JURIST - Paper Chase: Saturday, November 24, 2012

[JURIST] Judge Portley of the Arizona Court of Appeals [official website] ruled [decision, PDF] on Friday that the state legislature can transfer funds from the Industrial Commission of Arizona (ICA) [official website] to the state's general fund. The ICA was established under Arizona's Workers' Compensation Act [text] to administer the State Compensation Fund, created to pay compensation benefits to injured workers. The Court of Appeals stated that the ICA Special Fund is a public fund subject to legislative control, rather than a trust, and therefore the transfer is allowed under Arizona's constitution. Furthermore, while court acknowledged that the employers and employees have a vested interest in the Special Fund, it held that there was no evidence that the transfer would "impair the ability of the Special Fund to meet its obligations for the relevant fiscal year." An appeal to the Arizona Supreme Court remains a possibility [Arizona Daily Sun report].

Friday's decision overruled a trial court decision in favor of the ICA, which held that the funds were "insurance proceeds held in trust for the benefit of employees and employers by the Workers' Compensation Act" and that those employees and employers had vested rights in the ICA Special Fund. The lawsuit is a challenge to HB 2051 [text], which Governor Jan Brewer [official website] signed into law in 2009. It was challenged by the ICA itself, as well as interest groups including the National Federation of Independent Businesses, the Arizona Self-Insurers Association and the American Insurance Association [official websites]. The law was intended to balance the state's budget in part by transferring money from various special accounts, including $4.7 million from the ICA's Special Fund into the state's general fund.

[JURIST] The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation [official website] on Friday charged Yevgeniya Vasilyeva, former head of the Russia Defense Ministry's [official website] property department, with fraud, claiming that she stole over 360 million rubles ($11 million) in a real estate scheme. Vasilyeva is currently under house arrest [AP report] and her request for bail was dismissed, although her laywers intend to appeal the dismissal. A raid on her house last month [Reuters report] revealed valuable paintings, rare antiques and more than 100 expensive rings. While Vasilyeva was head of the department, one of its firms created a loss of at least 3 billion rubles ($96 million) allegedly by selling properties to insider companies [AP report]. Russian President Vladimir Putin also fired [Reuters report] Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov earlier this month because of corruption investigations in the ministry, but Serdyukov has not come under investigation himself. Besides Vasilyeva, two others have been charged [RIA Novosti report] in the investigation. If convicted, Vasilyeva could be sentenced to six years in prison.

Russia recently dealt with another corruption case involving oil executive Mikhail Khodorkovsky [defense website; JURIST news archive], who was convicted [JURIST report] of fraud, theft and money laundering last year. Earlier this month his business partner, Platon Lebedev [defense website; JURIST news archive], received a three-year reduction [JURIST report] to his sentence. Khodorkovsky and Lebedev are each serving prison sentences for fraud, theft and money laundering that should last until 2016. In July, a senior Russian judge ordered a court to review [JURIST report] Khodorkovsky's appeal. Opposition leaders and other groups have shown skepticism about the validity of Khodorkovsky's sentence. Last year, former Russian prime minister Mikhail Kasyanov testified [JURIST report] that former president and current prime minister Vladimir Putin ordered Khodorkovsky's arrest for political reasons, indicating that Khodorkovsky had funded the Communist Party without first getting approval to do so from the president.

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

[JURIST] The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) [official site] on Friday voiced its concern [press release] for Congolese civilians displaced by continued fighting in North Kivu. The UNHCR and its affiliates typically oversee 31 refugee camps hosting over 108,000 people in the eastern province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archives], but fighting in the region has restricted access to nearly all of these camps. According to UNHCR spokesperson Adrian Edwards, humanitarian aid can reach only one camp, Mugunga III, located west of the provincial capital Goma. Kouassi Lazare Etien, the head of the UNHCR's office in Goma, visited Mugunga III on Thursday for the first time since the rebel group 23 March Movement (M23) [JURIST news archives] captured the city on Tuesday. According to Etien, a head count was conducted by local partners on Friday to gauge the number of refugees in the camp and determine the most vulnerable. The UNHCR is also concerned about violence against civilians in Goma and the nearby town Sake, and is appealing to all parties to the conflict to avoid placing civilians in harm's way.

The UN has been increasingly concerned about the actions of M23 against civilians over the past several months. Last Tuesday, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay [official profile] also expressed concern [JURIST report] for civilians in Eastern DRC caught in the continued fighting between the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC) and M23. This was a concern she had previously voiced in June [JURIST report], stating that civilians have been in heightened danger since the fighting began. In an emergency meeting on Saturday, the UN Security Council [official website] reiterated its condemnation of M23 [JURIST report] after a series of guerrilla attacks that displaced 4,000 civilians. It called for an end to all support for the rebel group and demanded that M23 end its attacks. The Security Council had previously condemned M23 [JURIST report] in early August.