[JURIST] The Supreme Court of Canada [official website] Thursday affirmed [judgment text] by 5-4 the murder conviction of a British Columbia man in a case widely seen as a test of the right to remain silent guaranteed in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms [text]. Jagrup Singh [case materials] alleged that the police had violated his constitutional right to remain silent by continuing to question him in relation to a murder investigation, even after he invoked his right some 18 times and requested that the interrogation be halted. Under the Charter suspects have the right "not to be compelled to be a witness" against themselves in criminal proceedings. The justices held that the trial judge had been aware of the dangers of coercion but had made the right decision in allowing the confession into evidence.

Dissenting Justice Morris Fish wrote that:

The interrogator understood very well that the accused had chosen not to speak with the police but nonetheless disregarded the accused’s repeated assertions of his right to silence. In his relentless pursuit of a confession “no matter what”, the interrogator urged the accused, subtly but unmistakably, to forsake his counsel’s advice. The accused was thus deprived not only of his right to silence, but also, collaterally, of the intended benefit of his right to counsel. Detainees left alone to face interrogators who persistently ignore their assertions of the right to silence and their pleas for respite are bound to feel that their constitutional right to silence has no practical effect and that they in fact have no choice but to answer.

[JURIST] Victims of the 2004 Madrid train bombings [JURIST news archive] expressed outrage Thursday and vowed to appeal after a Spanish court acquitted seven of 28 co-defendants accused of participating in the attacks, including alleged mastermind Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed [CBC profile]. Three defendants were convicted of murder [JURIST report] Wednesday and 18 others were found guilty of lesser charges. Jesus Abril, spokesman for the March 11 Association of Terrorism Victims [advocacy website], a group committed to providing support services to victims of the attacks, said that some defendants were sentenced to "laughable" terms and said that the association would appeal at least some of the acquittals and lesser convictions. Under Spanish law, the organization is allowed to participate in court proceedings.

The three men 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. AP has more.

[JURIST] The Florida Supreme Court [official website] issued a unanimous decision [PDF text] Thursday upholding the state's lethal injection procedures and rejecting the assertion that the state's protocol constitutes "cruel and unusual punishment." The US Supreme Court currently has on its docket a case challenging lethal injection as unconstitutional, and earlier this week the Court granted a stay of execution [order, PDF; JURIST report] to a convicted murderer on Mississippi's death row. Some analysts have suggested that the Mississippi stay, which marks the third reprieve granted by the Court since September 25, signals a de facto nationwide moratorium [CSM news report] on lethal injections until the Supreme Court reaches a decision in the lethal injection case - Baze v. Rees. The Florida Attorney General [official website], however, said Thursday that the execution of Mark Dean Schwab [FCCD profile, DOC], the death row inmate who lost in Thursday's Florida decision, would remain scheduled for November 15.

Several constitutional challenges to lethal injection [JURIST news archive] have arisen across the country in recent months, mainly focusing on an argument that the first drug administered in a three-drug mixture [DPIC backgrounder] fails to make the inmate fully unconscious, thereby making the inmate feel excruciating pain when a heart-stopping drug is injected. Florida Governor Jeb Bush suspended all executions in the state [JURIST report] last December after a medical examiner said that the execution earlier that month of Angel Diaz [Amnesty profile] was botched. Diaz endured a 34-minute-long execution as a result of the improper insertion of needles during the first injection. The ban was lifted [JURIST report] in July. AP has more.

[JURIST] The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) [official website] on Thursday renewed its call for access to detainees still being held in Myanmar after the government's crackdown [JURIST report] last month on opponents of the ruling military junta. In his second statement [text] calling for access to detainees [JURIST report] in the past two weeks, ICRC Director of Operations Pierre Kraehenbuehl, said that "Although the government has announced the release of hundreds or detainees over the past few weeks, the fate and whereabouts of those still detained in relation with the recent events remain unclear." Kraehenbuehl said that allowing the ICRC access to the detainees would will help to alleviate the concerns of families, and ensure that "the detainees' psychological and physical well-being is respected, as required by national and international law."

