[JURIST] The US Justice Department has sent so-called target letters [backgrounder] to six Blackwater USA [corporate website; JURIST news archive] guards involved in the September 16 killings of 17 Iraqi civilians [JURIST report], the Washington Post [media website] reported Sunday. Sources told the Post that the letters, which provide an opportunity for the recipients to contest grand jury evidence, indicate the Justice Department will likely seek indictments against at least some of the guards under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act (MEJA) [text]. Indictments against the Blackwater employees under the MEJA would mark the first time that State Department contractors were prosecuted under the Act, which allows criminal charges to be filed against contractors working for the Department of Defense. The sources explained that a final decision on whether to indict the men may not be made until October. The Washington Post has more.

The Blackwater incident caused domestic outrage in Iraq and has prompted legal controversy in the US. In November, the New York Times and the Washington Post [texts] reported that an FBI investigation into the incident concluded that the shootings were unjustified [JURIST report] and last month Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari announced that private security contractors operating in Iraq may be stripped of their immunity from prosecution [JURIST report] under a US-Iraqi agreement currently in negotiations. Advocacy group Human Rights First [advocacy website] issued a report [PDF text] in January asserting that existing federal law is sufficient to prosecute private contractors using excessive violence in their overseas capacities, and that the US government is to blame for failing to "develop a clear policy with respect to the accountability of private contractors for crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan." The report says that the MEJA could be extended to State Department contractors, but that the US has failed to do so.

[JURIST] The US-led Multi-National Force-Iraq (MNF-Iraq) [official website] announced Saturday that the first hearing of a US soldier charged in connection with the death of an Iraqi detainee will begin on September 5 [press release]. Staff Sgt. Hal M. Warner, who was stationed about 130 miles north of Baghdad, was charged [press release; JURIST report] early this month with premeditated murder, assault, accessory after the fact, making a false official statement and obstruction of justice in connection with the death of Ali Mansur Mohamed, a detainee originally thought to have been released from Coalition custody sometime around May 16. Warner was originally scheduled to appear for an Article 32 preliminary hearing [JAG backgrounder] August 15. The trial for 1st Lt. Michael C. Behenna, also charged with premeditated murder, assault, making a false official statement and obstruction of justice in connection with Mohamed's death, has not been scheduled. AFP has more.

In March, US Marine Sgt. Ryan Weemer was charged [press release] with one count of murder and one count of dereliction of duty for his involvement in the shooting death of a detained Iraqi insurgent during MNF-Iraq's November 2004 offensive [GlobalSecurity backgrounder] in Fallujah [USMC timeline; JURIST news archive]. The charges against Weemer followed December 2007 charges against Marine Sgt. Jermaine A. Nelson for murder and dereliction of duty, and August charges [JURIST reports] against former Marine Sgt. Jose Nazario for voluntary manslaughter in connection with the same incident. In March 2007, a US military court-martial found 101st Airborne Staff Sgt. Raymond Girouard guilty of three counts of negligent homicide [Article 32 hearing transcript, DOC], but not guilty of premeditated murder for the deaths of three Iraqi detainees [JURIST news archive] held after a May 2006 raid in Thar Thar, a town near Samarra in the northern Salahuddin province of Iraq. In January 2007 US Army Specialist William Hunsaker received an 18-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to murder, attempted murder and obstruction of justice charges [JURIST report] relating to the same incident.

[JURIST] Officials of Myanmar opposition group the National League for Democracy (NLD) said Sunday that the government has sentenced five of its members to prison for participating in a march commemorating the mass student protests [BBC backgrounder] against the junta held on August 8, 1988. The 2008 protest, held in the Rakhine province, included 48 people, and police arrested the five NLD members on charges of creating public alarm and unlawful assembly. Government officials sentenced each on Friday to two and one-half years in prison. Rakhine NLD official Thein Naing told the media that the sentencing occurred without giving the party members the chance to consult a lawyer. Other party officials have expressed hope that a UN envoy's visit to Myanmar [UN News Centre report] scheduled to begin Monday will help ease tensions between the NLD and the government. AFP has more. AP has additional coverage.

In July, 14 members of the NLD were charged [DPA report] with causing political unrest by staging a protest outside NLD headquarters where they shouted slogans calling for the release of NLD party leader Aung San Suu Kyi [BBC profile; JURIST news archive]. The demonstration took place on June 19, Suu Kyi's 63rd birthday. 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]. The military junta extended [JURIST report] Suu Kyi's house arrest into a sixth year in May, sparking an international outcry and demonstrations by the NLD.

[JURIST] Belarusian officials released opposition politician Alexander Kozulin [CFR profile and interview] from prison Saturday after two years' detention for staging political protests. Kozulin was sentenced to more than five years in prison in July 2006 for leading unauthorized protests over the controversial re-election [JURIST reports] of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko [official website; BBC profile] earlier that year. Authorities granted him temporary leave [JURIST report] in February this year to attend his wife's funeral, a move US State Department officials said [press release] at the time was laudable but insufficient. On Saturday, State Department officials applauded his latest release, saying the US "look[s] forward to other positive steps from the Belarusian authorities that could open the possibility of a significant improvement in relations between the United States and Belarus." It is unclear whether the current release is permanent or also temporary to allow Kozulin to attend the pending of his funeral father-in-law. Reuters has more. BBC News has additional coverage.

The US State Department severely criticized Belarus' human rights record [JURIST report] in March. 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 Kozulin.