[JURIST] In a brief statement Friday afternoon outside the White House, President Bush called Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald's "legal proceedings" against resigned Cheney chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby [official profile] "serious", but stressed that Libby is presumed innocent and entitled to due process and a fair trial. He said that Libby had "sacrificed much" in the service of his country in "extraordinary times." He added that he and the White House staff still had a lot of work to do, and that "pretty soon" he would be naming someone to the Supreme Court. Read the full text of the President's remarks [White House press release]. Bush's comments echoed an earlier written statement [press release] from Vice President Cheney, accepting Libby's resignation. Libby resigned earlier Friday shortly after his indictment [PDF text; JURIST report] on obstruction of justice and perjury charges in the CIA leak case [JURIST news archive].

[JURIST] A New York appellate court has upheld a lower court ruling [JURIST report] banning New Paltz [official website; JURIST news archive] Mayor Jason West from performing same-sex marriages. The unanimous five-judge panel said West "acted beyond his authority" when he presided over 24 gay marriages last year. West was tried for violating New York's domestic relations law [JURIST report], but has repeatedly argued that he was attempting to uphold the constitutional rights of gay couples. Justice John Lahtinen wrote the court's opinion [PDF text] saying:

West robed himself with judicial powers and declared the marriage laws of this state unconstitutional. Having concluded that the Legislature violated the constitution, he then wrapped himself with that body's power and drafted his own set of documents for licensing marriages. In so doing, he clearly exceeded his role as a village mayor.

[JURIST] I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby [official profile], who served as chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney before resigning Friday following his indictment [PDF text; JURIST report] on obstruction of justice and perjury charges in the CIA leak case [JURIST news archive], was the first administration official known to talk to a reporter about the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame when he talked to the New York Times' Judith Miller [JURIST news archive] in June 2003, US Department of Justice Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald [official website] said in a press conference Friday afternoon. Earlier this month Miller said that she "didn't think" she got the name from Libby [JURIST report], and said she couldn't recall who she heard the name from. Fitzgerald also said that the investigation into the leak of undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity is not yet over, but noted that the bulk of the work has been completed. Fitzgerald said that the current grand jury's term has expired and will not be renewed, but said that, if necessary, another federal grand jury could be empaneled. Fitzgerald also declined to comment about possible charges [JURIST report] against top presidential advisor Karl Rove [official profile], saying that it was only appropriate to comment on indictments actually returned by the grand jury.

[JURIST] Spain's National Court Friday upheld arrest warrants for three US soldiers charged with the 2003 killing of Spanish journalist Jose Couso [advocacy website] in Iraq. Couso was killed while filming for Spain's Telecinco [media website in Spanish] network from a balcony in Baghdad's Palestine Hotel. Prosecutors for the National Court challenged the warrants [JURIST report], which were issued last week [JURIST report], saying the Spanish court did not have jurisdiction over the matter and also because the warrants had procedural flaws. National Court Judge Santiago Pedraz disagreed, however, and denied contentions that the warrants were a "reprisal" for the lack of cooperation by US officials into a Spanish investigation of the killing. Reporters Without Borders and the Committee to Protect Journalists [advocacy websites] decided to assist Couso's family in pursuing the criminal case against the three US soldiers after the Pentagon cleared the men from any wrongdoing [Reporters Without Borders report] in Couso's death. The soldiers cannot be arrested on US soil, but could face detention if they travel to any country with an extradition treaty with Spain. BBC has more; from Madrid, EFE has local coverage.

[JURIST] Australian terror suspect David Hicks [BBC profile; advocacy website] has confirmed his plans to sue the United Kingdom government [JURIST report] over its disinclination to grant him British citizenship. Hicks was captured in Afghanistan four years ago and is accused of fighting with the Taliban against US or coalition forces and for training with al-Qaida. He has been held in the Guantanamo Bay prison camp [JURIST news archive] since his capture and applied for British citizenship [JURIST report] last month. Hicks' interest in becoming a UK citizen stems from the British government's negotiations for the release [JURIST report] of nine UK citizens held in Guantanamo Bay. All nine were released and repatriated to the UK, but it is doubtful that Hicks will follow them since the British Home Office [official website] sent a letter to his lawyers saying his application would most likely not succeed due to "public policy considerations." Hicks will stand trial before a military commission [JURIST report] beginning November 18. From Australia, the Adelaide Advertiser has more.

[JURIST] Leading Friday's environmental law news, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) [official website] has released an analysis [EPA press release] comparing a number of different proposed legislative and regulatory initiatives aimed at reducing air pollution from coal fired power plants. The analysis [text], presented by EPA administrator Steve Johnson before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, concluded that the Clear Skies [PDF text, EPA backgrounder] proposal promoted by President Bush was superior to current law and other alternative proposals. The New York Times has more.

