[JURIST] Niger President Mamadou Tandja [BBC profile] was taken hostage on Thursday in an apparent coup attempt by dissident army officials, leaving at least three Nigerien soldiers dead. The opposition forces invaded the presidential palace [AP report] with machine guns during a meeting of government ministers and kidnapped Tandja along with half of his cabinet. The attack comes six months after a referendum was passed abolishing presidential term limits [JURIST report] and allowing Tandja to remain in office for three more years and to run in any subsequent elections. Niger's opposition parties denounced the referendum, claiming that Tandja inflated poll numbers to support the new constitution's adoption. The international community also responded to the supposedly invalid referendum by freezing non-humanitarian aid from Western countries and suspending Niger from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) [official website]. The coup has been condemned by both ECOWAS and the African Union (AU) [official website].

Several opposition leader were arrested after the parties pledged to oppose Tandja's new constitution, which also allowed the president to appoint one third of the members [CBC report] of a newly-created senate, and establish a media-monitoring position that would have the authority to jail reporters thought to present a threat to the country. In September, members of the opposition parties said that police had detained 30 former opposition lawmakers [JURIST report], allegedly at the behest of Tandja. The 30 former members of parliament were arrested on charges of embezzlement [AFP report], but were likely being targeted for their dissidence, as they refused to recognize Tandja's expansion of powers. One week later, Nigerien opposition leader of the Nigerien Party for Democracy and Socialism (PNDS) [party website, in French], Mahamadou Issoufou, was charged with financial crimes [JURIST report]. The PNDS claimed the corruption charges were politically motivated [BBC report]. Issoufou, who is barred from leaving the country [AFP report], has been released on bail. Niger [CIA World Factbook profile], which is known for its exportation of uranium, has gone through five constitutions and military regimes since its founding in 1960.

[JURIST] The Polish government joined [Rzeczpospolita report, in Polish] a class-action on lawsuit Wednesday brought against Russia for the 1940 Katyn Massacre [Brittanica backgrounder; JURIST news archive] where 20,000 Poles were killed by the USSR. The suit [complaint], filed in May in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) [official website] is being brought by 13 Polish citizens who are relatives of the victims. They allege that the Russian government failed to provide adequate investigations into the incident and did not grant the relatives victim status. The complaint states:

[T]hey were denied an effective remedy which would have been able to reveal the true circumstances, in which their relatives had been killed. They pointed out that the above-mentioned deficiencies of the criminal investigation undermined the efficiency of other remedies, as the success of civil-law measures was made dependent on the result of criminal investigation.

[JURIST] International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website] deputy prosecutor Fatou Bensouda [official profile] arrived in Guinea Wednesday for a three-day investigation into the killing of more than 150 civilians in Conakry [BBC backgrounder] in September. During her investigation, Bensouda will determine whether the ICC has jurisdiction to try those responsible [AFP report] for the massacre if the government fails to do so. Bensouda has stated that the victims' families will have justice [BBC report]. The Rome Statute [text] enables the ICC to adjudicate genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, but the court only acts if the member state is unable or unwilling to try those accused of committing serious crimes.

Earlier this month, a commission created by Guinea's junta announced [JURIST report] that former Guinean junta aide Lieutenant Aboubacar Cherif "Toumba" Diakite is the sole government official to blame for the massacre. The commission's conclusion contradicts a UN report [JURIST report] that blamed junta leader Moussa Dadis Camara [BBC profile], Minister for Special Services Moussa Tiegboro Camara, and Toumba for the September 28 slayings. In October, the ICC placed the Guinean military under preliminary investigation for human rights violations related to the Conakry incident, and the UN and Guinea both announced they were creating commissions to investigate [JURIST reports] the killings. The Conakry incident stemmed from a pro-democracy demonstration against Camara, who intended to push elections forward three months and stand for re-election.

[JURIST] Lawyers representing Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr [DOD materials; JURIST news archive] filed an emergency motion Wednesday in the Canadian Federal Court [official website] challenging a diplomatic note sent by the Canadian government to the US State Department [official website]. The note asks that all evidence collected by Canadian officials be omitted [press release] from any US proceedings against Khadr but declines to seek his repatriation. Khadr's legal team cited constitutional objections [CBC report] and accused the government of acting in bad faith by declining to request Khadr's repatriation and for failing to consult them prior to issuing the note.

Earlier this month, the Harper administration announced [JURIST report] that it would not pursue Khadr's repatriation. The statement came after the Supreme Court of Canada ruled [text; JURIST report] in January that the government was not obligated to seek his return to Canada despite having violated his rights under section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms [text]. Canadian officials questioned Khadr, who was captured at age 15, despite knowing that he was being indefinitely detained and had been subjected to sleep deprivation by US authorities. Still, the court held that forcing the government to press for Khadr's return was not an appropriate remedy, as such an order would overreach the court's authority. The ruling overturned a Federal Court of Appeals decision, which upheld a lower court order [JURIST reports] requiring the federal government to seek Khadr's repatriation.

