[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] on Monday dismissed [order list, PDF] the final challenge to the sale of Chrysler Group assets to Italian automaker Fiat [corporate websites]. The Court granted, vacated, and remanded Indiana State Police Pension Trust v. Chrysler [docket], an appeal from a ruling by the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. The appeal was opposed by both the Obama administration and the new Chrysler, and the Court dismissed the appeal as moot, since the sale was finalized in June.

The sale was finalized one day after the Supreme Court ruled [opinion, PDF; JURIST report] that the sale could proceed. The stay was requested [JURIST report] by consumer groups, three Indiana pension and construction funds, and others. The pension and construction funds alleged that the use of Trouble Asset Relief Program (TARP) [materials] funds to finance the bankruptcy was unconstitutional.

[JURIST] Saddam Hussein's former lawyer on Saturday asked the British attorney general for consent to prosecute former prime minister Tony Blair [official profile; JURIST news archive] for violations of the Geneva Conventions [materials]. Giovanni di Stefano, who represents former Iraqi deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz [JURIST news archive], sent a letter [text, DOC] asking for consent to prosecute Blair after Blair said in a BBC interview aired Sunday that he would have invaded Iraq [BBC report] even if he knew there were no weapons of mass destruction. According to the letter:

In summary the allegation against ANTONY CHARLES LYNTON BLAIR involves a violation of offences within the Geneva Conventions Act 1957 which without doubt and by his own admission can only but be deemed "not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly."

[JURIST] Sudanese leaders reached an agreement Sunday for a referendum on independence for the south. The agreement was reached between the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) [party website] of President Omar al-Bashir [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) [FAS backgrounder] of Salva Kiir [BBC profile], which comprise the current coalition government created pursuant to the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) [UN press release] that ended two decades of civil war. Under the agreement, the south will gain independence [Sudan Tribune report] with a 60 percent voter turnout and a 51 percent yes vote. The NCP had originally sought a two-thirds voter turnout and a 75-90 percent yes vote. The parties also reached an agreement on referendum rules for the oil-rich Abyei region. The referendum is scheduled for 2011.

Under the CPA, Sudan is set to hold its first democratic multi-party elections in almost a quarter of a century, slated for April of next year. Last month, the NCP and the SPLM accused each other [JURIST report] of fraud, torture, intimidation, and sabotage as voters began registering. Last year, the Sudanese parliament approved the appointment of a nine-member independent electoral commission [JURIST report] to oversee the upcoming vote. In July 2008, the parliament passed a long-anticipated electoral law [JURIST report] dictating how the country's parliamentary seats will be allotted. The law reserves some seats for candidates chosen by popular vote, and some for proportional representation of political parties including seats reserved for women. Following the signing of the CPA, the country also approved a new constitution and installed a new government, and the country's state of emergency was lifted [JURIST reports], except in Darfur and a region on the eastern border.

[JURIST] At least four justices on the Supreme Court of the Philippines [official website] believe the court should hear cases stemming from this month's imposition of martial law [Proclamation 1959 text, PDF] in the province of Maguindanao, despite petitions to declare those cases moot after martial law was lifted [JURIST report] on Saturday, ABS-CBN News [media website] reported [text] Monday. The unidentified sources, however, said the majority of judges would likely vote to reject the cases. The pending cases allege that the government engaged in warrantless searches and seizures and that detainees were held without charges for more than three days in violation of martial law under the Philippines Constitution [text]. Human rights lawyers from the Philippines, South Korea, Australia, and Japan asked the court [Manila Bulletin report] to hear those cases, warning that failure to hear them would set precedent allowing the president to temporary implement martial law and retract it in time to avoid penalties for abuses committed under it. Also on Monday, the Senate of the Philippines [official website] passed a resolution [text, PDF] condemning the decision of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroy [official website, BBC profile] to implement martial law as contrary to the constitution since it was not imposed in response to armed rebellion.

Last week, Amnesty International (AI) [advocacy website] urged [JURIST report] Philippine authorities to establish a timetable to end martial law. The National Union of People's Lawyers (NUPL) [advocacy website] and other groups petitioned the Supreme Court to reject the declaration of martial law. The proclamation was announced [JURIST report] earlier this month, and is a result of instability in the province following a politically motivated attack that left 57 dead last month. Government authorities earlier this month arrested several suspects [BBC report] in connection with the attack, including Maguindanao Governor Andal Ampatuan Sr., and subsequently discovered an "arsenal of weapons" buried nearby. Military officials believed that rebels loyal to the Ampatuan family intended to launch a rebellion. The family is suspected of ordering the November 23 attack [AFP report] against political rival Esmael Mangudadatu, who was traveling with family, aides, and journalists to file as a candidate in an upcoming gubernatorial election.

