[JURIST] Eleven former military officers facing a court-martial on charges related to their roles in a 2003 coup attempt [BBC report] changed their pleas from not guilty to guilty Tuesday. The 11 are charged with conduct unbecoming an officer, and are also set to be tried in a civilian court for the same activities. No shots were fired during the failed coup, in which the officers commandeered a Manila hotel, demanded the resignation of Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo [official website; BBC profile], threatened to set off explosives, and held off police for 19 hours before surrendering. Ten of the 11 officers were also involved in a similar incident in 2007, when about a dozen officers walked out of court [JURIST report] and took over a hotel, again demanding Arroyo's resignation. AFP has more. The Philippine Daily Inquirer has local coverage.

Nine other officers who had originally pleaded not guilty changed their pleas [JURIST report] in April, though no plea agreement had been made with prosecutors. Two officers were given life sentences, while another seven each received 12-year sentences. Last year, a Philippine military tribunal sentenced 54 military officers [JURIST report] to seven years and six months in prison for their involvement in the 2003 coup attempt. Charges were later dismissed [JURIST report] against four additional military officers connected to the same mutiny. Six others are still pleading not guilty.

[JURIST] Defense counsel for Thomas Lubanga [ICC materials; BBC profile] moved to dismiss all charges against the former Congolese militia leader at an International Criminal Court (ICC) status conference at The Hague Tuesday on the ground that prosecutors have refused to provide documents [defense materials, in French] that could aid Lubanga’s defense. The Office of the Prosecutor filed an explanation [PDF text; PDF, supplement] of its refusal last week, contending that it received most of the documents “on the condition of confidentiality and solely for the purpose of generating new evidence.” A ruling on the issue is expected at the next status conference on Wednesday, and the trial is set to begin in two weeks [ICC schedule]. AP has more.

Once the leader of the Union of Patriotic Congolese militia, Lubanga is charged with using child soldiers [JURIST report; BBC report] in his militia, which is believed to have committed large-scale human rights abuses in Congo's violent Ituri district [HRW backgrounder]. He became the first war crimes defendant to appear before the ICC after he was taken into custody [JURIST reports] in March 2006. Lubanga’s long-delayed trial [JURIST report] will be the ICC’s first since its creation in 2002.

6/11/08 The Court announced [ICC press release] Wednesday that Lubanga's trial will not begin on June 23, as was originally planned, but did not provide reasons for its decision.

[JURIST] California prisons [JURIST news archive] need an influx of $7 billion to bring inmate healthcare up to constitutional standards, said court-appointed prison medical overseer J. Clark Kelso [official profile] Monday. The state senate has been unwilling to authorize a bond to borrow money for the project, so Kelso has appealed to California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger [official website] to use his emergency powers to raise the needed funds. Last week, a court ruled [JURIST report] that section 8658 of the California Emergency Services Act [PDF text] granted the governor authority to address prison conditions in times of emergency. AP has more.

In January, a federal judge ruled [PDF text; JURIST report] that the healthcare provided in California prisons does not meet constitutional standards even though medical services have improved significantly since the court assumed oversight [JURIST report] of the system in 2005. Bringing the state's prison system up to constitutional standards could take as long as four years, according to officials at the California Health Care Receivership [official website]. In July 2007, the court ordered the formation of a special three-judge panel [JURIST report] to supervise and reduce California's prison population after finding that California's prison overcrowding was preventing the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) [official website] from adequately providing mental health care.

[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit [official website] Monday dismissed [opinion text] a challenge to the US military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy [statute text; HRC backgrounder] which provides for the discharge of openly gay service members. The suit was brought by 12 gay or lesbian former US-military members [JURIST report] who had been dismissed under the policy. The appellants, who were represented by the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN) [advocacy website; press release], challenged the policy on the grounds that it violated their constitutional rights to substantive due process, equal protection, and freedom of speech [LII backgrounders]. The appellate court upheld a lower court ruling [PDF text; JURIST report], stating that,

Although the wisdom behind the statute at issue here may be questioned by some, in light of the special deference we grant Congressional decision-making in this area we conclude that the challenges must be dismissed.

[JURIST] The White House announced Monday that US President George W. Bush [official profile; JURIST news archive] signed an executive order [text] Friday directing all federal departments and agencies to require government contractors to use the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) E-Verify system [DHS website; JURIST news archive] in an effort to ensure that workers meet federal immigration and work eligibility requirements. The order and amends former President Clinton's 1996 Executive Order 12989 [PDF text], which required government contractors to comply with all US immigration and nationalization laws when hiring employees for government work. This is the first time that use of the E-Verify system has been made compulsory. The New York Times has more.

