[JURIST] The Utah Supreme Court [official website] Friday restricted parental rights to biological parents in the cases of unmarried parents raising children related by blood to only one partner. The case at issue involved a five-year old girl conceived in a lesbian relationship, whose biological mother Cheryl Pike Barlow sought to restrict the visitation rights of her former partner Keri Lynne Jones. While the case involves a same-sex relationship, the ruling also applies to heterosexual couples.

The state supreme court's decision [PDF text] reverses a lower court holding that granted the partner visitation under the common law in loco parentis doctrine, in which a person acts as a parent although they have no blood or legal ties to a child. The court wrote:

We hold that the doctrine of in loco parentis, as recognized by the courts of this state, does not independently grant standing to seek visitation after the in loco parentis relationship has ended. Although this court recognized the right of stepparents to seek visitation in Gribble v. Gribble, 583 P.2d 64 (Utah 1978), standing in that case arose out of an interpretation of statutory law granting such rights, not from an independent common law source. We decline to extend the common law doctrine of in loco parentis to create standing where it does not arise out of statute. We accordingly overturn the trial court's grant of visitation rights and hold that the common law doctrine of in loco parentis does not independently grant standing to seek visitation against the wishes of a fit legal parent.

[JURIST] The England and Wales Court of Appeals (Criminal Division) [official website] ruled Friday that UK terrorism laws do not allow for a "freedom fighter" defense [opinion text]. The defendant in the case, a Libyan identified as "F", was arrested in late 2005 and charged with violating Terrorism Act 2000 [text] Section 58 (1)(b) [text] by possessing documents useful in furtherance of terrorism, specifically a CD downloaded from a Jihadist website. F, who was granted asylum in the UK in 2003 after his family was allegedly murdered by or on behalf of the regime of Col. Muammar Gadafi [official website], denied knowingly possessing the documents, but alternatively argued that even if he did possess them, it would not be in violation of the law if the knowledge was used against Gadafi's tyrannical regime.

The three presiding justices rejected the argument, finding that the Terrorism Act 2000 applied to countries governed by tyrants and dictators since it lacked an exception for terrorist activities "motivated or said to be morally justified by the alleged nobility of the terrorist cause." The justices also said that, given the random impact of terrorist activities, citizens of Libya could also expect to be protected from potential terrorism by UK residents. AP has more.

[JURIST] A Turkish court sentenced the conspirators of the 2003 Istanbul bombings [BBC report; JURIST news archive] Friday, handing down seven life sentences. In addition, 41 of the 74 defendants received prison sentences ranging from four to 18 years; the remaining 26 defendants were acquitted. The bombings, which targeted two synagogues, the British consulate [official website], and the Turkish headquarters of London-based HSBC Bank [corporate website], killed 54 people and injured hundreds more.

Many of the convicted conspirators were defiant during their sentencing. The mastermind of the bombing, Syrian Loa'i Mohammad Haj Bakr al-Saqa [BBC report], called on others to continue fighting. Harun Ilhan, who took responsibility for carrying out the attacks, called for the establishment of an Islamic Turkish state. While Turkey has Muslim roots, its government and military are secular. In his closing statements, Ilhan said true Islam is not practiced in Turkey and invited the Turkish people to convert to his form of the religion. Both al-Saqa and Ilhan were among the seven receiving life sentences. AP has more.

[JURIST] Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] said Friday that the United States has consistently failed to investigate and prosecute [HRW report] allegations of abuse of Afghan detainees. The group welcomed this week's prison sentence [JURIST report] for CIA contractor David Passaro [JURIST news archive], who was found guilty of assault in the beating death of Abdul Wali [wikipedia profile] at an Afghanistan-Pakistan boarder post in 2003, but characterized the case as "a singular exception." HRW decried the lack of thorough investigations and the generally light punishments received by US personnel implicated in detainee killings in Afghanistan, noting that Passaro could have been charged with torture and homicide. US District Judge Terrence Boyle [official profile] said the absence of an autopsy on Wali contributed to Passaro avoiding a murder charge.

