[JURIST] The European Court of Human Rights [official website] based in Strasbourg announced Thursday that it has received an application [official backgrounder] from French Muslims asking it to declare the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad [JURIST news archive] in French newspapers an infringement of the non-discrimination provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights [official text].

The complaint, originally filed in February by the Regional Council for the Muslim Faith in the Champagne Ardenne region of the country, a subsidiary body of the French Council for the Muslim Faith (CFCM) [Wikipedia backgrounder], came on the heels of other abortive efforts by French Muslim groups to get legal satisfaction in the French courts; a suit brought by five Muslim organizations - including the moderate Paris Mosque [mosque website] and the fundamentalist Union of Islamic Organizations of France - to stop a French weekly from republishing the cartoons was thrown out on procedural grounds [JURIST report] in early February because the public prosecutor's office was not properly notified, and later threats by the CFCM to sue the papers that actually published the drawings [JURIST report] do not seem to have materialized. The ECHR must now decide whether it will hear the case. AFP has more.

[JURIST] US Defense Department [official website] officials said Thursday afternoon that reports originating from earlier statements [JURIST report] by a military spokesman in Iraq that the US intended to close Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison [JURIST news archive] within three months before handing the facility back to the Iraqi government were "premature".

Officials told DOD's American Forces Press Service in a story reported on the main DOD website that, according to AFPS, "News reports that the U.S. military intends to close Abu Ghraib within the next few months and to transfer its prisoners to other jails are inaccurate." The unnamed officials said that although the US has always intended to transfer its Iraq detention facilities to Iraqis, there is no set timetable for doing so and the timing of a future handover will depend on both the readiness of Iraqi security forces to take them over and the state of infrastructure improvements. AFPS has more.

7:53 AM ET 03/10/06 - Speaking after a US Senate committee in Washington Thursday, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Peter Pace left the timetable for a transfer of prisoners from Abu Ghraib open, indicating [New York Times report] that it would be "several more months" before construction work is completed at alternative US facilities:

We do have plans to and are in the process of building other facilities to move the detainees under US control out of Abu Ghraib. The facility then will be owned and operated by the Iraqi government and that government will decide when it closes - if it closes.

[JURIST] The Tennessee Senate [official website] on Thursday passed a bill [SJR 127 text, PDF] to remove from Tennessee constitutional law any guarantees of a woman's right to abortion. The vote was 24-9. Under Tennessee law, both chambers of the General Assembly must approve the change in two separate votes over the next two years before voters have a chance to rule on a constitutional amendment. The amendment contemplated by SJR 127 reads "Nothing in this Constitution secures or protects a right to abortion or the funding thereof." If approved, the amendment would effectively overturn the 2000 Tennessee Supreme Court ruling in Planned Parenthood of Middle Tennessee v. Sundquist [text, PDF] holding that the state Constitution [PDF] encompassed a “fundamental” right to abortion. Hedy Weinberg, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee [advocacy website; SJR 127 alert, PDF], called the vote an "all-out attack on the women of Tennessee" that "seeks to rob women of their right to make choices about their own health, safety and personal welfare."

Tennessee is one of several states considering restrictions on abortion and possible challenges to the 1973 US Supreme Court ruling in Roe v. Wade [text]. South Dakota governor Mike Rounds signed a bill into law [JURIST report] Monday that would ban all abortions in that state except those necessary to save a mother's life. AP has more.

[JURIST] In an extension of an earlier lawsuit [ACLU complaint, PDF; press release], the American Civil Liberties Union [press release] and the Center for Constitutional Rights [press release] filed motions [ACLU motion for partial summary judgment, PDF] in federal court in New York Thursday asking the court to immediately stop the Bush administration's warrantless surveillance program [JURIST news archive]. Both groups said they were prompted by indications that GOP senators are working with the White House to draft a law that would allow warrantless eavesdropping [JURIST report] on some communications to and from the US.

