[JURIST] Lawyers for the US government argued for the extradition of Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] in a hearing before a London court Thursday. Al-Masri is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence [JURIST report] in Britain for urging his followers to kill Jews and other non-Muslims and using "threatening, abusive or insulting words or behavior" to stir up racial hatred. Hamza faces US charges [PDF text] of attempting to establish terrorist training camps both in Oregon and in Afghanistan. The hearing, initially scheduled for Wednesday, was postponed [BBC report] to give Hamza time to recover from an operation.

The US called for Hamza's extradition last year [BBC report], but hearings were delayed pending his appeal of his current conviction in the UK courts. The appeals were dismissed [JURIST report] in November. Hamza's lawyers say the extradition warrant should be dismissed because it was issued on evidence obtained by torture. AP has more.

[JURIST] The UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) [official website; JURIST news archive] held elections [official results; recorded video] to its 47-member Geneva-based panel on Thursday, with Bosnia-Herzegovina and Slovenia defeating Belarus [JURIST news archives] for the two available Eastern European states seats. The US, most European countries, and several human rights groups opposed Belarus' candidacy, citing the country's poor human rights record. Angola, Egypt, and Qatar [JURIST news archives] also won seats in Thursday's election despite some controversy. Madagascar, Nicaragua, Bolivia, India, Indonesia, Italy, Netherlands, Philippines, and South Africa [JURIST news archives] also each won three-year terms to the council.

The Human Rights Council, founded last year to replace the UN Human Rights Commission [official website], was created with a primary goal of denying membership to those countries that have committed serious human rights violations. In November, the UN General Assembly's Third Committee on Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Affairs approved a draft resolution accusing the Belarus government of rigging elections in 2006 and suppressing of opposition candidates [JURIST reports]. On Tuesday, UN Watch called on both Belarus and Egypt [press release] to "release jailed opposition leaders, journalists and bloggers before Thursday's elections for the UN's top human rights body." AP has more.

[JURIST] Two Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee said Thursday that they plan to seek a vote of no-confidence in Attorney General Alberto Gonzales [JURIST news archive]. Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said that only President Bush remains confident in Gonzales, under fire for the allegedly political firings of nine federal prosecutors [JURIST news archive]. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Schumer both believe Gonzales is too weak to remain in his position, and are the architects of the planned vote. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) are also believed to support the resolution. Schumer told reporters that Reid will attempt to bring the as-yet unfinished resolution to a vote next week.

Schumer believes that the resolution will have enough support to defeat a filibuster. So far five Republican Senators have been vocal in their displeasure with Gonzales. Earlier Thursday Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA), ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, predicted that Gonzales would be resigning soon [JURIST report] as a result of the scandal. He told AP that he would have to see the resolution before deciding if he would support it. On Wednesday Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NB) called for Gonzales to step down [JURIST report]. AP has more.

[JURIST] Key US senators from both political parties and White House cabinet officers reached a tentative agreement on immigration reform [JURIST news archive] on Thursday, after weeks of negotiations. The proposal, which President Bush calls "secure, productive, orderly, and fair" [statement], gives more weight to an immigrant's education level than his family connections in the US when awarding green cards. Additionally, illegal immigrants would be able to obtain a probationary card allowing them to live and work legally in the United Sates, but which would not place them on the road to permanent residency or citizenship. Once border security is improved and the high-tech worker identification program is implemented, however, such card-holders would be able to seek permanent residency status. Illegal immigrants would have to pay a $5000 fine plus fees in order to obtain a "Z visa," placing them on an eight- to thirteen-year track toward permanent immigrant status.

A temporary guest worker program would also be implemented once the borders are declared secure, and the worker identification program is enacted. Finally, up to 1.5 million migrant farm-workers could obtain legal status through an "AgJobs" measure [bill materials], supported by Senator Diana Feinstein (D-CA) and Senator Larry Craig (R-ID) [official websites]. AgJobs would be a five year pilot program that would grant legal status to those would have worked in US farms for at least 150 days in the last two years. AP has more. AP also has additional coverage of the AgJobs program.

