[JURIST] US Attorney General Michael Mukasey [official website] said in a Friday letter to Speaker of the House Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) [official website] that he will not order a grand jury investigation to determine if misdemeanor contempt of Congress charges [HR 979 materials] should be laid against former White House counsel Harriet Miers and current White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten [official profiles] for failing to cooperate with an inquiry into the US Attorneys firing scandal [JURIST news archive]. Mukasey said that Miers and Bolten had done nothing wrong in refusing to testify or provide documents related to the 2006-2007 firings. Pelosi responded [press release]:

By ordering the US Attorney to take no action in response to congressional subpoenas, the Bush Administration is continuing to politicize law enforcement, which undermines public confidence in our criminal justice system.

Anticipating this response from the Administration, the House has already provided authority for the Judiciary Committee to file a civil enforcement action in federal district court and the House shall do so promptly. The American people demand that we uphold the law. As public officials, we take an oath to uphold the Constitution and protect our system of checks and balances and our civil lawsuit seeks to do just that.

[JURIST] Two former prison officials were convicted of crimes against humanity [press release] Thursday by the War Crimes Chamber [HRW backgrounder] of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina [official website] for the systematic abuse of non-Serb detainees at the Fo?a Correctional Facility during the Bosnian war [JURIST news archive]. The court sentenced Mitar Raševi? and Savo Todovic [indictment, PDF; ICTY case fact sheet, PDF] to eight and twelve years respectively. Both men were first indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website] in 2006, but were transferred [ICTY press release] to Sarajevo later that year. This was the first time that the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina War Crimes Chamber has found suspects guilty of running a joint criminal enterprise.

The War Crimes Chamber was set up to alleviate the caseload of the ICTY, and will continue to hear cases as the ICTY winds down in 2010. IWPR has more.

[JURIST] US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Stephen L. Johnson [official profile] Friday signed a notice [PDF text] for submission to the Federal Register explaining the agency's reasons for denying California's request for a waiver [JURIST news archive, EPA backgrounder] that would have allowed it to impose stricter greenhouse gas emissions standards on cars and light trucks. Johnson wrote:

It is true that many of the effects of global climate change (e.g. water supply issues, increases in wildfires, effects on agriculture) will affect California. But these effects are also well established to affect other parts of the United States. Many parts of the United States may have issues related to drinking water (e.g., increased salinity) and wildfires and effects on agriculture are by no means limited to California. These are issues of national, indeed international, concern and Congress has indicated that such conditions do not merit separate standards in California unless the conditions are sufficiently different in California compared to the rest of the nation as a whole. In my judgment, the impacts of global climate change in California, compared to the rest of the nation as whole, are not sufficiently different to be considered “compelling and extraordinary conditions” that merit separate state GHG standards for new motor vehicles.

[JURIST] Opposition members of parliament in Burundi [JURIST news archive] sought protection from the UN Thursday, alleging that they have been targeted for assassination by the Burundi government. The legislators sent a letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon [official website], saying they have received death threats backed by the government and alleging that government authorities have a list of 350 people to be killed, including opposition lawmakers and other public figures. A government spokesperson told AFP she had not seen the letter and declined to comment.

Burundi is still recovering from a 12-year civil war [GlobalSecurity backgrounder] between the Hutu majority and the dominant Tutsi minority which began in 1993 and claimed more than 300,000 victims. AFP has more. BBC News has additional coverage.

[JURIST] A federal judge Friday dismissed [opinion, PDF] a lawsuit brought by members of the US military against the US Department of Defense (DOD) [official website] that sought to make an anthrax vaccine optional rather than mandatory. The military personnel had challenged a finding by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) [official website] that the vaccine was safe, but Judge Rosemary Collyer of the US District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that the FDA had "considered the relevant data and articulated an explanation" of why the vaccine was safe. AP has more.

In 2005, the Bush administration asked the US DC Circuit Court of Appeals to reinstate [JURIST report] the DOD's mandatory anthrax vaccination program [official website]. The anthrax was labeled for use by individuals who are at high risk for exposure to the disease, but the Bush administration argued that that definition is broad enough to include military personnel. In October 2004, a US federal district court ordered the DOD to suspend its mandatory vaccination program [JURIST report] because the vaccine had not received proper approval by the FDA. In March 2005, a federal district court ruled [JURIST report] that DOD could administer anthrax vaccinations on a voluntary basis.

[JURIST] Serbian police filed criminal charges Friday against 80 people allegedly involved in attacks on the US and other embassies [JURIST report] in Belgrade during protests last week over US support of independence for Kosovo [JURIST news archive]. The protesters were charged with hooliganism, theft and resisting arrest, charges which could carry sentences of four to six years in prison. Serbia's chief prosecutor Slobodan Radovanovic said Saturday that Serbia is actively searching for the rioters [JURIST report], noting that Serbian police had already arrested over 200 people. The Serbian government has condemned the attacks on diplomatic missions as isolated acts of vandalism. AP has more.

Serbian demonstrators set fire to the US Embassy in Belgrade [official website] last Thursday after a massive street demonstration that drew an estimated 150,000 people to protest Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence [text; JURIST report] earlier this month. The United States has formally recognized Kosovo as a sovereign state [JURIST report], despite strong opposition from both the Serbian government and minority Kosovo Serbs.

