[JURIST] Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf promulgated an ordinance Wednesday invoking his power to unilaterally amend the country's constitution under Article 2(1) of the current Provisional Constitution Order [text as amended] and making the November 3 declaration of emergency and accompanying orders immune from any legal challenge by deeming them always to have been validly made. The Constitution (Amendment) Order, 2007 [text] provides that Article 270 of the now-suspended Pakistani constitution is amended to include the following provision:

270AAA. Validation and affirmation of laws etc.-

(1) The proclamation of Emergency of 3rd November, 2007, all President's Orders, Ordinances, Chief of Army Staff Orders, including the Provisional Constitution order No.1 2007, the Oath of Office (Judges) Order, 2007, the amendments made in the constitution through the Constitution (Amendment) Order, 2007 and all other laws made between the 3rd day of November, 2007 and the date on which the Proclamation of Emergency of the 3rd Day of November, 2007, is revoked (both days inclusive), are accordingly affirmed, adopted and declared to have been validly made by the competent authority and notwithstanding anything contained in the Constitution shall not be called in question in any court or forum on any ground whatsoever.

(2) All orders made, proceedings taken, appointments made, including secondments and deputations, and acts done by any authority, or by any person, which were made, taken or done, or purported to have been made, taken or done, on or after the 3rd day of November, 2007 in exercise of the powers derived from any Proclamation, Provisional Constitution Order No. 1 of 2007, President's orders, ordinances, enactments, including amendments in the Constitution, notifications, rules, orders, bye-laws, or in execution of or in compliance with any orders made or sentences passed by any authority in the exercise or purported exercise of powers as aforesaid, shall, notwithstanding anything contained in the Constitution or any judgment of any court, be deemed to be and always to have been validly made, taken or done and shall not be called in question in any court or forum on any ground whatsoever.

(3) All proclamations, President's orders, ordinances, Chief of Army Staff Orders, laws, regulations, enactments, including amendments in the Constitution, notifications, rules, orders or bye-laws in force immediately before the date on which the Proclamation of Emergency of the 3rd day of November, 2007 is revoked, shall continue in force until altered, repealed or amended by the competent authority.

Explanation.- In this clause, "competent authority" means,- (a) in respect of President's orders, ordinances, Chief of Army Staff Orders and enactments, including amendments in the Constitution, the appropriate Legislature; and
(b) in respect of notifications, rules, orders and bye-laws, the authority in which the power to make, alter, repeal or amend the same vests under the law.

(4) No prosecution or any other legal proceedings, including but not limited to suits, constitutional petitions or complaints, shall, notwithstanding anything contained in the Constitution or any other law for the time being in force, lie in any court, forum or authority against any person or authority on account of or in respect of issuance of the legal instruments referred to in clause (1) and on account of or in respect of any action taken by the Chief of Army Staff, the President or any other in exercise or purported exercise of the powers referred to in clause (2).

(5) For purpose of clauses (1), (2) and (4) all orders made, proceeding taken, appointments made, including secondments and deputation, acts done or purporting to be made, taken or done by any authority or person shall be deemed to have been made, taken in good faith and for the purpose intended to be served thereby.

[JURIST] UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour [official website] called on Pakistan to restore judicial independence in comments to AFP Wednesday, saying that an independent judiciary is just as important as free elections to a democracy. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf dismissed 14 Supreme Court judges, including Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry [JURIST news archive], in the wake of his November 3 declaration of a state of emergency [JURIST report], replacing them with lower court judges seen by many to be more loyal to the president. The ousted judges say they still face heavy restrictions on their movement [JURIST report], despite government assurances to the contrary. Arbour said that:

the main target of this entire enterprise was a frontal attack on the judicial branch of government and that is an enormous setback for democracy and constitutionalism.

[JURIST] Prosecutors argued before a hearing of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) [official website; JURIST news archive] Wednesday that former Khmer Rouge official Kaing Guek Eav [TrialWatch profile] should be denied bail to prevent violence that could threaten public order. Lawyers said that Kaing Guek Eav, better known as "Duch," is a flight risk and, if released, could be targeted for a revenge killing by relatives of Khmer Rouge genocide victims. Duch has contested his eight-year pre-trial detention [JURIST report] as a violation of international law, and has requested to be released on bail in the months before his as-yet unscheduled trial. A decision is not expected for several days, but ECCC judges have indicated that they do not have jurisdiction to determine the legality of Duch's detention.

Duch, who was in charge of the notorious S-21 prison [Wikipedia backgrounder] in Phnom Penh, is one of five top leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime [JURIST news archive; BBC backgrounder] currently in ECCC custody. Duch was arrested in 1999 on genocide charges; he was subsequently charged with war crimes by a military court in March and with crimes against humanity [JURIST reports] by the ECCC in July. Those charges were primarily brought to keep Duch in custody while the ECCC started operations. Also Wednesday, the tribunal expressed concern for the safety of former Khmer Rouge head of state Khieu Samphan [JURIST report] if released. AP has more. AFP has additional coverage.

