[JURIST] A judge for the US District Court for the District of Columbia [official website] on Thursday ordered [text, PDF] that Guantanamo Bay detainee Mohammed Jawad [ACLU materials; JURIST news archive] be released prior to August 24. Largely adopting a proposed order [text, PDF] filed by the government on Wednesday, Judge Ellen Huvelle granted Jawad's habeas corpus petition, giving the government seven days to submit a report to Congress detailing any risk to national security presented by the release and providing a 15-day congressional notice period, as required by the Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2009 (SAA) [text]. Jonathon Hafetz, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) [advocacy website] National Security Project representing Jawad, welcomed the decision, saying:

Judge Huvelle made clear that Mr. Jawad has been illegally detained and the government has no credible evidence to continue holding him. We are pleased that the Justice Department has expressed a commitment to getting him home so that this nightmare of abuse and injustice can finally come to an end.

[JURIST] Chinese human rights group Gongmeng [advocacy website, in Chinese] announced Thursday that its co-founder, prominent human rights lawyer Xu Zhiyong was arrested [press release, in Chinese] at his home early Wednesday morning and has not been heard from since. The group has also been unable to reach a second staff member, Zhuang Lu. Both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch [advocacy websites] have expressed concern over Xu and Zhuang's detentions, calling for their immediate release. China's recent measures against human rights lawyers are viewed by many as an attempt by the Chinese government to quash dissidence as the 60th anniversary of Communist rule approaches in October.

Zhiyong's arrest comes less than two weeks after Chinese officials from Beijing's Civil Affairs Bureau shut down [press release, in Chinese; JURIST report] Gongmeng's legal research center. Officials confiscated computers and other equipment, telling staff that the center was not properly registered. A lawyer for Gongmeng said that the research center was part of Gongmeng, which is properly registered. A statement from Gongmeng called the Civil Affairs Bureau's actions "illegal." Gongmeng had recently gained notoriety by representing the families of children who were sickened by tainted milk [JURIST news archive]. Earlier this month, the Chinese government suspended the licenses of 53 lawyers [press release, in Chinese] in Beijing, including prominent human rights lawyer Jiang Tianyong, for failing to pass an assessment or failing to register.

[JURIST] The US House Judiciary Committee [official website] voted 16-9 Wednesday to approve [press release] a bill [HR 3245 materials] that would eliminate sentencing disparities for powder and crack cocaine offenses. The bill, co-sponsored by committee chairman John Conyers (D-MI) [official website] would eliminate the distinction between the two forms of the drug under federal law. Conyers said:

We have taken a big step today toward ending the disparity that exists between crack and powder cocaine sentencing. African Americans serve almost as much time in federal prison for a drug offense (58.7 months) as whites do for a violent offense (61.7 months), largely due to sentencing laws such as the 100-to-1 crack-powder cocaine disparity. Since 1980, the number of offenders in federal prisons for drug offenses has skyrocketed from less than 5,000 to almost 100,000 in 2009. Currently, drug offenders represent 52% of all federal prison inmates.

The time is long overdue to fix this law that the U.S. Sentencing Commission agrees disproportionately punishes African-Americans. After many years of hard work on this issue, we are one step closer to eliminating this inequity in federal sentencing.

[JURIST] The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) [official website] on Thursday announced they are conducting criminal investigations into alleged intentional misconduct by their soldiers during December and January's fighting in the Gaza strip. In a report [text, PDF] seeking "to place the Gaza Operation in its proper factual and legal context," the IDF said that they are currently investigating 13 allegations against IDF personnel, including pillaging Palestinian homes, mistreating detainees, and using civilians as human shields. The report also details on-going field investigations that could form the basis for further criminal inquiries, at the discretion of the Military Advocate General [IDF materials]. Reporting the results of an investigation into war crimes allegations [press release] brought by IDF soldiers who participated in Operation Cast Lead [GlobalSecurity backgrounder], the IDF concluded that "that some of the stories were based on hearsay and were not consistent with verifiable facts." The report defended the campaign against criticism [JURIST report] from Amnesty International [advocacy website], UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay [official profile] and others, saying that "Israel had both a right and an obligation to take military action against Hamas in Gaza to stop Hamas' almost incessant rocket and mortar attacks upon thousands of Israeli civilians and its other acts of terrorism."

The report comes in advance of a report from the UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict [official website], expected in August, which has been strongly criticized [JURIST report] by Israel. The mission conducted public hearings [JURIST report] and field investigations into alleged war crimes committed by both IDF personnel and Hamas fighters. The mission began its field operations in Gaza in June, entering through Egypt after Israel announced it would not cooperate [JURIST report] with the investigation because it doubted the mission's objectivity. Both Israel and the US condemned [DOS briefing] a February report [text, PDF; JURIST report] that criticized Israel for failing to take adequate precautions to distinguish between civilians and combatants, calling the conclusion "anything but fair." In April, an internal Israeli military investigation found that war crimes had not been committed [JURIST report] in the offensive despite individual reports by Israeli soldiers [Haaretz report]. Israel has already disputed [JURIST report] a previous report to the UN Human Rights Council [official website] that accused it of human rights violations.

