[JURIST] The China Beijing No 1 Intermediary Court ruled on Monday that US software giant Microsoft [corporate website] had infringed upon the patent rights of local Chinese company Zhongyi Electronic [corporate website]. Zhongyi Electronic provided Chinese fonts for Microsoft to use in its Windows 1995 program, and claims that Microsoft had no right to continue using those fonts in later programs such as Windows 1998, 2000, 2003, and XP. Windows must now cease the sale [Financial Times report] of all those programs in China. Microsoft, which says that its intellectual property agreements with Zhongyi Electronic extended beyond the Windows 1995 deal, will appeal the ruling [Reuters report]. China has been long been criticized by the US government [JURIST report] for a "lax" intellectual property enforcement system.

Microsoft's legal difficulties outside the United States are nothing new. In June 2008, China opened an anti-monopoly investigation into Microsoft and other software companies [JURIST report]. In February 2008, the European Commission (EC) fined Microsoft 899 million euros [decision, PDF; press release] for failing to comply with a 2004 order [PDF text; JURIST report] requiring the company to share technical information with competitors. In response to the European decision and other judgments, the corporation has instituted an Antitrust Compliance Committee [official website]. In January 2008, the European Commission began an investigation [JURIST report] into new allegations that Microsoft has misused its market position. Last month, Microsoft announced it had filed an appeal [JURIST report] with the European Court of First Instance [official website], seeking to annul the fine.

[JURIST] The District of Columbia Board of Election and Ethics [official website] ruled [opinion, PDF; press release] Tuesday that Washington DC's Jury and Marriage Act (JAMA) [DC ST § 46-405.01 text], which allows DC to recognize same-sex marriages performed legally in other jurisdictions, could not be challenged by a ballot initiative because overturning the law would violate the DC Human Rights Act (HRA) [text]. If passed, Marriage Initiative 2009 [text, PDF] would have overturned JAMA and declared, "Only marriage between a man and a woman is recognized in the district of Columbia." The Board held:

The District’s Initiative, Referendum and Recall Procedures Act requires the Board to refuse to accept referenda and initiatives which violate the HRA. Because the Initiative would authorize discrimination prohibited by the HRA, it is not a proper subject for initiative, and may not be accepted by the Board.

[JURIST] The German Federal Constitutional Court announced [press release, in German] Tuesday that it upheld [text, in German] legislation prohibiting public support and justification of the Nazi regime. The ruling, made earlier this month, means that neo-Nazis are forbidden from assembling for the purposes of of approving, glorifying or justifying the Nazi regime. Violations are punishable by up to three years in prison. The German constitution prohibits the state from banning a specific opinion, but the court distinguished this ruling based on the special circumstances.

[G]iven the injustice and terror the Nazi dictatorship caused, this exception is inherent for rules limiting propaganda approving the historic Nazi dictatorship.

[JURIST] The US Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] and the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) [official website] announced [official press release] on Tuesday that more than 14,700 Americans have reported to the IRS previously hidden overseas bank accounts in response to a temporary forgiveness program [official website], allowing delinquent taxpayers to avoid criminal prosecution for tax evasion by paying all overdue taxes and penalties. The overwhelming response to the amnesty program eclipsed the 100 or so foreign account disclosures made last year and included bank accounts from 70 countries. US Deputy Attorney General David Ogden [official profile] praised the IRS program:

The Department of Justice is pleased with the extraordinary results achieved from this landmark settlement. The message to American taxpayers is clear: the era of bank secrecy and hidden assets is over. We will continue to work closely with the IRS and our international partners to ensure that our tax laws are enforced fully and fairly, and that the rule of law is vindicated.

[JURIST] A US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit [official website] panel affirmed [opinion, PDF] the conviction of civil rights lawyer Lynne Stewart [advocacy website; JURIST news archive] on Tuesday, and ordered her to begin her prison sentence. Stewart, along with Mohammed Yousry and Ahmed Abdel Satter, were convicted [Reuters report] of various crimes based on association with convicted terrorist Omar Abdel-Rahman. As part of his conviction, Rahmen is subject to Special Administrative Measures (SAMs), which limit his ability to communicate with individuals outside the prison. The court found that despite being a lawyer, Stewart was bound by the SAMs but knowingly and willfully lied about her intentions to comply. The court also found that Stewart provided and concealed material support to the conspiracy to murder persons in a foreign country and noted,

We conclude that the district court committed neither procedural error in calculating the applicable Guidelines ranges, nor substantive error in varying from those ranges pursuant to its consideration of the factors set forth in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a). We nonetheless remand their cases to the district court to allow it to reconsider their sentences should it choose to do so in light of the resentencing of Stewart...[We] direct the court to revoke Stewart's and Yousry's bail pending appeal and to order them to surrender to the United States Marshal to begin serving their sentences forthwith.

