[JURIST] Ireland has agreed to hold a second referendum on the European Union reform pact known as the Treaty of Lisbon [official text; JURIST news archive], according to draft materials circulated by the French government ahead of a meeting of EU government leaders [press release] in Brussels Thursday. France holds the European Union Presidency [official website] through the end of December. A draft summit text quoted by AFP says that "The Irish government is committed to seeking ratification of the Lisbon Treaty by the end of the term of the current commission." The document indicates that in return for a revote Ireland would be guaranteed a European Commissioner [AFP report] under a revised arrangement of a plan that originally envisaged only two-thirds of EU countries having a Commissioner at any one time.

An Irish Times poll [report] published in November suggested [JURIST report] that 52.5 percent of Irish voters would approve the Treaty of Lisbon [text; EU backgrounder] if it were modified so that Ireland kept a European Union Commissioner and clarified Irish concerns over neutrality, abortion, and taxation. In June, 53.4 percent of Irish voters rejected the Lisbon Treaty [JURIST report] in a referendum. In 2003 Ireland famously conducted a revote on the Nice Treaty [backgrounder] on the institutional arrangements for EU enlargement after initially rejecting it in 2002. Ireland has been the only nation to hold a referendum to approve the Lisbon Treaty. All 27 EU states must ratify the pact for it to become binding. In November, Sweden became the 24th EU member to ratify the treaty [JURIST report].

[JURIST] Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan [official website] told CNN [transcript text] Thursday that she would go before the Illinois Supreme Court [official website] to have Governor Rod Blagojevich [official website] declared unfit to hold office if he did not resign or get impeached by the state legislature. Blagojevich and his chief of staff John Harris were arrested [JURIST report] Tuesday by agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) [official website] on charges of corruption [complaint, PDF]. Madigan told CNN:

I am prepared to take action, but obviously, the easiest way for us to move on in the state of Illinois is for Governor Blagojevich to do the right thing for the people and resign. Now, it doesn't appear that he has any inclination to do that. Maybe things will change today or tomorrow. But [if] he fails to, then the two other options are obviously the legislator [sic] moving forward on impeachment, or I have the opportunity to actually go to our Illinois supreme court and ask them to declare, basically, that our governor is unable to serve, and to put in our lieutenant governor as the acting governor.

[JURIST] Vice President of the European Commission Responsible for Justice, Freedom, and Security Jacques Barrot [official website] on Wednesday reported [press release] that European Union (EU) [official website] governments are violating people's right to travel freely among the EU member states. Directive 2004/38/EC [materials] gives nationals of EU member states the right to move and reside freely among any of the states. According to the report, no member states have fully implemented the directive. The two biggest problems are the right of entry and residence of third country family members and the requirement of submitting additional documents for residence not foreseen in the directive. Barrot said:

Free movement of persons constitutes one of the fundamental freedoms of the internal market, to the benefit of EU citizens, of the Member States and of the competitiveness of European economy. Flaws in the implementation of EU law in this field might result in a breach of the principles laying at the very core basis of the European construction. This is why the Commission will step up its efforts to ensure that EU citizens and their families effectively and fully enjoy their rights under the Directive. The Commission will use fully its powers under the Treaty to achieve this result, launching infringement proceedings when necessary, providing guidance to the Member States and ensuring that EU citizens are informed of their rights.

[JURIST] The Brazilian Supreme Court [official website] on Wednesday indicated that they will rule in favor of indigenous groups in a land dispute, but postponed [press release, in Portuguese] a final decision on the case. Eight of 11 judges voted in favor of evicting a group of non-indigenous farmers from an Amazonian reservation, but the case was postponed when one judge requested more time to deliberate. A final ruling is not expected until next year. Indigenous people are already celebrating a victory [Estadao report, in Portuguese] with eight votes in their favor.

The dispute is over a large area of land in northern Brazil known as Raposa Serra do Sol. Home to 20,000 indigenous people, it was identified as a reservation [BBC report] in 2005. The indigenous people want the approximately 200 non-indigenous rice producers who live and work on the land to be removed.

