By Emily Schneider
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

MANAMA, Bahrain – Hundreds of protestors in Bahrain were forcibly dispersed by police who were using water canons and tear gas on Friday. The crowd gathered after hearing that Mohammed Ali Ahmed Mushaima, 23, had died in custody. He was jailed after pro-democracy protests last year.

Mushaima was one of thousands to partake in protests in Bahrain in March 2011, following the example of those in Tunisia and Egypt.  The protestors in Bahrain were rallying for more power for their elected officials and a more limited role for the ruling al-Khalifa family.  Many of the dissidents were from the Shia majority and would prefer the Sunni al-Khalifa family to have less power. Some Shi’ites complain of discrimination in almost all aspects of government functions, including housing, jobs, and education.

In an effort to curb protests in the spring of 2011, martial law was enacted for two months. Clashes between protestors and government authorities continued almost daily in spite of those measures.  Mushaima was taken into police custody in March 2011 for “vandalism, rioting, assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest.” He was sentenced to seven years in jail and had been in the hospital since August. According to Bahrain’s Information Authority ‘s written statement, a medical examiner determined “[his] death [to have been] natural and caused by sickle cell complications.”

Opposition activists claim that Mushaima died because the authorities mistreated him. After the memorial service held for him on Tuesday, hundreds of protestors gathered to again rally for a bigger role for their elected officials.  As they headed towards Pearl roundabout, the site of the large protests last spring, police intervened. According to witnesses, riot police were deployed to the area and used tear gas, water canons, sound bombs, and buckshot against the crowd.

The interior ministry, in a statement made on Twitter, said that a “group of terrorists” threw Molotov cocktails at police and blocked access to streets, and so the police used “legal measures” in response.

This was the second time police forces have violently clashed with protesters in recent days. Last Friday, a seventeen-year-old was killed after he allegedly threw a Molotov cocktail at a police patrol. The Bahrain Center for Human Rights said the incident is an example of “summary executions” by government forces.

For further information, please see:

Rueters – Police Clash with Protestors in Bahrain – 5 October 2012

Al Jazeera – Protestors Clash with Police in Bahrain – 5 October 2012

CNN- Police, Protestors Clash after Funeral – 2 October 2012

Gulf Daily News- Rights Panel Seat a Vote of Confidence – 29 September 2012

By Justin Dorman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

TEHRAN, Iran – Friday was World Teachers Day. In observance of the event, Human Rights Watch issued a statement that all teachers imprisoned in Iran for speaking out against the government should be set free.

Many teachers are regularly harassed by the Iranian authorities for making anti-government statements. The government justifies it under the guise of protecting national security. Even comments calling for higher wages are regarded as seditious. As a result, association with a trade union is cause for further persecution.

Since 2009, at least thirty-nine teachers have been detained. Mohammad Davari, Rasoul Bodaghi, Abdollah Momeni, and Mahmoud Bagheri are only a few of the educators who are currently imprisoned. Collectively, the four are serving a sentence of twenty-four and a half years in jail for the national security charges of “propaganda against the regime,” “colluding and assembly with the intention of disrupting national security,” and participating in illegal gatherings. Only Momeni is not a member of a teachers’ trade association.

“The arrest and detention of teachers is symptomatic of the Iranian government’s inability to tolerate any show of dissent, even from those it entrusts with the education of its children,” said Nadim Houry, Human Rights Watch’s deputy Middle East director.

Davari was previously the editor-in-chief of the Saham News website, but is now a teacher. He is a disabled Iran-Iraq War veteran, and was a member of the Central Council of the Iranian Teachers Association and union activist. Since being put in prison, Davari has been tortured. The condition of his teeth have been worsening and he has suffered chest pains. Additionally, he has developed acute psychological illness that has progressively worsened. Prison officials often deny Davari’s privilege to see family and visitors and deny him phone calls. His attorneys have sought a furlough from prison so that he can seek treatment and get the affairs of his mother, whom he had previously been supporting, in order. Not only was his request denied, but his five year sentence was increased to six years.

Rasoul Bodaghi serves on the board of directors of the Iranian Teachers Trade Association. Since being imprisoned, he has been repeatedly beaten by guards in Karaj Gohardasht prison. In the past, the guards have taken Bodaghi into corridors and have tied him to the prison bars where they have assaulted him. Bodaghi has sustained injuries to his head, face, and teeth.

Momeni, the former spokesperson for the Central Council of the Alumni Organization of University Students of the Islamic Republic, has been particularly outspoken.