[JURIST] A judge in the US District Court for the District of Columbia [official website] on Wednesday ordered the release [order, PDF] of Kuwaiti Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainee Khaled Al-Mutairi. Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly granted Al-Mutairi's petition for habeas corpus, finding insufficient evidence for his continued detention. The classified memorandum opinion, which sets forth in detail the reasons for Al-Mutairi's release, will be reviewed and released to the public within 48 hours. Al-Mutairi was detained in Pakistan in 2001 after traveling to Afghanistan to do charity work. Al-Mutairi is one of four Kuwaitis who remain at Guantanamo. Habeas proceedings for the other three are scheduled for August and September.

Since the US Supreme Court's June 2008 ruling in Boumediene v. Bush [opinion, PDF; JURIST report] that Guantanamo detainees could challenge their imprisonment in federal court through the use of habeas corpus motions, several detainees have been granted release. Last month, Judge Richard Leon ordered the release [JURIST report] of Syrian national Abdulrahim Abdul Razak Al Ginco, finding that he could no longer be considered an "enemy combatant." In May, Judge Gladys Kessler ordered the release [JURIST report] of Yemeni Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainee Alla Ali Bin Ali Ahmed, adopting a "substantially supported" standard for reviewing the habeas petitions filed by detainees, which makes no reference to the "enemy combatant" classification upon which the previous standard was based.

[JURIST] A judge for the US District Court for the Southern District of New York [official website] on Wednesday ruled [opinion, PDF] that Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani woman with alleged ties to al Qaeda, is mentally competent to stand trial. Siddiqui was charged [complaint, PDF; JURIST report] in August with assault and the attempted murder of a US officer after allegedly opening fire on agents at the Afghan detention facility where she was being held last July. Judge Richard Berman had entered a not guilty plea and ordered a psychiatric evaluation [JURIST report] of Siddiqui in September. The prosecution had requested the psychiatric evaluation on suspicions that Siddiqui was mentally unfit to stand trial, with defense attorney Elizabeth Fink agreeing that such evaluation was appropriate. Berman set a trial date for October 19.

Siddiqui, who was extradited to the US in August, was shot in the abdomen during the July skirmish leading to her charges. She has since refused proper medical care as well as communication with her legal counsel. Siddiqui's family has insisted that she is not an al Qaeda agent and that the FBI has publicized misleading information about her. They say that Siddiqui, a former student at Brandeis University and MIT in Boston, may have been a victim of extraordinary rendition [JURIST news archive] after she vanished from Karachi, Pakistan in 2003. Defense lawyers have alleged that Siddiqui may have been wrongly detained and tortured [Washington Post report] at Bagram air base in Afghanistan. Siddiqui was taken into custody in July after she was found loitering outside a provincial governor's compound with suspicious items in her handbag.

[JURIST] The US Department of Justice (DOJ) and Department of Health and Human Services [official websites] on Wednesday announced the indictment [case summaries, PDF; press release] of 32 for allegedly filing $16 million dollars in fraudulent Medicare [official website] claims. According to the indictment, those involved in the scheme submitted claims for arthritis devices and nutrition packages that we either medically unnecessary or were never delivered to patients. The investigation that led to the indictments was conducted by the multi-agency Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT) [official website] that was announced [press release] in May. Officials say that reducing Medicare fraud is necessary to the financial health of the program.

Last month, the DOJ announced the indictment [press release; JURIST report] of 53 health care providers and beneficiaries accused of submitting $50 million in fraudulent claims. In October, the US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) [official website] implemented regulations [text] denying hospitals payment for treating conditions caused by some common medical errors [HHS backgrounder]. The new regulations were authorized by the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 [text], which directed the HHS to identify reasonably preventable conditions that result in high-cost or high-volume treatment and additional government payments.

[JURIST] Russia's Federal Anti-Monopoly Service [official website] on Wednesday said that Rosneft [corporate website], the country's largest oil producer, broke unfair competition laws [press release, in Russian] by over-inflating wholesale prices of petroleum products. According to the FAS, Rosneft violated Article 10 of the country's Law on the Protection of Competition [text] by artificially decreasing the available supply of gasoline, kerosene, and diesel fuels during the first half of 2009. The FAS said that Rosneft could face fines of between one and 15 percent of the revenues it gained from the illegally marked-up products. A spokesman for Rosneft has said the company plans to appeal the finding [RIA Novosti report]. Oil companies Gazprom Neft and TNK-BP [corporate websites] have also been found to have broken the law.

Earlier this month, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin [official website, in Russian] urged lawmakers to pass an antitrust bill [text, PDF, in Russian; JURIST report] that would impose criminal penalties for unfair competition. Last year, FAS previously condemned Rosneft for breaking competition laws [JURIST report] during the summer of 2008. The government agency previously demanded that several oil companies cut their oil prices [RIA Novosti report].