[JURIST] Members of the European Parliament's Human Rights Subcommittee [official website] expressed concern Friday that the human rights situation in Turkey [JURIST news archive; CIA backgrounder] is worsening, saying they heard increased accounts of torture, abductions and other abuses during a recent fact-finding visit to southeastern Turkey, where Kurdish separatists are clashing with the military. British delegate Richard Howitt [official profile], one of six subcommittee members who also visited Istanbul and Ankara, described the reports from local rights groups as evidence of "very, very worrying times in Turkey." The delegation is expected to make a report to the full Parliament within a month.

Turkey's effort to gain accession to the EU [official website; EU backgrounder] has drawn attention to the nation's record on human rights and freedom of expression and the EU has cautioned [JURIST report] that Turkey's EU bid will not be accepted unless the situation improves. Earlier this month, the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee approved a report taking Turkey to task for slow progress [JURIST report] on a variety of legal and other reforms. AP has more. BBC News has additional coverage.

[JURIST] The US Department of Homeland Security [official website] laid out its plans to put up a "virtual fence" along the US borders with Canada and Mexico [JURIST news archive] during a press conference Friday announcing that Boeing Corp. has been awarded a $67 million contract to begin the project [DHS press release; Boeing press release]. The virtual fence, a key part of the DHS Secure Border Initiative [Border Patrol fact sheet], will consist of sensors, cameras and drones designed to prevent illegal immigration [JURIST news archive], drug trafficking and terrorism. The system will be rolled out first along 28 miles of the US-Mexico border near Tucson, AZ.

Last week, the US House passed a bill providing for the construction of 700 miles of physical fencing along part of the US-Mexico border and also calling for a study to determine whether a fence should be constructed along the Canadian border; the Senate is considering the measure [JURIST reports]. The two chambers have been unable to reach an agreement on a comprehensive immigration bill [AP report]. CanWest News Service has more.

[JURIST] The Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) [official website] has set April 2 as the tentative trial date for former Liberian President Charles Taylor [BBC profile; JURIST news archive]. Justice Julia Sebutinde [official profile] announced the date Friday during a pretrial hearing in The Hague, expressing concern that Taylor be tried without "undue delay." Taylor has been in UN custody since shortly after he was captured while trying to flee Nigeria in March [JURIST reports]. Although Sebutinde stressed that the April date is meant "to assist the parties and the bench to work toward the final trial date" and subject to change, Taylor lawyer Karim Khan [JURIST report] said he doubted he could be ready for trial before September 2007 because of the large amount of evidence that prosecutors have turned over to the defense - more than 32,000 pages of documents.

Taylor was indicted [PDF text; SCSL materials] on charges of crimes against humanity and violations of international humanitarian law, including murder, rape and the recruitment and use of child soldiers during the war in Sierra Leone. Taylor was taken to The Hague in June after Britain promised to incarcerate him if he is convicted [JURIST reports]. SCSL officials predicted then that Taylor could be tried as early as January 2007 [JURIST report]. AP has more.

[JURIST] A prosecutor told a British court-martial Thursday that senior UK military officers should be held responsible for the abuse of Iraqi detainees in UK custody because they failed to develop adequate checking procedures on junior personnel. Colonel Jorge Mendonca, Major Michael Peebles, and Warrant Officer Mark Davies are among seven British soldiers being court-martialed [JURIST report, MOD press release] on abuse-related charges. Prosecutor Julian Bevan noted that the detainees had been arrested after the deaths of several other British soldiers, and that this should have made the officers even more wary about abuses. "This failure to have a checking system in place has to be seen in light of the fact that the soldiers . . . could be tempted to behave out of line, abuse [prisoners] and ill-treat them," said Bevan, according to a report in Friday's Independent.

The detainees were hooded, sleep-deprived, put in unsanitary conditions and forced to stand in the "stress position" for over 36 hours, ultimately causing the death of Baha Musa [Herald report]. The use of such practices was outlawed in Britain in 1972 after an investigation into methods used by British troops in Northern Ireland [Wikipedia backgrounder]. The Independent has more.

[JURIST] Thailand's king has voiced his support for Tuesday's coup [JURIST report] that brought General Sonthi Boonyaratglin [BBC profile] to power, according to an announcement on Thai state-run television on Friday. Although the leaders of the new "Council of Administrative Reform" claimed to have the king's backing on Wednesday, the TV statement was the first public endorsement of the new regime: "In order to create peace in the country, the king appoints General Sonthi Boonyaratglin as head of the council of administrative reform. All people should remain peaceful and civil servants should listen to orders from General Sonthi Boonyaratglin from now on." The coup is the 18th that King Bhumibol Adulyadej [Wikipedia profile] has presided over since his reign began in 1946, and his support is seen as giving legitimacy to its leaders. In the days since the coup, the military has detained top ministers [JURIST report] from former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's [BBC profile] government, taken over the tasks of Parliament [official website], and prohibited meetings of political parties. However, the first pro-democracy rally was held on Friday without incident. AP has more.

Meanwhile, Abhisit Vejjajiva, the leader of the opposition Democrat Party in Thailand [JURIST news archive], has said it should take less than a year to draft a new constitution for the country. The former constitution [PDF text; EN backgrounder] was revoked by the military leaders earlier this week. Abhisit said Friday that the document, which appeared to incorporate the people's participation on its face rather than in practice, "remains workable overall despite some flaws caused by deliberate flouting or distortion." TNA has more.

