[JURIST] Liberia's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) [UN Mission in Liberia news release, PDF] on Tuesday began the long process of documenting personal statements on crimes and abuses committed during the country's 14-year civil war [Globalsecurity.org backgrounder]. Jerome Verdier [ELaw profile], head of the commission which was established under the 2003 peace accords [text], has dispatched 192 people to all 15 counties in Liberia to take statements and Verdier hopes to compile a database indexing the victims, perpetrators, and kinds of atrocities committed. The formal hearing process is scheduled to begin in January 2007. Verdier implored the statement takers not to be swayed by issues of political, economic, tribal, ethnic or blood relationships, and instead execute their duties honestly and with a sense of patriotism.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission formally began its work [JURIST report] in June after being inaugurated [JURIST report] in February. Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf [BBC profile] has said that the commission is intended to heal the war-torn country and uncover the truth about the civil war, but the TRC has been criticized by human rights groups [JURIST report] who instead advocate a Liberian human rights court because the TRC cannot prosecute war crimes violations. Reuters has more. From Monrovia, the Inquirer has local coverage.

[JURIST] The International Committee of the Red Cross [advocacy website] has completed its first meeting with prisoners now held by US forces at the expanded Camp Cropper [Wikipedia backgrounder] prison in Iraq, according to a press release [text] posted on the organization’s website Tuesday. The 16-member delegation included one medical doctor, and was able to meet privately with detainees of their choosing to discuss conditions at the camp. The delegation had unrestricted access to the facility, and the detainees were given the opportunity to write to their families care of the Red Cross.

Camp Cropper, which currently houses approximately 3,550 prisoners, is largely comprised of detainees transferred from the former Abu Ghraib prison [JURIST news archive], which was transferred to Iraqi control [JURIST report] in late August. This was the first opportunity in more than 20 months that the ICRC had to visit the prisoners, since they suspended visitations to Abu Ghraib in January, 2005 after an ICRC employee was killed. The ICRC, formally entrusted under the Geneva Conventions [ICRC materials] with visiting prisoners of war, has performed more than 50 inspections of Iraqi detention centers this year, transmitting approximately 6,000 messages from detainees to family members each month. The Washington Post has more.

[JURIST] Russian President Vladimir Putin [official profile] has signed a bill officially ratifying the International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism [text, PDF], the Kremlin announced Tuesday. A Kremlin statement [text] described the convention as "the first universal treaty designed to prevent acts of terrorism with weapons of mass destruction" and said it provided for "a mechanism of cooperation between states to prevent acts of nuclear terrorism and also for exchanging information linked to uncovering, preventing and suppressing crimes stipulated in the Convention while ensuring that the confidentiality of such information can be protected."

The convention, proposed by Russia, was initially signed by Putin [JURIST report] on behalf of Russia in September 2005 after several years of negotiations between nuclear and non-nuclear nations. The Russian parliament passed the bill to ratify it earlier this month. Already 107 states have signed the treaty and six other countries have ratified it; it will enter into force after it is ratified by at least 22 countries. Interfax has more.

[JURIST] Dick Marty [JURIST news archive], the Swiss parliamentarian who has been leading the Council of Europe [official website] probe into CIA terror secret prisons and renditions in Europe [JURIST report], announced Tuesday that he intends to accompany UN Special rapporteur on torture Manfred Nowak [JURIST news archive] in a visit to the US prison at Guantanamo Bay. In a joint statement [text], COE Assembly President Rene van der Linden [official profile] and Marty reaffirmed the Council's determination to uncover the role [JURIST report] played by European countries in aiding and abetting abuses committed by the CIA, saying "Putting the whole truth on the table is important as a matter of principle, and in order to deter future violations". Both men said they believed the US will OK the visit, although an attempt by Nowak and other UN rights envoys to visit Guantanamo last year was stymied when the Pentagon refused free access to prisoners [JURIST report]. Reuters has more.

Last month, President Bush admitted the US had maintained secret CIA-run detention centers [JURIST report] throughout Europe, as Marty and his committee had maintained. Fourteen high value terror suspects [DNI backgrounder, PDF] held there, including alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, have now been shifted to Guantanamo.

