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California high court rules same-sex marriage ban violates state constitution UK ministers, MPs deadlock over proposed 42-day terror detention without charge Nintendo loses $21 million patent infringement suit Myanmar constitution approved with 93 percent 'yes' vote in referendum: junta US House committee investigates potential insurance fraud in Iraq UN expert urges Spain to reform legal standards for treatment of suspected terrorists US solicitor general announces resignation Alleged 9/11 plotters scheduled for June military commission arraignment Legal advisor staying after Guantanamo trial disqualification Texas appeals court overturns jury award against Merck in Vioxx case Poland court wants more evidence in indictment against ex-communist leaders Denmark government to propose headscarf ban for judges UK announces public inquiry into 2003 death of Iraqi detainee Indiana appeals court partially overturns sex offender residence law Russian gallery director charged for show of banned art US peace groups file constitutional challenge to Iraq war DOD stalling on security clearances for civilian Guantanamo lawyers: ACLU US immigration agents face problems transiting drugged deportees overseas Italy court rules Berlusconi can be called to testify in CIA rendition case Ecuador election court clears former president to run for office Australia weighing ICJ genocide incitement lawsuit against Iran president Malaysia court rules ethnic Indian protesters legally detained Former Enron executives scheduled for retrial ICTY transfers Bosnian Croat war criminal to Italy prison Pakistan court clears Bhutto widower of smuggling charges
[JURIST] The Supreme Court of California Thursday overturned a state ban on same-sex marriage, ruling 4-3 in In re Marriage Cases that the ban violated protections on the right to "form a family relationship" enshrined in the California Constitution. Rights groups said that the decision could lead to California becoming the second state after Massachusetts to legalize same-sex marriage, but religious and conservative organizations are currently pushing to include a measure on the November ballot to write a ban on gay marriage into the state constitution.The lawsuits stemmed from San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's 2004 decision to issue marriage licenses to 4,000 same-sex couples. In 2006, the state attorney general requested that the Court review an intermediate appellate court's decision to uphold the same-sex marriage ban. AP has more. The San Francisco Chronicle has local coverage.
[JURIST] UK ministers and MPs deadlocked Wednesday over a controversial proposed anti-terror bill that would allow British authorities to detain terror suspects up to 42 days without charge. Prime Minister Gordon Brown has vowed to continue pushing for the bill's passage, despite staunch opposition. Opposition MPs and human rights groups have suggested alternatives to extending the detention limits, but ministers have refused to drop the proposal. Current British law authorizes detention without charge for 28 days, but bill proponents have argued that this time-limit endangers national security. The Counter-Terrorism Bill 2008 also includes provisions creating a registry of convicted terrorists and making terrorism an "aggravating factor" in sentencing for non-terrorism offenses. Conservative Party and Liberal Democrat MPs have opposed the legislation, fearing it could infringe on civil liberties.UK Home Secretary Jacqui Smith first proposed a 42-day detention period in December 2007. The proposal followed statements made in June 2007 by then-UK Home Secretary John Reid calling for longer pre-charge time limits, and a proposal floated last July that would have allowed the extension of the 28-day limit after a declared state of emergency and permitted judges to authorize weekly extensions for up to 56 days subject to parliamentary notification. The Scotsman has more.
[JURIST] Entertainment console and video game manufacturer Nintendo of America, Inc. was ordered to pay $21 million Wednesday to Anascape, Ltd., a small Texas video game company after losing a jury verdict in a patent infringement lawsuit concerning hand-held controllers for its Wii and Gamecube video game systems. Anascape filed a complaint against both Nintendo and Microsoft Corporation in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in 2006 for infringement on a patent for a "hand held computer input apparatus and method." Microsoft reached a confidential settlement agreement with Anascape for an undisclosed amount. Nintendo is expected to appeal the verdict. AP has more.In January, the US Supreme Court heard oral arguments concerning whether a patent holder's rights may be exhausted through certain license agreements. In September 2007, the US House of Representatives approved the Patent Reform Act of 2007, the first overhaul of US patent laws in over 50 years. In early 2006, service for the widely-used Blackberry hand-held devices was nearly stopped before Blackberry maker Research in Motion reached a settlement agreement in its patent dispute with NTP, Inc.
