[JURIST] The Iraqi presidential council on Thursday approved a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) [draft text; CFR backgrounder] that sets a 2011 deadline for the withdraw of US troops but also approved an additional law calling for a national referendum on the pact in July 2009. The approval of the council, comprising President Jalal Talabani [BBC profile] and two vice presidents, was the final step required before the SOFA can go into effect on January 1, 2009, a day after the current UN mandate [UN press release] authorizing the US presence in Iraq expires.

The SOFA was approved by the Iraq cabinet in November, and then by the Iraq parliament [JURIST reports] last week. In addition to the official deadlines for troop withdraw, it gives Iraqi courts limited jurisdiction [JURIST report] over American military personnel and eliminates immunity [JURIST report] for US defense contractors working within Iraq.

[JURIST] The European Court of Human Rights [official website] unanimously ruled [judgment text] Thursday that the British practice of keeping the fingerprints and DNA profiles of people arrested but not convicted of crimes was against privacy rights and should not continue. The suit was originally brought by UK nationals Michael Marper and a juvenile named as "S," both of whom were arrested for crimes in 2001 and never convicted. When they later requested that their DNA and fingerprint profile be destroyed they were turned down. Their appeal was dismissed [judgment text] in 2004 by the UK's highest court, the House of Lords. The ECHR held that the practice of retaining the material violated [press release] Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) [text], which requires respect for private and family life. The court awarded the applicants €42,000, less €2,613.07 already paid in legal aid. The UK cannot appeal the ruling, and they were given a deadline [AP report] of March to plan a new practice for future DNA collection and to propose a plan for destroying the existing 4.5 million sample database [official website]. UK leaders can agree to destroy the entire database, or make a case for keeping certain individual samples.

In November, the House of Lords ruled that the DNA database rules needed to be amended [The Register report] to allow those not convicted to have their profiles deleted. That decision, along with the human rights court ruling, come just months after a proponent of the database called for it to be expanded [JURIST report] to include all citizens and visitors of the country. The Home Office has denied [JURIST report] any plans to create such a database.

[JURIST] Canadian Governor General Michaelle Jean [official profile] Thursday morning granted a request by Prime Minister Stephen Harper [official website] to suspend the Canadian parliament until January, heading off for the moment a constitutional crisis that might have been triggered if she had invited a coalition [accord text, PDF] of opposition parties to form a new government without an intervening election. Prorogation was granted despite the fact that the Harper government was facing likely defeat in the House next Monday in a no-confidence vote. In remarks at Rideau Hall after his meeting with the governor general, Harper said that his first priority after parliament meets again on January 26 will be to introduce a new federal budget. A heavily-criticized government economic statement [press release] earlier this month precipitated the coalition talks. Defeat of the government by the opposition in January remains a possibility, however.

In a televised address to the nation [transcript; recorded video] Wednesday evening, Harper had promised to use "every legal means" at his disposal "to protect our democracy, to protect our economy and to protect Canada", noting that his minority government had just been returned to power in a federal election on October 14 [election results]. Jean returned to Canada Wednesday afternoon after cutting short a European state visit. A Canadian governor general has never refused a prorogation request from a prime minister, but no prime minister has ever asked for prorogation in a bid to avoid defeat in the House of Commons.

[JURIST] Hate crimes committed against Arab Americans have been steadily decreasing since the 9/11 attacks [JURIST news archive], according to a report [text, PDF] released Thursday by the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee [advocacy website]. The report found that there were 120 to 130 incidents per year between 2003 and 2007. The report also concluded that the government has not engaged in systematic profiling in airport security, but noted that the American "no-fly" list contains many commonly used names which creates undue hardships for many people. Detainee abuse, delays in immigration proceedings, and provisions of the Patriot Act [text, PDF] and Real ID Act [text, PDF] were mentioned as continuing problems. The report also focused on negative treatment of Arab-Americans in schools and the mass-media.

Most hate crime incidents against Arab Americans occurred in the weeks following 9/11 [NYT report], but animosity has persisted. The Council on American-Islamic Relations [advocacy website] reported that rights-based claims by Muslims rose by 25 percent [JURIST report] in 2006, following the trend [JURIST report] from 2005. Overall hate crimes incidents in the US dropped slightly [JURIST report] in 2007.

[JURIST] Italian Judge Oscar Magi on Wednesday suspended the in absentia trial of 26 Americans [JURIST news archive], most of them suspected of working for the CIA, and five former Italian intelligence officials for the 2003 abduction and rendition [JURIST news archive] of Egyptian cleric Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr [JURIST news archive] after the government said the testimony could compromise Italy’s national security. The three-month suspension, which follows an earlier postponement [JURIST report] in mid-October, will enable Italy’s Constitutional Court to resolve the question of national security. Both Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] and his predecessor, former Prime Minister Romano Prodi [BBC profile], have warned that testimony from intelligence agents could jeopardize future collaboration between Italian spy services and the CIA. Prosecutor Armando Spataro has accused Berlusconi, ex-Italian military intelligence agency chief Niccolo Pollari, and others of obstructing justice by refusing to let the Italian agents testify.

Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, was seized on the streets of Milan by CIA agents with the help of Italian operatives, then allegedly transferred to Egypt and tortured by Egypt's State Security Intelligence before being released [JURIST reports] in February 2007. Defense lawyers for Pollari have said they need Italian agents' testimony and classified government documents to assert their defense that Pollari was not involved in the kidnapping. Last May, Magi ruled that Berlusconi can be called to testify [JURIST report].

