[JURIST] British magistrate Timothy Workman [Wikipedia profile] ruled Tuesday that Balkan war criminal Milan Spanovic [Guardian profile] need not return to Croatia [JURIST news archive] to face an international arrest warrant. Workman refused to extradite Spanovic, who was convicted of war crimes [JURIST news archive] in absentia and sentenced to 20 years in prison in 1993 stemming from his conduct during Croatia's 1991-1995 independence war [Wikipedia backgrounder]. Spanovic has been in Britain since 1998. Workman speculated that Spanovic may not receive a fair retrial in Croatia because of the passage of time, despite assurances by Croatia's Ministry of Justice [official website] to the contrary.

A government representative said Croatia will appeal the judge's ruling. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The UK Ministry of Defence [official website] announced [press release] Tuesday that British armed forces will no longer use certain types of cluster bombs [JURIST news archive; FAS backgrounder]. UK Secretary of State for Defence Des Browne [official profile] said the military will still use "smart" cluster bombs with self-destruct mechanisms in an attempt to strike a balance between providing troops with adequate weapons and protecting civilians.

In February, Britain was one of 46 countries at the Oslo Conference on Cluster Munitions [conference materials] that pledged to develop a new international treaty [JURIST report; Norwegian government press release] to ban the use of cluster bombs by 2008. Representatives from the US did not attend the Oslo conference and subsequently rejected the international call [JURIST report] to ban the use of cluster bombs. AFP has more.

[JURIST] US President George W. Bush [official profile] warned Congressional Democrats Tuesday to accept his compromise [text] to allow top White House aides to testify about the firings of US Attorneys [official website] before the Senate Judiciary Committee [official website]. The Senate Judiciary Committee had called for Bush's close ad visors, including former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove [official profile], to testify under oath about their involvement in the recent Justice Department scandal [JURIST news archive]. In response, Counsel to the President Fred Fielding proposed a private questioning session, not under oath. Leading Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer (D-NY) [official website] argued against the compromise, saying testimony would be "almost meaningless" without the threat of perjury and an accompanying transcript. Calling the move a "partisan fishing expedition," Bush has now declared that he will fight any attempt to subpoena his advisors.

Congress wants Miers and Rove to testify on allegations that the firings of several US Attorneys by US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales [official profile] were politically motivated. The accusations have led Congress to consider restricting [JURIST report] the Attorney General's power to appoint interim US Attorneys. Despite Bush's assertions that Gonzales has "got support with me," reports have surfaced that the White House is considering potential replacements [JURIST report]. AP has more.

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] heard oral arguments [transcript, PDF] Tuesday in the case of Fry v. Pliler [Duke Law case backgrounder; merit briefs], 06-5247, a case in which the defendant was convicted on two counts of murder following two mistrials. Fry subsequently filed several habeas appeals, arguing the trial court improperly precluded a key defense witness from testifying. The Supreme Court will now address whether a court should apply the "harmless beyond a reasonable doubt" standard of Chapman v. California [opinion] or the “substantial and injurious effect” standard of Brecht v. Abrahamson [opinion] in a federal habeas proceeding for which the lower state courts did not conduct a harmless error analysis. There is currently split authority among the US Circuit Courts of Appeals on this issue.

Specifically, the Court will consider whether a divided three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit [official website] correctly decided [opinion text, PDF] that the Brecht standard should apply and that the error in this case was harmless. AP has more. SCOTUSblog has additional coverage.

[JURIST] Reporter Rafig Tagi and editor Samir Huseinov, both of the newspaper Senet, went on trial [Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations backgrounder] Tuesday in the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan for allegedly insulting Islam. Both claim the prosecution is politically motivated as authoritarian Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev [offical website; Wikipedia profile] has a reputation for heavy-handed repression of the media. Violent protests broke out last year in the predominantly Muslim nation in response to Tagi's November article, which suggested that Islam has been responsible for supressing people, and limiting freedom. He went on to write that the Prophet Muhammad was a source of problems for Eastern nations. Both men on trial said their rights under the Azerbaijan constitution [text] have been violated. "It is illegal to imprison someone for their convictions," Tagi declared to the courtroom. AP has more.

