[JURIST] A Texas appeals court Wednesday overturned [opinion text] a jury verdict [JURIST report] that found pharmaceutical giant Merck [corporate website] liable for the death of a 71-year-old man who died from a heart attack within a month of taking Merck's painkiller Vioxx [Merck Vioxx Information Center website; JURIST news archive]. The jury had ordered Merck to pay $32 million in damages to the family of Leonel Garza - $7 million in non-economic compensatory damages and $25 million in punitive damages - but a state cap later reduced that amount to $7.75 million. The Texas Fourth Court of Appeals [official website] found that Garza's family had failed to show that Garza's heart problems were tied to his use of Vioxx.

Merck has been involved in a stream of Vioxx-related litigation during the last few years, including state and federal lawsuits in Louisiana, New Jersey, and California [JURIST reports]. In September 2007, the New Jersey Supreme Court dismissed [JURIST report] a class action lawsuit filed against Merck, reversing a lower court's decision to grant nationwide class certification in the case. In November 2007, Merck said that it had agreed to pay $4.85 billion to settle all pending lawsuits [press release; JURIST report] regarding its marketing and distribution of Vioxx. AP has more.

[JURIST] A Polish judge ruled on Wednesday that prosecutors must amend their indictment against former communist leader General Wojciech Jaruzelski [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] and other former communist officials to present a greater range of evidence against the defendants. Jaruzelski was charged [JURIST report] in March 2006 with "organizing crimes of a military nature" and "carrying out crimes that consisted of the deprivation of freedom through internment" for his imposition of martial law [Polish government backgrounder] in Poland on December 13, 1981. The charges, which prosecutors had been preparing [JURIST report] since late 2005, were brought by the Institute of National Remembrance [official website], a government body responsible for looking into Nazi-era and Communist-era crimes. Among the court's recommendations for improving the evidence in the indictment was the suggestion that prosecutors interview some of Jaruzelski's political contemporaries such as former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev [CNN profile], former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher [BBC profile], and former US Secretary of State Alexander Haig to ascertain the international impact of Jaruzelski's actions. AP has more.

Jaruzelski was previously tried in 2001 for ordering troops to fire on striking ship workers [BBC report] in the 1970s, but the trial ended without a verdict. About 100 people are said to have died as a result of the declaration of martial law and subsequent arrests of Solidarity movement [official website] leaders, including Lech Walesa [BBC profile], and approximately 10,000 people were held in internment camps during martial law. Jaruzelski has argued that his decision to impose martial law was necessary to maintain order and prevent foreign intervention in Poland.

[JURIST] The Danish government said Wednesday that it would propose new legislation to ban sitting judges from wearing religious dress [JURIST news archive], including Islamic headscarves, in court. Also Wednesday, Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen [official website] criticized Immigration Minister Birthe Roenn Hornbech for writing a newspaper editorial [text, in Danish] published Tuesday opposing the proposal; Rasmussen said that she should have cleared the editorial through him before publication. AP has more.

Religious headscarves have become a controversial topic in several Western countries recently, as lawmakers struggle to balance an individual's right to practice their religion with public policy and security concerns. On Monday, a US federal judge dismissed a federal lawsuit [JURIST reports] filed by a Muslim woman against a judge who asked her to remove her niqab in court. In September 2007, Canadian chief electoral officer Marc Mayrand resisted calls by Canadian lawmakers [JURIST report] to invoke his discretionary powers to require women to remove traditional Muslim niqabs or burqas when voting in elections in the province of Quebec. In the UK, the High Court in February 2007 upheld [JURIST report] a school ban on students wearing niqabs in class, saying the veils could interfere with student-teacher interaction.

[JURIST] The UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) [official website] announced Wednesday that it will conduct a public inquiry [MOD press release] into the death of Baha Mousa [BBC report; JURIST news archive], an Iraqi hotel receptionist who died in British military custody in 2003. Mousa's death allegedly occurred as the result of abuse at the hands of British troops who had arrested him and nine other Iraqis in a Basra hotel where weapons and suspected bomb-making materials were found. The nine other Iraqis alleged that they were tortured by British soldiers, and filed suit against the MOD seeking damages. Seven soldiers faced court-martial [BBC timeline] in connection with Mousa's death, but only Corporal David Payne received a jail sentence after pleading guilty [JURIST reports] to a charge of inhumane treatment. All other charges were dismissed [JURIST report]. AP has more.

In March, UK Secretary of State for Defence Des Browne admitted that British soldiers had violated the rights of detainees [JURIST report] in Basra in 2003, and that the MOD would specifically admit to substantive breaches of the European Convention on Human Rights [PDF, text]. In October 2007, the UK High Court heard arguments [JURIST report] in the case brought by the nine Basra detainees against the MOD. In August 2007, lawyers for the plaintiffs in the case accused the MOD of withholding evidence [JURIST report].

