[JURIST] The Russian State Duma [official website, in Russian] voted 437-0 Friday to approve a bill giving amnesty to veterans as well as concentration camp and Leningrad siege survivors for most crimes committed during World War II by. If approved in the upper house, the bill would apply [UPI report] to an estimated 100-200 persons, but the amnesty would not apply to crimes of murder or sexual crimes against minors. The legislative action commemorates [ITAR-TASS report] the sixty-fifth anniversary of the Great Patriotic War, as the period of the war along the Eastern Front between 1941 and 1945 is known in Russia.

The legislative measure may be part of Russian efforts to rehabilitate the image of the Soviet Union. In October, a Russian historian who was researching Soviet treatment of German prisoners of war during World War II was charged [JURIST report] with violating privacy laws. Also in October, a Russian court rejected a libel suit [BBC report] brought by Stalin's grandson Yevgeny Dzhugashvili against the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta for a report that Stalin ordered the death of Soviet citizens. In September, critics of this rehabilitation expressed outrage when a renovated Moscow train station was unveiled with inscriptions praising Stalin [CNN report]. A controversial December 2008 poll found that Russians considered Stalin the third most popular Russian [BBC report] in history, a result criticized by many.

[JURIST] Former commander of the Bosnian army during the 1992-1994 Bosnian civil war [JURIST news archive] Rasim Delic [ICTY backgrounder, PDF; Trial Watch profile] died Friday of cancer in his home. Delic was awaiting a decision from the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website, JURIST news archive] on his appeal from his 2008 conviction [JURIST report]. Delic was found guilty of cruel treatment for failing to prevent abuses committed by his army detachment to detained Bosnian Serb Army soldiers, although he did not order them. He was sentenced [press release] to three years in prison after a majority of the trial chamber judges found Delic "to have had imputed knowledge of these crimes, as opposed to actual knowledge."

Delic is one of the highest-ranking Bosnian military leaders to stand trial before the tribunal. The ICTY trial of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic [case materials; JURIST news archive] resumed earlier this week after multiple delays. In March, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon [official website] said [transcript] that the ICTY will continue to operate [JURIST report] beyond its originally planned end of 2010 until 2013 because two high-ranking subjects remain at large. The ICTY has indicted 161 political and military officials since its creation in 1993.

[JURIST] An Arkansas judge ruled [opinion, PDF] Friday that a state law prohibiting all unmarried couples from adopting or fostering children violates the Arkansas Constitution [text, PDF]. Critics claimed that the Arkansas Adoption and Foster Care Act of 2008 [ACLU backgrounder], or Initiated Act I, was discriminatory because it prohibited all gay couples from adopting or fostering children as Arkansas does not recognize gay marriage. Judge Christopher Piazza of the Pulaski County Circuit Court [official website] agreed and said that while the the law, passed via ballot initiative, was valid under the federal Constitution, it violates the Arkansas state constitution:

Initiated Act 1 prohibits cohabiting same-sex couples and heterosexual couples from becoming foster or adoptive parents. It does not prohibit them from becoming foster or adoptive parents if they do not cohabitate. However, the act significantly burdens non-marital relationships and acts of sexual intimacy between adults and forces them to choose between becoming a parent and having any type of meaningful intimate relationship outside of the marriage. This infringes upon the fundamental right to privacy guaranteed to all citizens of Arkansas.

[JURIST] A federal grand jury on Friday indicted [press release] five former Blackwater [JURIST news archive] executives on charges of weapons violations and lying to criminal investigators. The 15-count indictment [LAT report] charges five former executives, including former president Gary Jackson, with giving away certain weapons to the King of Jordan to curry favor and then lying on federal forms about where the weapons went. The indictment also charges the executives with trying to hide weapons purchases by acting through an intermediary, avoiding regulations on the export of short-barreled rifles, and making false statements to investigators. Jackson and other Blackwater officials have said that federal officials knew of the weapons purchases [VOA report] for years but did nothing.

In February, the Iraqi government ordered approximately 250 former Blackwater employees to leave Iraq [JURIST report]. The government was reacting to a US federal court's December decision to dismiss charges against five former Blackwater employees accused of killing 17 innocent Iraqi civilians [JURIST reports] in 2007 because information against the defendants was obtained unconstitutionally. Earlier that month, the New York Times reported that the US Department of Justice [official website] is investigating [JURIST report] Blackwater, now known as Xe, to determine whether the company bribed the Iraqi government to allow Blackwater to continue operating in Iraq following the 2007 shootings. In January, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announced that Iraq will file lawsuits against Blackwater [JURIST reports] for the 2007 killings in both US and Iraqi courts. US Vice-President Joe Biden has said that the DOJ will appeal the dismissal [JURIST report]. Blackwater ceased operations in Baghdad [JURIST report] in May 2009 when its security contracts for the protection of US diplomats expired.