[JURIST] A French judge on Friday placed former French president Jacques Chirac [official profile; JURIST news archive] under preliminary investigation over allegations that he misused public funds while serving as mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995. Chirac is accused of financing the Rally for the Republic (RPR), now renamed as the Union for a Popular Movement [party website, in French], by illegally establishing fake city positions for party members to collect salaries totaling several million dollars. He met with Judge Jacques Gazeux Friday morning and was informed that he had been placed under formal investigation [Le Monde report, in French]. Chirac has denied any wrongdoing but could face up to five years in prison if convicted. Prosecutors must now decide whether to bring formal charges.

Chirac was ordered to stand trial [JURIST report] on related charges of embezzlement and misuse of public funds in October. Following this order, Chirac will be the first former French president to stand trial since the formation of the current Republic in 1958. The charges were originally filed in 2007 [JURIST report] after Chirac's presidency ended and he no longer had judicial immunity. In July 2007, French investigating magistrates questioned Chirac as a material witness [JURIST report] in their probe of the corruption allegations.

[JURIST] The number of executions that took place in the US in 2009 was down 47 percent from 10 years ago, according to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) [advocacy website] annual report [text, PDF; press release, PDF] released Friday. There were 52 executions in 2009, compared to 98 in 1999. The report also emphasized that the number of death sentences handed down in 2009 - 106 - is the lowest since the US Supreme Court [official website] reinstated the death penalty in 1976. According to the report, the rate of death sentences has been falling for the past seven years, and there is expanding support for putting an end to the death penalty:

In the last two years, three states have abolished capital punishment and a growing number of states are asking whether it's worth keeping. This entire decade has been marked by a declining use of the death penalty.

Also this year, a nationwide poll of police chiefs showed that the death penalty is at the bottom of priorities among those with experience in law enforcement. The chiefs did not believe the death penalty acted as a deterrent, and they rated it as one of the most inefficient uses of taxpayer money in fighting crime. Challenges to the death penalty came from all quarters, including former Texas Governor Mark White and conservative strategist Richard Viguerie, who expressed doubts about the reliability of this governmental program.

[JURIST] The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) [official website] on Friday charged Khieu Samphan [Trial Watch profile; JURIST news archive], the former head of state during the Khmer Rouge [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive] regime, with genocide for his involvement in the deaths of thousands of Vietnamese and ethnic Cham Muslims. While not denying the killings took place, Samphan has denied culpability [BBC report], saying he was not directly responsible. Samphan also faces domestic charges [AFP report] including torture, religious persecution, and murder. Samphan had previously been charged [order, PDF; JURIST report] with war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Samphan is the third member of the Khmer Rouge to be charged with genocide [JURIST report] this week. Former deputy leader and chief ideologist Nuon Chea and foreign minister Ieng Sary [Trial Watch profiles] were charged [case materials] with genocide on Wednesday in connection with crimes allegedly committed against Vietnamese people and ethnic Cham Muslims. Both defendants have already been charged with breaches of the Geneva Convention [ICRC backgrounder] and crimes against humanity. The Khmer Rouge is generally held responsible for the genocide of an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians [PPU backgrounder] who died between 1975 and 1979.

[JURIST] A French court ruled Friday that Google [corporate website] violated French copyright law through its book-scanning initiative [Google Books website]. The Parisian court fined Google €300,000 euros (USD $430,000) for digitizing books and making excerpts available on the web. The challenge was brought in 2006 by French publishing group La Martiniere, along with the French publisher's union Syndicat National de l'Edition (SNE) and the writers' society Societe des Gens de Lettres (SDGL) [websites, in French]. The head of the SNE expressed satisfaction [BBC report] with the verdict. Also this week, a Chinese court agreed to hear [FT report] a challenge to Google's digital books project.

