[JURIST] The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) [official website] characterized CIA tactics used against terrorism suspects as constituting torture in a confidential 2007 report, according an article [text; press release] published in the New York Review of Books earlier this month. Author Mark Danner [personal website] wrote that he was able to obtain a copy of the report, originally intended for CIA general counsel John Rizzo, in which the ICRC drew conclusions on detainee treatment based on interviews with fourteen so-called "high-valued" detainees. Danner wrote that ICRC's report included detailed accounts of waterboarding, sleep deprivation, prolonged nudity, and cold water immersion, and that the ICRC found the detainees accounts to be consistent enough to be considered reliable. He quoted the ICRC as concluding that the treatment of the detainees constituted torture:

'The allegations of ill-treatment of the detainees indicate that, in many cases, the ill-treatment to which they were subjected while held in the CIA program, either singly or in combination, constituted torture. In addition, many other elements of the ill-treatment, either singly or in combination, constituted cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.'

[JURIST] Wireless communications company Qualcomm [corporate website] announced [press release] Monday that the US District Court for the Southern District of California [official website] has dismissed [order, PDF] a lawsuit against it by longtime corporate rival Broadcom [corporate website] asking the court to declare several Qualcomm patents exhausted and unenforceable. In the order issued Thursday, Judge William Hayes held that Broadcom's complaint lacked grounds for relief based on a failure to list the particular patents that were allegedly exhausted. Broadcom also failed to identify sales or licenses which would have triggered the exhaustion of Qualcomm's patents. The court also found Broadcom's purported injuries were too speculative to warrant declaratory relief. Hayes wrote:

The Court has considered the totality of the circumstances and concludes that the Complaint does not allege a controversy of "sufficient immediacy andreality to warrant the issuance" of a far-reaching declaratory judgment premised on a finding that Qualcomm’s unidentified patents that are embodied in wireless chipsets and handsets are exhausted.

[JURIST] German Chancellor Angela Merkel [BBC profile] said in a radio interview [transcript, in German] Sunday that the German government must more strictly enforce its gun-control laws. Merkel's comments came less than a week after 17-year-old Tim Kretschmer shot and killed 16 people [AP reports] in southern Germany. Authorities believe Kretschmer obtained the gun he used in the shooting from an unsecured place in his parents' house. Under German law, stored guns must be locked [DW report] in safes. Merkel asked parents and educators to be vigilant in keeping guns out of children's hands and mentioned the possibility of random checks to make sure weapons are properly stored.

Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble [BBC profile] said last week that tightening Germany's gun-control laws would not eliminate youth gun violence [Reuters report]. Schaeuble called Germany's gun-control laws among the world's strictest [Reuters report]. In 2002, one house of Germany's parliament adopted a measure [CNN report] that required airgun owners to be licensed. That same day, a 19-year-old gunman shot and killed 17 people in Erfurt, though the shooting and legislation did not appear to be related. The German Police Union has said Germany's gun-control laws have not been properly enforced. Lawyers have said Kretschmer's father could be liable [Sunday Herald report] if it is shown he improperly stored the gun that Kretschmer eventually used in the shooting.

[JURIST] Pakistan Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani [BBC profile] announced Monday that the government will reinstate deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry [JURIST news archive] in response to recent protests by members of the Pakistan lawyers' movement [NYT backgrounder; JURIST news archive] and opposition politicians and supporters. In a televised address, Gilani announced that Chaudhry and other deposed judges will be reinstated [Daily Times report] March 21, when the current Chief Justice of the Supreme Court retires. Gilani ordered government officials to release [Dawn report] anyone arrested during the past week's so-called "long march" [JURIST reports], which began Thursday. Gilani also announced that the government would file a petition to reverse [Jang News report] the recent Supreme Court ruling that barred [JURIST report] opposition leader and ex-prime minister Nawaz Sharif [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] from holding elected office based on a past criminal conviction. Finally, Gilani lifted a ban on public demonstrations.

Reports surfaced late Sunday that Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari [BBC profile; JURIST news archive], leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) [party website], had agreed to reinstate Chaudhry and other judges ousted by Zardari's predecessor Pervez Musharraf [JURIST news archive] in November 2007 after his declaration of emergency rule. Sharif and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) [party website] have actively campaigned [JURIST report] for Chaudhry's reinstatement, leading a similar "long march" last summer. Chaudhry has always maintained that he is still chief justice [JURIST report] under the Pakistani constitution [text].

[JURIST] The number of immigrants detained by the US has drastically increased over the last decade, according to an AP report [text] issued Sunday. A US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) [official website; JURIST news archive] database, obtain by the AP through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) [5 USC § 552; JURIST news archive], indicates that on January 25, 32,000 individuals were detained in the US. This is nearly five times the 6,785 that were detained in 1994. The report also highlights the extended period of time that individuals have faced detention. The ICE estimates that the average detention period is 31 days, but the report indicates that nearly 10,000 detainees have been in custody for longer. There are 18,690 immigrants that are currently in US custody who have no criminal record, 400 of whom have been detained for more than one year. According to the report, 58 percent of the detainees do not have lawyers. The lack of representation has exacerbated some of the issues, including determining whether the ICE follows the US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] 2001 ruling in Zadvydas v. Davis [Cornell LII backgrounder] that the ICE has six months to release or deport immigrants after their cases have been decided. The report indicated that 950 people are currently detained past this deadline. The ICE defends the detention system because it is the most effective way to ensure that individuals will appear before the court.

Last month, the ICE's tactics during the Bush administration were criticized [JURIST report] by the Cardozo School of Law's Immigration Justice Clinic [official website] for being overly-aggressive and ineffective. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano [official profile] issued a directive [text] in January calling for review and assessment of the ICE fugitive operation teams. The ICE has arrested [JURIST report] many non-criminal illegal immigrants in the past year, many of whom were imprisoned [JURIST report]. In April, Seton Hall Law School's Center for Social Justice filed a lawsuit [Star-Ledger report] claiming that warrantless immigration raids violate the US Constitution.

[JURIST] A group of 16 human rights investigators and judges "shocked to the core" by the events during the most recent Gaza conflict [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive] have called for a full investigation of possible violations of the Geneva Conventions [link to texts] in an open letter [text] addressed to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon [official profile; JURIST news archive] and all members of the UN Security Council. The signatories to the Amnesty International (AI) [advocacy website; JURIST news archive] supported letter include Archbishop Desmond Tutu [Nobel profile; JURIST news archive], former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson [official profile; JURIST news archive] and South African Justice Richard Goldstone [official profile]. They said:

As individuals with direct experience of international justice and reconciliation of conflict, we believe there is an important case to be made for an international investigation of gross violations of the laws of war, committed by all parties to the Gaza conflict. Without setting the record straight in a credible and impartial manner, it will be difficult for those communities that have borne the heavy cost of violence to move beyond the terrible aftermath of conflict and help build a better peace.