Russian Judge Who Imprisoned Neo-Nazis Killed

Russian Judge Who Imprisoned Neo-Nazis Killed

By David Sophrin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

MOSCOW, Russia – A Russian judge who had earlier this year sentenced a number of ultra-nationalist leaders for murder and hate crimes was fatally shot today in Moscow.

Eduard Chuvashov, a Moscow City Circuit judge, was killed in what is believed to be a contracted killing in a stairway in the apartment building.  According to initial police reports, the assailant used a gun equipped with a silencer and collected the spent bullet shells.  Chuvashov was shot once both in his chest and head.

It is believed that the growing neo-Nazi and ultra-nationalist movement is responsible for this killing.  In recent weeks, many of these nationalist groups called for Chuvashov’s death on their websites.

Just last week Chuvashov had sentenced two members of the Ryno Gang to significant prison terms for their role in killing twenty migrant workers.  This past February, Chuvashov oversaw the trial of nine members of a organized gang known as the White Wolves, who had also attacked and killed eleven similar victims from central Asian countries.

In response to the killing, Russian President Dimitry Medvedev declared that “everything will be done so that the organizers and perpetrators of this cynical murder be found and punished.”

In recent years Russia has experienced a significant rise in violent acts perpetrated by neo-Nazi and far-right ultra-nationalist groups.  Approximately 60 people were killed and 306 injured in hate crimes last year, according to a Russian hate-crimes watchdog group.  Last year one of the lawyers who helped bring the White Wolves defendants to trial was killed in Moscow.

Chuvashov’s killing has raised questions about whether Russia’s ultra-nationalist groups are targeting political and legal leaders who attempt to punish them for their attacks on migrants. “[Cheuvashov’s death] could be retribution from far-right groups” stated Allison Gill of Human Rights Watch.

For more information, please see:

AP – Moscow judge who sentenced neo-Nazis shot to death – 12 April, 2010

DEUTSCHE WELLE – Russian judge murdered in Moscow – 12 April, 2010

TELEGRAPH – Russian judge gunned down in ‘neo-Nazi’ revenge killing – 12 April, 2010

REUTERS – Moscow judge who sentenced neo-fascists shot dead – 12 April, 2010

RT – Russian judge killed in Moscow, police cite race hate motives – 12 April, 2010

Yemeni Cleric’s Family Offers Deal

By Ahmad Shihadah
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

SA’NA, Yemen – The father of Anwar al-Awlaki, a Yemeni religious scholar who has reportedly been added to a US hit list, says his son will halt his anti-US messages if Washington removes him from the list.

Al-Awlaki, accused by the US of having links to al-Qaeda’s Yemeni offshoot, was added to the CIA’s list of targets to be killed or captured for directly plotting against the US, a US intelligence official said last week

U.S. officials said on Tuesday that the administration of President Barack Obama had authorized operations to capture or kill U.S.-born  al-Awlaki – a leading figure linked to al Qaeda’s Yemen-based regional wing which claimed responsibility for a failed bombing of a U.S.-bound plane in December.

But Yemeni authorities said on Saturday that they had not received any evidence from the US to support allegations that the US-born al-Awlaki is recruiting for an al-Qaeda offshoot in Yemen. “Anwar al-Awlaki has always been looked at as a preacher rather than a terrorist and shouldn’t be considered as a terrorist unless the Americans have evidence that he has been involved in terrorism,” Abu Bakr al-Qirbi, the Yemeni foreign minister, said.

Awlaki’s tribe has denounced U.S. plans to target him, vowing it “will not stand by idly and watch.”

Heavily armed tribes in Yemen, the poorest Arab country, often try to protect their kin by seeking to gain their release or favorable treatment. At times, they have kidnapped foreign tourists to pressure the government.

Yemen is beset by serious political and administrative problems. In addition to the conflict with the regional branch of al-Qaeda, Yemen’s weak central government has struggled to contain separatists in the south and Houthi fighters in the north.

The government and the Houthis reached a ceasefire agreement in February. But the separatist problems in the south show no sign of a resolution.

