[JURIST] Canadian Justice Minister Vic Toews [official profile] said Wednesday that the Canadian government will review and perhaps appeal an Ontario Superior Court ruling [text, PDF] that struck down as unconstitutional [JURIST report] a key provision of Canada's Anti-Terrorism Act [text; CBC backgrounder]. In its decision Tuesday, the Ontario court held that the section of the Anti-Terrorism Act that defines "terrorism" is unconstitutionally vague and contradicts several provisions of the Canadian Charter on Rights and Freedoms [text]. The court specifically eliminated the Act's "motivation clause" which previously required that prosecutors prove an alleged act of terrorism was motivated by political, religious, or ideological purposes. CBC News has more.

Momin Khawaja [CBC backgrounder], the Canadian-born son of Pakistani immigrants who brought the legal challenge, has been been charged with knowingly participating in or contributing to the activities of a terrorist group and of knowingly facilitating a terrorist activity. Khawaja is the first individual to have been charged under the Anti-Terrorism Act [JURIST report]; his trial is still expected to commence in January.

[JURIST] Prosecutors in Argentina [JURIST news archive] argued before an Argentinean federal judge Wednesday that he should authorize the arrest of several Iranian officials for their alleged roles the AMIA Jewish cultural center bombing [Wikipedia backgrounder] that killed 85 people and wounded over 200 more in Buenos Aries in 1994. Most notably, prosecutors asked the judge to order the arrest of former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani [Wikipedia profile; official website in Persian] who left office in 1997. Prosecutors claim that Iranian officials authorized the bombing while members of Hezbollah [BBC backgrounder] actually carried out the attack. Iran [JURIST news archive] has repeatedly denied having a role in bombing's planning and execution.

In accord with Argentine law, federal judge Rodolfo Canicoba Corral can consider the prosecutors' recommendations for as long as necessary to render a decision. AP has more.

[JURIST] Quebec Justice John Gomery [CBC profile] told CBC News Wednesday that his recent recommendations on limiting government corruption and abuse of power in the wake of the federal sponsorship scandal [CBC backgrounder] have been lost in a "black hole" due to the inaction of Canada's Conservative Party government, which took power from the Liberals in a January election. According to Gomery, the only actual result of his investigation is the Federal Accountability Act [text and materials], which was actually written before Gomery made his recommendations. Gomery said that while "governments have a tendency to put the report on the shelf" after a crisis passes, he hopes "that it would produce tangible results."

Gomery's first and second reports [text and materials], released in November and February [JURIST reports], outlined the results of his judicial commission of inquiry [official website] into the Canadian scandal and included recommendations for controlling prime-ministerial power. The investigation began after Canadian Liberal Party Prime Minister Paul Martin acknowledged allegations [JURIST report] of money laundering and kickbacks and took full responsibility for the misuse of public funds in a program which siphoned federal funds to Quebec advertising firms that did little or no work. CBC News has more.

[JURIST] The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website] on Wednesday postponed the trial of Serbian war crimes suspect and former nationalist politician Vojislav Seselj [BBC profile; ICTY case backgrounder] previously scheduled to begin on November 2, citing concerns that Seselj might not have time to adequately prepare a defense. An appeals panel of the court granted permission [JURIST report] for Seselj to serve as his own lawyer last week since Seselj had not been sufficiently warned that he could lose the right to self-representation prior to its removal, effectively reversing [text, PDF] the decision of an ICTY trial court to remove his right to self-representation [JURIST report]. According to the ruling, the ICTY must appoint a lawyer to help Seselj if necessary or to assume responsibilities if he acts inappropriately at trial. A new commencement date for the trial has not yet been determined.

Seselj was indicted by the tribunal in 2003 and charged [indictment, PDF] in connection with his role in establishing rogue paramilitary units affiliated with the ultra-nationalist Serbian Radical Party [party website]. Those units are believed to have massacred and otherwise persecuted Croats and other non-Serbs in the Balkan Wars of the 1990s. Seselj has pleaded not guilty to the charges, on which prosecutors have indicated they anticipate their case to take approximately six months. AP has more.

[JURIST] The New Jersey Supreme Court [official website] on Wednesday ruled [PDF text] that same-sex couples in the state must be afforded the same rights as heterosexual couples, and said that the state legislature must decide whether New Jersey will recognize same-sex marriage or another form of civil unions. In a case brought by seven same-sex couples who argued that they should be allowed to marry under the New Jersey State Constitution [text], the state supreme court overturned a 2005 New Jersey appellate court ruling [JURIST report] that upheld the state's ban on same-sex marriage. Under Wednesday's ruling, the state legislature has 180 days to amend the state's marriage laws.

