[JURIST] US House Judiciary Committee [official website] chairman John Conyers (D-MI) issued a subpoena [materials] Friday to the Republican National Committee (RNC) [party website] to turn over any emails on the US Attorney firings [JURIST news archive] sent by White House officials from RNC-sponsored accounts. Conyers also warned former White House counsel Harriet Miers [official profile] that she may be subjected to contempt of Congress proceedings if she continues her refusal to testify before the committee.

On Wednesday, Miers' lawyer told the committee that his client would not testify [JURIST report], under directions from current White House counsel Fred Fielding. In a letter sent in response [PDF text], Conyers and subcommittee chairwoman Linda Sanchez pointed out that there have been 74 prior instances since World War II where serving White House advisers have testified before Congress. Also on Wednesday, former White House Political Director Sara M. Taylor [SourceWatch profile] refused to answer questions from the the Senate Judiciary Committee [official website], pointing to Bush's assertion of executive privilege. Taylor did answer some questions, but refused to answer others, saying she would do so in the future if ordered by the courts [opening statement]. AP has more.

[JURIST] A former Rwandan mayor Friday pleaded guilty to a single count of extermination [press release], a crime against humanity, as part of a plea deal International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda [official website] that eliminated eight other charges including genocide, torture and rape. Juvenal Rugambarara [Trial Watch profile] apologized for his actions during the 1994 Rwandan Genocide [Wikipedia backgrounder], and promised to "join the rallying cry of those who say 'never again.'" The extermination charge stems from his failure as mayor to adequately investigate abuses or punish perpetrators.

Rugambarara was mayor of Bicumbi commune from 1993 until 1994. His trial began in 2003 after he was arrested in Uganda. It took two years for the plea deal to be negotiated with prosecutors. Rugambarara is one of several local Rwandan leaders who have pleaded guilty or have been found guilty [JURIST news archive] by the tribunal for their roles in the mass killings. UN News Service has more.

[JURIST] The prosecution in the Jose Padilla [JURIST news archive] terrorism conspiracy case rested Friday after nine weeks of presenting witness testimony and wiretap evidence [JURIST report] to jurors. The final witness for the prosecution, an FBI linguist, testified that the name and telephone number of Padilla co-defendant Adham Amin Hassoun [GlobalSecurity profile] were in Padilla's possession when he was arrested. The linguist also testified that notations made on checks from Hassoun to various Muslim charities mentioned "tourism" or support for "brothers." The prosecutors argued that "tourism" is code for terrorist attacks and that the "brothers" the money was to support were members of the mujahideen [Wikipedia backgrounder]. Next week the defense will begin to present its case, which will likely continue into August.

Padilla, Hassoun and a third co-defendant, Kifah Wael Jayyousi [GlobalSecurity profile], are charged [JURIST report] with being a part of an Islamic fundamentalist terrorist support network and conspiring to murder US nationals. Padilla, a US citizen, was arrested in 2002 at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport and subsequently detained as an "enemy combatant" [JURIST news archive] at a Navy military brig in Charleston, South Carolina. Initially accused of planning to set off a "dirty bomb" in the United States, Padilla went from enemy combatant to criminal defendant when he was finally charged with other offenses in November 2005. AP has more.

[JURIST] The Brazilian federal court [official website, in Portuguese] has issued an arrest warrant [Itar-Tass report] for exiled business tycoon Boris Berezovsky [Wikipedia profile; JURIST news archive] on charges of money laundering, Russian state news agency Itar-Tass [official website] reported Friday. Brazil also asked Interpol [official website] to issue an international arrest warrant. The case is related to a Berezovsky-linked sponsor [Wikipedia backgrounder] of Brazil's Corinthians soccer club [team website, in Portuguese]. In 2004, the sponsor spent millions on acquiring new players for the club, which state prosecutor Jose Reinaldo Guimaraes Carneiro said aroused suspicions, as the club had been "in the red for years." Carneiro alleged that sufficient circumstantial evidence exists linking the investment in the club, mostly by Berezovsky, with money laundering. Berezovsky, who has been living in the UK since fleeing Russia, dismissed the allegations as "an extension of the Kremlin's politicised campaign" against him.

