Author: JURIST – Paper Chase

[JURIST] A Nigerian court ruled Friday that ailing President Umaru Yar’Adua is not required to formally transfer his powers to Vice President Goodluck Jonathan or any other interim leader. The Federal High Court in Abuja rejected a lawsuit brought by the Nigerian Bar Association, seeking to have presidential powers temporary endowed in Jonathan pursuant to Article 145 of Nigeria’s Constitution. Last week, the court ordered Nigeria’s cabinet to pass a resolution within 14 days on whether Yar’Adua is capable of running the country. Earlier this month, a judge for Nigeria’s Federal High Court ordered Jonathan to assume executive powers in Yar’Adua’s absence. Yar’Adua has been receiving medical treatment in Saudi Arabia since late November
In 2008, the Nigerian Supreme Court upheld the results of disputed 2007 election that brought Yar’Adua to power, despite opposition groups’ allegations of fraud. Yar’Adua had promised to step down if the court invalidated the election. A tribunal formed before the 2007 election to deal with allegations of fraud ruled that the opposition groups lacked enough evidence of fraud to have the results overturned.

[JURIST] The White House is considering moving the trials of alleged 9/11 conspirator Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other high-profile terror suspects out of New York City, a senior official said Friday. Although the deputy press secretary reaffirmed earlier this week that US President Barack Obama “agrees with the Attorney General’s opinion that … he and others can be litigated successfully and securely in the United States of America, just like others have,” the administration is now considering moving the trial after strong local opposition. Earlier this week, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg cited costs and potential disruptions to the lives of New Yorkers in urging the federal government to move the trials. Bloomberg reiterated that position Friday, saying that “it would be phenomenally expensive and it is very disruptive to people who live in the area and businesses in the area … and it would be better to do it elsewheres if they could find a venue.”
In November, US Attorney General Eric Holder appeared before the Senate to defend plans to try Mohammed, Ramzi Bin Al Shibh, Walid Bin Attash, Ali Abdul-Aziz Ali, and Mustafa Ahmed Al Hawsaw in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. Earlier in November, the US Senate defeated an amendment to an appropriations bill that would have prevented Guantanamo detainees accused of involvement in 9/11 from being tried in federal courts. In October, Obama signed into law the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act of 2010, which allows for Guantanamo Bay detainees to be transferred to the US for prosecution and, among other provisions, requires certain information about each transferred detainee to be disclosed to Congress including costs, legal rationales, and possible risks.

[JURIST] A French public prosecutor on Friday announced plans to appeal the acquittal of former prime minister Dominique de Villepin, which cleared him of all charges for his role in an alleged plot to defame several businessmen, including current President Nicolas Sarkozy. The appeal comes shortly after Sarkozy announced that he would not appeal the verdict. According to French Media Advisor Franck Louvrier, prosecutors were not given instructions from the president, and Sarkozy will not be a civil party to the appeal.
In October, de Villepin denied breaking the law and claimed that Sarkozy ordered the prosecution for personal and political reasons. De Villepin and his alleged co-conspirators went on trial last September. In November 2008, de Villepin was ordered to stand trial for his connection with the long-running political scandal known as the Clearstream Affair. De Villepin’s political image was tainted by the allegations as well as by his advance of an unpopular youth labor law during his time as prime minister.

[JURIST] Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Luis Moreno-Ocampo said Thursday that he believes the ICC’s appeals chamber will add a genocide charge to the case against Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir. The chamber will rule next Wednesday on an appeal challenging the ICC’s decision not to include a count of genocide in its March arrest warrant for al-Bashir on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Darfur. The court found insufficient evidence to support the additional charge at the time, though Moreno-Ocampo argued that the evidentiary standards imposed by the pre-trial chamber in advance of the March indictment were an improper interpretation of Article 58 of the Rome Statute. Al-Bashir has denied all accusations, and will seek re-election in April.
The warrant was met with mixed reactions, with some believing that its enforcement would jeopardize peacekeeping efforts in Sudan. The African Union reversed its initial opposition to the warrant, later recommending cooperation on the principle that those sought by international courts should be required to face the charges against them. Al-Bashir scoffed at the warrant upon its issuance, saying that it represents an effort by Western countries to reassert colonial power over Sudan, and criticized the ICC for failing to take action in conflicts in Iraq and the Gaza Strip. He is accused of leading the systematic harassment and murder of members of the Fur, Masalit, and Zaghawa ethnic groups under the pretext of counter-insurgency since 2003.

