[JURIST] A US federal judge Friday refused to dismiss terrorism support charges [indictment, PDF] against Jose Padilla [JURIST news archive], finding that Padilla's 3 1/2 years in custody as an "enemy combatant" [JURIST news archive] did not violate his constitutional rights. US District Judge Marcia Cooke [official profile] said that the Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial [text] was not invoked until Padilla was charged with a crime; the years that Padilla was held in a Navy brig did not count because he was not charged until November 2005. One of Padilla's lawyers, Orlando do Campo, said the delay in coming to trial gave prosecutors an unfair advantage in building their case.

Padilla, a US citizen, was arrested in 2002 at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport and subsequently detained as an "enemy combatant" at a Navy military brig in Charleston, South Carolina. Initially accused of planning to set off a radioactive "dirty bomb" [NRC factsheet] in the United States, Padilla went from enemy combatant to criminal defendant when he was finally charged [JURIST report] in November 2005 on unrelated counts of conspiracy to murder US nationals and supporting terrorist activity. He was transferred to civilian custody [JURIST report] in January 2006 and has pleaded not guilty [JURIST report] to the charges. In February, Padilla was ruled competent to stand trial [JURIST report]. AP has more.

[JURIST] The Russian Supreme Court [official website, in Russian] ruled Friday that the Republican Party [party website, in Russian] one of Russia's oldest opposition parties, was too small to be considered a political party under a 2004 Russian law and should be closed down. Republican Party co-Chairman Vladimir Ryzhkov [personal website, in Russian] argued that the party was actually larger than the court believed, that it had 58,000 members as opposed to only 50,000 as said in the court decision. Ryzhkov said the Russian Federal Registration Service [official website, in Russian], which filed the lawsuit challenging the Republican Party's legitimacy, used an inaccurate counting system in determining the party's membership because it excluded people who could not be reached by telephone. Ryzhkov further said the decision was an attack orchestrated by the party's opposition and an example of the systematic persecution the party had encountered across the country. Ryzhkov said the party will appeal the decision to the Collegium of the Supreme Court, and, if unsuccessful, then to the European Court of Human Rights [official website] in Strasbourg.

Also today, prosecutors asked the Moscow Municipal Court to ban the far-right National Bolshevik Party [official website] and suspend the party's activities pending a ruling. The party's leaders said the decision was politically motivated. Radio Free Europe has more. Interfax has local coverage.

[JURIST] As part of a plea deal, former Deputy US Secretary of the Interior J. Steven Griles [Wikipedia profile] pleaded guilty to felony obstruction of justice charges Friday for lying to the Senate Indian Affairs Committee [official website] in 2005 about his relationship with former lobbyist Jack Abramoff [JURIST news archive]. In his committee testimony [recorded video and investigation materials], Griles, a former lobbyist himself, failed to disclose that he met Abramoff through his then girlfriend, a Republican environmental activist. Under the plea agreement, prosecutors will propose no more than a 10-month sentence for the former Interior Department [official website] second-in-command, half of which could be served under house-arrest or in a halfway house. Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle [official profile] of the US District Court for the District of Columbia [official website] could impose a sentence up to 5 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Abramoff is serving a sentence of five years and 10 months in prison [JURIST report] on two conspiracy and fraud charges stemming from falsification of documents to procure a loan for the 2000 purchase of SunCruz Casino [corporate website] by Abramoff and his partners. Other people caught in the scandal include former Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH), who is serving a 30 month sentence [JURIST report], and David Safavian, a former White House official [JURIST report]. This week federal prosecutors recommended reducing Abramoff's sentence [JURIST report] in light of his cooperation in another Washington corruption case. AP has more.

[JURIST] Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf [official website] appointed the senior-most judge on the Pakistani Supreme Court [official website] as acting chief justice Friday, as thousands of lawyers across the country protested the suspension of former chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry [official profile; JURIST news archive] and campaigned for his reinstatement. Justice Rana Bhagwandas [Wikipedia profile], the only Hindu judge on the court, will take on the duties of Chaudhry, who was removed earlier this month for originally-unspecified "misconduct" [JURIST report], later reported to include allegations that Chaudhry misused his influence to get his son jobs and promotions [JURIST report]. Several judges, as well as one of Pakistan's three deputy attorney generals [JURIST reports] resigned last week in protest over the suspension, claiming that it was politically motivated and an attack on the independence of the judiciary. The suspended chief justice was expected to reject any attempt by Musharraf to retain control of Pakistan's army, which he is supposed to relinquish this year.