The E-Verify system has been central to a number of state laws aimed at more effectively enforcing federal immigration legislation. Last week, a federal court in Oklahoma granted a preliminary injunction blocking the enforcement of employer-related provisions in a state immigration law [JURIST report] that required employers to verify the eligibility of their employers using the E-Verify system. In March, the governor of Rhode Island issued an executive order [JURIST report] requiring state agencies and companies doing business with the state to use the E-Verify system to verify that all employees are legal residents. In February, a federal appeals court refused to grant an emergency injunction blocking enforcement of an Arizona law [JURIST report] that requires employers to check the legal status of new hires using the E-Verify system.

[JURIST] Rwandan genocide suspect Dominique Ntawukuriryayo [TrialWatch profile] pleaded not guilty [ICTR press release] Tuesday to charges of genocide, complicity in genocide, and direct and public incitement to genocide before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) [official website]. Ntawukuriryayo was arrested in France [JURIST report] in October 2007 and indicted [PDF text] for his suspected role in organizing and encouraging the killing of Tutsis. In January, the Supreme Court of France overturned a November 2007 ruling by the Court of Appeal of Paris that approved his transfer [JURIST reports] to the ICTR, but in early May the Final Court of Appeals allowed the transfer [Reuters report].

The charges against Ntawukuriryayo stem principally from his alleged involvement in the Kabuye Hill massacre that occurred over five days in late April 1994, during which as many as 25,000 Tutsi refugees were killed. Then sub-prefect for the Gisagara region, Ntawukuriryayo allegedly promised protection to Tutsis and ordered them to move to Kabuye Hill; instead they were surrounded and shot by gendarmes and communal policemen. Approximately 800,000 people died in the following three months of the Rwandan genocide [BBC backgrounder].

[JURIST] British law enforcement and security officials appear sharply split on the advisability of extending the detention without charge limit for terror suspects to 42 days [JURIST new archive] in the run-up to a Wednesday vote on a contentious new anti-terrorism bill [materials; BBC Q/A] in the House of Commons. Unnamed senior police officers quoted by the Guardian newspaper Monday expressed concern over the potential impact of the measure [Guardian report] on the Muslim community in Britain and were wary of pressure that might be put on police to "manufacture" evidence against those held for the limit. Also Monday, the head of UK domestic intelligence service MI5 took the extraordinary step of issuing a public statement [text] dissociating MI5 from any responsibility for pressing the issue one way or the other:

Since the Security Service is neither a prosecuting authority nor responsible for criminal investigations, we are not, and never have been, the appropriate body to advise the Government on pre-charge detention time limits.

We have not, therefore, sought to comment publicly or privately on the current proposals, except to say that we recognise the challenge posed for the police service by the increasingly complex and international character of some recent terrorist cases.

[JURIST] Human Rights Watch [advocacy website] decried conditions at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] as contrary to international norms of humane treatment in a report [HRW materials; press release] released Tuesday, saying that detainees face extreme isolation that can cause mental trauma. The group found that many are housed alone in windowless, cramped cells for months or years on end and are denied access to independent mental health professionals. The report compared conditions at Guantanamo to those of maximum security prisons in the US:

Conditions at Camps 5 and 6 are in many ways akin to those at supermaximum-security prisons in the United States. (This also seems true for Camp 7, to the limited extent conditions at Camp 7 are known.) Prisoners in US supermaxes are generally held alone in small, often windowless cells with solid steel doors for more than 22 hours a day. Their opportunities for social interaction or other meaningful activity are dramatically limited.

Numerous studies have concluded that extended periods of detention in supermax-like conditions can cause significant psychiatric harm. The absence of social and environmental stimulation has been found to lead to a range of mental health problems, ranging from insomnia and confusion to hallucinations and psychosis. Stuart Grassian, a psychiatrist specializing in conditions of confinement who has evaluated hundreds of inmates in different prisons, warns that even inmates with no prior history of mental illness can become "significantly ill" when subjected to prolonged periods of isolation.

[JURIST] Fifteen members of Myanmar's National League for Democracy (NLD) were released from custody Monday, two weeks after their arrests at a demonstration in support of detained party leader Aung San Suu Kyi [BBC profile; JURIST news archive]. The activists had staged the event to support Suu Kyi on the day she was scheduled to be released from house arrest, but the military junta announced its decision to extend Suu Kyi's detention for another year [JURIST report]. The extension caused heavy criticism of the government, with protesters saying that under Myanmar law [State Protection Law 1975 text; PDF original text, in Burmese], untried detainees may not be held for more than five years. AP has more. The Guardian has additional coverage.

Suu Kyi has spent 12 of the past 18 years in prison or under house arrest for alleged violations of an anti-subversion law [text]. In May, the junta announced that its draft constitution [JURIST news archive] had been overwhelmingly approved [JURIST report] in a national referendum, and quickly decided to extend Suu Kyi's detention despite earlier indications that it might release her [JURIST report] after the referendum. International observers and rights activists have expressed doubt about the legitimacy of the referendum and criticized [JURIST report] the junta for holding the vote immediately after a devastating cyclone hit the country, leaving nearly 130,000 people dead or missing.