[JURIST] The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) [official website] of South Africa will charge Jackie Selebi [official profile], chief of the South African Police Services (SAPS) [official website] and President of INTERPOL [official website], with corruption and defeating the course of justice, a NPA spokesman said Friday. Selebi's charges relate to payments he received from a his friend Glenn Agliotti [Mail and Guardian report], a convicted drug smuggler suspected of involvement in the murder of South African mining head Brett Keeble. The NPA said that Selebi had turned a blind eye to Agliotti's drug trafficking, and that he had warned Agliotti that he was a identified in the Keeble murder investigation. Selebi denied any wrongdoing and said that the charges are politically motivated.

Selebi was in court Friday trying to block the prosecution from filing charges, but Pretoria High Court Judge Nico Coetzee denied the request saying "...if the applicant is not charged, the administration of justice will be brought into disrepute." Reuters has more. AFP has additional coverage.

[JURIST] Russian prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation into a survivor organization formed after the 2004 Beslan school siege [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive], according to the organization's chairwoman, quoted by AP Friday. The Voice of Beslan [advocacy website, in Russian], is accused of extremist activity [JURIST report]. Prosecutors point to a 2005 Voice of Beslan statement criticizing Russian President Vladamir Putin [official website; BBC backgrounder] as evidence of extremism. The Voice of Beslan has denied the charges, saying it was an attempt to stifle criticism of Putin. On Wednesday, the North Ossetia Supreme Court ordered the group to disband [Moscow Times report] following a dispute over its leadership.

The Voice of Beslan is one of many victims organizations that has been critical of the government's response to the militant attack on the Beslan School, which resulted in the death of 334 people, many of them children. Attackers demanded the withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya [BBC backgrounder]. AP has more.

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] on Friday granted certiorari in four cases [order list, PDF], including Davis v. Federal Election Commission (07-320) [docket], in which the Court will consider whether the so-called millionaire's amendment [FEC backgrounder], part of a 2002 campaign finance law that allows political candidates to accept larger contributions from supporters if an opponent is able to finance his campaign with his own money, is constitutional. The exception is intended to ensure that independently wealthy candidates do not unfairly dominate elections. New York Democrat Jack Davis [campaign website] challenged the law, arguing that it violated his First Amendment rights, but the Washington DC Circuit Court ruled [opinion, PDF] that the law had not infringed on his right to free speech. AP has more.

In Giles v. California (07-6053) [docket; cert. petition, PDF], the Court will rule on whether an accused killer can bar the the testimony of the person he allegedly killed if he did not kill her with the intent of preventing her testimony. The Supreme Court of California held [opinion, PDF] that allowing the testimony did not violate the Sixth Amendment Confrontation Clause [Cornell Law backgrounder]. AP has more.

The Supreme Court also granted cert in two other cases Friday. In Taylor v. Sturgell (07-371) [docket; cert. petition, PDF], the Court will rule on whether a litigant is barred from pursuing a claim if another litigant had previously pursued a similar claim.

In Engquist v. Oregon Dept. of Agriculture (07-474) [docket; cert. petition, PDF], the Supreme Court will rule on whether a federal employee who is not a member of a protected class can sue for discrimination that was directed solely against her. The Ninth Circuit Court held [opinion, PDF] that an Indian-born woman who alleged discrimination from her supervisor could not sue under a "class-of-one theory." SCOTUSblog has additional coverage.

[JURIST] A federal jury in the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts [official website] Friday convicted three former leaders of defunct Muslim charity Care International Inc. (not to be confused with CARE [advocacy website]) were convicted Friday of illegally obtaining tax-exempt status by hiding the group's pro-jihad activities. Care International Inc. purported to help war orphans, widows, and refugees in Islamic countries [JURIST news archive], but government prosecutors argued that the organization supported Islamic militants throughout the world while distributing a pro-jihad newsletter. The three former charity executives, Emadeddin Muntasser,Muhammed Mubayyid, and Samir Al-Monla, were charged with tax code violations, making false statements and conspiracy to defraud the United States. Al-Monia was acquitted on one count of making false statements; they were convicted on all other charges. AP has more.

