[JURIST] Myanmar human rights activist Ko Myint Naing has been sentenced to eight years in prison, according to his lawyer and fellow activists Wednesday. A judge sentenced Myint Naing for inciting unrest during an April 2007 incident in which Myint Naing and another member of the Human Rights Defenders and Promoters Network [Wikipedia backgrounder] were attacked by a pro-government mob while en route to a human rights training session. The attackers are suspected of belonging to the government-sponsored anti-opposition Union Solidarity and Development Association [official website]. The US Campaign for Burma [advocacy website] also reported that five activists accompanying Myint Naing were each sentenced to four years in prison. AP has more.

The military-led government of Myanmar [JURIST news archive] has recently received widespread international criticism for alleged human rights violations. In June, the United States renewed pressure [JURIST report] on the nation to release democracy advocate and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi [advocacy website], as well as 52 activists arrested [JURIST report] in May for participating in vigils calling for her release. In May, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention ruled [opinion, PDF] that the extended detention of Suu Kyi violates the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights [texts]. Also in June, the International Committee of the Red Cross [official website] denounced "violations of international humanitarian law" [press release] committed by the Myanmar government against citizens and detainees.

[JURIST] A US federal court Wednesday sentenced [sentencing memorandum, PDF] Maryland resident Mahmud Faruq Brent to fifteen years in prison for attending a Pakistani training camp and otherwise helping a terrorist organization. Brent, also known as Mahmud Al Mutazzim, was charged [JURIST report] with providing material support [18 U.S.C. 2339B text] to a designated foreign terrorist organization during his 2002 stay at a Lashkar-e-Taiba [FAS profile] camp. He pleaded guilty to the charges in April.

Co-defendant Tarik Shah, who assisted in Brent's martial arts training, was arrested in May 2005; his cooperation with the FBI led to Brent's August 2005 arrest. Shah has pleaded guilty and will be sentenced in September, alongside co-defendant and medical doctor Rafik Sabir. A fourth defendant, Abdulrahman Farhane, was sentenced to 13 years in prison in April 2007. The Baltimore Sun has more.

[JURIST] US District Judge Robert G. Doumar of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia [official website] ordered the government of Sudan Wednesday to pay $7.96 million in compensation to the families of 17 US Navy personnel killed in the 2000 al Qaeda attack on the USS Cole [Wikipedia backgrounder; US DOD inquiry report; JURIST news archive]. The families had sought $105 million for pain and suffering, but the federal Death on the High Seas Act [text] limits compensation to only economic damages.

In March, Doumar held Sudan liable for the attack a day after the plaintiffs introduced expert testimony [JURIST reports] from four witnesses that al Qaeda could not have accomplished the bombing had Sudan not supported the terrorist organization. AP has more.

[JURIST] The Libyan Association for the Families of HIV-Infected Children condemned Bulgaria's pardoning and release of six foreign medics [BBC Q&A; JURIST news archive] Wednesday, demanding that the Libyan government sever diplomatic relations with Bulgaria and deport all Bulgarians residing in Libya. The medics - five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor - were released by Libyan authorities on Tuesday under the pretense that they would serve their life sentences [JURIST reports] in Bulgaria. Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov [official profile] promptly issued a presidential pardon for the six medics upon their arrival in Bulgaria. EU officials secured the transfer after entering an agreement with Libya to normalize and develop closer political and economic ties and increase medical and infrastructure aid. AP has more.

Also Wednesday, the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) [official website] EU representative Antoine Madelin urged the European Union to pressure Libya to improve its human rights and ban the use of torture. Madelin specifically called for the EU to obtain approval for international observers to inspect Libyan prisons. Four of the six medics, all of whom have consistently maintained their innocence, have said they were forced to confess after enduring torture [HRW report], including beatings, electronic shock, and sexual assault by Libyan authorities. AFP has more.

[JURIST] Five opposition members in Ethiopia [JURIST news archive] asked for pardons on Wednesday after pleading guilty to charges of attempting to overthrow the government. The five submitted a letter to High Court Judge Adil Ahmed saying that they did not wish to fight the cases against them and asking for a pardon of any crimes. Prosecutors in the case have requested that the defendants, who have been in prison since 2005, receive the death penalty.

