Europe's rule of law in worst crisis since cold war, says Council chief

The rule of law in Europe is facing its most serious crisis since the end of the cold war, according to the chief executive of Europe's largest human rights body.

Thorbjørn Jagland, secretary general of the 47-nation Council of Europe, made his assessment before tensions in eastern Ukraine rose over the weekend and before the council's parliamentary assembly voted last Thursday to suspend Russia's voting rights over its annexation of Crimea. Jagland argues that a lack of human rights in Ukraine has paved the way for Russia's actions.

He writes: "In Ukraine the absence of an independent judiciary, and lack of the checks and balances which a functioning parliament and free media should provide, allowed endemic corruption and misuse of power to thrive unchecked. This caused mistrust, social unrest and ultimately a revolution."

Jagland addressed his remarks to member states in an unpublished report on the state of democracy in Europe. The report is due to be released after it has been considered by delegations from the member governments meeting at a summit in Vienna early next month.

Most of the 72-page report is devoted to identifying "very worrying" challenges to human rights, democracies and the rule of law across Europe.

These include discrimination against ethnic and national minorities (in 39 member states); prison overcrowding (30 states); corruption (26 states); ill treatment by police (23 states); social exclusion and discrimination against Roma (20 states); and restrictions of free expression (eight states).

Problems with the judiciary are identified in 20 countries and deeply embedded judicial corruption has been reported in "many" of the 47 Council of Europe states, the report says. In some, the justice system was "completely corrupt". The European court of human rights, which is operated by the Council of Europe, continues to find violations of the right to a trial within a reasonable period of time. In some states, prosecutors sit in court alongside the judges, exercising powers that are too broad and lack transparency.

To avoid the risk that its publication will be vetoed by member states, the report does not name and shame individual governments. But each country was told last November, in confidence, of the three main challenges it is seen as facing. These are not necessarily its worst violations of human rights; they may include persistent and politically difficult issues as well as those that the Council of Europe believes it can best assist in overcoming.

These problems are not confined to eastern Europe. Calling for an improved gender balance within the judiciary, the report notes that two countries have supreme courts that are over 90% male. The UK must be one of them.

"Senior members of the executive branch in some member states have publicly criticised court decisions," the report continues. That was certainly a problem in the UK at one time, although it is fair to say that members of the present government have been more restrained.

More broadly, the council's monitoring bodies have raised concerns about police and prisons as often in northern and western Europe as in central and eastern Europe. Discrimination and social exclusion are widespread, although targeted groups vary from region to region.

The report identifies more effective monitoring as one of the paths to progress. Some standards, such as freedom of expression, are not specifically monitored within Europe. Others, such as the status of minorities, are monitored by overlapping bodies. And some bodies are too slow to cope with emergencies. The report also finds that some countries are reluctant to seek help because of the damage to the state's reputation that might follow.

It offers reassurance that Europe is not divided into countries that have human rights problems and those that do not. But it adds that Europe can be divided into those that are willing to co-operate in addressing their problems and those that are unwilling to do so.

Inevitably, increased monitoring and support will cost more money, which would have to come from member states – although Jagland says that reforms in recent years have led to a "leaner and more efficient organisation". He also wants to hold a summit next year at which heads of state would agree a five-year agenda for democratic security.

If this goes ahead, its recommendations are bound to need funding. But if they give member states less justification for invading each other's territory, it would surely be a small price to pay.

Chagos Islands dispute: court to rule on UK sovereignty claim

Britain's sovereignty over the Chagos Islands and America's lease for the Diego Garcia military base could be thrown into doubt by an international court hearing due to open in Istanbul on Tuesday.

It is considered of such importance that the attorney general, Dominic Grieve QC, will appear to defend Britain's declaration of a marine reserve around the archipelago.

The challenge by Mauritius to the legality of the marine protected areaannounced by the then foreign secretary, David Miliband, in April 2010, will be heard behind closed doors by the permanent court of arbitration(PCA), a UN-backed tribunal that resolves disagreements between states. Its rulings are binding.