Azerbaijan [CIA backgrounder] is a small republic in the Near East, which was part of the Soviet Union until the early 1990s. Ilham succeeded his father as President in 2003, after an election criticized by the opposition and the international community. The country is strategically important for its oil wealth and location between Iran and Russia.

[JURIST] France signed an extradition treaty with China [JURIST news archives] Tuesday in Paris over the objections of human rights groups that oppose China's use of the death penalty. After signing the treaty, Justice Minister Pascal Clement [official profile, in French] explained that France may refuse extradition of suspects to China for political or military offenses. If a crime is punishable by death in China, France will only extradite upon guarantees that the death penalty will not be administered. Finally, a judicial authority must approve arrest warrants.

Human rights groups such as Amnesty International [advocacy website] have campaigned against the treaty, arguing that China's guarantees are not trustworthy. China has recently limited use of the death penalty, although it has been listed among the countries with the most executions [JURIST reports]. In contrast, France outlawed the death penalty in 1981 and recently amended its Constitution [JURIST report] to make the ban explicit. France joins Spain and Portugal as the third European Union country to sign a extradition treaty with China. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] The editor of a website in China [JURIST news archive] that called for political reform has been sentenced to six years in prison by the Ningbo Intermediate People's Court in Zhejiang province for defaming the government. Zhang Jianhong [Reporters Without Borders report] wrote some 60 critical articles on Aiqinghai.net and other websites before the government shut down the site in March 2006. Zhang was arrested in September with two other Internet authors, Chen Shuqing and Yang Maodong [Independent Chinese PEN Center report], who have yet to face trial. The court said it gave Zhang a more lenient sentence because he showed remorse for his actions.

Groups such as Reporters Without Borders (RWB) [advocacy website] have criticized China's record [RWB report] of cracking down on dissident journalists. The 2006 US Department of State Country Report [text; JURIST report] on China also denounced repeated threats and arrests of journalists in 2006, especially those who used the Internet. The report cited the imprisonments of journalists Zhao Yan, Ching Cheong [JURIST news archives], Shi Tao, and Lu Jianhua [JURIST reports]. Zhang was previously imprisoned at a labor camp for his involvement in China's pro-democracy movement in the 1980s. AP has more.

[JURIST] A defense lawyer for German Holocaust-denier Ernst Zundel [ADL profile; CBC backgrounder] has been charged with incitement, attempting to thwart a prosecution, and using banned Nazi symbols during the original trial of Zundel in 2005. According to prosecutors at the Mannheim State Court [official website], Sylvia Stolz [Tagespiegel profile] repeatedly denied the Holocaust during Zundel's trial, described Jews as "enemy people" and denounced the court as a "tool of foreign domination." That trial was delayed when a judge removed Stolz from the defense team [JURIST report], after which she had to be removed forcibly from the courtroom. Last month, Zundel was convicted [JURIST report] of 14 counts of incitement, libel and disparaging the dead and sentenced to 5 years in prison.

Holocaust denial constitutes a crime under Section 130 (3) [text] of the German Federal Criminal Code. Stolz has not denied a charge that she distributed a legal document that concluded with the words "Heil Hitler," and prosecutors seek to ban Stolz from the practice of law. Stolz told AP, "We are under foreign occupation, and this foreign occupation has portrayed Adolf Hitler as a devil for 60 years, but that is not true." AP has more.

[JURIST] Baltasar Garzon [BBC profile; JURIST news archive], an investigating judge for Spain's National Court [official website, in Spanish], said Tuesday that President George W. Bush and his allies eventually should face war crimes charges for their actions in Iraq. In an opinion piece [text, in Spanish] for El Pais, Garzon called the war in Iraq "one of the most sordid and unjustifiable episodes in recent human history." Garzon also criticized those who joined the US president in the war against Iraq as having equally responsible for joining the war effort despite their doubts. In 1999, Garzon tried to extradite former Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet [JURIST news archive] from Britain and try him for crimes against humanity. Reuters has more.

