[JURIST] Dr. Wen Ho Lee [Washington Post archive], the US nuclear scientist at one time suspected of stealing nuclear secrets for China, Friday settled a civil lawsuit [Jones Day summary] he had brought against the US Department of Justice and the Department of Energy alleging they leaked false and misleading information about him to reporters, contrary to the Privacy Act [text]. The government agreed to pay Lee $895,000 covering legal fees and taxes. In a separate agreement, five news organizations representing reporters who had been subpoenaed in the case [RCFP backgrounder] agreed to pay $750,000 to "protect our journalists from further sanctions" imposed for not disclosing confidential information to Lee's attorneys, according to a joint statement [PDF].

In November last year a federal judge ruled Washington Post reporter Walter Pincus [JURIST report] in contempt for refusing to reveal his sources for a story about Lee, and in December the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia refused to rehear [JURIST report] the case of four other reporters who were challenging an earlier ruling holding them in contempt [JURIST report] for similar failures. The non-disclosures could have led to imprisonment. Lee was originally investigated for allegedly giving top secret nuclear technology to China. He was never indicted for espionage but he eventually pleaded guilty to a single charge of mishandling computer files. Bloomberg has more.

[JURIST] A federal judge on Friday approved a $153 million settlement between tax firm KPMG [corporate website] and 200 of its former clients in a class action lawsuit based on illegal tax shelters sold by the firm from 1996 to 2002 which were categorized as abusive by the IRS [press release]. The settlement, preliminarily approved by US District Court Judge Dennis M. Cavanaugh on October 31, covers the transaction costs paid by clients to KPMG, but not the fines and penalties the clients have since paid to the IRS.

In August 2005 KPMG agreed to pay the IRS a $456 million fine [JURIST report] to avoid criminal prosecution for the tax shelters, and agreed to be supervised for three years by a former SEC chairman. KPMG has admitted the tax shelters were illegal, and took full responsibility for the unlawful conduct by former KPMG partners [KPMG press release, PDF; JURIST report] Criminal prosecutions against 19 former KPMG executives [JURIST report] are currently underway. The IRS estimates the tax shelters resulted in $2.5 billion in lost tax revenue for the US government. AP has more.

[JURIST] Canadian Conservative Party Prime Minister Stephen Harper [official website] said Friday that he will ask MPs to vote this fall on a federal law permitting same-sex marriage [text]. The Liberal Party of former prime minister Paul Martin, which now controls only 103 of 308 seats in the House of Commons, passed the bill [JURIST report] last summer, making Canada one of four national governments, along with South Africa, the Netherlands, Belgium and Spain, that recognize same-sex marriage. A free vote allowing members to vote according to their conscience rather than along party lines was promised during the January federal election campaign and reiterated [JURIST report] earlier this spring; MPs are likely to be asked whether the issue should be revisited, not whether they support same-sex marriage, which current projections suggest most do [tracking website].

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. Reuters has more. The Globe and Mail has local coverage.

[JURIST] The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) [official website] on Friday sentenced Joseph Serugendo [case materials] to six years in prison [press release] for direct and public incitement to commit genocide and persecution as a crime against humanity under a plea agreement where the ICTR dropped the more serious charges of genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide and complicity to commit genocide in exchange for Serugendo's guilty plea. Serugendo is the former technical director of a Rwandan radio station that promoted the 1994 Rwandan genocide [HRW backgrounder; JURIST news archive], and admitted to the ICTR that he provided technical assistance and moral support to broadcast anti-Tutsi messages over the airwaves.

The tribunal considered Serugendo's terminal illness and his cooperation with the tribunal in the decision to limit his sentence to only six years in prison. Serugendo was arrested in September 2005 and initially pleaded not guilty [JURIST report] to the charges. AFP has more. The UN News Centre has additional coverage.

[JURIST] Nearly 200,000 people rallied in Kathmandu outside the palace of King Gyanendra [official profile] Friday in a protest organized by Nepal's Maoist rebel insurgency [BBC profile] to pressure the new government into speeding up plans to elect a special assembly to draft a new Nepal constitution. Krishna Bahadur Mahara [eKantipur.com interview], the Maoist negotiator with the recently reinstated parliament, told the crowd that the Maoist rebels should be included in the election preparations, and repeated a call for the enactment of an interim constitution [JURIST report] before a formal text is drafted and approved.

