[JURIST] A plea of not guilty was entered in a US federal court Friday for Nigerian national Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, indicted [text, PDF] on six counts for allegedly attempting to set off an explosive device on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 bound from Amsterdam to Detroit last month. Abdulmutallab is charged [JURIST report] with attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction, attempted murder within the special aircraft jurisdiction of the US, willful attempt to destroy or wreck an aircraft, willfully placing a destructive device on an aircraft, use of a firearm/destructive device during and in relation to a crime of violence, and possession of a firearm/destructive device in furtherance of a crime of violence. In his appearance before the US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan [official website] Friday, Abdulmutallab refused to respond to the charges, and Judge Mark Randon entered a not guilty plea on his behalf. Abdulmutallab will remain in custody, and no date has been set for his next hearing.

On Thursday, US President Barack Obama called for stricter airline security measures as he announced the conclusion of two security reviews he ordered [JURIST reports] after the failed bombing attempt. On Tuesday, Obama pledged to improve airline passenger security [JURIST report], calling the attempted bombing "a failure to integrate and understand the intelligence." Obama said that the US government had sufficient information to uncover the plot, but that "our intelligence community failed to connect those dots." On Monday, civil rights groups opposed [JURIST report] stricter screening procedures [TSA press release] for passengers entering the US from 14 countries, calling the measures unconstitutional. The enhanced screening procedures will affect travelers entering the US from Afghanistan, Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Cuba, Iran, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. Abdulmutallab was charged [JURIST report] last month with willfully attempting to destroy an aircraft or aircraft facilities in violation of 18 USC § 32 [text].

[JURIST] The Federal Administrative Court of Switzerland [official website, in German] ruled Friday that the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) [official website, in German] violated the law in February 2009 when it ordered UBS [corporate website] to disclose information to the US on more than 250 of the bank's clients. FINMA issued the order after the US Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] accused UBS of assisting Americans in hiding accounts from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) [official website]. The court stated [WSJ report] that FINMA lacked the authority to authorize the release of information, and that the issue should have been addressed by the Federal Council. FINMA contends the move was necessary to ensure the stability of the Swiss banking system stating [press release]:

FINMA based its decision on Articles 25 and 26 of the Swiss Banking Act, which give it the authority and obligation to impose unspecified preventive measures if it has reasonable grounds to suspect serious liquidity problems. These measures may affect individual creditors' rights same as payment moratoriums or payment bans which, unlike the "preventive measures", have been specified in law. Following consultation with the Federal Council, the FINMA Board of Directors ordered the disclosure of the client data as it considered this as the only way to avoid the real threat of the US authorities starting proceedings against the bank, which would have threatened its existence and seriously worsened its liquidity situation which, in turn, would have impacted the Swiss economy.

[JURIST] The Portuguese Parliament [official website, in Portuguese] on Friday approved a bill to legalize same-sex marriage [JURIST news archive]. The bill gives same-sex couples the same rights as heterosexual married couples, but stops short of allowing same-sex couples to adopt. The bill was supported [Diario de Noticias report, in Portuguese] by the ruling Socialist Part and other leftist parties and faced strong oppositions from conservatives as well as the Catholic Church. The bill will now be reviewed in committee before undergoing a final parliamentary vote. It will then go before President Anibal Cavaco Silva to be signed.

In August, the Portuguese Constitutional Tribunal [official website, in Portuguese] ruled [JURIST report] that same-sex marriage is not a right guaranteed by the Portuguese Constitution [text], denying an appeal by a lesbian couple claiming sexual orientation discrimination. In October 2008, parliament voted overwhelmingly against [JURIST report] two opposition proposals to legalize same-sex marriage. If the bill is given final approval, Portugal would become the sixth European country to recognize same-sex marriage, joining Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Norway, and Sweden [JURIST reports].

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] on Friday granted certiorari [order list, PDF] in Dolan v. United States [docket; cert. petition, PDF], in which the Court will consider whether a district court may enter a restitution order beyond the time limit prescribed in 18 USC § 3664(d)(5) [text]. The petitioner, Brian Dolan, attacked a hitchhiker and was ordered to pay restitution to his victim. He argued that the court's restitution order came after the deadline imposed by the Mandatory Victims Restitution Act. The US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit held [opinion, PDF] that "a tardy restitution order is not an invalid one."

