By Ahmad Shihadah
Impunity Watch, Middle East Desk

 

SHARJAH, UAE – Seventeen Indians were sentenced to death on March 29 by a Sharjah shariah court for allegedly killing a Pakistani and injuring three others in an attack last year. There is a deadline of two weeks after the pronouncement of judgment within which an appeal has be filed, officials said.

 

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said that the Indian consulate officials had visited the 17 Indian men sentenced to death by a court in Sharjah, the United Arab Emirates, and offered to help them with legal formalities involved in appealing against their sentences.

In a communication to Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, the prime minister said he had also instructed the external affairs minister and the overseas Indian affairs minister to take all possible steps in the matter to ensure a positive outcome.

An appeal is likely to be filed tomorrow in UAE on behalf of 17 Indians facing death sentence there for killing a Pakistani. “We have engaged Mhd Salman as the lawyer for these Indians. And an appeal is likely to be filed tomorrow in the case,” officials said.

The UAE government has already made it clear that its legal system guarantees a fair trial and the death sentence is subject to appeal and annulment by the rule of law without any interference from the parties concerned.

“We fully trust our legal system and its procedures and we are sure that it will provide and guarantee a fair trial to the convicted,” the UAE embassy in New Delhi had said in a statement yesterday. There is deep concern over the fate of these Indians, mostly from lower middle class farming families in Punjab and Haryana.

A UAE website claims, “The UAE’s tolerant, cosmopolitan atmosphere – which is most notable in the emirate of Dubai – gives resident non-Emiris opportunities to enjoy their own cultural and religious organizations.”

For more information, please see:

 

Hindustan Times – Death Row Indians In UAE Offered Legal Help: PM – 6 April 2010

The Times of India – Appeal Likely Tomorrow In UAE Against Death Of 17 Indians – 6 April 2010

SIKH Times – UAE Death Sentence Hanging Over 17 Indians – 6 April 2010

Indian Express – Govt Set To Appeal UAE Court Verdict – 6 April 2010

By Brandon Kaufman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

BEIRUT, Lebanon– A man from Lebanon, condemned to death for witchcraft by a Saudi Arabian court, will not be beheaded on Friday as originally planned.

Ali Sabat’s execution was scheduled for Friday after noon prayers, but a Lebanese minister has assured that the execution will not take place after a frenzy of media coverage and appeals by international human rights groups.  Sabat’s lawyer, May al-Khansa, said she is still unsure whether the execution by way of beheading had been waived or simply postponed.  Said Ms. Khansa, “The minister of justice for Lebanon called me and told me that nothing would happen on Friday.  But after that I don’t have an answer as to if he will be alive or not.”

Sabat, who is a Shiite Muslim, was the host of a popular television show in which he made predictions about the future.  In 2008, he traveled to Saudi Arabia to perform a religious pilgrimage when Saudi police who accused him of practicing sorcery arrested him.

Saudi Arabia does not have a legal definition of witchcraft although horoscopes and fortune telling are condemned and considered un-Islamic.

The human rights group Amnesty International has been trying to get Saudi Arabia to cease all instances of capital punishment.  Amnesty said that Mr. Sabat seemed to have been convicted for “exercising his right to freedom of expression.”  And Malcolm Smart, director of Amnesty’s Middle East and North Africa program said it was “high time the Saudi Arabian government joined the international trend towards a worldwide moratorium on executions.”

Ms. Khansa had contacted Lebanese leaders to appeal on behalf of her client.  No leaders would speak publicly, but Ms. Khansa said she was told the Lebanese government did lobby for the release of Mr. Sabat.

Like in Saudi Arabia, Lebanon has a law against witchcraft.  In Lebanon, however, witchcraft is only considered to be a misdemeanor, punishable by at most a few months in jail.  The death penalty is also still legal in Lebanon, but used sparingly.

For more information, please see:

BBC News- Saudi ‘Reprieve’ in Sorcery Case– 2 April 2010

Los Angeles Times- Saudi Arabia: Factional Politics May be at Heart of Legal Dispute Over Psychic’s Fate– 2 April 2010

Voice of America- Beheading of Man in Saudi Arabia for Witchcraft Averted– 2 April 2010

By Ahmad Shihadah

Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

SA’NA, Yemen – Somali pirates have freed a Yemeni ship with 11 surviving sailors of a 12 men crew, which was hijacked on 24 March in Somali waters, Yemen’s Interior Ministry confirmed on Monday.
FV AZ ZABANIYAH had left al-Shiher port in Hadramout in late February, was captured off Somalia’s northern coast, while one of its 12 crew members was killed during the attack.

Security authorities in the Yemen New Agency reported that $5 million payment was paid as ransom. Piracy has becomes a profitable trade in the east African lawless country, a lucrative venture that has attracted many young Somali men.

Yemen’s south-east province of Hadramout confirmed that the capture took place while the Yemeni fishing vessel was in the Somali territorial waters. Among the 12 crew members were eight Yemeni fishermen, two Somalis and two Tanzanian nationals, while Othman Mohamed of Tanzania was killed during the operation.

Analysts wonder what the vessel carried in order to achieve such a high ransom. “Though the larger fishing vessels easily can rip from the seas a tuna catch valued such much, we feel that there was something else carried on that fishy boat,” a regional analyst stated. A United Nations imposed sanctions regime for Somalia and Eritrea, including an arms embargo,  provides rich opportunities for blockade breaking vessels.