[JURIST] The Supreme Court of Georgia [official website] Wednesday unanimously overturned [opinion, PDF; summary, PDF] a state law that prohibited registered sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of schools, playgrounds and other areas where children gather. Civil rights groups had criticized the law [legislative materials] as overly strict, saying that the state's roughly 11,000 registered sex offenders would have been barred from living in almost any residential area. State Rep. Jerry Keen (R) [official profile], who sponsored the law, expressed disappointment in the court's ruling and said that state lawmakers may readdress the issue in January.

The Southern Center for Human Rights (SCHR) [advocacy website], which represented the plaintiffs in a federal class-action lawsuit [complaint, PDF; SCHR materials] against the law, had argued that the law violated several constitutional provisions and at least one federal statute. The law was passed last year and went into effect on July 1, 2006, but in June 2006 US District Judge Clarence Cooper [official profile] issued a temporary restraining order [brief in support, PDF; JURIST report] that prevented the state from enforcing the law against eight plaintiffs, and then later extended the restraining order to all registered sex offenders in the state [JURIST report]. AP has more.

[JURIST] The UN General Assembly Third Committee Tuesday approved [UN press release] a draft resolution [PDF text] imploring Iran [JURIST news archive] to "respect fully its human rights obligations." The draft expressed concern about ongoing human rights violations in Iran despite previous resolutions condemning acts including torture, public executions, and discrimination against minorities and women. The draft calls on the Iranian government:

a) To eliminate, in law and in practice, amputations and flogging and other forms of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment;
(b) To abolish, in law and in practice, public executions and other executions carried out in the absence of respect for internationally recognized safeguards;
(c) To abolish, in law and in practice, the use of stoning as a method of execution;
(d) To abolish [...] executions of persons who at the time of their offence were under the age of 18;
(e) To eliminate, in law and in practice, all forms of discrimination and violence against women and girls;
(f) To eliminate, in law and in practice, all forms of discrimination and other human rights violations against persons belonging to religious, ethnic, linguistic or other minorities, recognized or otherwise, to refrain from monitoring individuals on the basis of their religious beliefs, and to ensure that access of minorities to education and employment is on par with that of all Iranians;
(g) To implement, inter alia, the 1996 report of the Special Rapporteur on religious intolerance,6 which recommended ways in which the Islamic Republic of Iran could emancipate the Baha'i community;
(h) To end the harassment, intimidation and persecution of political opponents and human rights defenders, including by releasing persons imprisoned arbitrarily or on the basis of their political views; [and]
(i) To uphold due process of law rights, and to end impunity for human rights violations.

[JURIST] UN Special Representative for the Children and Armed Conflict Unit Radhika Coomaraswamy [official profile] Tuesday expressed concern about the prosecution of Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr [JURIST news archive], saying that prosecuting Khadr for alleged war crimes committed while he was a minor could set a dangerous precedent. Coomaraswamy made the comments to US State Department legal adviser John Bellinger [official profile], but no word is available on Bellinger's response. Human rights groups have criticized the US for proceeding with the trial, saying that it violates the Optional Protocol of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child [text], which gives special protection to children under 18 involved in armed conflicts.

A spokesperson said that Coomaraswamy has also had discussions with officials in Canada, Khadr's home nation, which has so far declined to intervene on Khadr's behalf. Khadr military defense lawyer Lt.-Cmdr. William Kuebler is currently in London asking MPs and human rights activists to push the Canadian government to call for Khadr's extradition [Globe and Mail report]. CBC News has more.

On Wednesday, five news organizations - the Associated Press, the New York Times Co., Dow Jones & Company Inc., the Hearst Corp. and the McClatchy Company [corporate websites] - said they were being blocked from substantial portions of the military commission proceeding against Khadr. In a court filing, the news groups said that many of the motions and arguments in Khadr's case are being made via e-mail or in closed sessions, meaning that there are no public records of what is discussed. AP has more.

[JURIST] A French judge Wednesday opened a formal investigation into former French President Jacques Chirac [official profile; BBC profile] for his alleged involvement in a corruption scheme [JURIST report] during his tenure as the mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995. Chirac allegedly financed the Rally for the Republic (RPR) [Wikipedia backgrounder], now renamed as the Union for a Popular Movement [party website, in French], by illegally establishing fake city positions for party members to collect salaries totaling several million dollars. AP has more.

In June, Chirac lawyer Jean Veil indicated that judges would likely question Chirac [JURIST report], but emphasized that the Chirac would not answer questions concerning scandals that allegedly occurred during Chirac's tenure as president of France [JURIST news archive] because the French constitution grants judicial immunity to the president. In July, French investigating magistrates questioned Chirac as a material witness [JURIST report] in their probe of the scheme.

