[JURIST] The Constitutional Court of Turkey [official website] ruled Thursday in favor of the constitutionality of proposed changes to the electoral system that would allow for the president to be elected by popular vote. The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) [party website, in Turkish; Wikipedia backgrounder] backed the reforms as a way to end a deadlock over the election of the next president; the Turkish president is currently chosen by parliament. The package also changes the presidency from a single, seven-year term, to a once-renewable, five year term. The electoral reform package will now go to referendum.

The AKP announced plans [JURIST report] in June to hold a national referendum to vote on the reform package. In May, Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer vetoed [JURIST report] a constitutional amendment approved by parliament that would have allowed Turks to vote for their president directly, after which Parliament passed the amendment a second time [JURIST report]. AFP has more.

[JURIST] Former US Army germ-warfare researcher Dr. Steven J. Hatfill [WashPost profile], named a "person of interest" by the FBI [JURIST news archive] in its investigations of anthrax mailings [FBI backgrounder] shortly after the 2001 Sept. 11 attacks [JURIST news archive], has filed a motion to force journalists to reveal their sources after newspapers printed details about the investigation. Hatfill is seeking the information in his lawsuit [complaint, PDF; JURIST report] against the Justice Department, which Hatfill alleges violated the federal Privacy Act [text] by giving information to the media.

In January, US District Judge Claude M. Hilton of the Eastern District of Virginia granted a motion for dismissal [JURIST report] made by the New York Times in a defamation suit filed against the paper by Hatfill. Hatfill's prior suit against the Times and columnist Nicholas Kristof [NYT profile] was previously dismissed in the trial court, which ruled that the columns dealing with Hatfill were an ongoing report about a government investigation and did not constitute libel. The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit reversed [opinion, PDF] the ruling, holding that a jury should decide that issue. Last year, the Supreme Court refused to grant certiorari [JURIST report] in the case. AP has more.

[JURIST] A Court in London sentenced Younis Tsouli [Wikipedia profile] and two accomplices to prison Thursday for collaborating on websites that advocated terrorism. Tsouli, along with Tariq al-Daourm and Waseem Mughal, used the sites to promote terrorist actions and distribute information on how to construct bombs and poisons. Tsouli, who labeled himself "the jihadist James Bond," received a sentence of ten years, while Al-Daour and Mughal received sentences of six and one half years and seven and one half years respectfully.

The websites also contained information about a conversation in which Muslim doctors discussed using car bombs against the US [PTI report]. The three were arrested in 2005 [BBC report] under the UK Terrorism Act after police found information on how to make car bombs and a terrorist-training video in their homes. AP has more.

[JURIST] Former Australian High Court [official website] chief justice Sir Gerard Brennan [profile] Wednesday denounced anti-terrorism laws [text] being used to detain an Indian doctor [press release] believed to be connected to last week's attempted terror attacks [JURIST report] in London and Glasgow. Dr. Mohammed Haneef has been held in Australian police custody since Sunday, when he was stopped as he was about to board a flight to Malaysia. Brennan said the laws under which Haneef is being held are vague and that he is concerned about language that "brands advancing a religious cause as an element in a heinous crime." Brennan also described provisions in the laws as "draconian," saying they threaten individual liberty.

In December 2006, a Australian parliamentary panel called for independent review [JURIST report] of the anti-terror laws. In November, Australian Attorney General Philip Ruddock [official website] rejected a civil rights bill proposed by the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) [official website], saying it limited the government's ability to deal with terrorism [JURIST report]. AAP has more.

