By Ben Kopp
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

MOSCOW, Russia – Russian officials shrugged at legal action taken by the Dutch to have 30 Greenpeace-affiliated persons released from a Murmansk detention facility. Around the world, protests drew attention to the matter.

In September 2013, Russian authorities arrested 30 participants in a Greenpeace protest against the Prirazlomnaya offshore oil platform. Two activists scaled the structure before their arrest. Three others barricaded themselves in the radio room and tweeted live updates.

Currently, the participants are detained in the northern Russian city of Murmansk, and face piracy charges, which may result in a 15-year sentence.

Among those arrested aboard Greenpeace’s Arctic Sunrise were two Dutch citizens. On 4 October 2013, the Netherlands began legal proceedings against Russia for unlawful detention of activists and crew of the Arctic Sunrise, which was a Dutch-registered ship.

“With regard to its detention of the ship, Russia invokes its authority to ensure safety at sea in the vicinity of the oil platform,” Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans wrote. “The Netherlands agrees on the importance of safety at sea, but in this case we contest the lawfulness of detaining the ship and its crew.”

Other activists aboard the ship were from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, New Zealand, Poland, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the U.K., Ukraine, and the U.S.

Protesters have called for the activists’ release on an international scale. As a “global day of solidarity”, Greenpeace stated that it would hold up to 100 protests in approximately 48 countries. In support of 6 arrested British nationals, about 700 people protested at the Russian Embassy in London.

London protestors included Jude Law, Damon Albarn, Paul Simonon, and Vivienne Westwood.

Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Meshkov said that Russia asked the Netherlands several times to halt the ship’s “illegal activity.”

“Unfortunately, this was not done,” Meshkov said. “Therefore, we have far more questions for the Dutch side than they can have for us. Everything that happened with the Arctic Sunrise was pure provocation.”

Greenpeace claimed the activists held a peaceful protest in international waters, adding that Russian authorities boarded their ship and arrested the activists at gunpoint when they saw the group drive motorboats near an oil vessel owned by Russia and ExxonMobil.

Greenpeace International Executive Director, Kumi Naidoo said, “The activists were taking a brave stand to protect all of us from climate change and the dangers of reckless oil drilling in the Arctic. Now it’s imperative that millions of us stand up with them to defend the Arctic and demand their immediate release.”

For further information, please see:

CNN International – Greenpeace Vigil for ‘Arctic 30’ Held in Russia, as Dutch File Legal Case – October 5, 2013

Guardian – Worldwide Vigils for Greenpeace Activists Held by Russian Authorities – October 5, 2013

Reuters – Russia Dismisses Dutch Legal Action over Greenpeace Activists – October 5, 2013

Sydney Morning Herald – Shattering Conclusion to a Voyage of Peaceful Protest – October 5, 2013

Impunity Watch – President Putin States Activists Who Protested on Russian Oil Rig Are Not Pirates – September 25, 2013

By Ben Kopp
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

MOSCOW, Russia – In the light of health concerns, jailed Pussy Riot member, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova has begun eating again. Absent concessions, she claims the hunger strike will start again following her medical treatment.

In Russia, convicted criminals fear the Mordovia prison camps, which are described as “grim, decaying and intimidating.”

In 2012, punk rock musician and member of Pussy Riot, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova was convicted of “hooliganism” for performing a “punk prayer” critical of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was, at the time, Prime Minister.

On 23 September 2013, with about six months left on her two-year sentence, Tolokonnikova began a hunger strike. She claimed the prison conditions were intolerable in Mordovia, and demanded relocation.

Tolokonnikova sent a letter to the news site, Lenta, explaining her unsanitary “slave labor” conditions. Regardless of illness or injury, women must work up to 17 hours each day. Failure to complete their duties results in beatings or worse.

She has demanded an investigation into rights violations in her penal colony, removal of “psychological pressure” on inmates in the colony who talked about penitentiary conditions to inspectors, and her transfer to another penitentiary.

The deputy on 1 October 2013, Russian Parliamentary Deputy Ilya Ponomarev met with Tolokonnikova. According to Ponomarev, doctors feared for Tolokonnikova’s life. She had a “very visible” rash on her skin that. Without food, doctors could not treat her without antibiotics.

“She was very bad,” Ponomarev said. “They were saying that unrecoverable damage was approaching, and I think they were right.”

In any event, Tolokonnikova claims that her protest will continue if the prison camp’s conditions do not improve. “I am not ending my hunger strike, I am suspending it temporarily because my physical condition is now very bad and there are the beginnings of health complications.”

While prison authorities denied Tolokonnikova’s allegations about the camp and accused her of lying, local authorities continued their investigation into her claims.

However, former Mordovia prisoner, Svetlana Bakhmina said that she can corroborate Tolokonnikova’s allegations.

“It’s like torture,” she said. “The system between the administration and the convicts is not just based on subordination, but humiliation, fear, intimidation and physical force.”

