[JURIST] Iran confirmed for the first time that it is detaining Iranian-American peace activist Ali Shakeri [advoacy website], the Iranian Students News Agency [media website] reported Friday. Shakeri, a founding member of the University of California, Irvine, Center for Citizen Peacebuilding [advocacy website], is the fourth dual US citizen Iran has detained in recent months. Sources say he planned to leave Iran for Europe on May 13, but was detained by security forces and investigated by the security department of the Tehran prosecutor's office.

Last week, US President George W. Bush strongly condemned [JURIST report] Iran's detention of Shakeri and three other Iran-Americans, including Dr. Haleh Esfandiari [WWC profile], Dr. Kian Tajbakhsh [OSI press release], and Radio Farda [media website] correspondent Parnaz Azima. In a statement [text], Bush also said he was "disturbed by the Iranian regime's refusal" to provide information concerning Robert Levinson [advocacy website], a former FBI agent who disappeared in March while visiting Iran [JURIST news archive]. Also last week, Iran formally charged Tajbakhsh and Azima [JURIST report] for conspiring against the government. Last Monday, Iran formally charged Esfandiari [JURIST report], director of the Middle East Program at the DC-based Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars [think tank website], with plotting to overthrow the Iranian government by organizing a network "against the sovereignty of the country." AP has more.

[JURIST] The White House has increased the size of its legal team to deal with continued requests from Democratic congressmembers investigating the US attorney scandal [JURIST news archive], prewar intelligence, and other questions, according to Friday reports. White House counsel Fred Fielding [official press release], who replaced Harriet Miers [JURIST news archive] in January, has created several new positions as well as filling pre-existing empty job slots [press release], bringing the White House legal staff to 22.

Among the new hires is J. Michael Farren [Forbes profile], a former corporate vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary at Xerox Corp [corporate website], who will assume the position of deputy vice counsel. William Burck, former counselor to the assistant attorney general for the criminal division at the Department of Justice [official website], and Williams & Connolly [firm website] partner Emmet Flood were picked to be special counsel to the president. Fielding also hired three lawyers from his previous law firm, Wiley, Rein & Fielding [firm website]. AP has more.

[JURIST] The Supreme Court of Sri Lanka [official website] stopped the forced eviction of ethnic Tamils from the capital city of Colombo Friday, calling the government "misguided" in its latest attempt to reduce attacks by the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) [CFR backgrounder; LTTE website], or "Tamil Tigers." Later in the day, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse [official website] invited the evicted Tamils back to Colombo, promising a disciplinary probe against the police chief responsible. Early Thursday morning, police began systematically removing Tamils from their homes and hostels and bussing them to a detention center 160 miles away. A court official told AFP that the Supreme Court will hear an official complaint that this practice violates constitutional rights on June 22, but until then the practice was ordered to be stopped.

Numerous countries and groups have decried the forced removals. The United States said that although it "understands and supports Sri Lanka’s obligation to defend itself against terrorism", the evictions could only widen the ethnic divide [statement]. Human Rights Watch [advocacy website] called the move blatantly discriminatory [press release], and said "nothing could be more inflammatory in Sri Lanka’s polarized climate." AFP has more on the court order and the promise of a disciplinary investigation.

[JURIST] The Attorney General of Afghanistan [JURIST news archive] Abdul Jabbar Sabet Friday accused Army General Deen Mohammed Jurat and Jurat's numerous armed bodyguards of attacking him and his men. Sabet says his group, which included the mayor of Kabul and several members of parliament, were traveling north of Kabul when they stopped at a roadblock. Sabet said he left his car to investigate the cause when Jurat and approximately 40 armed men walked up and assaulted him, leading to a fight in which several cars were struck by bullets. Jurat, a senior interior ministry official, claimed his men acted in self defense, and that the fight was started when Sabet stopped Jurat's car at the road block and slapped his driver in the face.

Sabet claims that the attack was prompted by Sabet ordering the arrest of Jurat's officials on suspicion of corruption. Afghan President Hamid Karzai [official website; JURIST news archive] gave Sabet the task of weeding out corruption [press release] in the Afghan government in 2006. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] US Senate Republicans Thursday threatened to shut down business in the Senate after Democrats postponed a Senate Judiciary Committee [official website] vote on the nomination of Mississippi Court of Appeals Justice Leslie H. Southwick [official profile; nomination information] to the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. The postponement came during the committee's weekly Executive Business Meeting [agenda], when Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) said that the committee needed to take a closer look at Southwick because of potentially racist and homophobic beliefs. Leahy rejected criticism that he was deliberately dragging his feet, pointing out that, during his terms as chairman, he oversaw the confirmation of more nominees than either of the prior two Republican chairmen did in the same amount of time.

