[JURIST] US Magistrate Judge John Facciola Tuesday ordered [PDF text; CREW press release] the White House to report within five business days whether the millions of e-mails from 2003 to 2005 that have been deleted from White House servers in fact exist on back-up tapes. In November, US District Court Judge Henry Kennedy ordered [JURIST report] the White House to preserve all of its e-mail records by saving back-up disks after private advocacy group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) [advocacy website] in October requested a temporary restraining order [JURIST report] to stop deletion. Facciola's Tuesday ruling in The National Security Archive v. Executive Office of the President, consolidated with a lawsuit from CREW, requires the White House to reveal whether the back-up tapes are catalogued, labeled or otherwise identified to indicate the period of time they cover and the data they contain.

The order came in advance of a ruling on motions from CREW and the National Security Archive [advocacy website] to expedite discovery to determine what relevant email still exists. The US Department of Justice has been unresponsive about what back-up tapes the White House possesses, although it has said that the White House has maintained all back-up tapes since CREW filed suit. The issue of missing e-mails has been an ongoing controversy in the Bush administration, arising first during the CIA leak investigation, and again last year during controversy over the firings of eight US Attorneys [JURIST news archives]. AP has more.

[JURIST] A class of over forty Georgia inmates filed suit Tuesday in the US District Court for Middle District of Georgia [official website], seeking compensation for alleged widespread physical abuse - including two deaths - and intimidation of prisoners statewide. Twenty-five guards and prison officials are alleged to have committed systematic beatings, later orchestrating a cover-up that included torturing prisoners who complained. The complaint said that inmates Charles "Chad" Clark and Jonathan Haynes died as a result of the beatings. Over forty inmates provided specific accounts of abuse, isolation, and starvation, occurring primarily from 2003 to 2005. Medical personnel are also implicated in the alleged cover-up. The Georgia Department of Corrections [official website] said that an internal investigation is pending.

The class action lawsuit follows over 40 individual lawsuits filed in recent years alleging prisoner abuse. The Georgia state constitution [text] expressly bans physical abuse as punishment. In 2006, a report from the UN Committee against Torture [JURIST report] urged the US to do more to protect domestic prisoners and suspects from violence and threats of violence. AP has more.

[JURIST] A former Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainee convicted in Tunisia of criminal association lost an appeal Tuesday in a Tunis court. Lotfi Lagha [HRW backgrounder], who was transferred to Tunisian custody [JURIST report] in June 2007 after five years at Guantanamo Bay, was sentenced to three years in prison [JURIST report] in October for associating with a criminal group with the aim of harming or causing damage in Tunisia. Additional charges related to Lagha's 2001 trip to Afghanistan and alleged training with the Taliban were dismissed by the trial court. Lawyers for Lagha said he was not guilty on all counts, as the Taliban controlled Afghanistan at the time of his trip and could not have been considered a terrorist organization. AP has more.

Last September, Human Rights Watch released a report [text; press release] accusing Tunisian officials of mistreating Lagha [JURIST report] and fellow captive Abdullah al-Hajji Ben Amor after they were returned to Tunisia from Guantanamo Bay. Al-Hajji was sentenced to seven years in prison [JURIST report] by a Tunisian court in November.

[JURIST] US District Judge Marcia Cooke [official profile] began hearing arguments Tuesday in the sentencing hearing of convicted terrorist Jose Padilla [JURIST news archive] and his two co-defendants, Adham Amin Hassoun and Kifah Wael Jayyousi [GlobalSecurity profiles]. The government is seeking the maximum sentence of life in prison for all three defendants, while Padilla's lawyers are arguing that he should receive no more than 10 years. Hassoun's lawyers have asked for a four- to six-year sentence, while Jayyousi's argue their client should only get probation. Defense lawyers raised over 90 objections Tuesday to a report supporting prosecutors' requests for life sentences, saying that it misrepresented evidence presented at trial. Cooke plans to hear each objection individually.

Padilla, Hassoun and Jayyousi were convicted [JURIST report] in August of conspiracy to commit illegal violent acts outside the US, conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, and providing material support to terrorists. Padilla, a US citizen, was arrested in 2002 at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport and subsequently detained as an "enemy combatant" [JURIST news archive] at a Navy military brig in Charleston, South Carolina. Initially alleged to have planned the explosion of a "dirty bomb" in the United States, Padilla went from enemy combatant to criminal defendant when he was finally charged in November 2005 and transferred to civilian custody [JURIST report] in January 2006. AP has more.

