[JURIST] Ontario Superior Court [official website] Justice Douglas Rutherford Wednesday convicted [reasons for judgment, PDF] Ottawa software developer Mohammed Momin Khawaja [CBC backgrounder] on seven counts related to an alleged plot to bomb targets in the UK. Khawaja was specifically accused of designing a remote detonator and providing other support to a group that was last year convicted [JURIST report] of planning to detonate a large fertilizer bomb. Although Rutherford indicated Khawja may not have known about the terrorist plot, he was found guilty of participating in a terrorist group, instructing a person to finance terrorism, making property available to terrorists, contributing to a terrorist group, and facilitating terrorism under Canada's controversial Anti-Terrorism Act [text; CBC backgrounder]. He was cleared of two other terrorism charges related to his intent to aid in a specific act of terrorism, but was convicted on related criminal charges for possession of and intent to use explosives. Khawja is scheduled to be sentenced on November 18 and faces up to 25 years in prison. The Globe and Mail has more. BBC News has additional coverage.

In June, Khawaja pleaded not guilty [JURIST report] to the charges and his lawyer said the allegations were exaggerated and based on hearsay evidence that should have been excluded. Last year, Canadian Federal Court Judge Richard Mosley refused to require the release of confidential evidence [ruling, PDF; summary, PDF; JURIST report] against Khawaja, explaining that "disclosure of most of the information would be injurious to national security or to international relations." Khawaja was arrested [JURIST report] in March 2004, and was the first person to be charged and tried under the Anti-Terrorism Act.

[JURIST] An Indonesian court on Wednesday sentenced former Bank Indonesia (BI) [official website] chief Burhanuddin Abdullah to five years in prison on corruption charges for knowingly approving the misappropriation of $10 million of the central bank's funds. Governor of BI from May 2003 until May 2008, Abdullah was arrested in April following an investigation by Indonesia's Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) [official website, in Bahasa] into allegations that he approved the use of BI funds to bribe members of the legislature and to pay legal fees to defend other bank officials accused of corruption. Abdullah, who was also fined $23,250, denies the charges and said he will appeal the decision. The KPK also announced [KPK press release, in Bahasa] Wednesday that four more suspects are being investigated in connection with the case, including Aulia Pohan [Jakarta Post report], a former BI senior deputy governor and relative by marriage of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono [official website; BBC profile]. Reuters has more. The Jakarta Post has regional coverage.

Abdullah is the highest official to be convicted of corruption in a country which is increasingly considered one of the most corrupt [TI rankings list; regional analysis, PDF] in the world. Yudhoyono was elected on an anti-corruption platform and has since struggled to rein-in corruption in Indonesia's judicial system [JURIST report]. A KPK investigation into suspected embezzlement within the Indonesian Supreme Court [JURIST report] is ongoing. At the time of his death in January, former President Haji Mohammed Suharto [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] faced government charges for embezzling $440 million from the Yayasan Supersemar [official website], a state-funded scholarship fund, between 1974 and 1998. In March, an Indonesian court cleared [JURIST report] Suharto and his heirs of civil liability in the case.

[JURIST] A criminal court sitting in Damascus Wednesday sentenced twelve dissidents accused of inciting sectarian strife to two and a half years in prison, according to the National Organization for Human Rights in Syria [advocacy website]. The convicted were all leaders of the pro-democracy Damascus Declaration for Democratic National Change (DDDNC) [press release] group. They were found guilty on charges [Amnesty International report] of weakening national sentiment, broadcasting false or exaggerated news that could affect the morale of the country, joining an organization formed with the purpose of changing the financial or social status of the state, and inciting sectarian strife. The activists were arrested in December 2007 and January 2008 after taking part in a meeting of the DDDNC. The original sentence was 6 years but it was reduced by the judge without any explanation. The convicted can appeal for up to 30 days. Several other DDDNC meeting participants were arrested but later released without charge. AP has more.

In April 2007, Syrian human rights lawyer Anwar al-Bunni was sentenced to five years in prison [JURIST report] and required to pay a fine after being convicted of spreading false information harmful to the state. In May 2006, Kamal Labwani, a Syrian political dissident who founded another pro-democracy group, was sentenced [JURIST report] to 12 years in prison for encouraging attacks against Syria after contacting a foreign country. Labwani met with White House officials during a visit to the US in 2005, and was arrested [JURIST report] when he returned to Syria.

[JURIST] An Australian state court Wednesday sentenced suspected terrorist Joseph "Jack" Thomas [advocacy website] to nine months in prison for possessing a falsified passport. Justice Elizabeth Curtain [official profile, PDF] of the Supreme Court of Victoria [official website] released Thomas in consideration for his time served in prison, the prolonged delay in his prosecution, and his lack of prior convictions. Thomas, known in the Australian media as "Jihad Jack", was convicted last week of possessing a falsified passport, but was found not guilty of receiving money and a plane ticket from an al Qaeda operative. AP has more.

