[JURIST] US District Judge Ivan Lemelle [profile] Tuesday urged federal and state officials to work together and quickly set a date for the postponed New Orleans [official website; December 23 official situation report] mayoral primary elections at a hearing of a lawsuit challenging the postponement of the primary. He said a vote would encourage a sense of normalcy, noting that although he did not want to take over the electoral process if different governmental levels could not agree, he would do so if necessary. Originally scheduled for February 4, local elections officials called off the primary due to the destruction of polling stations, dispersal of election-day workers and the difficulty of contacting evacuees after Hurricane Katrina [JURIST news archive]. Louisiana Secretary of State Al Ater said last week that he would push for holding the New Orleans vote no later than the end of September [press release, PDF] and on Tuesday said that elections could take place as early as April 1. The election date is contingent upon US Justice Department approval of a new state law that loosens restrictions on election laws, considering the problems Katrina created. The Federal Emergency Management Agency [official website] recently eased the election tensions by handing over a computer disk of the names and contact information of evacuees from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, making it easier for Ater’s office to contact them. AP has more.

[JURIST] On a brief visit to Iraq Tuesday US Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Arlen Specter [official website] met with the chief judge overseeing the Saddam Hussein trial [JURIST news archive], telling reporters gathered in the trial chamber before the meeting that he had been "disappointed [in] the way the court has permitted Saddam to dominate the proceedings." Saddam has several times made a spectacle of his trial for the 1982 massacre of 143 Shiites [JURIST report] by sparring {JURIST report] with presiding Judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin, refusing to show up [JURIST report], claiming torture [JURIST report] and openly praying in the middle of the court’s proceedings. “The evidence ought to be presented in a systematic way which would show that there’s been quite an accomplishment in taking (Saddam) out as opposed to letting him be a blusterbun and control the proceedings,” said Specter. Specter, a former Philadelphia district attorney, asserted that Saddam should be held in contempt of court or be tried in absentia, both topics that Specter said he planned to discuss with Amin. The Iraqi Special Tribunal [official website; JURIST news archive] has adjourned Saddam's trial until January 24th [JURIST report]. AP has more.

[JURIST] The US State Department said Tuesday that Iraqi prisons are only “nominally” under control of the elected government in Baghdad, acknowledging that they are in practice run by the Shiite-led Interior Ministry [Global Security backgrounder], which has not yet relinquished control of them. The central government, with help from US forces, is trying to take charge of the prisons after prisoner abuse in two detention facilities [JURIST report] was revealed earlier this month. The US military said Sunday that it would not hand over its own Iraq detention facilities [JURIST report] or individual detainees to Iraqi officials until they have demonstrated an adequate standard of care towards prisoners [JURIST report]. AP has more.

[JURIST] The US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) [constituitive statute] substantively modified 179 Bush administration wiretap requests made after 2001, after declining to modify a single request in 20 of the 21 years between 1979 and 1999, according to an analysis of Justice Department statistics [FAS FISA materials] reported Tuesday by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. The FISC also rejected or modified at least 6 warrant requests during 2003 and 2004. Administration requests for electronic and physical searches similarly rose from 3,436 in 1997 through 2000 to 5,645 applications from 2001 through 2004. FISC resistance to wiretap requests may have driven the Bush Administration to authorize [JURIST report; JURIST news archive] warrantless phone and email tracking of US residents, said James Bamford [Wikipedia profile], author of two books on the National Security Agency. According to the FISC statute, enacted in 1979, the Department of Justice must show "probable cause" that "the target of the electronic surveillance is a foreign power or an agent of a foreign power," and has committed acts that "may" involve a violation of criminal law in order to secure a wiretap. Referring to the Foreign Surveillance Intelligence Act administered by the FISC, US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said [press briefing] last week that though "the FISA is very important in the war on terror...it doesn't provide the speed and the agility that we need in all circumstances to deal with this new kind of threat." A FISC judge has already resigned in protest [JURIST report] over the NSA domestic surveillance program, and the Bush administration has agreed to brief [JURIST report] the remaining judges on the scope of the program. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer has more.

