[JURIST] Iranian authorities have arrested seven for allegedly planning to provoke rioting on February 11, the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution [BBC backgrounder], including several in the employ of the US Central Intelligence Agency [official website], according to a statement released Sunday by the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security [GlobalSecurity backgrounder]. The seven people detained were said to be linked [Reuters report] to the US-funded Radio Farda [media website, in Persian], a Prague-based Persian language radio station that has been blocked by the Iranian government, and was described in the statement [ISNA report] as a counter-revolutionary and Zionist satellite channel. According to Iranian authorities, the seven were trained [AFP report] in Dubai and Istanbul and played a key role in the anti-government protests [JURIST report] held in Tehran last December, during the Shi'ite holy day of Ashura [BBC backgrounder]. According to authorities, they were to flee the country after February 11.

Last week, Fars News Agency [official website] reported [JURIST report] that Iran will soon execute nine people for their roles in last summer's post-election protests [JURIST news archive]. The nine protesters were charged with the capital crime of moharebeh, which means waging war against God. Two others were executed [JURIST report] for the same crime last month. Opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi [JURIST news archive] has condemned the hangings, which he views as being aimed at deterring protesters from taking to the streets during the coming anniversary. The Iranian government has faced significant international scrutiny for its handling of the post-election protests and treatment of thousands arrested as a result. Last month, Amnesty International [official website] labeled [JURIST report] human rights violations committed by the Iranian government following the election among the worst of the past 20 years. In September, human rights groups called for [JURIST report] the UN General Assembly [official website] to appoint a special envoy to investigate allegations of rights violations. Alleged human rights abuses of detainees include sexual assault, beatings, and forced confessions [JURIST reports].

[JURIST] The Iraqi appeals panel that had ruled last week that 500 mostly Sunni politicians accused of ties to Saddam Hussein's Baath Party [BBC backgrounder] could stand in the coming elections reversed its decision Sunday. In its ruling [Reuters report], which was handed down as hundreds protested in Baghdad, the court stated that it was mistaken in thinking it had to rule on all 500 candidates, and would engage in a candidate-by-candidate review of the 177 politicians that had appealed to the court unless a political solution was reached. Official campaigning before the March 7 polls was scheduled to start Sunday, but was postponed [BBC report] last week by the Iraqi Independent High Election Commission [official website] until Friday in order to allow more time to resolve the crisis. Also on Sunday, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki [official profile, in Arabic; BBC profile] was forced to reschedule [Al Jazeera report] an emergency parliamentary meeting to address the election standoff when only 75 of Iraq's 275 parliamentarians arrived, denying him a quorum. Most of the banned candidates are from parties running against [NYT report] al-Maliki's ruling coalition, including those from a party led by a former Shi'ite prime minister, which has been seen as the most significant threat to al-Maliki's coalition.

Last week's ruling overturned a decision by the Justice and Accountability Commission disqualifying more than 500 mostly Sunni politicians for suspected links to the outlawed Baath Party. The appeals panel held [WSJ report] that the candidates could stand in the coming elections, but would have to be cleared of the allegations against them before taking office. This compromise is said to closely model a solution proposed by US Vice President Joe Biden [official profile]. The decision was met with widespread criticism by the Shi'ite-led government. On Thursday, a spokesperson for Iraq's Shi'ite government, Ali Al-Dabbagh [official website, in Arabic], said that the decision was illegal and unconstitutional [JURIST report]. US officials have been concerned over the election dispute [BBC report] because it is seen as a threat to the credibility of the elections, which are supposed to be a milestone in Iraq's postwar development and a major step toward the scheduled withdrawal of US troops from the country.