[JURIST] A Vietnamese court sentenced writer and democracy activist Pham Thanh Nghien to a four-year prison term on Friday on charges of spreading anti-state propaganda. Foreign observers were not permitted to attend the trial, which took place in the city of Haiphong in the northern region of Vietnam and lasted less than a day. Nghien was sentenced under Vietnam’s Penal Code Article 88, which provides for up to 20 years in prison for crimes including “propagating against” the government or “circulating documents … with contents against” the government. Convictions under Article 88 have been criticized by groups such as Amnesty International, which calls the law “vaguely worded” and accuses authorities of a “long history of using its sweeping provisions to silence voices they deem unacceptable.”
Nghien is the latest in a string of dissidents to be convicted for anti-government activities. Last week, a Vietnamese court convicted four democracy activists of subversion in a one-day trial. Prominent human rights lawyer Le Cong Dinh, Le Thang Long, and Nguyen Tien Trung were given prison sentences between 5-7 years, and Internet entrepreneur Tran Huynh Duy Thuc received a 16-year sentence. Dinh was originally charged with spreading propaganda under Article 88, but was eventually convicted of the more serious crime of subversion. Last month, pro-democracy dissident Tran Anh Kim was also sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison for subversion. In 2009, two Vietnamese newspaper editors were dismissed from their jobs for protesting the arrests of two journalists who reported on government corruption. The arrested reporters, accused of “abusing freedom and democracy,” were sentenced to two years of prison and “re-education” for reporting on the so-called PMU 18 corruption scandal.

[JURIST] Kenya’s Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) on Thursday recommended eliminating the position of prime minister in the country’s draft constitution. Other PSC proposals include an expanded parliament, with some seats guaranteed to women, a prohibition on members of parliament serving in cabinet positions to maintain a separation of powers, and a presidency that requires a candidate to receive a majority of the popular vote as well as at least a quarter of the vote in at least half the counties. The PSC will share its decisions with Kenya’s Committee of Experts on Constitutional Review for it to consider.
Last week, the PSC decided that it would not recommend marriage rights for women equal to those of men. The first draft of the constitution was unveiled in November. The changes are intended to reduce the widespread injustice throughout the country, and specifically address issues that led to violence following the 2007 presidential elections. In October, former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan called for constitutional reform in Kenya before the next electoral cycle begins in 15 months. In 2007, tens of thousands of protesters took to Kenya’s streets accusing President Mwai Kibaki of election fraud after early opinion polls suggested rival Raila Odinga was in the lead.

[JURIST] Malaysia’s Kuching High Court has issued an injunction to stop a company from destroying the homes of indigenous Malaysians. Last week, state-government agents began tearing down Iban houses on land controlled by the native Iban people at the request Tatau Land Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of ASSAR Group, a government-owned holding company seeking to develop the land. Between 25 and 30 houses were destroyed. The injunction, issued Monday, prohibits Tatau Land and government agencies from entering the Iban land until at least February 9, when the court will conduct a full hearing.
A number of indigenous people have attempted to assert land rights in recent years. In August, an indigenous Indonesian tribe sued a subsidiary of US mining company Freeport-McRoRan Copper & Gold, claiming it owned the land the company was mining. In May, the Swedish Sami Association brought a lawsuit against Sweden’s government, claiming the state was violating Sami hunting rights. In March, Brazil’s Supreme Court expelled 200 rice farmers from an area of land, ruling that the land belonged to indigenous peoples. In 2008, the New Zealand government and several Maori groups signed a deed of settlement worth nearly NZ $196 million to resolve certain indigenous claims concerning land taken by British settlers in the 19th century.

