[JURIST] The US Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] took federal prosecutors' political activities and connections to the conservative Federalist Society into account in deciding whether to retain or dismiss them, according to documents [PDF files] released Friday by the DOJ to the US House Judiciary Committee. Among the 2394 newly released pages of e-mails, schedules and memos were a chart detailing the politics of all 124 US Attorneys [official website; JURIST news archive] appointed since 2001 and hand-written notes by former aide to US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales Monica Goodling [JURIST news archive], explaining reasons why some of the eight dismissed US Attorneys were let go. Goodling wrote that Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM) [official website] said dismissed New Mexico US Attorney David Iglesias "doesn't move cases." Domenici is accused of pressuring Iglesias to speed up indictments [JURIST report] of local Democrats under investigation for a kickback scheme in time for the November elections. Goodling resigned [JURIST report] last week, refusing to testify to Congress about her part in the firings under her constitutional right against self-incrimination. Several of the 124 prosecutors on the list were also members of the conservative Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies [organization website], but it is unclear how this information was used by the DOJ. The documents also suggest that, contrary to previous testimony by DOJ officials, replacements for the fired attorneys had already been picked nearly a year before the dismissals.

On Tuesday, the US House Judiciary Committee issued a subpoena [JURIST report; PDF text] to Gonzales for DOJ documents relating to the firings. AP has more.

[JURIST] Poland's parliament Friday rejected constitutional amendments that would have strengthened the country's anti-abortion laws. Poland's current 1993 abortion law [CRR backgrounder] is already one of Europe's strictest, allowing abortions only when the woman's health is threatened by pregnancy, the baby is likely to be handicapped, or the pregnancy is the result of rape. The conservative ruling League of Polish Families and Law and Justice [party websites, in Polish] parties proposed the amendments which would have either banned abortions altogether or made it harder to weaken existing anti-abortion legislation, but failed to achieve the two-thirds majority required by the Polish constitution [text] to pass the amendments. The centrist and leftist opposition voted against the proposed changes. Piotr Gadzinowski of the Democratic Left Alliance [party website, in Polish] told Polish television the vote was a "victory of reason over backwardness."

Last month, protesters rallied across Poland in support of a complete ban on abortion [JURIST report]. Last year, a Polish woman challenged the country's current abortion law [JURIST report] before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) as violating her privacy rights under the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms [text]. The ECHR decided in her favor [BBC report] last month, but the ruling does not affect Polish law. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The US Senate Committee on Finance [official website] has approved a bill which would provide the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services [official website] the authority to negotiate drug prices on behalf of Medicare [JURIST news archive] beneficiaries with drug manufacturers, insurers and pharmacies. The Medicare Prescription Drug Price Negotiation Act [S. 3 materials; House version], which passed in the committee by a 13-8 margin Thursday, eliminates a clause which originally barred the secretary or another government entity from intervening in Medicare Part D price discounting decisions. Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) [official website], the author of the bill, has said that the government's limited role in health care pricing had affected the nation's elderly and that the bill was designed to help ensure fair drug prices for seniors.

Republican opponents to the bill have asserted that the measure would have a "negligible effect" on federal health care expenditures, according to Congressional Budget Office [official website] figures, and characterized it as a political maneuver by the Democrats to gain favor for a government-funded health care system with elderly and disabled Medicare beneficiaries. The committee will send the amendment to the full Senate for consideration next week. AP has more.

[JURIST] A group of Argentine veterans of the 1982 Falkland Islands conflict [UK MOD backgrounder] have filed a lawsuit alleging that the Argentine military tortured and killed its own troops during the brief war with Britain over possession of the South Atlantic islands. The former soldiers say they witnessed 20 soldiers being shot, starved or staked to the ground as punishment for alleged misdemeanours. Under-secretary of Human Rights in the north-eastern province of Corrientes Pablo Vassel told the IPS news agency that families were told the soldiers had been killed in combat and returning soldiers were threatened by superiors to discourage them from talking about the incidents.

The lawsuit was brought before a court in Tierra del Fuego, which technically includes the Falkland Islands - still under British control - within its jurisdiction. Since the end of the war, isolated reports have surfaced about military superiors abusing their troops, but this is the first time that Argentine authorities have taken up the case. Vassel accused the state of trying to ignore wartime military abuses. The Guardian has more. Prensa Latina has local coverage.