In other environmental law news...

• The California Air Resources Board [official website] announced Thursday that it was reversing a decision, made last week, that would have imposed new smog emission standards on new buses beginning in 2007. The Board's action will now delay implementation of the standard until 2010. The Los Angeles Times has more.
  
  
• The Massachusetts Joint Committee on the Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture [official website] has released a bill [text] that will update the state's Toxic Use Reduction Act (TURA) [text, MA DEP backgrounder]. The changes will align state and federal toxic chemical reporting guidelines and create graduated fines and fees based on the toxicity of the chemicals being used. The Bolton Common has more.
  
  
• The Indonesian government established the National Commission on the Clean Development Mechanism [official website] Thursday to promote and regulate the transfer of air emission credits from private Indonesia companies to developed nations. Under the Kyoto Protocol [text], nations must reduce their pollution emissions, or if unable to do so, they can satisfy the requirement by paying for emissions reduction programs in other countries [UN backgrounder]. The new commission will work to coordinate the transactions between local private companies and the foreign governments. The Jakarta Post has more.

[JURIST] George Galloway, a member of the British Parliament, allegedly received an allocation for 18 million barrels of oil from Saddam Hussein through the UN oil-for-food program [official website; JURIST news archive] in exchange for assistance in getting UN sanctions lifted against the former regime, according to the last report [text] released [JURIST report] Thursday by the UN's Independent Inquiry Committee (IIC) [official website]. The 500-page document indicates that $445,000 made its way through the Mariam Appeal [charity website], a fund that the MP created for Iraqis with leukemia, which was also used to oppose UN sanctions against Iraq. The current IIC report further alleges that $120,000 from oil revenues were paid to Galloway's soon-to-be ex-wife, Dr. Amineh Abu Zayyad, which is separate from the alleged $150,000 in oil sales paid to Zayyad which was uncovered by a US Senate investigation. Galloway has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, claiming the report is "untrue, unjust, [and] misleading." Reuters has more; from the UK, the Independent has local coverage.

Meanwhile, reactions by the leaders of countries named in the IIC report for wrongdoing have been defensive. Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov [official biography] said Friday that many of the documents relied upon by the IIC to implicate senior Russian officials and LUKOIL Oil Company [corporate website] in the oil-for-food scandal were fakes, including the signatures of several Russian officials. Reuters has more. Also, Australian Prime Minister John Howard [official website] defended the Australian Wheat Board [corporate website] amidst allegations that the wheat exporter provided kickbacks to the Iraqi government, saying he could not "imagine for a moment that they would have knowingly been involved in anything improper." AFP has more.

[JURIST] KGW.com is reporting that the federal grand jury empaneled in the CIA leak probe [JURIST news archive] has handed up an indictment for I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby [official profile], Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, on charges of obstruction of justice, making a false statement and perjury. The charges follow a two-year investigation that began when the identity of undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame [JURIST news archive] was revealed days after her husband, Ambassador Joseph Wilson, criticized the Bush administration's pre-Iraq war intelligence. US Department of Justice Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald [official website] has scheduled a press conference for 2 PM ET Friday. Watch a live webcast, via C-SPAN.

1:05 PM ET - According to the five-count indictment, Libby lied to investigators about how and when he learned of Plame's identity. Libby had initially told the grand jury that he first learned of Plame's identity from journalists, but earlier this week, it was reported that Cheney was the first person to discuss Plame with Libby [JURIST report]. Additionally, there had been speculation [JURIST report] earlier this week that the grand jury would also return an indictment for top presidential advisor Karl Rove [official profile]. Earlier Friday, however, Rove's lawyer said that he had been told by Fitzgerald's office that there will no indictment against Rove [JURIST report] at this time, though investigators will continue their probe into his conduct. AP has more.

1:14 PM ET - KGW.com is reporting that Libby has resigned his White House position.

1:20 PM ET - Fitzgerald has now released the indictment [PDF text]. According to an accompanying statement from the DOJ Office of Special Counsel:

Senior White House official I. Lewis Libby was indicted today on obstruction of justice, false statement and perjury charges for allegedly lying about how and when in 2003 he learned and subsequently disclosed to reporters then-classified information concerning the employment of Valerie Wilson by the Central Intelligence Agency. Libby was charged with one count of obstruction of justice, two counts of perjury and two counts of making false statements in a five-count indictment returned today by a federal grand jury as its term expired, announced Justice Department Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald. ...

