[JURIST] Two anonymous officials at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website] said Tuesday that the Tribunal had been informed several times by the ICTY prison warden that former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic [JURIST news archive], found dead in his cell [JURIST report] early Saturday, had unfettered access to any materials brought to him by witnesses and legal advisors as he prepared for trial. The tribunal did not, however, tighten security around the indicted war criminal after the warden raised the possibility of Milosevic using drugs or alcohol in his cell. While full autopsy reports are not yet complete, preliminary autopsy reports [ICTY press release] suggest that a heart attack caused Milosevic's death.

Meanwhile ICTY chief prosecutor Carla De Ponte [BBC profile] suggested in a Tuesday interview [transcript, in French] with French newspaper Le Monde that Milosevic's death may even have been a suicide [VOA report] and that he may have secretly taken medicines to worsen his known heart problems. A Dutch toxicologist suggested Monday that he may have taken unauthorized drugs in an attempt to induce the Hague court [JURIST report] to send him to Moscow for medical treatment. AP has more.

9:44 PM ET - After earlier statements by Milosevic's son that his father would be temporarily buried in Russia, Milosevic lawyer Zdenko Tomanovic has said that burial will take place in Belgrade. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] Top executives from Exxon, Chevron, Shell and other major oil companies told members of the US Senate Judiciary Committee [official website] in a hearing [notice] Tuesday that high oil prices could be reduced by opening onshore and offshore locations in the US now shielded from drilling, and that energy mergers actually helped consumers by contributing to the ability of companies to explore. Committee Chairman Sen. Arlen Specter [official website] had called the hearing to consider whether mergers among the largest American oil and natural gas companies cause consumer had caused energy prices to rise, seeing it as opportunity to promote the proposed No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels Act [text; JOL backgrounder], which would amend the Sherman antitrust act to make oil producing and exporting cartels illegal in the states. The proposed legislation also contains provisions to strengthen the government's ability to intervene in energy company mergers where those could reduce available energy supplies and raise prices. Watch a brief clip from the hearing [recorded video], with questions by ranking Democrat Sen. Patrick Leahy and responses by oil executives.

The Judiciary Committee held similar hearings [JURIST report] last month, during which Specter voiced concerns that many of the mergers approved by the Federal Trade Commission may have been detrimental to consumers. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The US Marine Corps [official website] said Tuesday that Allen Abney, a Vietnam War deserter who is now a Canadian citizen, will probably be released within a week from Camp Pendleton [official website], California. Abney deserted the Corps and fled to Canada in 1968 and was arrested late last week [JURIST report] while crossing the Canadian border into Idaho.

The Marine Corps insists that the arrest was not made as an attempt to crack down on military deserters and says that Abney is not being held in the jail section of the facility. Rights lawyers say that Abney's case is part of a US military strategy to dissuade current recruits from deserting to avoid service in Iraq, but the Marine Corps says Abney's arrest was simply the result of a better checking and record-keeping process. A Corps spokesman said Abney was likely to be discharged and not court-martialed. CTV has more.

[JURIST] The European Court of Human Rights [official website] on Tuesday denied the admissibility [decision text] of a lawsuit brought by Saddam Hussein against 21 European countries on the grounds that the case fell outside its jurisdiction. Saddam's lawyers had claimed that the 21 European countries who had joined the US-led war in Iraq violated his right to life, liberty and security under the European Convention on Human Rights [text]. He added that if he faces execution, the sentence would violate two articles of the treaty abolishing the death penalty in times of peace and in all circumstances.

The Court said in a statement [official press release] that it lacked jurisdiction because the 21 countries cited did not control the territory were the alleged violations occurred. The court added, "even if he could have fallen within a state's jurisdiction because of his detention by it, he had not shown that any one of those states had any responsibility for, or any involvement or role in, his arrest and subsequent detention." AP has more.

[JURIST] Wire services are reporting that US District Judge Leonie Brinkema has ruled that the government can continue to seek the death penalty in the Zacarias Moussaoui [JURIST news archive] case, but that the government aviation witnesses who were improperly coached by a Transportation Security Administration attorney would not be permitted to testify and other aviation related evidence will not be admitted. Reuters has more.

5:15 PM ET - Making her ruling, Brinkema said in court "I don't think in the annals of criminal law there has ever been a case with this many significant problems...Clearly, there could be damage done to the defense. I don't think I can tell whether or not the witnesses' testimony may have changed." A government prosecutor told the judge that the government would consider appealing the decision not to allow the FAA witnesses, whose testimony is considered key to the government's case because they would have testified about what the FAA could have done to protect air travelers if it had known of the al Qaeda threat. Bloomberg has more.

