[JURIST] The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) [official website; JURIST news archive] on Thursday ordered [judgment; press release] the UK to pay £2,500 in damages to Islamic cleric Abu Qataba [BBC profile] after determining that he was imprisoned by the UK in violation of the European Convention on Human Rights [text]. The court unanimously found that the UK detained Qatada and 10 others following the 9/11 attacks [JURIST news archive] in violation of the prisoners' Article 5 right to liberty and security, right to a judicial review of the detention, and right to compensation. The judgment found no violation of Article 3, which prohibits torture and inhuman or degrading treatment. The UK was ordered [Guardian report] to pay a total of £26,000 to the detainees, plus £53,000 in legal costs. Qatada, once considered one of Osama bin Laden's chief associates in Europe, had been seeking £170,000, but the court explained that the damages awarded were significantly lowered because the government's decision to detain Qatada and the others was "devised in the face of a public emergency." The UK government reacted with disappointment [AFP report] to the decision, but applauded the court's consideration of the situation surrounding the detentions in lowering the damages awards.

The ECHR decision came one day after the UK's Law Lords [official website] ruled [judgment; JURIST report] that Qatada can be deported to Jordan to face terror charges, despite fears that he will be tortured upon his return. The Law Lords overruled the April 2008 Court of Appeal decision blocking [JURIST report] Qatada's deportation. Qatada was originally ordered deported [JURIST report] in February 2007. He was expected to be one of the first terror suspects to be deported under the UK's 2005 extradition oversight agreement [JURIST report] with Jordan. Qatada's lawyers have appealed the decision to the ECHR. On Thursday, Jordanian Justice Minister Ayman Odeh said that Qatada will receive a fair trial in Jordan [Xinhua report].

[JURIST] Judge Abdul-Amir al-Rubaie of the Central Criminal Court of Iraq (CCCI) [establishment order, PDF] on Thursday postponed the trial of Muntadar al-Zaidi [BBC profile; JURIST news archive], the Iraqi journalist accused of throwing his shoes at former US president George W. Bush [JURIST news archive]. The new trial date is set for March 12. Al-Zaidi's lawyers argued [AP report] that Bush's visit was not official and therefore the charge of assaulting a foreign leader should not apply. The trial was postponed so the court could determine if Bush's visit was official and respond to the defense. Al-Zaidi's appearance in court on Thursday was his first public appearance since his December arrest. He testified to a three-judge panel that his actions were meant to restore Iraqi citizens' pride and that he had been beaten while in custody [JURIST report]. The assault charge holds a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison while a lesser charge of insulting a foreign leader is punishable by up to three years. Al-Zaidi's lawyers have been unsuccessful in having the charge reduced or dismissed.

Al-Zaidi's trial was initially delayed [JURIST report] in December so the court could make a determination of the charges. The trial has been opposed for failing to meet international standards of due process and fairness [HRW report] and has been protested by Iraqis. The shoe-throwing incident occurred at a December 14 joint news conference [transcript] at which Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister al-Maliki [BBC profile] signed a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) [text, PDF; CFR backgrounder] governing the future US military presence in the country.

[JURIST] The England and Wales Court of Appeals (Civil Division) [official website] on Wednesday refused [judgment text] to clarify Britain's law banning assisted suicide in an action initiated by a British woman suffering from multiple sclerosis. Debbie Purdy, who was diagnosed with the disease in 1995 and has since lost most of her ability to function independently, sought the court's interpretation of the possible legal repercussions that might face her husband on his return to Britain if he accompanied her to a country where assisted suicide is legal. Under the current British Suicide Act of 1961 [text], Purdy's husband could possibly face up to 14 years in prison if he aids, abets, counsels, or procures her suicide. While the court had sympathy for Purdy's case, it held that a prosecutor does not have a duty to provide specific guidance about how he will exercise his discretion in the future. Though Purdy's appeal was rejected, the judgment noted other cases in which family members who accompanied loved ones to assisted suicide clinics abroad were spared from prosecution, adding that:

Even if a defendant were to be convicted, but the circumstances were such that in the judgment of the court, no penal sanction would be appropriate, the court, exercising its own sentencing responsibilities would order that the offender should be discharged, and might well question publicly the decision to prosecute. In other words, the court is part of the protective system which discourages and would prevent or extinguish the effect of any arbitrary or unprincipled exercise by the [prosecutor] of his responsibilities.

[JURIST] Sweden's Migration Court [official website, in Swedish] on Wednesday granted [judgment, PDF, in Swedish; press release, in Swedish] asylum to former Uighur Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainee Adil Hakimjan [BBC backgrounder], also known as Adel Abdu Al-Hakim. The decision overruled a previous ruling by the Swedish Migration Board denying Hakimjan asylum. Hakimjan, who was held at Guantanamo Bay for nearly five years, was one of five Uighurs released [JURIST report] in 2006 who were granted asylum in Albania. Hakimjan had applied for asylum in Sweden because he has a sister living there. The court cited the family relationship, the humanitarian nature of the request, and Hakimjan's detention at Guantanamo Bay as reasons for granting him residence as a refugee.

