[JURIST] Guantanamo Bay commander US Navy Rear Adm. Mark H. Buzby [official profile] confirmed the existence of a secret camp at the detention facility for alleged al-Qaeda members classified as "high-value detainees" in an interview with AP Wednesday. Buzby said prisoners in so-called "Camp 7" are kept apart from other prisoners to prevent violence against those who have provided information to interrogators and that the exact location of the camp has been kept secret to prevent a terrorist attack.

The existence of Camp 7 [Miami Herald backgrounder] was not known until December when it was mentioned [NYT report] in court papers [JURIST report] filed by lawyers for Majid Khan [GlobalSecurity profile], the first "high-value" Guantanamo Bay detainee to be allowed to meet privately with legal counsel. The Guantanamo Bay facility has been the subject of much international and domestic controversy in recent years, and many have called for it to be closed altogether [JURIST news archive]. AP has more.

[JURIST] The Grand National Assembly of Turkey [official website] Wednesday preliminarily approved a proposed amendment to the country's constitution [text] that would ease a current ban on Islamic headscarves [JURIST report] and allow women to wear headscarves in universities. The measure passed 401-99 in a secret ballot. A final vote on the constitutional revision proposed by the ruling Justice and Development Party is expected Saturday, after which it will go to Turkish President Abdullah Gul [official profile] for approval. In an attempt to ease secularist opposition, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan [official website, in Turkish; BBC profile] has said that the amendment, which simply provides that "no one can be deprived of (his or her) right to higher education" would affect only universities [AP report]. Opposition parties have threatened to appeal to the judiciary if the amendment is adopted.

Headscarves and other forms of Muslim traditional religious dress [JURIST news archive] are banned from many public places in modern Turkey, a majority Muslim country despite official secularism. The proposed amendment, made in response to recent calls [JURIST report] from Erdogan for the government to lift the ban immediately, would alter the constitution [text] and Higher Education Law No. 2547 [HRW backgrounder] to allow scarves tied at the chin. Chadors, veils and burqas reportedly will still be banned. Supporters of the ban, largely secularists, say the ban on headscarves is necessary to protect the separation of religion and state. AFP has more.

[JURIST] UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Manfred Nowak [official website; JURIST news archive] sharply criticized the White House Wednesday for defending the use of waterboarding [JURIST report], calling the practice "absolutely unacceptable under international human rights law." Nowak's comments, as well as the White House defense of the interrogation technique, came after CIA Director Michael Hayden confirmed at a Tuesday Senate Intelligence Committee hearing that waterboarding had been used on three terror detainees [JURIST report]. AP has more.

The controversy over whether waterboarding [JURIST news archive] constitutes illegal torture first loomed large late last year as then-Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey tried to duck the issue [JURIST report] in his confirmation hearings and former CIA agent John Kiriakou unofficially confirmed the use of waterboarding [JURIST report] during interrogations of US terror suspects. Also in December, Hayden sent a memo [JURIST report] to CIA employees saying the agency videotaped the 2002 interrogations of two detainees, but that the tapes were destroyed [JURIST news archive] in 2005 amid concerns that they could be leaked to the public and compromise the identities of the interrogators. Last month, the now Mukasey-led Department of Justice announced that it had opened a criminal investigation [JURIST report] into the destruction of the tapes.

[JURIST] UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown [official website] Wednesday said he supports allowing UK courts to hear some evidence obtained through wiretap surveillance [statement], telling parliament that the long-time prohibition against wiretap evidence should be lifted in situations where "key conditions" are met. Brown said that admissible wiretap evidence would be limited to only information which cannot be acquired by any other means and which is "proportionate to what it seeks to achieve." Brown said the revised policy approach backed by the government will follow recommendations outlined in a report [PDF text] by the Chilcot committee, a cross-party government panel formed to analyze the feasibility of using wiretap evidence without hurting national security.

Current UK court rules ban the admission of wiretapped phone conversations as evidence, but critics have argued that the ban should be revised in light of modern terrorist threats. In December, a confidential report on the use of wiretap evidence being prepared by officials in the Home Office suggested setting up a special group of judges [JURIST report] who would oversee wiretap-related cases against terror suspects. AP has more. BBC News has additional coverage.

[JURIST] The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website; JURIST news archive] said Wednesday that the trial of former Croatian general Ante Gotovina [ICTY case backgrounder, PDF; BBC profile] and two other military commanders will begin March 11. Gotovina and commanders Ivan Cermak and Mladen Markac were indicted [PDF text] in 2001 for alleged crimes against humanity and violations of the laws or customs of war stemming from their roles in the Balkan wars.

