[JURIST] Police in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) arrested [press release] two former Bosnian Serb detention camp guards on Thursday who were allegedly responsible for the death of around 50 civilians and Bosnian soldiers during the Bosnian civil war [JURIST news archive]. Ratko Dronjak was commander of a detention camp in the village of Kamenica, which held prisoners between 1992 and 1995. Dragan Rodic was a guard at the same camp. Both men are suspected of several crimes under the BiH criminal code [text, PDF] including:

killing about 50 civilians and prisoners of war, members of the Army of [Bosnia and Herzegovina]; of inflicting serious bodily injuries to a large number of detainees who went through the "Kamenica" camp in the period from 1992 to 1995; for holding them incarcerated under cruel and degrading conditions, creating an atmosphere of terror, depriving them of basic necessities, submitting them through everyday questionings, beatings, torture, harassment, humiliation, psychological abuse; of failing to provide medical care and keeping the detainees in constant fear for their lives.

[JURIST] The Parliament of the Republic of Angola [BBC backgrounder] approved a new constitution on Thursday that would end the popular election of the president, despite the refusal of opposition party UNITA [party website] to take part in the vote. The new constitution [Reuters report] replaces an interim constitution [text, PDF] that had been in place since 1975. It provides for the appointment of the country's president by parliament's majority party, ending the direct election of the country's president. It also replaces the position of prime minister with a vice president, who will be appointed by the president. It limits a president to two five-year terms, but that clause will first take effect after parliamentary elections in 2012. Opponents of the constitution argue that it is merely a way to further expand the power of current President Jose Eduardo dos Santos [BBC profile], but members of the ruling MPLA party say that it will allow him to more effectively rule [ANGOP report] the country.

Dos Santos has been in power since 1979. He faced one round of elections in 1992 before a second round was called off due to violence [AFP report]. A presidential election that was scheduled for 2009 was delayed while the new constitution was being considered. Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] has expressed doubts as to whether past parliamentary elections were fair and free and has identified problems [HRW reports] with the electoral system.

[JURIST] A Moscow court on Thursday rejected an appeal of a lower court ruling that denied recognition of a marriage between two women. The couple, Irina Fedotova-Fet and Irina Shepitko, applied for a marriage license in March, but were refused by the registry. The women appealed to the Tverskoi District Court in Moscow, arguing that nothing in the Russian Constitution [text] prohibits the recognition of same-sex marriage [JURIST news archive]. That court rejected their appeal [JURIST report] in October, and the appeals court affirmed that ruling Thursday, stating that Russia only recognizes marriage between a man and a woman [Reuters report]. Counsel for the two women stated that they plan to appeal the case [RIA Novosti report] to the European Court of Human Rights [official website] for a violation of Article 14 [Itar-Tass report] of the European Convention on Human Rights [text, PDF].

In Europe, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Norway, and Sweden [JURIST reports] all allow same-sex marriages, while several other European countries allow partnerships with limited rights. Earlier this month, the Portuguese Parliament approved a bill to legalize same-sex marriage after Portugal's high court ruled [JURIST reports] in August that the right to a same-sex marriage was not present in the country's constitution. In June, Ireland passed a bill that gave limited rights to same-sex partners. Last year, the European Court of Justice, spurred by a complaint from a German man, ruled that same-sex partners have a right to survivor pensions [JURIST report].

[JURIST] French police on Wednesday arrested alleged war criminal Sosthene Munyemana in Bordeaux, acting on a Rwandan extradition warrant. Munyemana, a Rwandan doctor who has worked in a French hospital for eight years, is accused of war crimes [AFP report] related to the 1994 Rwandan genocide [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive]. He was later released on bail [BBC report] while awaiting a court date. France denied Munyemana's request for asylum in 2008, citing concerns about his role in the genocide.

Earlier this month, French officials announced [JURIST report] plans to create a special judicial service to investigate and charge individuals accused of crimes against humanity and genocide in France or in other countries. The new unit would streamline the prosecutions of Rwandans living in France who are accused of war crimes during the 1994 genocide. Diplomatic relations between France and Rwanda were restored [AFP report] in November. The countries had cut ties in 2006 after French judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere [BBC backgrounder] issued arrest warrants for several top Rwandan officials believed to have participated in the attack on former president Juvenal Habyarimana's plane.

[JURIST] Amin Mohamed Durrani, a member of the "Toronto 18" [Toronto Star backgrounder; JURIST news archive], was released Thursday after pleading guilty in a Canadian court Wednesday to participating in and assisting a terrorist group. Durrani's plea [Toronto Sun report], which came as a surprise to many, included an apology and a denunciation of terrorism. As part of the plea agreement, Durrani was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison, but was credited with time served since 2006 and was to be released after one additional day. Durrani also received a three-year probationary period, a lifetime ban from owning firearms, and his DNA will be entered into a national registry.

