[JURIST] Iraqi Interior Ministry investigations into Iraqi police operations have revealed over 400 incidents of police misconduct, "including the rape of female prisoners, the release of terrorism suspects in exchange for bribes, assassinations of police officers and participation in insurgent bombings", the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday. Some 400 authenticated documents covering part of 2005 and 2006 detail incidents involving dozens of police units and hundreds of officers, including police chiefs, most of whom were not punished.

In February US military officials vowed to improve Iraqi police forces [JURIST report] and in March US Army Lieutenant General Martin Dempsey [official profile], head of the Multi-National Security Transition Command in Iraq [official website], declared 2006 would be "the year of the police" [US Department of State press release], promising a renewed effort to instill professionalism in the force. The US State Department has noted, however, that "despite great progress and genuine commitment on the part of many ministry officials, the current climate of corruption, human rights violations, and sectarian violence found in Iraq's security forces undermines public confidence." President Bush has said that securing a legitimate Iraqi police force is crucial to an eventual withdrawal of US troops. AFP has more.

[JURIST] Twenty-five independent and opposition newspapers in Egypt [JURIST news archive] refrained from publishing on Sunday in a pre-planned strike [JURIST report] designed to protest the lack of legal protection afforded to journalists as reflected in a draft press law that permits judges to determine whether to imprison journalists for committing media offenses, including alleging that state officials are involved in financial impropriety. The bill, opposed by the Federation of Arab Journalists [JURIST report] and the opposition Muslim Brotherhood [party website], received preliminary approval in the Egyptian parliament Saturday.

Human rights groups have already condemned [JURIST report] last week's court decision to sentence a controversial newspaper editor to a year in prison for criticizing Egyptian President Hosny Mubarak [official website]. Three journalists are now on trial [JURIST report] in Egypt for publishing the names of two judges accused of rigging results in a runoff poll [JURIST report] in last year's parliamentary elections. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The US Department of Homeland Security [official website] resumed its repatriation program [JURIST report; DHS backgrounder] for illegal immigrants from Mexico Friday with a flight carrying 67 people to Mexico City. This is the third straight summer that the federal government has used the program, which twice daily flies Mexicans caught illegally crossing the US-Mexico border to Mexico City and then buses them to their home communities. It specifically targets women, children, and those deemed at physical risk if they tried to cross the border again.

The US government hopes that the repatriation program will decrease the number of migrant deaths in the Arizona desert by reducing the number of people who, once returned to Mexican border cities, attempt to re-enter the US. Last summer, the program returned 20,592 people to Mexico over a course of 113 days and 225 flights. USA Today has more.

[JURIST] US Department of Justice [official website] lawyers said Friday in court documents that Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainees may have used paper provided by lawyers to plan the three suicides [JURIST report] that occurred at the prison last month. The US filed a request with the US District Court for the District of Columbia [official website] asking for permission to review about 1,100 pounds of confiscated personal papers [JURIST report] taken from prisoners as part of the investigation into the suicides after authorities found a note written in Arabic related to the suicides in the cell of one of the deceased inmates. The papers seized include notes marked "privileged attorney-client material" and suggest that detainees were misusing the attorney-client communication system in what Guantanamo commander Rear Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr. [official profile] labeled acts of "asymmetric warfare."

If the government's request is granted, a special panel will review all the detainees documents, including letters from attorneys, and would report anything found that threatens national security or "imminent violence," but not any information that violates attorney-client privilege. Detainees' lawyers believe such a panel would weaken trust between the prisoners and their lawyers and delay the proceedings, but the government insists the panel would be completely independent, ensuring the protection of detainees' rights. Bill Goodman, legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights [advocacy website], which represents about 200 detainees, has denied that any lawyers were involved in the suicide plot, explaining to the New York Times that guards checked lawyers' briefcases before and after they spent time with clients and "certainly if something is written on the back in Arabic, the guards are going to see it." AP has more. The New York Times has additional coverage.

[JURIST] Mexican leftist presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador [campaign website, in Spanish; Wikipedia profile] told reporters in Mexico City Saturday ahead of a mass rally that voting fraud caused his official loss to ruling party candidate Felipe Calderon [campaign website, in Spanish; Wikipedia profile] in the July 2 presidential election, and once again declared he would contest the result [JURIST report]. Obrador, leader of the Democratic Revolution Party [party website, in Spanish], said he could mathematically prove that the electronic counting system that provided televised results was manipulated despite assurances from a team of European Union observers that there was no evidence of fraud. The Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) [official website, in Spanish] has also validated the results. Last week's recount of polling station tally sheets resulted in a margin of victory of one percentage point for Calderon, prompting Obrador to demand a full manual recount [JURIST report] in a challenge filed with the Electoral Tribunal of the Federal Judiciary [official website, in Spanish]. Mexican election laws [PDF text, in Spanish] permit a manual recount only if the ballot packages have been unsealed or if the initial tallies are faulty.

The Electoral Tribunal must make a decision on Obrador's challenge by August 31. The results of the election must be certified by September 6. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The US Defense Department has announced that three US servicemen have been charged with rape and murder and a fourth has been charged with dereliction of duty in connection with the March 12 rape and murder of an Iraqi civilian and the murder of her family in Mahmudiya (also "Mahmoudiya") [JURIST news archive]according to wire services. The four, previously held by the military while under investigation [JURIST report], will now face Article 32 hearings [Navy JAG backgrounder] to determine whether they will face court-martial.

Last week former US Army soldier Steven Green was charged [JURIST report] in federal court with murder and rape in connection with the same incident. He has pleaded not guilty [JURIST report].

9:21 AM ET - Accorrding to US Central Command, the four soldiers, all members of the 101st Airborne Division, were charged Saturday

in connection with their alleged participation in the rape and murder of a young Iraqi woman and three members of her family. The fourth Soldier was charged with dereliction of duty for his failure to report the rape and murder of these Iraqi civilians, but is not alleged to have been a direct participant in the rape and killings. All are charged with conspiring with former Private First Class Steven D. Green to commit these crimes.

[JURIST] UK Attorney General Lord Goldsmith [official profile] confirmed Saturday that three British bankers charged [indictment, PDF] in the US with wire fraud in connection with the Enron scandal [JURIST news archive] will be extradited and tried in the United States consistent with the terms of the revised UK Extradition Act [text], enshrining a 2003 treaty [text, PDF; Statewatch backgrounder] aligning extradition requests between the two nations. Goldsmith asserted in a response to Conservative Party MP Dominic Grieve [party profile], who suggested the trial take place in the UK, that justice will best be served by extradition since most of the evidence is in the US and the US courts have already tried several Enron executives. Last week, Grieve wrote a letter [text] to Goldsmith in which he echoed the sentiments of many UK businesspeople by pointing to substantial differences between the US and UK legal systems, including "the shackling of defendants, difficulties with the obtaining of bail and conditions of detention." Much of the opposition to the extraditions stems from the incongruency of US and UK extradition laws - the US requires the UK to provide probable cause in order for the US to extradite a suspect, whereas the UK only requires prima facie evidence for extradition - because only the UK has so far ratified the UK-US treaty.

The three former NatWest [corporate website] bankers, David Bermingham, Gary Mulgrew, and Giles Darby, must be extradited by midnight on July 17 now that the European Court of Human Rights [official website] has rejected [JURIST report] their request to stay extradition. The Herald Sun has more. From the UK, the Press Association has local coverage.