[JURIST] The UN Security Council [official website] voted 15-0 Saturday to impose its first sanctions on Iran [JURIST news archive] for continuing to enrich uranium past an August 31 deadline imposed by Security Council Resolution 1696 [PDF text, JURIST report]. In unanimously adopting Resolution 1737 [text and statements] the Council cited reports submitted by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) [official website; press release] on the August 31 deadline as well as a November 14 update [IAEA reports, PDF] which showed that Iran had not "established full and sustained suspension of all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities as set out in resolution 1696" or otherwise complied with IAEA instructions.

The resolution calls for the end of all uranium enrichment and heavy-water research, imposes a ban on the import or export of related dangerous materials, and moves to freeze the international assets of individuals and organizations connected to the nuclear programs. The sanctions fall under Chapter VII [text] Article 41 of the UN Charter, making enforcement mandatory but restricted to non-military measures. The IAEA will submit a report on Iran's compliance with the resolution in 60 days, at which point further sanctions will be considered. Bloomberg has more.

Iran immediately denounced [IRNA report] the move and declared that its nuclear program would not be affected by the decision. Iran's Ambassador to the UN, Javad Zarif, addressed the UN council regarding what he saw as an unfair bias against the Iranian program:

The same governments which have pushed this council to take groundless punitive measures against Iran's peaceful nuclear program have systematically prevented it from taking any action to nudge the Israeli regime towards submitting itself to the rules governing the nuclear nonproliferation regime.

[JURIST] The International Criminal Court (ICC)[official website] will enlist the help of UN peacekeepers in arresting Ugandan rebel leader Joseph Kony [JURIST news archive, BBC profile], according to a Reuters report Saturday. A document [text, PDF] dated December 8 posted on the ICC website reveals that ICC Chief Prosecutor Louis Moreno-Ocampo has turned to the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) [official website] to help Ugandan and Sudanese forces apprehend Kony, thought to be in hiding in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The leader of Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) [MIPT backgrounder] was charged [JURIST report] in October along with four LRA lieutenants with orchestrating the killing of thousands of civilians and the enslavement of thousands more children over two decades of conflict with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni's government.

Earlier this week Ugandan officials said that Kony had expressed a willingness to face justice in Uganda [JURIST report] rather than at ICC headquarters at The Hague. The ICC has so far refused [JURIST report] to cancel its indictments, despite requests [JURIST report] from the Ugandan government, which has asserted that most Ugandans are willing to sacrifice prosecution of LRA leaders in exchange for successful peace negotiations. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Several Iraqi citizens sued a leading European bank and Australia's wheat exporting agency in New York federal court Friday for corporate misconduct facilitating the corruption of the Iraq Oil-for-Food program [JURIST news archive] which bilked Iraqis out of humanitarian aid while simultaneously enriching the Saddam Hussein regime. French bank BNP Paribas [corporate website] and the Australian Wheat Board (AWB) [corporate website] face a claim for $200 million in damages brought by seven Iraqis seeking class-action status for Iraqi residents of Irbil, Dokuk and Sulaimaniyah who were allegedly deprived of humanitarian aid by the Oil-for-Food kickbacks. The plaintiffs are suing under RICO [text], the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act [DOJ backgrounder] and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act [PDF].

Just last month the Australian government determined that AWB worked directly with Hussein's government to orchestrate the kickbacks that netted the company over an estimated $220 million and recommended charges against the company [JURIST report]. Iraq no longer permits AWB wheat imports. BNP Paribas is believed to have made nearly $1.5 billion in kickbacks. AP has more.

[JURIST] Sixteen Saudis and a Bangladeshi man [DOD press releases] repatriated from Guantanamo Bay earlier this week to their home countries are being detained by their governments. Saudi Arabian authorities say they are holding their nationals in order to investigate whether they have ties to terrorist groups [AP report]. Meanwhile Mubarak Hussain Bin Abul Hashem [Wikipedia backgrounder], a Bangladeshi citizen, is being detained for an additional month by his government to investigate possible connections to local or international militant groups. He was supposedly studying at a madrassa in Karachi, Pakistan in 2001 when he was apprehended by American agents and taken to Guantanamo. AP has more.

The US still holds approximately 395 prisoners at Guantanamo. US State Department Legal Adviser John Bellinger said in a recent interview published in London's Daily Telegraph that Guantanamo Bay detainees considered an ongoing security threat will remain in custody indefinitely [JURIST report], regardless of whether there is sufficient evidence to try them before a US military commission.

[JURIST] Three Texas landlords filed a lawsuit Friday challenging the constitutionality of strict measures against illegal immigrants passed last month in their Dallas suburb [JURIST report; Dallas Morning News report]. The defendants in the federal court action are the city of Farmers Branch [official website] and key members of the city's government, including the mayor, the city council, and the city's building inspector. The lawsuit seeks to stop the measures from going into effect as scheduled on January 12th.

The local anti-illegal immigration laws, the strongest yet passed in Texas, include making English the city's official language [Res. No. 2006-130 text], requiring apartment renters to show proof of residency [Ordinance No. 2892 text], and giving police the power to screen the residency status of suspects in custody. Landlords who rent to illegal immigrants are subject to a $500 fine for each day they violate the law by renting to individuals without proper documentation. Activists have already petitioned against the ordinance [AP report] in an effort to put it to a referendum. An estimated 37 percent of Farmers Branch's population of 28,000 is Hispanic. AP has more. The Houston Chronicle has additional coverage.