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] on Tuesday heard oral arguments [transcript, PDF] in the consolidated case of Lopez v. Gonzales and Toledo-Flores v. US [Duke Law case backgrounder; merit briefs], in which the Court will decide whether immigrants convicted of state drug felonies can remain in the US if their crimes were misdemeanors under federal law. Jose Lopez pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting the possession of drugs after being arrested in 1997 and Reymundo Toledo-Flores was convicted of possessing cocaine in 2002. Neither was a US citizen. Lopez argued that his conviction was not a felony under the Controlled Substance Act but the US Court of Appeal for the Eighth Circuit held [opinion, PDF] that any drug conviction that would be a felony under state or federal law is an aggravated felony under the Immigration and Naturalization Act [text]. Toledo-Flores is appealing the imposition of an increase to the length of his sentence which was upheld [opinion, PDF] by the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit since any crime that is punishable by more than a year of imprisonment under state law is considered an aggravated felony, even if the same crime is considered a misdemeanor under federal criminal law. Government attorneys argued for deportation while the American Bar Association and civil and immigrant rights groups objected to having minor drug possession crimes be defined as aggravated felonies. The justices struggled with the federal statute, with Scalia questioning whether the case was moot since one of the two immigrants has already been deported to Mexico.

Also Tuesday, the Court heard oral arguments [text, PDF] in Ornaski v. Belmontes [Duke Law backgrounder, merit briefs], in which the Court will clarify the constitutionality of a California jury instruction in death penalty cases. Belmontes was convicted of first degree murder for the killing of a 19 year old woman during a burglary but appealed his death penalty sentence based on the failure of a jury instruction to inform the members of the jury that they could consider his probable future conduct in prison. The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed [opinion, PDF] his conviction and California prosecutors appealed to have his sentence reinstated. AP has more.

[JURIST] A coalition of Thai democracy activists and academics Tuesday called for newly appointed Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont [BBC profile; official website] to lift the martial law imposed [JURIST report] on the country by the military leaders who seized power from Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra [JURIST news archive] in a bloodless coup [JURIST report] on September 19. The so-called Confederation for Democracy argued in a letter to the government that martial law is contradictory to the Thai constitution and the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights [text]. Confederation members also suggested that lifting martial law would create a more democratic atmosphere since the law currently prohibits gatherings of more than five people and imposes strict control over the information disseminated through the media.

King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand [JURIST news archive] Sunday approved [JURIST report] a new 39-article interim constitution [text] for the country drawn up by the new military leadership. The new charter provides for a civilian government but preserves the military's say in policy through a Council for National Security [Bangkok Post backgrounder] which, among other things, has the power to dismiss the administration. Military officials have suggested it will take about nine months to draw up the long-term constitution, with a national referendum and elections to follow. TNA has more.

[JURIST] A group of four UN human rights envoys reported Tuesday that Israel and Hezbollah [CFR backgrounder] both broke international humanitarian law during the 34-day Middle East conflict [JURIST news archive]. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's representative on displaced people Walter Kaelin, Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions Philip Alston, Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health Paul Hunt and Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living Miloon Kothari met with government officials [JURIST report] in Israel and Lebanon and visited areas where violence took place. Their report to the Human Rights Council [official website] claims that Israel [JURIST news archive] failed to adequately protect civilians and failed to use means which would inflict the least amount of damage. It blamed Hezbollah for using almost 4,000 Katyusha rockets loaded with lethal anti-personnel ball bearings which were fired at civilian areas in northern Israel, resulting in the deaths of approximately 40 civilians.