Musharraf has maintained that the suspension is a legal issue, and has asked that the proceedings against Chaudhry be allowed to run their course. Chaudhry wants the closed door proceedings open to the public, so that he can openly prove his innocence. Other parties, including Islamic hardliners opposed to Musharraf's alliance with the United States, have joined in the protests, which have included a boycott of courts, and occasional clashes with police [JURIST reports]. AFP has more. AP has additional coverage. Reuters also has additional coverage.

[JURIST] The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) [advocacy website] announced Friday that it has amended its case against former Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld [press release; amended complaint, PDF] to include as plaintiffs two former Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainees who claim that even after the military's Combatant Status Review Tribunal [DOD backgrounder] found them not to be enemy combatants, they were still held and subject to beatings for a further two years. The case, Celikgogus et al v. Rumsfeld et al. [CCR backgrounder], was filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia [official website] and involves three other former Guantanamo Bay detainees who claim various mistreatment including beatings and humiliation.

The two former detainees added by CCR Wednesday are Abu Muhammad, a 43 year old medical doctor and Algerian refuge whose family lives in Pakistan, and Zakirjan Hasam, an Uzbekistan native who fled that country because of religious persecution. Both men were released, against their wishes, in Albania. AP has more.

[JURIST] Authorities in Bangladesh [JURIST news archive] plan in April to execute 6 Islamic militants convicted in the 2005 murders of two judges [JURIST report], according to reports Friday in the Independent and Jugantor newspapers. According to anonymous prison sources, Deputy Inspector General of Prisons Maj. Shamsul Haider Siddiqui said prison security has been increased in anticipation of attacks by fellow members of the convicts' Islamic organizations before the executions. The prisoners, who admitted to attacking judges because they want Islamic Sharia law [CFR backgrounder] to replace the secularized legal system of Bangladesh, include leaders Shayek Abdur Rahman of Jamaat-ul Mujahideen Bangladesh [SATP backgrounder] and Siddikul Islam Bangla Bhai of Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh [SATP backgrounder].

Bangladeshi president Iajuddin Ahmed [official profile] turned down the convicts' appeals for clemency earlier this month after the Supreme Court [official website] rejected their appeal. The Court had previously stayed the execution [JURIST report] of the militants, who were sentenced to die [JURIST report] by hanging in May 2006. Seven men were convicted for their role in the killings, but one remains at large. AP has more.

[JURIST] The chief prosecutor of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) [JURIST news archive] issued an arrest warrant Friday for Jean-Pierre Bemba [campaign website, in French; BBC profile], a former warlord turned senator, whose private militia clashed with government security forces on Thursday. Bemba was elected to the Senate after losing a run-off presidential election [JURIST report] to Joseph Kabila [BBC profile], who in December became the first freely-elected president of the DRC since 1960. After the election, his private militia force led a violent campaign against government troops until the DRC Supreme Court rejected his election challenge [JURIST report]. In the process, 30 people were killed and Bemba's supporters set fire to the Supreme Court [JURIST reports]. The fighting renewed on Thursday when gunfire between Bemba's militia and state troops damaged the embassy of Zimbabwe, a local radio station and several restaurants.

Bemba is presently a refugee in the South African embassy and has ordered his militia to put down its arms. He claims that Kinshasha security forces initiated the attacks against him, but he has not yet applied for asylum from the embassy. The charges against Bemba include high treason, and Chief Prosecutor Tsaimanga Mukenda has emphasized that neither Bemba's status as senator nor his refuge in the embassy will render him immune. Bemba refuses to surrender, and South African Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad has announced plans to send an envoy to the DRC to help negotiate a cease-fire. AP has more.

[JURIST] US District Judge L.T. Senter, Jr. refused to certify [opinion, PDF] a class in a suit against State Farm Insurance [corporate website] brought by policyholders whose claims were rejected following Hurricane Katrina [JURIST news archive]. The "slab case" plaintiffs, whose homes were reduced to slabs by the hurricane, had sought to bring a class action against State Farm due to the similar nature of their claims. Senter, however, wrote that the three other cases against State Farm [JURIST news archive] have demonstrated that factual differences between the policyholders' claims requires individual treatment of each case.