“[W]e believed and continue to believe that the student movement should not  sing the praises of the power structures and those in power, rather it must offer criticism of those who take advantage of their power, no matter what their background, and must defend the rights of the people, including women’s rights and the rights of ethnic and religious minorities,” he wrote to Ayatollah Khomeini in an August 2010 letter from prison.

For his beliefs, he has been imprisoned and subjected to solitary confinement. When he was arrested, security officials used tear gas in a closed, confined space. He was then beaten until he had a bloody nose and bleeding teeth before he was brought to Evin prison. Since his arrival, he has seen the sky on just a few occasions due to his solitary confinement. Momeni would often be interrogated, during which he would be choked until he approached his last moments of consciousness. The constant strangling made eating and drinking incredibly painful. All the while, officials would use torture on Momeni to coerce him to admit to false allegations. In addition to brutally beating him, the authorities would also humiliate him. On one occasion, his head was forced down a toilet filled with feces.

Momeni has called for a truth commission to investigate how prisoners are tortured until they confess to crimes they never committed. The Ayatollah’s present stance is that anything an accused person says about himself in court is credible.

Mahmoud Bagheri, a member of the Iranian Teachers’ Association’s Board of Directors, has twenty-seven years of experience teaching physics. His prison sentence is currently set for nine and a half years. Bagheri’s imprisonment is the result of his attendance at demonstrations where teachers low wages were protested. Like Davari, Bagheri is an Iran-Iraq War veteran who requires medical attention.

Human Rights Watch is not the only group that is striving to make a difference regarding teachers in Iran. Shirin Ebadi, winner of the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize,  has been pushing a new teachers’ rights initiative called “Be Voice of Iranian Teachers.” The group is comprised of human rights activists, journalists, teachers, and lawyers who seek to have the Iranian government listen to Iranian teachers’ legitimate demands without arresting and imprisoning them.

Ebadi’s fear is that, “[w]hen our youth observe that their teachers are imprisoned for legitimate demands, what lesson can they learn from this unjust act of the regime, especially as the teachers in prison have been deprived from due process and some of them have been tortured?”

“Take a stand for teachers” was the slogan of this year’s World Teachers’ Day. Supporting the teachers of Iran was a large part of the discussion held by the United Nations, the International Labour Organization, the United Nations Development Programme, and UNICEF.

For further information, please see:

Human Rights Watch – Iran: Free Teachers Jailed for Speaking Out – 5 October 2012

Women News Network – Taking a Stand for Teachers on UN World Teachers’ Day – 3 October 2012

International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran – Nobel Laureate Stresses the Plight of Imprisoned Teachers in Exclusive Interview – 2 October 2012

Persian Icons – This World Teacher’s Day, Let us be the Voice for the Voiceless and Innocent Iranian Teachers Behind Bars! – 30 September 2012

Iranian – Mahmoud Bagheri: Prisoner of the day – 2 July 2012

International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran – Mohammad Davari – 13 April 2012

International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran – Letter of Prominent Prisoner of Conscience, Abdollah Momeni, to Ayatollah Khamanei – 9 September 2010

Iranian – Rasoul Bodaghi, a Member of the Board of Directors of the Iranian Teachers Trade Association, has Been Severely Beaten – 30 May 2010

By Emily Schneider
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

DAMASCUS, Syria – In a YouTube video posted this week, Syrian rebels claim they are going to start executing the 48 Shiite pilgrims from Iran if Damascus and Tehran do not start complying with their demands.

The group of pilgrims was abducted in August. Every year, hundreds of thousands of Iranians travel to Syria to visit a Shia pilgrimage site in Damascus, the shrine of Sayeda Zainab.  Al Jazeera’s Stefanie Dekker, reporting from Amman, the capital of neighboring Jordan, said the pilgrims were traveling to the airport after visiting the shrine when they were kidnapped. Pilgrims continue to visit holy sites in spite of the increased danger and instability in Syria because they believe in the holiness of the journey.

In August, Iran’s Foreign Minsitry said it was working through diplomatic channels such as the United Nations, but was unable to negotiate their release.

In the video, a rebel officer clothed in camouflage attire addresses the camera. He is standing in front of the group of hostages while he speaks. Several other compatriots, some of them armed, are also present.  In his statement, he claims that his group had negotiated with the Syrian authorities regarding the hostage’s release in exchange for the release of rebels held in Syrian government custody. But, he says those efforts failed “because of the reluctance of both the Iranian and Syrian regimes.”

“Unless they start releasing our people from their prisons and cease the shelling of the innocent civilians in our cities and the ongoing random slaughter, within 48 hours, starting from the moment this statement is read, we inform you that for every martyr who gets killed by the Syrian regime, we will kill one of the Iranian hostages,” he says.

