[JURIST] French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin [official profile] said Thursday he was open to all proposals for resolving the month-long standoff with students and labor unions over the law [JURIST document] establishing the First Employment Contract (contrat premiere embauche, CPE) [JURIST news archive], but gave no indication that he was going to withdraw the legislation as critics have demanded. Speaking at his monthly press conference [transcript, in French; recorded video], de Villepin, who has seen his popularity slide in the face of his defense of the CPE, insisted that he would not resign, and that "The president of the republic has entrusted me with a mission and I shall conduct this mission to its conclusion." French President Jacques Chirac signed the CPE legislation into law over the weekend after suggesting in a televised address [JURIST video] the government would compromise on a number of key terms. The government has also asked French employers to refrain from entering into CPE contracts until amendments are made. The measure is part of a larger legislative package designed to lower French unemployment rates which have lately reached up to 22% among French youth.

Meanwhile protests against the law continue. On Tuesday, crowds estimated at between 1 and 3 million again took the streets of several French cities to protest the legislation [JURIST report], which currently creates an age-based exception to traditional French labor regulations by allowing workers who were under 26 years of age at the time of hiring to be fired without cause at any time during the first two years of their employment. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] US House Judiciary Committee [official website] chairman Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) [official website] accused US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales [official profile] of "stonewalling" his committee on the topic of the NSA warrantless surveillance program [JURIST news archive] during an oversight hearing [meeting materials] Thursday on US Justice Department operations. Sensenbrenner argued that because the committee is responsible for overseeing the Department of Justice, Gonzales cannot refuse to answer questions about how the Bush administration regulated the NSA program by saying the program is classified.

Gonzales insisted throughout the hearing that the program was legal - even saying at one point he would not rule out the possibility that the president had authority to order warrantless wiretaps of communications between Americans in the US - but indicated at several junctures he could not discuss classified matters. Read Gonzales' opening statement [PDF text], Sensenbrenner's opening statement [PDF text], and watch recorded video of the full six-hour hearing. AP has more.

[JURIST] The State Department announced Thursday afternoon in Washington that the United States will not be seeking membership this year of the new UN Human Rights Council [official website; UN materials; FAQ]. A spokesman said in a press statement ahead of a scheduled daily briefing:

There are strong candidates in our regional group, with long records of support for human rights, that voted in favor of the resolution creating the Council. They should have the opportunity to run....

Since the credibility of the Council depends on its membership, the United States will actively campaign on behalf of candidates genuinely committed to the promotion and protection of human rights, and which will act as responsible members of this new body. We will also actively campaign against states that systematically abuse human rights.

With a strong collective effort in the coming months to make the new Council effective, the United States will likely run for the Council next year.

[JURIST] US Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) [official website], Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) [official website] and eleven other senators announced Thursday that party leaders have hammered out a compromise immigration reform bill [PDF summary; press conference transcript] that both sides hope to submit for a floor vote before Friday. While all the details are yet unfinished, the bill in its basic form will divide the 11 million illegal immigrants currently in the US [JURIST report] into three groups depending on how long they have been living and working in the US:

• Those in the country for more than five years may file for legal status without leaving the country if they meet eight criteria, including proficiency in English, an up-to-date federal and state tax history dating back to their first year in the US, and having worked for at least three of the five years.
  
  
• Those in the country for a period of two and five years must leave the country, where they may apply for a temporary worker visa; their applications will be given priority over all other green card applicants.
  
  
• Those in the country for less than two years must leave the country, but they may apply for a temporary worker visa at that time.

[JURIST] European Union [official website] diplomats on Thursday evening are expected to approve a travel ban on 31 high-level Belarus governmental officials, including the president, in reaction to the controversial March 19th presidential election [JURIST report] and the subsequent crackdown on protesters [JURIST report]. Over 600 protesters now face criminal charges [JURIST report]. The visa ban will come into effect when EU foreign ministers approve it next Monday, and while it will not realistically prevent its targets from traveling through the EU, the EU intends it to communicate a condemnation of the elections and the arrests of protesters.

An independent report [text] released last month by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe called the election process severely flawed [JURIST report], citing instances of harassment and unnecessary detention of political activists. The European Parliament on Thursday adopted a resolution [press release] calling re-elected Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko [official website; BBC profile] "the last dictator in Europe." The EU will consider taking further action against Belarus [JURIST news archive] at an upcoming foreign minister's meeting, which may include foreign asset freezes on the 31 officials subject to the travel ban as well as trade restrictions on selected exports coming from Belarus. EUObserver.com has more.

