[JURIST] More than one hundred Muslim extremists belonging to the group al-Jihad [CNS backgrounder] have been released from Egyptian prisons over the last two weeks, according to Egyptian police on Monday. The prisoners, many of whom had been held for over a decade, were released only after signing statements renouncing the use of violence to promote their cause. Al-Jihad, which was headed by al Qaeda number two leader Ayman al-Zawahiri [BBC profile] until his arrest in 1984, had steadfastly upheld the use of violence for its cause until recently, when jailed leader Sayed Imam Abdul-Aziz el-Sherif called for an end to the group's radical extremism [Kuwait Times report]. AP has more.

Also on Monday, the banned Muslim Brotherhood [party website; FAS backgrounder] said that police had arrested more than 45 of its members in the country's latest crackdown against its strongest opposition movement, bringing the number of Brotherhood members in police custody to nearly 800. The government accuses the organization of trying to create an Islamic theocracy. The Brotherhood says the government is trying to disrupt its campaign to elect members to the Shura Council, the upper house of the Egyptian parliament. Egyptian police arrested 31 Brotherhood members in June 2006 and an additional 72 members [JURIST reports] in February 2007. According to the Brotherhood, two children were among those arrested on Monday. AP has more.

[JURIST] Prominent Iranian-American scholar Dr. Haleh Esfandiari [WWC profile] was formally charged with plotting to overthrow the Iranian government by organizing a network "against the sovereignty of the country," according to Iranian television Monday. Esfandiari, director of the Middle East Program at the DC-based Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars [think tank website], was formally arrested on May 7 and has been detained at the notorious Evin Prison [BBC backgrounder] for two weeks. Last week, Iranian state newspaper the Kayhan accused Esfandiari [JURIST report] of acting in concert with the United States and Israel to overthrow the Iranian government.

Iran confirmed Esfandiari's arrest [JURIST report] last Sunday following months of alleged interrogation after she was prevented from leaving the country. According to a statement [text] issued by the Center, Esfandiari has been unable to leave Iran since December 30, 2006, when masked men stopped Esfandiari's taxi on her way to the airport and took her baggage and travel documents. Several members of Congress, including Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton, have called for her release [WP report]. AP has more.

[JURIST] UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour [official profile] Monday called for the government of Myanmar [government website; JURIST news archive] to unconditionally release [statement] pro-democracy advocate and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi [BBC profile; JURIST news archive]. Suu Kyi, leader of the National League for Democracy [Wikipedia backgrounder], has spent 11 of the past 17 years in prison or under house arrest for alleged violations of an anti-subversion law [text]. Suu Kyi's house arrest is set to end on May 27, but it is widely expected to be extended.

At various protests last week, activists calling for Suu Kyi's release were briefly arrested [JURIST report] by the military government. Suu Kyi is prohibited from having any telephone conversations or outside visitors other than her housemaid or doctor. The UN News Service has more.

[JURIST] The last of fourteen defendants in the 2004 Madrid train bombings [JURIST news archive] trial who announced participation in a hunger strike [JURIST report] ended their efforts Monday, citing a desire not to put additional stress on the court. The four defendants who initiated the strike on May 10, three of whom are believed to be the masterminds behind the attacks, were among the last to abandon it. Lawyers for the men said that the strike was not for "political or religious" reasons, but instead because the men, "who continue to condemn the bombings," were disgusted with the conduct of the trial and have lost faith in Spain's judicial system.

There are a total of 29 suspects being tried [JURIST report; video materials, in Spanish] in the National Court of Spain for connections to the attack. The defendants [BBC backgrounder] are charged with 192 counts of murder and more than 1,800 counts of attempted murder. Seven defendants are charged with belonging to a terrorist organization, while the remaining twenty-two defendants are being charged with collaborating with a terrorist group and the handling of explosives. AFP has more.

[JURIST] A former Bosnian Serb official who testified against against Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic [JURIST news archive] died in prison in Sweden Saturday. Officials with the Swedish Prison and Probation Service [official website] told Reuters that 52 year old Miroslav Deronjic [ICTY case materials], who was sentenced to 10 years in prison [JURIST report] after his 2004 conviction on war crimes charges, died of natural causes. In 2003, Deronjic pleaded guilty to persecution for ordering a 1992 attack on a Bosnian village which resulted in the deaths of more than 60 Muslims.

