[JURIST] Sudan on Tuesday attempted to prevent the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) [official website] from considering a report by a UNHRC team sent to investigate conditions in Darfur [JURIST news archive]. The report [DOC text], issued Monday, calls for immediate protection [JURIST report] of victims in the war-ravaged region of Sudan. In response Tuesday, Sudanese Justice Minister Mohammed Ali al-Mardi accused team leader and Nobel peace laureate Jody Williams [Nobel Foundation profile] of harboring "a preconceived and hostile attitude against Sudan." He went on to decry the report as unreliable, because team members had not even visited the country. The team did not visit Sudan because the Sudanese government repeatedly refused to issue them visas [JURIST report]. Contrary to Monday's report, al-Mardi said that the situation in Darfur is stable, with decreasing malnutrition and mortality rates.

Since civil war broke out in the Darfur region of Sudan in 2003, over 200,000 people have died there. The government is accused of sponsoring militias responsible for numerous war crimes. The International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website] has been investigating crimes in Darfur since 2005. Last month, it asked a panel of ICC judges to summon [JURIST report] a former interior minister of the Sudanese government and former militia leader to face charges of war crimes. Sudan has refused to hand over suspects [JURIST report] named by the ICC, saying it has created its own war crimes court. AP has more.

[JURIST] US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales [official profile] said Tuesday he will not resign [AP recorded video] from his position in response to growing controversy over the firings last year of eight US Attorneys that may have been politically motivated [JURIST report]. Gonzales nonetheless accepted responsibility and admitted "mistakes were made" when the US Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] publicly dismissed the US Attorneys and subsequently misled Congress about the firings. According to e-mails [PDF; set 2, PDF] revealed Tuesday, Gonzales' Chief of Staff Kyle Sampson [profile] and former White House counsel Harriet Miers [official profile; JURIST news archive] suggested firing [JURIST report] all 93 US Attorneys [DOJ backgrounder] at the beginning of President Bush's second term. Sampson resigned [press release] from his position Monday.

In response to Gonzales' comments, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) [official website], among others, renewed his calls for Gonzales to resign in a statement [recorded video] on the Senate floor. Several high-ranking Democratic senators also called for Gonzales' resignation [JURIST report] Monday in the wake of revelations [JURIST report] in an official audit that the FBI broke and misused laws in obtaining personal information from telephone companies, Internet service providers, banks, and credit bureaus under the Patriot Act. AP has more.

[JURIST] High-ranking officials in the Australian government pressured the US government to reduce terror charges against Australian Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks [JURIST news archives], according to a report in The Australian on Tuesday. Attorney General Philip Ruddock [official profile] and other officials personally asked the US Department of Defense and the Department of Justice [official websites] to expedite the charges, starting in January 2004. Australian efforts intensified after the US Supreme Court ruled [JURIST report] that the military commission [JURIST news archive] that had charged Hicks was illegal and that the crime with which he was charged, conspiracy, did not exist in the laws of war.

US prosecutors dropped conspiracy charge on February 2 and recharged him with providing material support to terrorists [JURIST report]. Formal approval [JURIST report] was granted on March 1 for the final charge: one count of providing material support to terrorists. A trial date was set [JURIST report] three weeks later. The Australian has more.

[JURIST] Lawmakers dismissed last week by Ecuador's Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) [official website] fought police as they tried to enter the Congress of Ecuador [official website] on Tuesday, sparking violence that led to the suspension of the legislature's activities for a week. Meanwhile, the Constitutional Tribunal [official website] rejected an appeal by lawmakers to resolve the dispute between the legislature and the TSE, citing lawmakers' failure to conform to petition requirements. The root controversy stems from a plan to hold a referendum on whether to rewrite the constitution [text, in Spanish] of Ecuador [JURIST news archive]. When the TSE approved a version of the referendum pushed by President Rafael Correa [official website; BBC profile], which would allow a constitutional assembly to dismiss elected officials retroactively, 57 members of Congress voted to impeach four of its justices. In response, the TSE fired the 57 legislators [JURIST report], ruling that they had illegally interfered with plans for the referendum.

On Saturday, the Constitutional Tribunal warned Correa to abide by an unfavorable ruling [JURIST report], implying that it would reverse the TSE ruling. Today, police armed in riot gear surrounded the legislature and fought with lawmakers, their supporters and opponents. Correa, who ordered the police to bar the ousted lawmakers from entering, blamed the violence on their supporters [Prensa Latina report]. According to the Constitutional Tribunal, the legislature may either resubmit its request that the Tribunal resolve the issue or it may appeal the original TSE decision. Reuters has more. El Universo has local coverage.

