DR Congo Man Receives 3-Year Sentence for Outspoken Comments

By: Danielle L. Gwozdz
Impunity Watch News Reporter, Africa 

KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo – A member of parliament, Muhindo Nzangi, was sentenced to 3-years in prison over comments he made on a radio program.  Nzangi’s comments revolved around a political debate about the M23 rebel group.

Protestors call for the release of Nzangi (photo courtesy of HRW)

Two days after speaking on the radio program, Nzangi was tried, convicted, and sentenced for endangering internal state security, revealing defense secrets, and insulting the president.

Because Nzangi was allegedly “caught in the act,” Nzangi was not protected by parliamentary immunity. His trial began immediately when he was flown to the capital, Kinshasa, and was denied the right to have adequate time to prepare a defense.

“A member of parliament was arrested, summarily tried and sent off to prison solely for expressing his views,” said Ida Sawyer, senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. “This sadly is just the latest attempt by government officials to use the courts to silence dissent.”

Nzangi participated in a 2 ½ hour debate on Radio Kivu 1. They discussed the crisis concerning the M23, a Rwanda-backed rebel group active in North Kivu, and also discussed the role of civil society.

Nzangi stated that the Congolese people should call on the government to end talks with M23 rebels in Uganda and continue military operations against them. Further, he urged people to direct their pressure toward Congolese President Joseph Kabila as well as United Nations peacekeeping mission in Congo, by holding “peaceful actions,” such as marches and sit-ins.

In addition, Nzangi acknowledged the risk of demonstrations turning violent, but called for advanced measures to be taken to prevent and control risk.

Once the radio program ended, Nzangi told Human Rights Watch that someone called him and warned him that “The president is very upset with you. Flee if you can.”

One week after Nzangi was tried, convicted, and sentenced, police violently disrupted a peaceful sit-in by dozens of Nzangi supporters asking for the release of Nzangi. This sit-in occurred outside the North Kivu governor’s office in Goma.

The police brutally beat several protestors, arrested 4 protestors, and threatened protestors with rebellion charges. However, the 5 arrested protestors were released the next day.

Many believe that Nzangi’s arrest was politically motivated since Nzangi is a member of the Movement for Social Renewal (MSR), one of the largest political parties in the ruling presidential majority.

Human Rights Watch states that Congolese authorities should drop this questionable case against Nzangi and end the crackdown against his supporters. Further, it states that this prosecution reflects a broader government crackdown on free expression in the country.

Since May 2012, Human Rights Watch has documented 84 cases which politicians, political party activists, journalists, and human rights activists were arrested or threatened by the authorities because of their political views or published opinions.

International law provides that everyone convicted of a crime has a right to appeal their conviction to a higher tribunal.

“If President Kabila is serious about creating open dialogue, a first step should be to let politicians, journalists, activists and others say what they think without risking jail,” Sawyer said. “Everyone who is locked up for their peaceful political views should immediately be released and charges dropped.”

For further information, please visit:

Human Rights Watch – DR Congo: Outspoken Lawmaker Gets 3-Year Sentence – 29 August 2013
Africa Press Review – Democratic Republic of Congo – Outspoken lawmaker gets 3-year sentence in DRC – 30 August 2013
Ifex – Outspoken lawmaker gets 3-year sentence in DRC -30 August 2013
World News Inc. – DR Congo: Outspoken Lawmaker Gets 3-Year Sentence (HRW) – 29 August 2013
All Africa – Congo-Kinshasa: Outspoken Lawmaker Gets 3-Year Sentence – Freedom of Expression, Peaceful Assembly Under Attack – 29 August 2013
refworld – Democratic Republic of Congo: Outspoken Lawmaker Gets 3-Year Sentence – 29 August 2013
topix – DR Congo: Outspoken Lawmaker Gets 3-Year Sentence – 29 August 2013

Former Commander of Communist-Era Romanian Prison Charged With Genocide

by Tony Iozzo
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

Bucharest, ROMANIA – Romanian prosecutors charged the  former commander of a Communist-era  prison with genocide on Tuesday.

Alexandru Visinescu faces genocide charges stemming from his time as the commander of two prison during Communist-era Romania. (Photo courtesy of Fox News)

Alexandru Visinescu was formally presented with the charges before prosecutors at a hearing on Tuesday. He declined to comment as he was led to a taxi after the hearing. He has said he was  only following orders delegated to him.

Visinescu ran the Ramnicu Sarat prison where the  pre-Communist elite and intellectuals were incarcerated between 1956 and 1963.

Prosecutors have stated that under Visinescu’s command, prisoners were  subjected to starvation, beatings,  a lack of medical treatment and exposure to cold.  Visinescu could face life in prison if convicted.

