[JURIST] Former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich [JURIST news archive] pleaded not guilty Wednesday to amended corruption charges. Blagojevich entered the plea [Chicago Tribune report] in response to eight amended charges [JURIST report], including racketeering, attempted extortion, bribery, conspiracy to commit bribery, and conspiracy to commit extortion. Those additional charges allow prosecutors to try Blagojevich without relying on the federal honest services fraud statute [18 USC § 1346 text], which some believe the Supreme Court may soon declare unconstitutional in some contexts. Following his appearance in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Blagojevich released a statement [text] asking that all of the recorded conversations that the government has be played during the course of the trial. Blagojevich has indicated that he will testify at the trial [WSJ report], which is scheduled to start June 3 [JURIST report].

In April, Blagojevich pleaded not guilty to 16 felony counts [JURIST reports], including wire fraud, attempted extortion, racketeering conspiracy, extortion conspiracy, and making false statements. In January 2009, the Illinois State Senate voted unanimously [JURIST report] to convict Blagojevich of abuse of power and remove him from office. Blagojevich is the first Illinois governor to be impeached and removed from office. Blagojevich and his chief of staff John Harris were initially arrested [JURIST report] in December 2008 on allegations that they had conspired to sell the Senate seat left vacant by President Barack Obama.

[JURIST] A court in Myanmar on Wednesday convicted rights activist and US citizen Kyaw Zaw Lwin, also known as Nyi Nyi Aung [Freedom Now profile], on charges of fraud and forgery. Aung was sentenced to three years in prison [AFP report] for forging an identity card, and one year each for failing to declare foreign currency and immigration violations, to be serve concurrently. The charges [JURIST report] carried a potential maximum of 10 years. The activist's lawyer, Nyan Win, said that they will appeal the conviction [BBC report]. Aung was arrested on September 3 when he entered the country, and was initially accused of inciting anti-government unrest. Freedom Now [advocacy website], which represents Aung, claimed [press release, PDF] that the government has committed a variety of human rights violations [JURIST comment] while detaining him. Fifty-three members of the US House of Representatives have called [letter, PDF] on Myanmar to release Aung, but the US government has not officially requested a release. International rights groups such as Human Rights Watch [advocacy website] have also urged [press release] the government to release Aung.

In January, a Myanmar government official said that pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi [BBC profile; JURIST news archive], also represented by Freedom Now, will be released from house arrest [JURIST report] in November when her sentence is scheduled to end. The extension of Suu Kyi's house arrest stems from an August conviction [JURIST report] for violating state security laws by allowing American John Yettaw to stay in her home after he swam across a lake to get there. Yettaw, who was sentenced to seven years in prison with four years of hard labor, was released [JURIST report] in August after negotiations with US Senator Jim Webb (D-VA). Suu Kyi was initially sentenced to three years in prison with hard labor, but her sentence was immediately commuted by junta chief General Than Shwe. Suu Kyi has spent 14 of the last 20 years in detention, and her latest conviction has been condemned [BBC report] by many world leaders as a political move to prevent her from running in the upcoming elections. Her conviction has given rise to international sanctions [JURIST report] against Myanmar's junta and members of the judiciary.

[JURIST] The Supreme People's Court of China [official website, in Chinese] on Tuesday issued new guidelines for limiting capital punishment [Xinhua report] in Chinese courts, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency. The guidelines rely on a policy of "justice tempered with mercy" and instruct courts to issue the death penalty [JURIST news archive] only to those who commit "extremely serious" crimes. According to the report, cases involving repeat offenders, gang-related crimes, and government corruption cases should be handled with severity. However, the guidelines also state that reprieves should be issued in certain cases as allowed by law.