[JURIST] Turkish prosecutors launched an inquiry Tuesday into whether slander charges should be brought against a European Union lawmaker who made disparaging remarks about the Turkish army, an act criminalized by the revised Turkish penal code [JURIST report]. Dutch legislator Joost Lagendijk [official profile], a senior member of the European Parliament and chairman of the EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee [official website], who was recently present in Turkey to observe the trial of Turkish author Orhan Pamuk [JURIST report], reportedly told journalists that the Turkish military engages weaker Kurdish seperatist forces to make themselves feel "big and powerful." Lagendijk made the remark at a press conference where he demanded that Turkey re-write the penal code article used to charge Pamuk, on trial for state slander arising from questioning the role of Turkey in the 1915 mass killings of Armenians, or risk losing its EU membership bid. Last month the EU warned Turkey to improve its human rights record [JURIST report]; charges against Lagendijk would almost certainly inflame Turkey's already delicate relations with the European bloc. AP has more.

[JURIST] A Serbian security official said Tuesday that Serb police had intercepted a cell phone conversation involving Bosnian Serb general and indicted war criminal Ratko Mladic [ICTY case backgrounder; JURIST news archive], the strongest lead police have thusfar developed in the search for the fugitive. Earlier reports of negotiations [JURIST report] between Mladic and the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia [official website] were denied [Scotsman report] late Monday by Serbia's Interior Minister. The European Union [official website] has threatened [JURIST report] to deny Serbia's bid to join the EU if it does not deliver Mladic to the ICTY by the end of the year. Western officials believe Mladic is being sheltered [JURIST report] by former members of the Bosnian Serb army he once led. AP has more.

[JURIST] Saddam Hussein [JURIST news archive] has authorized three more lawyers to work with the four already representing him at his Baghdad trial [JURIST news archive] for the 1982 massacre at Dujail [NPR audio report] that left as many as 143 Shiite Muslims dead. The defense team additions are: Saleh Armouti, president of the Jordanian Bar Association, one of 500 Jordanians who volunteered their services; Ibrahim al-Mulla, a United Arab Emirates lawyer and former Dubai Attorney General; and Tayseer al-Mudather, a lawyer from Sudan. Armouti said he volunteered to participate in the trial as a means of protesting the "illegal" occupation of Iraq by the US. The three lawyers join the current defense team lead by Iraqi Khalil Dulaimi [Wikipedia profile] and including former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark [Wikipedia profile], former Qatari Justice Minister Najib al-Nueimi, and Issam Ghazawi, another Jordanian. Hussein's trial is slated to resume on January 24. AP has more.

[JURIST] The Federation Council [official website], Russia's upper house of parliament, voted 152-1 Tuesday for a bill first approved by the lower house last month [JURIST report] that greatly increases state control over non-governmental organizations (NGOs) by implementing strict registration requirements, imposing financial oversight on their operations, and providing for dissolution if an organization participates in activities deemed to deviate from the groups' explicit mission statement. The bill as passed by the Council incorporated several amendments demanded by President Vladimir Putin [JURIST report] that would lessen restrictions on civil advocacy groups. Putin, who has nonethless said that the bill is necessary to protect the country's political system [press release], may now sign the bill into law. Several prominent international rights groups, including Human Rights Watch [press release; briefing paper] and Greenpeace [advocacy website] have complained that the new restrictions may force their organizations to withdraw from Russia. AP has more.

