News

Hundreds of Migrants Detained in Russia After Protests Over Murder of Citizen Allegedly by Migrant

by Tony Iozzo
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

MOSCOW, Russia – Russian authorities have detained over 1,600 immigrants in Moscow, apparently in response to a protest lobbying for increase policing of ethnic immigrants all throughout Russia.

Hundreds of migrants were detained in Moscow on Monday. (Photo courtesy of NY Times)

Roughly 200 Russians in the Biryulyovo district organized a protest to call for stricter policing of minority immigrants. This was the second day of protests in Russia after the fatal stabbing of a Russian citizen that many believe was conducted by an immigrant.

Yegor Shcherbakov, 25 years old, was stabbed in front of his fiancé last Thursday while they were on their way home in the Biryulyovo district of Moscow, according to police. Surveillance cameras in the area have been examined and suggest the suspect could either be from Central Asia or from the Caucasus region.

Sunday’s demonstration broke out with nationalist chants of “white power” and “Russia for Russians.” The protest quickly escalated into an attack on migrant workers at a vegetable stand in the Biryulyovo district. About 380 people were eventually arrested after demonstrators smashed windows and set fire to shops, and had beaten many migrant workers.

“We are scared to walk the streets at night. [The immigrants] are always attacking, stealing from and killing people. They don’t even abide by basic rules like stopping at a red light,” stated one protestor, Alexei Zhuravlyov.

Apparently in response to Sunday’s protest and attack, Russian police rounded up 1,200 immigrants on Monday at a wholesale vegetable market employing immigrants in Biryulyovo. An additional 450 immigrants were detained in northeastern Moscow, also near a vegetable market employing immigrant workers. Police said all the immigrants were detained in order to check whether they were involved in any wrongdoing, but they have not been accused of any specific crime.

Human Rights and Advocacy groups have warned immigrants from those Russian regions of an increased risk of attacks in the worst ethnic disturbance in Moscow in years.

“The nationalists are pursuing their political goals. This is clearly very dangerous. We are warning migrants to be careful for now in crowded areas and on public transportation,” said Mukhamad Amin, head of the Federation of Migrants of Russia.

For more information, please see:

Al-Jazeera – Russia Detains Scores of Migrants After Riots – 15 October 2013

BBC News – Migrants Arrested in Moscow Raids – 14 October 2013

NY Times – Moscow Police Round Up Targets of Riot at Market – 14 October 2013

Russia Tomorrow – Over 380 Detained After Anti-Migrant Riot in Southern Moscow – 13 October 2013

The Voice of Russia – Police Detain 380 People After Anti-Migrant Riot in Southern Moscow – 13 October 2013

 

 

Conviction of Wheelchair-bound Airport Bomber Generates Controversy

By Brian Lanciault
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BEIJING, China– Ji Zhongxing, a paralyzed Chinese man who detonated a home-made bomb in Beijing’s airport after trying to draw attention to a nearly decade-long legal battle, was sentenced to six years in jail. The verdict has sparked widespread sympathy and anger.

Ji Zhongxing, partially paralyzed, awaits sentencing for allegedly detonating a bomb in Beijing Airport. (Photo Courtesy of AP)

A Beijing court found Ji Zhongxing, 34, guilty of intentionally causing an explosion, Ji’s lawyer, Liu Xiaoyuan, told Reuters by telephone. State media confirmed the sentence.

Ji detonated the bomb at Beijing airport in July after he was prohibited from handing out leaflets that drew attention to his complaints. His case resonated with many Chinese citizens seeking justice in an inflexible political system.

Ji, from eastern Shandong province, had been seeking redress for an alleged beating by police in southern Guangdong province in 2005 that left him wheelchair-bound. He had been petitioning for justice ever since.

Detonating the bomb at Beijing’s main airport ensured widespread exposure for Ji. Fortunately, the only people hurt were Ji and a policeman who sustained mild wounds.

