By Alexandra Sandacz
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

MOSCOW, Russia – A former Russian policeman, Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov, was found guilty for the 2006 murder of investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya. Politkovskaya was an aggressive critic of Russian President, Vladimir Putin. Pavlyuchenkov was sentenced to spend 11 years in a high security penal colony.

In addition to 11 years, Pavlyuchenkov was fined 3 million roubles for staking Politkovskaya’s apartment and providing Politkovskaya’s killer with the gun that shot her on October 7, 2006.

Politkovskaya was murdered in the hallway of her Moscow apartment building after returning home from a grocery store. She became a target after reporting on corruption in Russia and on human rights abuses in Chechnya.

The murder caused international outrage. Politkovskaya’s murder became a nationwide symbol of silencing free speech and the corruption of the judiciary since Putin came to power.

Pavlyuchenkov apologized to Politkovskaya’s two adult children and asked the court not to punish him too harshly. He stated, “I want to appeal to the family of Anna Stepanovna [Politkovskaya]; I simply want to ask for their human forgiveness.

Paylyuchenkov plead guilty to aiding Politkovskaya’s murder and asked for a reduced sentenced in return for his cooperation. In addition, the deal allowed Pavlyuchenkov to admit his guilt without testifying, which would prevent the reveal of the murder’s masterminds.

Despite Pavlyuchenkov’s apology, Politkovskaya’s children opposed the plea bargain and thought it would not hold those who ultimately ordered the murder responsible.

The killer and four others were tried separately. Rustam Makhmudov was accused of firing the fatal shots, and his brothers Dzhabrail and Ibragim were accused of acting as the getaway drivers. All three men were tried and acquitted for lack of evidence, but Russia’s supreme court overturned the verdict. The three men will be retried.

The prosecutors also determined Pavlyuchenkov was a member of a gang formed by Chechen crime boss, Lom-Ali Gaitukayev.

Following Politkovskaya’s murder, Putin called for her killers to be punished, however, he also described her work as “extremely insignificant.”

Politkovskaya’s murder is one of many opposition murders. In the past decade, various journalists and rights activists who were critical of the Russian government have been assassinated. Most of the killings remain unsolved.

For further information, please see:

RFE/RL – Ex-Policeman Gets 11 Years Over Politkovskaya Murder – 24 December 2012

Aljazeera – Ex-policeman jailed over Politkovskaya murder – 14 December 2012

BBC – Ex-policeman jailed in Russia over Politkovskaya murder – 14 December 2012

Reuters – Policeman complicit in Putin critic murder sentenced – 14 December 2012

By Madeline Schiesser
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

STRASBOURG, France – On Thursday, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that the rights of German citizen Khaled el-Masri had been violated in 2003 when he was seized in Macedonia and handed over to the C.I.A., which had misidentified El-Masri as a terrorist suspect.  For years, El-Masri has claimed that the C.I.A. tortured, beat, sodomized, and shackled him, but Thursday’s ruling represents the first instance of judicial recognition of his ordeal.

The 17-judge Court unanimously found Macedonia guilty of torturing, abusing, and secretly imprisoning El-Masri when he was seized by security officers when crossing the Macedonia-Serbia border by bus after a vacation.  The court found that at the request of the C.I.A., El-Masri was held by police for 23 days at a hotel in Skopje, and interrogated in English, a language in which he had little proficiency.  El-Masri’s requests to contact the German embassy were denied and when he tried to leave, he was threatened with being shot.  In January 2003, El-Masri was turned over to the C.I.A. at Skopje airport at which point he was “severely beaten, sodomized, shackled and hooded” as Macedonian officials looked on.

In its 92-page ruling, the court determined that El-Masri had proven his claims of torture and abuse “beyond a reasonable doubt.”  In addition to El-Masri’s account of events, the court also considered testimony from former Macedonian officials, results of a German investigation, and U.S. diplomatic cables published by WikiLeaks.  The court found that El-Masri’s abuse “at the hands of the CIA rendition team” in the presence of Macedonian authorities was “invasive and potentially debasing … used with premeditation, the aim being to cause Mr. El-Masri severe pain or suffering in order to obtain information.”

From Macedonia, El-Masri was taken to Afghanistan and held in a cell in a prison called the “Salt Pit” for four months where he was brutally interrogated, never being charged or given access to a lawyer or German consular officers.  Sometime after the C.I.A. realized they had the wrong man, who had been seized only because his name resembled that of an actual Al Qaeda suspect, El-Masri, blindfolded and handcuffed, was placed on a plane to Albania.

El-Masri’s trek for recognition of his torment at the hands of Macedonian and American officials has been lengthy.  The United States justice system dismissed El-Masri’s lawsuit on “state secrets” grounds in 2007, and the Macedonian government denied outright that it had any hand in any of the alleged abuse.  Furthermore, U.S. officials sought to block German and Spanish criminal inquiries.

