New Motions in Challenge to Lawyer Access Rules at Guantanamo

By Mark O’Brien
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

WASHINGTON, United States — In a motion filed this week, the U.S. Justice Department requested just one federal judge decide which rules apply to lawyers representing suspects being held at the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The Justice Department filed a motion this week in a case over whether Guantanamo detainees can have continued access to counsel after losing habeas. (Photo Courtesy of the Christian Science Monitor)

Government lawyers asked for Chief Judge Royce Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to be the decider in a growing dispute between the government and defense lawyers.

The issue is whether detainees who have lost their one-shot habeas cases can have continued access to their counsel.

“Respondents request that the instant Motions for Counsel Access be referred to a single judge for a coordinated ruling on the counsel-access issue that will govern in these and all other Guantanamo Bay habeas cases,” the motion stated.

According to Politico, Guantanamo leaders have tried “to unilaterally impose rules for lawyers’ visits to Guantanamo when no court proceedings are pending.  Lawyers for some inmates have complained that they should continue to be covered by orders issued by judges in Washington.  They argue that prisoners are free to file successive petitions for release, so the visits are directly tied to potential litigation.”

The filing stems from a case in which Yasin Qasem Muhammad Ismail, a Yemeni national detained at Guantanamo, was told he no longer had the right to see his counsel after losing his habeas petition.  An email from the Justice Department to Ismail’s lawyer reportedly said Ismail could only meet his lawyer if the lawyer signed a new “memorandum of understanding.”  Ismail’s lawyer, David Remes, described that new MOU as giving the government “absolute authority over access to counsel.”

According to Scotusblog, Remes challenged the new MOU earlier this month in federal court.

“As long as [Ismail] is detained, he retains the right to pursue any available legal avenues to obtain his release,” Remes argued, according to court papers.

As Scotusblog put it, those other avenues include “the right to file a new or amended habeas challenge, or to file a formal motion to have his case reopened in District Court.”

But this new legal challenge is not the only complaint defense lawyers have raised regarding the system for terror suspects detained at Guantanamo.

Just last week, lawyers for Saudi defendant Abd al Rahim al Nashiri alleged that the military official in charge of the tribunal attempted to rig the Guantanamo court to deliver the death sentence.  Nashiri is charged in connection with planning the al Qaeda attack on the USS Cole off the coast of Yemen in 2000, killing 17 sailors and injuring dozens more.

The defense accused retired Vice Admiral Bruce MacDonald of “unprecedented bureaucratic meddling” in instructing the judge how to carry out jury selection, something normally left to the judge alone.

The instructions would result in a jury panel “that numerically favors a death sentence,” said Lieutenant Commander Stephen Reyes, a lawyer for Nashiri.

For further information, please see:

Lawfare — On Continued Counsel Access at Gitmo and the Government’s Filing — 27 July 2012

Politico — Feds: Single Judge Should Rule on Rules for Lawyers at Guantanamo — 26 July 2012

Reuters — Defense Lawyers say Guantanamo Court Rigged to Deliver Death Sentence — 19 July 2012

The Christian Science Monitor — Guantanamo Judge Refuses to Step Aside — 17 July 2012

Scotusblog — Are “Boumediene Rights” Expiring? — 13 July 2012

Death Squad Decision Infuriates Public

By Margaret Janelle Hutchinson
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

 LIMA, Peru – President Ollanta Humala has announced that the State Prosecutor will appeal a 3-2 ruling handed down by the Supreme Court last Friday which reduced prison sentences for the country’s former spy chief, Vladimiro Montesinos, and members of a paramilitary death squad known as the Grupo Colina.

Street Protest in Peru
A man waves a sign reading, “No more impunity” as Peruvians protest the recent Supreme Court decision that reduced sentences of former death squad members. (Photo courtesy Al Jazeera)

The Colina group, wearing masks, machine-gunned 15 people, including an 8-year-old boy, in the courtyard of a tenement building in Lima’s Barrios Altos district in 1991 and kidnapped, tortured and murdered nine students and one professor at La Cantuta University in 1992.

