News

Ugandan Officers Force Rwandan Refugee to Return to Country he Fled

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

KAMPALA, Uganda – A Rwandan refugee was forcibly returned to Rwanda by Ugandan police after he went missing for six days. The refugee, Joel Mutabazi, is now in police custody in Rwanda in an undisclosed location.

Photo Courtesy of Operation World.

Mutabazi had been living in a “safe house” under Ugandan police protection before going missing.

Uganda’s conduct is a violation of Mutabazi’s refugee status and raises concerns about Mutabazi’s safety in Rwanda.

Mutabazi has survived an abduction in Uganda, as well as an assassination attempt, in which both cases the perpetrators were unknown. The Ugandan police were aware of these incidents and agreed to provide him with 24-hour security protection.

Ugandan authorities say they are investigating the incident and have suspended the Ugandan officer who arrested Mutabazi and erroneously handed him over to Rwandan authorities.

An Ugandan representative for the United Nations refugee agency, Mohammed Adar, said that Mutabazi’s case was not subjected to judicial review before he was handed over to Rwandan authorities.

“We don’t understand how he managed to get out of the country and how he was handed over to the Rwandan government,” he said. “He survived two attempts in the past to take him back to his country . . . We are concerned about his safety.”

Rwandan police are holding Mutabazi in an undisclosed location after he was arrested by Ugandan police and handed over to Rwandan authorities. The Human Rights Watch is concerned he will receive an unfair trial like “other alleged criminal suspects whom the government accused of having links with the opposition.”

Rwandan officials have previously said that Mutabazi, a Rwandan army lieutenant who served President Paul Kagame’s security detail before defecting, was wanted back home over alleged robbery charges. He is accused of robbing a bank in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, more than two years ago.

They also claim Mutabazi is accused of terrorism and was the subject of an international arrest warrant issued by Rwanda. But the Ugandan government statements admits that handing Mutabazi to Rwanda without court proceedings is contrary to “established legal procedure” and the “Police Code of Conduct.”

“The Ugandan police have utterly failed to protect this refugee, who was clearly at serious risk,” said Daniel Bekele, Africa director. “It’s unconscionable that they handed him over summarily to the police force of the country whose persecution he fled.”

Human Rights Watch says that Ugandan authorities should immediately put in place effective measures to protect Rwandan refugees and asylum seekers, particularly those whose security is at risk. The Ugandan authorities urgent should complete the investigation they have announced into Mutabazi’s handover to Rwanda and publish its findings without delay.

Further, Human Rights Watch states that Mutabazi should be transferred back to Uganda and subject to a formal extradition procedure in a Ugandan court, including consideration of the human rights implications of the transfer and his refugee status.

Many journalists and former civilian and military officials have fled Rwanda, alleging persecution. In the most prominent case, Gen. Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa, a Rwandan army chief who once was a close Kagame ally, defected to South Africa in 2010 and later accused Rwanda’s government of ordering a failed attempt to assassinate him. Rwanda denied the allegations.

For more information, please visit:

Human Rights Watch – Uganda/Rwanda: Forcible Return Raises Grave Concerns – 4 November 2013
allAfrica – Uganda/Rwanda – Forcible Return Raises Grave Concerns – Rwandan Government Should Ensure Returnee’s Safety, Fair Trial – 4 November 2013
Topix – Uganda/Rwanda: Forcible Return Raises Grave Concerns – 4 November 2013
Zimbio – Uganda/Rwanda: Forcible Return Raises Grave Concerns – 4 November 2013
azfamily.com – Rwandan in Uganda sent home despite safety fears – 5 November 2013
abc News – Rwandan in Uganda Sent Home Despite Safety Fears – 5 November 2013
St. Louis Today – Rwandan in Uganda sent home despite safety fears – 5 November 2013
SRN News – Rwandan in Uganda sent home despite safety fears – 5 November 2013

 

Seven Members of Austrian Neo-Nazi Party Convicted of “Re-Engagement with National Socialism”

by Tony Iozzo
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

VIENNA, Austria – Seven members of the Austrian Neo-Nazi Political Party, “Object 21” were sentenced to up to six years in prison for “re-engagement with National Socialism.”