When authorities refused to let Bakhmina call her children, she also went on a hunger strike. She said the hard part was not the hunger, it was the psychological pressure from prison authorities.

Earlier this year, Maria Alyokhina, another convicted member of Pussy Riot, went on a hunger strike to protest conditions in another prison camp. Tolokonnikova is waiting to see if she can win similar concessions as Alyokhina.

For further information, please see:

CNN International – Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Jailed Pussy Riot Member, Halts Hunger Strike – October 3, 2013

RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty – Pussy Riot Member May Resume Hunger Strike – October 3, 2013

Rolling Stone – Pussy Riot Member Was Approaching ‘Unrecoverable Damage’ – October 3, 2013

Deutsche Welle – Pussy Riot Member Ends Hunger Strike against Russian Prison Conditions – October 1, 2013

Impunity Watch – Conviction Upheld for 2 Pussy Riot Members, 1 Released – October 12, 2012

by Tony Iozzo
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

BRUSSELS, Belgium – Seven Bosnian leaders agreed to end their country’s constitutional ban on minorities running for elected office on Tuesday, which has effectively cleared the country’s last major obstacle to applying to join the European Union.

The leaders, all from Bosnia’s main political parties, met in Brussels on Tuesday and agreed of “the necessity to implement the judgment urgently by providing every Bosnia-Herzegovina citizen with the right to stand for election to…Presidency and House of Peoples,” the leaders stated in a joint statement issued on Tuesday.

In 2009, the European Court of Human Rights ruled against discrimination against minority groups such as Roma and Jewish people. Bosnia, accordingly, has been blocked from applying to the join the EU due to this former constitutional provision. This has led to an impasse in accession discussions.

The talks occurred in part because EU officials had begun issuing warnings of a cut off in potentially hundreds of millions of euros in funding from the Union that has traditionally been used on reforms and development of local infrastructure.

As Bosnia’s economy is still recovering from the 1992 to 1995 war, EU accession accession and reforms have been essential for the country to attract foreign investors to the Bosnian economy. As far as Bosnia’s former Yugoslav neighbors, Montenegro has also begun accession talks, Croatia joined the EU this past July, and Serbia is to begin discussions in January.

The ethnicity of Bosnian citizens has been a hot-button issue in the country since the mid-90’s war that killed an estimated over-100,000 people and divided the country into two autonomous regions which are linked by a weak central government. This Brussels agreement has come just as Bosnia is launching its first census as an independent state, which has partially revived ethnic rifts.

Stefan Fuele, EU enlargement chief, stated he hoped the agreement would make it possible for the European Commission to issue a positive annual report on October 16 on Bosnia’s progress towards meeting EU standards on human rights and democracy.

Fuele stated he hoped the report would “open the way for a credible application of Bosnia-Herzegovina to become a member of the European Union”.

The Bosnian leaders’ joint statement did not go into specific detail on just how or when the proposed constitutional alterations would be made. The leaders promised to work out details of the agreement before resuming talks in Brussels on October 10.

For more information, please see:

EU Observer – Bosnia to Remove Barrier for EU Membership – 2 October 2013

European Union Examiner – Bosnian Deal Clears Obstacle to EU Application – 1 October 2013

Irish Independent – Bosnia Clears Final Hurdle on Road to EU Membership – 1 October 2013

Reuters – Bosnian Deal Clears Obstacle to EU Application – 1 October 2013

 

PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Distribution

30 September 2013 – Briefings in the Swedish Parliament on the Magnitsky
justice campaign have been cancelled as a result of the Swedish
Government’s refusal to provide a safe passage guarantee to William
Browder, the leader of the campaign.

The briefings were scheduled to take place in Stockholm last week.

Mr Browder’s campaign seeks to impose visa and financial sanctions in
Sweden and across the EU on Russian officials responsible for the
Magnitsky’s false arrest, torture and killing in Russian police custody.
Such sanctions have been already imposed by the United States Government
under the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012 passed by
the US Congress. Sergei Magnitsky was arrested after he blew the whistle on
the $230 million theft with the involvement of Russian officials. Some of
the same officials Sergei Magnitsky had implicated in his testimony, were
involved in his arrest.

The Russian authorities have responded angrily to Bill Browder’s campaign
for Magnitsky sanctions by convicting him in absentia along with late
Sergei Magnitsky himself in the first-ever posthumous trial in Russian
history. The Russian authorities have also opened a spurious criminal case
against Mr Browder alleging that he “stole” Gazprom shares and harmed
Russian economic security, justifying the case by a regulation that never
stipulated criminal liability and was repealed eight years ago.

Given the sentencing in absentia of Mr Browder to 9 years in prison by the
Russian authorities alongside with the posthumous prosecution of Sergei
Magnitsky, in advance of his visit to Sweden Mr Browder sought a formal
assurance that the Swedish government will not cooperate with Russian
requests to extradite Mr Browder on a Russian warrant and will not assist
with any other Russian requests.

