[JURIST] The Indonesian Supreme Court overturned Thursday a 2007 decision [JURIST report] against TIME magazine [media website] awarding the late former Indonesian president Haji Mohammad Suharto [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] $106 million in damages in Suharto's defamation suit against the publication. Suharto sued TIME over a 1999 article [text] that said Suharto had hidden billions of dollars in foreign banks. The Supreme Court overturned the 2007 ruling, saying [AFP report] that the 1999 article was not against the law and that no press ethics laws were violated.

Suharto, who ruled Indonesia from 1967 to 1998, died [JURIST report] in late January 2008. In March 2008, an Indonesian court cleared Suharto [JURIST report] of charges brought by government lawyers in a civil corruption case [JURIST report] against his estate in connection to allegations that he embezzled $440 million from the Yayasan Supersemar [official website], a state-funded scholarship fund, between 1974 and 1998. Earlier criminal corruption charges were dropped in 2006 because Suharto was rendered unable to speak or write [JURIST reports] as a result of several strokes.

[JURIST] The US Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] on Thursday released four top secret memos [press release] from the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) [official website] outlining controversial CIA interrogation techniques and their legal rationale. The previously undisclosed memos [text, PDF; text, PDF; text, PDF; text, PDF] were released with redactions in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) [text] lawsuit [materials] filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) [advocacy website] during the Bush administration. The ACLU has also called for an independent investigator [press release] to probe allegations of torture during the Bush administration, but President Barack Obama said [statement] that, "[i]n releasing these memos, it is our intention to assure those who carried out their duties relying in good faith upon legal advice from the Department of Justice that they will not be subject to prosecution." Attorney General Eric Holder [official profile; JURIST news archive] said "[t]he President has halted the use of the interrogation techniques described in these opinions, and this administration has made clear from day one that it will not condone torture." Former CIA director Michael Hayden criticized [AP report] the Obama administration's decision to release the memos, calling it a threat to national security.

Last week, US House Judiciary Committee [official website] Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) [official website] released a final version of a report [text; PDF; JURIST report] reiterating his allegations that the Bush administration engaged in numerous abuses during the "war on terror" and calling on Holder to appoint a special prosecutor to determine whether any criminal laws were violated. Human rights groups have also called for the prosecution [AI report] of senior Bush administration officials for their use of enhanced interrogation techniques. Such calls gained traction in late December, when the Senate Armed Services Committee [official website] alleged [report] that top Bush officials, including former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld [JURIST news archive], "bore major responsibility" for the abuses committed by US interrogators in military detention centers.

[JURIST] New York Governor David Paterson [official profile] announced Thursday the introduction of legislation that would legalize [press release] same-sex marriage [JURIST news archive] in the state. If passed, the legislation would amend the state's Domestic Relations Law [text] to give same-sex couples the opportunity to enter into civil marriages, which would give them the same rights under New York law as heterosexual married couples. In announcing the proposed legislation, Paterson said:

Marriage equality is about basic civil rights and personal freedom. ... Too many individuals face legal discrimination every single day. Too many loving families do not receive the legal recognition they deserve. Anyone who has ever faced intolerance of any kind knows the solemn importance of protecting the rights of all people. That is why we stand together today to embrace civil rights for every New Yorker. We stand together today for marriage equality in the State of New York.

[JURIST] Spanish Attorney General Candido Conde Pumpido [official profile, in Spanish] announced Thursday that he will not recommend that the Spanish government seek action against members of the Bush administration behind the establishment of the Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detention center. Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] had asked prosecutors to examine [JURIST report] the possibility of bringing a lawsuit against the US lawyers reportedly responsible for the detention center under the theory of universal jurisdiction [AI backgrounder]. Pumpido concluded that the individuals named by Garzon did not commit any acts of torture [AFP report], and thus they should not be the targets of an investigation. Pumpido also expressed concern over the impact that such a trial would have on the Spanish courts.

Garzon, famed for indicting Osama bin Laden and former Latin American dictator Augusto Pinochet [JURIST news archives], is well known for his involvement in high-profile investigations of terror and human rights cases under the universal jurisdiction principle. In February, Spain announced that it is considering legislation to limit [JURIST report] the the scope of universal jurisdiction. If adopted, the Reform of the Judiciary Act would limit the court's jurisdiction over war crimes and genocide charges to those cases that have a substantial link to the country or its citizens. It would require that the suspects be arrested in Spain, and that the crimes be committed against Spaniards or have some historical link to the country.

