[JURIST] Spanish National Court judge Baltasar Garzon [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] on Saturday appealed [text, PDF, in Spanish] an indictment that charges [order, PDF, in Spanish; JURIST report] him with abuse of power for launching an investigation of alleged war crimes committed during the Spanish Civil War [LOC backgrounder]. Garzon alleges that the indictment issued by Spanish Supreme Court judge Luciano Varela is politically motivated [AFP report], compromises judicial independence and seeks to impose a specific interpretation of a 1977 law granting amnesty for political crimes committed under Francisco Franco [BBC backgrounder]. Garzon also complains of the short time he was given to appeal the indictment order, which resulted from Varela's summary motion to shorten the length of the trial. Garzon's indictment has sparked international outrage [NYT op-ed] and massive protests [La Jornada report, in Spanish] in Spain. Also on Saturday, the Association for the Recovery of Historical Memory [advocacy website, in Spanish], an organization for relatives of Franco Regime victims, announced [El Comercio report, in Spanish] that it intends to file a criminal complaint against Varela for violating international law in the application of the amnesty law. Members of the organization have said that, if necessary, they would pursue a suit against Varela in courts in Chile or Argentina through universal jurisdiction [AI backgrounder; JURIST news archive].

In 2008, Garzon ordered the exhumation [JURIST report] of 19 mass graves in Spain in order to assemble a definitive national registry of Civil War victims, despite the amnesty law. After ruling in February that Garzon may have exceeded his jurisdictional authority by launching the investigation, the Spanish Supreme Court ruled last month that he could be formally charged [JURIST reports]. Garzon has consistently defended [JURIST report] the validity of the investigation by insisting that he acted within the bounds of the law. Garzon is widely known for using universal jurisdiction extensively in the past to bring several high-profile cases, including those against Osama bin Laden and former Latin American dictator Augusto Pinochet [JURIST news archives].

[JURIST] Polish Parliament Speaker Bronislaw Komorowski [official websites, in Polish] became the interim Polish president on Saturday after elected President Lech Kaczynski [official website; BBC obituary] died in a plane crash [press release]. Komorowski must now announce [Reuters report] the date of the next presidential elections within two weeks. The elections must be held within two months of the official announcement. Under Article 131 of the Polish Constitution [text], the "Marshal of the House of Representatives (Sejm) shall, until the time of election of a new President of the Republic, temporarily discharge the duties of the President of the Republic." In his first official act, Komorowski declared a week of national mourning [Times Online report] for those who died in the plane crash, including [LAT report] the Polish military chief of staff, the president of the national bank, the deputy foreign minister, the deputy parliament speaker, the civil rights commissioner, and several members of parliament.

In primary elections held in March, Komorowski was chosen [AP report] as the presidential candidate for the current ruling party, Civic Platform [party website]. At the time, it was uncertain whether Kaczynski would run for re-election. Kaczynski and the other 89 passengers of the plane that crashed on Saturday were traveling to Katyn, where they were to participate in a memorial service for the victims of a 1940 massacre [JURIST news archive], in which 20,000 Poles were killed by the USSR. In February, the Polish government joined a lawsuit [JURIST report] before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) [official website] alleging that the Russian government failed to provide adequate investigations into the incident and did not grant victim status to 13 relatives of those killed.

[JURIST] Australian Immigration Minister Chris Evans [official website] announced Friday that that his country will temporarily suspend [press release] processing all asylum claims from Sri Lanka and Afghanistan. Evans, a cabinet minister under Prime Minister Kevin Rudd [official website], said that Afghani and Sri Lankan asylum seekers would be denied entry because of improved security situations in those countries. Sri Lankan asylum claims processing would be will be suspended for three months, while Afghani claims will be suspended for six months, after which the policy will be reviewed in light of security assessments from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) [official website]. Evans said that the new procedures are intended to ensure that "Australia's refugee processing system continues to recognise those genuinely in need of our protection." The policy will not affect those refugees already on Christmas Island, a key processing center for unauthorized immigrants. Refugees from Sri Lanka and Afghanistan account for 80 percent [The Age report] of all asylum claims filed in Australia. Opposition parties have criticized the new policy as an election maneuver [The Australian report] meant to get more votes. Rights groups, including Amnesty International and the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) [advocacy websites] have expressed concerns [press release] about the policy's effect on legitimate asylum seekers.

Australia announced this week that they would accept three Cuban refugees [JURIST report] held at the Guantanamo Bay Migration Operations Center, which is not affiliated at the Naval Detention Center [JURIST news archive] at Guantanamo Bay. In November 2006, the High Court of Australia [official website] ruled [JURIST report] that a "holder of a temporary protection visa is not entitled to further protection in Australia if they are no longer in danger in the country from which they fled" and that the person may not remain a refugee. Australia's mandatory detention [AHRC backgrounder] policy, which requires any non-citizen without a visa seeking entry to be detained, had previously been challenged [JURIST report] by rights groups.

[JURIST] The US Judicial Panel on Multi-District Litigation (MDL) [official website] on Friday consolidated [order, PDF] more than 150 [Reuters report] pending lawsuits against Toyota Motor Corporation [corporate website; JURIST news archive] and transferred them to the US District Court for the Central District of California [official website]. The MDL panel said that transferring the cases to California to be heard by Judge James Selna [official profile, PDF] would make the litigation process more streamlined.

Each of the actions currently before the Panel asserts economic damages on behalf of certain classes and/or individuals stemming from an alleged defect in certain Toyota vehicles that causes sudden, unintended acceleration. The cases involve common questions of fact. No doubt, centralization under Section 1407 will eliminate duplicative discovery; prevent inconsistent pretrial rulings, including with respect to class certification; and conserve the resources of the parties, their counsel, and the judiciary.

[JURIST] Amnesty International USA (AIUSA) [advocacy website] released a report [text, PDF; press release ] Friday accusing the government of committing human rights violations against the victims of Hurricane Katrina [JURIST news archive]. The group criticized the response of officials at the local, state, and federal levels for being overly bureaucratic and lacking both accountability and leadership. As a result, according to AIUSA, low-income and minority communities were subjected to police misconduct and denied access to affordable housing and healthcare. The group also faulted the federal Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act [text, PDF] for noncompliance with the UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement [text, PDF] by failing to include provisions to ensure that the effects of disaster relief efforts do not bear socioeconomically or racially discriminatory impacts. The group called on the government to return victims to their their original homes and to improve their access to government services.

In November 2008, US housing advocates filed [JURIST report] a class action lawsuit [complaint, PDF] against the government arguing that Louisiana's Hurricane Katrina recovery program, Road Home Louisiana [program website], discriminates against African-American homeowners. The US federal government has been repeatedly criticized [JURIST report] for its alleged discriminatory treatment of African-Americans in response to Hurricane Katrina. In February 2008, the UN called on [press release] the US to put a stop to discrimination against African-Americans who were being evicted from their homes or denied access to other available housing in the wake of the hurricane.