[JURIST] Sri Lankan military police on Monday arrested defeated opposition presidential candidate and former general Sarath Fonseka [BBC profile]. The Sri Lankan Media Centre for National Security (MCNS) announced [press release] that Fonseka was arrested "in connection with certain fraudulent acts and other military offences." Fonseka, who orchestrated the successful military campaign against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) [JURIST news archive] in May, unsuccessfully attempted to turn the military campaign to political advantage in January's presidential elections [NYT report].

Last week 37 people, most of them military officers, were arrested in connection to an alleged assassination attempt against current President Mahinda Rajapaksa [official website]. The Sri Lankan Supreme Court ruled last Tuesday that Rajapaksa's second term [JURIST report] will begin in November. The apparent victor in January's elections, Rajapaksa defeated Fonseka by an official margin of 18 points, winning re-election to a second term in office. Fonseka has disputed [Al Jazeera report] the results, however, saying violence and vote-counting irregularities invalidated the outcome.

[JURIST] Former Iranian deputy foreign minister Mohsen Aminzadeh has been sentenced [ISNA report, in Persian] to six years in prison for his participation in protesting last year's contested Iranian presidential election [JURIST news archive], state-run Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) [media website, in Persian] reported Monday. Aminzadeh was a leading member of the Islamic Iran Participation Front and a supporter of Green Movement leader Mir Hossein Moussavi [JURIST news archive] during the June 2009 election. He was an outspoken critic of the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad [BBC profile; JURIST news archive]. According to ISNA, Aminzadeh was convicted by a Revolutionary Court in Tehran of conspiring to disturb security and spreading propaganda. The Iranian government has yet to officially confirm Aminzadeh’s sentence.

Aminzadeh is one of the highest-ranking opposition officials to be convicted for protesting the highly disputed presidential election. Last month, Iran's Prosecutor-General Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei called for sedition trials [JURIST report] against leaders of protests following the presidential election. Earlier this month, Fars News Agency [official website] reported [JURIST report] that Iran will soon execute nine people for their roles in the post-election protests. 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 in January. Mousavi has condemned the hangings, which he views as being aimed at deterring protesters from taking to the streets on February 11, the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution [BBC backgrounder].

[JURIST] The International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website] on Monday declined to confirm charges [judgment, PDF; press release] against Darfur rebel chief Bahr Idriss Abu Garda [case materials; JURIST news archive]. The ruling came after a preliminary hearing [JURIST report] in October to address war crimes charges that arose out of Abu Garda's alleged involvement in the September 2007 attacks [BBC report] against a peacekeeping mission located in North-Darfur. Despite the pre-trial chamber's finding that the mission was entitled to civilian protection under the international law of armed conflicts, and that the case was of the appropriate severity to move forward, the chamber unanimously found that the prosecution did not sufficiently demonstrate that the charges against Abu Garda could withstand scrutiny at trial. If the prosecution provides additional evidence, it may still seek the confirmation of the charges, or it may petition the chamber to appeal the decision.

The ICC completed [JURIST report] the confirmation of charges hearing in October, during which prosecutors alleged that Abu Garda controlled the Justice and Equality Movement [official website, in Arabic] during the 2007 attacks, which resulted in the death of 12 African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) soldiers and several injuries. The defense argued that Abu Garda is not responsible for the attack and that the AMIS had lost its protected status [video] under international law, making it a legitimate military target. Abu Garda is the first suspect to appear before the ICC with regard to the Darfur situation [JURIST news archive], making his first appearance [JURIST report] in May 2009 to deny responsibility for war crimes.

[JURIST] Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki [official website, in Arabic] said Monday that a dispute over banned candidates will be resolved by Friday when campaigning is scheduled to begin for the upcoming elections [JURIST news archive]. He assured [AFP report] Iraqis that the appeals panel will be able to rule on candidates' eligibility within the week. Al-Maliki's endorsement of the court comes after the appeals panel reversed [JURIST report] its previous decision, holding 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.

