[JURIST] A magistrate in Zimbabwe [JURIST news archive] on Thursday handed down a six-month suspended jail sentence to the first white farmer convicted for refusing to vacate his farm after it was declared state property under Zimbabwe's farm seizure program [JURIST report]. Deon Theron was convicted last Tuesday of unlawfully remaining on his farm, and several other white farmers are currently facing criminal charges [JURIST report] over their refusal to obey state-sponsored eviction orders. AP has more.

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] has been harshly criticized [Guardian report] for his farm seizure program, which seeks to redistribute white-owned land among the nation's native farmers. In February 2006, the Zimbabwean land minister said that, following controversial constitutional reforms that took effect in 2005, there are no longer any white farmers operating legally in Zimbabwe [JURIST reports]. The government has appropriated some 4,000 farms through the program and many attribute Zimbabwe's inflation rate, which is reportedly exceeding 5,000 percent, to these actions as previously productive farms have become barren under new inexperienced owners.

[JURIST] The Belarus KGB [official website] Thursday detained at least 16 journalists and searched their homes and offices for materials that allegedly libel Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko [official website; BBC profile]. The Belarus Deputy Prosecutor General said that the searches related to an animated Internet cartoon that allegedly insulted Lukashenko and had been broadcast on Belsat TV [media website], a Polish-funded satellite television channel. The Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ) [trade website] argued that the searches were retaliation for media coverage of anti-Lukashenko protests [JURIST report] in Minsk earlier this week. AP has more. BAJ has local coverage.

The US State Department severely criticized Belarus' human rights record [JURIST report] earlier this month. The UN General Assembly Third Committee, as well as the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights [JURIST reports], have similarly denounced Belarus for human rights abuses. Lukashenko has recently sought to improve his country's ties with western nations, but the US and the European Union have imposed sanctions on Belarus pending the release of all political prisoners, including opposition leader Alexander Kozulin [JURIST report].

[JURIST] The UN has raised sufficient funds to cover the first-year costs of an international tribunal with the mandate of investigating and trying suspects in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri [JURIST news archive], UN Legal Counsel Nicolas Michel [official profile] said Thursday. Michel said that the UN has so far received a total of $60.3 million from the international donor community, including over $1 million from each member of the recently established Tribunal Management Committee [press release] and "very substantial" contributions from several Middle Eastern countries. The tribunal, which was unilaterally established [JURIST report] by the UN Security Council last May and is to be hosted by the Netherlands [JURIST report], is expected to cost $50 million for start-up and first year operations. The United States pledged last September to donate $5 million [JURIST report] to the tribunal.

Although Lebanese authorities have detained eight people in connection with the assassination, neither the tribunal nor the UN International Independent Investigation Commission (IIIC) [authorizing resolution; UN materials], the agency spearheading the Hariri investigation, have yet to name any suspects. Reuters has more. The UN News Centre has additional coverage.

[JURIST] US Attorney General Michael Mukasey [official profile] said Thursday he would personally ensure that the US Department of Justice (DOJ) does not bow to political pressure as it prosecutes government officials for corruption. In a speech [text; recorded audio] to the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, Mukasey said:

Public corruption can inflict damage that is not only costly but also profound. When a public servant at any level of government exploits his or her office for improper purposes, the damage is measured not just in dollars and cents but also in erosion of the public trust upon which depends the survival of our system of government.

We fight, investigate and prosecute public corruption to ensure that those who hold public office live up to the public's trust, and to build the public's confidence in the very idea of government, without which the government cannot function.

The investigation and prosecution of public corruption is therefore among the highest obligations of law enforcement, and it should come as no surprise that I consider it to be one of the top priorities of the Department of Justice. In recent years, the Department's career prosecutors and criminal investigators have been engaged in a renewed effort to pursue corruption at all levels and in all branches of government.

[JURIST] UK Secretary of State for Defence Des Browne [official profile] admitted Thursday that British soldiers had violated the human rights of several Iraqi detainees in Basra in 2003, saying that the Ministry of Defence would specifically admit to substantive breaches of the European Convention on Human Rights [PDF text] at a hearing scheduled to take place Friday. Nine Iraqi men have alleged that they were tortured by British troops [JURIST report] after being arrested in a Basra hotel where British troops found weapons and suspected bomb-making materials; a tenth detainee, Baha Mousa [BBC report; JURIST news archive], died while in custody, allegedly as a result of abuse. Seven soldiers faced court-martial [BBC timeline] in connection with Mousa's death.

Of the seven soldiers charged, only one, Corporal David Payne, faced jail time after pleading guilty [JURIST reports] to a charge of inhumane treatment. All other charges were dismissed [JURIST report]. The nine former detainees are seeking damages from the UK Ministry of Defence [official website] and in August 2007, lawyers for the Iraqi plaintiffs accused the Ministry of Defence of withholding evidence [JURIST report]. The Guardian has more.

