[JURIST] India's upper house of parliament the Rajya Sabha [official website] on Thursday approved two anti-terrorism bills in response to the recent Mumbai terror attacks [BBC backgrounder]. One bill, the Unlawful Activities Prevention Amendment of 2008 (UAPA) [legislative materials] will allow the government to hold terrorism suspects for up to 180 days, and the other bill will set up a National Investigation Agency to conduct anti-terror probes. Proponents of the UAPA have said that there are safeguards in place [Hindustan Times report] to make sure that the new law is not misused. India's lower house the Lok Sabha [official website] approved the legislation on Wednesday. The bills must now be signed by Indian President Smt. Pratibha Devisingh Patil [official website] before they take effect.

The attacks in Mumbai, which claimed at least 170 lives, were carried out at ten locations across the city, including the landmark Taj Mahal Palace hotel [hotel website]. In the wake of the attacks, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh [official website] pushed for tougher anti-terrorism measures [JURIST report].

[JURIST] US President-elect Barack Obama [transition website] on Thursday named [press release] Mary Schapiro [professional profile] as the Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) [official website]. Schapiro is currently the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Financial Industrial Regulatory Authority (FINRA) [organization website], an independent regulator of US securities firms. Schapiro's appointment comes at a time of financial turmoil in the US and concern about the SEC's regulatory process in the wake of charges filed [complaint, PDF; JURIST report] against Bernard Madoff [JURIST news archive] and his securities firm for an alleged $50 billion fraud scheme. Obama said:

In the last few days, the alleged scandal at Madoff Investment Securities has reminded us yet again of how badly reform is needed when it comes to the rules and regulations that govern our markets. Charities that invested in Madoff could end up losing savings on which millions depend – a massive fraud that was made possible in part because the regulators who were assigned to oversee Wall Street dropped the ball. And if the financial crisis has taught us anything, it’s that this failure of oversight and accountability doesn’t just harm the individuals involved, it has the potential to devastate our entire economy. That’s a failure we cannot afford.

Financial regulatory reform will be one of the top legislative priorities of my Administration, and as a symbol of how important I view this reform, I’m announcing these appointments months earlier than previous administrations have. [Schapiro] will help put in place new, common-sense rules of the road that will protect investors, consumers, and our entire economy from fraud and manipulation by an irresponsible few.

[JURIST] A jury at the Manchester Crown Court Thursday convicted a British Muslim suspected of al Qaeda involvement on charges of directing terrorism. Rangzieb Ahmed is the first person in the UK to be convicted of this crime under the Terrorism Act of 2006 [text, PDF]. Ahmed was allegedly a high-level al Qaeda member with ties to some of the organization's leaders. He is accused of setting up a terrorist cell [BBC report] in Manchester, and he allegedly boasted of meeting Khalid Sheikh Mohammed [JURIST news archive], the man accused of planning the 9/11 attacks [JURIST news archive]. Ahmed also had a book with contact information for al Qaeda leaders [Telegraph report] written in invisible ink. Ahmed will be sentenced Friday. A second man, Habib Ahmed, who is not related to Rangzieb Ahmed, was convicted of al Qaeda membership but cleared of other terrorism charges. Habib Ahmed's wife was also cleared of charges of funding terrorism.

Rangzieb Ahmed was originally charged [BBC report] in September 2007. Prosecutors told the court that he was a key member of al Qaeda [BBC report], but he denied all charges. Last moth, he told the court that he had lied about being a terrorist in order to make money [BBC report] by selling his story to a newspaper.

[JURIST] At least 23 employees of the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior [JURIST news archive] have been arrested this week for alleged attempts to rebuild Saddam Hussein's Baath party [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive], a ministry spokesman confirmed Thursday. Speaking at a press conference, Major-General Abdul Karim Khalaf said that the officials are being questioned for possible connections to the so-called al-Awda ("The Return") movement, the current incarnation of the defunct Baath party. Khalaf said that the officials are not presently accused of plotting a coup, contrary to an earlier report [NYT report]. Ministry public relations head Brigadier-General Alaa al-Taei confirmed that no coup plot has been alleged, but said there is evidence that the officials planned to burn down the ministry [Al Jazeera report]. Unnamed ministry sources also said that the arrested range from low-ranking officers to a traffic police brigadier general, and do not include four generals as initially rumored. Khalaf said the interrogations are being conducted under the supervision of the Iraqi judiciary.