In the same case, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi [BBC profile] last week pardoned 38 opposition members and journalists, who had been sentenced to prison for their roles in mass anti-government demonstrations [JURIST reports]. The defendants were convicted of treason and inciting violence [JURIST reports] during anti-government protests that followed Ethiopia's contested 2005 elections [JURIST news archive], which were marred by allegations of fraud [JURIST report]. Last October, an Ethiopian inquiry team charged with investigating the demonstrations said that approximately 193 civilians were killed by Ethiopian security forces [JURIST report] during the violence, an estimate nearly three times the official number initially reported by the government. AP has more.

[JURIST] The US House Judiciary Committee [official website] on Wednesday voted in favor of issuing contempt of Congress citations [backgrounder; 2 USC Sec. 192] against White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet Miers [official profiles]. The citations now go to the full House, where representatives will decide whether to sanction the two for their refusal to comply with subpoenas to answer questions about the US Attorneys firing scandal [JURIST news archive]. House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) [official website] said that the committee could find no reason not to pass the citations, saying that "If we countenance a process where our subpoenas can be readily ignored, where a witness under a duly authorized subpoena doesn't even have to bother to show up, where privilege can be asserted on the thinnest basis and in the broadest possible manner, then we have already lost." In anticipation of the vote, Conyers prepared a report [Washington Post report] detailing an investigation that, according to Conyers, "has uncovered serious evidence of wrongdoing by the department and White House staff" in connection to the firings and the administration's handling of the ensuing investigation.

If the citations pass in the House, the US Attorney for the District of Columbia would be next to handle the issue. If found guilty, the two would be found to have committed a federal misdemeanor that carries a fine of up to $100,000 and one-year imprisonment. Last week, however, the White House said that the administration would not allow [JURIST report] the Department of Justice to pursue any contempt charges brought against White House officials in the congressional investigation of the firings because the contempt charges would not be proper in light of the administration's assertion of executive privilege. The report prepared by House Democrats, however, provides a full legal justification as to how it would be possible to compel a federal prosecutor to override a presidential claim of executive privilege. Last Thursday, a panel of the House Judiciary Committee voted to proceed with contempt proceedings [JURIST report] against Miers after she ignored a subpoena ordering her to appear and testify before the committee. AP has more.

7:33 PM ET - The committee voted 22-17 in favor of the contempt resolution and an accompanying report [PDF text] "finding former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten in statutory contempt of Congress for failing to respond to the Committee's subpoenas in the U.S. Attorney investigation." In a letter [PDF text; press release] to White House counsel Fred Fielding, Conyers wrote:

As I explained before the Committees' vote, I regret that the Committee has had to take this step, and continue to hope that we can resolve with you the Committee's need for information from the White House in our investigation. Indeed, as the Congressional Research Service noted in a recent report, in each of the eight cases in which House Committees alone have found executive branch officials in contempt for refusing to comply with subpoenas based on executive privilege since 1975, there was "full or substantial compliance with the demands of the committee" after the vote.

If the White House continues to refuse to engage in any discussions beyond repeating its unacceptable "take it or leave it" offer, and if Mr. Bolten and Ms. Miers continue to refuse to comply altogether with our subpoenas, we will have no choice but to enforce those subpoenas by all appropriate legal means. In our system of government, no one is above the law."

[JURIST] Iranian Intelligence Minister Gholam Hossein Ejehei said Wednesday that new arrests have been made in the conspiracy cases against Dr. Haleh Esfandiari [WWC profile], director of the Middle East Program at the DC-based Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars [organization website], and Dr. Kian Tajbakhsh [OSI press release], a consultant with the Open Society Institute [organization website]. Ejehei did not release the names of those arrested, but said he is "hopeful their names and reasons of detention will be announced." Iran has not yet said exactly how many new people were arrested.