[JURIST] The UN Human Rights Council [official website] passed a resolution Thursday urging Sudan to address human rights violations and to prosecute perpetrators of rights abuses. The resolution, introduced by Egypt, also acknowledged that Sudan had instituted some measures to protect human rights, a concession apparently included to avoid a contentious vote. Last week, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) [official website] released a report [PDF text] which documented human rights violations [JURIST report] by both the Sudanese military and armed militias, including rapes, looting, and the deliberate destruction of food. Reuters has more.

In May 2007, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour criticized [JURIST report] Sudan for conducting "indiscriminate and disproportionate" attacks on at least five Darfur villages. Since civil war broke out in the Darfur region in 2003, over 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced. Reports by the UNHCHR and the International Committee for the Red Cross [official website] have documented numerous violations of human rights and international humanitarian law [JURIST reports] based on interviews with refugees, rebel groups, and agencies and authorities working in the region.

[JURIST] Proposals put forth by the European Commission [official website] to regulate passports and create a centralized fingerprint database fail to adequately address privacy concerns, the head of the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) [official website] said in an opinion letter released Wednesday. Peter Hustinx [official profile, PDF] said the Commission's plans do not adequately address the inherent imperfections of biometric systems, especially the specific concerns regarding children and the elderly. EUObserver has more.

In November 2007, EU Commissioner for Justice, Freedom and Security Franco Frattini [official profile] introduced a new package of counter terrorism proposals [press release] on behalf of the Commission, which included a call for the implementation [JURIST report] of an EU-wide system for the exchange of passenger name records. Frattini said in September 2007 that the European Commission was moving forward with plans to establish an EU-wide airline passenger data recording system [JURIST report] despite privacy concerns. Also in March 2007, the Commission announced plans to develop a common fingerprint database [JURIST report] that includes data collected from criminals convicted of serious crimes within member states.

[JURIST] A federal grand jury in San Juan, Puerto Rico charged Puerto Rican Governor Anibal Acevedo Vila [official website, in Spanish] and 12 associates with 27 counts of conspiracy, false statements, wire fraud, federal program fraud and tax crimes related to campaign financing, and other crimes in an indictment [PDF text; press release] unsealed Thursday. The charges stem from the alleged improper financing of Vila's 1999-2000 and 2001-2002 campaigns to become Puerto's Resident Commissioner in the US House of Representatives and his 2004 gubernatorial campaign. Prosecutors allege that Vila and his associates violated the Federal Election Campaign Act [text] by authorizing "illegal and unreported contributions to pay off large and unreported debts" incurred during Vila's campaigns.

Vila is a member of the Popular Democratic Party [party website, in Spanish], which does not support full US statehood for the Commonwealth. He narrowly defeated former governor and pro-statehood candidate Pedro Rossello [campaign website, in Spanish] in a disputed gubernatorial election [JURIST report] in 2004. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Journalist and former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal [advocacy website; Philadelphia Inquirer archive], convicted in 1982 of killing Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner [advocacy website] after a traffic stop, may escape the death penalty after the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit on Thursday issued an opinion [PDF text] affirming a federal judge's allowance of a new sentencing hearing in the case. If prosecutors decline to seek a new sentencing hearing, Abu-Jamal will automatically receive life in prison.

The Third Circuit considered four issues on appeal:

(1) whether the Commonwealth's use of peremptory challenges violated Abu-Jamal's constitutional rights under Batson v. Kentucky [opinion text]...; (2) whether the prosecution's trial summation denied Abu-Jamal due process; (3) whether Abu-Jamal was denied due process during post-conviction proceedings as a result of judicial bias; and (4) whether the jury charge and sentencing verdict sheet violated Abu-Jamal's constitutional rights under Mills v. Maryland ... and Boyde v. California ... [opinion texts].

• Abu-Jamal did not provide sufficient evidence to prove that the prosecutor's use of peremptory challenges established a pattern of selecting jurors on the basis of race, which is constitutionally impermissible.
  
• Abu-Jamal's due process rights were not violated by the prosecutor's closing arguments at trial, during which the prosecutor said "of course there would be appeal after appeal and perhaps there could be a reversal of the case, or whatever, so that may not be final." Abu-Jamal contended that this statement undermined the juror's sense of responsibility to arrive at the correct verdict. The Third Circuit disagreed, saying instead that the comments "did not rise to the sort of egregious misconduct that amounts to a denial of constitutional due process...and they did not have a substantial and injurious effect or influence in determining the jury's verdict" (internal quotations and citations omitted).
  
• The Third Circuit did not consider the merits of Abu-Jamal's claim that judicial bias deprived him of due process during the post-conviction proceedings, as such a claim is not cognizable on habeas appeal.
  
• Finally, the Third Circuit agreed that the jury instructions and verdict form used at trial were constitutionally deficient, as they did not clearly explain that jurors did not have to unanimously agree on mitigating circumstances that would preclude application of the death penalty.

[JURIST] The Nigerian Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) [official website] made good on earlier promises to investigate high-ranking governmental officials on Wednesday by formally launching an investigation into former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo [BBC profile]. An EFCC spokesperson advised the public to be patient with the pace of the investigation, which he said will take time to produce results.

