[JURIST] US District Judge Robert Pratt ruled Friday that a former Nazi guard who became a US citizen must relinquish his naturalization papers and passport. John Hansl of Des Moines Iowa, now 80, came to the United States under a 1953 immigration law intended to exclude people who aided in the persecution of others because of their race, religion or political views. Hansl said that he had disclosed that he had been in the German army when his family came to the US in 1955. Prosecutors said, however, that Hansl failed to reveal he had been a member of the SS Death's Head battalion [Wikipedia entry in German] that guarded concentration camps at Natzweiler [camp backgrounder] in France in 1944 and at Sachsenhausen [camp backgrounder] near Berlin in 1943. Read Judge Pratt's opinion [PDF]. AP has more.

Michael Ross [JURIST news archive] testified Friday at a hearing that he wants to be executed next month, defending his right to give up his death-row appeals. Ross says that he wants to spare his victims' families additional agony, but his father and a court-appointed lawyer believe that he may be suffering from mental illness and trying to commit state-assisted suicide. Ross is currently scheduled to be executed on May 11 for killing four women in Connecticut in 1983 and 1984 and would be the first person to be executed in New England in 45 years. AP has more.

[JURIST] Judge Thomas Horne of the Virginia Loudoun County Circuit [official website] sentenced a former Internet spammer to nine years in prison Friday for violating a Virginia anti-spam law [statute text] in the first US felony prosecution for sending unsolicited bulk e-mail. Jaynes was indicted [PDF] when investigators discovered that he was sending 10 million e-mails a day through a network of 16 high-speed lines. Such Internet capacity would sufficiently service a 1,000 employee company. Under VA law, sending unsolicited bulk e-mail is only a crime if the sender masks his identity. Jaynes, who defended himself by arguing that the law is an unconstitutional infringement of free speech, was named by prosecutors as one the top 10 spammers in the world. Under the name of "Gaven Stubberfield," Jaynes advertized junk products and pornography which grossed him up to $750,000 per month. Because of the newness of the law and the constitutional issues raised, however, serving of the sentence has been suspended pending appeal. AP has more.

[JURIST] Philip Alston [NYU faculty bio], a UN human rights investigator speaking in Geneva Friday, urged countries to remove their "cloak of secrecy" and disclose the numbers of prisoners executed and those waiting on death row. Alston, an Australian jurist and law professor, remarked that secrecy undermines procedural safeguards that ensure fairness and prevent errors and abuse. He further stated that secrecy "denies the human dignity of those sentenced, many of whom are still eligible to appeal, and it denies the rights of family members to know the fate of their closest relatives...." Alston has sought an invitation to China, which tops executions worldwide with 3,400 last year, and is also expected to visit Iran this year. Both countries have allegedly violated international law by executing prisoners under 18. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Six major electronics companies have been indicted for allegedly defrauding the federal E-Rate program, a $2.25 billion per-year project that assists underfunded schools and libraries in accessing the Internet. While some companies are accused of overcharging equipment and submitting false accounting statements, others are accused of bid rigging and billing the government for items never received. The Federal Communications Commission, which approved the program, commented that E-Rate's poor design makes it vulnerable to defraudment by equipment supplies. The indictment includes: Howe Electric Inc., Sema4 Inc., Digital Connect Communications, Expedition Networks Ltd., ADJ Consultants Inc., Video Network Communications Inc., and several other individuals. Attorneys for these firms has stated that their clients did not intend to defraud the government and that some of the firms will attempt to settle. AP has more.

[JURIST] AP is reporting that Eric Rudolph [Wikipedia profile] has agreed to plead guilty to four terrorist attacks, including the 1996 bombing at the Atlanta Olympic Games.

[JURIST] Lawyers for Mikhail Khodorkovsky [BBC profile], the former CEO of Yukos [corporate website], concluded their defense of the oil magnate Friday before the three judge panel that has heard the trial for the past 10 months. Khodorkovsky [JURIST news archive], once Russia's richest man, has been fending off charges of fraud, embezzlement, and tax evasion, arguing that the case is a politically motivated effort by the Kremlin to halt his financing of political parties opposed to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Prosecutors have pushed for a 10 year prison sentence [JURIST report] for both Khodorkovsky and business partner Platon Lebedev for their involvement in the downfall of Yukos. Yukos, Russia's former energy giant, is currently being dismantled, as it recently failed to receive US court protection [JURIST report] against a $28 billion tax bill. It may take until the middle of May for a verdict in the case. Khodorkovsky's defense website has posted an update on today's trial proceedings. AP has more.

