[JURIST] A US military judge denied [ruling, PDF] a request [motion, PDF] by prosecutors Thursday to reconsider the prison term for Salim Ahmed Hamdan [DOD materials; JURIST news archive], the former driver for Osama Bin Laden [JURIST news archive]. US military and civilian prosecutors filed the motion in September, arguing [JURIST report] that the Guantanamo military commission which heard his case improperly gave him credit for time spent in custody. Hamdan was sentenced to five and a half years in prison in August, following his conviction [JURIST reports] on providing material support for terrorism [charge sheet, PDF]. The trial judge, Navy Capt. Keith Allred, gave Hamdan credit for 61 months served, which he calculated at a different standard than that of a ordinary enemy combatant. While Hamden will be eligible for release in January, the US government has said that once his sentence is up, it can detain him indefinitely as an enemy combatant. AP has more. The Miami Herald has additional coverage.

Hamdan was initially taken into custody in 2001, and in 2006 he successfully challenged President George W. Bush's military commission system when the Supreme Court ruled [opinion, PDF; JURIST report] that the commission system as initially construed violated US and international law. Congress subsequently passed the Military Commissions Act of 2006 [DOD materials], which established the current military commissions system. In April of this year, Hamdan announced that he planned to boycott his military commission trial. In July, a military judge denied [JURIST report] Hamdan's motion to dismiss his charges, holding that the military commission assigned had jurisdiction to hear the case against him.

[JURIST] A draft of a European Commission [official website] report obtained by a Serbian newspaper this week has confirmed that Serbia [JURIST news archive] should remain eligible for candidacy within the European Union in 2009 provided the country continues to make progress on fighting corruption, forming an independent judiciary, and complying fully with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website]. Serbia’s previous attempt to obtain candidacy stalled in 2006 [JURIST report] when the EU criticized Serbia’s inability to find known war criminals within its borders. This latest EU report appears to acknowledge the steps Serbia has taken towards bringing war criminals to justice, most notably the July capture of Radovan Karadzic [JURIST report]. The final report is scheduled to be released November 5. RIA Novosti has more. From Serbia, B92 has local coverage.

Concerns about corruption and the apprehension of war criminals have been a consistent obstacle for other Balkan countries, such as Croatia [JURIST report], which have sought admission to the EU. Turkey, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and Croatia are all EU candidates, but only Turkey and Croatia are moving forward in the accession process.

[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit [official site] on Thursday upheld a Missouri state law [SB 714 s. 589.426 text, PDF] designed to prevent registered sex offenders from participating in Halloween activities. The law requires sex offenders to post a sign reading "No candy or treats at this residence," turn off porch lights, avoid Halloween-related activity with children, and remain in their homes on Halloween between 5:00 PM to 10:30 PM unless there is just cause to leave. The decision overturns a ruling [JURIST report] by the US District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri [official site] on Monday that found that two provisions of the law were too restrictive and could not be enforced. Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt [official website] praised the Thursday’s decision in a statement [press release]:

As Missouri's governor I have signed tough legislation to increase the penalties for sexual predators, particularly those who commit crimes against our children. I am pleased that the court ruled that our new provisions to protect Missouri’s children from sexual predators on Halloween can be enforced.

[JURIST] A jury for the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida [official website] on Thursday found Charles McArthur Emmanuel, son of former Liberian President Charles Taylor [JURIST news archive], guilty of charges [JURIST report] that he was involved in torture and other crimes in Liberia between 1999 and 2002. Emmanuel, a US citizen raised in Boston, had pleaded not guilty [JURIST report] to the charges and was the first person indicted under a 1994 federal anti-torture statute [18 USC 2340A text]. Both rights groups [HRW release] and US prosecutors applauded the conviction, and in a Department of Justice press release [text] US Attorney General Michael Mukasey [JURIST news archive] said:

Today’s conviction provides a measure of justice to those who were victimized by the reprehensible acts of Charles Taylor Jr. and his associates... It sends a powerful message to human rights violators around the world that, when we can, we will hold them fully accountable for their crimes.

[JURIST] Serbian prosecutors Thursday condemned Albania's refusal to initiate an investigation into allegations of organ trafficking [JURIST news archive] in Kosovo. Albanian Prosecutor General Ina Rama refused Tuesday to cooperate with Serbian war crimes prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic [official website] and said that her country will only pursue the allegations if the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website] decides to reopen its investigation. Vukcevic said that Serbia will send the case to the Council of Europe. AP has more. From Belgrade, B92 has local coverage.

Rama and Vukcevic met [JURIST report] Monday to discuss allegations [JURIST report] by former ICTY prosecutor Carla Del Ponte [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] that about 300 Serbian and other non-Albanian prisoners were victims of organ trafficking during the 1998-1999 war in Kosovo. Serbia announced [JURIST report] in April plans to request that the ICTY resume its probe into the allegations after Vukcevic received "informal statements" [JURIST report] from ICTY investigators concerning illegal organ harvesting. Both Human Rights Watch and the Council of Europe have completed reports into the allegations [JURIST reports], urging further investigation.

