[JURIST] The Illinois State Senate [official website] voted unanimously Thursday to convict Governor Rod Blagojevich [official website; JURIST news archive] of abuse of power and remove him from office. Blagojevich, who had been boycotting the impeachment proceedings [JURIST report], arrived on the Senate floor Thursday to make a final plea to remain in office. Although Blagojevich claimed innocence, the senators were unconvinced, voting 59-0 for removal [Chicago Tribune report]. Blagojevich is the first governor in Illinois history to be impeached and removed from office. Lieutenant Governor Pat Quinn [official website] will now be sworn in as governor.

Earlier this month, the Illinois House of Representatives [official website] voted 114-1 to impeach [JURIST report]. Blagojevich and his chief of staff John Harris were arrested [JURIST report] last month by federal agents on charges of corruption. Both Blagojevich and Harris have been charged [DOJ press release, PDF] with conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and solicitation of bribery. They are accused of conspiring to sell or trade the senate seat left vacant by President Barack Obama, obtaining illegal campaign contributions, and threatening to withhold assistance to the Chicago Tribune with the sale of Wrigley Field unless two editorial writers who had been critical of Blagojevich were fired. Harris resigned his position after the arrest, but Blagojevich refused to resign.

[JURIST] The European Commission [official website] announced [press release] Thursday that it has initiated infringement proceedings [EC backgrounder] against ten European Union (EU) member states for failing to comply with legislation aimed at reducing emissions of certain harmful airborne particulates called PM10. The EU implemented heightened PM10 standards under last June's Directive on ambient air quality and cleaner air for Europe [Directive 2008/50/EC materials], which allowed member states to seek extensions to meet the new standards where effort and extenuating external circumstances were demonstrated. Though 23 of the 27 member states were found to have fallen short of the directive's standards, the European Commission issued warning letters only to those 10 countries who failed to request an extension. Cyprus, Estonia, Germany, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the UK now must submit observations on their alleged noncompliance and possibly face further legal action under EC Treaty Article 226 [text] for infringing EU law, which could ultimately result in an action before the European Court of Justice (ECJ) [official website; JURIST news archive] and substantial fines [Article 228 backgrounder]. Finland, Lithuania, Ireland, and Luxembourg were considered to be in compliance with the law, and the European Commission is currently assessing whether to approve time extension requests filed by 11 member states. Romania and Bulgaria, the most recent countries to accede to the EU, must file extension requests before March 31. In the Thursday communique, European Commissioner for Environment Stavros Dimas called compliance with the directive standards "our utmost priority" and emphasized that any extensions granted to member states will be "complemented by strict enforcement action by the Commission."

The carcinogenic PM10 [EPA backgrounder] particles are emitted primarily by automobiles, industrial sources, and domestic heating systems. The European Commission, which is responsible for ensuring that EU law is applied throughout all member states and for taking legal action [JURIST report] against infringers, has led the charge for tightened environmental standards, including a 2007 proposal for all EU Member States to criminalize [JURIST report] serious environmental offenses and impose minimum sanctions for violations.

[JURIST] Moscow's Ninth Arbitration Court of Appeals on Thursday declared void [Interfax report] most of the Russian government's tax claims against the British Council [official website], the British government's cultural relations arm, relating to the organization’s in-country operations in 2004-2006. The British Council filed suit last May seeking to void tax claims of over 200 million rubles made by the Russian government in late 2006. In October, the Moscow Arbitration Court ruled [JURIST report] to invalidate the majority of those claims. Thursday's appellate arbitration court decision upheld the judgment for the British Council, qualifying 130 million rubles of the taxes as void.

The tax claims were made in the midst of strained relations between Russia and the UK over the demanded extradition of Andrei Lugovoy [JURIST news archive], suspected by UK intelligence services of poisoning former KGB agent and British citizen Alexander Litvinenko [JURIST news archive]. Following the filing of the tax claims, the Russian government issued a directive to shut down [BBC report] the 14 Russian regional offices [official website] of the British Council in December 2007. The British Council unilaterally resumed its Russian operations in January 2008 in defiance of what it considered to be the "illegal" [JURIST reports] shutdown order and filed a lawsuit to dispute the taxation claims, though the disputed claims were paid in the interim.

