[JURIST] Pakistan [JURIST news archive] government forces conducted raids and arrested opposition members, including members of the country's lawyers' movement [NYT backgrounder; JURIST news archive], prior to a protest rally led Wednesday by former prime minister and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) [party website] leader Nawaz Sharif [BBC profile; JURIST news archive]. Among those targeted Tuesday night were lawyers' movement leader Aitzaz Ahsan [Dawn TV report] and Imran Khan, founder of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) [party website]. Following the raids, many opposition politicians and party leaders - including Khan, who avoided arrest - went into hiding [PTI press release]. At Wednesday's rally, Sharif had harsh words [Daily Times report] for Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari [BBC profile; JURIST news archive], calling on supporters of the opposition parties to take to the streets [PML-N press release] with the party and the lawyers' movement in a march to the capital, reminiscent of the long march [JURIST news archive] held last summer. Sharif also equated the movements of the Zardari government against opposition members with the conduct of former president and military ruler Pervez Musharraf [JURIST news archive].

The arrests and rally come as Pakistan teeters on the edge of political instability following last month's Supreme Court of Pakistan ruling that barred Sharif [JURIST report] from holding elected office based on a past criminal conviction. The Supreme Court's controversial decision followed continued turmoil over the country's judiciary, which has split the PML-N and Zardari's Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) [party website], formerly coalition partners [JURIST report]. Sharif and the PML-N have urged the restoration of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry [JURIST news archive], ousted after then-president Musharraf declared emergency rule in November 2007. Chaudhry, supported by many members of Pakistan's bar, insists he is still chief justice [JURIST report] under the Pakistani constitution [text].

[JURIST] The Saskatchewan Court of Queen's Bench [official website] on Tuesday approved a settlement agreement [text, PDF] between Canadian meatpacker Maple Leaf Foods [corporate website] and class action plaintiffs who brought suit against the company [plaintiffs website] in connection with sales of meat tainted with listeria monocytogenes [CDC backgrounder]. The tainted meat sickened 56 Canadians and caused 20 deaths across the country in 2008. Under the settlement, agreed to [JURIST report] by the plaintiffs and Maple Leaf in January, the company will pay between $25-27 million to settle the claims of class members who submit to the settlement agreement. The judge who approved the settlement agreement, Justice Ron Barclay, praised Maple Leaf Foods [Regina Leader-Post report] for its approach to the settlement of the lawsuit. The settlement agreement will be presented to a Quebec court next week for approval.

Last year's outbreak of listeriosis was traced [PHAC press release] to a Maple Leaf Foods processing plant near Toronto, Ontario. The plant was shut down in August 2008 [Vancouver Sun report], and is now running at limited production levels. The bacterial infection was spread through several products, which were promptly recalled [recall list, PDF] by the company. In response to the listeriosis outbreak, Maple Leaf Foods developed an action plan to ensure the ongoing safety of its products, including so-called "enhanced food safety protocols" [text].

[JURIST] The government of Libya [official website; JURIST news archive] has released two men [HRW press release] convicted in 2007 of planning to overthrow the government and meeting with a foreign official, Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] announced Tuesday. Jamal al-Haji and Faraj Humaid were arrested as part of a larger group in Tripoli in February 2007, in advance of a demonstration commemorating the deaths of 11 people during a 2006 clash between protesters and police. The nine other men arrested with al-Haji and Humaid were released [Frontline Defenders report] by the end of 2008. HRW Middle East and North Africa director Sarah Leah Whitson called the men's release "a particularly welcome step in light of the Libyan authorities' stated initiative of breaking with the past."

Libya has had a mixed human rights record in recent years. The release of the political prisoners comes as relations between Libya and the US are improving, though the State Department recently criticised [JURIST report] Libya for its continued detention of political prisoners [JURIST report] in its 2008 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices [DOS materials]. In 2008, the US and Libya reached an agreement to settle all pending lawsuits [JURIST report] brought by US terror victims against Libya. In 2004, the US lifted the remaining sanctions [JURIST report] against Libya as a reward for its agreement to dismantle its weapons programs. At the same time, Libya faced international criticism [JURIST report] for its treatment of six foreign medics [JURIST news archive] accused infecting hospital patients with HIV in 2007.

