[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] heard oral arguments [day call, PDF; merit briefs] Monday in three cases, including the case of former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling [JURIST news archives]. In Skilling v. United States [oral arguments transcript, PDF; JURIST report], the court heard arguments on whether the federal honest services fraud statute [18 USC § 1346 text] is unconstitutionally vague. The court also heard arguments on whether and to what extent the government must rebut the presumption of jury prejudice, which arose because of pretrial publicity and community impact of the alleged conduct. Skilling was convicted [JURIST report] in 2006 of 19 counts of conspiracy, insider trading, and securities fraud and is currently serving a 24-year sentence. In February 2008, the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit denied [JURIST report] a petition for an en banc rehearing after a three-judge panel upheld [opinion, PDF; JURIST report] Skilling's previous convictions and ordered him to be resentenced due to error in the lower court. Counsel for Skilling opened his arguments by stating:

the court of appeals was correct in unanimously concluding that this was one of the very rare cases in which, because of the degree of passion and prejudice in the community, the process of voir dire cannot be relied upon to adequately ferret out and identify unduly biased jurors.

The Michigan courts here did not unreasonably conclude that Mr. Thompkins had impliedly waived his rights where he expressly acknowledged his rights under - from his form after having read out loud from that form, he participated in a limited fashion during the interview.

[JURIST] A Spanish National Court [official website, in Spanish] judge on Monday accused the Venezuelan government of aiding two rebel groups in a plot to assassinate members of the Colombian government in Spain. Judge Eloy Velasco charged [indictment, PDF, in Spanish] six members of the Basque separatist group ETA [GlobalSecurity backgrounder; JURIST news archive] and seven members of the Colombian rebel group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) [GlobalSecurity backgrounder; JURIST news archive] with subverting the constitutional order by collaborating to assassinate Colombian officials, including President Alvaro Uribe [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] and his predecessor Andres Pastrana [BBC profile]. The indictment accuses Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] and his administration with assisting the collaboration. Velasco found that Arturo Cubillas Fontan, former director of the Venezuelan Ministry of Agriculture, served as a key link between the groups, introducing members of ETA to FARC personal in Venezuela. A Spanish magistrate has ordered the Colombian and Venezuela governments to surrender the accused individuals [El Pais report] to Spain.

Both ETA and FARC are listed as terrorist organizations in the EU and the US. In January, a Spanish judge found that ETA attempted to assassinate [JURIST report] former Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar in 2001 with a rocket launcher. In April, alleged ETA leader Jurdan Martitegi Lizaso [El Pais backgrounder, in Spanish] was arrested in France, and a Spanish judge charged [JURIST reports] him with murder for a May 2008 car bombing that killed a Spanish policeman. In 2008, Chavez denounced [JURIST report] a Colombian attack on a FARC outpost based in Ecuador as a "war crime." Colombia retaliated stating that Chavez was providing financing and that Columbia would seek to have Chavez charged [JURIST report] before the International Criminal Court [official website] for supporting the "genocide" of Colombian citizens by leftist militants.

[JURIST] An international court to prosecute crimes against humanity committed by communist regimes should be created by the European Union (EU) [official website], the participants of the Prague Crimes of the Communist Regime Conference [official website] said in a joint statement [text] Friday. The participants in the conference, organized by the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes [official website], said that the new court should be established because such crimes, which are not subject to a statute of limitations under international law, fall outside the jurisdiction of current international courts. The statement also characterized the prosecution of communist crimes over the past 20 years as "extremely unsatisfactory." The three-day conference, attended mostly by government officials from eastern and central Europe, focused on current communist regimes and their threat to democracy. In the statement, the participants also called for the erection of a memorial to the victims of communism in Europe and the dedication of European-wide Day of Remembrance of the victims of all totalitarian and authoritarian regimes on August 23.

Last year, prosecutors from the five major international tribunals called on member states [JURIST report] "to seriously consider the adoption of a convention on the Suppression and Punishment of Crimes against Humanity." The statement came at the end of a three-day convention and reiterated the need to fight against impunity for perpetrators of serious international crimes. Representatives from the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia (ICTY), the Special Court of Sierra Leone (SCSL), the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), the International Criminal Court (ICC), and the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) [official websites] attended the colloquium, which was held in Rwanda and hosted by the ICTR. The statement, which was unanimously adopted by the participants, also called on states to ensure their legal systems can effectively prosecute international crimes, to provide full cooperation to the all international criminal tribunals, and to become a party to the Rome Statute [text, PDF] of the ICC, if they have not already done so.

