in the US after the Sept. 11 attacks [JURIST news archive], but that "President Bush made it clear that we were going to live up to our obligations at home and to our treaty obligations abroad." AP has more.

The Washington Post reported Thursday on tension [WP report] within the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) [official websites] over the harsh tactics used on detainees. The report indicates that a group of senior DOJ and FBI officials objected to the interrogation methods on the grounds they would taint any later prosecution of the suspects in court. The objections were effectively overruled by the authorization and continued utilization of the interrogation methods by military and intelligence officials, based on their perceived necessity for preventing another terrorist attack.

[JURIST] Alliance Defense Fund [advocacy website], a conservative Christian legal advocacy group, petitioned [text, PDF] the Supreme Court of California [court website] Thursday to stay its May 15 decision [opinion, PDF; JURIST report] overturning a ban on same-sex marriage until the outcome of the November state elections. It is expected that the November ballot will include an amendment to the California state constitution banning same-sex marriage. In the petition, Alliance Defense Fund argues that "permitting this decision to take effect immediately - in light of the realistic possibility that the people of California might amend their constitution to reaffirm marriage as the union of one man and one woman - risks legal havoc and uncertainty of immeasurable magnitude." San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera [official website] indicated that he would file a motion next week urging the court to reject the petition [AP report], characterizing it as a delay tactic and saying that any further postponement of the constitutional rights of gay and lesbian couples "based merely on political speculation as to whether the constitution may be amended would be both illegal and inhumane." The San Francisco Chronicle has local coverage.

The lawsuits stemmed from San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's 2004 decision to issue marriage licenses to 4,000 same-sex couples [JURIST report]. In 2006, the state attorney general requested [JURIST report] a review of an intermediate appellate court's decision to uphold [JURIST report] the same-sex marriage ban. Also on Thursday the AP reported on efforts by the California Office of Public Records to rewrite marriage license forms [AP report] in light of the California Supreme Court's ruling on same-sex marriages.