Ji faced a maximum sentence of 10 years.

“We believe that this verdict is questionable,” Liu said, adding that Ji did not intend to blow up the airport or commit suicide.

“During the trial, (authorities) did not seek to find out the facts,” Liu said. “Although it was mentioned in the verdict statement, they never fully considered or discovered the cause of the bombing at the airport.”

Liu said Ji, who was brought into court on a stretcher, would consider appealing the conviction. He has 10 days to file a timely appeal. Ji’s father, Ji Darong, suggested to reporters that there would be an appeal against what he described as “this injustice”.

“We refuse to accept this,” said Ji Zhongji, Ji Zhongxing’s brother. “In Guangdong he was beaten and nobody did anything for eight years. Shouldn’t they investigate that?”

Ji’s sentence comes weeks after the execution of a Chinese kebab vendor, convicted of killing two city officials, sparked public criticism of a justice system. Critics claim the system operates to punish the poor harshly while letting the rich and powerful off more lightly.

Dozens of police officers stood guard outside the courthouse and cordoned off a large area, preventing his supporters from massing outside as they had done during Ji’s trial in September.

Zhao Min, a petitioner from northern Hebei province, said she supports Ji “because he’s a disabled person who tried to push forward fairness in the legal system”.

“He only did it because he had no alternative,” Zhao told reporters. “Because he couldn’t get any resolution through legally petitioning many times.”

According to state media, authorities in Guangdong have promised to look again into Ji’s original complaint. Chinese unable to win redress for grievances have in the past resorted to extreme measures, including bombings, but such incidents remain rare because of tight state security.

For more information, please see:

BBC News– Beijing airport explosion man jailed — 14 October 2013

Indian Express– Beijing airport bomber receives 6-year sentence — 15 October 2013

The Independent– Beijing wheelchair-bound airport bomber jailed for six years — 15 October 2013

Washington Post– Beijing airport bomber whose plight drew public sympathy receives 6-year sentence for blast — 15 October 2013

Swiss Info– Jailing of wheelchair-bound Beijing airport bomber sparks anger — 15 October 2013

Extortion Increasing Across Mexico

By Brandon Cottrell
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

MEXICO CITY, Mexico – As Mexico divests much of its attention to cracking down on the nation’s drug cartel and related violence, there has been a surge in the number of extortions.  This year alone there have been 5,335 reported exertion attempts, which is already as many attempts as all of 2012.

A police vehicle is parked next to the clinic owned by Dr. Roman Gomez Gaviria on the outskirts of Mexico City (Photo Courtesy Associated Press).

An increasing number of the extortions are based on Internet usage.  Experts say that criminals can gain access to information on social networks, which they use to take advantage of a person’s excessive trust.  They determine what a person looks like, their age, address, and financial and family information  Then, they use phones and/or computer messages to “extort or commit some type of illegal action against the [targeted] person.”

Mexican authorities believe the increase in extortion is attributable to their efforts in breaking up the drug cartels.  They say as the chain of command in a cartel is destroyed, many of the gunmen and traffickers routinely employed by the cartel become desperate for income and resort to extortion.  The desperation is evident in the targets of extortion, which include multinational businesses and corner stores.

Vacationers have also been targeted.  Guests at dozens of hotels have reported that they received calls from strangers claiming “they would be kidnapped if they didn’t pay.”  According to security officials, the amount of payment demanded has ranged from $380 to $1,500.  While most vacationers report the crime to security and do not pay, the threat of extortion is still unsettling.  Security Expert Jorge Chabat says that extortion “affects all economic activity [and] it discourages investment [in Mexico].”

According to federal security spokesman Eduardo Sanchez, “The person who is a victim of extortion lives in a state of permanent kidnapping [and] they live in fear.”  Dr. Roman Gaviria, an extortion victim, has echoed that sentiment.