[JURIST] Charges were dropped Tuesday against the last of seven British soldiers [BBC trial timeline] accused of causing the 2003 death of Iraqi civilian Baha Musa [Herald report]. A military panel cleared Major Michael Peebles and Warrant Officer Mark Davies of negligently performing their duties. Charges against Lieutenant Colonel Jorge Mendonca [JURIST report] and four other soldiers were dropped [BBC report] in February, and in September, Corporal David Payne pleaded guilty [JURIST report] to a charge of inhumane treatment. Although the remaining charges against Payne were also dropped in February, he became the first British soldier to be convicted of a war crime in Iraq. The two other courts martial against British citizens also resulted in dismissal of all charges. A British judge said Monday that he dropped the charges against Mendonca because his superiors approved some of the techniques [JURIST report].

The charges stem from a 2003 raid on a hotel in Basra in which British military personnel confiscated weapons and explosives contraband, and detained several Iraqi civilians, including Musa, who died while in custody. Prosecutors allege the soldiers took the Iraqis to a detention facility where they were held for 36 hours and subjected to physical abuse, causing Musa's death. Because surviving abuse victims were hooded, they could not confirm the identities of the soldiers who caused Musa's death. Phil Shiner, who is representing the victim's families in a civil case soon to come before the judicial panel of the House of Lords [official website], condemned the dismissal, calling for an independent civilian inquiry into the events. The Guardian has more.

[JURIST] The Washington State House of Representatives [official website] has passed a bill [summary] by a vote of 73-22 that will require public and private schools to provide information about human papilloma virus (HPV) [CDC fact sheet], a sexually transmitted disease that causes cervical cancer, and its newly-developed vaccine to parents of sixth grade students. The bill stops short of mandating vaccination. The measure will now move to the Washington State Senate [official website] for consideration. AP has more.

In February, Texas became the first state to require that girls receive an HPV vaccine [JURIST report] when Governor Rick Perry (R) [official website] issued a controversial executive order [text] that may be overturned by the Texas legislature. Virginia became the second state to mandate HPV vaccination for sixth grade girls in March when Governor Timothy Kaine (D) [official website] announced [JURIST report] that he would sign a bill [text] passed by both houses of the Virginia General Assembly. Lawmakers in about 20 other states are reportedly considering similar measures [PJEPHL report] to require HPV vaccination.

[JURIST] Testimony began Tuesday in the trial of a civil suit [JURIST report] brought against Sudan [JURIST news archive] by families of US military personnel killed in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole [Wikipedia backgrounder; US DOD inquiry report; JURIST news archive]. The families say Sudan has provided material support to al Qaeda since 1991, without which the attack that killed the US personnel would not have been possible. The 59 family members are seeking $105 million in damages. US District Judge Robert Doumar of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia [official website] has nonetheless indicated that the federal Death on the High Seas Act [text] will likely apply, limiting the maximum damages the families could receive to $35 million.

Last month, Doumar denied a motion by Sudan to dismiss the suit [JURIST report] based on the complaint's failure to connect Sudan with al Qaeda. An earlier motion to dismiss because the statutory limitations had passed was also dismissed. During the trial phase, the plaintiffs will try to prove that Sudan provided the terrorists with explosives, locations for training camps, and the cover of diplomatic pouches to transport materials. They will also allege that Sudan's New York consulate facilitated al Qaeda's 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center [ADL backgrounder]. Because the United States has listed Sudan as a sponsor of terrorism since 1993, Sudan cannot claim sovereign immunity [Cornell Law School backgrounder]. AP has more.

[JURIST] Zimbabwe opposition presidential hopeful Morgan Tsvangirai [BBC profile; JURIST news archive], arrested [JURIST report] by government forces at a protest in Harare Sunday, was taken to a hospital Tuesday after a brief appearance in court along with 50 other detainees. On Monday, Tsvangirai's lawyer and party officials said he was beaten [JURIST report] while in police custody; he appeared in court Tuesday with a large gash on his head and a swollen face. High Court Judge Chinemberi Bhunu had previously ordered police to give Tsvangirai access to both his lawyer and to immediate medical attention, and ordered that the detainees in custody be charged or released by noon Tuesday [BBC report]. Police, however, took the activists to the magistrate's court hours after missing Bhunu's deadline.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice [official profile] on Tuesday called for the immediate and unconditional release [press release] of the detainees and said that President Robert Mugabe [BBC profile] is "ruthless and repressive and creates only suffering for the people of Zimbabwe." UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour [official profile] urged that Tsvangirai be provided with all necessary medical treatment and be brought before the Court or released [press release].