On Sunday, ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo [official profile; BBC profile] said President Bush and UK Prime Minister Tony Blair may one day face war crimes charges [JURIST report] before the International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website; JURIST news archive] at The Hague. Moreno-Ocampo said that the ICC could investigate allegations of war crimes stemming from the conduct of coalition forces in Iraq [JURIST news archive], so long as Iraq agrees to ratify the Rome Statute [text, PDF] and accede to ICC jurisdiction.

[JURIST] US Department of Justice Inspector General Glenn Fine [official profile] told [prepared testimony, PDF] the House Judiciary Committee [official website] at a hearing [materials and witness testimony] on Tuesday that the confusion and abuses surrounding the use of National Security Letters (NSL) [CRS backgrounder, PDF] was "unacceptable and inexcusable." The Federal Bureau of Investigation [official website] illegally gathered data [JURIST report] from telephone and financial records of both US citizens and foreigners while searching for terrorists, according to a 130-page report [text, PDF] issued by Fine earlier this month. While the report did not reveal intentional abuses, Fine told the Committee that the FBI's incompetence resulted in "serious and unacceptable" action.

FBI Director Robert Mueller said [press briefing transcript] after the release of Fine's report that FBI agents had improperly used so-called "exigent letters," and that the FBI had suspended their use in May 2006 and would only use them in the future "when the circumstances comport with the Patriot Act." Mueller also admitted that the FBI violated privacy protections through inaccurate record keeping, and also failed to detect potential Intelligence Oversight Board (IOB) violations and submit them to IOB review. AP has more.

[JURIST] The UK Department of Education and Skills [official website] issued school uniform guidelines [backgrounder] Tuesday that allow schools to ban students from wearing Muslim veils [JURIST news archive] if teachers believe the garments can affect safety or a student's learning. Minister for Schools Jim Knight [personal website] noted [press release] that "uniforms can help to develop the right mindset among pupils" and that schools should consult parents and the wider community when setting uniform policy. He added, however, that safety and effective learning concerns should take precedence over social, religious or medical requirements of individual pupils. AP has more.

In February, the UK High Court [official website] denied [JURIST report] an application for judicial review stemming from a 12-year-old Muslim girl's challenge to a public school policy that prevented her from wearing her full-face veil (niqab) [Wikipedia backgrounder] at school. Mr. Justice Silber found the school policy appropriate, on the grounds that the veil would dampen teacher interaction, and that the policy fosters a sense of equality among students and could prevent an unwanted visitor from using a veil as a disguise to enter the school undetected by administrators. Also in February, a panel of UK senior judges were reported to have agreed that full Islamic veils should not be worn [JURIST report] in British courts and tribunals, but that individual judges and magistrates should have discretion to allow a full veil to be worn if it did not go against the "interests of justice." Muslim veils and other forms of religious dress [JURIST report] are currently banned from public schools in France and are highly contentious [JURIST reports] in Germany.

[JURIST] Egyptian cleric Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr [Wikipedia profile; JURIST news archive] said in an interview [Der Spiegel report] published Monday that he will be unable to identify the alleged CIA kidnappers who he says abducted him from Italy in 2003 [JURIST news archive; WP time line] because they wore face masks. He said he would like to serve as a witness if and when the case goes to trial, but expressed doubt that Egyptian authorities would allow him to leave the country.

Last month, Nasr claimed in a live television interview with Al Jazeera [Al Jazeera report; JURIST report] that he was "savagely tortured by the CIA when kidnapped." Nasr was released from prison [JURIST report] in mid-February. The US State Department [official website] has refused to comment on his case. AP has more.