[JURIST] Portuguese Minister of State and Foreign Affairs Luis Amado [official profile] on Wednesday sent a letter [text] to European Union [official website] (EU) foreign ministers urging EU members to take in any detainees released from the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive]. Amado said that Portugal would be willing to take in detainees, and that other EU member states that support the closure of the prison should do the same. He wrote:

The time has come for the European Union to step forward. As a matter of principle and coherence, we should send a clear signal of our willingness to help the US Government in that regard, namely through the resettlement of detainees. As far as the Portuguese Government is concerned, we will be available to participate.

[JURIST] The UN Security Council [official website] on Wednesday added [press release] the name of a Pakistani charity seen as a front for the group being blamed for the Mumbai terror attacks [BBC backgrounder] to its list of entities subject to asset freeze, travel ban, and arms embargo as a terrorist organization. At the urging of the Indian government [JURIST report], Jamaat-ud-Dawa was added as a pseudonym for the Pakistani terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) [ADL backgrounder] that India blames for the attacks. The UN also added the names of four individuals, including LeT leader Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi [START profile], who was arrested in a raid of a militant camp Sunday night. A spokesperson for the US State Department said [press release] the US was "pleased that the Committee has decided to move forward on these high-priority designations. These actions will limit the ability of known terrorists to travel, acquire weapons, plan, carry out, or raise funds for new terrorist attacks." One of Jamaat-ud-Dawa's leaders who was also added to the list, Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, said that the group will petition [AP report] the UN to overturn Wednesday's decision.

The attacks in Mumbai, which claimed at least 170 lives, were carried out at ten locations across the city, including the landmark Taj Mahal Palace hotel [hotel website]. In the wake of the attacks, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh [official website] pushed for tougher anti-terrorism measures [JURIST report]. Pakistani officials said Tuesday that Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi [official profile] will not hand over to India [JURIST report] any Pakistani citizens arrested in connection with the attacks, insisting instead on a joint investigation with Indian officials. So far Pakistan has arrested more than 20 people believed to be responsible for the attacks.

[JURIST] Executions in the US are at a 14-year low and the number of death sentences has dropped 60 percent since the 1990s, according to a report [text, PDF; DPIC press release, PDF] released Thursday by the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) [advocacy website], a non-profit organization that opposes the death penalty. There were 37 executions in 2008 with no more expected this year, down from 42 in 2007 and 98 in 1999. Ninety-five percent of those executions took place in the South, with Texas executing 18 inmates. Only 111 inmates were sentenced to death in 2008, down from 115 in 2007 and 284 in 1999. Public support of the death penalty has also dropped to 64 percent, down from 69 percent in 2007 and 71 percent in 1999. The report also pointed to problems illustrated by stays of executions and exonerations as well as the high costs associated with keeping inmates on death row.

Executions resumed in the US in April after the US Supreme Court lifted an effective moratorium by upholding lethal injection [JURIST reports]. The first execution following the ruling [JURIST report] was conducted in Georgia in May. New Jersey abolished the death penalty [JURIST report] last year. Last December, the UN General Assembly passed [JURIST report] a non-binding worldwide death penalty moratorium, calling for a suspension, rather than a complete abolition, of capital punishment.

[JURIST] UN and Cambodian government officials said Wednesday in a statement [UN News Center report] issued after a series of high-level meetings that they needed to address ongoing problems facing the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia [official website] in its efforts to try former Khmer Rouge officials suspected of crimes against humanity by "enhancing its human resources management, including anti-corruption measures." The statement, however, provided few details and a UN Secretariat delegation led by Assistant-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs Peter Taksoe-Jensen cancelled a scheduled press conference [Asia Times report] before leaving Phnom Penh.

In September a New Zealand judge serving on the court warned colleagues and prosecutors [JURIST report] at a meeting of court officials that its upcoming genocide trials "are so important for the people of Cambodia [that they] must not be tainted by corruption." The court has thusfar received little funding from international donors partly due to allegations of kickbacks for positions and other irregularities [Phnom Penh Post report]. Outgoing US Ambassador Joseph Mussomeli [official profile] said in September that the US will begin providing direct financial aid to the ECCC once the tribunal takes adequate measures against corruption [JURIST report].

