By Ben Kopp
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

KIEV, Ukraine – In response to public outrage over the alleged rape of a woman by two policemen, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych promised that people in privileged positions will not escape justice.

On 26 June 2013, two police officers allegedly raped Irina Krashova on her way home. The 29-year-old mother received a fractured skull, cuts and bruises. Krashova provided a clear statement that identified her attackers. However, the first arrest took place four days later, and an accused officer remained free for much longer after claiming he was on duty.

“This is not true,” Krashova said. “I know 100 percent that he was there. Because he was the first to rape me; he beat me and called me all kinds of names.”

On 1 July, a police officer was released from pretrial detention. In response, 1000 protestors stormed a police station with Molotov cocktails. Police fought the protesters with tear gas and rubber bullets.

Locals allege that, to produce better statistics, the initial investigators beat confessions out of innocent people.

Ukrainians are deeply frustrated with official corruption and a sense that the police and state officials sit above the law. Last year, a teenage girl was raped and set on fire in Krashova’s region. Protests were sparked after Ukrainians learned that two released suspects were the children of former government officials.

Many Ukrainians still believe the ruling elite dictates what constitutes justice. At the hospital where Krashova was treated, senior medical officials pressured professionals to falsify her medical records, downplay her injuries, and question her lifestyle. Public outrage intensified upon allegations that senior police officials also attempted to hide key evidence.

Since the protest, three suspects have been arrested, including two police officers.

“I will not tolerate impunity, especially when it comes to those who should protect people and not violate any laws,” President Yanukovych announced. “Those who are guilty have no place in law enforcement. They should be punished with all the rigour of the law.”

By 4 July, Yanukovych appointed Olena Lukash as the new justice minister. Lukash replaces Oleksandr Lavrynovych, who was recently elected as a member of the Supreme Council of Justice of Ukraine.

Ukrainian Interior Minister Vitaly Zakharchenko fired a public prosecutor and two senior regional police officers. However, he offered no apology to the victim’s family.

Investigators believe Krashova’s case could assist several unsolved crimes in the Vradiyevka district. Thus far, investigators have arrested the deputy head of the regional police in connection with the Krashova case as well as four other murders over the past three years, including the murder of a 15-year-old girl.

While protests for Krashova initiated a stronger investigation, one wonders how long President Yanukovych’s promise will last, or if instead the promise will both last and spread to other regions of the country.

For further information, please see:

Scotsman – Rape Claims against Ukranian Police Lead to Riots – 5 July 2013

RadioFreeEurope RadioLiberty – Ukrainian President Appoints New Justice Minister – 4 July 2013

Euro News – Ukraine: Two Police Officers Named as Suspects in Rape Case – 3 July 2013

InSerbia News – Ukraine: Policeman Accused of Raping 29-year-old Woman Staying in Jail – 3 July 2013

RadioFreeEurope RadioLiberty – Ukrainian Policeman Suspected in High-Profile Rape Case Arrested – 3 July 2013

RT News – ‘I wanted to die’: Police Gang Rape Case Ignites Ukraine – 3 July 2013

RadioFreeEurope RadioLiberty — Ukrainian Protesters Demand Justice for Rape Victim – 2 July 2013

PRESS RELEASE

3 July 2013 – Today, the Russian prosecutor has asked the Tverskoi court in Moscow to declare that Sergei Magnitsky was guilty and that he should be refused rehabilitation. The request was made during the last session of the trial of Sergei Magnitsky who has been deceased for three and a half years after being tortured and killed in police custody.

The prosecutor asked the court not to apply any punishment to Sergei Magnitsky, and to cease the case with the verdict of guilty and no chance of future rehabilitation.

“Magnitsky is fully incriminated, and there are no grounds for his rehabilitation,” said prosecutor according to Interfax news agency (http://www.interfax.ru/russia/txt.asp?id=316392).

“We are witnessing a Kafka show trial in real time,” said a Hermitage Capital representative.

The court will announce its decision next week, on 11 July. The presiding judge in the Tverskoi District Court in Moscow is Igor Alisov, the same judge who refused in 2011 to hear the application from Sergei Magnitsky’s mother who challenged the posthumous proceeding against her son as immoral and being contrary to the Russian Constitution. Magnitsky’s mother has since received a letter from the Constitutional Court which reiterated that the posthumous proceedings are only allowed at the relatives’ request and only for the purpose of rehabilitation. In this case, the posthumous trial was initiated by the prosecutor’s office against the will of Magnitsky’s family.

Judge Igor Alisov was also responsible in 2011 for exonerating all officials implicated by Sergei Magnitsky in the theft of Hermitage Fund’s companies and their $230 million tax payments. Instead, in a fast-track hearing in which he heard no evidence, he placed the blame for the $230 million theft on an unemployed ex convict, Mr Khlebnikov, relying exclusively on Mr Khlebnikov’s own testimony.

