[JURIST] The Beijing Judicial Bureau [official backgrounder] has refused to renew the licenses of a number of Chinese human rights lawyers before a Saturday deadline, a China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group [advocacy website] official said Friday. The bureau originally denied renewals to 500 lawyers, but eventually agreed to renew some licenses after the lawyers released a letter of complaint on the Internet. It was not clear how many lawyers were still being denied. Human Rights Watch named two of the denied lawyers as Teng Biao and Jiang Tianyong [HRW report], both of whom have defended political dissidents, and suggested that the government was denying licenses in a bid to discourage vocal criticism of its human rights record. China is expected to enact new amendments to its Law on Lawyers [text] on Sunday, but HRW expressed skepticism that the changes would grant lawyers adequate protections against government retaliation. AP has more. Reuters has additional coverage.

Lawyers in China have been subjected to increasing persecution and intimidation by the Chinese government, according to a report [text; press release] released last month by Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website]. The report found that rights lawyers working on cases involving sensitive issues, including land evictions [JURIST report], face the greatest opposition from authorities. Several rights lawyers have been detained or prosecuted for suspected "subversion of state power" or other dissident activities during the past several months, including Yang Maodong and Gao Zhisheng [JURIST reports]. In March, Teng Biao was released by the Chinese government after spending two days in custody [JURIST report]. China has been severely criticized for cracking down on human rights activists and political dissidents [JURIST report] ahead of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

[JURIST] Connecticut filed a lawsuit [complaint, PDF] against pharmaceutical distribution giant McKesson Corp. [corporate website] in US District Court for the District of Massachusetts Thursday, accusing the company of violating federal anti-racketeering laws by inflating drug prices for state-funded health care. Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal [official profile] alleged that McKesson and drug-price publisher First DataBank [corporate website] conspired to increase the difference between the retail price of prescription drugs and the average wholesale price by 5 percent beginning as early as 2001. The increase in the price difference allowed for greater profits [Bloomberg report] for health care providers and companies such as McKesson, but cost consumers millions in extra dollars on drugs such as Allegra, Celebrex, Nexium and Valium. The state is seeking monetary damages for the alleged anti-racketeering violations, as well as alleged violations of anti-trust and state fair trade laws. Reuters has more.

This is not the first time that McKesson and First DataBank have been sued for alleged price inflating. A 2005 class-action lawsuit led by the New England Carpenters Health Benefits Fund [fund website] and includes more than 11,000 members, accused [class certification and complaint, PDF] McKesson of artificially inflating prices, resulting in as much as a $4 billion total overpayment [Business Insurance report] by consumers. Last week, the city of San Francisco filed a similar lawsuit [complaint and press release, PDF], accusing McKesson of artificially inflating drug costs for more than 50,000 San Franciscans.

[JURIST] US Department of Defense prosecutors brought new charges against three detainees being held at the US detention center at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] on Thursday. Jabran al-Qathani, Ghassan Abdullah al-Sharbi, and Algerian Sufyian Barhoumi [charge sheets, PDF] are each charged with conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism based on their alleged involvement with an al Qaeda bomb-making group in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The three were captured by Pakistani forces at a safe house in Faisalabad, Pakistan in March 2002. Reuters has more.

All three men were previously charged [DOD press release] with conspiracy, but those original charges were thrown out when the Supreme Court ruled [opinion, PDF; JURIST report] that the military 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. At a military commission hearing in April 2006, al-Qahtani called the US an "enemy of God" [JURIST report] and said that he would prefer death to compliance with a military tribunal. Al-Sharbi admitted fighting against the US [JURIST report] but denied that he was guilty of war crimes at a similar hearing the same month.

[JURIST] The Supreme Court of Brazil [official website, in Portuguese] Thursday ruled 6-5 that a 2005 law allowing embryonic stem cell [JURIST news archive] research is constitutional, rejecting a challenge by the country's attorney general that it infringed on the "constitutional right to life." Thursday's decision drew condemnation from the National Conference of Brazilian Bishops [group website, in Portuguese; press release, in Portuguese], while Brazilian Bar Association (OAB) [profession website, in Portuguese] President Cezar Britto praised it as "a victory of knowledge and human life" [OAB press release, in Portuguese]. Reuters has more.

Last year President George W. Bush Wednesday vetoed a Democrat-backed bill [JURIST report] that would have relaxed funding restrictions on embryonic stem cell research in the United States. In 2006, Australia lifted its restrictions on stem cell research [JURIST report] and also approved the therapeutic cloning of human embryos.

[JURIST] An opposition party in Japan [JURIST news archive] has introduced a bill in Japan's House of Representatives [official website, in Japanese] that would provide compensation for Korean and Taiwanese nationals convicted of war crimes [backgrounder] committed while working for the Japanese military occupying their territories during World War II. Under the plan proposed by the Democratic Party of Japan [party website, in English], war criminals and their families could receive up to three million Yen. Many of the convicted war criminals were pressed into service by the occupying Japanese army and forced to work as prison guards. Following the war, they were tried and convicted of war crimes by the US-backed International Military Tribunal for the Far East [charter text], which regarded them as Japanese citizens. After the war, Japan stripped people from its former-colonies of Japanese citizenship, denying them military pensions and other official benefits. AFP has more. Japan Today has local coverage.

