[JURIST] Observers say President Bush could issue a pardon for former vice-presidential aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby [defense profile] following last week’s revelation that Karl Rove [official profile], Bush's top political advisor, will not face criminal charges [JURIST report] in the three-year investigation into the leak of a CIA operative's name [JURIST news archive]. This leaves Libby the only person indicted by Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald in the scandal. Experts speculate that the timing of a presidential pardon [JURIST backgrounder; Wikipedia backgrounder] will be governed by whether the Republicans retain control of Congress in the mid-term elections, while others believe he will wait until his last days to issue the pardon, a tactic employed by many former Presidents to avert political consequences.

Rove, who has pleaded not guilty [JURIST report] to charges of obstruction of justice and perjury [indictment, PDF; JURIST report], requested the release of confidential information, but the petition was rejected [JURIST report] by a federal judge earlier this month. Bush could be motivated to pardon Libby to avoid further disclosures, such as when Libby told a federal grand jury that Bush authorized a leak [JURIST report] of intelligence information on Iraq, and to prevent Vice-President Cheney from having to testify [JURIST report] at a trial. Newsday has more.

[JURIST] The US Office of Military Commissions [official website; Wikipedia backgrounder] has delayed a pretrial hearing for Omar Khadr [JURIST news archive], a Canadian citizen and Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainee charged with killing a US Special Forces soldier in Afghanistan, due to security issues that have emerged since the suicides of three Guantanamo prisoners [JURIST report]. A spokeswoman for the US military said that security guards at the US prison camp must take charged detainees to and from hearings at the courthouse, which would remove security forces from the main prison area and is a priority at the present time due to the suicide investigations.

Khadr is one of 10 prisoners who have actually been charged at Guantanamo out of the nearly 460 men currently detained there. He is charged [charge sheet, PDF; JURIST report] with throwing a grenade and killing a US Green Beret and also faces charges that he planted mines to blow up US convoys. The hearing for Khadr was scheduled to begin June 26, but the postponement of all pretrial hearings is being extended until July 7. The US government is also awaiting a decision by the US Supreme Court [official website] that will decide the legality of military commissions [JURIST report]. The high court is expected to rule on the issue before June 30. AP has more.

[JURIST] Egyptian police Monday arrested 31 additional members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood [movement website; FAS backgrounder] group, bringing the total number of members arrested to 700, according to officers speaking on condition of anonymity. The members were arrested for allegedly holding meetings in apartments located in Marsa Matrouh, which is approximately 325 miles from Cairo. The Muslim Brotherhood is the largest Islamic group in Egypt [JURIST news archive] and, while it is considered to be illegal, the group currently holds 88 seats in the Egyptian Parliament [official website] and is believed to have tens of thousands of members.

The Egyptian government began arresting members [JURIST report] in March after the group protested against the extension of the country's emergency laws [JURIST report] and staged demonstrations in support of two judges who were put before a disciplinary panel [JURIST report] for revealing that some of their colleagues had allowed fraud [JURIST report] in last November's parliamentary elections. Last week, three independent UN experts petitioned the Egyptian government to protect the independence of the country's judiciary [JURIST report], and the US has also called on the country to work toward greater democracy after condemning Egypt's policy towards activists, including two individuals who accused police of sexual abuse and torture [JURIST report] while in custody. AP has more.

[JURIST] An opposition activist who was critical of Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko [official website; BBC profile] during his most recent presidential campaign [JURIST report] has been sentenced to three years in jail by a Belarus [JURIST news archive] court. Nikolai Razumov was arrested on March 14 after making comments that Lukashenko is connected to the disappearances of opposition leaders Yuri Zakharenko, Viktor Gonchar and Anatoly Krasovsky [US State Department backgrounder].

Rights activists have voiced concerns that Razumov's health issues, including the fact that he only has one lung and one-third of a stomach, will pose a problem during his jail term. Lukashenko ran against and defeated opposition candidate Alexander Milinkevich [campaign website; Wikipedia profile] in March for the presidential seat amidst allegations of rampant voting fraud [JURIST report]. Hundreds of activists have since been arrested [JURIST report] for protesting against Lukashenko's win, including Milinkevich [JURIST report]. From Russia, MosNews has more.

[JURIST] The US Army [official website] has charged one non-commissioned US military officer and two US soldiers in the deaths of three Iraqi detainees while they were in custody in the northern Salahuddin province of Iraq, according to a statement [text] released by the Multinational Corps-Iraq (MNC-I) [official website] Monday. The three soldiers have been charged with several violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice [text], including charges of murder, attempted murder, communicating a threat, obstructing justice, and conspiracy.

