[JURIST] Iraq has become the 186th nation to join the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) [official website] by acceding [OPCW press release] to the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention [text], the organization announced Wednesday. A spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon praised Iraq's move [press release release], saying that it showed the Iraqi government's "commitment to disarmament and non-proliferation," and adding:

The Secretary-General firmly believes that reaching universality of the Chemical Weapons Convention will significantly promote international peace and security and urges the remaining States not party to take the necessary measures to accede to the Convention as early as possible.

[JURIST] A judge on the US District Court for the District of Columbia [official website] on Wednesday granted habeas [opinion, PDF] to Guantanamo [JURIST news archive] detainee Mohammed El Gharani and directed his release. El Gharani, a Chadian citizen born in Saudi Arabia, was arrested in Pakistan on suspicion of ties to al Qaeda. Judge Richard Leon [official profile; JURIST news archive] ruled that the government had failed to establish by a preponderance of the evidence that El Gharini was an "enemy combatant." Leon wrote:

Simply stated, a mosaic of tiles bearing images this murky reveals nothing about the petitioner with sufficient clarity, either individually or collectively, that can be relied upon by this Court. Accordingly, the Court must, and will, GRANT the detainee's petition for a writ of habeas corpus and order the respondents to take all necessary and appropriate diplomatic steps to facilitate his release forthwith.

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] heard oral arguments [day call, PDF; briefs] Wednesday in two cases. In Puckett v. United States [oral arguments transcript, PDF], the Court heard arguments on whether a defendant's claim, not raised at trial, that the prosecution breached a plea agreement is reviewable on appeal according to the plain-error standard under the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure [Rule 52(b) text]. The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held [opinion, PDF] that the claim was governed by plain-error review and found no reversible error. Counsel for the petitioner argued that Puckett "has been prejudiced by the government's breach." Counsel for the government argued:

that the plain-error standard does apply to forfeited claims that a plea agreement has been breached, that the Olano framework should be followed, and that one component of the plain-error showing in this context should require a defendant who did not object to a breach in the district court to show a reasonable probability that the outcome of the proceeding was affected by the breach.

To keep the elements [of RICO] apart, ensure their distinct consideration, and give the enterprise independent meaning, juries must be instructed, as in the Seventh Circuit and elsewhere, that an "enterprise" requires a structure separate from the commission of the predicate acts forming the pattern.

An association-in-fact enterprise need not have an ascertainable structure distinct from the predicate act of racketeering committed by one of its associates, whatever that means. RICO's statutory text, its surrounding context, and this Court's construction of the statute show that RICO's definition of "enterprise" is broad and contains no such limitation.

[JURIST] A judge in the Penal Chamber of the National Court of Spain [official website, in Spanish] in Madrid on Tuesday ordered [text, PDF, in Spanish] a trial for the men allegedly responsible for the killings [CJA backgrounder] of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper, and her daughter. Judge Eloy Velasco admitted the plea [summary, PDF] entered in November [JURIST report] by the Spanish Association for Human Rights [advocacy website], finding that the court has jurisdiction to take the case against 14 former officials of the Salvadoran Army on the basis of accusations of crimes against humanity. Velasco also appointed Domingo Jose Collado Molinero as Prosecutor for the case. The court declined to try former President Alfredo Cristiani for lack of sufficient evidence and because he is accused of aiding to conceal the accused, an act that is not considered to be a crime against humanity. The court has initiated an investigation that will begin by taking statements from Salvadoran authorities who were involved with the case.

In November, the Spanish Association for Human Rights filed this suit under the principle of universal jurisdiction [Princeton backgrounder, PDF] in conjunction with the Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA) [advocacy website], a human rights organization based in San Francisco, California. The CJA plea is still awaiting decision of the court on whether it will be admitted, pending further submission of documents.

[JURIST] The convening authority of military commissions Susan Crawford [official profile, PDF; JURIST news archive] has said that torture tactics were used [article text] in the interrogation of Mohammed al-Qahtani [JURIST news archive], a suspect held at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] under allegations of connections to the 9/11 attacks, according to a Wednesday interview in the Washington Post. Crawford made the statement after nearly two years of reviewing Guantanamo Bay practices as well as the strength of legal cases against detainees. Crawford further expanded on the torture claim, admitting that the US military engaged in such practices as, "sleep deprivation, sustained isolation, nudity and prolonged exposure to cold that 'left him in a life-threatening condition.'" As the official responsible for pursuing any criminal charges against al-Qahtani, Crawford has said that she would not allow for the prosecution of al-Qahtani precisely because he was tortured.

Controversial practices and policies at Guantanamo Bay have kept the military prison in the news throughout the course of the Bush administration. Advisers to President-elect Barack Obama said Monday that he plans to issue an executive order [JURIST report] during his first week in office closing the facility. The chairman of the US House Judiciary Committee [official website] on Tuesday published a report [text, PDF] urging Obama to open a criminal investigation [JURIST report] into the alleged abuses that have occurred at Guantanamo Bay throughout the Bush administration.