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] ruled Tuesday that the Court of Federal Claims is required to consider whether lawsuits are filed within the relevant statute of limitations even when the parties waive the issue. In John R. Sand & Gravel v. US [Duke Law case backgrounder; JURIST report], the Court held "that the special statute of limitations governing the Court of Federal Claims requires that sua sponte consideration." The case involves a takings claim filed against the government under the Tucker Act, which carries a six-year statute of limitations [28 USC 2501 text]. The government waived the issue of timeliness, but on appeal, the Federal Circuit ruled [PDF text] that the lawsuit should be dismissed because it was not filed within the statute of limitations. The Supreme Court affirmed the Federal Circuit.

Read the Court's opinion [text] per Justice Breyer, along with a dissent [text] from Justice Stevens and a second dissent [text] from Justice Ginsburg. AP has more.

[JURIST] The Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) [official website; JURIST news archive], assembled to investigate possible war crimes that occurred during the Liberian civil war that ended in 2003, held its first public session on Tuesday. While the commission does not have authority to try cases, it intends to take testimony from approximately 5,000 victims and suspects in order to understand what happened during the Liberian conflict ended in 2003. The commission began its work in October of last year, but it stalled [JURIST reports] in June for lack of funding.

Former Liberian President Charles Taylor [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] is currently on trial in the The Hague before the Special Court for Sierra Leone [official website] for crimes against humanity. Taylor is accused of masterminding and funding intertwined civil wars in Liberia and neighboring Sierra Leone through the sale of so-called "blood diamonds." BBC News has more.

[JURIST] Pojamarn Shinwatra, wife of former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra [BBC profile; JURIST news archive], returned to Thailand from self-imposed exile Tuesday to face corruption and fraud charges. Pojamarn was arrested upon arriving in Thailand, and was released on bail after a brief appearance before the Thai Supreme Court for Political Appointees.

A Thai court issued an arrest warrant for Thaksin and his wife in August and a second warrant in September [JURIST reports]. Thaksin and Pojamarn have been accused of abuse of power for personal gain [JURIST report], conflict of interest violations, and dereliction of duty for personal gain in charges stemming from a 2003 land purchase by Pojamarn from the government-directed Financial Institutions Development Fund [official website]. Both have previously refused to return to Thailand to face charges because they do not expect to receive a fair trial [JURIST report]. AFP has more.

[JURIST] The US Marine Corps on Monday launched a court of inquiry proceeding [Marine Corps News report] to investigate whether charges should be brought in connection with a March 4, 2007 incident [CENTCOM press release] in which 30 US Marines opened fire on civilians alongside a road in Nangahar province, Afghanistan, after a suicide bomber drove a vehicle carrying explosives into their convoy. The court of inquiry, which will begin taking testimony on Tuesday and will recommend whether criminal charges should be brought, is most concerned with the conduct of platoon leader Capt. Vincent J. Noble and Maj. Fred C. Galvin, who commanded the 120-person unit at the time of the incident. A defense attorney told AP that the evidence will show that the Marines followed proper procedure during the incident. This is the first time a court of inquiry proceeding has been held since 1956. AP has more. The Marine Corps Times has additional coverage.

A preliminary US military investigation [JURIST report] found that the Marines began firing at bystanders, including women and elderly men, along a several mile stretch of road as they left the scene. As many as 19 civilians were killed and another 50 injured. The soldiers are members of a Marine Corps Special Forces unit under the command of the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) [official website] and were sent to Afghanistan to carry out special reconnaissance, intelligence and commando missions. The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) [official website] released a report [PDF text] last year claiming the soldiers violated international humanitarian law [JURIST report] by using indiscriminate and excessive force in its response to the suicide bombing.

[JURIST] United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said Monday that the UN "needs some strengthened investigative capacity" to combat fraud and increase transparency. During his first press conference [transcript] of the year, Ban said that although the United Nations Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) [official website] has found fraud within the UN, more robust investigative authority would help the organization:

As for some reports about procurement fraud which have appeared in some of the media, I would like to make it quite clear that I do not agree with all that has been reported. It is true that there was some fraud, which was found, investigated by our own OIOS teams. The amount which has been the subject of procurement fraud was sort of an aggregate sum, not the fraud itself, so there were some exaggerations and incorrect reporting...It was not in the amount of several hundred million dollars. That several hundred million dollars was the total aggregate sum of the project fund...

At this time I think the United Nations needs some strengthened investigative capacity. We have many different mandates, different organizations and different agencies, starting from the ombudsman, OIOS, the Ethics Office; and there are all the specialized agencies and funds and programmes. In November of last year, with my consistent efforts, we were able to have a standardized ethics rule which will be applied to all the agencies, funds and programmes. That was very good progress in terms of ensuring and strengthening transparency and accountability. That effort will continue this year and in coming years.

But I hope that Member States one day will consider how we can strengthen the investigative capacity. We don't have such investigative capacity in the United Nations. We have been relying upon this Procurement Task Force. Fortunately, that mandate has been extended for another year.