[JURIST] Myanmar's draft constitution has been approved with over 90 percent of 22 million eligible voters voting yes in Saturday's nation-wide referendum,the country's military government said Thursday. The regime has faced sharp international criticism for going ahead with the poll after a devastating cyclone earlier this month left at least 60,000 people dead or missing. Voting in the hardest-hit areas has been delayed until later this month, but state media said that negative votes in those districts would not be enough to defeat the referendum. International rights groups questioned the accuracy of the results, as some local journalists said that they witnessed many irregularities in the voting, with people voting multiple times or not having the privacy of a truly secret ballot. AP has more.The National League for Democracy and other opposition groups labeled the referendum a "sham" to legalize military rule. The draft constitution reportedly reserves 25 percent of parliamentary seats for the military and would also block pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi from seeking office. Myanmar has been governed without a constitution since the military regime took power in 1988 and talks on a new national charter have been underway for 14 years. The last general elections in Myanmar were held in 1990. The NLD, led by Suu Kyi, won that election easily, but the ruling military government did not recognize the result and placed Suu Kyi under house arrest.
[JURIST] The US House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform heard testimony on Thursday regarding potential abuse of the Defense Base Act of 1941 (DBA) in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Act requires contractors working on military installations to provide workers' compensation insurance coverage for their employees, the cost of which is reimbursed to the contractors using taxpayer funds. Civilian employees often have difficulty processing their claims after returning to the US. In his opening remarks, Committee Chairman Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) stated that the "inefficient" DBA system has encouraged excessive profit-taking by insurance companies. Waxman asserted that "Rube Goldberg could not design a more inefficient way to help employees wounded or injured in Iraq." Additionally, AP reported Wednesday that the US Army Criminal Investigation Command is investigating two Iraqi contractors working on public development projects in Iraq for insurance fraud related to the requirements of the DBA. AP has more.On Monday, two former US State Department officials condemned the Bush administration's ineffectiveness in combating corruption in Iraq. In December 2007, the FBI launched a criminal probe into the activities of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction. In October 2007, the State Department admitted that it could not account for most of the $1.2 billion in Iraqi police training funds. In August 2007, Pentagon investigators looked into allegations of fraud and corruption in military contracting in Iraq.
[JURIST] UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and counterterrorism Martin Scheinin praised anti-terrorism efforts in Spain Wednesday, but urged Spanish officials to reform the country's legal standards for treatment of terror suspects. The Special Rapporteur's comments came in response to concerns over allegations of torture and ill-treatment of terrorism suspects in Spanish jails. At the conclusion of his visit to Spain, Scheinin called on authorities to be mindful of international frameworks regarding human rights when investigating acts of domestic terrorism such as those perpetrated by the Basque separatist group ETA, or incidents of international scope, including the 2004 Madrid train bombings.In February, 20 suspected Islamic terrorists were convicted of lesser charges in conjunction with a plot to bomb the National Court in Madrid. That same month, Spanish officials confirmed the arrests of the remaining ETA suspects in the 2006 Madrid airport bombings. In December 2007, 47 Basque separatists were convicted by a Spanish anti-terrorism court of either leading, being a member of, or collaborating with a terrorist organization. In October 2007, three terror suspects were convicted of murder for their roles in the 2004 Madrid train bombings.
[JURIST] US Solicitor General Paul Clement announced Wednesday that he is resigning from his post, effective June 2. Perhaps best-known for his Supreme Court advocacy of Bush Administration positions on rights and procedures at Guantanamo Bay, including such notable cases as Hamdi v. Rumsfeld and Hamdan v. Rumsfeld. Clement began working for the Department of Justice in 2001 and was confirmed as solicitor general in 2005. Reuters has more.Clement's announcement comes following the April resignation of US Assistant Attorney General Alice Fisher, effective May 23. Fisher has served as the head of the US Department of Justice (DOJ) Criminal Division, which during her time as division head has concentrated primarily on fraud and corruption cases. Fisher attained the post through a recess appointment by President Bush, because Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) had blocked the nomination after a government agent mentioned Fisher in an e-mail about alleged abusive Guantanamo interrogations.
