[JURIST] Finland's parliament voted to ratify the proposed European Constitution [text; JURIST news archive] Tuesday, taking steps toward becoming the 16th country to ratify the charter as Finland's six-month presidency of the European Union [official website] comes to a close. Parliament members voted 125-39 to ratify the EU constitution, with four MPs abstaining. Finnish President Tarja Halonen [official website] must now also approve ratification. While Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen [official website] promised at the start of the country's term holding the EU presidency not to push for ratification until consensus had been built [JURIST report] among member states, in his speech before the vote [text] Tuesday he said that Europe needs reform. Vanhanen said the constitutional treaty is a well balanced package, and it would be better for EU states to not "cherry pick" from the agreement.

Germany, which has also taken steps to ratifying the document, will take over the EU presidency next month. Last month German officials expressed concern about the future of the constitution [JURIST report], given the political views of the two leading contenders for the French presidency. Both have expressed reservations about approving the charter after French voters rejected it [JURIST report] last May. The Netherlands also overwhelmingly rejected the constitution [JURIST report] in 2005. Of the countries that have ratified the constitution, most hope it will be saved without major changes. Some countries that have delayed ratification would rather that the treaty not be revived at all. The EU constitution requires ratification by all member states before it can take effect. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] Michael Sata [party profile], Zambia's opposition leader and head of the Patriotic Front [party website], was arrested Tuesday for allegedly making false declarations on August 11 concerning his assets in his presidential candidate form. If convicted, Sata faces a minimum jail term of two years. Zambian law requires presidential candidates to declare their assets and liabilities prior to competing in national elections. Sata told BBC following his release on bail that Zambian police did not specify the details of his alleged false declaration and has characterized the arrest as an attempt to intimidate him. Sata is expected Wednesday to appear in court.

Sata is a vocal critic of incumbent president Levy Mwanawasa [official profile], who was elected to a second five-year term in September 2006. In August 2005, Sata was charged with espionage [JURIST report] for his alleged incitement of explosions caused by workers at the Konkola Copper Mines during employment strikes. BBC News has more. Reuters has additional coverage.

[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit [official website] ruled [opinion, PDF] Tuesday that the Kamehameha Schools [education website], a private school that accepts no federal funding, can utilize an admissions policy [text] that gives priority to Native Hawaiian students before admitting non-Native Hawaiians. The court's majority reasoned that "Because the Schools are a wholly private K-12 educational establishment, whose preferential admissions policy is designed to counteract the significant, current educational deficits of Native Hawaiian children in Hawaii, and because in 1991 Congress clearly intended Sec. 1981 to exist in harmony with its other legislation providing specially for the education of Native Hawaiians, we must conclude that the admissions policy is valid under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1981."

In February 2006, the Ninth Circuit granted a rehearing [JURIST report], agreeing to allow a 15-member en banc panel to consider the case. Last year, a three-judge Ninth Circuit panel ruled [PDF opinion; JURIST report] that the admissions policy violated 42 USC 1981 [text], a law forbidding racial discrimination in making and enforcing contracts. AP has more.

[JURIST] Italian prosecutors on Tuesday asked a judge to issue indictments for 26 US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) [official website] agents and five officials from the Italian Military Intelligence and Security Service (SISMI) [official website], including former SISMI chief Nicola Pollari, on kidnapping charges for allegedly orchestrating the extraordinary rendition [JURIST news archive] of Egyptian cleric Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr [Wikipedia profile; JURIST news archive]. Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, claims he was tortured after being grabbed off a street in Milan and ultimately sent to Egypt. A Milan judge now must decide if there is enough evidence to go to trial in the case. AP has more.

In October, prosecutors said they completed their investigation [JURIST report] into the incident and would once again press for the extradition of 26 American agents [JURIST report] believed to be involved in the case. If extradition is once again denied, Milan prosecutor Armando Spataro has said he would be forced to try the US agents in absentia [JURIST report]. This summer, several Italian intelligence agents were arrested [JURIST report], and last month the Italian cabinet removed Pollari [JURIST report] from his post, despite his denials of involvement [JURIST report] in the incident.

[JURIST] Flavio Sosa [AP profile], a leader of the popular uprising in the Mexican state of Oaxaca [BBC backgrounder], was arrested late Monday after arriving in Mexico City for negotiations with the federal government. Sosa, a prominent figure in the People's Assembly of Oaxaca (APPO) [coalition website, in Spanish], was jailed [APPO press release, in Spanish] in a maximum-security facility on five charges, including kidnapping and robbery. In a press release [text], the Mexican attorney general's office said Sosa "is known for his use of violence, damaging private property and public byways, and also burning vehicles and buildings in Oaxaca City."

The protests against Oaxaca's governor, Ulises Ruiz [Wikipedia profile], were sparked by a teachers strike in May. Last month, a UN human rights expert expressed concern about human rights violations [JURIST report] allegedly committed by the APPO during clashes between protesters and the police. AP has more.