[JURIST] Moscow Military District Court judge Yevgeny Zubov on Thursday ordered that the trial of three men accused of the murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya [BBC obituary; JURIST news archive] be closed to the public to hear classified evidence, limiting an earlier decision to keep the proceedings open [JURIST report] to the public. In November, Zubov ordered the trial to be open [JURIST report], in accordance with the wishes of Politkovskaya's family [AFP report]. Two days later, the judge ordered the trial closed [JURIST report] to the public, citing jury security concerns. A juror later told a Moscow radio station that he and other jurors did not fear for their safety [Moscow Times report], and Russia's Supreme Court announced that it would review Zubov's decision [JURIST report] to close the trial. Zubov then reopened the trial last week after 19 of 20 jurors signed a statement [NYT report] confirming that they had not complained to the judge. The Russian Prosecutor General's Office [official website, in Russian] subsequently requested that Zubov be replaced [BBC report] for allegedly violating procedural rules. In blocking the public, including the news media, from entering his courtroom on Thursday, Zubov cited security concerns tied to the disclosure of classified evidence.

Sergey Khadzhikurbanov and brothers Dzhabrail and Ibragim Makhmudov, all from Chechnya, were arrested [JURIST report] in connection with the killing in August 2007. The primary suspect, Rustam Makhmudov, also from Chechnya, has yet to be captured, but Russian authorities have said he is hiding in Western Europe. Defense lawyers said last week that court documents would show that Politkovskaya's murder was ordered by an unnamed Russian politician [RIA Novosti report]. Politkovskaya, a reporter for the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta [official website] widely known for her stories about human rights abuses by Russian troops in Chechnya, was murdered [JURIST report] after returning to her Moscow apartment building in October 2006.

[JURIST] A group of 112 former presidents and prime ministers signed a letter [press release and text, PDF] sent to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon [official website] on Wednesday urging him to pay a visit to Myanmar [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive] before year's end to press for the release of political prisoners there. The signatories, led by former Norwegian Prime Minister and current Oslo Center for Peace and Human Rights [advocacy website] president Kjell Magne Bondevik [official profile], urged Ban go to Myanmar to lend credibility to an October 2007 UN Security Council presidential statement [text, PDF] calling for the release of political prisoners being held by the military government. Saying that the release of political prisoners is "a key benchmark to measure progress," the letter adds:

If the Burmese junta continues to defy the United Nations by refusing to make these releases by the end of the year, we urge you to encourage the Security Council to take further concrete action to implement its call for the release of all political prisoners. The Burmese people are counting on the United Nations to take the required action to achieve the breakthrough they desperately need to both restore democracy to their country and address the serious humanitarian and human rights challenges that they face.

[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit [official website] Wednesday upheld [opinion, PDF] a $156 million verdict against three US-based Islamic charities accused of aiding Hamas [BBC backgrounder, JURIST news archive] in the murder of David Boim, a 17-year-old American killed in Israel in 1996. Boim's estate sued the groups - the American Muslim Society, the Islamic Association for Palestine and the Quaranic Literacy Institute [advocacy backgrounders] - under 18 U.S.C. § 2333 [text], which allows US nationals to bring tort claims for injuries resulting from international terrorism. The judgment had previously been overturned [JURIST report] by a Seventh Circuit panel, as the defendants successfully argued that their donations, purportedly earmarked for humanitarian aid, did not satisfy causation. In the rehearing en banc, the circuit disagreed with its previous decision, ruling a party is liable, regardless of specific intent toward the plaintiff, for knowing intent to aid a tortuous party. Judge Richard Posner [academic profile] wrote:

So if you give a person rocks who has told you he would like to kill drivers by dropping them on cars from an overpass, and he succeeds against the odds in killing someone by this means, you are guilty of providing material support to a murderer--for remember that when the primary violator of a statute is someone who provides assistance to another he is functionally an aider and abettor. The mental element required to fix liability on a donor to Hamas is therefore present if the donor knows the character of that organization.

[JURIST] A federal judge on Wednesday re-issued a 22-year prison sentence for so-called "millennium bomber" Ahmed Ressam [PBS profile]. Judge John Coughenour of the US District Court for the Western District of Washington [official website] first sentenced Ressam to 22 years [JURIST report] in 2005 for plotting to blow up Los Angeles International Airport on New Year's Eve 1999 [CBC timeline]. The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit [official website] overturned Ressam's conviction [JURIST report] in 2007, ordering him to be re-sentenced. Prosecutors objected to the re-issued 22 year sentence, calling for 45 years [AFP report] because when Ressam was originally sentenced in 2005 he was providing the government with information about other terrorism suspects and he has since refused to cooperate.

In May, the US Supreme Court voted 8-1 to uphold the Ressam's conviction in United States v. Ressam [LII backgrounder; JURIST report]. The Court reversed the judgment [opinion, PDF] of the Ninth Circuit, and ruled that Ressam could be convicted and sentenced under a law [18 U.S.C. § 844 text] punishing the carrying of explosives while committing a felony even if the explosives were not related to the felony offense. Justice John Paul Stevens delivered the opinion of the Court [text]. Clarence Thomas, joined by Antonin Scalia, concurred in part and concurred in the judgment, and Stephen Breyer wrote a dissent [texts].