[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled [PDF text] Wednesday that former Illinois Governor George Ryan [defense website; JURIST news archive] could not remain free on bail while he appeals his sentence of corruption and fraud charges. Judge Diane Wood delivered the opinion of the court which said, in part:

Appellants here have shown neither a reasonable probability that the Court will grant certiorari nor a reasonable possibility that this court's decision will be reversed....

The voluminous record here demonstrates that the appellants were guilty of the crimes with which they were charged. Although they would undoubtedly like to postpone the day of reckoning as long as they can, they have come to the end of the line as far as this court is concerned.

[JURIST] A federal jury awarded the father of a fallen Marine almost $11 million in damages Wednesday for harm caused by a Kansas Christian fundamentalist church's protests at his son's funeral. Albert Snyder filed a lawsuit [JURIST report] last year against Westboro Baptist Church [WARNING: readers may find some material offensive; BBC report] and three of its leaders after the church staged a protest at the funeral of his son, Lance Cpl. Matthew A. Snyder [case website], saying US soldiers have been killed because America tolerates homosexuals. The jury ordered the defendants to pay $2.9 million in compensatory damages for violations of Snyder's privacy, $2 million for intentional infliction of emotional distress, and an additional $6 million in punitive damages.

Westboro and its leader, Rev. Fred Phelps, have staged several protests at military funerals in recent years. In 2006, President Bush signed into law [JURIST report] the Respect for America's Fallen Heroes Act [HR 5037 summary; PDF text], prohibiting any demonstration within 300 feet of the entrance of a national cemetery and within 150 feet of an entrance into the cemetery for one hour before and after a military funeral. AP has more. The Baltimore Sun has local coverage.

[JURIST] US House Oversight and Government Reform Committee [official website] Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) Wednesday called on the White House to disclose hundreds of documents relating to disgraced former lobbyist Jack Abramoff [JURIST news archive]. In a letter [PDF text] to White House counsel Fred Fielding, Waxman said that the the White House has already turned over 3,700 pages of records, but is still sitting on over 600 others. Waxman said that the documents must be turned over unless President George W. Bush invokes executive privilege. The White House has indicated that it will fight the request.

Last year, Abramoff pleaded guilty [JURIST report] in federal court in Florida to two conspiracy and fraud charges stemming from the 2000 purchase of the SunCruz Casino [corporate website] as part of a plea agreement [PDF text] with federal prosecutors that would reduce his punishment in exchange for favorable testimony in future DOJ corruption cases. AP has more.

[JURIST] Former Assistant US Attorney Richard Convertino [JURIST news archive] was acquitted Wednesday on charges [JURIST report] of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and making false declarations in connection with a botched 2003 terrorism trial. Convertino was the lead prosecutor in a case against North African immigrants accused of operating a terrorist cell in Detroit. A federal judge later overturned [JURIST report] the guilty verdicts of the two defendants convicted in the case after it was discovered that prosecutors withheld key evidence, including photos of a hospital in Jordan, from the defense. Harry Smith, a former US embassy regional security official who appeared as a government witness in the original Detroit terror trial, was also acquitted on all counts.

The Department of Justice [official website] dropped the charges against the supposed terrorists in 2004 and Convertino resigned [JURIST report] from the Department in May 2005. He pleaded not guilty [JURIST report] last year to the charges alleged in his indictment, and has asserted that the photos were merely overlooked in a mountain of documents related to the case. The Detroit Free Press has more.

[JURIST] Some 100 Buddhist monks marched peacefully in a town in central Myanmar Wednesday, marking a resumption of the pro-democratic protests that stopped after September's violent government crackdown. The monks carried no protest signs and shouted no pro-democracy slogans and dispersed after an hour to their monasteries. A spokesman said their demonstration was only a continuation [Democratic Voice of Burma report] of previous protests, but it was the first since a 100,000-person protest on September 26-27 culminated in police killing at least 10 people and rounding up thousands more. The action by the monks came just days before UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari is slated to revisit Myanmar [UN press release; JURIST report] to address human rights concerns and to help facilitate dialog between the country's military junta and opposition leaders.