[JURIST] The official Iranian press supervisory body on Monday banned reformist daily newspaper Etemaad [media website, in Persian] and moderate weekly magazine Iran Dokht [media website]. Etemad is known as one of the few reformist newspapers that continued publishing after the June presidential election [JURIST news archive]. Iran Dokht has ties to defeated opposition presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi [NYT profile]. The publications' licenses were revoked pursuant to Article 6 of the Press Law [text], which prohibits print media from publishing news items that "violate Islamic principles and codes and public rights."

On Sunday, six journalists were released [AP report] from a Tehran prison, while many others remain incarcerated for their reformist views. In February, a joint US-EU statement [JURIST report] condemned Iranian action against protesters and other critics of government policy. The Iranian government has responded strongly to opposition following June's disputed elections, prompting additional criticism from rights groups and advocacy organizations. Amnesty International (AI) [advocacy website] has labeled [JURIST report] post-election rights abuses in Iran as some of the worst in the past 20 years.

[JURIST] The Turkish government will submit a European Union (EU) [official website] reform package with proposed constitutional changes to Parliament by the end of March, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan [official profile, in Turkish; JURIST news archive] said Sunday, following a meeting of the EU Reform Watch Group. The Watch Group, overseen by Minister and Chief EU Negotiator Egemen Bag?s [official profile], was created to guide Turkey’s accession to the EU [admission criteria]. Erdogan said that the amendments, necessary for continuing EU negotiations [TRT report], would focus on judicial reform. Other areas of potential reform include the formation of an ombudsman's office and the election system in Turkey [World Bulletin report], including political parties. Erdogan condemned opposition parties and the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) [official website, in Turkish] for opposing a constitutional amendment, and said the government will seek a public referendum if an agreement for the constitutional amendments cannot be reached.

Turkey has faced several obstacles as it works toward membership in the EU, including its human rights record, its stance towards political parties, and tension [JURIST report] between Turkey’s ruling Justice Development Party (AKP) [party website, in Turkish] and the military. In December, the Constitutional Court of Turkey [official website, in Turkish] voted to ban [JURIST report] the Democratic Society Party (DTP) after finding the party had contacts with the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) [GlobalSecurity backgrounder], a separatist, designated terrorist group. Erdogan has sought to end Turkey’s 25-year conflict [BBC report] with the PKK, which has been a major impediment to Turkey's bid to join the EU. In May, the EC-Turkey Association Council urged [JURIST report] Turkey to improve its human rights record. Last year, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso addressed the Turkish parliament and applauded the government's efforts to reform a controversial provision of the Turkish penal code [JURIST reports] but stressed that further efforts would be necessary.

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] on Monday ordered [opinion, PDF] a lower court to reconsider the case of seven Chinese Muslim Uighurs detained at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archives]. The court originally granted certiorari [JURIST report] in Kiyemba v. Obama [docket; CCR backgrounder] to determine whether it is within the power of the judicial branch to order the release of detainees into the US. The court ordered the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit [official website] to reconsider the case in light of the fact that each of the remaining Uighurs has received an offer of resettlement by another country. In a brief order, the court wrote:

This change in the underlying facts may affect the legal issues presented. No court has yet ruled in this case in light of the new facts, and we decline to be the first to do so.

Under these circumstances, we vacate the judgment and remand the case to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. It should determine, in the first instance, what further proceedings in that court or in the District Court are necessary and appropriate for the full and prompt disposition of the case in light of the new developments.

[JURIST] The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) [advocacy website] has filed habeas corpus petitions [press release] on behalf of four detainees held at Bagram Air Base [official website; JURIST news archive] in Afghanistan. The first petition [text, PDF], filed Friday in the US District Court for the District of Columbia [official website], challenges the detention of Haji Abdul Wahid, a 61-year-old government employee, and his nephew Zia-ur-Rahman, a food merchant, who were imprisoned after being taken from their homes by the US military in a neighborhood sweep. The second petition [test, PDF], also filed Friday, challenges the detention of Samiullah Jalatzai, who was arrested without explanation at his workplace, and his brother Sibghatullah Jalatzai, who was a US military translator prior to his detention. All four men have been held at Bagram for over a year, but the ACLU claims that none of the men has engaged in hostile behavior directed at the US, nor are they members of groups that purport to do so. The petitions ask that the men be informed of why they are detained, be permitted to speak with a lawyer, and be given a legitimate forum to challenge the legality of their detention. Staff attorney for the ACLU National Security Project Melissa Goodman said that, "[l]ocking up people who were picked up far from any battlefield for years without telling them why, without giving them access to lawyers and without giving them a real chance to contest the evidence against them is unlawful and un-American."

