By Ben Turner
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

CASABLANCA, Morocco – King Mohammad VI pardoned Fouad Mourtada, a Moroccan computer engineer imprisoned for creating a fake Facebook profile of the king’s younger brother, Prince Moulay Rachid.  Last month, Mourtada, 26, was sentenced to three years in jail for “usurping” the identity of the prince by creating a profile of him on the popular social networking site.

During his trial, Mourtada insisted he meant no harm to the prince in creating the profile.  He reiterated those sentiments upon his release.  “I have nothing against the prince.”  Mourtada said.  “In fact, my act was done because of my admiration for him.  I regret that it was badly interpreted.”

Mourtada said he was “fine” after his pardon and thanked his supporters who campaigned for his release.  Mourtada’s arrest sparked free speech protests around the world.  Many prominent Moroccan bloggers stopped writing in solidarity with Mourtada.

“Fouad’s liberation is a victory for justice and freedom,” said Mourtada’s lawyer Ali Ammar. “The king has done what the court should have done in the first place.”

The king granted Mourtada’s pardon along with 565 others just before the anniversary of the birth of the prophet Mohammed, a public holiday in Morocco, and a date on which pardons are often announced.  The king did not provide any reasoning for his pardons.

Mourtada’s case caught the attention of the French based Reporters Without Borders organization.  After Mourtada’s release, the group released a statement that said, “This is a great relief.  Mourtada will be able to spend this holiday with his family tomorrow after 43 days in prison. Nonetheless, we regret that his release is the result of a royal pardon rather than a fair verdict and sentence. Moroccan bloggers will not be able to forget his imprisonment when they compose their blog entries.”

BBC’s James Copnall said that Mourtada’s case has shown that while human rights conditions in Morocco have greatly improved in recent years, the royal family continues to be off-limits for criticism and even parody.

King Mohammed VI is regarded as a descendent of the Prophet Muhammad, and to question his authority is seen as a challenge to his religious role as the Commander of the Faithful.

For more information, please see:
AFP – Moroccan King Pardons Joker Jailed for ‘Royal’ Facebook Page – 19 March 2008

Associated Press – Royal Facebook Usurper Freed in Morocco – 19 March 2008

BBC – Morocco ‘Facebook Prince’ Pardon – 19 March 2008

CNN – King Pardons Morocco Facebook Imposter – 19 March 2008

New York Times – Facebook Prankster Released in Morocco – 19 March 2008

Reporters Without Borders – Press Release – 19 March 2008

Reuters – Royal Pardon Frees Moroccan Facebook User – 19 March 2008
http://africa.reuters.com/wire/news/usnL19737224.html

By Ben Turner
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

TEHRAN, Iran – On March 17, the Iranian Judiciary Amnesty Commission released a woman sentenced to death by stoning.  Mokarrameh Ebrahimi, was convicted of adultery and had been in prison for the last 11 years, was released in the city of Qazvin.

Ebrahimi was released along with her four-year-old son whom she conceived with Jafar Kiani.  Kiani, also convicted of adultery, was stoned to death in July 2007.  Kiani was stoned to death despite a 2002 directive by judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi that imposed a moratorium on such executions. Kiani’s stoning was the first such execution to be confirmed in years.

Ebrahimi’s lawyer, Shadi Sadr, said that his client could not believe that she was pardoned.  “I cannot tell how the commission came up with this decision,” Sadr said. “Whether it was our defense, top clerics’ rulings against stoning or Ayatollah Shahroudi’s decree.”

“But you cannot deny the role of public opinion and domestic and international pressures,” said Sadr.  Sadr is a leading women’s rights activist and is campaigning to remove stoning from Iran’s law books.

According to Amnesty International, death by stoning is still legal under Iranian law.  Article 102 of the Iranian penal code states that men should be buried up to their waists and women up to their breasts while being stoned.  Another article prescribes the size of stone to be used.

Sadr said that Ebrahimi and her son had returned to northern Iran to be with her family.

For more information, please see:
AFP – Iran Frees Woman Facing Stoning For Adultery: Lawyer – 18 March 2008

AGI – Iran: Woman With Death Sentence Released With Son – 18 March 2008

BBC – Iranian Women Escapes Stoning Death – 18 March 2008

News.com.au – Woman Escapes Stoning for Adultery – 18 March 2008

Amnesty International – Amnesty International appeals against planned executions by stoning – 20 June 2007

TEHRAN, Iraq – Dawn on May 14th, 2008, officers from Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence in Tehran arrested six members of the Bahai community in charge of coordinating activities of the Baha’i religious community.  The six members were taken to Iran’s Evin Prison that has a history of human rights abuses.  Another member, Mrs. Mahvash Sabit, Secretary of the group, was questioned about a burial that took place in a cemetery in Mashad.  The Iran Human Rights Documentation Center (“IHRDC”) is concerned that the Iranian government will use these arrests to further persecute members of the Baha’i community merely because of their faith.  The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (“USCIRF”) states, “since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came to power a few years ago, Baha’is have been harassed, physically attacked, arrested and imprisoned.”

There has been a history of oppression under the Iranian government.  The IHRDC says, in 1980, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards arrested nine members of the Baha’i National Spiritual Assembly and were never seen again.  In 1981, again, “a second National Spiritual Assembly was constituted and eight of its members were arrested and summarily executed.”  In 1983, history repeated itself when seven members of the Assembly were hunted down and once again executed.  The IHRDC is concerned that the recently arrested members are in danger of meeting the same fate.  The report on the IHRDC website says members of the Baha’i community have been under surveillance by the Iran government since 2005 when the Ayatollah Khamenei ordered military agencies identify and monitor members of the Baha’i community.  Since 2005, Bahai’s have been the targets of attacks by vigilante groups acting with impunity under the Iran government.

