[JURIST] Judge Lucy Billings of the New York State Supreme Court dismissed [decision and order, PDF text; Lambda Legal press release] a lawsuit Tuesday that challenged the decision made by New York Governor David Paterson [official profile] to recognize out-of-state same-sex marriages [JURIST report]. The lawsuit, brought by conservative Christian legal advocacy group Alliance Defense Fund [advocacy website], asked the court to declare that Governor Paterson's May 14, 2008 Executive Directive recognizing such marriages "contravenes New York law" and asked the court to "permanently enjoin the Directive's enforcement, because it exceeds the Governor's lawful authority." In dismissing the lawsuit, Judge Billings wrote

Governor Paterson's Executive Directive dated May 14, 2008, requiring state agencies to recognize same sex marriages legally solemnized in other jurisdictions is consistent with New York's common law, statutory law, and constitutional separation of powers regarding recognition of marriages legally solemnized outside New York. ... The court therefore denies the declaratory and injunctive relief sought by the amended petition and grants respondents' motions to dismiss this proceeding.

[JURIST] The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) [official website] urged Iran [JURIST news archive] Tuesday to ban the use of the death penalty [UN News Centre report] against juvenile offenders. The OHCHR statement comes as two Iranian men, identified by Reuters as Mohammad Fadaaee and Amir Amrollahi, are set to be executed for crimes committed while juveniles. The OHCHR also expressed stated that it was "concerned and saddened" [OHCHR press briefing] by the August executions of two other Iranian juvenile offenders, Reza Hedjazi [JURIST report] and Behnam Zaare [HRW report]. Iranian executions of juveniles violate the terms of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child [text], to which Iran is a signatory, but officials for the country argue that it and similar executions are allowed because the offenders reached the age of majority before being executed. Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] has said [HRW press release] that Iran leads the world in executing the most people for crimes committed as children and advocacy campaign Stop Child Executions keeps a list [advocacy materials] of those facing execution. Last April, an Amnesty International report [text; JURIST report] named Iran as having one of the three highest execution rates in the world, along with China and Pakistan. Reuters has more.

Last month, Iran commuted the sentences [JURIST report] of four people scheduled to be executed by stoning and suspended the use of the punishment, after nine people were given the sentence [BBC report] in July for adultery and sexual offenses despite a moratorium on the practice [JURIST report]. In July, Iran hanged 29 people [JURIST report] in Tehran in a move that human rights groups suggested was intended to challenge international criticism [JURIST report] of its death penalty policies. Most executions in the country are carried out by hanging and are related to such crimes as murder and rape, although an Iranian airport customs officer was executed for corruption [JURIST report] in January.

[JURIST] The International Court of Justice (ICJ) [official website; JURIST news archive] is holding hearings [ICJ press release] this week in a border dispute between Romania and Ukraine [JURIST news archives] over resource rights to the Black Sea. Oral arguments in the case [ICJ materials] began Tuesday, when Bogdan Aurescu, director general of Romania's Foreign Affairs Ministry, argued that the Ukrainian government was unfairly trying to use tiny Serpent Island to expand the area of the Black Sea available to the Ukraine for exploitation. He said that because Ukraine inherited the land from the Soviet Union, which illegally annexed it, the island should not be considered in fixing a boundary. The court must decide on a starting point for the border and on a methodology for drawing it. AP has more.

The two countries signed a treaty [PDF text] in 1997 agreeing not to exploit the Black Sea reserves while negotiating the boundary. After six years of unsuccessful diplomatic talks, Romania sued Ukraine [JURIST report] in 2004. Last year, the ICJ settled a border dispute [JURIST report] between Nicaragua and Honduras by granting possession of four small Caribbean islands to Honduras. Disputes between several other Latin American nations remain pending before the ICJ [JURIST reports].

[JURIST] The Iraqi government announced plans Wednesday to rebuild Abu Ghraib prison [JURIST news archive], where US military guards were photographed abusing Iraqi prisoners [JURIST report]. Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the Iraqi Cabinet [official website, in Arabic] had approved the Defense Ministry's proposal to reopen the prison west of Baghdad. US authorities emptied Abu Ghraib of its final 2,000 prisoners and returned it to Iraqi control [JURIST reports] in late 2006. The new Abu Ghraib is to incorporate a museum depicting crimes committed during the regime of Saddam Hussein [JURIST news archive], when the prison was feared as a site of torture and executions. A timeline for the project has not yet been established. AFP has more. Reuters has additional coverage.

A Human Rights Watch report asserted that US commanders authorized widespread torture of prisoners [JURIST report] during and even after photos of guards abusing inmates surfaced in the media. Former Abu Ghraib commander Janis Karpinski said in 2005 that former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld [JURIST news archive] personally signed a memorandum authorizing extreme interrogation techniques [JURIST report]. Several US soldiers were convicted of abuse at Abu Ghraib, including former US Army Reserve Staff Sgt. Ivan "Chip" Frederick, who was paroled [JURIST report] in late 2007 after serving three years in prison. The conviction of the only commissioned officer charged in connection with the abuse was annulled [JURIST report] early this year. A number of lawsuits are pending against US military contractors for alleged abuses at Abu Ghraib, including one filed this July [JURIST report] by four former prisoners.