[JURIST] The US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals [official website] withdrew [judgment, PDF] class action status Tuesday from Enron shareholders who filed a shareholder derivative lawsuit [class action website] in October 2001. US District Judge Melinda Harmon [Houston Chronicle profile] certified the class [opinion and order, PDF] in June 2006, but defendants Merrill Lynch and Credit Suisse Group [corporate websites] appealed [JURIST report] to the Fifth Circuit, alleging the certification should be thrown out because it allows Merrill Lynch and Credit Suisse to be held liable for actions taken by other defendants even though they had no actual knowledge of those actions. The Fifth Circuit held that a class action lawsuit was not the appropriate vehicle to sue the banks, thereby forcing investors to file individual lawsuits. Although this effectively ends the shareholder's ability to allege that Merrill Lynch and Credit Suisse were primary participants in fraud, the lead plaintiff in the case, the University of California Board of Regents [official website], has already negotiated settlements [JURIST report] with Lehman Brothers, Bank of America, Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, and CIBC [press releases, PDF], for a total of over $7 billion in recovery.

Harmon denied a motion in February, filed by defendants Merrill Lynch and Credit Suisse, to delay the trial pending the outcome of the certification appeal to the Fifth Circuit. The case is still scheduled to resume on April 16. In January, Harmon dismissed seven defendants [JURIST report] from the class action suit, including late ex-Enron CEO Ken Lay. Lay, convicted [JURIST report] in May of fraud and conspiracy charges [indictment, PDF] for providing investors with false and misleading financial information from 1999 up until Enron [JURIST news archive] filed bankruptcy in late 2001, died suddenly [JURIST report] of a heart attack in July. The Houston Chronicle has more.

[JURIST] The US Senate voted Tuesday to limit the power of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales [official profile; JURIST news archive] to name interim US attorneys, passing the Preserving United States Attorney Independence Act of 2007 [S 214 materials] by a vote of 94-2 [roll call]. The vote came amid increasing pressure on Gonzales to resign [JURIST report] after the recent firings of eight federal prosecutors, which have been criticized as politically motivated [JURIST report]. Under a provision of the Patriot Act [JURIST news archive], the attorney general has the power to replace removed US attorneys with permanent substitutes without having to gain Senate approval.

The bill, if approved by the House, will require Senate confirmation of interim US attorneys within 120 days of a nomination. If there is no confirmation during that time period, the district court for the particular district would appoint a replacement. The Bush administration had been opposed to the bill, but Gonzales told senators earlier this month that the administration would drop its objection [JURIST report] to the proposed bill. AP has more.

[JURIST] One of Pakistan's three deputy attorneys general resigned Tuesday, telling Reuters that the crisis over President Pervez Musharraf's March 9 suspension [JURIST report] of Chief Justice Iktikhar Chaudhry [official profile; JURIST news archive] for unspecified "misconduct" had made it "very difficult for me to perform my duties." The move by Nasir Saeed Sheikh follows the resignation of seven Pakistani judges [JURIST report] earlier this week in protest at what many Pakistani lawyers regard as a fundamental challenge by the Army chief to the prized independence of the country's judiciary. Reuters has more.

In other developments Tuesday, the country's Supreme Judicial Council [governing constitutional provisions] postponed until April 7 a third hearing on the misconduct allegations against Chaudhry following two other hearings last week. The hearing had been originally scheduled for March 21 [JURIST report], when a protest and a nationwide lawyers' strike have also been called. A bar spokesman said the protest would go ahead as planned. The Supreme Court of Pakistan meanwhile gave a judge there one week to investigate allegations that police mistreated Chaudhry on his way to his March 13 hearing after he refused to get into an official car. Reuters has more.

Musharraf said he suspended Chaudhry "after receiving numerous complaints and serious allegations for misconduct, misuse of authority and actions prejudicial to the dignity of the office of the Chief Justice of Pakistan." He insisted over the weekend that he has no "personal differences" with Chaudhry, but the confrontation with the bar over the past week has arguably rocked his authority more than any other crisis in the eight years since he seized power from a civilian government. Pakistani lawyers have boycotted the courts [JURIST report] since Chaudhry's suspension and earlier street protests have resulted in injuries and arrests [JURIST report].

