Singapore: Legal Charges Threat to Freedom of Expression
(New York) – Singapore officials should cease using criminal defamation and contempt laws to silence government critics, Human Rights Watch said today.
Iran must end harassment of stoning case lawyer
Amnesty International urges Iran to stop harassing human rights lawyers amid continuing uncertainty over the whereabouts of the defence counsel in a controversial stoning case.
Amnesty International has urged the Iranian authorities to stop harassing human rights lawyers amid continuing uncertainty over the whereabouts of the defence counsel in a recent controversial stoning case and the arrest of two of his relatives.
Mohammad Mostafaei’s whereabouts have been unknown since shortly after he was released from questioning by judicial officials last Saturday.
Late that evening, the Iranian authorities detained his wife and brother-in-law, prompting fears that they are being held to put pressure on Mohammed Mostafaei to turn himself in to the authorities, if he is not already being detained.
The acclaimed lawyer is defending Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, whose case became the subject of an international outcry when it was reported that she was soon to be executed by stoning.
He has also defended many juvenile offenders, political prisoners and others sentenced to stoning. Mostafaei has been a vocal critic of the administration of justice in Iran.
“Mohammad Mostafaei is a thorn in the side of the Iranian authorities and we fear that he is being persecuted in an attempt to stop him carrying out his professional activities as a defence lawyer and in support of human rights,” said Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa director.
Mostafaei was summoned for questioning by judicial officials at Tehran’s Evin prison on Saturday but released after several hours. However he later received a telephone call summoning him back to the prison. It is not known whether he complied with this summons or not.
Mohammad Mostafaei’s wife, Fereshteh Halimi, and her brother, Farhad Halimi, were arrested on Saturday evening. They remain held and have been denied access to their lawyer.
Following his interrogation on Saturday, Mostafaei wrote on his blog that he was questioned mainly about his defence of juvenile offenders. He also wrote on his Facebook account: “It is possible they will arrest me”.
“The Iranian authorities appear intent on silencing anyone who speaks out against stoning or other issues where Iran’s international human rights obligations are clearly being violated,” said Malcolm Smart.
“Mohammad Mostafaei should be allowed to get on with his job as a lawyer rather than face arrest himself for trying to defend victims of human rights abuses.
“If Fereshteh and Farhad Halimi are held solely because they are related to Mohammad Mostafaei, or in order to place pressure on him, they are prisoners of conscience and must be immediately released.”
Fereshteh Halimi and Mohammad Mostafaei have a young daughter who is said to be in the care of her maternal grandmother.
There is a longstanding pattern of harassment and imprisonment of human rights lawyers in Iran. In 2002, Nasser Zarafshan was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment, partly on trumped-up charges of possessing a firearm and alcohol offences.
Abdolfattah Soltani was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment in 2005 for disclosing public documents and “propaganda against the system”. The sentence was overturned on appeal on 2007 but he was arrested again in 2009 and held for two months before being released on bail.
Other lawyers currently held for their human rights work include Mohammad Olyaeifard, who is serving a one-year prison sentence imposed for comments he made criticizing the judiciary after the execution of one of his clients, juvenile offender Behnoud Shojaee.
Other Iranian human rights lawyers such as Nobel Prize winner Shirin Ebadi and Shadi Sadr, recipient of various international human rights awards, now work outside of Iran, fearing to return.
Mohammad Mostafaei was briefly detained following the disputed 2009 presidential election before being released on bail.
Family of stoning case lawyer detained (Urgent Action, 26 July 2010)
South Ossetia civil society activist beaten
Timur Tskhovrebov, who was attacked by up to 10 people, believes he was targeted because of his journalistic work and dissenting political views.
Amnesty International has called on the de facto authorities in South Ossetia to conduct a full, prompt and impartial investigation into an attack on a prominent journalist and civil society activist.
Timur Tskhovrebov told Amnesty International that on Saturday he was attacked in the centre of Tskhinvali by a group of up to 10 people, leaving him with a knife wound to the neck, a broken finger and injuries from punches to his face and body. He is still in hospital recovering from his injuries.