Senter has supported a court-supervised mediation program which has led to the payment of numerous settlements [JURIST report] by State Farm. In January, a Mississippi jury held State Farm liable for $2.5 million dollars in punitive damages [JURIST report] for rejecting a Katrina claim that State Farm said was due to wind before the storm rather than the hurricane itself. In the same month, State Farm agreed to settle with hundreds of Mississippi homeowners, but Senter rejected the proposed settlement [JURIST reports]. AP has more.

[JURIST] A German judge who cited the Koran as part of her rationale for denying a Muslim woman a fast-track divorce has provoked criticism from German lawmakers and Muslim clerics. The woman, a German citizen of Moroccan descent, had a restraining order against her Moroccan husband and sought a divorce on grounds of physical abuse. In denying the fast-track procedure, which is reserved for cases of exceptional hardship, Judge Crista Datz-Winter referred to a passage in the Koran which states that men are in charge of women and may beat their wives if they are disobedient. The administration of the Frankfurt court expressed regret Thursday that a judge appeared to sanction abuse in marriage. Datz-Winter has been removed from the case, and disciplinary proceedings may be brought against her.

German Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries called the decision "incomprehensible" and several German lawmakers have denounced the use of Islamic law [JURIST news archive] in German courts. Wolfgang Bosbach [official website, in German], a member of the Christian Democrat coalition, told N24 television [report, in German] that "the legal and moral concepts of Sharia have nothing to do with German jurisprudence." Datz-Winter's reference to the Koran was also criticized by the German Institute for Islamic Questions and the Central Council of Muslims [official website, in German]. According to the groups, domestic violence can justify divorce in Islam, and interpretations of the Koran which sanction abuse are no longer standard. AP has more.

[JURIST] New US Defense Secretary Robert Gates [official profile] argued during his first few weeks in the position that the military detention center at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] should be shut down and detainees transferred to the US, according to a report in Friday's New York Times. Gates told other senior administration officials that Guantanamo was hindering US war efforts and that holding military trials of terror suspects at Guantanamo instead of in the US would undermine US credibility. Gates' arguments were reportedly supported by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, but were rejected by US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Vice President Dick Cheney and ultimately by the president himself. A proposal to move terror detainees to military brigs in the US was rejected over concerns that shifting detainees and any military trials of terror suspects could bring increased constitutional and statutory rights for detainees. There have been repeated calls to close down the US facility [JURIST news archive] at Guantanamo from world leaders and rights groups. President Bush has said that he would ultimately like to shut the prison, but that this isn't the right time. The New York Times has more.

Several Guantanamo detainees have been charged [DOD materials] under the new Military Commissions Act [JURIST news archive]. Australian David Hicks will be the first to face arraignment Monday on charges of providing material support to terrorists [JURIST report].

4:38 PM ET - In his press briefing [transcript] Friday, White House Press Secretary Tony Snow acknowledged that Gates had concerns about Guantanamo, but said that he "deferred to the Attorney General on the legal issues" and that Gates' concerns did not reach Bush. Snow also addressed the possibility of closing Guantanamo:

...there are legal constraints, and those are the things that the Attorney General had made clear in terms of the inadvisability of putting Guantanamo detainees on continental U.S. soil. We have tried as best we can to move those who are in Guantanamo either to their home nations, or nations where they are wanted for other trial or justice dispensation. But we also have laid down the benchmark that you also have to be able to assure that they're going to be treated humanely.

Very few countries want these people back, and, therefore, what you have to do is to work through a procedure where you do, in fact, bring them to justice. But the President made clear back in September that he would love to be able to shut it down, but unfortunately the circumstances do not presently permit.

[JURIST] The federal trial of a lawsuit launched by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) [advocacy website] challenging the constitutionality of two laws passed by the city of Hazleton, Pennsylvania [official website; legal defense website] that make it more difficult for illegal immigrants to live or work in the town ended Thursday. US District Judge James Munley [official profile] of the Middle District of Pennsylvania [official website] may take several months to decide Lozano v. City of Hazleton [case information, docket], which considers whether the Illegal Immigration Relief Act [text, PDF] and the Landlord Tenant Ordinance [text, PDF] are reasonable. ACLU lawyers, including Pennsylvania legal director Vic Walczak, argued that the laws "unfairly demonized undocumented immigrants" [ACLU press release], and violate the Constitution's Supremacy Clause by conflicting with federal immigration law. The team also made arguments that the laws violate due process and equal protection rights. Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta argued the laws passed in July are an appropriate response to illegal immigration [JURIST report], citing a 70% increase in violent crime since 2001.