Gaviria, who received calls demanding $20,000, had three armed men barge into his pharmacy; he was able to escape and killed two of the men in the process.  He says that from now on his “life has been an imprisonment in my own home.”  Although police officers are stationed near his pharmacy, he sees members of the gang that stalked him lurking and believes they are being protected by corrupt police officers.

While reported extortions are at an all time high, authorities believe that the majority of extortions go unreported.  Sanchez, meanwhile, is not sure whether there is an increase in the number or whether people feel more comfortable going to the police.  Either way, according to the National Statistics Institute 92% of extortions are not reported.  Additionally, NSI reports that extortion is the second most common crime in Mexico, trailing only robbery.

 

For more information, please see:

ABC News – Mexico’s Crackdown on Drugs Spurs Extortion Wave – 14 October 2013

First Post – Internet used as extortion tool in Mexico – 14 October 2013

IBN – In Mexico, The Internet Is Also An Extortion Tool – 14 October 2013

Washington Post – Mexico’s Crackdown On Drugs Feeds Expanding Wave Of Extortions – 14 October 2014

Italian and Maltese Governments Call for EU Action in Response to Migrant Boat Sinkings

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.

Migrants observe a memorial service held for last Friday’s boat sinking. (Photo courtesy of Reuters)

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

 

 

 

Colombian Governor Arrested on Murder and Racketeering Charges

By Ellis Cortez
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

BOGOTA, Colombia – The governor of the northern province of La Guajira, Juan Francisco ‘Kiko’ Gomez, was arrested by Colombian officials for his involvement in three murders and for collaboration with right-wing paramilitaries.

Juan Francisco Gómez
Juan Gomez will have a hearing on October 30. (Photo Courtesy of El Tiempo)

Colombia’s Deputy Attorney General, Jorge Fernando Perdomo, said that Gomez was linked to the 1997 assassination of a Barrancas city councilman, Luis Lopez Peralta, and the killings in 2000 of Luis Alejandro Rodriguez Frias and Rosa Mercedes Cabrera Alfaro.

Gomez is also accused of criminal involvement with paramilitary groups in La Guajira, on Colombia’s border with Venezuela. The charges include links with Rodrigo Tovar, commander of the right-wing United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC), and Salvatore Mancuso. Tovar and Mancuso were extradited to the United States on drug trafficking charges in 2008.

The governor’s supporters surrounded Gomez’s house to try to prevent his arrest when police came for him during a festival in his home town of Barrancas, in north-eastern Colombia. He was later removed from the property in an ambulance, with undisclosed injuries and was under treatment at a clinic.

Earlier this week Kiko Gomez was charged with five counts of corruption, in a separate case. Gomez, who served as mayor of Barrancas from 1995 to 1997 and again from 2001 to 2003, was elected governor of La Guajira in 2011.

Colombia’s paramilitaries were created in the 1980s by drug traffickers and ranchers to counter leftist rebel kidnapping and extortion. However, many of the militias degenerated into death squads and carried out massacres of peasants suspected of having rebel sympathies. They also killed journalists and union members accused of favoring the leftist insurgents.

The AUC, accused of committing numerous human rights violations, demobilized during the administration of former Colombian President, Alvaro Uribe. During the demobilization, thousands of paramilitaries gave testimony and handed in their weapons in exchange for benefits, including immunity from prosecution in some cases.

More than one hundred national, regional and local politicians were investigated for links with the AUC and other paramilitaries as part of scandal known as the “parapolitics,” Dozens of those accused have been convicted.

For more information please see:

ABC News – Colombia Governor Arrested, Accused of Gang Ties – 13 October 2013

The Washington Post – Colombian governor arrested on racketeering charges, suspected in 3 killings – 13 October 2013

BBC – Colombian governor Kiko Gomez charged with murder – 13 October 2013

El Tiempo – En ambulancia, sale capturado ‘Kiko’ Gómez, gobernador de La Guajira – 12 October 2013