[JURIST] The Supreme Court of Israel [official website] Monday denied a request to suspend the opening of border crossings between the country and the Palestinian Gaza Strip [BBC backgrounder]. The appeal was made by the father of Sgt. Gilad Schalit [advocacy website], an Israeli soldier held prisoner by Hamas [GlobalSecurity backgrounder] after being captured by the group in 2006, and it asked the government not to open the crossings until Schalit is released. The court ordered government officials to brief Schalit's family on the status of the negotiations, but said his release was not one of the conditions of the June 19 peace agreement between Israel the group. AP has more. Haaretz has local coverage.

The planned six-month cease-fire [IICC backgrounder] in the region was facilitated by Egypt and was agreed to by Israel and Hamas last week. If the agreement continues to go forward, more crossings between the two regions will open and more goods will be let through. In January UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour [official profile] heavily criticized the embargo Israel had placed on Gaza, but the Israeli Supreme Court upheld the measures [JURIST reports] later that month.

[JURIST] The Pakistan National Assembly [official website] Sunday passed a bill [text, PDF] which not only approved the country's 2008-2009 budget, but also expanded the membership of the country's Supreme Court from 16 to 29 justices. Passage of the so-called Finance Bill was sharply criticized [Daily Times report] by several opposition groups and members of the country's lawyers' movement [JURIST news archive], who fear that the expansion of the Supreme Court undermines their demands for the reinstatement of judges dismissed after the November 2007 declaration of emergency law [text, PDF; JURIST report]. After the bill passed, Finance Minister Naveed Qamar of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) [party website] insinuated that its clause 18, providing for the expansion of the Court, was drafted and inserted by members of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) [party websites]. PML-N members denied the allegation, saying that the party only supported the bill because expanding the Supreme Court would ensure that dismissed judges could be reinstated. Pakistan's Dawn has more. From Dubai, the Khaleej Times has additional coverage. The Daily Times has more local coverage.

The expansion of the Pakistan Supreme Court by the National Assembly is the latest development in the ongoing conflict between Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and opposition politicians and activists. Last week, members of the lawyers' movement concluded a "long march" protest [JURIST report] from Lahore to the capital, Islamabad, calling for the reinstatement of the dismissed judges. Two weeks ago, the PML-N called for Musharraf's impeachment [JURIST report], releasing a "charge sheet" outlining instances - including the dismissal of the country's superior court judges - where the president allegedly misused his authority. Earlier this month, the Pakistan Supreme Court Bar Association called constitutional amendments proposed by the PPP a stall tactic [JURIST report] to delay addressing the reinstatement of the ousted judges.

[JURIST] Special national security courts to try terrorism suspects are "unnecessary" and "dangerous to traditional constitutional protections," according to a report [text, PDF; advocacy press release] issued Monday by the Constitution Project [advocacy website]. The report was endorsed by a panel of national security experts and legal scholars including General Wesley Clark, Yale Law School dean Harold Koh, former FBI director William Sessions, and former Judge of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit Patricia Wald. It criticized proposals for a hybrid court system [Salt Lake Tribune editorial] that would withhold certain traditional constitutional rights from terrorism suspects, saying that such a system would threaten the Constitution and the judicial process:

The idea that national security courts are a proper third way for dealing with such individuals presupposes that the purported defects in the current system are ones that cannot adequately be remedied within the confines of that system, and yet can be remedied in hybrid tribunals without violating the Constitution. We strongly disagree. Traditional Article III courts can meet the challenges posed by terrorism prosecutions, and proposals to create national security courts should be rejected as a grave threat to our constitutional rights.

[JURIST] A three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit Monday ordered [PDF text] the US government to release or transfer a Chinese Uighur Muslim [JURIST news archive] detained at Guantanamo Bay, ruling that Huzaifa Parhat had been improperly designated as an enemy combatant by a US Combatant Status Review Tribunal [DOD materials]. Barring release or transfer, the order directed the US to "expeditiously hold a new Tribunal consistent with the court's opinion." Parhat will be able to challenge his detention in federal court and seek immediate release through a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to the US Supreme Court's ruling in Boumediene v. Bush [opinion, PDF; JURIST report]. The appellate court's opinion has not yet been released because it contains classified information, but a redacted version is being prepared. Reuters has more.

