[JURIST] A White House spokesperson said Tuesday that the US government will suspend transfers of Guantanamo Bay detainees to Yemen [JURIST news archives]. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs made the announcement at his daily briefing [transcript] amid increasing political pressure not to transfer any more detainees to Yemen after it was revealed that the man who attempted to detonate an explosive device on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 last month received al Qaeda training in Yemen. Gibbs said:

[O]ne of the very first things that al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula used as a recruiting tool was the existence of Guantanamo Bay. ... [W]e are not going to make decisions about transfers that - to a country like Yemen that would - that they're not capable of handling. And I think that, while we remain committed to closing the facility, the determination has been made that right now any additional transfers to Yemen is not a good idea.

With respect to Yemen in particular, there's an ongoing security situation which we have been confronting for some time, along with our Yemeni partner. Given the unsettled situation, I've spoken to the Attorney General and we've agreed that we will not be transferring additional detainees back to Yemen at this time.

[JURIST] Israeli officials said Tuesday that a military delegation had canceled a trip to the UK over fears that they would be arrested on war crimes charges for their involvement in last year's Operation Cast Lead [Global Security Backgrounder] in the Gaza Strip. Israeli Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Danny Ayalon [official profile] met Tuesday in Jerusalem with UK Attorney General Patricia Janet Scotland [official profile] to challenge [press release] several British arrest warrants for Israeli politicians and military officials, stating that the warrants are straining Israeli-British foreign relations. The arrest warrants are the result of Palestinian plaintiffs working with British lawyers to file charges against Israeli officials. Scotland, who also gave a speech [press release] on Tuesday at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, told Ayalon that UK officials were working to resolve the issue and protect senior officials traveling to the UK.

Israeli officials are concerned about the possibility of being charged with war crimes in Britain and other foreign countries based on the theory of universal jurisdiction [AI backgrounder], which allows a country to prosecute serious crimes against humanity no matter where the activity takes place. Last month, Former Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni [official website, in Hebrew] canceled a UK trip [JURIST report] after a British magistrate court issued, and later revoked, an arrest warrant for her on war crimes charges relating to Israel's Gaza offensive. In October, Vice Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon [official profile] called off [JURIST report] a scheduled trip to the UK after legal advisers from the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs [official website] said that he may be arrested over his involvement in a 2002 airstrike that killed a Hamas leader and 14 civilians. Just one week earlier, Palestinian officials attempted [Jerusalem Post report] to have Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak [official profile, in Hebrew] arrested on charges of war crimes while he was in Britain for a meeting with UK government leaders, but the British court rejected the petition citing Barak's diplomatic immunity.

[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit [official website] ruled [opinion, PDF] Tuesday that the president has broad authority to detain suspected terrorists, finding that the detention of Yemeni Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainee Ghaleb Nassar Al-Bihani [NYT materials] is authorized under domestic law. In its first Guantanamo habeas ruling since the US Supreme Court decided Boumediene v. Bush [opinion, PDF; JURIST report] in 2008, the appeals court affirmed the lower court decision [JURIST report] by Judge Richard Leon to deny Al-Bihani's petition for habeas corpus. The three-judge panel of the DC Circuit found that "Al-Bihani was both part of and substantially supported enemy forces." The court also found that the scope of the president's detention authority is not constrained by international law, and that the government's burden of proof in habeas proceedings is only a preponderance of the evidence standard. While all three members of the panel concurred in the result, one member wrote separately to question the court's conclusion that international laws of war have no impact on the president's detention authority. An appeal is expected, which could result in a rehearing by the full appeals court.

Tuesday's ruling will have an impact on future habeas cases brought in the US District Court for the District of Columbia [official website], where different judges have been applying their own standards since the Boumediene decision. In May, Judge John Bates rejected [JURIST report] the Obama administration's "substantial support" standard. Earlier that month, Judge Gladys Kessler applied the "substantially supported" standard [JURIST report] for reviewing habeas petitions filed by detainees, making no reference to the "enemy combatant" [JURIST news archive] classification used previously. In April, Judge Reggie Walton also adopted [JURIST report] the "substantially supported" standard for authorizing and reviewing detention of terrorism suspects at Guantanamo.