Historically, Japanese courts have been reluctant to grant wartime compensation claims. In September 2007, a Japanese district court rejected [JURIST report] demands for compensation by 22 South Korean women, as well as the surviving relatives of other women, who were forced to work [JURIST news archive] at a Japanese military hardware factory during World War II. In July 2007, the Japanese Sapporo High Court upheld a 2004 lower court decision [JURIST report] rejecting a similar lawsuit brought by Chinese plaintiffs who say they were forced to work as slave laborers in mines and factories.

[JURIST] A Washington DC Superior Court found 34 members of anti-war activism group Witness Against Torture [advocacy website] guilty Thursday on misdemeanor charges of illegal protesting. Police arrested 71 group members at a protest [JURIST report] in front of the US Supreme Court in January, where they were demonstrating for the closure of the Guantanamo Bay prison [JURIST news archive]. They were indicted on charges of violating an ordinance barring demonstrations on court grounds. Officials charged 35 protesters, and the Superior Court judge dismissed charges against one for lack of evidence. The defendants, who represented themselves, argued that they were exercising their right to free speech [advocacy press release], but the judge found that they had continued to violate the ordinance despite police warnings. They were scheduled to be sentenced Friday. The Washington Post has more.

At their court appearance [JURIST report], protesters wore orange jumpsuits similar to the ones worn by Guantanamo detainees and some identified themselves using the names of detainees as a way to "symbolically grant the Guantanamo prisoners their day in court" [advocacy press release]. During the trial, one defendant turned his back to the judge and, when arrested for contempt of court, yelled that the judge had committed a crime against justice. The January 11 protest took place on the sixth anniversary of the opening of the Guantanamo Bay teror detention facility in Cuba.

[JURIST] German Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries [official profile; personal website, in German] Thursday deflected the European Commission's criticism of proposed legislation that would preserve the power of the German state of Lower Saxony [official website] to block major business decisions at automaker Volkswagen AG [corporate website]. The law, known as the "VW law," is aimed at protecting Volkswagen from hostile takeovers; Lower Saxony is Volkswagen AG's second-largest shareholder. Zypries expressed confidence that the draft law will meet the scrutiny of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) [official website]. On Tuesday, the German Cabinet [official website] approved [press release, in German] the latest version of the draft amendments [PDF, in German] to the VW law. The Federal Ministry of Justice [official website, in German] first circulated [JURIST report] a draft of the law in January. Business Week has more.

The EC initially challenged the law in 2005. In February 2007, Advocate General Damaso Ruiz-Jarabo of the ECJ advised the court that the law should be repealed [JURIST report], saying the law restricts the free movement of capital [PDF, press release] and "strengthens the position of the Federal Government and the land, preventing any intervention in the management of the company." The ECJ ruled [JURIST report] in October 2007 that a previous version of the law was illegal because it limited "the free movement of capital" and discouraged foreign direct investment in Germany. The EC has filed similar suits or threatened to file suit against Spain and its energy companies; Italy and highway company Autosrade SpA; and Poland for intervening in Italy's UniCredit SpA business in Poland.

[JURIST] A Texas state appeals court Thursday overturned [press release] a jury verdict against pharmaceutical giant Merck [corporate website] concerning a death allegedly caused by painkiller Vioxx [Merck materials; JURIST news archive]. The Texas Fourteenth Court of Appeals reversed [opinion] a verdict which had awarded $26 million to widow Carol Ernst, who alleged that her husband died after taking Vioxx [JURIST report] for arthritis in 2001. The appellate panel acknowledged that Vioxx can increase the risk of blood clots and heart attacks, but found that Ernst failed to show that her husband's heart attack was triggered by a blood clot caused by Vioxx.

Also Thursday, the New Jersey Appellate Division reduced [opinion, PDF] a jury award in a separate consolidated Vioxx lawsuit [JURIST report], finding that the plaintiffs were not entitled to punitive damages. The jury had found that Merck did not warn either of two men of potential dangers of heart attack and stroke [FDA public health advisory] associated with use of the drug. Finding that the drug significantly impacted 77-year-old John McDarby, who suffered a heart attack and deteriorating health from taking Vioxx, a jury had awarded him $3 million and his wife $1.5 million; a week later, another jury awarded him $9 million in punitive damages [JURIST report]. The appeals court upheld the verdict of $4.5 million in compensatory damages for McDarby, but struck down the punitive damage award. A plaintiff's lawyer involved in both cases announced plans to appeal [PRNewswire report]. The New York Times has more.

Merck has been involved in a stream of Vioxx-related litigation during the last few years, including state and federal lawsuits in Louisiana, California, and additional suits in New Jersey and Texas [JURIST reports]. In September 2007, the New Jersey Supreme Court dismissed [JURIST report] a class action lawsuit filed against Merck, reversing a lower court's decision to grant nationwide class certification in the case. In November 2007, Merck said that it had agreed to pay $4.85 billion to settle all pending lawsuits [press release; JURIST report] regarding its marketing and distribution of Vioxx.