China has recently faced significant criticism of its human rights record and use of the death penalty. Last month, a Chinese court sentenced [JURIST report] four people to death in connection with the July Xinjiang riots [JURIST news archive]. At least 26 people have received death sentences for their roles in the riots. In November, the Chinese government carried out the executions [JURIST report] of nine others convicted in connection with the riots for murder, assault, arson, and robbery, after a review by the Supreme People's Court upheld their sentences. Last year, China said that it planned to reduce [China Daily report] the number of executions it conducts. Anti-death penalty group Hands Off Cain [advocacy website] has said that China continues to account for more executions [JURIST report] than any other country. In 2008, the country executed at least 5,000 people, or more than 87 percent of the world's total.

[JURIST] The acting head of the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti [official website] said Tuesday that while conditions are currently stable, the Haitian people must turn in the thousands of prisoners that escaped [JURIST report] when the January 12 earthquake [JURIST news archive] destroyed prisons and jails. Edmond Mulet called upon the residents of Haiti to turn over to authorities the more than 5,000 prisoners [Reuters report] that the UN peacekeeping force has helped to detain since entering Haiti in 2004. It is estimated that only three dozen escaped prisoners have been detained [AP report] since January 12. The aftermath of the earthquake has also placed a strain on detainees arrested since the disaster, as limited space and limited access to judges has caused the criminal justice system and those in it additional hardship [Washington Post report].

In late January, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said that strengthening human rights [JURIST report] is an integral part of the rebuilding process in Haiti. Earlier in January, US President Barack Obama signed a bill [JURIST report] that will allow US citizens to claim donations to Haitian relief efforts as a deduction on their 2009 tax returns. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano announced that Haitian nationals present in the US before the earthquake will be given temporary protected status and will not be deported for the next 18 months, but Haitian refugees who arrive in the US illegally will be sent back to their home country [JURIST reports]. The 7.0 magnitude earthquake caused massive damage to property and infrastructure in Haiti, and the death toll has now been estimated at 230,000.

[JURIST] The Office of Immigration Statistics of the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) [official website] released a report [text, PDF] Wednesday estimating that the total number of illegal immigrants [JURIST news archive] living in the US fell to 10.8 million during the year ending in January 2009. The DHS calculates the "unauthorized resident population" by subtracting the number of legal permanent residents, asylees, refugees, and non-immigrants from estimates of the total foreign-born population. The seven percent decline from 11.6 million in January 2008 is attributed by many to the economic decline during that period. According to DHS estimates, 10.8 million is the smallest population of unauthorized residents since 2005, when there were an estimated 10.5 million [report, PDF]. A Pew Hispanic Center [advocacy website] report [text, PDF] released in July showed a similar decline in the Mexican immigrant population in the US. The report clarified that although the recession has hurt employment of Latino immigrants [press release], the decline resulted from decreased immigration into the US rather than from immigrants leaving the US to go back to Mexico.

In December, Democratic lawmakers introduced an immigration reform bill in the US House of Representatives [official website] that would give undocumented immigrants an easier path to seek legal status in the country. The proposed legislation, which is titled the Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America's Security and Prosperity Act of 2009 (CIR ASAP) [bill summary, PDF], follows the Obama administration's announcement [JURIST report] that it would seek immigration reform early in 2010. In November, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano [official profile] said that the proposed reform legislation would be a "three-legged stool" that combines effective and fair enforcement, an improved process for legal immigration, and a "firm but fair way" to deal with illegal immigrants who are already in the US. The proposed bill is also the first attempt at immigration reform since the failed [JURIST report] Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill [S 1639 materials] in 2007. At that time, detractors called the bill too lenient on illegal immigrants and said that by granting legal status to illegal aliens, the US was granting "amnesty."

[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit [official website] ruled [opinion, PDF] Tuesday that strip searching all incoming inmates does not violate the Fourth Amendment [text] and is necessary to prevent illegal substances from entering prisons. San Francisco Sheriff Michael Hennessey had enacted the policy to strip search new inmates in response the rising amount of drugs and weapons being brought into jails. The court found the policy to be reasonable, considering the nature of US prison system and the documented evidence of illegal materials entering prisons. The court ruled:

[W]e conclude that San Francisco's policy requiring strip searches of all arrestees classified for custodial housing in the general population was facially reasonable under the Fourth Amendment. ... Because the policy did not violate plaintiffs' Fourth Amendment rights, we reverse the district court's denial of Sheriff Hennessey's motion for summary judgment.

