Ukranian President Yanukovich Links Political Rival to Murder Charge

Ukranian President Yanukovich Links Political Rival to Murder Charge

By Pearl Rimon
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

KIEV, Ukraine — Viktor Yanukovich, the President of Ukraine has linked political rival Yulia Tymoshenko to a 16 year old murder. Tymoshenko, the former Prime Minister, has been imprisoned since October for alleged abuse of office charges.

Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko is serving a seven-year prison sentence. (Photo Courtesy of UPI Photo)

Tymoshenko was convicted on charges alleging that she abused her authority  in 2009 in a natural gas deal with Gazprom, a Russian energy company.  Her appeal for this conviction is scheduled for June 26. She also faces a separate charge for tax evasion and embezzlement for June 25.

Yanukovich’s latest accusations add on to the current scrutiny he is under by other European officials. Western European governments have chosen to boycott the 2012 Eurocup soccer matches, which are being jointly hosted by Poland and Ukraine.  Tymoshenko’s conviction is claimed to be politically motivated by other European officials, which is why they have boycotted the matches.

Stefan Fule, European commissioner for enlargement believes that the charges and conviction are due to acts of selective justice, “They were not conducted according to international standards.  There was no impartiality of judges and there was no equality of arms between prosecution and defense.”

The latest accusation against Tymoshenko by Yanukovich links her to the 16 year old contract killing case of Yevhen Shcherban. Shcherban was attacked in a hail of bullets as he left a plane in Donetsk, Ukraine. The attack also took the lives of his and several bystanders.

Current Prime Minister Mykola Azarov supports Yanukovich’s accusation. After Shcherban’s death, Unified Energy Systems of Ukraine, headed by Tymoshenko, made large profits in the local market.  “So this person (Tymoshenko) is very controversial and those who want to make a symbol of a fighter for democracy out of her must first get to grips with the facts,” Azarov told Reuters in an interview.

Olexander Tymoshenko, Tymoshenko’s husband, has public accused Yanukovich for using the government to carry out a personal vendetta against his wife. “This is a new step in the evolution of dictatorship … You, Yanukovich, and your followers have delivered the verdict to the leader of unified opposition.”, said Tymoshenko.

Yulia Tymoshenko lead the 2004 Orange Revolution which halted Yaunkovich’s first attempt at for the presidency. After losing the 2010 presidential election to Yanukovich, she and numerous opposition leaders faced charges for corruption.

For further information, please see:

Chicago Tribune — Tymoshenko’s husband cries foul over murder charge – 14 June 2012

United Press International — EU has eye on Tymoshenko case –14 June 2012

Chicago Tribune — Ukraine leader stirs Tymoshenko row with murder charge –13 June 2012

 

 

Ex-Ivory Coast President May Get Thirty Years for Crimes Against Humanity

By Tara Pistorese
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

YAMOUSSOUKRO, Cote D’ivoire—Ex-Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo faces four counts of crimes against humanity for murder, rape, and inhumane acts that occurred after the 2010 South African presidential elections.

Ivory Coast Refugees Forced to Flee Amidst Post-Election Violence Mourn the Death of a Relative. (Photo Courtesty of AlertNet)

After polls declared internationally accepted candidate Alassane Outtara the new president, Gbagbo refused to step out of office, sparking the beginning of a violent four-month standoff between supporters of the two candidates.

During the post-election period from December 2010 to April 2011, approximately 3,000 people were killed and 1 million were displaced. However, human rights groups have said that both sides committed crimes during this period of violence.

Gbagbo was arrested in April 2011 after being captured by French Special Forces. He was removed to The Hague in November of the same year.

According to a statement issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC), “Mr. Gbagbo allegedly bears individual criminal responsibility, as indirect co-perpetrator, for four counts of crimes against humanity.”

Gbagbo, however, says he is innocent of any offenses committed by forces loyal to him.

Recently, related allegations surfaced that Gbagbo supporters made unsuccessful attempts to stage a coup d’état earlier this year. While Lida Kouassi, South Africa’s previous defense minister, admitted during questioning to possessing information about the coup plot, others claim the allegations were concocted for political gain.