6:06 PM ET - The written order [PDF] on the death notice is now online. Judge Brinkema has additionally ordered the sentencing trial stayed [PDF order] until Monday, March 20, to give the government time to decide whether it will appeal her ruling to strike the aviation portion of the case.

[JURIST] Leading Tuesday's environmental law news, the Iowa Administrative Rules Review Committee [official website] has agreed to allow a set of water quality rules [backgrounder] to go into effect on March 22. The rules will bring Iowa into compliance with the federal Clean Water Act (CWA) [PDF text]. Amongst other differences, Iowa laws had been operating with a presumption that some waterways could not be brought into compliance with pollution levels, whereas the CWA presumes that all waterways can be cleaned unless shown otherwise. The Des Moines Register has more.

In other environmental law news...

• The Idaho state Senate [official website] passed Resolution no.131 [text] Monday that would cap the state's mercury emissions level at zero until at least January 7, 2007 and calls on the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality [official website] to produce a report on the current levels and sources of mercury in the state. The resolution could stall a proposed coal-fired power plant from being built in southern Idaho. The Twin Falls Times-News has more.
  
  
• Environmentalists and dairy farmers clashed at a public meeting Monday in the San Joaquin Valley of California. The meeting is part of a series of public workshops [PDF press release] about an air pollution rule) [draft rule 4570, PDF] being proposed by the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District [official website] which would apply to dairies with at least 1,000 milking cows. The rule would apply to over 230 farms in the district, and would require many of those created before 2004 to retrofit or modify their current practices. The rule is designed to allow the District to meet state and federal Clean Air Act [text] standards for volatile organic compounds (VOCs), a primary smog component. The Fresno Bee has more.

[JURIST] Judge James Ware [official profile] of the US District Court of the Northern District of California [official] said Tuesday after hearing arguments by Google and US Department of Justice lawyers over a government subpoena [PDF] of search data that he might force Google to hand over a small part of its index of Web sites but would not grant the DOJ access to its users' search terms, for fear users would think the government was watching how they were using the Web. The Justice Department, which had originally requested [JURIST report] one million Internet addresses and one million search queries submitted to Google in a one-week period, said it had reduced its demand to 50,000 URLs and 5,000 search queries. Ware said the narrowed request combined with the DOJ's intention to pay Google for its programmers' time in making the data available made it reasonable to give the DOJ at least some of what it desired. He made no written ruling Tuesday but said he would release one "very quickly." CNET has more.

The government said that its Internet use study, designed to support its effort to revive the Child Online Protection Act [text] by supposedly showing that internet filters are not strong enough to prevent children from viewing pornography and other inappropriate material, could be performed without Google, but that it would be "substantially improved" with Google's assistance. Google's attorney noted that the government has other places to go such as Alexa Internet [corporate website], and that forced compliance with the DOJ request could lead to a significant burden on Google to assist countless other studies. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Progress continues to be made in the investigation into the February 2005 Beirut bombing assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri [JURIST news archive], according to an interim report presented to the UN Security Council [official website] Tuesday. Chief UN investigator Serge Brammertz [official profile], successor to German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, said that Syria has been complying with almost all requests from the UN investigative team since Brammertz took over the Hariri probe [UN backgrounder] in January. The report indicated that UN investigators were given access to records regarding the political arena in Lebanon and reviewed archives of Syrian military intelligence. AFP has more.

The report also said that investigators believe the individuals who carried out Hariri's assassination were experienced terrorists who were very "professional" in their planning and execution. Investigators said they cannot yet release the names of plotters because the probe is currently at a critical stage. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad [BBC profile] and Vice President Farouq al-Shara are expected to meet with UN investigators in April to discuss the assassination. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The government of Uganda [JURIST news archive] has been intimidating members of the media [HRW press release] since before the February 23 presidential elections [JURIST report], including filing criminal charges against some journalists for their work, according to a statement [HRW report] issued by Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] Tuesday. The watchdog group detailed several instances where the government has punished reporters, including denying an entry visa [CP report] last week to a Canadian journalist reporting for the Washington Times [media website] and the Economist [media website] who had lived in Uganda for three years. Authorities called Blake Lambert a threat to national security without explanation and accused him of "misrepresenting" events including the prosecution of defeated presidential candidate Kizza Besigye [BBC profile, JURIST news archive] for charges of terrorism, possessing firearms, and rape [JURIST report].