[JURIST] US Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues Stephen Rapp said Thursday that no US president is likely to present the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to the US Senate for ratification in the “foreseeable future.” Speaking at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, Rapp said that while the US has an important role in international criminal justice, it is unlikely to join the ICC anytime soon. Rapp cited fears that US officials would be unfairly prosecuted and the US’s strong national court system as reasons it would be difficult to overcome opposition to ratification. Rapp also said that the US has a role to play in a three-part system for ending international impunity. The US must work to strengthen national court systems, particularly in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the US must work with countries that exercise universal jurisdiction when there is some relation between the country and the crime, and the US should continue to support the work of international criminal tribunals.
In August, the Obama administration was urged by the Heritage Foundation not to re-sign and ratify the Rome Statute. The study came in response to media reports that suggested the Obama administration might be considering joining the ICC. Earlier that month, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said during a visit to Kenya that it is a “great regret” that the US is not a signatory to the ICC. The Rome Statute was approved in 1998, and the ICC was established in 2002. The US signed, but never ratified the treaty. Then-president George W. Bush later “un-signed” the treaty by notifying the UN that the US did not intend to ratify it. As of August 2009, only 110 of the 192 UN member states have ratified the treaty. Other states that have refused to ratify it include China, India, and Russia.

[JURIST] Ireland’s restrictive abortion laws increase health risks to women and expose them to deliberate misinformation about abortion procedures, according to a report released on Thursday by Human Rights Watch (HRW). Ireland’s current legislation prohibits abortion for any reason except when the mother’s life is threatened and carries a potential sentence of life imprisonment. The report states that Ireland’s restrictive laws create a heavy financial and emotional burden on women who are forced to find alternatives either secretly or abroad. According to HRW, “ince 1980, hundreds of thousands of women have traveled to the UK from Ireland to terminate their pregnancies.” HRW women’s rights advocacy director Marianne Mollmann said:
Women in need of abortion services should, as a matter of international law and – frankly – human decency, be able to count on support from their government as they face a difficult situation. But in Ireland they are actively stonewalled, stigmatized, and written out.According to the report, the government also fails to regulate “rogue” pro-life agencies who provide women with false information about abortions.The release of this report comes as Ireland awaits what may be a landmark decision on women’s rights in Ireland. In December, the European Court of Human Rights (EHCR) held a hearing in a case brought by three women alleging that current Irish abortion laws violate their rights under the European Convention on Human Rights. The three women, who all traveled to the UK to have abortions, lodged the complaint in July 2005, alleging that the current Irish abortion laws make the procedure “unnecessarily expensive, complicated, and traumatic.” A judgment is expected in six to eight months.

[JURIST] US President Barack Obama sharply criticized the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which eased restrictions on political campaign spending by corporations and labor unions, in his State of the Union Address Wednesday night. Obama warned of the increased potential for powerful interest groups, both foreign and domestic, to wield excessive influence over American elections and called for bipartisan support of legislation to counteract the decision. In addition to his support for campaign finance reform, the president also reiterated his previous commitment to repeal the controversial “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy that prohibits gay Americans from serving in the military, despite the advice of Pentagon lawyers to postpone reviewing the matter. Health care and clean energy initiatives were also addressed. Obama acknowledged the difficulties facing comprehensive health care reform, but encouraged lawmakers to continue working toward a functional and acceptable solution. Stressing the importance of clean energy, the president pushed for legislation to support investment in such technologies to promote both job creation and climate change.
In its ruling last week, the Supreme Court cited First Amendment concerns in overturning Section 203 of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA), which prohibited corporations and unions from using their general treasury funds to make independent expenditures for speech defined as an “electioneering communication” or for speech expressly advocating the election or defeat of a candidate. The Court, in a 5-4 decision, said that, “he Government may regulate corporate political speech through disclaimer and disclosure requirements, but it may not suppress that speech altogether.” The White House immediately responded by pledging to work with Congress “to develop a forceful response.”