[JURIST] The Supreme Iraqi Criminal Tribunal [governing statute, PDF] sentenced Ali Hassan al-Majid [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] and former Iraqi deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] Wednesday to 15 years in prison, respectively, for their parts in the 1992 murders of 42 merchants accused of price-gouging during a period of UN-imposed sanctions. Aziz and al-Majid, the cousin of Saddam Hussein better known as "Chemical Ali," were among eight defendants on trial for the murders, which were committed after a summary trial of the 42 merchants, who were not given a chance to appeal or defend themselves [Washington Post report] against the charges. Two other cousins of Hussein were sentenced to death in the case, three defendants were sentenced to prison terms, and one man was acquitted of all charges.

The sentences handed down against Aziz and al-Majid come nearly one week after Aziz was acquitted [JURIST report] of charges and al-Majid received a third death sentence in connection with the killing of protesters who rioted [HRW backgrounder] in Baghdad and Amarah following the alleged assassination of Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Sadiq al-Sadr - father of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr [CFR profile] - by Hussein agents. The trial against the eight defendants accused in the merchant killings began [JURIST report] last April. The trial was adjourned shortly after it opened and was resumed [JURIST report] nearly one month later in the absence of some defense lawyers and one of the defendants, al-Majid, who missed the resumption of the trial due to health concerns.

[JURIST] German prosecutors announced Wednesday that they have filed charges against former Nazi concentration camp guard and Ohio resident John Demjanjuk [NNDB profile; JURIST news archive]. Demjanjuk is charged with 29,000 counts of accessory to murder [AP report] for his alleged involvement at the Sobibor [Death Camps backgrounder] concentration camp, where more than 260,000 people were executed in the gas chambers. A former Soviet solider, Demanjuk is accused of volunteering to work at Sobidor [Abendzeitung report, in German] following his capture by Germans. He allegedly worked at Sobidor for much of its existence, from March to September 1943. The German government will now seek Demanjuk's extradition from the US.

Demjanjuk has fought a lengthy legal battle over his alleged involvement with Nazi death camps during World War II. In May 2008, the US Supreme Court denied certiorari in Demjanjuk v. Mukasey [order, PDF; JURIST report], ending the appeals process for his deportation order. Demajanjuk was appealing a 2005 ruling [JURIST report] by then-US Chief Immigration Judge Michael Creppy ordering his deportation. Demjanjuk had previously lost an appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals [DOJ backgrounder]. The US Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals denied Demjanjuk's petition for review [PDF text] in January 2008. In 1988, Demjanjuk was convicted and sentenced to death by an Israeli court which found that he was a notorious guard from Treblinka nicknamed "Ivan the Terrible." The sentence was vacated by the Israeli Supreme Court in 1993, and Demjanjuk returned to the US.

[JURIST] The European Court of Justice (ECJ) [official website] ruled Tuesday that an unpublished list of items prohibited from airplanes does not have any binding effect on individuals [decision; press release, PDF] unless it is made public. The list is set out in an annex to Regulation 622/2003 [text, PDF], but under Article 3 of that regulation is made available only to "persons duly authorised [sic] by a Member State or the Commission." The court found that because the regulation imposes obligations on individuals, Article 254 [text] of the Treaty Establishing the European Community requires that it be published in the Official Journal of the European Union before it takes effect. The court also found that a list prohibiting carry-on items was not within the scope of Article 8 of Regulation 2320/2002 [text, PDF], which outlines the confidentiality of civil aviation security procedures. The case was brought by an Austrian who was thrown off of a plane in Vienna after refusing to surrender his tennis racquets.

The EU passed Regulation 2320/2002 outlining EU-wide security requirements in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks [JURIST news archive]. These general security procedures have been modified to reflect emerging concerns, including a 2004 amendment to the secret prohibited items list. Despite privacy concerns, Europe has been moving closer to implementing a passenger data-sharing system [JURIST report], announced as part of a package of anti-terrorism measures [JURIST report] by EU Commissioner for Justice, Freedom and Security Franco Frattini [official profile] in November 2007. In July, the EU and US reached a new agreement on passenger data-sharing [JURIST report] under which air carriers will transmit passenger data directly to the US Department of Homeland Security within 15 minutes of a European flight's departure for the US.

