[JURIST] A top US Marine Corps lawyer has called for an investigation of alleged abuses of detainees at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] after reviewing a sworn statement filed by a Marine paralegal who said that last month she spoke with a group of off-duty Marines who identified themselves as guards and bragged of beating and abusing prisoners. The guards led her to believe that the mistreatment - including the arbitrary denial of privileges, physically striking detainees, and depriving the detainees of hydration - were common practice and laughed at stories of how prisoners had been handled. Her two-page statement was forwarded to the Defense Department's Inspector General Wednesday and a copy was provided to the Associated Press Thursday by Lt. Col. Colby Vokey, the Marine defense co-ordinator for the western US who has aggressively represented Canadian Guantanamo detainee Omar Khadr [JURIST report], who said the behavior it described "is offensive and violates United States and international law."

Multiple detainees have claimed to have been victims of abuse at the US facility where three inmates actually committed suicide in June. International rights groups have long urged its closure, and their calls have lately been taken up by high-ranking officials in governments allied with the US in the "war on terror," including UK Attorney General Lord Goldsmith [JURIST report]. AP has more.

9:15 AM ET 07/10/06 - A Pentagon spokesman said late Friday that it was reviewing the affidavit and would investigate the allegations. AP has more.

[JURIST] British human rights group Reprieve [advocacy website] accused the United States in a report [press release] issued Friday of using Germany's Ramstein Air Base [official website] as a detention center for renditions [JURIST news archive]. Reprieve's sources claim that some of the 14 "high-value" terror suspects [DNI profiles, PDF] transferred from secret CIA prisons to Guantanamo Bay [JURIST report] last month were formerly held at an air base in Germany. In response to Reprieve's calls for an independent investigation, a German government spokesperson said that claims of such a facility in Germany [JURIST news archive] are unfounded. AP has more.

Last month, German Chancellor Angela Merkel [official website, in German, BBC profile] publicly criticized [JURIST report] the Bush administration for admittedly operating clandestine CIA detention centers in Europe.

[JURIST] Canadian prosecutor Robert Petit [Globalpolicy.org profile], one of the two active prosecutors for the Cambodian genocide tribunal that will try former leaders of the Khmer Rouge [JURIST news archive], told a meeting of international prosecutors at The Hague Friday that the prosecution team will be ready to present cases to an investigating judge by the end of the year and that trials will commence in 2007. Petit also said that the court [Trial Task Force website; judicial officers], consisting of 17 Cambodian and 10 foreign judges and prosecutors, is aiming to have its work concluded within three years, due to budgetary constraints.

The Extraordinary Chambers of Cambodia (EC) [EC backgrounder] was established by a 2001 law [PDF text] to investigate and try those responsible for the 1975-79 Cambodian genocide that led to the deaths of at least 1.5 million Cambodians by execution, forced hardships or starvation in the so-called "Killing Fields." To date, no top Khmer Rouge officials have faced trial and questions have been raised concerning exactly how many of the Khmer Rouge's top officials will face the tribunal, as several of those responsible for the genocide have died [JURIST report] in recent months and others are in failing health. The prosecutors nonetheless face significant administrative, legal and linguistic obstacles in preparing cases for trial; their formal investigations only began in July [JURIST report]. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] announced Friday that it will reconsider [docket entry] the death penalty [JURIST news archive] sentence [case information] of LaRoyce Lathair Smith, convicted of murdering a 19-year-old Dallas Taco Bell manager in 1991. The Court initially reversed Smith's death sentence [JURIST report] in a 2004 per curiam opinion [text, PDF] because jurors were not instructed to consider mitigating evidence of Smith's personal circumstances during sentencing. On remand, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals [official website] decided [opinion text] in March to reinstitute Smith's death sentence.

The Constitution Project [advocacy website] has filed an amicus brief [text, PDF] in support of Smith's position, in addition to an amicus brief [text, PDF] filed on behalf of four former federal appeals court judges. AP has more.

[JURIST] US Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Melson J. Bacos, a hospital corpsman, pleaded guilty Friday to kidnapping and conspiracy charges [UCMJ text] in connection to the April 26 death of Iraqi civilian Hashim Ibrahim Awad [Wikipedia profile] in Hamdania. A total of eight US military personnel were initially charged [JURIST report] in the incident, in which they are said to have shot Awad and then made it seem that he was an insurgent planting a roadside bomb by placing a shovel and rifle next to his dead body. In exchange for the dismissal of more severe charges, including murder, Bacos will testify against the others - all US Marines - still under indictment. Bacos has been moved from Camp Pendleton to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar [official website] Friday out of concerns for his safety.

