[JURIST] A US military court Tuesday selected a panel of six soldiers, all American Iraqi war veterans, to sentence Pfc. Lynndie England, the face of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. England pleaded guilty [JURIST report] Monday to seven charges and her sentence is expected to be delivered by the panel on Thursday. There were originally nine individuals in the jury pool, but three were dismissed after their objectivity was questioned. England will serve either the as-yet-undisclosed sentence set by her plea bargain (presumed to be less than the 11 years maximum under the charges) or the jury's sentence, whichever is less. Reuters has more.

Former Bosnia Serb General Vinko Pandurevic pleaded not guilty Tuesday to war crimes charges [UN case information sheet] linked to the 1995 Srebrenica massacre [BBC timeline] of over 7,000 Muslim males. Pandurevic was indicted [amended indictment] five years ago on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and violations of the law or customs of war. He gave himself up to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia [official website] at The Hague in March of this year but delayed his plea at that time. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Togo's constitutional court Tuesday confirmed ruling party candidate Faure Gnassingbe [campaign website in French] as the official winner of the disputed April 24 presidential election. According to the court, Gnassingbe won by 60.15 percent of the vote. The constitutional court said that the opposition's candidate Bob Akitani [opposition UFC website in French] took 38.25 percent of the vote. The court complex was heavily secured for the announcement, with trucks carrying machine guns outside, for fear that the official presidential results would spark new rioting [JURIST report] such as occured after Togo's election commission announced preliminary results last week. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Exiled former President of Liberia Charles Taylor [PBS profile] will remain a threat to the entire West African region until he is tried and has said he will continue his efforts to assassinate Guinean President Lansana Conte [profile] according to David Crane [court profile], chief prosecutor for the Special Court for Sierra Leone [official website]. Taylor had attempted to assassinate Conte in January 2005 due to Conte's support of a rebel faction in Liberia, the Liberian United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) [profile]. In an interview Crane also stressed Taylor's potentially dangerous impact on the region in general, since Taylor even while in exile in Nigeria has has allegedly maintained contact with his political allies in Liberia and mobilized a network of warlords to terrorize West Africa. Despite pressure from the US and Europe, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria has refused to hand Taylor over for trial under a Special Court indictment [PDF] until there is a request from the Liberian government that he do so. IRIN has more.

[JURIST] New Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari [BBC profile] and 27 Cabinet members were sworn in Tuesday [AP report] as Iraq's first post-Saddam elected government. That government remains incomplete, however, with five ministries under temporary leadership and two deputy prime ministers' slots empty. Most of the vacancies are eventually expected to go to representatives of the country's Sunni majority, who refused to participate in the January elections and are still not cooperating with al-Jaafari in the formation of a new government, which many regard as illegitimate. The new government has promised to unite Iraq's rival factions and fight terrorism. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] Thousands of Omanis on Tuesday gathered at a mosque in Oman's capital city of Muscat to protest Monday's state security court conviction of 31 people [Oman News Agency report] for plotting to overthrow Sultan Qaboos [Oman Ministry of Information profile] and attempting to install an Islamic government. A human rights activist at the scene told Reuters that police had begun to disperse the crowd and that several people had been taken into custody. Over 100 suspects were arrested earlier this year based on unconfirmed reports of a planned attack at a popular cultural festival, but most had been released. Although the prosecution called for the death penalty, the typical penalty for plotting to overthrow the government, the remaining suspects were sentenced to prison from 7 to 20 years, with the right to appeal to Sultan Qaboos within the next 30 days. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi [BBC profile] emerged victorious Tuesday after the European Court of Justice (ECJ) [official website] ruled [ECJ press release, PDF] that EU law could not overrule an Italian law partially decriminalizing false accounting crimes. The court further held that penalties under Italian law could not be increased under EU directivea. False accounting penalties were relaxed by legislation in 2001 which forced an end to a corporate corruption trial involving the newly-elected Italian leader. The court's statement made clear over objections of prosecutors that an individual government has the right to decide on criminal penalties so long as they lived up to the EU's requirement of being "effective, proportionate and dissuasive...." Berlusconi has been tried in several corruption cases but has always denied wrongdoing, blaming charges on politically motivated magistrates. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The UK-based group Military Families Against the War [advocacy website] delivered a letter of claim [DOC text] to Prime Minister Tony Blair [official website] Tuesday demanding a full independent public inquiry into the deaths of their relatives and the legality of UK participation in the war in Iraq. In a supporting press release, the Stop the War Coalition [advocacy website] outlined crimes allegedly committed by Blair, which include committing to the war without sufficient evidence of WMDs as well as withholding the Attorney General's reservations about going to war [JURIST report] from the British cabinet and Parliament. The families say that if the Government does not concede within 14 days that an inquiry must be established they will apply for judicial review. The call for an inquiry comes just two days before Britons go to the polls in a national election; the Blair government has been harshly criticized in recent days over actions leading up to the war, but the latest polls indicate the governing Labour party will be returned to power for a third term. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) [official website] has called on American political and religious leaders to repudiate remarks by evangelist Pat Robertson [official website] who said Sunday on This Week with George Stephanopoulos that Muslims should not be appointed to positions in the US government, including judgeships. Robertson is quoted as saying "They [i.e. Muslims] have said in the Quran there's a war against all the infidels... Do you want somebody like that sitting as a judge? I wouldn't." Rabiah Ahmed, CAIR's communication coordinator, commented that "[t]his type of hate-filled rhetoric deserves repudiation from all who respect America's long-standing tradition of pluralism...." Robertson has been accused numerous times in the past for defaming Muslims on his Christian Broadcasting Network program, the "700 Club." Read the CAIR news release. World Net Daily has more.

