[JURIST] An Iraqi court on Thursday sentenced 11 men to death for the August 19 bombing of the foreign and finance ministries [BBC report] in Baghdad that left close to 100 dead. The 11 men were found guilty [AP report] of financing, planning, and participating in the attacks. Wisam Ali Khazim Ibrahim, a member of Suddam Hussein's ousted Ba'ath party, confessed [NYT report] to leading the attacks shortly after the bombings took place. He also stated the the attack was ordered by the Ba'ath party operating out of Syria as an attempt to destabilize the government. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki [official website, in Arabic; JURIST news archive], publicly denounced the Syrian government for not taking enough action to prevent the Ba'ath party from financing and planning attacks against Iraq within its borders. The defendants will have a month to appeal the death sentence. No date has been set for their execution.

Iraq is also seeking an investigation into the twin suicide bombings [JURIST report] in Baghdad in October which killed at least 132 people. The bombings targeted the ministry of justice and the headquarters of the local provincial government ahead of an attempt by the Iraqi parliament [official website, in Arabic] to resolve a political stalemate to permit changes to the country's election law [JURIST report]. Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari [official profile] renewed calls [JURIST report] in October for a formal UN inquiry to investigate those responsible for bombings. Zebari asked the UN General Assembly and the Security Council [official websites] to appoint a special envoy to probe possible sources that are targeting the country's stability.

[JURIST] The UK Parliament Justice Committee [official website] released a reinvestment report [text] on Thursday urging the prison populations in England and Wales to be reduced by a third. The committee found that incarceration is a relatively ineffective way of reducing crime except for serious offenders, and the amount of repeat offenders could be more efficiently reduced through rehabilitation programs such as housing, employment, education, and drug and alcohol services. The Ministry of Justice, which is currently spending £4.2 billion on a new prison, claims that its current strategy of longer prison sentences, which incorporate rehabilitation services, is working and the number of repeat offenders has declined. According to the report, the new prison is a "costly mistake" and funds would be better allocated to local public services outside of the prisons.

We believe that that if reform, rehabilitation and reparation to victims were given higher priority, then sentencing and penal policy overall could make a much more significant contribution to reducing re-offending and making communities safer. We see risks that the direction of current policy will increase pressure on the prison estate, negating the valuable work on offender reform that does take place in prison, particularly for those in custody for over two years. It seems equally clear that, as matters stand, the probation service will also be overwhelmed by demand for resettlement services in relation to those coming out of prison, let alone the effective management of offenders in the community.

[JURIST] 2009 marked the worst year for maritime piracy [JURIST news archive] in six years, according to a report [press release] issued Thursday by the International Chamber of Commerce International Maritime Bureau (IMB) [official website]. The total reported incidents of piracy reached 406, surpassing 400 for the first time since 2003. It is the third consecutive year that reports have increased rising from 239 reported incidents in 2006. According to the report, in 2009, there were 153 vessels boarded, 1052 crew members taken hostage, 49 vessels hijacked, 84 attempted attacks, and 120 vessels fired upon. Violence against crew has also increased with 68 injured and eight killed. The report showed that Somali pirates were responsible for more than half the reported incidents with 217 total. Piracy off the coast of Somalia continued early in 2010 when two ships were captured [AP report] on January 2 off the cost of Somalia: the British-flagged Asian Glory roughly 600 miles east of Somalia and the Singaporean-flagged chemical tanker the Pramoni, in the Gulf of Aden north of Somalia.

Earlier this week, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York filed a superseding indictment [JURIST report] against alleged Somali pirate Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse, claiming that he led the takeover of two additional ships. Muse plead not guilty to the charges. In November, Somali judge Mohamed Abdi Aware, known for jailing suspected pirates, human traffickers, and Islamist insurgents, was shot dead [JURIST report] while leaving a mosque in the Puntland city of Bossaso. In July, the IMB reported [JURIST report] that pirate attacks around the globe doubled in the first half of 2009.

[JURIST] The legal advisers for the US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen [official profile], have advised him to delay an internal effort to repeal the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" [10 USC § 654 text; JURIST news archive] policy, according to a Thursday Associated Press report [text]. Mullen has reportedly received mixed input on whether lifting the ban is a good idea, with other Pentagon advisers suggesting that repealing the policy would not cause problems, but in-house legal counsel has advised him to wait until 2011. The delay would most likely make the policy a key issue in the 2012 presidential election.

