[JURIST] The US State Department Tuesday laid down [press release] additional rules and procedures governing the operation of US private security contractors working with its personnel in Iraq. The new rules, supplementing a series of interim measures [JURIST report] announced earlier this month, are likewise based on the recommendations of a report [PDF text] by the Secretary of State's Panel on Personal Protective Services set up after Blackwater [corporate website; JURIST news archive] company guards working for the State Department killed up to 13 civilians in Baghdad's Nisoor Square on September 16. Contractors will now be required to provide a certain number of Arabic-speaking employees and to provide their employees more comprehensive training. Private security guards will also be subject to stricter rules regarding the use of force. An Embassy Joint Incident Review Board will be set up to investigate incidents where deadly force is used.

Panel head Patrick Kennedy said that the rules were needed to establish a legal framework [briefing transcript] to better restrain and police private security firms; the firms have largely operated free from oversight due to legal loopholes [JURIST report]. In response to the September 16 incident, the Iraqi government said it had revoked Blackwater's operating license [WP report]. Blackwater maintains that the shootings were provoked [JURIST report], and has made long-term plans to stay in Iraq, despite the Iraqi action. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] As many as six additional former Nigerian governors will be charged with corruption by the end of the year, Nigerian anti-corruption czar Nuhu Ribadu [official profile] said Tuesday. Ribadu, the chairman of Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission [official website], would not reveal the names of the those to be charged or the specific allegations, but in an interview with AP said that more governors would "definitely" be charged.

The Commission was formed in 2002 by the Economic And Financial Crimes Commission (Establishment) Act [text] as part of an anti-corruption push by then-president Olusegun Obasanjo [BBC profile] who was himself indicted for corruption [JURIST report] in March. The Commission is currently prosecuting five former state governors. Former state governor Dieprieye Alamieyeseigha was sentenced [JURIST report] in July to 12 years in prison after pleading guilty to six counts of corruption and money laundering. A Human Rights Watch report issued earlier this month warned that corruption in Nigeria [JURIST news archive] has reached a crisis level and said that government could be compared to a criminal organization [HRW report; JURIST report]. AP has more.

[JURIST] The French parliament passed a strict immigration bill [text; dossier, both in French] Tuesday that requires language and cultural knowledge tests, as well as optional DNA testing, for immigrants who want to join their families in France. The bill was passed by French Senate [official website] in a 185-136 vote earlier this month after French Immigration Minister Brice Hortefeux [official profile, in French] made last-minute changes [Reuters report] to the DNA test section and the lower parliamentary house, the National Assembly [official website], passed the bill 282-235 Tuesday. Under the version adopted, the tests will be optional, sponsored by the state, will test only an applicant's maternal side so as to avoid potential disputes over paternity and will require the approval of a magistrate. Earlier versions of the bill [JURIST report] provided for mandatory testing. The DNA tests are meant primarily to verify family ties to French residents for potential immigrants who lack family records and to speed up the immigration process, but that provision has proved highly controversial. Critics argue that genetics should not be used to determine citizenship eligibility and opposition lawmakers have promised to challenge the law before France's Constitutional Court. BBC News has more. Reuters has additional coverage.

The bill follows a campaign promise by French President Nicolas Sarkozy [official profile] to toughen the country's immigration policy, a move already begun by the introduction of deportation quotas seeking to expel 25,000 illegal immigrants in 2007. Prior to assuming the presidency [JURIST report], Sarkozy also took a tough stance on immigration while serving as interior minister. In February 2006, he proposed legislation [JURIST report] to enable the government to expel immigrants who did not make sufficient efforts to integrate in French society and seek work. In June 2006, the French parliament passed a conservative immigration bill [JURIST report] that tightened restrictions on unskilled, non-EU immigrants and required immigrants to sign a pledge to learn French and to abide by French law. In September 2006, Sarkozy announced that France had granted amnesty [JURIST report] to 6,924 illegal immigrants with school-age children, even though thousands more had applied. The move was criticized as "totally arbitrary" - an assertion that Sarkozy denied.

