[JURIST] The Albanian Parliament [official website, in Albanian] on Monday adopted a law banning former members and affiliates of the nation's Communist-era secret police force from holding public office. The so-called lustration law will employ a 5-person commission to screen from political candidacy [Reuters report] all associates of the Sigurimi [LOC backgrounder] secret service during Albania's Communist regime from November 1944 to December 1990. The bill passed in a 74-2 vote, with one abstention and 63 members of parliament boycotting the vote. Minority parties including the Socialists expressed fears that the law will be used as a political tool to suppress their faction. Several international parties, including the US Embassy in Tirana [press release], the Council of Europe [press release], and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe [press release], urged Albania to proceed with greater care to ensure that the law meets international standards of constitutional protection. At least two dozen sitting judges and prosecutors face termination without a hearing under the law. Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha, a supporter of the law [press release], defended the text as a "moderated version" [press conference transcript] of the Czech lustration law of 1991 [ICTJ backgrounder], which has been upheld as legal.

Poland passed its own lustration law in 2006, and though portions were found to be unconstitutional [JURIST report], provisions remained in force authorizing the disclosure of names of public officials who worked with the secret police. Last year, Poland's Institute of National Remembrance began officially publishing a list of public officials [JURIST report] who worked with or were spied on by the country's Communist-era secret police. Similar measures also exist in Bulgaria [HRW report] and other former eastern bloc nations.

[JURIST] US federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald Tuesday asked the Illinois House of Representatives [official website] to limit its impeachment inquiry [JURIST report] into Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich [official website] and avoid looking into the criminal charges [complaint, PDF] against him. Fitzgerald warned that an inquiry into the criminal charges could hamper the investigation. The impeachment committee, which has agreed to follow instructions from federal prosecutors, may still consider the fact that Blagojevich is facing criminal charges and the evidence outlined in the complaint, but it cannot question aides and campaign donors about possible crimes. If the committee recommends impeachment, it will go to a vote before the entire House. If the House votes to impeach, the proceedings will go before the Senate, which will act as a jury with the Chief Justice of the Illinois Supreme Court presiding.

Blagojevich and his chief of staff John Harris were arrested [JURIST report] earlier this month by federal agents on charges of corruption. Both Blagojevich and Harris have been charged [DOJ press release, PDF] with conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and solicitation of bribery. They are accused of conspiring to sell or trade the senate seat left vacant by Obama and obtaining illegal campaign contributions. They are also accused of threatening to withhold assistance to the Chicago Tribune with the sale of Wrigley Field unless two editorial writers who had been critical of Blagojevich were fired. Harris resigned [JURIST report] his position after the arrest, while Blagojevich has continued to report to work. Last week, the Illinois Supreme Court [official website] rejected [JURIST report] a bid by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan [official profile] to have Blagojevich temporarily removed from office [JURIST report].

[JURIST] One of the West Bank's largest Israeli settlements is an "unauthorized outpost," according to a report [text, PDF; summary] released Monday by Israeli human rights group B'Tselem [advocacy website]. The report examined Ofra [official website, in Hebrew], a settlement in eastern Jerusalem established in 1975, and drew from a 2005 Israeli government-commissioned study [JURIST report] of Jewish settlements on the West Bank. That so-called Sasson report, named for former state prosecutor Talia Sasson, established four criteria required for the settlements to be considered legal under local law: an Israeli government-issued decision to establish the settlement, a defined jurisdictional area, a detailed, approved outline plan, and presence on state land or on land that was purchased by Israelis and registered under their name in the Land Registry. The B'Tselem report showed that Ofra meets only the first condition, as it was declared an official community in 1979. According to B'Tselem, the other conditions were not met because at least 58 percent of Ofra's land had been registered to Palestinians in the Land Registry, in violation of Israeli government decisions and Israeli High Court rulings stating that Israeli settlements may not be built in the West Bank on such land. The report concludes:

The existence of the settlements leads to infringement of a long list of human rights of Palestinians, who live under military rule. Among the rights infringed are the right to equality, the right of property, the right to an adequate standard of living, the right to housing, the right to gain a livelihood, and the right to freedom of movement. Israel must dismantle all the settlements in the West Bank, including those recognized by the government as legal. This obligation derives from the severe and ongoing violation of Palestinians’ human rights and from the prohibition on the establishment of settlements elaborated in international humanitarian law.