In a surprising development, the Swedish Justice Ministry rejected Mr
Browder’s request and stated that “The Government or the Minister may not
intervene or give instructions in these cases.”

The Swedish refusal is in contrast to safe passage letters being issued by
the German government and the Dutch government earlier this year. It also
is contrary to the INTERPOL’s refusal to post worldwide search warrant
issued by the Russian Federation on 24 May 2013 for Mr Browder when
Interpol’s independent Commission for the Control of Files determined that
the Russian warrant should be refused because the case against Mr Browder
was of a “predominantly political nature”. Interpol’s General Secretariat
made a further announcement in July 2013 that Interpol cannot be used to
arrest Mr Browder.

Mr Browder was invited to come to Sweden by Swedish MP Mats Johansson. Mr
Johansson was also the author of a petition sent to the Swedish Prime
Minister on the Magnitsky Case in 2012
(http://russian-untouchables.com/rus/docs/D398.pdf) calling for sanctions
against the Russian officials responsible for Sergei Magnitsky’s death. The
petition was co-signed by Olle Thorell, a foreign affairs spokesperson from
Social Democrats party, and Kerstin Lundgren, from the Centre Party. The
petition was supported by 59 Swedish MPs from 7 parties. The Swedish
Government has so far ignored this parliamentary call for Magnitsky
sanctions.

“The Swedish government has refused to sanction to people who killed Sergei
Magnitsky, but are effectively sanctioning me in my fight to get justice.
The perception that Sweden is a country that fights for human rights is
profoundly challenged in the way the Swedish government is dealing with the
Magnitsky case,” said William Browder.

“Sweden should be supporting human rights activists with a just cause, not
hindering them. We should not be giving in to Russian pressure when
fundamental human rights issues are at stake,” said Mats Johansson, MP.

Mr Johansson was also one of the initiators of the Magnitsky Declaration at
the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe two years ago, which
was supported by 53 deputies from 29 countries (
http://assembly.coe.int/Mainf.asp?link=/Documents/WorkingDocs/Doc11/EDOC12744.htm
), calling upon the Russian government to cease the posthumous prosecution
of Mr Magnitsky and the intimidation of his family and to allow the family
access to his medical archive for an independent evaluation. Since then,
the Russian authorities prosecuted Mr Magnitsky posthumously, pressured his
relatives with summonses and questioning, and refused them access to his
medical archive.

For further information, please see:

Law and Order in Russia

by Tony Iozzo
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

PARIS, France – Interpol has issued an arrest warrant for Samantha Lewthwaite, for her possible connection to a terrorist attack on a Kenyan mall last week that resulted in 72 deaths.

Lewthwaite, a British citizen dubbed the “White Widow,” was already wanted for charges of explosion possession and conspiracy to commit a felony as a result of an incident in Kenya in 2011.

Kenyan authorities believe that Lewthwaite was connected to an additional plot to attack places of public accommodation- restaurants and hotels. They believe the “White Widow” rented several houses in Mombasa to use to assemble the explosives.

Kenya’s foreign minister has stated that Lewthwaite took part in last week’s mall siege with the Qaeda-linked terrorist group, al-Shabab. A British security source, however, has stated that “it is a possibility” that Lewthwaite was involved.

Lewthwaite was originally married to one of the suicide bombers involved in the attack on the London subway system in 2005, which left 52 people dead. Lewthwaite stated in September 2005 that her husband had fallen under the control of radical mosques. “How these people could have turned him and poisoned his mind is dreadful. He was an innocent, naive and simple man. I suppose he must have been an ideal candidate.”

Lewthwaite is believed to have been using the alias ‘Natalie Faye Webb’ for several years while living in South Africa. Kenyan police suspected Lewthwaite was working with Musa Hussein Abdi, killed with an Al Qaeda boss in Somalia in June 2011, in the alleged 2011 Kenya attack plot.

In December 2011, authorities tracked down a woman they thought to be Lewthwaite in Abdi’s house but let her go after she showed them a South African passport. Police later realized the passport was fake, and returned to the house, but she had left.

Lewthwaite, 29, converted to Islam in her teens and went on to study religion and politics at the School Of Oriental and African Studies in London. Local city councilor Raj Khan, who knew Lewthwaite’s relatives in Aylesbury, recalled her as “an average, British, young, ordinary girl.”

For more information, please see:

Al Jazeera – Interpol Issues Warrant for UK Woman – 27 September 2013

Fox News – Interpol Issues Arrest Warrant for “White Widow” Eyed In Kenya Terrorist Attack – 26 September 2013

The Guardian – “White Widow”: Interpol Arrest Warrant Issued for Samantha Lewthwaite – 26 September 2013

Mirror News – White Widow Samantha Lewthwaite Becomes World’s Most Wanted Woman After Interpol Issues Arrest Warrant for British Terror Suspect – 26 September 2013