[JURIST] An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) [official website] commander was suspended Friday after video footage taken in the West Bank Wednesday showed IDF soldiers under his control ordering two Palestinian teens to stand in front of their vehicle to protect it [Ynetnews video and report] from stones being thrown by local bystanders during a military raid. Palestinian Information Minister Mustafa Barghouti [Wikipedia profile] told the AP that Friday's suspension incorrectly gave the impression that Wednesday's occurrence was an isolated event and failed to address a more systemic problem. He said that despite a 2005 Israel Supreme Court ruling [JURIST report] prohibiting the use of Palestinian human shields, the practice has continued. The IDF is already conducting a criminal probe [JURIST report] into an another human shield incident [BBC recorded video] similarly caught on tape in February.

Using civilians to protect military personnel or shield military objectives from attacks is prohibited under the amended Geneva conventions [text], as well as the Hague Regulations [text]. AP has more.

[JURIST] Critics of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf [official website; BBC profile] continued protests Friday outside the venue of the latest court hearing on the suspension [JURIST report] of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry [official profile; JURIST news archive], burning an effigy of Musharraf and demanding his resignation. Inside the courtroom, the Supreme Judicial Council [governing constitutional provisions] adjourned [press release] until April 18th to consider objections that Chaudhry's lawyers raised to three out of the five judges reviewing the suspension. One of Chaudhry's lawyers told AP that he objected to the three because they held "personal differences" with his client.

Musharraf has said Chaudhry was removed from his post for numerous judicial abuses [JURIST report], which included pushing police officials into giving a job to his son. Lawyers and political opponents, however, say Musharraf's decision is an attempt to control the judiciary and continue his eight-year rule in an election year, and have loudly protested the suspension [JURIST report]. Many lawyers across Pakistan have boycotted the courts [JURIST report] and a number of senior judges have resigned [JURIST report] over the controversy. AP has more.

[JURIST] A New Jersey federal judge dismissed a class action brought by investors of Merck & Co. [corporate website] Thursday, ruling that the suit was filed after the statute of limitations had run [Merck press release]. The investors had said that Merck had deliberately concealed information from them about the safety record of its arthritis drug Vioxx [JURIST news archive]. US District Court Judge Stanley Chester determined that the clock on the two-year statute of limitations started to run in September 2001 with the release of a warning letter [text] from the Food and Drug Administration [official website], coupled with subsequent attention from financial analysts and members of the press. The first fraud complaint against the company was filed in November of 2003. Since the lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice, it may not be filed again.

Merck pulled Vioxx from the market in September 2004 after a study showed that it could double the risk of heart attack or stroke if taken for more than 18 months. The price of Merck stock jumped by almost 10% following news of the class action dismissal. AP has more.

[JURIST] The Russian government Friday renewed its call for the United Kingdom to extradite Russian business billionaire Boris Berezovsky [MosNews profile], who has been charged with plotting a coup against Russian President Vladimir Putin [official website]. The request for extradition followed Berezovsky's latest call for the forceful overthrow of Putin. Berezovsky's comments have strained an already tenuous relationship between England and Russia, which had previously demanded the businessman’s extradition in March 2006 [JURIST report]. All requests have been denied.

The Russian Prosecutor General's investigation of Berezovsky on charges of plotting a coup against Putin in March 2006 was suspended [JURIST report] in January. Berezovsky, who fled to the UK in 2000, obtained political asylum in 2003 and is currently living in London. AFT has more.

[JURIST] Former Computer Associates (CA) [corporate website] CEO Sanjay Kumar [Wikipedia profile] will pay almost $800 million in restitution over his lifetime for his role in the accounting fraud in which CA swapped revenues of $2.2 billion with another company in 1999 and 2000, according to a settlement approved Friday in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York [official website]. Kumar, who pleaded guilty [JURIST report] to charges of securities fraud and obstruction of justice in April 2006 and was sentenced [JURIST report] to a 12-year prison sentence and an $8 million fine in November 2006, is required to sell personal property to pay $52 million of the total restitution amount by the end of 2008. Although the agreement does not mandate the liquidation of his family's home, it does require Kumar to turn over 20 percent of his annual income for the rest of his life.

Kumar, who has not served any prison time yet, also faces a lawsuit filed by CA seeking repayment [JURIST report] of $14.9 million it fronted for Kumar's legal defense. The settlement comprises part of the over $1 billion in restitution due to victims of the CA revenue-swapping scheme. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] US citizen Christopher Paul pleaded not guilty Friday to charges [indictment, PDF; JURIST report] that he conspired to assist terrorists and to bomb European tourist sites and US military and government facilities overseas. Paul, from Columbus, OH, did not request to be released on bond during his arraignment in the US Southern District of Ohio. Paul pleaded not guilty to all three counts [DOJ press release] of conspiring to provide material support and resources to terrorists, conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction, and providing material support and resources to terrorists. Paul is allegedly connected to two other men from Columbus who have also been indicted on terrorism charges. Iyman Faris [Global Security profile], who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for conspiring to destroy the Brooklyn Bridge, attended the same mosque and became friends with Paul. Nuradin Abdi, a Somali awaiting trial on 2004 charges [JURIST report] that he plotted with other al Qaeda operatives to blow up a Columbus-area shopping mall, used Paul as a reference on a government employment application. Officials also found evidence in Paul's apartment that will be used against Abdi at trial.