[JURIST] Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] told Japan's Kyodo News [media website] Thursday that he will not return to Thailand to face charges of corruption [JURIST report] unless he can be sure that his trial would be fair. Thai officials have ordered Thaksin and his wife to return to the country by July 23, and have said if they do not, Thailand will seek their extradition from the UK, where Thaksin currently lives in exile. Thaksin's lawyer told the official Thai News Agency it is doubtful that British authorities would extradite Thaksin [Xinhua report], and said Thaksin would not return until after a general election was held and democracy restored. Thaksin was overthrown in a bloodness military coup last September. Recently the current military-appointed Thai interim government proposed a bill seeking to maintain military political power [JURIST report], allowing the army chief the ability to detain people without charge, ban public demonstrations, and carry out warrantless searches even after the election of a civilian-run government. AFP has more.

Also Thursday, Thai officials announced additional asset seizures [AP report] from Thaksin in the amount of $84.5 million USD. Thaksin is estimated to be worth over $2 billion USD, however much of those funds are currently frozen [JURIST report]. Thaksin was ousted in a 2006 bloodless coup, and has been charged with numerous counts of corruption [JURIST report].

[JURIST] The government of Turkmenistan [CIA backgrounder] published a law defining the president's powers and duties for the first time in Turkmenistani history Wednesday. The law, printed in the official state newspaper, gives the president the power to appoint the Cabinet and leaders of the armed forces. With the approval of the legislative Halk Maslahaty [Wikipedia backgrounder], the president can also appoint the the chief justice of the Supreme Court, the interior minister, and the prosecutor general. The law also stipulates that presidents may be only removed by the legislative Mejlis [Wikipedia backgrounder], which is effectively controlled by the president as its supreme leader. The publication may be an effort by President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov [BBC profile] to demonstrate greater accountability than predecessor Saparmurat Niyazov [BBC profile], an authoritarian leader who encouraged a cult of personality during over 20 years in power.

In March, Turkmenistan, which gained its independence upon the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, was cited in an annual report [text; JURIST report] by the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF) [official website] for having widespread judicial interference, using torture, and suppressing political opposition, media, and civil society. The Democratic Party of Turkmenistan (DPT), which was previously called the Communist Party of the Turkmen SSR, is the ruling and only legal political party in Turkmenistan. AP has more.

[JURIST] The trial of former police chaplain Christian Von Wernich [Trial Watch profile] began Thursday in Argentina [JURIST news archive], where the Roman Catholic priest is alleged to have been involved in human rights abuses including torture and murder during Argentina's "dirty war" [Wikipedia backgrounder; JURIST news archive] from the late 1970's to early 1980s. Von Wernich has been accused of visiting detention centers and pressuring torture victims into talking. Numerous security precautions, including metal detectors, barricades, and additional security cameras, have been taken out of concern for the 120 witnesses expected to testify against him. Soon after a former police official was sentenced to life imprisonment last year, a 77 year old key witness disappeared [JURIST report] and has not been seen since.

During the "dirty war," Argentina's military dictatorship and police force tortured and killed leftist dissidents, allegedly with tacit support from the Catholic Church. Approximately 11,000 to 30,000 detainees were killed or went missing in what at least one Argentinian court has called a genocide. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The Turkish criminal justice system continues to tolerate and condone the use of torture and ill-treatment [press release] by police and investigators despite the government's official "zero tolerance for torture" policy, according to a report [text] released Thursday by Amnesty International [advocacy website]. The report found that the an institutionalized culture that violates human rights with impunity is a lasting legacy from Turkey's September 12 1980 military coup [Wikipedia backgrounder] where approximately one million people were detained and thousands tortured.

According to the report:

Victims of human rights violations perpetrated by the police and gendarmerie in Turkey continue to face an entrenched culture of impunity. Their chances of securing justice are remote in a criminal justice system in which institutions and personnel regularly treat the interests of the state and its officials as ultimately in greater need of protection than those of individual citizens. The institutionalized failings of the system are compounded by it being under-resourced and in need of overhaul and reform. Alongside an overburdened criminal justice system that lacks independence, in Turkey there is still no independent body which can impartially and effectively investigate human rights violations by state agents.

