Journalist Murdered in Colombia

Journalist Murdered in Colombia

By Sovereign Hager
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

BOGOTA, Colombia-Clodomiro Castilla, a Colombian magazine editor and radio reporter was shot dead at his home in the city of Monteria. An unidentified gunman reportedly shot Castilla eight times before being picked up by another man on a motorcycle.

CPJ spoke with a local journalist who stated that Castilla had been receiving threats for four years for disclosures of links between local politicians, landowners, and illegal right-wing paramilitary groups. Castilla declined government protection. However, Castilla was under protection for threats from 2006-2009.

An anonymous journalist told CPJ that just before his death, Castilla was reporting on the participation of a local landowner in the murder of a local lawyer, corruption in local government agencies, and links between paramilitaries and local government officials. The Colombian National Police have not yet discussed possible motives.

A new report published by the United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on “The Safety of Journalists and the Risk of Impunity”  highlights acts of violence against journalists in Colombia. Four reporters were killed in the last four years according to the AFP. This is higher than Brazil, El Salvador, Ecuador, Guatemala, Venezuela, and Honduras.

The report found that the bulk of reporters killed world wide operate in outside of war zones are typically covering local stories on corruption, human rights abuses, and drug trafficking.

For more information, please see:

Colombia Reports-UN Report Highlights Journalist Murders in Colombia-24 March 2010

CPJ-Colombian Journalist Shot Dead by Unidentified Gunman-22 March 2010

Latin America News Dispatch-Journalist Killed by Gunman While Reading on his Terrace-20 March 2010

Washington Post-Colombian Journalist Shot and Killed-20 March 2010

Chinese Rights Lawyer Alive

By M.E. Dodge
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BEIJING, China – After being missing for over a year, any presumed dead by many, China’s well known rights lawyer, Gao Zhisheng, appears to be alive.

After defending members of China’s banned Falun Gong spiritual organization, and writing openly about China’s public leaders and their “brutal and illegal persecution of Falun Gong members,” Gao disappeared on February 4, 2009. He was abducted by an unknown group from a relative’s home in Shanxi province. At the time of Gao’s disappearance, his wife and children had already escaped from their home, and were en route to Bangkok where they applied for asylum in the United States.

Initially, Gao’s family had feared he was dead, after a cryptic comment from police that he had “lost his way and gone missing” in September. China’s government has been under international pressure to say where Gao Zhisheng is and whether he is alive and well. Despite repeated requests, Chinese authorities have provided little information about his fate.

Gao gave a telephone interview with Reuters and another dissident lawyer, and he stated that he was released about sixth months ago after his initial disappearance. He confirmed that he had survived difficult circumstances, and that he was living near Wutai mountain, a sacred Buddhist landmark in coal-rich Shanxi province.

Reuters reported that another human rights lawyer, Li Heping, who had a lot of contact with Gao before he was jailed, confirmed that he spoke with Gao, and that the voice was in fact his. Gao’s brother, Gao Zhiyi also claimed to have spoken to his brother on the telephone within the past three weeks and said:, “I know that he’s fine.” Gao Zhiyi said the conversation was brief, and his brother did not say where he was. He claimed to have had three or four such calls since Gao Zhisheng vanished.

Gao’s account of surviving the harsh conditions and torture imposed on him is in stark contrast with a recent public press conference given just one week ago. When asked about the whereabouts of Gao, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said, “Gao Zhisheng was sentenced for subverting state power. His personal rights have been protected according to Chinese law. There is no so-called torture upon him.”

Conflicting statements and murky accounts of the past year make it clear that there remains a large amount of uncertainty and mysteriousness about the events surrounding Gao Zhisheng disappearance and recent resurface.

For more information, please see:

Reuters – Well-known missing Chinese rights lawyer alive – 27 March 2010

The Associated Press – Missing lawyer says he is living in northern China – 27 March 2010

BBC World News – Missing Chinese lawyer Gao Zhisheng ‘is fine’ – brother – 17 March 2010

Russia Poised to Upgrade Prison System

By Kenneth F. Hunt
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

MOSCOW, Russia – In a long overdue effort to upgrade antiquated prisons, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev has ordered that career criminals be isolated from the general population of prisoners and placed in cell blocks instead than barracks.

Over 70 years ago, when Joseph Stalin ruled the USSR with an iron-fist, a penal system for prisoners was developed where inmates are arbitrarily separated into barracks with around 100 men regardless of the nature or severity of the crime committed.

Through today the vast majority of Russian prisoners are forced to live in these inhumane and over-crowded barracks or penal colonies often in remote areas in Siberia, no different from the prison camps instituted by Stalin in the 1930’s and 1940’s. Of Russia’s 862,000 prisoners, 724,000 today are housed in barracks.

President Medvedev, who went to law school, has ordered a gradual, three-stage plan to rid Russia of its barracks housing system. Ultimately, all 755 penal colonies will be abolished as a result of these reforms.

The first stage involves moving recidivists, the so-called “career” or “hardened” criminals, to separate colonies in order to isolate the general prison population. According to one press account, 64,000 of the 149,000 recidivist prisoners have already been transferred.

The second stage, which will not be complete until 2016, involves separating petty criminals from violent first-time offenders.

