[JURIST] A US federal judge on Friday sentenced Mohamed Mansour Jabarah [CBC profile] to life in prison for plotting to bomb US embassies in Singapore and the Philippines [criminal information, PDF]. Jabarah, a Canadian citizen of Iraqi descent, pleaded guilty in 2002 to five counts:

(1) conspiracy to kill United States nationals;
(2) conspiracy to kill United States officers and employees engaged in their official duties;
(3) conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction against United States nationals;
(4)conspiracy to destroy United States property by means of fire or explosives; and
(5) making false statements to FBI agents in connection with a terrorism investigation.

In February 2002, JABARAH was arrested in Oman and deported to Canada. JABARAH voluntarily came to the United States from Canada in May 2002 pursuant to an agreement between JABARAH and this Office whereby JABARAH agreed to surrender to the custody of the FBI with the goal of entering into a cooperation agreement that would require him to plead guilty to criminal charges. As part of this agreement and to effect his travel to the United States, JABARAH executed a parole agreement, which described the understandings between the parties and granted him entry into the United States for the limited purpose of his cooperation. JABARAH was held in New York by the FBI until November 8, 2002, when investigation suggested that JABARAH had secretly disavowed his commitment to cooperate and was, instead, planning to attack federal officials. At that time, JABARAH was transferred into the custody of the federal Bureau of Prisons.

[JURIST] The five alleged plotters of an attack on Fort Dix [official website] pleaded not guilty Friday to new charges filed against them, including attempted murder, and received a new date for trial. Prosecutors filed the additional charges [JURIST report] earlier this week. Jury selection is scheduled for September 29, and prosecutors said the trial will probably last four to six weeks. If convicted, the suspects face life sentences.

Last May, federal agents arrested [press release, PDF; JURIST report] Mohamad Ibrahim Shnewer, Dritan Duka, Eljvir Duka, Shain Duka, Serdar Tatar, and Agron Abdullahu after 16 months of surveillance for allegedly planning an attack on Fort Dix. In October, Abdullahu pleaded guilty to lesser charges of "conspiring to provide firearms and ammunition" [press release, PDF; JURIST report] to illegal immigrants. Abdullahu, who was granted asylum in the US eight years ago after fleeing Kosovo, will likely face deportation after serving his sentence. Abdullahu's sentencing is scheduled for early February. AP has more.

[JURIST] Jaafar al-Moussawi, the chief prosecutor in the trial of Saddam Hussein [JURIST news archives] says he has been demoted and transferred from Baghdad to the northern city of Sulaimaniya after speaking out against the Iraqi High Tribunal [official website, JURIST news archive], according to Reuters Friday. Al-Moussawi claims he is being punished for criticizing "financial and ethical corruption" within the court, and for calling for the commutation of the death sentence of Saddam's former defense minister, Sultan Hashem Ahmed al-Jubouri al-Tai [TrialWatch profile]. Al-Moussawi said that the prosecution is independent of the tribunal and that only the presidency council has the power to transfer him. He insisted that he will not follow the transfer order.

The Iraqi High Tribunal was established in 2003 by the Iraqi Governing Council to focus on crimes committed under the Hussein regime. Al-Moussawi has been involved in the current crimes against humanity trial [JURIST report] of 15 former Iraqi officials for their roles in attacks against the Iraqi civilian population following the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Switzerland has suspended an investigation into US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) [official website] agents allegedly involved in the 2003 abduction and rendition of Egyptian cleric Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr [JURIST news archive], a spokesperson from the Swiss Federal Prosecutor's Office said Friday. The Swiss Federal Council authorized the criminal proceedings [JURIST report] in February 2007 based on alleged unlawful use of Swiss airspace by US agents in anti-terrorist operations. Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, says he was kidnapped by the CIA with help from Italy's Military Intelligence and Security Service (SISMI) [official website] while he was in Milan, Italy in 2003. He says he was then flown to Germany via Swiss airspace en route to Egypt, where he was tortured.

In October 2007, an Italian trial of 26 CIA agents allegedly involved in the Nasr rendition was suspended [JURIST report] pending a ruling by the Constitutional Court of Italy [official website] on a petition [JURIST report] filed by the Italian government to dismiss all charges. The government alleged that the charges should be dismissed because the prosecution improperly used state secrets and wiretapping to build its case. Italian prosecutor Armando Spataro argued that the court proceedings should continue and has denied using any state secrets. AP has more.

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] on Friday granted certiorari in six cases [order list, PDF], including Crawford v. Nashville and Davidson Cty., TN (06-1595) [docket; cert. petition], in which the Supreme Court will consider whether Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act [text] protects a government employee against being fired for cooperating with an internal sexual harassment probe against a superior. A payroll employee in the Nashville school system was interviewed as part of an investigation into harassment claims against a high-ranking official in the system; she alleges that the official later fired her in retaliation for her statements against him. The US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit dismissed the lawsuit [opinion, PDF], ruling that Title VII protections did not extend to the employee because she was not the originator of the sexual harassment claims being investigated. AP has more.

