[JURIST] British police on Tuesday charged three people [press release] with conspiracy to murder and planning to smuggle "component parts of improvised explosive devices" onto airplanes in connection with the alleged terror plot [JURIST report] to blow up US-bound planes over the Atlantic, bringing to 15 the total now charged [JURIST report] in the episode. All three of the latest accused - Mohammed Shamin Uddin, Mohammed Yasar Gulzar and Nabeel Hussain - were charged under provisions of the Terrorism Act 2006 [text].

Another five suspects remain in custody [JURIST report] but have yet to be charged. Last week, a High Court judge in London authorized their continued detention, marking the first time a British court has approved a longer than 14-day detention without charge under the Terrorism Act, which permits detention without charge for up to 28 days. Scotland Yard [official website] has until Wednesday to file charges or ask a judge to allow another extension. AP has more. BBC News has additional coverage.

[JURIST] US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales [official website] said during a one-day visit to Baghdad [press release] Tuesday that enforcement of the rule of law is essential to Iraq's future, but stressed that it was up to the country's leaders and people to determine what kind of law that would be. Gonzales met with local US Justice Department personnel working to help rebuild the country's legal infrastructure, as well as Iraqi judicial officials. Gonzales also met with Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh and, according to Gonzales, discussed "extraordinary measures" in connection to prisoner and detainee policy. Gonzales declined to elaborate.

Saleh told reporters that the two also discussed Iraq's desire for transparent investigations [JURIST report] by Iraqi judges into alleged improper conduct by US troops. US soldiers have been implicated in several alleged atrocities, including the alleged murder of 24 Iraqi civilians by US Marines in Haditha [JURIST news archive] and the alleged rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl [JURIST news archive] and the murder of her family in Mahmudiya. Gonzales told reporters Tuesday that most US troops "meet the highest ethical standard" and those who do not will be punished to the fullest extent of the law. AP has more.

[JURIST] The prosecutor in the Libyan retrial of five Bulgarian nurses [JURIST report] and one Palestinian doctor accused of infecting over 400 patients, primarily children, with the HIV virus, on Tuesday called for the death penalty in the case. The trial resumed [JURIST report] on May 11 with the testimony of prosecution witnesses [JURIST report], including testimony from a young girl who is among those infected. The trial now stands adjourned until September 5 in order to allow the prosecutor to summon defense witnesses who have not yet appeared in court.

The six health workers were first convicted in May 2004 and sentenced to death [JURIST reports] for deliberately infecting the children, but the Libyan Supreme Court overturned the convictions [JURIST report] in December 2005 and ordered a retrial. Bulgaria and its allies, including the US [JURIST report] and the European Union, contend that the nurses are innocent and maintain that their confessions were coerced through torture. The defendants, detained since 1999, previously argued that the children were infected with the virus before treatment. French Professor Luc Montagnier, the co-discover of the HIV virus, testified [JURIST report] that the infection had spread in the children's hospital before the Bulgarian nurses began their contracts there. AFP has more.

[JURIST] Saudi Arabia has released nine of 29 former Guantanamo [JURIST news archive] detainees in its custody on Tuesday after investigations revealed that they had not committed any crimes. Charges are still being reviewed for the remainder. Earlier this year, the US transferred fifteen Saudi detainees [JURIST report] who were then followed by an additional fourteen [JURIST report], after being cleared by an Administrative Review Board [US DOD briefing]. Saudi Ambassador to the United States Prince Turki Al-Faisal [official profile] wants all 95 Saudi detainees still at Guantanamo returned within a year [JURIST report].

Among the remaining Saudi detainees are two men who were awaiting trials by military commissions [JURIST news archive] before the US Supreme Court ruled in June that military commissions as initially constituted lacked proper legal authorization [JURIST report]. Two Saudis were also among the three detainees who committed suicide [JURIST report] at the prison in June. More than 300 detainees have been transferred from Guantanamo to other countries since the US government starting holding supposed terrorists at the US naval base [official website] there in January 2002. Aljazeera has more.

[JURIST] Opposition parties in Jordan on Tuesday condemned anti-terrorism legislation approved [JURIST report] Sunday by Jordan's National Assembly [official website], comparing the new measures to "martial law" and voicing fear that the law will be used to curtail individual liberties. The new anti-terror law is the Jordanian government's first attempt to address and impose penalties on those involved in terrorist activities and was motivated by three deadly bombings in hotels in Amman [CTV report] in 2005. Some of Jordan's leading opposition parties including the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood [party website; FAS backgrounder], voiced strong reservations about the new law, saying that it is "a blunt violation of the Jordanian constitution and the International Declaration of Human Rights." The Muslim Brotherhood has also criticized [JURIST report] the law as a US-supported attempt to characterize all movements for political freedom and independence as acts of terrorism.

