[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Tuesday granted [PDF text] a request [JURIST report] filed by former USA Today reporter Toni Locy [profile] to block a daily contempt of court fine while Locy appeals the district court decision to impose sanctions against her for refusing to disclose government sources who provided information about former US Army germ-warfare researcher Dr. Steven J. Hatfill [Washington Post profile]. In a ruling last week, US District Judge Reggie Walton found Locy in contempt of court [PDF text; JURIST report] and ordered that, beginning Tuesday, Locy pay a fine of $500 a day; the fine was due to increase to $1000 a day after one week and then up to $5000 a day after two weeks. Hatfill refused to delay the sanctions until Locy can file an appeal and also ruled that Locy cannot accept reimbursement for the monetary sanctions. The appeals court, however, ruled that monetary sanctions should be stayed while Locy pursues an appeal.

Locy, now a journalism professor at West Virginia University, has refused to cooperate in Hatfill's suit against the Department of Justice (DOJ) for its alleged violation of the US Privacy Act [text], arguing that the information Hatfill is seeking has not been demonstrated to be central to the lawsuit. Hatfill was identified as a "person of interest" in the investigations of the 2001 anthrax attacks [GWU backgrounder]. He contends that FBI and DOJ officials violated federal privacy laws [complaint, PDF; JURIST report] by providing personal information and information about the investigation to journalists. Locy and former CBS reporter James Stewart have refused to comply with orders to reveal their sources. Locy has said that she no longer has notes from her reports and that she cannot recall who gave her the information. Walton has not yet decided whether to hold Stewart in contempt. AP has more.

Editor's Note: Toni Locy served as a JURIST student staff member while pursuing her MSL at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law in 2006-07.

[JURIST] Leaders of Uganda's rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) [MIPT backgrounder; JURIST news archive] will stand trial in Uganda rather than at the International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website] at The Hague, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni told AP Tuesday. Museveni said that the Ugandan government and LRA had reached a deal to try some LRA members under a traditional mediation system. Other Ugandan officials have said a special war crimes court will be established [JURIST report] to try LRA members accused of crimes against humanity. The government has previously said that rebel leader Joseph Kony [BBC profile] was willing to face trial at home [JURIST report], but not at the ICC.

Previously, the LRA has refused to sign a final peace agreement with the Ugandan government unless the ICC withdraws its indictments [ICC materials; JURIST report] of LRA leaders. Museveni denied that the decision to deal with LRA members domestically was linked to the peace agreement, instead saying that local communities most victimized by LRA fighting had called for the rebel leaders to be tried in Uganda. AP has more.

[JURIST] The US State Department Tuesday heavily criticized the right records of North Korea, Iran, Myanmar, Syria, Zimbabwe, Cuba, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Eritrea and Sudan Tuesday in its annual report on worldwide human rights observance. In the introduction [text] to the its 2007 Reports on Human Rights Practices [index], the Department noted that "Countries in which power was concentrated in the hands of unaccountable rulers remained the world’s most systematic human rights violators." The State Department summed up the record of its top three violators in these terms:

The repressive North Korean regime continued to control almost all aspects of citizens’ lives, denying freedom of speech, press, assembly, and association, and restricting freedom of movement and workers’ rights. Reports of extrajudicial killings, disappearances, and arbitrary detention, including of political prisoners, continued to emerge from the insular country. Some forcibly repatriated refugees were said to have undergone severe punishment and possibly torture. Reports of public executions also continued to emerge.

Burma’s abysmal human rights record continued to worsen. Throughout the year, the regime continued to commit extrajudicial killings and was responsible for disappearances, arbitrary and indefinite detentions, rape, and torture. In September, security forces killed at least 30 demonstrators and detained over 3,000 others during a brutal crackdown on peaceful demonstrators, including monks and pro-democracy protesters. Despite promises of dialogue, the regime did not honor its commitment to begin a genuine discussion with the democratic opposition and ethnic minority groups. Defying calls from the UN Security Council and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations for the early release of all political prisoners, the regime continued to hold opposition leaders under incarceration, including Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who remained under house arrest.

The Iranian regime violated freedom of speech and assembly, intensifying its crackdown against dissidents, journalists, women’s rights activists, labor activists, and those who disagreed with it through arbitrary arrests and detentions, torture, abductions, the use of excessive force, and the widespread denial of fair public trials. The regime continued to detain and abuse religious and ethnic minorities. Authorities used stoning as a method of execution and as a sentence for alleged adultery cases despite a government moratorium in 2002 banning the practice. The regime continued to support terrorist movements and violent extremists in Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon and called for the destruction of a UN member state.

