JURIST - Paper Chase: Sunday, September 4, 2011

[JURIST] The Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) [advocacy website] reported on Saturday that more detainees have joined a hunger strike [press release] in protest of ongoing trials related to recent pro-democracy protests. The nearly 20 jailed doctors face charges in relation to protests and have begun fasting in objection to "continued detention of the doctors and other detainees at the Dry Docks prison, as well as the ill treatment and torture, not having access to legal counsel, and what they described as being ridiculous charges against them." Human rights activists Abdul Jalil al-Singace and Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, who were sentenced to life in prison in June, also joined the hunger strike. The detainees maintain that if the trials take place, they should be held in civil courts [Al Jazeera report] rather than military tribunals.

Bahraini King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa [official profile] announced last week that he will dismiss charges against some of the protesters [JURIST report] detained for their participation in pro-democracy demonstrations in the country. In June, Bahrain's Lower National Safety Court sentenced 21 activists [JURIST report] for anti-government protests conducted earlier this year. Also in June, Khalifa announced that an independent commission will investigate human rights violations [JURIST report] related to the country's pro-democracy protests. Earlier that month, the UN Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights announced that Bahrain agreed to permit a UN commission [JURIST report] to investigate human rights violations related to protests. The National Safety Courts, special military tribunals, were instituted in mid-March under Khalifa's three-month state of emergency [JURIST report] and have been internationally criticized, most recently [JURIST report] by Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website]. The court sentenced nine citizens [JURIST report] to 20 years in prison for kidnapping a police officer in May. In April, the court handed the death sentence to four protesters, a rarity in Bahrain, and upheld the sentences [JURIST reports] for two of the men who were accused of murdering police officers. All of the charges levied in the National Safety Court have been disputed by Bahraini citizens and international rights organizations.

[JURIST] Panamanian lawmakers approved a bill Saturday that requires runoffs in close presidential elections. The bill mandates that if no candidate amasses 50 percent of the vote after the election, a second round of voting would take place [Reuters report]. A presidential election is currently won by a mere majority vote. Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli [official website, in Spanish] praised the reform bill, while critics argue the bill constitutes an effort to keep the president's Democratic Change Party [official website, in Spanish] in power. The unicameral legislature will ultimately vote to grant final approval, though opposition will likely challenge the bill in court.

Voters elected Martinelli president in May 2009 national elections "considered generally free and fair by independent observers" according to a 2010 US Department of State (DOS) [official website] Human Rights report [text]. On the other hand, local elections have been marred by controversy. Human Rights Everywhere (HRE) [advocacy website], a non profit organization, described the elections in the Ngobe-Bugle community as "confusing" and ill-timed. Martinelli won the 2009 election with over 60 percent of the vote.

[JURIST] Former French president Jacques Chirac [BBC profile; JURIST news archive], 78, and his legal team filed documents with the 11th Criminal Court of Paris on Friday claiming Chirac is too ill to face his corruption trial [press release in Le Monde, in French], just three days before the trial was slated to continue after being delayed in March [JURIST report]. Chirac is being tried for allegedly misusing funds during his time as Paris mayor in 1990. Chirac's lawyers filed an extensive neurological report with the court amid unconfirmed public reports [Journal du Dimanch report, in French] that he is suffering from Alzheimer's disease [MedLine backgrounder]. The lawyers' report did diagnose Chirac with anosognosia, a mental disorder where one does not acknowledge one's illness due to brain damage often caused by a stroke. Anticor [advocacy website, in French], an anti-corruption organization, demanded that Chirac face trial [press release, in French]. Judge Dominique Pauthe will rule on Chirac's health when the trial begins on Monday.

The French Court of Cassation [official website, in French], the country's highest appeals court, ruled in May that the corruption trial against Chirac could continue, rejecting a constitutional challenge [JURIST report] brought by one of his co-defendants. Last September, the Paris city council accepted a settlement deal [JURIST report] in which the former president agreed to pay USD $741,000 in compensation for the money paid out for false jobs. In exchange, the city agreed to drop out of the corruption suit. Chirac stated that the settlement was not an admission of guilt. A French judge placed Chirac under preliminary investigation [JURIST report] in December 2009. Chirac's trial on corruption charges marks the first time [JURIST comment] a former president will have to answer to charges against him in a court of law. The trial is a combination of two separate corruption-related cases, in which Chirac allegedly financed the Rally for the Republic (RPR), now renamed as the Union for a Popular Movement [party website, in French], by illegally establishing fake city positions between 1977 and 1995 for party members to collect salaries totaling several million dollars.