Gotovina was arrested [JURIST report] in Spain's Canary Islands in 2005. He is charged in connection with the killing of Croatian Serb civilians during the Balkan wars in the 1990s, including failing to prevent the murder of 150 people in Krajina during Operation Storm [BBC report] in 1995. The offensive forced about 150,000 Serbs from their homes. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Peter Herby, head of the Arms Unit of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) [official website], expressed hope Wednesday that text of a treaty to ban the use of cluster bombs [ICRC materials; JURIST news archive] could be approved at a conference in Dublin in May and signed by most countries within the year, even if the world's leading producers of cluster bombs - the United States, Russia and China - do not join the pact. A week-long meeting of parties to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) [PDF text] last November concluded [JURIST report] without delegates reaching an agreement on a legally binding ban on cluster munitions. Representatives from 102 nations did agree to negotiate a new pact regarding "the humanitarian impact of cluster munitions," but failed to agree on a complete ban. Reuters has more.

Cluster munitions have been used by at least 23 countries; at least 34 nations have produced more than 200 different types of cluster munitions. In June, the US said it will not support a cluster munitions ban [JURIST report] but that it is open to negotiations to reduce the humanitarian impact by requiring the increased reliability, accuracy and visibility of unexploded munitions. In February, 46 of 49 countries participating in the two-day Oslo Conference on Cluster Munitions agreed to an action plan to develop a new international treaty [press release] to ban the use of cluster munitions by 2008. Romania, Poland and Japan refused to sign the Oslo Declaration [PDF text]. The United States, Russia, Israel, and China chose not to attend the conference. Cluster munitions are considered by many to be inaccurate weapons designed to spread damage indiscriminately and could therefore be considered illegal [CMC backgrounder] under multiple provisions of Protocol I [text] of the Geneva Conventions [ICRC materials].

[JURIST] US Attorney General Michael Mukasey [official profile] is expected to testify [hearing notice] before the House Judiciary Committee [official website] Thursday in opposition to a unanimous December 2007 decision by the US Sentencing Commission [official website] to retroactively reduce penalties for crack cocaine offenders [JURIST report]. That decision gives retroactive effect to an earlier amendment to the Federal Sentencing Guidelines [USSC materials] intended to narrow the disparity between sentences for powder and crack cocaine offenses and is scheduled to take effect on March 3, 2008. Mukasey's prepared remarks suggest he will ask Congress to enact legislation to prevent the new crack cocaine guidelines from taking effect, though he has indicated that he may support the shorter recommended prison sentences for first-time, nonviolent offenders.

In remarks to the US Conference of Mayors in Washington, DC last month, Mukasey said as many as 1,600 inmates may be eligible for immediate release [JURIST report] under the new guidelines, many of whom may be violent offenders or have failed to complete community re-entry programs, although some mayors said the released prisoners would be more likely to be nonviolent offenders. AP has more.

[JURIST] Spanish National Court Judge Fernando Andreu Wednesday indicted 40 members of the Rwandan military on genocide and terrorism charges stemming from crimes allegedly committed during the 1994 Rwandan genocide [HRW backgrounder; BBC backgrounder] that claimed some 800,000 lives. Andreu reportedly began investigating the Rwandan case in 2005 and indicated Wednesday that he could have also indicted Rwandan President Paul Kagame [official website; BBC profile] on related charges if he were not protected by immunity as a sitting head of state.

In 2005, the Spanish Constitutional Court ruled [text, in Spanish; JURIST report] that Spanish courts can exercise universal jurisdiction over war crimes committed in other countries even if they do not involve Spanish citizens, thereby opening up the country's tribunals to hear foreign genocide cases. In its ruling that thousands of alleged killings and kidnappings committed during Guatemala's civil war could be tried by Spanish courts, the court concluded that universal jurisdiction outweighed national interests in cases of genocide. AP has more.

[JURIST] The White House Wednesday defended [press briefing transcript] the use of waterboarding [JURIST news archive], saying that the technique is legal. In response to questions as to whether waterboarding constituted torture, White House spokesman Tony Fratto reiterated that the US does not practice torture and "that the programs have been reviewed, and the Department of Justice has determined them to be legal." Fratto further said the president could authorize future uses of the technique in certain situations. The comments come a day after CIA Director Michael Hayden confirmed at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing that waterboarding had been used on three terror detainees [JURIST report], which prompted Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) to call for a criminal investigation [press release; AP report] into the CIA's use of waterboarding. In a Tuesday letter [text] to US Attorney General Michael Mukasey, Durbin criticized Mukasey for not taking a more definite stance on waterboarding:

Some suggested that your confirmation was an opportunity to turn a new page after Attorney General Gonzales's troubled tenure, but your failure to take a position on waterboarding raises questions about whether your leadership will bring significant changes to the Justice Department. Your silence does tremendous damage to America's values and image in the world and places Americans at risk of being subjected to waterboarding by enemy forces. If the United States does not explicitly and publicly condemn waterboarding, it will be more difficult to argue that enemy forces cannot waterboard American prisoners.

