[JURIST] The Serbian Radical Party [party website, Wikipedia backgrounder] unanimously reelected an indicted war criminal to head it at a meeting in Belgrade Sunday. Vojislav Seselj [BBC profile], a former close ally of late ex-Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic [JURIST news archive], who died earlier this year while in the fifth year of his war crimes trial, is currently imprisoned at The Hague and is awaiting his own trial [JURIST report] on war crimes later this month. The ultranationalist party, gaining favor as the leading party in the nation, now looks toward the Serbian parliamentary elections in December. Reuters has more.

Seselj was indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia [official website] in 2003. He has pleaded not guilty to multiple charges [indictment, PDF] in connection with his role in establishing rogue paramilitary units affiliated with the Radical Party. Those units are believed to have massacred and otherwise persecuted Croats and other non-Serbs in the Balkan Wars of the 1990s.

[JURIST] US Army Sgt. Ricky Clousing [advocacy site], an Iraq war veteran, will face a court-martial this week for charges of desertion after leaving his barracks on his return from Iraq last year. Clousing’s attorney said that he has agreed to a plea bargain and intends to plead guilty to a lesser charge of absent without leave. Clousing, who has said he refuses to participate in a war with "no legal basis to be fought," left his post at Fort Bragg in June 2005. He turned himself in [JURIST report] at Fort Lewis in August.

Clousing was deployed to Baghdad in December 2004 after training as an interrogator for the 82nd Airborne, and while there said he witnessed the unprovoked killing of an Iraqi man by US troops at a checkpoint. When he raised the issue with superiors he said he was told he "needed to shut up," according to AP. Clousing has declined to seek conscientious objector status [Selective Service backgrounder] as he says he is not inherently opposed to all wars. The Raleigh News and Observer has more.

[JURIST] Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers [BBC profile] expressed doubts about whether non-violent offenders are actually rehabilitated in prison during an interview [text] published Sunday in the British newspaper The Observer. In light of serious overpopulation of British prisons [Times report], the Lord Chief Justice questioned traditional prison sentences' ability to thwart recidivism: "Those interventions are rendered difficult or impossible if prisons are as full as now."

Phillips' comments followed a day spent undercover alongside criminals sentenced to community service. "The ideal that alternatives to custody is being soft is wrong," Phillips declared. "It's madness to spend £ 37,000 a year [on keeping someone in jail] when by spending much less on services in the community, you can do as good a job." Reuters has more.

Britain's prison overpopulation crisis has led to proposals for alternative sentencing, such as community service and "tag and release programs" [JURIST report]. The problem of prison overcrowding was highlighted in the US just last week, when California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger issued an emergency proclamation [JURIST report] to relieve overcrowding by allowing inmates to be transferred to other states.

[JURIST] Russian immigration officials have proposed stricter migrant laws hard on the heels of a call [text of speech] by President Vladimir Putin [official profile] to crack down on illegal immigrants at a Thursday cabinet meeting. The proposals include harsher penalties for businesses that employ illegal migrants, restricting border crossings, amending the Criminal Code and limiting the duration of visas distributed to certain nationalities.

Although a Russian immigration spokesman has insisted that the proposals are not a response to ongoing difficulties with Georgia [RIA Novosti report], Putin appeared to target Georgians in his address, saying groups with Mafia ties and an "ethnic hue" should be barred from outdoor markets. Tensions between Russia [JURIST news archive] and Georgia escalated last week when four Russian officers were arrested in Georgia on charges of espionage [BBC report]. The officers have since been returned to Russia. Russian police have closed down several Moscow casinos and restaurants for alleged links with the Georgian Mafia and on Friday, 180 Georgians were deported for alleged immigration violations. The Moscow Times has more.

