[JURIST] Egyptian foreign minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit [official profile] said [SIS press release] in a Monday interview with Egyptian television that the International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website] should wait for Darfur peace efforts to play out before proceeding with a formal indictment of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] for alleged war crimes [BBC backgrounder]. ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo filed ten charges against al-Bashir in July for atrocities committed in the country's Darfur region and controversially sought an arrest warrant against him. Aboul Gheit cited Article 16 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court [text], which requires the ICC to defer war crimes investigations for one year at the request of the UN Security Council [official website]. Aboul Gheit's comments follow Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's [BBC profile] visit to Sudan [SIS press release], in which he met with al-Bashir. AP has more. AFP has additional coverage.

On Wednesday, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Edmond Mulet said issuing an arrest warrant for al-Bashir could “derail” the peace process [JURIST report]. Last month, ICC judges gave Moreno-Ocampo one month [JURIST report] to submit "additional supporting materials in relation to some confidential aspects" of his application. Human Rights Watch has accused the Sudanese government [JURIST report] of using a domestic special prosecutor for Darfur crimes as "window dressing" to thwart the ICC investigation.

[JURIST] A Chilean judge on Monday formally charged the youngest son, former secretary, and estate executor of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet [JURIST news archive; BBC profile] for maliciously making false or incomplete tax declarations. The charges relate to multi-million dollar accounts discovered in 2004 in the US-based Riggs National Bank [BBC report]. Lawyers for Marco Antonio Pinochet deny the charges. AP has more. La Nacion has additional coverage, in Spanish.

Pinochet's relatives have faced related tax evasion charges twice before. In January 2006, Pinochet’s wife, four of five children, daughter-in-law, and former secretary and lawyer were indicted [PDF text, in Spanish; JURIST report], but a year later the Santiago Court of Appeals dropped most of the charges [JURIST report]. In October 2007, 23 family members and former associates - including Pinochet’s wife, five children, former secretary, and three retired army generals - were indicted [JURIST report] on corruption charges for aiding Pinochet in the “misuse of fiscal funds” during his regime. The following month, the Supreme Court of Chile upheld an appeals court decision to drop the charges [JURIST reports] because the accused were not government employees at the time and thus could not be charged with embezzling government funds.

[JURIST] A Myanmar [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive] court on Tuesday sentenced fourteen members of the 88 Generation Students [BBC backgrounder] pro-democracy group to sixty-five years in prison, according to media reports [AFP report; IHT report]. The sentencing was revealed by defendants' relatives after allegedly taking place in a court in Yangon's Insein Prison [BBC backgrounder]. The Thai website Irawaddy.org has published the names [Irawaddy.com report] of the convicted activists. The defendants were arrested for their participation in anti-junta protests last year regarding fuel prices in defiance of Myanmar's May 1996 anti-protest law, among others. AP has more.

The convictions are the latest in what has been criticized by the UN Human Rights Council [UNHRC resolution], Human Rights Watch [HRW report], Amnesty International [AI report], and others as a systematic ongoing effort to repress dissenters. On Monday, a Myanmar blogger was sentenced [AP report] to twenty years in prison for protest involvement. Last week, two lawyers for dissident students were sentenced [JURIST report] to four months in prison for for being "disrespectful" during their representation. In October, nine people, many of whom were members of 88 Generation Students, were sentenced [JURIST report] to six months in prison for interrupting a judicial proceeding. The 88 Generation Students have been prominent in pro-democracy campaigns since the 1988 Burmese student uprising [BBC backgrounder].

[JURIST] Advisers to US President-elect Barack Obama [official website] emphasized Monday in the wake of press reports that Obama has not made a decision regarding the future of the military prison camp at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] and its prisoners, despite an earlier Associated Press story [text; JURIST report] that Obama strategists had begun working on a plan to hold criminal trials in US courts for a large number of Guantanamo detainees. Denis McDonough, a senior foreign policy advisor to Obama, said in a statement [Reuters report] that Obama remains committed to closing the prison, but that he would not reach a decision on how to do so or where to try current Guantanamo detainees until he assembled his legal and national security teams. The Chicago Tribune has more.

A number of human rights groups are publicly seeking the end of the Guantanamo Bay prison camp. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Monday urged [ACLU materials] Obama to not only close the camp, but also to end military commissions [ACLU press release] in favor of trying detainees in traditional US criminal courts or military courts governed by the Uniform Code of Military Justice [text]. In a full-page ad in the New York Times [ad, PDF], the ACLU called on the Obama administration to close Guantanamo Bay in order to ensure “that our government will be faithful to the Constitution and to the principles upon which America was founded.” Since opening in 2002, the Guantanamo Bay prison has held more than 750 detainees, all of which have habeas corpus rights according to a ruling [opinion PDF] from the US Supreme Court [official website] this past June.

[JURIST] UK House of Lords judge Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury [appointment release] has said that when the new UK Supreme Court [backgrounder] is constituted in 2009 replacing the current Law Lords, members of the country's Parliament [official website] should be able to question the justices because of the court's influence on British laws. Speaking last week at the annual meeting [agenda, PDF] of the Bar Council [council website], Neuberger said that the increased independence of the new body, which replaces the judicial panel of the House of Lords [official website] as Britain's highest tribunal, should be balanced by accountability to the legislature. He suggested that the process could be modeled on the US process for confirming Supreme Court justices [JURIST report]. The Times has more.

In January, it was reported that Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers [BBC profile; JURIST news archive], will probably head the new Supreme Court, statutorily created by the Constitutional Reform Act of 2005 [text]. Besides the US, Canada in 2006 began parliamentary questioning [JURIST report] of nominees for its Supreme Court. The practice remains controversial among Canadian judges.

