JURIST - Paper Chase: Monday, September 20, 2010

[JURIST] Prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website] Serge Brammertz [official profile] called on Serbia and other governments Monday to increase efforts to find and arrest former Bosnian Serb military leader Ratko Mladic [case materials; JURIST news archive]. Brammertz said failure to arrest Mladic would send war criminals the message [AP report] that if they avoid capture long enough, the world will cease to care about bringing them to justice. Brammertz also emphasized the importance of seeking justice for Mladic's victims. Authorities must work quickly to arrest Mladic, Brammertz noted, since the ICTY is scheduled to be shut down in three years.

Mladic is one of two high-level targets still at large under the jurisdiction of the ICTY and faces charges of genocide and crimes against humanity for allegedly overseeing the Srebrenica massacre and other war crimes violations during the Bosnian civil war [JURIST news archives]. In June, British Prime Minister David Cameron [official website] and Brammertz marked the fifteenth anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre by reaffirming their commitment [JURIST report] to bringing those responsible for the deaths of more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys to justice. In May, Mladic's family filed a claim in the Belgrade District Court seeking to have him declared officially dead [JURIST report] in order to collect his state pension and sell his property. Earlier that month, the ICTY announced that the Office of the Prosecutor filed a motion to amend the indictment against Mladic [JURIST report] to include 11 counts of genocide, crimes against humanity and violations of the laws and customs of war in order to help speed up court proceedings once Mladic is captured. In March, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon [official website] said that the ICTY will continue to operate [JURIST report] beyond its originally planned end date, in part to apprehend both Mladic who has been a fugitive since 1995. Ban estimated that it will be necessary for the court to remain open until 2013.

[JURIST] Police in China's Shanxi province in arrested seven individuals [JCRB report, in Chinese], including the executive of a dairy company, after that company's powdered milk was found to contain melamine, according to Monday reports. In 2008, melamine-tainted milk from China [JURIST news archive] was blamed for the deaths of six infants, and the Chinese government promised that all tainted product would be seized and destroyed. In the current case, the seven individuals are accused of adding melamine to 26 tons of out-of-date powdered milk [BBC report], which was distributed to Hunan and Henan provinces. If convicted, the seven individuals could face the death penalty, as China has recently indicated that it will impose harsh penalties [AP report], including capital punishment, in situations where food safety offenses are particularly egregious.

The problem of tainted Chinese milk is not subsiding, despite Chinese government promises to the contrary. In July, Chinese authorities discovered 64 tons of raw dairy materials [Xinhua report] contaminated with melamine in Qinghai province. In February, Chinese police arrested three individuals [JURIST report] for their roles in the 2008 tainted milk scandal. Two other individuals were executed [JURIST report] in November 2009 after being convicted of endangering public safety and selling toxic food.

[JURIST] The US Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) [official website] released a report [text, PDF] Monday absolving the FBI [official website] of charges that agents conducted investigations of domestic groups based on their exercise of First Amendment [text] rights. The report criticizes the FBI [Washington Post report] for beginning investigations on weak factual predicates, continuing investigations longer than necessary, inappropriately retaining information on file and misclassifying investigations, and probing issues of state, rather than federal, law. The FBI reportedly monitored the Thomas Merton Center for Peace and Justice, an anti-war activist organization based in Pittsburgh, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), and Greenpeace USA [advocacy websites]. Additionally, the report indicates that Greenpeace advocates were inappropriately added to the terrorist watch list. In a response included in the report, FBI Deputy Director Timothy Murphy [official profile] states that the FBI is "pleased that the Report concludes that the FBI did not target any groups for investigation on the basis of First Amendment activities." Additionally, Murphy said the FBI "regrets that inaccurate information was provided" to Director Robert Mueller [official profile], which he subsequently presented to Congress. During a 2006 hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee [official website], Mueller refused to answer questions [Mueller statement; JURIST report] about the administration's domestic spying program [JURIST news archive], saying the information was classified.

In June, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) [advocacy website] reported that there have been more than 100 incidents of political surveillance [report, PDF; JURIST report] and harassment by authorities in 33 states since 9/11 [JURIST news archive]. Earlier in June, a panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit [official website] ruled that the city of New York could withhold documents related to surveillance practices [JURIST report] that led to the arrest of 1,800 protesters during the convention. The court found that the documents needed to remain confidential because their release could compromise future surveillance efforts. In 2006, the FBI monitored gatherings organized by the Thomas Merton Center for Peace and Justice, according to documents [ACLU backgrounder; JURIST report] released by the ACLU. The ACLU contended that the FBI based its investigation solely on the organization's political views, particularly its opposition to the war in Iraq. In addition to the documents released by the ACLU, an FBI report also indicated that agents photographed members of the Thomas Merton Center during a November 2002 gathering, during which members handed out leaflets opposing the war in Iraq. In the wake of a lawsuit from groups including the ACLU and Greenpeace, the DOJ admitted in 2005 that the FBI has thousands of pages of records on file [JURIST report] scrutinizing US civil rights, environmental and other advocacy groups.

[JURIST] The Malaysian Court of Appeals [official website] on Monday dismissed [Bernama report] an appeal by opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] of the Kuala Lumpur High Court's refusal to throw out the sodomy charges [Bernama report] against him based on allegations that his accuser had an affair with the prosecutor. A three-man panel ruled that, under Section 3 of the Court of Judicature Act (CJA) [materials, text], the appeals court had no jurisdiction to hear the appeal because the High Court's ruling was not a final decision. The prosecution had objected to the appeal on the grounds that the High Court's decision was procedural and therefore did not constitute a "final" decision as defined by Section 3. Counsel for Anwar will reportedly appeal to Malaysia's highest court [official website], which will further delay his trial [JURIST report].

Anwar is charged with sodomizing his former aide Mohamad Saiful Bukhari Azlan in 2008. This was his second attempt to have the sodomy charge against him dismissed [JURIST report]. He has described the charges as a farce aimed at preventing him from taking his seat in Parliament [official website] following the gains made by his party in the 2008 elections. He pleaded not guilty [JURIST report] in February. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison. In March, Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] urged the Malaysian government to drop all charges [JURIST report] against Anwar. HRW alleges that the trial has been "plagued by serious due process problems and government interference" and that the government should therefore drop all charges against Anwar. Earlier that month, the Malaysian Federal Court rejected Anwar's claim [JURIST reports] that his 1998 removal from office was unconstitutional. Anwar was Malaysia's deputy prime minister until he was fired and then jailed in 1998 following corruption and sodomy charges, of which he was acquitted in 2004. He recently reentered Malaysian politics following the expiration of a 10-year ban [JURIST report] against him for unrelated corruption charges.