As we publish these reports, the Department of State remains mindful of both international and domestic criticism of the United States' human rights record. The U.S. government will continue to hear and reply forthrightly to concerns about our own practices, including the actions we have taken to defend our nation from the global threat of terrorism. Our laws, policies, and practices have evolved considerably in recent years, and we continue to strive to protect innocent civilians from attack while honoring our longstanding commitment to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms. As part of this effort, the United States submits reports to international bodies in accordance with its obligations under various human rights treaties to which it is a party.

We take all of our human rights commitments seriously and, in our good faith efforts to meet those commitments, we value the vital role played by civil society and independent media. We do not consider views about our performance voiced by others in the international community to be interference in our internal affairs, nor should other governments regard expressions about their performance as such. Indeed, under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it is the right and the responsibility of "every individual and every organ of society to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance."

[JURIST] A Belgian government commission on restitution for Holocaust victims issued its final report [PDF text, in French] Tuesday, finding that Holocaust survivors, victims' families and the general Jewish community should receive $170 million to compensate for the money and goods they lost during World War II. The Belgian government and Belgian banks Tuesday agreed to pay the figure; $54 million will go to individual claimants and the remainder will go to the Jewish community in trust. BBC News has more. AP has additional coverage.

The Belgian government created the Jewish Community Indemnification Commission [official website; overview of findings, in French] by decree in May 2003 to establish "the facts and possible responsibilities of the Belgian authorities in the persecution and the deportation of the Jews in Belgium during the Second World War." Last year, the commission found that the Belgian government had been complicit [JURIST report] in Nazi persecution of the Jewish population during the Holocaust and the country's courts failed to hold Belgian authorities accountable for persecuting and deporting Jews after World War II.

[JURIST] The Kansas Supreme Court ruled [text] Tuesday that the state's anti-funeral picketing law [PDF text; supplemental note, PDF] is unconstitutional, finding that it violates the separation of powers doctrine implied by the Kansas constitution [text]. The court ruled that the law's judicial trigger provision [JURIST report], which said the law could not be enforced until it was declared constitutional by a state or federal court, invalidated the entire law as it would make the courts an "advisory panel" to the legislature. AP has more. The Kansas City Star has local coverage.

The law was passed in response to picketing at military funerals by members of the Westboro Baptist Church [WARNING: readers may find material at this church website offensive; JURIST news archive], who claim that US soldiers have been killed because America tolerates homosexuals. More than 30 states have passed similar laws in response to the group, and a federal law [JURIST report] restricting protests at Arlington National Cemetery and other federal cemeteries has also been passed.

[JURIST] Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo [official website] asked the Philippine Congress Tuesday to work with her administration to pass a comprehensive anti-corruption reform act [press release] to fight the corruption she said has plagued the country for decades. Arroyo noted that the country's 2008 budget [press release] dedicates more money than previous budgets to anti-corruption efforts. Reuters has more.

Corruption has long been a problem in the Philippines. A recent survey by Political and Economic Risk Consultancy [corporate website] showed that the Philippines' economy is seen as the most corrupt in Asia [Manila Times report], and Transparency International [advocacy website] ranked the nation 131 out of 179 countries [TI materials] for most corrupt in its 2007 survey.

[JURIST] South African politician Jacob Zuma [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] launched a legal challenge Tuesday in the South African Constitutional Court [official website] seeking to have evidence excluded from his upcoming corruption trial. Zuma argued that evidence seized in 2005 raids by the Directorate of Special Investigations [official backgrounder; BBC report], also known as "The Scorpions," should be thrown out because the raids violated his rights to privacy and fair trial. Last November, the South African Supreme Court of Appeal upheld [JURIST report] the validity of the search warrants used for the raids. AFP has more.

Zuma has been facing corruption allegations [BBC timeline] and other charges for several years; he was first charged with corruption in 2005, but those charges were later dismissed [JURIST report] because prosecutors failed to follow proper procedures. In December 2007, South Africa's National Prosecuting Authority [official website] served an indictment [JURIST report] on Zuma, charging him with corruption, fraud, money laundering and racketeering related to alleged bribes received from arms manufacturer Thint, a subsidiary of the France-based Thales Group [corporate website]. His trial is scheduled to begin in August. Zuma is the leader of the ruling African National Congress [party website], putting him in position to become the country's next president.