He said one of his attackers threatened him with a gun and that he was also knocked down by a car accidentally as he tried to escape.
The activist said he recognized his three main attackers, all of them members of the South Ossetian parliament, and that he believed he was targeted because of his journalistic work, dissenting political views and civic activism.
“The de facto authorities must carry out a prompt and impartial investigation and bring the perpetrators to justice irrespective of the identity of the attackers. The authorities need to demonstrate that such acts will not be tolerated,” said Nicola Duckworth, Europe and Central Asia Programme Director.
In June Timur Tskhovrebov attended the Georgian-Ossetian Civic Forum in the Netherlands and co-signed a document which calls the parties of the Geneva talks on Georgia to ensure that the humanitarian needs of those affected by the 2008 Georgian-Ossetian conflict are addressed and, as a matter of priority, enable free movement of people in the region.
On 22 July, Boris Chochiev, a senior South Ossetian official, condemned the forum as traitorous and harmful to the position of the South Ossetian delegation at the Geneva talks.
The official specifically singled out Timur Tskhovrebov among the forum participants.
South Ossetia, a breakaway territory from Georgia, was at the centre of an eight-day war between Georgia and Russia in August 2008. Following the conflict, severe mutual travel restrictions were introduced by Tbilisi and Tskhinvali.
As part of the truce established in September 2008 between Georgia and Russia, delegations of the two countries meet in Geneva to discuss post-crisis management.
Cambodia: Tribunal’s First Step in Search for Justice
(Phnom Penh) – Today’s guilty verdict by Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge tribunal in the trial of the chief of the notorious Tuol Sleng prison is an important step in the search for justice for the victims of the Khmer Rouge, Human Rights Watch said today.
Afghanistan leak exposes NATO’s incoherent civilian casualty policy
US military files on the war from 2004-2009, released by website Wikileaks, show that leaders did not know what was happening on the ground.
Amnesty International has called on NATO to provide a clear, unified system of accounting for civilian casualties in Afghanistan, as leaked war logs paint a picture of an incoherent process of dealing with civilian casualties.
Around 92,000 leaked US military files on the war in Afghanistan covering the period 2004-2009 were released Sunday by the website Wikileaks.
“The picture that emerges from the leaked data on civilian casualties is that NATO’s leadership did not know exactly what was happening on the ground,” said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific Director.
“The military logs bear out Amnesty International’s longstanding concerns that there is no coherent or consistent system for accounting for civilian casualties.”
The leaked records support Amnesty International’s concerns about improper reporting of civilian casualties, a lack of investigations into casualties that are recorded, and poor coordination between different national forces about incidents and even over investigations that do take place.
The leaked documents show better monitoring of incidents after new rules of engagement were put in place in June 2009 by the former NATO commander, US General Stanley McChrystal.
But since General McChrystal’s dismissal in June 2010, his replacement, US General David Petraeus, has been under pressure from military officials and US lawmakers to ease restrictions that had provided more protection to civilians.
“These leaks need to galvanise the NATO command into redoubling their protection of civilians. Killings must be investigated in a transparent, consistent and coherent way across all the different forces in Afghanistan, providing justice and compensation for victims and their families,” said Sam Zarifi.
Amnesty International reports on civilian casualties such as the Kunduz airstrike of September 2009 and the killing of two brothers in a Kandahar night raid in 2008 found that international forces were failing to account for civilian casualties in a systematic manner.
The documents bear out Amnesty International’s investigation into the Kunduz airstrike, which concluded that a disproportionate number of civilians were killed as a result of what seems to have been faulty intelligence by German forces.
The documents do not appear to address the January 2008 Kandahar night raid, but do highlight a central problem identified by Amnesty International’s investigation into that incident, namely, the unaccountable operation of Special Operations Forces outside the regular chain of command acting without proper rules of engagement.
“These documents do not provide a comprehensive look at the situation in Afghanistan. International forces operating in the country still have to give a full account of what their forces have done in the past, and act immediately to ensure that there is a much better system of monitoring, accountability, and compensation in place for Afghan civilians,” Sam Zarifi said.