[JURIST] US military judge Col. Ralph Kohlmann set June 5 as the tentative date for the military commission's arraignment of the five men charged with plotting the Sept. 11 attacks in an email to military defense attorneys Wednesday. The group, held at Guantanamo Bay, includes the alleged mastermind of the attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. On Tuesday, the Pentagonapproved death penalty charges against the five defendants. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) expressed its outrage over the judge's announcement and also decried the setting of an arraignment date before the defendants were able to consult with their prospective lawyers. On Tuesday, the ACLU accused the US Department of Defense of stalling the process of granting security clearances to civilian lawyers seeking to participate in the defense of Mohammed and other Guantanamo detainees. Reuters has more. The Miami Herald has additional coverage.In April, Mohammed's military defense lawyer, US Navy Capt. Prescott Prince, expressed his concern about the fairness of Mohammed's trial in an interview with CNN. The chief prosecutor for the Guantanamo Bay military commissions, US Army Col. Lawrence Morris, said that the trials of Mohammed and the other Sept. 11 suspects would be broadcast live on closed-circuit television to several military bases so that the victims' families could watch. The men face death penalty charges, but US Attorney General Michael Mukasey said in March that executing the Sept. 11 suspects would make them martyrs.
[JURIST] US Air Force Reserve Brig. Gen. Thomas Hartmann, a top Pentagon legal advisor on the Guantanamo military commission trials, said Wednesday that he will not resign despite questions concerning his objectivity. Hartmann serves as legal advisor to Susan J. Crawford, the Convening Authority for the military commissions, but last week was disqualified from participating in the trial of detainee Salim Ahmed Hamdan amidst concerns he was too closely associated with the prosecution.Earlier this year former Guantanamo prosecutor Air Force Col. Morris D. Davis said Hartmann had questioned the need for open trials at Guantanamo and was upset with the slow pace of the proceedings begun by Davis. Last month, Davis testified at Hamdan's pre-trial hearing that Hartmann had pressured him to move forward with military commissions quickly out of political considerations.
[JURIST] A Texas appeals court Wednesday overturned a jury verdict that found pharmaceutical giant Merck liable for the death of a 71-year-old man who died from a heart attackwithin a month of taking Merck's painkiller Vioxx. The jury had ordered Merck to pay $32 million in damages to the family of Leonel Garza - $7 million in non-economic compensatory damages and $25 million in punitive damages - but a state cap later reduced that amount to $7.75 million. The Texas Fourth Court of Appeals found that Garza's family had failed to show that Garza's heart problems were tied to his use of Vioxx.Merck has been involved in a stream of Vioxx-related litigation during the last few years, including state and federal lawsuits in Louisiana, New Jersey, and California. In September 2007, the New Jersey Supreme Court dismissed a class action lawsuit filed against Merck, reversing a lower court's decision to grant nationwide class certification in the case. In November 2007, Merck said that it had agreed to pay $4.85 billion to settle all pending lawsuits regarding its marketing and distribution of Vioxx. AP has more.
[JURIST] A Polish judge ruled on Wednesday that prosecutors must amend their indictment against former communist leader General Wojciech Jaruzelski and otherformer communist officials to present a greater range of evidence against the defendants. Jaruzelski was charged in March 2006 with "organizing crimes of a military nature" and "carrying out crimes that consisted of the deprivation of freedom through internment" for his imposition of martial law in Poland on December 13, 1981. The charges, which prosecutors had been preparing since late 2005, were brought by the Institute of National Remembrance, a government body responsible for looking into Nazi-era and Communist-era crimes. Among the court's recommendations for improving the evidence in the indictment was the suggestion that prosecutors interview some of Jaruzelski's political contemporaries such as former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and former US Secretary of State Alexander Haig to ascertain the international impact of Jaruzelski's actions. AP has more.Jaruzelski was previously tried in 2001 for ordering troops to fire on striking ship workers in the 1970s, but the trial ended without a verdict. About 100 people are said to have died as a result of the declaration of martial law and subsequent arrests of Solidarity movement leaders, including Lech Walesa, and approximately 10,000 people were held in internment camps during martial law. Jaruzelski has argued that his decision to impose martial law was necessary to maintain order and prevent foreign intervention in Poland.