The court found that responsibility for El-Masri’s treatment rested with Macedonia. The court added: “Its government was consequently responsible for those acts performed by foreign officials. It had failed to submit any arguments explaining or justifying the degree of force used or the necessity of the invasive and potentially debasing measures. . . . In the court’s view, such treatment had amounted to torture, in violation of Article 3 [of the European human rights convention].”

Holding Macedonia “responsible for [El-Masri’s] torture and ill-treatment both in the country itself and after his transfer to the U.S. authorities in the context of an extra-judicial rendition,” the ECHR found that Macedonia had repeatedly violated El-Masri’s rights and therefore the court ordered €60,000 (£49,000, $78,500) in damages.

Decisions of the ECHR are final and binding on the 47 member-states of the Council of Europe and cannot be appealed.

Macedonia’s Lawyer, Kostadin Bogdanov, said Macedonia would pay the damages and perhaps take other actions, including reopening the El-Masri investigation and amending laws regarding criminal procedures or their implementation.

El-Masri’s lawyer, Manfred Gnjidic, said of his client: “He lost his confidence in the system of rights that the democratic world celebrates. I hope this will give him a little bit more confidence again that even a little person who has come into a crime of great nations has the chance to have his rights.”

James Goldston, executive director of the Open Society Justice Initiative and another lawyer for El-Masri, said the ruling “serves as a wake-up call to the U.S. government and judiciary to re-examine how the CIA has treated rendition victims. … and offers an opportunity to re-examine the [U.S.] position of looking forward instead of backward.”

However, The ECHR does not have jurisdiction over the United States.  With respect to the U.S., its decision stands simply as a condemnation of improper “war on terror” tactics, specifically the C.I.A.’s “extraordinary renditions” programs, and of the failure of the American justice system to grant El-Masri or others judicial relief.  The decision also represents the first time the ECHR has described acts by the C.I.S. as torture.

Jamil Dakwar, the head of the A.C.L.U.’s human rights program, described the struggle to persuade the Obama administration to hold officials accountable under international law for El-Masri’s mistreatment as “an uphill battle,” but that the ECHR’s ruling “gives the Obama administration the opportunity to acknowledge the egregious violations against Khaled, offer an official apology and reparation.”

UN special reporter on human rights and counter-terrorism, Ben Emmerson, further commented on the significance of the ruling, calling it “a key milestone in the long struggle to secure accountability of public officials implicated in human rights violations committed by the Bush administration CIA in its policy of secret detention, rendition and torture.”

Coincidently, the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence also voted Thursday to adopt a 6,000 page report, based on a three-year review of more than 6 million pieces of information on controversial C.I.A. practices including waterboarding, stress positions, forced nudity, beatings and sleep and sensory deprivation.  The report, believed to conclude that Bush-era “enhanced interrogation techniques” did not produce any major breakthroughs in intelligence, however, remains classified.

“The committee took an important step toward making sure that history will not repeat itself.  The investigation and report are also an important precedent for establishing checks and balances between Congress and a CIA that has often flouted both the law and American values,” said Christopher Anders, senior legislative counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union. “Only by knowing what happened at the CIA can Congress ensure that it does not happen again.”

For further information, please see:

ACLU – Senate Intelligence Committee Adopts Report on CIA’s Use of Torture and Abuse – 13 December 2012

ECHR – EL-MASRI v. “THE FORMER YUGOSLAV REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA” – 13 December 2012 (full case text)

Guardian – CIA ‘Tortured and Sodomised’ Terror Suspect, Human Rights Court Rules – 13 December 2012

Guardian – European court of human rights finds against CIA abuse of Khaled el-Masri – 13 December 2012

Huffington Post – Khaled El-Masri, German Allegedly Kidnapped By CIA In Afghanistan, Wins Case – 13 December 2012

New York Times – Court Finds Rights Violation in C.I.A. Rendition Case – 13 December 2012

New York Times – Rendition Condemned – 13 December 2012

RFE/RL – Court Finds Macedonia Responsible In U.S. Rendition Case – 13 December 2012

By Madeline Schiesser
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia – In the latest showing of Russia’s struggle with homosexuality, international pop star Lady Gaga has run afoul of “homosexual propaganda” laws in St. Petersburg.  During her Sunday concert in the city, Lady Gaga made a call for respect for gay rights, attracting the ire of Putin ally and United Russia deputy Vitaly Milonov, who spearheaded the St. Petersburg ban on homosexual promotion.

