[JURIST] The Roman Catholic Diocese of Charleston South Carolina [diocesan website] has agreed [press release, PDF] to set aside $12 million to compensate victims and relatives of victims of clergy sex abuse [JURIST news archive] going back before 1980, according to a statement released by the diocese Friday. A judge has initially approved the terms of the settlement. No mention was made of how many potential claims of sex abuse were addressed under the settlement terms, but the statement did say that specific claims against the sum would be settled by arbitration.

Earlier this month the Catholic Diocese of Spokane Washington agreed to settle molestation claims against priests for $48 million [JURIST report] as part of a Chapter 11 reorganization plan. AP has more.

[JURIST] Spain Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos [official website, in Spanish] argued for an expanded European constitution [official website; JURIST news archive] in his opening statement at the “Friends of the EU Constitution” summit [press release, in Spanish; additional declaration in English, PDF] that got under way in Madrid Friday. The summit is only open to delegates from the 18 countries that already have ratified the constitution, as well as delegates from Ireland and Portugal, where ratification is strongly supported and seems likely, and seeks to find ways to convince countries that have not ratified the constitution to do so. Moratinos advocated a more comprehensive constitution that could address topics such as immigration, climate change, and defense.

While most summit delegates argued against modifying the constitution, others agreed with Moratinos, and said that the current text is at the threshold for being so minimalist that any further reductions would destroy the worth of the document entirely. Of the countries that have not ratified the current text, several have advocated significant reductions [JURIST report]. EUobserver has more.

[JURIST] Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper [official website] formally apologized [official press release and text of letter] to Maher Arar [JURIST news archive; recorded video] on behalf of the Canadian government Friday for its role in the US deportation of Arar to Syria in 2002 and announced a settlement with Arar of $10.5 million (CAD) compensation for pain and suffering, as well as up to $2 million (CAD) for legal fees. Arar, a Canadian citizen, was detained by US authorities on a stopover at JFK airport in New York and transferred to Syria, where he was imprisoned and tortured. The Canadian House of Commons unanimously passed a motion of apology [CP report] in September, but that was not an official government action.

Last year the final report [text, PDF] of the Arar Commission [official website], the Canadian judicial inquiry initiated by the former Liberal government, found that the US decision to deport Arar was "very likely" based on inaccurate, unfair and overstated information [JURIST report] about him passed on by the RCMP [official website], Canada's federal police force. The report additionally found that US officials treated Arar poorly and were not candid with the RCMP or with Canadian consular staff who were trying to get information about his situation. The then-Commissioner of the RCMP, Giuliano Zaccardelli, formally apologized [JURIST report] to Arar in September before resigning over the incident. Harper’s Conservative government, which came to power after the events took place, plans to implement all 23 of the report recommendations. CBC News has more.

[JURIST] Guantanamo defense lawyer and Reprieve [official website] senior counsel Zachary Katznelson [Reprieve profile] told Reuters in an interview published Friday that since December at least 160 Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainees have been moved to solitary confinement in the new part of the facility called "Camp 6" [GlobalSecurity.org Camp Delta profile; JURIST report], and claimed the relocation was designed to elicit confessions by interrogators who may be running out of time in the face of growing pressure to close the prison. Katznelson said attorneys for the detainees moved have observed that their clients have become depressed and even psychotic as a result of harsh treatment, allegedly including beatings and other physical and psychological torture.

Only 10 of the more that 770 individuals detained at the prison camp since January 2002 have been charged with a crime. Some 395 inmates are still being held at the facility. The US maintains that the prisoners have ties to al Qaeda and the Taliban and would be a threat to national security if released. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] EU Freedom, Security and Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini [official website; BBC profile] urged the 27 EU nations on Friday to adopt EU-wide laws criminalizing denial of the Holocaust [JURIST news archive] and incitement of hatred and racial violence. Frattini's remarks come the day before Holocaust Memorial Day [official UK website], which marks the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Frattini said that proposed minimum prison sentences for individuals who deny the Holocaust or incite racial violence or hatred would not contravene the European Convention of Human Rights [text]. Germany has already announced its intent to pursue the proposal [JURIST report], which has previously been blocked due to freedom of expression concerns, as part of its platform [PDF test in German] for the 2007 EU presidency [official website]. Several EU countries have taken steps to criminalize Holocaust denial at the national level - the Italian cabinet approved a draft bill [JURIST report] to that effect Thursday, and it is currently illegal to deny the Holocaust in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany and Spain. AP has more.

Also Friday, the UN General Assembly approved a resolution [press release] condemning denial of the Holocaust. The Washington Post has more. The UN News Service has additional coverage.