[JURIST] The chief judge for US military commissions [DOD materials] at the Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detention center rejected [order and defense response, PDF] Thursday the request of government prosecutors to delay the proceedings against alleged USS Cole plotter Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri [GlobalSecurity profile; JURIST news archive]. Prosecutors had sought the delay in response to an executive order [text, PDF; JURIST report] issued last week by President Barack Obama ordering the closure of the Guantanamo Bay military prison within one year, and instructing Secretary of Defense Robert Gates immediately to halt the military commission proceedings pending a comprehensive review of all Guantanamo detentions under the supervision of the Attorney General. In his order, US Army Colonel James Pohl [JURIST news archive] wrote:

On its face, the request to delay the arraignment is not reasonable. The public interest in a speedy trial will be harmed by the delay in the arraignment. Granting the continuance do [sic] not serve the interests of justice. The government request for a continuance in the arraignment until after 22 May 2009 is DENIED.

[JURIST] Japan's Ministry of Justice [official website, in Japanese] announced Thursday that four death row inmates were executed, despite international pressure to end the practice. The executions [Mainichi Daily News report] are the country's first of 2009. Last year, the Ministry of Justice carried out the execution of 15 prisoners, including three inmates in June [JURIST report], as well as an additional two inmates in October [BBC News report]. Thursday's four executions brings to 19 the number of executions in Japan since Minister of Justice Kunio Hatoyama [official profile] took office in August 2007. In recent years, Japan has experienced a sharp upswing in both violent crime [BBC report; MOJ backgrounder] and the perceived risk of violent crime [Japan Focus study], factors used as justification for increasing the use of capital punishment.

One of the last developed nations to still use the death penalty, Japan has endured international criticism for the practice since it ended an unofficial moratorium [JURIST reports] on capital punishment in 1993. In November 2008, the UN Human Rights Committee urged Japan to take steps to abolish the death penalty [JURIST report]. Amnesty International issued a statement urging Japan to stop executions [text] after the hanging of four men in April. In February, a group of parliamentarians proposed a four-year moratorium on the practice [JURIST report]. In August 2007, Japan's national bar association called for a moratorium on the death penalty [press release, in Japanese; JURIST report] until new safeguards are enacted to prevent wrongful executions.

[JURIST] The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation [official website, in Russian] on Thursday rejected an appeal by relatives of victims of the 1940 Katyn Massacre [Polish government backgrounder; JURIST news archive] to reopen investigations into the killings. The court reasoned [RIA Novosti report] that the Soviet-era criminal code to be applied to the killings places a ten year statute of limitations on the proceedings. A decade-long official inquiry into the killing of 20,000 Poles during the 1939 annexation of Poland was closed in 2004 due to a lack of living potential defendants and expiration of the statute of limitations. In 1990, the government of Mikhail Gorbachev [Guardian profile] admitted that Soviet leader Josef Stalin [BBC backgrounder] had personally ordered [documents, in Russian] the killings. Lawyers for victims plan to appeal the decision to the European Court of Human Rights [official website].

Last year, the Moscow City Court blocked [JURIST report] an attempt by family members of the victims to renew investigations into the killings. In 2006, the families filed a complaint [JURIST report] with the Court of Human Rights, asking it to classify the incident as genocide and compel the Russian government to disclose its information. In October the Court of Human rights agreed to hear [RIA Novosti report] a plea from family members asking that the victims of the Katyn massacre be classified as war crimes victims.

