[JURIST] Lebanon slid into constitutional crisis Friday as pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud [official website] purported to declare a "state of emergency" and hand security responsibility to the army in a vaguely worded statement issued just before leaving office midnight at the end of his term without an elected successor in place. Earlier Friday, anti-Syrian and pro-Syrian factions in Lebanon's parliament failed in a last-ditch effort to agree on a new president and postponed for a fifth time a planned session to formally elect a candidate, who under Lebanon's constitution [text, in French] must be a Maronite Christian.

Lahoud's emergency was immediately rejected by the government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, who noted through a spokesman that Lebanon's constitution did not permit the president to declare a state of emergency without obtaining the approval of the government under Article 65 [text]. Its Article 62 [text] moreover provides that presidential powers revert to the government if the office of president falls vacant. Lahoud, however, has long considered the Senoria government itself unconstitutional [JURIST report] after six pro-Syrian Shiite ministers quit the cabinet late last year. AFP has more.

[JURIST] Former Lord Chief Justice Lord Woolf [BBC profile] Friday denounced the UK government's latest proposal to extend beyond 28 days the time that terror suspects can be held without charge, supporting positions taken by other current and former top legal officials earlier in the week. On Wednesday current Director of Public Prosecutions Ken Macdonald [official profile] and former Attorney General Lord Goldsmith criticized the plan. Goldsmith, who resigned [JURIST report] earlier this year when Gordon Brown took over as prime minister, said he sees no need to extend the current limit. "The reasons for making proposals are based on a genuine belief that it is the right thing to do in protecting the country," he told the parliamentary Home Affairs Committee, but added that extending the limit to the proposed 56 days is not merited. He pointed out that post-charge questioning can help address such concerns, suggesting that holding suspects too long without charge can lead to "browbeating" and "continually questioning them when there isn't any new material at all."

Goldsmith opposed [JURIST report] former prime minister Tony Blair's attempts to increase the limit to 90 days and said he would have resigned then if MPs had not whittled that proposal down to 28 days. In July, current PM Gordon Brown renewed the initiative to extend the timeframe [JURIST report]. Parliament's Joint Committee on Human Rights promptly rejected the proposal [JURIST report]. BBC News has more. The Guardian has local coverage.

[JURIST] An International Criminal Court [official website] prosecutor said Thursday that the court would not withdraw controversial indictments against leaders of Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) [MIPT backgrounder; JURIST news archive]. Alluding to a call for a review of the charges [JURIST report] by the Ugandan government, ICC Deputy Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda was quoted by AFP as saying that "this idea of 'because we are talking peace therefore justice should be thrown out of the window' is not the correct position that has to be taken." She added "the warrants that have been issued by the ICC have contributed tremendously to making the perpetrators of these crimes come to, even negotiate with the government." At a Wednesday briefing [press release] at United Nations headquarters in New York, Bensouda called on governments to back the court's efforts, saying "the interests of peace and justice demand that States take assertive action." AFP has more.

In 2005 the ICC indicted [ICC materials; JURIST report] five leaders of the Lord's Resistance Army, including LRA leader Joseph Kony [BBC profile], for orchestrating the killing of thousands of civilians and the enslavement of thousands more children over two decades of conflict. The Ugandan government is trying to negotiate a peace deal with the rebels, though they say they will refuse to sign any agreement unless the ICC withdraws its indictments. The government has also said that Kony is willing to face trial at home [JURIST report], but not at the ICC.

[JURIST] UN Special Rapporteur on torture Manfred Nowak [official website] Friday called on the government of Indonesia [JURIST news archive] to step up efforts at stopping ill-treatment and torture of individuals under police detention. Nowak concluded a two-week visit to the country where he toured various correctional facilities, meeting with government officials and NGOs to make recommendations regarding the legal system's administration of justice. In a press release [text], he acknowledged that Indonesia has made progress since the 1998 ouster of former president Suharto [BBC backgrounder] but said "shortcomings" still exist. Nowak said legal safeguards are "virtually non-existent," especially at the pre-trial stage. He also said that abuse and intimidation at police stations were widespread, indicating that in several instances observers arrived at stations while beatings were in progress. Abuses and poor conditions at detention facilities were more isolated but still a cause for significant concern. Nowak's urged the government to publicly condemn, criminalize, and prosecute instances of torture and ill-treatment. He also called for better access to "courts, lawyers, and independent medical examinations [by] all persons in detention, whether under the penal law or not." Reuters has more.

Indonesia has recently made efforts to improve conditions for prisoners. In August the government reduced sentences [JURIST report] for several of the Bali bombing convicts despite criticism by victims and survivors. Officials said the reduction is a constitutional right afforded to all criminals regardless of their crimes, as part of Indonesia's prisoner remission program conducted annually to mark the country's independence from Dutch colonial rule. Prisoners in good standing typically receive a remission, unless they are death row inmates or serving life sentences.

[JURIST] Courthouses in the northern Indian cities of Lucknow, Varanasi, and Faizabad [official websites] were hit Friday with bombings that killed at least 13 lawyers and injured over 50 other people. The blasts occurred in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh [official website], where lawyers decided earlier this year not to defend terrorist suspects. Indian authorities say they suspect militant groups trying to spark conflict between the Hindu majority and the Muslim minority in the country.