“There is no real evidence of such a coup…this regime is such a mess, due to [President Outtara’s] way of ruling the country, that they think the best way to get out of this situation is to find somebody…and to charge him with trying to make a coup,” said Popular Front Party treasurer Tcheide Jean Gervais.

An ICC hearing to determine whether the evidence against Gbagbo is sufficient to proceed to trial was scheduled for June 18. But, the former ICC chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, claims the evidence against Gbagbo is “solid” and believes Gbagbo could receive up to thirty years in prison.

This determination will have to wait as Gbagbo’s defense team was granted postponement until August 13 to allow more time to prepare an executive defense and so that Gbagbo may recover from alleged bad treatment he received while in Ivory Coast detention.

Some have also entertained the possibility that the ICC prosecutor and President Outtara may strike a deal regarding Gbagbo’s trial. At this point, however, President Outtara wants to obtain additional information on the matter.

 

For further information, please see:

Mgemi Online—Ivory Coast Coup Plot ‘Foiled’—14 June 2012

Voice of Africa—Ivory Coast Official Denies Coup Allegations—14 June 2012

CNN-US—War Crimes Court Postpones Gbagbo Hearing to August—13 June 2012

RTT News—ICC Postpones Gbagbo’s Charges Confirmation Hearing—13 June 2012

Reuters—Former Ivory Coast Leader’s Trial Postponed—12 June 2012

All Africa—Cote d’Ivoire: ICC Chief Prosecutor’s Statement Ahead of Laurent Gbagbo’s Hearing Sparks Controversy—4 June 2012

Syrian Revolution Digest – Friday 15 June 2012

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

*WARNING VIDEOS MAY CONTAIN GRAPHIC IMAGES*

Hedging Bets!

I wouldn’t ask for intervention had it not been a reality of our lives already, had Russia, China, Iran, Iraq, Belarus and Venezuela not chosen to intervene from the onset in our affairs, siding with the Assads, arming them to the teeth, helping circumvent sanctions, shielding them from accountability. Things need to be made equal. We need to be given a fighting chance. Assad is conducting a war of attrition against the rebels, while carving out his own personal fiefdom, hedging his bets. We only have one bet: staying the course, come what may.

Friday June 15, 2012

Death tolls: 48. The Breakdown: 14 in Damascus City and Suburbs (most in Douma), 9 in Homs, 10 in Daraa, 6 in Deir Ezzor, 6 in Aleppo, 2 in Idlib, and in Raqqah.

News

Mr. Isaykin, a powerful figure in Russia’s military industry, openly discussed the weapons being shipped to Syria: the Pantsyr-S1, a radar-guided missile and artillery system capable of hitting warplanes at altitudes well above those typically flown during bombing sorties, and up to 12 miles away; Buk-M2 antiaircraft missiles, capable of striking airplanes at even higher altitudes, up to 82,000 feet, and at longer ranges; and land-based Bastion antiship missiles that can fire at targets 180 miles from the coast.

My comment: I guess Assad will have to make do with Russian caviar just he is doing with Russian tanks.

Op-Eds & Special Reports

Syria: Sexual Assault in Detention Security Forces Also Attacked Women and Girls in Raids on Homes.

Syria: Shabiha Militia Member Tells It Like It Is An active member of Syria’s feared shabiha militia says he is in a “win or die” fight for his president (and a little bit of cash).

Houla Again

Germany’s FAZ, its main source, Mother Agnes, and John Rosenthal from the National Review Online are sticking to their story that the Houla Massacre was perpetrated by jihadists against Alawite inhabitants. But neither FAZ, nor Mother Agnes nor Rosenthal offer any new proof to back their claims. They simply stick to their story that unidentified sources from the opposition and inhabitants from the village of Kafar Laha were behind the revelation.

Bear in mind here that even the Assad regime does not make or endorse this claim. Bear in mind as well that no one tried to explain why and how Sunni rebels were allowed to bury the bodies of their alleged Alawite victims in open daylight in shallow mass graves while documenting the entire event via YouTube, and while pro-Assad checkpoints were all over the place. Moreover, we have not heard any similar assertions from any of the Alawite communities in the area despite the regime’s access to them.