Mauritius, which launched its legal challenge three years ago, believes a ruling in its favour could lead to the unravelling of Britain's colonial-era claim and the eventual return of hundreds of exiled islanders who have been forced to leave the archipelago. Many now live in Britain.

The PCA is based at The Hague, in the Netherlands, but its judicial proceedings are often held in neutral, international venues. Turkey is host for the latest round in the dispute. The hearing is expected to last several weeks although Grieve will only present the UK's opening arguments.

Teams of prominent British and American lawyers have also been hired by the UK and Mauritius. Among the UK counsel are Sir Michael Wood, a former Foreign Office adviser; Mauritius has recruited Prof James Crawford, Prof Philippe Sands QC and Elizabeth Wilmshurst, a Foreign Office lawyer who resigned on the eve of the invasion of Iraq.

The hearing will be held in secret with none of the proceedings open to the public. At some point it is hoped the documents may be made public, including internal Foreign Office files relating to key decisions from 1965 to April 2010.

The Mauritian prime minister, Navinchandra Ramgoolam, has claimed that the decision to establish a 1,411,550sq km (545,000sq mile) marine reserve was carried out in defiance of assurances given to him at the time by the then UK prime minister, Gordon Brown, in 2009.

A Foreign Office cable released by WikiLeaks recorded an official's assertion that "establishing a marine park would, in effect, put paid to resettlement claims of the archipelago's former residents", who were described as "Man Fridays".

In a statement to the UN's general assembly last summer, Ramgoolam said: "The dismemberment of part of our territory, the Chagos archipelago – prior to independence – by the then colonial power, the United Kingdom, in clear breach of international law, leaves the process of decolonisation not only of Mauritius, but of Africa, incomplete."

He added: "I am confident that the UK and the US would want to be on the right side of history. States which look to the law and to the rules of the comity of nations for the resolution of disputes should not be frustrated by the lack of avenues under international law for settlement of these disputes."

In 1965, three years before Mauritius attained independence, the UK decided to "detach" the Chagos Islands from the rest of its then Indian Ocean colony. The Mauritian government, supported by every country in Africa, claims this was in breach of UN general assembly resolution 1514, passed in 1960, which specifically banned the breakup of colonies prior to independence.

The Chagos archipelago was subsequently declared to be part of the British Indian Ocean Territory (Biot) from which, in 1971, the 1,500 islanders were deported. The largest island, Diego Garcia, was then leased to the US as an airbase. The lease is due to be renegotiated later this year.

Claims that Diego Garcia was used as a secret "black site" detention centre during CIA rendition operations after 2001 resurfaced this month after Abdel-Hakim Belhaj – a rebel military commander and opponent of Muammar Gaddafi arrested in Malaysia and forcibly returned to Libya with his then pregnant wife – reported that he had been held there. The Foreign Office has disputed the claim.

The PCA case is being fought within the arcane legal territory of theUnited Nations convention on the law of the sea (Unclos), an area in which the UK could be at disadvantage. While Mauritius and the Seychelles have put in mutually agreed claims for large tracts of the nearby seabed, the UK has not put in any proposals to the UN commission on the limits of the continental shelf in respect of Biot and has now run out of time to do so.

The UK is hoping to persuade the five arbitrators to rule that they do not have jurisdiction over the dispute, but an earlier effort to get that argument decided before dealing with the substantive claim was rejected by the tribunal last year.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "The rules of procedure established for the purposes of these proceedings provide that any evidence submitted alongside the pleadings of either party is confidential. Therefore, the UK is not in a position to comment on matters which are before the tribunal."

US: Supreme court to review law over Jerusalem's status on US passports

Justices will consider the challenge to a rule about whether Americans born in Jerusalem may list Israel as their birthplace.