[JURIST] Lawyers for "dirty bomb" suspect Jose Padilla [JURIST news archive] have asked the Supreme Court to rule on the constitutionality of Padilla's indefinite military detention. The Supreme Court considered Padilla's case last year, but dismissed the case on jurisdictional grounds [opinion, JURIST report], saying the lawsuit was improperly filed in New York. Padilla refiled his lawsuit [JURIST report] in South Carolina, and in February District Court Judge Henry Floyd granted Padilla habeas corpus [PDF ruling; JURIST report]. The Bush administration has appealed the ruling to the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, but Padilla's attorneys have now asked the Supreme Court to step in and hear the case beforehand. In Padilla's petition for writ of certiorari [PDF text, via How Appealing], his lawyers write that "Delay increases the chance that Padilla could be faced with an unconstitutionally coerced choice - for example, whether to plead guilty to a crime or to give up other rights in order to avoid further months of detention as an enemy combatant." AP has more. Human Rights First has a collection of case documents from the Padilla lawsuits.

[JURIST] The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia [official website] Friday unsealed the war crimes charges against former Bosnian Serb army captain Milorad Trbic. Trbic is charged [indictment] with crimes against humanity on the same indictment as former Bosnian Serb general Vinko Pandurevic [ICTY case backgrounder], who surrendered to the ICTY [JURIST report] in late March. The ICTY prosecutor alleges that Pandurevic, Trbic and others planned and ordered the attack that expelled or killed most of the Muslim members of the UN-protected Srebrenica enclave in 1995. Read the ICTY press release.

[JURIST] In his first interview since being named Iraq's president, Jalal Talabani [JURIST report; BBC profile] said Friday that the country's new constitution will be drafted by August 15, meeting the deadline stipulated in the Transitional Administrative Law [text]. There had been speculation that the draft could be delayed [JURIST report] up to six months due to the National Assembly's difficulty in forming a government, but Talabani said that "drafting the constitution will be done on time." Talabani also said that the new government will work to ensure that human rights are respected in Iraq and indicated that the government might enter into a dialogue with "misled Iraqis... who believe that they are carrying weapons to liberate Iraq from what they call occupation" and "call on them to join the Iraqi democratic process and issue a pardon for them." Reuters has more.

[JURIST] In a letter [text] sent to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld Thursday, the executive director of Human Rights Watch, Kenneth Roth, slammed the Defense Department's proposed changes to the guidelines concerning the detention of enemy combatants for violating protections outlined in the Geneva Conventions. The Joint Doctrine for Detainee Operations [PDF] extends the enemy combatant status normally reserved for members of al-Qaeda and the Taliban to anyone affiliated with terrorists or terrorist groups listed under a presidential order. In addition, the guidelines specify that humane treatment of detainees can be limited by “military necessity”. The HRW letter contends that the guidelines "[d]en[y] the protections of the Geneva Conventions to persons apprehended" and "represents a radical deviation from the standards that have traditionally guided US. military operations". Nearly 540 detainees are currently held as enemy combatants at Guantanamo. AP has more.

[JURIST] While in Rome for the funeral of Pope John Paul II, House Republican leader Tom DeLay [official website] has expressed his continued disappointment with federal judges, saying they have "run amok". Speaking by videotape Thursday to attendees at the Judeo-Christian Council for Constitutional Restoration's Confronting the Judical War on Faith [press release] conference, DeLay said that "unelected, and all too often, unaccountable courts have invented out of whole cloth previously invisible and unasserted constitutional rights to privacy, abortion on demand and same-sex marriage". Delay called for Congress to step in and limit federal judicial jurisdiction and impeach judges who overstep their power. Just last week New Jersey Democratic Senator Frank R. Lautenberg slammed DeLay {JURIST report] for making anti-judicial remarks in the aftermath of Terri Schiavo's death. AP has more.