[JURIST] The US State Department cannot account for most of the $1.2 billion that it paid to a private contractor hired to train Iraqi police forces, according to an interim review report [PDF text; US State Department press briefing] from the US Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) [official website] released Tuesday. DynCorp International [corporate website] was contracted by the Department of State's Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) [official website] in February 2004 to provide housing, security, and training support systems for the Iraqi civilian police training program. SIGIR's report said that DynCorp invoices and documents submitted to INL auditors were in "disarray" and had not been validated for accuracy prior to October 2006, and that

As a result, INL does not know specifically what it received for most of the $1.2 billion in expenditures under its DynCorp contract for the Iraqi Police Training Program. INL's prior lack of controls created an environment vulnerable to waste and fraud.

[JURIST] Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto [BBC profile] has been barred from leaving Pakistan in violation of an amnesty agreement signed by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf [BBC profile], according to her Pakistan People's Party (PPP) [party website] Tuesday. As part of the agreement, the government was to lift a ban on Bhutto leaving the country, which had been in place for many years during her exile. Last week, Bhutto returned to Pakistan after nine years in Great Britain and Dubai after the Pakistani government said that she would not be arrested [JURIST reports] on corruption charges upon arrival. BBC News has more.

Bhutto and Musharraf are political rivals [BBC backgrounder], but Musharraf earlier this month signed [JURIST report] the "reconciliation ordinance" granting Bhutto amnesty in an attempt to boost his waning popularity. The Supreme Court of Pakistan said last week that it would hear a challenge to the ordinance [JURIST report].

[JURIST] The United States and the European Commission (EC) Tuesday announced [US Trade Representative press release; EC press release] plans for multinational negotiation of an Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) to promote international enforcement of copyright law [JURIST news archive]. Talks have begun between the US, the European Union nations, Switzerland, Canada, Mexico, Japan, South Korea, and New Zealand on the agreement, which will increase scrutiny and enforcement against piracy and counterfeiting. The proposed agreement will focus on bolstering international cooperation, imagining better ways to fight copyright violators, and building a legal framework for intellectual property rights enforcement.

US and EC representatives said that ACTA will be drafted to complement existing World Trade Organization intellectual property laws [TRIPS backgrounder; TRIPS text]. A 2007 study [OECD report, PDF] estimated that $200 billion of counterfeit and pirated goods were traded internationally in 2005. AP has more.

[JURIST] Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev [BBC profile] Tuesday signed into law amendments [RFE/RL report] to the Kyrgyz constitution [constitutional materials, in Kyrgyz] approved by citizen vote in a constitutional referendum [JURIST reports] Sunday. Bakiyev also issued a decree Tuesday setting new parliamentary elections for December 16. The constitutional amendments include increasing the number of seats in parliament from 75 to 90 and changing the election of parliament members from a direct election to proportional party representation. Bakiyev's actions Tuesday followed his dissolution [AP report] of the existing parliament Monday.

Meanwhile, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) [official website] has criticized alleged violations [press release] committed during Kyrgyzstan's Sunday referendum, including stuffing of the ballot box and the impermissible use of state resources to transport citizens to the polls. Ambassador Markus Mueller, head of the OSCE Centre in Bishkek, [official website] urged Kyrgyz authorities to "take immediate action to address these reported violations and seek to prevent a recurrence of such allegations in the future." AP has more.

