By Kristy Tridhavee
Impunity Watch Senior Desk Officer, Asia

HANOI, Vietnam – A Vietnamese appeals court upheld the sentences of four dissidents who were sentenced in 2007 for “spreading distorted information to undermine the state.” Judge Nguyen Xuan Phat of the Supreme Court of Appeals in Ho Chi Minh City refused to reduce the sentences of Tran Thi Le Hong, Phung Quang Quyen, Doan Van Dien, and his son Doan Huy Chuong. According to Ho Thi Thuong, wife of Doan Vien Dien and mother of Doan Huy Chuong, the court refused because in giving interviews with Radio Free Asia, the four committing very serious crimes because they had defamed the government and many people had listened. The four have jail terms ranging from 18 months to 4 ½ years.  Read more...

By Kristy Tridhavee
Impunity Watch Senior Desk Officer, Asia

HANOI, Vietnam – A Vietnamese appeals court upheld the sentences of four dissidents who were sentenced in 2007 for “spreading distorted information to undermine the state.” Judge Nguyen Xuan Phat of the Supreme Court of Appeals in Ho Chi Minh City refused to reduce the sentences of Tran Thi Le Hong, Phung Quang Quyen, Doan Van Dien, and his son Doan Huy Chuong. According to Ho Thi Thuong, wife of Doan Vien Dien and mother of Doan Huy Chuong, the court refused because in giving interviews with Radio Free Asia, the four committing very serious crimes because they had defamed the government and many people had listened. The four have jail terms ranging from 18 months to 4 ½ years.  Read more...

By Kristy Tridhavee
Impunity Watch Senior Desk Officer, Asia

HANOI, Vietnam – A Vietnamese appeals court upheld the sentences of four dissidents who were sentenced in 2007 for “spreading distorted information to undermine the state.” Judge Nguyen Xuan Phat of the Supreme Court of Appeals in Ho Chi Minh City refused to reduce the sentences of Tran Thi Le Hong, Phung Quang Quyen, Doan Van Dien, and his son Doan Huy Chuong. According to Ho Thi Thuong, wife of Doan Vien Dien and mother of Doan Huy Chuong, the court refused because in giving interviews with Radio Free Asia, the four committing very serious crimes because they had defamed the government and many people had listened. The four have jail terms ranging from 18 months to 4 ½ years.  Read more...

By:  M. Brandon Maggiore
Impunity Watch Senior Desk Officer, Africa

YAOUNDE, Cameroon – At least 17 people have been killed in protests in Cameroon in which youths are fighting with police. The opposition says the unrest is due to the rising costs of fuel and food while the president of Cameroon, Paul Biya, accused his political rivals of creating the unrest in order to depose him. The violence started as a nationwide transport strike because of fuel costs and turned into anti-government demonstrations. Preisdent Biya has been in power for twenty-five years and has suggested amending the constitution of Cameroon so that he can run for president again in 2011, another source of anger amongst the protesters.  Read more...

By Ben Turner
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

LONDON, England – In a new report, Amnesty International claims that Iran continues to harass activists working to promote women’s rights.

Kurdish Iranian activists Ronak Safarzadeh and Hana Abdi are currently detained without charge or trial and denied access to a lawyer.

According to the report, the two activists were arrested in October and November 2007 for peacefully exercising their rights.  Both were working for the Campaign for Equality, an Iranian women’s rights initiative launched in 2006.  Read more...

NAIROBI, Kenya – The lawyers for Rwanda’s leader Paul Kagame are demanding the suspension of the trial and investigation against Kagame. President Kagame and his Tutsi rebels are credited with halting the 1994 genocide that killed some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus within 100 days.

Judges in France and Spain has called for the prosecution of Kagame and 40 of his associates for the killing of thousands of civilians including nine Spaniards. In November 2006, a Paris anti-terrorist judge issued a summons for Kagame to stand trial for the murder of his predecessor, Juvenal Habyarimana, whose death instigated the genocide. Kagame has denied the claims.  Read more...

By Ariel Lin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BEIJING, China – China said it would resume a human rights dialogue with the United States after a five-year halt, taking a step to prevent rights advocates from boycotting Beijing’s Olympic Games in August.

After a close talk with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi made the announcement that Chinese government is willing to resume the human rights dialogue.  He said that the Chinese people enjoy the full extent of human rights and religious freedom, and are willing to exchange and interact with the United States and other countries on human rights on a basis of mutual respect, equality and noninterference in internal affairs.  Read more...

NAIROBI, Kenya – Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and rival Raila Odinga, the leader of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), have signed an agreement that will create a new coalition government.The agreement comes after more than one month of negotiations brokered by Kofi Anan. The agreement, which is expected to be released later today, will detail the plans for the sharing of power between members of the current government and opposition leaders.

For more information, please see:

BBC News – Kenya rivals agree to share power – 28 February 2008

Impunity Watch – Update: Anan Calls for Break in Kenyan Negotiations – 26 February 2008

By Laura Zuber
Impunity Watch Senior Desk Officer, Middle East

BAGHDAD, Iraq – On February 29, Iraqi officials announced that its presidential council approved the execution of “Chemical Ali”, whose real name is Ali Hassan al-Majid.  In June 2007, an Iraqi court convicted Majid of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity for his role in the Alfal campaign against the Kurds in 1988.

In 1988, Majid was the commander of Iraqi forces in northern Iraq and following the cease-fire ending the Iran-Iraq war, he ordered the use of chemical weapons against the Kurds.  Alfal, meaning “spoils of war” was a campaign that targeted Iraq’s Kurdish population, who supported Iran during the war.  During Majid’s trial, the court heard that as many as 182,000 died in attacks that he oversaw.  Read more...

By Laura Zuber
Impunity Watch Senior Desk Officer, Middle East

CAIRO, Egypt – On February 26, an Egyptian court delayed delivering the verdict for a case involving 40 members of the Muslim Brotherhood.  The court postponed the verdict until March 25, one week after the nominations for the upcoming local elections.  According to the brotherhood, the court’s delay was politically motivated.

The municipal elections were scheduled for April 2006 but were postponed after members of the Muslim Brotherhood won 20 percent of the seats in the parliamentary elections in 2005.  It is speculated that group will win a landslide victory if its leaders are allowed to participate in the local elections scheduled for April 8.  Read more...