Currently, Massachusetts is the only state to allow same-sex marriage [JURIST news archive], which was legalized when the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts [official] ruled [JURIST report] in 2003 that a ban on such marriages was unconstitutional. Several cases similar to the New Jersey case have been decided or are pending in other states including California, Washington, Tennessee, Nebraska, and Connecticut [JURIST reports]. AP has more.

[JURIST] Russian officials investigating the October 7 death of reporter Anna Politkovskaya [BBC obituary] are focusing their probe on former police officers who Politkovskaya linked to the killing and torture of Chechen civilians, Russian newspaper Kommersant reported Wednesday. According to the article, investigators followed up on sightings of two former police officers linked to the abuses, including Sergei Lapin, who had been accused in 2001 of threatening Politkovskaya via e-mail, in a Siberian region 1,200 miles east of Moscow called Khanty-Mansiisk. No official comment has yet been released by the Russian Prosecutor General's office [official website, in Russian].

Russian Prosecutor General Yury Chaika took over the investigation [JURIST report] into Politkovskaya's murder shortly after her death. Last week, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso [official website] urged [JURIST report] Russian President Vladimir Putin to bring justice to those responsible for Politkovskaya's death. Shortly after Politkovskaya, President Bush called [JURIST report] for the Russian government "to conduct a vigorous and thorough investigation to bring to justice those responsible." AP has more.

[JURIST] Chilean Foreign Minister Alejandro Foxley [official profile] announced Wednesday that government officials have requested a probe into allegations that former Chile dictator Augusto Pinochet [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] stashed approximately nine tons of gold in a Hong Kong bank, as reported [article, in Spanish] by El Mercurio [media website, in Spanish]. Pinochet's lawyer vehemently denied the rumors, which Foxley called "grave." The State Defense Council [official website, in Spanish], the body co-ordinating Pincohet's prosecution for economic crimes, has been tasked with confirming the reports but has not revealed how the reports came to the Foreign Ministry or if more information had been substantiated.

Pinochet has been charged with tax evasion [JURIST report] related to $27 million he accumulated while in power and stashed in foreign bank accounts. Although the judiciary stripped Pinochet's immunity [JURIST report] in the case, he has yet to face trial due to his oft-appealed defense of infirmity. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] An internal memo circulated in the Israeli State Prosecutor's Office has called for an immediate investigation into possible criminal actions taken by Prime Minister Ehmud Olmert [official website; BBC profile] involving bids on a controlling interest in a bank stretching back to 2005. Olmert is suspected of accepting bribery since a friend seeking approval of his bid overpaid for Olmert's house and then allowed Olmert to rent it at a low price while he served as Minister of Finance. The Prosecutor's Office report is based on interim findings of the state comptroller, suggesting that Olmert was involved in some impropriety. The report has not been officially adopted by the Office or by Israel's Attorney General. The Prime Minister's office has denied the allegations, asserting that one of the implicated businessmen did not make a tender offer on the bank, while the other did not win the bid.

Israeli Attorney General Menachem Mazuz [official profile] will probably decide whether to accept the prosecutors' recommendation in the next few days, but he is expected to request a full report from the comptroller before he orders a formal investigation. Meanwhile, the state comptroller reported Monday that it uncovered significant evidence that Olmert made improper political appointments to administrative positions while Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor, and that it recommends a criminal probe into the appointments. Haaretz has more.

[JURIST] The Supreme Court of Ohio [official website] on Wednesday held [opinion, PDF; summary] that state charter or community schools are valid and the statute authorizing them is constitutional "on its face and as applied." Chapter 3314 of the Ohio Revised Code [text] allows the state legislature to fund charter schools, which have grown from 15 to 250 statewide since the law's inception. The court split 4-3 with the majority finding that charter schools are a permissible form of schooling and are entitled to local and state tax revenues. The dissent suggested that charter schools unfairly compete with traditional public schools for state funding.

The Ohio PTA [advocacy website], along with teachers' unions, citizens' and educational groups, first challenged the state's charter school law in 2001, attacking the state for the different standards for traditional public schools and charter schools [US charter schools website; Ohio state profile] and for the diversion of local taxes to the privately operated charter schools. The lower standardized test scores of charter school students have drawn criticism from the schools' opponents. AP has more.

[JURIST] Bosnia's ambassador to the United Nations wants the Swedish government to free Biljana Plavsic [BBC profile; ICTY case backgrounder] from the Hinseberg prison for women, where she has been serving an 11-year sentence as the only woman convicted of war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website]. Ambassador Milos Prica petitioned for Plavsic's release in a letter to Sweden's former Foreign Minister Jan Eliasson [UN profile] obtained by AP, saying Plavsic is in poor health and also criticizing the conditions of the prison. Prica said Plavsic's release should be granted as a matter of "human understanding and compassion." A spokesman for Swedish Justice Minister Beatrice Ask [official profile] said the request was being reviewed.