[JURIST] The European Court of Justice (ECJ) [official website; JURIST news archive] Monday upheld [case materials; press release] a law that passengers must be compensated if a flight is canceled without "extraordinary circumstances." The law [text; materials], passed in 2004 by the Council of the European Union [official website], established common rules regarding compensation and assistance to passengers for canceled flights. The original claim [BBC report] against Alitalia [corporate website] was brought by an Austrian family that was unable to make their connecting flight as a result of Alitalia’s flight cancellation. The court held:

Article 5(3) of Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 February 2004 establishing common rules on compensation and assistance to passengers in the event of denied boarding and of cancellation or long delay of flights ... must be interpreted as meaning that a technical problem in an aircraft which leads to the cancellation of a flight is not covered by the concept of ‘extraordinary circumstances’ within the meaning of that provision, unless that problem stems from events which, by their nature or origin, are not inherent in the normal exercise of the activity of the air carrier concerned and are beyond its actual control.

[JURIST] Australian Attorney General Robert McClelland [official website] said Tuesday that the government will reform anti-terrorism legislation [press release] in accordance with the recommendations [text] of a report [text, PDF] into the case of Dr. Mohammad Haneef [JURIST news archive; timeline] which concluded that the Australian Federal Police (AFP) [official website] had no evidence to detain him. Haneef was arrested in July 2007 and held for 25 days without charges after his cousin allegedly participated in the Glasgow Scotland airport attack [BBC report]. Haneef was later charged with providing support to a terrorist organization. The charges were eventually dropped, but Haneef's visa was revoked. The report, authored by retired judge John Clarke, found that Haneef should never have been charged and that there was "no evidence that [Haneef] was associated with or had foreknowledge of the terrorist events or of the possible involvement of his second cousins Dr Sabeel Ahmed and Mr Kafeel Ahmed in terrorist activities." The report also found that the government of former Prime Minister John Howard had not engaged in any wrongdoing, but that mistakes were made. Haneef has said that he does not plan to return [ABC report] to Australia.

Last December, the Australian Federal Court upheld a decision to reinstate Haneef's work visa [JURIST report]. The terrorism charge against him was dropped [JURIST reports] after the Australian director of public prosecutions reviewed the case and concluded that there was insufficient evidence [press release].

[JURIST] Human Rights First [advocacy website] Monday filed an amicus curiae brief [text, PDF] requesting a stay of military commission proceedings [press release] against five Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainees, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed [BBC profile; JURIST news archive], the self-proclaimed architect of the 9/11 attacks [JURIST report], until President-elect Barack Obama [transition website] takes office in January. The group filed the brief to stay the proceedings after Mohammed and the other defendants said they wanted to withdraw all motions and plead guilty [JURIST report] earlier this month. The suspects postponed their offers to plead guilty [JURIST report] to the charges against them after the judge required competency hearings for two of them, but Human Rights First says that prosecutors continue to push the case forward and are likely to seek another hearing before Obama's inauguration. The brief argues that because Obama has pledged to close the Guantanamo military prison and end the military commissions system, "there is no legitimate reason to expend judicial resources prosecuting a capital case under a system that will be obsolete before the matter can be tried."

Last week, US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates [official profile] ordered the Pentagon to draft a proposal for shutting down [press release; JURIST report] the military prison in preparation for a possible order from Obama. Rights groups have urged Obama to close the controversial military prison upon inauguration in January. Last month, the ACLU launched an ad campaign [image, PDF] calling on Obama to close Guantanamo Bay and end the use of military commissions on his first day in office. Also in November, HRW called upon Obama to denounce Bush administration counterterrorism policies [JURIST report] that they described as "abusive." Obama and his advisers have yet to reach a firm decision [JURIST report] on the closure of the facility and the future of the military commissions system.

[JURIST] Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper [official website] on Monday appointed a new judge [press release] to the Supreme Court of Canada [official website] to fill an eight-month vacancy, bypassing public parliamentary hearings established in 2006 and blaming the move on opposition obstruction. Public hearings for the vacancy now being filled by Justice Thomas Cromwell, previously of the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal [official website] , were delayed [CP report] when creation of the all-party parliamentary committee was stalled by the election campaign and again when Harper suspended parliament [JURIST report] until the new year to avoid a no-confidence vote. Last month, the first meeting of the Selection Panel considered no substantive business because of Opposition objection to the panel’s composition. Cromwell will be sworn in [press release] on January 5.

Harper added parliamentary public hearings [JURIST report] to the high court vetting process in 2006 for his first Supreme Court appointment, that of Manitoba lawyer Marshall Rothstein. Harper officially nominated [press release] Cromwell to his post in September after the deliberations of the panel to vet the candidates were cut short.