The rights watchdog noted that since the reelection of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni [BBC profile] more reporters and media members have faced criminal charges for promoting sectarianism, violating the law by broadcasting on election day, and for accusations that they "excited dissatisfaction" with the current president. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Microsoft [corporate website; JURIST news archive] said Tuesday that its request for a European antitrust hearing set for later this month to be public has been denied by the European Commission [official website]. The hearing is being held to give the software giant a chance to explain why it has not fully complied with a March 2004 European Union ruling [PDF text; JURIST report] ordering Microsoft to make its server software sufficiently accessible to competitors. An EU spokesman said these types of antitrust hearings are always private and that the Commission had actually denied Microsoft's request several weeks ago.

The Commission warned Microsoft last week that it still has not obeyed the 2004 ruling and December 2005 charges that it was not doing enough to comply. The company has been threatened with a fine [JURIST report] of 2 million euros per day ($2.4 million), which would be retroactive to December 15, 2005. The Commission will decide whether to move forward with the fine after the hearing. Microsoft, meanwhile, is appealing [JURIST report] the 2004 ruling in a case expected to be heard in April before the European Court of First Instance [official website]. AP has more.

[JURIST] A government witness who was coached by a Federal Aviation Administration attorney on the US case against accused would-be hijacker Zacarias Moussaoui told US District Judge Leonie Brinkema [official profile] Tuesday that she was not tainted by the extra information she received, echoing an early statement to prosecution lawyers that it would not affect her testimony. Lynne Osmus [FAA profile], head of FAA security at the time of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, said her knowledge of events remained the same. Six other FAA witnesses were called to the hearing, along with government lawyer Carla J. Martin, who sent witnesses e-mails [redacted PDF] about their upcoming testimony that disclosed parts of the government's case contrary to a sequestration order [PDF]. Martin appeared at Tuesday's hearing but was not questioned after she told Brinkema that she had not yet obtained her own lawyer. Brinkema warned Martin that she could be held in civil or criminal contempt for violating her order and told her to come back with counsel no later than Wednesday morning.

Brinkema suddenly halted Moussaoui's sentencing trial [JURIST report] Monday after being informed of the prosecutorial breach. Defense lawyer Edward MacMahon immediately moved to bar the death penalty. Brinkema has scheduled another evidentiary hearing for Wednesday. AP has more.

[JURIST] Israeli forces stormed a Palestinian prison in the West Bank Tuesday in an attempt to seize a Palestinian militant linked to the 2001 killing of an Israeli minister. The raid in Jericho [IDF press release] came shortly after the US and UK withdrew prison monitors [UK FCO statement], citing security concerns. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas [BBC profile] condemned the withdrawal of the monitors, who were present under a 2002 agreement that allowed Ahmed Saadat [BBC profile], leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, to be held in the West Bank. Saadat refused to surrender to Israeli forces, which reportedly demolished walls around the prison and killed a guard and prisoner [Reuters report]. The Israeli Army reported detaining 182 people from the prison for questioning. Saadat eventually gave himself up to Israeli authorities after dark.

The Israeli raid has triggered unrest in Palestinian territories and has sparked a major diplomatic crisis with London and Washington. British Foreign Minister Jack Straw [official profile] defended the withdrawal of prison monitors, arguing that the Palestinian Authority had ignored British requests for security assurances at the prison. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] Students at 59 [UNEF press release, in French] of France's 84 universities went on strike Tuesday, occupying and blockading about 50 of them in protest against a new law proposed by the government of Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin [official website] that would allow companies to fire workers under the age of 26 within the first two years with little notice or severance. De Villepin stood firm [JURIST report] on the plan in a televised interview [TF1 recorded video] Sunday, and President Jacques Chirac said Tuesday that he supports the legislation, which was voted on and approved in Parliament on March 9.

Several unions and student organizations say the law encourages the replacement of staff and is hard on young workers. Protesters say they will continue pressure until the government gives in and revokes the law. The opposition Socialist party says the law is unconstitutional and plans to challenge it in the Constitutional Council [official backgrounder]. Bloomberg has more.

[JURIST] Khalid el-Masri [JURIST news archive], a German national allegedly kidnapped in Macedonia in 2003, held by the CIA in Afghanistan and finally released [JURIST report] in 2004 and dumped in Albania, testified Monday before a European Parliament committee investigating possible US renditions [JURIST report] through Europe that he was interrogated by a German while detained. El-Masri testified that he identified Gerhard Lehmann, an official with the Federal Criminal Office [official website, in German] in Germany, from a lineup. El-Masri said Lehmann identified himself only as "Sam" while interrogating him and spoke without a German accent. Germany has denied involvement [JURIST report] in the detention and said it did not know about the case until el-Masri was released. Committee members expressed skepticism [Deutsche Welle report] following the hearing, saying that el-Masri's testimony was not convincing.