[JURIST] Prosecutors at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website] Thursday filed an urgent motion seeking to move the trial [ICTY materials] of former Bosnian army commander Rasim Delic [UN case backgrounder, PDF; Trial Watch profile] out of the international court at The Hague. The move comes in response to an order limiting the number of witnesses allowed to be called. Prosecutors wish to hold the trial for Delic, who led Bosnia's Muslim army during the 1992-95 Bosnian war [Wikipedia backgrounder], in Sarajevo. Prosecutors had reduced an original witness list from 91 to 75, but several days ago judges at the court ruled that no more than 55 witnesses could be called. AP reports that a spokeswoman for the prosecutors called the situation "serious," pointing out that the witness list was submitted eight or nine months prior to the judges' ruling to limit it.

Delic entered a plea of not guilty [JURIST report] in March 2005. He gave himself up [JURIST report] soon after being charged [original indictment; JURIST report]. Those charges were updated [amended indictment, PDF] in 2006, and include allegations of murder, rape, and two counts of cruel treatment. AP has more.

[JURIST] Malaysian former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim [personal website] Thursday appealed a lower court judge's decision dismissing his defamation suit [JURIST report] against former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad [BBC profile] in connection with renewed allegations that Anwar is homosexual. The appeal challenges Judge Tengku Maimon's order awarding Mahathir legal costs, and also seeks to reverse Tengku's ruling so that Anwar may proceed with the defamation suit.

Anwar, who was dismissed by Mahathir in 1998 following disagreement on the handling of the 1997 Asian financial crisis [Wikipedia backgrounder], was sentenced to 15 years in prison on sodomy and corruption charges but was released in 2004 after an appeals court overturned the sodomy conviction [JURIST report]. In 2006, Anwar sued Mahathir after Mahathir allegedly suggested at a human rights conference that Anwar was unfit for office because of his supposed homosexuality and later refused to apologize or pay damages to Anwar. AFP has more.

[JURIST] The Chinese Supreme Court [official website] will standardize guidelines for when provincial level courts should impose the death penalty, court vice-president Zhang Jun said Wednesday. Zhang also outlined [press release, in Chinese] the top court's intention to strengthen its precedential value and increase oversight over intermediate and lower courts. Ni Shou-ming, spokesperson for the high court, told China Daily that sentencing guidelines for the death penalty will be released before 2008 to help eliminate discrepancies between various Chinese court districts.

In June, China Daily reported that the number of death sentences handed down by Chinese courts in the first five months of 2007 had decreased [JURIST report] following the implementation of reforms [JURIST report] that required all death sentences to be approved by the Supreme People's Court. In October 2006, China's National People's Congress [official website] voted to amend the Organic Law on the People's Court [text; JURIST report] after the high court said [JURIST report] it wanted to restrict the authority of lower courts to review death sentences [JURIST report]. An expert on Chinese criminal law has predicted that the number of death sentences will decease by approximately 20 percent in 2007. The China Daily has more.

[JURIST] US Navy Rear Adm. Mark H. Buzby [official profile], commander of Joint Task Force - Guantanamo Bay, has said that the US military plans to improve conditions by providing low-risk detainees at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] more educational and recreational opportunities, according to an AP interview published Thursday. Buzby acknowledged that there are benefits to giving detainees external stimulation, and said that recreation areas will be renovated to give detainees a window.

The planned changes, which follow the apparent suicide death of a detainee in late May, come amid renewed calls for the closure of the detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay from prominent officials, including former Secretary of State Colin Powell [JURIST report]. In May, the US House of Representatives passed an amendment to a defense spending bill which would require the Pentagon to develop a Guantanamo shutdown plan [JURIST report]. The White House has denied any imminent plan to close Guantanamo [JURIST report]. AP has more.

