Israel has faced mounting international pressure following the Gaza conflict. The Goldstone Report [text, PDF; JURIST news archive] accused both the Israel Defense Force (IDF) [official website] and Hamas [GlobalSecurity backgrounder] of war crimes during the conflict. Both Israel and Hamas conducted independent investigations into the incident after the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution [JURIST report] in November giving them three months to probe possible war crimes committed during the Gaza conflict. Hamas reported to the UN that its independent investigation had absolved Palestinian forces of any wrongdoing. Israel presented a report to the UN in February detailing its role in the conflict [JURIST report] and noting that two high-ranking Israeli officers were indicted for their actions during the incident. Rights groups have questioned the impartiality of the internal investigations. In April, Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] accused both Israel and Hamas of failing to conduct credible investigations [JURIST report] into accusations of war crimes during the conflict. In February, HRW criticized Israel for failing to demonstrate that it would conduct a thorough and impartial investigation [JURIST report] of the alleged war crimes.

The expanded regulations are the latest salvo by the Chinese government in a years-long battle against what is perceived to be pervasive corruption [JURIST news archive] in the state's various business and administrative bodies. Last week, the Chinese government executed [JURIST report] a top judicial official after a corruption probe in the southwestern city of Chongquing revealed he had taken nearly $2 million in bribes and had been protecting a number of organized crime gangs. In March, the Hebei Province People's High Court upheld a life sentence for the former vice president of China's Supreme People's Court (SPC), Huang Songyou, who had been convicted [JURIST reports] of bribery and embezzlement. Earlier that month, SPC president Wang Shengjun called for increased efforts to fight corruption [JURIST report] in the country's court system. In January, the SPC announced new anti-corruption rules [JURIST report] in an effort to increase public confidence in the rule of law. In October, two Chongqing courts sentenced [JURIST report] six individuals to death for their connections with organized crime gangs.

The martyrdom videos, the instructions left for the media to use them, passport applications, the loan applications and the forensic and surveillance ... all add up to a clear picture of intent. The length of the sentence reflects the severity of their crime. Sadly, this case also highlights that there are people out there who are intent on causing us harm.

The men were convicted last week [JURIST report] of conspiracy to commit murder. A total of 24 men were arrested during 2006's Operation Overt, one of the biggest raids ever executed by MPS, and 11 were charged [JURIST report] under the Terrorism Act of 2006 and Terrorism Act of 2000 [texts]--eight with conspiracy to commit murder and preparing acts of terrorism, one with possession of articles useful to a person preparing an act of terrorism and two with failing to disclose information of material assistance in preventing an act of terrorism. In September, three other men convicted of attempting to smuggle liquid explosives onto the airplanes were sentenced [JURIST reports] to life in prison by the same court.

In terms of the intelligence effort, the team concluded that not all possible intelligence gathering methods were fully implemented and that the coordination between Navy Intelligence and the Israel Defense Intelligence was insufficient. At the same time, the team emphasized that it is not certain that an optimal intelligence effort would create a complete intelligence picture. The team also pointed out that the anticipated level of violence used against the forces was underestimated.

Last month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu [official website; BBC profile] also established [JURIST report] a panel of jurists to investigate the attack independently from the IDF investigation. To head the probe, Netanyahu appointed former Israeli Supreme Court Justice Yakov Tirkel, who has since demanded [JURIST report] that the investigation be given the same authority as a state commission of inquiry. The internal probe, approved by the Israeli cabinet, did not have the power to subpoena witnesses or recommend sanctions, powers that official state commissions possess. If the probe is considered an official inquiry, witnesses would be required to give testimony under oath. Tirkel also wanted the size of the panel to increase from five members to seven. Netanyahu agreed to Tirkel's requests, avoiding Tirkel's threatened resignation. The panel has not yet completed its investigation. Israeli forces raided six ships attempting to deliver more than 10,000 tons of aid to Gaza in May. The raid left numerous wounded and resulted in the deaths of nine pro-Palestine activists - eight Turks and one American.

Khadr's defense lawyers have repeatedly sought his repatriation [JURIST report] to Canada on the basis that the Canadian government's refusal to request repatriation from the US violates the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms [text]. The Harper administration announced in February that they would not pursue Khadr's repatriation, after the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the government was not obligated to seek his return [JURIST reports] to Canada despite having his Charter rights violated. In May, a UN official called on the US and Canada to respect international conventions [JURIST report] and release Khadr into Canadian custody. The UN claimed that since Khadr was 15 when he was captured, his detention would fall in line with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child [text], which has been ratified by Canada, but not the US.