Confronting an issue fraught with Middle East politics, the supreme court has agreed to hear for the second time a passport dispute centering on whether Americans born in Jerusalem may list their place of birth as Israel.

The court said Monday it will review a lower court ruling that struck down a 2002 law that authorized identifying Jerusalem as part of Israel on US passports. The law was passed over the objection of President George W Bush, and the lower court said the law impermissibly infringed on the president's power to recognize foreign governments. The Obama administration has taken the same position as its predecessor.

The US has refused to recognize any nation's sovereignty over Jerusalem since Israel's creation in 1948. The justices previously ruled on a different aspect of the case.

The challenge to the passport rule was brought by parents of an American boy named Menachem Zivotofsky, who was born in a Jerusalem hospital soon after the law was passed.

The law was part of a large foreign affairs bill that Bush signed into law. But even as he did so, he issued a signing statement in which he said that "US policy regarding Jerusalem has not changed."

Had Zivotofsky been born in Tel Aviv, the State Department would have issued a passport listing his place of birth as Israel. The regular practice for recording the birth of a US citizen abroad is to list the country where it occurred.

But the department's guide tells consular officials, "For a person born in Jerusalem, write Jerusalem as the place of birth in the passport."

Ever since President Harry S Truman recognized Israel upon its declaration of nationhood in 1948, no president has accepted permanent Israeli rule over the entirety of Jerusalem. Since Israel's victory in the 1967 Six-Day War brought the entire city under Israeli control, US policy has regarded the sensitive status of Jerusalem as something ultimately to be determined in talks between Israel and its negotiating partners. The US Embassy remains in Tel Aviv.

In 1995, Congress essentially adopted the Israeli position, saying the US should recognize a united Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Shortly before Zivotofsky's birth, lawmakers passed new provisions urging the president to take steps to move the embassy to Jerusalem and allowing Americans born in Jerusalem to have their place of birth listed as Israel.

Zivotofksy is now 11, and his Washington lawyer, Nathan Lewin, said when he filed the Supreme Court appeal that he hoped the boy's passport could be changed to reflect Israel as his place of birth before his bar mitzvah. Jewish boys have their bar mitzvah at the age of 13.

The court will hear the case in the fall and should hand down a decision by June 2015. Zivotofsky will turn 13 four months later. The case is Zivotofsky v Kerry, 13-628.

Malaysia Bar to offer free advice to plane families

As lawyers from abroad seek to strike up relationships with families of passengers on the missing Malaysia Airlines flight, the Malaysia Bar Council is offering free legal help.
Christopher Leong, chair of the Malaysia Bar Council, said: ‘The Bar Council Legal Aid team will be able to render preliminary legal advice to the family members of those onboard the plane if they require it….If and when the families are ready to commence legal action, they will have to obtain the services of a legal firm which is prepared to take their case. The assistance by the Bar Council Legal Aid team will not include the filing of a civil suit or representing them.’  Preliminary legal issues could include those relating to insurance, procedure, possible causes of action and limitation periods, he said. 
Mr Leong also said that that the Bar Council might take action against foreign firms which illegally offered to provide legal advice services which are not allowed under Malaysian regulatory rules

Armed robber was never told to report to prison

ST. LOUIS (AP) — After he was convicted of armed robbery in 2000, Cornealious Anderson was sentenced to 13 years behind bars and told to await instructions on when and where to report to prison. But those instructions never came.

So Anderson didn't report. He spent the next 13 years turning his life around — getting married, raising three kids, learning a trade. He made no effort to conceal his identity or whereabouts. Anderson paid taxes and traffic tickets, renewed his driver's license and registered his businesses.

Not until last year did the Missouri Department of Corrections discover the clerical error that kept him free. Now he's fighting for release, saying authorities missed their chance to incarcerate him.

In a single day last July, Anderson's life was turned upside-down.