Plavsic pleaded guilty in 2001 to eight charges of war crimes for her part in planning the ethnic cleansing of non-Serbs during the Bosnian war [Wikipedia backgrounder]. A warden at the Swedish prison said she was surprised by Prica's complaints about the prison, saying Plavsic is being held in a new building at the complex with toilets and showers in each room and is allowed to take long walks around a lake near the prison. AP has more.

[JURIST] A Chinese court has sentenced a pro-democracy leader to three years in prison for criticizing the communist government in Internet posts, according to the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy [advocacy website; Wikipedia backgrounder] Wednesday. Li Jianping participated in the 1989 movement for democracy in China [Wikipedia backgrounder] and wrote online essays criticizing the Chinese government's efforts to implement an anti-subversion law in Hong Kong. He was arrested in 2005.

His wife reported that prosecutors attempted to bring subversion charges against him twice, but the court dismissed those cases due to insufficient evidence. Jianping eventually went on trial [JURIST report] in April and the Shandong province court convicted him on charges [indictment, in Chinese] of "incitement to subvert state power." AP has more.

[JURIST] Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] Wednesday accused agents of the Burundi [JURIST news archive] National Intelligence Service of widespread abuses [press release] since the new government came into power, including killings and torture [JURIST report]. HRW contended in a new report [text] that President Pierre Nkurunziza [BBC profile] has given agents at all levels authority to carry out the government's agenda by any means necessary, citing almost 40 extra-judicial executions and over 200 arbitrary arrests during the last year. The National Council for the Defense of Democracy-Forces for the Defense of Democracy [Wikipedia backgrounder], Burundi's largest rebel group, was successful in the country's 2005 elections.

The rights watchdog has called for the abusers to "be brought to justice" and has condemned excuses offered by the intelligence service that such responses are necessary due to threats from other rebel groups. UPI has more.

[JURIST] Atheist Michael Newdow [advocacy website; Time profile], the man who sued [OYEZ case backgrounder; JURIST report] to have the words "under God" removed from the Pledge of Allegiance [JURIST news archive], will be able to proceed with a libel lawsuit against a chaplain, according to a ruling [opinion, PDF] Tuesday by the California First District Court of Appeal [official website]. Newdow sued Reverend Austin Miles after Miles used a website to accuse Newdow of perjury while testifying under oath about the emotional effects suffered by his daughter from reciting the Pledge. Miles also said he thought Newdow should be punished for his lies under oath, leading Newdow to sue the chaplain for libel, denying that he made the comments suggested by Miles. Miles argued that his comments were a matter of free speech, but the California appeals court ruled that the "minimal merit" necessary to proceed with a libel suit was present due, in part, to Miles' use of the word "perjury" six times in his Internet post.

Miles has not indicated whether he plans to appeal the decision further. The justices noted that Newdow will have to prove that Miles acted with malice and that there was "substantial and injurious misquotation" in a libel suit against the chaplain. BCN has more.

[JURIST] German intelligence agents personally witnessed the torture of detainees at a secret US prison in Europe two weeks after the Sept. 11 terror attacks [JURIST news archive], according to a German intelligence report leaked to Stern magazine. The leaked report asserts the German agents saw US interrogators beat a 70-year-old terror suspect with a rifle butt, requiring the man to receive 20 stitches, and that they viewed documents that were smeared with blood. This information was reportedly turned over to German federal prosecutors. If the leaked report is true, it contradicts the official German position that the German government did not learn of alleged secret US prisons in Europe until media reports surfaced in 2005.

Last month, German Chancellor Angela Merkel [official website, in German; BBC profile] denounced CIA secret prisons [JURIST report] as "not compatible with my understanding of the rule of law." President Bush first acknowledged the existence of secret CIA prisons outside the US [JURIST report] for the first time in September 2006. In June, the Council of Europe passed a resolution [JURIST report] condemning alleged collusion between some European governments and the CIA after an investigation and report by Swiss legislator Dick Marty concluded that illegal US detention centers in Europe existed. The Independent has more.