Bacos is the first serviceman to admit wrongdoing in the Hamdania incident [JURIST news archive]. Two of the Marines have already pleaded not guilty [JURIST report], and there is no word yet as to whether any others are negotiating a plea agreement. AP has more.

[JURIST] As the National Hockey League [official website] opened its 2006-2007 season this week, the lockout that wiped out the entire 04-05 slate [JURIST report] has reared its head again in the form of a lawsuit filed against the players' union [complaint, PDF] by players themselves. The suit, filed in US District Court on Monday, alleges improprieties by union leadership in the aftermath of the lockout, which ended in July 2005 [JURIST report].

Three players - Chris Chelios, Trent Klatt, and Dwayne Roloson (whose first name is misspelled as "Duane" on the complaint) - sued the NHL Players' Association [organization website], along with executive director Ted Saskin and several other players who served as union officials. The suit alleges violations of both the NHLPA bylaws and US labor laws, claiming that Saskin was elected illegally and misappropriated union money. The suit seeks the removal of Saskin and millions of dollars in damages [Voluntary Trade Blog report].

Prior to his election, Saskin served as Senior Director of Business Affairs and Licensing for the NHLPA. Goodenow resigned his position as executive director a few weeks after players ratified the new collective bargaining agreement, having come under fire from players - and fans - for taking a hardline stance against a salary cap but eventually agreeing to one anyway. Saskin was elected to replace Goodenow in November 2005, with 85 percent of the ballots reportedly approving him for the job. Players opposing Saskin alleged improprieties in the balloting process [Sports Network report]. The complaint also alleges that Saskin's election was not properly ratified by the executive board.

Millions of dollars are also at issue in the lawsuit. The plaintiffs claim that Goodenow was offered an $8 million buyout to resign immediately without proper authority. They allege that Saskin used NHLPA funds to campaign for his position and inflate his salary and that Saskin withheld or misrepresented material facts about the collective bargaining agreement during and after the lockout. The complaint does not specify a dollar figure, but rather seeks "damages and punitive damages in an amount to be proved at trial".

The defendants in the lawsuit, however, are dismissive of the claims. Saskin told reporters Tuesday, "The claims issued in the complaint are the same claims that have been made repeatedly over the last 13 months by this tiny group," calling the allegations "offensive" and "completely without merit" [AP report]. He also said he considered the matter closed after a July meeting in British Columbia that elected a new interim executive board [AP report], and questioned why the group would press the lawsuit. "It serves no useful purpose for this very small group who clearly have no mandate or support from the general membership to continue to bring up matters that have already been addressed in order to satisfy the personal agendas of a few players, agents and lawyers," Saskin said.

Trevor Linden, a member of the Vancouver Canucks, was named in the suit as the former president of the NHLPA; a new president has not yet been chosen. He echoed Saskin's characterizations [Canadian Press report], saying the claims are "the same tired old allegations that we've seen for a year now" and that the allegations have already been "answered and explained."

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[JURIST] New Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe [official profile, BBC profile] declared before parliament Friday that Japanese leaders during World War II were not war criminals. Abe, who took office late last month [NYT report], had said a day earlier that Japanese leaders were responsible for the deaths of many people within the country and elsewhere in Asia during the war, echoing a 1995 government apology [text] for Japan's role in wartime atrocities. Friday, however, he said that the "so-called Class A criminals were tried and convicted as war criminals at the Tokyo tribunal, but they were not war criminals under domestic laws." He offered his grandfather, former Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi [Wikipedia profile], as an example. Kishi was imprisoned by US officials after the war but never charged with war crimes.

Abe's comments come a few days before a scheduled trip to South Korea and China, where he is expected to build diplomatic relations that suffered under the government of former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi [official profile]. In June, Japanese and South Korean plaintiffs brought a lawsuit [JURIST report] against Koizumi for mental anguish stemming from his visits to the Yasukuni war shrine [shrine website], which honors Japanese who died in the war, including war criminals. The claim was rejected by the Tokyo High Court [JURIST report], however. Abe has also faced criticism for his calls to amend the country's 1947 constitution [JURIST report], which forbids the threat or use of force as a means of settling international disputes. AFP has more. Kyodo News has local coverage.

[JURIST] US and European diplomats have reached an interim agreement on new trans-Atlantic airline passenger data-sharing policies [JURIST news archive]. Under the new regulations, airlines must continue to share 34 pieces of passenger data, including passenger names, addresses and credit card information within 15 minutes of a plane's departure to the US. A number of US counter-terrorism agencies will be able to access the passenger data, but in a press conference Friday, EU Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini [official website] stressed that US officials will not have unconditional access to the information.