[JURIST] The vice president of Russian oil giant Yukos [corporate website], Vasily Aleksanyan, has been charged by Russian prosecutors with embezzling company funds and laundering money. Aleksanyan, who only took over as Yukos VP on Tuesday, headed up Yukos’ legal department before taking on the task of protecting the company’s assets and the interests of both creditors and shareholders in the face of continuing litigation and scandal. Authorities searched Aleksanyan’s residences on Wednesday and Aleksanayan’s defense lawyer announced Thursday that Russian authorities had taken Aleksanyan into custody [RIA Novosti report].

As lead counsel for Yukos, Aleksanyan represented several former Yukos officers charged with malfeasance, most notably Mikhail Khodorkovsky [MosNews profile; JURIST news archive] in his trial and his appeal [JURIST report]. Khodorkovsky, who was convicted [JURIST report] last year and sentenced to an 8-year prison term for tax fraud and evasion, has alleged that the Kremlin instigated his prosecution in order to quell his growing financial and political influence. MosNews has more.

[JURIST] Former vice-presidential Chief of Staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby [defense profile; JURIST news archive] told the federal grand jury investigating the CIA leak case that President Bush authorized his disclosure of intelligence information on Iraq, according to the government's response [PDF text] to Libby's third motion to compel discovery [PDF text; exhibits, PDF]. Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald [official website] filed court papers Wednesday which reveal that Libby testified that his July 8, 2003 conversation with New York Times reporter Judith Miller took place "only after the vice president advised defendant that the president specifically had authorized defendant to disclose certain information" in a National Intelligence Estimate [Wikipedia backgrounder; definition], a document prepared to inform high-level government officials of the vulnerabilities, capabilities and probable courses of action of foreign countries. The court papers did not define "certain information." Miller told the grand jury that she learned the identity of former CIA operative Valerie Plame from Libby in the July 8 conversation, though Libby has not been charged with leaking Plame's identity or the contents of an NIE report.

Libby faces obstruction of justice and perjury charges [PDF indictment; JURIST report] in connection with the investigation into the leak of Plame's identity [JURIST news archive]. He pleaded not guilty [JURIST report] to the charges last November. The latest court filings concern Libby's attempts to obtain classified files [JURIST report] from the government to prepare his defense. AP has more.

In a related development, US District Judge Reggie Walton on Wednesday rejected [opinion, PDF; order, PDF] the prosecution's attempts to make their arguments why Libby should not be granted access to highly classified documents in private, keeping the defense from hearing the arguments. While the request to argue their case without Libby and his lawyers present was denied, Walton did agree to allow prosecutors to submit classified material to the court for review before turning the material over to Libby. AP has more.

[JURIST] Former Liberian President Charles Taylor [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] has selected British lawyer Karim Asad Ahmad Khan to serve as his provisional counsel in proceedings at the Special Court for Sierra Leone [official website]. Special Court Principal Defender Vincent Nmehielle [official website] on Wednesday issued a decision [PDF text] to appoint Khan, a specialist in international criminal law and human rights law, to defend Taylor against charges [amended indictment, PDF; summary] of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Sierra Leone during the 1991-2002 civil war.

Taylor has said that he doesn't have the resources to hire lawyers, but that he would like to choose his own lawyers if he can raise the funds. Taylor's aides say he wants to be represented by Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz [academic profile], who was part of O.J. Simpson's winning defense team and famously represented Claus von Bülow in another high-profile murder case. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani [official profile] testified at the resumed sentencing trial of Zacarias Moussaoui [JURIST news archive] on Thursday, describing the 9/11 attacks as he experienced them in his official capacity. He recalled being unable to grasp the extent of the calamity until he saw victims jumping from the windows of the burning World Trade Center towers.

Prosecutors making the case for the death penalty, for which Moussaoui is eligible after a jury verdict [JURIST report] earlier this week, played video of people leaping to their deaths and described telephone calls from frantic victims stranded in the towers. The jury has also been authorized to hear the cockpit tape and read the transcript [JURIST report] of United Airlines Flight 93 [National Park Service website] which crashed in Pennsylvania. Family members of 9/11 victims are also expected to testify. Defense attorneys are countering the death penalty arguments by saying that Moussaoui has schizophrenia, had a difficult childhood and was brainwashed by al Qaida. AP has more.

