[JURIST] Australian MPs concerned about new US military commission rules [manual, PDF; JURIST report] plan to write to US Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi next week to ask them to ensure Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainee David Hicks [JURIST news archive] gets a fair trial in the US or to return him to Australia to face trial there. Hicks supporters have already spoken out against [JURIST report] the new rules issued by the US Defense Department Thursday which allow convictions based on hearsay and coerced evidence, although they do address the right to a speedy trial (Rule 707, pp. II-57 - II-60), the right against self incrimination (Rule 301, p. III-5), and the right to confront an accuser (Rule 909, sub.c(3), p. II-95) [Editor's note: an earlier version of this story erroneously reported that mention of the latter rights had been altogether omitted from the Manual. JURIST regrets the mistake.].

Hicks has been in American custody for 5 years, after being picked up in Afghanistan while allegedly fighting for the Taliban. His original charges [text, PDF; JURIST report], which were brought in 2004, have lapsed. The Sydney Morning Herald has more.

[JURIST] An Iraqi cabinet-level committee proposed a draft law Friday that would allow the national government in Iraq [JURIST news archive] to control oil revenues. Negotiations concerning the draft law have been a source of tension [JURIST report] in Iraq for months as most Kurds and many Shiites want to retain control of the country's oil resources [Global Policy backgrounder]. On the other hand, Sunni Arabs, who do not dominate the oil-rich regions of the country, insist on central oversight.

Recent debate has centered on the establishment of a federal committee, called the Federal Oil and Gas Council, to review oil contracts. Kurds did not want to give the committee the power to "approve" contracts, so the draft law instead allows regions to initiate and guide the process of awarding oil contracts and gives the committee the power to review and reject contracts. The Iraqi cabinet and the country's parliament [official website, in English] must approve the draft before it becomes law. If the draft passes, enforcement might prove difficult in Iraq's wartime environment. The New York Times has more.

[JURIST] Thousands of Peruvians took to the streets of Lima Friday, marching and waving pictures of lost loved ones in support of a proposal to legalize the death penalty for members of the Shining Path [BBC bakgrounder] rebel group. In response to a vote last week by the Peruvian Congress [official website] indefinitely shelving new death penalty legislation [Reuters report], Peruvian President Alan Garcia [official website], who had previously called on the lawmakers to authorize the death penalty for terrorism offenses [JURIST report, press release, in Spanish] has proposed changing the constitution to allow a public referendum on the death penalty.

Polls show that re-institution of the death penalty has widespread public support, but Peruvian lawmakers are wary of breaching the American Convention of Human Rights [text], which Peru has signed. The death penalty is currently only authorized in cases of wartime treason and there have been no executions in Peru since the 1970s. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] A Moroccan criminal appeal court Friday acquitted five former Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainees of terrorism charges related to the men's connection with Salafia Jihadia [MIPT backgrounder] and unrelated to their detention at Guantanamo Bay, where three of the men spent up to 4 1/2 years in US custody. The Salafia Jihadia is an offshoot of the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group [MIPT backgrounder]. Both organizations are allegedly linked with al-Qaeda and are believed to be responsible for the May 16, 2003 Casablanca suicide bombings [BBC report] that killed 45 people, including 12 suicide bombers.

The head of the independent Human Rights Moroccan Center appealed a Moroccan court's conviction of the former detainees [JURIST reports] in November 2006. Two of the men remain in custody on a separate charge of trying to recruit volunteers to fight in Iraq. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Mexico extradited drug kingpins Osiel Cardenas [DEA backgrounder] and Hector "El Guero" Palma and thirteen other major traffickers to the United States Friday as part of an effort by new Mexican president Felipe Calderon [official website] to follow through on a promise made by former President Vincente Fox [BBC profile] to make increased extraditions to the US [JURIST report]. Since taking office, Calderon has mobilized elite police and military forces against the rival Sinaloa and Gulf Cartels. Although the widely popular initiative is showing initial success, experts warn that Calderon must address the political and judicial corruption that allows cartels to run rampant in Mexico.