[JURIST] A judge for the National Court of Spain ordered [text, PDF in Spanish] an investigation Thursday of former Israeli Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer [official profile] and six soldiers under his command for alleged crimes against humanity committed in a 2002 attack in the Gaza Strip. Judge Fernando Andreu issued the order in response to a complaint brought by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights [advocacy website] in regards to the 2002 bombing of former Hamas leader Salah Shehadeh's home in Gaza City that killed 15 people [NYT report], including Shehadeh and his family, and resulted in approximately 140 injuries. Andreu found universal jurisdiction [El Pais report, in Spanish; HRW backgrounder, P] for the case under Article 23.4 [UN backgrounder] of the Judicial Power Organization Act, which allows Spanish courts to prosecute people outside of Spain for war crimes, even when no Spanish citizens are involved. Andreu's order was heavily criticized [Haaretz report] by Ben-Eliezer and Defense Minister Ehud Barak [official profile] as well as opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu [advocacy website].

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced [JURIST report] on Sunday that he would protect members of the Israeli military involved in the current Gaza conflict [JURIST news archive] from foreign prosecution for war crimes. Spanish courts have attempted to the principle of universal jurisdiction to try several other international cases, including allegations of war crimes and genocide in Tibet, Guatemala, and China [JURIST reports]. In 1998, the National Court of Spain invoked universal jurisdiction to issue an arrest warrant for former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet [JURIST news archive].

[JURIST] US President Barack Obama [official website] signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 [S.181 materials] into law Thursday, extending the deadline for employees to sue their employers for unequal pay discrimination. The law's "clarification" of equal pay protections effectively overturns the 2007 decision of the US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. [opinion, PDF; JURIST report], which held that "a pay-setting decision is a discrete act that occurs at a particular point in time" and that the statutory period for filing a discrimination claim with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) [official website] begins when that discrete act occurs. The new law alters Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 [text] to clarify that the six month statute of limitations controlling racial, gender, or national origin employment discrimination suits is applicable to each instance of a discriminatory practice, including the receipt of each paycheck, not only to the initial discriminatory act. Obama said [press release] that the new law

send[s] a clear message: that making our economy work means making sure it works for everybody; that there are no second-class citizens in our workplaces; and that it's not just unfair and illegal, it's bad for business to pay somebody less because of their gender or their age or their race or their ethnicity, religion or disability; and that justice isn't about some abstract legal theory, or footnote in a casebook.

[JURIST] UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay [official profile; JURIST news archive] expressed deep concern Thursday over the deteriorating conditions for a quarter of a million Sri Lankans [press release] trapped in the conflict-ravaged north, calling for investigations and prosecutions of killings and other human rights abuses. Pillay said she is concerned over reports of human rights abuses, disproportionate displacement, masses of injured civilians, and a lack of access by aid agencies and journalists to the region. According to Pillay, the ongoing conflict in the Vanni region has reached a "critical stage." Civilians trying to flee have been detained, and there have been reports of human rights violations by both the Sri Lankan government and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (Tamil Tigers) [group website; JURIST news archive]. Pillay said:

It is the Government's duty to provide safety to all Sri Lanka's citizens, whatever their ethnic origin or political views. That means not only protecting civilians during military operations in the north, but also ensuring space for journalists and human rights defenders to seek out the truth and expose abuses.

[JURIST] Iraqi Interior Ministry spokesman major general Abdel Karim Khalaf said Thursday that the country would not renew a contract allowing Blackwater Worldwide [corporate website] private security forces to operate within the country. Under the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) [CFR materials; McClatchy translation], which became effective this month and was signed [JURIST report] by the US and Iraq in December, the country has full autonomy to decide which private security forces may operate there. Khalaf said his government had made the decision because of the alleged killing [JURIST report] of 17 Iraqi civilians by Blackwater contractors in September 2007. A date for the company's guards to leave the country has not been set, but a spokesperson for the US Embassy to Iraq has said they have been aware of the decision [AP report], and are planning to arrange for alternative protection for US diplomats in Iraq.

Earlier this month, five Blackwater guards, indicted [text, PDF; JURIST report] in US federal court for the killings, pleaded not guilty [JURIST report] to manslaughter and weapons charges. A sixth guard pleaded guilty [text, PDF] to charges of voluntary manslaughter and attempt to commit manslaughter for his role in the same incident. In November, a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) investigation into the incident concluded that the shootings were unjustified [JURIST report]. In December, Bush administration officials announced that Iraq security contractors would be losing immunity [JURIST report] from Iraqi law under the SOFA with Iraq.