The HRW report also criticized the Justice Department for not investigating whether the military's civilian leadership committed crimes by authorizing abusive or torturous interrogations. HRW originally called for such an investigation [JURIST report] in April 2005. AFP has more.

[JURIST] Australian Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks [JURIST news archive] gathered intelligence on the US embassy in Kabul and "participated in an advanced al Qaeda course on information collection and surveillance" before being captured in 2001 while fighting with the Taliban in Afghanistan, according to new details released Friday by US officials. The DOD memorandum [PDF text] notifying Hicks of the swearing of charges against him also alleges that Hicks was trained in covert photography, disguises, and dead drops [Wikipedia backgounder]. Hicks faces charges [JURIST report] of providing material support for terrorism and attempted murder in violation of the law of war, though the charges have not yet received formal approval. Australia's ABC News has more.

Hicks defense lawyer David McLeod criticized the new allegations as vague [ABC Australia report], saying the DOD memo does not present a clearer picture of the accusations against Hicks. Meanwhile, former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser [official profile] said Friday Hicks would not receive a fair trial [ABC Australia report]. During a speech [transcript] at the University of Melbourne, Fraser said the US will not allow a fair trial because, after detaining Hicks in "inhumane and degrading" conditions for five years, a "verdict of innocence would be extraordinarily embarrassing" to the US and Australian governments.

[JURIST] The Italian Court of Cassation ruled Friday that former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] should face trial in an appeals court on corruption charges [BBC backgrounder]. Berlusconi was accused of bribing judges to stop the auction of the SME state-owned food company to a rival in 1985, but was acquitted [BBC report] in December 2004. A law [text, in Italian] passed by Berlusconi's government barred prosecutors from appealing the case after the initial acquittal, but the Italian Constitutional Court ruled last month that the law violated Articles 3 and 34 of the Italian constitution [text, in English]. Berlusconi's lawyer said that Friday's decision would have no practical effect since the statute of limitations had already run.

Berlusconi, a media mogul and Italy's richest man, has faced numerous allegations of corruption in the past. In 2006, he was ordered to stand trial for embezzlement, false accounting, tax fraud, money laundering, and giving false testimony [JURIST reports] at trials involving his broadcasting company Mediaset [corporate website]. Last month, a judge threw out some of the tax fraud charges [JURIST report] against Berlusconi because the statute of limitations had expired. AP has more.

[JURIST] A Russian court on Friday upheld the 2004 sale [JURIST report] of the top production unit of now-bankrupt oil company Yukos [JURIST news archive]. Yuganskneftegaz [corporate backgrounder] was auctioned off after Yukos was held liable for over $20 billion in back taxes [JURIST report]. Yukos sued in 2005 to challenge the sale of Yuganskneftegaz, which is now controlled [JURIST report] by the Russian state oil company Rosneft, arguing that the auction violated Russian and international law and that the Russian Federal Property Management Fund [AK&M backgrounder] purposefully underestimated the unit's value. The arbitration court in Moscow rejected Yukos' motion to overturn the sale.

Former Yukos CEO Mikhael Khodorkovsky [defense website; JURIST news archive] was convicted of tax evasion [JURIST report] in 2005 and is currently serving an eight-year prison sentence. Russian prosecutors earlier this month filed new money laundering charges [JURIST report] based on allegations that Khodorkovsky used his Open Russia Foundation [SourceWatch backgrounder] to funnel oil revenues away from Yukos. RIA Novosti has more.

[JURIST] US District Judge Robert G. Doumar has said that he will not grant the Sudanese government's motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by families of sailors killed in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole [Wikipedia backgrounder; US DOD inquiry report]. Although he has not issued a formal ruling on the issue, Doumar said during a hearing Thursday to determine which country's laws will govern the dispute that he would allow the case to proceed to trial. Sudan [JURIST news archive] has urged the court to dismiss the case because the complaint does not directly connect any Sudanese official to al Qaeda, the terrorist network largely held responsible for the attack, and also does not directly connect al Qaeda to the bombing. Sudan has also argued that the US federal court does not have proper jurisdiction over the case.

