News

Somalia Frees Journalist Held For Reporting Rape

By Ryan Aliman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

MOGADISHU, Somalia – Freelance journalist Abdiaziz Abdinur was finally released from imprisonment last Sunday.

Local journalists demand the release of their colleague, Abdiaziz Abdinur Ibrahim, in Mogadishu. (Photo courtesy of Reuters/Feisal Omar)

Also known as “Koronto”, Abdinur was arrested last month for interviewing a woman who alleged she had been raped by Somali soldiers. He and the alleged rape victim were brought into custody without warrant and were sentenced to a year in jail for “offending state institutions”.

On Sunday, however, the Somali High Court announced that the charges against Abdinur had been dropped. High Court Chairman Aideed Abdullahi Ilkahanaf told the press that the justices found “no evidence to support his charges.”

Abdinur was relieved upon hearing the court’s decision. “I’m happy to be free,” Abdinur told reporters after thanking the international community and journalist organizations for urging the Somali government to free him. “I’m very happy that I got my freedom back, I thank those who worked in this process that helped my release including my lawyers,” he added on his way out from court.

Abdinur’s case fueled worldwide outrage from various governments and human rights groups.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he was “deeply disappointed” by Abdinur’s arrest. The U.S. State Department, meanwhile, said his imprisonment “the wrong message to perpetrators of sexual and gender-based violence”.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) described it as “a direct assault on press freedom” in the country especially since it is in the process of recovering from civil war and dictatorship.

Condemning the government’s decision to convict Abdinur, Africa director at Human Rights Watch Daniel Bekele reminded Somali authorities that “silencing rape victims and journalists will not end sexual violence, but just reinforce Somalia’s climate of impunity.”

After announcing Abdinur’s release, Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon Saaid acknowledged the “deep-seated problems” with both the armed forces and judicial system. He said that his administration shall implement measures to safeguard the independence of the local media. He hopes to put an end to the threats, arrests, and attacks several journalists have been subjected to. According to him, the local media plays a critical and constructive role “during the hard times of the country.”

But the Prime Minister also reminded the press of their responsibility. He told reporters that they, in turn, “should be professional and work in the line of the ethics of the media and journalism” as they receive protection from the government.

“Somalia is returning to normalcy and peace, the local media should prioritize how to pacify the country and lead harmony within the Somali people,” Prime Minister Shirdon said.

 

For further information, please see:

All Africa – Somalia: Somali Prime Minister Vows Protection of Independent Media – 17 March 2013

Al Jazeera – Somali journalist held over rape report freed – 17 March 2013

BBC News – Somalia frees rape row journalist – 17 March 2013

Reuters – Somali court frees reporter jailed for interviewing rape victim – 17 March 2013

Shanghai Daily – Somalia court frees rape reporting journalist – 17 March 2013

Kenya’s Election Results Appealed While Protests Ensue

By Hannah Stewart
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

NAIROBI, Kenya — Kenya’s Prime Mister Raila Odinga filed an incendiary appeal with the Supreme Court on Saturday, alleging widespread ballot rigging and contend that “glaring anomalies” existed in the vote.  As such, Odinga is petitioning to court to void the results and order a new election.

Supporters of Kenya’s Prime Minister Raila Odinga protest outside the Supreme Court. (Photo Courtesy of Khalil Senosi/AP)

Approximately one hundred of Odinga’s supporters gathered in downtown Nairobi outside the courthouse just before the petition was filed.  Many wore shirts brazenly displaying slogans including “Democracy on Trial” and “I Support the Petition.”

The police had warned the Coalition for Reforms and Democracy supporters they would not be allowed to gather, and fired tear gas into the crowd to force them to disperse.

Since the March 4 election, Odinga has urged his supporters to remain peaceful and refrain from rioting, as they did in 2007 when he narrowly lost Kenya’s last presidential election amid widespread evidence of vote rigging similar to the allegations he is making now.

The presidential, legislative and municipal elections were Kenya’s first elections since the 2007 poll that triggered nationwide ethnic and political violence.  This violence resulted in the death of more than 1,200 people.

On March 4, millions of Kenyans flooded to the polls. According to the national election commission, Uhuru Kenyatta – son of Kenya’s first president – won 50.07 percent of the vote, avoiding a runoff by a nominal margin of approximately 8,000 votes.

Odinga won about 43 percent.  However, he claims in his petition to the court that his vote was covertly reduced and that Kenyatta’s was inflated in a “deliberate, well-calculated and executed ploy” to hand the election to Mr. Kenyatta.  Moreover, the petition claims that there were problems with the registration of voters and an electronic vote counting mechanism.