"They sent a SWAT team to his house," Anderson's attorney, Patrick Megaro, said Wednesday. "He was getting his 3-year-old daughter breakfast, and these men with automatic weapons bang on his door."

Anderson, 37, was taken to Southeast Correctional Center in Charleston, Mo., to begin serving the sentence. A court appeal filed in February asks for him to be freed.

Anderson had just one arrest for marijuana possession on his record when he and a cousin robbed an assistant manager for a St. Charles Burger King restaurant on Aug. 15, 1999. The men, wearing masks, showed a gun (it turned out to be a BB gun) and demanded money that was about to be placed in a deposit box.

The worker gave up the bag of cash, and the masked men drove away. The worker turned in the car's license plate number.

Anderson was convicted and sentenced to 13 years in prison and waited for word on what to do next.

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This undated photo provided by the Missouri Department of Corrections shows Cornealious Anderson. An …

"His attorney said, 'Listen, they're going to get you some day, so just wait for the order,'" Megaro said. "As time goes by, the order never comes. What does a normal person believe? Maybe they forgot about it. It's only human nature to hope they just let it go. He really didn't know what to do.

"A year goes by, two years, five years, 10 years. He's thinking, 'I guess they don't care about me anymore,'" Megaro said.

So Anderson went about his life. Megaro said he was not a fugitive, was never on the run. In fact, just the opposite.

Megaro described Anderson as a model citizen — a married father who became a carpenter and started three businesses. He paid income and property taxes and kept a driver's license showing his true name and address. When he was pulled over for a couple of traffic violations, nothing showed up indicating he should be in prison.

That's why Anderson was shocked when the marshals arrived.

He now lives among the general population at Charleston. Megaro said Anderson is holding his own— barely.

"He's doing his best to keep his spirits up," Megaro said. "Each day that goes by, more hope is lost. It's a daily struggle for him."

Peter Joy, director of the Criminal Justice Clinic at the Washington University School of Law in St. Louis, said it isn't unusual in a country with such a high prison population for sentences to fall through the cracks. What is unusual, Joy said, is for it to go unnoticed for so long.

"The real tragedy here is that one aspect of prison is the idea of rehabilitation," Joy said. "Here we have somebody who has led a perfect life for 13 years. He did everything right. So he doesn't need rehabilitation."

What happens next isn't clear. Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster on Tuesday filed a court response that said the state is justified in making Anderson serve the sentence.

However, Koster wrote that Megaro could refile the case as an action against the director of the Department of Corrections, which could give Anderson credit for the time he was technically at large.

Megaro doubted that strategy would work. He said the law does not allow credit for time served when the convicted person was not behind bars.

"I don't think that's an option, unfortunately," Megaro said.

Instead, he's relying on case law. The last time anything like this happened in Missouri was 1912. In that case, the convicted man was set free, Megaro said.

Gov. Jay Nixon could also commute the sentence. A spokesman for Nixon declined to comment

Cops: Man goes to courthouse in stolen car

SONORA, Calif. — Police say a man came to a court appearance in the Central Valley in a stolen vehicle.

James Manning was arrested after police say they received a call from an auto dealership in Redding on Friday reporting the vehicle stolen. The vehicle's GPS indicated it was parked in front of the Tuolumne County courthouse in Sonora.

Officers found the 2001 Mitsubishi with different license plates on it. Sonora police say Manning's wife, 45-year-old Teresa Castillo, told officers her husband had bought the car earlier in the day for $200 so they could drive to Sonora for his court appearance.

But when police contacted the 49-year-old Manning inside the courthouse, they say he acknowledged knowing the car was stolen. He and Castillo were arrested on suspicion of possession of stolen property and possession of a controlled substance.

Saudi sentences three to death over 2003 attacks

A Saudi court has sentenced three men to death and jailed 40 more for assisting suicide bombers who attacked three residence compounds in Riyadh in 2003.

The court said more than 25 people were killed in the attack, including 18 foreigners, along with 12 of the assailants.

