[JURIST] Luis Moreno Ocampo [official profile], chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court [official website], told the UN Security Council Wednesday that his investigation into crimes against humanity in Darfur [ICC materials] has documented thousands of killings of civilians, large scale massacres, and hundreds of rapes that he anticipates will result in multiple cases rather than a single proceeding [UN News report]. In a report [PDF text] submitted to the UN Security Council pursuant to Resolution 1593 [PDF text], Ocampo wrote:

The Office has so far documented (from public and non-public sources) thousands of alleged direct killings of civilians by parties to the conflict. The available information indicates that these killings include a significant number of large scale massacres, with hundreds of victims in each incident. The Office has selected several of these incidents for further investigation and analysis. A large number of victims and witnesses interviewed by the OTP have reported that men perceived to be from the Fur, Massalit and Zaghawa groups were deliberately targeted. In most of the incidents where the OTP has collected evidence there are eye-witness accounts that the perpetrators made statements reinforcing the targeted nature of the attacks, such as 'we will kill all the black' and 'we will drive you out of this land.'

In addition to direct killings, there is a significant amount of information indicating that thousands of civilians have died since 2003 as a consequence of the conditions of life resulting from the conflict and the ensuing displacement. These include a lack of shelter and basic necessities for survival as a result of the destruction of homes, food stocks, and the looting of property and livestock, as well as obstacles to the provision of life-saving humanitarian assistance. This type of 'slow death' has particularly affected the most vulnerable groups, including children, the elderly and the sick.

The Office has also registered hundreds of alleged cases of rape. This is likely to be indicative of a practice that was endemic amongst some groups involved in the conflict and in relation to which there are indications of significant under-reporting. ...

The available information also highlights a widespread pattern of displacement of civilians, with recent estimates of some two million displaced persons and refugees from Darfur.

The Darfur Special Court has been presented by the Government of the Sudan as an alternative to the prosecution of cases by the International Criminal Court - invoking the complementarity framework underpinning the Rome Statute.

At the time of the establishment of the first Darfur Special Court, the President of the Court highlighted that the subject-matter jurisdiction of the Court would include crimes against humanity and war crimes and that the Court would deal with any perpetrators, regardless of rank or affiliation. Moreover, the Government of the Sudan announced that approximately 160 suspects had been identified for investigation and possible prosecution: 92 from South Darfur, 38 from North Darfur and 32 from West Darfur.

With regard to the work of the first Darfur Special Court, there are no significant changes since the last report of the Prosecutor to the Security Council. So far the Special Court has conducted 6 trials of less than thirty suspects. The cases include 4 incidents of armed robbery, 1 incident of receipt of stolen goods, 2 cases of possession of firearms without a licence, 1 case of intentional wounding, 2 cases of murder and 1 case of rape. Eighteen of the defendants were low-ranking military officials (including 8 members of the Popular Defence Forces); the remainder appear to be civilians. The President of the Special Court has stated that no cases involving serious violations of international humanitarian law were ready for trial and that the six cases selected were in fact chosen from the case files lying before the ordinary Courts. ...

Based upon the current OTP assessments, it does not appear that the national authorities have investigated or prosecuted, or are investigating and prosecuting, cases that are or will be the focus of OTP attention such as to render those cases inadmissible before the ICC. The Office reinforces the point made in previous reports, that this assessment is on-going and a final determination will be made following a full investigation of the specific cases that are selected for prosecution. This will require the continued cooperation of the Government of the Sudan in providing access to proceedings, to officials and institutions, including in Darfur, and to relevant documentation.

[JURIST] The US House Budget Committee [official website] on Wednesday approved legislation that would give the president a line-item veto over individual provisions in spending bills. The Legislative Line-Item Veto Act of 2006 [text, PDF; summary, PDF] is weaker than the 1996 line-item veto legislation [text, PDF] that the US Supreme Court struck down [decision text; CNN report] as violating the constitutional separation of powers. The current bill, which President Bush proposed [JURIST report; White House press release] in March, allows Congress to override line-item vetoes by a simple majority vote, rather than by a two-thirds supermajority. The line-item power would expire six years after the bill is enacted. The Budget Committee vote was 24-9, with four Democrats voting in favor.

