[JURIST] A spokesman for Thailand's three highest courts Saturday called for the current members of the country's much-maligned Election Commission [official website] to resign ahead of new elections ordered earlier this week by the country's Constitutional Court [JURIST report] after the results of the April 2 general election [BBC report] were annulled [JURIST report]. Press reports quoted Virat Chinvinijkul as saying "Chaos and confusion will return if we allow these people to organise the next election, because the public does not trust them." So far, however, the members of the Commission have refused to step aside, and want to meet with political party representatives Monday to pick a new election date. The parties are themselves divided on the Commission; the opposition has said it will not deal with the current membership, which it regards as a proxy for the government, while government leaders insist that the Commission has been doing its job well and its members should continue in office.

The Constitutional Court ruled Tuesday that the "organization of the election by the Election Commission was unconstitutional" because the poll was held too soon after Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra [official website] dismissed parliament, preventing candidates from having sufficient time to prepare for elections. Thaksin called elections three years earlier than expected in an effort to win support for his troubled leadership. Instead, opposition parties boycotted the poll and not all seats were filled, forcing Thaksin to announce he would be stepping down [BBC report].

[JURIST] UK Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer [official profile] told the BBC [recorded audio] Saturday that the government was considering introducing legislation that would prevent the Human Rights Act - the UK statute that took effect in 2000 implementing the European Convention on Human Rights [PDF] - from interfering with public safety matters. He cited a recent Probation Service report [PDF] on the release of a sex attacker who later killed a 40-year-old mother of one which suggested that under the influence of the act and what Falconer called a "human rights culture" officials were "more worried about what may happen in court than reaching the right conclusion on public safety." He was also speaking in the wake of a public furor over a judge's ruling Wednesday authorizing temporary asylum for nine Afghan nationals who hijacked a plane from Afghanistan to the UK in 2000; the decision drew direct criticism from Prime Minister Tony Blair [JURIST report], and on Friday prompted British Conservative Party leader David Cameron to say that he would press to repeal the Act [JURIST report] if it were not rewritten to address the government's apparent inability to effectively deal with criminals. It's not yet clear, however, how the government will proceed; Falconer indicated that an actual amendment to the Human Rights Act itself might not be necessary, and that the requisite "political clarity" could be provided by separate legislation. He denied that the government was considering withdrawing from the underlying European Convention.

Human rights groups have reacted to proposals to limit the act with dismay, suggesting limitation would be an invitation to abuse. BBC News has more. Reuters has additional coverage.

[JURIST] The son of a top Iraqi judge was killed by gunmen Saturday and his body dumped in the mostly Sunni Baghdad neighborhood of Azamiyah. Twenty-two year old Ahmed Midhat al-Mahmoud was himself a lawyer and died along with two bodyguards. His father, Midhat al-Mahmoud, is the Shiite leader of the Higher Judicial Council, the supervisory entity that administers the Iraqi justice system. The senior Al-Mahmoud survived a suicide bomb attack on his house last December and an attack by gunmen on his convoy [MIPT report] in Baghdad in March 2005.

Violence in Iraq has intensified lately as Prime Minister-designate Nouri al-Maliki [Wikipedia backgrounder] has struggled to assemble his Cabinet before the May 22 constitutional deadline, when the parliament will vote on his selections. Earlier this week Iraqi President Jalal Talabani called for political parties in the country to unite against crime and terrorism, which killed 762 people in Baghdad alone [AP report] in April according to Iraqi government figures. Iraqi judges and lawyers have hardly been immune from attacks and assassinations; well over a dozen jurists and lawyers involved in the constitutional drafting process [JURIST report], in the trial of Saddam Hussein [JURIST report] or simply working in dangerous areas of the country [JURIST report] have previously been murdered. AP has more.

[JURIST] September 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui [JURIST news archive] has appealed [notice of appeal, PDF] both his life sentence [JURIST report] on conspiracy charges and US District Judge Leonie Brinkema's decision to deny his motion to withdraw his guilty plea [JURIST reports] and grant a new trial. Moussaoui was sentenced to life in prison earlier this month at the conclusion of a two-month sentencing trial [case docket]. He pleaded guilty [JURIST report] in April 2005 to conspiracy charges [indictment] in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks, including conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism transcending national boundaries, conspiracy to destroy aircraft and conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction. Brinkema refused to allow Moussaoui to withdraw his plea [order, PDF] under Fed. R. Crim. P. 11(e) [text], which prevents defendants from withdrawing a guilty plea after a court has imposed a sentence. The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit will consider Moussaoui's appeal. Reuters has more.

The US Marshals Service [official website] said Saturday that Moussaoui has been transferred [press release] to the Administrative Maximum facility [BOP backgrounder] in Florence, Colorado where he has begun serving his life term. AP has more.

[JURIST] A Russian court in Tatarstan [official website] Friday sentenced two former Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainees and another man to between 11 and 15 years in prison for their involvement in a January 2005 gas pipeline explosion on the Volga River. The three had been acquitted in September 2005, but the Supreme Court dismissed the verdict and ordered a new trial.

The two Guantanamo detainees were released in 2004 to Russian custody, but were freed after Russian investigators found they had no demonstratable ties to the Taliban. When they were arrested [JURIST report] in August in connection with the 2005 pipeline bomb, which Russian human rights groups suggest was damaged by a technical error, they accused their Russian captors of coercing confessional statements through torture. The same rights groups say the trials were unfair because the evidence against the three defendants, including cell phone records and legally obtainable Muslim literature, was not enough to convict. One of the ex-detainees - Airat Vakhitov - formerly an imam at a mosque in Tatarstan - had previously filed a lawsuit against the US government alleging rights abuses [JURIST report]. AP has more.

[JURIST] The US Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] has asked [DOJ press release] a federal court in Washington for a two-year extension [DOJ court filing] of a Microsoft antitrust order because the software giant has been slow to supply proper technical documentation to the licensees of its communications protocols. The remedial settlement between Microsoft, the DOJ, and nine states, approved in 2002 [PC World report; final judgment], attempted to address the anticompetitive nature of Microsoft's dominant Windows operating system by various measures including providing consumers with more choices between bundled utilities and requiring the company to treat vendors equitably.

Without the documentation sought by the DOJ, competing software vendors are at a disadvantage when developing software that works on the Windows system. The settlement is currently scheduled to expire in November 2007. Microsoft has already agreed [Microsoft press release] to the proposed extension. PC World has more.