Jewish Man Protesting the Nazi Movement in Paris. (Photo courtesy of The Jerusalem Post)

The judge started at the conviction that these convictions should serve as an example to the rest of the country. Austria, which has a sensitive Nazi past, criminalized re-engagement with National Socialism in 1947.

The members of the Object 21 Party were convicted on late Monday. The prosecution’s witnesses linked the Party members to an illegal prostitution scheme. The trial had been held in the Upper Austria province.

The prosecution and police, who had surveyed the Party since 2009, stated that the Object 21 party is known for committing widespread arson attacks, dealing weapons and drugs, and the prostitution scheme.

The prosecution’s evidence included a video showing the Party members giving a “Sieg Heil” salutes in their meeting building, known as the “Arms Factory”. The two main members of the group were sentenced to four and six years in jail, respectively, and stated they intend to appeal the conviction. The others were given sentences of between 18 months and two and a half years. All seven members of Object 21 had pleaded not guilty.

The presiding judge had been reportedly quoted as saying the sentences were meant to have a “preventative” impact on anyone “tempted” by Neo-Nazism. A spokeswoman for the prosecution stated investigations will continue into suspected crimes by other Neo- Nazi gang members.

Austria became a democratic country shortly after World War II by passing the Anti-Nazi Prohibition Act, after the country had been a part of Hitler’s Nazi Third Reich from 1938 to 1945. In 1992, the Act was broadened to criminalize denying the Holocaust ever occurred, as well as minimizing the effects of any Nazi crimes.

In its 2012 annual report, Austria’s BVT, its counter-terrorism agency, downplayed the imminent threat of Neo-Nazi crimes, issuing a statement that a legal crackdown had deprived the Nazi revisionist movement of its leaders. With the Neo-Nazi’s suspected ringleaders on trial, right-wing radical Nazis kept a low profile, but in many regions were gaining ties with criminal gangs, the Austrian BVT said.

Austria’s far-right Freedom Party, which got more than one-fifth of the vote in the September general election, rejects Neo-Nazi ideology but attracts some sympathizers with its anti-foreigner and anti-Islam rhetoric.

For more information, please see:

ABC News – Austrian Court Finds 7 Guilty of Neo-Nazi Crimes – 5 November 2013

BBC News – Austria Court Jails Seven Members of Neo-Nazi Group – 5 November 2013

Yahoo News, UK & Ireland – Austrian Neo-Nazi Group Members Get up to Six Years’ Prison – 5 November 2013

The Jerusalem Post – Austrian Neo-Nazi Group Members Get up to Six Years’ Prison – 5 November 2013

 

 

Bangladesh Court Sentences Hundreds to Death for 2009 Mutiny

By Brian Lanciault
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

DHAKA, Bangladesh–A special court in Bangladesh sentenced 152 soldiers to death Tuesday for participation in a 2009 military mutiny in which dozens of military officers were massacred. Human rights groups have criticized the mass trial, claiming that the process falls well below the international legal standard.

Handcuffed Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) soldiers arrive at the special court in Dhaka to hear the verdict against them on November 5, 2013. (Photo Courtesy AFP)

At the special court in Dhaka on Tuesday, Judge Mohammad Akhtaruzzaman sentenced an additional 157 people, mostly border guards, to life in prison for their role in the 33-hour mutiny, while another 271 soldiers were acquitted.

“The atrocities were so heinous that even the dead bodies were not given their rights,” Akhtaruzzaman said as he started to read out the verdicts.

Approximately 823 soldiers were alleged to have taken part in the killing of 74 people, who were hacked to death or tortured and burnt alive, then dumped in sewers and shallow graves.

Security was tight at the specially-built court in Dhaka, with police and the elite Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) officers deployed outside, before the verdict’s announcement.

Prosecutors had sought the death penalty for a majority of the 823 soldiers charged with murder, torture, conspiracy and other offences over the mutiny that started at the paramilitary Bangladeshi Rifles (BDR) headquarters in Dhaka.

Nearly 6,000 soldiers have already been jailed by dozens of special courts over similar events that spread from the Dhaka headquarters to other BDR bases around the country.

The 823 soldiers were selected for prosecution in a civilian court after they were found guilty before military courts for their role in the mutiny.