[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit [official website] is currently reviewing proposed rule changes that would place further restrictions on attorney contact with detainees now held at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive]. The rules, submitted in government court filings for use in the case against Haji Bismullah, are intended to prevent defense attorneys from passing along allegedly inflammatory materials to their clients, such as news clippings about terrorist attacks and detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere. Specifically, the rules would decrease client contact from unlimited visits to four visits. Mail inspectors, who are currently permitted to search legal mail for actual contraband only, would be authorized to search for unnecessary and provocatory current event information. Now, lawyers must receive security clearance to view classified case information, while under the proposed rules, the lawyer would be forced to submit to a government determination that the lawyer "needs to know" the information sought. Also, the proposed rules would give the military the power to determine which topics and information lawyers and their clients are allowed to discuss, while under the current rules, the military must petition a judge to declare certain topics and information unmentionable. In the US Supreme Court's 2004 ruling in Hamdi v. Rumsfeld [Duke case law backgrounder; opinion text], then-Justice Sandra Day O'Connor wrote that Hamdi, a foreign-born detainee, "unquestionably has the right to access to counsel."

If the court accepts the rules in the Bismullah case, it is expected that they would apply to all detainees. Bismullah, once an Afghan transportation official, is among the first detainees to appeal their enemy combatant designation. The Boston Globe has more.

[JURIST] The Supreme Court of the Philippines [official website] on Wednesday ruled [opinion text] that a planned referendum on modifying the country's constitution to abolish the upper house of congress cannot proceed. The referendum would have amended the 1987 constitution [text] to abolish the Philippines Senate [official website] in favor of a unicameral parliamentary assembly. Seven of fifteen judges dissented [voting summary] from the court's ruling, which held that the change was a "revision" to the constitution and not an "amendment and therefore cannot be decided by referendum. The court also said that the interest group which organized the petition drives should have made sure that signatories understood what they were signing, and that the interest groups were merely following the agenda of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo [official website].

Arroyo first proposed such a constitutional amendment in June 2005, when she said she would call a national convention [JURIST report] in 2006 to change the constitution and form of government of the country from an American-style system with a president and bicameral legislature to a federal, parliamentary system. Many of the plan's most vocal critics are senators, whose positions would be abolished if the changes are approved. Reuters has more. The Manila Times has local coverage.

[JURIST] Tony Garza, the US Ambassador to Mexico [embassy website], said Tuesday that Mexico has extradited 50 prisoners to the US this year, a record total, for stateside prosecution of crimes committed in the US. The Supreme Court of Mexico [official website] ruled last November that prisoners serving life sentences may be extradited abroad [JURIST report], overturning a 2001 decision [EscapingJustice.com backgrounder] that prevented such prisoners from answering to charges in the US insofar as punishment there might be cruel and unusual and not directed at rehabilitation of the prisoner. A 1978 treaty between the US and Mexico still prevents the extradition of prisoners who face the death penalty.

Last month, Mexican President Vicente Fox [official website; BBC profile] said that Mexican officials would begin extraditing suspected drug lords [JURIST report] held in Mexican custody to the US to face drug charges. AP has more.

[JURIST] US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales [official profile; JURIST news archive] told reporters in Spain Tuesday that the perception that the US does not support the rule of law is "disappointing." Gonzales acknowledged that the international reputation of the US has been injured by several ongoing news stories, including the Abu Ghraib abuse scandal, allegations of US rendition flights, and secret prisons in Europe [JURIST news archives]. Gonzales further said the solution may be to better explain the war on terror to Europe and the rest of the free world.

Gonzales also stressed that the Military Commissions Act of 2006 (MCA) [text], signed into law [JURIST report] earlier this month, will ensure fair trials for terror suspects. In a separate speech [transcript] Monday, Gonzales explained [transcript] that the MCA approves military tribunals that incorporate those "procedural protections that we regard as fundamental," including "the presumption of innocence unless proven guilty by competent evidence beyond a reasonable doubt," a trial before an impartial military judge, and representation by a JAG Corps officer. AP has more.

[JURIST] Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad [official profile; BBC profile] has said that he opposes a bill, passed during a preliminary reading in the Iran parliament earlier this month, that would require every American visitor in Iran to be fingerprinted upon entry. Ahmadinejad said Monday that Americans are welcome in Iran [JURIST news archive], and that Iran only opposes US policy, not US citizens. The bill was proposed as a reaction to US regulations, implemented in 2002, requiring every Iranian to be fingerprinted upon arrival in the US. Currently, only Canadians are exempt from the US-VISIT program [official backgrounder], which requires that all visitors provide fingerprints and photographs that are kept in a lifetime travel dossiers.

Earlier in October, Iran announced strong opposition to the Iran Freedom Support Act [HR 6198 text, PDF], a bill signed into law [JURIST report] by President Bush that authorizes US sanctions against foreign governments that provide support for Iran's nuclear program or contribute towards the country's armament. Iran also preemptively denounced possible Security Council sanctions [JURIST report] that have been threatened for failing to cease uranium enrichment past a August 31 deadline imposed by Security Council Resolution 1696 [PDF text, JURIST report]. AP has more.