[JURIST] The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) [official website] are investigating allegations that an army commander used Palestinians as human shields in the latest and highest-reaching probe into the banned practice, according to Israeli media reports Wednesday. Accused officer Brig. Gen. Yair Golan, commander of the West Bank army division and a potential candidate for military secretary under Prime Minister Ehud Olmert [official website; BBC profile], is suspected of explicitly authorizing violations of a 2005 Israel Supreme Court ruling [JURIST report] prohibiting the use of human shields. Israeli rights watch group B'Tselem [advocacy website] applauded the probe as a sign that the IDF is serious about reform.

Since the 2005 ruling, human rights groups have reported a decline in the once-common use of human shields, though many believe the practice is still employed. In April, video footage [JURIST report] taken in the West Bank showed IDF soldiers ordering two Palestinian teens to stand in front of their vehicle to protect it from stones being thrown by local bystanders during a military raid. The IDF is also conducting a criminal probe [JURIST report] into an another human shield incident similarly caught on tape in February. Human shields are a violation of Article 51(7) of the 1977 Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions [text] and other international agreements. AP has more.

[JURIST] Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz [official profile] Wednesday ordered the dropping of all complaints previously lodged against approximately 200 journalists, opposition party members and pro-democracy activists who protested [JURIST report] Monday against an emergency media ordinance. The protest took place in defiance of a government ban on unauthorized rallies [JURIST report] issued by President Pervez Musharraf [official website] late last week, one day before demonstrators planned to march from the capital city of Islamabad to the city of Abbotabad to protest the dismissal and ongoing trial of suspended Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry [official website; JURIST news archive]. The ban outlawed demonstrations of more than five people in Islamabad for two months.

Chaudhry was suspended by Musharraf in March for allegedly misusing his influence [JURIST report] to obtain jobs and promotions for his son. Many Pakistani lawyers and opposition leaders believe Chaudhry's suspension to be an assault on the independence of the country's judiciary and an indirect bid by Musharraf to continue his eight-year rule in an election year. Since the suspension, media outlets have complained of growing government pressure [JURIST report] not to provide live coverage of rallies in support of Chaudhry. AP has more.

[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit [official website] will fast-track its decision in a case concerning insurance companies' coverage of levee failure damage in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina [JURIST news archive], a judge said following oral arguments Wednesday. Judge Carolyn King [official profile], part of a panel of three judges who heard arguments in the case, said that a swift decision was important for the tens of thousands of residents who would be affected.

The current case is an appeal of a November decision [PDF text; case information; JURIST report] on the issue of what constitutes flood coverage in insurance policies. US District Judge Stanwood Duval Jr. agreed with plaintiffs that the language was ambiguous, but allowed insurance companies, including Allstate and St. Paul Travelers Companies Inc. [corporate websites], to appeal whether there is an innate distinction between floods naturally caused by excessive rainfall and floods caused by the failure of levees. If the courts rule that the policies do cover the damage from the levee failure, the insurance companies could be liable for approximately $1 billion in damages. AP has more.

[JURIST] The US Department of Defense (DOD) Wednesday announced [press release] the transfer of Abdullahi Sudi Arale, a suspected East Africa al Qaeda (EAAQ) courier captured in Somalia, to the military prison at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive]. Arale is accused of aiding various EAAQ-affiliated extremists in obtaining weapons and providing false documents to facilitate terrorists traveling to Somalia. DOD says Arale will appear before a Combatant Status Review Tribunal [DOD materials] for a formal assessment of his detention status and that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) [official website] will be given access to him.

There are approximately 385 detainees, including Arale, held as "enemy combatants" [JURIST news archive] at Guantanamo, according to DOD. Pentagon officials say that they plan to transfer 80 detainees to other countries and to try approximately 80 detainees under the framework created by the Military Commissions Act of 2006 [PDF text]. On Tuesday, military judges dismissed charges against two [JURIST report] of the three detainees charged under the Military Commissions Act, citing a lack of jurisdiction [JURIST report]. AP has more.

[JURIST] The family of Iraqi hotel receptionist Baha Musa [Herald report], who died while in British military custody in 2003, plans to sue the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) [official website], according to a family lawyer Wednesday. Solicitor Martyn Day [firm profile] told Reuters that the move was necessary following the dismissal [JURIST report] earlier this year against the seven soldiers [BBC trial timeline] believed to be responsible for his death. Only one of the seven, Corporal David Payne, was convicted on a charge related to Musa's death after pleading guilty [JURIST report] to a charge of inhumane treatment. Payne was sentenced to one year in jail [JURIST report] and became the first convicted UK war criminal from the Iraqi conflict. The MOD told Reuters that it had already accepted responsibility for Musa's death and paid an interim compensation payment to Musa's father.