Government forces arrested at least 100 people, among them leading members of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) [party website]. after a scheduled prayer meeting in Harare was declared illegal. As citizens approached the sports field where the "Save Zimbabwe Campaign" meeting was to be held, riot police forcefully blocked entrance to the grounds and fired tear gas on the crowds. One activist was shot dead. Police imposed a three-month ban [JURIST report] on anti-government protests last month after a political rally by the MDC led to confrontations between police and citizens around the country. AP has more.

[JURIST] The trial of former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] and former lawyer David Mills began Tuesday in Milan on charges of corruption arising from Berlusconi's alleged payment of $600,000 to Mills for favorable testimony at trials in the 1990s. Last month, the Italian Court of Cassation [official website, in italian] ruled that Berlusconi should face trial [JURIST report] in an appeals court on accusations he had bribed judges to stop the auction of the SME state-owned food company to a rival in 1985. The Daily Mail has more.

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.

[JURIST] The French Cour de Cassation [official website, in French] held [judgment; press release, in French] Tuesday that same-sex marriages [JURIST news archive] are not valid under French law and that marriage can only be between a man and a woman. The case arose in 2004 when Stephane Charpin and Bertrand Charpentier were married [JURIST report], after which both a local court and intermediate appeals court ruled that the marriage was invalid. State lawyers argued that it was not an issue for the courts to decide, but rather was a question to be answered by parliament. Bloomberg has more.

The decision came on the same day that Pope Benedict XVI [official website] declared that the Catholic Church's stance against gay marriage is "non-negotiable." The pope also said that all Catholic politicians must oppose it, stating that they should "introduce laws inspired by values grounded in human nature." Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Chinese Chief Justice Xiao Yang [official profile] reported Tuesday that nine high ranking Chinese officials were convicted by courts in 2006 as a result of China's anti-corruption campaign [JURIST news archive]. In a working report to the annual session of the National People's Congress (NPC) [official website], the country's parliament, Xiao also reported that a total of 825 convicted government officials were sentenced by courts in 2006; of those, 9 were at the provincial or ministerial level and 92 were at the prefecture level. Chinese courts also heard 23,733 cases of embezzlement, bribery and dereliction of duty of which 8,310 were bribery cases involving government employees. Also in 2006, the Supreme Court took back the power to review and ratify all death penalty cases [JURIST report] starting in 2007, ending a 26-year practice of allowing lower level courts to decide such cases.

In November 2006, five senior judges from the city of Shenzhen [government website] in Guangdong province in southern China were arrested and 20 other judges implicated in a crackdown on corruption [JURIST report] between June and October. China [JURIST news archive] has a history of corruption among judges, but the probe in Shenzhen marked the largest judicial graft scandal the country has seen to date. Four Chinese judges were charged with accepting bribes [JURIST report] in October 2006 to fix the outcomes of cases in Anhui province [official backgrounder]. A report by Xiao to the Standing Committee [official website] of the NPC in October 2006 said public trust in the Chinese judiciary needed in be restored in the face of court corruption and systemic failures to implement court orders. Xiao has announced [press release, in Chinese] a three-year reform plan focusing on implementing a strict code of conduct [JURIST report] for local judges. Xinhua has more.

[JURIST] The Council of Europe's European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) [official website] called on Russia [JURIST news archive] to deal with allegations of torture and abuse in the volatile Chechnya [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive] region in a record third public statement [text, PDF; press release] released Monday. The CPT previously issued public statements denouncing conditions in Russia in 2001 and 2003. Council of Europe Secretary General Terry Davis [official profile] called [statement, text] on the Russian government to immediately comply with the CPT's recommendations. Reuters has more.

Council of Europe [official website] Commissioner for Human Rights Thomas Hammarberg [official profile] alleged [JURIST report] during a visit to the region in February that officials in Chechnya routinely use electrical shocks, forced confessions, and other forms of torture.

