Here's your daily summary of legal news from Paper Chase, the real-time legal news arm of JURIST...

Here's your daily summary of legal news from Paper Chase, the real-time legal news arm of JURIST...

Turkish protests resulted in large scale human rights violations: AI
[JURIST] Amnesty International [advocacy website] released a report [text, PDF] on Wednesday accusing Turkish authorities of committing human rights violations during the government's attempt to quell protests in Gezi Park in Istanbul this summer. According to the advocacy group, the authorities repeatedly showed total intolerance for any form of protest, however passive. Witness testimony and photographic evidence provide documentation of protestor beatings and sexual assault at the hands of police, as well as the misuse of chemical irritants, such as... [more].
Posted by Samuel Franklin on Oct 03, 2013 04:32 pm

UK spy agency facing rights court challenge over surveillance
[JURIST] The UK spy agency GCHQ [official website] is facing a legal challenge [press release] in the European Human Rights Court (ECHR) [official websites] to its online surveillance programs. Claims [text, PDF] filed in the ECHR on Thursday allege that the massive programs, which are able to read the content of e-mails and social media messages, have breached the privacy of tens of millions of people [Guardian report] across the UK and Europe. The claims stem from revelations by Edward... [more].
Posted by Laura Klein Mullen on Oct 03, 2013 03:57 pm

Pakistan government drops plans to reinstate death penalty
[JURIST] The government of Pakistan [official website] decided on Thursday not to reinstate the death penalty. There had been a moratorium on the death penalty since 2008, but the ban ended on June 30. More than 8,000 prisoners are on death row, and two militants were scheduled to be executed [Reuters report] in August. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif [BBC profile] had planned to reinstate the death penalty [Death Penalty Worldwide backgrounder] in an attempt to crack down on militants and... [more].
Posted by Laura Klein Mullen on Oct 03, 2013 02:55 pm

California governor signs law prohibiting state assistance with indefinite detention
[JURIST] California Governor Jerry Brown [official website] on Tuesday signed into law a bill [text] that prohibits state employees and agencies, as well as law enforcement and the California National Guard, from providing support for the indefinite detention of a person within California. Specifically, the law states that those individuals or bodies shall not participate in any investigation or detainment authorized by either the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 (NDAA) [text, PDF] or Authorization for Use of Military Force... [more].
Posted by Samuel Franklin on Oct 03, 2013 01:48 pm

Rights group condemns Malaysia proposals allowing detention without trial
[JURIST] Malaysia's proposed amendments to the Prevention of Crime Act 1959 [text, PDF], which would reinstate detention without trial for certain individuals with criminal histories, are a "huge step backwards," Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] said [press release] Wednesday. HRW said that the amendments would allow detention for up to two years without trial if authorities find that the person has committed at least two serious offenses, regardless of whether he or she was actually ever convicted, so long... [more].
Posted by Lauren Laing on Oct 03, 2013 12:21 pm

HRW: Syria unlawfully holding large number of peaceful political activists
[JURIST] Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Thursday began a campaign [advocacy websites] for the tens of thousands of political activists that they claim are being detained in Syria for their peaceful activity. "Lost in Syria's Black Hole" tells the story of Syrian individuals who have been detained since the start of the Syrian Civil War [JURIST backgrounder] in 2011. Each individual has reportedly either been detained for exercising a right [news release] to free expression and peaceful assembly, or for... [more].
Posted by Theresa Donovan on Oct 03, 2013 12:10 pm

Federal appeals court rejects judge's interpretation of BP oil spill settlement
[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit [official website] on Wednesday reversed [opinion, PDF] a district court ruling that interpreted a settlement agreement [JURIST report] between BP and the class of parties injured in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill [JURIST news archive] in a way that permitted recovery for artificial and inflated claims. The appeals court applied fundamental accounting principles in its reasoning:The difficulty is that subtracting temporally-related revenues and expenses recorded by cash-basis claimants would not... [more].
Posted by Lauren Laing on Oct 03, 2013 11:45 am

Indonesia chief justice arrested for corruption
[JURIST] The Indonesian Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) on Wednesday arrested the chief justice of the country's constitutional court for allegedly accepting over USD $250,000 in bribes. Akil Mochtar was elected as chief justice for a five-year term which began in August, and the money confiscated from Mochtar's house was said to be possibly linked to a disputed election [Reuters report] within the country. The constitutional court is responsible for final determinations on issues involving elections and institutions within the country,... [more].
Posted by Theresa Donovan on Oct 03, 2013 11:14 am

France court rules ID checks not discriminatory
[JURIST] A French court on Wednesday held that ID checks are legal under French law and are not discriminatory. The case was brought [AP report] by 13 individuals from minority groups who were subject to ID checks, requesting €10,000 (USD $13,000) in compensation for each. In addition, they sought to amend the law to require written reports for ID checks that would provide legitimate reasons. The proposal to require written reports was rejected in the past, but there is a... [more].
Posted by Sung Un Kim on Oct 03, 2013 10:33 am

Texas inmates challenge use of new execution drugs
[JURIST] Three Texas death row inmates on Tuesday filed a lawsuit alleging that the state plans to use new types of drugs in their execution. The complaint claims that Texas has obtained [Reuters report] propofol, midzolam and hydromorphone from manufacturers by pretending to be a hospital. Thus, the drugs would not have been delivered if manufacturers knew that they would be used for executions. The three plaintiffs alleged that the drugs would create pain and that Texas prison officials are... [more].