Musa died in 2003 after suffering 93 injuries, including a broken nose and broken ribs, during 36 hours of detention. Because the surviving detainees were hooded, they could not confirm the identities of the soldiers who caused Musa's death. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Carla Del Ponte [official profile], top prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website] praised last week's arrest and extradition [JURIST reports] of war crimes suspect Zdravko Tolimir [ICTY case backgrounder, PDF] Wednesday, but reiterated that Serbia must arrest and extradite war crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic [ICTY case backgrounder; JURIST news archive]. Five of the 161 suspects indicted by the ICTY remain fugitives, including Mladic and former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic [ICTY case backgrounder; BBC profile].

Serbia [JURIST news archive] has come under increased international pressure from the European Union (EU) [official website] and the United States to prosecute war criminals and arrest war crimes fugitives. Last Thursday, Serbian President Boris Tadic [official website] announced the creation of the National Security Council, a special body headed by the president that will coordinate police and military security resources to hunt for suspected war criminals. On May 15, the chief war crimes prosecutor of Serbia told reporters that the search [JURIST report] for Mladic "has not stopped for even a moment" and hinted at progress following statements by the EU that EU-Serbia pre-membership negotiations could resume depending on Serbia's commitment to bring war crimes suspects to justice. The negotiations were suspended in May 2005 due to the EU's perception that Serbia was failing to fully cooperate with the ICTY. Del Ponte, who is expected to issue a report detailing Serbia's cooperation with the tribunal in the next few weeks, has said in the past that Serbian nationalists were aiding Mladic's continued evasion of authorities. AP has more.

[JURIST] The government of Ethiopia charged 55 people affiliated with the opposition Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) [party website] Tuesday with plotting to overthrow the government following Ethiopia's 2005 election [JURIST news archive]. The CUD has previously accused Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of stealing the election by voter fraud [JURIST report]. Another 129 lawmakers, journalists, and human rights activists are already being tried on treason charges [JURIST report] for their alleged role in mass anti-government demonstrations [JURIST report] in the wake of the elections.

The opposition members, who were previously barred from meeting with their defense lawyers [JURIST report], could face the death penalty if convicted of treason. In October of last year, an Ethiopian inquiry team charged with investigating the demonstrations announced that approximately 193 civilians were killed by Ethiopian security forces [JURIST report] during the violence, which was nearly three times the official number reported by the government. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour [official profile, JURIST report] and the African Union [JURIST report] have both sternly criticized Ethiopia's human rights record. AFP has more.

[JURIST] An Iranian judge said Wednesday that two detained Iranian-Americans [JURIST news archive] had admitted to carrying out some "activities," but it is not clear if this is tantamount to admission of spying. In an interview with Iran's ISNA news agency [official website, in Persian], Judge Hossein Haddad, security deputy of Tehran's public and revolutionary court, said that Dr. Haleh Esfandiari [WWC profile] and Dr. Kian Tajbakhsh [OSI press release] "accepted that they carried out some activities." Haddad also said that Radio Farda [media website] correspondent Parnaz Azima was being held for cooperating with "anti-revolutionary" media, but a Reuters source later confirmed that she had been released on bail.

Numerous officials, including US President George W. Bush [statement] have called for the release [JURIST report] of the three scholars and one journalist who were arrested last month. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Reporters Without Borders, the International Federation for Human Rights, and 2003 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi [advocacy websites] have also issued a joint statement [text] calling for their release. Esfandari was charged [JURIST report] on May 21, while Azima and Tajbakhsh were charged [JURIST report] May 29. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] A court in Mauritania [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive] acquitted 24 defendants on trial for assorted crimes under anti-terror laws Tuesday, finding that confessions and testimonies obtained from the suspects were inadmissible because they were obtained through torture. Only one defendant, who was tried in absentia following his escape, was convicted and sentenced to two-years in prison and fined $340 dollars. Eleven other suspected terrorists, who were arrested between 2006 and 2007, await trial.

Last week, the defendants, all suspected to be members of the al Qaeda wing group Salafist Group for Call and Combat (GSPC) [FAS backgrounder] said police had obtained their confessions through torture [JURIST report]. The trial has been touted as an example of growing judicial independence, as Mauritania is going through a period of democratic transition after a military coup [JURIST report] in 2005 ended former President Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya's 21-year rule. AFP has more.