Milosevic, who was on trial at The Hague for genocide and war crimes [ICTY case materials], died of heart failure [JURIST reports] last year in the fifth year of his trial. Milosevic's death prevented a final judgment [JURIST report] in his case. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] granted certiorari Monday in three cases [order list, PDF] which will be heard next term. In Klein & Co. v. Board of Trade (06-1265) [docket; cert. petition, PDF] the court will consider whether "futures commission merchants," firms that handle trade on commodities markets, have standing to sue under the private losses section of the Commodity Exchange Act [text] for losses caused by the illegal manipulation of prices.

In Danforth v. Minnesota (06-8273) [docket; cert. petition, PDF], the court granted certiorari solely to decide whether state supreme courts are bound by the standard in Teague v. Lane [text] to determine whether US Supreme Court decisions apply retroactively to state court criminal cases.

Finally, in Kentucky v. Davis (06-666) [docket; cert. petition, PDF], the court will determine whether the dormant Commerce Clause is violated when states exempt their own municipal bonds from income tax, but not tax bonds issued by other states. Last year the Kentucky Court of Appeals ruled [opinion, PDF] that the discriminatory tax violated the dormant Commerce Clause, and the Kentucky Supreme Court denied review of the case. AP has more on Kentucky v. Davis. SCOTUSblog has additional coverage of the granting of the certiorari petitions.

[JURIST] The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda [official website] Monday upheld the life sentence [PDF opinion; press release] of serial rapist Mikaeli "Mika" Muhimana [case documents; JURIST report]. Muhimana, formerly a councilor for the western Rwandan province of Kibuyea, was sentenced to life in prison [PDF order] in 2005 after being convicted of committing genocide, rape, and murder of Tutsi [Wikipedia profile] victims.

The court allowed in part two of Muhimana's 16 grounds of appeal. With two judges dissenting, the majority overturned the trial court's finding of criminal responsibility for the rapes of two Tutsi victims, but unanimously upheld convictions on the rapes of five others. The court unanimously upheld his conviction for genocide, dismissed his other grounds of appeal, and upheld his life sentence. Up to 77 percent of ethnic Tutsi's were killed in the 1994 Rwandan genocide [PBS report]. AP has more.

[JURIST] Afghanistan's Wolesi Jirga [IRIN backgrounder], the lower house of the Afghan parliament, removed outspoken parliamentarian Malalai Joya [BBC profile] on Monday after she unfavorably compared the parliament to a stable. Joya's remarks, made during a private television interview, held that a stable was better "for there you have a donkey that carries a load and a cow that provides milk." In 2005, Joya won a seat in the first democratically elected Afghan parliament in 30 years, and has since made a reputation for her outspoken criticism of human rights abusers. At the parliament's inaugural session [JURIST report] Joya called for Afghanistan's "criminal warlords" to be brought to justice [JURIST report], prompting pounding fists and shouts from other members.

In March, Afghan President Hamid Karzai [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] signed a war crimes amnesty bill into law [JURIST report], barring the state from independently prosecuting individuals for war crimes absent accusation from an alleged victim. The bill was previously approved [JURIST report] by parliament, and extends immunity to all groups involved in pre-2002 conflicts. Sixty-eight women are represented in the Wolesi Jirga, which has 248 representatives. Twenty-five percent of the seats are reserved for women. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Jumah Muhammad al-Dossari [AI backgrounder], a Bahraini detainee that has been held at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] without charges since January 2002, threatened in a letter released Sunday by his lawyer that if he had "the opportunity [he] would end [his] life" due to the despair over his open-ended detention and the conditions at the facility. Al-Dossari also alleged that the detainees "face the most horrible type of oppression and physical torture." The letter was cleared for release by the US government and made public by lawyer Joshua Colangelo-Bryan [corporate profile]. Pentagon spokesperson Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordan denied allegations of abuse, saying that all detainees are treated humanely and that al qaeda has trained its operatives to make allegations of abuse as a tactic to "gain public sympathy in the hopes that they may be released." Al-Dossari has tried to kill himself at least 10 times.