[JURIST] Media giant Viacom [corporate website] filed a lawsuit Tuesday for copyright infringement against the website YouTube and owner Google [corporate websites], seeking over $1 billion in damages and an injunction that would prohibit further infringement. Viacom, which owns Comedy Central, MTV, VH1 and other media outlets, alleges in its complaint [text] that over 160,000 unauthorized video clips have been posted on YouTube. According to a Viacom press release [text]:

YouTube's strategy has been to avoid taking proactive steps to curtail the infringement on its site, thus generating significant traffic and revenues for itself while shifting the entire burden – and high cost – of monitoring YouTube onto the victims of its infringement. This behavior stands in stark contrast to the actions of other significant distributors, who have recognized the fair value of entertainment content and have concluded agreements to make content legally available to their customers around the world.

[JURIST] Pakistan's Supreme Judicial Council [governing constitutional provisions] held a hearing Tuesday on the alleged misconduct of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry [official profile] as Pakistanis protested in the streets and lawyers boycotted courts across the country. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf [official website; BBC profile] suspended [JURIST report] Chaudhry Friday for alleged misconduct. Chaudhry has questioned whether he will receive a fair hearing by the Council, which held a closed-door two-hour session Tuesday before adjourning proceedings until Friday. Chaudhry has been confined to his home in Islamabad since Friday and claims his phones and TV at home have been disconnected and his vehicles confiscated.

Over 200 lawyers and liberal party supporters protested [Reuters report] outside the Supreme Court Tuesday. On Monday, twenty Pakistani lawyers were injured by riot police [JURIST report] when more than 3,000 lawyers gathered outside the Lahore High Court [official website] building for a sit-in. Chaudhry's suspension has been condemned by lawyers as an attack on the judiciary's independence. Pakistan's Electronic Media Regulatory Authority [official website] reprimanded TV channels Monday for showing live footage of the protests supporting Chaudhry; channels Aaj and Geo were forced off the air temporarily. Human Rights Watch [advocacy website] has called on the Pakistani government to end the arbitrary detention [press release] of Chaudhry and cease the police crackdown on lawyers staging peaceful protests. Chaudhry assumed the position of chief justice in 2005, and has developed a reputation for being willing to investigate alleged government abuses involving the illegal detention of political activists. Reuters has more. BBC News has additional coverage.

ALSO ON JURIST  Topic: Pakistan | Op-ed: Justice Derailed in Pakistan: The Sacking of the CJ

[JURIST] The National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) [official website] endorsed [press release] a declaration against torture [PDF text] drafted by 17 evangelical scholars, a move some say signifies an end to US President George W. Bush's alliance with Christian evangelicals. The declaration, written by Evangelicals for Human Rights [official website], noted the traditional relationship between Christianity and "the human rights ethic." The authors also said that the United States has historically led the world in human rights efforts, but "our moral vision has blurred since 9/11. We need to regain our moral clarity." The declaration notes that "the current administration has decided to retain morally questionable interrogation techniques among the options available to our intelligence agencies" and expresses concern with several provisions in the Military Commissions Act [JURIST news archive], including "one in which CIA officials are not required to submit to congressional oversight, and are not held to the same standards as the U.S. military" and provisions which do not "allow terrorism suspects to challenge their detention or treatment through traditional habeas corpus petitions." The declaration concludes with a "call for the legislative or judicial reversal of those executive and legislative provisions that violate the moral and legal standards articulated in this declaration."

Rev. Richard Cizik [official profile], a leader within the NAE, told AP that the association's endorsement of the declaration against torture does not constitute a condemnation of Bush. Cizik said conservative evangelicals support the war against terror, "but that does not mean by any means necessary." The Guardian has more.

[JURIST] A United Nations human rights expert urged the Philippines [statement] Monday to amend or repeal its new anti-terrorism law [JURIST report]. Martin Scheinin, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights while countering terrorism [official website], specifically expressed concern that the law allows house arrests without strong evidence of guilt and make detentions reviewable by "members of the executive rather than an independent judicial body."

Among other provisions, the 2007 Human Security Act [press release] allows police to detain suspected terrorists for three days without charges, but it also allows victims of unlawful arrest to collect up to 500,000 pesos ($10,350) for each day of wrongful detainment. In addition, the legislation bans the practice of extraordinary rendition [JURIST news archive]. Philippines President Gloria Arroyo assured [press release] Filipinos that the law will not infringe on civil liberties as it will only "be used against bombers not protesters." Inquirer.net has more.