Varanasi is one of Hinduism's holiest cities and Faizabad is near the site of the Babri Mosque bombing in 1992, which sparked widespread Hindu-Muslim riots. India [JURIST news archive] has been rocked by a series of terrorist bombings over the past two years. In August, a pair of explosions in the southern city of Hyderabad killed 43 and in July 2006, the Mumbai commuter train bombings [JURIST news archive] killed more than 200 people. AP has more. The Times of India has local coverage.

[JURIST] The Supreme Court of Pakistan [official website] Friday upheld [judgment text] President Pervez Musharraf's November 3 Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) [text] and accompanying proclamation of emergency. The seven member bench of the court ruling on the issue - made up entirely of judges named to their posts after the emergency decree - additionally condemned the "judicial activism" of the superior courts prior to the emergency for making the machinery of government "paralyzed and nugatory" and declared officially dismissed all the judges who had refused to swear an oath to the government under the PCO.

The court wrote:

In the recent past the whole of Pakistan was afflicted with extremism, terrorism and suicide attacks using bombs, hand grenades, missiles, mines, including similar attacks on the armed forces and law enforcing agencies, which reached climax on 18th of October 2007 when in a similar attack on a public rally, at least 150 people were killed and more than 500 seriously injured. The extremists/terrorists resorted to abduction of foreigners, which badly impaired the image of Pakistan in the comity of nations, and adversely affected its economic growth. The situation in Islamabad and various places in NWFP, Balochistan and tribal areas was analogous to “a state within the state”. Unfortunately, no effort by the government succeeded in curbing extremism, terrorism and suicide attacks. The Prime Minister apprised the President of the situation through his letter of the 3rd of November 2007;

(ii) The Constitution of Pakistan is based on the principle of trichotomy of powers. All the three organs of the State, namely, the legislature, the executive and the judiciary are required to perform their functions and exercise their powers within their specified sphere. Unfortunately, some members of the superior judiciary by way of judicial activism transgressed the constitutional limits and ignored the well-entrenched principle of judicial restraint. Thousands of applications involving individual grievances were being processed as suo motu cases ostensibly in the exercise of power under Article 184(3) of the Constitution, which provision is resorted to the enforcement of fundamental rights involving questions of law of general public importance. Instances of transgression of judicial authority at large scale may be found in the cases of determination of prices of fruits, vegetables and other edibles, suspension and transfers of government officials, frequent directions to enact particular laws, stoppage of various development projects, such as New Murree City, Islamabad Chalets, Lahore Canal Road and many more. They rendered the state machinery, particularly legislative and executive branches of the government paralyzed and nugatory. They made ineffective the institution of the Supreme Judicial Council set up under the Constitution for the accountability of the members of the superior judiciary;

(iii) The sum total of the circumstances led to a situation where the running of the government in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution became impossible for which the Constitution provided no remedy or satisfactory solution. There was a strong apprehension of disastrous consequences that would have followed in case the action of the 3rd day of November 2007 was not taken by the Chief of Army Staff/President...

The extra-constitutional steps of Proclamation of Emergency of the 3rd day of November, 2007, the Provisional Constitution Order No.1 of 2007, the Provisional Constitution (Amendment) Order, 2007, the Oath of Office (Judges) Order, 2007 and the President’s Order No. 5 of 2007 are hereby declared to have been validly made by the Chief of Army Staff/President subject to the condition that the country shall be governed, as nearly as may be, in accordance with the Constitution. All acts and actions taken for the orderly running of the State and for the advancement and good of the people are also validated.

We further hold and direct [that]...

The learned Chief Justices and Judges of the superior courts, (Supreme Court of Pakistan, Federal Shariat Court and the High Courts), who have not been given, and who have not made, oath under the Oath of Office (Judges) Order, 2007 have ceased to hold their respective offices on the 3rd of November 2007. Their cases cannot be re-opened being hit by the doctrine of past and closed transaction; and...

The Proclamation of Emergency of the 3rd day of November, 2007 shall be revoked by the President and/or the Chief of Army Staff at the earliest so that the period of constitutional deviation is brought to an end. However, this Court may, at any stage, re-examine the continuation of the Proclamation of Emergency if the circumstances so warrant.

[JURIST] UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour [official website] Thursday urged Pakistan to reinstate all of the judges dismissed under President Pervez Musharraf's November 3 declaration of emergency rule before parliamentary elections slated for January. In Dublin to attend a human rights conference, Arbour told reporters that it is not enough to hold free and fair elections lest the judicial branch become totally subservient to the executive branch in what the former Canadian Supreme Court justice called a "very twisted form of democracy". Musharraf effectively dismissed all Pakistan's Supreme Court judges, including Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry [JURIST news archive], at the same time as he suspended the country's constitution and issued a Provisional Constitution Order. Musharraf has since replaced the original top court bench with mostly lower court judges seen by many to be more loyal to the president.

Earlier this month, Arbour expressed alarm [JURIST report] at the suspension of fundamental rights during Musharraf's emergency, saying that a state of emergency "should only be used to deal with a dire security threat to the nation, not to undermine the integrity and independence of the judiciary." AP has more.