[JURIST] UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay [official profile] on Wednesday urged [press release] Fijian President Ratu Josefa Iloilo [official profile] to reinstate dismissed judges and lift media restrictions imposed after Iloilo suspended [JURIST report] the country's constitution. Pillay said that the 5-year interim government declared by Iloilo and the reappointment [JURIST report] of Commodore Josaia Voreqe "Frank" Bainimarama [BBC profile] were improper uses of emergency power, which "should only be used to deal with a dire threat to the security of the nation, not to undermine the fundamental checks and balances of good government." Pillay cautioned:

[t]he long term damage of undermining such fundamental institutions as the judiciary and the media cannot be underestimated ... I strongly urge a return to the rule of law, to the reinstatement of the judiciary and an end to media censorship.

[JURIST] Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] on Wednesday urged the Pakistani government to reverse [press release] a recently signed ordinance [JURIST report] that imposes Islamic Sharia law [CFR backgrounder; JURIST news archive] in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) area of Swat, saying it poses a "grave threat" to human rights by putting the Taliban [JURIST news archive] and its affiliates in administrative control. HRW said that the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation 2009 [text] creates a framework to unconstitutionally empower the Taliban by "formal acquiescence" of control over the region. The statement accused the Taliban of violating international human rights standards as well as the Pakistani constitution [text] and called for details of a February 15 agreement [JURIST report] between the Taliban and Pakistan to be made public. That peace deal was widely considered to require the Taliban to surrender its arms, but a Taliban spokesman on Wednesday called disarmament "out of the question" [Reuters report]. The ordinance will create a separate justice system [BBC report] for the Swat region, and HRW urged the government to protect women's rights as well as the rights of dissenters.

Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari [BBC profile] signed the ordinance Monday after Pakistan's National Assembly [official website] voted to recommend [Dawn report] the measure. The agreement for the implementation of Sharia law in Swat has been seen by many as a controversial concession [Dawn report] by the Pakistani government to Islamic militant groups. A May 2008 agreement [Guardian report; JURIST report] to establish Sharia law in the Swat area, which collapsed amid ongoing violence between Islamic groups and the Pakistani military, provided that militants would halt suicide attacks and hand over foreign fighters under local protection. In exchange, an Islamic justice system would have been created to operate in parallel with the secular system, and established Pakistani courts would have been advised by Islamic scholars.

[JURIST] US Attorney General Eric Holder [official profile; JURIST news archive] said Wednesday that America needs to renew its commitment to the rule of law [prepared remarks] in fighting international terrorism and protecting national security. In an address to the West Point Center for the Rule of Law [official website], Holder praised lawyers from the Judge Advocate General Corp defending detainees at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] for not "surrender[ing] faithful obedience to the law to the circumstances of the time" despite risk to their careers. Holder emphasized the importance of the rule of law in national security decisions:

[A]s we face a world filled with danger, ... we must once again chart a course rooted in the rule of law and grounded in both the powers and the limitations it prescribes. ... [T]here are those who equate a stated intention to apply the rule of law in a national security context with softness or naïveté. I could not disagree more. Underneath the lofty pronouncements made by leaders must lay real principles that will unerringly chart our course as policymakers – principles that we will hold dear not just when we face the easy decisions, but also when we face the hard ones.

[JURIST] The US Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] announced Wednesday that it has limited electronic surveillance conducted by the National Security Agency (NSA) [official website]. The annoucement [AP report] comes after the NSA was found to have exceeded its legal authority [NYT report] in reviewing private communication between US citizens. The DOJ said that it has taken "comprehensive steps" toward eliminating the problem, and that the information coming from the surveillance is still important. After the DOJ was satisfied that the issues were resolved, US Attorney General Eric Holder [official profile; JURIST news archive] sought to extend the program with the national security court. Chairwoman of the Senate Select Intelligence on Committee [official website] Diane Feinstein (D-CA) [official profile] said on Thursday that the committee is concerned [NYT report] with the allegations, and will hold a hearing to review the matter within the next month.

Electronic surveillance by the NSA has been criticized over the last several years. In February, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit [official website] denied [JURIST report] an appeal by the DOJ seeking to stop a lawsuit [JURIST report] brought by an Islamic charity alleging it was the subject of an illegal wiretap by the NSA. Last October, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence also investigated [JURIST report] allegations made by two members of the US military that the NSA eavesdropped on the personal conversations of members of the military and humanitarian aid workers stationed in the Middle East. In 2006, it was revealed that the NSA [JURIST report] was collecting phone records from major telephone companies to study the calling patterns of millions of Americans in an effort to detect terrorist activity.

[JURIST] The Washington State House of Representatives [official website] on Wednesday voted 62-35 to approve a bill [text, PDF; materials] granting same-sex couples the same rights and benefits of married couples in the state. The law effectively construes statutory gender specific terms such as "husband" and "wife" to be gender neutral, making them applicable to individuals in same-sex domestic partnerships, but stops short of recognizing the partnerships as marriages. The bill grants [Seattle Times report] same-sex couples rights equal to that of married couples in areas such as labor and employment, legal process, insurance rights, and others. It was passed by the Washington State Senate [official website] in March by a vote of 30-18. Despite opposition that criticizes [Spokesman Review report] the law as being detrimental to marriage, Washington Governor Chris Gregoire [official website] has said she will sign the bill into law.