[JURIST] US District Judge James Payne of the Northern District of Oklahoma [official website] Monday dismissed a federal lawsuit which alleged that a recently approved state law limiting government privileges to illegal immigrants is unfair to all immigrants. The lawsuit [complaint, PDF; JURIST report] was filed last week against Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry and Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson. Payne ruled that the plaintiffs, including the National Coalition of Latino Clergy & Christian Leaders (CONLAMIC) [advocacy website], did not have standing to sue because none of them had suffered a cognizable injury as a result of the Oklahoma Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act of 2007 [HB 1804 text, DOC], which denies illegal immigrants state identification cards and requires all Oklahoma government agencies to verify immigrants' citizenship before conferring benefits. The constitutionality of the law can still be challenged in other proceedings as Payne did not rule on the merits of the case. The bill is considered one of the toughest on illegal immigration [JURIST news archive] in the country and is set to take effect November 1. AP has more.

Henry signed the bill [JURIST report] in May. Supporters praised the measure as a way to save taxpayer money, but immigrant groups criticized it for saddling Latinos with new discriminatory barriers in housing and jobs. Along with CONLAMIC, the League of United Latin American Citizens [advocacy website] and other advocacy groups have said they may challenge the law's constitutionality on the grounds that immigration policy is the responsibility of the federal, rather than state, government.

[JURIST] Serbia's Security Information Agency [official website] has located former Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] and is considering apprehending him, Serbian human rights activist Natasa Kandic [Business Week profile] said Tuesday. Once captured, Mladic can be turned over to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website], which originally indicted [ICTY case backgrounder] him on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity in 1995. Kandic told AP that representatives from Serbia's intelligence agency have confirmed to ICTY chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte [official profile] that Mladic will soon be arrested. AP has more.

Last week, Del Ponte chided [JURIST report] Serbian authorities for failing to bring Mladic and three other accused war criminals who are believed to be hiding in that country to justice, saying that Serbia's cooperation with the tribunal is "still too slow and not yet sufficient." Serbia said in September it would increase efforts [JURIST report] to locate and arrest Mladic, former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic [ICTY case backgrounder], former Croatian Serb rebel leader Goran Hadzic [JURIST report], and Bosnian Serb police commander Stojan Zupljanin [ICTY indictment] in order to receive a favorable report from Del Ponte during her meeting with EU officials concerning the EU's pending pre-membership deal with the country. The EU has made Serbia's cooperation with the ICTY a key element of its membership negotiations.

[JURIST] US Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and ranking Republican Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) [official websites] on Monday sent a letter [PDF text] to White House counsel Fred Fielding demanding the Bush administration's compliance with subpoenas [press release] for information about the warrantless domestic surveillance program [JURIST news archive]. The letter asserts that the White House committed to sending the documents by Monday and renews the committee's call for the information. The committee formally subpoenaed the documents on June 27 in regards to proposed legislation to amend the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) [text; JURIST news archive]. The initial compliance deadline of July 18 was later extended to August 20 [letter, PDF], when Fielding told Leahy in a letter [text, PDF] that the White House needed more time to comply with the request. In response Leahy threatened to suggest contempt proceedings [JURIST report] before the committee.

In the letter, Leahy and Specter wrote:

You have now had more than ample time to collect and process the relevant documents. Responsive information to those subpoenas is long overdue. You have made commitments to provide responsive information over the last several months and even recently, but no such information has yet been provided.

Instead, we read that a White House spokesperson has now conditioned the production of information on prior Senate agreement to provide retroactive immunity from liability for communications carriers. That is unacceptable and would turn the legislative process upside down. If the Administration wants our support for immunity, it should comply with the subpoenas, provide the information, and justify its request. As we have both said, it is wrongheaded to ask Senators to consider immunity without their being informed about the legal justifications purportedly excusing the conduct being immunized. Although the two of us have been briefed on certain aspects of the President's program, this cannot substitute for access to the documents and legal analysis needed to inform the legislative decisions of the Committee as a whole.