[JURIST] The Indiana Court of Appeals [official website] Tuesday ruled [opinion, PDF] that a 2006 state law [Indiana Code 35-42-4-11 text] barring convicted sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of a school, public park or youth center is unconstitutional as applied to offenders who purchased their homes before the law went into effect. The ruling upholds a lower court decision finding that the law constituted ex post facto punishment since it was not illegal for the registered offenders to buy their houses at the time of purchase. AP has more.

Courts in other states have also overturned or restricted laws seeking to limit residences available to registered sex offenders. Last November, the Supreme Court of Georgia [official website] unanimously overturned [opinion, PDF; JURIST report] a state law that prohibited registered sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of schools, playgrounds and other areas where children gather. Civil rights groups had criticized the law [legislative materials] as overly strict, saying that the state's roughly 11,000 registered sex offenders would have been barred from living in almost any residential area. In February 2007 a federal judge ruled that California's Proposition 83 [text, PDF; JURIST news archive], which prohibited California sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of any place where children regularly gather, could not be applied retroactively [JURIST report] to more than 90,000 paroled sex offenders because there was nothing in the measure that indicated that intent.

[JURIST] The curator of a Russian art gallery has been charged with "inciting hatred" [JURIST report] for hosting an exhibit of art banned from other galleries, including pieces that mocked the Russian Orthodox Church [official website] and the nation's military, the Independent reported Wednesday. Yury Samodurov, director of the Sakharov Museum [museum backgrounder] in Moscow, named after Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov, said that the charges were part of a long-running case brought against him by religious and conservative groups. He could face five years in prison if convicted.

Critics say the charges are the latest example of the increasing pressure against Russian artists and writers dealing with provocative topics. The Independent has more.

[JURIST] A coalition of anti-war activists represented by the Constitutional Law Clinic at Rutgers University Law School-Newark [academic website] Tuesday filed a lawsuit [complaint, PDF; press release, PDF] in US District Court for New Jersey seeking a declaratory judgment that the war in Iraq violates the US constitution. The groups argue that under the US Constitution only Congress has the authority to declare war, and ask the court to declare the Iraq war illegal because action was initiated without Congressional approval. The New Jersey Law Journal has more.

In the UK, other activists have also attempted to directly or indirectly challenge the legality of the war. Last month the judicial members of the House of Lords, Britain's highest court, denied a request by two mothers of soldiers killed in Iraq for a public inquiry into the legality of UK's decision to go to war in Iraq.

[JURIST] The US Department of Defense has still not issued security clearances [ACLU press release] to civilian lawyers seeking to participate in the defense of alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] and other detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) [advocacy website] said Tuesday. ACLU Anthony Romero said that not one of eight lawyers who had recently applied for clearance had received it and that the delay may be a DOD tactic to deny the detainees fair trials, but a Pentagon spokesperson said that the department was working toward clearing the lawyers. The ACLU and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers announced in April that would team up to provide experienced defense attorneys [JURIST report] for the alleged 9/11 conspirators. The Miami Herald has more.

Death penalty charges [JURIST report] against Mohammed and four other detainees allegedly involved in planning the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on the United States were confirmed by the Convening Authority [DOD press release; JURIST report] for the US military commissions and sent to defense lawyers late Monday. Charges against a sixth man, Mohammed al-Qahtani, were dropped.

[JURIST] US immigration agents transiting involuntarily sedated immigration deportees through foreign countries have been challenged by local authorities, the Washington Post reported Wednesday. The paper said French and Belgian law enforcement officials had raised objections to the sedation of individuals by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) [official website] agents at stopovers during two recent deportation flights from the US to Guinea. In one case, Belgian authorities informed US immigration guards accompanying the deportee that the medication of a person against his will was illegal in Belgium, but allowed the deportation to proceed. In a second incident, French officials informed US immigration guards that involuntary injections were illegal in France, and refused to allow the detainee to be sedated during a stopover. The detainee forcefully refused to board the flight from France to Guinea after the sedatives wore off, the captain of the plane refused to allow the detainee to board, and the deportee was returned to the US. Reuters has more.

The report highlights the tension between US deportation practices and international laws [PDF text] regarding involuntary medication and sedation, an issue of increasing importance in recent months. In February, ICE reached a settlement [JURIST report] in a federal class action suit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California(ACLU/SC) [advocacy website] on behalf of two immigrants who were forcibly sedated [JURIST report] during deportation flights. In January, the agency released a memo requiring its officers to obtain a judge's approval [JURIST report] before a deportee can be sedated in order to facilitate his or her removal from the US.