[JURIST] The UN Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) [official website] has delayed the trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] until June 4, giving Taylor’s lawyers more time to prepare their defense. While the defense had asked the court to push the start of the trial to September, and the prosecution had noted that they would not be opposed to postponing the trial until July, the court's order [text, PDF] issued earlier this week cited the extensive amount of time that Taylor has currently been in pre-trial confinement in establishing the new start date.

Taylor was originally indicted [amended indictment text, PDF; SCSL materials] in 2003 on charges of crimes against humanity and violations of international humanitarian law, including murder, rape and the recruitment and use of child soldiers during the war in Sierra Leone. After being captured last year trying to flee Nigeria, where he had been in exile, he was taken to The Hague [JURIST report] in June. Britain has promised to incarcerate him if he is convicted [JURIST report]. SCSL officials predicted then that Taylor could be tried as early as January 2007 [JURIST report]. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] British Prime Minister Tony Blair intervened Friday in a renewed furor over criminal sentencing [JURIST report] that broke out after a judge cited the Home Secretary's recent urgings [JURIST report] to keep non-dangerous offenders out of overcrowded prisons [BBC backgrounder; Guardian Q&A] in suspending the sentence of a man who pleaded guilty to downloading child pornography. The suspended sentence issued Thursday prompted an immediate rush of criticism directed at the Home Office by opposition critics and advocacy groups such as the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) [press release] and the Victims of Crime Trust [advocacy website].

A communication [HO press release] issued Wednesday by the Home Office encouraged UK judges to limit imposition of prison sentences to only the most serious criminals in order to help the government deal with prison overcrowding. On Friday, however, Blair insisted that judges have not been instructed to stop issuing jail sentences. He said in a statement [text] that "If any judge feels anyone is a danger or a threat to the public and feels that they should be in custody then they should be put in custody. If someone is a danger to the public the place for them is behind bars." An estimated 79,375 prisoners occupy facilities in England and Wales that are equipped to handle some 80,000 [JURIST report], prompting the government to explore such options as converting ships [JURIST report] and a Royal Air Force base into prisons. Observers even been suggested that some inmates be moved to available facilities in other EU countries. Currently, hundreds of British prisoners are housed in police stations and court cells. The Guardian has more.

[JURIST] Rwanda [JURIST news archive] plans to release 8,000 prisoners implicated in the country's 1994 genocide [BBC backgrounder; HRW backgrounder], despite warnings from human rights groups that their liberation could produce violence against genocide survivors. Chief prosecutor Martin Ngoga told Reuters that the releases will "exclude key masterminds of the genocide" and that those released will undergo a month-long program of "sensitization." Overcrowded prisons and the need for reconciliation have been cited as motivating the release of these and over 50,000 other prisoners since 2003. An estimated 80 percent of those released in the past were accused of involvement in the genocide, in which 800,000 members of the country's Tutsi minority group were killed.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] and genocide survivors' group Ibuka [advocacy website] have criticized the releases, warning that in the past, those released from prison have killed genocide survivors in order to destroy evidence. Earlier this week, HRW urged Rwandan authorities to investigate [press release; JURIST report] attacks on witnesses who have testified in local tribunals known as Gacaca courts [official website, Wikipedia backgrounder]. According to a recent HRW report, 13 genocide survivors were killed in November, ostensibly by released prisoners. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The new constitution of Thailand [JURIST news archive] will be finalized and ready to face a referendum by July 6, according to an announcement Friday from the Constitutional Drafting Committee. The 35-member committee began work on the document on Friday and project that a first draft will be complete by April 15. A final draft will be sent to the Constitutional Drafting Assembly in June. The Drafting Committee will work in three groups, each with a separate area of focus: rights and public participation in government, political parties and institutions, and the judiciary and independent bodies. Thailand is presently governed by an interim constitution [JURIST report] imposed by the military leaders who seized power from former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra [JURIST news archive] in a September 19 coup [JURIST report]. After the establishment of a Constitutional Drafting Council [JURIST report] in January, a six-month deadline was set for preparation of the new constitution. Bernama has more.

Also on Friday, Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej [official profile] approved the lifting of martial law [JURIST report] in Bangkok and 40 other provinces, six weeks after the cabinet's decision [JURIST report] to do so. Martial law will continue in the remaining 35 provinces, however, including the northern region from which Thaksin hails and the largely Muslim southern region, where nearly 2,000 people have died in sectarian violence since 2004. Reuters has more. The Bangkok Post has local coverage.

[JURIST] North Korea [JURIST news archive] accused South Korea [JURIST news archive] of Internet censorship Friday, saying that preventing the South Korean public from accessing pro-North Korea websites violates their citizens' basic human rights and freedom to access information. Since 2004, South Korea has blocked more than 30 such websites, including the website of North Korea's official news agency, KCNA [official website, English version]. Few North Koreans have access to the Internet, and North Korean President Kim Jong-il [BBC profile] is rumored to access the web through connections to China [Aljazeera report]. South Korea, on the other hand, is one of the most wired countries in the world, with three-quarters of its citizens having Internet connections. South Korea's Ministry of Unification [official website] has said that it does not plan to lift the ban. Reuters has more.