While Friday's ruling is the first time a court has condemned Google's book scanning initiative, the company has also faced legal challenges in the US. Last year, Google agreed to settle [JURIST report] two copyright infringement lawsuits. Under the terms of the initial agreement, Google would pay $125 million to authors and publishers of copyrighted works. In return, Google would be allowed to display online up to 20 percent of the total pages of a copyrighted book, and would offer users an opportunity to purchase the remainder of any viewed book. Last month, a US judge granted an extension to file an amended settlement agreement after the Department of Justice urged the court to reject the settlement [JURIST reports] over class action, copyright, and antitrust law concerns.

[JURIST] The UK's 1.2 billion-pound e-Borders [official website] program initiated by Prime Minister Gordon Brown [official profile; JURIST news archive] will likely be found illegal under European Union (EU) law, the British House of Commons Home Affairs Committee [official website] reported [text, PDF; press release] Friday. The program was intended to provide the UK Border Agency (UKBA) [official website] with a more effective and efficient security system by collecting and analyzing information on all passengers entering or leaving the UK. Under EU law, member states are not permitted to require additional passenger information other than a valid identification document except in extreme circumstances. According to the report, the program also potentially violates other member states' data protection laws. The report states:

All our witnesses expressed concerns about whether the e-Borders programme was compatible with EU law, and in particular the principle of free movement of people. The EU Directive cited by UKBA as a basis for its project relates to the transport of passengers by air over EU's external borders. Moreover, the carriers were concerned that other EU countries to which their services travelled were increasingly questioning the legality of requiring their citizens to provide data, rather than simply producing a form of identification (passport or ID card) before they were allowed to travel to the UK.

[JURIST] Suspected Mumbai terror attack [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive] gunman Mohammad Ajmal Amir Kasab [NDTV profile] withdrew his confession in an Indian court Friday, claiming he was tortured and framed by police. Kasab originally pleaded not guilty in May, but interrupted his trial in July to confess and change his plea to guilty [JURIST reports]. Presiding Judge Judge ML Tahilyani continued the trial [JURIST report] despite Kasab's confession, ruling that it was incomplete but should be entered into the record. On Friday, Kasab claimed that he is not the man [Times of India report] seen in a photograph holding an assault rifle in the train station. Kasab testified that he had been arrested by police days before the attacks for being Pakistani and that police shot him to make it look like he had been injured during the attacks. He also claimed to have met David Headley, the Chicago man charged [JURIST report] last week in connection with the attacks, but only after the attacks when Headley allegedly came to question Kasab in the company of three FBI agents. A verdict is expected early next year, and, if convicted, Kasab could face the death penalty.

Last month, Tahilyani removed Kasab's defense lawyer Abbas Kazmi [Times of India profile] after finding that Kazmi lied when he denied being informed of the Special Public Prosecutor's intent to examine 340 more witnesses of the attack. Kazmi, who was replaced by his assistant, was not the first defense lawyer to be removed from the high profile case. Advocate Anjali Waghmare was removed [JURIST report] in April for ethical violations after agreeing to represent both the accused and a victim of the attack. Kasab faces 86 charges [Reuters backgrounder], including waging war on India and murder, for his role in the November 2008 attacks that claimed 166 lives.

[JURIST] US Assistant Attorney General Tom Perez [official profile] said Thursday that the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ) [official websites] plans to increase its efforts to prosecute hate crimes. The DOJ brought 25 federal hate crime cases [AP report] during the first year of the Obama administration, which is the highest annual number since 2001. The number had fallen as low as 12 in 2006. According to Perez, this was not due to the lack of hate crimes in the country, but rather a lack of enforcement during the Bush administration. Perez said he plans to hire more than 100 new employees in the Civil Rights Division to increase enforcement of all civil rights laws.

The announcement from the Civil Rights Division comes the same week that it filed hate crime charges [NYT report] in the beating death of a Mexican immigrant last year. Earlier this month, the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) [official website] reported [JURIST report] that enforcement of various civil rights laws, including hate crimes laws, decreased during the Bush administration. In September, US Attorney General Eric Holder [official profile] said that the DOJ planned to expand its Civil Rights Division [JURIST report] and more actively enforce anti-discrimination laws. The increased focus on civil rights marks a change in focus from the previous administration, which, according to the New York Times [NYT report; JURIST report], shifted resources from preventing racial discrimination to protecting religious rights.

