[JURIST] Vacating a lesser sentence, the Quebec Court of Appeal [official website] has imposed an 18-month prison term on Canadian advertising executive Paul Coffin, who last May pleaded guilty to 15 counts of fraud [JURIST report] in the federal sponsorship scandal [CBC backgrounder]. The trial court originally ordered [JURIST report] Coffin to serve a conditional sentence of two years in the community with a 9 PM curfew, the Canadian equivalent of provisional house arrest, but the Crown appealed the sentence [CP report], arguing it was too lenient to deter future attempts of fraud.

Coffin sent more than $1.5 million worth of falsified advertising invoices to the Canadian federal government between 1997 and 2002. The scandal developed during the term of former Liberal Party Prime Minister Jean Chretien [CBC profile] in the mid-1990's and involved the awarding of lucrative advertising contracts to Liberal ad agencies in Quebec in return for little or no work. It was extensively investigated by a judicial inquiry led by Justice John Gomery, who issued his most recent report [JURIST report] in February. CBC News has more.

[JURIST] The War Crimes Chamber of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina [HRW backgrounder] on Friday found Nedjo Samardzic guilty [press release] of committing crimes against humanity and escaping from prison during the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia and sentenced him to 13 years imprisonment. Samardzic, a Bosnian Serb army leader and convicted murderer who escaped prison in 1992 to join the army, was accused of detaining, torturing, and raping civilians [indictment, PDF; case backgrounder].

Samardzic is the first prisoner to be sentenced by the War Crimes Chamber, which was created in 2005 to relieve the backlog of cases at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website] and eventually assume responsibility for local war crimes prosecution. In February, the War Crimes Chamber ordered the release [JURIST report] of war criminal Dragomir Abazovic due to an insufficient warrant. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] A three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit [official website] Friday unanimously ruled [opinion text, PDF] against US Securities and Exchange Commission [official website] corporate governance regulations [text; SEC materials] that require mutual fund companies to appoint independent chairpersons and compose at least 75 percent of their boards with independent members. The US Chamber of Commerce [advocacy website] praised [press release] the holding, which the DC Circuit based on the failure of the SEC to give the public an adequate "opportunity for comment" before adopting the rules. The panel stayed the ruling and allotted 90 days to the SEC to allow the public to comment on the rules before it hears arguments from the SEC again. The court found it imprudent to immediately vacate the rules, however, saying,

[A] significant portion of the mutual fund industry appears to have come into substantial compliance with the Rule. This compliance tends to suggest that immediate vacation of the two conditions risks substantial disruption to the mutual fund industry because of the resultant inconsistent governance practices that would arise within the industry, which also might sow confusion in the investing public.

[JURIST] A panel of 11 members of the German parliament [Bundestag website] began its investigation into the role of German intelligence in the war in Iraq Friday. The committee will focus on 30 questions posed by the Free Democratic Party, the Left Party and the Greens [party websites in German], Germany's opposition parties, in reaction to an internal investigation which found the German intelligence service, BND [official website in German], clear of any wrongdoing. The panel will include one member from each of these parties, in addition to four from each of the power-sharing parties, the Christian Democrats and the Social Democrats [party websites in German].

The hearings will re-examine the BND's role in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, when the country was officially opposed to the war, in addition to allegations that BND intelligence contributed to the seizure of Khaled el-Masri [JURIST report] and that German officials interrogated detainees [JURIST report] in Afghanistan. AFP has more.

[JURIST] The United Nations has expressed disappointment [press briefing transcript] in the US decision not to run [JURIST report] for a position on the new UN Human Rights Council [official website; UN materials; FAQ]. Spokesmen for UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan [official profile] and UN General Assembly President Jan Eliasson [official profile], however, expressed hope that the US would continue to support the purpose and work of the council, and that it will run for a seat next year. International human rights organizations including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and UN Watch [advocacy websites] echoed the UN's concerns, emphasizing Washington's potential to influence the council, even from its non-member position. Specifically, HRW suggested [press release] the US participate in shaping the body's rules and procedures and bring abuses to the council's attention.

In its press statement announcing the decision not to participate, the Bush Administration vowed to support "candidates genuinely committed to the promotion and protection of human rights" and said the US will likely run for a council position next year. The US voted against [JURIST report] the resolution [JURIST document] to create the council, which replaces the widely criticized Commission on Human Rights [official website], arguing that there are inadequate checks [JURIST report] to prevent membership by countries with poor human rights records. The list of candidates [official website] for the May 9 election currently includes 43 submissions. Reuters has more. The UN News Centre has additional coverage.

[JURIST] Guantanamo Bay detainee Binyam Muhammad [charge sheet, PDF] said Thursday that he had been tortured after United States authorities transported him to a Moroccan prison for interrogation. Muhammad is a suspected al Qaeda member and is charged with conspiring with al Qaeda to commit war crimes in the United States. He made his first appearance before a military commission [DOD materials; JURIST news archive] Thursday for a pre-trial hearing [JURIST report] and said he made false confessions after being transferred to a Moroccan prison where he claims to have been beaten, strung up by his arms, and sliced with a scalpel.