Esfandiari is accused of being involved in an alleged plot "against the sovereignty of the country" and there have been allegations that the two scholars were involved in a plot against the government. Earlier this month, Iran said that prosecutors had expanded their investigations [JURIST report] into the alleged conspiracy after finding evidence supporting charges of endangering national security. In June, Iranian 2003 Nobel Peace Prize laureate and human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi [advocacy website, in Persian; JURIST news archive] accused the Iranian government of interfering in judicial affairs to prevent Esfandiari's release [JURIST report]. Ebadi has also accused the Iranian government of denying lawyers access to Esfandiari [JURIST report]. Esfandiari has been in solitary confinement for over 60 days. AP has more.

[JURIST] Australian Director of Public Prosecutions Damian Bugg [official profile] said Wednesday that he is reviewing [press release] "all the available material" concerning UK terror suspect Dr. Mohammad Haneef as developments in the case warrant such a review. The Australian government has charged Haneef with providing "reckless material support" to the failed UK car bomb attack [JURIST report] earlier this month. Haneef, who is not facing charges in the UK, is believed to have left a subscriber identity module (SIM) [Wikiedpia backgrounder] with his second cousin, one of the alleged bombers, when he left the UK almost a year ago. Lawyers and rights group have rebuked the Australian government's continued detention of Haneef, who was granted bail by a court but immediately held under immigration detention [JURIST report] after Immigration and Citizenship Minister Kevin Andrews [official website] revoked Haneef's work visa on the grounds that Haneef had "associations with people who have been involved in criminal conduct." Haneef is currently appealing the visa revocation at the Federal Court of Australia [official website].

Last Wednesday, government lawyers argued during preliminary hearings that the mere act of giving his cousin a SIM card and borrowing funds to take a medical exam would be sufficient grounds for Haneef to fail the character test used to justify his visa revocation. Presiding Justice Jeffrey Spender appeared skeptical of the government's arguments [West Australian report], saying it was "curious" that the visa revocation followed Haneef's bail ruling and adding that he would fail the character test himself because he had represented criminals in the past. Haneef's next hearing is scheduled for August 8. A justice on the Supreme Court of Victoria [official website] has also cautioned against the detention [JURIST report], insisting that suspects are innocent of crimes until proven guilty and warning that if the principle is "abandoned or modified for political expediency, we risk the legal foundation of our whole criminal justice system." BBC News has more.

[JURIST] An Italian judge Wednesday indicted approximately 20 former Parmalat SpA [corporate website; JURIST news archive] executives, including founder Calisto Tanzi [NNDB profile] and former CFO Fausto Tonna [BBC report], for their role in the collapse of the Italian dairy giant. The defendants, who are being charged with fraudulent bankruptcy and criminal association, allegedly concealed the company's debt of 14 billion euros (approximately $19 billion). Approximately 32,000 bondholders have joined the suit against the former officials as civil parties. If convicted, Tanzi, who blames banks for pushing the bond sales, faces up to 15 years in prison.

In June, an Italian judge indicted four banking giants [JURIST report] for not revealing to the market that Parmalat was not financially healthy. Parmalat filed for insolvency in December 2003 after discovering accounting discrepancies totaling nearly $5 billion in debt. Suits and counter-suits have been filed in both Italy and the US against a number of parties, including Citigroup and Bank of America [JURIST reports]. Bank of America is pursuing a counterclaim [JURIST report] against Parmalat, alleging the company engaged in fraud and is maliciously suing the bank to shift blame. In November, a US district judge directed the companies to seek a settlement [JURIST report]. AP has more.

[JURIST] Canada's Federal Court Wednesday ordered [PDF text; summary, PDF] the government to publicly release previously censored portions of a report on Maher Arar [advocacy website; CBC timeline], a Canadian citizen who was detained in the US in 2002 and removed to Syria where he was tortured. Justice Simon Noel, however, said that not all of the report should be disclosed, but that some words will remain blacked out. During arguments in the spring, the Arar Commission said that the public needed to have access the information in the report, but the Canadian attorney general said that national security could be compromised if the information was disclosed. In his decision, Noel said that he "agreed in part with the Attorney General and in part with the Commission."

At issue in the dispute is the September 2006 report detailing the factual findings [commission materials; JURIST report] of the Arar Commission [official website], the official judicial inquiry established in 2004 [JURIST report] to trace the events leading to Arar's deportation to Syria. The commission concluded that Canadian officials did not play a role in the US decision to detain and remove Arar, but said that the US decision was "very likely" based on inaccurate, unfair and overstated information about Arar passed on by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. In its later policy review [commission materials; JURIST report], the commission recommended that a new agency be created to review the RCMP's national security activities. CTV has more.