Amnesty International [advocacy website] released a report [text] last week also accusing Hezbollah of violating [JURIST report] international law by deliberately and indiscriminately killing Israeli civilians through its firing of rockets into Israel and urged for an investigation by the United Nations [official website] into alleged war crimes by both Israel and Hezbollah. Israelis have also been accused of unlawfully targeting civilians [JURIST report] and both sides have been warned by senior UN officials that they could be held liable for war crimes [JURIST report]. More than 850 Lebanese, mostly civilians, were killed during the conflict. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The US military commission [JURIST news archive] expected to try Australian Guantanamo detainee David Hicks [JURIST news archive] will not allow evidence coerced through torture, Australian Attorney General Philip Ruddock [official website] told ABC News on Tuesday. Ruddock added that "sleep deprivation is ordinarily not regarded as torture," however, if a commission were to deem it as such, any evidence retrieved as a result of it will not be allowed. Ruddock aroused the ire [Age report] of human rights groups [AAP report], former POWs [Telegraph report] and anti-torture campaigners on Sunday when he said in another TV interview that sleep deprivation was merely "coercive" [Australian report] and that he didn't regard it as torture. Hicks has claimed [Amnesty profile] in an affidavit that in US custody he had been subjected to sleep deprivation "as a matter of policy."

Last week, Ruddock said that the Hicks trial probably will not commence this year [JURIST report] given that legislation setting up a revised US military commissions structure has only just been passed. In August, the US assured Australia that Hicks will not face the death penalty [JURIST report] in any new trial. Earlier that month, Ruddock stated that he would press for Hick's return [JURIST report] if the US process against him is not restarted by November. ABC News has more.

[JURIST] Microsoft [corporate website; JURIST news archive] filed an appeal with the European Court of First Instance [official website] on Tuesday, contesting the $357 million fine imposed [JURIST report] against it by the European Commission [official website] in July for violations of antitrust laws. Microsoft also appealed the 2004 European Union antitrust ruling [text, PDF; JURIST report] which resulted in the fines.

The fine was the first the EU had levied against a company for not complying with a previous order. In a July statement [text] saying it planned to appeal, Microsoft declared "we have great respect for the Commission and this process, but we do not believe any fine, let alone a fine of this magnitude, is appropriate given the lack of clarity in the Commission's original decision and our good-faith efforts over the past two years." Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The verdict in the Dujail crimes against humanity case [JURIST report] against Saddam Hussein [JURIST news archive] has been postponed despite previous expectations that it would be delivered October 16 [JURIST report], the court trying the case announced Tuesday. The court said it decided to postpone the verdict in order to reserve time "for the judges' review of the evidence." Although a new date to render the verdict has not been determined, an anonymous court official told AP that it could be postponed until as late as the beginning of November. In the Dujail case, Hussein and seven co-defendants are charged in connection with the murder, torture and illegal arrest of hundreds of people in Dujail as part of a crackdown in the town after an assassination attempt on Hussein's life.

In addition to the Dujail charges, Hussein is currently on trial on separate genocide charges [JURIST report] for the 1988 deaths of 180,000 Kurdish villagers in the so-called "Anfal" campaign [HRW backgrounder]. The Anfal trial has been adjourned for two weeks until October 9 to provide time for the defendants to instruct court-appointed counsel or to persuade their own lawyers to end their boycott of the proceedings. AP has more. On Monday, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld [official profile] announced his opposition [AFP report] to more trials of the ousted Iraqi leader on more charges, stating that "it would be appropriate to conclude it [i.e. the process] and sentence him to whatever sentence they decide to give him."

[JURIST] The FBI Tuesday continued an investigation into possible sex crimes by Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) [WP profile] that may lead to charges under the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006 [HR 4472 materials; JURIST report], a bill Foley co-sponsored. Under the law, persons found to be "sex offenders" are required to register their name, social security number, address, and other information with the state in which they reside. The law also provides that the US Attorney General [official website] must maintain a National Sex Offender Registry [official website], a cooperative between state and federal government to make sex offender registration public information.

Foley resigned [Reuters report] on Friday after ABC News reported that he had sent congressional pages [CRS program backgrounder, PDF; House page program backgrounder, PDF] inappropriate text messages, some sexually explicit in nature. US House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) [official website] sent a letter [text] to the Justice Department Sunday, calling for an investigation [JURIST report] into the scandal. The Miami Herald has more.