Read a 2004 Congressional Research Service analysis [PDF] of various line-item veto proposals. AP has more.

ALSO ON JURIST  Op-ed: The Line-Item Veto Act? Not Exactly

[JURIST] Council of Europe (COE) Secretary General Terry Davis concluded in a new report [text, DOC] published Wednesday that many European governments do not have adequate administrative, judicial, or parliamentary control mechanisms to ensure that their airspace and aircraft are not being used for illegal rendition programs. As part of an ongoing Council probe into alleged CIA rendition flights [JURIST news archive], Davis detailed information gathered from additional questionnaires submitted by 37 of the 46 COE member states [additional responses, by country]. Answers provided by the 37 nations in response to an initial November 2005 questionnaire and compiled in Davis's March report [text, PDF; JURIST report] were found by Davis to be inadequate.

Davis is conducting the COE's Article 52 [text] investigation into potential member nation violations of the European Convention on Human Rights [text, PDF], and will soon present legal recommendations for reforming the laws of member states to comply with the ECHR. The Article 52 inquiry is a parallel investigation to Dick Marty's COE report [JURIST report], published last Wednesday, that accused 14 European countries of taking an active or passive role in a "global spider's web" of CIA rendition programs and secret CIA prisons [COE materials].

[JURIST] Three independent UN experts in the areas of judicial independence and freedom of expression expressed "grave concern" [statement] for "recent attacks against the judiciary of Egypt," and for detaining protesters [JURIST report] who rallied in support of several reform-oriented judges. Specifically, the experts condemned a disciplinary panel decision [JURIST report] to reprimand pro-reform judge Hisham Bastawisi for "exercising his right to freedom of expression" when he alleged widespread voting fraud [JURIST report] during last elections. The experts said the disciplinary decision was intended to deter the other judges stripped of immunity [JURIST report] by the government from speaking in favor of calls to amend the Judicial Authority Law [JURIST report] to guarantee judicial independence.

The Egyptian parliament has begun work on a judicial reform bill [JURIST report], though critics say the bill does not go far enough to free judges from government oversight, which the government now exercises through performance reviews, extensive appointment and removal powers, and complete control over judicial finances. The UN News Centre has more.

ALSO ON JURIST  Op-ed: Unlikely Reformers: Egyptian Judges Challenge the Regime

[JURIST] The Serbian Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld 40-year prison sentences for four former members of a special police unit that took orders from then-Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic [JURIST news archive] to kill ex-Serb President Ivan Stambolic [Guardian obituary] in August 2000. Belgrade's special court convicted eight men of the assassination last year [JURIST report], sentencing them each to 4 to 40 years in prison. The same eight men were also convicted of the attempted assassination of opposition leader Vuk Draskovic [Wikipedia profile] after Milosevic felt that both Stambolic and Draskovic were threats to his power at the time.

Milorad Ulemek [Wikipedia profile], the former chief of the Serbian police special operations unit that organized Stambolic's assassination, also faces trial in Belgrade on charges that he organized the 2003 assassination of Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic [BBC obituary]. Milosevic faced war crimes charges at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia [official website] before his death [JURIST report] earlier this year. UPI has more.

[JURIST] The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit [complaint, PDF; press release] Wednesday seeking to force the US Department of Defense to reveal information collected for a domestic terrorist threats database that was allegedly used to spy on peaceful anti-war protesters across the United States. In February, the ACLU submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) [text; DOJ materials] request for information collected by the Air Force's Threat and Local Observation Notice system, or TALON [Wired report], and a federal judge in May ordered the DOJ to comply with the request [JURIST report]. The complaint for injunctive relief, filed on behalf of almost 30 activist groups who may have been targeted by the program, requests that the court order the DOJ to immediately process the FOIA requests and make the materials available to the plaintiffs.

An NBC news report last December revealed that the TALON program listed as a "threat" several peace groups, including a meeting of Quaker anti-war activists, which may have led to surveillance of the groups as a terrorist threat. Vietnam war era regulations [PDF text] limit what information the military can collect about people and activities taking place inside the US, and the Pentagon launched an investigation [DOD press release; JURIST report] last December into possible misuse of the program. According to DOD officials, the investigation revealed that 261 entries were improper and subject to removal [JURIST report]. AP has more.