El-Masri is part of an ACLU lawsuit against the CIA [JURIST report] over allegations that the agency used extraordinary rendition against terror suspects. AP has more.

[JURIST] The Texas Third Court of Appeals [official website] Monday threw out more than 30 subpoenas issued by Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle [official website], who is investigating the political fundraising activities of former US House Majority Leader Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX) [official website; JURIST news archive]. Attorneys for DeLay asked the court to throw out the subpoenas, saying Earle had issued them only to create bad publicity for DeLay.

Earle issued the subpoenas after Senior District Judge Pat Priest dismissed conspiracy charges against DeLay [JURIST report] in December. That ruling is itself now on appeal and is stayed in the interim, with a hearing scheduled for March 22. The Houston Chronicle has more.

[JURIST] Defense lawyers in the Enron [corporate website; JURIST news archive] fraud trial Monday finished their cross-examination of former Chief Financial Officer and lead government witness Andrew Fastow [JURIST news archive], bringing to a conclusion his four-day stint on the witness stand. Fastow testified [JURIST report] that he had stolen millions before the company's collapse in 2001 and that he had lied to investigators until he reached a plea bargain with prosecutors in 2004. Defense lawyers for former Enron chiefs Kenneth Lay and Jeff Skilling [Houston Chronicle profiles] sought to undermine Fastow and his testimony, but trial observers said it appeared that his evidence was consistent with earlier government witnesses. Defense lawyer Michael Ramsey focused on Fastow's testimony about a meeting he had with Lay in August 2001 after Lay took over the CEO position from Skilling, which Ramsey said contradicted Fastow's later actions in meeting with investment bank Goldman, Sachs & Co.

Fastow pleaded guilty [plea agreement, PDF] in 2004 to conspiracy charges and accepted a 10-year prison sentence, but Lay and Skilling both face millions in fines and decades of imprisonment if convicted of fraud and conspiracy charges. Fastow is expected to be followed on the witness by another former executive, Sherron Watkins [Time profile], whose memo to Lay in 2001 warned that public knowledge of Enron's activities could result in an accounting scandal. The Los Angeles Times has more.

[JURIST] The Associated Press [media website] filed a lawsuit Monday against the US Department of Defense [official website] seeking the release of records and identities of the more than 750 detainees held at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] since 2001, some 260 of which have been released. In the suit filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York [official website], AP argued that there was a high public interest in how the US has handled detainees at the military prison. AP alleged that the Defense Department failed to respond to a Jan. 18 Freedom of Information Act [text] request for the information it sought.

Earlier this month, responding to an order [JURIST report] by US District Judge Jed S. Rakoff [official profile], the Defense Department released [JURIST report] uncensored transcripts [PDF files] of hearings for 317 detainees before Combatant Status Review Tribunals [DOD materials] at Guantanamo. The Department has said that no transcripts exist for another 241 detainees who refused to appear before the tribunal. Judge Rakoff has not ruled on whether transcripts from a second round of hearings must be released. AP has more.

[JURIST] Canada, the European Union, and several key supporters of a proposed UN Human Rights Council [JURIST news archive] are urging the United States to accept a compromise that would allow approval of a draft UN General Assembly resolution [PDF] while offering the US assurances that they hope will address American concerns about possible rights-abusing nations being elected to the new body, designed to replace the problematic UN Commission on Human Rights [JURIST report]. Canadian UN ambassador Alan Rock said that states were being encouraged to sign a letter to the US declaring their intent not to elect any such states to the body, or to at least make a statement to that effect after what is hoped to be an adoption of the Council's empowering resolution by consensus.

General Assembly President Jan Eliasson [official profile] introduced a draft resolution on the Council in late February after lengthy multilateral negotiations. The US opposed [JURIST report] the draft and is pushing for the UN to reopen negotiations. US members want council members to be elected by a 2/3 vote, not by a simple majority, the current requirement for Commission membership. They also want the text to bar any country that faces UN sanctions from joining the council. AP has more.

