by Tony Iozzo
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

ROME, Italy – The Italian and Maltese governments have called for action from its partners in the European Union to put an end to a dangerous migrant crisis that has claimed the lives of dozens of people crossing the Mediterranean Sea from North Africa recently.

Last Friday, a boat filled with 250 migrants sank in the Mediterranean, claiming thirty four lives, after individuals were en route to Europe from North Africa. Navy ships from Italy and Malta recovered the victims’ bodies and rescued 206 of the migrants.

Friday’s accident was the latest in a series of boating accidents in the Mediterranean with migrants attempting to escape adverse conditions in their former country.

“I don’t know how many more people need to die at sea before something gets done. The fact is that as things stand, we are just building a cemetery within our Mediterranean Sea. Until now we have encountered statements, words but little more than that,” stated Joseph Muscat, Malta’s prime minister.

Muscat stated that he would join Italy in demanding action at the next European Council meeting.

The latest boat sank about sixty miles south of Sicily; roughly two weeks after another boat carrying a larger number of migrants sank less than a kilometer from Lampedusa, a tiny island between Sicily and Tunisia. That accident killed almost 300 people.

The migration of individuals from North Africa to Europe has increased over the past twenty years, but this year has seen a significant rise due to the political unrest in Egypt, the Syrian crisis, and turmoil in Libya.

Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta has urged for the crisis to be included on the European Council agenda at the October 24-25 meeting.

“We cannot continue like this. We’re in a situation where what’s happening in North Africa, Eritrea, Somalia, Syria presents us with a real emergency” Letta stated on Saturday.

According to estimations by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, roughly 32,000 migrants have arrived in Italy and Malta so far this year, about two thirds of whom have filed asylum requests.

On Monday, the latest ship carrying 137 people arrived in Italy from North Africa, just as the Italian government is planning to launch increased air and naval patrols to attempt to preempt these shipwrecks.

For more information, please see:

BBC News – Italy Steps up Migrant Boat Patrols After Tragedies – 14 October 2013

Reuters – More Migrants Reach Italy, Government Prepares to Boost Sea Patrols – 14 October 2013

Al Jazeera – Migrant Deaths Prompt Calls For EU Action – 13 October 2013

New York Times – Days After Disaster, Another Migrant Ship Sinks Near Italian Island – 11 October 2013

 

 

 

By Ben Kopp
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

MOSCOW, Russia – Reports demonstrate that Russian authorities waited until fights broke out before making arrests at a gay rights rally. Nevertheless, attacks on the Russian LGBT community remain high.

In June 2013, Russia’s law banning homosexual “propaganda” directed at minors sparked various protests by lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights campaigners, who claim the law diminishes homosexuals’ rights to free speech and assembly. In the light of international attention, activists have called for Winter Olympics participants and sponsors to boycott the Sochi games next year as a form of protest.

For clarification, the International Olympics Committee requested more information on the law and its effects on the Winter Olympics. President Putin has prohibited all demonstrations and rallies for 10 weeks around the games.

In September 2013, police broke up a gay rights protest outside the Winter Olympics headquarters in Moscow.

On 12 October 2013, gay rights activists planned a rally in St. Petersburg at the “Field of Mars”, which allows demonstrations without special sanctions. However, nearly 200 opponents of gay rights arrived earlier than the scheduled rally time, dressed as Cossacks and Orthodox priests.

Many opponents sang hymns and recited prayers. Although heavily outnumbered by opponents, several dozen LGBT rights activists had gathered to celebrate “International Coming Out Day”.

The fights began when an anti-gay demonstrator tore a rainbow flag from a woman’s hands. Immediately, the police rushed in to arrest fighters. Russian authorities arrested 67 participants in fights between gay rights activists and opponents.

Despite Russia’s prohibition on homosexual “propaganda”, St. Petersburg sanctioned the rally.

While homosexuality has been legal in Russia since 1993 and un-labeled as a “mental illness” since 1999, reported attacks against homosexuals have increased sharply. Some attacks involve gay men being lured into meeting people who then attack them. Additionally, homophobia has been suspected in several homicides.

Recently, one group of anti-LGBT campaigners, “Occupy-Pedofilyay” began posting “sinister” videos online of teenagers it suspects of being gay.

Nikolai Alexeyev, the leader of LGBT-rights group Gay Russia, said that despite their frequency, attacks on homosexuals are almost never investigated as hate crimes. “Homophobic hysteria is being increasingly promoted in Russia.”