[JURIST] US District Judge Eldon E. Fallon of the US Eastern District of Louisiana [official website] Tuesday modified his 2006 ruling [JURIST report] that rejected a $51 million jury award [JURIST report] against pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. [corporate website], offering the plaintiff $600,000 in compensatory damages and $1 million in punitive damages. The plaintiff, Gerald Barnett, a former FBI agent who alleged that Merck's painkiller Vioxx [Merck backgrounder; JURIST news archive] caused his heart attack, can either accept the award within thirty days or have a new trial. Barnett's attorney, Mark Robinson, has indicated that he will recommend that Barnett accept the award. Fallon also rejected Merck's motion to dismiss the verdict and partly denied a motion by Merck requesting a new trial on all issues. Fallon indicated that "the Court will defer reconsidering the scope of the new trial at this time."

Merck pulled Vioxx from the market in September 2004 after a study showed that it could double the risk of heart attacks or stroke if taken for more than 18 months. Expert advisory panels at the US Food and Drug Administration and Health Canada [official websites] have subsequently approved the reintroduction of Vioxx to the market after noting some studies that the increased cardiovascular risks from Vioxx were not worse than those from many COX-2 inhibiting nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NASID) [backgrounder] like Celebrex. Bloomberg has more.

[JURIST] The California State Assembly voted 42-34 Tuesday to approve the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act [AB 43 text; procedural history] which would restore California's marriage statute to its pre-1977 gender-neutral language and define marriage as "a personal relation arising out of a civil contract between two persons" capable of giving consent and issued a license by authorized officials and institutions. The bill also states that "no priest, minister, or rabbi of any religious denomination" or any official of any "nonprofit religious institution" may be forced to perform marriages.

The bill, which was approved by Democrats and opposed by Republicans, will head to the California State Senate [official website], where it is expected to be approved. It will only become law if Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger [official website] signs the bill. In 2005, Schwarzenegger vetoed [JURIST report] a similar bill that sought to legal same-sex marriages in California [JURIST report]. A spokesperson for Schwarzenegger said that the governor has not changed his mind on the issue, and believes that Californians have demonstrated their objection to same-sex marriage [JURIST news archive] by approving the so-called Defense of Marriage Act [Proposition 22, text], a ballot initiative approved in 2000 that limits marriage to unions between a man and a woman. Currently, Massachusetts is the only state that has legalized same-sex marriages [JURIST report]. Other states, including California, Connecticut, Maine, Vermont, and Washington now permit civil unions or domestic partnerships. Oregon and New Hampshire [JURIST reports] will allow same-sex couples to enter into contractual domestic partnerships and civil unions beginning in January 2008. The San Francisco Chronicle has more.

[JURIST] Judges on Ecuador's new Constitutional Tribunal [official website] Tuesday selected Patricio Pazmino Freire, a supporter of Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa [official website, in Spanish; personal website], to head the court. The new membership of the tribunal, elected [Prensa Latina report] last week by the pro-Correan Ecuadorean Congress [official website, in Spanish], is expected to fall in line with Correa's policies. In April, Congress dismissed the prior constitutional tribunal judges after they ordered the reinstatement of 50 lawmakers [JURIST report] who were dismissed [JURIST report] in February by the country's electoral tribunal for allegedly interfering in a planned referendum on constitutional reform.

Correa now has effective control of all three branches of Ecuador's government and has popular momentum after voters in April overwhelming supported [JURIST report] his call for convening a constitutional assembly to rewrite the constitution of Ecuador [JURIST news archive]. Candidates for the constitutional assembly will begin campaigning in mid-August, and elections are slated for September 30. Dow Jones Newswire has more.

[JURIST] The Constitutional Court of Hungary [official website] ruled Tuesday in favor of a proposed referendum on unpopular economic reform proposals advanced by Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany [BBC profile]. A coalition of opposition parties including the Hungarian Civic Party (FIDESZ), the Christian Democratic People's Party (KDNP), and the Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF) [party websites] had sought a referendum on Gyurscany's plan to terminate government subsidies for expenses related to doctor appointments, hospitalization, and public universities. If the plan is defeated, the opposition may be able to gather enough support for early National Assembly [official website] elections and topple the fragile existing coalition government.

The high court ruling reverses a prior ruling by the National Election Committee [official website], which barred the referendum on the grounds that it would have affected the budget in violation of Article 28C-5a of the Hungarian Constitution [text]. Gyurcsany's government has contended with lower support since September of last year, following the release of audiotapes indicating the his government had intentionally misled voters [BBC report] on economic conditions and policies to win re-election. The disclosure led to violent confrontations between police and rioters. AFP has more.

[JURIST] The US Department of Justice (DOJ) filed an appeal Tuesday against the dismissal [PDF text; JURIST report] of immigration fraud charges against anti-Castro militant Luis Posada Carriles [JURIST news archive; case materials]. US District Judge Kathleen Cardone ruled in May that the indictment against Carriles should be dismissed because the US government's tactics in its investigation of Carries were "so grossly shocking and so outrageous as to violate the universal sense of justice."