[JURIST] The Canadian Office of the Privacy Commissioner announced Thursday that it would launch a new probe of Facebook to investigate privacy issues in response to a recent complaint. Facebook’s privacy tool, which it introduced in December, requires users to review their privacy settings. The complaint alleges that these default privacy settings “have made his information more readily available than the settings he had previously put in place.” Elizabeth Denham, the assistant privacy commissioner who led last year’s investigation, noted that the complaint reflected concerns currently held by the office and reported to Facebook in recent months.
In August, Facebook announced that it would give users more control over the private information they share through their profiles. The changes were announced after discussions with the Canadian privacy commissioner, who in July released a report that was critical of Facebook’s compliance with Canadian privacy laws. Also in August, five Facebook users filed suit in a US federal court alleging that the site violates California privacy laws. In late July, Facebook announced it had corrected a loophole whereby users could see strangers’ posted photos without those individuals’ knowledge. In February, Facebook, facing a federal complaint, reversed a change to its Terms of Use policy that gave Faceboook ownership of all information posted on a user’s profile, even if the page were deleted.

[JURIST] Honduran President Porfirio Lobo on Wednesday granted amnesty to both former president Manuel Zelaya and military leaders accused of participation in a June 2009 coup against Zelaya. Making the decree during his inaugural address, Lobo said that it would allow the country to move past the conflict. He also said that he would appoint a special commission to investigate the circumstances of the coup, even though no prosecutions would result. Commentators suspect that Lobo may face trouble legitimizing his presidency, though the US sent a delegation to his inauguration as a sign of support for the leader. Also Wednesday, Zelaya left the country to go into exile in the Dominican Republic.
The amnesty decree was approved by the Honduran National Congress on Tuesday. Also Tuesday, the Honduran Supreme Court exonerated six military leaders accused of abuse of power for their alleged role in the coup. Last month, the Honduran Congress voted 111-14 not to reinstate Zelaya. His ouster was the result of a judicial order that asserted that Zelaya had broken Honduran law by attempting to conduct a controversial referendum on constitutional reform, contrary to a Supreme Court ruling. Zelaya, along with the UN, the Organization of American States (OAS), and the European Union, maintain that his removal was a coup.

[JURIST] Two Iranians were executed Thursday and nine others have been sentenced to death for their roles in last summer’s post-election protests, according to the semi-official Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA). The two executed men, identified as Momammed Reza Ali Zamani and Arash Rahmanipour, were convicted on charges of mohareb, or being enemies of God, and had earlier been appeared in televised show trials. Amnesty International (AI) condemned the executions, saying, “hese shocking executions show that the Iranian authorities will stop at nothing to stamp out the peaceful protests that persist since the election.”
Earlier this month, Iran’s Prosecutor-General Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei called for sedition trials against leaders of protests following last June’s contested presidential election. The Iranian government has faced significant international scrutiny for its handling of the post-election protests and treatment of thousands arrested as a result. Last month, AI labeled human rights violations committed by the Iranian government following the election among the worst of the past 20 years. In September, human rights groups called for the UN General Assembly to appoint a special envoy to investigate allegations of rights violations. Alleged human rights abuses of detainees include sexual assault, beatings, and forced confessions.

[JURIST] Apple could face legal problems in registering a trademark for its new iPad tablet computer product announced on Wednesday. Since 2003, the computing company Fujitsu has been attempting to register the “IPAD” mark in the US for a wireless retail computing device. Apple, however recently filed for an extension to allow itself sufficient time to prepare an opposition to Fujitsu’s registration of the mark. It may be possible for both companies to register the mark, as long as Apple can successfully argue that there would not be any likelihood of confusion between its personal tablet and Fujitsu’s retail device.
Apple’s potential dispute over trademark rights with Fujitsu is the latest example of Apple’s intellectual property issues. In October, Nokia sued Apple alleging that the iPhone contains technology that infringes 10 Nokia patents. In April, Apple was found to have infringed a predictive snooping patent owned by Opti. Inc. In July 2008, the inventor of so-called “visual voicemail” settled a patent infringement case with Apple over the company’s use of that function in the iPhone.

