[JURIST] Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert [official website; BBC profile] denied rumors Monday that a deal was underway to trade Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Cpl. Gilad Shalit [Wikipedia backgrounder], an Israeli soldier held by Palestinian militants since June 25 [JURIST report]. In a speech to parliament's foreign affairs and defense committee, Olmert said he heard of the negotiations from the press. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak [official profile; BBC profile] has said that negotiations were ongoing [JURIST report], but that no progress had been made. AP has more.

In related news, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan [official profile; JURIST news archive] announced Monday that Hezbollah and Israel have agreed to closed-door UN-led mediation to secure the release of the two captured Israeli soldiers whose July kidnapping sparked the latest round of violence in the region [JURIST news archive]. While Olmert's office has yet to comment, Israeli political sources deny the agreement had been reached [Reuters report]. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador [campaign website, in Spanish; Wikipedia profile], Mexico's leftist presidential candidate challenging the results of the disputed July 2nd presidential election [JURIST news archive], has told supporters that he plans to organize a constitutional convention to draft a new constitution. Lopez Obrador said Sunday that the country was in need of "radical transformation" and that he would call an assembly to draft a replacement for the current constitution [text], which was written in 1917.

Preliminary results show that Lopez Obrador lost the election [JURIST report] by about 240,000 votes, or less than 0.6 percent. An official winner has not yet been declared; Mexico's Federal Electoral Tribunal [official website, in Spanish] has until September 6 to make an official announcement and the court's decision is expected Tuesday [AP report]. It is widely believed that Lopez Obrador's opponent Felipe Calderon [campaign website, in Spanish; Wikipedia profile] will be declared the official winner, and Lopez Obrador has said that he will refuse to recognize Calderon's victory, instead declaring himself the alternative president. AP has more.

[JURIST] The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs [official website] has warned senior government and military officials that inflammatory statements some made about the recent conflict with Lebanon, such as advocating the bombing of villages that housed Hezbollah rebels, could lead to war crimes prosecutions abroad, the Israeli Army Radio reported Monday. Several Israeli Defense Forces [official website] generals have recently opted not to take trips to Europe because they fear being arrested on war crimes charges. Israeli officials have said that government officials should enjoy immunity from prosecution but there is concern that military leaders, especially retired officials, could be subject to prosecution.

Israel has been widely criticized for its actions during the month-long conflict [JURIST news archive] with Hezbollah guerrillas [BBC backgrounder]. More than 850 Lebanese, mostly civilians, were killed during the conflict. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour [official profile] warned both Israel and Hezbollah in July that those responsible for violence against civilians could be liable for war crimes [JURIST report]. Last month, Amnesty International [advocacy website] accused Israel of deliberately inflicting unnecessary damage [JURIST report] on civilian infrastructure. A few days earlier, the US State Department began investigating [JURIST report] whether Israel used cluster munitions in Lebanon in violation of several US-Israeli agreements. Haaretz has more.

[JURIST] Eight men allegedly involved in a plot to blow up US-bound planes [JURIST report] leaving a London airport will probably not go to trial until 2008, prosecutor Colin Gibbs told the Central Criminal Court [official website] during a brief hearing in London Monday. It is unclear why they will not be brought to trial sooner. All eight defendants are charged with conspiracy to murder under the Criminal Law Act 1977 and planning to smuggle "component parts of improvised explosive devices" onto airplanes under the Terrorism Act 2006 [text]. None of the eight applied for bail during Monday's hearing. AP has more. BBC News has additional coverage.

Meanwhile, UK police [official website] are holding an additional 14 suspected terrorists arrested Friday and Saturday without charge. Police were given more time Sunday to question those suspects, who police believe are running terrorist training camps across Britain but are not linked to last month's foiled terror plot. In the past two weeks, officials have charged 15 [JURIST report] in relation to the airline plot; five have been released and five are being held without charge. Police have one more week to question [JURIST report] those five. Under the 2006 anti-terror law, police are allowed to hold suspects for up to 28 days before they must be charged or released. AP has more.

[JURIST] US military officials in Iraq said Monday that, despite press reports to the contrary, three soldiers killed earlier this summer near Mahmudiya were not involved [press release] in the rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl [JURIST news archive] and the murder of her family in that area. The military has charged [JURIST report] five US soldiers from the 502nd Infantry Regiment in connection with the rape and murders, but there is no evidence suggesting the involvement of Specialist David Babineau and Privates First Class Thomas Tucker and Kristian Menchaca, who were abducted and killed in June after an attack on their isolated outpost.

A group linked to al Qaeda released a video in July that showed two of the dead soldiers' bodies and said the troops were killed to avenge the deaths of the family killed in Mahmudiya. The rape and murders there have outraged Iraqi leaders [JURIST report], prompting an independent investigation [JURIST report] by Iraqis into the crimes allegedly committed by US troops. US military officials are still deciding whether the five charged will face court-martial [JURIST report]. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The number of terrorism-related prosecutions has sharply declined in the years following the Sept. 11 attacks [JURIST news archive] and less than half of those convicted on terror charges received prison sentences, according to a study [text] released Sunday by Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse [official website]. The study, based on US Justice Department [official website] data, found that only 14 of the 1,329 convicted defendants received prison sentences of more than 20 years.

Critics of the Bush administration are using the study as a measurement of its success or lack thereof in the war on terror. Some say there has been a decline in terrorism prosecutions because agencies are less likely than they were directly following September 11 to prosecute secondary infractions. Others have suggested that unlawful interrogation tactics overseas have compromised prosecutions in the US. This is not the first time the administration has had to defend its progress [JURIST report] in convicting terrorists. The study revealed 14 prosecutions in 2000, 57 in 2001, 355 in 2002, 46 in 2005 and 19 in the first eight months of fiscal year 2006. AP has more.