A criminal investigation into the deaths [JURIST report], which occurred on May 9, was ordered by Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli [official profile] on May 17 after other soldiers voiced concerns. The soldiers have the right to an Article 32 [backgrounder] hearing now that they have formally been charged to determine if their cases will be referred to a court-martial proceeding. AP has more.

[JURIST] South Dakota Secretary of State Chris Nelson [official website] confirmed Monday that a law banning most abortions [PDF text], which was passed by the state legislature and signed by the governor [JURIST reports] earlier this year, will appear on the November 2006 ballot as a question for voters [petition text, PDF]. The South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families, which opposes the law, gathered over 37,000 signatures [JURIST report] in support of its petition, far more than the 16,728 required to force the referendum [SOS materials].

The South Dakota law would ban most abortions in the state, excluding only those necessary to save a woman's life. A physician convicted of performing an illegal abortion could be fined $5,000 and sentenced to five years in prison. The law was due to take effect July 1, but will now be put on hold pending voter approval. Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco signed a similar abortion ban [JURIST report; SB 33 text, PDF] on Saturday, but the Louisiana law will only take effect if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade [text] or if the US Constitution is amended to allow states to prohibit abortions. AP has more.

[JURIST] Any attempts to pass a British version of the US Megan's Law [BBC backgrounder] must balance the public's need for information against the security of child-sex offenders, a spokesman for Prime Minister Tony Blair [official website] said during a press briefing [summary] on Monday. Speaking on the customary condition of anonymity, Blair's official spokesman said there is "genuine concern" about the law. "The difficult thing in this is to get the balance right between, on the one hand, protecting the public and giving the public as much information as possible, and on the other, making sure that you don't have vigilantes," he said, as quoted by the BBC. UK Home Secretary John Reid [official profile] is pushing for the legislation, known in Britain as Sarah's Law, named after an 8-year-old murder victim [BBC report] killed by a former sex offender in 2000. Reid has announced that he is moving pedophiles out of halfway houses [News of the World report] near schools and is sending Home Office Minister Gerry Sutcliffe [official profile] to the United States to evaluate how the law works.

In the US, the federal Megan's Law [text, PDF] requires states to make information about people convicted of certain sexual offenses available to those who live nearby. The British tabloid News of the World has waged a public campaign [advocacy website] to pass a similar law in the UK. BBC News has more. From London, the Times has additional coverage.

[JURIST] New Jersey Attorney General Zulima Farber [official profile] on Monday filed a court petition [press release] on behalf of 16 states seeking to reactivate a lawsuit [JURIST report] filed last year against the Environmental Protection Agency [official website]. The lawsuit challenged the EPA's "cap-and-trade" policy, scheduled to take effect in 2010, which permits power plants to buy mercury emissions reduction credits from other power plants whose emissions fall below the cap. The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia [official website] halted the lawsuit last year when the EPA agreed to reconsider the rules, but the agency released its new rules on May 31 [EPA press release] without revising the cap-and-trade policy. The lawsuit also challenges the EPA's decision to remove coal- and oil-fueled power plants from the list of utilities subject to the strictest emissions controls.

In addition to New Jersey, the coalition of states comprises California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin. The states argue that the mercury pollution rules will endanger children living near power plants that buy credits to pollute more than their limit. Mercury from power plants can enter nearby waterways and eventually be consumed by humans who eat contaminated fish, possibly damaging the nerves, heart, brain and kidneys. AP has more.

[JURIST] Russian President Vladimir Putin [official website] nominated Justice Minister Yury Chaika [official profile, in Russian] on Monday to be the country's new prosecutor-general [official website]. Leaders of the Federation Council [official website], the upper house of parliament, said they expected Chaika to be confirmed [RIA Novosti report]. A vote is scheduled for June 23. The speaker of the lower house, the Duma, also expressed approval of the choice [RIA Novosti report]. Chaika has been justice minister since 1999. Before that, he was deputy prosecutor-general for four years.

Chaika would replace Vladimir Ustinov, who resigned [JURIST report] under pressure earlier this month amid criticism that he wasn't doing enough to fight corruption. Ustinov stepped down after the Federation Council, acting on Putin's recommendation, unanimously called for his removal. Radio Free Europe has more.

[JURIST] The Kurdistan Islamic Group and Kurdistan Islamic Union [Global Security backgrounders], both major Sunni political parties in Iraq, announced plans to campaign against a draft regional constitution for Kurdistan that does not draw its "principal source of legislation" from Islam. The two groups want the regional constitution to be in line with the second article of the 2005 national constitution [JURIST news archive; text, PDF] that recognizes Islam as the official religion and states that Islamic law [Wikipedia backgrounder] represents a fundamental source of law.

