[JURIST] The Haitian judge overseeing the prosecution of 10 US citizens charged with kidnapping in the wake of the January 12 earthquake [JURIST news archive] said he will recommend their provisional release pending the investigation. Judge Bernard Saint-Vil said he will send the recommendation to the prosecutor [AP report], who has the ability to object, but ultimately the judge has the final say on whether they are released. The judge made the decision after hearing testimony from the childrens' parents that they were voluntarily given to the American missionaries. Even if released, the Americans will not be able to return to the US until a ruling on their case is made. It is unclear [NYT report] whether the prosecution will support the release or whether the charges will be dropped. If convicted, the missionaries face up to 24 years in prison.

The Americans, many of whom were from the Idaho-based New Life Children's Refuge [BBC profile], were charged [JURIST report] last week in connection to their attempt to take 33 children across the Haitian border into the Dominican Republic where the group claimed it hoped to start an orphanage. Haitian authorities claim, however, that many of the children were not orphans, but given up by their parents to the missionaries who promised a better life for the children. The ten were each charged with one count of kidnapping and one count of criminal association. Lawyer Edwin Coq, who is representing the group, said that prison conditions were sub-standard and that his clients were not receiving adequate food and water. The 7.0 magnitude earthquake caused massive damage to property and infrastructure in Haiti, and the death toll has now been estimated at 230,000.

[JURIST] The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) [official website] on Thursday criticized [press release] Sri Lanka's plans to court-martial defeated opposition presidential candidate and former general Sarath Fonseka [BBC profile]. The Sri Lankan Media Centre for National Security (MCNS) announced [press release] Monday that Fonseka was arrested [JURIST report] "in connection with certain fraudulent acts and other military offences." According to AHRC:

The case is being pursued in military courts, thus avoiding the country's ordinary courts and depriving him of due process. This is also depriving the public of information on his case. ... The overall situation created under these circumstances is one of intimidation and political tension. The Secretary General of the United Nations has made a request to avoid further tensions in the country. However, there does not seem to be any positive response on the part of the government to this request.

[JURIST] The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) [official website] on Thursday convicted former Rwandan army officer Tharcisse Muvunyi [ICTR case materials; Trial Watch profile] of direct and public incitement to genocide and sentenced [press release] him to 15 years imprisonment. Muvunyi was the highest placed military officer in charge of security operations in the prefectures of Butare and Gikongoro and former commander of a Rwandan school for non-military officers. He was charged [indictment, PDF] with inciting Hutus to kill Tutsis at the Gikore Center in Butare prefecture sometime in early May 1994. Muvunyi will receive credit for time served since his arrest in 2000.

The ICTR began the retrial of Muvunyi last June after setting aside [JURIST reports] a previous conviction due to insufficient evidence. Muvunyi was convicted [JURIST report] in September 2006 for his role in the ethnic separation and subsequent killing of orphaned children and the killing of at least 140 students and Red Cross workers. Last March, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon [official profile] pledged his ongoing support [JURIST report] for the ICTR and stressed that the international community must continue to combat genocide. The ICTR was established to try genocide suspects for crimes occurring during the 1994 Rwandan conflict [HRW backgrounder; JURIST news archive] between the Hutu and Tutsi peoples, in which nearly 800,000 people, primarily Tutsis, were killed.

[JURIST] Former Uruguayan president Juan Maria Bordaberry was sentenced Wednesday to 30 years in prison for his role in the country's 1973 military coup. Bordaberry was elected president in 1971, and in 1973 he worked with the military to dissolve the General Assembly, resulting in 12 years of military dictatorship [Country Studies backgrounder]. After his arrest in 2006 on charges of murder, prosecutors later charged [La Republica report, in Spanish] Bordaberry with violating Uruguay's constitution [materials, in Spanish]. Bordaberry, 81, has been under house arrest since 2007 [El Pais report, in Spanish] due to failing health, and it is not clear if that house arrest will continue, or if he will be transferred to prison.

Bordaberry is the second Uruguayan dictator to be sentenced to prison in the last six months. In October, former military leader Gregorio Alvarez was sentenced to 25 years in prison [JURIST report] for his role in 37 homicides that occurred during his four-year reign as president. Just before that sentencing, the country's Supreme Court found that laws shielding rulers from prosecution [JURIST report] for kidnapping and murder during the time of the military dictatorship were unconstitutional. Alvarez's time as president coincided with the last years [Country Studies backgrounder] of the military dictatorship that ruled Uruguay from the 1973 coup to 1985.

[JURIST] The European Parliament [official website] voted 378-196 Thursday to nullify [press release] an interim agreement between European Union (EU) member states and the US that gave American counter-terrorism officials access to the financial information of European citizens. The agreement was intended to last nine months, while the EU and US reached a permanent agreement to share European banking information via the SWIFT [official website] banking network. Opponents of the agreement said that it failed to protect [NYT report] the privacy of European residents, but those in favor of the deal argue that further delaying US access to the information increases security risks to both the US and EU.

US Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Stuart Levy [official profile] spoke out [Europolitics Op-Ed] last week against EU attempts to block the data sharing system. He said the agreement was vital for counter-terrorism efforts, and that privacy concerns were overblown. The European Parliament had the right to block [WSJ report] the agreement under the terms of the Lisbon Treaty [EU backgrounder; JURIST news archive], which entered into force in December. The US and the EU had been sharing banking information since the 9/11 attacks, but the information only became public [NYT report] in 2006. The civil liberties committee of Parliament had earlier voted against [FT report] the agreement.

