[JURIST] CIA interrogators tried to cover up the death of a man who died while being questioned at Abu Ghraib [JURIST news archive] prison, according to a TIME magazine report [press release] published Sunday. The death of Manadel al-Jamadi [Wikipedia profile] was ruled a homicide in a US Department of Defense official autopsy obtained by TIME, citing cause of death as "blunt force injuries" and "asphyxiation." Al-Jamadi was captured by US Navy SEALs on November 4, 2003 and held in Abu Ghraib prison as a "ghost detainee," or unregistered prisoner, for his suspected involvement in the bombing of a Red Cross center in Baghdad that killed 12 people. Ninety minutes after entering CIA custody he was dead and his body was preserved in ice, allegedly to cover up the circumstances of his death. Several figures in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal were later photographed with the body [Charles Graner photo] making "thumbs-up" signs. A US Navy SEAL was court-martialed [JURIST report] in March in connection with al-Jamadi's death, but was later acquitted [AP report]. Mark Swanner, the CIA officer identified as having conducted al-Jamadi's interrogation, has not been prosecuted in connection with his death and has denied any wrongdoing. TIME concludes that "the way al-Jamadi's death was handled after the fact raises questions about whether the CIA is under adequate legal oversight"; the Bush administration is currently pushing for the CIA to be exempt [JURIST report] from the proposed McCain amendment [JURIST document] prohibiting "cruel, inhuman or degrading" interrogation tactics detainee treatment. AFP has more.

[JURIST] President Bush is set to sign a bill [text] this week providing for US military assistance to Nepal [JURIST news archive] if its government "has restored civil liberties, is protecting human rights, and has demonstrated, through dialogue with Nepal's political parties, a commitment to a clear timetable to restore multi-party democratic government consistent with the 1990 Nepalese Constitution." Another condition requires Nepal to grant the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights [official website] and other international organizations unimpeded access to all political detainees and places of detention and honor habeas corpus orders issued by Nepalese courts. The provisions come shortly after US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld defended [JURIST report] the US government's refusal to permit UN rights observers [JURIST report] from interviewing its own detainees at Guantanamo Bay. Nepal's King Gyanendra seized power [JURIST report] in February, dismissing the government, jailing politicians and suspending civil liberties, saying he had to act to crush the anti-monarchy Maoist insurgency. Kantipur Online has local coverage.

[JURIST] Lawyers for former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic [ICTY fact sheet] are urging another postponement in his trial for war crimes [JURIST news archive] at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website], which has now spanned four years. After complaining recently of pains in the neck, ears and head, Milosevic was examined by three doctors from France, Russia and Serbia. They found his condition to be ‘unstable’ and recommended complete rest ‘for a minimum of six weeks.’ Milosevic, who despite having his own Serbian legal advisors as well as two British defense counsel who have been assigned to him is acting as his own lawyer before the ICTY, has already missed 70 days in court, and his trial was previously delayed when the presiding judge, Richard May, died of a brain tumor last year. While ICTY rules do not prohibit a trial in absentia, defense witnesses have refused to appear on past occasions when Milosevic has been absent due to illness. The New York Times has more.

[JURIST] Four people were killed [AP report] Saturday in continued violence [JURIST report] over proposed changes to the Kenyan constitution [PDF text] as police tried to break up an anti-constitution rally in Mombassa, where President Mwai Kibaki [official profile], a supporter of the constitution, was visiting. Kenyans will vote in a November 21 referendum [Reuters factbox] for the first major changes to the Kenyan charter since the country received independence from Britain in 1963. Wangari Maathai, [BBC profile, Nobel Prize profile] winner of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize, recently dismissed the vote as a "farce" and "betrayal to the wishes of the people of Kenya." Maathai, who is also the deputy environment minister, contends that the debate has more to do with power than with creating consensus among the various factions within the country. At least five other people have been killed and dozens arrested in the rioting that has surrounded the constitutional debate. AFP has more.

Previously in JURIST's Paper Chase...

• Kenyans clash in riot over draft constitution
• Kenyan constitutional referendum campaigning begins
• Violence increases in run up to Kenya constitutional referendum
• Kenya constitutional referendum set for November 21

[JURIST] Despite curfews and added security measures [JURIST report] French youths continued to riot in the streets Saturday night. Central Paris was calm, but for the first time since rioting by disaffected Arab and African immigrant youth began 17 nights ago it has spread to another major city, Lyon [AP report]. Cars and a nursery school were set ablaze as police fired tear gas to disperse the crowds. City authorities have banned [AFP report] public meetings in Lyon for Sunday afternoon in an attempt to head off further clashes. Saturday’s rioting came on the heels of a controversial decision by French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy [official profile, in French] ordering all foreigners convicted of taking part in the rioting to be expelled [JURIST report], even if they are not in France illegally. International human rights groups and others have denounced [JURIST report] the decision as being illegal and discriminatory. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] A spokesman for Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari [Wikipedia profile] has claimed that agents supporting Saddam Hussein [JURIST news archive] murdered two defense lawyers involved in the trial [JURIST news archive] of the former Iraqi president and eight co-defendants in a bid to derail the proceeding. Adel Muhammad Abbas, a lawyer for Taha Yassin Ramadan [Wikipedia profile], was murdered in Baghdad [JURIST report] last week, three weeks after the kidnapping and murder [JURIST report] of Sadoun al-Janabi, a lawyer for Awad Hamed al-Bandar, a former chief judge of Saddam's Revolutionary Court. The remaining defense lawyers have cut off all contact with the trial court [JURIST report] and have called for the trial to be moved outside the country [JURIST report]. Sunday's London Times has more.

1:35 PM ET - Wire reports Sunday afternoon say that 1100 Iraqi lawyers on Saddam Hussein's "defense team" have now withdrawn from the trial, citing government inaction over their security concerns. The reports appear to be referring to some of the approximately 1500 legal advisors [AP report] who have been supporting chief Saddam defense lawyer Khalil al-Dulaimi and his associate Abdel Haq Alani, an Iraqi-born lawyer based in Britain. Chief investigating judge Raid Juhi told reporters Sunday that the withdrawals would not affect the work of the trial court [official website], and that new lawyers would be named for the defense if members of the current team did not show up when the trial was scheduled to resume on November 28. AP has more.

[JURIST] Final certified results [official count] of the September 18 Afghan election for the Wolesi Jirga (lower-house of parliament) [Wikipedia backgrounder] and councils in all 34 provinces were released Saturday. Among those elected were three former members of the deposed Taliban and several former Afghan commanders, some of whom have been accused of war crimes [JURIST report] during the Afghan civil war. Women won all 68 seats reserved for them in the lower-house. Reporting of the final results by the UN-Afghan Joint Electoral Management Body [official website] had been delayed by a slow count and allegations of vote fraud [JURIST report]; the electoral commission found some irregularities, but not enough [JURIST report] to call the results into question. Reuters has more.