The draft regional constitution has not been released by parliament yet. Some local human rights groups have expressed concern over including Islamic law in the document, saying that it will restrict women's rights, while other human rights groups are optimistic because the vast majority of people in the northern Kurd region are Muslim. IRIN has more.

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website] on Monday announced it would hear a second case challenging the constitutionality of the federal Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 [text, PDF]. The court granted certiorari in Gonzales v. Planned Parenthood [docket], a Bush administration appeal from the US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit [official website] in San Francisco, which struck down the law [JURIST report; opinion, PDF] because it did not make an exception to preserve the health of the woman seeking the abortion. In February, the court agreed to review the statute [JURIST report] in Gonzales v. Carhart [docket], an appeal from the 8th Circuit, which also found the law unconstitutional. The vote of Justice Samuel Alito [official profile] is expected to be pivotal in the cases; his predecessor, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, voted to strike down a Nebraska law banning the same late-term procedure in a 5-4 decision [text] handed down in 2000. AP has more.

Also on Monday, the court granted certiorari in Watters v. Wachovia Bank [docket; Reuters report], an appeal of a 6th Circuit decision [PDF text] holding that the National Bank Act and regulations promulgated by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency [official website] preempt state laws regulating mortgage lending by subsidiaries of national banks, and in Wallace v. Chicago [docket], in which the 7th Circuit held [opinion, PDF] that false arrest claims accrue at the time of arrest, rather than after a conviction and sentence has been overturned on appeal. Oral arguments in the three cases will be heard during the next Supreme Court term, which begins in October.

The court declined to take up a fourth case, Texas v. Leavitt [docket], in which five states sued the federal government directly in the Supreme Court over the funding of the new Medicare prescription drug benefit. Without comment, the court also declined to issue a preliminary injunction in the case. The states may now sue in a lower court. AP has more. SCOTUSblog has additional coverage of Monday's developments at the court. Read the Court's full Order List [PDF text].

[JURIST] The American Civil Liberties Union [advocacy website] confirmed Monday that a lawyer working for the New York attorney general's office [official website] informally warned the ACLU executive committee not to adopt proposed standards limiting ACLU board members from publicly speaking about their internal policies. The ACLU board met over the weekend [NYT report] to discuss the proposal, but took no action. The executive committee, however, did not tell the board about the warning from Eliot Spitzer's office and several board members complained that they could have run into trouble with Spitzer's office if the proposed standards had been passed. ACLU board president Nadine Strossen [ACLU profile] confirmed that someone in the state attorney general's office had contacted the ACLU, but countered that those "details were not germane to the board's general discussion of the issues raised."

Though declining to speak directly about the proposed standards, the assistant attorney general in charge of the New York charities bureau, Gerald Rosenberg admitted that he would be concerned if any nonprofit organization implemented policies restricting the board's ability to speak about internal policies. Stephanie Strom of the New York Times has more.

[JURIST] Faheem Khalid Lodhi, a Pakistani-born Australian immigrant, was convicted Monday of plotting a terrorist attack [JURIST report] in Australia, marking one of the first convictions under new Australian anti-terrorism laws [summary and text] passed in the wake of 9/11. A New South Wales Supreme Court [official website] jury found Lodhi not guilty of downloading aerial maps for the purpose of terrorism after five days of deliberation. Lodhi, who could face life imprisonment, will begin his sentencing trial on June 29. Prosecutors argued that an October 2003 search of Lodhi's home produced a terrorist manual that indicated the defendant's plans to bomb either an electrical supply system or defense installations in Sydney. AP has more. The Sydney Morning Herald has local coverage.

[JURIST] Italian prosecutors investigating the death of intelligence agent Nicola Calipari [BBC profile] have requested the indictment [ANSA news agency report, in Italian] of US Army Specialist Mario Lozano [Wikipedia backgrounder]. Investigators concluded their probe last week [JURIST report], after news agencies reported in January that prosecutors intended to charge [JURIST report] Lozano with murder.

Calipari was shot to death in 2005 while driving to the Baghdad airport after securing the release of Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena from Iraqi kidnappers. A second Italian agent, Andrea Carpani, was also wounded in the shooting by US soldiers that perceived the car as insurgents speeding through a security checkpoint. US and Italian officials have failed to agree [JURIST report] on details surrounding Calipari's death. A US investigation [JURIST report] into the incident cleared US soldiers of any wrongdoing but an initial Italian probe [JURIST report], while also concluding that the killing was accidental, found that there were serious miscommunications among US officials in Iraq, and confusion about the rules of engagement for checkpoints. AP has more. BBC News has additional coverage.

