[JURIST] The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) [official website] issued five decisions Thursday finding Russia responsible for the disappearance of a dozen people during Russian armed raids in Chechnya in 2002 and 2003. Families of the victims, all of whom are presumed dead, had raised claims under the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms [PDF text]. The court directed Russia to pay a total of more than €350,000 ($550,000) to the families. Russia has three months to pay or to appeal. AP has more. Read the court's rulings in Gekhayeva v. Russia, Betayev v. Russia, Sangariyeva v. Russia, Ibragimov v. Russia, Utsayeva v. Russia [judgment texts].

The ECHR has consistently ruled against Russia in similar cases involving Chechnya rights violations. In July 2007, the court ruled that Russian authorities were responsible for the shooting deaths of 11 unarmed Chechen civilians, and in June 2007 it held that Russian authorities were liable for the 2003 deaths of four Chechen family members [JURIST reports].

[JURIST] The court-martial of a US Marine intelligence officer charged in connection with the November 2005 killings of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha [USMC timeline; JURIST news archive] began Thursday at Camp Pendleton, California [official website]. US Marine Corps 1st Lt. Andrew Grayson [defense website; JURIST news archive] is charged with multiple violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) [text], including making a false official statement, obstructing justice, and dereliction of duty. AP has more.

A defense lawyer for Grayson said in September 2007 that Grayson rejected a plea offer [JURIST report] requiring him to admit to an attempted cover-up of the killings in exchange for prosecutors dropping all charges. He is accused of allegedly ordering a subordinate to delete photographic evidence [JURIST report] taken hours after the killings to keep it out of a report being prepared for top-ranking officers and a journalist. Eight Marines were initially charged in connection with the Haditha incident, though charges against five of them have since been dropped. In April, the court-martial of Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich [advocacy website], leader of the squad implicated in the killings, was postponed until June [JURIST report].

[JURIST] An Afghan detainee at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] Wednesday moved to have all charges against him dismissed, alleging that he has been tortured in US custody. In a motion filed by his military defense lawyer, Mohammed Jawad [DOD materials; JURIST news archive] said that he has been subjected to abusive treatment, including the so-called "frequent-flier program," in which certain inmates are moved between cells at two to four hour intervals in an attempt to cause physical stress through sleep deprivation. AP has more.

Jawad was charged [charge sheet, PDF; JURIST report] in February with attempted murder and intentionally causing serious bodily injury in a December 2002 grenade attack in Kabul that injured two US soldiers and an Afghan translator. In March, Jawad appeared at a pretrial hearing before a military commission, alleging that he had been mistreated while in custody, and asked to boycott his trial [JURIST report]. Jawad was the fourth Guantanamo detainee to be formally charged with war crimes under the 2006 Military Commissions Act [PDF text].

[JURIST] A judge in the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas ruled [PDF text] Wednesday that a Farmers Branch, Texas [city website; JURIST news archive] ordinance that would bar landlords from renting apartments to most illegal immigrants is unconstitutional. Ordinance 2903 [DOC text] requires apartment renters to show proof of US residency and penalizes landlords who rent to illegal immigrants [JURIST news archive]. Judge Sam Lindsay initially blocked [JURIST report] the ordinance in 2007; on Wednesday, Lindsay ruled the ordinance was unconstitutional because it did not recognize federal supremacy in immigration matters and because it would require the court to rewrite legislation. AP has more.

In January, the Farmers Branch City Council [official website] approved a similar law [DOC text; JURIST report] that officials believe solves the problems [Dallas Morning News report] that Lindsay identified in Ordinance 2903. The new law, which would require possible renters to get a license from the city before renting, is scheduled to go into effect in two weeks. That ordinance is also being challenged, this time for an alleged violation of the Texas Open Meetings Act [PDF text], because the City Council passed the law quickly and secretly during a meeting to discuss legal challenges against Ordinance 2903.

[JURIST] New York Governor David Paterson [official profile] has ordered all state agencies to recognize same-sex marriages [JURIST news archive] from other states as legal marriages for purposes of New York law. The instructions highlighted in Thursday media reports came in a May 14 memo [PDF text] circulated by the governor's legal counsel David Nocenti [official profile], which directed state agencies to afford "full faith and credit to same-sex marriages" and indicated that agencies which fail to do so could be subject to liability. Agencies were instructed to report back to Nocenti by June 30 with steps taken to implement recognition of out-of-state same-sex marriages. AP has more. The New York Times has local coverage.

The New York memo notes a February decision by an intermediate New York appellate court in Martinez v. County of Monroe [opinion, PDF; JURIST report] holding that legal same-sex marriages performed outside the state are entitled to recognition in New York. The memo was dated one day before the California Supreme Court overturned a state ban on same-sex marriage in In re Marriage Cases [opinion, PDF; JURIST report].