[JURIST] The US federal judge who presided over the Zacarias Moussaoui [JURIST news archive] terrorism conspiracy case suggested from the bench Tuesday that she might order a new trial for a Muslim cleric convicted of soliciting treason, saying that she could no longer trust representations made by the US government in light of recent revelations that it had withheld evidence [JURIST report] during the Moussaoui proceeding. At a post-trial hearing for Muslim cleric Ali al-Timimi [WP profile; JURIST news archive], US District Judge Leonie Brinkema said she felt she could no longer count on the CIA and other government agencies to accurately disclose classified evidence in terror cases. Al-Timimi, an Islamic scholar from Fairfax, Virginia, was sentenced to life in prison [JURIST report] in July 2005 after he was convicted of soliciting others to levy war against the US, inducing others to aid the Taliban, and inducing others to use firearms in violation of federal law.

Last week, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) [official website] admitted in a letter [PDF text] that it has several recorded interrogations of suspected "enemy combatants", contrary to its denial of assertions in the Moussaoui case that it possessed one audio and two video interrogation tapes. Moussaoui had sought the testimony of several al Qaeda witnesses as part of his defense. Prosecutors said that they learned of the tapes only recently, but insisted that their absence did not affect Moussaoui's trial, as they did not mention either him or the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks [JURIST news archive]. AP has more.

Moussaoui pleaded guilty [JURIST report] in April 2005 to six conspiracy charges [indictment] in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks, including conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism transcending national boundaries, conspiracy to destroy aircraft and conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction. He received a life sentence [JURIST report] last year after one juror refused to agree to the death penalty [JURIST report].

[JURIST] The UN General Assembly Third Committee Tuesday passed a draft resolution [press release] condemning the recent crackdown against political dissidents in Myanmar, calling on the country's military government to release all political prisoners and to cooperate with UN special envoy to Myanmar Ibrahim Gambari [official profile]. The resolution passed 88-24, with 66 abstentions, and now goes to the General Assembly itself. Myanmar's UN Ambassador U Kyaw Tint Swe criticized the resolution as an attempt to meddle in Myanmar's internal affairs and said it could hinder the country's efforts toward democracy. AP has more.

Gambari visited Myanmar [JURIST report] last month and returned in November to continue efforts to encourage the country's military junta to move toward democratization and reconciliation in the wake of the government crackdown against protesters which began in August. The crackdown started when Myanmar [JURIST news 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] and the government has said that some 3,000 people were arrested for participating in the protests.

[JURIST] Pakistani police Wednesday stopped ousted Pakistani Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry [JURIST news archive] from leaving his official residence in Islamabad notwithstanding a statement by an Interior Ministry spokesman Tuesday that he and other deposed Supreme Court of Pakistan judges were "free to move" [JURIST report] after being under virtual house arrest. Justice Rana Bhagwandas, also dismissed from the high court bench after President Pervez Musharraf's November 3 declaration of emergency rule, told AFP that there was a "massive police presence" in the official judges compound early Wednesday morning when Chaudhry tried to come out and he was not allowed to do so. Police also mounted barricades to prevent other people approaching. AFP quoted Bhagwandas as saying "We have never seen this kind of method being used on senior judiciary in the history of the country." BBC News has more. Dawn has local coverage. INN has more local coverage.

Pakistan's News daily meanwhile reported Wednesday that several lawyers who attempted to came to see Chaudhry, including retired Supreme Court Justice Wajihuddin Ahmed who ran against Musharraf unsuccessfully in the recent legislative elections for the Pakistani presidency, had been arrested. They were stopped by a magistrate and warned away and were later detained near an Islamabad hotel and taken to an undisclosed location. The News has more.

[JURIST] Pakistani officials said Wednesday that upwards of 5000 lawyers, activists and others detained in the aftermath of President Pervez Musharraf's November 3 declaration of emergency rule [JURIST report] have been released. Government Law Minister Afzal Hayder said on state television that the government had freed 5,634 detainees, and that 600 others still in custody were to be released soon. An aide was quoted by news agencies as saying that the total number of detainees was 5,757, of whom 5,134 had been released up to 19:00 local time Wednesday. The remaining 623 included 202 lawyers and 421 students or political workers; the aide said their release was expected in a few days.

The pace of releases has accelerated since an Interior Ministry spokesman said Tuesday that more that 3400 lawyers and political activists had been freed [JURIST report]. Pakistan has been under considerable international pressure to free persons arrested for protesting the declaration of emergency and suspension of the country's constitution, condemned by many as tantamount to martial law. The New York Daily News has more. Xinhua has additional coverage.