The posthumous trial against Sergei Magnitsky has been condemned by numerous international bodies, including Amnesty International and International Bar Association.

For further information, please see:

Law and Order in Russia

By Ben Kopp
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

BRUSSELS, European Union – The European community has related US surveillance to Cold War behavior that threatens privacy and trade agreements. Simultaneously, the EU’s highest court vetoed the “right to be forgotten” when it comes to Google and other entities that are not “controllers” of information.

On June 6, Edward Snowden revealed Prism and Tempora, US and UK surveillance programs that received mass data from several companies operating with similar capacities in both the US and Europe.

Through Tempora, the UK taps into approximately 200 cables that connect Britain to the global internet. While holding content for three days and metadata for thirty days, British and US authorities filtered everything to discover information of interest. Additionally, Britain is considered one of the world leaders in CCTV, which monitors public spaces.

Professor Richard J. Aldrich of Warwick University in Britain said, “It’s about what the CIA calls the electronic exhaust fumes of our lives, and the algorithms that allow patterns to be found.”

While the US generally considers privacy a matter of liberty, the European Convention on Human Rights and UK’s Human Rights Act require European countries to respect the right to private life.

In response to the programs, EU officials demanded more details as assurances that fundamental privacy rights were not violated.

European countries issued various responses, based on their legal and historical philosophies. Germany has been particularly sensitive about its citizens’ privacy since the Soviet Era. Previously, Germany has forced Google to allow citizens to blur their own homes on “Street View” of Google Maps. France, Italy and Greece also expressed outrage upon learning that they were targets of US surveillance. Nevertheless, no country has granted Snowden asylum.

In a state visit by US President Barack Obama to Germany, President Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed on the benefits of sharing surveillance and intelligence. “Although we do see the need for information gathering,” said Chancellor Merkel, “there needs to be due diligence.”

Frank La Rue, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Freedom of Expression and Opinion urged countries to consider communications surveillance as “a highly intrusive act that potentially interferes with the rights to freedom of expression and privacy and threatens the foundations of a democratic society.”

Nevertheless, on June 25, the EU’s highest court ruled against the European “right to be forgotten” on the internet. In that case, a Spanish man complained that Google refused to delete the auction for his repossessed house from searches. Google argued that there are “clear societal reasons why this kind of information should be publicly available.”

Advocate General Niilo Jääskinen stated in his opinion that “[r]equesting search engine service providers to suppress legitimate and legal information that has entered the public domain would entail an interference with the freedom of expression.”

Where Britain, through the BBC, could make surveillance of “legitimate and legal information” part of the public domain and argue that both national security and government transparency require the information’s availability, the lines marking the reasonableness of secret and confidential surveillance are blurred.

For further information, please see:

CNN International – Snowden’s Asylum Options Dwindle – 2 July 2013

Al Jazeera – Bugging row threatens EU-US trade deal – 1 July 2013

Al Jazeera – UK Surveillance Exposes Lack of Privacy – 28 June 2013

Reuters – German Minister Challenges Britain over Spying Program – 26 June 2013

BBC News – Google Not Obliged to Delete Data, Rules EU Lawyer – 25 June 2013

The Independent – EU Court Rules in Google’s Favour: ‘Right to be Forgotten’ – 25 June 2013

Reuters – UPDATE 1-Google Vindicated by EU Court Opinion on Search Index – 25 June 2013

Reuters – UPDATE 2-Google Vindicated by EU Court Opinion on Search Results – 25 June 2013

New York Times – Obama Says Surveillance Helped in Case in Germany – 19 June 2013

The Sydney Morning Herald – Germany Widens Its Web of Surveillance – 17 June 2013

New York Times – Differing Views on Privacy Shape Europe’s Response to U.S. Surveillance Program – 14 June 2013

Bloomberg Businessweek – Europeans Ask if Prism Has Been Spying on Them, Too – 11 June 2013

The Guardian – Europe Warns US: You Must Respect the Privacy of Our Citizens – 11 June 2013

The Guardian – Prism Scandal: European Commission to Seek Privacy Guarantees from US – 10 June 2013

by Tony Iozzo
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

ROME, Italy – The director of the Vatican bank and his deputy resigned Monday amidst a financial scandal that has led to a prelate and an Italian Secret Service Officer being arrested by Italian authorities.

The prelate, Monsignor Nunzio Scarano, the bishop of Salerno, and the secret service agent, Giovanni Maria Zito, were detained after an investigation arising out of a three-year examination into the Vatican Bank.

Italian prosecutors allege that the men planned to sneak $26 million into Italy and avoid facing financial controls on the money. They allegedly hired a private plane last July with the intention of bringing the cash from Switzerland to Italy, where the money was to be picked up by Zito, who, by virtue of his position as a Secret Service Agent, would not be required to declare it at the border.

According to reports, Scarano needed the money to pay off a personal mortgage, and was advised to ask 56 friends to accept 10,000 euros each to launder the money and inconspicuously hide it.