According to investigators, Paul traveled to Pakistan and Afghanistan in the early 1990s to receive military training at an al Qaeda training camp and, upon his return to the US, continued to funnel money and other resources to al Qaeda. The indictment also alleges that Paul provided explosives training to co-conspirators in Germany to carry out future attacks on European and United States targets. If convicted of all charges, Paul could receive a maximum penalty of life in prison. AP has more.

[JURIST] Eight prison guards from the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) [official website] in Brooklyn, NY pleaded not guilty on Friday at arraignments in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York [official website] on charges [press release] of using physical violence and excessive force against two inmates and filing false reports to conceal their actions. A total of 11 guards were charged in connection with the assaults; the remaining three guards will be arraigned in the next few days. Federal prosecutors from the US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York [official website] did not indicate any connection between the beatings: the first incident occurred in November 2002, while the second happened in April 2006. The November 2002 beating was allegedly ordered by Captain Salvatore LoPresti after an inmate refused to remove a shirt wrapped around his head.

Three of the indicted guards, including LoPresti, were previously named [CCR press release] in Turkmen v. Ashcroft [CCR backgrounder], filed in 2002, in which they were alleged to have used excessive force [JURIST report] against Muslim men from Middle Eastern and South Asian countries who were arrested by the INS and FBI in the dragnet following Sept.11, 2001 and were detained for months at the MDC without being charged for terror-related offenses. The New York Times has more.

[JURIST] Mexican President Felipe Calderon [official website] Thursday signed a decree decriminalizing libel and defamation, offenses previously punishable by prison sentences. Henceforward they will be punishable by fine and subject to civil suits. The move has already garnered the approval of media groups [Es Mas report] such as the Inter American Press Association (SIP) [official website], which praised the fact that critics of the government can no longer be imprisoned or threatened with imprisonment. In his signing remarks Calderon declared that "every threat to the free press is a threat to democracy," and pledged [press release] to take greater measures to protect journalists from the intimidation and violence that they frequently face. According to SIP free press committee president Gonzalo Marroquin, eight Mexican journalists have been killed since October. Marroquin praised the government for the Thursday arrest of the suspected killers [El Universal report] of investigative reporter Amado Ramirez, who was shot to death in Acapulco last week.

Last month Calderon proposed a series of changes [JURIST report] to the Mexican criminal justice system in the wake of an Amnesty International [advocacy website] report that current law perpetuated human rights abuses [JURIST report] and afforded impunity to many criminals. Recently, Mexican lawmakers have reduced prison sentences for drug possession and proposed loosening the ban on abortion [JURIST reports]. AP has more. El Universal has additional coverage [in Spanish].

[JURIST] Russia's Foreign Ministry Thursday assailed a new human rights report [PDF text] critical of Russia issued last week by the US Department of State [official website], claiming that the United States is using human rights as a pretense to interfere with Russia's domestic affairs in violation of the UN Charter. At a press conference [opening statement], Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Yakovenko said the report, which among other things highlighted new Russian restrictions of NGOs [JURIST news archive], contained exaggerations and interpreted facts arbitrarily. "Russia is opposed to the attempts by certain countries and groups of countries and nongovernmental organizations to impose on the international community their own approaches in the human rights sphere under the pretense of universal standards," he continued. Yakovenko's comments echoed similar responses by Chinese officials [JURIST report] to the same report, addressing criticism directed of their own country's rights record.

Yakovenko said that country reports soon to be issued by the UN Human Rights Council [official website] would present a more accurate picture of human rights violations around the world and in the United States, and he said the EU was also at fault in human rights matters [Itar-Tass report], saying that Russia would raise concerns about rights violations in the Baltic region at an upcoming conference in Berlin. RIA Novosti has more.

[JURIST] A Quebec Superior Court [official website] judge Thursday postponed the war crimes trial of Desiré Munyaneza [Trial Watch profile] after he was severely beaten in his cell by another prisoner Wednesday night. The former Rwandan militia commander is charged under the Canadian Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act [text] with seven counts of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes allegedly committed during the 1994 Rwandan genocide [HRW backgrounder; BBC backgrounder]. Munyaneza was captured in 2005 in Canada, where had he lived as a fugitive since 1997; his trial began [JURIST report] last month.