The analyst also reported that a South Korean chemical Tanker MT DL COSMOS, which was missing after an unsuccessful piracy attack off Tanzania, arrived now safely in Mombasa, Kenya. “They just maintained a communications black-out,” he said.

For more information, please see:

Bernama – Somali Pirates Fee Yemeni Ship – 5 March 2010

Saba Net – Somali Pirates Free Yemeni Ship – 5 March 2010

APA – Somali Pirates Release Yemen Owned Ship – 5 March 2010

Somali Marine & Coastal Monitor – Somali Sea-Shifta Free Yemeni Vessel For Ransom – 5 April 2010

By Meredith Lee-Clark
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

JERUSALEM, Israel/West Bank – As the religious calendars of Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Protestants, and Jews converge this week, tensions are rife throughout the holy city of Jerusalem. Thousands of pilgrims from Israel, the Palestinian Territories, and the rest of the world have converged on this city to celebrate their holidays, though with a sense of unease permeating the celebrations.

A major source of the tension is the restrictions on Palestinian travel to and through Jerusalem. Israel “closes” Jerusalem to Palestinians during Jewish holidays. This year, the six days of Passover coincide with the celebration of Easter, which, this year, falls on the same Sunday for both Greek Orthodox and for Roman Catholic and Protestant Christians. As part of a protest on Palm Sunday, March 28, hundreds of Palestinians marched the five to ten miles from the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem to the Israeli checkpoint at Jerusalem, where several protestors were arrested for allegedly crossing into Israel illegally. Israel claims the whole of Jerusalem as its undivided capital, while Palestinians seek to make East Jerusalem the capital of a future Palestinian state.

Usually, Palestinian Christians have an easier time gaining permits into Jerusalem during Christian holidays than do Palestinian Muslims during Muslim holidays, but there have been several incidents of violence in and around Jerusalem in recent weeks because of Israeli plans to build settlements in the predominantly and traditionally Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem. Palestinian Christians who applied for permits to enter Jerusalem during the Easter holiday were told they would not be allowed in. As of March 31, Israeli officials had announced that only international Christians would be allowed to enter Jerusalem.

Some Middle East observers have characterized the recent tensions between Israelis and Palestinians as a “cold Intifada,” referring to the two Palestinian uprisings that began in 1989 and 2001. Professor Yitzhak Reiter explains the significance of sites like Jerusalem in such conflicts:

“Holy places have become the symbol of the conflict,” said Reiter. “Ever space where someone can find some holy connection becomes part of the conflict.”

Reiter believes the low-scale violence of the “cold Intifada” will persist because Palestinians believe that the Israelis want to “Judaize” the Arab portions of East Jerusalem and the West Bank, and that any proclaimed confidence-building measures by Israel are meant only to appease the United States.

For more information, please see:

World Magazine – O Jerusalem – 10 April 2010

The National – Christians Angry at Jerusalem Lockdown as Easter Clashes with Passover – 4 April 2010

SperoNews – Israeli Raid in Gaza Injures Three Children as Jerusalem Prepares for Easter – 3 April 2010

Ma’an News Agency – Palestinian Christians to be Barred from Jerusalem Old City – 31 March 2010

By Meredith Lee-Clark
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

AL-ARISH, Egypt – Egyptian border guards have been taking an increasingly hard line with migrants attempting to cross into the Palestinian Territories and Israel through the Egypt-Gaza border. On March 31, Human Rights Watch reported than Egyptian border guards had killed three migrants attempting to cross, bringing the total of migrants killed by Egyptian forces since the beginning of 2010 to twelve.

In its statement, Human Rights Watch added that many more migrants had been arrested and detained by the Egyptians. Most of the migrants are from southern Ethiopia or Sudan, many escaping the war-torn region of Darfur. After the migrants are detained by Egyptian authorities, most are sent back to their home regions, where they may be subject to further fighting or torture. This appears to be in violation of the United Nations’s international agreement on refugees.

“Egyptian guards have made the Sinai border a death zone for migrants trying to flee the country,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, the Middle East and North Africa Director for Human Rights Watch. “What’s more, the Egyptian government has not investigated even a single case of the sixty-nine killings of migrants by border guards since 2007.”

The Egyptian Coast Guard has also been active along the Gaza border in recent days. Three Palestinian fishermen from Gaza were arrested by the Egyptian Coast Guard on March 20, for allegedly trying to illegally enter into Egyptian territorial waters. The fishermen claimed they were having engine trouble and drifted into Egyptian waters. In similar incidents, Palestinian fishermen have been fined 1000 Egyptian pounds ($150 US) before being released back to Gaza.

It has become increasingly difficult to make a living as a fisherman in Gaza, as the Israeli blockade has shrunk the traditional fishing grounds to a mere few square miles off the Gaza coast. These once-abundant waters have become severely overfished as Gaza fishermen struggle to bring income and food to their families. Palestinian fishermen often come into conflict with both Israeli and Egyptian forces.

Finally, Egypt has recently bombed several of the smuggling tunnels going from Egypt into Gaza. While both Egypt and Israel claim that the tunnels are primarily used for transporting weapons, Gaza civilians also use the tunnels to obtain vital humanitarian supplies that cannot often pass through the Israeli blockade.

For more information, please see:

Human Rights Watch – Egypt: Guards Kill 3 Migrants on Border with Israel – 31 March 2010

Ma’an News Agency – Egyptian Guards Close 5 Smuggling Tunnels – 25 March 2010

Ma’an News Agency – Gaza Fishermen Detained by Egypt Coast Guard – 21 March 2010