[JURIST] Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] pledged his commitment to the peace process in his country at a Saturday rally, while deriding expelled aid groups and the arrest warrant [text, PDF] issued against him by the International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website] earlier this week. At the rally, al-Bashir told the assembled crowd [Xinhua report] that the country would not stray from the peace process and would avoid a return to war. Al-Bashir also used the rally to strike out at aid groups expelled from the country [JURIST report] earlier this week, calling them "spies and thieves" [Reuters report] and accusing them of using the majority of the money donated to them for personal profit.

On Thursday, al-Bashir strongly criticized [JURIST report] the ICC warrant, calling it an attempt by Western powers to reassert colonial power over the country. The warrant, issued [decision, PDF; JURIST report] on Wednesday, charged him with seven counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, but did not include genocide charges. The controversial arrest warrant [JURIST news archive] had been sought by ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo [official profile], who in July filed preliminary charges [text, PDF; JURIST report] against Bashir alleging genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes committed in the Darfur region in violation of Articles 6, 7, and 8 of the Rome Statute [text].

[JURIST] A judge for the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois [official website] on Friday rejected an attempt by former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich [JURIST news archive] to have US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald of the US Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois [official website] removed from his federal corruption case. The ruling by Judge James Holderman denied [Bloomberg report] Blagojevich's request to disqualify Fitzgerald from the case. Blagojevich had argued that Fitzgerald should be removed from the case for making biased and inflammatory remarks during a January press conference.

In January, the Illinois State Senate voted unanimously [JURIST report] to convict Blagojevich of abuse of power and remove him from office. Blagojevich is the first Illinois governor to be impeached and removed from office. Earlier that month, the Illinois House of Representatives [official website] voted 114-1 to impeach [JURIST report]. Blagojevich had boycotted [JURIST report] the impeachment proceedings against him, appearing only at the end of the Senate hearings to make a final plea to remain in office. Blagojevich and his chief of staff John Harris were arrested [JURIST report] in December 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] Armenian international arms dealer Artur Solomonyan was sentenced to 22 years in prison [press release, PDF] Friday for attempting to smuggle weapons from Eastern Europe into the US, according to the US Attorney's Office for Southern District of New York [official website]. Solomonyan and South African Christiaan Spies were found to be the leaders of a group of 18, all of whom were convicted [FBI press release] in 2007 for arranging to sell [RIA Novosti report] shoulder fired surface to air missiles, rocket propelled grenades, and other Russian-made high powered weaponry to a confidential informant posing as an arms dealer for al Qaeda. The sentence was imposed by Judge Richard Howell of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York [official website], who presided over the previous convictions.

According to the original complaint [text, PDF], from December 2003 to March 2005, Solomonyan, Spies, and another man, Ioseb Kharabadze, met with the confidential informant at various times in New York City and provided the informant with a number of assault rifles and machine guns. The FBI arrested [Washington Post report] the men in 2005 before any of the larger weapons were obtained. The complaint also alleged that Solomonyan had offered to sell uranium to the informant.

[JURIST] A three judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit [official website] on Friday upheld [opinion, PDF] the 2006 convictions [DOJ press release; JURIST report] of former Alabama governor Don Siegelman (D) [official profile; JURIST news archive] and former HealthSouth [corporate website] CEO Richard Scrushy [JURIST news archive] on federal bribery and corruption charges. The reversed two counts of mail fraud against Siegelman based a lack of evidence, but upheld the remaining five charges. All of the charges against Scrushy were upheld. In confirming the bribery charges, the court rejected the appellants' argument that there was not evidence of an explicit agreement of quid pro quo between Siegelman and Scrushy, a necessary element for federal bribery charges:

What is missing in this record, according to defendants, is any evidence of a discussion between Governor Siegelman and Scrushy to the effect of "I will make this contribution, and in exchange for this contribution you will appoint me["]... We disagree ... Bailey’s testimony was competent evidence that Siegelman and Scrushy had agreed to a deal in which Scrushy’s donation would be rewarded with a seat on the CON Board. The jurors were free to give it a different construction, but they did not. Furthermore, this was not the sole evidence that Scrushy bribed Siegelman. The jury was entitled to construe this conversation in the context of the substantial additional testimony they had heard regarding Scrushy’s donation to the lottery campaign fund.