On Thursday a Moscow court began trying Berezovsky in absentia [JURIST report] for allegedly embezzling millions from Russian national airline Aeroflot [corporate website]. Berezovsky left Russia in 2001 after falling out of favor with Russian President Vladimir Putin [official website] after vocally opposing the war in Chechnya [Wikipedia backgrounder]. Russian authorities have demanded that the UK extradite Berezovsky [JURIST report], who is also facing charges of allegedly plotting a coup [JURIST report] against Russian President Vladimir Putin. Last Friday, Russia criticized the UK [JURIST report] for its refusal to prosecute Berezovsky on charges of inciting terrorism overseas with calls to overthrow Putin by force [Guardian interview]. The Guardian has more. AP has additional coverage.

[JURIST] The total number of aliens detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) [official website] annually for immigration violations jumped from approximately 95,000 to 283,000 between 2001 and 2006, according to a report [PDF text] by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) [official website]. The GAO said the rising number of detainees has led to significant overcrowding in 4 of 23 detention facilities surveyed. The study, which focused on ICE's compliance with guidelines that govern the conditions relating to telephone access, medical care, access to legal material, and others, found systematic shortcomings in the detainees' ability to place telephone calls to lawyers or their consulates at 16 detention facilities, all of which contracted with a private vendor to provide the telephone systems. The report said that ICE responded that it was unaware of the failings prior to the GAO study, leading the GAO to criticize the ICE's lack of internal controls.

In June, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) [advocacy website] filed a class action lawsuit [petition, PDF; JURIST report] against ICE and other federal immigration officials, alleging inadequate medical and mental health care at US detention facilities have caused "unnecessary suffering [and] avoidable death." ICE's national detention guidelines were developed in consultation with the American Bar Association [organization website], the US Department of Justice [official website], and other rights organizations involved in providing pro bono legal services. The Washington Post has more.

[JURIST] US District Judge Reggie B. Walton [official profile] questioned President George W. Bush's determination that the 30-month prison sentence for former vice-presidential aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby [defense website; JURIST news archive] was "excessive" and therefore appropriate for commutation in a lengthy footnote to his memorandum opinion [PDF text] in the case published Thursday. Walton wrote:

Although it is certainly the President's prerogative to justify the exercise of his constitutional commutation power in whatever manner he chooses (or even to decline to provide a reason for his actions altogether), the Court notes that the term of incarceration imposed in this case was determined after a careful consideration of each of the requisite statutory factors, see 18 U.S.C. §3553 (2000), and was consistent with the bottom end of the applicable sentencing range as properly calculated under the United States Sentencing Guidelines... .

Indeed, only recently the President's Attorney General called for the passage of legislation to "restore the binding nature of the sentencing guidelines so that the bottom of the recommended sentencing range would be a minimum for judges, not merely a suggestion.

In light of these considerations, and given the indisputable importance of "provid[ing] certainty and fairness in sentencing... [and] avoid[ing] unwarranted sentencing disparities," [citation omitted], it is fair to say that the Court is somewhat perplexed as to how its sentence could accurately be characterized as "excessive."

[JURIST] The Australian Federal Police (AFP) [official website] Friday withdrew a motion seeking to hold for questioning an Indian doctor possibly linked with the failed UK car bomb attacks [JURIST report] an additional 72 hours without charges. Attorney General Philip Ruddock [official website] suggested that police may have withdrawn the request because they feel they can complete their interrogation of Dr. Mohammad Haneef within the initial time limit of 24 hours, but The Australian reported Friday that several documents suggested police have not been able to find any conclusive evidence of terrorist activity [report] since arresting Haneef on July 2.

Haneef is second cousin to one of the two men who drove a car into Glasgow Airport [BBC report] before setting it alight. Some lawyers and human rights experts, including former Australian High Court [official website] chief justice Sir Gerard Brennan [academic profile], have criticized the terror laws holding Haneef [text], calling them vague and even "draconian" [JURIST report]. In recent months, the UK government has considered amending its own anti-terrorism laws to extend detention periods [JURIST report] for uncharged terror suspects. AFP has more. The Australian has additional coverage.

7:10 PM ET - Australian police have now charged Haneeef with providing support to a terrorist organization. AP has more.