Milonov, a member of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly, promised to lodge a formal complaint with St. Petersburg prosecutors, accusing Lady Gaga of encouraging 12-year-olds to support the LGBT cause.  He told a Russian paper “We will contact prosecutors and the law enforcement agencies to carry out a thorough investigation of the situation. . . When people tell kids ‘you must support sexual minorities’, that can create a false equivalence for them between traditional and non-traditional relationships.”

Attempts were also made, but failed, to place an under-18 ban on concert attendance.  Lady Gaga told local media offstage that she’d been threatened with arrest or heavy fines if she mentioned gay rights.

The controversy surrounding Lady Gaga invokes a comparison to a case involving Madonna earlier this August, who, after a concert in St. Petersburg, was charged with “inciting religious hatred and offending cultural traditions” and faced a potential fine of $11 million.  A district court dropped the charges this November after a trial in absentia, but only after the pop celebrity had spent $10.7 million in legal fees.

The law in St. Petersburg, passed last March, criminalizes “public action directed at propagandizing sodomy, lesbianism, bisexualism, and transgenderism among minors.”  St. Petersburg is one of three major cities to have recently passed such a law, which primarily imposes fines.  However, the scope of what constitutes “propaganda” is not clear, although gay rights protesters have been arrested under the law.  The United Nations Human Rights Committee ruled this and similar laws discriminatory and a violation of freedom of expression.  Advocates say that the few human rights hard won for the LGBT community are disappearing under the law.  Although homosexuality was decriminalized in 1993, hostility against gays and lesbians remains widespread in Russia.

“This law will be applied against people who take to the streets, against journalists who write things that displease authorities, against those who simply defend their rights,” says Igor Kochetkov, the head of the LGBT Network, a gay-rights group in St. Petersburg.

Furthermore, on December 19, the Duma (the lower chamber of Russia’s national legislator) will consider similar legislation that would impose fines for promoting homosexuality to anyone under 18.  Russia’s Code of Administrative Law Violations would be amended so that individuals found responsible for “propaganda for homosexuality among minors” could be fined up to 5,000 rubles (US$160), and organizations could be fined up to 500,000 rubles (US$16,000).  However, the legislation fails to define “propaganda,” “homosexuality,” or “among minors.”

Boris Dittrich, advocacy director of the LGBT program at Human Rights Watch, explains that “[t]he draft law’s language is so vague that it could undermine any public efforts to address rampant discrimination of LGBT people in Russia.”

Dittrich further comments: “The proposed provisions attack the fundamental right to free speech, deny LGBT people equal rights, and violate Russia’s obligations under international and Russian law.”

Russia’s own Prime Minister, Dmitry Medvedev, has voiced his opposition to the legislation, saying that “not all relations between people can be regulated by law.”

On Saturday, before her “promotional” concert in St. Petersburg, Lady Gaga tweeted to say she thanks the PM for “not standing by your party’s anti-gay propaganda law.”

For further information, please see:

St. Petersburg Times – Art Exhibition Sparks Outcry – 12 December 2012

Global Post – Russian Lawmaker Goes after Lady Gaga on Gay Rights –11 December 2012

Human Rights Watch – Russia: Reject Homophobic Bill –10 December 2012

Moscow Times – Lady Gaga Thanks Medvedev for Opposing Anti-Gay Laws – 10 December 2012

RFE/RL – Being Gay In St. Petersburg Gets Even Harder – 25 June 2012

By Alexandra Sandacz
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

BRUSSELS, Belgium – This year, an 82-foot abstract tree of lights was installed in Brussels to replace the traditional Christmas pine tree that is normally displayed on the Grand Place. Consequentially, the new structure sparked controversy and protest demanding respect for “values and traditions.”

Critics accuse officials of parting from traditional ways because of fear of offending non-Christians, especially Muslims.

Despite the criticism, the municipality defended the structure and said it wanted to “blend the modern and the traditional to show off the city’s annual winter fair.”

President of Brussels Tourism, Philippe Close, said, “Let’s be clear, there’ll be a Christmas tree and a nativity scene. Christmas traditions will be respected. The theme this year is “winter pleasures” at the huge Christmas market that has a worldwide reputation. We wanted to emphasize culture and modernity, so asked artists to reinvent the Christmas tree, which is actually a pagan symbol.”

However, Bianca Debaets, a city councilor from the Christian Democrat and Flemish party sparked the controversy when she claimed “the Socialist-run municipality was pandering to the sensitivities of non-Christians by scrapping the traditional tree.  “What next? Will Easter eggs be banned from the city because they make us think of Easter,” she asked.

Erik Maxwell, a Brussels citizen, offered his opinion, “We think the tree has been put up for cultural reasons. A tree is for Christmas and Christians but now there are a lot of Muslims here in Brussels. So to avoid discussions they have just replaced a tree with a couple of cubes! I am more traditional, I prefer the usual tree. That’s better for the Belgian people.”

