[JURIST] Iran opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi [IranTracker profile] on Saturday called for continued protests over the recent controversial election [JURIST report] in which President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad [BBC profile] was re-elected. Mousavi maintained his position that the election was fraudulent and urged supporters [Reuters report] to oppose the results. Mousavi's statements came just days after Ahmadinejad called for the prosecution of opposition leaders [JURIST report], including Mousavi, for allegedly conspiring to orchestrate mass protests immediately following the election.

The protests over the election and the resulting arrests have been the subject of recent debate. Last week, Iran began the fourth mass trial [JURIST report] of election protesters and reformists. Earlier in August, three UN human rights experts called on Iran's Revolutionary Court to reject protesters' confessions obtained through torture [JURIST report]. Iran's Prosecutor General Ghorban Ali Dorri Najafabadi acknowledged [JURIST report] last month that some protesters arrested after the election were tortured. Human rights groups have called arrests political repression [JURIST report], saying that Iranian forces are using the protests to "engage in what appears to be a major purge of reform-oriented individuals."

[JURIST] The Belgian Foreign Ministry [official website] announced press release] Friday that they have accepted a former Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainee into their country for resettlement. The Belgian government announced that the detainee, who has not been named, will receive a work permit and that further "accompanying measures will be specific with a view to ensuring his effective integration in Belgium." In August, Belgium sent a delegation to Guantanamo Bay to interview [JURIST report] a detainee for potential transfer.

The White House recently gave notice [JURIST report] to Congress that six Guantanamo Bay detainees would be transferred out of the country. Of the six, one was sent to Afghanistan, two were sent to Portugal, and two will be sent to Ireland [JURIST reports]. Meanwhile, the residents of a Michigan town where a federal prison set to close is being considered to house the remaining Guantanamo detainees have protested [JURIST report] the move. President Barack Obama signed an executive order [JURIST report] in January, ordering the detention facility to be closed within a year and the remaining prisoners moved elsewhere.

[JURIST] The World Trade Organization (WTO) [website] on Friday ruled that Airbus received illegal subsidies from European governments, according to sources familiar with the unreleased decision. The preliminary ruling [Washington Post report] came in response to a complaint [materials; JURIST report] filed by the US Trade Representative alleging that the subsidies caused material harm to US aircraft manufacturer Boeing [corporate website], in violation of the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures [WTO backgrounder] and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994 [text, PDF]. Representative Norm Dicks (D-WA) responded to the ruling [press release], saying that the subsidies allowed Airbus to "steal US aircraft manufacturing jobs" and that they should be curtailed immediately to "restore a level global marketplace." The WTO has yet to rule on a counterclaim brought by the EU alleging that US aid to Boeing is in violation of agreements.

In February, Congress amended a US economic stimulus package after the European Union expressed concern [JURIST reports] over a "Buy American" provision in the legislation. The EU stated that they were prepared to take legal action over the provision that allegedly violated the WTO Agreement on Government Procurement, an ensurement that both the US and EU will have substantial procurement opportunities in either region.

[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit [official website] ruled [opinion, PDF] Friday that former attorney general John Ashcroft [JURIST news archive] is not entitled to absolute and qualified immunity, allowing an unlawful detention lawsuit by US citizen Abdullah Al-Kidd to go forward. At the heart of the case is whether the Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] policy of using the federal material witness statute [18 USC § 3144 text; HRW backgrounder, PDF] as a way to preemptively detain and investigate terrorism suspects without probable cause is lawful. The Ninth Circuit said that Al-Kidd's case had three legitimate causes of action that could go forward, concluding:

We are confident that, in light of the experience of the American colonists with the abuses of the British Crown, the Framers of our Constitution would have disapproved of the arrest, detention, and harsh confinement of a United States citizen as a "material witness" under the circumstances, and for the immediate purpose alleged, in al-Kidd's complaint. Sadly, however, even now, more than 217 years after the ratification of the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, some confidently assert that the government has the power to arrest and detain or restrict American citizens for months on end, in sometimes primitive conditions, not because there is evidence that they have committed a crime, but merely because the government wishes to investigate them for possible wrongdoing, or to prevent them from having contact with others in the outside world. We find this to be repugnant to the Constitution, and a painful reminder of some of the most ignominious chapters of our national history.