[JURIST] A US military jury recommended Monday that 101st Airborne Staff Sgt. Raymond Girouard be sentenced to 10 years in prison after being convicted [JURIST report] last week of three counts of negligent homicide [Article 32 hearing transcript, DOC] for the deaths of three Iraqi detainees [JURIST news archive] held after a May 2006 raid in Thar Thar. He was also found guilty of one count of obstruction of justice for lying to investigators, one count of conspiracy for trying to conceal the crime, and one count of failure to obey a general order. Girouard faced up to 21 years in prison.

Girouard was found not guilty of premeditated murder, which allowed him to avoid a life sentence. Girouard is the last and most senior soldier to face court-martial for the killings [JURIST report]. The jury also recommended a reduction in his rank, a dishonorable discharge and forfeiture of pay. Jury recommendations must be approved by his division commanding general. AP has more.

[JURIST] The interim government of Bangladesh [JURIST news archive] said Tuesday it plans to set up a national human rights commission in the country to deal with human rights problems there. Human rights groups have recently complained about extra-judicial killings and arbitrary arrests [HRW press release] by the security forces in Bangladesh. There have been 50 unexplained deaths in the country since the interim government took control on January 12.

Bangladeshi President Iajuddin Ahmed [Wikipedia profile] declared a state of emergency [JURIST report] in the country on January 11 in the face of unrest over upcoming national elections and later cancelled a scheduled national poll [JURIST report]. The interim military-backed government has promised to hold new elections, but no date has yet been set. AFP has more.

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] ruled Tuesday that parties can contractually allocate the burden of attorneys' fees when litigation involves issues of federal bankruptcy law. In Travelers Casualty v. Pacific Gas & Electric Co. [Duke Law case backgrounder; JURIST report], Travelers sought to recover attorneys' fees according to its indemnification agreements with PG&E, but the lower courts did not allow recovery because the fees were incurred during the litigation of federal bankruptcy law, under which attorneys' fees cannot be collected.

The Supreme Court vacated the Ninth Circuit's decision [PDF text] in the case, holding that federal bankruptcy law does not disallow "contract-based claims for attorney's fees based solely on the fact that the fees at issue were incurred litigating issues of bankruptcy law." Read the Court's unanimous opinion [text] per Justice Alito. AP has more.

[JURIST] A former CIA director is recommending in a report to a group of international civic leaders that the United States enact an EU-style cap-and-trade program [UCS backgrounder] and other measures to control greenhouse gas emissions [EPA backgrounder]. The background paper [PDF text] by John Deutch [personal website], who led the CIA in the mid-'90s and now teaches in the chemistry department at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was prepared for the Trilateral Commission [organization website], a group of leading executives, academics and other private figures from North America, Asia and Europe. Deutch's paper, released Monday in Brussels during the commission's annual meeting, concludes that four major changes are necessary to combat global warming:

First, the United States must adopt a carbon emission control policy.

Second, an agreed framework is needed between developed economies and large emerging economies about how the costs will be shared of carbon emission control.

Third, the leading technology for controlling greenhouse gas emissions is carbon capture and sequestration (CCS). Trilateral countries should urgently launch five to six large CCS projections around the world in order to demonstrate the technical feasibility and public acceptance of carbon sequestration.

Fourth, there should be expanded use of nuclear power ....

[JURIST] The hanging [JURIST report] of Saddam-era Iraqi vice-president Taha Ramadan [JURIST news archive] before dawn Baghdad time Tuesday drew a disavowal from the United States and condemnation from Russia as the international community reacted to an execution that UN officials and rights groups had lobbied intensively against. Bloomberg News quoted a US Embassy spokesman in Baghdad as saying that the hanging, undertaken at a Iraqi Army base at 3 AM local time, was "an Iraqi process and an Iraqi decision with respect to the sentence being carried out." The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement [Itar-Tass report] saying that "acts of such a kind do not help the stabilization of the situation. Only a dialogue of all Iraqi forces can help the establishment of stability in the country." Terry Davis, Secretary-General of the Council of Europe, the European human rights watchdog organization, said [press release] from Strasbourg:

Executions in Iraq are no longer botched, but they are still inhuman. I regret that the Iraqi authorities have ignored the concerns of the international community and gone ahead with the hanging of Taha Yasin Ramadan, a former Vice-President to Saddam Hussein.... Against the background of the daily bloodbath on the streets of Iraq, the authorities should focus on arresting criminals who are still at large, rather than executing those already in prison. The death penalty is not justice, and state orchestrated killings are not only undermining the credibility and the international reputation of the Iraqi government, but also the prospects for a peaceful and just future for the Iraqi people.