In Wyeth v. Levine (06-1249) [docket; cert. petition, PDF], the Court will consider whether Food and Drug Administration (FDA) [official website] approval of a drug's warning label protects its manufacturer from liability when a patient has a bad reaction to the drug that forces her arm to be amputated. The Vermont Supreme Court ruled [opinion] that FDA approval does not shield the maker from liability, because states can require additional warnings above and beyond those required by federal regulations. AP has more.

In Altria Group v. Good (07-562) [docket; cert. petition, PDF], the Court will consider whether the Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act bars state lawsuits based on allegedly deceptive cigarette advertising. A federal judge originally dismissed a suit brought by three Maine smokers who accused Philip Morris of presenting light cigarettes as less harmful than they really are, but the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit reinstated the case [ruling]. AP has more.

In MetLife v. Glenn (06-923) [docket; cert. petition, PDF], the Court will consider whether an employee benefit plan administrator has an illegal conflict of interest under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act [text; US DOL backgrounder] if he has both the authority to pay benefits and to determine employees' eligibility for benefits. The US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled [PDF text] that the administrator did have a potential conflict of interest.

In Meacham v. Knolls Atomic Power Lab. (06-1505) [docket; cert. petition, PDF], the Court will consider whether a worker or an employer has the burden of proof in an age discrimination case where a worker says he was fired for no valid reason. The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held [PDF text] that the burden of proof rests on the worker.

Finally, in Summers v. Earth Island Institute (07-463) [docket; cert. petition, PDF], the Court will consider whether a group of environmentalists can sue to have a Forest Service regulation struck down or if they are limited only to suing to end programs enacted under that regulation. The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held [PDF text] that the environmentalists could sue against the regulation itself. SCOTUSblog has more on all six cases.

[JURIST] A Chinese dissident writer will face trial next week on subversion charges related to essays exposing corruption within the Communist Party of China [official backgrounder], the writer's wife told AP Friday. Lu Gengsong was arrested [JURIST report] last October on charges of "inciting subversion of power," according to advocacy group Chinese Human Rights Defenders. Lu's wife said that the indictment mentioned five essays written by Lu, but no specific passages. She has requested that the trial be held publicly, but Chinese authorities have limited attendance to immediate family members. AP has more.

Human Rights in China had protested [press release] Lu's initial detention as "the most recently reported instance of the crackdown by Chinese authorities on rights defenders in the run-up to the Beijing 2008 Olympics [official website]." In August 2007, Human Rights Watch reported that China, fearing that activists will embarrass the party by highlighting political and social problems during the games, is clamping down on human rights activists [press release; JURIST report] and other political dissidents and silencing independent media coverage. The same month, Amnesty International reported [text; press release] that China has not kept its promises to improve human rights and press freedom [JURIST report] in preparation for the Olympics since the Chinese government has recently committed an increasing number of rights abuses against political and religious opponents.

[JURIST] The Supreme Court of Thailand Friday rejected the major legal challenges brought against last month's election results. The ruling frees the People Power Party (PPP), which won 233 out of 480 parliament seats in the first election since the current interim military-backed government came to power in a September 2006 bloodless coup [JURIST report], to begin setting up a coalition government. The court dismissed claims that electoral laws had been violated, as well as accusations by a candidate from the rival Democrat Party that the PPP was an illegal front for ousted Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra [BBC profile; JURIST news archive], who has been banned from Thai politics for five years.

The PPP is composed by members of Shinawatra's dissolved Thai Rak Thai party [JURIST report]. The government had been investigating 62 other winning candidates from the PPP, but the Election Commission of Thailand [official website, in Thai] announced after Friday's court ruling that it had certified the victories of 460 of the 480 members of parliament. AFP has more. The Bangkok Post has local coverage.

[JURIST] Turkish President Abdullah Gul [official profile] Friday signed a bill banning smoking in government buildings, offices, bars and restaurants. The bill was passed [JURIST report] by the Turkish Grand National Assembly [official website] earlier this month. The ban includes penalties for anyone caught smoking in a prohibited area or any company advertising or distributing tobacco [JURIST news archive]. The ban will not take effect for another 18 months, but the government is hopeful that it will discourage smoking in the country.

Smoking is already illegal on buses and planes in Turkey, but, despite government attempts to curb the habit, the country still has Europe's highest rate of smokers. About 60 percent of Turkish men and 20 percent of Turkish women smoke. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Prosecutors dropped all criminal charges Friday against former Canadian Red Cross [group website] national medical director Dr. Roger Perrault, who had been implicated in Canada's tainted blood scandal [CBC backgrounder], finding that there was "no reasonable prospect of conviction in this case." Perrault's lawyer said that his client should never have been charged and suggested that he was merely a scapegoat. A spokesperson for the Canadian Hemophiliac Society [advocacy website] expressed disappointment at the decision.

The charges were related to use of tainted blood products by the Canadian Red Cross in Canada in the 1980s and 1990s, a public health disaster that infected more than 20,000 people with hepatitis C and more than 1,000 people with HIV. Perrault and three other defendants were acquitted [JURIST report] last October of charges associated with distributing the tainted blood, but charges were still pending against him for failure to properly screen donors. CBC News has more. The Globe and Mail has additional coverage.