At least twenty-three civilians have been charged with criminal conspiracy.

Baharul Islam, the lead prosecutor, said the case was the largest of its type in the world, with hundreds of witnesses participating in the trial that started in January 2011 and finished in October this year.

“So far as we know it’s the largest case in the world’s history. There were 654 prosecution witnesses,” Islam said before the verdict.

The verdict was delayed last week after the judge said he needed more time to finish writing it.

During the uprising, the mutineers stole an estimated 2,500 weapons and broke into an annual meeting of top BDR officers before opening fire on them at point blank range.

As the mutiny spread, it posed a serious threat to the new government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who had been elected only one month previously.

The cause of the violence is uncertain but pent-up anger over poor benefits and resentment by soldiers against BDR senior officers has generally been considered as the main factor.

New York-based Human Rights Watch criticized the Bangladesh authorities for the mass trial, saying it would not ensure justice, and suggested that the trial implicated grave violations of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

The group says the violations include torture and other abuse while in custody in order to extract confessions and statements.

Human Rights Watch reported at least 47 suspects had died in custody while the surviving suspects have had limited access to lawyers, and to knowledge of the charges and evidence against them.

“Trying hundreds of people en masse in one giant courtroom, where the accused have little or no access to lawyers is an affront to international legal standards,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, in a statement on Oct. 29.

Those sentenced to death are set to be hanged to death, though no time frame has been established.  Defense attorneys for several of the convicted have already begun the appeals process.

For more information, please see:

Reuters– Bangladesh court sentences 152 to death for 2009 mutiny — 5 November 2013

Al Jazeera– Bangladesh sentences hundreds to death, life in prison in mutiny verdict — 5 November 2013

CNN– 152 soldiers sentenced to die for mutiny in Bangladesh — 5 November 2013

Gulf News– Bangladesh court sentences 150 former soldiers to death — 5 November 2013

Report Says Russian Pussy Riot Prisoner Transferred to New Penal Colony

By Ben Kopp
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

MOSCOW, Russia – Reports show that Pussy Riot member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova was transferred to another penal colony following her demands for a transfer.

Following nearly two weeks of demands to see Tolokonnikova, a report indicates that she was transferred to a new penal colony, which is consistent with her previous demands. (Photo courtesy of BBC News)

In 2012, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova’s punk rock band and protest group Pussy Riot staged a politically provocative performance in Moscow’s main Orthodox cathedral. Tolokonnikova has been serving a two-year sentence as a result of that performance, based on a conviction for hooliganism. While another band member has also been serving a sentence, their third member was released on appeal.

While Pussy Riot’s performance was considered blasphemous, their prosecution created an international outcry for their release.

In September 2013, Tolokonnikova went on a hunger strike against her treatment in the Mordovia penal colony, which included death threats from a colony official, as well as “slave-labor conditions.” She ended the hunger strike after becoming hospitalized.

Nearly two weeks ago, Tolokonnikova demanded that she be transferred to another penitentiary. Pyotr Verzilov, Tolokonnikova’s husband, says that nobody has heard from her since that time.

Verzilov said that Tolokonnikova is still weak from her last hunger strike, and he accused authorities of punishing her for protesting.

The last time Verzilov knew of his wife’s location, she had passed through Chelyabinsk in the Urals.
According to the Interfax news agency, Russia’s prison service sent Pussy Riot member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova to a new penal colony. Interfax further reported that, in accordance with regulations, Tolokonnikova’s family would be informed within 10 days of arrival. The Associated Press could not reach Interfax officials for comment.

“According to a decision made by FSIN [Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service] in regards to changing Nadezhda Tolokonnikova’s location: she is currently being moved to a different correctional facility,” an FSIN official told Interfax news agency. “Upon arrival to a particular institution, one of the relatives, chosen by Tolokonnikova, will be given the information.”

Verzilov contends that it has been thirteen days since he last saw his wife. “They want to cut her off from the outside world,” Verzilov said. “Basically, we are applying the tactic we’ve been applying the last two years, (which) is to draw as much international attention as possible. We are trying to make authorities follow the law, when they do not follow it.”

On November 2, demonstrators picketed the headquarters of the prison service in Moscow.