[JURIST] The Danish government said Wednesday that it would propose new legislation to ban sitting judges from wearing religious dress, including Islamic headscarves, in court. Also Wednesday, Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen criticized Immigration Minister Birthe Roenn Hornbech for writing a newspaper editorial published Tuesday opposing the proposal; Rasmussen said that she should have cleared the editorial through him before publication. AP has more.Religious headscarves have become a controversial topic in several Western countries recently, as lawmakers struggle to balance an individual's right to practice their religion with public policy and security concerns. On Monday, a US federal judge dismissed a federal lawsuit filed by a Muslim woman against a judge who asked her to remove her niqab in court. In September 2007, Canadian chief electoral officer MarcMayrand resisted calls by Canadian lawmakers to invoke his discretionary powers to require women to remove traditional Muslim niqabs or burqas when voting in elections in the province of Quebec. In the UK, the High Court in February 2007 upheld a school ban on students wearing niqabs in class, saying the veils could interfere with student-teacher interaction.
[JURIST] The UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) announced Wednesday that it will conduct a public inquiry into the death of Baha Mousa, an Iraqi hotel receptionist who died in British military custody in 2003. Mousa's death allegedly occurred as the result of abuse at the hands of British troops who had arrested him and nine other Iraqis in a Basra hotel where weapons and suspected bomb-making materials were found. The nine other Iraqis alleged that they were tortured by British soldiers, and filed suit against the MOD seeking damages. Seven soldiers faced court-martial in connection with Mousa's death, but only Corporal David Payne received a jail sentence after pleading guilty to a charge of inhumane treatment. All other charges were dismissed. AP has more.In March, UK Secretary of State for Defence Des Browne admitted that British soldiers had violated the rights of detainees in Basra in 2003, and that the MOD would specifically admit to substantive breaches of the European Convention on Human Rights. In October 2007, the UK High Court heard arguments in the case brought by the nine Basra detainees against the MOD. In August 2007, lawyers for the plaintiffs in the case accused the MOD of withholding evidence.
[JURIST] The Indiana Court of Appeals Tuesday ruled that a 2006 state law barring convicted sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of a school, public park or youth center is unconstitutional as applied to offenders who purchased their homes before the law went into effect. The ruling upholds a lower court decision finding that the law constituted ex post facto punishment since it was not illegal for the registered offenders to buy their houses at the time of purchase. AP has more.Courts in other states have also overturned or restricted laws seeking to limit residences available to registered sex offenders. Last November, the Supreme Court of Georgia unanimously overturned a state law that prohibited registered sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of schools, playgrounds and other areas where children gather. Civil rights groups had criticized the law as overly strict, saying that the state's roughly 11,000 registered sex offenders would have been barred from living in almost any residential area. In February 2007 a federal judge ruled that California's Proposition 83, which prohibited California sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of any place where children regularly gather, could not be applied retroactively to more than 90,000 paroled sex offenders because there was nothing in the measure that indicated that intent.
[JURIST] The curator of a Russian art gallery has been charged with "inciting hatred" for hosting an exhibit of art banned from other galleries, including pieces that mocked the Russian Orthodox Church and the nation's military, the Independent reported Wednesday. Yury Samodurov, director of the Sakharov Museum in Moscow, named after Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov, said that the charges were part of a long-running case brought against him by religious and conservative groups. He could face five years in prison if convicted.Critics say the charges are the latest example of the increasing pressure against Russian artists and writers dealing with provocative topics. The Independent has more.
[JURIST] A coalition of anti-war activists represented by the Constitutional Law Clinic at Rutgers University Law School-Newark Tuesday filed a lawsuit in US District Court for New Jersey seeking a declaratory judgment that the war in Iraq violates the US constitution. The groups argue that under the US Constitution only Congress has the authority to declare war, and ask the court to declare the Iraq war illegal because action was initiated without Congressional approval. The New Jersey Law Journal has more.In the UK, other activists have also attempted to directly or indirectly challenge the legality of the war. Last month the judicial members of the House of Lords, Britain's highest court, denied a request by two mothers of soldiers killed in Iraq for a public inquiry into the legality of UK's decision to go to war in Iraq.
