[JURIST] The district court in The Hague Monday began hearing the first civil action [press release, in Dutch] against the Dutch State for the actions of its peacekeeping troops during the 1995 Srebrenica massacre [BBC timeline; JURIST news archive]. The plaintiffs - UN translator Hasan Nuhanovic [PBS interview], whose family was killed in the massacre, and the family members of murdered electrician Rizo Mustafic - allege that the government failed to protect their families and other civilians, many of whom were refugees that relocated to the Srebrenica "safe area" [S/Res 819, PDF]. The plaintiffs' lawyer has said that the Dutch government breached its duty to protect the civilians and violated their human rights. The court is scheduled to start hearing a similar class action lawsuit [JURIST report; case backgrounder] against the UN and the Netherlands on Wednesday. A court ruled in November that the case could proceed despite the UN's claim of immunity [JURIST report; press briefing transcript] under Article 2 Section 2 of the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations [PDF text], which says that the UN's property and assets "shall enjoy immunity from every form of legal process except insofar as in any particular case it has expressly waived its immunity." A ruling for the cases is expected on November 10. Reuters has more. The International Herald Tribune has additional coverage.

Tom Karremans, commander of the Dutch peacekeepers, testified [JURIST report] in 2005 that Dutch troops could not intervene to protect the refugees because early phases of the massacre had initially been represented as an "evacuation." An independent report [text] by the Netherlands Institute for War Documentation [official website] found that Bosnian Muslims had been mistakenly advised by Dutch troops to depart from the Srebrenica enclave, although it absolved the Dutch troops of blame because the peacekeepers were outnumbered, lightly armed, insufficiently supplied, denied air support, and under rules of engagement that permitted only self-defense. Several of the 161 suspects indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website] remain fugitives, including Ratko Mladic [ICTY case backgrounder; JURIST news archive] and former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic [ICTY case backgrounder; BBC profile], both of whom are wanted for their alleged role in the Srebrenica massacre.

[JURIST] The International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website] Monday announced it has imposed an indefinite stay [order, PDF; press release] on the war crimes trial of Congolese ex-militia leader Thomas Lubanga [ICC materials; BBC profile]. The court said it may consider releasing Lubanga because prosecutorial misconduct could deny him a fair trial; the court accused the prosecution of using confidentiality agreements to withhold possible exonerating evidence:

Although the Chamber has no doubt that this stay of proceedings is necessary, it has nonetheless imposed it with great reluctance, not least because it means the Court will not make a decision on issues which are of significance to the international community, the peoples of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the victims and the accused himself. When crimes, particularly of a grave nature, are alleged it is necessary for justice that, whenever possible, a final determination is made as to the guilt or innocence of the accused... The judges are acutely aware that by staying these proceedings the victims have, in this sense, been excluded from justice.

[JURIST] A judge in the US District Court for the District of Columbia Monday dismissed [order, PDF; opinion, PDF] a lawsuit brought by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) [advocacy website] seeking access to e-mail records from the White House Office of Administration (OA) [official website] under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The court held that the OA "is not an agency subject to the FOIA," even though OA had complied with such requests prior to August 2007. Lawyers for CREW have appealed the decision [press release]. In February, the court had allowed CREW to proceed with "very limited" discovery [JURIST report] in the case. AP has more.

CREW brought the lawsuit [complaint, PDF] in May 2007 to gain access to information regarding potential lost e-mails at the Executive Office of the President. The issue of missing e-mails has been an ongoing controversy throughout the Bush administration, arising first during the CIA leak investigation and then again during the US Attorney firing scandal [JURIST news archives]. In February, CREW urged US Attorney General Michael Mukasey to appoint a special counsel [JURIST report] to investigate whether the White House had violated the Federal Records Act and the Presidential Records Act [texts] in failing to preserve White House e-mails. CREW has publicly alleged that White House officials may have deliberately lost or tampered with e-mail records to hide illegal conduct.