The US-run Coalition Provisional Authority [official website] prioritized outlawing the Baath Party, and in 2003 Iraq established the De-Baathification Commission [official website] aimed at rooting out members of Hussein's party from positions of power in the Iraqi government. The Commission prompted the forced removal [JURIST report] of approximately 30,000 Baathists from public life. The Bush administration eventually urged the Iraqi government to shift the commission from outright prohibition to "accountability and reconciliation" in the interests of countering the growing insurgency in the country. De-Baathification reform legislation was praised [JURIST report] by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Earlier this year, Iraq adopted the controversial Accountability and Justice Law [JURIST report], which allows most former Baathists to be reinstated to public life.

[JURIST] Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki [official profile] and political rival Prime Minister Raila Odinga [official website] on Wednesday announced legislation establishing a commission [press release] tasked with investigating the political and ethnic violence that followed Kenya's disputed December 2007 presidential election [JURIST report]. The "Statute for the Special Tribunal" will create a tribunal to hold accountable "persons bearing the greatest responsibility for crimes against humanity" during the election aftermath. The move follows a recommendation from October's Waki report [PDF text; JURIST report] published by the specially-appointed Commission of Inquiry into Post-Election Violence (CIPEV) [JURIST report], which requested that a tribunal be established within the territorial boundaries of Kenya with the mandate to prosecute crimes – “particularly crimes against humanity” – relating to the 2007 general election. Wednesday's announcement narrowly met a CIPEV deadline to initiate such a commission or to forward the sealed list of the alleged perpetrators to the special prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website]. Among the provisions will be a requirement that any public office holder implicated in the prosecution will be suspended from duty until the matter is fully adjudicated. The bill will now be prepared by the Cabinet Committee on the National Accord and considered by the Kenyan National Assembly [official website], which must begin hearings by March or defer to the ICC.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] reported that more than 1,000 people were killed and 500,000 displaced in weeks of protests and rioting following the contentious election. In March, the Kenyan parliament approved a power-sharing agreement [JURIST report] between Kibaki and Odinga in an attempt to end the post-election violence which had sparked simmering ethnic tensions in the country. Though the CIPEV report did not include names of the suspected culprits, CIPEV head Justice Philip Waki said the commission found evidence of involvement by prominent politicians, government officials, and businessmen in Kenya but postponed disclosures to prevent the sabotage and adulteration of evidence. CIPEV reportedly delivered the names in a sealed envelope to former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan [official profile; JURIST news archive], who helped mediate the current power-sharing agreement.

[JURIST] A panel of judges at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website] ruled Wednesday that there was no valid immunity deal [decision, PDF] between war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic [ICTY materials; ICTY backgrounder; JURIST news archive] and US ambassador to the UN Richard Holbrooke [PBS profile] and that even if such an agreement had existed, it would not be valid under international law. Judge Iain Bonomy wrote:

The Trial Chamber notes the vague nature of the Accused's submissions in relation to the alleged agreement. In particular, in the Official Submission the Accused states repeatedly and emphatically that "there is no doubt that this offer was made in the name of the USA" and refers to the alleged agreement as being "between the USA and me", but in the Motion he argues he is "the beneficiary of ... a specific agreement not to prosecute him as an individual" and that the alleged agreement is attributable to the ICTY. The Accused does not specify in what form the agreement was made. The Accused indicates that he intends to demonstrate "the effective control of the United States over the peace process in Bosnia from August 1995 ... [and] the relationship between the United States and the ICTY OTP" in order to draw a connection between the actions of Mr. Holbrooke in his capacity as a representative of the United States and either the United Nations, its member states or the Office of the Prosecutor of the Tribunal. The Trial Chamber considers that the Accused makes no prima facie showing of that connection, and appears to have misinterpreted the law on this point.

The Trial Chamber considers it well established that any immunity agreement in respect of an accused indicted for genocide, war crimes and/or crimes against humanity before an international tribunal would be invalid under international law. The Trial Chamber further considers that, pursuant to the Statute and Rules of the Tribunal, neither its own mandate nor that of the Prosecutor is affected by any alleged undertaking made by Mr. Holbrooke.

The Trial Chamber concludes that this argument is without substantive basis, and therefore that information that the Accused may intend to use in support of it is not material to the preparation of the defence in this respect.