[JURIST] A Russian court Wednesday denied former Yukos executive and lawyer Vasily Aleksanian [defense website; statement] temporary release from jail to receive medical treatment, even as the trial was suspended to allow him to be treated for health issues. Aleksanian's lawyers had requested that he be admitted to a hospital for treatment for AIDS-related cancer and tuberculosis, but the court ruled that Aleksanian was a flight risk and thus should only be treated in the prison. Aleksanian was arrested in 2006 on charges of money laundering and embezzlement and was diagnosed with HIV a few months later.

Last month, oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky [defense website; JURIST news archive] said that he was going on hunger strike [JURIST report] to protest the denial of medical treatment to Aleksanian. Khodorkovsky was convicted of tax evasion [JURIST report] in 2005 and is currently imprisoned in Siberia. Russian prosecutors indicted Khodorkovsky on new money laundering charges [JURIST report] in early 2007. Khodorkovsky, an opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has always insisted that the charges against him are politically motivated, although Russian prosecutors say otherwise [JURIST report]. AP has more.

[JURIST] US District Judge James Ware of the US District Court for the Northern District of California heard arguments Tuesday on the government's motion to dismiss [JURIST report] a lawsuit against Jeppesen Dataplan [corporate website] on state secrets grounds. The Justice Department argued that the lawsuit, brought by the American Civil Liberties Union over Jeppesen's alleged role in the CIA's extraordinary rendition [JURIST news archive] program, poses a risk to national security. The ACLU argued against the motion [press release], saying that since the rendition program is already made public, national security concerns are outweighed. The government has asserted similar state secrets claims in other national security cases. Ware did not decide on the motion to dismiss at Tuesday's hearing, but said he would issue a written opinion shortly.

The ACLU filed the lawsuit [complaint, PDF; JURIST report] last May, alleging that Jeppesen, a subsidiary of Boeing, knowingly supported direct flights to secret CIA prisons, facilitating the torture and mistreatment of US detainees. The ACLU alleges that Jeppesen played a key role in the extraordinary rendition flights by providing a number of vital services including itinerary, route, weather, and fuel planning, as well as obtaining over-flight and landing permits from foreign governments. The ACLU was originally representing three of the five plaintiffs: Muhammad, currently being detained at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive], Elkassim Britel, currently in a Moroccan prison, and Agiza, currently in an Egyptian prison. The two additional plaintiffs, who have alleged they were kidnapped by the CIA and tortured in Afghanistan, joined the lawsuit [JURIST report] in August. AP has more.

[JURIST] The corruption trial of former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed [party profile; JURIST news archive] was halted Wednesday when the Dhaka High Court ruled that she could not be tried by a special court established under state of emergency rules because the alleged crimes occurred before the national state of emergency [JURIST report] was declared last January. Hasina was formally charged [JURIST report] in Dhaka last month with two counts of extortion, and was being tried on the first charge for allegedly taking nearly $435,000 from the owner of a power company while in office between 1996 and 2001. She faces up to 14 years in jail if convicted. The government plans to appeal to the Supreme Court, which has previously ruled that Hasina's trial could proceed [JURIST report].

Wednesday's ruling places in jeopardy the corruption cases brought against the other individuals in the wake of emergency rule. The current interim government in Bangladesh, led by former central bank chief Fakhruddin Ahmed [official website; TIME interview] has arrested over 170 high-profile citizens since the military-backed government declared the state of emergency due to concerns that fraud would mar scheduled national elections scheduled. Hasina's rival, former Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia [profile], has also been charged with corruption [JURIST report]. Hasina was prime minister between 1996 and 2001 and is the leader of the opposition Awami League [party website]. AFP has more.

[JURIST] Opponents of a new anti-immigration measure [Ordinance 2952, PDF] in Farmers Branch, Texas [official website; JURIST news archive] filed a lawsuit Tuesday arguing that the measure was not properly approved. The ordinance was passed [JURIST report] by the Dallas suburb's City Council last month, but the suit alleges that it was approved in violation of the Texas Open Meetings Act [PDF text] because the City Council passed it quickly and secretly during a meeting to discuss legal challenges against a previous measure, Ordinance 2903 [DOC text]. Ordinance 2903, passed and approved by voters last year, was blocked last June when a US federal judge extended a temporary restraining order pending an earlier lawsuit [JURIST reports] maintaining that the ordinance violates federal immigration law and violates the fundamental rights of both landlords and tenants.

If it goes into effect, Ordinance 2952 would require all adults to apply for a city license compelling disclosure of immigration status before they can lease a house or apartment. Any applicant would be permitted to move into their rental immediately, but if searches in a federal database fail to confirm the applicant's legal status, the applicant must prove their legal residency within 60 days or lose the city license. Ordinance 2952, designed to appease opponents of Ordinance 2903 which placed the burden of enforcement on landlords rather than the government, will go into effect 15 days after a final judgment is made in the lawsuit challenging 2903 [complaint, PDF]. AP has more. The Dallas Morning News has local coverage.