In April, US Department of Justice (DOJ) lawyers defended Parhat's detention [JURIST report] in oral arguments before the court, claiming he is an "enemy combatant" due to his ties with the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) [MIPT backgrounder], a militant group that calls for separation from China and was designated as a terrorist group by the US government in 2002. The DOJ acknowledged that Parhat did not fight against the US and that there is no evidence that he intended to do so, but said he can still be held under the Authorization for Use of Military Force Act of 2001 [SJ Res 23 materials] because ETIM is affiliated with al Qaeda. In 2006, five Chinese Uighur detainees were released to Albania [JURIST report], where officials reviewed applications for asylum. The transfer, which was criticized by China, ended a court challenge against the detainees' indefinite detention [JURIST reports]. In December 2006, lawyers for seven Uighur detainees filed a lawsuit [JURIST report], arguing that the process by which they were determined to be enemy combatants was flawed.

[JURIST] A Pakistani court Monday blocked Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) [party website] head and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif [BBC profile] from running for parliament, finding that a prior criminal conviction rendered him ineligible for office. Earlier this month, the Election Commission of Pakistan [official website] cleared [JURIST report] Sharif and his younger brother to run in the June 26 by-elections after a local election tribunal was unable to reach a unanimous decision [Daily Times report] about Sharif's candidacy. AP has more. A Pakistan News has local coverage.

In 2000, Sharif was convicted for his involvement in an attempt to prevent a plane carrying then-army-chief and current President Pervez Musharraf [JURIST news archive] from landing in Pakistan during Musharraf's 1999 coup against Sharif's civilian government. Last year, the ECP ruled that Sharif could not run as a candidate [JURIST report] in February elections because of the 2000 criminal conviction.

[JURIST] The head executives of oil companies should be tried for crimes against humanity and nature for misleading the public about the impact of oil on global warming [EPA materials; JURIST news archive], according to a NASA climatologist who testified [briefing advisory] before the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming [official website] Monday. James Hansen [NASA profile; background and publications page], the long-time director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) [official website], told the Guardian that

When you are in that kind of position, as the CEO of one the primary players who have been putting out misinformation even via organisations that affect what gets into school textbooks, then I think that's a crime.

[JURIST] Tunisia [US State Department backgrounder] is committing wide-spread human rights abuses under overly-broad anti-terrorism legislation [Amnesty backgrounder], according to a Monday report [text; press release] by Amnesty International [advocacy website]. Amnesty said that while the government claims to comply with international norms on due process and detainee treatment, it rarely investigates allegations of rights violations by state security organs:

The fact that gaping discrepancies exist between law and practice in the country signals a conscious refusal by the Tunisian authorities to fully subscribe to and abide by their obligations under international human rights law. The laws that should have increased protection have been routinely flouted by the Tunisian authorities, and have not served as an adequate safeguard against torture, unfair trial and other serious human rights abuses.

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] Monday agreed to hear seven cases [Order List, PDF], including Ministry of Defense and Support for the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran v. Elahi (07-615) [docket; cert. petition, PDF]. In that case, the Court will consider whether the brother of dissident Cyrus Elahi, assassinated in Paris in 1990, can collect on a default judgment he holds against Iran by attaching a $2.8 million judgment obtained by the Iranian Ministry of Defense against California-based Cubic Defense Systems [corporate website]. Dariush Elahi was awarded $11.7 million in compensatory and $300 million in punitive damages after Iran refused to respond to his 2000 lawsuit brought in a Washington federal court, alleging that the Iranian government was responsible for his brother's death. Iran originally won the $2.8 million judgment against Cubic before the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) [official website] for Cubic's contract breach following the Iranian Islamic Revolution of 1979 [BBC backgrounder]. AP has more.