For more information, please see:

Iran Human Rights Documentation Center – IHRDC Condemns the Arrest of Leading Baha’is – 15 May 2008

CNN – Iran’s Arrest of Baha’is Condemned – 15 May 2008

By Laura Zuber
Impunity Watch Senior Desk Officer, Middle East

BAGHDAD, Iraq – To mark the five year anniversary of the start of the Iraq War, the International Commission of the Red Cross (ICRC) and Amnesty International released reports detailing the humanitarian crisis in Iraq.  Both reports highlighted the plight of Iraqi citizens, including: food and water shortages; violence and instability; and human rights abuses committed with impunity.

The ICRC and Amnesty reports expressed concern regarding the critical situation of many of Iraq’s most vulnerable citizens, such as children, families-headed by women, refugees, the elderly and the disabled.

There are over four million displaced Iraqis with at least 2.2 million who are internally displaced.  In addition, over 2 million Iraqis have fled to neighboring Syria and Jordan.  However, these countries are ill-equipped to provide this large number of refugees with appropriate shelter and humanitarian assistance.  As a result, both Syria and Jordan have imposed strict visa restrictions and essentially trapping fleeing refugees within Iraq.

Within Iraq, the humanitarian crisis has been described as “among the most critical in the world.”  In July 2007, Oxfam reported that 70 percent of Iraqis lacked access to safe drinking water.  ICRC accredited this water crisis to population growth, especially in urban areas, and the lack of trained engineers to repair and maintain the water and sanitation facilities.  ICRC pointed to the cholera outbreak in 2007 as one indication of the danger of unsafe water.

In addition to the water situation, Iraqis also face a health care shortage.  Not only do hospitals lack adequate supplies to treat the wounded and sick, but they also lack doctors.  ICRC stated that according to Iraqi officials, over 2,200 doctors and nurses have been killed and over 250 kidnapped since March 2003.  Of the 34,000 doctors registered in Iraq in 1990, over 20,000 have left.

In addition to water shortages, poverty, and lack of proper health care, Iraqi citizens are frequently victims of sectarian and insurgent violence.  While efforts to increase security have produced some results, ordinary Iraqi citizens are killed on a daily basis.  Attacks have been increasingly carried out with the intention of maximizing the loss of civilian life.

For example, on March 17, a bomb exploded in the Shiite holy city of Karbala and killed 43 people and injured 73 others.  The attack occurred less than a mile away from Imam Hussein shrine, a pilgrimage center for Shia Muslims.  In April 2007, two bombings targeted Karbala and resulted in the death of over 100 Iraqis.

Béatrice Mégevand Roggo, the head of the ICRC’s operations in the Middle East and North Africa, said, “Better security in some parts of Iraq must not distract attention from the continuing plight of millions of people who have essentially been left to their own devices.”

Mégevand Roggo added, “To avert an even worse crisis, more attention must be paid to the everyday needs of Iraqis.”

For the reports, please see:
Amnesty International – Iraq: Carnage and Despair: Iraq Five Years On – 17 March 2008

ICRC – Iraq: No Let Up in the Humanitarian Crisis – 17 March 2008

For more information, please see:
BBC – Iraq bomb Attack Toll Rises to 52 – 18 March 2008

The Guardian – 39 Die in Bomb Attack on Shias – 18 March 2008

New York Times – Bombing Kills 43 in  Shiite Holy City in Iraq – 18 March 2008

AFP – Red Cross, Amnesty Paint Grim Picture of Post-Invasion Iraq – 17 March 2008

Amnesty International – Carnage and Despair in Iraq – 17 March 2008

Associated Press – Red Cross: Many Iraqis Still Lack Basics – 17 March 2008

BBC – Bleak Picture of Iraq Conditions – 17 March 2008

Xinhua – Red Cross: Humanitarian Situation Still Critical in Iraq – 17 March 2008

Riots at Jabel Mukaber (Photo: Guy Assayag)

JABAL MUKABER, East Jerusalem – On March 16, hundreds of right-wing activists evaded police barricades and entered Jabal Mukaber, an Arab neighborhood in East Jerusalem.  Once in the Jabal Mukaber, the demonstrators began throwing stones at the homes of the Arab residents.  Police moved in to disperse the demonstrators, sparking violent clashes between the two groups.  After several hours, the police successfully ended the demonstration and forced its participants to leave.  The incident resulted in minor injuries to two policemen and 22 protesters arrested on suspicion of stoning Arab residents’ houses.

Following the March 6 attack at Mercaz Harav yeshiva, there has been discussion of whether Israel should raze the home of Alaa Abu Dhaim, the gunman who carried out the attack.  Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter issued an order for its demolition.  A decision which is supported by Defense Minister Ehud Barak.  However, the order has not been carried out.

Groups organizing the demonstration stated that since the government has failed to demolish Abu Dhaim’s home, it was their duty as Israeli citizens to carry out the order.  One of the organizers, Baruch Marzel, stated, “The police must know that there is a price for the fact that they are not demolishing the terrorist’s house. Apparently other people have to complete the job for this to happen.”

For more information, please see:
Al Jazeera – Israelis Storm East Jerusalem – 16 March 2008

Ha’aretz – Right-Wing Demonstrators Try  to Storm Home Village of Mercaz Harav Gunman – 16 March 2008

Jerusalem Post – 22 Arrested in Right-Wing Demonstration – 16 March 2008

Middle East Times – Ultra-Nationalists Clash with Israeli Police in Jerusalem – 16 March 2008

Yedioth News – Police: We were Surprised by Intensity of Rightists’ Riots – 16 March 2008

Yedioth News – Rightists Hurl Stones at Arab Homes in Jerusalem – 16 March 2008