[JURIST] A defense lawyer for Ali Hassan al-Majid [BBC profile; JURIST news archive], better known in Western media as "Chemical Ali," has told JURIST that he expects to file a petition Wednesday against the planned execution of al-Majid. In the application, Giovanni Di Stefano [firm website] will argue that the former Iraqi commander and governor of northern Iraq now subject to a death sentence for the killing of Kurds in the 1988 Anfal campaign should not be executed because he was captured by the US military during the administration of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) [official website], which had abolished the death penalty. According to Di Stefano, al-Majid and other Iraqi leaders who surrendered or were captured during the CPA's reign, including Saddam Hussein [JURIST news archive] and former Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan [Trial Watch profile; JURIST news archive], had no "legitimate expectation" that they would be subject to capital punishment. Di Stefano, who is filing petitions in Arabic and English in the Iraqi High Tribunal [official website], insists that "[a]ny execution during these challenges would be tantamount to premeditated murder".

The Iraqi High Tribunal sentenced [JURIST report] al-Majid to death in June on genocide and war crimes charges. The Tribunal's Appeals Chamber upheld the death sentence [JURIST report] in September but the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki delayed [JURIST report] the execution, which was required to be performed within 30 days of sentencing, due to the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

Al-Majid's planned hanging has prompted intense legal controversy within Iraq. Several members of Iraq's Presidency Council, which includes Kurdish President Jalal Talibani, Shi'ite Vice-President Adel Abdul-Mahdi, and Sunni Vice-President Tareq al-Hashemi, have refused to sign the execution order [JURIST report]. An Iraqi judge said last month that presidential approval is not required [JURIST report] to carry out an execution, but al-Hashemi reasserted Tuesday that the presidency did in fact have the power to block the carrying out of the death sentences [AP report], regardless of their approval by al-Maliki.

[JURIST] The Parliament of the Republic of Montenegro [official website, in Serbian] formally adopted the country's new constitution late Monday night, giving effect to the document's provisions. Parliamentary speaker Ranko Krivokapic welcomed the new constitution as protecting the rule of law as well as minority and human rights. Krivokapic also noted the importance of a constitutional provision which will allow parliament to vote with a two-thirds majority on whether the country should join the European Union.

Last Monday, Montenegrin Prime Minister Zeljko Sturanovic signed the EU-Montenegro Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) [press release, PDF; JURIST report], which is expected to prepare Montenegro for entry into the European Union by 2015. Montenegro [JURIST news archive] is the newest European state considering EU membership. B92 has more.

[JURIST] Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer [official profile] Tuesday denied allegations that the Australian government was involved in negotiating the plea bargain [JURIST report] of former Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks [JURIST news archive], refuting a report [text] in Harper's Magazine that the plea was the result of a secret deal with US Vice President Dick Cheney. Downer said that the Australian government "promoted" the plea bargain, but did not participate in the negotiations between military prosecutors and Hicks' defense team. The Harper's Magazine report quotes a military officer saying that Cheney intervened in the Hicks' negotiations "apparently" in line with an arrangement made with Australian Prime Minister John Howard.

On Monday, the Australian Federal Police indicated it was planning to subject Hicks to a control order [JURIST report] that would restrict his movements and communications. Hicks, the first Guantanamo detainee to be tried and the only defendant convicted [JURIST reports] under the new Military Commissions Act [PDF text], was transferred to Australia [JURIST report] in May to serve the remainder of his nine-month prison sentence at a maximum security prison near his hometown of Adelaide, South Australia. Hicks has already said that he does not plan to challenge the legality of any control order [JURIST report] imposed after his release from prison in Australia. AFP has more. Australia's ABC News has local coverage.

[JURIST] Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet [Nhan Dan profile] granted amnesty to 8,066 prisoners, officials from the President's Office said Tuesday. The prisoners, who are expected to be released over the next two days, include 11 individuals convicted of national security crimes. Tuesday's pardons are part of a regular series of presidential amnesties that have freed approximately 80,000 prisoners since 2000.