Finally, by 2020, the third stage will be completed when recidivists are moved into newly constructed prisons that have cell blocks.

All of these changes replace a system where prison wardens and guards used social groupings within the barracks to self-enforce order in the barracks.

Human rights groups praised the decision. The Deputy Director of the Center for Criminal Justice Reform, Lyudmila Alpern, expressed pleasure at getting rid of penal colonies where conflicts were “resolved through a crude hierarchy” and where prisoners lived like “male tribe[s]”.

For more information, please see:

THE CRIME REPORT – Russian Prison Upgrade to Take Career Criminals Out of Barracks – 24 March 2010

SCOTSMAN – Stalin’s Gulags facing reform – 24 March 2010

NEW YORK TIMES – Russia to Alter System of Penal Colonies – 22 March 2010

Japanese Man Exonerated After 17 Years

By Hyo-Jin Paik
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

TOKYO, Japan – After spending seventeen years in jail for murder of a four-year-old girl, a Japanese man who was serving a life sentence was acquitted at a re-trial.

Toshikazu Sugaya, a former kindergarten bus driver now in his 60’s, was placed behind bars back in 1991 for kidnap, sexual assault and murder.  Sugaya did confess to the murder, but the court found that the false confession was made under duress and that the DNA evidence found at the murder scene does not match that of Sugaya.

The judges bowed in apology to Sugaya and the presiding judge, Masanobu Sato, said, “As a judge, I sincerely apologi[z]e that the court failed to listen to Mr[.] Sugaya’s real voice, which resulted in depriving him of his freedom for 17 . . . years.”

Judge Sato added, “I strongly hope something like this will never happen again.”

Sugaya’s acquittal was only the sixth one in Japanese history since World War II where a defendant who was serving a life sentence was acquitted at a re-trial.

Japan has 99% conviction rate for criminal cases, and human rights activists have long been critical of Japanese authorities for relying on confessions instead of building cases based on solid evidence.  Rights group have pointed out that such practice by the Japanese authorities led to police extracting false confessions from suspects and convictions of innocent people.

In addition, activists have criticized Japan’s interrogation system where suspects can be detained for up to twenty-three days and be questioned without a lawyer present.

During the initial investigations, prosecutors in fact neglected to inform Sugaya that he can consult with a defense attorney and that he has the right to remain silent.

After Sugaya’s verdict, Japan’s Justice Minister Keiko Chiba did say that the government will into whether or not interrogations should be taped.

Chiba said, “It is necessary to systematically and legally review evidence examination while considering [the appropriateness of introducing] videotaping of the interrogation process.”

Sugaya left the court in tears and said, “I feel completely different today from yesterday.  I feel refreshed by the verdict of complete innocence.”

The four-year old girl’s real murder is still at large.
For more information, please see:

BBC – Reform call after Japanese man acquitted of murder – 26 March 2010

Gulf Times – Man cleared after 17 years in Japan jail – 26 March 2010

NYT – In Rare Reversal, Japan Clears Man Convicted of Murder – 26 March 2010

Execution of Prisoners in Belarus Triggers International Condemnation

By David Sophrin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

MINSK, Belarus – Belarus executed two prisoners earlier this week who had been sentenced to death this past year, continuing that nation’s distinction as the only remaining country in Europe to practice capital punishment.

Last year, Vasily Yuzepchuk, 30, had been convicted of murder and sentenced to death for the killings of six women.  Andrei Zhuk, 25, was convicted of armed robbery and murder.

Their executions marked the first uses of the death penalty by any European state in over a year.  The response by human rights activists and the European community was immediate.  By carrying out these executions, Belarus ignored a recent European Court of Human Rights ruling that ordered all signatory countries to cease the use of capital punishment.

Human rights watchdog Amnesty International condemned the executions, calling on Belarus to re-establish the stay on executions that it had previously had in place.  Halya Gowan, a regional leader of Amnesty International, stated that “the death penalty is the ultimate cruel and inhuman punishment.  It violates the right to life and should be abolished.”

The leaders of other European nations voiced similar concerns regarding Belarus’s decision to go forward with the executions.  A statement from a number of national parliaments declared that “the Belarussian authorities should be aware that their cannot be political dialogue without shared values.”

These executions may damage Belarus’s continued efforts to become better assimilated in the economic and political circles of 21st century Europe.  Despite its questionable human rights record, the former Soviet Republic, which continues to rely heavily on Russia for political and economic support, has attempted in recent years to improve relations with the rest of Europe and distance itself from the control of Moscow.  The Council of Europe had recently proposed to allow Belarus a ‘special state status’, which it lost in 1997, if in exchange it established a stay on its use of the death penalty.

For more information, please see:

EPOCH TIMES – Two Men Executed in Belarus, EU Death-Free Zone Ends – 26 March 2010

NAVINY.BY – Two convicts executed in Belarus – 26 March 2010

REUTERS – Belarus Execution Draws European Protests – 25 March 2010

AFP – Amnesty condemns Belarus executions – 23 March 2010

DEUTSCHE WORLD – Amnesty condemns execution of two prisoners in Belarus – 23 March 2010

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL – Belarus carries out two executions – 22 March 2010