[JURIST] Israel has not shown that it will conduct a thorough and impartial investigation of alleged war crimes during the January 2009 Gaza conflict [JURIST news archive], Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] said [press release] Sunday. HRW said that it met with lawyers from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) [official website], but it did not receive information concerning how Israel was looking into decisions made by military commanders or overall policy. HRW also cast doubt on Israel's claim that it has conducted about 150 investigations into incidents in Gaza, saying that many of the them were not criminal investigations because there were not interviews with the soldiers involved or victims and witnesses. Joe Stork, deputy director for Human Rights Watch in the Middle East, emphasized that Israel must go beyond looking into specific incidents:

Israel claims it is conducting credible and impartial investigations, but it has so far failed to make that case. ... The Israeli investigations so far have looked mostly at soldiers who disobeyed orders or the rules of engagement, but failed to ask the crucial question about whether those orders and rules of engagement themselves violated the laws of war.

[JURIST] Pakistan will begin to revise its blasphemy laws [AFP report] later this year, a government official told the Agence France-Presse Sunday. Pakistan's Federal Minister for Minority Affairs Shahbaz Bhatti [official profile] said he has been speaking to various political parties in Pakistan and that his government is committed to doing away with laws that are discriminatory to minorities. Bhatti made the comments at an interview with the AFP in Washington, DC, where he met with various lawmakers and officials during the National Prayer Breakfast. Bhatti discussed a proposed change in the law that would force judges to investigate blasphemy cases before they are docketed. The proposed law would also make the punishment for a false complaint the same as a primary violation.

Pakistan currently punishes blasphemy against Islam by death, but no one has yet been executed for the offense. The blasphemy laws were introduced in 1986 [AsiaNews report] as a way of protecting Muslim beliefs from insults. Many critics believe the law have been used as a means for discrimination and inciting violence. In August, it is believed that allegations of blasphemy led to violence [AP report] between Muslims and Christians in the Punjab city of Gorja.

[JURIST] The US Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] on Friday urged [brief, PDF] the US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] to dismiss as moot an appeal filed by Chinese Muslim Uighurs detained at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archives]. The court granted certiorari [JURIST report] in the case, known as Kiyemba I [docket], in October to determine whether it is within the power of the judicial branch to order the release of detainees into the US. The Obama administration argues that the case is now moot after Switzerland agreed to accept [JURIST report] the remaining two Uighurs for whom "resettlement" arrangements had not been reached. The DOJ reasons that:

legal constraints prevent the courts from ordering that petitioners be brought to and released in the United States. ... As this Court has long affirmed, the power to admit or exclude aliens is a sovereign prerogative vested in the political Branches, and "it is not within the province of any court, unless expressly authorized by law, to review [that] determination..." Finally, even assuming arguendo that a judicial order compelling the Executive to bring an alien into the United States were justified in some circumstances, the government's sustained and successful efforts to resettle petitioners should preclude such an order in this case.

[JURIST] Iraqi leaders on Saturday urged the country's Supreme Court to rule on the recent electoral appeals panel decision allowing about 500 candidates who had been banned for alleged ties to the outlawed Baath party [BBC backgrounder] to run in the March 7 parliamentary elections. The Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) [official website] has turned to the Iraq Supreme Court questioning whether last week's ruling is binding. A high-level meeting [AFP report] with judicial officials, which included Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and Parliament Speaker Ayad al-Sammaraie [BBC profiles], resulted in a call for the controversy to be resolved by February 12, when the four-week election campaign period kicks off. The Iraqi Parliament has been summoned to an emergency session Sunday to debate whether to postpone the scheduled March 7 elections.

On Thursday, the IHEC postponed [NYT report] the parliamentary elections campaign, originally set to begin Sunday, for five days. Spokesperson for Iraq's Shi'ite government Ali Al-Dabbagh [official website, in Arabic] has called last week's decision [WSJ report] to allow the candidates to run illegal and unconstitutional [JURIST report]. Under the ruling, candidates would only be allowed [Al Jazeera report] to take office after their alleged ties are investigated. In December 2008, Iraq arrested [JURIST report] 23 interior ministry officials for allegedly attempting to rebuild the Baath party. The Iraqi De-Baathification Commission [official website, in Arabic], established in 2003, has prompted the removal [JURIST report] of approximately 30,000 alleged Baathists from public life. In 2008, Iraq adopted the Accountability and Justice law [JURIST report], which allows most former Baathists to be reinstated into public life.