[JURIST] The former chief prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay alleges that the US Department of Defense (DOD) [official website] retaliated against him for giving testimony [JURIST report] at the pre-trial hearing of detainee Salim Ahmed Hamdan [DOD materials; JURIST news archive] which reflected poorly on the DOD. In an email released Wednesday, Air Force Col. Morris Davis [official profile, PDF] wrote that Pentagon officials denied him a medal for his two years of work on Guantanamo cases for failure to "serve honorably", a justification he says is politically motivated. He also said that he will not cooperate in any future cases and that he fears further punishment by the DOD before his official retirement later this year. The Washington Post has more.

Davis resigned [JURIST report; JURIST op-ed] from his position at Guantanamo Bay in October 2007, saying that politics were interfering with the prosecutions. He testified at Hamdan's pre-trial hearing that DOD officials had pressured him to bring charges against detainees and had told him that there could be no acquittals. Davis also stated that the legal adviser to the Convening Authority [official backgrounder] for Military Commissions at Guantanamo Bay, US Air Force Brig. Gen. Thomas W. Hartmann [official profile], questioned the need for open trials [JURIST report] and pressured him to move forward with military commissions quickly "before the election." A judge disqualified Hartmann from a Guantanamo trial earlier this month, and Hartmann's objectivity has since been questioned [JURIST reports].

[JURIST] The US Department of Defense (DOD) [official website] on Thursday dismissed the military judge presiding over the military commission trial of Canadian Guantanamo detainee Omar Khadr [DOD materials; JURIST news archive]. No explanation was given for the dismissal of Col. Peter Brownback [JURIST news archive], but Khadr's defense lawyers speculated that it was was related to Brownback's threat earlier this month to suspend the military commission proceedings [JURIST report] against Khadr until the US government submits daily records of Khadr's detention. Khadr's military lawyers had requested the records to corroborate allegations of abusive treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive]. In November 2007, Reuters reported that at a pre-trial hearing in the Khadr case, Brownback said that the Pentagon was unhappy with his decisions in the case, and that he had "taken a lot of heat" [Reuters report] for dismissing charges against Khadr [JURIST report] in June 2007. Those charges were later reinstated [JURIST report]. AP has more. Reuters has additional coverage.

Khadr, 21, faces life imprisonment for crimes allegedly committed at the age of 15 while fighting with the Taliban in Afghanistan. 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. In April, Brownback ruled [PDF text] that Khadr was not a child soldier when he was captured in Afghanistan. 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.

[JURIST] A Turkish court Thursday ordered the closure of a prominent gay rights group, finding that the name of Lambda Istanbul Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transvestites Solidarity Association [advocacy website, in Turkish] is contrary to Turkish morality because it includes words describing sexual identity. Lambda Istanbul has vowed to appeal the ban, taking the case to the European Court of Human Rights [official website] if necessary, and can continue to operate until a final decision is reached. Homosexuality is not a criminal offense in Turkey, as it is in many predominantly Muslim nations, but human rights groups have documented widespread discrimination against sexual minorities. In a report [text; press release] issued last week, Human Rights Watch called for Turkey to protect the rights of homosexual and transgendered people. BBC News has more. AP has additional coverage.

In 2005, Turkish prosecutors rejected a demand [JURIST report] by Ankara's deputy governor to shut down gay rights group Kaos Gay and Lesbian Cultural Research and Solidarity Association [advocacy website, English version]. The governor's office argued that the title and purpose of the group violated the Turkish Civil Code, which prohibits associations against law and morality, but prosecutors disagreed. A protective clause against anti-gay discrimination was written into the country's penal code in 2004 in an effort to strengthen Turkey's bid to join the European Union [official website], but it was later removed by Justice Minister Cemil Cicek, according to gay rights activists. The EU has said that Turkey must implement human rights reforms [JURIST report] before it would be admitted to the EU, but has given no specific instructions that GLBTQ rights should be included in the changes.

[JURIST] The Balkan region, once plagued by a reputation for dangerous crime and political instability, is now one of the safest regions in Europe, according to a UN study [PDF text; press release] released Thursday. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) [official website] found that violent crimes, such as rape, assault and homicide, as well as property crimes, such as robbery and burglary, are lower in the nine Balkan countries than in most of Western Europe. Homicide rates in particular continue to drop in every Balkan state, a trend the report says is likely to continue because these states do not suffer from the poverty, unchecked urbanization, and rampant unemployment that have led to crime in other countries. Corruption and organized crime [Al Jazeera report] does still remain a major problem in the region, even though the countries have signed the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime [PDF text].

Albania has the highest crime rate in the region, due in large part to drug trafficking. Kosovo, which declared independence [JURIST report] from Serbia in February, remains relatively unstable after recent wars and an economic collapse. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) has established a security sector development plan [official websites] for Kosovo to help reduce the already dropping crime rates. AP has more.