The government crackdown against protesters began in August, when Myanmar security officers arrested hundreds of Buddhist monks demonstrating against rising fuel prices and human rights abuses by the military regime. Protests only subsided when junta troops effectively locked down Myanmar's major cities. The government lifted some of the curfews and assembly bans [JURIST report] on October 20, but the country still faces tightening European and American sanctions. AP has more.

[JURIST] The Italian judge presiding over the trial of 26 US CIA agents [JURIST news archive] and two former Italian intelligence officials in the 2003 abduction and rendition [JURIST news archive] of Egyptian cleric Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr [JURIST news archive] on Wednesday suspended the trial until March 12, 2008. Judge Oscar Magi ruled that the trial should not proceed until the Constitutional Court of Italy [official website] rules on a petition [JURIST report] filed by the Italian government to dismiss all charges against the defendants. The government alleges that the charges should be dismissed because the prosecution improperly used state secrets and wiretapping to build its case. Prosecutor Armando Spataro has argued that the court proceedings should continue and has denied using any state secrets.

On June 18, Judge Magi suspended the trial [JURIST report] until October 24 after hearing preliminary motions to postpone the trial until the high court's ruling. Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, was seized on the streets of Milan by CIA agents with the help of Italy's Military Intelligence and Security Service (SISMI) [Wikipedia backgrounder]. He was then allegedly transferred to Egypt and turned over to Egypt's State Security Intelligence (SSI) [Wikipedia backgrounder], where he said he was tortured before being released [JURIST reports] in February 2007. AP has more.

[JURIST] The Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website] on Wednesday rejected the appeal [judgment summary; press release] of former Bosnian Serb paramilitary leader Dragan Zelenovic [ICTY case backgrounder] contesting his 15-year sentence [JURIST report] on rape and torture charges. Zelenovic had asked the court to reduce his sentence due to his guilty plea and his cooperation with prosecutors, but the appeals court wrote that the Trial Chamber "reasonably assessed the importance of the guilty plea" when determining Zelenovic's sentence and that his sentence should not be reduced because he failed to show that "his cooperation went beyond the scope of his obligations" under the plea deal.

Zelenovic was accused [indictment] of raping eight Bosnian Muslim women under circumstances amounting to torture between July and October 1992 after Serbian forces took control of the the Foca municipality in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina. Zelenovic pleaded guilty [JURIST report] to three counts of torture and four counts of rape. AP has more.

[JURIST] The Canadian Security Intelligence Services (CSIS) [official website] violated a confessed al-Qaeda operative's civil rights, according to the Security Intelligence Review Committee [official website] in an oversight report [text] to the Canadian parliament Wednesday. Canadian citizen Mohammed Mansour Jabarah [CBC profile] was detained without access to counsel, and his confession amounted to a violation of his right against self-incrimination under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms [text]. While in custody, he admitted to belonging to al-Qaeda and plotting to bomb the US and Israeli embassies in Singapore and Manila. He was turned over to US authorities and has pleaded guilty to several terrorism-related offenses. AP has more.

CSIS has been criticized lately for its handling of terror suspects. Previously censored information released by Canada's official Arar Commission [official website] revealed that Canadian intelligence officials suspected that the United States would deport detained Canadian citizen Maher Arar [advocacy website; CBC timeline] to a country where he could be subject to torture but did not take action to stop that or otherwise protect Arar. The Security Intelligence Review Committee responsible for Wednesday's report is an independent, external review body set up in 1984 to help ensure that CSIS uses its extraordinary powers legally and appropriately.

[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit [official website] heard oral arguments Wednesday in an en banc rehearing of its earlier ruling [PDF text; JURIST report] that the military cannot seize and imprison civilians lawfully residing in the United States and detain them as "enemy combatants" [JURIST news archive]. In June, a three-judge panel rejected government arguments that the president was authorized to order the military seizure of Illinois resident and Qatari native Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri [Brennan Center case materials] from civilian custody and hold him indefinitely in a military jail without charge and the court subsequently issued an order [PDF text; JURIST report] granting a Department of Justice (DOJ) petition [petition, PDF; JURIST report] to re-hear the case en banc. DOJ principal deputy solicitor general Gregory C. Garre argued Wednesday that the government was given broad authority by Congress to arrest individuals suspected of al Qaeda association. Al-Marri's lawyer countered that enemy combatant status does not apply outside of combat situations, and asked the court to uphold the panel's decision.