Visinescu, 87, is the first Romanian to be charged with genocide since 1989. Former leader Nicolae  Ceausescu was the last, and was tried and executed in 1989.

Approximately 500,000 Romanian priests, teachers, peasants, doctors and diplomats  were condemned as political prisoners in the 1950s as the Communist government  sought to crush any dissent and gain greater autonomy. Nearly one-fifth of those imprisoned died due to  the inhuman conditions, historians have stated.

Back in July, the institute investigating communist crimes wrote to the general  prosecutors calling for Visinescu to be prosecuted for six deaths. The institute plans to forward roughly 35 files about former commanders to prosecutors.

In August, Visinescu lunged several times at  journalists who were seeking reaction to the accusations against him. Since  then, there has been widespread public debate regarding the Communist era, with many people advocating moves to punish former prison commanders.

President Traian Basescu and Prime Minister Victor Ponta have both stated that  former prison commanders should face justice for crimes they committed during the Communist era.

Visinescu also was reportedly a member of the execution squad that killed Ion Mihalache, the founder and leader of the Agrarian Party in Romania. After the execution, Visinescu became the commander of a women’s penitentiary, where he was a notorious torturer, before eventually becoming the commander of Ramnicu Sarat.

Former inmate Ion-Ovidiu Borcea recalls witnessing Visinescu commit chronic torture, “The officer and the commander in chief continuously beat him, got him sick and did not offer him medical care. They would enter his cell and throw a bucket of cold water on him in the middle of winter. [Mihalache] would yell ‘This is Ion Mihalache, They’re killing me!’. This crime cannot be forgotten.”

For more information, please see:

Fox News – Romanian Communist-Era Prison Guard Charged With Genocide – 3 September 2013

Romania-Insider – Romanian Commander of Communist-Era Prison Charged With Genocide – 3 September 2013

The Telegraph – Romanian Communist-Era Prison Chief Charged With Genocide – 3 September 2013

The Tribune – Ex Prison Guard of Communist Prison is Charged With Genocide – 3 September 2013

 

China Sacks Another Top State Official in Corruption Crackdown

By Brian Lanciault

Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BEIJING, China — Chinese authorities have fired high-ranking economic official, Jiang Jiemin, in part of a growing crackdown on corruption. Analysts said the firing of Jiemin, who previously led an official body overseeing China’s state-owned enterprises, is also part of an effort by authorities to gain more control of state backed companies.

Jiang Jiemin, a top member of the Communist Party’s Central Committee, was fired earlier today as China continues to crackdown on corruption. (Photo courtesy of AP)

China’s central news agency, Xinhua said Jiang Jiemin was removed from his post as head of the state-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission for suspected “serious disciplinary violations,” a common phrase used to describe corruption.

 The decision comes only two days after authorities announced Jiang was under investigation. It also comes amid a growing probe into four other top executives at the state owned oil company, China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC). Jiemin previously served as the chairman of CNPC and its subsidiary PetroChina. Jiemin has gradually risen up within the ranks of China’s state-run oil industry over the past two decades.

City University of Hong Kong political scientist, Joseph Cheng, said the decision to target Jiemin and other top oil executives is a signal that the government is trying to reign in state-owned companies as the government continues to promote substantial economic reform.

“The top officials of these very powerful state owned enterprises are more or less independent kingdoms, they are the targets, so these cases will create a sort of threatening affect, a deterrent effect, which hopefully will help the leadership to push through reform. The reform probably is to reduce the privileges of the state sector,” said Cheng. He believes the investigation provides a rare opportunity to promote economic reform of China’s state-owned enterprises, which have “too much influence on China’s economy and are too big a source of corruption.”

Chinese President Xi Jinping has promised to crack down on high- and low-ranking corrupt officials. Some believe the investigation into Jiang is a sign that the anti-corruption drive is deepening and that other high-ranking officials could be next. Only a few short months ago top political leader, Bo Xilai, was tried on charges of corruption, stemming from his wife’s murder of a British businessman, Neil Heywood.

Jiang Jiemin sits on the Communist Party’s Central Committee, a top group of more than 200 officials. Jiemin is the first on the committee to be investigated and removed.

There has been speculation that former public security chief Zhou Yongkang could be the next official targeted. Yongkang previously served as a CNPC official and was an influential member of the petroleum clique. Nothing further has surfaced yet.