Gyanendra sacked the government and parliament [JURIST report] in February 2005, but relinquished direct rule over Nepal after 19 days of mass protests [JURIST news archive] and reinstated parliament [JURIST report] in April. The new parliament has voted to hold elections for a constituent assembly [JURIST report] to re-write the current constitution [text]. The reinstated parliament has also stripped the King all of the powers and privileges [JURIST report] he once held. Reuters has more. eKantipur.com has local coverage.

[JURIST] A federal district judge sitting in Florida has ruled [PDF; ACLU press release] that a Pledge of Allegiance [Wikipedia backgrounder; JURIST news archive] is unconstitutional and that a student does not need a parent's permission to be excused from reciting the Pledge. Boynton Beach junior Cameron Frazier sued [complaint, PDF] the Palm Beach County School Board [district website] last year on grounds that forcing him to stand and recite the Pledge was unconstitutional, and complained that his teacher reproached him in front of classmates when Frazier refused to stand and recite the Pledge. The school board in February agreed to pay [North County Gazette report] Frazier $32,500 and stopped requiring students to stand for the Pledge until Frazier's case was resolved.

Judge Kenneth Ryskamp of the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida [official website] cited West Virginia v. Barnette [text], the 1943 US Supreme Court decision that struck down a law requiring students to salute and pledge to the flag, stating that federal case law recognizes a student's right not to stand and recite the Pledge. The Pledge of Allegiance has made national headlines in recent years, sparking debate over whether the words "under God" included in the Pledge constitute an endorsement of religion under the Establishment Clause [overview] of the First Amendment. Frazier's case, however, did not involve the constitutionality of the Pledge itself, but rather the right to refuse to recite it. The Palm Beach Post has more.

[JURIST] US Ambassador to Afghanistan Ronald Neumann [official profile] has said that US troops cannot be prosecuted under Afghan law, striking a sharp contrast to statements made Thursday by Afghan Deputy Chief Justice Abdul Malik Kamawi that all foreigners who commit a crime in Afghanistan [JURIST news archive] can be prosecuted under Afghan law. Neumann added that the US military never signed an agreement with the Afghan government stating that Afghanistan could prosecute US troops. Both statements come at the heels of a nonbinding resolution [JURIST report] made by the Afghan Parliament Tuesday calling for the prosecution of soldiers involved in a deadly car crash in Kabul on Monday.

A humvee crashed into a line of civilian vehicles, killing five passengers and prompting angry demonstrations [AP report] in the vicinity that led to the deaths of 20 people. US military officials believe that brake failure likely caused the crash. President Bush on Wednesday said that the military would launch an investigation [AP report] into the crash and subsequent riots to see if US soldiers fired at the angry demonstrators. US military officials said Friday that they will cooperate in an Afghanistan probe [AP report] into the humvee crash, which begins Saturday. AP has more.

[JURIST] A federal judge in Michigan has ordered the National Security Agency to respond to a lawsuit [case materials] filed by the American Civil Liberties Union challenging the legality of the NSA's domestic surveillance program [JURIST news archive]. US District Court Judge Anna Diggs Taylor denied [order, PDF] the NSA's motion to stay consideration of the ACLU's motion for partial summary judgment [PDF text], saying that the government's attempt to dismiss the case on the basis of state secrecy will not be heard until after an earlier ACLU motion for summary judgment. The hearing on the ACLU's motion is scheduled for June 12.

The ACLU lawsuit, filed on behalf of journalists, scholars, attorneys and national nonprofit organizations similarly having "a well-founded belief that their communications are being intercepted by the NSA" alleges that the NSA program violates the First and Fourth Amendments. The DOJ filed for the dismissal [JURIST report] of the lawsuit last Friday, invoking the state secrets privilege first recognized by the US Supreme Court in US v. Reynolds [opinion text]. The Bush administration has revived the use of the doctrine, using it at least 28 times since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. It had been relied upon only four times between 1953 and 1976 [News Media & The Law commentary]. The DOJ successfully invoked the doctrine [JURIST report] in the civil extraordinary rendition [JURIST news archive] lawsuit [case materials] filed by Khalid el-Masri, where he sought damages against the CIA and ex-director George Tenet for allegedly kidnapping him and detaining him without charges. The Detroit News has local coverage.

ALSO ON JURIST  Op-ed: The State Secrets Privilege and Executive Misconduct

[JURIST] US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and FBI Director Robert Mueller plan to resume talks on Friday with major internet service providers on retaining customer data on internet activities that would allow them to better combat child pornography and terrorism. An initial meeting [JURIST report] last Friday included American Online, Microsoft, Google, Verizon and Comcast; this week's meeting will include a broader group of representatives from internet companies. The Justice Department [official website] wants to be able to view records that could help them identify which internet users visited specified websites and potentially which users conducted specified searches, as well as determine who exchanged e-mails with whom without disclosing the content of the e-mails.