[JURIST] The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE) [official website] has arrested over 2,000 illegal immigrants [press release] since May 26 in an effort to crackdown on deported gang members, pedophiles and violent felons who snuck back into the US, officials said Wednesday. Under the nationwide "Operation Return to Sender," half of the illegal immigrants arrested had criminal records and more than 360 were associated with violent gangs, according to ICE Assistant Secretary Julie Myers [official profile]. Most of those arrested were put into deportation proceedings, while 829 have already been repatriated to their native countries and 121 will face criminal charges in the US. They face a range of charges, including sexual assault of a minor, assault with a deadly weapon, and abduction. Many of the illegal immigrants associated with violent gangs were members of the notorious Los Angeles-based gang, Mara Salvatrucha [Wikipedia backgrounder]. Myers described the arrestees as unwelcome, stating:

America's welcome does not extend to immigrants who come here to commit crimes. ICE will leave no stone unturned in hunting down and deporting aliens who victimize our communities. Interior enforcement initiatives like Operation Return to Sender are a critical and necessary complement to our nation's border security measures.

[JURIST] France's Court of Cassation [official website], the highest court in the country, on Wednesday upheld the conviction of American financier George Soros [Soros.org profile] on insider trading charges. Soros said he plans to appeal the ruling to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) [official website]. An appeals court ruled [JURIST report] in 2005 that Soros' 1988 purchase of French bank Societe Generale SA [corporate website] stock with knowledge that the bank might be the object of a takeover bid broke insider trading laws. Soros has maintained his innocence and claimed that the takeover rumors were widely known at the time. The court upheld the conviction but directed the lower court to adjust the 2.2 million Euro fine to reflect the profits Soros made on the deal.

Lawyers for Soros said the ECHR appeal will focus on the 20-year period between the 1989 start of the investigation and the 2004 start of the appeals trial, during which witnesses were asked to testify about events that occurred in 1988. His lawyers also said that France regulatory commission, similar to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, determined that the transaction did not violate French stock trading law or ethical rules. AP has more.

[JURIST] UK Attorney General Lord Goldsmith [official profile] and Home Secretary John Reid [official profile] have agreed to meet to consult on procedures to govern the appeal of sentences for sex offenses after Reid objected to a judge's sentence as "too lenient" and demanded that Goldsmith's office take it to the Court of Appeal. Craig Sweeney was sentenced to life [UK Limited report] on Monday for kidnapping and sexually assaulting a three-year-old-girl, but a judge said afterwards that though he received a life sentence, because he plead guilty, he could be eligible for parole within five years. Goldsmith had indicated earlier that Reid's comments were "not helpful" and that he would not allow political interference with the judicial process. A spokesman for Prime Minister Tony Blair said "When there appears to be a disconnect between the public’s commonsense view of right and wrong and how it sees that reflected in judicial decisions, then it is right and proper for the Home Secretary to articulate that concern." Goldsmith will decide on an appeal within 28 days; his office has referred some 698 cases to the appeals court [Guardian report] since 2001, but has traditionally resisted outside pressure to do so.

On Tuesday, the government confirmed reports that 53 convicts sentenced to life in the past six years have already been released on parole under the Criminal Justice Act 2003 [text], which established the Sentencing Guidelines Council [materials] to ensure uniform sentences for those prosecuted under the Sexual Offences Act 2003 [text]. The parole option [BBC backgrounder; BBC video] was included to encourage accused perpetrators to confess, thus saving the financial and emotional cost of a trial, but public outrage over the "soft" sentencing results spurred Reid to publicly demand that Goldsmith appeal the Sweeney sentence. The London Times has more.

[JURIST] Lawyers for the three Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainees who committed suicide [JURIST report] have questioned why it took the US military Wednesday three days to notify them of their clients' deaths, saying the delay caused unnecessary distress for the detainees' families. The lawyers also said the failure to notify counsel of the suicides suggests that the military has not confirmed the identities of all detainees over the four years the center has operated. Guantanamo Joint Task Force Commander Harry Harris said during a June 10 press conference that the three men were not represented by habeas counsel, but that statement was corrected by a press release Tuesday. In fact, lawyers for two of the three men had filed habeas corpus petitions in federal district court in Washington, DC, to challenge their detentions. The Center for Constitutional Rights, which has been critical of conditions at Guantanamo [press release], said the group should have been identified as counsel for the third man as a result of mass legal filings the group prepared for unidentified detainees.

