[JURIST] Prominent Chinese rights activist Liu Xiaobo was tried Wednesday on charges of inciting subversion. The trial lasted only two hours and was closed to foreign diplomats. 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 in June and charged [JURIST reports] earlier this month, but he 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]. If convicted, he could face up to 15 years in prison. A verdict is expected on Friday.

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] Former Argentine president Carlos Menem [official profile; BBC profile] was indicted by the Federal Court on Tuesday on corruption charges. Menem is charged [Buenos Aires Herald report] with overpaying government officials while he was in office from 1989 to 1999. Menem's well-known minister of economy, Domingo Cavallo [G30 profile], was indicted on similar charges. Cavallo is known for his economic reforms [World Bank backgrounder] from 1991 to 1996, which decreased Argentina's inflation rate from 1,300 percent in 1990 to close to zero by the end of his term. Menem and Cavallo's reforms, which pegged Argentina's peso to the dollar, were abandoned in 2002 after the appreciation of the dollar caused large deficits and led to another economic recession [World Bank assessment]. Ten other government officials were also indicted for corruption, including Menem's former justice minister Raul Granillo Ocampo and former environmental secretary Maria Julia Alsogaray. The court has frozen the politicians' assets totaling more than USD $171,000.

This indictment is not the first to befall the former president. In October, an Argentine judge charged [JURIST report] Menem with allegedly covering up evidence related to the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires. Menem, born in Argentina to Syrian immigrants, is accused of covering up the alleged involvement of Syrian-Argentine businessman Alberto Kanoore Edul. The court also indicted Menem's brother Munir Menem, former intelligence chief Hugo Anzorregui, retired judge Juan Jose Galeano, former deputy secretary of intelligence Juan Carlos Anchezar, and former police commissioner Jorge Palacios. Argentine prosecutors have alleged that the bombing, which killed 85 and injured more than 200, was planned by Iranian officials and carried out by Hezbollah [BBC backgrounder]. Menem is currently a sitting senator representing the Rioja Province and is protected by judicial immunity. He cannot be arrested for the crimes listed in these indictments unless he is impeached by the legislature.

[JURIST] The Russian Supreme Court [official website, in Russian] ruled Wednesday that the 2003 arrest of Platon Lebedev [defense website], business partner of former Yukos oil executive Mikhail Khodorkovsky [defense website; JURIST news archive], was illegal. The court agreed to review [JURIST report] Lebedev's arrest last week after the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) [official website] ruled [JURIST report] in 2007 that Lebedev's arrest and pre-trial detention violated his right to liberty and security under Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights [text, PDF]. The ECHR awarded awarded Lebedev more than USD $4,300 in damages and almost $10,000 to cover legal fees. It is unclear what effect Wednesday's ruling will have on Lebedev's case, but it could pave the way for a broader legal challenge to the proceedings.

Platon and Lebedev are serving an eight-year prison sentence after being convicted [JURIST report] in 2005 on fraud and tax evasion charges stemming from an alleged attempt to embezzle and strip Yukos of valuable assets. The two are currently on trial on additional related charges of money laundering and embezzlement, to which they have pleaded not guilty [JURIST reports]. They could face up to 20 additional years in prison if convicted. Critics have claimed that the charges against Khodorkovsky and Lebedev are politically motivated due to Khodorkovsky's opposition against former Russian president and current Prime Minister Vladimir Putin [JURIST news archive].

[JURIST] An Argentine court on Tuesday sentenced former judge Victor Brusa to 21 years in prison for crimes against humanity during the country's 1976-83 "Dirty War" [GlobalSecurity backgrounder; JURIST news archive]. The Federal Court of Santa Fe found Brusa guilty [Pagina 12 report, in Spanish] of eight counts of crimes against humanity in his capacity as a judicial officer during the dictatorship. The court also sentenced five former police officers to between 19 and 23 years in prison for their roles kidnapping and torture. Brusa was arrested in 2005 after Argentina's Supreme Court struck down amnesty laws [JURIST report] adopted in the 1980s to deter military insurrection against the democratic government, prompting the government to reopen hundreds of human rights cases.