Al-Dossari, who has been deemed an "enemy combatant" [JURIST news archive] by the Combatant Status Review Tribunal (CSRT) [DOD materials; Al-Dossari case material, PDF], is one of approximately 385 detainees currently held at Guantanamo. Pentagon officials say that they plan to try approximately 80 detainees under the framework created by the Military Commissions Act of 2006 [PDF text], and transfer another 80 detainees to other countries. The remaining detainees are in legal limbo. Last Friday, the US House of Representatives passed an amendment to a defense spending bill requiring the Pentagon to develop a Guantanamo shutdown plan [JURIST report]. In November 2005, Colangelo-Bryan witnessed a suicide attempt [JURIST report] by al-Dossari, which human rights advocates characterized as a cry for help meant to reach outside the base. US military officials have alternatively painted hunger strikes [JURIST news archive] and suicide attempts as instances of "asymmetric warfare" designed to elicit media attention and bring pressure on the US government. AP has more

[JURIST] Harris Chowdhury, political secretary to former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Khaleda Zia [Virtual Bangladesh profile], was sentenced to three years incarceration on Monday on extortion and bribery charges. Chowdhury is the first senior political official of the former Bangladesh government, which was removed from power during the declaration of a state of emergency [JURIST report] in January, to be sentenced by the interim government. The trial was conducted by the special anti-corruption court set up by the interim government to remove all corruption from the country before it holds new elections. Chowdhury is in hiding from the interim government and his defense team has said that they will appeal the conviction.

Transparency International [advocacy website], which documents government corruption throughout the world, has routinely listed Bangladesh [JURIST news archive] as one of the most corrupt governments on the planet. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] Pan-African Parliament [official website] officials said over the weekend that the recently approved investigation [press release] into alleged human rights abuses in Zimbabwe [JURIST news archive] would be delayed. Zimbabwe has expressed strong opposition [JURIST report] to the PAP initiative and Zimbabwean permanent secretary for Foreign Affairs Ministry Joey Bimha warned that police and government officials will only cooperate with an investigation approved by the South African Development Community [official website] to be headed by South African President Thabo Mbeki [BBC profile]. PAP officials said that the organization needed to focus on other initiatives and was postponing consideration of the fact-finding mission to Harare until its next meeting in November.

Zimbabwe has routinely resisted any attempts to conduct outside investigations of alleged human rights abuses, regularly pointing to other African countries as examples of worse situations or claiming Western government exaggerations [Zimbabwe UN ambassador interview, recorded audio] of alleged abuses. ZimOnline has more.

[JURIST] The Indonesian attorney general's office announced Monday that it will reopen a corruption probe against Tommy Suharto [BBC profile], son of former President Haji Mohammad Suharto [BBC profile; JURIST news archive]. The announcement, made by Director of Investigations Mohammad Salim on the ninth anniversary of the dictator's 1998 resignation [CNN report], said that the probe will focus on Tommy Suharto's alleged corruption in the mid-1990s involving a Suharto-owned car company given a monopoly to build a national car. The Indonesian government is currently trying to seize millions of dollars in a bank account Suharto keeps in an overseas tax haven. Indonesian Elshina radio reported Monday that, according to sources in the attorney general's office, Tommy Suharto allegedly earned over $159 million dollars from the scheme.

In October of last year, Tommy Suharto was released from prison by court order [JURIST report] under the Indonesian government's holiday remission program. Suharto was serving a 10-year sentence for hiring a hitman to kill a judge [BBC report] who had found him guilty in an earlier corruption case, and his release prompted criticism that the Indonesian justice system continues to be easily manipulated by those with money and power. Former President Suharto was spared from criminal charges of corruption [JURIST report] in August of last year after the Jakarta Court of Appeals ruled [JURIST report] that Suharto's inability to speak or write as a result of permanent brain damage [JURIST report] made him unfit to stand trial. AFP has more.

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] handed down decisions in five argued cases Monday, including Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly [Duke Law case backgrounder; JURIST report], where the Court held that a plaintiff filing an antitrust lawsuit under the Sherman Act [text] must allege specific facts in the complaint showing that defendants participated in a conspiracy. William Twombly filed a class-action lawsuit alleging that telephone and Internet service providers created after the breakup of AT&T in the early 1980s conspired by blocking local competitors from their service areas and agreeing not to compete with one another. The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled [PDF text] that Twombly's pleading, which inferred a conspiracy by the defendants' "parallel conduct," was sufficient, but the Supreme Court overruled the federal appeals court. Instead, the Supreme Court said that a complaint under §1 of the Sherman Act should be dismissed "when it alleges that major telecommunications providers engaged in certain parallel conduct unfavorable to competition, absent some factual context suggesting agreement, as distinct from identical, independent action." Read the Court's opinion [text] per Justice Souter, along with a dissent [text] from Justice Stevens. AP has more.

