[JURIST] Khalil Dulaimi [JURIST news archive], chief defense lawyer for ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein [JURIST news archive], told Reuters Sunday he met with his client for seven hours and discussed a possible end to the defense boycott of the trial. Earlier this month, Hussein's lawyers claimed they were being denied access [JURIST report] to their client and had been refused visits since late January.

The development comes after Hussein, four co-defendants and defense lawyers boycotted trial proceedings [JURIST report] before the Iraqi High Criminal Court - formerly the Iraqi Special Tribunal [official website] - in protests against new chief judge Ra'uf Rasheed Abdel-Rahman [BBC profile, JURIST report], who was named chief judge after Rizgar Mohammed Amin resigned [JURIST report]. Defense lawyers have filed a formal motion [JURIST report] seeking the disqualification of Abdel-Rahman and Dulaimi added that "the Chief Judge has personally given promises to meet our demands in the event of attending the Tuesday session." The trial is scheduled to resume Tuesday. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] California Youth and Adult Corrections Secretary Roderick Hickman [official profile] said over the weekend that he is resigning his post after a two year attempt to reform California's prison system. Appointed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger [official website], Hickman was tasked with improving a correctional system that faces immense problems such as overcrowding, an aging inmate population and an entrenched gang problem. Federal judge Thelton E. Henderson [profile] threatened [JURIST report] to take over the California prison health care system [backgrounder] last year, citing the "terrible" medical care that prisoners receive. Hickman cited lack of political support for his resignation, including disagreements with the California Correctional Peace Officers Association [official website]. Over the past two years, Hickman worked to reemphasize rehabilitation into prison operations, consulted with academia for new initiatives, and led efforts to implement effective inmate programs.

The $8.2 billion California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation [official website] houses more than 171,000 youth and adult convicts and employs 59,000 throughout the state. The Los Angeles Times has more.

[JURIST] Inmates at the main US base in Afghanistan [JURIST news archive] are being held in "primitive conditions, indefinitely and without charges" according to a Sunday New York Times report [text]. Over 500 terror suspects are held at Bagram Air Base [JURIST news archive], located north of Kabul. The Times says that inmates live by the dozen in large wire cages and have no access to lawyers or a right to hear the charges against them. Their names have not been revealed and the US military has not allowed international human rights groups access to them, except for the International Committee of the Red Cross [advocacy website]. Some inmates have been at the Bagram Detention Facility [Wikipedia backgrounder] for as long as two or three years even though the US military maintains that detainees are released regularly once they are no longer of intelligence value. The number of inmates at Bagram has increased dramatically in the last couple of years, from 100 in 2004 to as many as 600 in 2005 since the US government has decided to stop the flow of detainees to Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] because of a US Supreme Court decision that detainees had some basic due process rights. The US military has classified the inmates at Bagram as enemy combatants [JURIST news archive] and maintains they are not covered by the Geneva Conventions [reference guide] but a spokesman stressed Sunday in response to the NYT story that they are treated humanely and provided the "best possible conditions." AP has more.

Meanwhile elsewhere in Afghanistan Sunday, hundreds of inmates have taken over parts of Policharki Prison [AP backgrounder; IWPR backgrounder; also "Pul-e-Charkhi"], a high-security facility housing some Taleban and al-Qaeda members. Over 800 Afghan soldiers, along with NATO peacekeepers, have been deployed around the prison and negotiations are underway. The number of casualties is unknown although the BBC is reporting [report] that seven people were killed during the rioting. AP has more.

[JURIST] Russian diplomats Saturday criticized the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia [official website] for its Friday refusal [JURIST report; ruling] to grant former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic [BBC profile] provisional release so that he might travel to Russia for medical treatment for a heart condition. Prosecutors feared that Milosevic might claim he was too sick to return from Moscow to continue his trial [JURIST news archive], now in its fifth year [JURIST report], and the court said Milosevic could receive proper treatment in the Netherlands.

A Russian Foreign Ministry statement read in part, "The Russian side takes note of the ITFY's [sic] decision. At the same time, that decision cannot but evoke regret in Moscow, especially as the Tribunal left the necessary guarantees given by the Russian Federation without attention." AFP has more.

[JURIST] Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf [official website, BBC profile] said Saturday he will lobby the United Nations [official website] and the Organization of the Islamic Conference [official website] to make blasphemy an internationally-recognized criminal offense in the wake of controversy surrounding the worldwide republication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad [JURIST news archive] that first appeared in the Danish Jyllands-Posten newspaper in September.

A spokesman told reporters that Musharraf made the decision after meeting with religious scholars and quoted him as saying that "No Muslim can tolerate blasphemy against the Holy Prophet." Musharraf also said his government would not tolerate the burning of public property in protests related to the controversy. Sometimes-violent demonstrations [JURIST news archive] over the cartoons have erupted in Pakistan in recent weeks, leading to several deaths. The Peninsula has more.

[JURIST] US Federal District Court Judge Jose Linares, presiding over a lawsuit by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey [JURIST report] to block United Arab Emirates [government website]-owned Dubai Ports World [corporate website] from taking over the management of six major US seaport facilities including New Jersey's Port Newark, issued an order Friday asking federal officials to explain why the government did not carry out a full investigation into the deal and why New Jersey officials were not given the same documents and information that federal officials used to approve the deal. The suit arose after DP World announced a takeover of British-owned P&O [corporate website], the current ports operator, and New Jersey officials raised security concerns. A hearing on the issue is scheduled for Wednesday and the judge said he would issue a preliminary injunction blocking the sale if Washington's responses were unsatisfactory. New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine [official profile] has invited [Corzine letter] the governors of states with ports affected by the deal - Louisiana, New York, Florida, Connecticut, Maryland and Pennsylvania - to join the lawsuit. Reuters has more.

In Washington, in an effort to forestall potential legislative action blocking the deal, congressional leaders meanwhile working with company officials and the White House on a compromise proposal which they hope will allay security concerns. Potential proposals include a review of the deal by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States [US Treasury backgrounder] or a new, intensive 45-day review of the deal by the government. Last week, Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) [official website] said that the Bush administration was ignoring federal law [JURIST report] by refusing to extend its investigation into the transaction. AP has more.