A previous nominee to the Fifth Circuit, Michael Wallace [nomination information], withdrew from consideration [JURIST report] after the Democratic takeover of Congress. The American Bar Association (ABA) [group website] had voted unanimously [JURIST report] that Wallace, a former aide to US Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS), was "not qualified" [ratings, PDF] to sit on the court. Southwick was initially nominated [press release] in 2006 to fill a seat on the US District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, but was renominated for the Circuit Court [press release] following Wallace's withdrawal. The ABA unanimously voted Southwick to be "well qualified" [ratings, PDF], the highest possible rating. The Washington Times has more.

[JURIST] A dozen prominent legal scholars submitted an amicus curiae brief on behalf of former vice-presidential aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby [defense website; JURIST news archive] Thursday, arguing that Libby's conviction [JURIST report] could be overturned on appeal because the appointment of Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald [official website] raises serious constitutional issues involving the separation of powers. The legal scholars, including Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz [personal website] and conservative legal scholar and former Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork [Wikipedia profile], say that "with no supervisor, [Fitzgerald] is too independent to make his supposed 'superiors' politically accountable for his actions" because the independent prosecutor could not be supervised by the executive branch short of being removed by the US Department of Justice. US District Judge Reggie B. Walton [official website] is reviewing the brief and will decide whether to grant Libby bail pending Libby's appeal.

In February 2006, Libby's defense attorneys made similar arguments [WP report], saying that Fitzgerald's appointment by the DOJ rather than by the president violated separation of powers doctrine. Walton rejected the argument, citing a 1988 Supreme Court opinion [Morrison v. Olson, text] which held that an independent counsel could still be considered an executive official despite not being under the direct control of the president because neither the legislative or judicial branch retain influence. Fitzgerald was appointed special counsel in 2003 by then-Deputy Attorney General James Comey [official profile; JURIST news archive] pursuant to internal DOJ special council regulations. AP has more.

[JURIST] Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen [official website] Thursday signed legislation which starting on July 1 will allow those who were convicted for protesting laws designed to enforce racial segregation to receive a full pardon and to have their criminal records destroyed. The Rosa Parks Act [bill information], named after the late Alabama civil rights activist, also allows an estate of a deceased activist to have the activist's records expunged. Some activists said they would not seek a pardon, as they are proud of their records and what the arrest represented. The bill contains an exemption for records used for educational purposes, displayed in public museums or libraries.

Last year, Alabama Governor Bob Reily signed into law [JURIST report] the original version of the Rosa Parks Act [text; JURIST report], which does not provide for destruction of records, but instead requires the records to be transferred to the Alabama Department of Archives and History [official website]. A Florida version [text] of the Rosa Parks Act died in the Florida state senate [procedural history] earlier this year. AP has more.

[JURIST] Chilean Supreme Court judge Urbano Marin Vallejo ordered the house arrest of Alberto Fujimori [personal website; JURIST news archive] Friday, responding to concerns that the former Peruvian President held in Chilean custody since 2005 will try to flee the country. Judge Orlando Antonio Alvarez Hernandez, also on the Supreme Court, is currently reviewing a recommendation by Chile's chief prosecutor that Fujimori be extradited [JURIST report] in accordance with a request by Peru [JURIST report] to be tried for corruption and human rights abuses while in office.

Fujimori, who was president of Peru from 1990 to 2000, has been implicated in the 1992 Cantuta University massacre [Wikipedia backgrounder], in which nine students and a university professor were "disappeared" by the Peruvian military. In 2000, Fujimori fled from Peru to Japan when corruption and human rights allegations surfaced against him. The Japanese government refused Peruvian requests for Fujimori's arrest and extradition despite an Interpol international warrant [press release] for Fujimori's arrest. Fujimori was arrested in Chile [JURIST report] in December 2005 after flying in to campaign for the Peruvian presidency despite having been officially banned from holding public office [JURIST report] until 2010. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Indicted US Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA) [official website; JURIST news archive] pleaded not guilty Friday to charges [DOJ press release] under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act [DOJ materials], including bribery, racketeering, money laundering, and obstruction of justice. Jefferson allegedly accepted approximately $500,000 in bribes from numerous companies both in the US and in Africa and faces a maximum sentence of 235 years in prison if he is convicted on all counts. Prosecutor Mark Lytle estimated the trial, which is scheduled to begin on January 16, 2008, will take four weeks.

