[JURIST] Some officials in the formative administration of US President-elect Barack Obama [transition website] have said they support the creation of a bipartisan congressional commission to investigate potentially abusive US counter-terrorism policies, according to a Newsweek report [text] Saturday. The officials have suggested that such an investigation should be similar to the 9/11 Commission [official website], with a focus on making public the details surrounding the development and authorization of harsh interrogation techniques and other counter-terrorism policies, rather than incriminating those involved. Both Obama and his aides have said previously said that his administration is not likely to prosecute [JURIST report] those who approved or carried out the torture or other harsh interrogation of terrorism suspects, and will instead focus on the creation of new anti-torture laws.

Earlier this month, human rights experts at the University of California, Berkeley, in partnership with the Center for Constitutional Rights [advocacy website] released a report [text, PDF] urging Obama to form an independent, nonpartisan commission [JURIST report] with subpoena powers to investigate the treatment of US detainees in Guantanamo as well as in facilities in Afghanistan and Iraq [JURIST news archives]. Their proposal, however, was more directed at establishing accountability, as the authors warned that any commission established by Obama must not be undercut by the issuance of pardons, amnesties, or other shielding measures.

[JURIST] Russia's Supreme Court has decided to review the actions of a Moscow District Military Court judge presiding over the trial of three men accused in the murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya [BBC obituary], according to a court spokesman quoted in local media reports [Moscow Times report; Russia Today report] Sunday. Judge Yevgeny Zubov on Wednesday ordered the proceedings to be closed [JURIST report] to the public citing alleged jury objections to allowing reporters in the courtroom, but the claim was denied in a Thursday statement [autotranslation] by one of the jurors on Ekho Moskvy [media website] radio. The judge had previously ordered that the trial be open [JURIST report]. Also on Thursday, the judge postponed the trial until December 1, citing scheduling conflicts for defense lawyers, but they have also denied having conflicts [BBC report] and are moving to have the proceedings reopened [RIA Novosti report] in light of the juror's statement. All three men in the case have pleaded not guilty.

Sergey Khadzhikurbanov and brothers Dzhabrail and Ibragim Makhmudov, all from Chechnya, were arrested [JURIST report] in August 2007. The main suspect, Rustam Makhmudov, also from Chechnya, has yet to be captured, but Russian authorities have said he is hiding in Western Europe. Closed preliminary hearings in the case began [JURIST report] last month. Politkovskaya, a reporter for the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta [official website] widely known for her stories about human rights abuses by Russian troops in Chechnya, was murdered [JURIST report] after returning to her Moscow apartment building in October 2006.

[JURIST] The US military has assigned Army judge Col. Stephen Henley [DOD biography, PDF] to preside over the the war crimes trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed [BBC profile; JURIST news archive], the self proclaimed architect of the 9/11 attacks [JURIST report], according to a Miami Herald report [text]. Henley replaces Marine Col. Ralph Kohlmann [JURIST news archive] whose announced retirement [JURIST report] from the post of chief judge of the US military commissions [DOD materials; JURIST news archive] was effective on Monday of this past week. Kohlmann had initially announced his retirement [JURIST report] in September, but said then that it would not be effective until April 2009. Henley's first hearing is scheduled for Dec 8.

Henley was first assigned as a military judge in 1998. In August, he ordered that military commissions [JURIST news archive] legal advisor Gen. Thomas Hartmann [official profile] not be allowed to participate in the Guantanamo trial of Afghan detainee Mohammed Jawad [DOD materials; JURIST news archive]. Henley held that Hartmann had made public statements suggesting he was overly favorable to prosecutors [JURIST report] despite the purported neutrality of his role. In October, Henley ruled that a confession given by Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainee Mohammed Jawad [DOD materials; JURIST news archive] was obtained using torture and was inadmissible at his military commission trial. 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. He ruled that obtaining a confession using threat of death amounted to torture, and that under Guantanamo trial rules his confession is therefore inadmissible.

[JURIST] A spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry [official website, in Chinese] Sunday called [press release, in Chinese; autotranslation] a report released [JURIST report] last week by the UN Committee Against Torture [official website] prejudiced and false. The Committee's report had expressed "deep concern" over continued allegations that China authorities carried on the routine and widespread practice of torture and ill-treatment of suspects to extract confessions. In his statement, Qin Gang accused members of the committee of being biased against China, and said that the committee used false and unconfirmed information. Qin added that China has complied with the provisions of the UN Convention against Torture [text] and that it opposes the use of torture. AP has more. AFP has additional coverage.

In its Observations [text] at the conclusion of its 41st Session [materials] released Friday, the Committee identified three "over-arching problems" with China's rights record, including the 1988 Law on the Preservation of State Secrets [text], which the Committee says has prevented a "full and impartial investigation in the suppression of the Democracy movement in Beijing in June 1989." The Committee urged China to ensure all detainees of the March 2008 unrest in the Tibetan Autonomous Region [government website] be given access to independent counsel and medical care, and be allowed to lodge confidential complaints. The Committee also welcomed positive developments, noting legislative and administrative reforms. Members of the Chinese delegation met with the committee earlier this month and said that China had provided training and enacted judicial reforms [UN press release and transcript summary; JURIST report] and asked for consideration of policy differences based on China's size, population, and culture.