US President Barack Obama recently pledged [JURIST report] to end the controversial policy, which subjects openly gay individuals to military discharge. After the US Supreme Court [official website] denied certiorari [JURIST report] to review the policy in June, the US Senate Armed Services Committee [official website] announced [JURIST report] that it would hold hearings to review it. Last year, more than 100 retired admirals and generals of the US military called for a repeal [JURIST report] of the policy.

[JURIST] A Dutch court on Wednesday ordered politician Geert Wilders [personal website, in Dutch] to be tried for his video and printed statements against the Quran and Islam, dismissing a motion to drop or reduce the criminal charges. The trial court denied [NRC report] Wilder's counsel's argument that he could not be prosecuted according to a 2009 Supreme Court ruling, which held that insulting a religion, as opposed to its followers, was not punishishable under hate-speech laws [NYT report]. Wilders has been charged by the Dutch Public Prosecution Service (OM) [official website, in Dutch] with five counts of religious insult and anti-Muslim incitement.

In September, the OM announced that they would prosecute Wilders [press release, in Dutch] following a January 2009 court order [press release, in Dutch] by the Amsterdam Court of Appeals. This decision came after the OM announced in June 2008 that it would not prosecute Wilders [JURIST report]. Much of the controversy stems from Wilders' 15-minute film, Fitna, which shows images of the Quran alongside images of violence and says democratic values are threatened by the increasing number of Muslims in Europe. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called the film "offensively anti-Islamic" [JURIST report] after its release. In February 2008, Pakistan blocked access to YouTube's website because it had posted a movie trailer for Wilders' film, but access was restored [JURIST reports] several days later. Indonesia followed suit [JURIST report] in April 2008. The same month, a district court in the Netherlands rejected [JURIST report] a bid by the Dutch Islamic Federation to block Wilders' anti-Quran statements, saying that his comments are protected by the right of free expression and do not constitute speech that incites hate or violence.

[JURIST] Representatives of Canada's Inuit population on Wednesday announced [press release] a lawsuit against the European Union (EU) [official website] challenging its impending ban on the sale of seal products. The suit, filed in the General Court of the Court of Justice of the EU [official website], seeks to overturn Regulation (EC) No 1007/2009 [text, PDF], which is expected to take effect [BBC report] prior to the 2010 seal hunting season. President of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK) [organization website] Mary Simon [profile] said:

Inuit have been hunting seals and sustaining themselves for food, clothing, and trade for many generations. ... It is bitterly ironic that the EU, which seems entirely at home with promoting massive levels of agri-business and the raising and slaughtering of animals in highly industrialized conditions, seeks to preach some kind of selective elevated morality to Inuit.

[JURIST] Rwandan lawmakers may introduce a bill to criminalize denial of the 1994 Rwandan genocide [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive], according to Thursday reports. A senior researcher at the Rwanda National Commission for the Fight Against Genocide (CNLG) [official website] said that they are preparing a bill [New Times report] for presentation to the Ministry of Culture. The proposed legislation would then have to go before the cabinet and eventually be approved by parliament. The CNLG has planned an international conference for early February to discuss the conservation of human remains from the genocide, in which more than 800,000 people, primarily Tutsis, were killed.

Rwanda would not be the first country to enact a law criminalizing denial of a genocide. Israel passed the Denial of Holocaust Prohibition Law [text] in 1986, and Switzerland has a law [text, in German] that makes genocide denial an imprisonable offense. In 2007, the European Union approved [JURIST report] a framework decision that would criminalize denial of the Holocaust.

[JURIST] The Chinese government reiterated its commitment to open Internet [press briefing, in Chinese] on Thursday, saying that international companies are welcome as long as they abide by Chinese law. Responding to a threat [JURIST report] by Google [corporate website] that it may remove its Internet services from the country, Foreign Ministry [official website, in Chinese] spokesperson Jiang Yu said that, "China has tried creating a favorable environment for the Internet." Jiang also stated that hacker attacks, such as those that allegedly occurred against Google and several other companies [Wired report] in December, are against Chinese law. The Chinese government is seeking clarification [Xinhua report] of Google's intentions, including the statement by Google that it will stop filtering search results. As Xinhua noted, as of Wednesday, Google was still filtering search results, consistent with Chinese government policy.

