[JURIST] Incumbent Afghan Minister of Justice Sarwar Danish [official profile] was among 17 cabinet nominees who were rejected [RFE report] on Saturday by the Wolesi Jirga [official website], Afghanistan's lower house of parliament. Danish, who has served as Minister of Justice since 2004, is one of 11 current cabinet members [RFE report] nominated by Afghan President Hamid Karzai [official profile, JURIST news archive] to fill posts in his new cabinet. Danish had previously been criticized [Al Jazeera report] for his inability to control Afghan jails and the mistreatment of detainees in Afghan custody. Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General in Afghanistan Kai Eide [official profile] said Sunday that the lack of a full cabinet was a "political setback, in the sense that it prolongs the situation without a functioning government," but expressed hope [press release] that parliament's use of its constitutional authority would result in a more transparent and accountable government.

In November, Afghan authorities announced that they had questioned two cabinet ministers [JURIST report] and were investigating 15 other government officials on corruption charges, but would not release their identities pursuant to Afghan law. The announcement came a week after Karzai vowed [JURIST report] in his inaugural address to fight governmental corruption, and in the face of growing international pressure. Karzai announced [BBC report] the formation of a commission to investigate corruption in November, after Afghanistan was ranked [JURIST report] by Transparency International [advocacy website] as the second most corrupt country in the world. Karzai was declared the winner [JURIST report] of the controversial presidential election [JURIST news archive] in early November when challenger Abdullah Abdullah [BBC profile] withdrew from the runoff.

[JURIST] The Peruvian Supreme Court has upheld [decision, in Spanish] a 25-year sentence given to former president Alberto Fujimori [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] after his conviction on charges of ordering assassinations and kidnappings during his 1990-2000 presidency. The First Transitory Criminal Chamber last week unanimously ratified [El Comercio report, in Spanish] the sentence handed down [JURIST report] in April for approving the November 1991 killing of 15 people in Lima's Barrios Altos neighborhood [backgrounder] and the July 1992 kidnapping and murder of 10 people [MIT backgrounder] from Lima's La Cantuta University. The court voted 4-1 [La Republica report, in Spanish] to uphold Fujimori's sentence for the aggravated kidnapping of journalist Gustavo Gorriti [ICIJ profile] and businessman Samuel Dyer Ampudia. The kidnapping, murder and "disappearance" of civilians was part of the so-called "Dirty War" carried out by Fujimora's government against the Maoist Shining Path [BBC backgrounder] rebel group during the 1990s.

In October, Fujimori was convicted and sentenced to six years in prison on multiple counts of illegal wiretapping and bribery [JURIST report], a sentence which he plans to appeal [IPS report, in Spanish]. In July, Fujimori was convicted and sentenced [JURIST report] to seven-and-a-half years in prison for paying former Peruvian intelligence director Vladimiro Montesino [BBC profile] $15 million to resign in 2000 in the midst of the scandal that ultimately resulted in Fujimori's arrest [JURIST report] in 2005. Fujimori's conviction in April of approving the La Cantuta and Barrios Altos killings was met with widespread approval [JURIST report] from the current government and human rights organization. In 2007, Fujimori was convicted [JURIST report] of ordering a warrantless search in 2000 on the apartment of Montesino's wife. Prosecutors alleged that the search was intended to uncover and confiscate documents that might incriminate Fujimori. Fujimori, who was president of Peru from 1990 to 2000, was put on trial after being extradited [JURIST report] in 2007 from Chile, where he flew in 2005 as part of a plan to return to Peru and run again for the presidency after years of self-imposed exile in Japan.