In response to Bianca Debaets comments, Semsettin Ugurlu, chairman of the Belgian Muslim Executive, maintained that his organization did not harbor any issues with any kind of Christmas tree. He stated, “We know we are living in a country with a Christian culture, we take no offense over a traditional Christmas tree.”

The online protest has acquired over 11,000 signatures, and also triggered a Facebook page attacking the new feature.

For further information, please see:

EuroNews – Many are not fans of Brussels’ modern art Christmas tree – 11 December 2012

The Christian Post – Belgian Christians Protest Muslim-Friendly Tree of Lights – 10 December 2012

The New York Times – Christmas Tree Controversy Fires Multicultural Belgium – 1 December 2012

BBC News – Abstract Christmas tree sparks protests in Brussels – 30 November 2012

By Madeline Schiesser
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

NIZHNY NOVGOROD, Russia – A book on Chechen war crimes, co-authored and edited by Russian-Chechen human rights activist Stanislav Dmitrievsky, may be banned by the Russian government as “extremist.”

On November 28, 2012, Dmitrievsky received an official summons to appear before the Dzerzhinsk City Court in the Nizhny Novgorod region of Russia on December 6 for a ban hearing.  The summons did not include the prosecutor’s claim; therefore, what portions of the book have been labeled as “extreme” are unknown.

However, the summons did indicate that the petition to ban the book was based on a federal law “on countering extremist activities.”  Human Rights Watch (HRW) has characterized the case as “part of the growing misuse of anti-extremism legislation against civil society activists” and suggests that this application of the law is in violation of Russia’s legal obligations to respect and protect freedom of expression under article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights and article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Dmitrievsky’s book is a 1,200-page monograph entitled International Tribunal for Chechnya. Prospects of Bringing to Justice Individuals Suspected of War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity During the Armed Conflict in the Chechen Republic.  700 print copies were originally published in July 2009 and it was made the independent news website Novaya Gazeta.

HRW describes the book as “a detailed analysis of the violations by all parties during the conflict in Chechnya from the standpoint of international criminal law.”  The main argument is described as “emphasiz[ing] the chain of command and responsibility of top Russian leadership.”

Attempts to ban the book in 2009 failed for lack of sufficient grounds to open a criminal inquiry.  However, if the court decides to ban the book this time, copies will be removed from stores and liberties, and digital versions will be deleted from websites.

The human rights activist has had difficulty with Russian authorities in the past.  He has been convicted of fomenting national hatred for publishing articles by Chechen separatist leaders in 2006 and sentenced to nine days of administrative arrest for disobeying police orders during a protest rally in March 2012.  He has also been targeted due to his work.  A brick was thrown through in his apartment window in 2008, and earlier this year, the Group of Free People in Nizhny Novgorod, with which he works, was the subject of an arson attack.

In early November, the apartments of his family and eldest daughter were attacked.  While Dmitrievsky was away in Sweden, two men attacked his apartment at 4:30 in the morning, waking his wife and teenage daughter. The men, armed with hammers, wore hooded jackets, face masks, and gloves; broke the apartment windows; poured cement into the door lock so his family could not leave; and ripped out security cameras.  The lock on the apartment door of Dmitrievsky’s eldest daughter was similarly manipulated the same night.

Police arrived at Dmitrievsky’s apartment 40 minutes later and refused to call an investigator.  Investigators were finally called two hours later.  The investigations results so far have been inconclusive.

The HRW director of the Europe and Central Asia division, Hugh Williamson, has said: “Dmitrievsky’s book is based on meticulous desk research and is an important source of information on the Chechen conflict. The authorities’ efforts to ban the book as “extremist” have no basis in international human rights law and seem aimed at punishing Dmitrievsky for his human rights work.”

Williamson concludes that the attempt to ban Dmitrievsky’s book is symptomatic of the Russian government’s recent moves to suppress human rights and civil society type organizations.  “There has been an unprecedented crackdown on civil society in the past six months, and this seems to have sent the authorities a signal that it’s all right to go after Dmitrievsky with a new zeal. In the past, he clearly demonstrated that he wouldn’t be intimidated into silence by arrests and attacks, so now they’re trying to silence him by banning his monograph, which Dmitrievsky considers his life’s work.”

For further information, please see:

RFE/RL – Tenacious Russian Activist Girds For Yet Another Battle – 4 December 2012

Human Rights Watch – Russia: Stop Efforts to Ban Human Rights Book – 3 December 2012

Human Rights Watch — Russia: Investigate Attack on Rights Group – 7 November 2012

HRO in English – Attack on the Apartment of Stanislav Dmitrievsky – 6 November 2012