Other crimes of which they were accused included the murder in May 1992 of 10 small farmers in the Santa Valley, north of Lima, allegedly at the personal request of General Hermoza, and the assassination in December 1992 of Pedro Huillca, the influential leader of the national workers’ union, CGTP, who had called for a national strike against then President Fujimori’s privatization efforts.  The death and dismemberment of intelligence agent Mariella Barreto also was attributed to members of the squad.

In 2004, investigative journalist Ricard Uceda published Muerte en el Pentagonito, a well-documented report on the human rights violations by the military intelligence service in their fight against terrorism between 1982 and 1993, with key details of the death squads kidnappings, torture and incineration of victims in the basement of the military headquarters in the San Borja district of Lima.

Released in 2011, a meticulously detailed documentary, La Cantuta en la Boca del Diablo, traces the work of investigative journalist Edmundo Cruz into the death of the university students and professor, who were pulled out of their dorm rooms at the Chosica campus before dawn and never seen again.  Some of their scattered remains were found near the water treatment plant in east Lima and more remains were found between the hillsides on the road to Cieneguilla.  In some cases, confirmation of their whereabouts was only made by matching keys to their dorm lockers, found buried among the pieces of lime-bleached bones in the desert.

The Supreme Court’s argument to annul the qualification of crime against humanity was that the squad was acting as part of a chain of command within the army and that they were fighting terrorists.

At the time, Peru was locked in a bloody conflict with the Shining Path, a Maoist-inspired insurgency that sought to topple the government system.

The president of the Supreme Court, Javier Villa Stein, said that while the killings were human rights crimes, they are not necessarily crimes against humanity.

Peruvians have reacted with widespread anger and are voicing their opposition in the streets of Lima. In a video victims’ family members spoke out against impunity. One woman interviewed said: “[The judge] says that it is not crime against humanity. But what about my son? He was eight years old and they shot him with seven bullets in his body and one in his face.”

The President’s wife, Nadine Heredia tweeted: “Crimes of the Colina group and their leaders should not be forgotten. This ruling stains the honor of our country!”

“To kill a child is a terrible crime but that doesn’t convert it into a crime against humanity,” Stein said.

Human rights attorney Gloria Cano, who represents 14 victims of the Colina group, said the ruling contradicts a 2001 decision by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights that deemed the killings crimes against humanity.

“In our country, the military are in prison while the terrorists are already out,” Stein said.

Writing for the court, Judge Javier Villa Stein said the men could not be made to serve sentences for crimes against humanity because the prosecutor in the case had not specifically sought to convict them on that charge. The prosecutor refutes that, however, as do court documents filed in 2005.

In 2009, ex-President Alberto Fujimori, who took office in 1990, was found guilty on charges for sanctioning the death squad.

The Supreme Court’s decision trimmed the prison sentences of 15 former military men as well as Mr Montesinos, who as national security adviser to Mr. Fujimori helped him maintain power through violence, bribery and intimidation.

The court also overturned the aggravated murder conviction and 15-year sentence of Montesino’s army intelligence chief, Alberto Pinto, for providing financial and logistical support to the Colina group.

Pinto was released from prison on Tuesday.

Defendants convicted of crimes against humanity in Peru are not eligible for parole. Those convicted of murder are eligible after serving two-thirds of their sentence.

Mr. Montesinos himself will not be eligible for parole any time soon. He has been convicted of a series of other crimes including running guns to Colombian rebels.

Peruvian courts have found that the Colina group committed 53 murders of supposed left-wing rebel sympathizers and other civilians from 1991 to 1996 with the knowledge and aid of high-ranking officials who gave the group state funds, medical insurance, cars, weapons and training.

