[JURIST] The Referral Bench of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website, JURIST news archive] ruled [text, PDF] Friday that the case of former Serbian commander Vladimir Kovacevic [ICTY case backgrounder] should be transferred to Serbia [JURIST news archive] within 30 days. The decision marks the first time the ICTY has sent an indictment to Serbia pursuant to Rule 11 bis of the ICTY's Rules of Procedure and Evidence [text, PDF], though the ICTY has similarly transferred cases to Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia in the past.

In April 2006, the ICTY declared Kovacevic unfit to stand trial [JURIST report] on charges of war crimes [second amended indictment] for his part in a 1991 attack [BBC report] on the Croatian city of Dubrovnik. The ICTY said Serbia will now continue to monitor Kovacevic's condition in the hopes he can someday be declared fit to stand trial in Serbia. The Hague-based tribunal is currently trying to bring all its work to completion by 2010. Read the ICTY press release here.

[JURIST] The US military has preliminary plans to build a new legal compound at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba [JURIST news archive], where trials of detainees [JURIST news archive] may begin to take place as early as June, the Miami Herald reported [registration required] Friday. According to a federal solicitation notice [text] seeking contractors, the compound will include a secure perimeter, a courthouse with two large courtrooms wired with CCTV, a dining facility for up to 800 personnel, housing for up to 1200 personnel, and additional logistical facilities such as interview rooms. The cost of the facility is expected to be between $75,000,000 and $125,000,000.

Amnesty International [advocacy website] US executive director Larry Cox [AI profile] characterized the facility as a “white elephant,” deriding the Pentagon [Miami Herald article] for wanting to build such an expensive and permanent structure even though the new rules for the proposed military commissions are not yet finalized, and no new charges have yet been filed against detainees. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told the Herald that the Pentagon would likely seek authorization and funding from the current, Republican-controlled congress. A formal proposal for the project has not yet been forwarded. AP has more.

[JURIST] US District Judge Reggie B. Walton [official profile] ruled Friday in support of a bid [JURIST report] by the US Department of Justice [official website] to bar terrorism suspect Majid Khan from access to a civilian lawyer unless and until the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit [official website] resolves the issue of military detainee rights. The government had argued that allowing access to Khan could compromise CIA interrogation tactics and locations. Rights groups such as the Center for Constitutional Rights [advocacy website], which filed a habeas corpus petition [press release; petition text, PDF] on Khan's behalf, argue it is unconstitutional to deny detainees access to civilian counsel and courts.

Khan is one of 14 "high value" terror suspects [DNI profiles, PDF; BBC profiles] recently transferred to the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST archive] after being held in CIA secret prisons [JURIST report]. AP has more.

[JURIST] German officials have expressed some concern about the future of the proposed European Constitution [text; JURIST news archive] in light of positions taken by two leading rivals for the French presidency. Newly-chosen French Socialist Party candidate Segolene Royal [BBC profile; advocacy website in French], and conservative aspirant Nicolas Sarkozy [BBC profile; party website, in French; JURIST news archive] have both shown reservations about approving the charter after French voters rejected it [JURIST report] last May. Royal, an initial supporter of the pact, backtracked on it during the past year and Sarkozy has advocated a weaker version of the treaty.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel [official website, in German; BBC profile] wants to move forward with the treaty when Germany takes over the six-month rotating EU presidency [official materials] in January 2007. Angelica Schwall-Dueren [official website, in German], an EU expert for Germany’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) [party website in German] in parliament, told Reuters that it is hoped the French candidates don’t become too attached to positions that make the treaty impossible to ratify. Since Germany wishes to establish a new proposal and timeline for the constitutional treaty at the two-day European Union summit in Brussels that starts on June 21, only a few days after the French election ends, Germany’s foreign ministry will discuss the treaty with advisors of both French candidates much earlier. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Computer Associates [corporate website] is seeking repayment of legal defense costs totaling $14.9 million it fronted on behalf of former CEO Sanjay Kumar [Wikipedia profile]. The software maker filed suit against Kumar in New York State Supreme Court [official website] last week. Judge Stephen Bucaria [official profile] granted CA's motion to attach Kumar's house and a collection of luxury cars on Wednesday, which the Wall Street Journal estimated to exceed the $14.9 million dollars sought by CA. The court also attached $9 million dollars owed to Kumar by CA founder Charles Wang [Wikipedia profile].