The EFCC was formed in 2002 as part of an anti-corruption push by Obasanjo, who in 2007 was indicted for corruption [JURIST report]. The Commission is currently prosecuting five former state governors. Former state governor Dieprieye Alamieyeseigha was sentenced [JURIST report] in July to 12 years in prison after pleading guilty to six counts of corruption and money laundering. A Human Rights Watch report issued last year warned that corruption in Nigeria [JURIST news archive] has reached a crisis level and said that government could be compared to a criminal organization [HRW report; JURIST report]. From Lagos, the Vanguard has more.

[JURIST] Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] on Thursday urged the United Nations [press release] to scrutinize the Philippine government's response to accusations that the Philippines military has engaged in extrajudicial killings of left-wing activists since 2001. HRW's press release comes two weeks before the UN Human Rights Council [official website] is scheduled to hold the first meeting of the Universal Periodic Review of the Philippines [UN backgrounder, PDF], which will consider the reports of extrajudicial killings. Human rights advocates say almost 900 people have been killed since President Gloria Arroyo [official website; BBC profile] assumed power in 2001, while more than 180 have disappeared and are thought to have been killed. The military has denied any involvement in the killings, blaming the deaths on Communist rebels.

Concern over the alleged extrajudicial killings ripened after a 2007 UN report [DOC text; JURIST report], authored by UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions Philip Alston, concluded that the Philippines armed forces have followed a "deliberate strategy" of killing left-wing activists. In July, Arroyo urged lawmakers [transcript; JURIST report] from both houses of Congress to pass legislation to curb extrajudicial killings and disappearances, but HRW said Thursday she has not fulfilled her promise to fully investigate the killings. AP has more.

[JURIST] EU and NATO forces on Thursday raided the homes of family members of wanted Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic [BBC profile; ICTY indictment], looking for information on Karadzic's location. In a sunrise raid, the forces entered the homes of Karadzic's wife Ljiljana Zelen Karadzic, his daughter Sonja Karadzic Jovicevic and alleged aide Smiljka Popov. The forces questions all three during the raid. The EU and NATO regularly conduct raids [JURIST report] on Karadzic's family and suspected aides in an attempt to locate the fugitive.

Karadzic and fellow war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic [BBC profile; ICTY indictment] are believed to have masterminded the 1995 massacre of more than 7,000 Bosnian Muslims by government forces at Srebrenica. Many believe that Karadzic is hiding in the Serb-controlled part of Bosnia nearby Montenegro, and that Mladic is hiding in Serbia. Last month, new International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website] Chief Prosecutor Serge Brammertz said he will do everything in his power to ensure that Mladic and Karadzic are arrested as soon as possible [JURIST report]. AFP has more.

[JURIST] An Indonesian court cleared former Indonesian President Haji Mohammed Suharto [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] and his heirs Thursday of civil liability in a corruption case involving state funds allegedly stolen by a charitable foundation run by Suharto. Dismissing the $1.1 billion damage claim leveled against Suharto, the court ordered the foundation to repay $110 million out of $440 million in stolen government funds [JURIST report]. Judge Wahyono said the prosecutors failed to prove the amount of damages they claimed, and that the foundation's board of directors had been responsible for siphoning government funds rather than Suharto himself. Last month, Suharto's six children failed to appear in court [JURIST report] for a hearing, ignoring a court summons [JURIST report] to defend Suharto's estate in the civil corruption case.

Suharto, who ruled Indonesia from 1967 to 1998, faced government charges that he embezzled $440 million from the Yayasan Supersemar [official website], a state-funded scholarship fund, between 1974 and 1998. He died [JURIST report] in late January. Earlier criminal corruption charges were dropped because Suharto was rendered unable to speak or write [JURIST reports] as a result of several strokes. The Canadian Press has more.

[JURIST] A federal judge in the Eastern District of Michigan on Wednesday struck down [opinion, PDF; ACLU press release] a Michigan election law [text] that limits access to information on presidential primary voters to the Democratic and Republican parties, blocking the state from releasing the voter lists from the Jan. 15 presidential primary election to the two political parties. The ACLU of Michigan [advocacy website] had challenged [complaint, PDF; JURIST report] the law in January, alleging that Section 615c [text] of the Michigan Election Law was 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]. Under the law, anyone other than the two parties who obtains or uses the voter lists would be guilty of a misdemeanor, and could be fined $1,000 or sentenced to 93 days in jail.

The ACLU filed the suit on behalf of the Green Party, Libertarian Party and the Reform Party of Michigan [party websites], as well as Metro Times, Inc. [media website] and David Forsmark as president of the political consulting firm Winning Strategies. The suit was filed against Michigan Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land [official profile]. The ruling comes amid a dispute over Michigan's delegation at the Democratic National Convention, and likely ended any chance of a new Democratic primary vote in the state. The Detroit News has more.