The Boston case is not the first time in recent years that a Muslim charity has been prosecuted for alleged connections to terrorist activities. In October 2007, a Dallas federal judge declared a mistrial [JURIST report] in a controversial case against the Holy Land Foundation [LOC archived website; ADL backgrounder] charity and five of its leaders after three jurors insisted that the verdicts of acquittal [verdict for HLF chairman Mohammad El-Mazain, PDF] read by the court were incorrect. Once the largest Muslim charity in the United States, the Foundation was shut down in 2001 by federal prosecutors who accused it of financing international terrorism by supporting the Palestinian group Hamas [BBC backgrounder].

[JURIST] Seventy-one people were arrested at the US Supreme Court [official website] Friday during a protest calling for the closing of the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba [JURIST news archive]. Protesters were arrested inside and outside the building and charged with violating an ordinance that bars demonstrations of any kind on court grounds. The court building had to be closed briefly because of the disturbance. The Supreme Court is currently hearing arguments on whether detainees have the right to challenge their imprisonment in US federal courts [JURIST report]. AP has more.

Friday protests in the US and around the world marked the six year anniversary of the creation of the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay. Human rights organization Amnesty International [advocacy website] mobilized demonstrations [press release] in cities across the globe, including London, Rome, Sydney, Brussels, Istanbul, and Manila. CBC News has more.

[JURIST] The ACLU of Michigan [advocacy website] filed a federal suit Friday challenging a Michigan election law that limits access to information on presidential primary voters to the Democratic and Republican parties. The complaint [text, PDF] alleges that Section 615c [text] of the Michigan Election Law [text] is unconstitutional because it excludes other smaller parties, as well as individuals, citizen groups and news media, from seeing lists of voter preferences and gives preference only to the two major parties in violation of the Equal Protection Clause and 14th Amendment [Cornell Law backgrounders]. The ACLU said [press release]:

Michigan law does not require voters to register by party and therefore voter party preference information is valuable to political parties, individual candidates, citizen groups supporting or opposing ballot proposals, political consultants, news media, researchers, other specialized groups and members of the public.

[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled [PDF text] Friday that four former Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainees do not have the right to sue high-ranking government officials for alleged torture and infringement of religious practice during their captivity. UK citizens Shafiq Rasul, Asif Iqbal, Rhuhel Ahmed and Jamal Al-Harith filed the lawsuit [case backgrounder; JURIST report] in 2004 against former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Richard Meyers, and others alleging [complaint] "deliberate and foreseeable action taken ... to flout or evade the United States Constitution, federal statutory law, United States treaty obligations and long established norms of customary international law." The court affirmed the district court's ruling dismissing the plaintiff's claims under the Alien Tort Statute [text] for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. The court dismissed the plaintiffs' claims under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act [text], finding that they did not have the right to sue for infringement of religious rights because they are aliens who were not in the US at the time of the alleged acts.

The plaintiffs were released from Guantanamo in March 2004. In May 2004, Rasul and Iqbal said in an open letter to US President George W. Bush that they had suffered abuse at Guantanamo [JURIST report] similar to that perpetrated at Abu Ghraib [JURIST news archive] prison in Iraq. The lawsuit was filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights, which said Friday that it would appeal the decision [press release]. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) [official website] Friday issued a final rule [text; DHS backgrounder] establishing new minimum standards [press release] for state-issued identification cards under the Real ID Act [PDF text; JURIST news archive]. DHS will phase in the heightened requirements between 2011 and 2017. Opponents of the Real ID Act have expressed privacy and civil liberties concerns, objecting to the sharing of personal data between government agencies, particularly between state and federal government agencies. Many states have also opposed the law, saying that its implementation costs will be too burdensome. Some states have signed written agreements saying they will comply with the requirements of the Real ID Act, but 17 states have passed legislation or resolutions specifically objecting to the requirements. AP has more.

Initially drafted after the Sept. 11 attacks and designed to discourage illegal immigration, the law attempts to make it more difficult to fraudulently obtain US driver's licenses and other government IDs by mandating that states require birth certificates or similar documentation and also consult national immigration databases before issuing IDs. After controversy and strenuous opposition from civil libertarians [FindLaw commentary], it finally passed in 2005 [JURIST report] as part of an emergency supplemental appropriations defense spending bill.