The ECCC plans to try as many as eight suspects [JURIST report] for their roles in the Khmer Rouge regime, which is generally held responsible for the genocide of an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians [PPU backgrounder] between 1975 and 1979. In June, court officials announced plans [JURIST report] to complete operations a year early because of limited funding but said they would still be able to prosecute all the suspects.

[JURIST] The Guantanamo military commission trial of Afghan detainee Mohammed Jawad [JURIST news archive] that had been scheduled to start in early January was delayed indefinitely Wednesday by order of a military judge. US Army Col. Stephen Henley postponed the proceeding [Reuters report] to give prosecutors more time to appeal a ruling denying admissibility of evidence Henley had previously found to be inadmissible [JURIST report] because he concluded it had been secured under death threats by Afghan officials constituting torture.

Jawad was captured in Afghanistan in 2002 when he was 16 or 17 years old and was later transferred into US custody and brought to Guantanamo. He was designated an "enemy combatant" in 2004. He was later charged [charge sheet, PDF; JURIST report] with attempted murder and intentionally causing serious bodily injury for his role in a December 2002 grenade attack in Kabul which injured two US soldiers and an Afghan translator. In May, Jawad moved [JURIST report] to have all charges against him dismissed, alleging that he has been tortured in US custody and subjected to the so-called "frequent-flier program," in which certain inmates are moved between cells at two to four hour intervals in an attempt to cause physical stress through sleep deprivation. Jawad was the fourth Guantanamo detainee to be formally charged with war crimes under the 2006 Military Commissions Act [text, PDF], was set to face a military commission on January 5, 2009. His trial would have been the last started under the Bush administration. President-elect Barack Obama has pledged to close Guantanamo but has as yet offered no timetable and no plan for dealing with prisoners or their outstanding cases.

[JURIST] Spanish National Court Judge Ismael Moreno Wednesday asked the Spanish Foreign Ministry for a certified copy of a 2002 internal government memorandum [PDF text, in Spanish] detailing a US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) [official website] request to use Spanish resources [JURIST report] in aiding CIA extraordinary rendition [JURIST news archive] flights. Moreno said that after reviewing the memo [AP report] he will subpoena the memo's purported author, Foreign Ministry official Miguel Aguirre de Carcer. Charges could be filed against current or former government officials who knowingly allowed US planes carrying prisoners to make stopovers on Spanish soil.

The memo in question, originally labeled "very secret" but published by Madrid's El Pais newspaper late last month, is especially controversial because the Spanish government had previously denied consent or knowledge of rendition flights [JURIST report] routed through Spain since 2005. When the memo was authored, Spain was led by a conservative government that gave way to the socialist administration of Prime Minister Rodríguez Zapatero in 2004. In 2006, Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos told the European parliament [JURIST report] that, despite assurances from the US to the contrary, rendition flights may have stopped on Spanish islands off of the country's south coast.

[JURIST] Judges of the International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website] Wednesday asked [decision, PDF; press release] the office of Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo [official profile] for additional materials supporting its request for arrest warrants for rebel leaders [JURIST report] in Sudan’s Darfur region [JURIST news archive]. Pre-Trial Chamber I has given Moreno-Ocampo's office until January 26 to produce supplemental information in its application for warrants for rebel leaders in connection with a September 2007 attack [BBC report] on African Union (AU) [official website] peacekeepers based in Haskanita that killed 10.

The judges' request comes as the international community awaits a decision [JURIST report] on whether the ICC will grant Moreno-Ocampo an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir [BBC profile; JURIST news archive]. Moreno-Ocampo hopes to charge Bashir with genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes [JURIST report], and applied for a warrant in July. The Chief Prosecutor's office had been investigating Bashir since 2005, when the UN Security Council [official website] gave the ICC jurisdiction over the Darfur region [JURIST report] through Resolution 1593 [text].