The government crackdown against protesters began in August, when Myanmar [JURIST archive] 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. At least 10 people were killed when government soldiers shot into protesting crowds [JURIST report]. ICRC delegates starting working in Myanmar in 1986, but have not been able to visit Myanmar prisons and labor camps since late 2005 at the command of the military regime. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Bosnian Prime Minister Nikola Spiric [BBC profile] resigned Thursday, reportedly in protest over proposed voting rule reforms for the Bosnian parliament. Miroslav Lajcak [profile], a Slovak diplomat who is the high representative to the Peace Implementation Council [official webiste], introduced [press conference, transcript] the new voting rules Wednesday ostensibly designed to streamline the country's reform process. The PIC is the international institution responsible for overseeing implementation of civilian aspects of the Dayton Peace Accord ending the 1992-1995 Bosnian civil war [OnWar backgrounder], and its steering committee indicated its support this week for Lajcak's proposed reforms.

Spiric specifically objected to attempts by the international community to dictate how internal politics in Bosnia are facilitated. Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica [official website] issued a statement [text] signaling his support for Spiric's position. AP has more.

[JURIST] The government of Ireland said Thursday it will introduce new legislation next year recognizing the rights of both same-sex and unmarried heterosexual couples to enter into civil unions, after debate [text] on a motion to restore the Civil Unions Bill 2006 [party backgrounder] stalled in the Irish Parliament [official website]. The opposition Irish Labour Party re-introduced [press release] the bill, previously debated in February 2007, earlier this week.



The government rejected the measure on the grounds it would violate the Irish constitution [text] by essentially granting married and unmarried couples the same legal entitlements. The Labour Party immediately expressed disappointment [press release] with the government's decision. The Belfast Telegraph has more.

The High Court of Ireland [official website] last December refused [JURIST report] to recognize the same-sex marriage [JURIST news archive] of a lesbian couple married in Canada in 2003, ruling that the Irish constitution does not permit recognition of such a union. Earlier in 2006, the Irish Human Rights Commission [official website], a government-appointed advisory body, concluded that Ireland may be in breach of international human rights laws [JURIST report] because the country does not recognize same-sex marriages and gives more rights to married couples than to gay couples or unmarried heterosexual couples.

[JURIST] US President George W. Bush on Thursday defended the refusal of Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey [WH profile; JURIST news archive] to say that waterboarding [JURIST news archive] is illegal. During a press conference [transcript] Thursday, Bush said:

I've submitted a highly competent, smart, independent nominee in Judge Mukasey to the Senate. I am disappointed that the process is taking so long to get his name to the floor.

I believe that the questions he's been asked are unfair; he's not been read into a program -- he has been asked to give opinions of a program or techniques of a program on which he has not been briefed. I will make the case -- and I strongly believe this is true -- that Judge Mukasey is not being treated fairly. He's made the rounds on Capitol Hill, he's answered questions, he's been to hearings. I do thank the Senate for setting up what I hope will be a opportunity to move him out of Judiciary Committee to the floor on Tuesday. It is time to get his nomination to the floor so the Senate can vote him up or down.

Judge Mukasey provided nearly six hours of testimony. He patiently answered more than 200 questions at the hearing. He has responded to nearly 500 written questions less than a week after his hearing. Yet the Senate Judiciary Committee has been holding up his nomination.

As a price of his confirmation, some on that committee want Judge Mukasey to take a legal position on specific techniques allegedly used to interrogate captured terrorists. As Judge Mukasey explained in a letter to committee members, he cannot do so for several reasons: First, he does not know whether certain methods of questioning are in fact used, because the program is classified -- and therefore he is in no position to provide an informed opinion. He has not been read into the program, and won't until he is confirmed and sword in -- won't be until he is confirmed and sworn in as the Attorney General. Second, he does not want an uninformed opinion to be taken by our professional interrogators in the field as placing them in legal jeopardy.

Finally, he does not want any statement of his to give the terrorists a window into which techniques we may use, and which ones we may not use. That could help them train their operatives to resist questioning, and withhold vital information we need to stop attacks and save lives.

In the war on terror, intelligence is one of the most crucial tools for our defense. If a captured terrorist has information about a plot against our homeland, we need to know what he knows. And so that's why I put in place in place, under the CIA, a program to question key terrorist operatives and its leaders. Last year, Congress passed a law that allows the CIA to continue this vital program. The procedures used in this program are safe. They are lawful. And they are necessary.

Senior leaders in the House and Senate, from both political parties, have been briefed on the details of this program. It's wrong for congressional leaders to make Judge Mukasey's confirmation dependent on his willingness to go on the record about the details of a classified program he has not been briefed on. If the Senate Judiciary Committee were to block Judge Mukasey on these grounds, they would set a new standard for confirmation that could not be met by any responsible nominee for Attorney General. And that would guarantee that America would have no Attorney General during this time of war.