Odinga’s attempts to nullify Kenyatta’s victory will be the first significant test for Kenya’s new Supreme Court, established under a constitution adopted in a 2010 referendum.  Chief Justice Willy Mutunga, appointed in 2011 to reform a corrupt legal system accused of serving elitist interests, will be under international scrutiny to render a transparent verdict.

Mutunga received death threats in the weeks before the vote, but he has promised that the judiciary will act without “favor, prejudice or bias” when handling election complaints.  Moreover, he has already invited the media to cover any court proceedings live.

Odinga was the also the runner-up in the 2007 presidential election to Mwai Kibaki, which he also said was stolen.

In his acceptance speech last Saturday, Kenyatta called the election “free and fair” and a “triumph of democracy.”

For more information, please see:

BBC News – Raila Odinga Files Kenya Election Appeal– 16 March 2013

Reuters – Kenya’s Odinga Challenges Election Defeat in Top Court – 16 March 2013

The New York Times – Kenya Court Asked to Order New Election for President – 16 March 2013

The Washington Post – Kenya Police Tear Gas Prime Minister’s Supporters as He Files Court Case Against Election Loss – 16 March 2013

Maryland to Abolish Death Penalty

By Mark O’Brien
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

WASHINGTON, United States — Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley is expected to sign a bill next month that would end the use of the death penalty.

Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, a supporter of repealing the death penalty, is expected to sign a bill abolishing capital punishment into law next month after lawmakers passed the bill this week. (Photo Courtesy of the Washington Post)

On Friday, the state’s House of Delegates voted 82-to-56 to repeal capital punishment after the state’s Senate voted 27-to-20 last week for a repeal.  Now the bill only needs O’Malley’s signature, which his aides say should come when the legislature session ends in April.

If signed, the law would take effect on October 1, and all current inmates on death row would have their sentences replaced by life terms without parole.  Maryland would become the eighteenth state in the country to abolish the death penalty, marking an end to the state’s 375-year history of capital punishment.

“With [the] vote to repeal the death penalty in Maryland, the General Assembly is eliminating a policy that is proven not to work,” O’Malley said during a press conference after the legislative approval.  The governor pushed the effort to repeal, making it one of his top goals for this year’s legislative session.

Maryland has used the death penalty only five times since it was reinstated during the 1970s, the last time happening in 2005.  In 2006, Maryland’s Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, ruled that a legislative committee had not properly approved the state’s lethal injection protocols, effectively putting capital punishment on hold.

Supporters of the repeal applauded state lawmakers for eliminating a measure they called costly and counterproductive.  Delegate Heather Mizeur said the decision about who lives or dies, even the worst criminal offenders, is not one anybody should make.

“By willfully taking a human life, the state enacts the worst of human impulses,” she said.

“Maryland’s rejection of the death penalty adds to the national momentum against this cruel and increasing unusual punishment,” said Antonia Ginatta, an advocacy director with the nonprofit Human Rights Watch.

Opponents, however, criticized the legislature and called on O’Malley to not sign the bill.  They said the law would put officers’ safety in jeopardy.  Most significantly, though, opponents said capital punishment was a necessary measure in criminal justice.

“The death penalty is not a deterrent; it is justice,” said Delegate C. T. Wilson, a former prosecutor and U.S. Army veteran.

Even if O’Malley signs the bill into law, the death penalty might not be entirely forgotten yet.  According to the Baltimore Sun, those who support the death penalty could petition it to be on the 2014 ballot, leaving the issue up to voters.  If they succeed, the law would be put on hold pending the results of the election.

State Sen. Thomas Miller, the Senate President, predicted that kind of challenge happening.  Even though no group has publicly supported the idea yet, the Sun reported that recent polls indicate a narrow majority of voters still supports the death penalty.

For further information, please see:

The Baltimore Sun — House Votes to Repeal Death Penalty — 15 March 2013

The Capital Gazette — Maryland General Assembly Votes to Abolish the Death Penalty — 15 March 2013

Human Rights Watch — US: Maryland Expected to Abolish Death Penalty — 15 March 2013

The Washington Post — Md. Assembly Votes to Repeal Death Penalty — 15 March 2013

Iran Responds to U.N. Special Report on Human Rights

By Justin Dorman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

TEHRAN, Iran – The former foreign affairs minister of the Maldives, Ahmed Shaheed, recently delivered his latest United Nations report on Iran’s human rights record. Iranian delegation leader and Iranian Human Rights Council head Mohammad Javad Larijani disputed basically all of the complaints in the report.

Mohammad Javad Larijani attacks the UN Special report for being based foreign value systems, the word of terrorists, and US bribes. (Photo Courtesy of the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran)

Shaheed stated “that the prevailing situation of human rights in Iran continues to warrant serious concern, and will require a wide range of solutions that are both respectful of cultural perspectives and mindful of the universality of fundamental human rights.”