[JURIST] A French court on Thursday acquitted former prime minister Dominique de Villepin of all charges for his role in an alleged plot to defame several businessmen, including current President Nicolas Sarkozy. Prosecutors claimed de Villepin failed to stop the circulation of false documents, alleging Sarkozy profited from illegal arms deals when the two were vying for the presidency. Before his acquittal, de Villepin had faced the possibility of an 18-month suspended prison sentence and a €45,000 fine. Sarkozy said Thursday that he will not appeal the verdict.
In October, de Villepin denied breaking the law and claimed that Sarkozy ordered the prosecution for personal and political reasons. De Villepin and his alleged co-conspirators went on trial last September. In November 2008, de Villepin was ordered to stand trial for his connection with the long-running political scandal known as the Clearstream Affair. De Villepin’s political image was tainted by the allegations as well as by his advance of an unpopular youth labor law during his time as prime minister.

[JURIST] French President Nicolas Sarkozy called Wednesday for strong banking regulations to restore the “moral dimensions” of capitalism. Speaking at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, Sarkozy called the current financial malaise a “crisis of globalization.” He promised to target trade imbalances between the East and West and called for a new currency exchange system to prevent monetary dumping, as well as writing new laws to curb banks from speculating. Sarkozy said:
The other question we can no longer avoid is that of the role banks must play in the economy. The banker’s job is not to speculate, it is to analyse credit risk, assess the capacity of borrowers to repay their loans and finance growth of the economy. If financial capitalism went so wrong, it was, first and foremost, because many banks were no longer doing their job. Why take the risk of lending to entrepreneurs when it is so easy to earn money by speculating on the markets? Why lend only to those who can repay the loan when it is so easy to shift the risks off the balance sheet?President Obama is right when he says that banks must be dissuaded from engaging in proprietary speculation or financing speculative funds. But this debate cannot be confined to a single country, whatever its weight in global finance. This debate must be settled within the G20.Sarkozy also called for “invest massively in the technologies of the future that will drive the digital revolution and the ecological revolution.”The US has recently taken several steps toward financial reform. Earlier this month, US President Barack Obama proposed new banking rules that he claims would stabilize the banking system and reduce the risk of future bank failures. The legislation would prohibit banks from owning, investing in, or sponsoring hedge funds, private equity funds, or proprietary trading funds for profit where the funds do not benefit the banks’ customers. In December, the US House of Representatives approved a bill that would create a consumer protection agency, strengthen financial oversight and prohibit certain types of predatory and abusive lending. The US House Financial Services Committee had approved a bill to create a consumer financial protection agency in October, after originally delaying it at the behest of financial industry leaders in July. The creation of the agency is a key step in achieving Obama’s stated goal of tightening financial industry regulations. In June, the administration proposed a broad series of regulatory reforms aimed at restoring confidence in the US financial system.

[JURIST] Russian racial hate crimes decreased slightly in 2009 because of increased police efforts, according to the SOVA Center on Wednesday. According to the group, 71 people were killed and 333 wounded in racially motivated attacks in 2009, down from 110 killed and 487 wounded in 2008. Deputy head of SOVA Galina Kozhevnikova credited the first decrease in hate crimes in the last six years to a combination of revised legislation, extended criminal trials, and enhanced police tactics. Despite the lower violent crime statistics, Sova’s annual report also noted the increasing volume of xenophobic propaganda, particularly among right-wing, political youth groups.
Last year, the SOVA Center reported a slight rise in hate crimes in 2008 after a 13 percent rise in hate crimes in 2007. Kozhevnikova criticized Russian authorities at the time for not responding to the increase in violence, saying that many hate crimes were only prosecuted as incidents of hooliganism, which would carry a lighter sentence than hate crimes. In 2008, Human Rights First published a hate crime survey that called attention to the then increasing number of violent crimes against immigrants and non-Slavic people in Russia.