[JURIST] A lawyer for Vice President Dick Cheney urged a federal judge to dismiss the lawsuit [complaint, PDF; JURIST report] brought by former CIA operative Valerie Plame [WP profile] against members of the Bush administration, arguing that the lawsuit is based on "fanciful claims." Plame filed the lawsuit last year, alleging that White House officials violated her constitutional rights to free speech, privacy, and due process by leaking her identity in 2003. In addition to Cheney, former VP aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby [JURIST news archive], White House adviser Karl Rove, and former State Department Deputy Secretary Richard Armitage [JURIST report] are also named as defendants.

Plame's identity as a CIA operative was leaked in a 2003 syndicated newspaper column by Robert Novak after her diplomat-husband Joseph Wilson [BBC profile] reported that contrary to Bush administration assertions, Saddam Hussein was not trying to buy uranium from Niger. In March, Plame testified [JURIST report] before the US House Oversight and Government Reform Committee [official investigation website] that the White House and US Department of State "carelessly and recklessly" blew her cover in an effort to discredit Wilson because of his criticism of the administration. Libby was convicted [JURIST report] in March of perjury and obstruction of justice in connection with the investigation into the leak of Plame's identity. AP has more.

[JURIST] Australian authorities have released British-born Jack Roche [BBC profile] on parole 3 years after sentencing him in 2004 to nine years in prison [JURIST report] for plotting to blow up the Israeli Embassy in Canberra [official website], according to Thursday media reports. Roche must now regularly report to police. Born in England, Roche traveled to Afghanistan and met with Osama Bin Ladin after converting to Islam to fight a drinking problem. During his trial, he said he had not intended to become involved with al-Qaeda, and only followed their orders to conduct reconnaissance on the embassy because he feared for his own safety.

Roche denied agreeing to bombing the embassy, and said he tried to warn the Australian Security Intelligence Organization [official website], but they seemed uninterested in what he knew. He was the first person to be convicted under Australia's Anti-terrorism Bill 2004 [PDF text]. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour [official profile] Thursday denounced the poor conditions of prisons in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) [JURIST news archive] during a visit there, deploring in particular overcrowding and inadequate access to justice. Three thousand people are imprisoned at the CPRK (Centre Penitentiare et de Réeducation de Kinshasa), the largest prison in DRC's capital city, but the facility was originally built to hold only half that number. An Amnesty International [advocacy website] report from 2002 cited 46 deaths in CPRK [report text] between March and June 2002 due to ill-treatment, inadequate medical care, and malnutrition. A 2006 Amnesty report found that conditions still remained substantially the same [report text] in prisons throughout the DRC. Arbour urged DRC officials, including President Joseph Kabila and Prime Minister Antoine Gizenga [BBC profiles], to accelerate prison reforms.

Arbour also faulted the DRC for appointing people implicated in war crimes and crimes against humanity to positions of power within the government. Arbor is currently on a tour of the Great Lakes Region of Africa [press release]. Arbour will continue her tour through next week, with stops in Burundi and Rwanda. IRIN has more.

[JURIST] Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) [official website], the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, predicted Thursday that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales [JURIST news archive] will resign from his post at the conclusion of current investigations into the allegedly-political firings of federal prosecutors [JURIST news archive]. Specter's comments followed others made by Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) [JURIST report] Wednesday, who suggested that by remaining in his position, Gonzales was harming the Justice Department. Senator Pat Roberts (R-KS) concurred, telling the Associated Press that it was noteworthy that Gonzales is spending more time on Capitol Hill defending himself than working as the Attorney General.

While some had believed that pressure for Gonzales' resignation was beginning to subside, Tuesday's testimony [transcript, PDF; JURIST report] by former Deputy Attorney General James Comey [official profile] has reignited calls for him to step down. Comey described an incident in 2004 when then White House Counsel Gonzales attempted to pressure a hospitalized then-Attorney General John Ashcroft into reauthorizing the warrantless domestic wiretap laws. Gonzales has been heavily supported by President Bush throughout the firings scandal. AP has more.