[JURIST] A man accused of hacking US government computers in 2001 and 2002 appealed to the judicial panel of the UK House of Lords Monday, arguing [certified points of appeal, PDF] that his extradition to the US would violate his human rights. British police arrested systems analyst Gary McKinnon [BBC profile; advocacy website] in 2002, and US authorities indicted [PDF text] him later that year on charges of hacking NASA, Department of Defense, Air Force, Army and Navy computers in violation of US computer laws [18 USC 1030 text]. The British government granted the 2005 US extradition request, and McKinnon's lawyer appealed on the grounds that US authorities had threatened him to encourage a plea agreement. His lawyer said that US officials told McKinnon that if he did not plead guilty to the charges, he could be sentenced to life in prison since each of the seven counts against him is punishable by up to 10 years of imprisonment and a $250,000 fine [indictment press release]. The Telegraph has more.

In 2006, a UK court recommended [JURIST report] that the government extradite McKinnon to the US. His lawyers appealed, but in 2007 High Court judges ruled [opinion text] that there were no grounds for appeal. McKinnon has not denied the charges and has said that he was motivated by a desire to uncover "hidden technology" capable of benefiting all of mankind and evidence of UFOs, which he claims is being suppressed by the US military.

[JURIST] Dozens of accused terror detainees held in US military prisons actually have no ties to terrorism, according to an investigative report published Sunday by McClatchy Newspapers [media website]. McClatchy reporters found that many of the 66 former terror detainees interviewed were ordinary civilians or petty criminals; only 34 had ties to militant groups or activities and of those only seven had connections to al Qaeda leadership. The report also alleges that many of the detainees held at both the Bagram Air Base and Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archives] prisons are civilians who were either caught up in large-scale sweeps by the Afghan and US armies or were arrested based on unreliable information obtained from relatives or neighbors.

The report echoes comments [JURIST report] made in February 2006 by lawyers for two detainees who alleged that over half of detainees held at Guantanamo have not committed terrorist acts or are not members of terrorist organizations. In November 2006, Seton Hall law professor Mark Denbeaux [faculty profile] reported that US military Combatant Status Review Tribunals [DOD materials] do not offer Guantanamo detainees an adequate opportunity to contest the accusations against them [JURIST report] or to object to their status as enemy combatants.

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] on Monday agreed to hear three cases [Order List, PDF], including Ashcroft v. Iqbal, et al. (07-1015) [docket; cert. petition, PDF], in which the Court will consider whether high-ranking US officials are protected by qualified immunity from suit for alleged religious and ethnic discrimination by their subordinates. Javaid Iqbal, a Pakistani national detained during a terror sweep after Sept.11, 2001, filed a lawsuit against former US Attorney General John Ashcroft, FBI Director Robert Mueller [official profiles], and other officials, alleging that he was subjected to abuse during his detention in a Brooklyn jail because of his religion and ethnicity. The US Appeals Court for the Second Circuit allowed the lawsuit to go forward [ruling, PDF], but the Bush administration appealed the ruling, arguing that the officials were protected from suit for the acts of their subordinates. AP has more.

The Court also granted certiorari in two other cases Monday. In Peake v. Sanders (07-1209) [docket; cert. petition, PDF], the Court will consider the extent to which the US Department of Veterans Affairs is liable if it fails to adequately inform a veteran of the information needed to process a benefits claim. In Haywood v. Drown (07-10374) [docket], the Court will consider whether a New York law that requires all damage claims against state prison employees to be heard in state claims court is unconstitutional.

[JURIST] The Supreme Court of Victoria Court of Appeal [official website] Monday upheld [decision; summary, PDF] a December 2006 decision [ABC report] ordering a retrial of suspected terrorist Joseph Thomas [advocacy website], nicknamed "Jihad Jack" by the popular media. Thomas' original convictions for carrying a fake passport and receiving funds from terrorists were overturned [JURIST report] when a lower court ruled that police had obtained statements against his will and in the absence of counsel. That court later found that Thomas should be retried because he willingly volunteered the same information in an interview [transcript] with the Australian Broadcasting Company (ABC). The Supreme Court rejected Thomas's argument that his prosecution knew or should have known of the ABC interview at the time of the original trial [JURIST report]. No date for Thomas's retrial has been set, but he remains under a control order [JURIST report]. AP has more.