So, why is it that we can always provide videos and often eyewitnesses to back our stories, while the regime and its supporters, and whoever choose to believe them, for whatever reason, have only their assertions and their unidentified and unidentifiable sources? They certainly have more resources than we do to document their “suffering.” And locals who are sympathetic to the regime have cameras and smartphones as well, and open access to the Internet. How come, then, we are always left having to take their words and only their words for it?

Pointing out that an eyewitness said that people with long beards and shaved heads were the ones who committed this massacre is evidence of nothing in itself: because this is how many Shabbiha members (pro-Assad militias) look like.

Telling us that 80,000 Christians were forced to leave Homs City, well, so did 500,000 Sunnis. The question is why? Mother Agnes and the regime, and she is an unabashed supporter of the regime of course, want us to believe that this is the work of Sunni extremists and Jihadi elements. The evidence we have, not only the videos and testimonies offered by local activists, but those offered by foreign journalist as well, suggest that the intensive indiscriminate pounding of residential neighborhoods by pro-Assad troops and militias did in fact pave the way to this.

Who do you want to believe? Your eyes? Your people? Or the assertions of killers and their supporters? Don’t tell me Mother Agnes is a nun, I know nuns can be wonderful, Sisters Danielle and Jordanie, the nuns from the private school I briefly attended in Lebanon in my childhood, definitely were: cruel but wonderful. On the other hand, I know enough history and watch enough news to know that the habit and the cloth are not shields against prejudice and avarice. So, nun or not, the good old mother needs to offer proof other than her say so to back her stories, and it better be damn convincing. Because knowing Mother Agnes, and yes, I do know Mother Agnes, I know very well that she is no Mother Teresa, or an Angel or Mercy, or a good preacher or practitioner of Christian love.

But to each his source.

Press Release: EU Foreign Policy Chief Wants Russian Authorities to End the Posthumous Prosecution of Sergei Magnitsky

14 June 2012 – In a strongly-worded statement, EU foreign policy chief has demanded that Russian authorities cease the posthumous prosecution of late Russian whistle-blowing lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. Responding to concerns over the case raised by Polish MEP, Marek Migalski, Baroness Catherine Ashton, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, said:
 
“The posthumous prosecution of Sergey Magnitsky should be closed. The pressure exerted on Sergey Magnitsky’s mother and widow in this context is unacceptable.”
 
“The EU’s position remains that the comprehensive investigation into the death of Sergey Magnitsky has to be brought to conclusion as soon as possible, bringing all perpetrators to justice,” added EU High Representative Catherine Ashton.
 
However, Baroness Ashton stopped short of addressing the pressing issue of enacting EU-wide visa and economic sanctions on the Russian officials involved in the torture and murder of Mr Magnitsky and the $230 million corruption he uncovered in the heart of the Russian government.
 
“Ms Ashton’s personal efforts of raising the Magnitsky case with Russian leaders at every opportunity are well intended and honourable. However, at this stage, actions, not words are needed to make any difference for the sake of Mr Magnitsky’s family and thousands of other victims of abuse and repression in Russia. The Russian people are looking upon the EU for targeted naming and shaming of those officials who have murdered their citizen and stole $230 million of their funds,” said a Hermitage Capital representative.
 
The enactment of visa and economic sanctions on Russian officials in the Magnitsky case was the subject of three resolutions by the European Parliament – in December 2010, December 2011, and February 2012. On 27 February 2012, in addition, the European Union’s parliamentary delegation to the EU-Russia Cooperation Committee unanimously called upon Baroness Ashton and other EU leaders to implement EU-wide visa bans and asset freezes without any further delay. The resolutions were sparked by the impunity of Russian officials two and a half years since Mr Magnitsky’s murder and the pressure by Russian authorities on the Magnitsky family to intimidate them into ceasing their calls for justice.
 
Last week, the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs unanimously voted for the Magnitsky bill that gives the status of law to the visa bans already in place on the Russian officials in the Magnitsky case, and adds a requirement on the U.S. Treasury to freeze the assets of these officials in the U.S.
 