By any measure, Judge Mukasey is eminently qualified to be the next Attorney General. And now, after allowing his nomination to languish for 41 days, the Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled a vote for next Tuesday. Senate leaders must move this nomination out of committee, bring it to the Senate floor and confirm this good man.

[JURIST] The interim government of Bangladesh [JURIST news archive] Thursday announced that its judiciary has formally separated from the executive branch. The interim government completed [JURIST report] all formalities necessary to separate the judiciary in August, meeting a deadline set by the Supreme Court of Bangladesh [official backgrounder] in July. Lower court judges and judicial magistrates now will be appointed by the Supreme Court as opposed to the executive branch's law ministry. Bangladeshi interim government officials say this marks a substantial step toward complete judicial independence.

In 1995, 223 judicial officers and judges filed a petition in the High Court demanding that the judiciary be made fully independent from the executive, saying that pervasive executive influence was contrary to the Bangladeshi constitution [text]. Prior reform efforts to create an independent judiciary had been unsuccessful until now. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The Supreme Court of Pakistan [official website] judge presiding over a case challenging the legality of President Pervez Musharraf's re-election bid said Thursday that the court is unlikely to rule in the case until mid-November. The court has previously said it hoped to issue a decision by the end of this week, but arguments have gone on longer than expected. If hearings do not wrap up Friday, scheduling conflicts will prevent the court from holding another hearing until November 12. Musharraf's current term is set to expire November 15.

Musharraf won an overwhelming victory [JURIST report] last month in legislative elections for the presidency, according to unofficial results. The Supreme Court ruled before the election that the controversial ballot could proceed even though Musharraf continued to serve as army chief, but it barred the Election Commission of Pakistan [official website] from officially declaring a winner until the high court rules on whether Musharraf was in fact eligible to run under the circumstances. The government has hinted that there exists the possibility of martial law [JURIST report] if election results are invalidated, but Justice Javed Iqbal said Thursday that the court would not be pressured to make a decision and that "no group should think it can take the Supreme Court hostage." BBC News has more.

[JURIST] A London jury Thursday found that the Metropolitan Police violated laws relating to health and public safety [Met press release] when it shot and killed [JURIST report] Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes [advocacy website; BBC profile] in a London Tube station in 2005, believing him to be a suicide bomber. The prosecution argued that due to several mistakes made by London police during their botched anti-terrorism operation [BBC timeline], the public was "needlessly put at risk" [BBC report], with Menezes killed as a result. The Met Police was fined £175,000 with an additional £385,000 in fees. The jury said that operation commander Cressida Dick bore "no personal culpability," despite the prosecution arguing that she was responsible for controlling her officers. Despite repeated calls by Liberal Democrats and Conservatives for Met Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair [official profile] to resign, Blair told reporters outside court Thursday that he would be remaining on the job.

As calls for Blair's resignation renewed [LD press release] following the guilty verdict, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said that Blair and the police force continue to have her "full confidence" [press release] and thanked them for their work to prevent further terrorist attacks. In August, the UK Independent Police Complaints Commission [official website] issued a report [PDF text; JURIST report] clearing Blair of any misconduct. Menezes was mistakenly killed by police in 2005 who thought they were pursuing a suspect in the 2005 London transit bombing attempts [JURIST report]. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] A federal judge Wednesday enjoined [order and memorandum decision, PDF] the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) [official website] from implementing new rules [FR final rule notice, PDF] that would have limited the number of claims that can be included in a patent application and the number of times a continuation application can be filed for a given invention. Judge James Cacheris of the Eastern District of Virginia [official website] found that there was a likelihood of harm to inventors who currently have applications pending at the USPTO, as the rules would apply retroactively. The USPTO devised the rules to improve administrative efficiency by clearing a backlog of applications in the office, and streamlining future applications. In a statement responding to the injunction on the USPTO website Thursday, the office said:

On October 31, 2007, the United States District Court for the Eastern District Court of Virginia issued a Preliminary Injunction enjoining the USPTO from implementing the changes in the Claims and Continuations Final Rule. Therefore, the changes to the rules of practice in the Claims and Continuations Final Rule will not go into effect on November 1, 2007.

USPTO employees are to continue processing and examining patent applications under the rules and procedures in effect on October 31, 2007, until further notice.

[JURIST] Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe [BBC profile] has signed a bill into law that amends the Zimbabwean Constitution [PDF text] to essentially allow Mugabe to pick his successor. A government publication indicated that the bill came into effect on Tuesday. The Zimbabwean Parliament unanimously passed the bill in September following only one day of debate [JURIST reports].

