[JURIST] The US Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) [official websites] released a report [PDF text] on Tuesday concluding that former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales [White House profile; JURIST news archive] violated DOJ regulations by storing highly classified documents in unsecure locations. Written by Inspector General Glenn A. Fine [official profile], the report noted that although Gonzales' conduct might have violated federal criminal statutes [text] as well, the DOJ's National Security Division [official website] declined to pursue the matter. The allegations, referred to the by the head of the National Security Division in August 2007, initially involved the handling of Gonzales' handwritten notes pertaining to a warrantless domestic surveillance program [JURIST news archive] run by the National Security Agency (NSA) [official website]. The OIG investigation expanded to include Office of Legal Counsel opinions regarding the surveillance program and interrogations of detainees [JURIST news archive], as well as memoranda related to both programs, and correspondence from congressional leaders. The OIG report stated:

In sum, our investigation concluded that Gonzales mishandled classified materials regarding two highly sensitive compartmented programs. We found that Gonzales took his classified handwritten notes home and stored them there for an indeterminate period of time. The notes contained operational aspects and other information about the NSA surveillance program that is classified at the TS/SCI level. By regulation, such material must be stored in a Sensitive Compartmented Storage Facility (SCIF). At the time he took these materials home, Gonzales did not have a SCIF at his house. Although Gonzales did have a safe at his residence at this time, we found that he did not use it to store the notes.

We also found that Gonzales improperly stored other highly classified documents about the two compartmented programs in a safe at the Department that was not located in a SCIF. Several employees in the OAG had access to the safe where Gonzales stored the documents even though they lacked the necessary security clearances for this information. We concluded that Gonzales’s mishandling of both the notes and the other classified documents violated Department security requirements and procedures.

We also submit that the Report demonstrates that Judge Gonzales' best recollection is that he always placed the Notes in the most secure place over which he had immediate personal control. While the Report provides a basis to conclude that information made available to Judge Gonzales would indicate that the safe was not a proper storage place for the Notes or other SCI material, we submit that a fair assessment of the facts does not support a conclusion that Judge Gonzales consciously knew that the safe was inadequate because it was not in a sensitive compartmented information facility ("SCIF") and acted in contravention to that knowledge.

[JURIST] Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva [official website, English version] has placed senior officials of the intelligence service Abin [official website, in Portuguese] on suspension pending investigations of a report that its agents wiretapped a variety of high-ranking government figures [JURIST report]. Silva removed Abin Director Paulo Lacerda [official profile] and Deputy Director Jose Milton Campana on Monday after meeting with the defense and justice ministers and with Supreme Federal Court [official website] president Gilmar Mendes, one of the officials who was allegedly affected. Silva also directed the Justice Ministry [official website, in Portuguese] to begin its own investigation, in addition to those being conducted by Abin and Congress, and to propose a law punishing security agents who commit invasions of privacy. AP has more. AFP has additional coverage. Estado de S. Paolo has local coverage.

Veja [media website], a Brazilian weekly newsmagazine, made the wiretapping allegations in an article in its latest issue, published late last week. Aside from Mendes, the officials said to have been wiretapped also include Silva's chief of staff and several members of Congress. The reason for the alleged wiretaps remains unclear, although Brazilian media speculate that they may have been undertaken in connection with the local elections seen as possible bellwethers for the chances of Lula's party in the country's 2010 presidential election.

[JURIST] Thailand's Election Commission [official website, in Thai] on Tuesday voted to recommend [Bangkok Post report] that the country's ruling People's Power Party (PPP) be disbanded for election fraud allegedly committed by one of its former top officers. The five-member panel voted unanimously after finding that the party was complicit in a vote-buying scheme devised by former deputy leader Yongyuth Tiyapairat. Yongyuth was convicted of the crime [Bangkok Post report] by the country's Consitutional Court [official website, in Thai] in July. The EC's recommendation will be sent to the country's Attorney General [official website, in Thai], and if approved, will be brought before the Constitutional Court within 30 days. If disbanded, a number of high-ranking government officials, including Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej [BBC profile], would lose their positions and be barred from political office for five years. ABC News has more.

Also Tuesday, Prime Minister Samak imposed a State of Emergency in Bangkok, prohibiting public gatherings and the incitement of protests. The measures came in reaction to demonstrations held by the pro-government Democratic Alliance Against Dictatorship (DAAD) and opposition People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) parties. Criticized [Bangkok Post reports] by lawyers' and journalists' groups, the declaration is the first of its kind in the country and has been challenged in the country's Supreme Administrative Court. PAD members have refused to recognize the order [Bangkok Post report] and have demanded Samak's resignation. Xinhua has more. AP has additional coverage.

PAD announced its plans to seek Samak's impeachment [JURIST report] in July after a series of court decisions against key officials in the government and the PPP. The PPP has also been closely associated with former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive], now on trial for corruption. PAD members have protested [JURIST report] delays in Thaksin's various corruption trials, and the National Counter Corruption Commission (NCCC) [official website] said that it may bring more charges against Thaksin without waiting for the Office of the Attorney General [official website, in Thai] to file additional indictments.