[JURIST] In a letter [text] to the chief judge presiding over his genocide trial, Saddam Hussein [JURIST news archive] has said he would not attend further proceedings because he "wasn't given the chance to speak when I tried to clarify the truth." The authenticity of the one-page letter, handwritten in Arabic and dated Monday, could not be confirmed, but it was released by Hussein's defense team Tuesday. Specifically, Hussein complained that he was not allowed to rebut a prosecution allegation that he put $10 billion into foreign bank accounts. Prosecutors asked chief judge Mohammed Oreibi al-Khalifa on Monday to freeze the money for possible payments to victims. AP has more.

Also during Monday's hearing, al-Oreibi granted a prosecution request to conclude the witness phase of the trial [JURIST report], adjourning until Wednesday with just one prosecution witness left to testify. Prosecutors are now expected to present documents that allegedly link Hussein to the 1987-88 "Anfal" genocide campaigns [HRW backgrounder] against ethnic Kurds in Northern Iraq. Hussein is also appealing his conviction and death sentence [JURIST report] resulting from a separate trial on charges of crimes against humanity [judgment] committed in the town of Dujail.

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] ruled Tuesday that immigrants convicted of conduct that is a felony under state law but is only a misdemeanor under the Controlled Substance Act are not subject to deportation under the Immigration and Naturalization Act [text]. In Lopez v. Gonzales [Duke Law case backgrounder; JURIST report], Jose Lopez, a legal permanent resident in the US, pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting the possession of drugs after being arrested in 1997. He argued that his conviction was not a felony under the Controlled Substance Act but the US Court of Appeal for the Eighth Circuit held [opinion, PDF] that any drug conviction that would be a felony under state or federal law is an aggravated felony under the INA. In an 8-1 decision, the Supreme Court reversed the appeals court ruling. Read the Court's opinion [text] per Justice Souter, along with a dissent [text] from Justice Thomas. AP has more.

Also Tuesday, the court issued a one-sentence per curiam opinion [PDF text] dismissing the writ of certiorari for Toledo-Flores v. US, a case consolidated with Lopez for oral arguments, as improvidently granted.

[JURIST] California Attorney General Bill Lockyer [official website] on Monday requested the California Supreme Court [official website] to grant a petition to review an intermediate appellate court's decision to uphold [JURIST report] a state law prohibiting same-sex marriage [JURIST news archive]. Lockyer, who supports the state ban, noted the importance of settling the issue for same-sex couples in the state. In the appeals court, Lockyer argued [JURIST report] that California should be allowed to maintain its traditional definition of marriage as the union of a man and a woman, approved by the Legislature in 1977 [text] and by voters in 2000 [text], and that most benefits afforded to spouses under state law are also available to same-sex couples through domestic partnership registration.

The lawsuits stem from San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's 2005 decision to issue marriage licenses to 4,000 same-sex couples. The California Supreme Court, without addressing the merits of same-sex marriage, ruled that the mayor had exceeded his authority. In August, the state high court issued a statement [JURIST report] that it would not immediately take up the case, but now that the appeals court has ruled the justices are expected to grant review. The Mercury News has more.

[JURIST] The Court of Cassation in Kuwait [JURIST news archive] on Tuesday reversed former Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainee Nasser al-Mutairi's conviction on terrorism charges, including endangering Kuwait's foreign relations by taking up arms against a foreign nation. Mutairi, the first of eight Kuwaitis to be freed from the US military facility in Cuba, spent three years in Guantanamo until his release in January 2005. After his return to Kuwait, Mutairi was cleared of all charges [JURIST report], but later in 2005, an appeals court reversed his acquittal, setting up the high court's ruling.

In July, Kuwait's high court also upheld [JURIST report] a lower court decision [JURIST report] acquitting five Kuwaiti citizens formerly held at Guantanamo Bay of alleged connections with al Qaeda. AP has more.

[JURIST] The Maryland Court of Appeals heard oral arguments [recorded video] on Monday in a case [docket, ACLU materials] challenging a 1973 state law banning same-sex marriage [JURIST news archive]. Plaintiffs, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) [advocacy website], argued that marriage is a fundamental right which should not be denied according to the parties' genders. In response, Maryland Attorney General Robert Zarnoch argued that no court in the country has identified same-sex marriage as a fundamental right, and he urged the court to defer to the legislature. The state is appealing a January ruling [PDF text, JURIST report] by the Baltimore City Circuit Court in which the law was held to be discriminatory and unconstitutional.

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

[JURIST] US District Judge Royce C. Lamberth [official profile] on Monday ruled [opinion text, PDF] that a group of Hasidic Jewish plaintiffs could go forward with a lawsuit against the Russian government for the return of 18th century religious texts allegedly expropriated by the Nazi and Russian governments preceding and during World War II. The plaintiffs, members of the Chabad Lubavitch [official website] Jewish Orthodox movement, have accused Russia of violating international law when it seized the materials from the Nazi regime in 1945. Prior to Russian custody, the religious texts had been seized by the Nazi military in Poland in 1927 and transferred to Germany, following abandonment by a rabbi forced to flee to the US.

Lamberth also dismissed [order, text] part of the suit that sought to recover a library of materials abandoned in 1915 by a rabbi fleeing Russia. The ruling cited a lack of jurisdiction because the allegations involved internal Russian matters rather than violations of international law. AP has more.

