[JURIST] The Supreme Court of India [official website] refused Monday to suspend a lower court decision [judgment, PDF; JURIST report] declaring India's anti-sodomy law unconstitutional while it hears an appeal. Earlier this month, the Supreme Court accepted a petition challenging the decision by the Delhi High Court [official website], which found that Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code [text, PDF], outlawing "carnal conduct against the order of nature," runs counter to Articles 14, 15 and 21 of the Article 21 of the Indian Constitution [text, PDF]. The Delhi court's ruling is binding only in the Union Territory of Delhi [official website], while the Supreme Court's ruling would be binding nationwide. The hearing is scheduled to begin September 14.

The criminalization of homosexuality has been a divisive issue around the world. In April, an appeals court in Senegal ordered the release [JURIST report] of nine members of AIDS awareness group AIDES Senegal who had been convicted of sodomy and sentenced to eight years in prison. In November, the parliament of Burundi voted to criminalize homosexuality, a move condemned [JURIST reports] by human rights groups. In December, the UN General Assembly [official website] was divided [press release; JURIST report] over the issue as 66 nations signed a statement calling for decriminalization, and nearly 60 nations signed an opposing statement.

[JURIST] The Criminal Chamber of Peru's Supreme Court on Monday convicted former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] on corruption charges and sentenced him to seven-and-a-half years in prison. Fujimori was accused of paying former Peruvian Intelligence Director Vladimiro Montesino [BBC profile] $15 million to resign in 2000 in the midst of the scandal that ultimately resulted in Fujimori's arrest [JURIST report] in 2005. Fujimori claimed that he made the payment because he feared Montesino was plotting a coup against the government. When his trial opened last week, Fujimori admitted to making the payment but denied any criminal responsibility [JURIST report]. Fujimori was also ordered to pay [El Comercio report, in Spanish] nearly USD $1 million in damages.



Lawyers for Fujimori plan to appeal the ruling.

Fujimori was convicted [JURIST report] in April of committing human rights abuses for approving multiple killings during his 1990-2000 presidency. The conviction and subsequent sentencing, which put Fujimori in prison for 25 years, was met with widespread approval [JURIST report] from the current government and human rights organization, despite Fujimori's planned appeal. In 2007, Fujimori was convicted [JURIST report] of ordering a warrantless search in 2000 on the apartment of Montesino's wife. Prosecutors alleged that the search was intended to uncover and confiscate documents that might incriminate Fujimori. Similar to the present charges, Fujimori admitted to the facts, but denied any wrongdoing.

[JURIST] A judge for the US District Court for the District of Columbia [official website] on Friday ordered the suppression [order, PDF] of all out-of-court statements made by Guantanamo detainee Mohammed Jawad [ACLU materials; JURIST news archive] that may have been elicited through torture. Last week, the Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] chose not to oppose [response, PDF; JURIST report] a motion to suppress [text, PDF] the statements filed by Jawad's lawyers. The court also denied the DOJ's request to have a hearing on the merits of their case against Jawad postponed past August 5, finding that granting the delay would violate the 2008 ruling in Boumediene v. Bush [text, PDF], which requires prompt habeas corpus hearings for the detainees. The DOJ has until July 24 to file their factual and legal basis for holding Jawad, without the benefit of the suppressed statements.

Jawad's case has been controversial due to repeated delays in the proceedings. In May, Jawad's military lawyers asked the Supreme Court of Afghanistan to demand his release [JURIST report] from Guantanamo. The petition for his release was because the planned closure [JURIST news archive] of the facility allegedly delayed the case in the US. In April, a federal judge ruled [JURIST report] that Jawad's habeas petition should not be delayed. Jawad has been charged [charge sheet, PDF; JURIST report] with attempted murder and intentionally causing serious bodily injury for his alleged role in a December 2002 grenade attack in Kabul that injured two US soldiers and an Afghan translator. In May 2008, Jawad moved [JURIST report] to have all charges against him dismissed on the basis of the abuse he claimed to have suffered.

[JURIST] The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website] on Monday convicted [press release, PDF] Bosnian Serb cousins Milan Lukic and Sredoje Lukic [indictment; case backgrounder, PDF] of war crimes and crimes against humanity for their actions as part of a paramilitary unit during the 1992-1995 Bosnian war. The men were found guilty of the murder, extermination, and torture of Bosnian Muslims, including two separate instances of killing scores of civilians by locking them in residential buildings and then setting the buildings on fire. Handing down the judgment, the court condemned the men's crimes:

The Pionirska street fire and the Bikavac fire exemplify the worst acts of inhumanity that a person may inflict upon others. In the all too long, sad and wretched history of man’s inhumanity to man, the Pionirska street and Bikavac fires must rank high. At the close of the twentieth century, a century marked by war and bloodshed on a colossal scale, these horrific events stand out for the viciousness of the incendiary attack, for the obvious premeditation and calculation that defined it, for the sheer callousness and brutality of herding, trapping and locking the victims in the two houses, thereby rendering them helpless in the ensuing inferno, and for the degree of pain and suffering inflicted on the victims as they were burnt alive. There is a unique cruelty in expunging all traces of the individual victims which must heighten the gravity ascribed to these crimes.

