[JURIST] Judge Richard Leon [official profile] for the US District Court for the District of Columbia [official website] on Tuesday ruled that the US government could continue to hold Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainees Hisham Sliti and Moath Hamza Ahmed al Alwi [decisions, PDF]. Both men had filed habeas corpus petitions challenging their detention, but Leon found that the government had met its burden of showing that the men were being lawfully detained under the court's definition of "enemy combatant" [JURIST report]. The judge cited undisclosed, classified evidence against the men in both cases, and in his ruling against al Alwi, wrote that government did not have to show that the men had personally engaged in hostilities towards the US or its allies to he held under the designation:

Although there is no evidence of petitioner actually using arms against U.S. or coalition forces, the Government does not need to prove such facts in order for petitioner to be classified as an enemy combatant under the definition adopted by the Court. Petitioner Al Alwi's close ties to Taliban and al Qaeda forces during the year preceding the initiation of force by the United State in October 2001, combined with the fact that he remained with his Taliban unit after hostilities were initiated by the United States and its allies, is more than enough to meet the definitional requirement.

[JURIST] A Zimbabwe magistrate ruled [Herald report] Wednesday that Zimbabwe Peace Project [advocacy materials] leader Jestina Mukoko [advocacy website] and several others would have to remain in jail until their hearings before the Zimbabwe Supreme Court. Mukoko and the other activists were charged last week [JURIST report] with recruiting or attempting to recruit people to undergo military training to overthrow the government of president Robert Mugabe [BBC profile; JURIST news archive]. Following accusations of kidnapping and torture, a High Court judge declared the detention of Mukoko and her codefendants unlawful [Zimbabwe Times reports] and ordered that they be taken to a private hospital, but the magistrate held that the state's appeal of that decision prevented their release. The judge also denied bail to five others who have been charged with planting bombs [Zimbabwe Times report] at police stations and on railway tracks. Many of those accused are members of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) [party website] party, but MDC has denied any involvement in anti-government actions.

Mukoko played a key role in monitoring and publicizing the wave of violence that hit the country before and after recent presidential elections and the run-off elections [JURIST reports] that followed. Mugabe and MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai [BBC profile; JURIST news archive], have been disputing results of March elections for months. They signed a power-sharing agreement [Harare Tribune text; JURIST report] in September, under which Mugabe would remain president, Tsvangirai would become prime minister, and each would have two deputies. The agreement, however, has been weakened by ongoing violence and alleged human rights violations, with the MDC estimating that nearly 100 of its members have been killed since March, and more than 100 imprisoned [AFP report].

[JURIST] Judge Henry Kennedy [official profile] for the US District Court for the District of Columbia [official website] on Wednesday ruled [decision, PDF] in favor of three former US soldiers suing North Korea [JURIST news archive] for alleged mistreatment they suffered after the country seized their ship in 1968. According to the ruling, William Massie, Donald McClarren, Dunnie Tuck and other crew members of the USS Pueblo [veteran advocacy website] were captured by North Korean forces while operating in international waters, then held in captivity for eleven months where they were regularly beaten, burned, forced to appear in propaganda photographs and subjected to mock executions. The judge ruled that a 1998 exception [28 USC § 1605 text] to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act [text] granted the court jurisdiction over the case because "money damages are [being] sought against a foreign state for personal injury or death that was caused by an act of torture, extrajudicial killing, aircraft sabotage, [or] hostage taking" and because North Korea has been designated as a "state sponsor of terrorism." Justifying the damages awarded to the men, Kennedy wrote:

The pain and suffering endured by Massie, Tuck, McClarren, and Cdr. Bucher, over the eleven months of their captivity was extensive and shocking. While there is no set formula for quantifying the damages for such pain and suffering, in some cases of prolonged and abusive captivity, plaintiffs are awarded approximately $10,000 per day for the pain and suffering they experienced while captive...

Massie, Tuck, [and] McClarren, suffered physical and mental harm that has endured for the past 39 years and likely will continue to endure throughout the rest of their lives... each, is entitled to $13,400,000 for their post release and future pain and suffering.

[JURIST] Chinese diary company chairwoman Tian Wenhua on Wednesday pleaded guilty [Xinhua report] to charges that she allowed her company to sell milk contaminated with the industrial chemical melamine [FDA backgrounder] even after she knew of the contamination, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency. Tian and three other executives of Shijiazhuang Sanlu Group [Research and Markets profile], Wang Yuliang, Hang Zhiqi, and Wu Jusheng, went on trial Wednesday for their roles in the contamination that sickened almost 300,000 children and killed at least six. Prosecutors in the case alleged that Sanlu Group received reports of possible contamination as early as December 2007, and that company executives knew about the contamination by May 2008. They also said that despite this knowledge, the company waited until August 2008 to report the problem to government officials, by which time the melamine content of some products had increased to 100 times the levels originally detected. The chemical was reportedly introduced into the milk products as part of mixture designed to increase their protein content. The date for a verdict on the other three defendants has not been set, and all four could face either life in prison or the death penalty [China Daily report] if convicted.

To date, more than 17 defendants have faced criminal charges in connection with the contamination. The trial of four other suspects began on Monday, and the trial of another six [JURIST reports] began last week. On Tuesday, it was announced [JURIST report] that Sanlu Group and 21 other dairy companies involved in the contamination were expected to pay a total of $160 million for healthcare expenses and compensation to the families of injured children. News of possible milk powder contamination [JURIST news archive] by the chemical melamine first broke in September [Guardian report], following the death of an infant and reports that at least 50 other infants had fallen ill after consuming baby formula, leading to massive recalls [BBC report] of both liquid milk products and milk powders.