The new law defines a wide range of behavior as acts of terror, regardless of whether the activity was directly or indirectly supporting terrorist activities. Provisions allow for suspects to be detained for up 30 days before being charged or released and allows military courts to have sole jurisdiction over terrorism claims. Recruitment for terror networks and possession, manufacture, and transport of materials that can be used to produce weapons are also considered acts of terror. UPI has more.

[JURIST] Former Central African Republic President Ange Felix Patasse [Wikipedia profile] was convicted in absentia Tuesday on fraud charges and sentenced to 20 years hard labor. Patasse and four other members of his former government have been charged with embezzlement and fraud stemming from transactions with the Libyan government in 1999 and 2000, but none were present for the trial in Bangui, which began a week earlier than the projected September 4 start date. One of Patasse's former advisers was also convicted of fraud and another advisor was found guilty of embezzlement. Patasse and another co-defendant will be tried on separate embezzlement charges in about two months.

Patasse, presently living in Togo, served as president of the Central African Republic [CIA backgrounder] from 1993 to 2003, when he was overthrown by current President Francois Bozize [BBC profile]. On Saturday, Patasse said that he did not recognize the authority of the court [Reuters report], dismissing the charges as an attack on him by a "fascist regime." Earlier this year, Patasse was referred [JURIST report] to the International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website] for alleged war crimes during the 2002 suppression of an attempted coup, and the ICC is currently weighing those allegations. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Two hundred families plan later this week to demand damages from SNCF [corporate website], the French state-run railway system, in connection with the company's transportation of Jewish families to German concentration camps during World War II. The demand comes two months after a French trial court held SNCF liable [JURIST report] for damages to the family of Alain Lipietz [official website], a member of the European Parliament whose relatives were carried to a transit camp during the war on SNCF railways. The families, from the United States, France, Israel, Belgium, and Canada, have threatened to sue within two months if SNCF does not pay several million euros to compensate them for their relatives' suffering.

SNCF is appealing the June ruling, claiming that it had no choice but to follow German orders during the period in question. The families are taking action before the statute of limitations expires on September 1, an issue that caused a similar civil claim against SNCF to be dismissed in 2003. BBC News has more. Le Monde has local coverage.

[JURIST] Australian legal and political observers appeared split Tuesday in the wake of the Australian government's first control order under new anti-terror laws limiting the activities of an uncharged terror suspect. A court Monday issued the order [JURIST report] at the instance of Attorney General Philip Ruddock; under it, Joseph Terrence "Jihad Jack" Thomas [advocacy website] is required to stay within the city of Melbourne, report to police three times a week, remain at home between midnight and 5 AM each day, and only use an approved provider to connect to telephones and the Internet. Critics called the order unwarranted [Sydney Morning Herald report], pointing out that Thomas' original terror-related conviction [BBC report] had been overturned [Australian report; judgment] by the Victoria Court of Appeal as to all charges earlier this month, and suggesting that the order was a political ploy to support government policy and avoid embarrassment. Others, however, including federal opposition leader Kim Beazley, said that the order was a prudent security measure [ABC Australia report] and that a onetime terror suspect like Thomas should be treated analogously to a sex offender who presented an ongoing danger to the public even while ostensibly "free."

Thomas was the first Australian incarcerated under the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism Act 2002 [text] after having been found guilty in February of receiving $3,500 from a senior Al Qaeda member and of carrying a fake passport. His conviction was overturned because authorities were found to have interviewed Thomas against his will and without access to a lawyer when he was arrested in Pakistan in 2003. The interim control order issued against him is scheduled will be challenged [ABC Australia report] at a Federal Court hearing scheduled for Friday in the Australian capital of Canberra. On Tuesday, Ruddock, speaking to reporters, expressed confidence [transcript] that the order would be upheld:

you [have to] recognize that there will be legal challenges around what you may seek to do even though it’s there for the purpose of protecting the Australian community you have to be assiduous in assuring that the evidence that will be presented will stand up to scrutiny. And the Australian Federal Police have been, in dealing with these issues, very conscious of the significant tests that they may have to meet in bringing forward proposals

[JURIST] The Federal Election Commission (FEC) [official website] on Tuesday failed to adopt a proposed rule [FEC materials] to exempt interest groups from "electioneering communications," tying 3-3 instead. The measure, proposed earlier this month [JURIST report] by FEC Commissioner Hans von Spakovsky, would have allowed certain grassroots lobbying groups to air television and radio advertisements that related to public policy issues under consideration by Congress or the President weeks before a campaign. Under the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) [FEC materials], non-profits, corporations and labor unions are prohibited from running such ads 30 days before a federal primary and 60 days before a general election.