Kumar received a 12-year prison sentence and an $8 million fine [JURIST report] in early-November after pleading guilty to charges of security fraud and obstruction of justice [JURIST report] for his role in the company's revenue-swapping of $2.2 billion with another company in 1999 and 2000. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] German prosecutors Friday filed an appeal for the arrest of Mounir al-Motassadeq [BBC profile; JURIST news archive], a German 9/11 suspect free on bail following Thursday's overturning of a lower court decision acquitting Motassadeq [JURIST report] of assisting the men who carried out the Sept. 11 attacks [JURIST news archive] on the US. Hamburg's state superior court ruled that despite Motassadeq's conviction, he should remain free on bail until future sentencing hearings, as Motassadeq has never violated his conditions of bail. Frank Wallenta, a spokesperson for the German federal prosecutors in Karlsruhe, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur that the court would nonetheless "have to realize this is a fairly urgent issue," citing the recent departure of Motassadeq's wife and offspring from Germany.

Motassadeq was initially convicted in 2003 for his involvement with the Sept. 11 attacks. The conviction was overturned [JURIST report] in March 2004. A second trial led to Motassadeq's August 2005 re-conviction [JURIST report] for belonging to a terrorist organization, but his acquittal on charges of being an accessory to the murder of the over 3,000 people killed in the World Trade Center attacks. Germany's Federal Constitutional Court [official website, in German] subsequently ordered Motassadeq's release in February while appeals of his conviction were pending. Motassadeq's lawyer says he will wait to hear Motassadeq's new sentence before determining whether to appeal again to the Constitutional Court. Deutsche Presse-Agentur has more.

11/18/06 - Motassadeq was taken into custody late Friday after a German high court in Karlsruhe cancelled his bail [Deutsche Welle report].

[JURIST] US military Combatant Status Review Tribunals [DOD materials] do not offer detainees at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] an adequate opportunity to contest the accusations against them or to object to their status as enemy combatants [JURIST news archive], according to a report [PDF text] released Friday. Seton Hall law professor Mark Denbeaux [faculty profile] and Joshua Denbeaux analyzed transcripts and recordings of 393 detainee hearings, some of which were released by the government in response to a Freedom of Information Act [text; DOJ materials] lawsuit. They found that the government had not presented witnesses at the hearings and had denied all detainee requests to examine classified evidence against them and all requests for defense witnesses not housed at Guantanamo Bay. Data analyzed also showed that between 2004 and 2005, the military conducted 558 Combatant Status Review Tribunals, and found that only 38 detainees were not enemy combatants. Detainees failed to present any evidence of their guilt or innocence in 91 percent of the hearings, leading the report to conclude: "No American would ever consider this a hearing... This is a show trial."

The US government says that the Combatant Status Reviews are detainees' opportunity to contest their detention and has opposed detainees' access to civilian courts. The Military Commissions Act of 2006 [text, PDF; JURIST news archive] strips alien enemy combatants of their right to challenge their detention by a writ of habeas corpus. AP has more.

[JURIST] Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende [official profile] said Friday that the government would investigate allegations that Netherlands military personnel abused Iraqi prisoners in 2003 by subjecting them to sleep deprivation, high-pitched noises and bright lights. According to a report [text, in Dutch] Friday in Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant [media website], Dutch interrogators carried out the abusive techniques in the southern province of Muthana, where about 1,400 Dutch troops were stationed in 2003. The newspaper reported that the military had already conducted an internal probe, which was not made public because it resulted in no prosecutions.

The leader of the opposition Green Left party [party website, in Dutch] has accused the military of concealing the incidents and called for the Dutch national assembly to reconvene and investigate the actions of the defense minister. AP has more.

[JURIST] The South African Department of Justice and Constitutional Development [official website] said Thursday that it is currently considering 1,107 applications for relief from prisoners claiming their incarceration is politically motivated. According to Minister Brigitte Mabandla, the South African constitution [text] gives the president power to pardon the prisoners, many of whom have requested relief through the Inkatha Freedom Party [party website] and the Pan Africanist Congress [Wikipedia backgrounder]. The department has processed the applications but attributes any delay to the seriousness of some of the offenses and their consequently lengthy imprisonment terms. In addition, many of the prisoners would have appeared before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) [official website] had their crimes not occurred after the TRC adjourned.

