JURIST - Paper Chase: Monday, July 5, 2010

[JURIST] An extradition hearing for former Bosnian president Ejup Ganic began in London Monday to determine whether or not the former leader should be forced to face trial [BBC report] in Serbia for alleged war crimes. Ganic, who served as vice president during the outset of the 1992-1995 Bosnian civil war [JURIST news archive], is accused of ordering attacks in Sarajevo during the start of the war in violation of the Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War [text]. The former leader argues that it would be impossible for him to receive a fair trial in Serbia. The extradition proceedings are expected to continue until July 14.

In March, Ganic was arrested [JURIST report] by British police at Heathrow Airport pursuant to a Serbian provisional extradition warrant. Ganic is the highest ranking official among 19 for whom Serbia has issued an arrest warrant in connection with the Dobrovoljacka Street incident at the onset of the Bosnian conflict. Bosnian authorities dismiss Serbian claims surrounding the incident on the grounds that they were defending their own territory and that Serbia is undermining procedures in the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website; JURIST news archive].

[JURIST] Newly appointed Italian cabinet minister Aldo Brancher [official profile, in Italian] resigned [press release, in Italian] Monday amidst controversy over an embezzlement indictment. Brancher, appointed on June 18 after being nominated by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, unsuccessfully attempted to use his status [Libero report] as a government official to delay proceedings against him in a banking case [Dow Jones report] under a controversial new immunity law [JURIST report]. Berlusconi praised Brancher and characterized his resignation as a selfless act. As the Minister for the Application of the Federalist Reform, Brancher was to oversee the creation of government autonomy throughout Italy. Brancher formerly served as an executive for Mediaset, Berlusconi's media group, and is a member of the People of Freedom [political website] political party.

In April, Italian judges questioned [JURIST report] the law which Brancher unsuccessfully tried to use after Berlusconi availed himself of the law's protection to delay criminal fraud proceedings. The law may yet face constitutional scrutiny. In January, hundreds of judges walked out of their courtrooms to protest another law that was criticized for being tailored to Berlusconi's benefit which placed strict time limits [JURIST reports] on the trial and appeals process.

[JURIST] Beijing's No. 1 Intermediate People's Court Monday sentenced US geologist Xue Feng [advocacy website] to eight years in prison for collecting intelligence and illegally providing state secrets. Xue was also fined 200,000 yuan. The court stated that Xue received a database which contained the coordinates for oil wells owned by the China National Petroleum Corporation [official website] while conducting research for US-based IHS energy. Upon discovery, Xue agreed to sell the database to IHS [AP report], which the court ruled was illegal under China's controversial state secrets [JURIST news archive] law. The database was allegedly made available to the public and only considered classified after its sale. Xue was arrested over two and a half years ago and was allegedly tortured during his incarceration. The US Embassy released a statement [Guardian report] on Monday urging the Chinese government to release Xue and immediately deport him back to the US.

China's state secrets law has frequently been criticized for alleged overbreadth. In November 2009, rights activist Huang Qi was sentenced to three years in prison [JURIST report] for violating the state secrets law, when he discussed how some schools collapsed after the Sichuan province earthquake [BBC backgrounder] in 2008 because of shoddy construction. In March four employees of Australian mining company Rio Tinto [corporate website] of receiving bribes and stealing commercial secrets [JURIST report] during stalled iron ore price negotiations, and sentenced to a range of 7 to 14 years in prison. In April the Chinese government revised the state secrets law [JURIST report] to require Internet and telecommunications companies to inform on customers who share state secrets. China began a review of its state secrets law last June, after concerns were raised regarding Internet filtering software [JURIST reports] on computers sold in that country.

[JURIST] Three administrative law judges with the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) [official website] Atomic Safety and Licensing Board [official website] have denied a request [judgment] by the Obama administration and the US Department of Energy (DOE) [official website] to withdraw the government's application for a license to construct a permanent nuclear waste repository [Berkeley Lab backgrounder] in Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The DOE filed a motion to withdraw the application [text, PDF] in March claiming that Yucca Mountain is not a "workable option" for the long-term disposal of nuclear waste and that "alternatives will better serve the public interest." Under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 [text, PDF] the NRC regulates the terms and conditions of a withdrawal of an application. The three-judge panel ruled last week that the executive branch could not act unilaterally to withdrawal the application, and the request must instead be initiated by an act of Congress. Explaining its ruling the panel stated:

Unless Congress directs otherwise, DOE may not single-handedly derail the legislated decision-making process by withdrawing the [Yucca Mountain repository] application. Given the stated purposes of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act and the detailed structure of that legislation, it would be illogical to allow DOE to withdraw the application without any examination of the merits...[The Act] does not give the [DOE] secretary the discretion to substitute his policy for the one established by Congress.

The judges also added the the DOE had weakened its arguments by "conceding that the application is not flawed nor the site unsafe." The NRC already granted an appeal of the ruling and set a July 16 deadline for follow up briefs. If the NRC rules against the DOE, the department can appeal to the US Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia [official website].

The nuclear repository has not been welcomed by Nevada government officials, who have been mounting challenges against the site since Congress approved government plans to construct the facility in 2002. Government officials fear that the repository, which will be located 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, will negatively effect the city's $28 billion tourism industry. Rejecting challenges by Nevada officials, the DC Circuit ruled in 2004 that federal plans to build a nuclear waste site in the state were constitutional under the Takings Clause [JURIST report]. In March 2006 Nevada filed a lawsuit against the federal government, seeking documents related to the repository [JURIST report], including documents which allegedly contain information that the proposed site cannot meet radiation safety standards [JURIST report] mandated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) [official website]. Later that year Nevada filed suit in the DC Circuit Court challenging the DOE's Record of Decision (ROD) and Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) governing the transportation of waste to Yucca Mountain, alleging that both violated the National Environmental Policy Act. The court declined to review a DOE proposal to move nuclear waste to the repository by rail, finding that some claims by Nevada lacked merit [JURIST report] while others were unripe. The application for the repository has been pending since 2008 when it was filed by former president George W. Bush. The repository was approved by Congress in 1987 to contain highly toxic waste from nuclear complexes that built atomic bombs during the Cold War.