On Tuesday, the US House of Representatives passed two resolutions intended to speed up its internal investigation [JURIST report] of Jefferson. Last year, two of his associates pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the investigation into the congressman. Former aide Brett Pfeffer pleaded guilty to bribery charges [DOJ press release] last January. Last May, businessman Vernon L. Jackson pleaded guilty to bribing Jefferson [press release; WP report] and was subsequently sentenced to seven years in prison for paying more than $400,000 in bribes for Jefferson's influence in securing telecommunication contracts in West Africa. As part of the investigation, FBI agents conducted an 18-hour raid on Jefferson's congressional offices [JURIST report] last year. Jefferson is currently challenging the raid [JURIST report] before the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit. The Los Angeles Times has more.

[JURIST] The Supreme Court of Pakistan [official website] Friday delayed its ruling on whether it has jurisdiction [JURIST report] over the legal disputes involving the suspension of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry [official website; JURIST news archive], putting that off until next week. Legal observers say the delay may reflect internal disagreement amongst the thirteen justices that sit on the bench. Chaudhry's defense team also brushed off three affidavits filed by three intelligence directors under Musharraf's government, which accused the suspended chief justice of wanting to head an interim government [JURIST report] and spying on fellow judges. Chaudhry's top lawyer, Aitzaz Ahsan, characterized the allegations as "fairy tales." The Press Trust of India has more. AFP has additional coverage.

The postponement came a day after an estimated 7,000 Pakistani lawyers, journalists and opposition members participated in a another protest in Lahore, the capital city of Pakistan's Punjab province, demanding the resignation of President General Pervez Musharraf for his March 9 suspension [JURIST report] of Chaudhry as well as Musharraf's imposition of an emergency media ordinance [JURIST report] on Monday. AP has more. 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.

[JURIST] The New Hampshire State Senate voted 15-9 [press release] Thursday to repeal [HB 184 text] a 2003 law requiring parental notification [text] for minors seeking an abortion [JURIST news archive]. New Hampshire Governor John Lynch [official website] has indicated that he will sign the bill, which was initially passed in the New Hampshire House of Representatives on March 21 by a vote of 217-141.

New Hampshire's notification law, which was initially struck down [opinion] by the the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit because it did not contain a medical exception to protect the health of the minor, was subsequently considered [JURIST report] by the US Supreme Court [official website]. The Court vacated the lower court ruling [JURIST report] in 2006 and remanded the case, holding [opinion] that

if enforcing a statute that regulates access to abortion would be unconstitutional in medical emergencies, invalidating the statute entirely is not always necessary or justified, for lower courts may be able to render a narrower declaratory and injunctive relief.

[JURIST] The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) established and operated secret detention centers [JURIST news archive] in Romania and Poland between 2002 and 2005, according to a report [PDF text; Appendix 1, JPG; Appendix 2, JPG; Appendix 3, PDF; press release; press conference recorded video part 1, part 2] adopted Friday by the Legal Affairs Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) [official website]. The report, compiled by PACE-appointed rapporteur and Swiss senator Dick Marty [personal website], accuses certain European governments like Germany and Italy of blocking inquiry into the prisons by "invoking the concept of state secrets." The report also concludes that the CIA directly ran secret detention facilities in Europe with the "requisite permissions, protections or active assistance" of European governments, and that the framework for the cooperation was developed secretly among NATO members following the United States' invocation of Article 5 [NATO report]. Poland's Ministry of Foreign Affairs immediately rejected the allegations, denying the presence of any secret detention facilities in Polish territory. The European Commission [official website], the executive body of the EU, called on EU members to immediately launch impartial investigations. AFX has more. AFP has additional coverage.

Last Thursday, six leading human rights groups reported [JURIST report] that the US is still holding at least 39 detainees in secret prisons. In February, the European Parliament condemned European states [JURIST report], including Austria, Italy, Poland, Portugal, the UK, Germany, Sweden, Spain, Ireland, Greece, Cyprus, Denmark, Turkey, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Bosnia, and Romania, for their cooperation in illegal secret prisons and extraordinary rendition flights [JURIST report]. The groups also accused several states of obstructing European probes into the secret prison allegations, including Poland [JURIST report], which allegedly housed the largest CIA secret detention facility in Europe [JURIST report]. President Bush acknowledged the existence of the secret CIA facilities [JURIST report] last September, but provided no details on their location or operation. AP has more.

[JURIST] US Marines Staff Sgt. Justin Laughner testified Thursday at the Article 32 hearing [JAG backgrounder] for Lt. Col. Jeffrey R. Chessani [JURIST report], the commander in charge of the Marine battalion implicated in the deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians at Haditha [USMC timeline; JURIST news archive], that a superior officer, Lt. Andrew Grayson, ordered him to delete photographic evidence taken hours after the killing of 24 Iraqi civilians at to keep it out of a report being prepared for top-ranking officers and a reporter. Laughner, who has been granted immunity for his testimony, said he complied with the order and later lied about whether the pictures ever existed, despite having misgivings that the order constituted obstruction of justice. Grayson's own Article 32 hearing is scheduled to begin on June 18.