Al-Marri was arrested at his home in Peoria, Illinois by civilian authorities, and was indicted for alleged domestic crimes in 2001. In 2003, President George W. Bush declared him an enemy combatant [CNN report] and ordered the attorney general to transfer custody of al-Marri to the defense secretary, claiming inherent authority to hold him indefinitely. The DOJ had argued that the federal courts lacked jurisdiction [JURIST report] over al-Marri's claims under the Military Commissions Act of 2006 [PDF text], but the court rejected that argument. The court is expected to rule in the next few weeks. AP has more.

[JURIST] The chairman of the US Senate Judiciary Committee announced [press release] Wednesday that an executive business meeting [SJC materials] will be held November 6 to consider the nomination of Michael Mukasey [WH profile; JURIST news archive] as US attorney general. Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) said that the date was selected to allow committee members "an opportunity to consider the recently received written responses" from Mukasey and that he hoped that members would "be prepared to debate the nomination and vote" next Tuesday. Earlier this week, Mukasey sent a letter [PDF text; JURIST report] to the committee saying that he did not know if waterboarding [JURIST news archive] was illegal, and that it would be "irresponsible" of him to provide a legal opinion on whether any specific interrogation technique constituted torture without an in-depth analysis of relevant laws and more information about its use. Leahy released a statement [text] in response to Mukasey's letter saying that he remained "very concerned that Judge Mukasey finds himself unable to state unequivocally that waterboarding is illegal and below the standards and values of the United States."

Both Democrats and Republicans [JURIST reports] have said they will consider opposing Mukasey's nomination if he does not unequivocally say that waterboarding is torture. On Wednesday, the White House said that Mukasey's confirmation is still viable and expressed hope that a vote would be held soon. Mukasey must receive ten votes from the Senate Judiciary Committee for his nomination to advance to the full Senate with a favorable recommendation. AP has more.

[JURIST] Sri Lankan Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe Wednesday dismissed claims [press release] made earlier this week by UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Manfred Nowak that torture was widespread and routine [JURIST report] throughout Sri Lanks. Samarasinghe said that in meetings with officials in Sri Lanka [JURIST news archive], Nowak indicated his use of the phrase "widely practiced" meant that torture allegations came from people in diverse locations rather than that it was a common, systematic practice. Samarasinghe added that Nowak's conclusions did not take into account Sri Lankan efforts to comply with his preliminary recommendations, which included the adoption of a "zero-tolerance" policy on torture.

Earlier this month, Samarasinghe rejected a proposal [JURIST report] by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour [official website] that would place a UNOHCHR monitoring mission in the country. Sri Lanka has been in a drawn-out conflict with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam [CFR backgrounder] rebel group for two decades, with fighting escalating in 2006. Human rights groups have pointed to abuses by both sides in the conflict, but have lately accused the government of an increased number of violations [JURIST report]. AFP has more.

[JURIST] Spain's Congress of Deputies [official website, in Spanish] Wednesday passed legislation [press release, in Spanish] condemning the coup and subsequent fascist dictatorship of General Francisco Franco [BBC backgrounder; LOC backgrounder], overcoming opposition from conservatives that the bill would reopen controversies best left in the past. If passed by the Spanish Senate [official website, in Spanish], and published in the official government gazette, the "Law of Historical Memory" will 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. 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. Approximately 55,000 people were killed during Franco's rule, including the grandfather of Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero [BBC profile], who strongly pressed for passage of the bill.

Parliament began debating the bill in December 2006 after first unveiling the proposal [JURIST reports] last July. Earlier this month, the Spanish Socialist Party [party website, in Spanish] said that it had secured the support of enough smaller parties [JURIST report] to ensure Wednesday's passage of the bill. AP has more.

