[JURIST] Zimbabwe [JURIST news archive] Magistrate Tinashe Ndokera on Thursday denied a motion by eleven white farmers to have their state-sponsored eviction notices thrown out, and instead ordered the men to stand trial for failing to vacate their property by the notices' September 30 deadline [VOA report]. David Drury, a lawyer for the farmers, argued that charges of violating the order should be dropped, or at the very least, transferred to Zimbabwe's Supreme Court as they involved constitutional issues. Ndokera categorized these arguments as "a delaying tactic." If found guilty, the farmers face hefty fines or up to two years in prison.

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] has been harshly criticized [Guardian article] for his farm seizure program [JURIST article] which seeks to redistribute white-owned land among the nation's native farmers. The government has appropriated some 4000 farms through the program and many attribute Zimbabwe's inflation rate, which is reportedly exceeding 5000 percent, to these actions as previously productive farms have become barren under the new inexperienced owners. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] The US military is reviewing its classification of hundreds of detainees at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base [JURIST news archive] in Cuba, according to the Associated Press Thursday. The review could allow for new hearings for inmates who were classified as "enemy combatants" [JURIST news archive] and a reduction in the number of prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay. Critics of the military's handling of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay argue that this step towards acknowledging that the initial Combatant Status Review Tribunals [DOD materials], or CSRTs, were unfair [JURIST report].

The CSRTs were established in 2004 in order to properly classify detainees and to allow detainees to contest their designation as "enemy combatants". Tribunal hearings were held for 558 detainees in 2004 and 2005. In these hearings detainees were provided with a military "personal representative", not a defense attorney. According to the Bush administration the classification of "enemy combatant" means that a person can be held for an unspecified amount of time and without receiving the full rights of a typical prisoner of war. AP has more.

[JURIST] A court in Turkey [JURIST news archive] Thursday convicted Arat Dink, editor of the Armenian newspaper Agos [media website, in Turkish] and son of the late Armenian journalist Hrant Dink [BBC profile], of violating Article 301 [Amnesty backgrounder; JURIST news archive] of the Turkish penal code [text, in Turkish], which bans insults against Turkish identity. Arat Dink's conviction stems from his decision to re-publish remarks written by his father before he was murdered [JURIST report] in Istanbul in January. Hrant Dink was tried and then put up for retrial [JURIST reports] for allegedly "insulting Turkishness" by writing about the killings of an estimated million Ottoman Armenians [ANI backgrounder] in the early 20th century.

The Turkish court handed down one-year suspended sentences for both Arat Dink and Agos publisher Serkis Seropyan. A lawyer for the journalists said they plan to appeal. AP has more.

[JURIST] Members of parliament in Nepal [JURIST news archive] opened debate at a special session Thursday to address the status of King Gyanendra [BBC profile] and the Nepalese monarchy. The Communist Party of Nepal - Maoists (CPN-M) [party website] reiterated their desire for the monarchy to be dissolved immediately. The party announced September 18 that it would vacate the interim government [JURIST report] and boycott future elections until its demands for parliament to immediately declare the country a federal democratic republic were met. Members of the opposition Nepali Congress [official website], Nepal's largest political party, argued that the country should first elect a special assembly to formally adopt a new constitution before ousting the monarchy. Parliamentary debate on the subject is expected to resume Sunday. AP has more.

Nepal's House of Representatives adopted [JURIST report] the country's draft interim constitution [eKantipur highlights] in January; the document was notably silent on whether the king would retain head of state duties. Nepalese government negotiators and Maoist rebels reached an agreement [JURIST report] on the 168 articles of the interim constitution to replace Nepal's current constitution [text] in December following the end of the Maoist guerrilla insurgency against the Nepalese government that began in 1996 and left over 13,000 people dead.

[JURIST] Defense lawyers representing Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi [CNN profile], the only person convicted in the 1998 bombing of a Pan Am flight 103 [Wikipedia backgrounder] over Lockerbie, Scotland, Thursday requested access to evidence not previously provided to them that they claim could be used to clear al-Megrahi. Specifically, they are seeking disclosure of a "missing document" which allegedly contains information about the timer used to bomb Pan Am flight 103. Prosecuting counsel Ronnie Clancy did not disclose the origin of the document Thursday, but confirmed that it was not provided to prosecutors by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) [official website]. Clancy requested six weeks to prepare a response to the defense's information request.