[JURIST] The US Senate Monday considered the possibility of taking away the authority of US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales [official profile] to unilaterally appoint replacement US Attorneys as comments from the White House regarding his future seemed less than confident and the administration reportedly began considering possible replacements. Nearly 3,000 email messages [documents, PDF] released [JURIST report] Monday by the US Department of Justice [official website] showed that the White House was deeply involved in discussions to fire eight US Attorneys last year. Counselor to the President Dan Bartlett [official profile] said Monday that Gonzales has not offered to resign and reiterated that he still had President Bush's support, but White House spokesman Tony Snow said it was uncertain what the future holds for Gonzales. US Senators Tuesday planned to return to their debate on whether Gonzales should be able to appoint US Attorneys without Senate approval, as Democrats continued to call for his resignation [JURIST report]. AP has more.

Justice Department documents also revealed a ranking system for US Attorneys created by Gonzales' former Chief of Staff Kyle Sampson [profile], which was shared with former White House counsel Harriet Miers [official profile; JURIST news archive] in March 2005. One noteworthy ranking was that of US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald [Wikipedia profile], who was listed among prosecutors in a middle category as those who had "not distinguished themselves," despite having received the Attorney General's Award for Distinguished Service in 2002. Fitzgerald's mediocre ranking was given at a time when he was in charge of the investigation into the CIA leak case [JURIST news archive] and right after he had indicted former Republican Governor George Ryan [Wikipedia profile] on corruption charges. The Washington Post has more.

Meanwhile Monday, two high-ranking Republicans speaking to McClatchy Newspapers on condition of anonymity confirmed that the White House has begun considering possible replacements for Gonzales. The list reportedly includes Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, former Solicitor General Theodore Olson, White House anti-terrorism adviser Fran Fragos Townsend, Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Wainstein, federal appeals Judge Laurence Silberman [official profiles], and former Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson [Wikipedia profile]. The Sacramento Bee has more.

9:14 AM ET - AP is reporting that President Bush has called Gonzales to reaffirm his support for the attorney general.

[JURIST] The Egyptian Parliament Monday passed a set of 34 amendments [JURIST report] to the country's constitution [text], despite criticism [JURIST report] from opposition leaders that the reforms are a step backward for democracy. The amendments were endorsed by 315 of 454 seats in parliament and members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood [official website; FAS backgrounder], the largest opposition group in Egypt, took credit for the majority of the "no" votes. Critics say Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak [official profile; JURIST news archive] is using the amendments to clear the way for his son to assume the presidency when he steps down. The constitutional changes will prohibit any party from being formed based on religion and mandates any future presidential candidates to be from a party holding at least 3 percent of parliamentary seats. The Muslim Brotherhood [JURIST news archive], whose members run as independents in legislative elections, has charged that the amendments are specifically aimed at preventing them from gaining more control in the country's government.

Another of the controversial amendments allows the president to refer terrorist crimes to a judicial authority, which has been interpreted by critics as allowing the president to use military courts which render unappealable decisions. Rights group Amnesty International [advocacy website] specifically condemned the anti-terrorism law [press release], calling the amendments the "greatest erosion of human rights in 26 years." The amendments will now be submitted to the people of Egypt [JURIST news archive] in a referendum vote that is expected to take place next Monday, pushed up from the original date of April 4. Opponents have called the expedited timeframe an attempt to quash any rallies to voice opposition to the amendments. AP has more. Reuters has additional coverage.