[JURIST] Nepal's High Level Probe Commission [JURIST report] submitted its final report Monday to the Nepalese government, concluding that King Gyanendra [official profile; BBC profile] and some 200 members of his administration were responsible for the violent response to the democracy protests [JURIST news archive] last April that left 22 dead and more than 5,000 wounded. The commission, formed [JURIST report] by the interim government in Nepal [JURIST news archive] and led by a former supreme court justice, has the authority to interrogate officials, issue warrants, and make recommendations regarding actions which should be taken against rights abusers. The commission's final report does not include recommendations, but Nepalese Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala has promised to "fully implement" the report [NepalNews.com report]. The commission, whose findings were leaked to the media [JURIST report] last week, reasoned that because Gyanendra chaired Nepal's council of ministers, he was legally responsible for the actions of the cabinet. Rights activists are calling for those responsible for the violent crackdown to be prosecuted; Gyanendra has been stripped of most of his powers [JURIST report] since his fall from power in April, including his right to immunity.

Rights groups have also urged Koirala to make the report available to the public [NepalNews.com report], asserting that the government's failure to release the report publicly violates a right to information and also runs contrary to the spirit behind the pro-democracy movement. AP has more.

[JURIST] China's deputy chief prosecutor has said that almost every wrongful conviction in the country in recent years has been the result of torture [JURIST report] and intensive interrogation techniques. The government has discovered at least 30 people who were wrongfully convicted using confessions extracted by torture, and even estimates the number could be higher. Wang Zhenchuan said that China will now make an effort to record all interrogations [JURIST report] in connection with major crimes on video and audio tape.

China's notorious criminal justice system has been under increased international scrutiny since Manfred Nowak [official profile, [DOC]], UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, found after an investigation [JURIST report] last year that prisoner torture in the country was still widespread [JURIST report] and uncovered evidence of common torture methods such as submersion in pits of sewage or water, cigarette burns, electric shock batons, beatings to the point of exhaustion, and exposure to extreme conditions of heat or cold. The Chinese government initially refuted the accusations [JURIST report], claiming torture was banned in China and that Nowak's findings, based on evidence that suspects were routinely beaten by police, "lacks an objective foundation and does not accord with reality." Torture is most commonly used in the countryside and against those convicted of political crimes. AFP has more. Xinhua has additional coverage.

[JURIST] US District Judge Paul L. Friedman [official profile] Monday rejected [official order, PDF] a Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainee's petition to have his heart operation transferred to a civilian facility. Saifullah Paracha [advocacy website; Wikipedia profile], a multimillionaire businessman and television producer from Pakistan, petitioned the US District Court for District of Columbia on November 15 to enjoin the US military [JURIST report] from performing a cardiac catheterization [AHA backgrounder] at Guantanamo Bay, claiming the facility lacks sufficient medical equipment and the backup to ensure his health if something goes wrong. Paracha lawyer Gaillard Hunt argued that his client, who has previously suffered two heart attacks, should be transferred to a medical facility in the US or Pakistan. Hunt's claims that Paracha's hands and feet would be shackled during his hospital stay were unconfirmed by government lawyers. US officials, however, asserted that Guantanamo facilities and doctors are adequately prepared to handle the procedure and noted that special equipment and practitioners can be brought in if needed.

In rejecting Paracha’s motion for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction, Friedman opined that the "petitioner has not established that he faces irreparable injury from having the procedure performed at Guantanamo Bay." The US government also noted that an identical procedure was successfully completed in 2003 and that it is Paracha's choice whether to have the operation. US authorities captured Paracha in 2003 on his way to Thailand, where he was detained until October 2004 when he was moved to Guantanamo. AFP has more. The International Herald Tribune has additional coverage.

[JURIST] The New York State Court of Appeals [official website] ruled Monday that the state must spend about $2 billion more per year to provide children in the New York City public school system [official website] with "a sound basic education" guaranteed by the state constitution [text]. In a 4-2 decision [opinion, PDF], the state's highest court embraced as "reasonable" the findings of a commission that recommended [press release] spending an additional $1.93 billion per year. The court deferred to the legislature and the governor to set the exact amount of the increase.