The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) [official website] granted an appeal [JURIST report] in al-Megrahi's case in June and referred it to Scotland's High Court of the Judiciary [official website] after the commission identified six grounds [press release, PDF] for a possible "miscarriage of justice" in Megrahi's trial and conviction. In 2003, Libya agreed to accept responsibility [US DOS press release] for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing and compensate the victims' families. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Rwandan Information Minister Laurent Nkusi said Thursday that the government of Rwanda has completed setting up a commission charged with investigating the 1994 assassination of then-Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana [Britannica profile]. The downing of the plane carrying the Hutu leader sparked the 1994 genocide [BBC backgrounder] in which more than 800,000 people were killed in the span of 100 days. Nkusi also said Rwanda intends to start a new investigation into the role France played in the 1994 genocide. Rwanda began a government probe [JURIST report] into the alleged French role in the genocide late last year.

Rwanda severed diplomatic ties [JURIST report] with France last year after a report filed by French anti-terrorism judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere [BBC profile] implicated current Rwandan President Paul Kagame [official website; BBC profile] in the 1994 killing. Last year, Tutsi Kagame declared that France supported the 1994 genocide by providing Hutu militias with training and weapons. Kagame has denied any involvement in the downing of his predecessor's plane. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Spanish lawmakers have reportedly come to an agreement on the text of the proposed anti-Franco Law for the Recovery of the Historical Memory [JURIST report] presented to the Spanish Parliament. The legislation is aimed at healing the social wounds from the authoritarian regime of Gen. Francisco Franco [BBC backgrounder; LOC backgrounder] that ruled Spain from 1939 to 1975 following a bitter three-year civil war. A vote on the measure is expected to occur October 30 following debate. Parliament began debating the bill in December after first unveiling the proposal [JURIST reports] last July. The government of Socialist Party Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero [BBC profile] has pressed for passage of the controversial bill; his predecessors were reluctant to address the record of Franco's regime during which some 55,000 people were killed.

The final text of the law is expected to officially condemn the Franco government, acknowledge and provide reparations for victims, allow for the correction of trial records, and set aside funds to compensate victims of the Franco era for land seizure and personal harm. If adopted, the bill would also ban public recognition of the Franco era and require local governments to remove statues and other symbols honoring the former dictator. The Socialist Party [official website, in Spanish] claims to have secured the support of enough smaller political parties to ensure passage of the bill later this month. The London Telegraph has more. AP has additional coverage.

[JURIST] The New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights [official website] filed a lawsuit against private security contractor Blackwater USA [corporate website] Thursday on behalf of an injured survivor and the families of 3 men killed during a September 16 shooting incident in Baghdad [JURIST report] that took the lives of 17 Iraqi civilians. The complaint [PDF text] submitted in the US District Court for the District of Columbia [official website] alleges Blackwater violated US law and should be liable for assault and battery, wrongful death, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and negligence. It seeks both monetary consequential and punitive damages, claiming the company "created and fostered a culture of lawlessness amongst its employees, encouraging them to act in the company's financial interests at the expense of innocent human life." AFP has more.

The CCR action came the same day as a new report [PDF text] by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) saying that the US government should investigate and, if necessary, prosecute private contractors for killing Iraqis without cause [JURIST report]. UNAMI warned that employing private contractors to provide security in high-tension areas impermissibly blurs the distinction between civilians and military combatants relied upon by international war crimes laws, the same position [press release] espoused by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Blackwater has denied firing on civilians without cause [JURIST report] and maintains that its personnel were acting in self-defense.

[JURIST] Corruption in China's ruling Communist Party [JURIST news archive] could ultimately result in political and economic destabilization within the country [press release], according to a new report [PDF text] from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace [think tank website]. The report, written by Carnegie Endowment Senior Associate Minxin Pei [think tank profile], says that approximately 10 percent of government spending goes to officials who award contracts in the form of kickbacks or bribes, enough so that "even a relatively low-level official can amass an illicit fortune". As the amount of money involved in corruption has grown exponentially over the last few years, Pei says that without intervention, it is likely that an economic downturn, deterrence of Western investors, or a social revolution will inevitably occur.

Recognizing the problem, China's Communist Party [CPC news website; Britannica backgrounder] has lately taken a hard line on corruption, punishing officials with lengthy prison terms and even the death penalty [JURIST report]. In September a former official of the Agricultural Bank of China [corporate website] was executed [JURIST report] for taking bribes and embezzling nearly $2 million USD. In July, the former commissioner of China's State Food and Drug Administration [official website, in Chinese] was executed for accepting $850,000 in bribes [JURIST report]. AP has more.