[JURIST] One of the six men arrested [JURIST report] in May for plotting an attack on a New Jersey military base pleaded guilty Wednesday to "conspiring to provide firearms and ammunition" [press release, PDF] to the others, whom he knew to be illegal immigrants. The other men allegedly plotted to kill soldiers at numerous military bases, including New Jersey's Fort Dix [official website]. Agron Abdullahu pleaded guilty to conspiracy to provide weapons to illegal immigrants [superseding information, PDF] in the District of New Jersey [official website; Fort Dix trial website], and now faces up to five years in federal prison. Following Wednesday's hearing, Abdullahu's lawyer told AP that Abdullahu made no deal to testify against the other men, because he "had no information about and was not involved in any terror plot." The lawyer added that there was no "Fort Dix Six," but instead a "Fort Dix Five" who used his client.

Abdullahu, who was granted asylum in the US eight years ago after fleeing Kosovo, will likely face deportation after serving his sentence. Abdullahu's sentencing is scheduled for early February, while trials for the other men are scheduled to begin [order, PDF] in January. AP has more.

[JURIST] A California state judge issued a preliminary ruling Tuesday invalidating May revisions to the state lethal injection protocol [JURIST report]. Judge Lynn O'Malley Taylor of the Marin County Superior Court [official website] said that the proposed changes qualified as a regulation, and thus did not conform to the California Administrative Procedure Act [CA Government Code Section 11340 et seq.] because there had been no opportunity for public comment or review by the Office of Administrative Law. Schwarzenegger and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation [official website] argued that execution protocols were not regulations and thus should not be subject to administrative procedure requirements. The decision will be contested at a San Rafael hearing Wednesday, though it at least temporarily extends the state's moratorium on executions. The San Francisco Chronicle has more.

In December, Schwarzenegger ordered [JURIST report] his administration to "correct court-identified deficiencies in California's lethal injection protocol to ensure the death penalty procedure is constitutional" after a federal court issued a memorandum of intended decision [JURIST report] concluding that California's lethal injection procedure creates "an undue and unnecessary risk" of cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment [text] of the US Constitution. Schwarzenegger introduced the revised lethal injection [JURIST news archive] protocol in an effort to persuade US District Judge Jeremy Fogel to lift the execution moratorium. The US Supreme Court will rule on the constitutionality of lethal injections in the upcoming Baze v. Rees (07-5439) [docket; cert. petition, PDF; JURIST report].

[JURIST] A Spanish court Wednesday convicted three men of murder for their roles in the 2004 Madrid train bombings [JURIST news archive], and found 18 others guilty on other charges. Seven others were acquitted, including accused mastermind Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed [CBC profile]. Those convicted of murder - Jamel Zougam, Otman el Ghanoui, and Emilio Trashorras - each received sentences of up to 40,000 years imprisonment. The judge also ordered compensation [JURIST report] to be paid for the victims in amounts up to 1.5 million euro.

In all, 28 co-defendants [BBC backgrounder] were charged in Spain with 192 counts of murder and upwards of 1,800 counts of attempted murder related to the March 11, 2004 bombings, which killed 191 people and injured almost 2000 more. The defendants have all protested their innocence and condemned the attacks. On Monday, an Italian court affirmed the conviction of Ahmed [JURIST report] for belonging to an international terrorist network, reducing his sentence from ten years to eight. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] Lt. Col. Colby Vokey, the outspoken US Marine Corps chief defense lawyer for the western US, is resigning from his post effective May 1, 2008, calling the military legal system at Guantanamo Bay "horrific" and a "sham" and urging corrective action to address abuses within the general military justice system, NPR reported Tuesday. While working on the case of Guantanamo detainee Omar Khadr [Trial Watch profile; JURIST news archive], Vokey said he was harassed by military staff, who made it difficult for him to even arrange meetings with his client. Vokey later told reporters that he understood how Khadr was unable to trust his American lawyers, saying that the US has subjected him to "a process that is patently unfair." Vokey's criticisms initially prompted senior officers to fire him, a move only rescinded after pressure from former Marine Corps lawyers. Vokey has since opted to leave on his own.