Thomas was the first Australian incarcerated under the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism Act 2002 [text] after having been found guilty in February of receiving $3,500 from a senior al Qaeda member and of carrying a fake passport. Thomas was the first person to be put under controversial "control orders" [JURIST news archive], which require him to stay within the city of Melbourne and to obey an evening curfew imposed under anti-terror legislation [Act No. 144 text; security backgrounder] enacted late 2005.

[JURIST] A Singapore court Monday charged a US citizen and former Singapore lawyer with insulting a public servant after he published critical comments about a judge on his blog. California-based Gopalan Nair [firm profile] was arrested last week after accusing a judge presiding over a defamation case brought by former Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew [official profile] against the Singapore Democratic Party of "prostituting herself" [blog entry]. Nair made the comments about Justice Belinda Ang [official profile] after observing a hearing in the case, where he perceived Ang as being unfairly favorable to Lee. Authorities originally accused Nair of sending an insulting email to Ang, a charge Nair denied [press release, PDF]. Earlier this month, Nair was also charged with sending an insulting email to another judge, Lai Siu Chiu, in 2006. AFP has more. Reuters has additional coverage.

Before becoming a US citizen, Nair was a Singapore opposition politician. In 1991, he unsuccessfully ran for office as a member of the Singapore Worker's Party [party website]. The Straits Times has local coverage.

[JURIST] The government of Bangladesh [JURIST news archive] plans to release certain inmates [press briefing] who have served half their prison sentences in order to reduce the country's overcrowded prison populations, Bangladeshi officials said Monday. The prisoner release plan comes following the June announcement of a clampdown on crime [JURIST report]. The prisons are now at triple their intended capacity, but Home Adviser Mohammad Abdul Matin [official profile] said that the arrests were primarily based on warrants and other crimes and were not for political reasons under the Emergency Power Rules. Bangladeshi political parties the Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party [party websites] have already accused the government of using the sweep for political purposes, and rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW) has accused the government of making widespread unwarranted arrests [HRW report]. AFP has more. The New Nation has local coverage.

Bangladesh's current anti-corruption movement began last February when 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 canceled a scheduled national election. In May, Bangladeshi authorities approved a Truth and Accountability Commission [JURIST report] that would allow corrupt officials and businessmen to avoid jail time by publicly confessing and returning any illegally obtained money. The commission is designed to ease the burden on the country's Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) [governing statute; JURIST news archive], which faces a huge backlog of cases that could take years to clear.

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] handed down two decisions Monday, including Florida Dept. of Revenue v. Piccadilly Cafeterias [Duke Law backgrounder; JURIST report], in which the Court ruled that a federal bankruptcy code provision [11 USC §1146(a) text] exempting certain court-confirmed transfers from state and local transfer taxes applies only after the plan has been approved by a bankruptcy court. The Court found:

The most natural reading of §1146(a)'s text, the provision's
placement within the Code, and applicable substantive canons all lead to the same conclusion: Section 1146(a) affords a stamp-tax exemption only to transfers made pursuant to a Chapter 11 plan that has been confirmed. Because Piccadilly transferred its assets before its Chapter 11 plan was confirmed by the Bankruptcy Court, it may not rely on §1146(a) to avoid Florida’s stamp taxes.

[T]o safeguard the right to pursue a motion to reopen for voluntary departure recipients, the alien must be permitted to withdraw, unilaterally, a voluntary departure request before expiration of the departure period, without regard to the underlying merits of the motion to reopen. As a result, the alien has the option either to abide by the terms, and receive the agreed-upon benefits, of voluntary departure; or, alternatively, to forgo those benefits and remain in the United States to pursue an administrative motion.

[JURIST] Kosovo's new constitution [text] went into effect Sunday despite a declaration by Serbian President Boris Tadic that the charter of the breakaway Serbian province was legally void. The constitution was adopted [JURIST report] by the Assembly of Kosovo [official website] in April and later certified by the European Union [JURIST report] as guaranteeing the individual and community rights of all its citizens. Tadic reiterated in a speech Sunday that Serbia does not recognize Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence [text; JURIST report] and as such, cannot recognize the country's constitution as a legal fact. He said that diplomacy, not force, was necessary to defend the "integrity" of Serbia's "southern province." Kosovo Serbs claim they will set up their own assembly within Kosovo by June 28 to protect their rights. Xinhua has more. AFP has additional coverage.