The charges allege that Libby lied to FBI agents who interviewed him on October 14 and November 26, 2003; committed perjury while testifying under oath before the grand jury on March 5 and March 24, 2004; and engaged in obstruction of justice by impeding the grand jury's investigation into the unauthorized disclosure - or "leaking" - of Valerie Wilson’s affiliation with the CIA to various reporters in the spring of 2003. ...

If convicted, the crimes charged in the indictment carry the following maximum penalties on each count: obstruction of justice - 10 years in prison, and making false statements and perjury -5 years in prison, and each count carries a maximum fine of $250,000, making the maximum penalty for conviction on all counts 30 years in prison and a $1.25 million fine. Note, however, that the Court would determine the appropriate sentence to be imposed.

[JURIST] An Italian court began hearings on Friday to decide if Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi [BBC News profile, JURIST news archive] will stand trial for fraud in connection with his business holdings [JURIST report]. Berlusconi has previously been cleared of charges of false accounting [JURIST report] and bribery [JURIST report] for separate incidents. If charges are approved, it could result in a trial that coincides with next April's general election. The most serious accusation against Berlusconi resulting from a four-year investigation into a TV rights deal involving Mediaset [corporate website in Italian], controlled by a holding company controlled by Berlusconi's family, is tax fraud. Berlusconi has denied any wrongdoing. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The defense team for Saddam Hussein [JURIST news archive] renewed its call for a change of venue [JURIST report] for his trial on Friday, this time asking UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan [official profile] to put pressure on the US and Iraqi government to move the trial to The Hague. The defense team noted both security concerns in the wake of the murder [JURIST report] of a lawyer for one of Hussein's co-defendants and legal issues about the legitimacy of the Iraqi Special Tribunal [official website] and the fairness of the proceedings. AFP has more.

ALSO ON JURIST  Topic: Saddam Hussein Trial | Op-ed: Saddam in the Dock: The Challenge of Didactic Justice

[JURIST] Dr. Rafil Dhafir, an oncologist in the Syracuse, New York area, was sentenced to 22 years in prison on Thursday after being convicted of 59 charges in February, including mail and wire fraud, conspiracy, tax evasion and money laundering. Dhafir was indicted in 2003 [JURIST report] for funneling donations for his Help The Needy charity to Iraq in violation of US sanctions. Dhafir told the court on Thursday that the prosecution's fraud case against him was politically motivated [Aljazeera report] and was misrepresented because he could not be linked to terrorism. Then-Attorney General John Ashcroft characterized Dhafir as a terrorist, but no terrorism charges were ever filed and both parties were forbidden from mentioning terrorism at trial. The Syracuse Post-Standard has local coverage.

[JURIST] Former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman [official profile] pleaded not guilty on Thursday afternoon to charges related to what prosecutors are calling a "widespread racketeering conspiracy" [JURIST report]. Former Chief of Staff Paul Hamrick and former state Transportation Director Mack Roberts also pleaded not guilty on Thursday. Richard Scrushy [defense website], the former HealthSouth CEO who was acquitted of fraud charges [JURIST report] in June, is expected in court Friday to enter a plea on bribery charges. Prosecutors say $500,000 in contributions that Scrushy made to the Alabama Educational Lottery Foundation in 1999 and 2000 were intended to secure his position on a state board overseeing hospital expansion. Scrushy's lawyer said "[he] is not guilty and will be fully vindicated at trial." The Washington Post has more. The Montgomery Advertiser has local coverage.

[JURIST] Jailed Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky [MosNews profile; JURIST news archive] issued a statement [full text] on his defense website Thursday criticizing the Russian government and vowing to keep his case in the news:

[The Kremlin is] hoping that Khodorkovsky will soon be forgotten. They are trying to convince you, my friends, that the fight is over. That one has to reconcile oneself to the rule of self-serving bureaucrats in Russia. That is not true. The fight is just beginning.

ALSO ON JURIST  Op-ed: A Wake-up Call: Khodorkovsky and the Rule of Law in Russia