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] handed down three decisions in argued cases Monday, including a ruling in the consolidated cases of Rapanos v. US and Carabell v. Army Corps of Engineers [Duke Law case backgrounder; JURIST report], where a plurality of the Court decided that the Clean Water Act [text] applies only to bodies of water that are "permanent, standing or continuously flowing bodies of water 'forming geographic features' that are described in ordinary parlance as 'streams,' 'oceans, rivers, [and] lakes.'" The four-justice plurality also concluded that "only those wetlands with a continuous surface connection to bodies that are 'waters of the United States' in their own right, so that there is no clear demarcation between the two, are 'adjacent' to such waters and covered by the Act." In the cases, the Court considered a challenge to the federal government's legal authority to regulate private land that does not have a substantial connection to navigable waters. Petitioners argued that regulations promulgated by the US Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency [official websites] exceed the scope of the CWA. Under the CWA, landowners must obtain a permit before depositing "dredged or fill material" into the "navigable waters of the United States." The CWA defines "navigable waters" as "waters of the United States," and the agencies have defined "waters" to include wetlands adjacent to navigable waters or tributaries. The Carabells and Rapanos argued that their properties may contain wetlands, but they are not adjacent to navigable waters and should be beyond the scope of the CWA. By a 5-4 vote, the Court remanded both cases to the lower courts. Read the Court's majority decision [text] per Justice Scalia, along with a concurrence in the judgment [text] from Justice Kennedy, a concurrence [text] from Chief Justice Roberts, a dissent [text] from Justice Stevens, who was joined by Justices Souter, Ginsburg and Breyer and a second dissent [text] from Justice Breyer. AP has more. SCOTUSblog has additional coverage.

In Samson v. California [Duke Law case backgrounder] the Court ruled that the Fourth Amendment does not prevent police officers from routinely searching parolees even when the search is not based on suspicion of criminal wrongdoing, but instead is due solely to the person's parolee status. In affirming a California appeals court ruling [text], the Supreme Court ruled that the searches are allowable under the Fourth Amendment because California's "legitimate government interest" in monitoring parolees outweighs the parolees' privacy rights. Read the Court's 6-3 majority opinion [text] per Justice Thomas along with a dissent [text] from Justice Stevens, who was joined by Justices Souter and Breyer. AP has more.

In the final decision in an argued case Monday, the Court held in Davis v. Washington [Duke Law case backgrounder; JURIST report] that an out-of-court "excited utterance" made to a 911 operator was not testimonial and therefore could be admitted as evidence at trial. The Court also held, however, that statements made to police at a crime scene are testimonial and cannot be admitted at trial under Crawford v. Washington [text], which interpreted the Confrontation Clause as barring "admission of testimonial statements of a witness who did not appear at trial unless he was unavailable to testify, and the defendant had a prior opportunity for cross-examination." Read the Court's opinion [text] per Justice Scalia along with a concurrence in the judgment [text] and partial dissent from Justice Thomas. AP has more.

The Court also handed down a per curiam opinion [text] in Youngblood v. West Virginia where the Court granted certiorari in the case and remanded for a decision on the merits of Youngblood's claim that when a state police officer observed evidence that would have helped Youngblood's defense on sexual assault charges but failed to take possession of it, Youngblood presented a valid claim that "the suppression of this evidence violated the State's federal constitutional obligation to disclose evidence favorable to the defense" under the 1963 Supreme Court ruling in Brady v. Maryland [text]. The decision was accompanied by a dissent [text] from Justice Scalia and a second dissent [text] from Justice Kennedy.

[JURIST] The trial of three Egyptian journalists and one lawyer accused [JURIST report] of slandering a local election commission chief by alleging fraud in Egypt's November parliamentary election and publishing the names of two judges accused of rigging results in a runoff poll [JURIST report] began Sunday. If convicted, they face up to two years in prison. The four defendants were charged a week after a judicial disciplinary panel acquitted one judge of whistleblowing and censured the second [JURIST report] for saying that fellow judges had conspired with a local election official to change the election results.

The defendants are executive editor of Sawt el-Umma Wael el-Abrashi, Sawt el-Umma journalist Hoda Abu Bakr, Afaq Arabiya reporter Abdel Hakim Abdel Hamid, and lawyer Gama Tag el-Din. El-Din reportedly provided the three journalists with the list of judges that supervised fraud in the elections last year. The trial has been adjourned until September 16. AP has more.