[JURIST] Rwandan rebel leader Ignace Murwanashyaka [Interpol warrant] and deputy Straton Musoni were arrested [press release, in German] in Germany on Tuesday on war crimes and crimes against humanity charges. Murwanashyaka is the leader of the predominantly Hutu Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) [GlobalSecurity backgrounder]. The two are accused of wielding “significant influence” over the militia’s operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo [JURIST news archive; BBC backgrounder], which are thought to include the rape and killing of hundreds of civilians. Arrest warrants for the men were issued on Monday following a year-long investigation.

German officials previously arrested [JURIST report] Murwanashyaka in 2006 for alleged violations of immigration laws. In 2005, Murwanashyaka claimed [JURIST report] that the FDLR would end its war against the government and transform its fight into a political struggle. Many rebels fled Rwanda and crossed into eastern Congo 15 years ago after their alleged involvement in the 1994 Rwandan genocide [HRW backgrounder], during which an estimated 800,000 people, mostly ethnic Tutsis, died.

[JURIST] The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) [official website; JURIST news archive] Tuesday acquitted [ICTR press release] Catholic priest Hormisdas Nsengimana [case materials; Trial Watch profile] and ordered his immediate release. Nsengimma had been indicted [JURIST report] on four counts [indictment, PDF] of collaborating and ordering students to collaborate with the marauding Rwandan interahamwe [BBC backgrounder], as well as personally killing Tutsis during the 1994 Rwandan genocide [BBC backgrounder]. A three-judge ICTR panel that included Erik Mose [official profile], presiding, Sergei Alekseevich Egorov [official profile] and Florence Rita Arrey [official profile] concluded there was insufficient factual and legal basis to convict Nsengimana. Nsengimana was arrested in Cameroon in March 2002 and made his initial appearance before the ICTR in April 2002. His trial began in June 22, 2007 and concluded in September 2008.

On Monday, the appeals chamber of the ICTR overturned [judgment, PDF; press release] the genocide conviction and 20-year prison sentence for Protais Zigiranyirazo [case materials; Trial Watch profile], ruling [JURIST report] that the the prosecution had lacked sufficient evidence to convict him. The ICTR was established to try genocide suspects for crimes occurring during the 1994 Rwandan conflict between Hutus and Tutsis in which approximately 800,000 people, primarily Tutsis, died.

[JURIST] US State Department [official website] spokesman Ian Kelley confirmed [transcript] Monday that the US will send an observer to the International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website; JURIST news archive] for the first time this year. The announcement was made earlier in the day by US Ambassador at Large for War Crimes Issues Stephen Rapp [official profile], who said the country was still concerned [AP report] about the court exercising jurisdiction over US soldiers and officials. Kelley said sending an observer to the ICC would allow the US to start a dialogue with the court:

We will participate in these meetings as an observer and there will be an interagency delegation comprising of State Department and Defense Department officials, which will allow us to advance, use and engage all the delegations in various matters of interest to the U.S., specifically, our concerns about the definition of a crime of aggression, which is one of the main topics for discussion at this conference. This in no way suggests that we... no longer have concerns about the ICC. We do have concerns about it. We have specific concerns about assertion of jurisdiction over nationals of a nonparty state and the ability to exercise that jurisdiction without authorizations by the Security Council.

[JURIST] A 90-year-old German man has been charged with 58 counts of murder stemming from his involvement with the Nazi party during World War II. The man, who has not been named, was a member of an SS tank regiment and allegedly shot 57 Jews [BBC report] in a ditch outside of Duisburg, Austria, as part of a forced labor camp. He is also accused of killing another laborer. German prosecutors compiled the case with the testimony of former Hitler Youth who were also involved, initially working off the tip of an Austrian student who became interested after the mass grave of the Jews was found in 1995. The court in Duisburg must now decide whether to move forward [AFP report], and the man has two weeks to raise an appeal.

This case comes just days before the trial of accused Nazi guard John Demjanjuk [NNDB profile; JURIST news archive] is set to begin. The US Department of Justice succeeding in deporting [JURIST report] Demjanjuk to Germany in May to face trial. In July, German prosecutors charged [JURIST report] Demjanjuk with 27,900 accessory counts stemming from his alleged involvement as a guard at the Sobibor [Death Camps backgrounder] concentration camp where more than 260,000 people were executed in gas chambers. It has been alleged that Demjanjuk volunteered to work at Sobibor [Abendzeitung report, in German] after being captured by German forces while serving a member of the Soviet army. Three other men accused of being former guards have had proceedings brought against them by a Spanish court, and warrants for their arrest have been issued. The German appeals court in September permitted the case to continue in the Spanish court [JURIST report].