The decision ends 13 years of litigation [CFE backgrounder] by the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, which said in a press release [text] today that the court "reaffirmed the state's responsibility to increase funding for New York City's public schools." Still, the CFE described the $1.93 billion figure as "insufficient" while expressing hope that legislators and Gov.-elect Eliot Spitzer (D) [campaign website; JURIST news archive], the former state attorney general, would "come through with the right amount of funding." Spitzer has advocated an increase as high as $6 billion. The New York Times has more. AP has additional coverage.

[JURIST] UK Attorney General Lord Goldsmith [official website; Guardian profile] spoke out Monday against a proposal by Prime Minister Tony Blair [JURIST news archive] to extend the 28-day limit on police detentions of terrorism suspects who have not been charged. Goldsmith, the government's chief legal adviser, said during a media briefing that he had not seen evidence to justify increasing the limit to 90 days. Blair last week renewed his support for the extension [press briefing summary], which last year was rejected by the House of Commons [JURIST report] in favor of a 28-day limit now contained in the Terrorism Act of 2006 [text; Home Office backgrounder].

The Blair government floated the possibility of reviving the longer limit [JURIST report] earlier this year, and the proposal gained momentum some two weeks ago after London Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair advocated an extension of the detention limit in a speech this month. Independent anti-terror law reviewer Lord Carlile has warned lawmakers against "rushing" to make the change [JURIST reports]. AP has more. The Guardian has local coverage.

[JURIST] Israel Defense Forces [official website] Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Dan Halutz [official profile] Monday expressed disappointment about Israel's use of cluster bombs [FAS backgrounder] during the recent Middle East conflict [JURIST news archive] and ordered an investigation into how the order to use the munitions was given. Major General Gershon Hacohen will lead the inquiry into whether Halutz's instructions on the authorization of cluster bombs was clear.

Human rights groups have denounced the use of cluster bombs [Cluster Munition Coalition advocacy website] in civilian areas by both Israel and Hezbollah [JURIST reports] during the conflict because of the inaccuracies involved and strong possibility of hitting unintended targets. The New York Times has more. Haaretz has local coverage.

[JURIST] Thai human rights groups have demanded that former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra [JURIST news archive] face charges for crimes against humanity relating to his rough anti-drug campaign. The Lawyers Council of Thailand and the National Human Rights Commission [advocacy websites, in Thai] allege that more than 2,500 people died as a result of Thaksin's crackdown on drug dealers. The groups have also encouraged Thailand's interim government to submit to the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website] so that the ICC may prosecute Thaksin and high-ranking officials in his government. The ICC can only prosecute crimes committed after July 1, 2002 and normally only has jurisdiction over events that occur after the court's Rome Statute [PDF text] enters into force for a particular country. States, however, may accept the ICC's jurisdiction for events occurring before the state ratifies the Rome Statute.

Thailand [JURIST news archive] has been under martial law [JURIST report] since the Thai military seized power from Thaksin in a bloodless coup [JURIST report] in September. Thailand's Council for National Security [official website, in Thai] may lift martial law next month after investigators wrap up a corruption probe [JURIST reports] against Thaksin. Australia's ABC News has more. From Thailand, the Nation has local coverage.

[JURIST] The governors of six of Bolivia's nine states vowed over the weekend to break off relations with President Evo Morales [official website; BBC profile] following a move to give Morales' leftist party more power [JURIST report] to rewrite the country's constitution. The six governors, who all belong to opposition parties but represent 80 percent of Bolivia's population, pledged not to participate in Morales' attempts "to change the structure of government, undermine the law and destabilize elected authorities." They also called on activists to demonstrate Thursday in Cochabama, Bolivia's third-largest city.

On Friday, Bolivia's constitutional assembly [official website, in Spanish] approved a motion to make decisions by majority vote - a victory for Morales' Movement Toward Socialism party (MAS) [party website], which failed to receive two-thirds of the assembly seats [JURIST report] in July's elections. The vote allows MAS, with 137 of the 235 assembly seats, to easily adopt populist reforms into the amended constitution [current text], although a two-thirds vote will still be needed to approve the final constitutional draft. MercoPress News Agency has more.