[JURIST] Andal Ampatuan Jr., mayor of the southern Philippine town of Datu Unsay, pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to 41 counts of murder related to the November massacre in Maguindanao province that left 57 dead. Prosecutors allege [NYT report] that Ampatuan and a large group of his men took a party of his opposition's supporters and journalists to a remote hilltop where the victims were murdered and buried. No live media coverage was allowed at the Quezon City regional trial court. The trial will resume [Manila Bulletin report] on January 13, when the prosecution is expected to call at least 12 witnesses in an attempt to block Ampatuan's petition for bail. Ampatuan is expected to be charged with 57 counts of murder [Philippine Star report], with the other murder complaints still pending before the Philippines Department of Justice (PDOJ) [official website].

Last week, the PDOJ began the trial [JURIST report] of more than 600 people charged with rebellion for allegedly interfering with government operations following the killings. Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo [official website] imposed martial law [JURIST report] and suspended habeas corpus in the province in the wake of the killings. She later lifted the conditions, following international pressure and domestic legal challenges [JURIST reports].

[JURIST] Iranian Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar on Tuesday warned opposition activists that they could execution if they continue anti-government protests. Najjar's statement [Reuters report] came one day after the Intelligence Ministry announced that several foreigners [Tehran Times report] were among those arrested in last month's violent protests [JURIST report]. Najjar said that the foreigners would also face punishment if found guilty of crimes. The protests, which were the largest since those that followed the June presidential election [JURIST news archive], interrupted the Shia Muslim celebration of Ashura, which marks the seventh century death of the Prophet Muhammad's grandson Hussein. The protests resulted in at least four deaths, numerous injuries, and more than 300 arrests. Among those reported dead is the 35-year-old nephew of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi [JURIST news archive].

The Iranian government has faced significant international scrutiny for its handling of the post-election protests and treatment of thousands arrested as a result. Last month, Amnesty International (AI) [advocacy website] labeled [JURIST report] human rights violations committed by the Iranian government following the election among the worst of the past 20 years. In September, human rights groups called for [JURIST report] the UN General Assembly [official website] to appoint a special envoy to investigate allegations of rights violations. Alleged human rights abuses of detainees include sexual assault, beatings, and forced confessions [JURIST reports].

[JURIST] The two parties in a prosecutorial immunity dispute before the US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] announced a settlement [press release, PDF] Monday, ending the case. The case was Pottawattamie County v. McGhee [docket], in which the Court had been asked to consider whether a prosecutor may be subjected to a civil trial and potential damages for a wrongful conviction and incarceration where the prosecutor allegedly (1) violated a criminal defendant's "substantive due process" rights by procuring false testimony during the criminal investigation, and then (2) introduced that same testimony against the criminal defendant at trial. The US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit held [opinion, PDF] that the prosecutor was not protected from suit by absolute immunity. The two sides moved for dismissal Monday under Supreme Court Rule 46 [text, PDF] without specifying reasons.

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments [JURIST report] in the case on November 4. The Court granted the petition for certiorari [JURIST report] in April.

[JURIST] Civil rights groups on Monday opposed stricter screening procedures [TSA press release] for passengers entering the US from 14 countries, calling the measures unconstitutional. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) [advocacy website] called on [press release] the US government to "adhere to longstanding standards of individualized suspicion and enact security measures that are the least threatening to civil liberties and are proven to be effective." Former FBI agent and national security policy counsel with the ACLU Michael German said:

Singling out travelers from a few specified countries for enhanced screening is essentially a pretext for racial profiling, which is ineffective, unconstitutional and violates American values. Empirical studies of terrorists show there is no terrorist profile, and using a profile that doesn't reflect this reality will only divert resources by having government agents target innocent people. Profiling can also be counterproductive by undermining community support for government counterterrorism efforts and creating an injustice that terrorists can exploit to justify further acts of terrorism.