[JURIST] The United States and Libya reached an agreement [US DOS press release; press statement] on Thursday to settle all pending lawsuits brought by US terror victims against Libya, including 26 lawsuits related to the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 [BBC backgrounder; JURIST new archive] over Lockerbie, Scotland. The move is part of a continuing effort to improve diplomatic relations between the two countries. Under the agreement, a fund will be started to compensate both US and Libyan victims of terrorism. The agreement also gives Libyan officials immunity from future terror-related lawsuits brought by US citizens. Some relatives of Flight 103 victims expressed anger at the deal. AP has more.

Earlier this month, US President George W. Bush signed [press release; JURIST report] into law the Libyan Claims Resolution Act [S3370 materials], which allows the Secretary of State to settle remaining civil claims brought by US citizens against Libya for bombings allegedly carried out by groups linked to the government in the late 1980s. In May, the US and Libya agreed to seek resolution of the outstanding claims against the country after President Bush had already urged Congress [JURIST reports] to exempt the country from provisions of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008 [HR 4986 materials; JURIST report], which otherwise allows victims of state-sponsored terrorism to sue for that country's assets held in the US. In 2004, Bush lifted decades-old sanctions [JURIST report] against Libya after it agreed to dismantle its weapons programs and to acknowledge its history of state-sanctioned terror.

[JURIST] The Second Circuit Court of Appeals [official website] Thursday agreed to an en banc rehearing [order, PDF; CCR press release] of a case brought by Canadian citizen Maher Arar [advocacy website; JURIST news archive] seeking a declaratory judgment against US government officials for deporting him to Syria. The court originally dismissed [decision, PDF; JURIST report] Arar's lawsuit in July, ruling that he had failed to state a claim for which it had jurisdiction to grant relief. The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) [advocacy website], which requested the rehearing, said that the decision to reconsider the case was "extremely rare." Bloomberg has more. Reuters has additional coverage.

Arar was detained by the US in 2002 after flying to New York from Tunisia on his way home to Canada. He was later transferred to Syria, where he alleges he was tortured. Arar had argued [CCR press release] that he should be able to challenge the US government's policy of extraordinary rendition [JURIST news archive] under the Torture Victim Protection Act [text] and the Fifth Amendment [text] of the US Constitution. In October 2007, US lawmakers apologized [JURIST report] to Arar during a joint hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee [official website]. In January 2007, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologized to Arar [JURIST report] on behalf of the Canadian government and announced a settlement of $10.5 million (CAD) compensation for pain and suffering.

[JURIST] The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced [press release] on Wednesday that it has reached a tentative agreement [PDF text] with ten US stock exchanges to centralize insider trading controls among the institutions. Under the plan, the programs to prevent and detect insider trading will be centrally controlled by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and a section of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) [corporate websites], instead of having each exchange run its own program. Under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 [text], the markets are required to institute self-regulating controls, and the SEC has said the plan should make those controls more effective. In a press release [text], FINRA Senior Executive Vice President Stephen Luparello praised the plan:

While U.S. equity markets have always coordinated very well with each other to detect and investigate insider trading, this agreement takes insider trading surveillance to a new level because it consolidates within FINRA and NYSE Regulation what used to be 11 discreet programs at each market center... As a result, potential insider traders, whether acting alone or in concert with others, and regardless of where they trade in the U.S., will be more readily identified in this new, more unified structure.

[JURIST] A New Orleans judge on Wednesday threw out indictments against the so-called "Danziger Seven" [advocacy website], police officers accused of murder in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina [JURIST news archive]. District Judge Raymond Bigelow ruled that prosecutors had violated state law by revealing grand jury testimony to a witness in the case and had also issued incorrect instructions to the grand jury. The "Danziger Seven" were so named because of allegations that they shot mentally handicapped Ronald Madison [NDA resolution] as he crossed the Danziger Bridge in New Orleans to escape gunfire. Police say that Madison moved as if to pull out a gun just before they opened fire, but these statements were contradicted by autopsy results [CNN report] showing Madison had been shot in the back. Parish District Attorney Robert L. Freeman, Jr. said that prosecutors might appeal the decision [press statement]. CBC News has more.