[JURIST] Kenya's main opposition party, the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) [party website], Friday called for three days of protests over the disputed re-election [JURIST report] of Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki [official profile]. More than 500 people have already died in violent demonstrations since Kibaki's re-election at the end of December. A spokesman for ODM said that the call for rallies is a response to the failure of the African Union to facilitate talks between Kibaki and opposition candidate Raila Odinga [campaign profile]. Odinga and Kibaki blamed each other for the establish a power-sharing agreement. Last week, Kenyan Attorney General Amos Wako [official profile] called for an independent investigation [JURIST report] into the vote. Citing accusations of election fraud raised by Chairman of the Electoral Commission of Kenya [official website] Samuel Kivuitu, Wako insisted that "a proper tally of the valid certificates returned and confirmed should be undertaken immediately" by an independent and mutually agreed-upon body. AP has more.

The controversial presidential vote has sparked simmering ethnic tensions in Kenya [JURIST news archive], where Kibaki has long been accused of using his position to favor members of the Kikuyu tribe. Fueling accusations of malfeasance, Kibaki won the election despite early opinion polls that placed rival candidate Odinga in the lead. Thousands of opposition supporters took to the streets [JURIST report] following the election prompted the government to temporarily ban public rallies.

[JURIST] Former Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks [JURIST news archive] wants the US to close the Cuba-based detention center, Hicks' father told a rally in Australia Friday. Hicks fears that the remaining detainees at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] will be held indefinitely without charge and without due process, according to statements made by his father at the rally marking the sixth anniversary of the opening of the Guantanamo detention facility. He considers himself lucky to have had a lawyer represent him and to have been transferred into Australian custody [JURIST report] to serve the remainder of his sentence in an Adelaide jail. Hicks was released [JURIST report] last month from the Adelaide jail, subject to an interim control order [JURIST report].

Hicks pleaded guilty to a charge of supporting terrorism [JURIST reports] before a US military commission last March after spending more than five years in US custody since being captured in Afghanistan. AAP has more.

[JURIST] Japan's parliament approved new anti-terror legislation [JURIST report] Friday that will grant an extension to a Japanese refueling mission in the Indian Ocean. The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) [official website, in Japanese], led by Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda [official website], used its two-thirds majority in the parliament's lower house to override Friday's earlier rejection of the bill in the upper house, which is controlled by the Democratic Party of Japan (DJP) [official website, in Japanese]. The bill, which restricts its application to allied ships on anti-terrorism patrols, is a compromise [AFP report] between the leading LDP and the opposition DJP. The anti-terrorism bill prohibits Japanese support of US and other allied ships engaged in military, rescue, or humanitarian operations in Afghanistan. The refuelling mission has been criticized by those who say it violates the country's pacifist constitution by involving Japan in military operations in the Middle East.

The bill is a limited renewal [JURIST report] of the Anti-Terrorism Special Measures Law [text]. Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe resigned [JURIST report] last year amid controversy over renewal of a broader version of the anti-terror law. AP has more. The New York Times has additional coverage.

[JURIST] US Army Lt. Col. Steven L. Jordan [CBS profile; JURIST news archive], whose conviction relating to the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal [JURIST news archive] was thrown out [JURIST report] earlier this week, told AP Thursday that the investigation into the scandal did not adequately scrutinize those involved. Jordan was the only commissioned officer charged in connection with the scandal; 11 other enlisted soldiers were convicted. Jordan had been acquitted of all charges directly relating to abuse and only convicted of one charge of disobeying an order [JURIST report] not to talk about the investigation. Earlier this week, Jordan was notified that the convening authority in his case decided to disapprove the conviction, effectively throwing it out. Jordan implied that the investigation should have probed deeper to establish a connection between the abuse at Abu Ghraib and alleged abuse at military prisons in Afghanistan and at the US detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. AP has more.

Prosecutors initially charged [JURIST report] Jordan with seven violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice [text] but dropped two charges [JURIST report] after new evidence came to light that Jordan provided statements to an official investigating the Iraqi prison abuse allegations without being properly read his rights, making his statements inadmissible. In his 2004 report [PDF text; JURIST report], Maj. Gen. George R. Fay recommended that Jordan and his superior Col. Thomas Pappas be punished for their roles in the abuse scandal. Pappas was granted immunity in exchange for his testimony against Jordan. Pappas testified during Jordan's Article 32 hearing [JURIST report] that Jordan was concerned that he did not have the proper training or experience to assume his role running the Joint Interrogation and Debriefing Center [GlobalSecurity backgrounder] at Abu Ghraib.