[JURIST] Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei [official website; BBC profile] has warned that women's rights activists should not attempt to reconcile or replace the Sharia [JURIST news archive] with international conventions or western ideals of women's rights, saying Wednesday that the current Islamic jurisprudence may only be altered if new insight is supported by the Qur'an and Sunnah [Wikipedia backgrounder]. Khamenei's comments, made to a gathering of women ahead of Thursday's celebration of Prophet Mohammad's daughter's birthday, follow Monday's sentencing [Payvand News report] of women's rights activist Delaram Ali to 34 months in prison and 10 lashes for participating in a peaceful protest [JURIST report] in June 2006.

The protest concerned Iran's interpretation of the Sharia, which has been held to require a woman to obtain her male guardian's permission to work or travel, to prohibit women from serving as judges, and to give a woman's testimony only half the value of a man's. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Ethiopian troops conducting counter-insurgency operations have violated international humanitarian law [press release] by burning homes and property and ordering civilians to vacate from at least a dozen villages in the eastern Somali region, Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] reported Wednesday. HRW Africa director Peter Takirambudde said that the "civilians in Somali region are trapped between the warring parties" and that "the Ethiopian government appears to be pursuing an illegal strategy of collective punishment of the civilian population," which is prohibited by international humanitarian law. HRW also criticized the rebel Ogaden National Liberation Front [MIPT backgrounder] for targeting civilians who refuse to support its insurgency against the Ethiopian government.

In March, HRW accused Ethiopia [JURIST news archive], which is battling a Somali Islamic insurgency on its eastern border, of cooperating with the US, Kenya, and the transitional government of Somalia [official website] to secretly detain Somalis [JURIST report] accused of being Islamic militants. In April, Ethiopia admitted to detaining terror suspects [JURIST report] and that it had granted foreign interrogators access to the detainees, but denied the detention was secret. AP has more.

[JURIST] A Belgian court Wednesday convicted former Rwandan Army Major Bernard Ntuyahaga [TrialWatch backgrounder] of premeditated homicide for Ntuyahaga's role in the murder of 10 Belgian peacekeepers tasked with providing security for then-Rwandan Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana [FAWE profile] in the first week of the 1994 Rwandan genocide [BBC backgrounder]. The jury also convicted Ntuyahaga of killing several Tutsis, but acquitted Ntuyahaga of the killing of Uwilingiyimana and her husband. Ntuyahaga faces a maximum sentence of life in prison and will be sentenced Thursday.

Ntuyahaga, whose trial began in April [JURIST report], has denied any involvement [JURIST report] in the killing of the Belgians. Ntuyahaga was extradited to Tanzania in 1998 to face genocide and war crimes charges [indictment, PDF] arising from the same incident, but the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda dropped all charges [decision text] in 1999. Ntuyahaga then voluntarily surrendered himself to Belgian authorities in 2004 after a prolonged extradition attempt. AFP has more.

UPDATE - Ntuyahaga has been sentenced to 20 years in prison AP has more.

[JURIST] Russian officials with the Office of the Prosecutor-General [official website, in Russian] have formally denied a British extradition request [JURIST report] for Andrei Lugovoy [JURIST news archive] on the grounds that the Russian constitution forbids the extradition of its citizens [MFA statement] for alleged crimes committed abroad, Interfax reported Thursday. Lugovoy is wanted [JURIST report] by Britain's Crown Prosecution Service for his alleged role in the poisoning-murder of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko [BBC profile; BBC timeline].

Russian Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika has said he will try Lugovoy in Russian courts if presented with ample evidence of guilt. The Office of the Prosecutor-General has also dismissed suggestions [JURIST report] that Lugovoy could be extradited to the UK in exchange for alleged coup plotter Boris Berezovsky [JURIST news archive]. Litvinenko and Lugovoy, both former employees of the Russian state security agency, the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation [official website, in Russian], met on November 1, 2006, hours before Litvinenko fell ill of radioactive poisoning from polonium-210 [CDC backgrounder]. Litvinenko died on November 26. AP has more. Interfax has additional coverage.