In Winter, et al. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., et al. (07-1239) [docket; cert. petition], the Court will review a Ninth Circuit ruling rejecting the Bush administration's attempt to exempt the US Navy from environmental laws [JURIST reports] so that the Navy could continue using sonar in its anti-submarine warfare training off the coast of southern California. In its petition for certiorari, the Justice Department argued that the decision interferes with the Navy's ability to prepare for war, that national security interests should override environmental regulations, and that there is no evidence to support the claim that the sonar exercises harm marine wildlife. The Natural Resources Defense Council [advocacy website], which filed the lawsuit seeking to halt Navy sonar use due to harm caused to whales and other marine mammals, published a 2005 paper on the impact of sonar on marine wildlife [NRDC materials]. AP has more.

The Court also granted certiorari in five other cases Monday. In Pacific Bell Telephone Co., dba AT&T California v. LinkLine Communications (07-512) [docket; cert. petition], the Court will consider whether a company can be sued for anti-competitive practices if it sets its wholesale prices to block competitors from the retail market. In AT&T Corp. v. Hulteen (07-543) [docket; cert. petition], the Court will consider whether maternity leave taken before the passage of the 1978 Pregnancy Discrimination Act can be considered in calculating employee pensions. In Cone v. Bell (07-1114) [docket; cert. petition], the Court will consider a case brought by a Tennessee death row inmate who alleges that authorities hid mitigating evidence during his murder trial. In Arizona v. Johnson (07-1122) [docket; cert. petition], the Court will consider whether a police officer may search a suspect during a routine traffic stop if he believes that suspect may be armed and dangerous but has no justifiable reason to believe that they are committing a crime. In Harbison v. Bell (07-8521) [docket; cert. petition], the Court will consider whether indigent death row inmates are entitled to federally-provided counsel in their pursuit of clemency claims.

[JURIST] The president of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website; JURIST news archive] wrote in a letter [text, PDF; press release] to the UN Monday that the Serbian government had failed to cooperate with Tribunal investigations and cases in violation of the court's UN statute [Article 29 text, PDF]. ICTY president Fausto Pocar [official profile] told UN Security Council President Zalmay Khalilzad [US government profile] that the court repeatedly asked the Serbian government [order, PDF] to help them find General Aleksander Dimitrijevic, who was a key witness in the court's case involving Former Yugoslavian President Milan Milutinovic [TrialWatch profile; ICTY case backgrounder, PDF]. Pocar said that the government had even hampered the court in its efforts to summon Dimitrijevic, and told Khalilzad:

I view this situation as a very serious one. The Security Council in establishing the International Tribunal gave it certain powers, one of which was to issue binding orders for the appearance of key witnesses before it. By failing to comply with its duties, the Government of Serbia is challenging the authority of the International Tribunal and the Security Council. Article 29 of the Statute is particularly clear in that regard and demands that the orders of the Trial Chamber be implemented swiftly and categorically and with the greatest diligence.

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] handed down three decisions Monday, including Rothgery v. Gillespie County [Duke Law backgrounder; JURIST report], in which the Court ruled 8-1 that a person accused of a felony has the right to a lawyer at a probable cause hearing before a magistrate judge. The Court held:

We merely reaffirm what we have held before and what an overwhelming majority of American jurisdictions understand in practice: a criminal defendant’s initial appearance before a judicial officer, where he learns the charge against him and his liberty is subject to restriction, marks the start of adversary judicial proceedings that trigger attachment of the Sixth Amendment right to counsel.

The aggregators' injuries relate to the failure to receive the required dialaround compensation. And if the aggregators prevail in this litigation, the long-distance carriers would write a check to the aggregators for the amount of dial-around compensation owed. What does it matter what the aggregators do with the money afterward? The injuries would be redressed whether the aggregators remit the litigation proceeds to the payphone operators, donate them to charity, or use them to build new corporate headquarters. Moreover, the statements our prior cases made about the need to show redress of the injury are consistent with what numerous authorities have long held in the assignment context, namely, that an assignee for collection may properly bring suit to redress the injury originally suffered by his assignor.

The strict time limits on notices of appeal and crossappeal would be undermined, in both civil and criminal cases, if an appeals court could modify a judgment in favor of a party who filed no notice of appeal. In a criminal prosecution, moreover, the defendant would appeal at his peril, with nothing to alert him that, on his own appeal, his sentence would be increased until the appeals court so decreed.