New Orleans police faced intense criticism for their behavior after Katrina. Many have been accused of both brutality and deserting their posts [JURIST report]. US federal prosecutions and convictions of law enforcement officers for alleged brutality have significantly increased in recent years, it was reported last year [USA Today report]. Unspecified Department of Justice statistics indicated that prosecutions for the use of excessive force or other violations of victims' civil rights had risen 25 percent from 224 to 281 in 2001-2007 compared to the previous seven-year period. In a 1998 report [HRW materials] Human Rights Watch called police brutality "one of the most serious and divisive human rights violations in the United States." HRW maintains an archive of letters and press releases from advocacy groups on the subject, and in 2006 raised concerns over prisons affected by Hurricane Katrina [letter].

[JURIST] Indonesia's Constitutional Court has accepted a death penalty challenge filed by three men condemned for their roles in the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings [BBC backgrounder]. Mukhlas, Imam Samudra and Amrozi Nurhasyim [BBC profiles] argue that death by firing squad amounts to "torture" and is contrary to Islamic law [VOA report]. Lawyers say that the court does not have the authority to delay the men's scheduled execution, but that it would be "respectful" for the government to issue a stay until the court completes its review. The three men, all members of Southeast Asian terror group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) [CFR backgrounder; JURIST news archive], requested they be executed by beheading [BBC report] rather than firing squad in a 2006 Supreme Court appeal. Australia's ABC News has more.

A lawyer for the three men had promised to bring their constitutional challenge after the Indonesian Supreme Court rejected the third appeal [JURIST reports] in July. Their first appeal had been rejected late last year, prompting an unusual second appeal, which was later withdrawn [JURIST reports]. In May, Indonesian police arrested [JURIST report] another JI member, Faiz Fauzan, in connection with the another set of Bali bombings [BBC report] in 2005. In March, an Indonesian judge handed down 15-year sentences [JURIST report] to two JI leaders, Zarkasih and Abu Dujana [BBC profiles] after convicting them of other terrorism charges.

[JURIST] Georgia filed a complaint [PDF text; press release, PDF] against Russia with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) [official website] on Tuesday, alleging that invading Russian troops have engaged in murder, rape and mass displacement of civilians during the recent conflict between the countries. Georgia also accused Russia of ongoing violations of the 1965 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination [text] since 1990 based on its removal of ethnic Georgians from South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Georgia is seeking an ICJ order that Russia pay compensation, withdraw its troops, and allow all displaced ethnic Georgians to return home. AP has more.

On Wednesday, Alexander Bastrykin, chairman of Russia's Prosecutor General's Office, said that his staff is collecting evidence [JURIST report] of war crimes allegedly committed by Georgian forces in the breakaway region of South Ossetia [BBC report]. Georgian officials have also accused Russian forces [JURIST report] of human rights violations and mass detentions in the region. On Tuesday, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev [official website] ordered an end to military action [press release] in the region, but Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili [official website] said Wednesday that Russian troops had continued to advance [speech transcript].

[JURIST] Malaysian Tourism Promotion Board [official website] head Mirza Mohammad Taiyab [Star profile] on Wednesday pleaded not guilty to corruption charges based on allegations that he received free dental work in return for granting a government contract. His indictment is the latest of several brought by the country's Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) [official website], in what government officials have said is a new push to combat violations of the country's anti-graft laws [statute materials]. Anti-corruption advocates were unimpressed with Mirza's arrest, saying there were much larger instances of corruption in need of investigation. Mirza is scheduled to be tried in February 2009 and faces up to two years in prison if convicted. AP has more. The Star has local coverage.

Last month the ACA arrested the country's immigration board head and six others for allegedly receiving bribes [Star report] in exchange for the granting of work permits. Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Bin Ahmad Badawi [official website] has said that such high-profile arrests prove the efficacy of the agency [Star report] but critics of the government have held protests of judicial corruption in the country since the release of video excerpts [JURIST reports] allegedly showing former Malaysian Chief Justice Dzaiddin Abdullah admitting to accepting bribes in return for judicial appointments.

[JURIST] Nigeria officially turned over the entirety of the disputed Bakassi peninsula [UN backgrounder] to neighboring Cameroon on Thursday, in compliance with a 2002 International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling [ICJ materials]. Basing its ruling on an old colonial agreement between England and Germany, the ICJ had ruled that the territory and its oil reserves should be handed over to Cameroon. Implementation of the ICJ ruling was handled by a special UN-appointed commission [UN backgrounder], under which a withdrawal was eventually negotiated. Although the Nigerian military withdrew from the northern part of the peninsula [JURIST report] in 2006, the countries had agreed that rest of Bakassi would remain under Nigerian civilian control for two more years. BBC New has more. AFP has additional coverage.