The administration has repeatedly defended the legality of NSA-directed surveillance program [JURIST document] in the face of sharp criticism from legal experts [JURIST document] and even some senior Republican lawmakers [JURIST report]. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] In an open letter [PDF] in the British medical journal Lancet [journal website], more than 250 doctors [signatories, PDF] from seven countries have urged the US government to ensure that detainees at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] are examined by independent physicians and that methods such as force-feeding [JURIST report] through the use of restraint chairs are not continued. Amnesty International has also urged an "independent medical examination of the prisoners" based on the doctors' concerns.

Hunger strikes at Guantanamo Bay have been an ongoing problem [JURIST report] for the US military and according to the 1975 Tokyo declaration [text] from the World Medical Association [official website], doctors should explain to prisoners the consequences of hunger strikes though avoid participating in forced nourishment. The WMA also opposes the forced feeding of hunger strikers [policy statement] as coercive. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] An official of Iraq's Supreme Judicial Council has confirmed that Iraqi authorities executed 13 insurgents by hanging Thursday in Baghdad, the first official executions of insurgents carried out in the country since the restoration of the death penalty [JURIST report] in 2004. The insurgents were said to have been convicted in separate trials earlier this year. Three convicted murderers were previously executed by hanging [JURIST report] in September 2005.

Iraqi President Jalal Talibani [BBC profile], who does not approve of the death penalty, declined to sign the latest execution orders himself and instead delegated that duty to one of his vice-presidents. The executions come in the midst of escalating sectarian violence between the mostly-Sunni insurgents and the majority Shiites which some observers say is escalating in the direction of outright civil war [JURIST report]. AP has more.

[JURIST] President Bush has signed legislation [signing statement] to renew the USA PATRIOT Act [PDF text; White House backgrounder], making permanent several sunsetting provisions in the anti-terror law, extending two provisions until 2009, and incorporating a number of new rights protections. Bush approved two separate but related bills: the USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005 [HR 3199 PDF text; DOJ fact sheet], the actual renewal that reflects the conference report [PDF text] agreed to by Congress last December, and the USA PATRIOT Act Additional Reauthorizing Amendments Act of 2006 [S. 2271 PDF text], a series of amendments to the renewal legislation reflecting a recent compromise agreement [PDF summary; JURIST report] to incorporate more civil liberties protections.

Sixteen key provisions [DOJ report, PDF] of the Patriot Act [JURIST news archive] were set to expire at the end of last year, but members of Congress were initially unable to reach agreement on the terms of the renewal, prompting instead two short-term extensions [JURIST report], the latest of which was to expire March 10. Fourteen of these provisions now become permanent and the remaining two provisions - Section 206 on "roving" wiretaps under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and Section 215 on subpoenas under FISA - will now expire in 2009. Additional civil liberties safeguards built into the renewal include allowing recipients of Section 215 subpoenas for information in terror investigations to be able to challenge the accompanying gag order; eliminating a requirement that people who receive National Security Letters (NSL) [sample text, PDF; ACLU backgrounder] must provide the FBI the names of lawyers consulted about the NSL; and clarifying current law to ensure that libraries functioning in their traditional roles would not be subject to NSLs. AP has more.

The debate on whether the Patriot Act and the renewal legislation provide adequate protections against intrusions on privacy is not over, however. Last week, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) [official website], chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and several other senators introduced a proposal [S. 2369 PDF text; bill summary] to "enhance the civil liberty protections contained in the USA Patriot Act." The proposal would:

• require that the target of delayed-notice search warrants receive notification within seven days of the execution of the warrant;
• implement a three-part test to obtain a Section 215 order, requiring the government to provide more information before obtaining the order;
• eliminate the "conclusive presumption" of the government's certification of threats to national security for judicial review of NSL nondisclosure requirements; and
• add a four-year sunset to NSL provisions in the conference report.

The Patriot Act has accomplished exactly what it was designed to do. It has helped us detect terror cells, disrupt terrorist plots and save American lives. The bill I sign today extends these vital provisions. It also gives our nation new protections and added defenses.

This legislation creates a new position of Assistant Attorney General for National Security. This will allow the Justice Department to bring together its national security, counterterrorism, counterintelligence and foreign intelligence surveillance operations under a single authority. This reorganization fulfills one of the critical recommendations of the WMD Commission: It will help our brave men and women in law enforcement connect the dots before the terrorists strike.