[JURIST] The UN Human Rights Council [official website; JURIST news archive] held its inaugural session [opening ceremony statements] Monday, convening for its first session [press release] as the replacement body for the beleaguered Human Rights Commission [official website]. The Human Rights Council will begin by passing two "vital documents" that will guarantee the rights of indigenous peoples and another that will oppose enforced disappearances. The first Council meeting will, however, focus primarily on establishing new operating procedures, particularly the format of a universal periodic review to evaluate the human rights records of all countries. In his remarks [transcript, PDF; recorded video] at the opening of the meeting, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan [official profile] said:

It is hardly an exaggeration to say that the eyes of the world - especially the eyes of those whose human rights are denied, threatened or infringed - are turned towards this chamber and this Council.

A great effort has been made, by Member States and by civil society worldwide, to bring us to this point.

And a new era in the human rights work of the United Nations has been proclaimed.

I trust that all members of the Council are fully aware of the hopes that have thus been raised, and are determined not to disappoint them.

They certainly should be aware, because all of them, in seeking election to this Council, have made pledges both to respect human rights at home and to uphold them abroad. Moreover, the General Assembly has required them to uphold the highest standards in the promotion and protection of human rights, fully cooperate with the Council, and submit themselves to the universal periodic review mechanism during their term of membership.

Their peoples - and the peoples of the world - will be watching to see whether those standards are indeed upheld.

[JURIST] The prosecution in the Saddam Hussein trial [JURIST news archive] presented closing arguments Monday, calling for the death penalty for Hussein, his half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti, former chief judge of the Revolutionary Court Awad Hamed al-Bander, and former senior regime member Taha Yassin Ramadan. Chief Judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman [BBC profile], who abruptly ended witness testimony for the defense last week [JURIST report], adjourned the trial until July 10, when the defense team will present their closing arguments. Jaafar al-Moussawi, the chief prosecutor, told the Iraqi High Tribunal [official website] that the prosecution believes that the "heaviest penalties" should be imposed on Hussein and his co-defendants, saying that they spread corruption and "not even trees escape[d] their oppression."

Hussein and his seven co-defendants face crimes against humanity charges [JURIST report] for killing, torturing and illegally detaining Dujail residents, including sentencing 148 Shiites to death [execution order], in response to an alleged 1982 assassination attempt on Hussein's life. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] US District Judge Sim Lake has delayed the sentencing of former Enron [JURIST news archive] executives Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling [Houston Chronicle profiles] until October 23. Lake agreed on Friday to a motion filed by the defense team to delay the sentencing, which was originally scheduled for September 11. Lake is still considering a motion made by Skilling's lawyers to give Skilling access to $60 million in frozen assets.

Lay and Skilling were charged [final redacted indictment, PDF] with multiple counts of fraud and criminal conspiracy for providing investors with false and misleading financial information from 1999 up until Enron filed bankruptcy in late 2001, but the defense remained steadfast throughout the trial in their complete denial of guilt. The jury convicted [JURIST report] Lay on all six fraud and conspiracy counts [verdict slip, PDF], and convicted Skilling of 19 out of 28 securities and wire fraud and insider trading counts [verdict slip, PDF]. He was found not guilty of nine counts of insider trading. Lay faces a maximum of 45 years in prison for conspiracy and fraud, while Skilling faces a maximum sentence of 185 years for his conviction. Reuters has more. The Houston Chronicle has local coverage.

[JURIST] The father of Salah al-Aslami, a Yemeni national who committed suicide [JURIST report] with two Saudi Arabian detainees at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] on June 10, has refused to receive al-Aslami's body until international authorities launch an investigation into the three suicides. Al-Aslami's father and the families of the two Saudis have expressed skepticism at the autopsy reports, saying that the three strict Muslims would not have violated Islam by committing suicide. Al-Aslami's father asserts that torture caused his son's death. The Yemen government also called for a new investigation [JURIST report] into the three deaths last week.

Though the Pentagon has rebuffed calls for an independent inquiry into the deaths [JURIST report], the UN and Amnesty International have called for the US to close Guantanamo [JURIST report], while Saudi Arabia refocused efforts [JURIST report] to have all remaining Saudis detained at Guantanamo returned to Saudi custody. European Union lawmakers last week called for an international criminal tribunal to replace Guantanamo Bay [JURIST report] to hear cases for over 400 Guantanamo detainees. AP has more.