[JURIST] The Canadian government has begun reviewing its security certificate [IRPA text; PSC Backgrounder] system, which allows the government to deport residents who pose a threat to national security, the Canadian Press (CP) [media website] reported [text] Sunday. The government may consider making significant changes to the law or abolishing it completely, Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan [official profile] told the CP. As it is currently constructed, the law allows the government to issue certificates to non-citizen residents it deems a threat to national security but does not require that the government reveal to the resident classified information used against him or her. A special advocate may protest the certificate before a judge in closed proceedings. Critics of the law claim that the system violates residents' fundamental rights by failing to reveal the full charges against them. Complicating matters is a 2002 Canadian Supreme Court ruling [judgment text] preventing the government from returning residents to countries in which they are likely to face torture. Between the time the certificate is issued and the case is resolved, the immigrant remains free from jail, but subject to strict regulations. At least one immigrant, according to the report, has faced restrictions on his movement for more than a decade since he became subject to a certificate but cannot be returned to his country country of origin due to the likelihood he will be tortured. The report does not mention a timetable for completion of the review.

Last year, the Federal Court of Canada [official website] dismissed [JURIST report] a lawsuit challenging the security certificate program, ruling that it was too early to determine whether 2007 amendments to the program would violate immigrants' rights. The Canadian House of Commons passed the provisions allowing the use of special advocates in February 2008, after introducing [JURIST reports] the bill in October 2007. The changes came in response to a decision [text] by the Supreme Court of Canada that found the government's prior use of security certificates to indefinitely detain and deport foreigners with suspected ties to terrorism violated the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms [text; CDCH materials]. Three Arab Muslim men, Adil Charkaoui, Hassan Almrei, and Mohamed Harkat, had argued [JURIST report] before the high court that their indefinite detentions were unconstitutional. The court said in its ruling that indefinite detentions under security certificates were permissible as long as evidence that detainees themselves could not see could be challenged.

[JURIST] Chinese prosecutors formerly charged prominent rights activist Liu Xiaobo on Saturday with inciting subversion. Liu, who spent two years in prison following the Tiananmen Square [BBC backgrounder] uprising, has long challenged China's one-party rule, and co-authored Charter 08 [text], a petition calling for political reforms in the country. Liu was formally arrested [JURIST report] in June, but has been in detention since last December, shortly before the petition's release. Other organizers of the Charter 08 movement have asked that Liu's sentence be shared with them [Reuters report]. His trial, which could begin in 10 days, will likely move slowly due to the ordinary delays of the Chinese judicial process. If convicted, he could face up to 15 years in prison.

In June, rights groups marked the 20th anniversary of the 1989 uprising in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, calling for the government to investigate the incident [JURIST report] and implement changes called for by Charter 08. More recently, China was criticized for an increase in political arrests [press release; JURIST report] leading up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, including the trial of dissident Hu Jia and the conviction [JURIST reports] of Yang Chunlin [AI profile] for the same "subversion" crime with which Liu is charged.

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] on Monday declined to hear [order list, PDF] a lawsuit by four UK citizens and former Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainees against former US defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld [JURIST news archive] and other military officials. The Court denied certiorari in Rasul v. Myers [docket; cert. petition, PDF], leaving in tact a ruling [opinion, PDF; JURIST report] by the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit [official website]. The appeals court had affirmed in part a district court decision dismissing illegal detention and mistreatment charges under the Alien Tort Statute [text], the Geneva Conventions [ICRC materials], and the Fifth and Eighth Amendments [text] of the US Constitution against Rumsfeld and other military officials, and reversed the lower court's decision to reject a motion for dismissal of two additional charges against the defendants. The appeals court ruling came after the Supreme Court vacated and remanded to the district court [JURIST report] the DC Circuit's 2008 decision in the same case, which also dismissed the lawsuit against Rumsfeld and the other defendants.