Also on Wednesday a panel of the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit [official website] reversed [opinion, PDF; JURIST report] an October district court order [opinion and order, PDF; JURIST report] that would have provided for the release of 17 Uighur Guantanamo Bay detainees into the US. The US government has determined that the Uighurs are not unlawful enemy combatants [10 USC § 948a text; JURIST news archive], but it has linked them with the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) [CFR backgrounder], a militant group that calls for separation from China and has been a US-designated terrorist group since 2002. Earlier this month, China renewed its demand [JURIST report] for the Uighurs to be repatriated. Despite the demands, the US government has been hesitant to release the Uighurs back to China, fearing they will be tortured upon their return.

[JURIST] US Attorney General Eric Holder [official profile] said [statement text] Wednesday that, despite landmark court decisions and legislation bolstering the official recognition of racial equality, the US remains a country that has not truly resolved its racial divide. Holder, who is the country's first African American attorney general, made his remarks during a Justice Department (DOJ) [official website] event commemorating Black History Month and said it should be used to facilitate a dialogue about race. Holder said that average Americans "simply do not talk enough with each other about race," and that he would use his position as attorney general to help address the problem:

Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards. Though race related issues continue to occupy a significant portion of our political discussion, and though there remain many unresolved racial issues in this nation, we, average Americans, simply do not talk enough with each other about race. It is an issue we have never been at ease with and given our nation’s history this is in some ways understandable. And yet, if we are to make progress in this area we must feel comfortable enough with one another, and tolerant enough of each other, to have frank conversations about the racial matters that continue to divide us. But we must do more- and we in this room bear a special responsibility. Through its work and through its example this Department of Justice, as long as I am here, must - and will - lead the nation to the "new birth of freedom" so long ago promised by our greatest President. This is our duty and our solemn obligation.

[JURIST] Judges from more than 30 Spanish provinces went on a one-day strike Wednesday to demand that the country's judicial system hire more judges and adopt electronic technology to decrease the workload faced by current judges. The judges were led by 21 local judges' assemblies and the Francisco de Vitoria Association (AJFV) and Independent Judicial Forum (FJI) [advocacy websites, in Spanish], and argued that understaffing and the judiciary's current, primarily paper-based, recording system have created excessive workloads [El Pais report, in Spanish] for the Spain's estimated 4500 judges. In response to the strike, Spanish Minister of Justice Mariano Fernandez Bermejo [official profile, in Spanish] offered to discuss the issue with the groups, but also said that he intends to propose a law to limit the ways in which they may assert their rights given their role in government. The judges have said they plan to challenge any such law.

Earlier this month, Spain's General Board of the Judiciary (CGPJ) [official website, in Spanish], issued an official statement [text, PDF, in Spanish] responding to the organizations' plan to strike [press release, in Spanish].  The CGPJ said that it would not recognize the strike because Articles 3 and 4 of the Royal Decree Law 17/1977 [text, in Spanish] do not give the judges a legal right to go on strike. The Spanish judges' initiative, known as the October 8 Movement [El Mundo report, in Spanish; AJFV materials, in Spanish], was sparked by the fine a Huelva judge incurred in October 2008 [EcoDiario report, in Spanish] for delay in issuing an arrest order for a suspect who later killed a small child.

[JURIST] Egyptian authorities in Cairo released imprisoned political opposition leader Ayman Nour [BBC profile; advocacy website] late Wednesday for medical reasons. Egypt's public prosecutor Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud [EMM profile] unexpectedly announced the release of nine prisoners for medical reasons, including Nour. Only two days prior, Nour's wife expressed her belief that her husband would be kept in jail beyond July 2009, his earliest parole date, and reaffirmed that the detention endangered Nour's health. Nour said that the release was indeed unexpected and did not result from a negotiation, and that he is eager to resume his political activism. He is restricted from running in the next presidential elections in 2011 by his previous conviction, and his party has experienced much internal turmoil since he was imprisoned. In November, internal clashes led to a fire [Egypt Daily News report] in the party's own headquarters.

A lawyer and former member of the Egyptian Parliament [official website], Nour was convicted [JURIST report] and jailed in 2005 for allegedly forging signatures on petitions to form the Al-Ghad Party [party website, in Arabic], a liberal democratic political party, following a trial that was denounced by human rights organizations as unfair and flawed [HRW report]. In the 2005 presidential election, the first multi-candidate contention in Egypt since President Hosni Mubarak has been in office, Nour garnered 8 percent of the vote against Mubarak's 89 percent. Nour's jailing was also a source of tension in US relations as the Bush administration petitioned repeatedly for his release. In March 2008, Egypt's Supreme Administrative Court refused [JURIST report] a medical release to Nour, who is a diabetic. In May and August [JURIST reports] 2007, Egyptian courts rejected two other petitions to release Nour early for medical reasons.