[JURIST] The number of extrajudicial killings in Colombia [JURIST news archive] at the hands of the Colombian military has almost doubled since 1997, according to a new report [related report, in Spanish] by a international conglomerate of human rights workers. The International Observation Mission on Extrajudicial Executions and Impunity in Colombia [advocacy website, in Spanish] found there have been approximately 950 documented illegal killings in the last five years, compared with approximately 575 in the five years previous. The figures were gathered from testimony of victims' family members, and an analysis of the 670 deaths currently being investigated by Colombia's attorney general. The report also claims that soldiers often plant guerrilla gear on their victims to receive credit for killing rebels in combat.

Colombian Deputy Defense Minister Sergio Jaramillo told Reuters that the the number of alleged extrajudicial killings may be inflated by rebel groups ordering the families of their slain members to claim their relatives were civilians. Jaramillo also promised that there will be an investigation into the report's findings, and would act to prevent civilian deaths. Increases in civilian deaths in Colombia have previously been reported [PDF text] by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights [official website]. Reuters has more. AP has additional coverage. El Espectador has local coverage, in Spanish.

[JURIST] President Abdullah Gul of Turkey blasted the US House Foreign Relations Committee Thursday for approving [JURIST report] a resolution [text] declaring the World War I-era killings of over one million Armenians by Turkish soldiers [ANI backgrounder; Turkish DC Embassy backgrounder] genocide. Gul released a statement [text] on the resolution:

It's a pity that some politicians in the United States closed their ears to calls of common sense and, once again, attempted to make a tool of and sacrifice important matters for petty tricks of domestic politics. This is not an attitude which befits and benefits the representatives of a great power such as the United States of America. This unacceptable decision of the Committee has no validity and standing in the eyes of the Turkish people, as similar previous resolutions.

ALSO ON JURIST  Op-ed: The Armenian Genocide Resolution and the Perils of State-sponsored History | Comment: US House should pass Armenian genocide resolution | Comment: No Armenian 'genocide' in 1915

[JURIST] Spain's National Court will announce verdicts and sentences for the 28 defendants in the 2004 Madrid train bombing case [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive] on October 31, a court spokesperson said Wednesday. The 28 defendants [BBC backgrounder], mostly of Moroccan descent, were charged with 192 counts of murder and upwards of 1,800 counts of attempted murder related to the March 11, 2004 bombings.

Prosecutors are seeking jail sentences for eight suspected ringleaders of nearly 39,000 years each [JURIST report], although the maximum time they could serve under Spanish law is 40 years. The defendants have all protested their innocence and condemned the attacks. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Former US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales [official profile; JURIST news archive] has hired an attorney as the DOJ and the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) continue their investigations [JURIST report] into allegations that Gonzales may have perjured himself [JURIST report] before Congress. Gonzales hired former DOJ second-in-command George Terwilliger [firm profile] of the Washington, D.C. firm White & Case to represent him. The investigations are ongoing and have not resulted in any charges against Gonzales at this time.

In a letter [PDF text] dated August 16, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) asked [JURIST report; press release] the DOJ inspector general to investigate potentially misleading or dishonest testimony given by Gonzales in hearings before the committee regarding the National Security Agency's domestic surveillance program [JURIST news archive] and the Justice Department's handling of the firings of eight US Attorneys [JURIST news archive]. The DOJ and OPR investigations [JURIST report] are also looking into an alleged March meeting between former US DOJ aide Monica Goodling and Gonzales in which Gonzales supposedly "recounted to [Goodling] his recollections of the process leading up to and including" the controversial US Attorney firings. If the conversation occurred as alleged, it may constitute witness tampering, as Goodling was, at the time of the conversation, scheduled to testify before Congress on the attorney firings. Gonzales formally left office [JURIST report] on September 15. AP has more.

[JURIST] The US government should investigate and, if necessary, prosecute private contractors for killing Iraqis without cause, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) said in a report [text] released Thursday. The UNAMI report warns the US that employing private contractors to provide security in high-tension areas impermissably blurs the distinction between civilians and military combatants relied upon by international war crimes laws, the same position [press release] espoused by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The UNAMI report is focused on the April to June quarter, during which several private contractors were accused of indiscriminately shooting at Iraqi civilians, but notes recent press coverage of the Blackwater USA contracting firm [JURIST news archive]. Blackwater private contractors are accused of deliberately shooting at Iraqi civilians during a September shooting incident [JURIST reports]. The September shootings were called "deliberate murder" by an Iraqi investigation, and prompted a US House bill to expand US jurisdiction over such contractors [JURIST reports].