Also this week, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice sentenced two members of the group [JURIST report], Zakaria Amara and Saad Gaya, to life and 12 years in prison, respectively, for their roles in the plot to blow up key buildings in Toronto. Earlier in January, another member, Shareef Abdelhaleem, pleaded not guilty [JURIST report] to charges of participating in a terrorist group and intending to cause an explosion. The first member of the group, an unidentified minor, was convicted in September 2008 [JURIST report], and like Durrani, was sentenced to time already served.

[JURIST] The North Korean government is holding approximately 200,000 dissidents [press release, in Korean] in six prison camps spread throughout the country, according to a report released Wednesday by the South Korean government's National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) [official website, in Korean]. According to the report, punishments for dissidents have increased significantly [VOA report] for common offenses such as attempting to escape. The report also said that five of these six prisons are death camps and that prisoners sent to them are never [Chosun llbo report] released. This is the first time a state agency has conducted a review of human rights in North Korea.

In October, UN Special Rapporteur for North Korea Vitit Muntarbhorn criticized [JURIST report] North Korea for human rights violations. Muntarbhorn said North Korea was responsible for a broad range of egregious human rights violations [UN press release] including torture, public executions, and widespread hunger. North Korea's deputy UN ambassador Pak Tok-Hun has condemned [NYT report] the report and defended [JURIST report] the country's rights record before the council.

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] on Thursday decided [opinion, PDF] 5-4 in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission [Cornell LII backgrounder] to ease restrictions on political campaign spending by corporations. The Court was asked to consider Section 203 of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) [text, PDF], which prohibits corporations and unions from using their general treasury funds to make independent expenditures for speech defined as an "electioneering communication" or for speech expressly advocating the election or defeat of a candidate. The Federal Election Commission (FEC) [official website] argued that Section 203 allowed them to regulate the release of and advertising for a 90-minute documentary questioning then-senator Hillary Clinton's qualifications to serve as US president. Petitioner Citizens United [advocacy website], a non-profit conservative advocacy corporation that produced the film, appealed on broad First Amendment grounds a decision [opinion, PDF] by the US District Court for the District of Columbia, which held that the movie was "electioneering communication" within the meaning of BCRA. In its ruling Thursday, the Court overturned its 1989 decision in Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce, which upheld the facial validity of Section 203, and partially overturned McConnell v. Federal Election Commission [Oyez backgrounders], to the extent that it relied on Austin. Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the majority:

In this case we are asked to reconsider Austin and, in effect, McConnell. It has been noted that "Austin was a significant departure from ancient First Amendment principles." We agree with that conclusion and hold that stare decisis does not compel the continued acceptance of Austin. The Government may regulate corporate political speech through disclaimer and disclosure requirements, but it may not suppress that speech altogether.

[JURIST] A federal employee filed suit [complaint, PDF] on Wednesday against the federal government seeking to add her same-sex spouse to her family health insurance plan. Lambda Legal [advocacy website] brought the suit in the US District Court for the Northern District of California [official website] on behalf of Karen Golinski, a federal court employee who was married in California during the six-month period when same-sex marriage [JURIST news archive] licenses were granted under state law. Golinski is seeking an injunction against the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) [official website], which refuses to enroll her same-sex spouse, citing the 1998 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) [text]. OPM refuses despite multiple orders [JURIST report] to do so, issued after an employment dispute resolution (EDR) hearing by the chief judge of the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit [official website], Alex Kozinski. Golinski's complaint argues that Kozinski's orders should be binding because, "as to judicial employees, the separation of powers doctrine requires that an EDR tribunal's reasonable interpretation of the law take precedence over that of any office or agency of the executive." OPM did not appeal the judge's order but issued a press release [text, PDF] stating that it is not obligated to follow them because the chief judge, "was acting as an administrative official in this matter, reacting to the concerns of an employee of the judiciary. He was not acting as a federal judge in a court case."

In November, the Obama administration filed a motion to dismiss [JURIST report] a federal lawsuit [complaint, PDF] challenging the DOMA. The suit was brought [JURIST report] in July by Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley [official profile] and challenges the DOMA on constitutional grounds. In September, the government filed a motion to dismiss [JURIST report] a similar lawsuit brought by the Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) [advocacy website] on behalf of a group of plaintiffs who are or have been married under Massachusetts state's same-sex marriage law. Also in September, 90 members of Congress introduced [JURIST report] a bill [HR 3567 text] to repeal the DOMA, which was signed by former president Bill Clinton in 1996. DOMA refuses federal marriage benefits to same-sex couples, including social security, tax laws, and immigration rights, and defines marriage as between a man and a woman.

[JURIST] The Italian Senate [official website, in Italian] approved a bill [S 1880 materials, in Italian] Wednesday that aims to shorten the trial and appeals process by putting strict time limits on its duration. The legislation would limit the three stages of a case - trial, initial appeal, and final appeal - to between 6.5 and 10 years depending on the crime, and cases that exceed the time limit would end in an automatic acquittal of the defendant. Because of the bill's retroactive effect, two pending corruption cases against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] would be automatically dismissed. Members of Berlusconi's center-right coalition defended the bill as a way to speed up [Times report] the slow Italian justice system while his critics called it an "ad personam" bill, passed by his allies to help Berlusconi with his legal troubles [Financial Times report]. The bill would become law if it is approved by the Chamber of Deputies and signed by President Giorgio Napolitano [official websites, in Italian].