[JURIST] The National Assembly [official website, in Serbian] of the Bosnian Serb Republic, Republika Srpska, passed legislation [Serbian Voice report, in Serbian] Wednesday intended to ease the process of holding referendums. Initiatives passed using the method would be binding only in the Serbian region [RFE/RL report], but some believe that it may lead to a referendum on independence [BBC report]. Bosnian Serb Prime Minister Milorad Dodik indicated that he will utilize the referendum process to measure public support for the Dayton Accord [USDOS materials], which ended the Bosnian war. The US Embassy in Sarajevo warned [press release] that it would view any such referendum as "provocative," and cautioned against using the mechanism to "pursue a narrow political agenda."

Republika Srpska is one of two entities that comprise Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). The Bosnian Constitution [text] was agreed to in 1995 as part of the Dayton Accord, ending the four-year civil war. It was designed to share power between the three majority ethnic groups - Serbs, Bosniaks, and Croats - but limits power for ethnic minorities. In December, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) [official website] ruled that the constitution illegally discriminates against ethnic minorities [JURIST report] by not allowing them to run for high political office. BiH reached an agreement with the European Union in 2008 to bring its constitution in line with the European Convention on Human Rights.

[JURIST] Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada [official profile] on Thursday offered an apology to Korea for Japan's 20th-century colonization of the Korean peninsula. At a meeting in Seoul with South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-Hwan [official profile], Okada said that the Japanese government regrets its history of colonial rule [Korea Times report] over Korea and the alleged war crimes that resulted. Okada also praised the 1995 Murayama Statement [text], the most notable public apology for Japanese imperialism, in which the Japanese government pledged to promote peace with its Asian neighbors. Okada and Myung-Hwan agreed to work toward a more stabilized relationship [AFP report] between their countries.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of Japan's annexation of Korea, which lasted from 1910 to 1945. Japan is accused of committing war crimes during its imperial years, and the two countries still suffer from diplomatic conflicts and competition over disputed territory [Xinhua report]. Recently, Okada has been busy promoting more conciliatory foreign policy under Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama [official website, in Japanese], who came to office last September. Last week, Okada met with ambassadors from eight countries to consider signing an international treaty [JURIST report] that will help prevent parental child abductions across borders.

[JURIST] A Chinese appeals court on Thursday upheld the 11-year prison sentence [JURIST report] for democracy activist Liu Xiaobo [JURIST news archive], despite calls for his release from US and European Union (EU) officials. Liu was tried [JURIST report] in December on subversion charges in a trial that lasted only two hours and was closed to foreign diplomats. In his appeal, Liu's lawyers argued [press release] that he was innocent, claiming:

1) The existing evidence does not prove Liu Xiaobo's subjective intent to incite subversion of state power;
2) The charges of inciting subversion of state power against Liu Xiaobo in the indictment are based upon [writings] quoted out of context;
3) The charges in the indictment blur the line between a citizen's free speech and criminal offenses; and
4) There have been major flaws during the investigation, the procuratorate's examination before prosecution, and the trial of this case.

[JURIST] Iraq Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani told the Associated Press Wednesday that the Iraqi government has ordered [AP report] approximately 250 former Blackwater [JURIST news archive] employees to leave Iraq by the end of the week. The Iraqi government was reacting to a US federal court's December decision to dismiss charges against five former Blackwater employees accused of killing 17 innocent Iraqi civilians [JURIST reports] in 2007 because information against the defendants was obtained unconstitutionally. Al-Bolani said that all those ordered to leave worked in Iraq for Blackwater at the time of the shooting. Some now work for other security companies while others, according to al-Bolani, work for a subsidiary of Xe Services [corporate website], the corporation that used to be Blackwater. Those who do not leave by this weekend will be charged with violating their visas, according to the report.

Earlier this month the New York Times reported that the US Department of Justice [official website] is investigating Xe [JURIST report] to determine whether the company bribed the Iraqi government to allow Blackwater to continue operating in Iraq following the 2007 shootings. In January, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announced that Iraq will file lawsuits against Blackwater [JURIST reports] for the 2007 killings in both US and Iraqi courts. US Vice-President Joe Biden has said that the DOJ will appeal the dismissal [JURIST report]. Blackwater ceased operations in Baghdad [JURIST report] in May 2009 when its security contracts for the protection of US diplomats expired.

[JURIST] Representatives from the African Union/United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) [official website] met with members of the Transitional Darfur Regional Authority (TDRA) and the Darfur Compensation Commission Wednesday to discuss the compensation [press release] of Darfur [JURIST news archive] conflict victims. UNAMID's mandate calls for the organization to work with state governments to ensure that victims are compensated. The DCC, which was created as a part of the TDRA under the Darfur Peace Agreement [text, PDF], is charged with hearing claims for compensation arising from the Darfur conflict and making awards based on those claims. UNAMID representatives also attended a meeting of the Darfur Human Rights Forum [allAfrica.com report] in North Darfur Wednesday.

On Monday, the African Union (AU) [official website] called for a hybrid court [JURIST report] of Sudanese and foreign judges to hear trials of individuals accused of war crimes in Darfur. Last week, the Appeals Chamber of the ICC reversed [JURIST report] a Pre-Trial Chamber decision that denied the application for an arrest warrant on genocide charges against Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir [BBC profile; JURIST news archive]. The court emphasized that the reversal was procedural in nature and declined to enter a finding of genocidal intent or to order the Pre-Trial Chamber to issue a genocide warrant for al-Bashir, as requested [text] by ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo [official profile]. The case has now been remanded back to the Pre-Trial Chamber to reconsider whether al-Bashir acted with genocidal intent. In a letter to the AU last month, Human Rights Watch [advocacy website] urged Sudan to accept ICC war crimes decisions [letter text] in addition to any combined Sudanese and foreign court. The AU High-Level Panel on Darfur first suggested a hybrid court in an October report [text, PDF] to the AU Peace and Security Council.