[JURIST] Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website] Luis Moreno-Ocampo [official profile] said Friday at a meeting of states party to the ICC treaty [press release] that he would seek arrest warrants for the leaders of rebel groups in Sudan's Darfur region [JURIST news archive]. The arrest warrants sought by Moreno-Ocampo relate to a September 2007 attack [BBC report] by anti-government rebels in Darfur against African Union (AU) [official website] peacekeeping troops. The warrants would be the prosecutor's third line of inquiry into war crimes in Darfur, following the issuance of arrest warrants [ICC materials] last year for former Sudanese Minister of the Interior Ahmed Muhammad Harun and former militia leader Ali Kushayb [TrialWatch profiles], and prosecutor's application last July for the issuance of an arrest warrant [JURIST report] for Sudan President Omar al-Bashir [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] for war crimes committed in Darfur. AFP has more.

Last July, Moreno-Ocampo announced [JURIST report] that he had widened his investigation into Darfur war crimes to include activities by rebel groups. His application for an arrest warrant for al-Bashir has caused considerable tension between the ICC and the Arab world. Last week, Egypt sought to delay formal ICC charges against al-Bashir [JURIST report], arguing that interfering in the Darfur peace process would be detrimental to potential peace in the region. Last Wednesday, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Edmond Mulet said issuing an arrest warrant for al-Bashir could “derail” the peace process [JURIST report]. Last month, ICC judges gave Moreno-Ocampo one month [JURIST report] to submit "additional supporting materials in relation to some confidential aspects" of his application.

[JURIST] A closed court in military-ruled Myanmar [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive] has sentenced three top pro-democracy leaders to 65 years in prison, relatives of the leaders told AFP Saturday. Activists Min Ko Naing [advocacy website], Ko Ko Gyu, and Ktay Kywe were all sentenced along with other members of the 88 Generation Students [BBC backgrounder] arrested for their participation in anti-junta protests last year. Seventeen more democracy activists were sentenced to between two and 16 years on Friday. The judicial proceedings allegedly occurred in a court in Yangon's Insein Prison [BBC backgrounder]. It is unclear precisely how many activists have been sentenced, although activists estimate more than 60 have been sentenced during this week. AFP has more. Reuters has additional coverage.

On Wednesday, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon [official profile] voiced concern about the lengthy and severe prison terms, calling for the military junta to release [JURIST report] democracy activists and other political prisoners. The European Union (EU) and the US have also expressed concern over human rights violations in the country and the lack of investigations in the aftermath of last year's violent government suppression of pro-democracy demonstrations. Human rights groups have estimated that more than 2,100 Burmese have been imprisoned for their religious and political beliefs despite the government's release [JURIST report] of over 9,000 political prisoners in September.

[JURIST] A Kentucky jury Friday ordered three members of the Imperial Klans of America (IKA), including "Imperial Wizard" Ron Edwards, to pay $1.5 million in compensatory damages and $1 million in punitive damages for a racially motivated attack against Jordan Gruver, a 16-year-old boy of Panamanian descent, during an alleged Klan recruitment event at a County Fair in Meade, Kentucky. Gruver is a US citizen. Richard Cohen, the head of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) [advocacy website; lawsuit materials], which represented Gruver in the trial that began [JURIST report] earlier this week, welcomed what he called an "historic" verdict [recorded video]. The SPLC has been successful in the past in obtaining substantial monetary judgments to cripple hate groups, such as the Aryan Nation in Idaho, and the United Klans of America in Alabama. Edwards and the other IKA defendants have denied responsibility for the attack [recorded video] on Gruver. AP has more.

Hate groups such as the KKK have recently experienced a resurgence [JURIST report] in the United States, which some observers attribute to the growing public attention to immigration. At the same time, federal and state authorities have been successful in a number of criminal prosecutions against alleged KKK members who committed hate crimes in the 1960s, although in October the Fifth Circuit vacated the conviction [JURIST report] of alleged Klansman James Ford Seale for his involvement in the 1964 deaths of two 19-year-old black teens.