[JURIST] UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial killings Philip Alston [official website] on Thursday urged an investigation [UN News Centre report] into possible Sri Lankan war crimes after authenticating a video of members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) [JURIST news archive] being executed by members of the Sri Lankan military. Alston said that an investigation by experts in forensic pathology, forensic video analysis, and firearm evidence concluded that the video was authentic. Alston said:

Given these conclusions, and in light of the persistent flow of other allegations of extrajudicial executions by both sides during the closing phases of the war against the LTTE, I call for the establishment of an independent inquiry to carry out an impartial investigation into war crimes and other grave violations of international humanitarian and human rights law allegedly committed in Sri Lanka.

[JURIST] US President Barack Obama on Thursday called for stricter airline security measures as he announced [press release] the conclusion of two security reviews he ordered [JURIST report] after the failed attempt by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to detonate an explosive device on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 last month. According to an unclassified summary [text, PDF], the reviews found that the US counter-terrorism community had sufficient information about Abdulmutallab and Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Penninsula [Al Jazeera backgrounder], the terrorist group with which he was affiliated, to disrupt the plot but failed to "identify, correlate, and fuse into a coherent story all of the discrete pieces of intelligence" held by US intelligence agencies. Saying that the failure to disrupt the plot "was not the fault of a single individual or organization, but rather a systemic failure across organizations and agencies," Obama outlined [remarks] a series of directives [text, PDF] he authorized to address the security lapses identified by the reviews. He said he had ordered the intelligence community to assign "specific responsibility for investigating all leads on high-priority threats," to rapidly and widely distribute intelligence reports, to rework their analytical processes to ensure integration of intelligence, and to "strengthen the criteria used to add individuals to our terrorist watchlists." At a joint press conference [transcript] Thursday, assistant to the president for counterterrorism and Homeland Security John Brennan said that the systemic failures at issue in the December 25 attempt were distinct from the failure to share information between agencies outlined by the 9/11 Commission [official website] as contributing to the success of those attacks. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano [official profile] described the use of watchlists as "the cornerstone of our efforts to prevent suspected terrorists from boarding airplanes bound for the United States" and said that her department would be working with the broader intelligence community to re-evaluate the procedures which trigger placement on the no-fly list [JURIST news archive], and increasing efforts to strengthen international aviation security standards.

On Wednesday, Abdulmutallab was indicted [JURIST report] on six counts for allegedly attempting to set off an explosive device concealed on his person on a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit. On Monday, civil rights groups opposed [JURIST report] stricter screening procedures [TSA press release] for passengers entering the US from 14 countries, calling the measures unconstitutional. The enhanced screening procedures will affect travelers entering the US from Afghanistan, Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Cuba, Iran, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. Abdulmutallab was charged [JURIST report] last month with willfully attempting to destroy an aircraft or aircraft facilities in violation of 18 USC § 32 [text].

[JURIST] The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) [official website] ruled [judgment text; press release] Thursday that sex trafficking violates conventions against slavery and forced labor, finding both Russia and Cyprus liable in the case of a young woman who came from Russia to work in a Cyprus cabaret and was later found dead. The case was brought by the woman's father, who had campaigned for both countries to investigate her death. The court found that both Russia and Cyprus violated Article 4 of the European Convention on Human Rights [text, PDF], which prohibits slavery and forced labor. The ECHR ruled that Cyprus did not have a proper framework in place to prevent sex trafficking, and that authorities had reason to know the woman may have been a victim of sex trafficking and did not do enough to protect her. The court ruled that Russia did not do enough to identify where the woman was recruited and punish the responsible parties. The court also found that Cyprus violated the woman's right to life under Article 2 of the Convention by failing to investigate her death. The court ordered Cyprus to pay the woman's father 40,000 euros and Russia to pay 2,000 euros. Cyprus admitted responsibility [AFP report] the ruling and promised to investigate the woman's death.

Sex trafficking is illegal in most European countries, but many women continue to come from Russia and Ukraine to work in Cyprus cabarets. In 2008, European Human Rights Commissioner Thomas Hammarberg [official website] criticized [report] Cyprus's artiste visa program, which he said facilitated illegal sex trafficking. Cyprus ended the program that year, but that only took effect in November.