[JURIST] French President Jacques Chirac [official profile, BBC profile] on Friday reaffirmed his confidence in the judiciary [press release, in French] after meeting with top members of the French judiciary who have asked Chirac to rein in French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy [official profile, BBC profile] for his accusations that the Paris courts are too lenient on criminals. Sarkozy, who is seen as Chirac's probable successor to the presidency, referred to the courts in the Seine-Saint-Denis suburb of Paris, the site of last year's riots [JURIST news archive] and of continuing violent crime, when declaring on Wednesday, "I would like to know how we are supposed to prevent a criminal from offending again if we do not have the courage to put them in prison." These remarks prompted Judge Guy Canivet, head of France's high court, the Cour de Cassation [official website, in French], and Renaud Chazal de Mauriac, head of the Paris Court of Appeal, to call on Chirac to "expose the seriousness of these repeated attacks on the separation of powers laid out in the Constitution." The High Council of the Magistrature [official website] has also written to Chirac previously criticizing other incendiary remarks by the Sarkozy, whose is thought to be especially tough on immigration and crime.

After meeting with Canivet, Chirac praised the judiciary [AFP report] and emphasized the importance of "high standards regarding the independence of judges." French Prime Minister Dominique Villepin [official profile, BBC profile] also summoned a meeting of his top ministers and later reaffirmed their confidence in the courts. Canivet expressed satisfaction with the 45-minute meeting. AFP has more. Le Monde has local coverage [in French].

[JURIST] US Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) [official website] cannot serve concurrently as both a senator and a military judge because it violates the US Constitution's separation of powers requirement, the US Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces [official website] has ruled [opinion, PDF]. The court on Wednesday upheld a lower court ruling [PDF text], and wrote that "one of the purposes served by the separation of powers is that a military accused will not be judged by a Member of Congress." The issue was raised in the trial of Airman 1st Class Charles M. Lane for wrongful use of cocaine. Lane's attorneys claimed Graham's position was a conflict of interest.

Graham, who previously served as a reserve judge to the Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals [official website], has been reassigned to a position in the Pentagon's Air Force Administrative Law Division. The Charleston Post Courier has local coverage.

[JURIST] The US Senate Judiciary Committee [official website] approved the OPEN Government Act [S 394 summary] Thursday, a bill that would punish federal agencies that fail to respond to requests under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) [DOJ materials] in a timely manner. The bill would give federal agencies 20 days to determine whether to comply with the FOIA request for records and would require agencies to provide tracking numbers for checking on the status of the request.

The bill was introduced by Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) [official website] and a group of other senators in response to complaints that FOIA requests take months or years to be answered or rejected and large portions of the results are commonly blacked out. Earlier this year, a federal judge ruled that the US Air Force has engaged in a pattern or practice of violating FOIA requirements and the Defense Department was separately ordered to expedite processing of FOIA requests [JURIST reports]. AP has more.

[JURIST] Two San Francisco Chronicle reporters will be jailed if they continue to refuse to identify the person who leaked secret grand jury testimony from Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi and other athletes, regarding an investigation into the now-defunct Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO) [SF Chronicle coverage], a federal judge said Thursday. Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada [SF Chronicle profiles] published a book and a series of articles based on secret grand jury testimony and have steadfastly refused to reveal their source. A separate grand jury has been convened to uncover the source of the leaked testimony transcripts, and as federal prosecutors have investigated the lawyers, government officials, and defendants who had access to the transcripts, prosecutors say Williams and Fainaru-Wada are the only remaining individuals who have knowledge of the source.

US District Judge Jeffrey White ruled on August 15 that he was bound by Supreme Court precedent that no one, including journalists, may refuse to testify before a federal grand jury and ordered the two reporters to testify [JURIST report]. In what he called a tentative ruling Thursday, White said imprisonment was the only way to pressure the reporters to talk, rejecting requests by lawyers for Williams and Fainaru-Wada for lesser punishment. White ordered the reporters jailed for the rest of the grand jury term, unless they cooperate earlier, but prosecutors have agreed to delay prison time while the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit considers the reporters' appeal of the earlier decision.

Chronicle executives have called for a federal law that protects journalists from revealing their sources. The US Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing earlier this week on such a bill, the Free Flow of Information Act of 2006 [S 2831 summary], which would allow journalists to protect confidential sources in certain instances. The deputy attorney general argued against the bill [JURIST report], saying that the shield law will hinder national security investigations, but committee chairman Sen. Arlen Specter rejected those arguments and indicated that he plans to move forward with the legislation. The San Francisco Chronicle has local coverage.

[JURIST] Christian protestors in Indonesia [government website; JURIST news archive] burned cars, government buildings, a prison and Muslim-owned businesses Friday following the executions of three Roman Catholic men convicted [BBC report] in 2001 of leading a Christian militia which killed at least 70 Muslims in 2000 [BBC backgrounder]. Thousands of protestors gathered in Flores, the men's birthplace, and in the largely Roman Catholic province of East Nusatenggara, expressing their outrage at the severity of the punishment, which many believe to be religiously motivated. Only a handful of people have been held responsible for the attacks, but all have received sentences of less than 15 years for the attacks, which killed more than 1,000 Muslims and Christians between 1999 and 2002.

Human rights groups have questioned the fairness [Amnesty International press release] of the trial, maintaining that Fabianus Tibo, Marinus Riwu, and Dominggus da Silva, may have participated, but were not the leaders of the militia. Muslim groups gathered outside of the trial in an attempt to intimidate judges, prosecutors, defense lawyers, and witnesses and defense lawyers also received numerous death threats. European Union and Vatican officials have also condemned the executions. AP has more.