[JURIST] The US Department of Defense [official website] said Thursday that a review of one of the government's national security databases, the Threat and Local Observation Notice system or TALON program [Wired report], uncovered approximately 260 improper entries into the system. The database serves as a reporting system for possible threats by international terrorists to Pentagon employees or facilities, and an investigation into the system's contents was launched [JURIST report; press release] in December after reports revealed that it included information on US peace activists who posed no real security threat. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the 260 incorrect entries amounted to less than two percent of the 13,000 total database entries and denied that the TALON program is a form of domestic spying [JURIST news archive] by the US government. Whitman said that the review has also shown the value of the database and according to a March 2006 memo [PDF text] from Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England, TALON "has been productive. It has detected international terrorist interest in specific military bases and has led to and supported counterterrorism investigations."

The Pentagon said it will begin oversight reviews of the TALON system, including appointing supervisors to review any material scheduled for entry to ensure it is a proper submission. The entries into the database are made by DOD civilian and military personnel who witness suspicious activities. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Police officers in Nepal [JURIST news archive] arrested 300 protestors Thursday who were involved in 16 demonstrations across the capital city calling for a restoration of democracy in the country. Gopendra Pandey, a spokesman for the Nepal Ministry of Home Affairs [official website], said that arrests had been made but did not confirm a final number, and denied that there was a "law and order problem" in the country. The protests were organized by Nepal's seven political parties and were backed by Maoist communist rebels [BBC backgrounder] who failed to uphold a promise to cease attacks in Kathmandu during the anti-government rallies. The Nepalese government told the police to take any necessary measures to stop the protests, citing potential terrorist attacks as the main reason.

Earlier this week, King Gyanendra [official website; BBC profile] and the royal government banned all public meetings [JURIST report] in the cities of Kathmandu and Lalitpur and ordered the arrests [JURIST report] of 13 lawyers for holding peaceful protests. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan [official website] denounced the government crackdown in a statement [text] released Wednesday by saying, "security considerations should not be the basis for denying citizens their right to peaceful protest - a right for which virtually all avenues seem to be closing." AP has more. eKantipur.com has local coverage.

[JURIST] A British county court has given a UK anti-war activist until May 5 to pay £580 (about $1,017 USD) in back taxes he's withholding to protest the war in Iraq or face seizure of his property. Robin Brookes, a member of the Peace Tax Seven [advocacy website], told the court in a hearing earlier this week "I don't want to break the law, and I want to contribute to education and health, the law and the police force, but I cannot pay for a government's killing machine." Estimating that 10 percent of taxes funds the military, he began withholding the amount after the March 2003 invasion.

In October 2003 he appeared in court for the same issue [file report], and government officials later seized £550 (about $963 USD) in January 2004, telling him he could express his displeasure at the ballot box. Peace Tax Seven is awaiting a ruling about its members' legal entitlement to withhold taxes after arguing their case in the Court of Appeal earlier this month. The Independent has more.

[JURIST] The Ugandan Supreme Court [official website] has ruled by a vote of 4-3 against a challenge [JURIST report] to the February 23 presidential elections which allowed President Yoweri Museveni [BBC profile] to remain in power. The challenge and request for a re-election [JURIST report] was brought by opposition candidate Kizza Besigye [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] and his party, the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) [party website]. The court acknowledged that the vote count involved minor irregularities, but said that the FDC did not meet its burden in proving that these issues substantially affected the final vote in a manner that supported their allegations of fraud and malfeasance [JURIST report].

Earlier this week, Besigye pleaded not guilty [JURIST report] to charges that he was part of a plot to overthrow the government of Uganda [JURIST news archive] between 2001 and 2004. AFP has more. From Uganda, the Daily Monitor has local coverage.

4/7/06 10:26 AM ET - The Daily Monitor has now posted the court's ruling along with a comment from the paper's editors on the implications of the Besigye judgment.

[JURIST] Khaled Abu Arafa, the minister of Jerusalem affairs in the new Hamas-led Palestinian government [cabinet listing], was detained Thursday by Israeli police as he attempted to meet his predecessor, Ziad Abu Zayyad, for administrative purposes. Reports indicate Abu Arafa may have been taken into custody for attempting to open an office in eastern Jerusalem, which under current peace accords is not allowed until a final settlement is reached about the disputed city. The arrest, reported by a photographer traveling with Abu Arafa, has been confirmed by Palestinian and Israeli officials. Abu Arafa was detained for five hours [BBC report] and then released.