The courthouse barred all electronic recording devices, but on Thursday plaintiffs lawyer Jackson Chin, appearing for the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund (PRLDEF), described the proceedings [JURIST comment] in detail for JURIST:

Plaintiffs’ case-in-chief consisted of live testimony from 5 plaintiffs, 6 fact witnesses (Defendant City’s Mayor and city officials), 3 experts, and the submission of deposition testimony for four of the Doe Plaintiffs. Plaintiffs presented its case: that after its Complaint identified flaws in the first ordinance which penalized all who provided goods and services as aider-abettors of illegal immigration, Defendant City of Hazleton repealed its first ordinance (passed in July 2006). The City enacted and amended its ordinances two more times with the help of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), a D.C.-based immigration restrictionist lobby and its attorney Kris Kobach. In promoting the ordinances, the Mayor repeatedly cited a particular murder incident involving illegal alien suspects, but testified he had possessed no empirical crime data or population data to support his claim that swelling numbers of illegal aliens had created a wave of terror in its city. Of the tens of thousands of crimes recorded in Hazleton’s Police data in a five year period, only 20 were credibly by attributed to the undocumented.

With a series of amendments, the Hazleton ordinances are confusing to its residents. Each tenant and household occupant (over the age of 18) is required to apply in-person at City Hall for a Tenant occupancy permit upon showing document proof of citizenship and legal status; landlords are prohibited from renting to tenants without such permits risking $1000 a day fines. Any person can file a bare complaint with the City alleging that a business or landlord is harboring an illegal immigrant, triggering burdens upon landlords and business owners to cure or lose their business license and right to collect rents. And, the City’s English-Only law governs the provision of city services.

Plaintiffs showed that in the months that followed and in a national election year, the Defendant Mayor’s media driven campaign stoked panic and fear among the City’s newcomer Latino residents and business owners. Latinos complained about illegal police ID checks of Latino immigrants in the streets, public insults, and, parents fretting over the welfare of their school-age children. These led to Latinos staying at home, the flight of immigrant families, businesses in the City’s Hispanic district losing customers, mounting sales income losses due to a “ghost-town” effect, mortgage defaults arose, Latino businesses closing, and landlords with hardships renting to tenants. The court issuance of the TRO (October 31, 2006) provided a stabilizing effect but the ordinance’s intended impact was palpable. Plaintiffs also showed that the police chief and other officials were not consulted by the Mayor, that no research existed tending to show a crisis of illegal immigrants existed before the bills were proposed, and, that the City’s blame failed to distinguish its Latino residents, whether citizen, immigrant or undocumented, causing community fear and discord.

The Defendant conceded on Day One that it would voluntarily remove a reference to race and national origin in the text of its ordinance to vitiate Plaintiffs’ equal protection claim. Three days later, the City amended the challenged ordinance in a special session.

Defendant’s case included testimony from 4 experts, 5 fact witnesses, and, the Defendant City’s Mayor. The thrust of Defendant’s case was to attempt to justify the City Mayor’s motto that “illegal is illegal” and that such persons must be driven out of his city. Even if mixed status families lived in his city. Defendant’s experts asserted that national data could be used to project the adverse fiscal impacts of illegal immigrants with low job skills on localities, as seen in local schools’ increased ESL enrollments, particular crimes, low payroll taxes, and, the longer waiting times in the region’s hospital emergency room. A battle of experts discussed whether the city ordinance’s reliance on accessing federal immigration databases was realistic or problematic, and, whether databases were error-prone and incomplete.

At trial, the Court made frequent favorable rulings for both parties on admissibility and “relaxed” the federal rules of evidence on hearsay evidence, etc. desiring to hear as much as possible. The parties will submit their post-trial briefs due in April 2007. Then, the court will make a decision. It is likely the losing party will take an appeal to the 3rd Circuit.