In Winkelman v. Parma City School District [Duke Law case backgrounder; JURIST report], the Court held that parents of special needs children - in this instance parents of a child with autism - have independent, enforceable rights under the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act (IDEA) [20 USC §1400 text] and can therefore represent themselves in IDEA litigation. The high court overturned the Sixth Circuit decision [PDF text] in the case, which held that IDEA confers rights held only by the child and while parties are permitted to represent themselves in court, non-lawyers are not permitted to represent other parties pro se, and therefore the parents in the case could not proceed without an attorney. Read the Court's opinion [text] per Justice Kennedy, along with a partial dissent [text] from Justice Scalia. AP has more.

In Office of Senator Dayton v. Hanson [Duke Law case backgrounder], the Court held that it does not have jurisdiction to consider a lawsuit brought by an employee of Sen. Mark Dayton who alleged that he was fired in violation of the Family and Medical Leave Act and that Dayton's office failed to pay him overtime as required by the Fair Labor Standards Act. The US Court of Appeal for the District of Columbia Circuit affirmed [PDF text] a lower court ruling denying Dayton's motion to dismiss the lawsuit based on immunity under the Constitution's Speech or Debate clause. The Supreme Court, however, ruled that it lacked jurisdiction under §412 [text] of the Congressional Accountability Act because "Neither the order of the District Court denying appellant's motion to dismiss nor the judgment of the Court of Appeals affirming that order can fairly be characterized as a ruling 'upon the constitutionality' of any provision of the Act." Read the Court's unanimous opinion [text] per Justice Stevens. Chief Justice Roberts did not participate in consideration or decision of this case.

In Roper v. Weaver [Duke Law case backgrounder; JURIST report], the Court dismissed its writ of certiorari as improvidently granted. In the case, the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit overturned [PDF text] a capital sentence on the grounds that the prosecutor's penalty phase closing argument was "unfairly inflammatory." In its decision Monday, the Supreme Court cited its ruling in Lawrence v. Florida [text; JURIST report], handed down earlier this term, and said that the district court had erroneously dismissed Weaver's habeas petition as premature. Read the Court's per curiam opinion [text], along with a concurrence [text] from Chief Justice Roberts and a dissent [text] per Justice Scalia.

In the final decision in an argued case, the Court held in Hinck v. United States [Duke Law case backgrounder] that "the Tax Court provides the exclusive forum for judicial review of a refusal to abate interest under §6404(e)(1) [text]" of the Internal Revenue Code. The Hincks filed a lawsuit in the Court of Federal Claims seeking review of the IRS decision refusing their request for an abatement of interest. Their lawsuit was dismissed, a decision upheld [PDF text] by the Federal Circuit. Read the Court's unanimous opinion [text] per Chief Justice Roberts. AP has more.

The Court also issued a per curiam decision [text] in Los Angeles County v. Rettele, where the Court held that police did not act unreasonably when, executing a valid search warrant on a home, they ordered innocent residents of different race than the suspects the police were looking for out of bed, where they were sleeping unclothed, and had them stand unclothed for several minutes before they were allowed to dress. The police believed that one of the suspects they were looking for could be armed, and the Supreme Court held that the police actions were reasonable in this case and that there was no Fourth Amendment violation, even though it was clear that the plaintiffs were not the suspects named in the search warrant:

The deputies needed a moment to secure the room and ensure that other persons were not close by or did not present a danger. Deputies were not required to turn their backs to allow Rettele and Sadler to retrieve clothing or to cover themselves with the sheets. Rather, "[t]he risk of harm to both the police and the occupants is minimized if the officers routinely exercise unquestioned command of the situation." ...

The Fourth Amendment allows warrants to issue on probable cause, a standard well short of absolute certainty. Valid warrants will issue to search the innocent, and people like Rettele and Sadler unfortunately bear the cost. Officers executing search warrants on occasion enter a house when residents are engaged in private activity; and the resulting frustration, embarrassment, and humiliation may be real, as was true here. When officers execute a valid warrant and act in a reasonable manner to protect themselves from harm, however, the Fourth Amendment is not violated.