[JURIST] Italian Judge Oscar Magi ruled on Wednesday that Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] can be called to testify in the trial of 26 Americans [JURIST news archive] and several former Italian intelligence officials for the 2003 abduction and rendition [JURIST news archive] of Egyptian cleric Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr [JURIST news archive]. Defense lawyers for former Italian Intelligence and Security Service (SISMI) [official website] chief Nicolo Pollari, one of the Italian intelligence officers on trial, requested testimony [JURIST report] from Berlusconi and former Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi [BBC profile]. Pollari's lawyers hope to prove he was not involved in the kidnapping and rendition by having Berlusconi, Prodi, and other officials testify regarding classified government documents constituting state secrets. AP has more.

Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, was seized on the streets of Milan by CIA agents with the help of Italian operatives. He was then allegedly transferred to Egypt and turned over to Egypt's State Security Intelligence, where he said he was tortured before being released [JURIST reports] in February 2007. The Italian cabinet relieved Pollari of his duties [JURIST report] as SISMI head in November 2006. Pollari has denied allegations [JURIST report] that he assisted the CIA with the operation. The 26 Americans, most of whom are CIA agents, are being tried in absentia. The US is not expected to hand them over to Italian authorities; despite prosecutorial pressure, the Italian government has refused to requested their extradition. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Ecuador's election court [official website, in Spanish] announced Wednesday that a two-year suspension from politics for former Ecuadorian President Lucio Gutierrez, [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] had formally come to an end Sunday, leaving him free to run for office again. Gutierrez was suspended from politics and barred from running in the country's 2006 elections because he declined to report campaign donations in his successful run for presidency in 2002. Gutierrez insisted Tuesday that his suspension had been unwarranted and that he was considering running for another term. AP has more.

After Gutierrez dissolved Ecuador's Supreme Court in 2005, the legislature removed [JURIST reports] him as president and replaced him with Vice-President Alfredo Palacio [official profile, in Spanish]. After seeking political asylum in Brazil and Colombia, Gutierrez returned to Ecuador, where he was initially arrested as posing a threat to national security.

[JURIST] Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd [official profile] told Australian news service Sky News Wednesday that his government is considering bringing a lawsuit against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad [official profile; BBC profile] in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) [court website; JURIST news archive] for alleged incitement of genocide. Rudd characterized [ABC Australia report] some of Ahmadinejad's comments in recent years regarding Israel and Zionism and denying the Jewish Holocaust as "anti-Semitic" and encouraging international violence. Australian Attorney-General Robert McClelland confirmed [Australian report] Rudd's comments. Australian press reports last October claimed that Rudd had promised the country's Jewish community in the lead-up to elections that brought him to power in December that he would take Ahmadinejad before the ICJ. Opposition Liberal Party spokesmen say, however, that the legal case against Ahmadinejad is weak, citing an assessment by the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court [official website]. AFP has more.

In December 2006, then-US Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton called for international criminal charges [JURIST report] against Ahmadinejad for the same reasons. Bolton, who was joined by former Israeli UN Ambassador Dore Gold [JCPA profile] and former Canadian Justice Minister and Attorney General Irwin Cotler [official profile], said that Ahmadinejad's remarks violated the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide [text], which prohibits "direct and public incitement to commit genocide". In May 2006, the Jerusalem Centre for Public Affairs reported that it was preparing a document [JURIST report] recommending a lawsuit against Ahmadinejad for his remarks. Israeli lawyer Eran Shahar, representing the civil rights group Civil Coalition, filed a lawsuit [JURIST report] against Ahmadinejad in Germany in February 2006 on charges of incitement and denying the existence of the Holocaust.

[JURIST] The Federal Court of Malaysia [official website] Wednesday rejected an appeal by five ethnic Indian protesters being detained by Malaysian authorities under a controversial security law. The five detainees, prominent members of the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) [advocacy website; JURIST news archive], had appealed a judgment [JURIST report] by a lower court which found that their detention was legal under Malaysian law. The Federal Court heard arguments [JURIST report] from defense counsel for the detainees in April that the five were being "deprived of their personal liberty." In response, Malaysian Attorney General Adbul Gani Patail [official profile] defended the arrests [JURIST report] before the Federal Court, saying that the action was proper because the five are a threat to national security, and that the action was taken after a complete investigation. The group is being held under the Internal Security Act (ISA) [HRW backgrounder], a preventive detention law that allows that allows the Malaysian government to detain suspects for two years without trial and to renew the detention indefinitely. AP has more. Bernama, the Malaysian national news service, has local coverage.

The five activists were arrested [JURIST report] in December 2007 after they were accused of being involved in orchestrating a November 2007 street demonstration [TIME report] in Kuala Lumpur by thousands of the nation's ethnic Indians to protest alleged discrimination by the predominantly Malay Muslim government. The 2007 arrests were the first time since 2001 that Malaysia has invoked the ISA against government critics. Three Hindu activists originally arrested before the protest and charged with sedition were subsequently released [BBC reports]. In December, 26 ethnic Indians were charged with attempted murder [JURIST report] in connection with the Kuala Lumpur protest.