Though the Pentagon has rebuffed calls for an independent inquiry into the incident [JURIST report], the UN and Amnesty International have called for Guantanamo Bay to be shut down [JURIST reports], and the International Committee of the Red Cross will visit Guantanamo [JURIST report] to assess the mood of the camp in the wake of the deaths. AP has more.

[JURIST] Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi [official website, in Italian; BBC profile] is calling for a renewed effort to pass the European constitution [official website; JURIST news archive] after next year's French elections. Prodi spoke in Vienna on Tuesday during a meeting with Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schussel [official website; Wikipedia profile] to kick off a tour of EU capitals. The constitution is on hold indefinitely after France and the Netherlands rejected it last year [JURIST reports]. Last month, German Chancellor Angela Merkel [official website, in German; BBC profile] said she plans to revive the constitution [JURIST report] when Germany takes over the EU presidency from in 2007. Austria, which holds the six-month EU presidency until the end of June when the role transfers to Finland, made reconsideration of the constitution one of its goals [JURIST report] during its term as the EU president.

Prodi also repeated a call by Austria that all former Yugoslav states have the opportunity to join the EU, saying EU engagement is critical to reaching a political solution in the Balkans. AFP has more.

[JURIST] A lawyer for a Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainee who was formally cleared of terror charges said Wednesday that the US State Department is speaking with the Canadian government to secure his client's release to that country. Canada would have to issue a minister's permit under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act [CIC materials] to either allow the detainee to enter Canada to make his refugee claim there or make a special exception so the detainee could make the claim from outside the country. Both the US State Department and the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs refused to comment on whether such discussions are taking place. Acknowledging such talks could especially anger some Canadians while proceedings against 17 accused terrorists are under way [JURIST report] in Ontario.

The US Department of Defense says that more than 120 Guantanamo detainees have been determined eligible for transfer or release [DOD summary, PDF] by a Combatant Status Review Tribunal [DOD materials]. Many cleared but unreleased detainees are said to fear prosecution if they are returned to their home countries, and the US is struggling to find countries willing to receive former detainees. Albania agreed to accept five Chinese Uighur Muslims [JURIST report] in May after more than 100 other countries refused to take them. China, which classifies Uighurs as terrorists and has been known to persecute the group due to their Muslim faith [HRW backgrounder], demanded their return [JURIST report], saying the transfer broke international law. The five are being held in an Albanian refugee camp, and Albanian officials are now seeking to transfer the Uighurs [Washington Times report] to yet another location. The Ottawa Citizen has more.

[JURIST] The UK law lords ruled [opinion] Wednesday that three British men and one Canadian man who claim to have been tortured in Saudi Arabian jails [BBC report] after confessing to participating in a series of terrorist bombings [BBC backgrounder] in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in 2000 and 2001 cannot sue Saudi officials responsible for their imprisonment in British courts because the officials are covered by state immunity. Wednesday's decision overturns a 2004 decision [opinion; JURIST report] allowing the four men to bring lawsuits against the individual Saudi officials accused of torture, though not against the Saudi government. The Saudi government, however, appealed the Court of Appeal decision to the House of Lords in April, seeking immunity for the officials under the 1978 State Immunity Act [text]. The UK government intervened [JURIST report] on behalf of the Saudi government in April.

The four men - Britons Ron Jones, Sandy Mitchell, Less Walker and Canadian Bill Sampson - plan to appeal the Law Lords decision to the European Court of Human Rights [official website], saying their imprisonment and subsequent torture violates European and international human rights law. The Law Lords [official website], however, stated that the case was not about torture, but rather about jurisdiction, adding that they will take steps to eradicate torture whenever possible. AP has more. BBC News has local coverage.

[JURIST] A French court on Wednesday convicted 24 Muslim defendants of "criminal association in relation with a terrorist enterprise" for helping terrorist combatants in Chechnya and for planning an attack to take place in Paris. Another defendant was convicted of using forged papers, and two were acquitted. Prosecutors brought the criminal association charge against the Paris-area group after investigators raided defendants' homes and found chemicals, fuses, gas cans and protective suits [BBC report], though it was unclear where or how the attack was to be carried out. An accused chemical expert received the maximum 10-year sentence under the criminal association charge, while others received lighter sentences than the prosecution had requested.

