[JURIST] The trial of former Polish leader General Wojciech Jaruzelski [personal website; CNN profile; JURIST news archive] and seven other Communist-era officials charged in connection with the 1981 declaration of martial law [Polish government backgrounder; MP3 audio] resumed Friday in Warsaw. A 500-page indictment accuses Jaruzelski of "organizing crimes of a military nature" and deprivation of freedom through internment, among other offenses. Jaruzelski's lawyers argue that martial law was necessary to prevent the Soviet Union from taking action against the pro-democracy Solidarity movement [official website]. After prosecutors from the Institute of National Remembrance [official website] presented the charges, the court adjourned until September 25, when the defendants are to enter pleas. AP has more. Reuters has additional coverage. The Warsaw Business Journal has local coverage.

A Polish appeals court ruling in June cleared the way for Jaruzelski's trial, overturning a lower court decision that halted proceedings [JURIST reports] while prosecutors gathered more evidence against other communist officials. Jaruzelski was previously tried for ordering troops to fire on striking ship workers [BBC report] in the 1970s, but that trial ended without a verdict. About 100 people are said to have died as a result of the martial law declaration and the subsequent arrests of Solidarity leaders, including Lech Walesa [BBC profile], and some 10,000 people were held in internment camps. The prosecutions are part of a plan for "moral renewal" [Washington Post report] pushed by current Polish President Lech Kaczynski [official websites] and his brother, former Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski.

[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit [official website] Thursday heard oral arguments [MP3 audio] in a case [filing record] brought against four employees of fraudulent job placement companies ISCS and Receiver [fraud victim backgrounder]. The Chicago-based companies had operated by charging applicants who sought to be placed through the company a $450 advance fee, but never actually providing them with jobs [advocacy report]. The defendants in the case were four lower-level employees of the companies who either operated phones, conducted interviews, or sent emails to job applicants who the companies sought to defraud. Attorneys for the defendants, who had each received approximately two years in prison for their participation in the scheme, argued that the convictions were improper because the reliance on hearsay and opinion evidence imputed knowledge of the scheme to their clients. The judges expressed doubt over the argument, but also lamented the fact that some of the organizers of the scheme had received reduced sentences because of their cooperation with the government.

The scam run by the companies is called an advance fee fraud [advocacy website], and strong measures to combat it have become increasingly common. In May 2006, the US Justice Department [official website] and Federal Trade Commission [official website] announced [JURIST report] that authorities in five countries have arrested 565 people as part of Operation Global Con [DOJ fact sheet]. Officials said the suspects received more than $1 billion from some 2.8 million Americans who thought they were paying to get credit cards, claim sweepstakes winnings, make investments or avoid paying taxes. In April 2006 Internet Crime Complaint Center [official website] issued the 2005 Internet Crime Report [PDF text; JURIST report] in which it said that Americans had reported a record $183 million lost to Internet fraud in 2005.

[JURIST] Council of Europe (COE) [official website] Commissioner for Human Rights Thomas Hammarberg [COE bio] released his report [PDF text] on the status of human rights [press release] in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) on Friday, praising ongoing efforts by the FYROM government to improve human rights, but also highlighting shortfalls in the judiciary, law enforcement, and the penitentiary system. Hammarberg wrote:

The country’s judiciary was frequently described by both national and international stakeholders as weak and inefficient, with widespread perceptions of political influence and corruption...

A main problem remains the backlog of over one million cases. In 2007, the trend shifted. The improved implementation of the judicial reform strategy coupled with other measures tackling the inefficiency of the judiciary resulted in an increase of solved cases by 8% in the first half of 20079. The Minister of Justice informed the Commissioner that the backlog of cases has decreased. However, lengthy administrative and judicial proceedings remain a problem and constitute the bulk of cases brought before the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). The Government is addressing this problem with a series of legislative and organisational measures, such as the adoption of the Law on Civil Proceedings limiting the courts’ ‘investigative role’ in civil proceedings and the parties’ possibilities to delay the procedures. A (domestic) legal remedy against lengthy proceedings has been introduced...

These reforms are important steps to diminish political influence in the appointment of judges and to ensure an independent and efficient judicial system. However, public confidence in the judiciary remains very low. Several international organisations and NGOs have reported on widespread and repetitive postponements of hearings, low quality of judicial decisions and poor standard of court facilities without separate waiting rooms for witnesses and victims, and sometimes even resulting in in camera hearings because of lack of space. The Commissioner is of the opinion that more efforts need to be invested to enable effective follow through of the judicial reform process and to consolidate the improvements provided for in reform legislation. Such measures should include continuing legal education for legal professionals including judges and other legal court staff, as well as training on improving case management and handling. More resources need to be invested in court buildings and equipment.