Last month, former Belgian Prime Minister Mr Guy Verhofstadt called upon EU leadership to end the policy of “polite appeasement” of the Russian regime for the sake of democracy and change in Russia and enact Magnitsky sanctions.
 
The EU leadership’s inaction on the Magnitsky sanctions was called “betrayal” by a prominent civil society activist. Zoya Svetova, a journalist with independent New Times magazine and member of the independent prison watchdog, which investigated the circumstances of Magnitsky’s detention and death in custody, and concluded that he had been tortured, said:
 
“I don’t understand why the European national parliaments are taking so long with the adoption of sanctions on Russian officials included on the Magnitsky list. I don’t understand why the European parliament is adopting more and more formidable resolutions stating that Moscow must investigate the murder of Magnitsky, when it has been plain clear for a very long time that nobody is planning to investigate it… It is high time for the West to remind our authorities of their obligations under the “third basket” of the OSCE – to respect human rights. Otherwise, you must admit that the behaviour of the West is not just pragmatism, and, although it may sound pompous, is simply betrayal.” (http://newtimes.ru/articles/detail/52543/)
 
“As public protests against the suppression of freedoms and electoral frauds are continuing on the streets of Moscow, and Russian authorities are clamping down on opposition leaders with police searches, summonses for questioning and criminal prosecutions, the argument for Magnitsky sanctions targeting human rights abusers in Russia is unassailable,” said a Hermitage Capital representative.
 
 
 

Syrian Revolution Digest – Wednesday 14 June 2012

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

*WARNING VIDEOS MAY CONTAIN GRAPHIC IMAGES*

The Revolutionary Imperative!

When people demonstrated peacefully, they were shot it by snipers and attacked with tanks, when they finally began fighting back, they were pounded by heavy artillery and helicopters, when armed fighters withdrew from towns and cities after they ran out of ammunition, pro-Assad militias went in and perpetrated massacres, and yet, and yet, somehow, the resistance continues, and the revolution spreads. With light weapons, and little help from outside, the Syrian popular resistance is taking on a criminal consortium that stretches from Russia and China to Iran, Iraq and Lebanon. Add in Venezuela and Belarus for good measure. We don’t plan on being defeated, and we’re no longer waiting for help. While geopolitical imperatives continue to trump the oral ones in policy circles around the world, the only thing that counts for us is staying the course, bitter be the end or sweet. Backing down is a breaking of our spirit, something we cannot live with anymore. We’ve been there, we’ve done that, and it didn’t feel right. So we rebelled. And that’s that.

Thursday June 14, 2012

Death tolls: 78. The Breakdown: 28 in Damascus, 19 in Homs, 13 in Daraa, 5 in Lattakia, 4 in Deir Ezzor, 2 in each of Aleppo, Idlib, Hama and Hassakeh, and 1 in Raqqah.

9 of the dead in Damascus were executed in the town of Hammourieh by pro-Assad militias. Some were shot, others had their throats slit http://youtu.be/sneRJRxdkPM ,http://youtu.be/eZPRDvD4aig , http://youtu.be/ZW1AbTgeR5s ,http://youtu.be/UM3bi9kY-RQ

The town of Anadan in Aleppo is undergoing intense poundinghttp://youtu.be/dsHNK_9YKn0 , http://youtu.be/fnlrPGoHv-k Pro-Assad militias put fire to the crops http://youtu.be/f_VcAjXGvZU

In Daraa Province, 5 were killed in the pounding the town of Heet and many were injured in the pounding of the town of Nasseef near the border with Jordan. The Martyrs of Heethttp://youtu.be/ira5mlvT95E , http://youtu.be/hEv8C5YyolU Impromptu funeralhttp://youtu.be/-ERpc5D-DBU

Meanwhile, Jordanian authorities continue to deny entry through its airport to Syrians trying to get to Amman. Refugees in Jordanian camps complain of restrictions on their movement, and of poor living conditions.

News

‘Stench of dead bodies’ in Syria’s al Haffe (My Comment: No bodies were found, because they were all taken by pro-Assad militias to hid traces of their crime. We will not know the full extent of the massacre that took place for a while to come.)