In January, South Africa's National Prosecuting Authority established a policy to prosecute political crimes [JURIST report] committed during apartheid by individuals who were denied amnesty by the TRC, but it did not address how prisoners not appearing before the commission would be treated. From Johannesburg, the Mail & Guardian has more.

[JURIST] A British Army major has testified that a military legal adviser approved techniques for preparing Iraqi detainees for interrogation with techniques that allegedly violated the Geneva Conventions [ICRC materials]. Maj. Antony Royce told a court-martial of several other soldiers charged with abusing Iraqi detainees that his superiors ordered him to "condition" the detainees for questioning by putting them in stress positions and requiring them to wear hoods. When he questioned whether the methods were legal, he said barrister Maj. Russell Clifton assured him that they were. Clifton submitted a statement to the court indicating that he could not recall being consulted by Royce, but he added that the techniques may be permissible in some circumstances.

Seven soldiers [MOD press release; JURIST report] of the Queen's Lancashire Regiment [official website] were initially charged in connection to the abuse of 11 Iraqi detainees after their arrest in Basra in September 2003. One of those detainees, Baha Mousa [BBC report; JURIST report] died while in custody. In September, one of the soldiers charged in the case pleaded guilty [JURIST report] to charges of inflicting inhumane treatment. The Telegraph has more.

[JURIST] US Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) [official website] introduced legislation [press release] Thursday that would restore habeas corpus rights to military detainees [JURIST news archive] and make other amendments to the Military Commissions Act of 2006 (MCA) [JURIST news archive]. A key provision in the MCA, which President Bush signed into law [JURIST report] last month, strips US courts of jurisdiction to consider writs of habeas corpus filed by detainees classified as enemy combatants. Dodd's bill, the Effective Terrorists Prosecution Act, would restore those protections. The amendments would also narrow the class of detainees identified as unlawful enemy combatants who are affected by the MCA's habeas restriction. Among other key provisions are the exclusion of evidence acquired by coercion and the exclusion of hearsay evidence that judges deem unreliable.

Since its passage, the MCA has come under fire not only from Democrats but also from the judiciary, human rights groups and foreign countries. Earlier this month, lawyers representing detainees at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] petitioned [JURIST report] the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to declare the suspension of habeas rights unconstitutional. In an amicus brief [PDF text] in the case, seven retired federal judges urged the appeals court to rule that parts of the MCA violate the Constitution. Dodd's bill would also provide for expedited review of the MCA to ensure its constitutionality. The Hill has more.

6:00 PM ET - The National Security Advisors blog has posted a section-by-section comparison [blog post] of key provisions of Senator Dodd's bill and the Military Commissions Act.

[JURIST] The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals [official website] has ruled [opinion text; case materials] that President Bush "exceeded his constitutional authority by intruding into the independent powers of the judiciary" with an "unprecedented" directive ordering state court rehearings [JURIST report] for 51 Mexican nationals convicted in US courts. The president's February 2005 memorandum [text] instructed the Texas courts to follow a March 2004 decision [materials] by the International Court of Justice (ICJ). In rejecting the appeal of Jose Ernesto Medellin [ASIL case backgrounder], who was convicted of raping and murdering two teenagers, a majority of the Court of Criminal Appeals concluded: "Having acted contrary to the implied will of Congress ... the President has exceeded his inherent constitutional foreign affairs authority by directing state courts to comply with [the ICJ decision]."

After he was sentenced to death by a Texas court in 1997, Medellin filed a habeas corpus petition arguing that the US had breached his right to contact the Mexican consulate for legal assistance under Article 36 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations [PDF text]. The court held that Medellin raised this claim too late in the proceedings and that the Vienna Convention did not provide rights that individuals could invoke in US courts. While a federal appeal was pending, the ICJ held that Medellin and the other Mexican nationals tried in US courts had been denied their rights under the Vienna Convention and that the US was obligated to grant review and reconsideration of their convictions and sentences. President Bush's 2005 memorandum followed, and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted Medellin a new hearing. AP has more. The San Antonio Express-News has local coverage.