For further information, please see:

Al Jazeera – Peru: Outrage over death squad decision – 26 July 2012

Fox News Latino – Peruvians Outraged Over Possible Release of Death Squad – 25 July 2012

Morning Star – Court Ruling Court Free Peruvian Death Squad Members – 25 July 2012

Peruvian Times – Humala Says State Attorney to Appeal Supreme Court Ruling that Lightens Sentence of Death Squad and Montesinos – 24 July 2012

Senegal and AU Reach Deal on Trying Hissène Habré

By Ryan Aliman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

 DAKAR, Senegal – On Tuesday, July 24, 2012, Senegal and the African Union (AU) reached a preliminary agreement on how they intend to try former Chadian dictator, Hissène Habré, who is accused of committing war crimes during his rule from 1982 to 1990.

Chad’s former dictator Hissène Habré in court in Dakar. (Photo Courtesy of Ho/AFP/Getty Images)

After four days of deliberations in Dakar, AU and Senegalese government representatives drew a draft agreement on the creation of a special court in Senegal to try Habré.  Such “extraordinary African chambers” shall be incorporated “within the Senegalese court structure,” says Amadou Baal, director of the justice minister’s office.  The chambers will be divided into four sections depending on their functions, namely, instruction, investigations, trials, and appeals. Each chamber will consist of Senegalese and African judges.

Proceedings against Habré are tentatively scheduled to commence by the end of 2012 according to Senegal President Macky Sall. Baal, however, clarified that the proposal is still subject to final approval.

The deal between the AU and Senegal comes a few days after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague, Netherlands, ruled unanimously that Senegal must either prosecute the former dictator for war crimes or extradite him “without further delay.”

The ICJ order was a response to Belgium’s request to prosecute Habré.

A lower court in Dakar has already charged Habré in February 2000, but an appeals court overturned this decision on the ground that Senegalese courts lacked jurisdiction to try crimes that were perpetrated in another country. Belgium, citing the decision of the appeals court as a form of procedural delay, brought the matter to the ICJ and sought to have Habré extradited to face charges in Belgium instead.

Habré ruled Chad for 7 years until he was overthrown in 1990. He was then sent into exile in Senegal.

His regime was marked by repression and systematic targeting of ethnic groups such as the Sara, Hadjerai and the Zaghawa. A 1992 truth commission report said that he presided over up to 40,000 political murders and widespread torture of members of these ethnic groups perceived to be a threat to Habré’s government.

Despite these allegations, Habré has been living a quiet life in the suburbs of Dakar as courts and governments have tussled over who should try him for atrocities.

“Senegal made history in 1999 as the first country to join the International Criminal Court, and it could make history again by being the first country to prosecute the human rights crimes of a foreign leader,” said Alioune Tine, president of the African Assembly for the Defense of Human Rights.

 

For further information, please see:

Huffington Post – Hissene Habré Trial: Senegal, African Union Reach Deal on Trying Ex-Chadian Dictator – 25 July 2012

All Africa – Chad: Agreement on Habré Court – After World Court Ruling, Plan to Try Chad’s Ex-Dictator in Senegal with African Judges – 24 July, 2012

Star Africa – AU, Senegal Agree on Special Court to Try Habré – 24 July 2012

All Africa – Chad: UN World Court Rules Senegal Must Prosecute Ex-Chadian Leader oe Extradite Him – 20 July 2012

BBC – Profile Chad’s Hissene Habré – 20 July 2012

Syrian Revolution Digest – Thursday 26 June 2012

THE COMMENTARY IN THIS PIECE DOES NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF IMPUNITY WATCH.  

*WARNING VIDEOS MAY CONTAIN GRAPHIC IMAGES*

Solution Or Collusion?

A “solution” that keeps Assad in play and the Revolutionaries at bay when it comes to managing the transitional period is not a solution. It’s a collusion. The Revolutionaries get it, and will oppose it.

Thursday July 26, 2012

Today’s Death toll: 200. The Breakdown: 48 in Aleppo, 46 in Damascus and suburbs, 30 in Daraa (including 22 in Wadi Al-Ajami), 27 in Idlib, 21 in Homs, 14 in Deir Ezzor, 6 in Hama, 4 in Raqqah, 2 in Lattakia, 1 in Hassakeh and 1 in Qunaitra.