[JURIST] Leading Friday's international brief, opposition members in Togo [government website in French] clashed with police on the first day of political campaigning for the national elections required by the resignation [JURIST report] of Faure Gnassingbe [BBC profile]. Protesters blocked off several streets with barricades of burning tires and were dispersed by the police firing tear gas into the crowd. Faure's agreement to step down after he was placed into the presidency by the nation's military led to the scheduling of national presidential elections for April 24, a date contested by the majority of the oppostion groups as too soon to allow for free and fair elections. Opposition parties have alleged the government distribution of voter cards has favored government party strongholds and have kept opposition members from gaining their cards. Togo's interim President Abass Bonfoh issued a statement [government press story in French] Thursday calling on both sides to follow election procedures and preserve a 'climate of peace.' JURIST's Paper Chase has continuing coverage of Togo [JURIST news archive]. BBC News has more.

In other international legal news ...

• The Kenyan Chapter [advocacy website] of the International Commission of Jurists [advocacy website] released a report Thursday that evaluated the state of the judiciary in Kenya [governments website] in light of the government's push to root out judicial corruption. The report, based on a fact-finding mission conducted in December 2004, alleged that the government's efforts to root out corruption were at best flawed for failing to provide basic rights to judges and magistrates accused of corruption, and were often self-serving in pushing out judges that failed to fall in line with government policy. The report also criticized the methods used for appointing acting judges to fill vacancies, saying that there was a lack of transparency in the appointment process. Read the ICJ-Kenya official press release. Read the ICJ-Kenya summary of the report. The East African Standard has local coverage.
  
  
• King Abdullah II [official website] of Jordan [government website] swore in a new cabinet Thursday after the old cabinet resigned under harsh criticism from the King concerning the pace of reforms in the country. Adnan Badran, a Michigan State University graduate, was appointed the new Prime Minister and pledged to speed the King's desired reforms as quickly as possible. King Abdullah has been a strong advocate of educational, economic, and technological reforms in the country, and has expressed a desire to see Jordan become a regional informational and technological hub. While the King has pushed for greater participation of political parties and women in the political process, he has been criticized for curbing the freedoms of the press and unions. AP has more.
  
  
• The tiny African nation of Djibouti held its presidential elections today amid police use of tear gas and batons to break up a protest of the one-candidate polls. Current Djibouti President Ismail Omar Guelleh is the only candidate standing for office, in what oppostion protesters called a rigged election. Djibouti is currently used as a base for US military forces, but has even begun to lose support from the US, as the US State Department issued a report [official text] in March which criticized the government for failing to allow its people to create democratic change. The single-candidate election has already been condemned as unfair by human rights groups and the US. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The Justice Department announced late Thursday that US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales [JURIST news archive] will not oversee the Enron criminal proceedings [JURIST news archive]. While no reason was given for the decision, Gonzales did legal work for Enron in the early 1990s, and accepted a $6,000 campaign contribution from an Enron political committee. Former Attorney General John Ashcroft also recused himself from the proceeding because he accepted campaign funds from the company during his Senate campaign. The proceeding will continue as scheduled, but prosecutors on the case will not report all the way up the chain of command to Gonzales. AP has more.

[JURIST] In Friday's environmental law news, CSX Transportation Inc. and the federal government have refused a proposal by US District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan [official profile] to help settle a dispute with Washington DC officials over the city's plan to ban railroad shipments of hazardous cargo. The ban, passed by the DC Council [official website] and signed by Mayor Anthony Williams [official profile], was to have begun Monday. CSX has argued that the ban is unconstitutional because only the federal government can regulate railroads, and that detours around cities would interfere with the national transportation of important chemicals. Judge Sullivan had offered to broker settlement talks and proposed three conditions: that the city delay the ban for 30 days, that CSX halt shipments through the District for the same period, and that federal officials privately explain their plans to secure the rails to top city officials. Both CSX and federal officials balked at the conditions, setting up a court battle. Background materials, including the legal filings[official website, most document links are PDF], are provided by the DC Attorney General. The Washington Post has more.

In other news,

• Liberia's Executive Director of the Environmental Protection Agency, Dr. Fodee Kromah, has recommended that the Firestone [corporate website] Rubber Plantation Company compensate the Government of Liberia a total amount of US$79 million (1 million for each year of operation) for alleged environmental damages, including air, ground, and water pollution. GlobalSecurity.org has a history of the plantation. The Monrovia Analyst has more.
  
  
• Canada's Prime Minister Paul Martin [official bio] has announced that he stands behind the appointment of former Winnipeg mayor and failed Liberal candidate Glen Murray [official bio] as chairman of the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy [official website]. The House of Commons voted Wednesday 143-108 calling on the PM to withdraw the appointment. The vote, however, was not binding and was not a confidence issue that could have triggered an election. The Toronto Globe and Mail has more.
  