[JURIST] Tom Noe [Wikipedia profile], a former Republican fundraiser and prominent coin dealer in Ohio, was sentenced on Monday to 18 years in prison after his conviction [summary, PDF] last week on theft, corrupt activity, money laundering, forgery and tampering with records charges in a rare coin investment scandal [Toledo Blade backgrounder]. Noe managed a $50 million state investment in rare coins promulgated by the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation [official website], and prosecutors alleged that Noe use some of the investment money to pay off his own business loans and purchase a Florida residence. Lucas County Common Pleas Judge Thomas Osowik concluded that Noe spent the state money at an "alarmingly large rate" culminating in an "elaborate scheme of theft."

Noe was indicted [PDF; Columbus Dispatchreport ] in February along with his business partner, Timothy LaPointe. In addition to the coin investment scandal that came to light last year, Noe's actions led to ethics charges [JURIST report] against Republican Ohio Governor Bob Taft [official website], including criminal misdemeanors for failing to acknowledge nearly 70 golf outings and other favors. Taft pleaded no contest [JURIST report] and may face more disciplinary charges [JURIST report]. Noe already received a two-year prison sentence earlier this year after he pleaded guilty to fraudulently contributing $45,000 into President Bush's 2004 re-election campaign. AP has more. The Toledo Blade has local coverage.

[JURIST] Thirty Philippine military officers will face courts-martial on mutiny charges in connection with their alleged involvement in a February coup plot [JURIST report] to overthrow the government of Philippines President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo [official website; JURIST news archive], a general told a news conference on Sunday. The general indicated that the decision to proceed with courts-martial against the officers, a group that includes two generals, is part of a larger Philippine effort to curb so-called "adventurism," the willful disobeyance of official orders, which has characterized the Filipino military's willingness to participate in many coup attempts over the past few decades. Over 100 soldiers were initially under investigation [JURIST report] for possible court-martial charges related to the failed coup attempt.

In May, a Philippine court dismissed charges [JURIST report] against five lawmakers accused of plotting the coup. Reuters has more. The Manila Times has local coverage.

[JURIST] UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour [official profile] on Monday condemned human rights violations occurring in the Palestinian authorities, saying that violations were "intolerable" and expressing concern for civilians in the area. Arbour is currently visiting the Gaza strip [press release] in order to "examine developments" connected to "the protection of civilians during armed conflict and the entitlement of Palestinians and Israelis equally to enjoy all fundamental freedoms." She told reporters Monday that civilian exposure to shelling is indefensible.

Earlier this month, the United States vetoed [JURIST report] a UN Security Council resolution [draft text and explanations] that would have condemned an Israeli attack on Beit Hanoun [BBC report] in the Gaza Strip on November 8 that resulted in the deaths of at least 18 civilians and called on Israel "to scrupulously abide by its obligations and responsibilities under the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 12 August 1949." Last week, the UN Human Rights Council voted to discharge a fact-finding mission to Beit Hanoun [AFP report] to investigate the incident. AFP has more.

[JURIST] Nicaraguan President Enrique Bolanos [official website, in Spanish] has signed a law that bans all abortion [JURIST report] and eliminates a longstanding exception for the health of the mother. Abortion has long been illegal in Nicaragua, though tempered by the medical necessity exception. Opponents of the complete abortion ban had hoped that Bolanos would reject the bill because it did not raise criminal penalties for women from six years in prison to the thirty years he had previously sought. Nicaragua now joins Chile, El Salvador, and at least 32 other countries in the world which have adopted similar measures.

Nicaragua [US State Dept. backgrounder] has a large Roman Catholic population and the church assisted in drafting the bill, which has been criticized by international human rights groups, including the Center for Reproductive Rights [advocacy website] and Ipas [advocacy website], which claim the number of illegal abortions in the country will increase. Medical practitioners in Nicaragua have been split on the issue, with some arguing that medical science has progressed to the point where a woman's life will not be harmed if the fetus is brought to term, while others claim the new law will discourage doctors from performing life-saving procedures if they become necessary for the mother. The New York Times has more.