[JURIST] A federal judge on Thursday decided that the criminal trial of Galleon Group [partnership website] hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam [FT profile; JURIST news archive] will begin October 25. Prosecutors had asked the judge to schedule the trial for June or July [Bloomberg report], but Rajaratnam and former hedge fund consultant Danielle Chiesi asked for more time to prepare a defense, saying it would be impossible to prepare fully by June or July. The judge noted that while he was pushing the trial back, he wants the criminal trial to take place before the civil trial. Rajaratnam agreed to move the civil trial back to accommodate.

Former Intel Capital [corporate website] executive Rajiv Goel pleaded guilty [JURIST report] to insider trading charges in connection with the Galleon probe earlier this month. In January, federal prosecutors indicted [JURIST report] seven more individuals in connection with the case. Rajaratnam and Chiesi were arrested in October and charged [complaint, PDF] along with four other individuals and two business entities with insider trading. The complaint alleged that the individuals provided Galleon Group and another hedge fund with material nonpublic information about several corporations upon which the funds traded, generating $25 million in illicit gain. Rajaratnam and Chiesi pleaded not guilty in December after being indicted for insider trading [JURIST reports].

[JURIST] Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari [official website] on Wednesday appointed 34 new judges [press release], including three to the country's Supreme Court [official website], after Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry [official profile; JURIST news archive] blocked Zardari's original selections. The court blocked [JURIST report] the selections last week because Zardari did not consult with the Supreme Court prior to making the nominations, as mandated by section 177 [text] of the Pakistani Constitution. Among the new Supreme Court justices are Saqib Nisar and Asif Saeed Khosa. Nisar's appointment raised questions within Pakistan [Dawn op-ed], as Chaudhry had previously blocked his nomination to the Lahore High Court. Chaudhry administered the oath of office [Dawn report] to the new Supreme Court justices on Thursday, ending a week of controversy over judicial appointments. Within Pakistan, the resolution of the situation was seen as a victory [News editorial] for preservation of an independent judiciary.

Earlier this week, lawyers in Pakistan boycotted the courts [JURIST report] in protest of both Zardari's attempt at bypassing constitutional measures and at the Supreme Court's actions. The latest clash between the judiciary and the executive in Pakistan continues their history of disputes. Last month, the Supreme Court released a detailed judgment [JURIST report] in the controversial National Reconciliation Ordinance [text] case, striking down [JURIST report] an ordinance granting immunity to Zardari and 8,000 other government officials from charges including corruption, embezzlement, murder, and terrorism between January 1986 and October 1999.

[JURIST] The French Court of Cassation [official website, in French] on Wednesday reversed an appellate court decision to overturn the convictions of five former Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainees, remanding the case to the lower court. A court spokesperson said the case will be heard by a specially created panel of the Paris appeals court. Regardless of the outcome, it is unlikely [AP report] the men will serve any additional time in prison. A lawyer for two of the defendants expressed disappointment [Le Monde report, in French] in the court's decision.

The Paris appeals court overturned the convictions [JURIST report] last February, finding that counter-terrorism agents from the French national security service DST [official website, in French] could not gather intelligence and conduct a criminal investigation at the same time. The five were originally convicted [JURIST report] in 2007 for criminal association with a terrorist organization, sentenced to time already served in Guantanamo, and released. The men were arrested in Afghanistan in 2001 and charged with attending an al Qaeda training camp. They were later detained at Guantanamo Bay and questioned by French counter-terrorism officials who failed to disclose [JURIST report] the meetings, before being repatriated [BBC report].

[JURIST] The North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission [official website] on Wednesday overturned a man's 1993 murder conviction in its first exoneration of an inmate who claimed to have been wrongly convicted. George Taylor, who had served 17 years of a life sentence and had exhausted all other appeals options, became the first person to be exonerated [Charlotte Observer report] under the commission since the commission's creation in 2006 [text, PDF]. To receive commission review, inmates with new evidence not previously considered in court can bring their innocence claims to an eight-member panel, consisting of judges, attorneys, a sheriff, a victim's advocate, and a member of the public. If five or more commission members consider the evidence to be a potential consideration for innocence, the case will then go to a panel of three North Carolina Superior Court [official website] judges, who must deliver a unanimous decision to overturn a conviction. The appointed commission judges found that faulty evidence and unreliable witnesses [Boston Herald report] were used to wrongfully convict Taylor at trial.