The attack, which has left Munyaneza physically and mentally unable to stand trial for now, was carried out by a new prisoner who claimed to have been following the case in the newspaper. Munyaneza defense lawyer Lawrence Cohen decried the court's failure to protect an inmate who is presumed innocent, calling the failure of security an "embarrassment." The trial is scheduled to resume on Monday. CBC News has more.

[JURIST] Eight suspected members of the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group (GICM) [CDI profile] were sent for trial Thursday by French investigators for their alleged role in the Casablanca terrorist attacks [BBC report] in May 2003. The suspects have been charged with engaging in a terrorist undertaking and could receive up to ten years in prison. GICM, which has been listed by the United States as a terrorist group with ties to al Qaeda, has also been linked [JURIST report] to the Madrid train bombings in March 2004.

French prosecutors claim that the men raised money and forged documents for the logistics cell of the GICM and that they met with suicide bombers, 13 of whom died in the May attack. The men admit holding Islamic beliefs and attending Islamic training camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan, but deny GICM membership. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius [official profile] signed a law [text, PDF; supplemental note, PDF; press release] that will "prohibit persons from engaging in picketing or a directed protest within 150 yards of any entrance" where a funeral is held or "conducted within one hour prior to, during the funeral, or within two hours following the funeral". Picketers that violate the law will face up to a $1,000 fine and up to six-months in jail. The law is in response to picketing at military funerals by members of the Westboro Baptist Church [WARNING: readers may find material at this church website offensive; Wikipedia backgrounder]. The law will also allow defamation lawsuits "by the estate on behalf of the person or any living relative of the deceased person" against the protesters but will not take effect until it is upheld as constitutional by the Kansas Supreme Court or a federal court.

The Westboro Baptist Church and its leader Rev. Fred Phelps have staged protests at military funerals claiming that US soldiers have been killed because America tolerates homosexuals. More than 30 states have passed similar laws in response to the group and a federal law [JURIST report] restricting protests at Arlington National Cemetery and other federal cemeteries has also been passed. In June 2006, a father of a fallen Marine filed a federal lawsuit against the group [JURIST report], seeking unspecified damages for defamation, invasion of privacy, and intentional infliction of emotion distress as a result of the group's picketing at the family's private funeral. AP has more.

[JURIST] The White House issued a policy statement [PDF text] Thursday expressing the administration's strong opposition to the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007 [S 372 summary] Thursday, and threatening presidential veto of the bill unless the Democratic-controlled Congress alters provisions which would increase congressional oversight of intelligence activities. The legislation, introduced by Senate Select Intelligence Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) [official profile] requires increased transparency on annual intelligence spending, mandatory disclosure of intelligence documents within 15 days of a request unless privilege applies, and a requirement that directors of the National Security Agency, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, National Reconnaissance Office, and the Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency [official websites] be subject to Senate confirmation. The proposed bill also calls for the creation of a new inspector general, who would have the authority to direct internal oversight divisions within any of the 16 intelligence agencies under the supervision of the Director of National Intelligence [official website].

The Bush administration has characterized the contested provisions as being "inconsistent with the need for the effective conduct of intelligence activities," and threatening the security of "intelligence sources, methods, and activities from unauthorized disclosure." AP has more.

[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit blocked the release of Cuban militant Luis Posada Carriles [Wikipedia profile; additional materials] on bail Thursday, after federal prosecutors filed an emergency motion appealing US District Judge Kathleen Cardone's ruling that Carriles should be release on bail [JURIST report] due to his age and ties to the community. Carriles' lawyers will have at least until Tuesday to respond to the court order. Carriles, 79, a former CIA operative trained by the US for the failed anti-Castro Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, was arrested in 2005 [JURIST report; DOJ press release] for illegally entering the United States.

Carriles [JURIST news archive] is currently under the custody of immigration officials because he is due to be deported for entering the US illegally. A US immigration judge delayed his deportation in 2005 [JURIST report], after having determined that Carriles cannot be sent to Venezuela, where he is a naturalized citizen, or to Cuba, the country of his birth, for fears that he would be tortured. Carriles is accused of being behind the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner [Wikipedia backgrounder; additional materials], as well as numerous assassination attempts on Cuban President Fidel Castro. Earlier this week a lawyer representing the government of Venezuela accused the US of preventing Carriles' extradition and obstructing justice and Castro issued a statement condemning the district court's ruling [JURIST reports]. Carriles is wanted in both countries on terrorism charges. AP has more.