The sentencing signals the end of a long legal challenge. Thomas was originally convicted [JURIST report] in February 2006 of receiving $3,500 and a plane ticket after training with al Qaeda in Afghanistan, making him the first person incarcerated under the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism Act 2002 [text, PDF] and the first person to be subject to Australia's controversial control orders [JURIST archive]. That conviction was overturned [JURIST report] by the Supreme Court of Victoria's appeals division after it was shown Thomas was interrogated by Australian Federal Police officers in Pakistan under duress and without access to a lawyer. In June 2008 the Court of Appeals upheld [text, PDF] a lower court ruling ordering a new trial after Thomas willingly volunteered information in an interview with the Australian Broadcast Corporation (ABC).

[JURIST] The Russian State Duma [official website, in Russian], the country's lower house of parliament, on Wednesday unanimously approved military defense agreements [JURIST report] signed with Georgia's breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia [JURIST news archive] last month. The so-called Treaties on Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance allow Russia to offer military assistance and provide for the 3,800 Russian troops to be deployed to each region. After the signing, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev [official website] defended [statement text] the use of Russian troops in the regions to help "remove threats to peace" as proper under Article 51 of the United Nations Charter [text]. The treaties also establish joint cooperation on issues including citizenship and border control, criminal investigations, humanitarian aid, and infrastructure [RIA Novosti report]. The agreements now must be approved by the Federation Council of Russia [official website, in Russian], the country's upper house. If approved, the treaties will last for ten years, with automatic renewal if no objections are submitted. AP has more. From Russia, Kommersant has local coverage.

The treaties have received heavy international criticism and have made Russia one of only two countries in the world to recognize the regions' independence, along with Nicaragua. Georgia's National Security Council [official website] secretary Alexander Lomaia decried the agreements, saying that they were effectively an illegal attempt to annex the regions. The US and the European Union have also criticized the deal, and spokespersons for NATO previously denounced Russia's decision to recognize the teritories [JURIST report] as violative of international law.

[JURIST] JURIST has launched an official page on Facebook, the rapidly-growing social networking portal. The page is designed to give our US and worldwide audience a space in which to share their JURIST experiences and their common interest in the legal news and commentary that we offer every day, while giving readers occasional behind-the-scenes peeks at law student staff operations here at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, JURIST's host institution. After more than a decade of delivering content to hundreds of thousands of largely anonymous readers around the world, our staff is looking forward to seeing the faces and hearing the voices of the ever-growing number of JURIST readers on the Facebook service! Please join us here:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/JURIST/18796551811

Leave a note on our Wall, take the Poll, or chime in on the Discussion Board while keeping up with some the best and latest JURIST content. And as always, tell us how we can make JURIST better. We look forward to seeing you on Facebook!

[JURIST] US military judge Col. Ralph Kohlmann [JURIST news archive] ruled Monday that defense attorney Cmdr. Suzanne Lachelier could gain access to Camp 7 [Miami Herald backgrounder], a special camp for alleged al Qaeda members classified as "high-value detainees" at the Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] military prison. Lachelier is the defense lawyer for Ramzi Binalshibh, who has been charged [text, PDF] with murder and war crimes for his alleged role in the 9/11 attacks [JURIST news archive]. She told the military court that she wants to know if Camp 7 conditions are contributing to Binalshibh's mental illnesses, including psychosis and schizophrenia, which could lead to a conclusion that he is incompetent to stand trial. Kohlmann on Monday denied requests that a defense psychologist also be allowed into the camp. Binalshibh, classified as an enemy combatant for his role in the attacks, faces the death penalty if convicted. AP has more.

Prisoners in Camp 7 are isolated from other prisoners to prevent violence against those who have provided information to interrogators, and the exact location of the camp has been kept secret to prevent a terrorist attack. The existence of the camp was not known until last December when it was mentioned [NYT report] in court papers [JURIST report] filed by lawyers for Majid Khan [GlobalSecurity profile], the first "high-value" Guantanamo Bay detainee to be allowed to meet privately with legal counsel.

[JURIST] A three-judge panel of the Iraqi Central Criminal Court on Tuesday sentenced [Multi-National Force press release] to death an Iraqi citizen affiliated with a Sunni militant organization for the 2006 abduction, torture, and killing of two US soldiers and the killing of a third US soldier. The trial and conviction are the first in which an Iraqi citizen has faced charges in an Iraqi court stemming from the killing of US military personnel. The alleged Iraqi insurgent, Ibrahim Karim al-Qaraghuli, was found guilty of the abduction, torture, and killing of Privates First Class Thomas Tucker and Kristian Menchaca, and the killing of Specialist David Babineau. The incident occurred south of Baghdad in June 2006. Al-Qaraghuli was convicted [Washington Post report] based on the testimony of numerous witness, as well as on the basis of physical evidence linking him to the crime, including expert testimony that his fingerprints matched photographs of bloody fingerprints from the crime scene. Two co-defendants were acquitted of the same charges. The New York Times has more. McClatchy Newspapers has additional coverage.