“These leaks also show that the Taleban are responsible for the majority of the systematic human rights violations and violations of the laws of war in this conflict, but this does not excuse NATO forces from their responsibility to protect civilians.”
Pakistan: ‘As if Hell fell on me’: The human rights crisis in northwest Pakistan (Report, 10 June 2010)
Afghanistan: German government must investigate deadly Kunduz airstrikes (News, 30 October 2009)
Getting away with murder? The impunity of international forces in Afghanistan (Report, 26 February 2009)
Iraq: Extremist Groups Targeting Journalists
(New York) – The suicide car bombing that destroyed the Baghdad bureau of Al Arabiya News Channel and killed at least six people on July 26, 2010, was an assault on the fundamental principles of freedom of expression and respect for life, Human Rights Watch said today.
Afghanistan: Investigate Any Newly Disclosed Civilian Casualty Incidents
(New York) – US and NATO forces should immediately agree to investigate any previously undisclosed civilian casualty incidents in Afghanistan revealed in US military documents leaked to the media on July 25, 2010, Human Rights Watch said today.
Greece must stop treating migrants as criminals
A new Amnesty International report details the poor treatment and living conditions faced by thousands of irregular migrants and asylum-seekers detained in the country each year.
The Greek authorities should immediately review their policy of locking up irregular migrants and asylum-seekers, including many unaccompanied children, Amnesty International said in a new report on Tuesday.
Greece: Irregular migrants and asylum-seekers routinely detained in substandard conditions, documents their treatment, many of whom are held in poor conditions in borderguard stations and immigration detention centres with no or limited access to legal, social and medical aid.
“Asylum-seekers and irregular migrants are not criminals. Yet, the Greek authorities treat them as such disregarding their rights under international law,” said Nicola Duckworth, Europe and Central Asia Programme Director for Amnesty International.
“Currently, migrants are detained as a matter of course, without regard whether such measure is necessary. Detention of asylum-seekers and migrants on the grounds of their irregular status should always be a measure of last resort.”
Greek law makes irregular entry into and exit out of the country a criminal offence. As of June 2009, the period of detention for the purposes of deportation has increased from three to six months.
Tens of thousands of migrants arrive in Greece each year. The vast majority of them reach the country through the Greek-Turkish land and sea borders. They are mostly Afghan, Somali, Palestinian, Iraqi, Eritrean, Pakistani and Burmese.
“After an often hazardous journey, migrants end up in detention centres without access to a lawyer, interpreters or social workers. As a result, their circumstances are not assessed correctly and many in need of international protection may be sent back to the places they have fled, while others may be deprived of appropriate care and support,” Nicola Duckworth said.
Irregular migrants and asylum-seekers are not informed about the length of their detention or about their future. They can be kept for long periods of time in overcrowded facilities with unaccompanied minors being detained among the adults. Those detained have limited access to medical assistance and hygiene products.
Few asylum-seekers and irregular migrants are recognized as refugees by the Greek authorities. From the over 30,000 asylum applications examined in 2009, only 36 were granted refugee protection status while 128 were granted subsidiary protection status.
In the vast majority of detention facilities visited by Amnesty International delegates, conditions ranged from inadequate to very poor. Those detained told Amnesty International of instances of ill-treatment by coastguards and police.
Length and poor conditions of detention provoked irregular migrants and asylum-seekers to stage protests in Venna, north-east Greece in February 2010. Likewise, in April, irregular migrants went on hunger strike on the island of Samos to protest their length of detention.
“Detention cannot be used as a tool to control migration. The onus is on the authorities to demonstrate in each individual case that such detention is necessary and proportionate to the objective to be achieved and that alternatives will not be effective,” Nicola Duckworth said.
Amnesty International said it believes that the Greek authorities should explore alternatives, such as the establishment of screening centres staffed with qualified personnel.
The authorities need to ensure that irregular migrants and asylum-seekers arriving at those centres have access to free legal assistance and interpreters in languages they understand, and medical assistance.
South Ossetia: Activist Brutally Assaulted
(Moscow) – The de facto authorities of South Ossetia, a breakaway region of Georgia, should promptly investigate the vicious attack on a civic activist and hold those responsible to account, Human Rights Watch said today.