The issue of government access to detailed internet records is an extremely sensitive one. Earlier this year the Justice Department fought a legal battle [JURIST report] with Google, Inc. [corporate backgrounder] when Google refused to turn over index data or search terms [JURIST report] in response to a Justice Department subpoena [PDF text]. A federal judge ultimately ordered Google [JURIST report] to turn over a limited number of indexed addresses. Justice Department officials have also suggested that retained data could be used to control intellectual property theft and fraud. The New York Times have more.

[JURIST] Rwandan President Paul Kagame [official profile; BBC profile] has criticized the UN-funded International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) [official website; JURIST news archive] as inefficient, and said that several ICTR employees should be testifying before the court for their involvement in the 1994 genocide the court was established to investigate. In a press conference [recorded video] Wednesday, Kagame noted that the ICTR has convicted fewer than 40 people [ICTR backgrounder] since its inception in 1997 at a cost of $1.5 billion US.

In recent months, the ICTR has convicted a former Rwandan mayor for ordering executions, upheld the acquittals of two high-ranking officials, and sentenced a retired army officer to 25 years on genocide charges [JURIST reports]. The ICTR has delivered 26 convictions and three acquittals since its establishment, and the UN has set a 2008 deadline for it to complete trials for 26 other suspects currently under indictment. The Rwandan government estimates the 1994 genocide [BBC backgrounder] left at least 937,000 Tutsis and some Hutus dead. VOA has more.

[JURIST] AP is reporting that US Army Sgt. Santos A. Cardona [JURIST news archive] has been sentenced to 90 days hard labor without confinement and a reduction in rank for abusing detainees at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison [JURIST news archive]. Cardona was convicted [JURIST report] Thursday of dereliction of duty and aggravated assault in connection with the use of unmuzzled dogs [JURIST report] when questioning detainees at Abu Ghraib. He faced a maximum three-and-a-half year prison sentence.

A second dog handler, Sgt. Michael Smith, was convicted and sentenced to six months in prison [JURIST reports] on similar charges in March.

[JURIST] Russian Prosecutor-General Vladimir Ustinov [MosNews profile] unexpectedly quit Friday after Russian President Vladimir Putin [official website; BBC profile] recommended to the Russian upper house - the Federation Council [official website] - that Ustinov be asked to step down from office. The upper house approved Ustinov's removal by a vote of 140-0, with two abstentions. According to the speaker of the Federation Council, Sergei Mironov, Ustinov first approached Putin about resigning. There was no immediate explanation for the resignation, though it follows recent criticism from Putin that Ustinov was failing to fight corruption in Russia.

Ustinov became the acting Prosecutor-General under President Boris Yeltsin in 1999, and was confirmed to the position permanently in 2000. Last year, Ustinov won overwhelming approval from the upper house for a second five-year term [JURIST report]. Ustinov led the Russian government's prosecution against businessmen Vladimir Gusinsky [Wikipedia profile], Boris Berezovsky [Wikipedia profile] and former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky [BBC profile; JURIST news archive]. Reuters has more. Radio Free Europe has local coverage.

[JURIST] Court-martial proceedings for 15 US soldiers [AP overview] implicated in the abuse of detainees at Bagram Air Base [JURIST news archive] in Afghanistan, including the beating deaths of two Afghanis [US Army press release; JURIST report], ended in Fort Bliss, Texas on Thursday with only one conviction, resulting in a demotion in rank and three months in prison for former Pfc. Willie V. Brand. Three other soldiers pleaded guilty [JURIST report] last year to abusing prisoners at the Bagram Air Field detention center in Afghanistan, two others pleaded guilty at the court-martial, five were acquitted, the army dropped the charges against three others.

Pfc. Damien M. Corsetti, of the 519th Military Intelligence Battalion, was acquitted of charges of dereliction of duty, maltreatment, assault, wrongful use of hashish and alcohol, and performing an indecent act with another person. A New York Times investigative report [text] published in 2005 said Corsetti was known at the Bagram Air Field [Globalsecurity.org backgrounder] detention center as the "King of Torture" and "The Monster" for his abusive tendencies, though his superior officers testified at the court-martial that they never saw Corsetti doing anything wrong. He was not charged with the assault leading to the two deaths. AP has more.