[JURIST] US House of Representatives minority leader John Boehner (R-OH) [official websites] said Thursday that Congress could potentially block the Obama administration's plan to purchase [JURIST report] the Thomson Correctional Center (TCC) [DOC backgrounder] in northwestern Illinois to house inmates from Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive]. Boehner said that at least two pieces of legislation would have to be approved before the detainees could be brought to Illinois and that he doubts either bill would pass [Chicago Sun-Times report]. Under current law [JURIST report], Guantanamo detainees may only be transferred to the US for prosecution, so that law would have to be changed. Congress would also have to pass a bill approving funding for the project. Boehner warned that he would not support war funding bills with either provision attached. A White House spokesperson vowed to work closely with Congress [Reuters report] until Guantanamo is closed.

Earlier this week, US Attorney General Eric Holder [official profile] said that the decision to purchase the TCC could help close the Guantanamo prison facility [JURIST report] over the next several months. Holder expects the detention center to be closed by summer or early next fall at the latest. In October, Holder announced that the Obama administration would most likely miss its January deadline for closing the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, echoing prior statements [JURIST reports] by top administration officials. US President Barack Obama originally issued the executive order to close Guantanamo within a year [JURIST report] last January 22, two days after taking office.

[JURIST] A Pakistani court on Friday issued an arrest warrant for Interior Minister Rehman Malik [official profile] on corruption charges, following Wednesday's Supreme Court [official website] ruling striking down an amnesty order [JURIST report]. The Supreme Court ruled [order, PDF] that the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) [text], which granted immunity to President Asif Ali Zardari [official website] and 8,000 other government officials from the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) [party website], is unconstitutional. Malik is among 19 officials whose corruption cases the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) [official website] has petitioned to reopen [PTI report] in an anti-corruption court in Rawalpindi. The NAB has also petitioned a Lahore court to reopen the cases of 32 individuals, including that of Defense Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar [official profile]. That court has already issued three notices to appear, including one to PPP secretary general Jahangir Badr. The NAB has banned 247 individuals from leaving the country, including Malik and Mukhtar, and Mukhtar was prevented from going on an official visit to China Thursday night. Zardari called an emergency meeting [Dawn report] of Pakistan's top ministers Friday to discuss the current political situation.

The court began hearing [JURIST report] the legal challenge to the NRO earlier this month. The NRO was signed [JURIST report] by former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] in 2007 as part of a power-sharing accord allowing former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto [BBC profile] to return to the country despite corruption charges [JURIST report] she had faced. The ordinance also applies to similar charges against politicians who were charged, but not convicted, of corruption between 1988 and 1999.

[JURIST] Russian human rights activist Sergei Kovalev on Wednesday urged the European Union (EU) [official website] to hold Russia accountable for human rights violations, in a speech after receiving the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought [official website]. Kovalev, joined by Oleg Orlov and Lyudmila Alexeyeva, accepted the award [press release] on behalf of Russian human rights group Memorial [advocacy website, in Russian]. Addressing the European Parliament [official website], Kovalev said that ignoring sensitive human rights issues [text] would only harm Russia, continue human rights abuse, and impair European values. Kovalev accused the EU of not making full use of its unity to pressure Moscow to resolve the human rights violations in Russia:

[Europe] should act towards Russia just as it does towards any other European country that has taken on certain obligations and has a responsibility to meet them. Alas, today, Europe increasingly rarely formulates its recommendations to Russia in the area of democracy and human rights, sometimes even preferring not to mention them at all…It is Europe's duty not to remain silent but, again and again, to repeat and remind, and insist respectfully and firmly that Russia meet its obligations.