[JURIST] The administration of Bolivian President Evo Morales [official website; BBC profile] is refusing to recognize a National Electoral Court (CNE) [official website] decision suspending a constitutional referendum set for Dec. 7 [JURIST report]. Nationalization Minister Hector Arce said [ABI report, in Spanish] Monday that letters sent to Morales by CNE President Jose Luis Exeni purporting to suspend the referendum have no legal effect. The administration ratified Morales' decree [text] scheduling the referendum, and demanded CNE compliance. Sacha Llorenti, deputy minister for social movements, defended Morales' decree as "respond[ing] not only to a historical necessity for the Bolivian people to decide if it wants a new Constitution, but ... also based on constitutional principles and laws of the Republic." [sic] AP has more. From La Paz, La Razon has local coverage, in Spanish.

If approved, the proposed constitutional amendments would distribute more of Bolivia's land and energy resource income to the country's indigenous population. Morales said that last month's national referendum permitting him to retain his office provided the authority for him to push for the constitutional changes. Several of the provincial governors also confirmed by the referendum oppose the plan [JURIST reports] and said they would not hold the December vote in their regions, leading to Monday's CNE decision. The 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.

[JURIST] South African judge Navanethem Pillay [official profile] on Monday assumed the role [UN press release] of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, replacing departing commissioner Louise Arbour [JURIST report]. Pillay will hold the office for four years, and prior to her appointment, she had served on both the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and the International Criminal Court (ICC) [official websites]. She is also a co-founder of women's rights group Equality Now [advocacy website] and in 1995 became first woman of Southeast-Asian descent appointed to the South African Supreme Court [official website]. Pillay on Monday said that her focus as Commissioner will be on both speaking for victims and holding violators accountable, and that she hopes to engage [Haaretz report] "as many countries... as possible" in an April 2009 anti-racism conference in Geneva. UN News Centre has more. Reuters has additional coverage.

Pillay was appointed High Commissioner for Human Rights by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and confirmed [JURIST reports] by the UN General Assembly for the position in July. In March, preceding Commissioner Louise Arbour said she would not seek a second term [press release; JURIST report] when her commission ended on June 30. Arbour was appointed [JURIST report] to her position in 2004 after five years as a justice of the Supreme Court of Canada. She succeeded Sergio Vieira de Mello [BBC obituary], who was killed in a 2003 suicide bomb attack on UN offices in Baghdad. Arbour served as chief war crimes prosecutor for the UN in the late 1990s.

[JURIST] Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] on Monday began an investigation to assemble a definitive registry of the tens of thousands of victims of the Spanish Civil War [LOC backgrounder] and the regime of Gen. Francisco Franco. Garzon ordered government agencies, the Episcopal Conference [church website], the University of Granada [academic website] and the mayors of four cities to produce the names of people buried in mass graves, as well as the circumstances and dates of their burial. The investigation will help determine whether the National Court [official website] has jurisdiction over the complaints filed by 13 "associations for the recovery of historical memory" seeking clarification of the victims' whereabouts. Such a determination could help the victims' survivors obtain government compensation. AP has more. From Madrid, El Pais has local coverage, in Spanish.

Estimates of the number of people killed during the 1936-39 Civil War and the subsequent Franco dictatorship [BBC backgrounder] range from 90,000 to 180,000. In 2007, the Spanish Parliament passed legislation [text; JURIST report] condemning the Franco government, acknowledging the victims and setting aside money to compensate them. Garzon, widely known for his high-profile investigations of terror and human rights cases, has called for the creation of a "truth commission" [JURIST report] to uncover Franco-era abuses.

[JURIST] Pakistan's National Accountability Bureau (NAB) [official website] is seeking to reopen corruption cases against former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif [party profile; JURIST news archive] and his brother, said the NAB's Deputy Prosecutor General Zulfiqar Ahmed Bhutta on Tuesday. Bhutta said the NAB had filed an application in Accountability Court IV in Rawalpindi asking the court to reverse last month's decision to adjourn the cases indefinitely [Daily Times report]. Judge Khalid Mehmood suspended the cases on technical grounds, ruling that a prior application to reinstate them should have been signed by the NAB chairman. Nawaz Sharif and his brother Shahbaz Sharif [personal website], chief minister of Punjab province, faced charges including money laundering and accumulating wealth beyond declared sources of income. The court is scheduled to consider the NAB application on Thursday. AP has more. The Times of India has additional coverage.

Sharif is head of the Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz (PML-N) party [party website], which he withdrew from the coalition government [JURIST report] last week over the failure to reach an agreement with the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) [party website] to reinstate judges who were removed [JURIST report] last year by former President Pervez Musharraf [JURIST news archive]. Musharraf resigned [JURIST report] last month, largely to avoid impeachment for the judges' dismissals and other alleged abuses of authority, and an election to replace him is scheduled for Saturday. On Monday, the head of an organization called Save the Judiciary filed a petition [Daily Times report; Dawn report] in the Pakistani Supreme Court [official website], seeking to have the election delayed because acting president Mohammedmian Soomro [official website] allegedly did not take the oath of office as prescribed in the Pakistani Constitution [PDF text]. In another development in Pakistan [JURIST news archive], the government has reportedly contacted several judges [Daily Times report] removed by Musharraf about reappointment to the Peshawar High Court [official website]. Eight Sindh High Court judges were reinstated last week [JURIST report].