Kingpins are often able to continue running their organizations from within corrupt Mexican prisons, making the extradition of leaders a key tool for scaling back cartel activity. In November 2005, the Supreme Court of Mexico [official website] ruled that prisoners serving life sentences can 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. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett [official profile] admitted Friday in a written response to a parliamentary question that Britain was "aware of the existence of a secret US detention program" prior to a September speech [JURIST report] by President Bush acknowledging the existence of CIA-operated secret prisons [JURIST news archive] for terror detainees. A cabinet Intelligence and Security Committee [official website] report has also stated that British intelligence service MI5 [official website] was also aware that the US was holding detainees in facilities other than those in Guantanamo [JURIST news archive], but did not have knowledge of the locations, conditions and access to the detainees. The admissions are believed to be the first public confirmations that British officials had prior knowledge of the secret prison network.

In November, a report released [JURIST report] by a European Parliament committee [official website] investigating the CIA's alleged covert use of facilities in European countries for the transport and illegal detention of prisoners, concluded that 16 of those countries cooperated with the CIA "passively or actively" [AFP report]. The European Parliament investigation was launched after the existence of the secret prisons [JURIST report] was first mooted in press reports in late 2005. AP has more.

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] Friday declined to consider whether the University of Michigan, Michigan State University and Wayne State University can delay implementing Proposal 2 [text; JURIST news archive], an amendment to the Michigan Constitution [text, PDF] banning affirmative action [JURIST archive] in public employment, public education and state contracting. In December, a federal judge ruled that the universities could delay implementing the proposal [JURIST report] until the universities have completed the 2006-2007 admission cycle under current procedures, but that order was later stayed [opinion, PDF] by the US Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. The Detroit Free Press has more.

In November of last year, Michigan voters approved [JURIST report] the constitutional amendment and it was initially expected to take effect in late-December. A coalition of civil rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Detroit NAACP [advocacy websites] have filed a lawsuit [complaint, PDF; ACLU press release] in federal court challenging the constitutionality of Proposal 2 based on the US Supreme Court's 2003 ruling that the federal constitution permits the University of Michigan to consider race as a factor in the admissions process [JURIST symposium].

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] Friday granted certiorari in five cases [order list, PDF] and ordered all briefings on a challenge to the limits on pre-election advertisements introduced as part of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) [JURIST news archive; Campaign Legal Center backgrounder], upheld [opinion] by the Supreme Court in 2003, to be completed by April 18. The two consolidated cases, FEC v. Wisconsin Right to Life, Inc. (06-969) [docket] and McCain v. Wisconsin Right to Life, Inc. (06-970) [docket], stem from a District Court ruling that advocacy groups must be allowed to run issue ads in the two-months period immediately prior to elections [JURIST report]. AP has more.

The Supreme Court will also decide Beck v. Pace International Union (05-1448) [docket; cert. petition, PDF], which will determine whether a pension plan sponsor's decision to terminate a plan of a bankrupted corporation by purchasing an annuity, rather than to merge the plan with another, is a plan sponsor decision not subject to fiduciary obligations created by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) [text; JURIST news archive].

In United States v. Atlantic Research Corp. (06-562) [docket; cert. petition, PDF] the Court will decide whether a party that is potentially responsible for the costs of cleaning up hazardous substances under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) [EPA backgrounder] but does not satisfy the requirements for bringing an action for contribution against another potentially responsible party under 42 USC § 9613(f) [text], has a right to sue against the other party under 42 USC § 9607(a).

The Court will decide a Fourth Amendment dispute in Brendlin v. California (06-8120) [docket] on whether an automobile passenger, convicted on drug charges resulting from an illegal traffic stop, may contest the legality of the stop.

In Powerex Corp. v. Reliant Energy Services (05-85) [docket; cert. petition, PDF], the Supreme Court will determine whether a Canadian utility company owned by a Canadian provincial government but serving consumers in the US under an international treaty, is considered an "organ of a foreign state" under 28 USC § 1603(b)(2) [text] and thus entitled to immunity from claims against in federal courts.

Finally, Permanent Mission Etc. v. New York, NY (06-134) [docket; cert. petition, PDF] will deal with whether New York City is able to collect property taxes on real estate used for housing diplomats and families from foreign consulates and diplomatic missions that are entitled to tax-exempt status. The Supreme Court will review a ruling [PDF] made last April by the US Second Circuit Court of Appeals that affirmed a lower-court decision that federal courts have the power to resolve the dispute. New York City is seeking $18.5 million in unpaid taxes and interest from India and Mongolia. The foreign governments have argued that sovereign immunity bars collection of the property taxes. AP has more. SCOTUSblog has additional coverage.