Citing to recent attacks on homosexuals, the United States Congress sent the U.S. Olympic Committee a letter requesting assurances of safety for athletes and spectators.

Unlike countries in which large portions of the population have come out in support of the LGBT community, with a large outcry against homosexuality, news from Russia suggests the June 2013 law will be difficult to overcome.

For further information, please see:

Al Jazeera – Russian Gay Rally Ends in Fights and Arrests – October 12, 2013

Associated Free Press – Orthodox Protesters Attack Gay-Rights Rally in Russia – October 12, 2013

International Business Times – Russian Gay Rights Activists Attacked in St Petersburg – October 12, 2013

RIA Novosti – Over 60 Detained at LGBT Rally in Russia’s St.Petersburg – October 12, 2013

Sky News – Russia: Arrests after Gay Rights Rally Attacked – October 12, 2013

USA Today – Russian Cops Wait for Clashes before Intervening at Gay Rally – October 12, 2013

RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty – U.S. Lawmakers Concerned about Russia’s Gay Law – October 10, 2013

By Ben Kopp
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

MOSCOW, Russia – Russia incarcerated a political dissident in a psychiatric ward, in a move that many call a return to Soviet Era punitive psychiatry. Human Rights Watch has questioned both the charges and the sentence.

On 6 May 2012, over two dozen protesters allegedly rioted against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inauguration, set for the next day to mark Putin’s new six-year term. One protester, Mikhail Kosenko was arrested for assaulting a police officer.

At trial, Kosenko denied the charges, and the police officer, Alexander Kazmin testified that he did not want Kosenko punished because he did not recognize Kosenko as the assailant.

In his refusal to identify Kosenko, Kazmin stated to the court, “I’m not Russian trash.”

Nevertheless, Judge Ludmila Moskalenko told the court that “at the time the action was committed by Kosenko…he was in a state of insanity.”

On 8 October 2013, Moscow’s Zamoskvoretsky District Court found Kosenko guilty of participating in the “mass disorder” and ordered the Putin critic to confinement and compulsory treatment in a psychiatric ward. As the court set no time for the sentence, critics claim the punishment is indefinite.

Kosenko met the verdict with silence, still locked in a cage. He had been held in pre-trial detention for 16 months.

Activists claimed that police detained nine protesters outside the courthouse as they chanted “Shame!” at the judge’s ruling.

While Kosenko had received outpatient psychiatric treatment prior to his arrest, human rights activists suggested the ruling was a return to the punitive psychiatry practiced against dissidents during the Soviet Era.

The condition, generally referred to as “sluggish schizophrenia”, was a mild form of schizophrenia routinely used during the Soviet Era to justify the incarceration of dissidents.

Kosenko’s family said his psychiatric condition was the result of trauma during military service, and he has remained both non-violent and without a police record.

In any event, the World Health Organization does not recognize “sluggish schizophrenia”.

“This is a clear case of a return to punitive psychiatry in Russia,” said Alexander Podrabinek, a human-rights activist and Soviet-era dissident. “This is the first such clear and obvious instance in the post-Soviet period.”

John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International’s Europe and Central Asia Programme Director said, “To incarcerate Mikhail Kosenko forcibly in a psychiatric unit smacks of the worst excesses of the now defunct Soviet Era when dissidents were languishing in mental institutions, treated as mental patients only because they dared to speak their mind. Mikhail Kosenko is a prisoner of conscience put behind bars for peacefully exercising his right to protest and should be released immediately.”

For further information, please see:

Amnesty International – Russia: Abhorrent Use of Punitive Psychiatry to Silence Dissent – October 8, 2013

Reuters – Putin Critic Sentenced to Detention in Psychiatric Ward – October 8, 2013

RIA Novosti – Russian Protester Committed to Psychiatric Hospital Over Riot – October 8, 2013

Washington Post – Russian Protester Sent for Forced Psychiatric Help, Rights Groups Say Ruling is Soviet Style – October 8, 2013

by Tony Iozzo
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

The Hague, Netherlands – The Netherlands has issued a statement apologizing to Russia regarding the arrest and detention of a Russian diplomat by Dutch police at The Hague.

Dutch police have refrained from commenting on the case, but Dutch media reports have cited police documents alleging that Russian Diplomat Dmitry Borodin was detained late on Saturday night after police found him intoxicated and barely able to stand.

Witnesses also stated that Borodin was mistreating his two young children. According to various claims, Borodin was “totally drunk” and had dragged his children by their hair throughout his house and garden.  His wife also allegedly collided with several vehicles while driving intoxicated.

Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans stated on Wednesday that an investigation revealed that the arrest of Borodin was a actually a breach of the Vienna Convention that regulates diplomatic relations between nations. Borodin’s arrest violated his diplomatic immunity, also stressed by Timmermans.

For the illegal arrest and detention, “the state of the Netherlands offers the Russian Federation its apologies,” Timmermans stated on Wednesday.

Timmermans also stated that he “understands” the action of the police officers who arrested Borodin, given the development of the situation on Saturday night after reviewing the case.

“They acted in accordance with their professional responsibilities with regard to the situation they found after the report,” Timmermans stated. He added that the Netherlands and Russia “remain in talks” about the incident.

Russian President Vladimir Putin called Borodin’s detention “the most gross breach of the Vienna Convention”, and demanded an apology on Tuesday.

Also on Tuesday, the Russian foreign ministry accused Dutch police officers of raiding Borodin’s apartment in The Hague and assaulting him before bringing him to the police station for hours of questioning regarding the accusations.

Relations between the Netherlands and Russia have deteriorated promptly since Russian investigators charged thirty crew members of a Dutch-flagged Greenpeace ship, the Arctic Sunrise, with piracy last week over a protest against Arctic oil drilling.

The Netherlands had responded by launching legal action to free the activists, who face up to fifteen years in jail.

For more information, please see:

Al Jazeera – Dutch Apologize for Russian Diplomat Arrest – 9 October 2013

BBC News – Dutch Sorry on Russia Diplomat Case – 9 October 2013

Dutch News – The Netherlands Apologize to Russia for Diplomat’s Arrest – 9 October 2013

The Moscow Times – Dutch Apologize to Moscow for Detention of Russian Diplomat – 9 October 2013

by Tony Iozzo
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

PARIS, France – A French judged ruled on Wednesday that identity checks by police officers on thirteen people regarded as minorities were not based on racism and were legal.

Lawyers for the Plaintiffs, who contend that the law enforcement officers have engaged in racial profiling, vowed to appeal the ruling all the way up to the European Court of Human Rights. Wednesday’s verdict resulted from a one-day trial back in July, which was dubbed the first of its kind in France.

Equality groups say that French minorities, specifically those of African or Middle Eastern descent, are subject to routine discrimination that diminishes their chances of finding employment and gaining a foothold in mainstream society. They contend that this discrimination has led the officers to perform humiliating identity checks on minorities for no reason.

The French ruling comes amid a public furor over stop and frisk policies of the New York Police Department. The NYC case is being closely examined in France, particularly by the Plaintiff’s lawyers. A judge has recently ruled against NYPD practices said to discriminate against blacks and Hispanics.

The plaintiffs sought 10,000 euros ($13,000) each in the case. Their lawyers also sought alterations to the law that would require police to provide written reports of ID checks and specify “objective grounds” for conducting the checks. Currently, the law allows police to issue checks on people they deem “suspicious.” Opponents of the current law believe it affords too much discretion to the police.

Slim Ben Achour, lawyer for the Plaintiffs, stated, “The most obvious consequence [of Wednesday’s decision] is that police in this country… have the right to discriminate. There is a blank check for police to continue these practices.”

The defendants’ lawyers have stated that a person who considers an identity check abusive must prove the action was a gravely serious offence. This is nearly impossible as there is no trace an identity check took place.

The plaintiffs’ lawyers said they are closely watching the similar NYC case and hoping they might weigh on French policy, as their appeal develops.

“Through this decision, French justice says that the law of equality … basically does not apply to French police and we are pretty shocked by that. I would not say that this decision legalizes ethnic profiling, but clearly the judges closed their eyes to ethnic profiling,” Felix de Belloy, lawyers for the plaintiffs stated.

A study conducted in Paris by France’s National Center for Scientific Research and the Open Society Justice Initiative  has recently shown that blacks are six times more likely of being checked and questioned by police than whites, and those of Arab origin are eight times more likely.

For more information, please see:

France 24 – France Struggles to Address Racial Profiling by Police – 4 October 2013

Al Jazeera – French Court Rules Police ID-Checks Legal – 2 October 2013

Fox News – French Court Rules That Identity Checks on Minorities Were Lawful, Rejects Racism Claim – 2 October 2013

The Montreal Gazette – French Court Rules That Identity Checks on Minorities Were Lawful, Rejects Racism Claim – 2 October 2013