It said one of them was also found guilty of plotting to blow up an air base in the south of the kingdom.

It added that 40 defendants received sentences ranging from two to 26 years for offences, including collaboration with or pledging allegiance to al-Qaeda.

Saudi Arabia had suffered a wave of attacks, thought to have been linked to al-Qaeda between 2003 and 2006.

US defendant shot dead in courtroom attack

A man accused of robbery and assault was shot and killed in a Salt Lake City court after he lunged at a witness giving evidence.

Siale Angilau, 25, died in hospital after being shot several times by a US marshal in front of the jury at the new federal courthouse.

The FBI said he had rushed towards the witness with a pen in an “aggressive, threatening manner”.

Angilau was the last of 17 accused gang members tried as part of a 2010 case.

The case included 29 counts, including assault, conspiracy, robbery and weapons offences.

Perry Cardwell, who was in the courtroom with his adult daughter, told the Associated Press news agency at least six shots were fired.

“It was kind of traumatising,” Sara Jacobson, his daughter, said.

The witness on the stand at the time was not identified and was not injured.

He appeared to be in his mid-20s and was testifying about gang initiation, Cardwell said.

US District Judge Tena Campbell declared a mistrial, writing in her order that members of the jury were visibly shaken and upset.

Angilau’s lawyer declined to answer questions as he left the court on Monday. The accused had been transferred to federal custody last week after serving time in prison in Utah on other charges.

The new federal courthouse in Salt Lake City opened just a week ago. It was designed with several security features, including bulletproof glass in some areas and separate routes in and out for judges, prisoners and the public.

Indian court lifts Goa iron ore mining ban

India’s Supreme Court has lifted a ban on iron ore mining in the western state of Goa, but limited extraction to 20m tonnes a year.

The miners will also need to renew their leases with the Goa government.

All 90 iron ore mines in Goa were shut down after a government-backed inquiry in 2012 alleged they were illegal and lacked environmental permission to operate.

It had claimed the state lost nearly $6bn (£3.75bn) due to illegal mining.

The ban in Goa followed a similar move in the southern state of Karnataka in 2011.

According to some estimates, those restrictions have cut India’s iron ore exports by 85 per cent, or 100m tonnes, over the past two years.

Analysts said the lifting of the ban may help trigger a gradual recovery in the sector.

“The 20m tonnes is a reasonable quantity to start with,” said Basant Poddar, vice-president of the Federation of Indian Mineral Industries.

“Fresh mining will start after the monsoon and exports [of iron ore] may start in September.”

The court has also asked an expert panel to study the environmental impact of the mining and give its final recommendation on the annual cap on extraction within six months.

Fake Lawyer arrested in Port Harcourt’

A self-styled lawyer, Jonathan Morgan Danagogo, has been arrested by the police in Rivers State for parading himself as an exam malpractice prosecutor and a worker of the West African Examination Council (WAEC).

The suspect, 30, was arrested at Zion International High School, Port Harcourt, during the West African Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).

It was gathered that Danagogo appeared at the exam centre and presented himself as a WAEC official.

The Deputy Registrar/Zonal Coordinator of WAEC in Port Harcourt, Patrick Areghan, said the suspect was “an impostor”, adding that WAEC had no such name on its payroll.

Areghan said the suspect’s arrest was a welcome development, as it would serve as deterrent to others.

He warned head teachers and proprietors to desist from act capable of jeopardising their jobs.

“We have about 570 schools writing the exams now.

“So, in the course of going round some schools, our staffs came across one man who has named himself Barrister Jonathan Morgan Danagogo as Prosecutor for Exam Malpractice.

“But it would interest you to know that we don’t have such a position in WAEC.

He is a fake. He is neither from us, nor representing the interest of the council.”

The Divisional Police Officer of Rumukpakani Abdulkarin Nuhu, said Danagogo has ‘confessed’ to the crime.

He said the suspect has no university education.