Google announced a new policy towards China on Tuesday in response to a cyber attack on its Gmail service in December. That attack targeted the e-mail accounts of human rights activists in China, and drew the ire of rights groups around the world. China's stance on Internet freedom, a source of contention in its relationship with Google, has long been controversial. In June, the Chinese government confirmed that filtering software [JURIST report] which is to be sold with every computer in China did not necessarily have to be activated. That confirmation came only after the policy of pre-packaging the software with new computers was challenged [JURIST report] by human rights lawyer Li Fangping.

[JURIST] Mongolian President Elbegdorj Tsakhia [official profile] announced Thursday that he would suspend [speech text] the death penalty [JURIST news archive] and commute the sentences of all prisoners currently on death row to 30 years in prison. In a lengthy speech to the Mongolian Parliament, Tsakhia called for a permanent ban on the death penalty, saying that many mistakes are made in its administration, and that the system has been abused by those with power. He cited statistics from Amnesty International (AI) [advocacy website], showing that one in three death sentences were overturned by a court of appeals, as proof that oftentimes the sentence was wrongfully imposed. Tsakhia said:

It is not the fault of the people of Mongolia that Mongolia maintains the death penalty. And it is not the fault of our judiciary to practice this punishment. Our judges have endeavored to render just judgments and have been working to repair those decisions deemed unjust. Yet, I cannot firmly say, no mistakes have been made here. Similarly, I cannot say, no mistakes will be made. The price we pay for mistakes in delivering the truth is measured in human lives. Humans work in courts, judiciaries. After all, no human being is alien to mistakes.

[JURIST] A federal judge on Wednesday ruled [order, PDF] that New York City intentionally discriminated against minority fire department applicants by continuing to use an exam that it knew placed those applicants at a disadvantage. Judge Nicholas Garaufis of the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York [official website] called the practice a "stain" on the fire department. While Garaufis did find that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg was shielded from the suit by qualified immunity, he noted that the mayor was, "deliberately indifferent to the exams' impact on blacks." In summarizing his reasons for granting summary judgment to the plaintiffs, Garaufis wrote:

What the Intervenors have demonstrated - and what the City has failed to rebut - is that the City's use of written exams with discriminatory impacts and little relation to the job of firefighter was not a one-time mistake or the product of benign neglect. It was part of a pattern, practice, and policy of intentional discrimination against black applicants that has deep historical antecedents and uniquely disabling effects. The consequences that this illegal policy had for blacks who wished to serve their city as firefighters have already been levied; the consequences that this illegal policy will have for the City will be addressed at the remedial stage.

[JURIST] Spain's National Court [official website, in Spanish] on Wednesday convicted five people for their involvement in the 2004 Madrid train bombings [BBC backgrounder, JURIST news archive] on charges of supporting terrorist groups that planned attacks. The men were indicted [JURIST report] in November, along with two other suspects, and were accused of providing money, housing, food, and forged documentation to the suspected perpetrators of the Madrid bombings. The suspects, Moroccan, Algerian, and Turkish nationals, were sentenced [El Pais report, in Spanish] to jail terms ranging from five to nine years. Among those sentenced was the group's alleged leader, Omar Nakhcha, who received the strictest sentence [AFP report, in Spanish].

In all, 28 co-defendants [BBC profiles] were charged in Spain with 192 counts of murder and upwards of 1,800 counts of attempted murder related to the March 11, 2004 bombings, which killed 191 people and injured almost 2,000 more. Three defendants were convicted of murder [JURIST report] and 18 others were found guilty of lesser charges. Last year, Spain's highest court of appeal said that 25 appeals had been filed [JURIST report] against verdicts handed down against convicted participants for the bombings, both from defendants and from victims. The defendants have all protested their innocence and condemned the attacks.

[JURIST] A UN spokesperson acknowledged Wednesday that Haiti's main prison in the capital Port-au-Prince collapsed [AP report] in Tuesday's earthquake, and many of the inmates have escaped. As US President Barack Obama sent thousands of troops to help with the rescue efforts, General Douglas Frazier [official profile], head of the US Southern Command [GlobalSecurity backgrounder] which includes Haiti, indicated that the Naval medical facilities at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] may be used [press briefing] to help with the relief efforts. Many of the refugees may be temporarily housed [Fox News report] at Camp Justice, an area of the base where visitors such as reporters have generally stayed. The US State Department [official website] reported Wednesday that some injured Americans have already been transported [press briefing] to Guantanamo.