[JURIST] US authorities on Thursday announced [press release] charges against two former employees of security firm Blackwater [JURIST news archive] in connection with the May 5 shooting death of two Afghans in Kabul. Justin Cannon and Christopher Drotleff each face 13 counts under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act (MEJA) [text], including two counts of second-degree murder, one count of attempted murder, and discharging a firearm during a violent crime, for which they could receive life in prison or the death penalty if convicted. The men are accused of shooting three men, reportedly during a traffic incident [AFP report], while working for Blackwater subsidiary Paravant LLC [corporate website], under contract with the US Department of Defense [official website] to provide weapons training to the Afghan National Army [official website]. Also on Thursday, the UN Working Group on the use of mercenaries [official website] responded to an announcement earlier this week by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki [official website, in Arabic] that his government would file lawsuits against Blackwater, now known as Xe Services, in both US and Iraqi courts for its involvement in the deaths of 17 Iraqi civilians [JURIST report] in September 2007 in Baghdad's Nisour Square. Chairperson Shaista Shameem called for accountability [UN News Centre report], urging US and Iraqi authorities to cooperate in order to avoid a "situation where no one would be accountable for grave human rights violations," despite Coalition Provisional Authority Order 17 [text, PDF] of 2004, granting immunity from prosecution for foreign contractors operating in Iraq.

On Wednesday, Blackwater settled [JURIST report] seven federal civil lawsuits brought by Iraqi civilians alleging that the company had created a reckless culture [AP report] that resulted in numerous deaths. The settlement came just a week after after a US judge dismissed charges [JURIST report] against five guards indicted for their involvement in the Nisour Square killings. Judge Richardo Urbina of the US District Court for the District of Columbia [official website] dismissed [opinion, PDF] voluntary manslaughter and weapons charges against the five guards, finding that statements were obtained in violation of the Constitution. The five defendants pleaded not guilty [JURIST report] to manslaughter and weapons charges last January. The guards were indicted [JURIST report] in December 2008 on charges of voluntary manslaughter, attempt to commit manslaughter, and using and discharging a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence. A sixth guard pleaded guilty to charges of voluntary manslaughter and attempt to commit manslaughter for his role in the same incident. The Blackwater incident caused domestic outrage in Iraq and has prompted legal controversy in the US.

[JURIST] The Iranian judiciary said Thursday that five people arrested during in last month's violent riots [JURIST report] will be tried [ILNA report] for Moharebe, or warring against God, which is punishable by execution. The names of the accused have not been released. 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]. Earlier this week, Iranian Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar warned [JURIST report] opposition activists that they could execution if they continue anti-government protests, and there is speculation that the severe charges are an attempt to quash ongoing unrest [NYT report].

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 New Jersey Senate voted 20-14 [video] Thursday to defeat a bill [text, PDF] that would have legalized same-sex marriage [JURIST news archive] in the state. The Senate Judiciary Committee had voted 7-6 in favor of the bill [JURIST report] last month, marking the first time that any body in the state legislature [official website] had approved same-sex marriage legislation. The bill's sponsors, Democratic senators Raymond Lesniak and Loretta Weinberg, postponed the vote [JURIST report], saying they wanted to allow a hearing in the general assembly before the vote took place. Supporters had hoped to pass the legislation before outgoing Governor Jon Corzine (D) leaves office on January 19. He had promised to sign the bill, but Governor-elect Chris Christie (R) opposes it, making same-sex marriage unlikely in New Jersey for at least the next four years.

Last month, the New York Senate also defeated legislation [JURIST report] to allow same-sex marriage. In November, Maine voters vetoed [JURIST report] a same-sex marriage bill passed by that state's legislature. The Maine vote came a year after California voters approved Proposition 8, an amendment to the state constitution overturning the state's high court ruling [JURIST reports] in favor of same-sex marriage. Same-sex marriage is currently legal in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont, and New Hampshire, and is set to become legal in Washington DC [JURIST reports], pending Congressional inaction. New Jersey has recognized same-sex civil unions [JURIST report] since 2006.