[JURIST] Recently released documents reveal that former Associate Deputy Attorney General David S. Kris expressed reservations about the Bush administration's legal rationale [JURIST document] for its warrantless domestic surveillance program [JURIST news archive]. In an e-mail [excerpt, PDF] to an aide to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales [official profile] made public Wednesday, Kris said that the Department of Justice's statutory arguments "had a slightly after-the-fact quality or feeling to them."

The e-mail messages and other documents - including an extensive January 2006 memo [PDF] - were released Wednesday under the Freedom of Information Act [text] on a request [JURIST report] by the Electronic Privacy Information Center [advocacy website], the American Civil Liberties Union [advocacy website] and the National Security Archive [official website]. Last month, the DOJ was ordered [PDF opinion; JURIST report] to turn over the documents. AP has more.

[JURIST] CNN is reporting that US Sen. John Warner (R-VA) [official website] has said that Dubai Ports World [corporate website] has decided to transfer operation of six major US ports to a US entity. DP World, a government-owned company from the United Arab Emirates, was set to take over operations after acquiring British shipping company P&O [corporate website].

The prospect of DP World taking over operations of US ports in New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia has met with much opposition. After UK courts refused to stop the takeover [JURIST report] and a US federal judge refused to order a full government investigation [JURIST report] into the takeover, the US House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday approved an amendment [JURIST report] that would block the takeover. That amendment was expected to be debated by the full House next week and similar legislation is being discussed in the Senate. CNN has more.

2:33 PM ET - In a related development Thursday, New Jersey Superior Court Judge Patricia K. Costello denied a request by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey [official website] to terminate the Port Authority's 30-year lease with P&O. The Port Authority filed the lawsuit [JURIST report] late last month in an effort to stop DP World from taking over operations at New York and New Jersey ports. Though she refused to terminate the lease, Costello did allow the Port Authority's lawsuit to continue. AP has more.

3:28 PM ET - Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has pulled legislation from the Senate floor rather than face a possible vote on stopping DP World's takeover of port operations. The Senate voted 51-47 [More from the Floor log] against invoking cloture and ending debate on an amendment to a lobbying reform bill that would halt the ports contract. Rather than allow debate on the contract to continue and a possible vote on the amendment, Frist pulled the legislation from the floor. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The ACLU of Northern California [advocacy website] has filed a lawsuit [complaint, PDF; press release] in the US District Court of Northern California on behalf of Pacific News Service, seeking a permanent injunction to prevent the California Department of Corrections [official website] and San Quentin Prison from using the paralytic drug pancuronium bromide (also known as Pavulon) during executions, arguing that it violates the First Amendment [text] rights of execution witnesses. Jon Streeter [attorney profile], ACLU cooperating attorney, said the drug effectively creates "a chemical curtain that hides what really goes on in the death chamber. In the name of freedom of the press, we are demanding that the State take that curtain down." The ACLU filed an amicus brief [PDF text] in a similar suit a year ago on behalf of condemned inmate Donald Beardslee. That suit was rejected on procedural grounds.

The method and drug used for executions in California are similar to those used by 37 other states. The California injection protocol is currently being challenged in the Morales case [JURIST news archive], on the basis that California's procedures constitute cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment [text]. Hearings in the Morales case are set to begin May 2 in federal court in San Jose. The US Supreme Court has never addressed the issue. AP has more.

[JURIST] Reuters is reporting that the US military will close Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison [JURIST news archive] and transfer approximately 4,500 prisoners to other facilities in Iraq, according to a military spokesman. The prison, a torture center under the regime of Saddam Hussein [JURIST news archive] that again became notorious for abuses during the US occupation, is expected to close within the next three months. Lieutenant Colonel Keir-Kevin Curry, the Pentagon's spokesman for US detention operations in Iraq, told Reuters that operations will be transferred from Abu Ghraib to Camp Cropper and Abu Ghraib will be turned over to the Iraqi government.