The French Parliament approved anti-terror legislation [JURIST report] last December, which in addition to lengthening detention periods for terrorism suspects, reauthorized prosecution of the criminal association charge [AFX report]. A lawyer for one of the defendants convicted Wednesday condemned the convictions, saying "they have been convicted because they were Muslims." AP has more.

[JURIST] Amnesty International [advocacy website] on Wednesday accused European states of being "partners in crime" with the United States in the alleged circuit of CIA rendition flights [JURIST news archive] transporting terror suspects to third countries known to use torture. The human rights group, in an open letter [PDF text; press release] addressed to the Council of the European Union [official website] in advance of a Thursday meeting, called for European nations to stop cooperating in the flights. Amnesty accuses seven European nations of participating – Germany, Italy, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Macedonia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Turkey – in a report [PDF text] released Wednesday, which analyzes the involvement of each.

In its report, which echoes accusations leveled at 14 European nations [JURIST report] last week in a draft report [PDF text] by the Council of Europe (CoE) [official website], Amnesty says there is "irrefutable evidence of European complicity in the unlawful practice of renditions." Like the CoE report, however, it provides no concrete evidence. The director of Amnesty's EU office, Dick Oosting, addressed that criticism by saying that "the whole evidence question is overrated" and that European countries require less evidence when they make similar accusations. In a related development, a European Parliament [official website] committee [official website] on Monday approved a report [PDF text; JURIST report] supporting allegations that the CIA was "directly responsible for the illegal seizure, removal, abduction and detention of terrorist suspects" in Europe. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Australian Prime Minister John Howard [official website] said Wednesday that the country was "extremely disappointed" and "distressed" at the release from prison of Abu Bakar Bashir [BBC profile], the Indonesian Muslim cleric jailed in connection to the 2002 Bali bombings [BBC backgrounder]. Bashir was released Wednesday after serving 26 months in prison following his conviction on conspiracy charges [JURIST report]. Bashir is accused of being the spiritual leader of the Southeast Asian extremist group Jemaah Islamiyah [Wikipedia profile], which has ties to al Qaeda and has been blamed for the bombings in Bali in 2002 and 2005.

Eighty-eight of the over 200 people killed in the 2002 bombings were Australian and Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer [official website] called for restrictions [transcript] on Bashir's travel and financial assets. Bashir was initially sentenced to serve 30 months, but received a reduction in sentence [JURIST report] last August as part of the celebration of Indonesia's Independence Day. It is Indonesian custom to reduce the sentences of inmates who exhibit good behavior on national holidays, with the exception of those serving life sentences. At the time, Australia condemned the reduction in sentence, prompting Bashir's lawyers to criticize Australian interference with Indonesian affairs [JURIST report]. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] The United Nations [official website] on Wednesday renewed its calls for the US to immediately close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] in the wake of three detainee suicides [JURIST report] last weekend, saying the suicides were predictable because of the conditions there. In a statement [text] issued Wednesday, five UN human rights experts who have been monitoring events at Guantanamo expressed concern about the mental health of the 400-plus detainees at Guantanamo, using the simultaneous suicides to support their contention. A spokesman for the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights [official website] said the US should make closing the base and figuring out what to do with the detainees its highest priority.

The US Department of Defense [official website] on Tuesday rejected [JURIST report] a demand by rights group Amnesty International [advocacy website] to conduct an independent inquiry into the Guantanamo suicides, stating that the military will adequately investigate the suicides. Also on Tuesday, the International Committee of the Red Cross [advocacy website] announced plans to visit detainees at Guantanamo [JURIST report] to assess the overall mood of the camp, while the European Parliament approved a motion [BBC report] on Monday renewing its call for the US to close Guantanamo. Reuters has more. AP has additional coverage.

3:19 PM ET - A delegation of Afghan officials just back from Guantanamo Bay said Wednesday that conditions were "humane" and that after speaking freely with all 96 Afghan detainees, "only one or two" complaints were lodged. The group of officials spent 10 days visiting the facility. AP has more.