By Ali Al-Bassam
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

CAIRO, Egypt — In an unforeseen move last Sunday, Egyptian President Mohammed Morsy discharged the country’s top military officials, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces and Minister of Defence, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, and his Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Sami Anan.  Morsy said that his decision to relieve the two officials was “for the benefit of this nation.”

Morsy also appointed his Vice President, Judge Makhoud Mekki, the former Deputy Chairman of the Cassation Court.  He is the second vice president to be named in Egypt in 30 years.

In a statement read by official presidential spokesperson Yasser Aly on state television Sunday, Morsy also announced the cancellation of the supplementary constitutional powers declaration which gave the military legislative powers and budgetary control as well as the right to oversee the drafting of a new permanent constitution.  He also announced the removal of several other high ranking military officials and named their replacements.  According to Aly, the president will issue a new constitutional decree that “allows him to exercise full presidential powers.”

The army has not challenged Morsy’s decision to replace Tantawi.  State media quoted a military source saying there was no “negative reaction” from within armed forces.  In Cairo, thousands gathered overnight in Tahrir Square to express their support for Morsy’s move.  “The people support the president’s decision,” said the crowd.  Others mocked Tantawi’s departure, which was officially presented as a retirement.  “Field Marshal tell the truth, did Morsy fire you?” they said.

Morsy defended his decisions late Sunday night, denying that his motivation was to marginalize individuals or institutions by  abolishing provisions granting broad powers to the army and retiring Tantawi. He said all these decisions were for the interests of Egypt.

“The decisions I made today were not aimed at certain people and had not intended to marginalize institutions, and it was not my purpose to restrict freedoms,” said Morsy.  “I did not want to send negative messages about anyone, but my goal was to serve this nation and its people,” he said while hailing the work of the armed forces. “I want them to concentrate on their mission, protecting the nation,” he said.  Morsy stated that he acted “to ensure that we move towards a better future with a new generation and a long-awaited new blood.”

For further information, please see:

Al Bawaba — Morsi: Changes in Army Leadership Serve Egypt Interest — 13 August 2012

BBC News — Egypt President Mursi Explains Army Chief Replacement — 13 August 2012

Al Jazeera — Egypt’s Morsi ‘Empowered’ by Army Shake-up — 12 August 2012

Daily News Egypt — Morsy Assumes Power: Sacks Tantawi and Anan, Reverse Constitutional Decree and Reshuffles SCAF — 12 August 2012

9 August 2012
Iran Human Rights Documentation Center

The government of the Islamic Republic of Iran routinely violates domestic and international law in the course of arresting, interrogating, and prosecuting Kurdish civil and political activists.

Although armed opposition groups do exist in Iran’s Kurdish region, many of the targets of government repression are peaceful activists operating within the framework of the law who are indiscriminately subjected to intimidation, torture and the deprivation of their rights to due process.

As part of its on-going effort to document human rights violations perpetrated against Iran’s Kurdish minority, the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center (IHRDC) has compiled a package of witness statements that evidences the abuses against Kurdish activists in the prisons, detention centers, and judicial apparatus of the Islamic Republic.

The fifteen witnesses in this package were interviewed in the course of investigations for IHRDC’s recently released report, “On the Margins: Arrest, Imprisonment, and Execution of Kurdish Activists in Iran Today” and include former Kurdish Iranian political prisoners and the relatives of current and former death row inmates. All the witnesses included in this release have intimate experience with government violations of the basic rights of prisoners.

For further information, please contact:
Gissou Nia
Executive Director
Iran Human Rights Documentation Center
Email: GNia@iranhrdc.org
Phone: (203) 654-9342

By Mark McMurray
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

TRIPOLI, Libya — On Wednesday, Libya’s interim National Transitional Council (NTC) handed over power to the new national assembly elected in July.  The transfer of power comes almost a year after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi.

At the late-night ceremony in Tripoli, NTC head Mustafa Abdul Jalil symbolically passed the reins to Mohammed Ali Salim, the oldest member of the 200-seat legislature.  Jalil, speaking at the event, acknowledged the failure of the NTC to restore security in the country.  He added that the NTC governed in “exceptional times” and “mistakes” had been made.

“The National Transitional Council hands over the constitutional duties for leading the state to the general national congress, which from now on is the sole legitimate representative of the Libyan people,” Jalil said.

The NTC served as the political arm of the opposition forces that toppled Gaddafi.  Formed in the midst of the revolution last year, the NTC was dissolved on Wednesday.

