[JURIST] The director of Guatemala's National Compensation Program Cesar Davila announced Friday that the Guatemalan government [official website; JURIST news archive] has filed more than 3,000 criminal complaints for human rights violations allegedly committed during the country's 1960-1996 civil war [GlobalSecurity Backgrounder]. The complaints were filed on behalf of more than 5,000 victims [La Hora report, in Spanish] who allege they were subjected to forced disappearance, forced displacement, extrajudicial execution, torture, and rape at the hands of soldiers, paramilitaries, and others. The attorney general will now process the complaints and forward them to the Office of Human Rights.

The Guatemalan civil war resulted in more than 200,000 deaths, mostly among Guatemala's large indigenous population. According to a UN report released in 1999, the military was responsible for 95 percent of those deaths. In response to these violations, the Guatemalan government founded the PNR in 2003 to deal with claims by civilians affected by the civil war. The PNR, after setting up its administrative structure, has begun to use its $40 million budget to work through a backlog of more than 98,000 civilian complaints. More than 1,000 complaints were filed in 2008. The PNR hopes to file the majority of the complaints within the next year. In February 2008, the Guatemalan government announced plans to declassify documents [JURIST report] describing human rights abuses committed by its military during the civil war.

[JURIST] An official from the US State Department [official website] said Friday that the Blackwater Worldwide [corporate website; JURIST news archive] contract to protect American diplomats in Iraq will not be renewed when it expires in May. The State Department has yet to make an official statement [press briefing] but is expected to do so soon. The decision not to renew the contract was made after the Iraqi government invoked its rights last week under the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) [full text; CFR materials] by refusing to renew [JURIST report] Blackwater's operating license.

The decision by the Iraqi government was motivated in part by the alleged killing of 17 civilians by Blackwater guards [JURIST report] in September 2007. In January 2009, five Blackwater guards pleaded not guilty [JURIST report] to manslaughter, attempted manslaughter, and weapons charges. A sixth guard pleaded guilty [text, PDF] to charges of voluntary manslaughter and attempt to commit manslaughter for his role in the same incident. In November, a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) investigation into the incident concluded that the shootings were unjustified [JURIST report].

[JURIST] Spain is considering legislation to limit the the scope of universal jurisdiction [AI backgrounder] applied by the country's National Court [CJA backgrounder], according to Spanish media reports [CadenaSer report, in Spanish] Sunday. If adopted, the Reform of the Judiciary Act would limit the court's jurisdiction over war crimes and genocide charges to those cases that have a substantial link to the country or its citizens. It would require that the suspects be arrested in Spain, and that the crimes be committed against Spaniards or have some historical link to the country. The reports seem to confirm earlier statements [JURIST report] by Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni [official profile] that Spain was considering the changes following a decision by Spanish judge Fernando Andreu [JURIST news archive] to issue an order [text, PDF, in Spanish] opening an investigation into alleged crimes against humanity committed in a 2002 Israeli attack in the Gaza Strip [El Pais report, in Spanish; JURIST report].

The investigation concerns the 2002 bombing of former Hamas leader Salah Shehadeh's home in Gaza City that killed 15 people [NYT report], including Shehadeh and his family. Israel has heavily criticized [Haaretz report] Article 23.4 [UN backgrounder, PDF] of the Judicial Power Organization Act, which allows Spanish courts to prosecute people outside of Spain for war crimes, even when no Spanish citizens are involved. Spanish courts have attempted to use the principle of universal jurisdiction in several other international cases, including allegations of war crimes and genocide in Rwanda, Tibet, Guatemala, and China [JURIST reports]. In 1998, the National Court of Spain invoked universal jurisdiction to issue an arrest warrant for former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet [JURIST news archive].

[JURIST] Egypt's Agouza Appeals Court Saturday overturned the prison sentences of four newspaper editors convicted of defaming President Hosni Mubarak [official website] and the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) [party website]. The four men, Ibrahim Eissa, editor of Al Dustour; Adel Hammouda, editor of Al-Fagr [media websites, in Arabic]; Wael Al-Abrashi, editor of the independent newspaper Sawt Al-Umma; and Abdel-Halim Qandil, former editor of Al-Karama, were convicted [JURIST report] in 2007 and were each sentenced to a year in prison and ordered to pay fines of approximately $3600. The appeals court upheld the fines against the men, and both Amnesty International (AI) [press release] and the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information [press release] issued statements Saturday saying the fines should also be lifted. In its release, AI wrote:

We are relieved that the four editors’ prison sentences have been overturned but the imposition of heavy fines and the prospect of trials on vaguely worded charges constitute unacceptable obstacles to freedom of the press in Egypt...

We call on the Egyptian authorities to stop using the press law to muzzle freedom of speech and to recognize the important role a free and independent press in any society.

[JURIST] Former Sanlu Group [Research and Markets profile] chairwoman Tian Wenhua [Xinhua profile] on Sunday appealed the life sentence [JURIST report] she received after pleading guilty [JURIST report] to charges in China's tainted milk scandal [JURIST news archive]. Tian's lawyer claims it was not his client who decided to sell milk with higher levels of melamine [FDA backgrounder], but a board member tabbed by New Zealand dairy firm Fonterra, which held a large share in Sanlu Group. Tian's appeal to the Higher People's Court of Hebei Province asserts that the Shijiazhuang Intermediate People's Court lacked evidence to support a conviction [Xinhua report] for manufacturing and selling fake or substandard products.

In December 2008, a court ordered at-fault dairy companies to pay $160 million [JURIST report] in compensation to the victims' families. In January, lawyers for the families of 213 Chinese children sickened or killed by the contaminated milk petitioned [JURIST report] the Supreme People's Court [official website, in Mandarin], China's highest court, to hear a class action lawsuit against 22 dairy companies involved in the contamination, seeking more than $5 million in damages. Early last month, police in China detained five parents [JURIST report] of children who became sick after drinking melamine-tainted milk, preventing the parents from participating in a news conference.