[JURIST] The US Department of Defense (DOD) [official website] on Monday announced [press release] the transfer of two Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainees to Algeria. The Department says that approximately 60 detainees at the base are eligible for release, and that it is negotiating with host countries to allow their transfer. It said the transfers were approved after a "comprehensive series of review processes," and that approximately 250 detainees remain at the base.

Earlier this month, DOD announced the transfer [press release; JURIST report] of one Guantanamo detainee to Somaliland, as well as the transfer [press release; JURIST report] of two other detainees, one to Tajikistan and one to Kazakhstan. It was reported Monday that advisers to US president-elect Barack Obama [transition website] are working on a plan to expedite the closure [JURIST report] of the base by either releasing or bringing criminal charges against the majority of remaining detainees. Earlier this month, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates [official profile] confirmed that the detention facilities at Guantanamo will remain open [JURIST report] for the remainder of President George W. Bush's administration.

[JURIST] Taipei police arrested former Taiwanese president Chen Shui-bian [BBC profile] on Tuesday following questioning by prosecutors about possible corruption and money laundering. Prosecutors are specifically questioning [Taipei Times report] whether Chen, the former leader of the now-opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) [party website, in Mandarin] who resigned the presidency in May 2008, embezzled money from the state affairs fund. Chen has maintained his innocence and has said that the investigation is a political attack by members of the ruling Kuomintang Party [party website]. Officials from the DPP have also criticized the investigation [press release, in Mandarin], claiming that it lacks necessary transparency, that it has been unfair, and that it is violating the principle of non-public investigations. State officials have not formally charged Chen, though such charges could come as early as Tuesday night. A court hearing on Chen's case was suspended Tuesday after Chen was taken to hospital [BBC report] claiming he had been injured by being pushed from behind after questioning at the state prosecutor's office earlier in the day. AFP has more. The New York Times has additional coverage.

Corruption allegations against Chen and his family began in 2006, when state officials accused Chen and his wife, Wu Shu-chen, of embezzling NT$14.8 million ($450,000 USD) from the state affairs budget between 2002 and 2006 by using 712 receipts obtained by the first lady through personal acquaintances. Chen has repeatedly denied the charges of embezzlement, saying that the funds reimbursed with the collected receipts were used for classified diplomatic purposes. Wu was indicted [JURIST report] following those allegations for embezzlement and falsifying documents. Prosecutors indicated that they had enough evidence to indict Chen also, but Chen enjoyed Article 52 [text] constitutional immunity from most criminal charges while he remained in office.

[JURIST] A judge for the US District Court for the District of Columbia [official website] on Monday denied [opinion, PDF] a government motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) [advocacy website] and the National Security Archive [official website] seeking access to e-mail records from the White House Office of Administration (OA) [official website] under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Judge Henry Kennedy rejected the government's arguments that compliance with statutory presidential records requirements is not subject to judicial review, that the court lacked the proper jurisdiction and authority to potentially order retrieval of the records, and that the plaintiffs did not suffer actual injury that could be redressed by a favorable decision, and ruled that the case could move forward. CREW Executive Director Melanie Sloan welcomed [press release] the ruling:

The Court has rejected the administration’s argument and upheld CREW’s right to sue the White House for failing to comply with the Federal Records Act. The White House, which values secrecy above nearly all else, finally will be held accountable for the millions of missing emails.

[JURIST] Members of the Chinese delegation to the UN Committee Against Torture (CAT) [official website] on Monday said that the Chinese government had provided training and enacted judicial reforms [UN press release and transcript summary] to help implement its prohibitions against torture, illegal detention, and enforced disappearances, but that the committee needed to consider policy differences based on China's size, population, and culture. CAT members, who are investigating China's adherence to the Convention against Torture [text] during the committee's fourth periodic review [materials] of the country, raised particular concerns over the torture and mistreatment of detainees, as well as the rights afforded minorities, women, and children, refugee treatment, and the rights of lawyers. The Chinese delegation's committee testimony Monday mirrored the delegation's earlier written response [text, PDF] to the committee's concerns, in which the delegation insisted that "[t]he Chinese government faithfully fulfills its obligation under the Convention and respects the Committee’s recommendations, and at the same time, China’s national conditions should also be taken into full account." Regarding torture, the delegation's response Monday again tracked its earlier written response, which noted:

An analysis of the law enforcement situation in recent years shows that the overwhelming majority of prosecutions strictly abided by the Criminal Procedure Law and other relevant laws and handled cases according to law, thus ensuring the quality of case handling. However, it should be pointed out that cases of extracting confession by torture or collecting evidences by force still exist, due to lack of awareness of rule by law on the part of very few case-handling personnel. Such cases are subject to strict investigation and punishment by the Chinese government in accordance with law.

[JURIST] Members of the UK parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) [official website] are pushing for legislation to limit the ability of the media to report on matters affecting national security, according to an Independent report [text] Monday. Under the current system, news editors may seek guidance from Defence Advisory Notices (DA-Notices) [official website] when considering whether to publish information that could affect national security, though such guidance is voluntary and the decision whether to publish rests solely with the editor. The ISC's desired legislation would restrict the power of publication by banning publication of matters the government deems dangerous to national security. According to the ISC's 2006-2007 Annual Report [text, PDF]:

The current system for handling national security information through DA-Notices, and the Agencies’ relationships with the media more generally, is not working as effectively as it might and this is putting lives at risk. We recommend that the Government engage with the media to develop a new, effective system, with a view to protecting intelligence work, operations, sources and criminal prosecutions, whilst ensuring that the media continue to report on important matters of public interest.