[JURIST] Judge John Bates [official profile] of the US District Court for the District of Columbia [official website] on Tuesday ordered [court order, PDF] that copies of the documents related to the investigation into the late 2006 firings of nine US attorneys [JURIST report] be provided by the Bush administration to the incoming Obama administration. The court order indicated that the US House of Representatives Judiciary Committee [official website] and the Obama administration may need to have the documents readily available to comply with "established litigation deadlines." The Bush Administration intended to transfer the documents to the National Archives [official website]. The court order stipulates that the originals should still be transferred to the National Archives, but the Archivist is now required to maintain the documents readily accessible and "intact at a facility in Washington D.C. until the litigation is resolved."

In 2007, the investigation into the firings led to the resignation [JURIST report] of Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez. The Bush Administration has denied [JURIST report] that the firings were politically motivated.

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] decided two cases Wednesday. The Court ruled [opinion, PDF] 5-4 in Herring v. United States [Cornell LII backgrounder; JURIST report] that evidence seized during a search incident to an arrest does not have to be suppressed when the sole premise for the arrest was information later found to be negligently provided by another law enforcement agency. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the opinion for the Court. Roberts held:

[In circumstances where] an officer reasonably believes there is an out-standing arrest warrant, but that belief turns out to be wrong because of a negligent bookkeeping error by an-other police employee ... the jury should not be barred from considering all the evidence.

The jury-trial right is best honored through a "principled rationale" that applies the rule of the Apprendi cases "within the central sphere of their concern." Our disposition today — upholding an Oregon statute that assigns to judges a decision that has not traditionally belonged to the jury — is faithful to that aim. [citations omitted]

The rule of Apprendi v. New Jersey is clear: Any fact — other than that of a prior conviction — that increases the maximum punishment to which a defendant may be sentenced must be admitted by the defendant or proved beyond a reasonable doubt to a jury. Oregon’s sentencing scheme allows judges rather than juries to find the facts necessary to commit defendants to longer prison sentences, and thus directly contradicts what we held eight years ago and have reaffirmed several times since.

[JURIST] The Bush administration engaged in numerous abuses [press release], and the incoming Obama administration should launch a criminal investigation to find out whether any laws were violated, according to a report [text, PDF] released Tuesday by US House Judiciary Committee [official website] Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) [official website]. In the nearly 500-page report, Conyers points to allegations of torture and inhumane treatment, extraordinary rendition, warrantless domestic surveillance, CIA leaks, and the firing of US attorneys for political reasons. Conyers outlines 47 recommendations, including a full investigation. Conyers wrote:

The purpose of the ... investigations is not payback, but to uphold the rule of law, allow us to learn from our national mistakes, and prevent them from recurring. Such an effort would be a welcome sign to our friends, and a warning to our foes, that this Nation can indeed serve as a beacon of liberty and freedom without weakening our ability to combat terrorism or other threats. The Report makes clear that even after scores of hearings, investigations, and reports, Congress and the American public still do not have answers to some of the most fundamental questions concerning the Bush Imperial Presidency.

[JURIST] The former acting head of the Civil Rights Division at the US Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] routinely discriminated against job applicants and employees [press release] who did not share his conservative political views, according to a report [text, PDF] released Tuesday. The report, dated July 2, 2008, was prepared by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) and the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) [official websites] and accuses former Civil Rights Division head Bradley Schlozman of violating federal law by engaging in discrimination and making false statements to Congress when questioned about hiring practices. According to the report:

We found that Schlozman inappropriately considered political and ideological affiliations in hiring career attorneys. Based on the results of our interviews of Civil Rights Division section chiefs and many other attorneys in the Division, we learned that Schlozman favored applicants with conservative political or ideological affiliations and disfavored applicants with civil rights or human rights experience whom he considered to be overly liberal.

The Department agrees with the recommendations outlined in the report and has already taken steps to implement them. In addition, the Civil Rights Division has taken additional steps to update its own hiring policies and to increase the role of career employees in its hiring process. As a result of these reforms, and the procedures already in place for evaluating the work and conduct of lawyers throughout the Department, we are confident that the institutional problems identified in today’s report no longer exist and will not recur.

[JURIST] International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) [official website; JURIST news archive] prosecutor Justice Hassan B. Jallow [official profile] on Tuesday appealed the 15-year sentence [judgment, PDF; JURIST report] given to popular Rwandan singer-songwriter Simon Bikindi [ICTR materials]. Jallow appealed the sentence [Hirondelle report] on the grounds that it was inadequate punishment for "direct and public incitement to commit genocide." The charge is based on a speech Bikindi gave during the 1994 Rwanda genocide [HRW backgrounder] in which he called on Hutus to rise up and exterminate the Tutsis. The prosecution alleged [ICTR press release] that Bikindi "through the lyrical content of his music, consciously and deliberately assisted in executing the plan to exterminate Tutsis."

Bikindi was first indicted and arrested in 2001. At the time of his arrest, Bikindi was living in the Netherlands. He fought extradition for several months but lost and was turned over to the ICTR in March 2002 where he pleaded not guilty [Hirondelle materials] to charges of genocide. The trial commenced [JURIST report] in September 2006 following numerous delays relating to court ordered amendments to the original indictment [trial minutes, PDF].