For more information, please see:

Xinhua — Jiang Jiemin removed from office — 3 September 2013

Reuters — China probes top official in latest anti-graft push — 3 September 2013

Chosun Ilbo — China Sacks State Enterprise Official — 4 September 2013

The Scotsman — China: Major scalp for corruption inquiry — 4 September 2013

Millions Face Food Shortage in Zimbabwe

By: Dan Krupinsky
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

HARARE, Zimbabwe – The UN World Food Programme (WFP) said on Tuesday that Zimbabwe, following a drought and poor harvest, faces its worst food shortage in four years.

According to the agency, they will work with the government and other international aid organizations to provide food assistance to a portion of the nation’s 13 million people from October until March and April of 2014, when the next crop harvest will occur.

An estimated 2.2 million people, which is one fourth of the rural population of Zimbabwe, are expected to need food assistance in the time before the harvest period next year.

Food sits, ready for distribution to those in need. (Photo: WFP/R. Lee)

“Many districts, particularly in the south, harvested very little and people are already trying to stretch out their dwindling food stocks,” said WFP Country Director Sory Ouane. “WFP is working closely with the Government and partners to respond to the looming food crisis and will start food and cash distributions to the most vulnerable in October.”

Food prices in Zimbabwe are up by as much as 15% in some cases, and as the availability of foods like grain and cererals becomes even more scarce, the already inflated prices will rise even more.

The rising prices create obvious hardships for the citizens, especially in a country where the unemployment rate is as high as 70%, according to some estimates.

Erratic rains and the rising cost of harvesting goods, such as fertilizers, are just a couple of the numerous factors contributing to the crisis.

Critics blame President Robert Megabe’s policies for an economic crisis lasting over a decade and peaking in 2009, perhaps most notably land grabs of white-owned farms by the government for redistribution to blacks with no land. Magabe maintains that he was correcting ownership imbalances created by colonialism, but over the last 15 years, Zimbabwe has turned from a country that was self-sufficient into one desperately in need of help.

According to a report by the Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee, this shortage would constitute the highest level of hunger since early 2009, when more than half of the population required food support.

To combat the problem, WFP and its international aid partners will provide regionally-available cereals as well as imported vegetable oil and pulses. Cash transfers will be used in selected areas to afford people flexibility and help support local markets. The distributions will increase gradually from October until the new harvest period in March of next year.

 

For further information, please see:

All Africa – Zimbabwe: Hunger Looms in Rural Zimbabwe – 3 September 2013

News 24 – Hunger on rise in Zimbabwe – 3 September 2013

Reuters – U.N. agency says 2.2 million Zimbabweans face food shortages – 3 September 2013

UN News Centre – Over 2 million people in Zimbabwe to require food assistance, warns UN agency – 3 September 2013

Council of Europe’s Committee Will Debate How to Punish Sergei Magnitsky’s Killers

PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Distribution

2 September 2013 – This Wednesday, 4 September 2013, between 9 am and 1 pm, the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), will consider a draft resolution entitled “Refusing Impunity for the Killers of Sergei Magnitsky”(http://www.assembly.coe.int/Communication/ajdoc24_2013.pdf).

Since the report’s publication earlier in June, Russian officials have been struggling to find ways of diluting the conclusions of the report.

Russia is one of the 47 member states of the Council of Europe. The draft resolution and the report on the impunity of Russian officials in the Magnitsky case have been prepared by Swiss MP, Rapporteur Andreas Gross under his Council of Europe mandate from November 2012 to carry out an independent review of Magnitsky’s death in Russian custody.

On 25 June 2013, Mr Gross presented his findings to the Legal Affairs and Human Rights Committee of the Council of Europe. Even before the report was released, the Russian delegation expressed its dissatisfaction and pledged to “influence” the content of the report before the 4 September 2013 vote.

Alexei Pushkov, MP from the Pro-Putin United Russia and head of the Russian delegation to the Council of Europe,(http://assembly.coe.int/ASP/AssemblyList/AL_MemberDetails.asp?MemberID=6889), said prior to the 25 June 2013 meeting on the draftMagnitsky resolution:

“We will try to influence its content. The first page of the resolution announces Magnitsky as a fighter with corruption which he never was, because he was a finansist, specialist in creating schemes to avoid taxes”(http://www.er-duma.ru/news/59702).

Pushkov also said that the draft report presented to the Council of Europe’s Committee by Mr Gross “repeated the political imprints which have been accepted by the Western approach to the ‘Magnitsky case.”

Pushkov denied that Magnitsky died from beating, saying: “I repeat. This has not been determined.”

After these remarks were made, Mr Magnitsky’s mother publicly confronted Mr Pushkov with a statement that she and other relatives were eyewitnesses to the injuries her son had suffered before his death.

“The statements you have made have offended the feelings of Sergei Magnitsky’s relatives, who had the misfortune to witness first hand the injuries on his body pointing towards a violent death,” said Mrs Magnitskaya in a letter addressed to Mr Pushkov.