The commission, the first and only program of its kind in the US, was signed into law [JURIST report] in August 2006 and has received more than 600 claims of innocence. Its creation was prompted based on wrongful convictions in several high-profile cases in North Carolina, including Darryl Hunt, who was found innocent of murder based on DNA evidence after serving 18 years in jail, and Alan Gell [advocacy websites], who was released from death row based on evidence that prosecutors purposefully withheld in his trial. The commission is modeled after the UK's Criminal Cases Review Commission [official website].

[JURIST] A Haitian judge on Wednesday ordered the release of eight of the 10 US missionaries held in a Haitian jail on kidnapping charges [JURIST report] in the wake of the January 12 earthquake [JURIST news archive]. Eight of the 10 members of the missionary group, affiliated with the Central Valley Baptist Church [official website] of Idaho and the New Life Children's Refuge Charity [BBC profile], were released without bail [AP report] Wednesday and flown overnight to Miami on an American military cargo plane. The eight were allowed to leave Haiti after the children's parents testified [Guardian report] that they voluntarily handed over the children to the missionaries because they were promised a better life. The two others, Laura Silsby [AP profile] and Charisa Coulter remain in custody while they are questioned by Judge Bernard Saint-Vil about their plan to take Haitian children out of the country to the neighboring Dominican republic without adoption certificates. Saint-Vil said the two others were being held because they been to Haiti prior to the earthquake [NYT report].

Saint-Vil had said last week that that would recommend [JURIST report] a provisional release pending an investigation. Even as American and Haitian lawyers worked toward their release last week, it was reported that the eight released missionaries accused [NYT report] Silsby and Coulter of misleading them. The 7.0 magnitude earthquake caused massive damage to property and infrastructure in Haiti, and the death toll has now been estimated at more than 200,000.

[JURIST] A judge for the US District Court for the District of Columbia [official website] granted summary judgment [opinion, PDF] for the National Forest Service (NFS) [official website] Wednesday, upholding an agreement limiting the amount of timber that can be harvested in Alaska's Tongass National Forest [official website]. Several Alaska towns and companies challenged the 2008 Tongass National Forest Land and Resource Management Plan (TLMP) [text, PDF], which, among other things, designated parts of the forest "old growth reserves," limiting the amount of timber that could be harvested. Under the TLMP, timber production is allowed in approximately 3.4 million acres [AP report] of the 17 million acre forest. The plaintiffs argued that by designating a portion of the forest "old growth reserves," the NFS withdrew the land from public use without congressional approval in violation of federal law [16 USC § 3213 text]. The court ruled, however, that the TLMP, in designating a portion "old growth reserves" did not "withdraw" that section of the forest under the meaning of the statute. The court also dismissed arguments that TLMP would not allow the Tongass to produce meet the market demand for timber as required by federal law [16 USC § 539d text].

In August, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld [JURIST report] a rule preventing the building of roads or the use of roadless land for timber production in national forests. In 2008, an en-banc panel of the Ninth Circuit granted broad deference [JURIST report] to the NFS when making decisions regarding the impact of logging on national forests. Earlier in the year, the same court ruled [opinion, PDF] that the NFS generally has the prerogative to determine which trees are candidates for clearing after after a forest fire, but directed the agency to more thoroughly consider whether any logging should be done in certain wilderness areas. The court previously reversed [JURIST report] a lower court order denying an injunction against a NFS plan to allow commercial logging in another forest to help pay for a wildfire prevention program. In 2005, the Ninth Circuit rejected a government plan [JURIST report] that would have opened large portions of the Tongass to logging.

[JURIST] Eighty-five victims of rocket attacks in Israel have filed a lawsuit [complaint, PDF] in the US District Court for the District of Columbia [official website] seeking damages from Iran and Iran's central bank for for injuries suffered in the 2006 Second Lebanon War. The suit, filed Monday, claims that Iran, between 2001 and 2006, gave Hezbollah [JURIST news archive] more than $50 million "with the specific intent and purpose of facilitating, enabling and causing Hezbollah to carry out terrorist attacks against American and Israeli targets in order to advance Iran's Policy and Goals" of undermining the US and abolishing Israel. Specifically, the plaintiffs allege that Iran's funding allowed Hezbollah to carry out a rocket barrage [Ynet report] in July and August 2006 during a conflict with Israel. The plaintiffs are US, Canadian, and Israeli citizens who were injured or represent those killed in the attacks. The suit seeks $1 billion in compensatory damages and an unspecified amount in punitive damages.

In 2007, Human Rights Watch condemned Hezbollah for using rockets [JURIST report] against civilians during the conflict. Earlier that year, Amnesty International found that both Israel and Hezbollah failed to adequately investigate war crimes allegations [JURIST report] stemming from the conflict. In 2006, the UN Human Rights Council found that Israel had committed flagrant violations of human rights [JURIST report]. Human rights groups accused both Israel and Hezbollah of using weapons banned by international law for use against civilians [JURIST reports].