[JURIST] The US Department of Defense has still not issued security clearances to civilian lawyers seeking to participate in the defense of alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said Tuesday. ACLU Anthony Romero said that not one of eight lawyers who had recently applied for clearance had received it and that the delay may be a DOD tactic to deny the detainees fair trials, but a Pentagon spokesperson said that the department was working toward clearing the lawyers. The ACLU and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers announced in April that would team up to provide experienced defense attorneys for the alleged 9/11 conspirators. The Miami Herald has more.Death penalty charges against Mohammed and four other detainees allegedly involved in planning the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on the United States were confirmed by the Convening Authority for the US military commissions and sent to defense lawyers late Monday. Charges against a sixth man, Mohammed al-Qahtani, were dropped.
[JURIST] US immigration agents transiting involuntarily sedated immigration deportees through foreign countries have been challenged by local authorities, the Washington Post reported Wednesday. The paper said French and Belgian law enforcement officials had raised objections to the sedation of individuals by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents at stopovers during two recent deportation flights from the US to Guinea. In one case, Belgian authorities informed US immigration guards accompanying the deportee that the medication of a person against his will was illegal in Belgium, but allowed the deportation to proceed. In a second incident, French officials informed US immigration guards that involuntary injections were illegal in France, and refused to allow the detainee to be sedated during a stopover. The detainee forcefully refused to board the flight from France to Guinea after the sedatives wore off, the captain of the plane refused to allow the detainee to board, and the deportee was returned to the US. Reuters has more.The report highlights the tension between US deportation practices and international laws regarding involuntary medication and sedation, an issue of increasing importance in recent months. In February, ICE reached a settlement in a federal class action suit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California(ACLU/SC) on behalf of two immigrants who were forcibly sedated during deportation flights. In January, the agency released a memo requiring its officers to obtain a judge's approval before a deportee can be sedated in order to facilitate his or her removal from the US.
[JURIST] Italian Judge Oscar Magi ruled on Wednesday that Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi can be called to testify in the trial of of 26 Americans and several former Italian intelligence officials for the 2003 abduction and rendition of Egyptian cleric Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr. Defense lawyers for former Italian Intelligence and Security Service (SISMI) chief Nicolo Pollari, one of the Italian intelligence officers on trial, requested testimony from Berlusconi and former Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi. Pollari's lawyers hope to prove he was not involved in the kidnapping and rendition by having Berlusconi, Prodi, and other officials testify regarding classified government documents constituting state secrets. AP has more.Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, was seized on the streets of Milan by CIA agents with the help of Italian operatives. He was then allegedly transferred to Egypt and turned over to Egypt's State Security Intelligence, where he said he was tortured before being released in February 2007. The Italian cabinet relieved Pollari of his duties as SISMI head in November 2006. Pollari has denied allegations that he assisted the CIA with the operation. The 26 Americans, most of whom are CIA agents, are being tried in absentia. The US is not expected to hand them over to Italian authorities; despite prosecutorial pressure, the Italian government has refused to requested their extradition. Reuters has more.
[JURIST] Ecuador's election court announced Wednesday that a two-year suspension from politics for former Ecuadorian President Lucio Gutierrez, had formally come to an end Sunday, leaving him free to run for office again. Gutierrez was suspended from politics and barred from running in the country's 2006 elections because he declined to report campaign donations in his successful run for presidency in 2002. Gutierrez insisted Tuesday that his suspension had been unwarranted and that he was considering running for another term. AP has more.After Gutierrez dissolved Ecuador's Supreme Court in 2005, the legislature removed him as president and replaced him with Vice-President Alfredo Palacio. After seeking political asylum in Brazil and Colombia, Gutierrez returned to Ecuador, where he was initially arrested as posing a threat to national security.
[JURIST] Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd told Australian news service Sky News Wednesday that his government is considering bringing a lawsuit against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for alleged incitement of genocide. Rudd characterized some of Ahmadinejad's comments in recent years regarding Israel and Zionism and denying the Jewish Holocaust as "anti-Semitic" and encouraging international violence. Australian Attorney-General Robert McClelland confirmed Rudd's comments. Australian press reports last October claimed that Rudd had promised the country's Jewish community in the lead-up to elections that brought him to power in December that he would take Ahmadinejad before the ICJ. Opposition Labour Party spokesmen say, however, that the legal case against Ahmadinejad is weak, citing an assessment by the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. AFP has more.In December 2006, then-US Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton called for international criminal charges against Ahmadinejad for the same reasons. Bolton, who was joined by former Israeli UN Ambassador Dore Gold and former Canadian Justice Minister and Attorney General Irwin Cotler, said that Ahmadinejad's remarks violated the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which prohibits "direct and public incitement to commit genocide". In May 2006, the Jerusalem Centre for Public Affairs reported that it was preparing a document recommending a lawsuit against Ahmadinejad for his remarks. Israeli lawyer Eran Shahar, representing the civil rights group Civil Coalition, filed a lawsuit against Ahmadinejad in Germany in February 2006 on charges of incitement and denying the existence of the Holocaust.