Cities & Towns Under Shelling: Harasta, Arbeen, Moadamiah, Harran Al-Awameed, Zabadani, Madaya, Eltal, Dmeir, Hameh, Yelda, Rankous, Qarrah(Damascus Suburbs), Sit Zeinab, Al-Qadam, Modan, Al-Hajar Al-Aswad, Yarmouk, Kafar Sousseh, Mazzeh, Qaboun, Barzeh (Damascus City), Daraa City, Khirbet Al-Ghazaleh, Tafas, Bostra Al-Sham, Na’eemah, Mseifrah, Jimreen, Hraak (Daraa), Rastan, Talbisseh, Houla, Tal Kalakh, Al-Qusayr, Al-Hosn, Al-Ghanto, Al-Bouaydah, Old Homs (Homs Province), Hreitan, Elbab, Eizaz, Marei, Bayanoun (Aleppo Province), Haffeh, Jabal Al-Akrad (Lattakia), Deir Ezzor City, Mouhassan, Albou Kamal (Deir Ezzor Province), Kafar Zeiteh, Hawash, Shahshabo, Hama City (Hama Province), Jabal Al-Zawiyeh, Ma’rrat Al-Nouman, Saraqib, Maar Shoureen, Ariha, Kafroumah, Al-Rami, Khan Shaikhoon (Idlib).

News

Op-Eds & Special Reports

Russia and Syria’s Assad: The End of the Affair? It has become clear to many officials in Moscow that the Assad regime cannot restore the pre-rebellion status quo in Syria, forcing them to consider backing away from a longtime client.

Al Qaeda’s War for Syria Now is the time to begin moving against the terror group’s Syrian assets.

Insight: Cautious on Syria, Obama moves to help rebels One of the most telling signs that the administration sees few good options in Syria is the apparent lack of major policy disagreement among Obama’s advisers. “There was more on Egypt and Libya,” a senior administration official said.

As Syrian Troops Pour Into Aleppo, Rebels Warn of Drawn-Out War The Syrian Army is trying to prevent the country’s commercial capital from becoming a base for a rebel offensive against Damascus. Damien McElroy, Adrian Blomfield, and Magdy Samaan report.

After Assad: What’s Next for the Future of Syria? If Syria is allowed to fracture, each ethnic group hunkering down, says Ammar Abdulhamid, an exiled Syria opposition leader in Washington, “it won’t be easy to put humpty dumpty back together again. It would take decades of instability and violence to sort itself out. And that is what we’re most worried about.”

Video Highlights

The following video purport to show clashes between the Syrian and Jordanian armies near Tal Shihab http://youtu.be/HueiEPXCEJ0 The clashes came at the heel of a cross-border shooting by the Syrian army that left a 3-yerl0ld Syrian refugee boy dead. The clashes were confirmed by Al-Jazeerah, but the Jordanian government refuted the report saying the Syrian army fired at refugees who were crossing into Jordan, but no clashes took place.

The pounding of Kafroumah, Idlib province, leaves several dead and wounded, including many children http://youtu.be/r3T4xKxSWoY Trying to rescue the wounded http://youtu.be/ECwHyOv2Geo , http://youtu.be/GXfI9dXFdXA Funeral for four of the dead http://youtu.be/zeiF2vZTsk4

The call for general mobilization made by the Commander of the Military Council of Aleppo, affiliated with FSA, with English subtitleshttp://youtu.be/nZmg0e4kaCo

A video surfaces of Assad celebrating the birthday of his wife’s brother back in August 2011 when his troops were busy committing massacreshttp://youtu.be/lhbYI9WO0zY

Mhardeh, Hama Province: the judge appointed for investigating the Massacre of Qoubair defects and accuses the regime of the massacrehttp://youtu.be/4UcTPQfdMlc

People in the Damascene suburb of Yelda rush to pull bodies from underneath the rubble after the suburb was shelled by helicopter gunshipshttp://youtu.be/CvfhLHljy7Q The dead and wounded include many childrenhttp://youtu.be/NbkaTPcPdRA , http://youtu.be/kX0tEvJi1Bg

The pounding of the town of Dmeir to the North leaves many buildings and shops on fire http://youtu.be/AqhtDOnXJrs