[JURIST] Former Bosnian Serb leader and war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic [ICTY materials; JURIST news archive] requested [motion, PDF] Thursday that the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website] shorten his indictment [amended indictment, PDF] in order to expedite his trial. The request came as a response to a motion [text, PDF; JURIST report] by ICTY prosecutors last September, seeking to amend Karadzic's indictment and simplify the trial. That amendment included provisions to drop certain allegations against Karadzic and to reduce the number of municipalities in which he allegedly committed criminal activity from 41 to 27. In his response, Karadzic stressed the need for a shorter trial:

Dr. Karadzic does not oppose, in principle, the amending of the amorphous First Amended Indictment. However, the proposed amended indictment is not much better. To prepare for and conduct a trial on such wide ranging charges will take years and years. He respectfully suggests that the Trial Chamber grant leave to amend only parts of the proposed amended indictment at this time, reserving its decision on the other parts until after final judgement [sic].

If it grants leave to amend the indictment in its present form, the Trial Chamber must provide Dr. Karadzic with adequate time to prepare for one of the most complex, wide-ranging trials in history, and then spend many years holding a mega-trial on the prosecutor's indictment.

[JURIST] The trial of former Congolese militia leader Thomas Lubanga [ICC materials; JURIST news archive] resumed Thursday after the first witness to testify withdrew his testimony Wednesday, causing the inaugural war crimes trial of the International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website] to adjourn temporarily to assess witness safety. The witness, who remains unidentified, initially testified that he was recruited by Lubanga's soldiers to serve in his militia as a young boy. After a break in the hearing, the witness recanted his earlier testimony [BBC report], saying that a non-governmental organization had told him what to say. ICC Deputy Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda [official profile] requested and obtained a delay in the trial because of concerns that the witness may fear for his own safety during the trial and after he returns home. Judge Adrian Fulford resumed the trial [AFP report] Thursday, announcing that an investigation into any threats against the first witness would be conducted by Monday. Fulford also ordered both the prosecution and the defense to submit statements by Friday on whether witnesses face a risk of self-incrimination and criminal charges upon their return to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) [official website, in French].

Once the leader of the Union of Patriotic Congolese [GlobalSecurity backgrounder], Lubanga is charged with using child soldiers [JURIST report] in his militia, which is believed to have committed large-scale human rights abuses in Congo's violent Ituri district [HRW backgrounder]. Earlier this week, Lubanga pleaded not guilty [JURIST report] to the charges. He became the first war crimes defendant to appear before the ICC after he was taken into custody [JURIST reports] in March 2006. The long-delayed trial [JURIST report] is the ICC's first since its creation in 2002.

[JURIST] A judge in the US District Court for the District of Columbia ruled [order, PDF] Wednesday that the US may continue to hold Yemeni detainee Ghaleb Nassar Al Bihani [NYT materials] at the Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] prison facility. Judge Richard Leon [official profile] held that the government had met its burden of proving, by a preponderance of evidence, that Al Bihani is an "enemy combatant" [JURIST news archive]. Lawyers for Al Bihani argued that he only served as a cook for Taliban fighters and never fired on US troops, but Leon found that this was sufficient to classify him as an "enemy combatant" under the definition set forth last June by the Supreme Court in Boumediene v. Bush [opinion, PDF; JURIST report]. Leon wrote:

based on the evidence presented by the Government and all reasonable inferences drawn therefrom, the Court concludes that petitioner Al Bihani is being lawfully detained as an enemy combatant because it is more probable than not that he was "part of or supporting Taliban or al Qaeda forces" both prior to and after the initiation of U.S. hostilities in October 2001. Accordingly, the Court must, and will, DENY Al Bihani's petitioner for a writ of habeas corpus and will not order his release.