Vietnam has been criticized for its political persecution of pro-democracy dissidents. In June, the Vietnamese government released pro-democracy dissidents [JURIST report] ahead of Triet's June visit to the United States. Dissidents are often charged with violating Article 88 of the Vietnamese criminal code, which prohibits the dissemination of anti-government "propaganda." In May, two Vietnamese human rights lawyers were sentenced [JURIST report] to five years and four prison terms respectively for promoting democratic reforms. In March, a Catholic priest received an eight-year prison sentence [JURIST report] for communicating with pro-democracy activists and distributing anti-government documents. AP has more.

[JURIST] Former Philippine President Joseph Estrada [BBC profile] abandoned efforts to appeal his corruption conviction on charges stemming from kickbacks he received while in office and instead submitted a letter [text] Monday to current Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo [official website] requesting a presidential pardon. Prosecutors in the case have sharply opposed Estrada's request, saying the government should use Estrada's conviction as an example and that the government needs to show other countries that the Philippines is serious about fighting corruption. Macapagal-Arroyo immediately deferred the request to her advisers. Estrada, commenting [Inquirer report] on the request to the Philippine Daily Inquirer, said he realized his appeal would likely be fruitless and decided to defer to the judgment of his lawyers, who believe a presidential pardon is their best hope. Estrada was sentenced to life in prison [JURIST report] last month after his conviction. In addition to the prison sentence, the court ordered Estrada to pay $15.5 million.

Estrada was forced from office in a 2001 revolt that brought Macapagal-Arroyo, his former vice president, to power. He has been held in detention in the Philippines [JURIST news archive] ever since his ouster. He was charged with mass corruption under the nation's economic plunder law [text] for allegedly stashing some $77 million in gambling payoffs, kickbacks and illegal commissions in secret bank accounts under an alias. AP has more.

[JURIST] Chile staked a claim to a portion of Antarctica with the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) [official website] Monday after the United Kingdom made a similar claim to Antarctic land [AP report] last week in the face of a May 2009 deadline. The Commission has also received claims from Russia, Brazil, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, France, Norway [CLCS materials] and Spain for both the Arctic and the Antarctic; under the 1994 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea [UN materials] countries have 10 years after their ratifications of that treaty to make extended continental shelf claims, although the 1959 Antarctic Treaty [text; ATS materials] specifically prohibits its signatories from asserting new land claims in Antarctica. The Antarctica Treaty gives countries with valid Antarctic claims the right to search for oil and natural gas beginning in 2048.

The UK, Chile, Argentina, Norway, France, Australia and New Zealand all have present claims to the Antarctic, but submissions to the Commission threaten to change the balance. The UK has drawn up plans to submit to the UN commission multiple claims to an additional 386,000 square miles of sea bed in the south Atlantic, which conflicts with existing claims by Chile and Argentina. AP has more. The Scotsman has additional coverage.

[JURIST] The European Court of Justice (ECJ) [official website] ruled Tuesday that a German law protecting Volkswagen AG [corporate website] from hostile takeovers is illegal [press release, PDF; ECJ materials], saying the law limits "the free movement of capital" and discourages foreign direct investment in Germany. The ruling could have a wider effect throughout EU member states because many governments have passed similar laws protecting domestic companies from foreign takeovers. The German federal government and the region of Lower Saxony [government website] hold 20.36 percent of Volkswagen, while car maker Porsche AG [corporate website] owns 31 percent of Volkswagen. Tuesday's ruling could pave the way for Porsche to take over Volkswagen. Germany on Tuesday said it will quickly change the law [Reuters report] in accordance with the ruling.

The European Commission (EC)[official website] initially challenged the "Volkswagen Law" in 2005. In February, Advocate General Damaso Ruiz-Jarabo of the ECJ advised the court that the law should be repealed [JURIST report], saying the law restricts the free movement of capital [press release, PDF] and "strengthens the position of the Federal Government and the land, preventing any intervention in the management of the company." The EC has filed similar suits or threatened to file suit against Spain and its energy companies, Italy and highway company Autosrade SpA, and Poland for intervening in Italy's UniCredit SpA business in Poland. AP has more.