[JURIST] US Attorney General Michael Mukasey [official profile; JURIST news archive] recused himself from the investigation of former NASDAQ stock market chairman Bernard Madoff [JURIST news archive] because his son is representing a top official in Madoff's investment firm, US Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] officials said Wednesday. Mark Mukasey, a former federal prosecutor, works as an attorney with the New York law firm of Bracewell & Giuliani [firm website] and is representing Frank DiPascali, the chief financial officer at Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC [archived website]. DOJ officials did not say when Mukasey found out about the conflict but did say that he was removing himself entirely from the investigation and would not be making any decisions on the case.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) [official website] filed charges [complaint, PDF; JURIST report] last week in New York against Madoff and his firm for an alleged $50 billion fraud scheme. On Tuesday, SEC Chairman Christopher Cox [official profile] said that he would launch an immediate investigation [press release] into how the fraud allegedly perpetrated by Madoff went undetected for so long. The SEC will also look into relationships between SEC officials and Madoff's family members, including Madoff's niece, who married a former SEC lawyer in 2007.

[JURIST] The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) [official website; JURIST news archive] sentenced a former top official in Rwanda's Ministry of Defence and two other former Rwanda army officers to life imprisonment Thursday after convicting them of genocide and crimes against humanity [press release] in connection with 1994 mass killings that left over 500,000 people dead in gruesome ethnic violence. Colonel Théoneste Bagosora [case materials], Director of Cabinet in the Rwandan Ministry of Defence; Major Aloys Ntabakuze, commander of the Para Commando Battalion; and Colonel Anatole Nsengiyumva, commander of the Operational Sector of Gisenyi, were found guilty by 3 international judges on a panel of the UN-sponsored tribunal sitting in Arusha, Tanzania. The court found Bagasora responsible for the killing of Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana, President of the Constitutional Court Joseph Kavaruganda, and opposition party officials and government ministers Frédéric Nzamurambaho, Landoald Ndasingwa and Faustin Rucogoza. He was additionally found guilty in connection with the killing of ten Belgian peacekeepers, and was held responsible for organised killings perpetrated by soldiers and militiamen at various locations in the country in early April 1994. Ntabakuze was found guilty for killings committed by his soldiers, and Nsengiyumva was considered responsible for several massacres and targeted killings of civilians, including Tutsi refugees. A fourth officer, General Gratien Kabiligi, head of the military operations bureau (G-3) of the army general staff, was acquitted of all charges against him and ordered released. The court additonally acquitted all the accused of conspiring to commit genocide.

Delivering a summary [text, PDF] of an as-yet-unreleased judgement said to be some 500 pages long, Norwegian judge Erik Mose [official profile] said:

The judgement in this case, often called the Military I trial, is the result of several years of proceedings. Many of us in the courtroom today have been working with each other for most of its 409 trial days. We have considered the evidence of 242 witnesses from the Prosecution and Defence and poured through the more than 30,000 pages of transcripts, nearly 1,600 exhibits, and approximately 4,500 pages of the parties’ final submissions. The amount of evidence in this case is nearly eight times the size of an average single-accused case heard by the Tribunal. Innumerable pages of pleadings have resulted in about 300 written decisions...

The evidence of this trial has reiterated that genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes were perpetrated in Rwanda after 6 April 1994. The human suffering and slaughter were immense. These crimes were directed principally against Tutsi civilians as well as Hutus who were seen as sympathetic to the Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) or as opponents of the ruling regime. The perpetrators included soldiers, gendarmes, civilian and party officials, Interahamwe and other militia, as well as ordinary citizens. Nevertheless, as the evidence in this case and the history of the Tribunal show, not every member of these groups committed crimes.

Also other persons than Tutsis and moderate Hutus suffered in 1994. The process of a criminal trial cannot depict the entire picture of what happened in Rwanda, even in a case of this magnitude.

The Chamber certainly accepts that there are indications which may be construed as evidence of a plan to commit genocide, in particular when viewed in light of the subsequent targeted and speedy killings immediately after the shooting down of the President’s plane. However, the evidence is also consistent with preparations for a political or military power struggle and measures adopted in the context of an on-going war with the RPF that were used for other purposes from 6 April 1994.

Consequently, the Chamber is not satisfied that the Prosecution has proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the only reasonable inference to be drawn from the evidence is that the four Accused conspired amongst themselves or with others to commit genocide before it unfolded from 7 April 1994.