The Haditha investigation has culminated in the largest US military prosecution involving civilian deaths during the war in Iraq. Four officers have been charged with dereliction of duty offenses and an additional three Marines have been charged with unpremeditated murder. Iraqi witnesses say that Marines led by Staff Sgt. Frank D. Wuterich [advocacy website] shot into the homes of civilians after a fellow Marine was killed by a roadside bomb. Wuterich, who faces 13 charges of unpremeditated murder, has maintained that his unit followed the rules of engagement [JURIST report] and did not purposefully attack civilians. AP has more.

[JURIST] The trial of 26 US Central Intelligence Agency agents [JURIST news archive] and two former Italian intelligence officials in the 2003 abduction and rendition [JURIST news archive] of Egyptian cleric Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr [JURIST news archive; Wikipedia profile] opened in Milan Friday in the absence of all American defendants. This is the first trial based on the CIA rendition program, but US officials have said that the defendants will not be turned over to Italian custody [JURIST report], even if requested by the Italian government. The Italian government has meanwhile asked its Constitutional Court [official website] to throw out the indictments [JURIST report] of the intelligence agents, but that court will not make a ruling until the fall. It is expected that the defense will seek to delay the trial pending the outcome of the Constitutional Court decision.

Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, was seized on the streets of Milan by CIA agents with the help of Italy's Military Intelligence and Security Service (SISMI) [official website]. He was then allegedly transferred to Egypt and turned over to Egypt's State Security Intelligence (SSI) [Wikipedia backgrounder], where he said he was tortured before being released [JURIST reports] in February 2007. BBC News has more.

11:55 AM ET - After ruling on several preliminary motions, Judge Oscar Magi has postponed the trial until June 18 to give himself time to consider the defense application for putting off the proceeding until Italy's Constitutional Court rules on the indictments. The Irish Examiner has more.

[JURIST] The number of death sentences handed down by Chinese courts in the first five months of 2007 has decreased following the implementation of reforms [JURIST report] which require all death sentences to receive the approval of the Supreme People's Court [official website], Chinese state media reported Thursday. Citing statistics from the Beijing No. 1 and No. 2 Intermediate People's Court, the China Daily found that the number of death sentences handed out in cases of first instance dropped approximately 10 percent from the same time last year. Ni Shou-ming, spokesperson for the high court, told China Daily that lower courts have become more "prudent" following the implementation of the reforms, fearing that a case could be remanded for retrial and the associated "shame" of being found to have giving a wrong judgment. Ni also said that the Supreme People's Court will issue a guideline on the death penalty, which Ni says will provide a "yardstick for all provinces and promote fairness."

In October of last year, China's National People's Congress [official website] voted to amend the Organic Law on the People's Courts [text; JURIST report], after the high court said [JURIST report] it wanted to remove the authority from lower courts to review death sentences [JURIST report]. The high court delegated the authority to lower courts in 1981 following a rise in serious crimes such as murder, robbery, and drug trafficking. An expert on Chinese criminal law has predicted that the number of death sentences will decrease by approximately 20 percent in 2007. AP has more. China Daily has local coverage.

[JURIST] The US Senate voted 50-45 [roll call] late Thursday to reject a cloture motion [Senate backgrounder] for the proposed Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007 [S 1348 summary; JURIST report] Thursday, falling 10 votes short of limiting the debate on the legislation to thirty-hours and restricting the introduction of new amendments. The failure of the motion, supported by senators who wanted to push the legislation through a vote, was described by some observers as a "collapse" of the bill. The Senate will have the next few weeks to work on the legislation, or shelve it until the Senate returns from its August recess.

The latest setback for the immigration bill follows the Senate's approval of a five-year limit [JURIST report] on a proposed Y-1 temporary guest worker visa program. In May, senators trimmed the proposed temporary guest worker program [JURIST report] from its previous maximum limit of 600,000 guest workers a year to 200,000. The proposal had received bipartisan criticism [JURIST report] for being too large. Opponents of the immigration reform bill say it amounts to "amnesty" for up to 12 million undocumented immigrants currently in the United States, and others have objected to restrictions on the right of legal immigrants to bring their families to the US. On Saturday, President George W. Bush renewed the White House's push for passage [JURIST report] of the bill, defending the proposal from criticism that it amounts to "amnesty" by insisting it brings consequences for those who enter the US illegally. The New York Times has more. The Washington Post has additional coverage.