[JURIST] UK Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has asked Attorney General Baroness Scotland [official websites] to begin a criminal investigation into claims that both British and US officers contributed to the torture of Guantanamo Bay detainee and former UK resident Binyam Mohamed [Reprieve profile; JURIST news archive], according to a government letter [Reprieve release] released Thursday. Smith also provided Scotland with evidence relating to Mohamed's claims [JURIST report] that CIA and MI5 [official websites] agents involved in his detention and rendition to Morocco were complicit in the abuse he allegedly suffered while being interrogated there. The High Court in London ruled [judgment, PDF; JURIST report] in August that the evidence should be released because it was "essential" to Mohamed's defense that information against him was obtained through torture, but Foreign Secretary David Miliband later refused [JURIST report] the court's order. Rights group Reprieve [advocacy website] praised Smith's release of the evidence, and called on Scotland to bring criminal charges against those responsible for Mohamed's alleged abuse. The Independent has more. The Guardian has additional coverage.

Also Thursday, US District Court for the District of Columbia [official website] judge Emmet Sullivan ordered the US Department of Justice [official website] to provide Mohamed's lawyers with whatever evidence it had regarding his alleged abuse. US prosecutors earlier this month dismissed without prejudice charges they had brought against Mohamed claiming that he was involved in a plan to detonate a dirty bomb [JURIST reports], but said that they are considering whether or not to recharge him with other crimes. Sullivan, who is overseeing a lawsuit Mohammed has brought against the government, said the move was suspicious and questioned the validity of the evidence against him. The New York Times has more.

Mohamed asserts that after he was arrested in Pakistan, he was turned over to US officials who then transferred him to Moroccan agents who tortured him; he was later transferred to Guantanamo Bay in 2004. In December, in a letter [DOC, text] sent by his lawyer to Miliband, he asked the UK government [JURIST report] to ensure that photographic evidence of his alleged torture be preserved. For most of 2007, Binyam was one of five UK residents detained at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive]. Three of those were released [DOD press release; JURIST report] from US custody in December. The official status of a fourth detainee remains unclear.

[JURIST] Russia's Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) [official website] Thursday announced that Russian oil companies Rosneft and LUKoil [corporate websites] broke competition laws in the Russian market by fixing monopoly-like prices this summer. The FAS found Rosneft and LUKoil fixed high prices for gasoline, diesel fuel, air fuel, and fuel oil. The agency will determine the size of fines within the next two weeks. Reuters has more. RIA Novosti has local coverage.

In July, the FAS sent inquiries [FAS press release] to major Russian oil producers LUKoil, Gazprom Neft, Surgutneftegaz, TNK-BP [corporate websites], and Rosneft over rising fuel prices. Earlier this month the agency demanded [RIA Novosti report] that they all cut prices. In September, Gazprom Neft and TNK-BP were also found in breach of competition laws. The Russian oil industry has been somewhat in disarray since the collapse of Yukos Oil [JURIST news archive], which legally ceased to exist in 2007 after the Moscow Arbitration Court completed its liquidation. Once Russia's largest oil company, Yukos was forced to declare bankruptcy [JURIST report] in August 2006 when it could not pay claimed back taxes. Former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky [defense website; JURIST news archive] was convicted of tax evasion [JURIST report] in 2005 and is currently imprisoned in Siberia. Rosneft acquired Yukos' remaining assets.

[JURIST] In a landmark intellectual property decision Thursday, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit [official website] ruled [opinion, PDF] 9-3 that a business concept for hedging risk in the field of commodities trading was too vague for patent protection. The case on an application by Bernard Bilski, the CEO of a company called Weatherwise, could affect the validity of thousands of patents, particularly in the financial services and software industries. Relying on the "machine-or-transformation test" established in the 1972 Supreme Court case Gottschalk v. Benson [text] and reaffirmed in the 1981 case Diamond v. Diehr [text], the court ruled that business methods do not meet the standard for patentability under US law. The majority concluded that Bilski's patent application did not meet the definition of "process" under 35 U.S.C. 101 [text] because it did not involve a machine and did not physically transform anything. The New York Times has more.

Bilski and Rand Warsaw filed their patent application on April 10, 1997. After its rejection on the grounds that an abstract idea is not patentable, they appealed to the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences [official website] which sustained all eleven objections on their patent application. The appeal was originally argued [argument, audio] before a panel of the court in October 2007. The court ordered en banc review [order, PDF], and oral argument [part 1, recorded audio; part 2] was held last May. The Circuit Court's decision could have wide-ranging consequences across a number of industries, as many currently accused of patent infringement are likely to argue that in light of Thursday's ruling many older patents are invalid. It is not yet clear if Bilski will appeal.

[JURIST] International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website] President Judge Phillippe Kirsch [official profile] told the UN General Assembly Thursday that the ICC is at a "critical stage" [transcript, PDF] ten years after its creation. Presenting his annual report [text, PDF; ICC press release; UN press release], Kirsch said that while serious war crimes and crimes against humanity within the jurisdiction of the court continue to be committed worldwide, it is "still far too early to pass judgment" on the court's success. He added:

Most fundamentally, the success of the Court will depend on it fulfilling properly its own mandate. The Court must and will continue to do its part to ensure its judicial independence and impartiality. It will investigate and prosecute crimes within its jurisdiction in accordance with the principle of complementarity. It will guarantee the rights of the accused and of suspects. It will interpret the Rome Statute and develop a body of jurisprudence. It will protect victims and witnesses. It will give further effect to the rights of victims to participate. It will address questions of reparations to victims. And in all its proceedings, it will continue to strive for the highest standards of efficiency and transparency.

However, it is important to bear in mind at all times that the ICC – and the ICC system with its checks and balances and its limitations on the power of the Court – was created by States as a judicial mechanism to assist in the achievement of certain objectives mentioned in the preamble of the Rome Statute. The system can only work effectively if all actors in the system play their part.