[JURIST] Ivan Dombrovsky, chairperson of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine [official website; JURIST news archive], resigned without elaboration Thursday as the 18-judge court continued to deliberate the constitutionality of Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko's April 2 decree [text; JURIST report] dissolving parliament and calling for new elections. The Constitutional Court has appointed Deputy Chair Valery Pshenichny to be the new chief justice. Pshenichny was the first judge dismissed [JURIST report] by Yushchenko in April.

In April, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yiktor Yanukovych [BBC profile] and leaders of Parliament filed a legal challenge to Yushchenko's decrees [JURIST report], seeking to block the dissolution of parliament. Yushchenko has subsequently dismissed three Constitutional Court judges for alleged oath and ethics violations [JURIST report], and appointed replacement judges without consultation [JURIST report] with either Yanukovych or the Justice Ministry. AFP has more. AP has additional coverage.

[JURIST] The UK Court of Appeal Thursday restored [opinion] a control order [JURIST news archive] on a terrorist suspect identified only as "E". The court held that a prior ruling wrongly required Home Secretary John Reid [official profile] to consider the judgments of a Belgian court when determining whether there was sufficient evidence to support a criminal indictment against E. The court also ruled that the control order did not violate Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights [text] because the restriction on movement did not constitute a "deprivation of liberty."

Control orders, which can confine suspects to their homes and cut off outside communication, were authorized by the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005 [text]. In March, a UK parliamentary human rights committee issued a report finding that the orders violated the European rights treaty [JURIST report]. AP has more.

[JURIST] The African Commission on Human and People's Rights [official website] will review alleged human rights violations committed by Zimbabwe [JURIST news archive] after African non-governmental organizations placed the issue on the agenda of ACHPR's 41st session, which began Wednesday. In an interview [recorded audio] with VOA News, Wilbert Mandinde, legal advisor to the Zimbabwe Chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa [advocacy website], said that the number of human rights abuses in the country has increased and called upon the commission to act. Zimbabwe Ambassador to the United Nations Boniface Chidyausiku, however, told [recorded audio] VOA News that the organizations are exaggerating the situation and misrepresenting facts.

The Pan-African Parliament (PAP) [official website] voted [press release] last week to send a fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe to investigate allegations of ongoing human rights abuses. Zimbabwe's PAP delegate expressed outrage [JURIST report] over the decision, asserting that there were more pressing issues that the PAP should be dealing with. VOA News has more.

[JURIST] The British House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee [official website] released a report [text] Wednesday recommending that the government "bring forward proposals" to the European Commission "for an extension of copyright term for sound recordings to at least 70-years." The current British audio recordings copyright limit is limited to 50 years from the time of the recording. The report contradicts the 2006 Gowers Review of Intellectual Property [PDF text], which found that "it is not clear that extension of term would benefit musicians and performers very much in practice," while potentially having a negative effect on the balance of trade. The committee report did not attempt to dispute the Gowers report, but instead emphasized the committee's belief that a "copyright represent a moral right of a creator to choose to retain ownership and control of their own intellectual property."

Current British law grants creators of literary, dramatic, musical, or artistic works 70 years of copyright protection after the creator's death. US laws currently limit copyright terms of audio recordings to 95 years following its release. AP has more.

[JURIST] The Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area (LCCR) [advocacy website] filed a lawsuit [complaint, PDF; press release, PDF] against the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) [official website] Wednesday requesting the public disclosure of a terrorist watch list containing more than 6,000 names. LCCR requested the document in 2005, and maintains that there is no legal basis for the Treasury Department to withhold the list. The government must file a response to the Freedom of Information Act [DOJ backgrounder] lawsuit within 30 days.

In March, the LCCR criticized [JURIST report] OFAC for the watch list, saying it resulted in discrimination by businesses and credit bureaus. AP has more.

[JURIST] The Supreme Court of Pakistan [official website] Thursday extended the suspension [JURIST report] of the Supreme Judicial Council's (SJC) inquiry into the alleged misconduct of ousted Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry [official website; JURIST news archive], denying a government request to resume proceedings and dismiss petitions filed by Chaudhry. Chaudhry has challenged the legality of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's March 9 order suspending Chaudhry [JURIST report] from his position as chief justice in the Supreme Court. Government lawyers have argued that the SJC has the authority to review the constitutionality of the suspension and that the Supreme Court does not need to rule on Chaudhry's case. PTI has more. AP has additional coverage.

Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan, the top lawyer on Chaudhry's legal team, also said Thursday that the suspended chief justice will file a defamation suit against Musharraf for "attributing" an escalation of violence [JURIST report] in Karachi last weekend to Chaudhry. Fighting between anti-government and pro-government groups frustrated Chaudhry's scheduled visit to address a meeting of lawyers in Karachi, and left more than 150 people wounded and 41 dead. ANI has more.

[JURIST] Police in Harare, the capital city of Zimbabwe [JURIST news archive], were seen assaulting and arresting protesters who had taken to the streets Wednesday to express dissatisfaction with newly proposed constitutional amendments. Witnesses reported that at least 20 protesters were arrested and three were severely beaten by police. At least one protester had to be taken to the hospital for treatment after police assaulted her in the street. The protesters were arrested for violating Zimbabwe's Public Order and Security Act [PDF text] which prohibits protests without police approval. The protesters were all members of the National Constitutional Assembly [official website] expressing dissatisfaction with the proposed 18th amendment of the Zimbabwe Constitution [PDF text], which would give parliament the power to appoint a new president in the case of the incumbent president's death or incapacitation. Opponents claim that the amendment would let current Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe [BBC profile] dodge uncertain elections and ensure a successor to his presidency that meets his approval.

Harare police officials confirmed the arrests but refused to specify the charges or the number of individuals currently being held by police. ZimOnline has more.

[JURIST] The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) [official website] released a report [PDF text] Wednesday criticizing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) [official website; JURIST news archive] and the Customs and Border Protection Agency's Automated Targeting System [DHS backgrounder, PDF; ACLU backgrounder], which the GAO says violates federal privacy laws by allowing personal information "to be used in multiple prescreening procedures and transferred among various CPB prescreening systems in ways that are not fully explained in CBP's privacy disclosures." The Privacy Act [text] requires the DHS and CBP to provide notice to the public concerning how it obtained personal information, and how the information is utilized by the agency.

DHS spokesperson Russ Knocke defended the program to AP, saying that the GAO's report was "woefully uninformed." DHS officials have declined to provide more details of the Automated Targeting System, citing security concerns. AP has more.

[JURIST] The California Supreme Court [official website] denied review [materials] of a lower court ruling Wednesday, effectively allowing the continuation of a state-sponsored program for stem cell research [JURIST news archive] operated by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine [official website]. A California state appeals court upheld [JURIST report; opinion, PDF] the validity of the program in February, writing that it "suffers from no constitutional or other legal infirmity." Commenting on the Supreme Court's action, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger [official website] said [press release]:

Today's action by the California Supreme Court is a victory for our state because potentially life-saving science can continue without a shadow of legal doubt. This decision reaffirms voters' will to keep California on the forefront of embryonic stem cell research. California's leadership gives the best promise of finding a cure for deadly and debilitating diseases.

[JURIST] The US Department of Justice (DOJ) considered replacing at least 26 of 93 US Attorneys between February 2005 and December 2006, a much higher number than previously acknowledged by officials, according to a report in Thursday's Washington Post. Documents not publicly disclosed indicate that Kyle Sampson [DOJ press release; JURIST news archive], former chief of staff for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales [official profile], compiled at least three separate lists of US attorneys that were considered for removal. The Washington Post has more.

In a related development in the US Attorney firings scandal [JURIST news archive], Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Arlen Specter (R-PA), top members of the Senate Judiciary Committee [official website], sent a letter [PDF text] to Gonzales Wednesday demanding he respond to a May 2 subpoena [JURIST report] issued for all of White House political adviser Karl Rove's e-mails "in the possession, custody or control of the Department of Justice." The letter rebuked Gonzales for failing to comply with the subpoena before the return date, as well as his failure to provide "in writing the specific reasons for not producing any responsible documents, including any objections to the subpoenas or privileged claimed by the [DOJ]." Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard A. Hertling responded with a letter [PDF text] to Leahy, saying that the DOJ's Office of Information and Privacy had conducted e-mail searches in the Offices of the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General, and included several emails located during the search. Bloomberg has more.