[JURIST] Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party [official website, English version], led by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, on Friday proposed changes to the pacifist language of the country's constitution, originally written by US occupation forces in 1947. Article 9 of Japan's constitution [text] requires Japan to renounce the right to wage war or threaten force to settle international disputes. It also forbids Japan from maintaining a military, although Japan has been allowed to maintain a Self-Defense Force [GlobalSecurity profile] of about 240,000 troops. The LDP and top opposition party the Democratic Party of Japan [official website, English version] want to amend Article 9 to clearly establish entitlement to the SDF [JURIST report]. A two-thirds majority of both houses of parliament must approve the changes. If it passes in Parliament, a nationwide referendum would be held for final approval. In July, thousands of protestors voiced disapproval for such a revision [JURIST report]. The move may also further strain relations with Japan's neighbors, especially China and South Korea. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle [official website] has subpoenaed all 2002 e-mail correspondence to and from the three indicted associates of Rep. Tom DeLay [official website; JURIST news archive], though the request was not made of DeLay. John Colyandro, Jim Ellis and Warren RoBold were indicted [JURIST report] along with DeLay on conspiracy and money laundering charges for allegedly funneling corporate money to seven GOP candidates for the Texas Legislature in violation of Texas state law. DeLay has denied [campaign website legal analysis] any wrong doing and accused Earle of pursing the case for political reasons. Last week, DeLay asked [JURIST report] Judge Bob Perkins to recuse himself because of contributions made to Democratic candidates and liberal advocacy groups. A hearing on that motion is scheduled for Nov. 1 [JURIST report]. AP has more.

ALSO ON JURIST  Op-ed: Tom DeLay's Challenge to Texas Grand Jury Process

[JURIST] UN officials have announced that Mexico will become the 100th nation to ratify the Rome Statute [PDF text], the 1998 treaty creating the International Criminal Court [official website], when Mexican officials deposit their ratification documents Friday. The court was established to try individuals for serious international crimes, including genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Its governing Rome Statute took effect in 2002 [ICC backgrounder]; offences commited after that date are liable for prosecution by the ICC. The US opposes the court [State Dept. fact sheet] and has insisted that US officials, soldiers and contractors be exempted from ICC prosecution by threatening to cut military aid to countries that do not sign so-called Article 98 agreements [State Dept. backgrounder] promising not to surrender US persons to the court without US consent. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] White House advisor Karl Rove [official profile] has been told that he will not be indicted Friday by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald [official website] in the CIA leak case [JURIST news archive], according to reports from ABC News and Sky News. Fitzgerald is expected to announce indictments [JURIST report] Friday in the two-year investigation into the leak of undercover operative Valerie Plame's identity. Administration officials could be charged for violating the 1982 Intelligence Identities Protection Act [50 USC s. 421 text] if Fitzgerald can show that any person disclosing Plame's identity knew of her covert status. According to people briefed on the case, however, Rove will remain under investigation, which may prompt Fitzgerald to extend the term of the federal grand jury [Dayton Law backgrounder]. An indictment is expected for I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby [official profile], Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff. It is thought that Libby will be charged with making false statements [JURIST report] to the grand jury, and White House officials have said that they presume Libby will resign if indicted. Friday's New York Times has more.

[JURIST] French President Jacques Chirac has called for an international tribunal to try Syrian and Lebanese suspects in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri [JURIST news archive]. The UN International Independent Investigation Commission (UNIIIC) submitted its interim report [text; JURIST report] to the UN Security Council last week, which implicated both Syrian and Lebanese security officials in the February bomb attack which also killed 22 others. The report also named high level Syrian officials as suspects. Chirac said Thursday that he preferred an international tribunal because Lebanese courts could be prone to intimidation, but stressed that should domestic courts be used to try suspects that there be international support and guarantees of a fair trial. Hariri's son has also called for an international trial [JURIST report], but the US and other nations are reluctant to create another international tribunal fearing the cost and time involved. Meanwhile Friday, the US, France and Great Britain circulated a revised draft UN resolution [AFP report] threatening economic and political sanctions under Article 41 of the UN Charter [text] against Syria if it did not fully cooperate with the ongoing probe into Hariri's murder. The revised draft, however, tones down language on punitive measures and provides that any sanctions would be overseen by a special committee [Middle East Times report]. The draft resolution triggered immediate opposition by Algeria, China and Russia in the UN Security Council. China and Russia are both veto-holding members of the Council and would need to approve the resolution. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan [official profile] on Thursday endorsed [press release] a Declaration of Principles for International Election Observation [PDF text] and an accompanying Code of Conduct in efforts to begin establishing new standards for international election monitoring. The new standards stress that human rights and democracy cannot be achieved without the protections of the rule of law, and require that participating observer organizations maintain impartiality through all stages of the election process. The guidelines also bar monitors from accepting funding from host governments and call for freedom of movement and full access to information for monitors. Annan said that "The presence of international election observers -- fielded always at the invitation of sovereign States -- can make a big difference in ensuring that elections genuinely move the democratic process forward. Their mere presence can dissuade misconduct, ensure transparency, and inspire confidence in the process." The guidelines are the result of a joint effort by the UN Electoral Assistance Division [official website], the Carter Center [official website] and the National Democratic Institute [official website]. UN News has more.