Photos of US personnel abusing detainees held at Abu Ghraib first circulated in 2003, and new images depicting abuse [JURIST report] were made public by Australian media earlier this year. US abuses at the prison have been widely condemned as contrary to international law [JURIST report] and a recent report [text] from Amnesty International concluded that the arbitrary detention of thousands of people in Iraq has facilitated abuses [JURIST report] at Abu Ghraib and other prisons in the country. Reuters has more.

3:35 PM ET - The American Forces Press service is now reporting that "news reports that the U.S. military intends to close Abu Ghraib within the next few months and to transfer its prisoners to other jails are inaccurate", according to defense officials. The officials say that although the US has always intended to transfer its Iraq detention facilities to Iraqis, there is no set timetable for doing so and the timing of a future handover will depend on both the readiness of Iraqi security forces to take them over and the state of infrastructure improvements.

[JURIST] The Federal Bureau of Investigation [official website] has uncovered over 100 violations of wiretapping and intelligence gathering rules in the past two years, including using wiretaps that exceeded the scope authorized by court warrant and obtaining communications with an expired warrant, according to a report [text] released Wednesday by the US Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General [official website]. The disclosures came in Inspector General Glenn Fine's semi-annual review for Congress under Section 1001 of the Patriot Act of civil rights or civil liberties violations allegedly committed by DOJ employees. The OIG is also examining the FBI's use of National Security Letters [sample text, PDF; ACLU backgrounder], which allow the FBI to obtain records in terror investigations without a warrant, to determine whether the FBI has abused its subpoena powers. Eric Lichtblau of the New York Times has more.

Fine's report also disclosed that the DOJ's Office of Professional Responsibility [official website] is conducting an investigation into whether DOJ lawyers have abused a 1984 material witness law [18 USC 3144 text], which permits the government to arrest and detain witnesses before they can testify in a criminal trial if it is suspected they might flee. In a June 2005 report [text; JURIST report], Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union accused the Justice Department of abusing the law in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, detaining at least 70 people. According to Wednesday's OIG report, the Justice Department is looking into the detention of 13 individuals and another eight people detained as a group. AP has more.

[JURIST] Google [corporate website] has agreed to pay up to $90M to settle a class action lawsuit [PDF complaint] filed last year in Arkansas state court, alleging that Google and other online search engine companies overcharged for pay-per-click advertising, in which advertisers pay a fee every time an internet user clicks on their ads. "Click fraud" occurs when fraudulent users click repeatedly, with no intention of buying. Motives for malicious clicking vary, but the result is increased cost to companies for unproductive Web traffic.

The Google agreement [press release], once approved by the court, will cover all advertisers who claim to have been charged but not reimbursed for invalid clicks dating back to 2002 through the date of settlement. Google maintains that the level of "click fraud" is very small; the settlement, less than one percent of Google's revenue over the last four years, supports the claim. Yahoo, Inc., also named in the suit, does not intend to settle. AP has more.

[JURIST] Human rights violations remain a problem in the United States, including illegal wiretapping, police abuse, wrongful convictions, and the world's highest ratio of people behind bars, according to a report released Thursday by China. The Human Rights Record of the US in 2005 [text, in English] was released in response to the US State Department's annual 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices [State Dept. materials; JURIST report], which were released Wednesday. The country report for China [text] noted that "the government's human rights record remained poor" and that increased controls on the media are particularly problematic. In its response, Chinese officials detailed rights problems within the US and rights abuses perpetrated by US forces around the world, including in Iraq and Afghanistan and at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive]. China urged the US to:

look squarely at its own human rights problems, reflect what it has done in the human rights field and take concrete measures to improve its own human rights status. The U.S. government should stop provoking international confrontation on the issue of human rights, and make a fresh start to contribute more to international human rights cooperation and to the healthy development of international human rights cause.

[JURIST] Leading Tuesday's international brief, the Supreme Court of India [official website] has exercised a rarely used power and sentenced Zahira Sheikh for deliberately retracting her testimony concerning the arson of the Best Bakery [Wikipedia backgrounder] in the state of Gujarat during riots anti-Muslim riots by Hindu civilians that resulted in dozens of deaths. Sheikh's sentence is a rare use of actual incarceration to punish perjury, and is seen as a criticism of the Gujarat State government [official website] as well for its lack of control over the situation. JURIST's Paper Chase has continuing coverage of India [JURIST news archive]. Calcutta's The Telegraph has local coverage.