Doumar ruled in 2005 that there was sufficient evidence [JURIST report] to allow the families to pursue the lawsuit. The families allege that Sudan helped finance the attack and allowed an al Qaeda operative to ship explosives to Yemen. Sudan cannot claim sovereign immunity in the suit under the general terms of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act [text] because it is subject to an amendment contained in the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 [text] exposing US-defined state sponsors of terrorism [US State Department list] to potential liability. AP has more.

[JURIST] A group of lawmakers from the US Senate and House of Representatives on Thursday introduced [press release] the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act [S 2461 text; PDF], which would give the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) [official website] the same authority to regulate tobacco products as it has over other consumer products. The bill, which cites the dangers of tobacco smoke and the economic burden on the American medical system, would allow the FDA to enforce stronger warning labels on tobacco products, and also to decrease the amount of addictive ingredients, such as nicotine, that tobacco companies put in their products.

According to the bill's findings:

Because past efforts to restrict advertising and marketing of tobacco products have failed adequately to curb tobacco use by adolescents, comprehensive restrictions on the sale, promotion, and distribution of such products are needed....

It is in the public interest for Congress to enact legislation that provides the Food and Drug Administration with the authority to regulate tobacco products and the advertising and promotion of such products.

[JURIST] US District Judge Charles S. Haight ruled [opinion, PDF; ACLU-NY press release] Thursday that the New York Police Department (NYPD) [official website] must stop its practice of videotaping lawful public gatherings and preserving the videotapes and adhere to the so-called "Modified Handschu Guidelines" developed by prior court rulings, which govern police surveillance. Haight is responsible for overseeing the terms of a settlement in a 1985 class action lawsuit over the NYPD's investigation techniques, and in 2003 ruled that police were permitted to "attend any event open to the public, on the same terms and conditions of the public generally." Haight admitted in Thursday's ruling that "the text of [the prior] opinion and its implementing order... [did] not constitute a model of clarity," but found that the police department had "no discernible justification for the apparently disregard" of the guidelines, which requires the NYPD to conduct investigations of political activity "under the supervision of the Intelligence Division...[and with] the express written approval of the Deputy Commissioner, Intelligence."

Jethro M. Eisenstein, one of the lawyers that represented the class challenging the videotaping, told the New York Times that the ruling makes it possible to challenge the legality of other surveillance practices such as the use of undercover agents at political gatherings. Arthur Eisenberg, legal director of the New York Civil Liberties Union [advocacy website], characterized the decision [press release] as "[restoring] the proper limits" of videotaped surveillance. The New York Times has more.

[JURIST] Italian Judge Caterina Interlandi issued indictments Friday for 31 US and Italian intelligence agents for their alleged role in the February 17, 2003 abduction [JURIST news archive; WP timeline] and extraordinary rendition of alleged terror suspect Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr [Wikipedia profile; JURIST news archive] in Milan. Prosecutor Armando Spataro has alleged that 25 Americans working for the Central Intelligence Agency, one United States Air Force colonel, and five Italians from Italy's Military Intelligence and Security Service (SISMI) [official websites], including former director Nicolo Pollari, colluded to kidnap Nasr from Milan. Nasr was then allegedly transferred from Aviano Air Base to Alexandra, Egypt and turned over to Egypt's State Security Intelligence (SSI), where he was allegedly tortured before being released [JURIST report] Sunday. The trial is slated to begin June 8.

In October, Italian prosecutors completed their investigation [JURIST report] and sought the extradition of the 26 American defendants [JURIST report]. Previous attempts by the prosecutors to request extradition have been stonewalled [JURIST report] by the Italian government. Spataro has said he would be forced to try the American defendants in absentia [JURIST report] if extradition is denied. US and Italian intelligence agents have pressed for a political resolution [JURIST report] of the case. AP has more.