[JURIST] The Federal Court of Malaysia Wednesday rejected an appeal by five ethnic Indian protesters being detained by Malaysian authorities under a controversial security law. The five detainees, prominent members of the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf), had appealed a judgment by a lower court which found that their detention was legal under Malaysian law. The Federal Court heard arguments from defense counsel for the detainees in April that the five were being "deprived of their personal liberty." In response, Malaysian Attorney General Adbul Gani Patail defended the arrests before the Federal Court, saying that the action was proper because the five are a threat to national security, and that the action was taken after a complete investigation. The group is being held under the Internal Security Act (ISA), a preventive detention law that allows that allows the Malaysian government to detain suspects for two years without trial and to renew the detention indefinitely. AP has more. Bernama, the Malaysian national news service, has local coverage.The five activists were arrested in December 2007 after they were accused of being involved in orchestrating a November 2007 street demonstration in Kuala Lumpur by thousands of the nation's ethnic Indians to protest alleged discrimination by the predominantly Malay Muslim government. The 2007 arrests were the first time since 2001 that Malaysia has invoked the ISA against government critics. Three Hindu activists originally arrested before the protest and charged with sedition were subsequently released. In December, 26 ethnic Indians were charged with attempted murder in connection with the Kuala Lumpur protest.
[JURIST] US District Court Judge Vanessa Gilmore ordered retrials for three former Enron Broadband Services executives Monday. Scheduled to begin in November, the new series of trials follows a refusal by the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to dismiss remaining charges against the three after a jury failed to reach a verdict on all counts in their 2005 fraud trial. Defense lawyers say they plan to appeal Gilmore's decision to the US Supreme Court. The Houston Chronicle has local coverage.Former VP Scott Yeager, former senior VP Rex Shelby, and former CEO Joseph Hirko were initially indicted by federal prosecutors on 164 criminal counts for allegedly overstating the value of the broadband division's software and network to inflate the value of Enron's stock. They were acquitted on various charges in 2005, but the jury failed to reach a verdict on all counts, and prosecutorslater re-indicted the defendants. Defense lawyers argued that there is no basis for the remaining charges or for a retrial, but the Fifth Circuit ruled that a jury could find the men guilty of other charges despite their acquittals.
[JURIST] The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) said Tuesday that it has transferred a former Bosnian Croat military commander who was convicted of war crimes related to the forced relocation and detention of Muslims during the 1991-95 Balkan Wars to an Italian prison to serve out his sentence. In 2003, the ICTY convicted Vinko Martinovic of persecution, murder and plunder, among other charges, and sentenced him to 18 years in prison. The UN News Service has more.ICTY suspects are held at a detention unit in The Hague during trial, and after conviction are moved to one of 15 countries that have agreed to take custody of ICTY defendants. In January this year, Vidoje Blagojevic, former commander of the Bratunac Brigade of the Bosnian Serb Army, was transferred to Norway to serve the remainder of his 15-year sentence for his role in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.
[JURIST] A Pakistani court Tuesday cleared Pakistan People's Party leader Asif Ali Zardari of charges that he smuggled antiquities out of the country following the ouster of his now-late wife former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in 1997. AP has more.In March, a Pakistani court cleared Zardari of charges related to his alleged involvement in the 1996 assassination of a retired judge and his son due to lack of evidence. Zardari had also been charged in several corruption cases, but courts have dropped the charges and released Zardari's assets pursuant to a "reconciliation ordinance" signed last October by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. The ordinance granted amnesty to Bhutto and Zardari for corruption charges and cleared the way for Bhutto's return to Pakistan from exile last year.