Kosovo [JURIST news archive] at present is overwhelmingly populated by ethnic Albanians with only a small minority of Serbs remaining mostly in the north [JURIST report] after Serb forces withdrew from the region following the 1999 bombing campaign against Yugoslav forces under the political direction of President Slobodan Milosevic. It was subsequently put under UN administration. The new state of Kosovo has been recognized by the US and most European states, but not by Serbia or Russia, Serbia's closest ally.

[JURIST]Ali Hassan al-Majid [BBC profile; JURIST news archive], better known in the Western media as "Chemical Ali", denied involvement in the killing of Shi'ite civilians at a demonstration during the reign of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. Al-Majid is charged with crimes against humanity for his alleged role in the violent suppression of a predominately Shi'a protest [HRW backgrounder] in southern Iraq following the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Al-Masjid has already been sentenced to death for the killing of Kurdish Iraqis using chemical weapons during the 1988 Anfal campaign [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive]. He denied the killing of any civilians, but admitted that he and his troops did open fire on people he characterized as Shi'ite insurgents, and that they also executed an Iranian man he believed was a threat. AP has more.

Al-Majid was absent [JURIST report] at the beginning of the trial due to a heart attack brought on by a self-imposed hunger strike. His death sentence in the Anfal case was upheld on appeal last September, but Iraq's Presidency Council did not approve the execution [JURIST reports] until late February. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government said in early March that al-Majid would not be executed [JURIST report] until the Presidency Council approved the death sentences of al-Majid's two co-defendants. He continues to be held by US forces in Iraq.

[JURIST] UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband [official website] said Sunday that parliament would continue the process to ratify the EU reform treaty [JURIST news archive], formally known as the Treaty of Lisbon [official website; PDF text], despite an Irish referendum which rejected the treaty last week [JURIST report]. Miliband said that even though the Treaty requires unanimous approval by all 27 EU member states, it is still important for Britain to voice its decision on the proposed rules. He rejected French and German leaders' calls to consider adopting the treaty without Ireland. The House of Lords [official website] will vote on the treaty Wednesday; the Commons approved the pact in March. The Telegraph has more. The Belfast Telegraph has additional coverage.

Netherlands Prime Minister Peter Balkenende [official profile] said Friday that his country would also press on with its consideration [JURIST report] of the treaty in line with European Commission President José Manuel Barroso's general call [press release, PDF] to remaining states to do so.

[JURIST] Officials from Pakistani co-ruling party Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) [party website] will soon present an impeachment motion against President Pervez Musharraf, a PML-N MP told a National Assembly [official website] meeting Sunday. PML-N and coalition partner Pakistan People's Party (PPP) [party website] officials have disagreed [JURIST report] on how to limit or amend Musharraf's powers, with the PML-N generally favoring resignation or impeachment and the PPP favoring working with Musharraf to improve the country's political system. However, after Musharraf declared [Dawn report] that he would neither step down nor go into exile, PPP leaders took a tougher stance, stating that Musharraf was only president by default and warning that if he did not step down, the parliament would impeach him [The News report]. So far 48 parliament officials have signed the motion for impeachment, which could be tabled within the next two weeks. Zee News has more.

Last Sunday, party leaders released a 10-point charge sheet [JURIST report; Dawn backgrounder] detailing Musharraf's alleged misuse of his executive powers, including November's declaration of emergency rule [text, PDF] and the subsequent removal of judges from the Supreme Court of Pakistan [court website]. PML-N officials recently supported a protest march by members of the Pakistani lawyers' movement [NYT backgrounder], which reached the Parliament House in the capital Islamabad on Friday night and which will likely continue until the judges are reinstated [JURIST reports]. Last week PML-N leader and former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif [JURIST news archive] called for Musharraf to be tried for treason [JURIST report], labeling him a traitor disloyal to Pakistan. Sharif also said that Musharraf should be punished for the "damage" he has done to Pakistan in the years since he led a military coup [BBC backgrounder] and unseated Sharif in 1999.