European negotiators have expressed privacy concerns [JURIST report] and demanded data protection guarantees in exchange for sharing the data with the US Department of Homeland Security [official website]. In a press release [text] announcing the agreement, the Finnish EU presidency said the agreement "will help to prevent and combat terrorism and serious transnational crime, whilst ensuring an equivalent level of protection of passengers' personal data in line with European standards on fundamental rights and privacy."

Negotiators will continue to work on a finalized policy, as the new agreement will expire in July 2007. The temporary agreement replaces a 2004 agreement [text, PDF], which was struck down [JURIST report] by the European Court of Justice [official website] in May as lacking a sufficient legal basis. AP has more. EUObserver.com has additional coverage.

[JURIST] The lawyer for Australian Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainee David Hicks [JURIST news archive; AI profile] is pushing the Australian government to ask the US for Hicks' return by Christmas, allowing him to be kept under a control order authorized by last year's anti-terror legislation [official backgrounder]. David McLeod, Hicks' lawyer in Adelaide, emphasized that Hicks has already served five years in a maximum-security prison without having been convicted. Speaking to a gathering of 80 people in front of the Adelaide Parliament House, McLeod said that a compromise was necessary to prevent Hicks from "rotting" in Guantanamo indefinitely.

In August, Australian Attorney General Philip Ruddock [official profile] announced that the government would push for Hicks' return [JURIST report] if the United States did not pursue new charges against him and convene a military tribunal by November. Hicks was captured in Afghanistan in 2001, where he allegedly fought with the Taliban, and has been charged [PDF charge sheet] with conspiracy, attempted murder and aiding the enemy. McLeod repeated other Australian lawyers' observations [JURIST report] that Hicks' mental and physical condition is declining after months of solitary confinement and sleep deprivation. Australia's ABC News has more. The Sydney Morning Herald has additional coverage.

[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit [official website] has granted an emergency injunction [order, PDF] suspending the application of Arizona's controversial voter ID law a month before the November 7 general election. The law, which Arizonans approved in 2004 [JURIST report] as Proposition 200 [PDF], requires voters to show a government-issued ID [AZ Sec. of State materials; JURIST news archive] at the polls. Last month, a federal district judge denied a petition for injunction [opinion, PDF; AP report], allowing the law to be applied to the primary election. The coalition bringing the petition, which included the League of Women Voters and the Mexican-American Legal Defense Fund [advocacy websites], argued that the law caused an unconstitutional burden on minority, immigrant and elderly voters.

Last year, the Ninth Circuit refused to suspend application [JURIST report] of Proposition 200 when immigrant groups challenged its denial of certain public benefits to non-citizens. Arizona [JURIST news archive] has indicated that it will appeal Thursday's order. Reuters has more. The Arizona Republic has additional coverage.

[JURIST] Ramsey Clark [BBC profile], former US Attorney General and a member of the Saddam Hussein [JURIST news archive] defense team, predicted Thursday that the execution of the former Iraqi dictator would lead to "catastrophic violence" and "total, unmitigated chaos." During a press conference, Clark theorized that Sunni Muslims in Iraq would view an execution as revenge taken by the current Shiite-controlled government.

Hussein has been tried on crimes against humanity charges [JURIST report] stemming from a crackdown in the Iraqi town of Dujail. He is eligible for the death penalty in that case, but a verdict - initially scheduled to be delivered October 16 - has been delayed indefinitely [JURIST report] as judges take additional time to review the evidence. Hussein is also 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]. Proceedings in the Anfal trial are set to resume October 9. AP has more.

[JURIST] Former Hewlett-Packard [corporate website] chairwoman Patricia Dunn [Forbes profile] and former ethics officer Kevin Hunsaker [BusinessWeek backgrounder] surrendered to authorities Thursday and agreed to face felony charges [felony complaint, PDF] stemming from their roles in the corporate spying scandal [JURIST news archive]. After a brief hearing, Dunn was released on her own recognizance. She will return to court for a November 17 arraignment. Hunsaker's arraignment date was set for December 6.

On Wednesday, California Attorney General Bill Lockyer [JURIST news archive] filed charges [JURIST report] of conspiracy; fraudulent use of wire, radio or television transmissions; taking, copying and using computer data; and using personal identifying information without authorization against five defendants, including Dunn, Hunsaker, and investigators Bryan Wagner, Ronald Delia and Matthew DePante of Action Research Group. Each charge carries a possible three-year prison sentence. Reuters has more.