[JURIST] Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif [official profile] has announced an 18-month timetable for lifting the state of emergency that Egypt [JURIST news archive] has lived under since 1981. The administration of President Hosni Mubarak [official website, BBC profile] will present proposed changes to the Egyptian Constitution [text] to parliament this year, with a referendum on those changes expected in the summer. Egypt has remained under the emergency laws [EOHR backgrounder; JURIST report], which give the president quasi-military control over the population, since the assassination of President Anwar Sadat [CNN profile]. After the referendum, the government hopes to introduce new anti-terror laws that would replace the emergency laws.

Proposed changes to the constitution would limit the president to two seven-year terms of office. Mubarak has governed since 1981. Another proposed change, announced by Mubarak [JURIST report] last week, would allow political parties with one member in either house of parliament to nominate a presidential candidate. The present system grants that privilege only to parties holding 5 percent of the seats in each house. The reforms will not allow the opposition Muslim Brotherhood [party website; FAS backgrounder] to nominate a presidential candidate, however. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The US Department of Justice urged a federal appeals court Monday to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the NSA's domestic surveillance program pursuant to the state secrets privilege. In a brief submitted to the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, the administration appealed an August ruling [PDF, JURIST report] from US District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor that the warrantless wiretaps are unconstitutional. DOJ lawyers also argued that the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) [advocacy website] and other plaintiffs lacked standing to bring the lawsuit because they could not show that their communications had been intercepted by the NSA. The ACLU filed the lawsuit [complaint, PDF; ACLU materials] on behalf of journalists, scholars, attorneys and national nonprofit organizations having "a well-founded belief that their communications are being intercepted by the NSA." Last month, the Sixth Circuit ruled that the program could continue [JURIST report] pending the appeal process.

Meanwhile, an administrative judge at the Michigan Public Service Commission refused to dismiss [PDF ruling, MPSC case materials] a separate ACLU lawsuit against Verizon Communications and AT&T [corporate websites]. The companies tried to invoke the state secrets privilege in response to accusations that private client information was provided to the NSA. Judge Mark Eyster held that the privilege only applies to the federal government. AP has more.

[JURIST] The European Union [official website, JURIST news archive] announced a provisional deal [press release, PDF] Monday for the establishment of an EU agency on fundamental rights, which would build upon the European Monitoring Center on Racism and Xenophobia [official website] and monitor civil liberties in all of the 25 EU member nations. After three years of negotiations, the agreement is expected to be finalized Tuesday. According to the Council of the European Union, the agency's purpose will to:

provide the relevant institutions, bodies, offices and agencies of the Community and its Member States when implementing Community law with assistance and expertise relating to fundamental rights in order to support them when they take measures or formulate courses of action within their respective spheres of competence to fully respect fundamental right.

[JURIST] The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) [official website] accepted into evidence Monday a controversial report on the events leading up to the 1994 Rwandan genocide [Human Rights Watch backgrounder; BBC backgrounder] written by French anti-terrorism judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere [BBC profile]. Despite claims of manipulation by one witness cited in the report, an ICTR judge decided to admit the report in the trial of Theoneste Bagosora [ICTR case materials], saying that the report could be of use in understanding the "context" in which the genocide took place.

The report implicates current Rwandan leaders, including Rwandan President Paul Kagame [BBC backgrounder], in the downing of a plane carrying then-President Juvenal Habyariman [Wikipedia profile], whose death triggered the genocide that killed over 800,000 people. Last month, Bruguiere recommended that Kagame stand trial [JURIST report] and issued arrest warrants [JURIST report] for nine of his top aides. Bruguiere's report was at the root of the Rwandan government's decision to sever all diplomatic ties with France [JURIST report] last month. AFP has more.

[JURIST] Fiji [JURIST news archive] military commander Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama [BBC profile] has carried out a threat to remove the elected government from power unless current Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase [official profile] voluntarily resigned, a move Qarase flatly refused to consider [Fiji Times report], and has imposed military rule over the South Pacific island nation. Bainimarama initially threatened a military coup [JURIST report] against the current government in July 2005 and recently claimed to have received the support of Fijian President Ratu Josefa Iloilo [official profile], a fact the president strongly denies [press release, PDF; Fiji Times report]. Bainimarama first took control of Fiji and declared an interim military government in late May 2000 in response to what he considered an ineffectual response by the country's president to an attempted coup [JURIST report] led by Fijian nationalist George Speight against Fiji's first ethnic Indian prime minister, Mahendra Chaudhry.

Bainimarama said Tuesday that the country's constitution [text] will remain intact and that he will retain executive control of the government [Fiji Times report] until Fiji's Great Council of Chiefs appoints an interim president, adding that he fully expected Iloilo to be named to the post. Bainimarama also said that the respected military physician Dr. Jona Senilagakali would serve as interim prime minister until a new interim government was formed.

New Zealand and Australia have already issued strong condemnations of the military action and New Zealand has severed all defense and military treaties with the Fiji [PM statement]. Australia has promised to do the same once their sources confirm that the government has been removed from power. The Fiji Times has local coverage. AP has more.