In September 2006, US military officials said that Tucker, Menchaca, and Babineau were not involved [JURIST report] in the rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl and the murder of her family in the near-by area of Mahmudiya [JURIST news archive]. A group linked to al Qaeda released a video in July that showed two of the dead soldiers' bodies and said the troops were killed to avenge the deaths of the family killed in Mahmudiya. The rape and murders outraged Iraqi leaders [JURIST report], prompting an independent investigation [JURIST report] by Iraqis into crimes allegedly committed by US troops.

[JURIST] Judge Iain Bonomy [official profile] of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website] on Tuesday warned former Bosnian Serb leader and war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic [ICTY materials; JURIST news archive] not to cause any delays in his trial and gave him 14 days [order, PDF] to respond to a motion to amend [text, PDF; JURIST report] the indictment against him. Karadzic is representing himself and was directed to comply with all deadlines set by the ICTY in his case. According to Bonomy's order, the 14-day deadline will take effect when the prosecution has provided Karadzic with materials supporting its motion to amend the initial indictment [text]. BBC News has more. From Serbia, B92 has additional coverage.

Earlier this month, Karadzic asked prosecutors to release information [JURIST report] regarding an alleged immunity deal with former US ambassador to the UN Richard Holbrooke [PBS profile]. In September, ICTY prosecutors filed the motion to amend Karadzic's indictment, as was planned [JURIST report] earlier that month. The existing indictment contains 11 charges against Karadzic, including genocide, murder, persecution, deportation and "other inhumane acts." The proposed amendments would narrow the indictment with the intent of calling fewer witnesses to testify and simplifying the trial. Karadzic was arrested [JURIST report] in July after evading capture for nearly 13 years. He was originally indicted in 1995 but had been in hiding under an assumed identity as an alternative medicine practitioner [BBC report]. He repeatedly refused to enter a plea on the charges, with an ICTY judge eventually entering a not guilty plea [JURIST reports] on his behalf. If the court approves the amended indictment, Karadzic will be asked to enter new pleas.

[JURIST] Internet search company Google, Inc. [corporate website] agreed Tuesday to settle [Google press release] two copyright infringement lawsuits stemming from its book-scanning initiative [Google Book Search website]. The two lawsuits were brought against Google by The Authors Guild [advocacy website; press release, PDF], an advocacy group seeking to preserve copyright protection for authors, and by other plaintiffs including the Association of American Publishers (AAP) [organization website; AAP press release], The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., Penguin Group (USA), Inc., and Simon & Schuster, Inc. [corporate websites]. Under the terms of the settlement agreement [text, PDF], which is subject to approval by the US District Court for the Southern District of New York [court website], Google will pay $125 million to authors and publishers of copyrighted works. In return, Google will be allowed to display online up to 20% of the total pages of a copyrighted book, and will offer users an opportunity to purchase the remainder of any viewed book. The New York Times has more. The Washington Post has additional coverage.

The two lawsuits settled Tuesday were originally brought against Google in 2005. In September 2005, The Authors Guild alleged [JURIST report] "massive copyright infringement at the expense of the rights of individual writers." The lawsuit accused Google of engaging in unauthorized scanning and copying of books through its Google Print Library Project [Google backgrounder; advocacy copyright analysis, PDF]. The AAP lawsuit, filed in October 2005 [JURIST report], alleged that Google infringed copyrights held by a number of publishing companies when it scanned the entire book collections of several universities to make them searchable online.

[JURIST] A US military judge ruled Tuesday that a confession given by Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainee Mohammed Jawad [DOD materials; JURIST news archive] to Afghan officials following his capture in 2002 was obtained using torture and is therefore inadmissible at his upcoming military commission [JURIST news archive] trial. Army Col. Stephen Henley found that Afghan officials threatened to kill Jawad and his family unless he admitted to throwing a grenade that injured three US soldiers in Kabul in 2002. Henley ruled that obtaining a confession using threat of death amounted to torture, and that under Guantanamo trial rules his confession is therefore inadmissible. Reuters has more.

Jawad, who was transferred into US custody after the confession to the Afghanistan government, was designated an "enemy combatant" in 2004. He was later charged [charge sheet, PDF; JURIST report] with attempted murder and intentionally causing serious bodily injury for his role in the attack, which injured two US soldiers and an Afghan translator. The case against him faces growing problems. Last month, former military commissions chief prosecutor Army Lt. Col. Darrel Vandeveld resigned [JURIST report], citing "ethical qualms" with the military commissions' defense counsel discovery procedures. In May, Jawad moved [JURIST report] to have all charges against him dismissed, alleging that he has been tortured in US custody and subjected to 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. Jawad, the fourth Guantanamo detainee to be formally charged with war crimes under the 2006 Military Commissions Act [text, PDF], is set to face military commission on January 5, 2009.