[JURIST] Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney [official website] on Sunday urged state legislators [DOC speech transcript] to vote on a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage ban and said he will petition the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to place the question on the next ballot if legislators fail to vote on the issue before the end of their term on January 2. Earlier this month, legislators postponed [JURIST report] a vote on the proposed constitutional amendment [DOC text] to define marriage as only between a man and a woman. The state assembly must approve the amendment before it can be presented to voters for final approval. Although opponents of same-sex marriage had obtained 170,000 signatures in favor of putting the measure before the legislature, they lacked the requisite support of one-quarter of the lawmakers to approve a vote on the issue. In his speech Sunday, Romney said:

Last week, 109 legislators decided to reject the law, abandon the Constitution, and violate their oath of office. For the Constitution plainly states that when a qualified petition is placed before them, the legislature "shall" vote. It does not say may vote, or vote if its procedures permit a vote, or vote if there are enough of the members in attendance. It says "shall" vote. A decision not to vote is a decision to usurp the Constitution, to abandon democracy and substitute a form of what this nation's founders called tyranny, that is, the imposition of the will of those in power, on the people.

As I listened to the debate in the legislative session last week, I was struck by the irony, and the hypocrisy. Legislators so energized to protect the newly discovered gay right to marry had no compunction about trammeling the long established, constitutional right of the people to vote. The issue now before us is not whether same sex couples should marry. The issue before us today is whether 109 legislators will follow the Constitution. Tomorrow, I will send these 109 a copy of the Constitution and of their oath of office. And this week, we will file an action before the courts, calling upon the judiciary to protect the constitutional rights of our citizens. Let us not see this state, which first established constitutional democracy, become the first to abandon it.

[JURIST] The Italian cabinet met Monday to relieve the head of Italy's intelligence agency of his duties, a move prompted by suspicions that he was involved in the alleged 2003 CIA kidnapping [JURIST news archive; WP timeline] of Egyptian cleric Moustafa Hassan Nasr [Wikipedia profile]. Nicolo Pollari, now the former head of the Italian Intelligence and Security Services (SISMI) [official website], has testified before parliamentary committees, denying the allegations [JURIST report] that he assisted the CIA with the alleged extraordinary rendition.

Prosecutors said last month that they had completed their investigation [JURIST report] into the incident and are once again pressing for the extradition of 26 Americans [JURIST report] believed to be involved in the alleged extraordinary rendition [JURIST news archive]. Nasr was reportedly seized by CIA agents with the help of SISMI on the streets of Milan in 2003 before being taken to an American airbase and on to Egypt. AP has more.

[JURIST] Saddam Hussein's trial for crimes against humanity committed in Dujail was "fundamentally unfair" and the guilty verdict lacks legitimacy due to procedural and substantive flaws, according to a report [text; press release] released by advocacy group Human Rights Watch on Monday. Nehal Bhuta, the report's author, said that the Iraqi High Tribunal "squandered an important opportunity to deliver credible justice" and called the court's decision to impose the death penalty in light of the trial's procedural shortcomings "indefensible." Based on 10 months of court observation and interviews with judges and lawyers, the report concludes that:

• Hussein and his co-defendants were not given adequate notice of charges against them, or enough time to prepare a defense;
  
  
• prosecutors failed to disclose exculpatory statements, and failed to disclose witness statements and other evidence in advance of trial;
  
  
• chain of custody issues were dismissed without argument;
  
  
• 29 witness statements were read into the court record, denying Hussein his right to confront his accusers;
  
  
• judges failed to explain their reasoning on key issues in writing;
  
  
• Hussein's defense counsel acted inappropriately and failed to adequately represent Hussein;
  
  
• the turnover of judges hurt the trial, and that the presiding judge exhibited unseemly bias in favor of the prosecution;
  
  
• and that substantively, the judges should have required "linkage evidence" from political, historical, or military experts to demonstrate how much knowledge Hussein should have had of the acts he was blamed for.