[JURIST] Defence of Human Rights Chairman Khalid Khawaja petitioned the Islamabad High Court [Daily Times report] on Wednesday to register abduction charges against Pakistan's former president Pervez Musharraf [official website; JURIST news archive] and several other high-ranking officials from his administration. The petition alleges that the officials instituted false proceedings against Khawaja, leading to his abduction and detention without cause. Khawaja has publicly dedicated himself to finding people allegedly abducted by the Pakistani government, and was jailed [BBC News report; JURIST report] in 2007. The prosecution's initial submissions to the court contained allegations [PakTribune report] that he worked with terrorist groups and promoted sectarianism.

Following his resignation [JURIST report] last month, Musharraf denied having committed any crimes [ANI report] in a televised address, but speculation that he might leave the country to avoid criminal prosecution prompted US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to announce that the US would not grant him asylum. Shortly before the resignation, Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz (PML-N) [official websites] coalition leaders finalized a separate impeachment charge sheet [JURIST report] against Musharraf, outlining misuses of presidential authority, including the dismissal of the country's superior court judges. In June, 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 and saying he should be punished for the "damage" that he has done to the country in the years since he led a military coup [BBC backgrounder] and unseated Sharif in 1999.

[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit [official website; JURIST news archive] ruled [opinion, PDF] Tuesday that a non-employee consultant may be held liable for misstatements or omissions in periodic financial reports filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) [official website; JURIST news archive]. The ruling affirms a district court decision granting summary judgment [SEC press release] in a civil enforcement action against Jon R. Marple and consulting firm Grateful Internet Associates LLC, whom the SEC charged with violating anti-fraud provisions of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the Securities Act of 1933 and SEC regulations [text]. The SEC alleged that Marple drafted false filings for a public company, F10 Oil and Gas Properties Inc., in which he otherwise played a major role despite his status as a consultant. Marple argued that, as a consultant, he could not be held primarily liable because he did not "directly or indirectly engage in any manipulative or deceptive acts." Circuit Judge Carlos F. Lucero [official profile] wrote for the three-judge panel:

Specifically, they [defendants] claim that the Commission showed only that F10 made the material misstatements or omissions, not that they as individuals "made" such misstatements or omissions. Marple and Grateful were, according to their theory, mere secondary actors subject at most to liability as aidors and abettors. ...

The relevant question is only whether he can fairly be said to have caused F10 to make the relevant statements, and whether he knew or should have known that the statements would reach investors. ... Under the facts discussed, this standard was satisfied. We thus hold that because Marple caused the misstatements and omissions to be made, and knew that the statements were calculated to reach investors, defendants can properly be held liable....

[JURIST] US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) [official website] has released [advocacy group press release] Arab activist Sami Al-Arian [JURIST news archive] after five years in federal custody. The former University of South Florida (USF) [official website] computer science professor will remain under electronic monitoring pending trial on contempt charges [JURIST report] for refusing to testify before grand juries that were investigating a group of Islamic charities. ICE released al-Arian on Tuesday, the deadline set last week by US District Judge Leonie Brinkema [official profile] for the government to respond to al-Arian's habeas petition by justifying his continued detention. Brinkema granted bail [JURIST report] to Al-Arian last month, finding that he was neither a flight risk nor a danger to the community, but ICE then took him into custody. The Muslim Public Affairs Council [advocacy website] issued a statement [text] welcoming al-Arian's release, characterizing his case as "an example of what many American Muslims perceived to be numerous post-9/11 political persecutions of individuals using tactics that amount to little more than guilt by association." AP has more. The Tampa Tribune has local coverage.

Al-Arian was arrested in February 2003 [JURIST report] and indicted [PDF text] on charges of supporting terrorism based on comments he made in the wake of 9/11 and his association with an Islamic think tank at USF in the 1990s. In 2005 he was acquitted [JURIST report] on eight of 17 terrorism charges. The next year he pleaded guilty [JURIST report] to one charge of conspiring to provide services to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad [CDI backgrounder] in violation of US law and agreed to be deported after serving a 57-month sentence. In granting bail to al-Arian, Brinkema expressed concern that the government was interfering with the plea agreement by preventing his deportation in order to hold the contempt trial. Last year an appeals court upheld [JURIST report] the contempt charges.

[JURIST] The Mauritanian Parliament has elected eight of its members to a High Court set to try deposed President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi [BBC profile] on corruption charges. Legislators chose [press release, in Arabic] four National Assembly members and four senators by secret ballot during a public session on Tuesday. The US State Department has stated it only recognizes Abdallahi's government [statement text], and the US Embassy [official website] in Nouakchott on Monday refused to recognize Mauritania's new regime [press release; AFP report], adding that the US is "actively exploring potential travel and financial sanctions against military and civilian individuals participating in, or enabling, an illegal and non-democratic government." AP has more. Le Calame has additional coverage, in French.

Abdallahi has been detained since his government was overthrown on August 6 in a military coup led by Gen. Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, who was later named head of state [JURIST reports]. On Tuesday, Aziz convened the regime's Cabinet for the first time following its appointment [press releases, in Arabic; AFP report]. Aziz's coup is the second in Mauritania [official website; CIA backgrounder; JURIST news archive] since 2005, when Aziz backed the removal [JURIST report] of then-President Maaoya Sid'Ahmed Taya [BBC report]. At one time, Aziz supported Abdallahi, but the two split after Abdallahi made political concessions to conservative Muslim groups.