The suburb of Daraya was also heavily pounded by helicoptershttp://youtu.be/dIsaqojh6cM , http://youtu.be/dIsaqojh6cM

In Damascus City, the regime bulldozed parts of Qaboun Neighborhood as a form of collective punishment destroying many homes and shops in the processhttp://youtu.be/AKZFVOm80bo , http://youtu.be/iK5Q3WDrrU0

MIGs still taking part in the pounding in Aleppo Province. This video is from the town of Manbej http://youtu.be/gDzdtaskTh0

A little boy takes his last breaths in Albou Kamal, Deir Ezzor Provincehttp://youtu.be/1mrgx9Sru0Q

In Aleppo City, preparing for battle is not just about establishment checkpoints and barricades, in Sakhour, it’s about collecting garbage and cleaning the neighborhoods: and the fighters are doing the job http://youtu.be/1u9wLwhkdxc ,http://youtu.be/9u1-CbG2mJI

The pounding of Deir Ezor City continues http://youtu.be/k0jLXiJSMVc

Trial of Iraq’s Vice President Delayed

By Mark McMurray
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

BAGHDAD, Iraq — On Tuesday, an Iraqi court postponed the trial of Iraq’s Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi until August 14.

http://www.france24.com/en/20120724-iraq-court-says-president-cannot-testify-vp-case
Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi.  (Photo Courtesy of France 24)

Al-Hashemi, a high-ranking Sunni politician, faces around 150 separate charges.  He is accused of operating death squads along with his staff and bodyguards that targeted Shia officials and pilgrims.  The vice president has denied the wrongdoing and insists the charges filed by the Shia-led government are politically motivated and that he is the victim of a political vendetta by Shia Prime Minister Nouri al-Malik.

The appeals court earlier this week refused the defense’s request to call President Jalal Talabani, an ethnic Kurd, to testify at the trial.  Seeking to have Talabani serve as a character witness with five Sunni legislators and two other government officials, al-Hashemi first filed the request in May.

With the denial of the request to call the witnesses by the lower court hearing the case, al-Hashemi’s defense sought to have Iraq’s federal appeals court overturn the ruling.  The higher court denied the request and instead announced the trial would resume on August 14.   While the defense sought to ask the witnesses if they had any information about al-Hashemi’s role in terror attacks, the three-judge panel rejected the request, believing it  would add nothing to the case.

Muayad Obeid al-Ezzi, head of al-Hashemi’s defense team, spoke shortly after the denial.  “The federal appeals court rejected all of the appeals we filed, and returned the whole case to the [Central Criminal Court of Iraq],” he said.

Additionally, during Tuesday’s session, the court heard from witnesses supporting previous testimony given on May 15, when the trial began.  Five police officers testified that they found pistol silencers during a raid on the homes of al-Hashemi and Ahmed Qahtan, his son-in-law and office manager.   The claims, in addition to testimony from bodyguards and other officials who say they were offered money, or were forced, into carrying out attacks on al-Hashemi’s orders, are contested by the defense.

A woman and her son also testified on Tuesday.  As neighbors of Qahtan, they told the court they saw policemen taking silencers from his house.  Furthermore, testifying this week, one of the more than seventy of al-Hashemi’s guards currently held in custody described to the court how he drove other guards to plant roadside bombs under the orders of the vice president.

Al-Hashemi and several of his bodyguards are being tried in absentia.  In December, after the initial charges were filed, he fled to Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region before beginning a tour through Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.  He was last known to be in Turkey where the Turkish government has stated it will not extradite him to Iraq.

For further information, please see:

Al Monitor – Iraqi Government Wants Chevron To Scuttle Contract With Kurds – 25 July 2012

ABC News – Nine Killed in Attacks After Deadly Iraq Day – 24 July 2012

Al Jazeera – Iraqi Vice President’s Trial Postponed – 24 July 2012

France 24 – Iraq Court Says President Cannot Testify in VP Case – 24 July 2012

Fox News – Iraq President’s Testimony Rejected in Trial of Vice President – 24 July 2012