UK citizens Shafiq Rasul, Asif Iqbal, Rhuhel Ahmed, and Jamal Al-Harith were released from Guantanamo in March 2004. In May 2004, Rasul and Iqbal said in an open letter to then-US president George W. Bush that they had suffered abuse at Guantanamo [JURIST report] similar to that perpetrated at Abu Ghraib [JURIST news archive] prison in Iraq. The Center for Constitutional Rights [advocacy website] filed a lawsuit [JURIST report] on their behalf in October 2004 against Rumsfeld, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Richard Meyers, and others alleging [complaint] "deliberate and foreseeable action taken ... to flout or evade the United States Constitution, federal statutory law, United States treaty obligations and long established norms of customary international law."

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] on Monday granted certiorari [order list, PDF] in three cases. In City of Ontario v. Quon [docket; cert. petition, PDF], the Court will consider whether a special weapons and tactics (SWAT) team member has a reasonable expectation of privacy in text messages sent to and from his SWAT pager, where the police department has an official no-privacy policy but a non-policymaking lieutenant announced an informal policy of allowing some personal use of the pagers. The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled [opinion, PDF] that the SWAT team member does have a reasonable expectation of privacy and that a search of his text messages violated his Fourth Amendment [text] rights.

In Robertson v. United States, ex rel. Watson [docket; cert. petition, PDF], the Court will consider whether an action for criminal contempt in a congressionally created court may constitutionally be brought in the name and pursuant to the power of a private person, rather than in the name and pursuant to the power of the United States.

In Carachuri-Rosendo v. Holder [docket; cert. petition, PDF], the Court will consider whether a person convicted under state law for simple drug possession (a federal law misdemeanor) has been "convicted" of an "aggravated felony" on the theory that he could have been prosecuted for recidivist simple possession (a federal law felony), even though there was no charge or finding of a prior conviction in his prosecution for possession. Under the Immigration and Nationality Act [text], a lawful permanent resident who has been "convicted" of an "aggravated felony" is ineligible to seek cancellation of removal. The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled [opinion, PDF] that a state law conviction for simple drug possession could be an "aggravated felony" if the defendant could have been charged with a felony, affirming the Board of Immigration Appeals holding that Jose Angel Carachuri-Rosendo is ineligible for cancellation of removal.

[JURIST] Libya is making strides towards greater transparency and acknowledgment of human rights, but still has a long way to go, according to a report [text; press release] published Saturday by Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website]. The report, entitled "Libya: Truth and Justice Can't Wait," is a follow up to a 2006 report [text] "Words to Deeds." While acknowledging Libya's strides in opening itself back up to the rest of the world, HRW also notes that there is no independent journalism nor independent non-governmental organizations:

Overall, unjustified limits on free expression and association remain the norm, including penal code provisions that criminalize "insulting public officials" or "opposing the ideology of the Revolution." Many relatives of prisoners killed in a 1996 incident at Abu Salim prison are still waiting to learn how their relatives died and to see those responsible punished. The jurisdiction of courts, the duties of government agencies, respect for legal rights of prisoners and adherence to the country’s stated list of human rights often remain murky, erratic and contradictory.

[JURIST] Illinois Governor Pat Quinn and Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) [official websites] said Friday that a leaked memo [text] signals that the US government intends to transfer Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainees to the Thomson Correctional Center (TCC) [DOC backgrounder] in northwestern Illinois. The memo from the attorney general, leaked last week to conservative website Big Government [website], is dated December 10, 2009, and directs the secretary of defense to "relocate detainees currently held at the Guantanamo Detention Facility to the TCC as expeditiously as possible." A White House official said that no final decision has been made [AP report], but Quinn and Durbin said they were encouraged by the memo, nonetheless.

Last week, the Washington Post reported that the Obama administration is seeking Illinois congressional support [JURIST report] for a plan to purchase the TCC to house terrorism suspects currently being held at Guantanamo. Both Durbin and Quinn favor [JURIST report] moving Guantanamo detainees to the northwestern Illinois prison facility. It is estimated that the facility could bring 2,340-3,250 new jobs to the community and provide an estimated $790 million to $1.09 billion economic impact over four years. Not all local leaders support the possible transfer of accused terrorists to Illinois, however. In November, US Representative Mark Kirk (R-IL) [official website] wrote a letter [text] to President Barack Obama, urging him not to transfer detainees to the TCC because of fears it would lead to terrorist activity in the Chicago area. Even if the prison is chosen as a domestic facility for Guantanamo transferees, in order to hold detainees in US, Congress would have to change a law specifically prohibiting detainee transfers into the US except for trials [JURIST report]. A Michigan state prison has also been suggested as a possible holding facility for ex-Guantanamo detainees, but local residents have protested the possible transfers [JURIST reports].