[JURIST] High litigation costs are impeding the advancement of justice in the United States, and significant changes should be made to federal discovery rules, according to a report [text, PDF; ACTL press release, PDF] issued Wednesday by a special task force composed of members of the American College of Trial Lawyers (ACTL) [advocacy website] and the University of Denver's Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System (IAALS) [academic website]. Responding to what it described as a popular perception that the US civil justice system is "broken" [AP report] and in need of repair, the Task Force Committee on Discovery Project said it intends the 29 principles proposed in its report to act as a guide and provide an eventual underpinning for an anticipated "transformation of civil procedure in federal and state systems throughout the United States." Among the topics covered by the principles are: the "one-size-fits-all" approach to lawsuits contained in the current Federal Rules of Civil Procedure [text]; a move from notice-based pleadings to fact-based pleadings; details and mechanics of pre-trial discovery, including electronic discovery; the role of expert witnesses; and dispositive pre-trial motions.

The committee was formed to examine federal and state rules of civil procedure pertaining to discovery in order to determine [committee membership page] if the current rules could be adjusted to provide a "fair and less expensive approach to information exchange in litigation[.]" The group is composed of a number of prominent litigation attorneys from across the country, and has characterized the current discovery rules as outdated and not flexible enough to adapt to the rapid technological advances in litigation and trial practice.

[JURIST] UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and counterterrorism Martin Scheinin [official website; JURIST news archive] on Tuesday cited the case of Canadian citizen and former US detainee Maher Arar [advocacy website; JURIST news archive] in presenting a report [text, PDF; JURIST report] critical of international counterterrorism practices to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) [official website] in Geneva. Scheinin flagged Arar's deportation from the US
as an example of how intelligence sharing without "adequate safeguards" can lead to human rights violations. The report was broadly critical of US rendition [JURIST news archive] policies and also censured the United Kingdom [Independent report], Australia and other countries for providing assistance to the US. Speaking to reporters after presenting the report, Scheinin said that UN human rights investigators will be looking into possible human rights violations committed by the US [Reuters report] during the "war on terror" and that the investigation will not be relaxed because of a change in administrations. On Wednesday, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said that the UK will not conduct an official judicial inquiry [AP report] into whether British intelligence officials ever acted illegally in assisting the US, but did note that police could initiate such investigations.

Scheinin has been a vocal proponent of greater limits on the power of intelligence agencies to act with limited safeguards under the justification of national security. In October, he urged the UN to restructure or eliminate [JURIST report] the existing terrorist "blacklisting" system. In June, he called on the US to set a concrete deadline [JURIST report] for closure of the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, a task accomplished [JURIST report] in January by President Barack Obama. In May, he urged Spain to reform its legal standards [JURIST report] for the treatment of suspected terrorists.

[JURIST] The French National Assembly [official website, in French] on Tuesday began considering a bill [materials, in French] that would allow the government to shut off internet access for those who repeatedly share or download copyrighted music and movies illegally. The bill, supported by French Minister of Culture Christine Albanel [official profile, in French] and passed by the country's Senate in October 2008, has been criticized [EDRI release] by consumer and rights groups who say it infringes on civil liberties and could lead to wholesale internet surveillance. Consumer group UFC-Que Choisir urged Assembly members to reject the bill [press release, in French], arguing that most illegal downloading could be stopped by the creation of subscription-based services that give consumers better legal access to copyrighted materials.

Other countries have also been struggling with how to balance protecting copyrighted material on the internet with privacy concerns. In December, the Recording Industry Association of America [association website] dropped [JURIST report] a number of lawsuits against illegal file-sharers after some of the defendants counter-sued the association [JURIST report] for tactics it used to track their internet use. In January 2008, the European Court of Justice [official website] held [judgment; JURIST report] that telecommunication companies operating in Spain were not obligated to disclose the identities of internet users suspected of illegal file sharing. In July 2007, a Belgium court ordered a file sharing website to filter or block access [JURIST report] to users sharing copyrighted material.