Muhammad also referred to the military commissions as a "con" [Reuters report] claiming that after four years of torturous interrogation officials could not even properly spell his name. He has denied allegations that conspired with al Qaeda leaders and US Citizen Jose Padilla [JURIST news archive] to use "dirty bombs" to cause explosions at apartment buildings and gas stations in the US. Muhammad faces a life sentence if convicted and is one of ten Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainees who currently face charges. AP has more.

[JURIST] A bill reflecting what was heralded as a key compromise [PDF summary] on immigration reform [JURIST news archive] has stalled in the US Senate. By a margin of 38-60 senators voted Friday morning against a motion [Leahy MFTF log] to send the existing border security bill [S 2454 summary] back to the Senate Judiciary Committee with instructions to include compromise language [JURIST report] agreed to by Senate leaders Thursday. A subsequent vote to invoke cloture [Senate backgrounder] to end debate on the original bill then failed 36-62 [Leahy MFTF log].

The vote was not entirely unexpected, as disagreements over amendments [AP report] quickly emerged late Thursday after the initial compromise announcement. Senate leaders had hoped to hammer out an acceptable bill text Friday before leaving for a two-week Easter recess. CBS News has more.

[JURIST] Serbia [JURIST news archive] has promised to deliver fugitive Bosnian war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic [ICTY case backgrounder; BBC profile] to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia [official website] by the end of April, according to a court spokesman. A spokesman for ICTY chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte [official profile] said that Serbia had provided "clear assurances" that Mladic would be delivered to the tribunal before the end of the month and said that a similar message had been given to EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn [official website]. The EU has demanded Serbia's cooperation with the war crimes tribunal in exchange for closer ties to the EU and possible membership. Last week, Rehn extended the EU's deadline [JURIST report] for Serbia to handover Mladic until April 30.

Mladic is charged with genocide and crimes against humanity for his role in the Bosnian conflict, including the 1995 Srebrenica massacre [JURIST news archive]. EUObserver.com has more.

[JURIST] Canadian Conservative Party Prime Minister Stephen Harper [official profile] has said that he intends to fulfill a campaign promise and hold a free vote in the Canadian Parliament about whether to revive debate on a federal law permitting same-sex marriages [text] that was passed [JURIST report] last summer by the Liberal Party government of former Prime Minister Paul Martin. More outspoken members of the Conservative caucus are pushing the vote to pave the way for new legislation limiting legal marriages to those between a man and a woman. Justice Minister Vic Toews [official profile] has promised a vote "sooner rather than later," but no action is likely to be taken until the fall, and activists continue to call on the government to drop the plan [Canadians for Equal Marriage press release], saying the issue of same-sex marriage has already been decided. Critics claim that the issue is not a priority for Canadians, citing a January poll [PDF text] by Environics Research Group revealing that 66 percent of those surveyed did not want the matter of same-sex marriages brought back to Parliament for a vote. CTV has more.

Other countries that have legalized same-sex marriage [JURIST news archive] include Spain [JURIST report], Belgium and the Netherlands.

[JURIST] The UN human rights chief in Haiti [JURIST news archive] has accused the interim government of imprisoning 4,000 people "preventively" for months or years without facing charges or trials. According to Thierry Fagart, the human rights field officer in Haiti, many of the prisoners were arrested for political reasons after the February 2004 ouster [JURIST report] of former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide [BBC profile], including his former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune and former Interior Minister Jocelerme Privert. Of the 2,000 people in the national prison, only four percent have been sentenced, and officials have refused to accept more prisoners due to overcrowding. Fagart said that "legal procedures have been systematically violated" and called the situation unacceptable.

Next month, the US-supported interim government will transfer power to president-elect Rene Preval [Wikipedia profile; JURIST report] who has mentioned the possibility of a pardon for the political prisoners. Fagart's latest statements echo criticisms by another UN human rights official in November [JURIST report] and statements by Fagart in October [JURIST report] that the human rights situation in Haiti was "catastrophic." Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Former immigration official Michael Maxwell testified about alleged widespread corruption and security vulnerabilities within the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) [official website] before the US House Committee on International Relations on Thursday. Maxwell, who resigned in February as Director of the Office of Security and Investigations at USCIS complained that because officials within USCIS did not consider his department a priority, it was chronically short-staffed and lacked the resources to investigate allegations of employee corruption [testimony, PDF] and links to espionage and terrorism. He cited 500 criminal complaints filed against the agency for bribery, harboring illegal immigrants and money laundering which have not been fully investigated.

According to Maxwell, senior agency officials ignored or covered up security problems, and his resignation was prompted by retaliation against him when he refused to ignore security vulnerabilities. AP has more.