Mr Magnitsky’s mother demanded a public apology from Mr Pushkov over his remarks: “You have made statements over a long period of time about a deceased person, which are impermissible both from the point of view of the morality and law. In spite of this, you have never asked for the clarification of the position from the family of Sergei Magnitsky,” said Mrs Magnitskaya.

 

Natalia Magnitskaya’s letter was published by Novaya Gazeta (http://www.novayagazeta.ru/news/66840.html). No response from Mr Pushkov was forthcoming so far.

 

Another Russian delegate to the Council of Europe, Alexander Sidyakin (http://assembly.coe.int/ASP/AssemblyList/AL_MemberDetails.asp?MemberID=6899) said  the report by Rapporteur Gross was “not accounting for the position of the official structures of Russia” and implied that the death of Mr Magnitsky was similar to the death of the former Serbian President Mr  Milošević.

“Our objection is that the report is biased. We proposed to them [PACE Committee] to examine the death of the particular person in detention, but this is a banal topic. Milošević also died in detention, because help was not provided to him,” said Mr Sidyakin in comments published bygazeta.ru on 26 June 2013 (http://www.gazeta.ru/politics/2013/06/26_a_5394273.shtml).

 

Notably, when Andreas Gross MP was first appointed as Rapporteur on the Magntisky case, the Russian officials welcomed his candidacy. According to comments made in November 2012 by the Russian delegate to the Council of Europe, Leonid Slutsky MP (http://assembly.coe.int/ASP/AssemblyList/AL_MemberDetails.asp?MemberID=4380), “Gross was one of the co-rapporteurs on the monitoring file on the Russian Federation and had shown himself as a constructive partner” and his appointment would help avoid an “openly biased approach” (http://www.rbc.ru/rbcfreenews/20121112184851.shtml).

 

The motion “Refusing Impunity for the Killers of Sergei Magnitsky” calling for an independent review of the Magnitsky case by the Council of Europe was tasked to the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights in October 2012 following a recommendation of the Council of Europe’s Bureau. At the meeting on 12 November 2012, the Legal Affairs and Human Rights Committee designated Mr Gross to prepare a report on the Magnitsky case.

 

The draft resolution before the Committee’s vote on 4 September 2013 prepared by Rapporteur Gross on the impunity of officials in the Magnitsky case calls for the Council of Europe member states to hold to account all those who share responsibility in Mr Magnitsky’s death, ensure that his posthumous prosecution and the persecution of other lawyers who represented Hermitage in Russia is ended, and urges Russian authorities to cooperate with criminal investigations launched by European countries into the $230 million funds stolen by the group of Russian officials and criminals exposed by Sergei Magnitsky.

 

The draft resolution summarises the details of the corrupt criminal conspiracy exposed by Mr Magnitsky (see, for instance, Mr Magnitsky’s testimonies from 5 June 2008 and 7 October 2008 given before his arrest, his testimonies from detention from 14 October 2009 and 12 November 2009 at http://russian-untouchables.com/eng/testimonies/). In spite of the evidence, the Russian authorities attempt to argue that Mr Magnitsky did not discover their corruption, and instead posthumously blamed Mr Magnitsky himself for the $230 million theft he had exposed.

The draft resolution before the Council of Europe’s Committee describes Mr Magnitsky’s beating before his death (see the prison records evidencing the use of hand-cuffs and rubber batons, the signs of violence on Magnitsky’s body discovered at the funeral, the act of death referring to his suspected head injury, and the findings by the Russian President’s Human Rights Council in: http://russian-untouchables.com/eng/cover-up-presentation/).

Even the official Russian medical experts referred to rubber batons as a likely cause of injuries on Magnitsky’s body, yet the official position of the Russian government remains that of denial that beatings took place. In March 2013, the Russian Investigative Committee formally closed the investigation into the death of Sergei Magnitsky finding that “no event of crime” had occurred. In April 2013, President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that the Kremlin had “no reason to doubt the competency of those who conducted the investigation”(http://www.interfax.ru/russia/news.asp?id=301437). Mr Peskov insisted that the Magnitsky case must not be discussed outside of Russia, calling such discussions “impermissible” (http://www.bbc.co.uk/russian/russia/2013/04/130415_peskov_interview.shtml).

The official agenda of the 4 September 2013 meeting of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights which will take place in Paris, France, includes the consideration of the draft report on the impunity in the Magnitsky case, the addendum and the draft resolution (http://assembly.coe.int/Committee/Agenda/20130904JUR3932_E.PDF).

For further information, please see:

Law and Order in Russia