Mohammad Javad Larijani believes that human rights are subjective and not universal. He views such U.N. reports predicated on universal principles as a cultural invasion on the Iranian way of life. Similarly, his brother, Iranian Chief Justice Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani considers Iran’s ratification of the December 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights to be a “mistake.”

Iran was charged with detaining individuals on bogus charges, torturing detainees, permitting marital rape, and systematically persecuting those of the LGBT community.

Regarding the charges and the torture, Mohammad Javad Larijani claims that Shaheed relied on the testimony of convicts who belonged to terrorist factions. Larjani insists they were given their day in court and received due process before being convicted on counts of “contact with foreign media and the office of the UN Special Rapporteur” and “propaganda against the regime.”

With respect to the treatment of those in the LGBT community, Iran in 2013 takes a similar stance to that of the American medical community prior to 1974. The official stance in Iran is that homosexuality is a disease. Larijani stated that, “we consider homosexuality an illness that should be cured. We don’t consider it acceptable to beat or mistreat homosexuals, either.”

While Iran does not condone the beating of homosexuals, the alleged “disease” is punishable by death according to the fatwas declared by Iranian clerics. Iran also has executed individuals who have been found guilty of committing sodomy. Those men who were executed were married. Unmarried men who engage in the same act may only face stern prolonged lashings. Furthermore, even the ‘passive’ recipient of the sodomy can be executed. This punishment may be received regardless of whether he was a consensual participant or one who was raped.

Besides for debating the concept of universal rights and discrediting Shaheed’s report for taking the word of terrorists, Larijani also criticizes the Special Rapporteur for taking bribes from the United States State Department. He believes that everything written in the report is designed to achieve some result that comports with the interests of the United States.

For further information, please see:

Guardian – Iranian Human Rights Official Describes Homosexuality as an Illness – 14 March 2013

International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran – Denial and Personal Attacks: Iran’s Larijani Responds at the UN – 12 March 2013

World Politics Review – Human Rights Deteriorate in Iran as Elections Approach – 12 March 2013

Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization – Ahwazi: UNHRC Condemns Iranian Delegate for Attacking UN Special Rapporteur – 11 March 2013

Ecuadorian Preacher And Presidential Candidate Charged With Hate Speech

In what is being called a victory by Ecuadorian gay and lesbian rights activists, local preacher and former Presidential candidate Nelson Zavala was sentenced this week for making homophobic comments during his presidential campaign. An electoral court cited him for remarks after he insisted that gays were “immoral” and implied that he could “cure” gay people of this immorality.

Preacher Nelson Zavala was cited and charged with electoral malpractice  by using hate speech against the LGBT community. (Photo courtesy of El Comercio)

This is just the latest in a series of ill events for the former presidential candidate, he lost his bid for election last month against Rafael Correa. He placing eighth and last with just 1.23% of the vote, much lower than his projected 700,000 votes he expected to receive from evangelicals from the church. Zavala did not take the news lightly, and condemned the female judge who issued the verdict  “Those who judge me will be judged,” then insisted that “God will judge us all in the end,” before implying that the tribunal will be used against them when they stand at heavens gates.

 

The honorable judge Patricia Baca Mancheno found that Mr Zavala violated the electoral ethics, which “forbids candidates of publicly expressing any thoughts that discriminate or affect other people’s dignity or utilise symbols, expressions or allusions of a religious nature.”  Mr. Zavala had been cited and condemned for using hate speech before and according to the electoral law, the ” disregard of orders and judgments” of the electoral board “could lead to the suspension of political rights of the offender, as a candidate.” His statements concerning the homosexual lifestyle as sinners were found to degrade the LGBT’s rights to dignity.

 

Beyond the moral condemnation and ill response from local citizens, Ecuadorian Judge Baca deemed that Zavala would be banned from any political affiliation or government movement for a year, effectively ending any hope of spreading his homophobic message on any grand electoral scale. He had resigned from the Roldosista Ecuadorian Party (PRE) after the lack of turnout in his favor, stating that he will continue to denounce acts of corruption from within his church. The sentence includes a $3,000 fine and opening up liability against Zavala to be charged for a hate crime.

For further information, please see:

Huffington Post – Ecuadorian Ex Presidential Candidate And Preacher, Nelson Zavala, Penalized For Homophobic Comments – 12 March 2013

BBC – Ecuador Preacher Sentenced For Homophobic Comments – 11 March 2013

El Comercio – Zavala Announced His Resignation From The PRE – 22 February 2013

El Comercio – Begin In Ecuador Presidential Candidate Process Such Homophobic – 10 February 2013