In the latest Worldwide Index of Freedom [RWB report; JURIST report], issued annually by Reporters Without Borders, South Korea was ranked 31 out of 168 countries listed. North Korea came in last, and was labeled by the report as one of the "worst predators of press freedom."

[JURIST] The UK House of Commons [official website] passed the Fraud (Trials Without a Jury) Bill [PDF text; backgrounder] 281-246 on its third reading Thursday, sending the bill to the House of Lords [official website]. The proposed bill will allow defendants in serious and complex fraud cases to be tried before a single High Court judge, subject to the approval of the Lord Chief Justice [official backgrounder]. The bill, introduced by Home Secretary John Reid [official profile; BBC profile] in November, is expected to face heavy opposition in the upper chamber.

The House of Lords defeated [JURIST report] a similar proposal in 2003, insisting on the value and historic tradition of the right to trial by jury. If the current bill is rejected by the Lords, the House of Commons has the option of passing the bill in the next session, which will then bypass the House of the Lords for the formality of Royal Assent. In June 2005, British Attorney General Lord Peter Goldsmith announced the latest government plan to abolish jury trials in complicated fraud cases [JURIST report] following the collapse of a fraud trial [Guardian report] earlier in the year, which was partly attributed to jury problems. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] Both the Maine House of Representatives and Senate approved a joint resolution [DOC text; SP 113 summary] Thursday refusing to implement the federal Real ID Act [PDF text; JURIST news archive]. The resolution had broad support across both parties, with the House of Representatives approving the resolution 137-4 and the Senate 34-0. The federal act, scheduled to take effect in 2008, mandates that state governments require birth certificates or similar documentation and also consult national immigration databases before issuing IDs, which will have to comply with standards established by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) [official website]. The Real ID Act is facing similar state legislative oppositions in Georgia, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Montana, New Hampshire, and Washington. The Bush administration has repeatedly endorses the act [JURIST report], saying that it will discourage illegal immigration and make it more difficult for terrorists to fraudulently obtain US driver's licenses and other government IDs.

State lawmakers, governors, and privacy advocates have expressed concerns [JURIST report] about implementing the federal law, with many objecting to the expensive undertaking required for state compliance and privacy concerns [ACLU backgrounder] associated with the federal requirements. In December 2005, the National Governor's Association [official website], the National Conference of State Legislatures [official website], and the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators [official website], collectively released a report [text, PDF] concluding that states are unprepared to implement the law and may need up to eight years to acquire the resources and time to successfully enact the legislation. CNET News has more.

[JURIST] The US Department of Justice [official website] asked [submission, PDF; declaration, PDF] the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit Thursday to drop the DOJ's appeal [JURIST report] of a lower court ruling [PDF opinion] declaring the NSA domestic surveillance program [JURIST news archive] unconstitutional. The Justice Department argued that the lawsuit [ACLU case materials] is moot because "electronic surveillance not subject to the FISC court" no longer exists. Ann Beeson [official profile], associate legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) [advocacy website], told AP that the ACLU plans to file a response Friday, as "the case is not moot if there's any remote possibility that the government is going to violate the law again."

The Bush Administration announced last Wednesday that it will begin to submit all domestic surveillance requests [JURIST report] to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) [FJC backgrounder) for review and approval under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act in a letter [text, PDF; US DOJ background briefing transcript, DOC] sent by US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. AP has more.

[JURIST] Some non-Cambodian judges involved in the multinational Khmer Rouge [JURIST news archive] genocide trials may resign because of a protracted dispute over procedural rules among the various jurists overseeing the upcoming tribunal, the International Herald Tribune reported Thursday. Tribunal judges convened in November to establish court rules for the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) [official website] scheduled to begin trials for surviving Khmer Rouge leaders in mid-2007, but they failed to agree [JURIST report] on the Draft Internal Rules [text, PDF] and delayed making a final decision. The complexities of the rules come from proposed checks and balances that would allow the foreign and Cambodian judges to veto each other’s decisions. One provision currently under dispute does not contain such a check, and allows an indictment to move forward with only the foreign judges’ approval.

The Cambodian judges were appointed by and are answerable to Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen [official profile], whose government includes former middle-ranking Khmer Rouge officials. Last month, Human Rights Watch [advocacy website] accused Sen of delaying the genocide tribunals and interfering with the tribunal's judicial independence [JURIST report], a charge which the Cambodian government denies [JURIST report]. The International Herald Tribune has more.