Most residents of Bakassi were Nigerian fishermen, most of whom have had to leave the peninsula to be resettled elsewhere in the country. Many have criticized government resettlement efforts, which set aside landlocked areas to house the displaced fishermen, as destroying their way of life. Nigeria and Cameroon's dispute over the territory [backgrounder] had let to violent conflicts between 1981 and 1994.

[JURIST] US Army Gen. Gregory Zanetti [official profile], deputy commander at Guantanamo Bay, testified [Miami Herald report] Wednesday that military commissions [JURIST news archive] legal advisor Gen. Thomas Hartmann [official profile] routinely bullied his counterparts and was inappropriately aggressive in seeking indictments against detainees. Zanetti's testimony fit in with earlier allegations [JURIST report] that Hartmann worked too closely with commission prosecutors despite his purportedly neutral role. Col. Lawrence Morris, the chief prosecutor in the case, said the complaints against Hartmann were more a function of personality conflicts than of actual misconduct. The testimony came at a hearing in the case of detainee Mohammed Jawad [DOD materials; JURIST news archive], whose lawyers are seeking to have charges against him dismissed due to alleged misconduct by Hartmann. AFP has more.

In May, lawyers for detainee Khalid Sheikh Mohammed [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] unsuccessfully moved to have charges against their client dropped because of similar allegations [JURIST report] against Hartman.  Earlier that month, Hartman was disqualified [JURIST report] from participating in the military commission trial of detainee Salim Ahmed Hamdan [DOD materials; JURIST news archive], but has refused to resign [JURIST report] from his post. In April, former Guantanamo prosecutor  Colonel Morris D. Davis [official profile, PDF] said Hartmann had questioned the need for open trials [JURIST report] at Guantanamo and was upset with the slow pace of the proceedings begun by Davis. Davis resigned [JURIST report; JURIST op-ed] from his position in October 2007, saying that politics were interfering with the prosecutions process.

[JURIST] Energy company Kinder Morgan Bulk Terminals (KMBT) [corporate website] was sentenced Wednesday for its improper disposal of potash (potassium chloride) in violation of the Ocean Dumping Act [text]. In 2003, a KMBT employee dumped 160 metric tons of potash into the ocean after the substance came into contact with water and was therefore unsaleable. KMBT will pay a $156,000 fine and make an $84,000 community service payment to the Oregon Governor's Fund for the Environment. Calling KMBT's actions a "costly" violation of federal law, an EPA agent who investigated the incident said [DOJ press release]:

It is hard to imagine a clearer violation of the Ocean Dumping Act...Intentionally using the ocean as a garbage can for off spec potash is not only morally wrong, it's a crime. [KMBT] has paid a serious price for not taking care of this properly at the dock.

The government and the company acknowledge in a joint factual statement filed with the court that no harm was done to the environment; the former employee's actions constituted a violation of company policy; the company did not benefit financially from the incident; and no [KMBT] personnel outside of the [incident] either approved or had any knowledge of the former employee's arrangements.

[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit [official website] held Wednesday that publisher Penguin Group [corporate website] will retain the right to publish ten John Steinbeck [National Steinbeck Center bio] novels. The heirs involved in this copyright action already receive a percentage of the sales proceeds, but initiated this action because they believed they were entitled to a greater portion. The Second Circuit recognized the provision of the Copyright Act [text] granting authors and certain family members the power to terminate prior assignments of copyright because so many "young authors enter into long-term contracts with publishers when their bargaining power is weak and their prospects for success uncertain," but held that this power is limited. The Second Circuit held [opinion, PDF]:

[U]nder our view, authors or their statutory heirs holding termination rights are still left with an opportunity to threaten (or make good on a threat) to exercise termination rights and extract more favorable terms from early grants of an author's copyright. But nothing in the statute suggests that an author or an author's statutory heirs are entitled to more than one opportunity, between them, to use termination rights to enhance their bargaining power or to exercise them...In this case, Elaine Steinbeck had the opportunity in 1994 to renegotiate the terms of the 1938 Agreement to her benefit...By taking advantage of this opportunity, she exhausted the single opportunity provided by statute to Steinbeck's statutory heirs to revisit the terms of her late husband's original grants of licenses to his copyrights. It is no violation of the Copyright Act to execute a renegotiated contract where the Act gives the original copyright owner's statutory heirs the opportunity and incentive to do so.