[JURIST] The Canadian military [DND/CF website] has resumed the transfer of Afghan detainees to Afghan authorities, Canadian military officials said Friday. The Canadian government ceased transferring Afghan detainees [JURIST report] to Afghan custody in November after Canadian monitors in Afghanistan discovered evidence of torture, but a military spokesman said Friday that both the Canadian military and officials in Kandahar believe conditions in Afghan prisons have significantly improved since the abuse allegations arose. It was not clear when the transfers resumed, but a military official said that each transfer was evaluated on a case-by-case basis. CBC News has more.

Earlier this month, Canadian Federal Court Justice Anne Mactavish refused to issue an interlocutory injunction [judgment, PDF; JURIST report] that would have prohibited the Canadian military from turning over detainees to Afghan authorities. Last fall, the Canadian Army said that independent investigators had found no evidence to support allegations [JURIST reports] that the Army "may have aided or abetted the torture of detainees" by transferring them from Canadian to Afghan custody. The transfer scandal erupted in April 2007 when the Toronto Globe and Mail reported [text] that more than 30 terrorism suspects had been tortured by Afghan investigators after being transferred from Canadian custody. Following public outcry, Canada signed a new agreement regarding detainee transfers [JURIST report] with the Afghan government, giving Canada the right to inspect detainees following their transfer.

[JURIST] The National Congress of Bolivia [official website, in Spanish] narrowly approved a national referendum on a new constitution [JURIST news archive] Thursday after members of the Bolivian Constitutional Assembly [official website, in Spanish] approved the draft constitution [JURIST report] in December. The new constitution, supported by Bolivian President Evo Morales [official website, in Spanish; BBC profile], would give the president more power over natural resources, collapse Bolivia's legislature into one body, and allow the president to seek election for two consecutive five-year terms. Morales supporters rallying outside of the congressional building Thursday prevented many of the opponents of the draft constitution from entering the building and participating in the vote.

The Constitutional Assembly first gave preliminary approval [JURIST report] to the new draft constitution in November 2007 amid protests that the constitution gave the president indefinite power; the current constitution [text, in Spanish] prohibits a president from seeking election to consecutive terms. The Constitutional Assembly was suspended in September after violent protests by students and opposition parties, and governors from the country's six wealthiest provinces have consistently opposed the reforms [JURIST reports]. AP has more.

[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit on Thursday upheld a district court ruling [JURIST report] denying a bid by Canadian-born financier and former media mogul Conrad Black [CBC profile; JURIST news archive] to remain free on bail pending the appeal of his July conviction [JURIST report] on mail fraud and obstruction of justice charges. Black must report to a federal prison in Coleman, Florida on Monday. Black was sentenced to 78 months in prison [JURIST report] in December and ordered to pay $125,000 and forfeit another $1 million for his conviction. The appeals court Thursday ruled that Black's co-defendants - John Boultbee and Peter Atkinson - could remain free on bail because they had not been convicted of a separate obstruction of justice charge. CBC News has more.

The US government originally accused [indictment, PDF] Black of diverting more than $80 million from Hollinger International and its shareholders [JURIST report] during the company's $2.1 billion sale of several hundred Canadian newspapers, but in July 2007 he was found not guilty on separate charges of racketeering, wire fraud, and tax evasion. In August 2007, Black and former Hollinger executives Boultbee, Atkinson and Mark Kipnis filed concurrent motions [JURIST report] requesting either new trials or acquittals after their July convictions. US District Judge Amy St. Eve largely rejected the motions [ruling, PDF; JURIST report], overturning one of Kipnis' mail fraud convictions while affirming all of the other convictions against the four.

[JURIST] Iraq's Presidency Council on Friday approved the execution of Ali Hassan al-Majid [BBC profile; JURIST news archive], better known in the western media as "Chemical Ali," after months of deliberations over the fate of al-Majid and two other men condemned to death by an Iraqi tribunal last year. The Presidency Council, consisting of Kurdish President Jalal Talibani, Shi'ite Vice-President Adel Abdul-Mahdi, and Sunni Vice-President Tariq al-Hashemi, approved al-Mahid's execution by hanging, but did not approve a death sentence for co-defendants Hussein Rashid Mohammed and Sultan Hashim al-Taie. Late last year, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki formally asked US President George Bush to hand over al-Majid, but US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte said that the US would continue holding the three men until Iraqi leaders agreed on their fate [JURIST reports]. Al-Maliki accused the US military of thwarting Iraqi attempts to execute the three men [JURIST report], and expressed his "determination to ensure that the sentences are carried out." At that point, US commanders said they would not transfer the men to Iraqi custody until they received an "authoritative" request from the Iraqi government.

The Iraqi High Tribunal sentenced [JURIST report] al-Majid and his co-defendants to death last June on genocide and war crimes charges for the slaughter of tens of thousands of Kurds during the Anfal campaign [HRW backgrounder] of 1988. The Tribunal's Appeals Chamber upheld the death sentences [JURIST report] in September. Under Iraqi law, the executions were supposed to have taken place 30 days after the men were sentenced, meaning that the men should have been executed no later than October 4. Iraq's Presidency Council nonetheless refused to sign any execution order [JURIST report]. An Iraqi judge said last September that presidential approval is not required [JURIST report] to carry out the executions, but al-Hashemi reasserted in October that the presidency did in fact have the power to block the carrying out of the death sentences, regardless of their approval by Maliki. Al-Majid could now be hanged within one month. AP has more.