[JURIST] The legitimacy of military commissions of Guantanamo Bay detainees will be undermined by "the admission of evidence tainted by torture," according to a report [PDF text; press release] released Monday by Human Rights First [advocacy website]. The report cites the cases of six Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainees who have alleged that they were tortured in US custody, and says that so-called harsh interrogation techniques have no track record of producing reliable information. It further argued that admitting evidence obtained through controversial techniques like waterboarding [JURIST news archive] has thrown the legitimacy of the military commissions into doubt:

A question of legitimacy hangs over the detention and legal proceedings at Guantanamo. Defense lawyers and human rights groups are not alone in their indictment of the military commission process. Many law enforcement and military officials are critical of the MCA's evidentiary rules. These officials know that the reliance on coerced testimony will only serve to tarnish the military commission proceedings at home and in the international community, jeopardize the government's ability to secure convictions that can withstand scrutiny on appeal, and perpetuate the use of abusive interrogation techniques.

[JURIST] The first trial of a defendant accused of involvement in "forced disappearances" during Guatemala's 36-year civil war [GlobalSecurity backgrounder] opened Monday. Felipe Cusanero, a former member of a civilian paramilitary unit, is alleged to have been responsible for the disappearances of at least six people from the farming village of Choatalum between 1982 and 1984. AP has more.

During the war, approximately 600,000 to 1.4 million Guatemalans worked with paramilitary units organized by the army to ferret out leftist guerillas. A UN-backed Guatemalan truth commission [background from Jeannette Rankin Library Program; report text] has concluded that the military was responsible for over 90 percent of all murders, disappearances, and other human rights abuses during Guatemala's civil war.

[JURIST] The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website; JURIST news archive] began the trial [press release] of Croatian general Ante Gotovina [ICTY case backgrounder, PDF; BBC profile] and two other militant commanders Tuesday. Gotovina, Ivan Cermak, and Mladen Markac, are charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity for their alleged involvement in the 1995 Operation Storm [BBC report], in which Croatian forces allegedly murdered 150 Serbs in Krajina and expelled thousands of Serbian civilians from Krajina, Croatia. If convicted, the three face a maximum punishment of life imprisonment.

Gotovina [JURIST news archive], who was indicted [PDF text] in 2001, was the third most-wanted ICTY war crimes suspect until his arrest [JURIST report] in Spain's Canary Islands in 2005. AP has more.

[JURIST] US House Government Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) [official website] accused the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) [official website] Monday of withholding information from the committee and threatened to take action to compel production of the requested information connected to the EPA's decision to turn down California's greenhouse gas emissions waiver request. In a letter [PDF text] to the head of the PA, Waxman said:

I appreciate the efforts EPA has taken to collect responsible documents, but I am concerned about the failure of the agency to produce requested documents to the Committee. Therefore, I ask that your staff work with Committee staff to establish by the close of business on March 12, 2008, a mutually agreeable deadline for the production of the specifically requested documents, as well as the remaining documents involving the White House and the Department of Justice. If no acceptable voluntary schedule is established, I anticipate taking steps to require production of the documents.

[JURIST] The US Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] issued new guidelines Monday limiting the appointment of independent monitors to verify corporate compliance with deferred-prosecution agreements. The new guidelines, which prohibit corporations from hiring monitors with existing ties to the government or the corporation, will also require US attorneys to obtain clearance from the deputy attorney general before hiring monitors.

Assistant Attorney General Alice Fisher, head of the DOJ's Criminal Division [official website] said the new guidelines are intended to improve the "transparency, uniformity, and consistency on the use of monitors." Corporations are generally responsible for hiring the monitors, and the new guidelines are intended to reduce the appearance of impropriety. AP has more.

[JURIST] UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Manfred Nowak [UN profile] accused Nigeria's national police of widespread human rights violations Monday, telling the UN Human Rights Council [official website] that Nigerian police routinely tortured suspects during investigations. Nowak also deplored Nigeria's unsanitary and overcrowded detention facilities, saying that some prisoners even lacked food and water. The UN Human Rights Council is conducting its 7th session [official website] in Geneva, and will hear reports [UN materials] from independent experts and UN missions to various states until March 28.

In February, Amnesty International [advocacy website] accused Nigerian prisons of systematically violating [PDF text; JURIST report] the human rights of inmates. Amnesty has also previously accused Nigeria [JURIST news archive] of secretly executing at least seven prisoners [JURIST report] in recent years, saying that the executed prisoners were generally tried without representation and were not given any opportunity to appeal their convictions. AP has more.