[JURIST] A British judge said Monday that he dropped prisoner abuse charges [JURIST report] against the most senior British military officer charged with abusing detainees last week because his superiors approved some of the techniques. A British Army major testified in November 2006 that a military legal adviser approved techniques for preparing Iraqi detainees [JURIST report] for interrogation that allegedly violated the Geneva Conventions [ICRC materials]. Judge Stuart McKinnon dropped charges against five British soldiers last month while continuing charges against two British co-defendants in their ongoing court-martial.

The charges stem from a 2003 raid on a hotel in Basra in which British military confiscated weapons and explosives contraband, and detained several Iraqi civilians, including hotel receptionist Baha Mousa [BBC report; JURIST report], who died while in custody. The soldiers allegedly took the Iraqis to a detention facility where they were held for 36 hours and subjected to physical abuse, causing Mousa's death, according to prosecutors. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] A US federal judge has approved a settlement under which Arthur Andersen [Wikipedia backgrounder] will pay $72.5 million to investors who sued the firm for its involvement in the Enron scandal [JURIST news archive]. US District Judge Melinda Harmon [official profile] signed an order approving the settlement, ending the former accounting giant's involvement in a $40 billion class action lawsuit [plaintiff materials]. The University of California Board of Regents is the main plaintiff in the case and has already received over $7.3 billion from JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. Merrill Lynch and Credit Suisse Group were also sued in the case, but they are seeking a ruling [JURIST report] that the case should never have been certified as a class action [opinion and order, PDF].

The US Supreme Court overturned [JURIST report] a 2002 obstruction of justice conviction [JURIST report] against Arthur Andersen for its involvement in the fallout of Enron [Wikipedia backgrounder], but the ruling did not come in time to save the accounting firm which is no longer in operation. FinancialWire has more.

[JURIST] The Tokyo High Court [official backgrounder] Tuesday ruled against a group of Chinese plaintiffs seeking $682,000 in damages for injuries caused by chemical weapons leaks left by the Imperial Japanese Army [Wikipedia backgrounder] at the end of World War II. The court upheld a 2003 ruling by a Tokyo district court refusing to award damages, but a lawyer for one of the plaintiffs said the court did acknowledge that the weapons were illegally abandoned in China [JURIST news archive]. The court said, however, that it would have been impossible for Japan [JURIST news archive] to remove all of the weapons because they were left on Chinese soil.

In a separate 2003 lawsuit, the Tokyo court awarded $170,400 to Chinese civilians harmed by Japanese chemical weapon leaks. Japan must remove the estimated 762,000 weapons still left in China before the year 2012 under the terms of the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention [text; Japan MOFA backgrounder]. A lawyer for one of the families of a deceased victim said he plans to appeal the high court's ruling to the Supreme Court of Japan [official website]. AP has more.

[JURIST] Former White House counsel Harriet Miers [official profile] suggested to an aide of US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales [official profile] that all 93 US Attorneys be fired at the beginning of President Bush's second term, but that suggestion was ultimately dismissed as impractical, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino [Wikipedia profile] said Monday. Following Gonzales' approval of a plan to fire a shorter list, the US Department of Justice [official website] recommended eight dismissals [JURIST report] last year. The White House reportedly approved the firings [JURIST report]. Perino admitted that President Bush had spoken to Gonzales about complaints he had received that certain US Attorneys [DOJ backgrounder] were not aggressively pursuing voter-fraud cases [JURIST report], but said the White House never actually revised the list. Perino maintained that the eight dismissals were for "performance and managerial reasons," despite reports that the terminated prosecutors had received favorable reviews.

Democrats in Congress have called for an investigation into the dismissals, alleging that the firings were politically motivated because the prosecutors involved did not prosecute voter fraud specifically involving Democrats. US Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) [official website], heading a Senate Judiciary Committee investigation, said he wants to question US Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove [official profile] about the controversy. Kyle Sampson, the aide Miers spoke to in 2004, resigned Monday after revealing that he was not upfront with other Justice officials about the extent of his discussions with the White House over the prospect of prosecutor dismissals, causing the officials to give incomplete testimony [JURIST report] in the investigation. A group of e-mails and internal documents will be turned over to Congress Tuesday that reportedly indicate the White House's involvement in the dismissals. AP has more; Reuters has additional coverage.