[JURIST] A Chinese woman who is a permanent resident of New Orleans pleaded guilty Wednesday in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana [official website] to charges of aiding and abetting espionage by passing national defense information to Chinese agents. Yu Xin Kang [CICentre materials] could face 10 years in prison for acting as an intermediary between Louisiana businessman Tai Kuo and Defense Security Cooperation Agency [official website] analyst Gregg William Bergersen. Kang allegedly passed classified military information to Chinese foreign officials. AP has more. The Times-Picayune has local coverage.

Bergersen was charged [affidavit, PDF] and arrested [JURIST report] in February and later pleaded guilty [DOJ press release; JURIST report] to conspiracy for disclosing national defense information. Kuo also pleaded guilty to conspiracy and could be sentenced to life in prison. In a separate Chinese espionage case, officials arrested Dongfan "Greg" Chung, a former Chinese-American engineer at Boeing [corporate website], in February for allegedly stealing corporate trade secrets related to aerospace programs and turning them over to China [JURIST news archive]. Chung's arrest was reportedly related to the case of Chi Mak [CI Centre backgrounder; JURIST report], a Chinese-American engineer sentenced [JURIST report] in March for conspiring to smuggle sensitive naval intelligence data to China.

[JURIST] The co-chair of Pakistan's governing Pakistan People's Party (PPP) [party website] pleaded for calm Thursday with members of the nation's vocal lawyers' movement, cautioning that "hidden forces" could seize on any perceived unrest to reimpose martial law and destroy democracy in Pakistan. Speaking to members of the People's Lawyers Forum (PLF), Asif Ali Zardari [BBC profile] reiterated his support for constitutional reforms to establish a fully independent judiciary and for reinstating judges ousted [JURIST reports] by President Pervez Musharraf when he declared emergency rule [JURIST report] last November, suspending the constitution in the face of what he asserted was a usurping judiciary led by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. When a coalition government of parties opposed to Musharraf took power after elections earlier this year, its leaders, including Zardari, pledged to restore the judiciary [Al Jazeera report], but they have not agreed on how to do so and have already missed two self-imposed deadlines for restoration. IANS has more.

A PLF member told Pakistan's Dawn newspaper that the group would not do anything to jeopardize democracy, and has pledged to support [APP report] proposed constitutional amendments [Daily Times report; JURIST report] designed to transfer power back to the judiciary. But lawyers still plan to hold a long march protest [JURIST report] on June 10 if the judges are not reinstated. Pakistan Supreme Court Bar Association President Aitzaz Ahsan [Time profile; JURIST news archive] Thursday called for Musharraf to step down [Pakistan Tribune report] before the long march or face impeachment by parliament.

[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit [official website] Wednesday ruled [opinion, PDF] to remand a set of consolidated tort claims brought against military contractors in Iraq, holding that further factual development is necessary before determining whether the cases were nonjusticiable political questions. The plaintiffs allege [Bloomberg report] that military contractor Halliburton and then-subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root (KBR) [corporate websites] misrepresented the dangers of working in Iraq and knowingly sent employees into unsafe areas, resulting in injuries and deaths. In 2006, a federal judge in Houston dismissed [memorandum and order, PDF] the suits, finding that the court did not have jurisdiction to review wartime policies. The Fifth Circuit's opinion stated that the injury claims raised may not necessarily require the court to question the military's decisions. AP has more.

KBR contracted with the US military through the Logistics Civil Augmentation Program (LOGCAP) [official website; KBR information page] to provide exclusive civilian logistics support during Iraqi reconstruction; in recent years, the company has come under increasing scrutiny. In August 2006, a KBR subcontractor settled Iraq fraud allegations [JURIST report] with the US government for $4 million. Army officials later said they would modify LOGCAP to provide better guidance to KBR after a special investigator reported [JURIST report] in 2006 that KBR was violating US regulations.

[JURIST] California Deputy State Registrar and Chief of the Office of Vital Records [official website] Janet McKee issued a memorandum [PDF text] Wednesday setting June 17 as the start date for issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The California Supreme Court's May 15 ruling [opinion, PDF; JURIST report] in In re Marriage Cases [case materials] overturned a ban on same-sex marriage. After June 17, county clerks in California will be authorized to issue the state's redesigned marriage license [document, PDF] to all applicants, barring an intervening change in the law. The new marriage license does not include the words "bride" and "groom," instead using "Party A" and "Party B" to refer to the applicants. AP has more. The San Francisco Chronicle has local coverage.

Also Wednesday, San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera [official website] filed a brief [text, PDF; official press release] with the California Supreme Court in response to a petition [JURIST report] from a conservative Christian advocacy group seeking to stay the court's May 17 ruling. Herrera's filing argues that the advocacy group, the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) [advocacy website], lacks standing to petition the California Supreme Court since it was not a party to In re Marriage Cases. The filing argues against the ADF's allegation that the nature and timing of the ruling is "confusing", and instead asserts that there is no basis for the court to stay its ruling until the November elections.