Cambodia urged to follow Khmer Rouge conviction with more prosecutions
Following the conviction of prison camp commander Kaing Guek Eav for crimes against humanity, Amnesty International calls on court to redouble its efforts.
Amnesty International has urged a special court to redouble its efforts to prosecute Khmer Rouge-era criminals, following the landmark conviction on Monday of a notorious prison camp commander of crimes against humanity and war crimes.
“Achieving a conviction in Case 001, the first case to be heard by Cambodia’s Extraordinary Chambers, is a historic moment but still only the first step towards justice for the almost two million who died as a result of the massive crimes committed under Khmer Rouge rule,” said Donna Guest, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Asia-Pacific programme.
The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, a special joint international-Cambodian court, on Monday convicted Kaing Guek Eav, also known as Duch, of crimes against humanity and grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions for his role in mass executions, torture and other crimes. He will serve 19 years out of a 35-year sentence.
Of the 14,000 people believed to have been imprisoned at the S-21 Security Office (also known as Tuol Sleng) headed by Duch in Phnom Penh from 1975-1979, only some 12 survived. The rest were tortured to death or executed.
Amnesty International expressed concern that beyond this case, only a few suspects have been identified for possible prosecution by the Extraordinary Chambers.
“This falls short of fulfilling the Extraordinary Chambers’ mandate to prosecute those most responsible for grave crimes committed under Khmer Rouge rule,” said Donna Guest.
“Identifying only five or ten people as allegedly responsible for the massive atrocities does not do enough to satisfy the justice that Cambodians deserve and are entitled to under international law.”
A decision on whether to indict five people charged in the second case, Case 002, will be made later this year. Duch is also named in Case 002 and the others accused are former leading Khmer Rouge politicians: head of state Khieu Samphan; Foreign Minister Ieng Sary; Minister of Social Affairs Ieng Thirith and Nuon Chea, a senior Communist Party of Kampuchea officer known as “Brother No 2″.
Cases 003 and 004 were filed by the Office of the Co-Prosecutors in September 2009 despite strong opposition by the Cambodian Co-Prosecutor, naming five suspects on 40 incidents of murder, torture, unlawful detention, forced labour and persecution. On filing these cases, the acting International Co-Prosecutor stated that no more cases would be pursued by the Office.
“Progress on the third and fourth cases could be undermined by political interference from Cambodian officials who openly oppose more prosecutions, and by disagreements between the Cambodian and International Co-Investigating Judges,” said Donna Guest.
Amnesty International called for the Co-Investigating Judges to complete their work on the existing cases and for the Co-Prosecutors to review their overall strategy in order to fully implement their legal mandate.
Amnesty International also urged the Cambodian government and the United Nations (UN) to ensure that all the efforts already put into the Extraordinary Chambers will provide a lasting legacy to strengthen the national justice system and the rule of law.
The Extraordinary Chambers’ mandate, as set out in the Agreement between the UN and the government of Cambodia, and in the Law establishing the Chambers, is to “bring to trial senior leaders of Democratic Kampuchea and those most responsible for the crimes and serious violations of Cambodian laws related to crimes, international humanitarian law and custom and international conventions recognized by Cambodia,” committed during the Khmer Rouge period.
Twenty-two civil parties, including former detainees and relatives of victims of the atrocities committed at the notorious S-21 Security Office, gave testimony at Duch’s trial. The Extraordinary Chambers reports that more than 31,000 people visited the court to observe the trial hearings.
Duch was sentenced to 35 years’ imprisonment, reduced by five years because the Extraordinary Chambers found that he had been illegally detained by the Cambodian Military Court, and a further 11 years’ reduction for time already served.
Cambodia still has a weak national justice system that fails to provide justice for large sections of the population.
The lack of effective rule of law perpetuates serious human rights abuses, such as violence against women, including sexual violence, and forced evictions of thousands of people living in poverty across Cambodia.
Notorious Khmer Rouge commander on trial in Cambodia (News, 30 March 2009)
Cambodia: After 30 years Khmer Rouge crimes on trial (Report, 27 March 2009)