ICC prosecutors appealed the decision [JURIST report] not to charge al-Bashir with genocide in July 2009. Bashir has eluded arrest since the issuance of the first warrant. In March, the president of the ICC said that Bashir will eventually face justice [JURIST report] in The Hague and compared the Bashir warrant with the successful surrender of former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic [BBC obituary; JURIST news archive] and former Liberian president Charles Taylor [case materials; JURIST news archive] to the international criminal tribunals. The warrant has been controversial, with Egypt, Sudan, the African Union and others calling for the proceedings against Bashir to be delayed, and African Union leaders agreeing [JURIST reports] not to cooperate with the warrant.

Last month, an Indian court handed down the first convictions [JURIST report] related to the disaster, sentencing seven men to two years in prison as well as fines for their roles in the disaster. Union Carbide and the Indian government reached a settlement as to corporate liability in 1989 with the company paying USD $470 million to end its liability. The Indian government, however, has indicated it would be willing to revisit the settlement and possibly seek further compensation from Union Carbide. Dow Chemicals [corporate website], which purchased Union Carbide in 1999, contends that the settlement ended all possible claims against the company. In 2008, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit [official website] reinstated a water pollution lawsuit [JURIST report] brought by disaster victims against Union Carbide. In 2004, groups representing Bhopal victims appealed a USD $330 million award [JURIST report] issued by the Indian Supreme Court, arguing that the award should be quadrupled to provide enough compensation for each of the 572,173 people that the court ruled were eligible.

In September, the Appeals Chamber upheld the admissibility [JURIST report] of the case against Katanga after he argued that charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity against him should be dropped because he was being tried for the same crimes in the DRC, violating the ICC principle of complementarity. The Appeals Chamber upheld the trial chamber's June 2009 dismissal of Katanga's challenge on the grounds that the there were no domestic proceedings against him at the time the charges were filed, and that subsequent investigations did not result in domestic charges. Noting that the aim of the Rome Statute [text, PDF] establishing the ICC is to ensure that "the most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole must not go unpunished." In September 2008, the trial chamber confirmed [JURIST report] the charges against Katanga. He surrendered to the ICC and was transferred to the detention facility in the Hague in October 2007 after a warrant [text, PDF, in French] was issued for his arrest in July 2007. Former rebel leaders Thomas Lubanga Dyilo and Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo [JURIST news archives] are also on trial at the ICC for their alleged involvement in crimes committed in the DRC and neighboring Central African Republic [BBC backgrounder]. Lubanga's trial was suspended [JURIST report] by the ICC on Thursday, however. Another alleged rebel leader, Bosco Ntaganda [case materials], remains at large.

The Arizona law criminalizes illegal immigration and requires police officers to question an individual's immigration status if the officer has a "reasonable suspicion" to believe an individual is in the country illegally. It has been widely criticized in regard to the law's constitutionality and alleged "legalization" of racial profiling. Earlier this month, the American Bar Association (ABA) [official website] filed an amicus curiae brief [JURIST report] urging the federal district court in Arizona to block the enforcement of the state's immigration law. The brief was filed in support of a class-action lawsuit [JURIST report] led by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) [advocacy website]. The Mexican government has also filed an amicus curiae brief [JURIST report] supporting the ACLU suit, claiming a substantial interest in ensuring its "bilateral diplomatic relations" with the US remain "transparent, consistent and reliable, and not frustrated by the actions of individual US states." The government also claims an interest in ensuring that its citizens are "accorded human and civil rights when present in the US in accordance with federal immigration law." Brewer is also currently facing federal lawsuits filed by the National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders and several Tuscon police officers [JURIST reports], who claim they can not properly implement the law without racially profiling.

Maguwu was arrested [JURIST report] in early June. He faces charges of false information on killings, torture and the theft of state security documents, in violation of § 31 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act [text, PDF]. An investigation was launched after he allegedly leaked to the KP a document compiled by the police [SW Radio Africa report] for the Joint Operations Command (JOC), a military-run security agency that was thought to be defunct. If convicted, Maguwu could face 20 years imprisonment. The ban on Zimbabwean diamonds is expected to be the focus of the upcoming KP meeting after last month's meeting failed to reach a consensus [AFP report] on the matter. Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] has urged the body to remove Zimbabwe [JURIST report] from its membership. According to HRW, human rights abuses by the Zimbabwean government have persisted since the discovery of diamonds in the Marange fields. Civil society groups such as Global Witness, Partnership Africa Canada [advocacy websites] and Green Advocates, have also called for the suspension of Zimbabwe's international diamond trade due to the human rights violations [Telegraph report] allegedly committed by the Zimbabwean army against civilians and illegal workers in the Marange diamond fields.