[JURIST] The Bolivian province of Tarija approved [Agencia Boliviana de Information (ABI) report, in Spanish] a referendum Sunday calling for greater autonomy, becoming the fourth of nine provinces to approve increased freedom from Bolivia's socialist government. The voting results in Tarija, which has considerable natural gas deposits, were similar to those in three other neighboring provinces, which have similar mineral resource wealth. Voters in those provinces have opposed a plan by Bolivian President Evo Morales [official website; BBC profile] to redistribute land and wealth in the country to aid the nation's historically disenfranchised Indian population. The Bolivian government characterized the autonomy referendum as irrelevant, since provinces can only gain autonomy through an amendment to the Bolivian constitution [text], but provisional poll results show that about 80 percent of the region's voters supported the changes. AFP has more.

Earlier this month, voters in Beni and Pando provinces voted [JURIST report] in favor of similar autonomy measures, while voters in the province of Santa Cruz approved [JURIST report] autonomy measures last month. In 2006, governors from six of Bolivia's nine states vowed to break off relations with Morales following a bid to give his leftist party more power [JURIST reports] to rewrite the Bolivian constitution [JURIST news archive]. A proposed national referendum on the new draft constitution, which had originally been blocked [JURIST report], was narrowly approved in February by the Bolivian Constitutional Assembly [official website, in Spanish] amid reports that Morales supporters prevented many draft opponents from entering the constitutional building to participate in the vote. In May, the Bolivian National Congress [official website, in Spanish] voted to hold a national referendum [JURIST report] on Morales and 10 other officials on August 10. The officials must win more than 53.74 percent of the vote to keep their positions.

[JURIST] A division of the Iranian Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance [official website, in Persian] revoked the license of Iranian daily newspaper Tehran Emrouz [official website, in Persian] Saturday for printing articles that criticized the policies of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad [official profile; BBC profile]. The articles [Roozonline.com report] were published on the third anniversary of Ahmadinejad's election and focused on his economic and political strategies. The Tehran public prosecutor accused the newspaper's officials [IRNA report; Press Law Chapter 4 text] of "publishing articles and images insulting to president [sic]," constituting "defamation and publishing false reports to disturb public opinion." Tehran Emrouz's editorial board said in a statement Sunday that the articles unfairly criticized the government and that they were the result of "journalistic adventurism." Reuters has more. Iranian state-run PressTV has additional coverage.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) [advocacy website] has ranked Iran as one of the most restrictive countries for the press, noting that in 2007, the government prosecuted more than 50 journalists [RSF reports], permanently closed at least four news agencies and temporarily closed at least 12 others. In August 2007, Iranian authorities detained three journalists [JURIST report] on charges of "publishing false statements and lies" about Iran. That same month, RSF officials asked UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to intercede on behalf [press release] of two Iranian Kurdish journalists who were sentenced to death [JURIST report] for being "enemies of God." RSF said that the two journalists' "most basic rights were violated as they were barred from court when the sentence was handed down."

[JURIST] A US military court in Iraq Sunday convicted [Multi-National Corps release] Alaa "Alex" Mohammad Ali [JURIST news archive], an Iraqi-Canadian translator working in the country, in connection with the February stabbing death of a fellow military contractor. The case is the first in which a civilian has been charged [JURIST report] and convicted by the military since a 2006 amendment [S 2766 materials] to the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) [text] granted the military jurisdiction over civilians accompanying US troops in a combat zone, and the first time a civilian has charged and convicted under military law since the Vietnam war. In court, Ali pleaded guilty to charges of wrongfully taking a knife belonging to a US soldier, obstruction of justice, and lying to investigators, and was sentenced to five months in prison. Ali had been scheduled to face court-martial for aggravated assault [JURIST report], but the charges were reduced in exchange for the plea. AP has more.

In 2007, Congress enacted the 2008 defense authorization bill [HR 1585 materials] as an additional measure [JURIST report] to bring all civilian contractors [Parameters backgrounder] in Iraq under the military's jurisdiction. Such prosecutions had previously been impossible [USAF guidance document] because of court rulings [Grisham v. Hagan opinion text] that the military did not have jurisdiction over civilian contractors without a declaration of war by Congress.