The FEC voted 3-3 along party lines, with Republicans supporting the proposal and Democrats opposing it. Supporters, however, ranged from the ACLU [official website] and the AFL-CIO [official website] to the Chamber of Commerce [official website]. Advocates of the proposal have said that a better balance is necessary between First Amendment guarantees and restrictions on campaign advertising. AP has more.

[JURIST] Guantanamo's oldest known detainee was among the five US-held prisoners transferred to Afghanistan [JURIST report] last week, according to his lawyer who found out about the release over the weekend in a US Department of Justice e-mail. Peter King said that Haji Nasrat Khan [Wikipedia profile], who thought he might be as old as 78 although US military records only list him as 71, was so incapacitated that he had to move about the detention camp with a walker. He was also hard of hearing.

Khan was taken into custody after he went to complain about the detention of his son, who was captured by US troops in a compound in Afghanistan with a stock of weapons that he said he was guarding for the Afghan government. The US military says that both men had ties with the Taliban. At Khan's Combatant Status Tribunal Review hearing, he said, according to a US military transcript [PDF, p. 17]:

We have asked our great God that finally there is a tribunal. You are smart people and I have been hurt for the past 17 to 18 years; I could not get up and you brought me here as an enemy combatant. You think yourself how could I be an enemy combatant if I was not able to stand up?

[JURIST] US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff called for broader US access to European airline passenger data Tuesday in a Washington Post editorial, citing the recently-alleged plot by UK terror suspects [JURIST report] to detonate explosives aboard US airliners flying to the US from Britain. Noting that "British authorities, in partnership with the United States and our allies, were able to disrupt the recent terrorist plot against passenger aircraft precisely because of timely, actionable intelligence, properly shared and acted upon before the terrorists could carry out their plans", he expressed concern that "despite the strong links we've forged with our European partners to protect our nations, we still remain handcuffed in our ability to use all available resources to identify threats and stop terrorists."

Chertoff singled out for criticism European privacy concerns that "have limited the ability of counterterrorism officials to gain broad access to data of this sort," complaining that

under an agreement with the European Union, U.S. Customs and Border Protection receives this information regularly, but it cannot routinely share it with investigators in another DHS component, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or with the FBI -- never mind with our allies in London. This information might yet identify associates of those arrested in the plot in Britain, but the rules blind us in routinely searching for that connection.

bear a responsibility to prevent terrorists from boarding aircraft, and information sharing is a critical way we can work together to limit terrorist mobility, screen for unknown threats and investigate terrorist cells. Smart screening -- including careful and responsive analysis of travel data -- will enhance security and privacy.

[JURIST] UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan Monday welcomed Friday's agreement [JURIST report] by a UN General Assembly committee [official website] on the draft terms of a new UN disability rights treaty. In a statement [text] released by his official spokesman in New York, Annan called the committee's approval of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities an "historic achievement for the 650 million people with disabilities around the world", and expressed hope "that this long overdue Convention will mark the beginning of a new era in which they will have the same rights and opportunities as everyone else." He urged all UN Member States to ratify the Convention after its expected adoption by the full General Assembly at its next session beginning in September.

The Convention is the first human rights treaty of the 21st century and is designed to encourage governments to pass legislation protecting people with disabilities and to eliminate discriminatory laws and practices. Only 45 countries in the world currently have disability legislation. The US has indicated, however, that it will not sign [New Standard report] the new international accord, insisting that US domestic measures on the federal, state and local levels are already adequate for the purpose. Critics say the US position is a slight to the principle of international regulation and monitoring. The treaty is expected to take effect in 2008 or 2009 after the necessary number of ratifications has been reached.

[JURIST] Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador [campaign website, in Spanish], the leftist candidate challenging the results of Mexico's disputed July 2 presidential election [JURIST report], has rejected Monday's ruling by the country's Federal Electoral Tribunal [official website, in Spanish] reducing the lead of leader Felipe Calderon [campaign website, in Spanish] by only some 4000 votes after a partial recount. In a speech to supporters in Mexico City late Monday, Obrador accused the Tribunal's judges of serving the interests of the country's elite and declared that "We will never again allow an illegal and illegitimate government to be installed in our country."

The Tribunal has until September 6 to take the final official step of declaring a winner of the disputed contest pursuant to a final official tally. Obrador, who had unsuccessfully called for a full recount [JURIST report] of all ballots cast in the poll he insists was broadly tainted by fraud, says he will introduce what he called an "alternative" government at a rally scheduled for September 16, Mexico's Independence Day. AP has more. From Mexico City, El Universal has local coverage [in Spanish].