After the ceremony, the assembly held its first meeting, but did not appoint a leader at that time.  On Monday, assembly members informally agreed to choose a new prime minister and two deputy chiefs within a week.  The new prime minister will select his government, enact laws, and direct the country until full parliamentary elections occur subsequent to the drafting of a new constitution next year.

Elected on July 7 in Libya’s first free and fair polls in years, the assembly is made up of a mixture of political parties and independent candidates.  Of the its 200 seats, 80 belong to political parties, while the remaining 120 are held by independents of varying allegiances.  Mahmoud Jibril, who previously served as the country’s interim prime minister, heads a mostly secular liberal coalition known as the National Forces Alliance (NFA).  Holding 39 of the 80 party slots, the NFA has more seats than any other group.  The NFA’s Islamist rivals, the Justice and Construction Party (JCP)–which acts as the Muslim Brotherhood’s political wing–holds 17 seats.

The NFA and the JCP are in a struggle to have influence over the assembly.  With important decisions requiring a two-thirds majority of the assembly, the two major parties are both maneuvering to form coalitions with independents and smaller parties.  Some independents have expressed interest in forming their own coalitions, as they distrust both the NFA and JCP.

The peaceful transfer of authority was the first in Libya’s modern history.  Wednesday’s date, corresponding to 20 Ramadan in the Islamic calendar, served a symbolic purpose.  20 Ramadan last year was August 20, the date when rebels forced Gaddafi to flee Tripoli.

For further information, please see:

BBC News – Libya’s NTC Hands Power to Newly Elected Assembly – 9 August 2012

Christian Science Monitor – Libya Celebrates First Peaceful Transition of Power – 9 August 2012

Libya Herald – NTC Reign Ends as Race for Power in National Congress Begins – 9 August 2012

Tripoli Post – Libya NTC Hands Power to National Congress, Chairman to be Elected Soon – 9 August 2012

Press Release — Iran Human Rights Documentation Center
2 August 2012

New Haven, USA; with reporting from Istanbul, Turkey — The ninth biennial conference of the International Society of Iranian Studies (ISIS) began today with a series of panel discussions featuring social scientists, artists and literary scholars who study Iran. This year the ISIS conference was staged in Istanbul, Turkey in the interest of providing accessibility to scholars from the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI), as Turkey is one of the few countries that allows visa-free access for Iranian passport holders. Over seventy scholars from Iran were scheduled to lead or take part in discussions on topics ranging from Iranian court politics in late antiquity to the aesthetics of vocal music in contemporary Iran.

Kayhan, a newspaper under the direct supervision of the office of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the IRI, has published several articles decrying the conference and its organizers in recent weeks. Although the attendees are reputed scholars in the fields of history, sociology, literature, and the anthropology of Iran, Kayhan repeatedly derided the conference as a “Zionist and monarchist” event. As support, Kayhanclaimed that the allegations of Zionism were substantiated by the fact that one of the conference’s 125 scheduled panel discussions was on “Baha’i and Babi Studies”, while another offered an historical perspective on Iran-Israel relations.

Since the propaganda campaign against the conference began two weeks ago, over fifty scholars from Tehran University, Isfahan University, Al Zahra University, Payam Noor University, the Islamic Azad University system, and other institutions cancelled their plans to take part in the ISIS conference and signed a list of boycotters. But some Iran-based scholars still planned to attend the conference. In response, Hossein Shariatmadari, the editor-in-chief of Kayhan, called for the Ministry of Sciences, Research and Technology (which supervises all of Iran’s non-medical institutions of higher learning) “to terminate the presence of [the remaining scholars planning to attend the ISIS conference] in the nation’s universities and institutions of higher learning immediately and without delay.”

Following these events, many of the scholars scheduled to take part in the conference—the largest international gathering of Iranian Studies scholars in the world—chose not to attend at the last minute. The unprecedented campaign of intimidation against Iran-based scholars planning to attend the ninth biennial Iranian Studies conference is part of a larger ongoing crackdown on academic freedom in the IRI which has intensified since the 2005 election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In a related development, social science programs including journalism departments will be abolished in many of Iran’s universities in the coming academic year.

“Restrictions on academic freedom affect all Iranians by stifling intellectual discourse not only between Iranian scholars and the international community, but domestically as well,” said Gissou Nia, Executive Director of the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center. “The infringement on the freedom of academics to participate in the conference contravenes Iran’s international treaty obligations.”
Article 15 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, to which Iran is a signatory, ensures the rights of all people to take part in cultural life, which includes the right to develop international contacts and cooperation in cultural fields, including education.

For further information, please contact:
Gissou Nia
Executive Director
Iran Human Rights Documentation Center
Email: GNia@iranhrdc.org
Phone: (203) 654-9342