Specifically, the rebels demand that Syria’s army withdraw from the Eastern Ghuta area of Damascus province, a rebel commander said on Friday.

“We gave the regime 48 hours starting yesterday to withdraw completely from the Eastern Ghuta area,” Abul Wafa, commander of the rebels’ Revolutionary Military Council in Damascus province, told AFP via the Internet. “We also have other secret, military demands. If the regime does not fulfill them, we will start finishing off the hostages.”

After the group was abducted, a local Lebanese television network broadcast a telephone interview with one of the kidnappers, who said the pilgrims were in good health and that they were “guests,” not hostages. The phone call also revealed that the hostages were being kept in the Aazaz area of the Aleppo province at that time.

This is the second video in which the Syrian opposition used the group as leverage. Initially, there was another video posted in which members of the al-Baraa Brigade of the Free Syrian Army said that they had “captured 48 of the shabiha [militiamen] of Iran who were on a reconnaissance mission in Damascus.” That video also warned that the rebels “will target all its installations in Syria… The fate of all Iranians working in Syria will be just like the fate of those, either prisoners, or dead.”

At the time, there was some debate as to the validity of that video. For now, however, the same group of pilgrims is being touted as a means of negotiating with the Syrian and Iranian governments.

For further information, please see:

CNN – Video: Syrian Rebels Say They Will Kill Iranian Hostages – 5 October 2012

Daily Star – Syria Rebels Threaten to Execute Iranians – 5 October 2012

Gulf Times — Syria Rebels Threaten to Kill Iranians Held Hostage — 5 October 2012

Al Jazeera – Syrian Rebels Say Hostages ‘Iranian Soldiers’ – 5 August 2012

By Justin Dorman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

BEIRUT, Lebanon – On August 30, Rami Aysha was investigating arms smuggling and trafficking by Beirut airport when he was detained and charged with the same crimes he was investigating. After being held for twenty-eight days, Aysha has now been released on bail.

Aysha alleges serious mistreatment from the Lebanese authorities. He first reported to Reporters Without Borders that he was kidnapped by a dozen men. As a gun was held to his head, he was handcuffed and blindfolded. They took his camera and smashed it over his head.

He recalled further mental and physical harassment. As he was blindfolded and the gun was pointed at his head, he remembered being asked on which side he wanted the bullet. Additionally, when Aysha was handed over to the Lebanese intelligence service, he recalled them shouting, “Fuck you. Fuck journalism!” as he was beaten.

On four separate occasions, Aysha was interrogated by military police. Throughout the course of these investigations, he was not permitted to sleep, nor was he given food or water.  When he was eventually released, he was observed to have bruises all over his body, broken ribs, and a broken finger. Perhaps the worst of his injuries was the psychological trauma. He is only out of detention on bail and still faces charges of arms smuggling and trafficking crimes. His bail was set at one million Lebanese pounds, the equivalent of 515 Euros.

Aysha fully intends to challenge the charges against him. He said that he “will fight in court to prove [his] innocence.”

Those in Aysha’s family were not made aware of his predicament for approximately a week until a released military prisoner contacted them. Since then, the family has been told to keep quiet. Threats have been made against Aysha’s brother demanding that he should not “make a fuss” about what happened to Aysha.

Out of all the countries in the Middle East, Lebanon is generally considered one of the better countries at respecting press freedoms. Many speculate that the reason why Aysha was taken into custody was because the arms dealings which he was covering were between Lebanon and Syria. As of now, Lebanon is politically divided about whether to support the revolts in Syria. Hezbollah and its allies support President Bashar al-Assad while the rest of the country opposes the Syrian regime.

Reporters Without Borders has demanded that Lebanon withdraw all the charges against Aysha and that the country look into Aysha’s mistreatment and punish all who were responsible. It made this declaration to Defense Minister Fayez Ghosn, Minister of the Interior and Municipalities Marwan Charbel, and Justice Minister Shakib Qortbawi.

“We are very disturbed by the mistreatment … of Rami Aysha. Journalists in Lebanon must be able to work freely during this critical time in the country’s history,” exclaimed Joel Simon, Executive Director of the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Rami Aysha is a correspondent for various media outlets, including GlobalPost, Spiegel Online, and Time magazine.

For further information, please see:

Guardian – Lebanese Investigative Journalist Tortured – 3 October 2012

Reporters Without Borders – Freed From Detention but Still Facing Charges – 2 October 2012

YaLibnan – Journalist Tortured in Custody in Lebanon – 2 October 2012

Time – A Journalist Behind Bars: The Dangers of Reporting in Lebanon – 15 September 2012