The Vatican bank, known as the Institute for Religious Works (IOR), saw its director, Paolo Cipriani, as well as its deputy director, Massimo Tulli, step down “in the best interest of the institute and the Holy See,” the Vatican said in a statement.

The IOR has been under strict scrutiny amid concerns that it was being used as an offshore tax haven. It has undergone drastic changes in an effort to adhere to international norms to fight money laundering and terror financing. The “old guard” management of the bank did not always whole-heartedly conform to the scrutiny, and Monday’s resignations represent a final overthrow of the “old guard” management.

The European Union and the United States have notified countries that they would no longer tolerate tax havens such as Switzerland and Luxembourg. Pope Francis and Pope Benedict XVI have tried to bring the bank into compliance with European norms so that it can use the euro. As such, the Vatican has been complying with investigators on the case, which has largely been unprecedented its history as a sovereign entity.

In years past, the Vatican has refused to assist in investigations into a murder, a kidnapping, and an assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II.

“This time the collaboration is real, and the Vatican has announced that it would do its own internal investigation,” a Turin reporter indicated.

A commission of cardinals was appointed by Pope Francis that will report on further activities of the IOR and collect both confidential and non-confidential information on the bank.

For more information, please see:

BBC News – Vatican Bank Director and Deputy Resign Amid Scandal – 1 July 2013

Yahoo News – Vatican Bank Director, Deputy Resign Amid Scandal – 1 July 2013

Al Jazeera – Vatican Cleric Arrested in Corruption Case – 28 June 2013

Corriere – Prelate and Secret Service Officer Arrested in Vatican Bank Inquiry – 28 June 2013

New York Times – Cleric Arrested in $26 Million Bank Plot, Leaving New Blot on Vatican Bank – 28 June 2013

 

by Tony Iozzo
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

LONDON, England – British Prime Minister David Cameron ordered an investigation into a former undercover police officer’s claims that he was ordered to spy on the family of the black victim of one of Britain’s most notorious racially-motivated murders.

The former police officer, Peter Francis, has stated that superior officers at Scotland Yard, formally the Metropolitan Police Service, ordered him to investigate and find any information that could be used against the members of the victim’s family, specifically to determine whether any individuals were political activists, involved in public demonstrations, or drug dealers.

The victim, 18 year old Stephen Lawrence, was stabbed to death at a London bus stop on April 22, 1993. He and his friend, Duwayne Brooks, were waiting for a bus on their way home from night classes, and were victimized by a white youth-gang.

Francis, who reported to The Guardian newspaper on Monday, said that he posed as an anti-racist activist with three other officers and infiltrated the Youth Against Racism in Europe, a group led by Lawrence’s parents that held protests.

Francis said that the spying was to discredit the Lawrence family’s campaign against racial violence because senior officers believed that the public protests could trigger Rodney King-esque rioting similar to the events in Los Angeles in 1992.

“They wanted the campaign to stop. It was felt that it was going to turn into an elephant,” Francis stated.

These allegations are the latest controversy in a case that has had its fair share. An official report by a high court judge found that “institutional racism” via insensitivity and lack of investigative rigor tainted the original investigation. Last year, 19 years after the killing, two men were convicted of the murder.

Cameron has promised that government investigators would “get rapidly to the bottom of what’s happened” and “get the full truth out.”

“To hear that, potentially, the police that were meant to be helping them were actually undermining them-that’s horrific,” Cameron stated.

Home secretary Theresa May, the overseer of policing in Britain, has stated that two existing probes into police misconduct would investigate Francis’ claims.

Bugged Meetings

Amid these assertions by Francis, an additional claim has surfaced, suggesting that the Metropolitan Police secretly recorded its officers’ meetings with Brooks, the friend of Lawrence who was with him the night of the killing in 1993.

BBC reported on Tuesday that a senior police source from the Metropolitan Police stated that orders were given to record two meetings between Brooks, his lawyers, and the police officers.

Brooks’ lawyer, Jane Deighton, stated that she was under the impression that the purpose of the meetings were to brief Brooks and her colleagues on the progress of the investigation into Lawrence’s murder.

“Under the guise of briefing us they were covertly recording us.”

Scotland Yard said it was investigating these additional claims and treating them with “huge seriousness.”

For more information, please see:

BBC News – Lawrence Friend Duwayne Brooks “Bugged by Police” – 25 June 2013

The Guardian – Stephen Lawrence’s Mother to Meet Home Secretary Over Smear Claims – 25 June 2013

The Independent – Stephen Lawrence Case Witness Was Secretly Recorded by Police – 25 June 2013

Al Jazeera – UK Police Spied on Race Victim’s Family – 24 June 2013

New York Times – In Britain, New Inquiry is Ordered in Bias Killing – 24 June 2013

New York Times – Two Sentenced to Prison in Racial Killing That Scarred Britain – 4 January 2012