[JURIST] Canadian-born financier and former media mogul Conrad Black [JURIST news archive; CBC profile] was convicted of mail fraud and obstruction of justice by a Chicago jury Friday after twelve days of deliberations that included a deadlock [JURIST report]. His conviction on three counts could lead to a maximum sentence of 35 years in prison, and fines of up to $1 million. Black, now a British peer, was found not guilty on separate charges of racketeering, wire fraud, and tax evasion. Co-defendants Jack Boultbee, Mark Kipnis, and Peter Atkinson were also convicted on the mail fraud charges, and face up to 15 years in prison each, with fines of up to $750,000. Judge Amy St. Eve [official profile] of the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois [official website] will sentence the men November 30.

Black, former chairman of Hollinger International [corporate website], faced 17 counts of fraud, obstruction of justice, racketeering and tax evasion. He was accused [indictment, PDF] by the US government of diverting more than $80 million from the company and its shareholders [JURIST report] during Hollinger's $2.1 billion sale of several hundred Canadian newspapers. CBC News has more. The Financial Times has additional coverage.

[JURIST] Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein of the US District Court of Southern New York ruled [opinion, PDF] in an opinion published Friday that six wrongful death suits filed by survivors of victims who perished in the September 11 terrorist attacks [JURIST news archive] will proceed to trial [order, PDF] on the the issue of damages on September 4. In an unusual decision, Hellerstein severed the issues of damages and liability to speed up litigation, opting to proceed on with the issues of damages first because "limited discovery is needed" and also because the "alleged negligence of airlines and their security contractors have no relation to the amount of compensatory damages" that plaintiffs could recover. Hellerstein said that proceeding with the damages trials first would "hasten the resolution" of the remaining 41 cases which have not been resolved after nearly six years following the attacks and "be a significant step in mending the wounds left open by the terrorist-related aircraft crashes of September 11, 2001."

A total of 95 plaintiffs have refused the settlements offered by the federal September 11th Victim Compensation Fund [official website], which distributed over $7 billion in public funds to families and victims injured in the attacks in exchange for the victims to forfeit their right to bring claims in court. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The Liberian government has submitted a draft bill to the country's legislature which, if approved, would authorize the government to seek foreign assistance in "tracking, freezing, and confiscating the funds, properties, and assets" of former Liberian President Charles Taylor [BBC profile; JURIST news archive]. Taylor, who claims he is indigent and has been allocated a $100,000 monthly defense budget [JURIST report] by the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) [official website], is believed to control approximately $100 million in annual earnings [JURIST report] from diamond and timber resources because neither the Nigerian or Liberian government has frozen Taylor's assets pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1532 [PDF text; backgrounder].

Taylor is facing charges [indictment, PDF] for murder, rape, and the recruitment and use of child soldiers during a bloody civil war in Sierra Leone [JURIST news archive] and could be forced to repay the court for defense costs if investigators can concretely link Taylor to assets. Taylor's trial, which was expected to last 18 months and was relocated to The Hague from Sierra Leone [JURIST report] for security reasons in 2006, is presently suspended until August 2006 [JURIST report] to give Taylor's legal team more time to prepare his defense. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] A Japanese group consisting of 13 right-wing parliamentarians and more than 200 local politicians, nationalist intellectuals and historians called on the US House of Representatives Friday to retract a proposed non-binding resolution [H Res 121 text; press release] asking Japan to formally apologize in a clear and unequivocal manner [JURIST report] for enslaving hundreds of thousands of women in East Asia and the Pacific to serve as "comfort women" [Amnesty backgrounder; JURIST news archive] for the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II, claiming that the resolution is based upon "wrong information" and contradicts "historical fact." The group, headed by filmmaker Satoru Mizushima, claims that the "comfort women" should not be referred to as sex slaves because the group believes they were generally compensated and therefore "business." Mizushima has in the past characterized the Nanjing Massacre [Wikipedia backgrounder] and other Japanese World War II-era atrocities as a myth propagated by China as anti-Japanese propaganda [Japan Times report].

In March, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe [official website, in Japanese] denied allegations of forced sexual slavery [JURIST report], saying instead that the women were professional prostitutes paid for their services. Abe's statements echoed the sentiments of Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso, who made similar remarks [JURIST report] in February. Abe also later characterized the US House resolution as being "not based on objective facts" [JURIST report], but later issued a guarded apology [JURIST report], although stopping short of explicitly acknowledging the role played by the Japanese military and government in facilitating the brothels. Many Japanese nationalists have urged the Abe's government to revisit the 1993 Kono Statement [text], in which the Japanese government offered its "sincere apologies and remorse" to the victims after decades of denying official involvement. AP has more.