The panel's original 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 [BBC backgrounder]. While the US disagrees [VOA report] with the exclusion of Sunni candidates, Iraqi leaders opposed the panel's original decision and urged [JURIST report] the Supreme Court to analyze whether the decision was legally binding. The Iraqi Parliament had been summoned to an emergency session on Sunday to debate whether to further postpone the scheduled March 7 elections, but the session was delayed when not enough lawmakers were present to achieve a quorum. The Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) [official website] previously postponed [NYT report] the parliamentary elections campaign, originally set to begin Sunday, for five days.

[JURIST] Sir Mota Singh QC, Britain’s first Asian judge, said in an interview with BBC's Asian Network Monday that Sikhs [JURIST news archive] should be permitted to wear their ceremonial daggers [BBC report] to school and other public places. Sikhism requires that Sikh males wear the ceremonial dagger, known as a kirpan [Sikh Coalition backgrounder], at all times, but they are forbidden to use it as a weapon. Sir Mota, who is now retired, made his comments following several recent high-profile cases in which Sikhs have been asked to remove their kirpans, turbans, and other religious garb in the workplace or school. In October, a British employment tribunal awarded a Sikh policeman £10,000 for indirect racial and religious discrimination and harassment [Guardian report] after he was ordered to remove his turban during riot training. Also last year, a boy was forced to leave [Telegraph report] the Compton School in Barnet, north London for wearing a kirpan. His family has not yet brought a discrimination claim against the school. In 2008, the British High Court ruled in favor [Daily Mail report] of 14-year-old Sarika Singh after she was disciplined by her school for wearing a steel bangle, a symbol of Sikh faith called a Kara, breaking the school's "no jewelry" rule.

Sir Mota's comments come in the context of years of international tension over the wearing of religious dress [JURIST news archive]. In 2007, the US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) [official website] revised security procedures relating to headwear, after Sikhs criticized [JURIST reports] the potential for religious profiling. In 2006, the Supreme Court of Canada [official website] overturned [JURIST report] a Quebec school board's ban on carrying Sikh ceremonial daggers at school, ruling that it infringed students' religious freedom under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms [text]. The French Conseil d'Etat [official website] held [JURIST report] in 2006 that Sikhs have to remove their turbans to be photographed for driver's licenses as a matter of public security.

[JURIST] US President Barack Obama said Sunday in an interview [video] with CBS News that he hasn't ruled out a civilian trial in New York City for accused 9/11 co-conspirator Khalid Sheikh Mohammed [JURIST news archive]. However, Obama stressed that he was considering the logistical and security issues that have been presented in making the decision. The Obama administration has faced growing objections from New York City and state officials, and criticism over the planned trials since they were first announced [JURIST reports] in November. Responding to those critical of his plans, Obama stated:

I think that the important thing for the public to understand is we're not handling any of these cases any different than the Bush administration handled them all through 9/11. They prosecuted 190 folks in these Article III courts, got convictions and those folks are in maximum security prisons right now. And there have been no escapes.

[JURIST] The sodomy trial of Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim [official profile; JURIST news archive] was temporarily suspended Monday as defense lawyers sought the removal of high court Judge Mohamad Zabidin Diah for his failure to control prejudicial media coverage. The defense filed an objection asking Mohamad Zabidin to admonish Utusan Malaysia [media website, in Malay], a government-linked newspaper, for running suggestive headlines and photographs taken during the court's private visit to the scene of the alleged sexual encounter. Mohamad Zabidin denied the request Friday [Al Jazeera report] and indicated the defense should file a police complaint against the newspaper instead. Anwar's defense lawyers are also hoping the trial will be postponed until the resolution of his appeals of the High Court's refusal to dismiss the sodomy charge and the Federal Court's decision [JURIST reports] not to grant him access to prosecution evidence. Mohamad Zabidin is expected to hear arguments about his removal on Tuesday.

The high-profile trial began last week, 18 months after Anwar was charged [JURIST reports] with sodomizing his former aid Mohamad Saiful Bukhari Azlan. He pleaded not guilty [JURIST report] in 2008 and alleges that the prosecution is part of a government conspiracy to undermine his political agenda. Anwar was Malaysia's deputy prime minister until he was fired in 1998 following sodomy charges of which he was initially convicted but later acquitted. He recently reentered Malaysian politics following the expiration of a ten-year ban [JURIST report] against him for unrelated corruption charges.