Last month, former Argentine president and general Reynaldo Bignone went on trial [JURIST report] for crimes against humanity allegedly perpetrated during the "Dirty War." The trial is expected to last until March. In October, an Argentinian court sentenced [JURIST report] retired general Jorge Olivera Rovere and retired colonel Jose Menendez to life in prison for "Dirty War" crimes. Last year, a court convicted [JURIST report] former general Luciano Benjamin Mendendez and another former general and sentenced them to life terms for kidnapping, torturing, and murdering Peronist politician Guillermo Vargas Aignasse in 1976 during the coup. Also in 2008, an Argentine court sentenced [JURIST report] Luciano Benjamin Menendez and four others to life in prison for the 1977 kidnapping, torture, and killing of four political dissidents. During the "Dirty War," an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 people were forcibly kidnapped or "disappeared" in a government-sponsored campaign against suspected dissidents.

[JURIST] South Korean prosecutors on Tuesday charged former prime minister Han Myeong-sook with bribery. Han is accused of accepting USD $50,000 from former Korea Express CEO Kwak Young-wook in 2007 in exchange for helping him become president of Korea South-East Power Co., an affiliate of the state-run Korea Electric Power Corporation [corporate websites]. Han, a senior adviser to the main opposition Democratic Party, has denied the allegations [JoongAng Daily report], calling the charges politically motivated. Han was arrested last week after a court issued an arrest warrant [JURIST report] when she refused to appear for questioning voluntarily. Kwak is also under arrest on embezzlement charges.

Han served as the country's first female prime minister under president Roh Moo-hyun [BBC obituary; JURIST news archive] from April 2006 - March 2007. Roh, who was himself the target of a bribery investigation, died [JURIST report] in May from an apparent suicide. Shortly before his death, prosecutors had questioned Roh on suspicion that he accepted up to $6 million in bribes from Park Yeon-cha, a financial supporter who is also CEO of a shoe manufacturing company. Roh admitted that his wife had received $1 million from Park, but said the money was a loan rather than a bribe. Roh became president in 2003 after campaigning heavily against corruption.

[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit [official website] on Tuesday affirmed [opinion, PDF] a lower court ruling [JURIST report] that Microsoft [corporate website; JURIST news archive] infringed on a patent of Canadian company i4i [corporate website] with portions of its Word 2007 word-processing software. i4i alleged that Microsoft willfully infringed on patents it held on XML technology, which was used extensively in Microsoft Word 2007. The US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas [official website] had ordered Microsoft to stop selling its Microsoft Word 2007 software, which contains patent infringing code, and to pay i4i $290 million in damages, but the injunction was stayed [JURIST report] while the appeals court reviewed the case. Microsoft said in a statement [press release] that it was already making plans to cooperate with the ruling:

With respect to Microsoft Word 2007 and Microsoft Office 2007, we have been preparing for this possibility since the District Court issued its injunction in August 2009 and have put the wheels in motion to remove this little-used feature from these products. Therefore, we expect to have copies of Microsoft Word 2007 and Office 2007, with this feature removed, available for U.S. sale and distribution by the injunction date. In addition, the beta versions of Microsoft Word 2010 and Microsoft Office 2010, which are available now for downloading, do not contain the technology covered by the injunction.

[JURIST] The state of Michigan on Monday filed suit [motion for preliminary injunction, PDF; petition, PDF] in the US Supreme Court [official website] against the state of Illinois seeking to close two waterways that allow invasive Asian carp to reach the Great Lakes. Michigan officials fear that the 100-pound fish, which reproduce rapidly, could wipe out native species and destroy the $7 billion Great Lakes fishing industry. Michigan is seeking to reopen a longstanding controversy [backgrounder, PDF] over the diversion canal, created in the 1890s to keep Chicago's sewage from flowing into Lake Michigan. The Court has issued decrees over the canal in 1930, 1933, 1956, 1967 and 1980. Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox said [press release]:

Stopping Asian carp is an economic and environmental necessity for Michigan. The Great Lakes are an irreplaceable resource. Thousands of jobs are at stake and we will not get a second chance once the carp enter Lake Michigan. The actions of Illinois and federal authorities have not been enough to assure us the Lakes are safe. That's why the waterways must be shut down until we are assured that Michigan will be protected.