[JURIST] Leading Tuesday's international brief, the UN Security Council [official website] has expressed its approval of the African Union [official website] decision to extend the AU peacekeeping force mandate [Mail & Guardian report] for Darfur [JURIST news archive] by six months. The AU Peace and Security Council [AU backgrounder] announced it will keep AU peacekeepers in Darfur until September 30, when it plans to hand control of the peacekeeping force over to the UN. The UN Security Council praised the decision as practical, allowing the UN time to ready a force capable of assuming peacekeeping operations in Darfur without threatening the already fragile peace in the area. The Security Council also called on Sudan [government website] to take steps to prepare for the introduction of a UN force, a move Sudan has repeatedly opposed [JURIST report]. JURIST's Paper Chase has continuing coverage of Sudan [JURIST news archive]. The UN News Centre has local coverage.

In other international legal news ...

• Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni [BBC profile] Monday filed his response [Monitor text of court documents] to legal challenges [JURIST report] brought by opposition candidate Dr. Kizza Besigye [BBC profile] in which Besigye accused Museveni of 'stealing' last month's presidential election through voter fraud and intimidation. The Ugandan Electoral Commission [official website] also responded to the charges, denying that any vote rigging or election fraud occurred in sufficient seriousness to affect the outcome of the election. Besigye is still facing criminal charges [JURIST report] in what he claims is another government attempt to keep opposition parties from removing Museveni from office through legal means. JURIST's Paper Chase has continuing coverage of Uganda [JURIST news archive]. The Daily Monitor has local coverage.
  
  
• The South Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare [government website] announced a plan on Tuesday to implement national legislation prohibiting discrimination against HIV and AIDS patients in the workplace. The legislation would make any form of discrimination against individuals diagnosed with HIV or AIDS illegal, and would require equality in treatment relating to pay scale, promotion, and time off, among other elements. The draft proposal currently includes penalties of up to one year incarceration and heavy fines. JURIST's Paper Chase has continuing coverage of South Korea [JURIST news archive]. The Chosun Ilbo has local coverage.
  
  
• Human rights groups and NGOs have criticized the Jordanian government for proceeding with the execution of two individuals convicted of murdering a US diplomat [Islamonline.net report] in 2002. The convictions were obtained in a military court and according to rights groups were based solely on confessions obtained through the use of torture. Rights groups also alleged that Jordan agreed to rehear the cases as part of a deal to end prison riots sparked by the removal of the two men from general population in preparation for their execution by hanging. Jordan defended the execution as valid, citing a court ruling in 2004 that quashed the last legal appeal afforded to the individuals. IRIN News has more.

[JURIST] Zimbabwe police Monday denied torture allegations [JURIST report] by suspects arrested and charged with plotting to overthrow the government and assassinate Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe [BBC profile]. Senior Assistant Commissioner Ronald Muderedzwa said only 11 people have been arrested [JURIST report], but continuing investigations into the stockpiled weapons found last week may lead to more arrests. The arrested individuals are members of the opposition group Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) [party website], and observers say the detentions may be part of an effort to lessen the MDC's power.

Muderedzwa also called again on former opposition MP Roy Bennett [Wikipedia profile] to submit to questioning in the alleged coup attempt, saying it was unknown whether Bennett was still in the country. The arrested individuals are expected to appear in court Wednesday either for a bail hearing or for a delay while police conduct further investigations. From South Africa, the Mail & Guardian has more.

[JURIST] Four members of the Aryan Brotherhood [Wikipedia backgrounder] prison gang go on trial Tuesday in California as the government attempts to bring an end to the white supremacist group. Altogether, twenty members of the gang face eventual trial in what has been described as one of the biggest capital cases in US history: charges in the case [BBC backgrounder; 2002 indictment, PDF] include 32 murders and attempted murders over a 30-year period in jails across the US, making 16 defendants eligible for the death penalty.

Whether juries will sentence to death defendants already serving life sentences for other crimes is unclear, however, and prosecutors will have to contend with the likely repercussions of relying heavily on informants who themselves are serving time for serious crimes. AP has more.

[JURIST] The president of the NAACP [advocacy website] called on the US Justice Department Monday to block New Orleans mayoral elections currently scheduled [JURIST report] for April 22, saying they would be "illegal" because the state of Louisiana "cannot guarantee or provide some level of insurance that a substantial percentage of New Orleans voters will be able to vote either by absentee ballot or in person." The Justice Department must pre-clear the elections under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In a letter to the Department, Bruce S. Gordon [NAACP profile] said that "Holding the election on April 22 under the current plans would seriously harm the voting rights of hundreds of thousands of New Orleans citizens, most of whom are African Americans who have been displaced and are still residing temporarily outside the city and outside the state." He has suggested setting up polling places in cities with large numbers of displaced New Orleans’ residents, like Atlanta and Houston, and said the NAACP was "prepared to bus displaced voters back to New Orleans to vote in next month’s elections if the state does not approve of out-of-state satellite voting locations." Read the NAACP press statement, along with a March 2 letter [PDF] to US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales asking for help to insure that displaced New Orleans minorities have a "fair opportunity" to vote.