[JURIST] Officials in the Austrian city of Graz have removed all references to Arnold Schwarzenegger from the city's website in the wake of controversy [JURIST report] over the California Governor's decision earlier this month to deny clemency [JURIST report] to Crips gang co-founder and convicted murder Stanley "Tookie" Williams [advocacy website]. In an apparent attempt to head off censure [LA Times report] by the city council, Schwarzenegger had previously asked for his name to be removed from a local arena in his former hometown by year's end, but the clemency denial, generally criticized by Austrians, prompted city officials to go one step further. Schwarzenegger's support of the death penalty [JURIST news archive] has been an ongoing source of contention between him and his native Austria, with several political leaders calling for Schwarzenegger's citizenship to be stripped. AP has more.

[JURIST] Over 10,000 Iraqis took to the streets of Baghdad Tuesday to protest alleged fraud in the December 15 parliamentary elections in Iraq [JURIST report]. Complaints of fraud surfaced almost immediately after the polls closed [JURIST report], with the majority of allegations coming from a group that lead Tuesday's demonstrations, the Maram (in Arabic, "goal") alliance, a coalition of Sunni Arab and Shiite secular groups who contend that Shiite-based religious groups "rigged polls" to gain power. Maram members are demanding that officials vacate the election results and establish a coalition government with an adequate balance of power among groups. Preliminary poll results [IECI text, PDF] show that the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance has won a large majority of the votes. This is the second major demonstration against the election results in a week; on Friday, some 20,000 demonstrators marched in west Baghdad [video clip via Iraq the Model]. BBC News has more. From Baghdad, the author of the Iraq the Model weblog offers local coverage.

[JURIST] A Kuwaiti court Tuesday sentenced six Islamist militants to death for their involvement in a January 2005 clash with police that left several people dead. All the men were members of the Peninsula Lions Brigades, a fundamentalist group linked to al Qaeda [JURIST news archive] and on the country's terror watch list for plotting to carry out terrorist attacks in Kuwait, supporting suicide bombings abroad, and smuggling arms into the country with the ultimate goal of overthrowing the government. The court also handed down jail terms for twenty-two others, including an Australian Arab. Seven defendants were acquitted. AFP has more.

[JURIST] A Chinese court Tuesday sentenced former minister of land and natural resources Tian Fengshan [profile] to life in prison after finding him guilty of accepting over $500,000 in bribes during his time in office. The Beijing Number Two Intermediate People's Court found that Fengshan, charged late last month [JURIST report], "took advantage of his position" for personal gain by accepting bribes from commercial and residential developers for favorable treatment. The court said his punishment was lenient; in July another government official, Ma De, former secretary of the municipal committee of the Communist Party of China in Suihua City, was sentenced to death for accepting bribes [China Daily report]. Fengshan's arrest and conviction is part of a campaign by the government of China [JURIST news archive] to curb corrupt behavior amid rapid economic growth. Xinhua has local coverage.

[JURIST] The British government Tuesday filed an anticipated appeal [JURIST report] challenging a recent High Court decision [JURIST report; JURIST document] that Australian Guantanamo detainee David Hicks [JURIST news archive] is entitled to British citizenship. Hick's lawyers want citizenship for Hicks, whose mother is British, in order to take advantage of the British government's success in urging the US to not put British citizens through the US military commission process. The UK Home Office has said that it accepts Hick's basic entitlement, but says that it can refuse or withdraw citizenship. Hicks has been detained at Guantanamo Bay for nearly four years on charges of conspiracy, attempted murder and aiding the enemy. Hick's military trial was postponed last month [JURIST report] by a US district judge until such time as the US Supreme Court rules on the legality of the military tribunals. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation has local coverage.

[JURIST] Polish government spokesperson Konrad Ciesiolkiewicz announced Tuesday that an official probe into the alleged existence of secret CIA prisons in the country has ended. Zbigniew Wassermann [official profile], the Polish minister in charge of the country's intelligence services, delivered his report to members of a parliamentary commission last week; meeting in a closed door session the commissioners decided to drop the investigation. No findings were released. Polish Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz [official profile] launched the probe [JURIST report] earlier this month after allegations began to circulate in press and human rights group reports that Poland hosted the largest CIA facility in Europe [JURIST report]. AP has more.