In October, the Italian Constitutional Court [official website, in Italian] struck down a 2008 law granting immunity [JURIST report] to Berlusconi and four others, finding it unconstitutional. Last week, Italian judges postponed [JURIST report] Berlusconi's corruption trial at his lawyers' request. He is charged with paying his British lawyer David Mills [JURIST news archive] to provide false testimony in two trials involving Berlusconi's broadcast company, Mediaset [official website, in Italian]. Berlusconi's tax fraud trial has also been postponed [JURIST report]. Berlusconi has been previously acquitted of false accounting and bribery [JURIST reports], and has had some other charges against him dropped [JURIST report].

[JURIST] A Russian journalist died [RUJ press release, in Russian] in a Siberian hospital on Wednesday from injuries he received during a police beating nearly two weeks ago, according to local investigators. Konstantin Popov, an economics writer for a Russian newspaper, was arrested for drunkenness on January 4 and taken to prison [Moscow Times report], where police officer Alexei Mitayev allegedly tortured and sexually assaulted him. Popov suffered severe internal injuries and spent nearly two weeks in a coma before his death. Mitayev, who will undergo a psychiatric evaluation next month, was charged [official press release, in Russian] with abuse of power and intentional infliction of grievous bodily harm, and he faces up to 10 years in prison. Popov's editor-in-chief expressed concern over police brutality in the country, but said that Popov's murder was probably not related to his journalism [LAT report].

The UN Human Rights Committee [official website] has criticized Russia [JURIST report] for unsolved killings of journalists and human rights activists and violence against citizens. In November, the chairwoman of Russia's Council for Promoting Civil and Human Rights [official website] said that Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky had been murdered in prison [JURIST report]. Earlier that month, a suspect was arrested for the double murder [JURIST reports] of human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova. Markelov had represented famed journalist Anna Politskovskaya [BBC obituary; JURIST news archive] who was killed [JURIST report] in 2006. At least 11 journalists have been murdered [CPJ backgrounder] in Russia since 2005, according to the US Committee to Protect Journalists [official website].

[JURIST] Federal courts provide an effective venue for prosecuting terror suspects, securing convictions in 89 percent of cases since 2001, according to a report [text, PDF; report highlights, PDF] released Wednesday by New York University's Center on Law and Security [official website]. The report found that in recent years, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] has prosecuted fewer high-profile terror defendants, choosing instead to indict those it is more likely to convict. Although the DOJ has used a number of controversial techniques, including relying on statutes that may be unconstitutionally broad, actions that some say amount to entrapment, reliance on confidential information that is not made public, and prolonged detention, the report found that most of these or similar practices do not differ greatly from tactics used in drug dealing and organized crime cases. The report concluded:

The trend lines demonstrate convincingly that federal courts are capable of trying alleged terrorists and securing high rates of conviction. While we can only assess the cases that have been brought, federal prosecution has demonstrably become a powerful tool in many hundreds of cases, not only for incapacitating terrorists but also for intelligence gathering. Much of the government’s knowledge of terrorist groups has come from testimony and evidence produced in grand jury investigations, including information provided by cooperators, and in the resulting trials.

[JURIST] US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton [official profile] signed an order Wednesday authorizing two previously excluded Muslim scholars who strongly criticized US foreign policy to enter the country. During the Bush administration, the US government barred professors Tariq Ramadan [academic profile; JURIST news archive] of Oxford University and Adam Habib [academic profile] of the University of Johannesburg from entering the country, claiming both had ties to terrorism. Clinton said Wednesday that neither posed a security threat [AFP report]. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) [advocacy website], which represented both professors in separate lawsuits seeking to have the men admitted into the US, released a statement [press release] approving the decision. ACLU Security Project Director Jameel Jaffer applauded the decision as "a welcome sign that the Obama administration is committed to facilitating, rather than obstructing, the exchange of ideas across international borders." Ramadan stated [press release], "I am very happy and hopeful that I will be able to visit the United States very soon and to once again engage in an open, critical and constructive dialogue with American scholars and intellectuals." Habib called the decision [press release] "a victory for democracy around the world." A status conference for Ramadan's case was held Wednesday afternoon in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York [official website] to determine how the case should proceed in light of Clinton's order. Both professors must still go through the standard visa application process before they can enter the US.

In July, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled [JURIST report] that the district court had improperly granted summary judgment to the government in its decision to deny Ramadan's visa application. The government alleged that Ramadan, who had been invited to teach at Notre Dame, provided material support to a terrorist organization by donating to a charity with some financial ties to Hamas [JURIST news archive]. The ACLU filed the lawsuit [JURIST report] in 2006 on behalf of the American Academy of Religion, the American Association of University Professors, and the PEN American Center [organization websites]. The ACLU challenged the exclusion on First Amendment [Cornell LII backgrounder] grounds. In 2008, the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts ruled [JURIST report] that the court could review the US Consulate in South Africa's decision to deny Habib's visa application.