In addition, the UNAMI report discusses the rule of law in Iraq, finding that detainees are not processed quickly enough, that many detainees are not represented by legal counsel for their initial investigative hearings, that many detainees are alleging torture by their captors, and that serious irregularities exist in trial procedures for those sentenced to death. Reuters has more. The UN News Centre has additional coverage.

[JURIST] A federal judge on Wednesday granted a temporary restraining order sought by two environmental advocacy groups to enjoin the Bureau of Land Management from building a 1.5 mile US-Mexico border fence over the San Pedro river until an appropriate environmental impact assessment is completed. US District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle of the US District Court for the District of Columbia berated the government for beginning construction on the fence after taking only three weeks to assess the potential environmental impact of the project. The Sierra Club and the Defenders of Wildlife (DoW) requested the restraining order [DoW press release] last Friday, arguing that the "assessment should be done before the area is bulldozed." The San Pedro river, which flows across the Arizona-US border, is considered a National Conservation Area (NCA) by the government. Huvelle noted that the Homeland Security Department has legal authority to waive all environmental laws and build the fence despite the restraining order.

President George W. Bush signed the Secure Fence Act of 2006 [JURIST report; PDF text] in October 2006. The legislation authorizes the construction of approximately 700 miles of fencing along the 2,000 mile US-Mexican border. Critics of the fence include locals in border communities, who feel that the the federal government has not addressed their concerns that a border fence would interfere with irrigation, harm wildlife, as well as disrupt Mexican consumers and investors that positively contribute to the local economy. In May, the International Boundary and Water Commission said that construction of the fence could violate a boundary treaty [JURIST report] between the United States and Mexico. AP has more.

[JURIST] Illinois pharmacists who morally object to dispensing Plan B, the "morning-after" pill, will be permitted to refuse to fill prescriptions for the drug but must work with another pharmacist by phone to dispense the contraceptive, under a settlement submitted to an Illinois legislative panel on Thursday. Pharmacists sued the state in 2005 after Governor Rod Blagojevich passed a rule [press release] requiring all pharmacists to dispense the pill despite moral objections. The proposed settlement only affects Illinois females under the age of 17, as the FDA in 2006 approved over-the-counter sales of Plan B [JURIST report] to customers 18 years and older. AP has more. From Springfield, Illinois, the State Journal-Register has local coverage.

In a separate lawsuit [JURIST report] for monetary damages brought by four pharmacists against Walgreens [corporate website], the pharmacists say they were illegally fired after refusing to sign a pledge to dispense Plan B. The pharmacists allege they are protected from dispensing the morning-after pill by the Illinois Health Care Right of Conscience Act [text], which they say protects health care providers from discrimination if they refuse to participate in health care services which are contrary to their beliefs. That suit is ongoing.

[JURIST] The US House Judiciary and Intelligence committees on Wednesday voted to advance the RESTORE Act of 2007 ("Responsible Electronic Surveillance That is Overseen, Reviewed and Effective Act of 2007") [draft text, PDF; summary, PDF], introduced [JURIST report] by House democrats on Tuesday, with several minor changes. The RESTORE Act would replace the temporary Protect America Act [S 1927 materials], signed in August, as the law governing foreign surveillance. The RESTORE Act permits eavesdropping on foreign targets operating outside the US, but if the surveillance targets are thought to be communicating with Americans, the government must apply for an "umbrella" court order from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) [official backgrounder] to conduct surveillance for up to one year. In an emergency, the government may begin surveillance immediately, but must apply for a FISC court order within seven days and receive FISC approval within 45 days. The House committees added several amendments [press release], including one to strengthen the standard used to determine when a FISA warrant is required, and a second requiring the FISC to review compliance with its orders rather than merely authorizing it to do so.

Notably, the House committees failed to adopt an amendment sought by the Bush administration [JURIST report] granting retroactive legal immunity to telecommunications companies for participating in the NSA domestic surveillance program [JURIST news archive]. Last year, USA Today reported that the NSA had been collecting phone records from major telephone companies AT&T, Verizon, and BellSouth [corporate websites] to study the calling patterns of millions of Americans in an effort to detect terrorist activity in violation of telecommunications privacy laws. On Wednesday, Bush also asked that the Protect America Act, which dilutes FISC involvement in monitoring domestic surveillance activities, be made permanent. AP has more. The New York Times has additional coverage.