For more information, please see;

Al-Jazeera – Yemen’s Awlaki Family Offers Deal – 12 April 2010

Washington Post – Yemen Says Seeks Cleric, Yet To Get U.S. Intelligence – 12 April 2010

Saba Net – Al-Awlaki is Required To Surrender To The Yemeni Authorities; Top Yemen Official – 12 April 2010

Anti-Roma, Anti-Semitic Party Gains Significant Ground in Hungarian Elections

  

The Magyar Garda
At a Jobbik rally, members of the paramilitary Magyar Garda watch over party supporters. / Source: The Telegraph, Aaron Taylor

By Elizabeth A. Conger
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

BUDAPEST, Hungary – Jobbik, a far-right party which has openly expressed anti-Semitic and anti-Roma rhetoric, achieved a breakthrough in Hungarian elections, entering Parliament for the first time and finishing third in national polls. The center-right party, Fidesz, won fifty-two-percent of the vote, and the incumbent Socialist party only received nineteen percent of votes. Jobbik, with seventeen percent of the vote, acquired twenty six seats in the Hungarian Parliament

Hungary’s largest Jewish organization, the Association of Hungarian Jewish Religious Communities, warned that the political gains by Jobbik mark “the first occasion that a movement pursuing openly anti-Semitic policies” has taken steps to power since the Nazi era.

A recent copy of the Jobbik party’s weekly newspaper shows a statue of the Hungarian saint, Saint Gellert, holding a menorah instead of a cross. The picture’s caption reads: “Is this what you want?”

The rise of Jobbik, which is allied with the right-wing British National Party, coincides with a surge of racism, xenophobia and anti-Semitism in Hungary, and parallels the rise of far-right parties across Europe.

Jobbik has close links with a banned  paramilitary wing organization, Magyar Garda. Magyar Garda, which has an insignia modelled on the Arrow Cross used by Hungarian Nazis during the Second World War, have staged a series of marches against “gypsy crime” in towns and villages throughout Hungary where the largest Roma communities are located. The rise of the Magyar Garda has coincided with a series of attacks on Roma villages in 2008 and 2009 which claimed six lives.

Laszlo Molnar, a member of the Magyar Garda, said: “Actually, I am a racist . . . So what? Why do I have to like those who are in fact my enemies?”

Gabor Vona, the thirty-one year old leader of Jobbik, has vowed to be sworn in as an MP while wearing the banned uniform of the Magyar Garda. He said: “I will keep my promise to go into parliament on the first day in a Garda vest.”

According to analysts, the Socialist Party, which has dominated Hungarian politics for the past eight years, allowed large parts of eastern Hungary to become an economic wasteland, and allowed the situation of the Roma to further deteriorate, which has inflamed social tensions. Hungary was only able to avoid financial meltdown at the end of 2008 through a twenty billion euro bailout from the IMF, the World Bank, and other institutions.

Gergely Böszörményi NagyGergely Borszomeny-Nagy of the the Perspective Institute, a think tank, said: “This is a supposedly leftist Government but over the past eight years the gap between rich and poor has drastically widened.”

Unemployment in Hungary is currently at eleven percent and  inflation is at six percent. 

As the economic crisis in Hungary deepens, the Roma people have increasingly been targeted as scapegoats. George Soros, the Hungarian-born financier and philanthropist said:  “There is no question that the crisis that hits people unexpectedly . . . gets them angry and they want to take it out on someone.”

Jobbik has drawn much of its support from young Hungarians, and is especially strong in the nation’s universities. Many young people who have been unable to find work have taken refuge in nationalist politics, which blame outsiders for the nation’s economic problems. 

Tamas Vardai, a university student in Budapest said: “Jobbik is the only party that can put this country in order.”

For more information, please see:

euronews – Hungary’s far right secures seats in parliament – 12 April 2010

Times Online – Far-right party Jobbik makes breakthrough in Hungarian elections – 12 April 2010

Telegraph – Hungary elections: first step to power for far-Right since Nazi era – 11 April 2010

Refugee Hunter Arrested in South Korea for Spying

By M.E. Dodge
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

SEOUL, South Korea – A South Korean man was recently arrested in Seoul, for allegedly ‘hunting’ North Korean refugees hiding in China and sending them back to North Korea. According to numerous news sources, Kim, the man identified as the refugee hunter, is also accused of spying on the South’s military and on people aiding refugees.