The overnight barrage from nearby hills followed the withdrawal of hundreds of troops backed by tanks that had entered the city on Wednesday to root out rebels, the sources said. About 200 people were wounded in the shelling, they said.

Op-Eds & Special Reports

The creation of safe havens will save civilian lives and reduce the influence of Islamists in the Syrian opposition. It will show the Syrian elite that the Assad regime is finished. And it will end Putin’s perverse free ride.

Syrian opposition activists tell me that the Russian Embassy in Washington has scheduled several meetings with different factions of the external opposition. “The Russians offer power-sharing with Assad,” says a leading Syrian human-rights and pro-democracy activist, Ammar Abdulhamid. “They want to push the opposition to talk to the regime.” Abdulhamid said Russian Embassy officials “told opposition activists: ‘The Americans won’t help you. You had better come to us.’ “Syrian activists regard the Russian proposals as a mere face-saver for Assad. Indeed, the Kremlin firmly believes the Assad regime can survive the current upheavals.

Syrian oppositionist Ammar Abdul- Hamid and the Christian Science Monitor newspaper, for example, first detailed the use of attack helicopters against civilian protesters in Syria on June 15, 2011.

In Syria, life goes on despite violence (A report on daily life in Al-Qusayr, Homs Province)

Sign this petition by Amnesty International: “Stop the Assault on Syria’s Civilians”

Videos from my participation at “From glasnost to the Arab Spring: the moral foundation of anti-authoritarian revolutions,” an 1-day conference organized by the American Enterprise Institute, on June 13, 2012 Unity of Expectations http://bcove.me/wh9zrderDeath but not Humiliation http://bcove.me/hixtkf0p Entire Panelhttp://bcove.me/hixtkf0p

Statement from the People of Houla

We write this letter in the name of the residents of the four cities of Houla (Taldo, Kafarlaha, Taldahab, al-Tiba al-Gharbiya), in response to a disgusting slur published in the weekend in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung German newspaper, which shamefully presented lies as facts in the report written by reporter Rainer Hermann and published on June 7, 2012. The report cast the 108 people who died here at the hands of the regime as conspirators instead of victims.  In almost four weeks since this dreadful act of savagery was brought to our village, we have been contacted by numerous reporters from many countries, all of whom have been in search of the truth. None of us recall being contacted by a German or non-German reporter that works for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. We most certainly have not been contacted by Rainer Hermann or any representative of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

The least that can be said about the claims of the newspaper that the families killed were Alawite and that the FSA is responsible for the massacre, is that they are ridiculous. Everyone who is involved with the Syrian issue knows that the four cities of Houla are exclusively Sunni, and all the families who lost members to this slaughter are identifiably Sunni.

To anyone foolish enough to doubt this we invite you to look at the Sunni burial rituals, which are there for all to see on videos posted on YouTube.

The FSA is an essential part of Houla. They are our brothers, fathers, uncles and sons. Any reporter suggesting that they are in fact the villains in this plot are woefully blind or lying.

To conclude we say without reservation that this reporter spoke to no one from Houla before compiling his disgusting report from Damascus. If he has spoken to anyone at all it is stooges put up by the regime in an attempt to deceive. Despite the renewed anguish that this reporter has caused our community and the shame he has brought to himself and his newspaper, we invite him to come to our village to interview survivors and meet the community he has defamed. We guarantee him protection from justifiably angry residents here but wonder whether he first has the courage to slip from the grip of his masters in Damascus.

Video Highlights

It should be borne in mind that the peaceful pro-democracy rallies continue throughout the country, despite my inability to keep reporting them.

Deir Ezzor City: funeral http://youtu.be/wmvcgtFg6sE

Aleppo City: Boustan Al-Qasr http://youtu.be/4LSgb0xI4_Y Sukkarihttp://youtu.be/AKICZpCAH90

Aleppo: Manbij http://youtu.be/-5Td_gkYSKc Protesters come under firehttp://youtu.be/zzeeoc6QqaM

Daraa: Daraa City (funeral) http://youtu.be/qPQPDjhLL0o

Homs City: Wa’er (funeral) http://youtu.be/hdQfrGqp6PM