[JURIST] Carla Del Ponte [official profile], the top prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website], called on Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro to renew efforts to capture war crimes fugitives Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic [BBC profiles] in a statement [text] released Wednesday marking the 12th anniversary of the indictment against the two men. Del Ponte went on to say that:

I would also like to call upon the international community, all states who believe in the importance of international justice and the rule of law, to maintain and increase their crucial support. Without it, we would not be able to do our important work. Without it, there would be impunity.

[JURIST] UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown [official website] told parliament Wednesday in a wide-ranging statement on security and counter-terrorism policy [text; recorded video] that new rules need to be implemented that allow police more time to question uncharged terror suspects. Brown argued that the current 28-day limit on detention without charge is not adequate in a post-9/11 world, and that the 15 attempted attacks on Britain since 2001 evidence the need for an extended time period for questioning. Since the 28-day rule went into effect, six suspects have been questioned for the maximum period allowed before charging; three of them later had to be released without charge.

Brown flagged for consideration one proposal that would allow extension of the 28-day time period under a declared state of emergency and an alternative that would authorize weekly extensions by judicial permission for up to 28 days more subject to parliamentary notification. He also announced a review of current UK law on the use of wiretap evidence in courts and a plan to set up a new UK border protection force. AP has more. BBC News has additional coverage.

[JURIST] The UK Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) [official website] reported Wednesday that it has found no evidence of direct British involvement [report, PDF; press release, PDF] in the operation of extraordinary rendition [JURIST news archive] flights through UK airspace and said that the United States' lack of regard for UK concerns in the "war on terror" has had "serious implication for the working of the relationship between the US and UK intelligence and security agencies." The committee found that there had been "inadvertent" UK assistance in one rendition case, and recommended that ministerial approval be required in the future for British assistance to US rendition. The panel also suggested a complete ban on British assistance in renditions that may involve incarceration in secret detention facilities:

procedures and safeguards have now been formalised and we believe that, in most circumstances, they provide a reasonable level of confidence for the future. We have however recommended that they are strengthened in two areas. First, where despite the use of caveats and assurances there remains a real possibility that sharing intelligence with foreign liaison services might result in torture or mistreatment, current procedure requires that the case is referred to senior management or Ministers for consideration of the risks involved – we recommend that Ministerial approval should be sought in all such cases. Secondly, the Committee considers that "secret detention", without legal or other representation, is of itself mistreatment. Therefore, where there is a real possibility of "Rendition to Detention" to a secret facility, even if it would be for a limited time, we consider that approval must never be given.

[JURIST] The UK Department for Culture, Media, and Sport [official website] Tuesday rejected [report, PDF] a recommendation to push the EU for longer copyright terms for sound recordings, citing the 2006 Gowers Review of Intellectual Property [PDF text]. The Gowers Review found that "it is not clear that extension of term would benefit musicians and performers very much in practice," and could potentially hurt the balance of trade. Musicians and recording industry representatives criticized the decision, which they said would deny them fair compensation for their artistic efforts.

Currently, a British audio recordings copyright is limited to 50 years from the time of the recording. In May, the House of Commons Culture, Media, and Sport Committee recommended [JURIST report] the government press the European Commission to extend the copyright term for sound recordings to at least 70 years based on the committee's belief that a "copyright represents a moral right of a creator to choose to retain ownership and control of their own intellectual property." EUobserver has more.

[JURIST] Russian President Vladimir Putin [official website] Tuesday rebuked UK Ambassador to Russia Sir Tony Brenton's suggestion that Russian authorities should interpret the Russian constitution's prohibition on extraditing citizens in "light of the circumstances" [JURIST report], calling it an "insult for our nation and our people" and characterizing the UK's insistence for the extradition of Andrei Lugovoy [JURIST news archive] as "a clear remnant of colonial thinking." Russian authorities have repeatedly refused to extradite Lugovoy for the poisoning-murder of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko [BBC profile; BBC timeline] on the grounds that the Russian constitution prohibits extraditing citizens [MFA statement; JURIST report] for crimes allegedly committed abroad.