In October last year Vokey called for an investigation [JURIST report] of alleged abuses of Guantanamo detainees after reviewing a sworn statement filed by his Marine paralegal who said she spoke with a group of off-duty Marines who identified themselves as guards and bragged of beating and abusing prisoners. Sgt. Heather Cerveny was later accused by military officials of making a false statement, but the case against her was ultimately dropped [JURIST reports]. NPR has more.

[JURIST] The Supreme Court of Pakistan will investigate the suicide bombing [CNN report] that took place during the parade welcoming home exiled former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto [BBC profile] earlier this month, Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry said Wednesday. Chaudhry said that the court will undertake its own investigation beginning with a hearing on Thursday, despite the Pakistan government's promise to fully probe the incident, indicating that the court has grown impatient with the government's plan. On Tuesday, Chaudhry criticized [BBC report] current Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz for arranging for the deportation of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif [BBC profile] immediately upon his return from exile, saying that such a move was in violation of a court decision [JURIST report] holding that Sharif has full rights to return.

In mid-October, Bhutto returned home [JURIST report] to Pakistan after nine years of self-imposed exile in Great Britain and Dubai following charges of corruption. Last week, Pakistan violated an amnesty agreement signed by President Perez Musharraf when it upheld a bar on Bhutto from leaving the country. 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 high court has agreed to review the ordinance [JURIST report]. AP has more.

[JURIST] Three political leaders in Spain's Basque region, including the president of the region, were ordered to stand trial [PDF text] Tuesday for meeting publicly with members of the Batasuna party [BBC profile] to negotiate an ETA [BBC backgrounder] ceasefire. The Batasuna party is alleged to be a front for the illegal Basque separatist militant group ETA, which has been blamed for more than 800 deaths in bombings and attacks since the 1960s. The country's Supreme Court declared the Batasuna party illegal in 2003.

Basque President Juan Jose Ibarretxe [official profile] and two senior members of the Basque branch of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's party met publicly with Batasuna party members in July and April 2006 as well as in January 2007. Earlier this month, 17 Batasuna party leaders were jailed [JURIST report] on orders of Spanish anti-terror judge Baltasar Garzon. The specific reason for the arrests was not made public. AP has more. El Mundo has local coverage, in Spanish.

[JURIST] The UK Law Lords ruled Wednesday that the government can continue to impose control orders [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive] on terror suspects in lieu of detention, but said that some elements of the orders issued under the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005 [UK Home Office materials] violate human rights. In a series of decisions - Secretary of State for the Home Department v. JJ and others, Secretary of State for the Home Department v. MB, and Secretary of State for the Home Department v. E and another [judgments] - the judges of the House of Lords who make up Britain's top tribunal said that control orders which authorize 18-hour curfews constitute a deprivation of liberty in violation of the European Convention on Human Rights and that evidence used against terror suspects when determining whether to apply a control order should not be withheld from defendants and their lawyers. Other aspects of the control order system, including a curfew for up to 16 hours, were upheld. UK rights group Liberty welcomed the decisions as a "significant blow to the control order regime" [press release], but noted that the Lords "stopp[ed] short of outlawing the controversial policy altogether."

Control orders allow the government to impose house arrest and electronic surveillance on suspects and to forbid them from using mobile phones and the Internet when there is not enough evidence to prosecute the suspects. They were first introduced [JURIST report] by the Tony Blair government in 2005 and, apart from being politically controversial, have already run into repeated problems in the courts [JURIST report]. Control orders have been used in 17 cases, though seven terror suspects under control orders have disappeared [JURIST report]. The Guardian has more.

[JURIST] CIA Director Michael Hayden [official profile] defended the CIA's interrogation tactics Tuesday in the wake of the refusal [JURIST report] of US Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey [WH profile] to say whether waterboarding [JURIST news archive] constitutes torture. In an address [CCGA materials] to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, Hayden called the CIA's interrogation programs "as lawful as they are valuable." AP has more.

Both Democrats and Republicans [JURIST reports] have said they will oppose Mukasey's nomination if he does not unequivocally state that waterboarding is torture. The US military forbids waterboarding - a technique that simulates drowning, but the CIA will not confirm whether it has banned the practice. Former CIA director George Tenet has repeatedly denied [JURIST report] that waterboarding has been used during interrogations of terror suspects.