The changes allow parliament to appoint a new president should the incumbent step down before the end of his term. Some speculate that Mugabe will step down before elections are held so that his party, the ZANU-PF, will be able to select the next president. The constitutional reforms also allow the simultaneous election of the president and both houses of the legislature. Critics allege that the reforms are intended to weaken the opposition. The amendments will end the existing assembly's term two years early in 2008, reduce the president's term from six years to five, and increase the number of legislators in the House of Assembly from 150 to 210 and the number of Senators to 93. In addition, the number of House of Assembly members appointed by the president will decrease from 30 to 10, but the number of senators appointed by the president will go from 16 to 34. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] A Bush administration official Wednesday called the Senate's proposed domestic surveillance bill "generally a strong piece of legislation," but repeated several administration demands, including a provision granting blanket immunity to telecommunications companies from privacy lawsuits related to their participation in the NSA warrantless surveillance program [JURIST news archive], and the elimination of a proposal to extend the jurisdiction of the court that administers the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) [text; JURIST news archive] to cover surveillance of United States citizens located outside the country. Kenneth Wainstein, an assistant attorney general with the US Department of Justice, made the comments before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is now considering the FISA Amendments Act of 2007 [PDF text]. Wainstein said [text]:

[The Bush Administration] strongly oppose[s] proposed subsection 703(c) of that bill, which would introduce a new role for the FISA Court with respect to collecting intelligence from United States persons located outside the United States.

It is unwise to extend this new role to the FISA Court. Traditionally, surveillance of United States persons overseas has been regulated by a time-tested Executive Branch process under Executive Order 12333. That executive order requires the Attorney General to make an individualized probable cause determination before the Government may conduct foreign intelligence surveillance on a United States person overseas. Prior to authorizing the use of such techniques, the Attorney General must determine that there is probable cause to believe that the United States person being targeted is a "foreign power" or "agent of a foreign power." ...

It would be a significant departure to extend the role of the FISA Court and require the Government to obtain the approval of the court to collect foreign intelligence regarding United States persons overseas... It makes little sense to create a court approval requirement in the context of foreign intelligence collection—when the objective is the defense of our national security and operational flexibility and speed are critical to achieve that objective. Congress did not create this role for the FISA Court when it enacted FISA in 1978, and it should not extend the court's role in that regard in this legislation.

The Congress should be careful not to provide an incentive for future unlawful corporate activity by giving the impression that if corporations violate the law and disregard the rights of Americans, they will be given an after-the-fact free pass. If Americans' privacy is to mean anything, and if the rule of law is to be respected, that would be the wrong result.

A retroactive grant of immunity or preemption of state regulators does more than let the carriers off the hook. Immunity is designed to shield this Administration from any accountability for conducting surveillance outside the law. It could make it impossible for Americans whose privacy has been violated illegally to seek meaningful redress.

[JURIST] The first trial in Zimbabwe involving a white farmer defending his refusal to obey a state-sponsored eviction order was postponed Wednesday until December 17 after prosecutors admitted to the court that they had failed to turn relevant papers and information over to the defendant. The defendant, John Norman Eastwood, had requested in pre-trial motions that the state identify the criteria used to select his farm for seizure, a list of the government officials who made the decision, and the minutes from that meeting, none of which were made available. Earlier in October, a Zimbabwe judge denied a motion [JURIST report] brought by Eastwood and 10 other white farmers to have the 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].

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. In February 2006, the Zimbabwe land minister said that, following controversial constitutional reforms [JURIST report] that took effect in 2005, there are no longer any white farmers operating legally in Zimbabwe [JURIST report]. The government has appropriated some 4,000 farms through the program and many attribute Zimbabwe's inflation rate, which is reportedly exceeding 5,000 percent, to these actions as previously productive farms have become barren under new inexperienced owners. AFP has more.

[JURIST] US military lawyers for Canadian Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainee Omar Khadr [Trial Watch profile] are preventing Khadr from speaking with Dennis Edney, his Canadian civil lawyer, in advance of a hearing scheduled for next week, Edney told Reuters Wednesday. Edney said the ban came after he had publicly differed with Khadr's military lawyers and faulted their conduct. In a comment on JURIST's Hotline last month, Edney claimed that Khadr's appointed US military counsel was violating his "fundamental right to counsel of choice" by purporting to represent him, despite Khadr's expressed intention to represent himself before the tribunal, with Edney acting as a foreign lawyer consultant.