[JURIST] The US and UK governments have been discussing the release of nine British residents [JURIST report] currently being held at the US prison base in Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive], but the British government has so far refused to accept the men, saying that US demands for continued surveillance of the prisoners after their hand-over are unnecessary and unworkable, the Guardian reported Tuesday. The British paper obtained documents from private discussions between the two governments and witness statements offered by UK Director General of Defense David Richmond and UK Home Office [official website] Director of Counter-Terrorism and Intelligence William Nye. Nye is reported as saying the nine men, who have been held at Guantanamo Bay for over four years without charge, do not pose a sufficient threat to justify using MI5 [official website] resources to monitor them when more dangerous terrorist suspects are a threat to the UK's national security.

The UK has agreed to allow only one prisoner to return - Bisher al-Rawi [JURIST report; Wikipedia profile], who assisted MI5 in the eventual arrest of al Qaeda suspect Abu Qatada [BBC profile]. Families of other long-time UK residents held at Guantanamo Bay are seeking an order [JURIST report] requiring the British government to lobby the US for the release of their relatives. Last month, lawyers for Guantanamo Bay detainee Shaker Aamer [Reprieve profile], also a UK resident before being captured by US forces, filed a motion [PDF text; JURIST report] in US court seeking Aamer's release from solitary confinement, arguing that Aamer's year-long isolation violates the Geneva Conventions. The Guardian has more.

[JURIST] The European Court of Justice (ECJ) [official website] ruled [judgment] Tuesday that European companies may pay their male employees more in wages based on years of service even though women in the same positions may have less seniority due to childcare issues. The case was brought in 2001 against Great Britain's Health and Safety Executive [official website] by a British woman who learned she was being paid 9,000 pounds ($16,986) less than her male counterparts.

Health inspector Bernadette Cadman argued that domestic issues such as pregnancy and maternity leave often dictate the amount of time women can spend in the workforce leading to less seniority, and that employers should provide special justification when paying males higher wages. The ECJ disagreed, however, explaining that additional years of service allows for greater experience on the job which leads to improved work performance. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Lawyers representing 25 detainees in US custody at Bagram Airbase [GlobalSecurity backgrounder] in Afghanistan filed a habeas corpus [LectLaw backgrounder] petition [PDF text; press release] Monday calling for their release and permission to meet with attorneys, two requests not afforded to terrorist suspects under controversial detainee legislation approved [JURIST report] by the US Congress last week. The Center for Constitutional Rights [advocacy website] filed the petition on behalf of the men, saying that in passing the military commissions bill [JURIST news archive], Congress has endangered the rights [CCR report] of detainees. The measure, which is yet to be signed into law by President Bush, allows the military to detain enemy combatants indefinitely and try them before military commissions. Before passing the measure Thursday, the US Senate narrowly rejected an amendment [JURIST report] sponsored by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter that would have eliminated a highly-controversial provision stripping detainees of the right to file habeas petitions in federal court.

The petition is similar to many filed by prisoners being held at the US prison camp in Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive], but even though it was filed prior to the bill's approval, it was written retroactively. In order for the detainees to be successful, a judge will have to strike down part of the new law precluding the challenges. The petition will be heard by US District Judge Richard Leon [official profile] who previously ruled in a Guantanamo case that Congress has given the president the authority to detain enemy combatants [JURIST news archive] for the duration of the war on terror. AP has more.

[JURIST] Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe [official website; BBC profile] told opposition leaders in the lower house of Parliament Tuesday that while he intends to change the role of the country's military in the Japanese constitution [text], he does not want to make such revisions [JURIST report] in order to go to war abroad. Abe assumed the prime ministership last week and his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) [party website] has publicly supported changing the 1947 US-written constitution, Article 9 of which bars Japan [JURIST news archive] from using force in international conflicts except in self-defense.

Abe has not yet said how exactly he wants to change the charter, but a draft previously proposed by the LDP [JURIST report] calls for a full military for defense only. Abe's party has lobbied for changes in the military's role partly to facilitate missions such as its humanitarian deployment to Iraq in 2003-2006. In April, a Japanese court rejected a legal challenge to that deployment [JURIST report] brought on the basis of the existing document. Some of Japan's neighbors are uneasy about any Japan constitutional revision in light of the suffering inflicted upon them by invading Japanese forces in World War II. AP has more.