In January 2006, Gregoire signed [JURIST report] into law a gay civil rights act [HB 2661 text, PDF] that expanded the Washington Civil Rights Act to protect gays and lesbians from discrimination in housing, lending, and employment. That law made Washington the 17th state in the nation to have an anti-discrimination law that covered sexual orientation. In April 2007, Gregoire signed domestic partnership legislation [text, PDF; JURIST report] that guaranteed gay and lesbian couples some of the legal rights that previously were afforded only to husband and wife including hospital visitation rights, inheritance rights, and the ability to authorize medical decisions for their partner. The present law is seen b some as completing the grant of rights that the previous legislation had begun.

[JURIST] Israel will not comply with a UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) [official website] investigation into possible war crimes that were committed during recent fighting in the Gaza Strip [BBC backgrounder], according to Wednesday statements by Israeli government officials. The probe was originally approved by the UNHRC in January, which recently appointed [press release; JURIST report] South African judge Richard Goldstone to head the four member delegation in its fact-finding mission. An unidentified official said that a letter was sent [AP report] to Goldstone last week, stating that Israel would not comply with the investigation because it doubted the mission's objectivity. Israel also argued that investigation did not focus enough [Haaretz report] on Hamas hostilities prior to the Israeli incursion into the Gaza Strip. Hamas has said that it will cooperate with the investigation.

The investigation drew criticism [JURIST report] from the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs [official website] earlier this month. The probe was a result of the report [text, PDF; JURIST report] authored by UN Special Rapporteur Richard Falk [appointment release] that criticized Israel for failing to take adequate precautions to distinguish between civilians and combatants in their offensives in the region. Both Israel and the US condemned [JURIST report] the report as biased.

[JURIST] Venezuela will renew calls for the US to extradite anti-Castro Cuban exile and Venezuelan national Luis Posada Carriles [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] following a new indictment [court materials; WSJ report] ordering Posada to stand trial in Texas, Venezuelan lawyer Jose Pertierra said [AP report] Wednesday. Posada, who is wanted by both Venezuela and Cuba for his alleged involvement in the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airline [ASN backgrounder], was charged on April 8 in the US District Court for the Western District of Texas [official website] with 11 counts of perjury stemming from immigration interviews conducted in 2005. Venezuelan officials hope that the trial will reverse a prior US ruling refusing to extradite Posada to Venezuela or Cuba on concerns that he would face torture, with expectations that the Obama administration will be more receptive to extradition requests [JURIST reports]. Pertierra said that the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry [official website, in Spanish] will likely make its renewed extradition request before the Summit of the Americas begins Friday.

Venezuela and Cuba contend that the US is legally obligated to extradite Posada because it is bound by international treaties, including the International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings and the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Civil Aviation [texts]. Posada is also suspected of involvement with narcoterrorism and a series of Cuban bombings in 1997 [Washington Post report]. Posada's immigration fraud charges were dismissed in 2007, but that decision was reversed by a 2008 ruling [JURIST reports] reinstating the indictment and ordering a trial. The trial, based on the superseding 11-count indictment, is set for August 10.

[JURIST] US Army Master Sgt. John Hatley [JURIST news archive] was convicted of murder and conspiracy in court-martial proceedings Wednesday for the killing of four unarmed Iraqi prisoners [NYT report] in 2007 and sentenced to life with the possibility of parole. Hatley was acquitted of obstruction of justice and also of murder for the separate death of a seriously wounded Iraqi detainee during early January 2007. Hatley, along with Sgt. Michael Leahy, Jr. and Sgt. 1st Class John Mayo, was charged [JURIST report] in September with premeditated murder, conspiracy, and obstruction of justice. He had requested six more months to complete his 20 years of service in the armed forces, but was denied.

Hatley is the third of seven soldiers allegedly involved in the incident to be tried and found guilty of charges. Last month, Mayo was convicted and sentenced [JURIST report] to 35 years in prison on charges of premeditated murder and conspiracy to commit premeditated murder after he pleaded guilty at his court-martial proceedings. He also agreed to testify against Hatley [AP report]. Leahy was convicted [JURIST report] in February and sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole. Staff Sgt. Jess Cunningham, originally an alleged co-conspirator against whom charges were dropped, testified against Leahy [JURIST report] at his trial. Fellow unit members Spc. Belmor Ramon and Spc. Steven Ribordy pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy and accessory to murder [JURIST reports], respectively, in connection with the incident.