“We are people who want to drastically change the political system in Russia and put an end to the Putin regime in this country,” Verzilov said. “We do what we feel we have to do, and after the government makes us pay the price they feel we should pay.”

Absent access to Tolokonnikova, her family might claim that Russia has forced her to disappear. However, they will have to wait for further evidence to suggest that Russia is taking such actions.

For further information, please see:

CNN International – Imprisoned Pussy Riot Band Member Transferred to Another Prison – November 4, 2013

Euronews – Russian Prison Service Announces Transfer of Pussy Riot Member – November 3, 2013

RT – Pussy Riot Member Tolokonnikova Being Moved to New Prison – Officials – November 3, 2013

Al Jazeera – Jailed Pussy Riot Member Cut Off from Contact, Husband Says – November 2, 2013

BBC – Pussy Riot: Tolokonnikova ‘Out of Sight’ Since Jail Move – November 2, 2013

RadioFreeEurope RadioLiberty – Pussy Rioter Not Heard from in Two Weeks – November 2, 2013

TIME – Pussy Riot Member Moved to New Prison – November 2, 2013

Washington Post – Report: Pussy Riot Member Tolokonnikova Being Sent to New Prison – November 2, 2013

U.S. Military Doctors Aid In Torturing Detainees

By Brandon Cottrell
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

WASHINGTON, D.C., United States – According to a study released this morning by a nineteen member independent task force of doctors, lawyers, and ethicists, U.S. military doctors designed, enabled, and engaged in the torture of suspected terrorists held at American detention centers in Guantanamo Bay, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

A photo taken inside of Guantanamo Bay (Photo Courtesy The Guardian).

The torture, which violates globally recognized ethics and medical principles, which bar physicians from inflicting harm, is believed to have occurred for the past decade.  The study reports that physicians, psychiatrists, and psychologists, who work for U.S. military branches or intelligence agencies, allowed “cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment” of prisoners while acting at the direction of military leaders under both the Bush and Obama administrations.

Some of the torture practices include force-feeding detainees who were hunger striking.  Human rights advocates have long protested the way that the detainees are forced feed – a tube is inserted into the nose of a chair-restrained detainee and food is then pushed through that hose and into the body – as being inhumane.  Additionally, the use of these “very coercive restrain chairs” violates the ethical standards of the World Medical Association.  The Pentagon, however, said the force-feeding is lawful.

Other finds include abusive interrogation techniques including “consulting on conditions of confinement to increase the disorientation and anxiety of detainees.”  Other tactics included inducing hopelessness, psychologically dislocating the detainee to maximize vulnerability, and reducing or eliminating his will to resist.

Dr. Gerald Thomson called the report a “big striking horror” and also said that the “covenant between society and medicine has been around for a long, long, time – patient first, community first, society first, not national security.”

Arthur Caplan, head of medical ethics at NYU Langone Medical Center, however, does not think that these “people go to work every day and say ‘I’m doing something terrible’ . . . [rather they] say ‘I want to fight terrorism.’  They think they’re doing the right thing.”

A spokesman for the Department of Defense, however, called the report “wholly absurd” and stated that it is “worth noting that other than the habeas counsel . . . not one of the task force claimants have had actual access to the detainees, their medical records, or the procedures.”  The White House has also discredited the report.

The spokesman also added that, “The health care providers . . . routinely provide not only better medical care than any of these detainees have ever known, but care on par with the very best of the global medical profession, [they] are consummate professionals working under terrifically stressful conditions, far from home and their families, and with patients who have been extraordinarily violent.”

David Rothman, president of the Institute on Medicine as a Profession, in a statement said “Putting on a uniform does not and should not abrogate the fundamental principles of medical professionalism . . . “do not harm” and “put patient interest first” must apply to all physicians regardless of where they practice.”

Fore more information, please see:

BBC – Doctors Aided US Torture At Military Prisons, Report Says – 4 November 2013

CNN – Report Raps Doctors Over Roles In Post-9/11 Interrogations – 4 November 2013

The Guardian – CIA Made Doctors Torture Suspected Terrorists After 9/11, Taskforce Finds – 3 November 2013

NBC News – ‘Big, Striking Horror:’ US Military Doctors Allowed Torture Of Detainees, New Study Claims – 4 November 2013