Milan Lukic and Sredoje Lukic photos courtesy ICTY

[JURIST] Mumbai terror attack [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive] suspect Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab interrupted his trial in India Monday to confess and plead guilty to 86 charges stemming from his participation in last November's killings. Kasab, the only captured gunman from the attacks, told the court that he and several others traveled from their native Pakistan to India to commit the attack, which claimed at least 170 lives at ten locations across the city. When he was originally formally charged [BBC report] at a special court in Mumbai, he denied any involvement [JURIST report] in the attacks. The court must now verify that Kasab's confession was voluntary, and may then sentence him [IANS report] for his alleged crimes.

On Saturday, a Pakistani anti-terrorism court began the trial [JURIST report] of five men allegedly belonging to the Lashkar-e-Taiba [GlobalSecurity backgrounder] militant group suspected of planning and coordinating the terror attacks. Two Indian defendants linked to the group have pleaded not guilty [AFP report] to charges related to Kasab's alleged acts and are being tried in an Indian court. In February, Pakistani officials conceded [JURIST report] that the attacks were partially planned in their country, and have also stated that the perpetrators traveled by ship [NYT report] from southern Pakistan to Mumbai, where they launched the attack from inflatable boats using outboard engines purchased in Karachi, Pakistan. One scholar suggested that an international tribunal be formed [JURIST op-ed] to prosecute persons involved in Mumbai attacks in order to avoid damaging the already-unstable relationship between Pakistan and India.

[JURIST] A Turkish court on Monday began the trial of two former generals and 54 others suspected of planning to overthrow [JURIST report] the country's ruling Justice Development Party (AKP) [party website, in Turkish]. Sener Eruygur, Hursit Tolon, and their co-defendants are accused of belonging to the country's secular Ergenekon [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive] group, which is suspected of involvement in bombings, political assassination plots, and the death of journalist Hrant Dink [BBC obituary]. This is the second large trial of those arrested for alleged connections to the group. The trial of 86 others [JURIST report] began in October 2008, and prosecutors submitted an indictment for another 52 suspects [Hurriyet report] on Monday. Eruygur and Tolon face life in prison if convicted of leading Ergenekon. The probe has been criticized as an attempt by the AKP to silence opposition and further their imposition of Islamic principles [DPA report; JURIST report] in violation of Turkey's secular constitution [text].

In June, police arrested 20 others [JURIST report] in connection with the alleged plot. In May, the Turkish government merged [JURIST report] a case against a lawyer accused of killing a judge with its case against Ergenekon. In March, a Turkish court ordered the arrest [JURIST report] of Cumhuriyet journalist Mustafa Balbay and internet publisher Neriman Aydin for their alleged involvement with the groups. There are currently more than 200 suspects in custody, with 40 arrested January 7, another 12 arrested January 12, and 30 arrested January 19 [JURIST reports]. The suspects include journalists, academics, army officers, policemen, and Turkish Workers' Party [party website, in Turkish] leader Dogu Perincek [JURIST report].

[JURIST] A US military study has recommended a complete overhaul [NYT report] of both the US-run and Afghan-run prisons in Afghanistan, the New York Times reported Sunday. After prison conditions continued to deteriorate, and a January report by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan [official website] found widespread arbitrary detentions, Maj. Gen. Douglas M. Stone, former deputy commanding general for detainee operations for the Multi National Force–Iraq [official website], was appointed to review all Afghan prison and detention issues. Stone has reportedly recommended separating extremists from the rest of the prison population to avoid militant recruiting within prisons, as well as training Afghan guards, prosecutors, and judges. Militant extremists would be housed in a separate facility, partially financed by the US, and the remaining detainees would be provided with vocational training. Officials reported that some of Stone's recommendations are already being implemented in a new facility that will house about 600 detainees, scheduled to open this fall.

Conditions at US-run facilities in Afghanistan, particularly at the US detention facility at Bagram Air Base [JURIST news archive; GlobalSecurity backgrounder], have been controversial, particularly after two detainees died in 2002 after having been beaten by US soldiers. Last week, it was reported that detainees held at Bagram have refused prison privileges to protest their detention. Last month, a judge from the US District Court for the District of Columbia [official website] dismissed [JURIST report] a habeas corpus petition filed by Afghan national and Bagram detainee Haji Wazir, because he was detained in a theater of war and his release would likely cause "friction with the host country." Also last month, several former Bagram detainees alleged [JURIST report] that they were subjected to physical abuse, death threats, "stress positions," extreme temperatures, and forced nudity while at the US facility. In April, the DC Circuit allowed habeas petitions [JURIST report] brought by three non-Afghan to proceed, but later certified and suspended [JURIST report] the order, allowing an interlocutory appeal on whether the detainees may invoke the Constitution's Suspension Clause [text].