[JURIST] Canada's Federal Court [official website] Thursday stayed the deportation to China of Lai Changxing [Wikipedia profile], the alleged leader of a Xiamen-based network suspected of smuggling up to $10 billion of goods such as cigarettes, automobiles, heating and cooking oil, textiles, chemicals and other raw materials under the protection of corrupt Chinese government officials. Justice Carolyn Layden-Stevenson [official profile] stayed Lai's deportation because Lai claimed he would be tortured or executed if forced to return to China, despite contrary assurances [Reuters report] from the Chinese government. Eight people have already been executed in connection with the corruption case.

Under Canadian law, officials cannot deport refugees to countries that are known to use torture, although all of Lai's applications for refugee status have been denied [BBC report]. Layden-Stevenson wrote: "[t]he issue of the assurances lie at the heart of the debate ... absent the assurances, the records disclose credible evidence that a serious likelihood of jeopardy to life or safety exists." AP has more. The Globe & Mail has local coverage. From China, The People's Daily has additional coverage of the case.

[JURIST] New Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki [BBC profile] said Friday that he will ask the United States to turn over its files pertaining to the investigation into the alleged killing of 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians [JURIST report] in Haditha by US Marines last November, after the Iraqi cabinet on Thursday decided to launch its own probe into the Haditha deaths. US Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad [official profile] said that no decision has been made on whether to turn over the files, but said that a meeting was planned Friday with the top US commander in Iraq, Army Gen. George Casey [official profile] to discuss the issue. Maliki has called the alleged Haditha killings a "horrible crime" [AP report], adding that the list of human rights violations by coalition forces in Iraq is "unacceptable." The Iraqi government has also called for an official apology from the US after investigations are completed and for "generous financial compensations" to be paid to victims' families. President Bush on Wednesday promised to punish any US forces [JURIST report] found guilty of murdering Iraqi civilians, and it was reported Thursday that an independent military investigation will find that the Haditha killings were unprovoked [JURIST report]. Reuters has more.

Meanwhile, the US military says it has opened another investigation into the March death of 11 Iraqi civilians in Ishaqi, a town located 60 miles north of Baghdad. The investigation stems from a video [BBC video] handed over by a hardline Sunni group opposed to coalition forces depicting several dead adults and children with clear gunshot wounds. US officials contend that the deaths were the result of a firefight during a house search based on a tip that an al Qaeda operative was at the house, and that the house collapsed, killing four people. The Iraqi police, however, reported that US troops deliberately killed 11 people before blowing up the building. BBC News has more.

11:37 AM ET - The Naval Criminal Investigative Service [official website] will exhume the bodies of the 24 civilians killed in Haditha as part of its investigation, the Washington Post reported Friday. NCIS investigators are hoping to gather additional forensic evidence, including the caliber of the bullets used and whether shots were fired at close range. The Times has more. Meanwhile, the chairman of the Iraqi Human Rights Association condemned the killings of Iraqi civilians, saying that it seems as though civilian deaths at the hands of US forces is "a daily phenomenon." AP has more.

5:05 PM ET - US military officials said late Friday that its investigation into the Ishaqi killings has shown that there was no misconduct and that troops followed normal procedures. The officials also said, speaking on condition of anonymity, that the US Army Criminal Investigation Command [official website] has reviewed the results and determined that there is no reason to investigate further. AP has more.

[JURIST] US military prosecutors plan to file conspiracy and murder charges against seven enlisted Marines and one Navy corpsman for the alleged murder of an Iraqi civilian and subsequent cover-up on April 26 in Hamandiya, according to a defense lawyer for one of the men involved. US commanders in Iraq ordered the Naval Criminal Investigative Service [official website] to investigate the incident [MNF-Iraq press release] late last month after local Iraqis told Marine leaders about it at a regularly scheduled May 1 meeting. The seven Marines allegedly dragged the man out of his house to shoot him, then placed an AK-47 and a shovel near his body to make him appear as though he were an insurgent burying a roadside bomb. The charges could come as early as Friday, but Marine officials will likely not release them until Monday. Some of the seven Marines from Camp Pendleton-based 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment [official website] and the Navy corpsman will face murder charges, while others will likely face charges for dereliction of duty and assisting in the cover-up.

If military prosecutors do press charges, an Article 32 hearing [JAG backgrounder; UCMJ text], similar to a grand jury investigation, will be held for the Marines and Navy corpsman. At the hearing, the presiding officer will determine whether the case should proceed to court-martial. The probe into the death of the Hamandiya man is not related to the concurrent probes into the death of 24 Iraqi civilians [JURIST news archive] in Haditha last November. AP has more. The Los Angeles Times has local coverage.