In January, the US Department of Defense released a list of names of 645 prisoners detained at Bagram in response to a Freedom Of Information Act lawsuit filed [JURIST reports] by the ACLU in September. However, much of the vital information, including their citizenship, how long they had been held, in what country they were captured, and the circumstances of their capture, was redacted. Also in January, Afghan officials signed [JURIST report] a memorandum of understanding to delineate the process under which they will eventually take over the Bagram detention facility. The transfer of responsibility is expected within six months. Prisoners at Bagram have launched previous habeas corpus challenges [JURIST report] in US courts but thus far have been less successful than those held at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive].

[JURIST] A Zimbabwean law requiring all foreign-owned companies operating in the country to transfer a majority share to local owners went into effect Monday. The Indigenization and Economic Empowerment Act [text, PDF] requires all companies worth more than USD $500,000 to submit information on the racial makeup of their shareholders and a plan for the transfer of a 51 percent ownership to native black Zimbabweans within 45 days. These plans must be enacted within five years, with noncompliance resulting in five years imprisonment [Al Jazeera report]. The law was passed by the Parliament of Zimbabwe [official website] in 2007 when it was still dominated by the Zanu-PF party of President Robert Mugabe [BBC profile; JURIST news archive], but was published only last month. The reform scheme has faced criticism [BBC report] for its timing in the wake of a major economic crisis in which the country faced hyperinflation and food shortages. Mugabe, at celebrations marking his eighty-sixth birthday Saturday, defended the law [Times report], comparing it with the controversial land reform program [official website] that was initiated in 2000, and saying that a country's resources should benefit its indigenous population. Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai [BBC profile; JURIST news archive], in a unity government with Mugabe after the contentious 2008 presidential election [JURIST news archive], opposed the enforcement of the law, claiming that it was void because it was not debated by the unity cabinet.

In January, the Zimbabwe High Court [official website] ruled [JURIST report] that it is not bound by a decision of the Southern Africa Development Community Tribunal [official website] that ordered the state to halt the land reform program for its discriminatory nature. Mugabe faced harsh criticism [Guardian report] for the program, which, since 2000, has sought to redistribute white-owned land among the nation's indigenous farmers. In February 2006, the Zimbabwean land minister said that there are no white farmers operating legally [JURIST report] in Zimbabwe. The government has appropriated some 4,000 farms through the program, and has traditionally argued that any compensation owed white farmers should be paid by the British government, Zimbabwe's former colonizer. Many observers attributed Zimbabwe's disastrous economic circumstances, including an inflation rate exceeding 231,000,000 percent [Guardian report], to the policy, as previously productive farms become barren under new inexperienced owners.

[JURIST] Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic [case materials; JURIST news archive] appeared before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website] on Monday to defend himself against charges related to war crimes allegedly committed during the 1992-1995 Bosnian conflict. Karadzic began his opening statement by denying [UPI report] any plan to expel Muslims from Serbia, and by blaming [Telegraph report] Muslims and Western countries for triggering the Bosnian civil war. Karadzic is defending himself against 11 counts [amended indictment, PDF] including genocide and murder, after initially threatening to boycott [JURIST report] the trial and having standby counsel appointed [JURIST reports] by the ICTY. He is scheduled to continue with his opening statements on Tuesday, with the prosecution set to call its first witness on Wednesday. He faces a sentence of life in prison if convicted.

The resumption of Karadzic's trial comes after a series appeals by the defense, which have been viewed as a way for Karadzic to delay the legal process [BBC report]. Last month, Karadzic appeared before the ICTY seeking access to documents [JURIST report] he claimed showed evidence of weapons smuggling to Bosnian Muslims. Also last month, the ICTY dismissed Karadzic's appeal [JURIST reports] against the imposition of his court-appointed lawyer. In December, the Trial Chamber rejected Karadzic's motion [JURIST reports] challenging the legitimacy of the court. The ICTY began Karadzic's trial in absentia in October after Karadzic failed to appear [JURIST reports] in court. The ICTY has also repeatedly rejected [JURIST report] Karadzic's argument that he should be immune from trial based on an alleged agreement with former UN ambassador Richard Holbrooke. In June, the ICTY said that Karadzic's trial, scheduled to be the tribunal's last, is expected to conclude in early 2012 [JURIST report].