[JURIST] Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) [official website; JURIST news archive] member John Stewart said Saturday that the commission will recommend the creation of a special tribunal to hear cases against those suspected of war crimes during the the country's 1989-2003 civil war. The TRC, which was established [TRC mandate text] by the peace accord that ended the 14-year civil war, was created to document the war and investigate human rights violations, but has been criticized [JURIST report] for lacking the authority to hold violators accountable. Last week, the TRC began its final stage of taking public testimony [VOA report] from war crimes victims and suspects. The hearings will resume on Monday, with a special session [New Liberian report] dedicated to victims with special needs and other vulnerable groups. The TRC is scheduled to conclude its work by June 2009.

The TRC held its first public session [JURIST report] in January 2008. It began its work in October 2006, but later stalled [JURIST reports] in June 2007 for lack of funding. Earlier this month, the son of former Liberian president Charles Taylor [JURIST news archive] was sentenced last week [DOJ press release; JURIST report] to a 97-year jail term in the US by the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida [official website] for committing torture in Liberia. Charles Arthur Emmanuel, was found guilty by a jury in October 2008 on charges [JURIST reports] that he was the head of a paramilitary group which tortured and killed opponents during the presidency of Emmanuel's father.

[JURIST] The US Department of Defense (DOD) [official website] on Saturday announced it had transferred six detainees [DOD press release] out of Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive]. The detainees, four of whom were sent to Iraq, one to Algeria, and one to Afghanistan, were found to be eligible for transfer after what DOD called "a comprehensive series of review processes." About 245 detainees remain at the facility, with roughly 60 eligible for transfer or release. The Afghan who was transferred, Haji Bismullah, was cleared of enemy combatant status [Miami Herald report] on review [JURIST report] "based on new information." In July 2007, a three-judge panel of the US Circuit Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit ruled [PDF text; JURIST report] in a case brought by Bismullah that federal appeals courts reviewing enemy combatant designations under the Detainee Treatment Act [text] must review all evidence regarding that detainee, rejecting the government's argument [JURIST report] that it should only have to turn over the same evidence as presented to a detainee's Combatant Status Review Tribunal [DOD materials]. The government later appealed that ruling [JURIST report] to the US Supreme Court. The other five detainees transferred retained their enemy combatant designations.

Last week, advisers to US President-elect Barack Obama said he plans to issue an executive order [JURIST report] during his first week in office closing the Guantanamo Bay prison camp. On Wednesday, a judge on the US District Court for the District of Columbia granted habeas [JURIST report] to Chadian detainee Mohammed El Gharani and directed his release. An ongoing hunger strike [JURIST report] at Guantanamo now involves 42 detainees.

[JURIST] The Tehran Revolutionary Court announced Saturday that it has convicted [PressTV report] four Iranians of being involved in an alleged US-supported plan to overthrow the Iranian government. The court said that the four men had confessed to planning to overthrow the Iranian government in cooperation with the US State Department and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) [official websites]. Last Tuesday, Iranian judiciary [official website] spokesman Alireza Jamshidi announced the men's arrest, and said that they had received funding for the alleged coup from US President George W. Bush's administration. Neither the identities of the men nor the prison sentences they were given have been released. Responding to a question [State Department release] on whether the US was involved in such a plan, a State Department spokesperson said such allegations were "baseless," and said that Iran was using the charges to quiet political activists.

In June, Iran confirmed [JURIST report] that it was detaining Iranian-American peace activist Ali Shakeri [advocacy website] after Bush strongly condemned [JURIST report] Iran's detention of Shakeri and three other Iran-Americans, including Dr. Haleh Esfandiari [WWC profile], Dr. Kian Tajbakhsh [OSI press release], and Radio Farda [media website] correspondent Parnaz Azima. In May, Iran formally charged Tajbakhsh and Azima [JURIST report] for conspiring against the government. Earlier that month, Iran formally charged Esfandiari [JURIST report], director of the Middle East Program at the DC-based Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars [think tank website], with plotting to overthrow the Iranian government by organizing a network "against the sovereignty of the country."

[JURIST] Venezuela's National Assembly [official website, in Spanish] has prohibited private television stations [Latin American Herald Times report] from presenting live coverage of its debates, according to reports printed Saturday. The restriction came after Globovision [media website, in Spanish] broadcast live video [Youtube video, in Spanish] of Deputy Hugo Marquez viewing images of women wearing bathing suits or less on a laptop computer during discussion of a constitutional amendment to abolish presidential term limits [JURIST report]. Only state channel AN TV [official website, in Spanish] will be allowed to broadcast live from legislative sessions.

In May 2007, Venezuelan Information Minister William Lara filed lawsuits [JURIST report] against media giant CNN and Globovision, alleging that the two stations presented false information concerning Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and that Globovision issued a call for Chavez's assassination. In August 2007, the Venezuelan Supreme Tribunal of Justice suspended an order [JURIST report] issued by the government's telecommunication commission requiring Radio Caracas Television to register as a "national audiovisual production service" or face shutdown after agreeing to hear a case on whether cable and satellite television channels are obligated to transmit government-mandated content. In July 2006, the Inter American Press Association claimed Chavez was silencing dissent [JURIST report] by prosecuting journalists under questionable circumstances.