[JURIST] Russian Prosecutor General Yury Chaika [official website, in Russian] Sunday took over [RIA Novosti report] the investigation of Saturday's murder of Anna Politkovskaya [BBC report], an award-winning Russian journalist likely killed for her stories about human rights abuses by Russian troops in Chechnya [BBC country profile]. Politkovskaya [BBC obituary], who had covered the crisis in Chechnya [BBC Q&A] for Novaya Gazeta [website, in Russian; tribute, in Russian] since 1999, was shot in the head and in the chest after returning to her Moscow apartment building Saturday evening. Novaya Gazeta journalists will conduct an independent investigation. When she was killed Politkovskaya was working on a story to be published Monday about torture in Chechnya.

Russia [JURIST news archive] is an increasingly dangerous place for journalists, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) [website; news alert], which says that 42 journalists have been killed in Russia since 1992. The US State Department [official website] said Saturday that the US is "shocked and profoundly saddened" [press release] by the murder of Politkovskaya and called the killing of journalists in Russia "an affront to free and independent media and to democratic values." AP has more. Reuters has additional coverage.

5:45 PM ET - In a White House statement [text] Sunday, President Bush called Politkovskaya a "fearless investigative journalist":

Born in the United States to Soviet diplomats, Anna Politkovskaya cared deeply about her country. Through her efforts to shine a light on human rights abuses and corruption, especially in Chechnya, she challenged her fellow Russians - and, indeed, all of us - to summon the courage and will, as individuals and societies, to struggle against evil and rectify injustices.

We urge the Russian Government to conduct a vigorous and thorough investigation to bring to justice those responsible for her murder.

[JURIST] New Jersey Superior Court [official website] Judge Carol Higbee has issued an order [text, PDF] striking down about 50 lawsuits brought by British plaintiffs in the New Jersey state court against Merck & Co. [corporate website], the manufacturer of the drug Vioxx [JURIST news archive], which has caused health problems for thousands of arthritis patients both in the US and abroad. In her ruling [memorandum text, PDF], made Thursday, Higbee noted:

Compensatory damages are available to plaintiffs in the UK courts. These damages, independent of punitive damages, are sufficient to render the available damage remedies in the foreign court as adequate . . . [Merck] submits that it will be amenable to service of process in the UK and that this is sufficient to render the foreign jurisdiction available . . . [Merck] will not act to prevent Plaintiffs from returning to this court if the UK court declines to accept jurisdiction.

[JURIST] Khalid al-Dulaimi [JURIST news archive], lead counsel for Saddam Hussein, said Sunday that the defense team will continue its boycott of Hussein’s genocide trial [JURIST news archive; BBC timeline] when it resumes Monday. The protest began when chief judge Abdullah al-Amiri was replaced by judge Mohammad Oreibi al-Khalifa at the insistence of the Iraqi government. Oreibi al-Khalifa has attempted to impose strict courtroom discipline and has thrown Hussein out of court [JURIST report] three times since taking over the role of chief judge. The defense team is also protesting the court’s refusal to allow the defense to examine thousands of documents linked to the genocide trial.

Saddam Hussein has been separately tried for crimes against humanity [JURIST report; BBC timeline] stemming from a crackdown in the Iraqi town of Dujail. A verdict in that case was originally expected October 16 but has since been postponed [JURIST reports]. VOA News has more.

[JURIST] Italian prosecutors Saturday announced the end of their investigation into the alleged CIA kidnapping [JURIST news archive; WP timeline] of Egyptian cleric Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr in 2003. The cleric, also known as Abu Omar, was seized on the streets of Milan, supposedly by CIA agents with the help of Italy’s Military Intelligence and Security Service (SISMI) [official website; Wikipedia backgrounder]. Prosecutors are seeking the arrest of 26 Americans believed to be involved in the incident, one of many alleged instances of extraordinary rendition [JURIST news archive] where terror suspects have been detained and transferred to third countries to face interrogation and sometimes torture.

The completion of the investigation follows the arrests of two Italian intelligence officers [JURIST report] in June. It is not known whether the Americans believed to be involved in the kidnapping will face trial in Italy or be tried in absentia [JURIST report], as the Italian justice department has said it would not seek the extradition of the CIA operatives [JURIST report]. AP has more. Il Giornale has local coverage.