[JURIST] Dennis Rader [profile], the man accused [JURIST report] of being Kansas's BTK (bind, torture, kill) serial killer, pleaded not guilty Monday to 10 counts of murder. The BTK killer was suspected of eight murders from 1974 to 1991, but authorities linked two additional victims. AP has more.

[JURIST] The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court [official website] Monday heard a bid to restrain same-sex couples from marrying until state residents can vote on a proposed state constitutional amendment [amendment text] banning such marriages. The action was brought by C.J. Doyle, executive director of the Catholic Action League of Massachusetts. Members of the full court, which heard Monday's bid, were reported as appearing "skeptical" of the petitioner's arguments. Justice Martha Sosman [official profile], who dissented from the court's 2004 legalization of same-sex marriage, stated that until Justice Roderick Ireland's 2003 opinion [opinion text] is proven erronenous, "that's the end of it." While about 5,000 same-sex couples have been married since the Court's ruling was implemented in May 2004, the MA state legislature approved last March a constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage. It must be approved by lawmakers once more before it reaches the ballot in November, 2006. AP has more.

[JURIST] In an attempt to break a ten-year deadlock over reforming the United Nations Security Council [official website], Italy suggested Monday that a new system be instituted by which the council would award 10 new seats to regional groups rather than individual countries. The novel idea arose as Jean Ping [UN profile], president of the UN General Assembly [official website], noted that reform must be instituted or the Security Council faces a steep drop in public opinion. Under Italy's plan, dubbed "Model B," a new tier of semi-permanent regional seats would be created: three for Asia, three for Africa, two for Latin American and Caribbean States, and one each for Eastern and Western Europe. While Italian ambassador to the UN Marcello Spatafora stated that Model B would provide a "fresh, equitable approach," he also remarked that any plan would still traditionally keep the initial 15 seats: 10 for two-term elected countries and five permanent veto-entilted seats for Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States. Currently, the only other proposal being taken seriously is "Model A," which simply proposes six new permanent seats to be filled by countries such as Japan, Germany, Brazil, and India. Read Ambassador Spatafora's full statement. AP has more.

[JURIST] Ziad al-Khasawneh [Atlantic profile], the Jordanian head of Saddam Hussein's legal defense team, claimed Monday that Iranian-backed Iraqi politicians are plotting to assassinate Hussein in prison. Al-Khasawneh based his claim on information received from a former Iraqi government official he identified as Hazem al-Obeidi, although the authenticity of the warning has not been otherwise verified. An Iraqi national security advisor called the claim ridiculous and said that it is just another attempt by Hussein's legal team to secure a trial by an international tribunal [JURIST report] instead of the Iraqi Special Tribunal [governing statute]. AP has more. Iran has similarly dismissed the accusations [Melbourne Age report; registration required]. An Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hamid Reza Asefi, told reporters "Saddam has been dead since a long time ago, he doesn't need to be assassinated." Iran national security advisor Mouwafak al-Rubaie described the claims as an obvious attempt to get Hussein's trial in front of an international court. Since Hussein's capture, many Iraqis claim that Iran has been meddling in their affairs by backing the Shi'ite Muslim clergy. Iran denies those accusations as well. Aljazeera has more.

[JURIST] A Danish intelligence officer, Reserve Capt. Annemette Hommel, and four military police sergeants pleaded not guilty Monday to charges of abuse of Iraqi prisoners [JURIST report]. The military prosecutor, Benny Holm Frandsen, told a Copenhagen court that the soldiers were guilty of inhumane treatment of prisoners [JURIST report]. Hommel, who could face up to one year in prison, has denied the charges and claimed that she did not know the interrogation methods were illegal. Hommel was quoted in the Danish press as saying "I was fully convinced that the training was in accordance with the Geneva conventions ... nobody told me that I could not use the tools I was given by the army." The trial is expected to last until December. Despite it, the Danes are not expected to begin withdrawal from Iraq until at least June, and the Danish people are still largely in favor of the government's support of the war. The Danish government website provides a news report on the start of court proceedings. Reuters has more; Århus Stiftstidende has local coverage [in Danish].

[JURIST] In an escalation of the controversy over judicial nominations, the conservative group Progress for America [advocacy website] began running television advertisements in six states Monday at the outset of a $3.3 million dollar TV ad campaign that will go nationwide next week. The first two ads [recorded video] highlight Judge Janice Brown and Judge Priscilla Owen, blocked by Democrats in the full Senate but earlier approved and recently re-approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee [official website]. The liberal People for the American Way [advocacy website] says it will spend a total of $5 million on its own television ads [recorded video] criticizing the nominees and characterizing Republicans as power-hungry. The New York Times has more.