[JURIST] Pakistan Supreme Court Justice Khalil-ur-Rehman Ramday Monday refuted arguments made by government lawyers that the Supreme Court of Pakistan [official website] should not "interfere with [the Supreme Judicial Council's (SJC)] proceedings or assume jurisdiction" of the inquiry into alleged misconduct by ousted Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry [official website; JURIST news archive] because the SJC is a fully independent court that is capable of reviewing the legality of Chaudhry's March 9 suspension [JURIST report]. Ramday retorted that if the SJC was indistinguishable from a court, then Pakistan's constitutional provisions [text] governing the SJC would be superfluous because the "supreme court [already] existed." Government lawyers had argued that that the five-member SJC was a full court capable of both investigating the alleged misconduct and reviewing the legality of Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf's March 9 order suspending Chaudhry, and sought the Supreme Court to end its suspension [JURIST report] of the SJC's inquiry.

Last Thursday, the Supreme Court of Pakistan extended [JURIST report] that suspension, denying a government request to resume the SJC's proceedings and dismiss a petition filed by Chaudhry. AP has more.

[JURIST] US Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) [official profile], the ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Sunday that he believed a "sizable number" of Republican members of Congress would join Democrats in a vote of no-confidence [JURIST report] in Attorney General Alberto Gonzales [JURIST news archive]. In his appearance [transcript; recorded video] on CBS News' Face the Nation, Specter also said he had a "sense" Gonzales may step down "before the vote [of no-confidence] is taken." Department of Justice (DOJ) spokesperson Brian Roehrkasse, told reporters Sunday that Gonzales "remains focused on the important work that the American people expect him to do." AP has more.

Last Thursday, Specter predicted that Gonzales would resign soon [JURIST report] as a result of the firing of eight US attorneys [JURIST news archive]. Last Wednesday, Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) called for the resignation [JURIST report] of Gonzales after hearing testimony [transcript, PDF; JURIST report] from former US Deputy Attorney General James Comey [official profile] regarding an attempt by Gonzales to persuade former Attorney General John Ashcroft [official profile; JURIST news archive] to reauthorize the warrantless domestic surveillance program [JURIST news archive] while he was incapacitated in the hospital, critically ill with pancreatitis. Although the event did not relate to the firing of the nine US attorneys for which Gonzales is currently being investigated, Hagel said that it showed Gonzales lacked the "moral authority to lead" the DOJ.

[JURIST] The White House over the weekend defended an immigration reform agreement [JURIST report] reached Thursday with key Republican and Democratic senators which has drawn opposition from both aisles of Congress, threatening what President Bush called a "secure, productive, orderly, and fair" [statement] proposal. The deal has been derided by some Republicans as amounting to "amnesty" for up to 12 million undocumented immigrants currently in the United States. Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez [official profile] told CNN Sunday that for those critics "the only thing that would not be amnesty is mass deportation." DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff [official profile] meanwhile challenged critics to offer alternative solutions instead of simply saying "this isn't good enough." Bush himself championed the deal in his weekly radio address [transcript; recorded audio] Saturday, insisting that it contained "all the elements required for comprehensive immigration reform", specifically rejecting the "amnesty" characterization, and noting that the agreed reform would "require that strong border security and enforcement benchmarks are met before other elements of the legislation are implemented."

Democratic objections to the immigration reform [JURIST news archive] proposal have focused on its restrictions on the right of legal immigrants to be joined by their families and its preference for high-tech workers. Under the proposal, undocumented immigrants would be able to obtain a probationary card allowing them to live and work legally in the United States, but which would not place them on the road to permanent residency or citizenship. The proposal also seeks to create a temporary guest worker program that would be implemented once the borders are declared "secure." Up to 1.5 million migrant farm-workers can also obtain legal status through an "AgJobs" measure [bill materials], supported by Sen. Diana Feinstein (D-CA) and Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID) [official websites]. AgJobs creates a five-year pilot program that would grant legal status to those who have worked in US farms for at least 150 days in the last two years. AFP has more.

[JURIST] Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany [BBC profile] announced the resignation of Justice Minister Jozsef Petretei Sunday following the surfacing of multiple allegations of police corruption, including a high-profile case [AP report] involving the alleged rape of a woman by five on-duty police officers in Budapest. Petretei's resignation still requires the approval of Hungarian President Laszlo Solyom [official website, in English].

Public confidence in the Hungarian police has been recently tainted by allegations of widespread corruption. Earlier this month, a police officer in Budapest was given a suspended jail sentence and dismissed from the police force after being convicted of pocketing more than $2,000 while supervising an investigation of an attempted robbery at a bank. Gyurcsany has also dismissed National Police Chief Laszlo Bene and Budapest Police Chief Peter Gergenyi. AP has more. The Budapest Sun has local coverage.