[JURIST] Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf [official website, BBC profile] has overturned a ruling by a Sharia court for the first time [RTTNews report] by commuting the sentence of a man whom the court assigned the death penalty. Mirza Tahir Hussain [Wikipedia profile], a British national, was convicted under Sharia Islamic law [CFR backgrounder] after killing a taxi driver in 1989, which he claims was in self defense. While Hussain was originally acquitted by Pakistan's High Court in 1996, his case was subsequently referred to the Sharia court in 1998 and upheld by the Supreme Court in 2003. Reuters has more.

Musharraf commuted the sentence after UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, European politicians and groups such as Amnesty International lobbied [AI campaign] for Hussain to be pardoned. On Friday, one day after Musharraf's decision, Hussain was released from prison after efforts by British MEPs Sajjad Karim [Liberal Democrat Party story] and Edward McMillan-Scott. After spending 17 years in a Pakistani prison, Hussain will now return to Britain. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] US President George W. Bush assured Australian Prime Minister John Howard Friday that Australian Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainee David Hicks [JURIST news archive] would be brought to trial, but refused to give a timetable for the trial. Referring to Hicks' legal team's promise to challenge [JURIST report] the Military Commissions Act of 2006 (MCA) [PDF text], Bush noted that Hicks is "having his day in court in an interesting way."

Hicks was taken to Guantanamo Bay after he was captured in Afghanistan, where he allegedly had been fighting with the Taliban. He was initially charged [PDF text; JURIST report] in 2004, but his trial was delayed [JURIST reports] while the US Supreme Court considered, and eventually ruled against, the legality of the military commissions system as initially constituted. Congress subsequently passed the MCA to provide statutory authorization for military commissions and new charges will be filed once procedures implementing the MCA are approved. Australian Attorney General Phillip Ruddock [official profile] said last week that he would seek Hicks' return to Australia [JURIST report] if charges were not initiated by November. AAP has more.

[JURIST] US District Judge John Houston Thursday temporarily stayed enforcement of an ordinance [2006-38R text, TIF] passed by the city of Escondido, California [official website] which would punish landlords for renting to illegal immigrants [JURIST report]. The ordinance requires landlords to provide evidence of their tenants' immigration status to city officials, who would verify the data with federal government records. Under the measure, landlords are given 10 days to evict illegal immigrants or face the loss of their business license, fines, and misdemeanor charges.

The ruling came in response to a lawsuit [complaint, PDF; JURIST report] filed by the ACLU, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) [advocacy website], and other rights groups, who claim the ordinance illegally punishes landlords.

Earlier this month, in response to another suit by the ACLU, a federal judge in Pennsylvania issued a temporary restraining order barring enforcement of a similar ordinance enacted by the city of Hazleton, Pennsylvania [JURIST news archive]. AP has more. The San Diego Union-Tribune has local coverage.

[JURIST] US Marine Lance Cpl. Tyler A. Jackson [advocacy website; JURIST report] was sentenced to 21 months [press release] in military custody Thursday for his participation in the kidnapping and murder of an Iraqi man in Hamdania [USMC timeline; JURIST news archive] last April. Jackson admitted to assisting eight other servicemen in kidnapping Hashim Ibrahim Awad [Wikipedia backgrounder] from his home, shooting him, then staging his body to appear that he was an insurgent planting a roadside bomb.

Jackson pleaded guilty to reduced charges of aggravated assault and conspiracy to obstruct justice in a plea deal with prosecutors. Murder and kidnapping charges against Jackson were dropped in exchange for his testimony. Of the eight serviceman originally charged [JURIST report] in the case, the four most senior Marines still face courts-martial [JURIST report], including squad leader Sgt. Lawrence G. Hutchins III [JURIST report], Cpl. Trent D. Thomas, Cpl. Marshall L. Magincalda and Lance Cpl. Robert B. Pennington. Two Marines and a Navy corpsman have pleaded guilty, and a fourth guilty plea is expected from Lance Cpl. Jerry E. Shumate Jr. next week. In addition to Jackson's sentence, Pfc. John J. Jodka III has been sentenced to 18 months in military custody. AP has more.