Louisiana Secretary of State Al Ater [official website] disagrees with Gordon, promising that “this will be the most accessible race in the history of America." Primary races were originally scheduled for February 4, but were postponed because election workers were scattered and polling stations were destroyed due to Hurricane Katrina [JURIST news archive]. AP has more.

[JURIST] The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia [official website] formally closed its war crimes case against former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic [JURIST news archive] Tuesday, three days after he was found dead in his cell [JURIST report] over the weekend. The court, which had been trying the case against Milosevic for over four years, expressed regret to the victims of the Balkan wars that his sudden death would prevent a judgment. AP has more.

Meanwhile Milosevic's burial is being plagued by political and legal complications. Son Marko Milosevic arrived in The Hague Tuesday to retrieve his father's body, but said that because of various "threats" he is planning temporary interment in Moscow [B92 report], and had received permission from Moscow's mayor. Serbian President Boris Tadic has told reporters, however, that Serbia has no objection to Milosevic being buried in Belgrade. To facilitate this, a Belgrade court Tuesday released [AP report] an outstanding arrest warrant [JURIST report] against Milosevic's wife Mira Markovic [BBC profile], who fled to Russia to avoid corruption charges [BBC report] against her in 2003. The court said, however, that it would require Markovic to give up her passport if she enters the country and appear before a judge [BBC report] on March 23 in connection with the charges, "otherwise she will arrested and detained." Reuters has more.

[JURIST] A resolution [PDF] introduced [floor statement] Monday in the US Senate by Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) [official website] to censure President Bush over domestic spying [JURIST report] received only lukewarm approval from Feingold's fellow Democrats, preventing a floor vote and resulting in referral to the Senate Judiciary Committee [official website]. Several Democratic leaders said that they wanted to see the complete results of a Senate Intelligence Committee investigation into the warrantless surveillance program before voting on censure, while others, like Minority Leader Sen. Harry Reid [official website] and Sen. Joe Lieberman [official website] said that they haven’t read it yet.

Late Monday Feingold released a statement saying if the Judiciary Committee did not deal with the motion "expeditiously", he would reintroduce it in the full Senate. AP has more.

[JURIST Europe] Belarus [government website] authorities in Minsk Monday sentenced fifteen opposition activists to short jail terms as part of the government's latest effort to suppress opposition before Sunday's presidential elections. According to human rights monitors, the activists were not given access to lawyers during the court hearings and were intimidated by the court authorities. Alexander Milinkevich [official website], the main opposition leader who is backed by Western democracy groups, attempted to visit the arrestees but was denied access.

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko [official website; BBC profile], who has been called the last dictator in Europe, is expected to win a third term in the upcoming elections. Opposition leaders and human rights groups widely predict election fraud and voter intimidation. Lukashenko, who is backed by Russia, dismissed criticisms as foreigners' attempts to “destabilize the situation in the country” under the pretense of election monitoring. AP has more.

[JURIST Europe] The controversial UK Identity Cards Bill [official PDF text; JURIST news archive] will go back to the House of Lords [Commons Insistence on Disagreement, PDF] on Wednesday after Prime Minister Tony Blair's governing Labour Party won a critical vote in the House of Commons [official website] to back a proposal that would make registration for the cards mandatory when applying for a passport. Initially, Labour vowed to make ID cards optional, and critics of the legislation have claimed that connecting ID cards with passports makes them “compulsion by stealth”. Labour MPs insisted Monday, however, that passports themselves are voluntary documents that are optional to renew and won the vote 310 to 277. If the House of Lords rejects the proposal on Wednesday, as they initially did [JURIST report] one week ago, it will return to the Commons on Thursday. It would then bounce between the two houses until a compromise is reached, one side caves in or the Commons invokes its constitutional authority to override the Lords and force the bill through under the terms of the controversial Parliament Act [Guardian Q/A; UK Parliament backgrounder, PDF].

The identity cards debate has stirred controversy in the UK and prompted opposition by rights groups [No2ID advocacy website], who say that ID cards violate civil liberties and are ineffective. BBC News has local coverage.