Map Map of South Korea. Image courtesy of BBC World News.

Kim, age 55, was recruited by North Korea during an illegal visit to China in the late 1990s. According to Yonhap news agency, he received espionage training in Pyongyang in 2000 before being sent to China as an agent to locate defectors. One news source reported that Kim went to Pyongyang not only for spy training, but also to get $10,000 and 4.4 pounds (2 kilograms) of narcotics from the North. 

Kim allegedly was involved in finding some of the tens of thousands of North Koreans believed to be in China after fleeing to escape hardship or persecution at home. Human rights activists claim that North Korean individuals captured in China and sent back face severe punishment or even execution.

An undisclosed number of South Korean activists and missionaries also secretly operate in China to smuggle North Koreans from their homeland and shelter and feed defectors before they take refuge in South Korea, the U.S. and elsewhere in the world. However, it is believed that almost 18,000 North Koreans have arrived in South Korea since the 1950-1953 war.

Kim was arrested after returning to North Korea on a flight from China. Officials commented that Kim’s case was being investigated to see whether he had any further accomplices engaged in spying. Seoul prosecution spokesman Oh Se-in made a statement to AP news agency that Kim had denied all charges brought against him. Oh went on to say that Kim was charged with violating South Korea’s National Security Law, which prohibits nationals from engaging in activities which could benefit Pyongyang or having unauthorized contact with North Koreans.

It is unclear what Kim’s sentence will be if convicted. His case could theoretically lead to a death sentence. The South’s anti-communist National Security Law bans citizens from contacting North Koreans without government approval and punishes activities benefiting the North. Any violation of the law is subject to a maximum penalty of death, although Seoul has imposed an unofficial moratorium on hangings since 1997.

For more information, please see:

The Washington Post – Prosecutors arrest SKorean for spying for NKorea – 12 April 2010

BBC World News – Seoul detains ‘North Korean refugee hunter’ – 12 April 2010

C News – South Korean man accused of spying for North – 12 April 2010 

115 Haitians Arrested at U.S.-Canadian Border

By William Miller

Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

QUEBEC, Canada – United States Border Patrol has arrested at least 115 people of Haitian descent this year trying to cross the border illegally from Quebec, Canada to Vermont, United States. Authorities say that this record increase coincides with the earthquake in Haiti on January 12.

Several reasons have been cited for the spike in illegal immigration. Many have family in the U.S. and are attempting to reunite with them. Others are looking to make more money working in the U.S. to send to family still in Haiti.

Many of the illegal immigrants falsely believe that a temporary ban in the U.S. on deportations to Haiti will protect them. The ban, however, only applies to those who were already in the U.S. when the January 12 earthquake struck.

Almost all of the Haitians originally entered the U.S. and were ordered deported. Instead, many of them went to Canada in an attempt to take advantage of their refugee program. They attempted to re-enter the United States after the ban was passed thinking it would protect them from deportation. Many of those caught trying to re-enter the U.S. had already filed for refugee status in Canada.

Authorities believe that there may be an underground network of human traffickers assisting the Haitians attempting to enter the United States. This organized ring may be contributing to the rumors that the eighteen-month ban on deportation to Haiti will apply to those entering the country now.

Most of the Haitians caught were attempting to cross at night at unguarded boarder areas and were headed to New York and Miami where there are large populations of Haitians.

The U.S. Attorney will prosecute at least thirty-five of the Haitians for re-entering the country with an outstanding deportation order. The illegal aliens could face up to two years in prison if found guilty.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office has discretion in deciding to prosecute those entering the country illegally. They have already said that they cannot ignore such a large influx of immigrants. “Having this scale of individuals from one nationality [Haitian] over a short period of time is unusual. It’s an issue that requires us to respond with a significant message of deterrence. We have laws against illegal immigration,” Tristram Coffin, the U.S. Attorney for Vermont, said from Burlington on Monday.

For more information, please see:

CBC – Illegal Haitians Caught at U.S. Border – 6 April 2010

Globe and Mail – Haitian Illegally Travelling to U.S. Looking for Asylum get Jail Time – 5 April 2010

Digital Journal – Vermont a Hotspot for Haitians Sneaking into U.S. – 4 April 2010