[JURIST] The England and Wales Court of Appeal [official website] on Wednesday ruled [judgment text] that the government must disclose the seven previously withheld paragraphs outlining the alleged torture of former Guantanamo Bay detainee Binyam Mohamed [JURIST news archives]. In rejecting the government's appeal, the court found that, "publication of the redacted paragraphs would not reveal information which would be of interest to a terrorist or criminal or provide any potential material of value to a terrorist or a criminal." British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs David Miliband [official profile] accepted the court's decision and disclosed [press release] the information, but emphasized [BBC report] the importance of the intelligence relationship between the US and Britain. Advocacy groups such as Amnesty International UK [advocacy website] welcomed the court's ruling and called for additional inquiries [press release] into the British government's involvement with the torture.

Wednesday's ruling ends the long-running legal battle to keep the information classified. In December, British government lawyers argued that two UK High Court judges acted irresponsibly when they ruled that the details of the detention must be released [JURIST reports]. This was following an interim ruling [JURIST report] by Lord Justice Thomas and Justice Lloyd Jones that redacted the release. Last November, a separate judge on the High Court ruled that, in Mohamed's separate suit for damages, information relating to his treatment at Guantanamo Bay may be withheld [JURIST report] under a "closed material procedure." Mohamed was returned to the UK in February 2009, after charges against him were dismissed [JURIST reports] in October 2008. Mohamed had been held at Guantanamo Bay for four years on suspicion of conspiracy to commit terrorism [JURIST report].

[JURIST] An Iranian court sentenced [ISNA report, in Persian] one person to death and eight others to prison on Tuesday for their involvement in protests last December. The men were arrested [AFP report] for participating in protests [JURIST report] that interrupted the Shia Muslim celebration of Ashura. The unidentified man sentenced to death becomes the twelfth person to receive capital punishment for involvement in protests last year in Iran. Among the eight men that received prison sentences was Behzad Nabavi, a well-known activist and former Minister of Industry and Deputy Speaker of the Iranian Parliament. Nabavi received [AP report] a sentence of five years imprisonment. The government charged the individuals with being enemies of god for violating community security, propaganda, attacking police, and arson.

The Iranian government continues to charge citizens in connection with the December protests, as well as those that followed the June presidential election [JURIST news archive]. Last week, former deputy foreign minister Mohsen Aminzadeh was sentenced [JURIST report] to six years in prison for his participation in post-election protests. Earlier this month, a report [JURIST report] indicated that Iran will soon execute nine people for their roles in the post-election protests. Two others were executed [JURIST report] in January. Last month, Iran's Prosecutor-General Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei called for sedition trials [JURIST report] against leaders of protests following the presidential election.

[JURIST] Nigerian Vice President Goodluck Jonathan [Online Nigeria profile] will assume the role of president after the parliament voted on Tuesday for him to take over for ailing President Umaru Yar'Adua [BBC profile]. Jonathan reluctantly accepted [BBC report] the presidency under the circumstances and asked for the country to pray for Yar'Adua as he continues to battle a heart condition. The parliament's motion included [Nigeria Independent report] a clause that would return power to Yar'Adua upon his recovery. Yar'Adua has been receiving medical treatment in Saudi Arabia since late November.

Last month, a Nigerian court ruled that Yar'Adua is not required [JURIST report] to formally transfer his powers to Jonathan or any other interim leader. Also in January, the court ordered [JURIST report] Nigeria's cabinet to pass a resolution within 14 days on whether Yar'Adua is capable of running the country. A judge for Nigeria's Federal High Court ordered [JURIST report] Jonathan to assume executive powers in Yar'Adua's absence. In 2008, the Nigerian Supreme Court upheld the results of disputed 2007 election that brought Yar'Adua to power, despite opposition groups' allegations of fraud [JURIST reports].