  
• The California Energy Commission's [official website] Climate Change Advisory Committee [official website] is considering a cap-and-trade program for greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. Officials are concerned, however, that if CA acts alone other states could take economic advantage of the self-imposed emissions limitation by selling electricity to CA at lower prices than CA producers could afford. AP has more.

[JURIST] The New York Times reported Friday that documents for a transaction at the center of a wide-ranging probe into American International Group Inc. [official website] were doctored two months after the deal was made. The deal was reportedly "repapered" by mid-level employees of General Re [official website], a unit of Berkshire Hathaway [official website]. Lawyers for Berkshire Hathaway discovered the modification while conducting an unrelated audit of General Re. The Securities and Exchange Commission [official website] along with New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer [official website] are investigating the transaction to determine if AIG improperly made the deal to burnish its books. Former AIG chief executive Maurice Greenberg [Wikipedia profile] is scheduled to meet with regulators Tuesday and Berkshire Hathaway head Warren E. Buffett [Wikipedia profile], not a target of the probe, is serving as a "cooperating witness" to regulators. AP has more.

[JURIST] A new poll shows that sixty-one percent of Japanese voters support amending the country's US-drafted pacifist constitution [full text] but there is disagreement about how far Japan should move from its renunciation of war. Article 9 of the Japanese constitution renounces the right to keep a military or threaten military action. This is the second year in a row that more than sixty percent supported a constitutional revision in a poll, and the results come as Japan is raising its military and diplomatic profile around the world. Non-combat troops were sent to Iraq last year in its first deployment to a combat zone since the close of World War II and the country is working on a joint missile defense program with the US [BBC article]. A draft revision by ruling party lawmakers proposes a recognition of the right to use military force for self-defense purposes. AFP has more.

[JURIST] The two main parties in Mexico's Congress joined forces late Thursday to strip Mexico City's mayor Manuel Lopez Obrador [Wikipedia profile] of immunity so he can be charged with contempt of court, threatening his bid for the presidency in 2006 [JURIST report]. The charges stem from a relatively minor land expropriation dispute and it is unclear if Lopez Obrador personally made any decisions in the matter. Lopez Obrador denied the charges and claimed it was an attempt by current president Vincente Fox [BBC profile] to oust him from the race for president. Though the left-leaning Lopez Obrador enjoys huge popularity in Mexico City, where he carried out public works and introduced food stamps for the elderly, his current lead in the opinion polls may be in vain if he is found guilty and banned from the presidential race next July. The federal Attorney General's office says it will immediately request a court order for Lopez Obrador's arrest. If approved the mayor will be removed from office but it remains unclear when this will occur and what effect it will ultimately have on his bid for the presidency. AP has more.

[JURIST] Here's a run-down of law-related events, expected developments and live webcasts on JURIST's docket for Friday, April 8.

The US House [official website] opens its session at 10 AM ET today. Watch a live webcast. The US Senate [official website] is not in session.

The University of South Carolina School of Law is hosting the 2005 Rudolph C. Barnes Sr. Symposium [official website] titled "Religion, Ethics & Armed Conflict Law: Afghanistan, Iraq & the War on Terror" today. View an agenda of presentations, and watch a live webcast of the event.

The Manhattan Institute for Policy Research [official website] is holding a forum on immigration reform at Noon ET today. Watch a live webcast via C-SPAN.

The Progress and Freedom Foundation [official website] is holding a seminar on broadcast indecency at 12:10 PM ET today. Watch a live webcast via C-SPAN 2.

The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars [official website] is holding a forum titled "Can Businesses Survive in Russia if They Obey the Law?" at 4 PM ET today. Watch a live webcast of the event.

Djibouti [BBC News profile] is holding presidential elections today.

The UN General Assembly [official website] convenes at 10 AM ET today, when it will consider a report by Secretary-General Kofi Annan following up on the Millenium Summit [official website]. Watch a live webcast of the session.

At the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, the trial of Slobodan Milosevic [ICTY case backgrounder] continues today at 9:30 AM local time [3:30 AM ET]. Also today, the trial of Fatmir Limaj and others [ICTY case backgrounder] continues today at 2:45 PM local time [8:45 AM ET]. Watch a webcast of proceedings.