[JURIST] Sudanese war crimes suspect and rebel leader Bahr Idriss Abu Garda on Sunday surrendered to the International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website]. Abu Garda is accused [press release] of committing three crimes against the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) [official website] during a September 2007 attack. The ICC alleges that the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) [official website], under Abu Garda's command, along with other troops, killed 12 and wounded eight AMIS soldiers. Based on his willingness to appear, the court issued a summons for Abu Garda rather than issuing an arrest warrant. ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo [official profile] addressed the violence against peacekeepers [press release] in Darfur, stating:

By killing peacekeepers, the perpetrators attacked the millions of civilians who those soldiers came to protect. They came from Senegal, from Mali, from Nigeria, from Botswana, to serve and protect. They were murdered. Attacking peacekeepers is a serious crime under the [Rome] Statute and shall be prosecuted.

Such attacks ... have a direct impact on the delivery of vital services and thereby exacerbate the suffering of vulnerable groups. They impact on the lives of thousands.

[JURIST] A Malawi court on Saturday barred former president Bakili Muluzi [BBC profile] from participating in the upcoming election. The court held [AP report] that the Malawi Constitution [text] prohibits Muluzi from running for office after serving two consecutive five-year terms beginning in 1994. Article 83 of the Malawi Constitution provides that the president, vice president and second vice president "may serve in their respective capacities a maximum of two consecutive terms," although the language is unclear on whether this bars someone from serving a third, non-consecutive term. The court's decision came after Muluzi appealed a nomination rejection by the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) [official website, EISA backgrounder] in March. President Bingu wa Mutharika [official website] urged the MEC [Nyasa Times report] to reject Muluzi's nomination. Article 76 of the Malawi Constitution provides that the High Court holds judicial review power over the electoral commission. Muluzi is now backing John Zenus Ungapake Tembo [Nyasa Times report] for the office.

In January, a court in Malawi held that Muluzi could be investigated [JURIST report] for alleged theft of international aid money. Both Muluzi and Mutharika have been accused of corruption [JURIST report] in the past. Mutharika defected from Muluzi's Democratic Front party to form his own Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) [party website].

[JURIST] Canadian Attorney General Rob Nicholson [official website] introduced legislation Friday into the Canadian House of Commons [Parliament website] to amend the Identification of Criminals Act [statute text]. If the proposed amendment passes, it would provide for the fingerprinting [press release] of those arrested but not yet charged as well as other changes in response to the evolving needs of the Canadian criminal justice system. Nicholson hopes:

This bill will increase the effectiveness of the justice system in a number of ways, including giving peace and public officers greater access to warrants relating to search and seizure, and helping address the issue of those who evade justice by travelling to other jurisdictions.

[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit [official website] on Friday denied the petition of former Alabama governor Don Siegelman (D) [official profile; JURIST news archive] and former HealthSouth [corporate website] CEO Richard Scrushy [JURIST news archive] for an en banc rehearing of their convictions on charges of corruption. The petitioners cited as grounds [petition, PDF] for rehearing the court's alleged misinterpretation of 18 USC § 1512(b)(3) [text]. Specifically, petitioners asserted that questions of exceptional importance exist in evaluating:

Whether the word "explicit," in the "explicit promise or undertaking" element of proof in alleged bribery cases involving campaign or issue- advocacy contributions, means what the word means in ordinary usage, i.e., expressly communicated, the opposite of implicit – or whether (as the panel concluded) an implicit quid pro quo linkage counts as "explicit," so long as there was a particular action that was implicitly to be exchanged for the contribution.