The massive earthquake, measured at a 7.0 magnitude [USGS backgrounder], left many in the country homeless. Tens of thousands are feared dead, and rescue efforts are ongoing. Countries around the world have pledged millions of dollars in aid for rescue and recovery efforts.

1/15/10 - A spokesperson for the International Red Cross said that almost all of the prison's 4,000 inmates have escaped.

[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit [official website] on Wednesday reinstated [opinion, PDF] an antitrust lawsuit that accuses major record labels of price-fixing nearly 80 percent of US digital music sales. In overturning a lower court decision to dismiss the case, the appeals court found that the defendants, music industry giants including Sony, Time Warner, EMI, Universal, and Virgin Records, may have been in violation of the Sherman Act [text], which established the country's antitrust laws. The court held, "that Plaintiffs-Appellants' Second Consolidated Amended Complaint ("SCAC") contains 'enough factual matter (taken as true) to suggest that an agreement was made,' and therefore states a claim." The court did not rule on the merits of the case, which was remanded to the district court for further proceedings.

The case combined lawsuits filed in 2005 and 2006 by people who had downloaded music from the Internet. Wednesday's ruling is the latest in an ongoing conflict between the music industry and consumers who download music online. In July, a federal judge ruled that Boston University graduate student Joel Tenenbaum [defense website] was liable [JURIST report] for illegally downloading music, fining him $675,000. In the only other file-sharing case to go to trial, Jammie Thomas-Rasset was found liable and fined $1.92 million [JURIST report] in June. These suits may be the last to be brought to trial, as the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) [organization website] decided in 2008 to discontinue pursuing [JURIST report] court cases against those accused of illegal file-sharing.

[JURIST] A judge for Nigeria's Federal High Court on Wednesday ordered Vice President Goodluck Jonathan [Online Nigeria profile] to assume executive powers due to the prolonged absence of President Umaru Yar'Adua [BBC profile], who has been in Saudi Arabia receiving treatment for a heart condition since November. The court ruled that Nigeria's 1999 Constitution [text], which allows the president's executive power to be carried out through the vice president, made it proper [AFP report] for Jonathan to assume executive powers. The court refused [Next report] to order Jonathan sworn in as acting president, finding that the constitution would not allow Jonathan to assume the role unless Yar'Adua formally transferred presidential powers to him. On Tuesday, Yar'Adua conducted an interview [BBC report] with the BBC [media website], promising to return to power and putting to rest rumors that he was critically ill or dead. Yar-Adua's absence has sparked protests and calls for him to step down.

In 2008, the Nigerian Supreme Court upheld the results of disputed 2007 election that brought Yar'Adua to power, despite opposition groups' allegations of fraud [JURIST reports]. Yar'Adua had promised to step down if the court invalidated the election. A tribunal [JURIST report] formed before the 2007 election to deal with allegations of fraud ruled that the opposition groups lacked enough evidence of fraud to have the results overturned.

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] on Wednesday ruled [opinion, PDF] 5-4 that the trial on the constitutionality of California's Proposition 8 [JURIST news archive] same-sex marriage [JURIST news archive] ban may not be broadcast because the court did not follow proper procedure when enacting a rule permitting the broadcast. Last week, Judge Vaughn Walker of the US District Court for the Northern District of California [official website] ruled [JURIST report] that the trial could be broadcast live to five federal courthouses and posted to the court's YouTube [website] channel. In staying the broadcast, the Supreme Court ruled that there was a significant likelihood that the district court had not allowed enough time for the public to comment between proposing and enacting the rule, which ended a ban on recording court proceedings in certain cases. The Court also found that the high-profile nature of the trial might intimidate witnesses and cause irreparable harm if the rule were not stayed. In an unsigned opinion, the Court stated:

The District Court attempted to change its rules at the eleventh hour to treat this case differently than other trials in the district. Not only did it ignore the federal statute that establishes the procedures by which its rules may be amended, its express purpose was to broadcast a high-profile trial that would include witness testimony about a contentious issue. If courts are to require that others follow regular procedures, courts must do so as well.