Hamas [ICT backgrounder] is widely seen by the international community as a terrorist organization but, in a surprise victory [JURIST report] in January elections, won the majority of seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council [official website]. The new cabinet was sworn into office [BBC report] last week. Abu Arafa's arrest comes less than a month after Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz [official profile] said that Israel would resume targeted assassinations [JURIST report] of Hamas members, including high-level members of Palestinian government, if the organization resumed attacks on Israel. Israel's targeted assassination of Hamas spiritual founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin in 2004 was widely criticized as contrary to international law [JURIST report]. AP has more. Haaretz has local coverage.

[JURIST] The Darfur Peace and Accountability Act of 2006 [HR 3127 text, PDF; bill summary] received near-unanimous approval [roll call] by the US House of Representatives [official website] Wednesday evening. The bill, if approved by the Senate and signed by the president, would deny entry to the US and freeze the assets of those responsible for committing genocide, war crimes or crimes against humanity in Sudan's Darfur region [JURIST news archive]. The president would be authorized to waive the restrictions if it were in the national interest, and the president would also be given the authority to assist African Union peacekeepers in the region [JURIST report]. The bill does not authorize, however, the use of US forces in Darfur. The legislation would also prohibit US aid to countries who violate arms embargos [JURIST report] imposed by the UN Security Council [official website] in Resolutions 1556 and 1591 [texts].

In 2004, Congress passed the Comprehensive Peace in Sudan Act of 2004 [PDF text; JURIST report], and the current bill is designed to expand that legislation. AP has more.

[JURIST] The Saddam Hussein trial [JURIST news archive] continued Thursday in Baghdad with testimony from Awad al-Bandar [Wikipedia profile], the head of the Revolutionary Court who sentenced 148 Shiites to death in 1984 [execution order]. Al-Bandar, one of the seven co-defendants on trial with Hussein at the Iraqi High Criminal Court [official website; JURIST news archive], took the stand for the second time Thursday, and was the only defendant present for the session. Al-Bandar insisted that the group of Shiites had received a fair trial [JURIST report] before receiving their death sentences and said that the defendants had confessed to plotting Hussein's assassination. Though he acknowledged that there was only one defense lawyer present for trial, al-Bandar stressed that the sentence had been issued "in accordance with the law" and refuted evidence that some of the defendants had been minors, saying that an identity card showing a victim to be age 15 had been forged.

Al-Bandar's testimony follows a day of testimony from Hussein, who took the stand [JURIST report] for six hours of questioning Wednesday. During Wednesday's proceedings, one of Hussein's lawyers, Bushra Khalil, was removed from the courtroom [VOA report] after she showed pictures depicting the alleged abuse of Iraqi detainees at the hands of US soldiers. The trial has now been adjourned until April 12. AP has more.

[JURIST] The US House of Representatives [official website] on Wednesday passed the 527 Reform Act of 2006 [HR 513 text, PDF; bill summary], legislation that would require non-profit political groups, called "527s" for the tax code section under which they are organized, to register as political committees and follow campaign finance rules [FEC materials]. 527 groups [OpenSecret.org backgrounder] currently are not subject to the same soft-money contribution restrictions as traditional political action committees, which allowed them to donate vast amounts of unregulated money to campaigns during the 2004 election cycle. In the 218-209 vote [roll call], the House narrowly approved restricting donations to 527s to $25,000 a year per donor for partisan voter mobilization efforts and $5,000 a year per donor for direct expenditures on federal elections. The bill now goes to the US Senate for consideration, where strong Democratic opposition to the proposal makes its passage questionable, but the White House has expressed strong support [statement, PDF] for the bill.

The House vote comes a week after a federal judge ordered [PDF text; JURIST report] the Federal Election Commission [official website] to present a "reasoned explanation" for failing to more fully regulate 527s, and told the FEC to institute new rules "if necessary." The ruling came in a challenge by US Reps. Christopher Shays (R-CT) and Martin Meehan (D-MA) against the FEC. The two congressmen had argued that the FEC's failure to issue a rule governing when 527s must register as political committees was arbitrary and capricious and in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act [text]. AP has more.

[JURIST] The Environmental Protection Agency [official website] is conducting a criminal investigation into management by British Petroleum [corporate website] of oil pipelines in Alaska, according to a report [registration required] in Thursday's Wall Street Journal. A corroded pipeline owned by the company spilled an estimated 134,000 to 267,000 gallons of crude oil in March, the largest spill ever in Alaskan history [BBC report]. The EPA's criminal investigation division [backgrounder] is looking into potential violations of the Clean Water Act [text]. The US Attorney's Office for the District of Alaska [official website] would prosecute any violation of the Clean Water Act.

The EPA probe comes as BP is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation [official website] into a refinery accident last year that killed 15 people and wounded 170. Reuters has more.