In other international legal news ...

• International NGO Human Rights Watch [advocacy website] released a statement [text] Thursday calling on the leaders of African nations to push for the acceptance of a UN peacekeeping force in the Darfur region [JURIST news archive] of Sudan at the African foreign ministers meeting scheduled for Friday. The African Union [official website] has agreed in principle to the need for UN peacekeepers, but has not taken any official steps to request the transition from a solely AU-run mission to one under the auspices of the UN. Sudan [government website] has repeatedly opposed [JURIST report] the push for UN leadership in Darfur as a "new imperialism" against an African nation. JURIST's Paper Chase has continuing coverage of Sudan [JURIST news archive]. The Sudan Tribune has local coverage.
  
  
• Domestic human rights activists in Nepal [government website] have warned that unless King Gyanendra takes serious steps to re-establish human rights as a priority in Nepal, they will recommend that the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights [official website] impose an "Agenda 9" status against Nepal at its next meeting. Agenda 9 is a designation given to a country by the UN Commission on Human Rights (CHR) [official website] when that country is deemed to be experiencing a "very critical situation" relating to human rights. CHR findings are non-binding however, and would have no required impact on Nepal other than international condemnation for a poor human rights record. JURIST's Paper Chase has continuing coverage of Nepal [JURIST news archive]. NepalNews.com has local coverage.
  
  
• Indonesia's Chief Prosecutor in Jakarta, Rusdi Taher, admitted on Wednesday that the Jakarta Prosecutor's Office is severely backed up on cases resulting from the national anti-corruption drive, with only two out of 2,000 cases in the last six years reaching trial. Taher pointed to a distinct lack of manpower, the complexity of financial and accounting details in corruption cases, and the lack of cooperation from high profile political, business, and social figures to testify as reason for the back-up. Indonesia has been working to redeem itself from its reputation as one of the most corrupt Asian nations. JURIST's Paper Chase has continuing coverage of Indonesia [JURIST news archive]. The Jakarta Post has local coverage.

[JURIST Europe] Serbia and Montenegro Wednesday contested the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice [official website] at The Hague to hear a case [ICJ materials] brought by Bosnia accusing Serbia's predecessor state Yugoslavia of perpetrating state-sponsored genocide [JURIST report] during the 1992-1995 Bosnian Wars. Lawyers for Serbia argued [ICJ transcript, PDF] that the conflict was between ethnic groups and not the two sovereign states appearing before the court, neither of which actually existed at the time of the war.

The Bosnian action against Serbia is the first international trial of a state for genocide. The legal action began in 1993, when Bosnia filing a claim alleging Serbia's infringement of the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide [official text]. Bosnia could be eligible for a billions of dollars in compensation should the ICJ rule in its favor. AP has more.

Angela Onikepe is an Associate Editor for JURIST Europe, reporting European legal news from a European perspective. She is based in the UK.

[JURIST Europe] Results of a new study released by the Dublin Roman Catholic archdiocese [diocesan website] in Ireland show that while 102 Dublin priests are suspected of abusing children since 1940 and 32 of them are facing lawsuits, only eight have actually been convicted of criminal offenses. Even so, the legal bill for the archdiocese has already has paid $7 million in settlements and fees. The study, initiated by Vatican diplomat Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, examined records of more than 2800 priests that have worked in Dublin in the last 66 years and stands as the most frank and serious admission of sex abuse by any Irish Roman Catholic Church official. Archbishop Martin has also established a $3 million Child Protection Service [diocesan website].

Conclusions drawn from the report are being scrutinized as a Irish government probe prepares to look into the mishandling of abuse cases by the church following an earlier inquiry [report] by an Irish Supreme Court judge into abuses in the Diocese of Ferns [official website]. The fallout from clergy sexual abuse [JURIST news archive] in Ireland has been even more severe than in the United States, especially as the Irish government incorporated the church with the state up until the 1970s. AP has more.

Angela Onikepe is an Associate Editor for JURIST Europe, reporting European legal news from a European perspective. She is based in the UK.