Under revised Guantanamo trial rules, defendants can represent themselves or have US military defense lawyers appointed. Foreign and civilian lawyers can join the defense but only as advisors, if they obtain US security clearances and if someone other than the US government pays the bill. Khadr reportedly fired his US attorneys [JURIST report] last year and then fired them again [JURIST report] in May. Reuters has more.

Khadr was detained in Afghanistan in 2002 after allegedly throwing a grenade that killed one US soldier and wounded another while fighting with the Taliban. He was only 15 at the time. Early US military commission proceedings against him were effectively quashed by the US Supreme Court's rejection of presidentially-established military commissions [opinion text] as unconstitutional in June 2006. He was formally recharged [charge sheet, PDF; JURIST report] in April of this year under the new Military Commissions Act [PDF text] with murder, attempted murder, conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism as well as spying. Those charges were later dismissed by a military judge as improper but were subsequently reinstated [JURIST reports] by the new US Court of Military Commission Review. Khadr's lawyers are currently attempting to appeal that ruling [JURIST reports] to a US federal court.

ALSO ON JURIST  Topic: Omar Khadr | Comment: US military counsel violating Guantanamo client's rights: Canadian Khadr lawyer

[JURIST] The Supreme Court of Pakistan [official website] on Thursday sentenced five high-ranking police officers to between 15 days and one month in prison for mistreating Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry [official website; JURIST news archive] when President Musharraf suspended him from duties [JURIST report] on March 9, 2007. A videotape of Chaudhry's arrest showed several police officers roughly shoving him into a limousine against his will. After the prison terms were handed down, the defendants moved for a review of the sentences. The court directed the police officers to file a formal request for appeal, and their sentences were suspended pending review. DPA has more.

In July, the Supreme Court of Pakistan [official website] reinstated Chaudhry and dismissed all charges of misconduct [order; JURIST report]. Shortly after the court's decision, Chaudhry resumed his duties [JURIST report] at the high court. Many Pakistani lawyers and opposition leaders alleged that Chaudhry's March suspension was an indirect bid by Pakistani President Musharraf [official website; BBC profile] to forestall legal challenges which eventually arose when Musharraf sought to extend his eight-year rule by another five years later in the year year. Chaudhry, who assumed the chief justice position in 2005, quickly developed a reputation for his investigations of alleged government abuses involving the illegal detention of political activists.

[JURIST] Not a single condemned prisoner was executed in the United States in the month of October, the first such month in nearly three years, AP reported Wednesday. Across the US, many states have declared a moratorium on lethal injection [JURIST news archive] executions, pending the outcome of a Supreme Court case that challenges lethal injection as a form of "cruel and unusual punishment." In Baze v. Rees (07-5439) [docket; cert. petition] the Court will consider whether the controversial three-drug mixture [DPIC backgrounder] of an anesthetic, a muscle paralyzer and a substance to stop the heart constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. Several constitutional challenges to the procedure have arisen across the country, arguing that the first drug fails to make the inmate fully unconscious, thereby making the inmate suffer excruciating pain when the heart-stopping drug is injected.

On Tuesday, the US Supreme Court granted a stay of execution [order, PDF] to a convicted murderer on Mississippi's death row, pending the Court's decision on whether to grant certiorari in the case. Earl Wesley Berry was scheduled to die by lethal injection Tuesday night; his was the third stay granted by the justices since they agreed to hear Baze. Experts say that the stays may amount to a de facto nationwide moratorium on the death penalty. AP has more.

[JURIST] The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee [official website] voted 17-4 Wednesday to send the 1994 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea [UN materials; SFRC hearing materials] to the full US Senate [official website] for ratification. The treaty has been sharply criticized by conservative Republicans who claim it would limit US sovereignty. Foreign Relations Committee ranking minority member Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) said in his opening statement [PDF text] to the Committee on Wednesday that "[t]he vote today is about whether the Senate will continue to consign the United States to a position of self-imposed weakness in our ability to influence ocean affairs, despite the fact that no other nation has a greater interest in navigational freedoms, a larger Exclusive Economic Zone, or a more advanced technological capacity to exploit ocean resources." Reuters has more. AP has additional coverage.

The Foreign Relations Committee gave unanimous support to the treaty in 2004, but full Senate ratification stalled on the floor. [JURIST report] Ratification of the treaty has been a priority [JURIST report] of the Bush administration. Top officials have argued that US military interests are at risk while the US remains outside of the treaty; Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England said last month that membership in the treaty would "support the global mobility of our armed forces and the sustainment of our combat forces overseas."