[JURIST] Niger authorities will release on bail two French journalists charged [JURIST report] this week with threatening state security, the journalists' lawyer said Friday. Reporter Pierre Creisson and cameraman Thomas Dandois [profiles, in French] will be released when each journalist posts bail for $22,000. Passports have already been returned to the French journalists, and once they post bail they can return to France.

The pair have been in custody since their December 17 arrest [RSF report]. The two allegedly tried to report on an ethnic Tuareg rebellion [BBC backgrounder] under the guise of traveling to southern areas of the country to report on the bird flu virus. The Niger government has banned all foreigners and reporters from entering the northern region, and has made reporting on the rebels a crime punishable by death. AP has more.

[JURIST] A Serbian court convicted 26 members of Belgrade's "Zemun clan" and sentenced them collectively to 465 years in prison Friday. The Zemun clan once acted as a hit squad for former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic [JURIST news archive]. Those convicted, including former paramilitary commander Milorad Ulemek, had been charged with 18 murders, three abductions and two terrorist attacks. Eight of the convicted members of the group were tried in absentia and remain at large.

Ulemek and several of the group's members were convicted [JURIST report] separately last year for the murder of former Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic [BBC obituary; memorial website]. Ulemek was also convicted [JURIST report] in 2005 for murdering former Serbian President Ivan Stambolic [Guardian obituary]. His 40 year sentence for that conviction was upheld [JURIST report] last year. AP has more.

[JURIST] North Korea [JURIST news archive] has shown no improvement in its human rights record and still systematically tortures its citizens, a UN special rapporteur said Friday. Vitit Muntarbhorn [UN press release] and a special UN envoy visited Japan [press release] this week to assess the impact of the North Korean rights situation on that country. In remarks concluding his visit, Muntarbhorn condemned North Korea's practice of public executions, inhumane prison conditions, and oppression of dissidents. Muntarbhorn will speak with North Korean refugees living in South Korea on Saturday.

Muntarbhorn's comments follow a report in November by the South Korean aid agency Good Friends [advocacy website, in Korean] that the North Korean government has increased the use of public executions [JURIST report]. The government of North Korea has long been accused of using the death penalty against its political enemies, among other human rights violations. In September 2007, the US State Department designated North Korea as a "country of particular concern" for its systematic repression of religious freedom in its annual Report on International Religious Freedom [text; JURIST report]. North Korea has also been accused of human trafficking, press repression, and "actively committing crimes against humanity" [JURIST reports]. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Kenya's main opposition party, the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) [party website] said Friday that it would use economic boycotts and strikes to continue protests over the disputed re-election [JURIST report] of Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki [official profile] after ODM supporters clashed with police [JURIST report] during three days of demonstrations staged across the country this week. Opposition spokesman Salime Lone said Friday that planned protests [JURIST report], which ODM called for last week after the African Union failed to facilitate talks between Kibaki and opposition candidate Raila Odinga [campaign profile], would continue, but also announced an economic boycott to focus on companies that support Kibaki. At least 11 protesters have died since the demonstrations began Wednesday, and over 700 people have died since protests began after the election last month. Thirteen nations, including several European Union members and the United States, have threatened to cut off aid to Kenya's government until the crisis is resolved and democracy is restored. Human Rights Watch [advocacy website] has urged the government to ban police from using excessive and lethal force against protesters [press release] and called for peaceful demonstrations.

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 December 27 election despite early opinion polls that placed rival candidate Odinga in the lead. Thousands of opposition supporters took to the streets following the election which prompted the government to temporarily ban public rallies. Earlier this month, Kenyan Attorney General Amos Wako [official profile] called for an independent investigation [JURIST report] into the vote, citing accusations of election fraud. More than two dozen Kenyan civil society groups on Friday collectively claimed widespread election irregularities [Deutsche Welle report] and called for a recount of votes. AP has more.

[JURIST] US House Government Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) [official website] has scheduled a hearing [press release] for mid-February to look into White House compliance with the Presidential Records Act and to investigate the contradiction between comments [press briefing; JURIST report] made Thursday by White House Deputy Press Secretary Fratto that that no electronic messages had been lost between 2003 and 2005 and information congressional staffers heard last September, indicating that no electronic messages had been archived on nearly 500 days in different White House offices. Waxman invited Counsel to the President Fred Fielding, Director of the Office of Administration Alan Swendiman, and Archivist Allen Weinstein [PDF letters] to testify.

Earlier this week, the White House admitted [JURIST report] that it had recycled its back-up computer tapes of e-mails prior to October 2003. In November 2007, 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] requested a temporary restraining order [JURIST report] to stop deletion. The issue of missing e-mails has been an ongoing controversy in the Bush administration, arising first during the CIA leak investigation into the revelation of Valerie Plame's identity, and again during controversy over the firings of eight US Attorneys [JURIST news archives]. If e-mails were in fact erased, the White House may have violated the Presidential Records Act [text], which requires the preservation of documents that fall into the categories of federal or presidential records. AP has more.