Carriles, 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] for illegally entering the United States and had been under the custody of immigration officials until his release on bail [JURIST report] in April. Cuba criticized Carriles' release [JURIST report], and accused the United States of violating international anti-terrorism treaties by freeing the militant and dismissing charges against him. Carriles is wanted in Cuba and Venezuela on terrorism charges relating to the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner [Wikipedia backgrounder]. Also in April, Venezuela announced plans to challenge the US [JURIST report] before the Organization of American States [official website] and other international forums for refusing to prosecute or extradite Carriles for the terrorist bombing. The US government has thus far denied Cuban and Venezuelan requests [JURIST report] for Carriles' extradition, citing the UN Convention Against Torture as Carriles may face torture in Cuba or Venezuela. AFP has more.

[JURIST] The New Haven, Connecticut Board of Alderman has voted 25-1 [press release] to fund a program advanced by Mayor John DeStefano Jr. [official profile] that will provide a municipal identification card to all residents, including the approximately 15,000 undocumented immigrants that reside in New Haven. DeStefano hailed Monday's vote as a "great decision for New Haven," saying that "no longer will any resident in New Haven have to live nameless." DeStefano also emphasized the importance of allowing undocumented immigrants to "safeguard their hard earned money" by opening bank accounts, which DeStefano says will reduce crimes targeting immigrants. The cards, which will be available at a cost of $10 for adults and $5 for children beginning in July and will not distinguish citizens from undocumented, will also allow cardholders to access public libraries, parks and recreational sites, and other municipal services as well as act as debit cards and pay for parking meters.

New Haven's proposal contrasts with immigration [JURIST news archive] ordinances adopted in other local communities like a city ordinance [DOC text; JURIST report] in Farmers Branch, Texas which would bar landlords from renting apartments to most undocumented immigrants. The ordinance has been blocked [JURIST report] by a US federal judge as legal challenges [JURIST report] are underway. Congress is currently working on a comprehensive immigration reform bill [S 1348 summary; JURIST report]. AP has more.

[JURIST] Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Wednesday that Russia will not raise the issue of withdrawing from the Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty [text; backgrounder] when it meets with other CFE Treaty signatories in Vienna next week. Lavrov's statement comes amid tension between the US and Russia over US plans to locate parts of a missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic, which Russia perceives to be a threat to Russian national security. The US has insisted that the system is intended against "rogue states" like Iran and North Korea.

Countries in NATO, including the US, have held off ratifying the amended version of the CFE treaty since 1999 over the continued basing of Russian troops in Moldova and Georgia. In April, Russian President Vladimir Putin [official website] told both houses of the Russian parliament that he was suspending Russia's implementation of the CFE Treaty [JURIST report] due to what he called a US-led NATO military "build up" in Europe, and said he would explore the possibility of ending Russia's commitments under the treaty. The CFE Treaty, concluded in 1990 by the 22 members of NATO and the former Warsaw Pact, regulates deployment of non-nuclear forces in Europe. Putin said Russia's moratorium would continue "until all countries of the world [sic] have ratified [the treaty] and started to strictly implement it." AP has more.

[JURIST] France's practice of expelling non-citizens accused of links to violent extremism lacks sufficient procedural safeguards and undermines human rights [press release], according to a report [PDF text] released Wednesday by Human Rights Watch [advocacy website]. The report found that the current French policies allow the expulsion or deportation of a suspect once an initial decision has been reached in an immigration court, even if the individual has a pending appeal or if the individual is in fear of persecution upon return to the country of nationality. HRW characterized the policy as a way for the French government to expel an individual "by the way of an administrative decision" which allows the bypassing of "more stringent evidential and procedural guarantees in the criminal justice system."

HRW wrote that France [JURIST news archive]:

has an obligation under European and international human rights law to ensure that measures taken in the name of countering terrorism and protecting the public are compatible with coexisting human rights protections, including the rights of those deemed to pose a threat. The French government is obliged to ensure that the process of removals on national security grounds has effective safeguards to guarantee due process and to protect those subject to removal against serious violations of their fundamental human rights.

Ensure that any person subject to forced removal from France is allowed to remain in France until the determination of any appeal in relation to the risk of torture or other ill-treatment or interference with the right to family life.

Ensure that individuals claiming asylum may remain in France until the conclusion of the asylum determination procedure.

End the national security exception to the granting of "subsidiary protection" — a temporary form of protection in lieu of refugee status — where a person faces the risk of the death penalty, or torture or other ill-treatment.

Improve and apply more fairly the system of assigning individuals to compulsory residence in France as an alternative to forced removal when the removal cannot be carried out in a manner consistent with human rights law.

Clarify in law and jurisprudence the materiality and intensity of the threat to national security allowing for expulsions, especially in cases involving speech offenses.