[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit [official website] for the third time vacated [opinion, PDF] a trial court's sentence of former HealthSouth [corporate website; JURIST news archive] executive Ken Livesay for being too lenient Monday, remanding the case to the lower court with a demand that Livesay be sentenced to time in jail. Livesay pleaded guilty in 2004 to charges that he participated in accounting fraud while at HealthSouth in order to overstate the company's earnings. In exchange for his guilty plea and testimony against fellow conspirators, the government promised to recommend a reduced sentence. In accordance with Federal Sentencing Guidelines [text], the government recommended five years imprisonment. The court, however, sentenced Livesay to five years of probation. The government appealed, and the Eleventh Circuit reversed the sentence [opinion, PDF], finding the sentence too lenient and not based on specific findings. On remand, the trial court found extensive cooperation by Livesay and once again sentenced him to five years probation. The government appealed, and once again the Eleventh Circuit vacated [opinion, PDF] the sentence. On remand, the trial court handed down the same sentence of five years of probation for the third time and the government once again appealed. In Tuesday's decision, the court held that due to the severity of the crime and the possibility of deterring similar behavior, the trial court's sentence was "patently unreasonable." The court continued, stating: "Not only do we hold that the particular sentence imposed below is unreasonable, but we also hold that any sentence of probation would be unreasonable given the magnitude and seriousness of Livesay’s criminal conduct."

Former HealthSouth founder and CEO Richard Scrushy [JURST news archive] was found liable [JURIST report] to the company's shareholders for fraud in June and ordered to pay $2.88 billion of restitution. Also in June, the Eleventh Circuit rejected [JURIST report] Scrushy's challenges to a $445 million settlement against HealthSouth. In May, the Eleventh Circuit denied [JURIST report] Scrushy's petition for an en banc rehearing of his conviction for unrelated federal bribery and corruption charges for paying campaign debts of former Alabama governor Don Siegelman [official profile] in exchange for a seat on a state-operated review board that regulates Alabama hospitals. In 2007, the US Securities and Exchange Commission [official website] settled its accounting fraud claims [JURIST report] against Scrushy for $81 million. In 2005, Scrushy was acquitted [JURIST report] of criminal charges of wire and mail fraud, money laundering, conspiracy, and violations of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. In 2003, HealthSouth conceded that its prior financial statements had overstated its income and assets by a substantial amount. Several class action suits were subsequently filed by investors against the company and its officers for alleged violations of the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The actions were consolidated and, in 2006, the $445 million settlement was reached.

[JURIST] The appeals chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) [official website] on Monday overturned [judgment, PDF; press release] the genocide conviction and 20-year prison sentence for Protais Zigiranyirazo [case materials; Trial Watch profile], ruling that the the prosecution had lacked sufficient evidence to convict him. Zigiranyirazo, the brother-in-law of former Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana, was found guilty [judgment, PDF] last year of genocide and extermination in part for his role at Kesho Hill in which he allegedly ordered the slaughter of approximately 1,000 Tutsi refugees who had gathered at the hill during the 1994 Rwandan genocide [HRW backgrounder]. The judge ruled that not only did the prosecution lack sufficient evidence, but the trial chamber improperly stated and applied the law in convicting Zigiranyirazo, giving insufficient weight to his alibi claims. In rejecting the trial chamber's conviction, the court stated:

The crimes Zigiranyirazo was accused of were very grave, meriting the most careful of analyses. Instead, the Trial Judgement misstated the principles of law governing the distribution of the burden of proof with regards to alibi and seriously erred in its handling of the evidence. Zigiranyirazo’s resulting convictions relating to Kesho Hill and the Kiyovu Roadblock violated the most basic and fundamental principles of justice.

[JURIST] Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd [official profile] on Monday issued an apology [speech transcript] to poor and underprivileged British children who were sent to Australia and other former British colonies over the last century with the supposed intention of giving them a better life, but were instead subjected to childhood of abuse and hard labor. It is believed that there are currently around 7,000 people living in Australia who survived the Child Migrants Program [Australia Parliament backgrounder], which is believed to have begun [Guardian report] in the 1920s and lasted until 1967. At the ceremony in the capital city of Canberra, which was attended by about 900 of the "Lost Innocents" [Australia Parliament backgrounder], Rudd expressed the country's regret:

Today, the Government of Australia will move the following motion of apology in the Parliament of Australia. We come together today to deal with an ugly chapter in our nation's history. And we come together today to offer our nation's apology.

We acknowledge the particular pain of children shipped to Australia as child migrants - robbed of your families, robbed of your homeland, regarded not as innocent children but regarded instead as a source of child labour.