[JURIST] The Mexican federal Third United Criminal Tribunal Thursday absolved former President Luis Echeverria [TrialWatch profile; JURIST news archive] of any criminal responsibility for a 1968 student protester massacre [backgrounder], despite ruling that the student massacre, which took place during Echeverria's term as Interior Minister, constituted genocide. Chief judge Jesus Guadalupe Luna announced that the tribunal found no evidence that Echeverria was involved in the massacre. The ruling can be appealed, although human rights activists and Echeverria's lawyers say it was unlikely to be overturned.

Last December, a court report accused Echeverria of directly ordering [JURIST report] government authorities to repress the student protest, during which at least 25 but as many as 350 students were killed. Echeverria is also accused [JURIST report; Mexico AG report] of involvement in the murders and disappearances of more than 500 leftist dissidents during a period of time in the 1960s and 1970s called Mexico's "dirty war" [National Security Archive backgrounder]. A special prosecutor's office designed to investigate the crimes was closed [JURIST report] by departing President Vicente Fox [BBC profile]. The Washington Post has more.

[JURIST] Peru filed an appeal Thursday against a Chilean court ruling denying a Peruvian request for the extradition [JURIST reports] of former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori [personal website; JURIST news archive]. Peruvian prosecutor Carlos Briceno said he was disappointed with the Wednesday ruling, but remained optimistic that the Chilean high court would reverse. Judge Orlando Alvarez rejected the extradition request and ignored the recommendation of Chile's chief prosecutor [JURIST report], on the grounds that the Peruvian evidence was weak and that certain Peruvian charges had no legal equivalent in the Chilean justice system. The Chilean Supreme Court is expected take at least three months to issue a ruling.

Fujimori, who was president of Peru from 1990 until 2000, was arrested in Chile [JURIST report] in December 2005 after flying in to that country from Japan to campaign for the Peruvian presidency, despite having been officially banned from holding public office [JURIST report] until 2010. He remains under house arrest, and is currently running for a seat in the Japanese parliament [JURIST reports]. Xinhua has more.

[JURIST] Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders [official website, in Dutch] submitted a legislative proposal to prohibit the public wearing of burqas [Wikipedia backgrounder; JURIST news archive] Thursday, proposing a fine of up to €3,350 euros or 12 days in jail [press release] for violators. Wilders, the leader of the right-wing Party for Freedom [official website, in Dutch] and who has previously made controversial remarks against Islam and Muslims in the Netherlands, claims his proposal is intended to further the "emancipation and integration" of Muslim women, and that the "medieval burqa" does not belong in a modern country like the Netherlands. Wilders also justified his proposal as being a security measure, which he says will make identification easier.

In February, Wilders characterized the Netherlands Muslim population as posing a threat of a "tsunami of Islamisation" [Algemeen Nederlands Persbureau report] in the Netherlands, and said that Muslims should tear out half of the Qur'an if they wanted to remain in the Netherlands. Last November, then-Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk [official profile] announced plans to prohibit the public wearing of face coverings [JURIST report] for "security reasons" and to promote the integration of Dutch society. The proposal was met by protests [JURIST report], and in the wake of a national election was abandoned [JURIST report] in March by Verdonk's successor, who estimated only some 150 Muslim women wear the burqa in the Netherlands. AP has more.

[JURIST] The Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, announced reforms to judicial working dress Thursday, abolishing the traditional wigs [press release], wing collars, and bands for civil and family court judges, as well as advocates in civil proceedings. Judges sitting in criminal proceedings will continue to be dressed in traditional attire. Lord Phillips said that the reforms, which become effective on January 1, 2008, are intended to achieve "substantial savings" by reducing dress allowances made to judges, which will save approximately $610,000 annually.

The reforms came following a four-year debate surrounding the findings of a 2004 report [PDF text] which found that the public preferred modernization of the judiciary working dress, which a majority of the judiciary opposed. Judiciary members argued that the traditional dress is well-suited for judicial functions because it is "authoritative, traditional and distinguishes the wearer." Other court professionals also argued that "lay members of the public are ill placed to advise on dress" as they have no direct experience on legal proceedings. AP has more. BBC News has local coverage.