Brenton, in an interview [transcript] published Monday by Intefax and the Kommersant [media websites], implied that the Russian government should be able extradite Lugovoy because it routinely ignore sections of the Russian constitution. Last Monday, the UK expelled four Russian diplomats [press release; JURIST report], blaming Russia's "failure to cooperate to find a solution" to the two countries' differences. Russia responded by expelling four British diplomats [MFA press release; JURIST report]. The Times has more.

[JURIST] A federal judge Tuesday refused to dismiss [order, PDF] lawsuits brought by several states seeking more information from the federal government about the administration's domestic surveillance program [JURIST news archive]. In his ruling, Judge Vaughn Walker expressed doubt about the merit of the federal government's arguments [JURIST report] that the state-level investigations into the program "are barred by the Supremacy Clause and the foreign affairs power of the federal government." The federal government also sought to have the lawsuits dismissed based on the "state secrets privilege," but Walker refused address that issue before the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has a chance to consider that argument in a separate case. The litigation was filed by five states - Connecticut, Maine, Missouri, New Jersey, and Vermont - on behalf of their citizens whose privacy may have been violated when companies turned over records to the NSA as part of the domestic surveillance program.

In yet another challenge to the domestic surveillance program, the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit earlier this month rejected [JURIST report] a lawsuit brought by the ACLU, ruling that the plaintiffs had no standing to file suit. That ruling overturned a lower court decision which found the domestic surveillance program to be unconstitutional [JURIST report]. AP has more.

[JURIST] US District Judge Shira Scheindlin of the Southern District of New York Tuesday certified a class action lawsuit brought on behalf of approximately 5,000 to 10,000 suspected panhandlers against 553 law enforcement agencies in New York state. The lawsuit alleges that the agencies illegally arrested or forced individuals off public property using a state anti-loitering law that was invalidated in 1992. Scheindlin, who expressed her concern at New York's continued enforcement of the law despite federal rulings striking it down, said that allowing the class action to proceed was the only effective method to ensure that state authorities stop enforcing the law.

In 1992, Judge Robert W. Sweet ruled that the law [NY Penal Law Sec 240.35(1) text] prohibiting loitering for the purposes of begging, violates the First Amendment because begging constituted a "protected communicative conduct" in traditional public forums. The ruling was upheld on appeal in 1993 by the US Court of Appeals for the Second District. AP has more.

[JURIST] Torture was the human rights abuse most commonly alleged in Uganda in 2006, according to a report expected to be released in August by the Uganda Human Rights Commission [governing statute, PDF; ILO backgrounder]. The annual report, obtained by AP, found that 320 individuals filed formal complaints against the Ugandan government authorities for "cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment or punishment," representing 26 percent of all complaints filed with the commission. Ugandan police spokesperson Asan Kasingye confirmed that torture was a problem, saying that insufficient training, particularly in rural areas was a major cause. Kasingye said that the government has established a "Professional Standards Unit" to ensure better training and that the government has taken disciplinary actions against the individuals responsible for the human rights abuses. AP has more.

In 2004, the Commission reported that Uganda's security services regularly tortured individuals [JURIST report] in their operations. The report found that torture was "either presented as part of training, or a learned practice" throughout security forces in Uganda [JURIST news archive].

[JURIST] The Iraqi Accordance Front [BBC backgrounder], the largest Sunni parliamentary bloc, said Wednesday that it is suspending participation as a coalition partner in the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki [BBC profile] and will permanently withdraw from al-Maliki's government unless al-Maliki pardons detainees not being charged with specific crimes and make a firm commitment to upholding human rights and disbanding private militias. The Iraqi Accordance Front holds six cabinet positions and 44 of 275 seats in the Iraqi Council of Representatives [official website, in Arabic]. It is the third largest party in parliament and an important partner in al-Maliki's National Reconciliation Plan [text].

Last Thursday, Sunni members of the Iraqi Council of Representatives ended a lengthy boycott of parliamentary sessions [JURIST report] after agreeing to a secret deal with Shi'a political parties to reinstate the ousted Sunni. AP has more.