[JURIST] New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Wednesday cited costs and potential disruptions to the lives of New Yorkers in urging the federal government not to try alleged 9/11 conspirator Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other high-profile terror suspects in New York City. Bloomberg said a military base may be a more appropriate venue for the trial since they are generally in secluded areas, though he said his request was not based on security concerns. Earlier this month Bloomberg claimed that providing security for the trial in New York would cost the city more than $216 million in the first year and $206 million in any additional years. Bloomberg originally backed the idea of trying some of the terrorists currently held in the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay in Manhattan due to its proximity to ground zero and the symbolic significance of convicting the suspects there.
In November, US Attorney General Eric Holder appeared before the Senate to defend plans to try Mohammed, Ramzi Bin Al Shibh, Walid Bin Attash, Ali Abdul-Aziz Ali, and Mustafa Ahmed Al Hawsaw in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. Earlier in November, the US Senate defeated an amendment to an appropriations bill that would have prevented Guantanamo detainees accused of involvement in 9/11 from being tried in federal courts. In October, US President Barack Obama signed into law the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act of 2010, which allows for Guantanamo Bay detainees to be transferred to the US for prosecution and, among other provisions, requires certain information about each transferred detainee to be disclosed to Congress including costs, legal rationales, and possible risks.

[JURIST] US citizen David Headley pleaded not guilty Wednesday to 12 charges related to the 2008 Mumbai terror attack and an alleged conspiracy against the Danish creator and publishers of controversial cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad. The government has accused Headley of conducting surveillance for terrorist organization Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) in Mumbai to prepare for the 2008 attack. Headley and two others are also charged in the same indictment with conspiring to bomb the headquarters of Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, which published the cartoons. Tahawwur Rana, an alleged LeT member who was charged with Headley, also pleaded not guilty in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. The US government has not yet apprehended the two men accused of plotting with Headley to attack Jyllands-Posten. A hearing is scheduled for February 23.
Earlier this week, an Indian court rejected a request by the lone surviving gunman from the Mumbai attacks for an international trial. Muhammad Ajmal Amir Kasab claims he will not receive a fair trial in India. Kasab, whom India claims participated directly in the Mumbai attacks, said during his trial that he met Headley, but only while in jail after being arrested. Headley was indicted earlier this month along with Rana, a Canadian citizen living in Chicago, retired Pakistani military officer Abdur Rehman, and Ilyas Kashmiri, an alleged terrorist leader believed to have ties to al Qaeda. The indictment was a superseding indictment, reiterating charges originally brought against Headley in December.

[JURIST] A US immigration judge granted asylum to a German family on Tuesday, ruling that Germany’s laws against homeschooling gave the family a well-founded fear of persecution. The Romeike family fled Germany in 2008, two years after pulling their children out of German public school so that they could be homeschooled, and one year after a controversial German court ruling that social service workers could remove children from the home if the parents refused to send them to school. Judge Lawrence Burman’s opinion was critical of German policy regarding educational freedom, calling the country’s laws against homeschooling a violation of basic human rights. The case has caused controversy over religious persecution in Germany, as the Romeikes claimed that German curriculum has turned against Christian values with the passage of time. It is not known if the US government will appeal the ruling.
Unlike in Germany, homeschooling is legal and increasing in popularity in the US, with recent figures suggesting that as many as 1.7 million children are homeschooled. Each state has its own homeschooling laws with varying levels of regulatory scrutiny, ranging from no notice required to homeschool children to mandatory notification of achievement and compliance with state curriculum. Homeschooling was outlawed in Germany in 1919, and the ban is enshrined within article 7 of the current constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany.