[JURIST] Canada's Arar Commission [official website], the official judicial inquiry into the circumstances under which Canadian Maher Arar [advocacy website; CBC timeline] was detained in the US in 2002 and removed to Syria where Arar says he was tortured, concluded Monday that Canadian officials did not play a role in the US decision to detain and remove Arar, but Commissioner Dennis R. O'Connor, Associate Chief Justice of Ontario, opined that the US decision was "very likely" based on inaccurate, unfair and overstated information about Arar passed on by the RCMP, Canada's federal police force. The Syrian-born Canadian was detained in 2002 during a layover at New York's JFK airport on a flight home to Canada from Tunisia; he was detained by US immigration officials and then deported to Syria, where he was born. Arar alleged he was deported so that he could be tortured in Syria, where he eventually made false admissions of terrorist activity. Referring to information linking Arar to al Qaeda, the US Justice Department said that deporting him was "in the best interest of the United States." Syria has denied the allegations of abuse.

The commission, established in 2004 [JURIST report] under Canada's federal Inquiries Act [text] to trace events leading to Arar's deportation to Syria, released its findings [press release, PDF] Monday, detailing several conclusions:

On Maher Arar, the Commissioner comes to one important conclusion: "I am able to say categorically that there is no evidence to indicate that Mr. Arar has committed any offence or that his activities constitute a threat to the security of Canada. ...

On the role of Canadian officials, taking into consideration evidence heard in public as well as in camera, the Commissioner found: "No evidence that Canadian officials participated or acquiesced in the American's authorities decision to detain and remove Mr. Arar to Syria (…) and there is no evidence that any Canadian authorities – Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) or others – were complicit in those decisions." However, the Commissioner also notes that: "It is very likely that, in making the decisions to detain and remove Mr. Arar to Syria, the U.S. authorities relied on information about Mr. Arar provided by the RCMP. Although I cannot be certain without evidence of the American authorities, the evidence strongly supports this conclusion". CSIS did not share information with the Americans at this time.

The Commissioner also found that both before and after Mr. Arar's detention in the U.S. the RCMP provided American authorities with information about Mr. Arar which was inaccurate, portrayed him in an unfair fashion and overstated his importance to the investigation. Some of this inaccurate information had the potential to create serious consequences for Mr. Arar in light of American attitudes and practices at the time. ...

While he was detained in Syria, the Commissioner found that Canadian agencies relied on information about Mr. Arar received from the Syrians which was likely the product of torture. No adequate reliability assessment was done to determine whether the information resulted from torture.

In his report the Commissioner points to a need for a more coherent connection between Canadian agencies when dealing with terrorism investigations; he observed a failure of communication between Canadian agencies involved in the Arar case. "There was also a lack of a single, coherent approach to efforts to obtain his release."

Finally, the Commissioner found that both before and after Mr. Arar's return to Canada, Canadian officials leaked confidential and sometimes inaccurate information about the case to the media for the purpose of damaging Mr. Arar's reputation or protecting their self-interest or government interests.

[JURIST] Clarence Hill [NCADP profile; FLDOC profile], a convicted murderer on death row in Florida [JURIST news archive], filed a petition Monday asking the US Supreme Court to stay his execution scheduled for Wednesday. The petition follows Friday's decision [opinion, PDF] by the US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit denying a motion to stay the execution while Hill pursues an appeal arguing that Florida's method of lethal injection constitutes cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment [text]. In the per curiam opinion, a three-judge panel wrote:

With Hill's execution scheduled to be carried out within a matter of days from our receipt of the instant motion, we decline to engage in that protracted, and ultimately futile, sequence of events.

Instead, we dispose of Hill's motion by denying his request for an injunction based upon our independent analysis of the equities.

[JURIST] France [JURIST news archive] will grant amnesty to 6,924 illegal immigrants [JURIST news archive] with school-age children, French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy [official profile, in French; BBC profile] announced Monday. Even though thousands more had applied for amnesty [JURIST report], Sarkozy said in a television interview that the applications approved represent the "final figure." The Education Without Borders Network (RESF) [advocacy website] and other groups criticized the amnesty plan as "totally arbitary" - an assertion that Sarkozy denied. The criteria favored immigrants with at least one child who was born in France or who arrived before age 13; has been in French schools for two years; and has no link with their parents' country.

Sarkozy announced the limited amnesty plan in July [JURIST report], a month after the French parliament passed a conservative immigration bill [JURIST report] that set off protest marches [JURIST report]. The new legislation tightens restrictions on unskilled, non-EU immigrants and requires immigrants to sign a pledge to learn French and to abide by French law. The government plans to increase the number of deportations to 25,000 this year, up from 15,000 in 2004. AFP has more. France 2 television has local coverage, in French. Le Monde has additional local coverage, also in French.

[JURIST] US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales [official profile] told a press conference [transcript] Monday that specification of banned interrogation methods in military commissions legislation [text, PDF; White House factsheet] drafted by the Bush administration currently under consideration in Congress is vital to US counterterrorism efforts and is necessary to provide CIA interrogators with clear guidance on acceptable practices. Gonzales reiterated his previous contentions [JURIST report] that Common Article 3 [text] of the Geneva Conventions [ICRC materials] needs to be clarified in order for interrogators to clearly comply with its provisions:

You have opinions all across the board about what certain words mean in Common Article 3. There are certain practices, such as torture, murder, maiming, certain serious offenses that are clearly prohibited that we all agree with that should be outlawed. But certain other kinds of practices, there is some serious question as to whether or not they would be permitted under Common Article 3, given the language such as outrages upon personal dignity, particularly humiliating and degrading treatment, and if you look to see how those words have been interpreted by foreign tribunals, it does create uncertainty for our men and women, as the President said, who are engaged in collecting information to protect America.

[JURIST] A Serbian war crimes court on Monday sentenced Anton Lekaj [indictment], a former member of the Kosovo Liberation Army [BBC backgrounder], to 13 years in prison for the murder of four Kosovo gypsies, as well as several instances of torture, rape and sexual molestation committed in 1999. The court determined that Lekaj abducted the group of gypsies and held them for several days before, committing torture and rape against the group, before four died under Lekaj's watch. Monday's sentence is the first sentence by Serbia's special war crimes tribunal against an ethnic Albanian for Kosovo related crimes; eight Serb policemen have been indicted for murders of ethnic Albanians and are awaiting trial.

The trial began last year, but was immediately adjourned [JURIST report] because Lekaj refused to recognize the Serbian court and its prosecutor, and requested to be tried in front of a United Nations-backed tribunal at The Hague. RFE/RL has more. Reuters has additional coverage.

[JURIST] The European Data Protection Supervisor [official website], the European Union's data watchdog official, on Monday condemned a now-voided agreement [BBC Q/A] between the EU and the US forcing European airlines to share passenger data with US authorities for transatlantic flights, saying it lacked sufficient rights safeguards. Peter Hustinx said in a press conference [press release, PDF] that a new passenger data agreement must have "sufficient legal data protection" with several provisions binding the US, warning that anti-terror measures are not sufficient to justify the amount of data the US wants European airlines to provide. The current deal, which took effect in 2004 and will expire at the end of September under a European Court of Justice order [JURIST report], requires European airlines to provide passenger name records to US authorities shortly after a transatlantic flight departs Europe, including names, addresses, credit card information, and itinerary details.

The US has argued for more extensive data sharing [JURIST report] because the current agreement does not allow US customs officials to share the information they receive from European airlines with other US agencies. Hustinx, however, said that even the current agreement fails to provide adequate safeguards for EU citizens. EU and US officials are struggling to agree on terms for the new agreement [Reuters report], which must be in place by September 30. DPA has more.

[JURIST] The second Saddam Hussein trial [JURIST report] resumed in Baghdad Monday with more testimony from prosecution witnesses in the case involving the "Anfal" operation [HRW backgrounder] that killed 180,000 Kurds in northern Iraq in the 1980s. One former Kurdish rebel testified that he was temporarily blinded as a result of chemical attacks allegedly launched on the village by Iraqi troops under the command of Hussein. Hussein challenged the legitimacy of the testimony, saying that the witness was not an Iraqi citizen. The witness was granted Dutch citizenship in 1994, six years after the alleged gas attacks, and Iraq does not recognize dual citizenships.

Hussein and his co-defendants are all charged with crimes against humanity [JURIST report] and Hussein and his cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid [BBC profile], known as "Chemical Ali," also face more serious charges of genocide, which could implicate the death penalty. On Monday, al-Majid said that Iran, not Iraq, was responsible for the Anfal gas attacks. Hussein also is currently awaiting a verdict in the Dujail crimes against humanity case [JURIST report] for which he is eligible for the death penalty [JURIST report]. AP has more.

[JURIST] UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan [official website] told delegates at the opening of the second session [UN materials] of the UN Human Rights Council [official website; JURIST news archive] Monday that the Council should pay more attention to the Darfur crisis [JURIST news archive] and not focus exclusively on the situation in Lebanon [JURIST news archive]. Urging delegates to "not disappoint the hopes of humanity," Annan said:

The world is watching your deliberations with keen interest. Do not forget why you are here. With great effort, Member States established this new Council to mark a new beginning. In the founding resolution of the Council they explicitly recognized the importance of universality, objectivity and non-selectivity, and of eliminating double standards and politicization.

In your inaugural session, and again in the special session you held in July, you were rightly concerned with the tragic events in the Middle East. I trust you will focus the same vigilance on violations and abuses wherever they may occur. At the present time I feel I must draw your attention especially to those to which the people of Darfur are being subjected, and which threaten to get even worse in the near future.

[JURIST] The British government Monday proposed closing off the possibility of overturning criminal convictions on legal technicalities where the guilt of accuseds is clear. In a new consultation paper [PDF text] the Home Secretary, the Lord Chancellor, and the Attorney General argue that if the Court of Appeal is convinced that the defendant in fact committed the offense as charged, in other words, that the conviction is "safe," it should not have jurisdiction to hear an appeal based on a perceived procedural technicality at the trial or arrest stages. The paper, now open for public comment through mid-December, argues that the reversal of such convictions damages public trust in the criminal justice system and takes the unnecessary risk that the convicted defendant may commit future crimes. Before outlining three specific legislative solutions, the paper concludes:

The dominant and settled legal interpretation of the statutory test in the Criminal Appeal Act 1968 [text] (as amended) appears to mean that the Court of Appeal may quash a conviction if they are dissatisfied with some aspect of procedure at the original trial, even if the person pleaded guilty or the Court are in no doubt that he committed the offence for which he was convicted. The Government believes that the law should not allow people to go free where they were convicted and the Court are satisfied they committed the offence...The Government believes that legislation is now needed to change the position because the approach of the Court of Appeal appears now to be settled. Moreover, it is right that Parliament should debate the desired effect of the test which it has itself provided (and amended).

[JURIST] The Turkish parliament, the Grand National Assembly [official website], is scheduled to meet Tuesday, two weeks earlier than usual, to work on passing reform measures aimed at gaining membership to the European Union [JURIST news archive]. The EU has cautioned [JURIST report] Turkey that its EU bid [EU backgrounder] will not be accepted unless the country improves its record on torture and other human rights violations, including the restriction of freedom of expression.

EU lawmakers especially oppose Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code [Amnesty backgrounder], which makes it a crime to insult Turkish identity. One Turkish lawmaker said that Article 301, which has been used to prosecute writers Hrant Dink and Orhan Pamuk for discussing the alleged Armenian genocide, will be revised to rebut EU criticism. Earlier this month, the EU Parliament said Turkey has been slow to deliver promised legal reforms [JURIST report], including "persistent shortcomings in areas such as freedom of expression, religious and minority rights, the role of the military, policing, women's rights, trade union rights and cultural rights." Reuters has more.

[JURIST] An Israeli military court on Monday postponed a decision on whether 21 defendants, who were who were detained [JURIST report] following the Hamas capture of Israeli Cpl. Gilad Shalit [Wikipedia backgrounder] in Gaza in June, should be released from detention while their cases are examined. Last Tuesday, the military court ordered the 21 defendants released on bail [JURIST report], but prosecutors appealed the decision. The 21 affected defendants, including Palestinian parliament speaker Aziz Dweik [official profile, in Arabic; JMCC profile], have been charged with membership in a terrorist organization [JURIST report], namely Hamas [CFR backgrounder]. AFP has more.

Also on Monday, Israeli prosecutors indicted three captured members of Hezbollah on charges of murder and membership in a terrorist organization. The three will be tried in open criminal court rather than through closed military court proceedings. Reuters has more. Haaretz has local coverage.

[JURIST] Hewlett-Packard's deadline to submit documents to the US House Energy and Commerce Committee [official website] expires Monday, and two top executives have been asked to testify before the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee on the topic of "pretexting," a method of tricking companies into divulging their customers' records, a practice HP is alleged to have engaged in during an investigation of their board members. Hewlett-Packard [corporate website], which admitted to the use of pretexting [SEC filing; CNET report] earlier this month, allegedly hired private investigators to uncover the source of leaked information coming from the HP board of directors. Last week, HP Chairperson Patricia Dunn announced her resignation [MSNBC report] after it was revealed that she authorized the use of pretexting. Dunn and HP General Counsel Ann O. Baskins are scheduled to testify on September 28 before the subcommittee.

After former HP board member Tom Perkins discovered that HP had obtained his personal phone records from his phone company, he demanded that HP tell the Securities and Exchange Commission about the practice, which it eventually did. The story attracted the attention of Congress and California Attorney General Bill Lockyer [JURIST news archive], who has said that HP broke fraud laws in authorizing the use of pretexting. Congress is now debating several bills aimed at making pretexting specifically illegal, including the Prevention of Fraudulent Access to Phone Records Act [HR 4943 summary; press release], which now awaits a full House vote. During Congressional panel hearings [JURIST report] on the issue, a self-described data broker detailed [statement, PDF] the technique of "pretexting," or tricking companies into divulging their customers' records. The Mercury News has local coverage. Bloomberg has more.

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