By Vivek Thiagarajan
Impunity Watch Senior Desk Officer, Middle East

MALATYA, Turkey- The trial began for the five men who allegedly killed three Christians.  On April 18, 2007, the Christians were killed in their publishing house during a Bible study.  Two Turkish converts and German missionary were in a Bible study when their attackers arrived.  The prosecutor has stated that he will seek the death penalty for the men accused of the crime.

“Their attackers tied the men to their chairs, targeting Tilmann Geske, a German father of three, before turning to Pastor Necati Aydin and Ugur Yuksel. By the time police arrived, the Turkish converts had been virtually decapitated, with their buttocks, testicles, stomachs and backs repeatedly stabbed, their fingers sliced and throats slashed from ear-to-ear. The accused, all between 19 and 20, allegedly filmed clips on their mobile phones.”  (Guardian Unlimited)

The trial is important because the Turkish judicial system must show that it is committed to protecting the minorities in the community.  The Christians have always faced a strong anti-Christian sentiment in Turkey despite only 350 official conversions to Christianity in the past 15 years.  (The Independent)

In the past, Christians were seen as rebels seeking to overthrow the existing government.  However, Turkey’s recent desire to enter the European Union has caused the Turkish government to relax its regulations and protect the country’s Christians.  Yet, as anti-Western sentiment has recently grown, the Christians have suffered more attacks from churches being burned and a priest was recently shot and killed.

The court must take a strong stance on protecting the country’s minorities, especially since it has begun air strikes against the PKK in northern Iraq.  The PKK is a Kurdish militia seeking independence for the Kurdish people.  The Turkish government must show that it is committed to protect the minorities, since the violence against minorities, especially Turkey’s 15 million Kurds, may increase because of the PKK’s recent attacks.  If the Turkish government allows the minorities to be marginalized then it could allow independent militias like the PKK to gain support.

For more information, please see:

Guardian Unlimited- Turks accused of killing Christians go on trial- 24 November 2007

Independent Online- Five on trial in Turkey for missionary murders- 24 November 2007

Today’s Zaman- Court adjourns Bible publisher murder case- 24 November 2007

BosNewsLife- Turkish Prosecutor Seeks Life Sentences For Killers Of Christian Missionaries- 23 November 2007

By Kevin Kim
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

CAIRO, Egypt – An Egyptian Christian woman is going to jail for three years because her father’s brief stint as an Islam 45 years ago made her a Muslim, not a Christian as her official papers say.

Shadia Nagui Ibrahim on Thursday was charged with fraud for stating her religion as Christianity on her marriage certificate. She was unaware that her father, who left when she was two, had once converted to Islam in 1962. Her father’s conversion automatically made her a Muslim because children in Egypt must take their father’s religion. Even though he came back three years later and re-converted to Christianity, her status as a Muslim stood the same.

Christians in Egypt face many hardships solely because of their religious affiliation. While Egyptians typically have little difficulty changing religion from Christianity to Islam, changing from Islam to another religion such as Christianity is socially risky and considered apostasy.

Compounding the hardship is the state’s reluctance to allow citizens to put their religion of choice on identification cards. In Egypt, all citizens are required to carry identification cards once they reach the age of 16. Because the citizens have only three choices to choose from, this policy forces members of minority faiths to obtain forged documents that can result in criminal prosecution.

When Ibrahim’s father reconverted to Christianity, he forged his document to say he was a Christian. The authorities eventually caught him and told his daughter that she was still a Muslim and charged her with “providing false information on official documents” for stating that she was a Christian when she got married in 1982. She got sentenced for three years after a brief court session.

Also under Egyptian law, Muslim woman are not allowed to marry a Christian man.

For more information, please see:

AFP – Egypt Copt jailed 45 years after father’s conversion – 22 November 2007

Reuters – Egypt denies ID papers to Baha’is, converts – 12 November 2007

BBC News – Egypt ‘denies minority beliefs’ – 12 November 2007

By Laura Zuber
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

AMMAN, Jordan – On November 20, Jordan voters went to the polls to elect a new parliament.  Only six of the 22 candidates from the Islamic Action Front (IAF), the political party affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, won their contested seat.  In the previous election, 17 IAF candidates won and it was expected that a similar number would win again on Tuesday’s election.

The IAF accused the government of election fraud and vote-rigging, which resulted in the election of pro-government candidates.  Government officials admit that 17 individuals were arrested on suspicion of interfering with the election.  Of those, two were arrested on suspicion of vote-buying.  IAF alleged that the electoral monitoring system failed, which allowed election fraud to take place.  Also, the IAF accused the government of bussing in unregistered voters into various polling stations.

IAF’s spokesman, Jamil Abu Bak, stated, “this is an electoral massacre… violations by far exceeded even the last elections… it will have harmful repercussions on the country’s political progress.”  Bak claimed that according to IAF’s own pollings indicated that 16 of its candidates should have won and demanded that in the areas where IAF’s candidates won according to IAF results.  Bak points to Narqa, a strong hold for Islamist support, where the IAF’s candidate did not win.

In addition, the voter turnout was lower, particularly in Amman (about 29%).  In the rest of the country voting levels were about 55% of registered voters.  Higher percentages of voters in rural areas voted, than those from urban areas.  Jordan has a system of proportional representation – which results in people in rural areas being better represented that those in urban areas.  Most people voted according to tribal or family lines, rather than for a specific party.  In addition, some polling stations were kept open two hours longer than others, just so that more people could vote.

For more information, please see:

AFP – US praises Jordan election – 21 November 2007

Al Jazeera – Setback for Jordan’s Islamic Front – 21 November 2007

Associated Press – Allies of Jordan’s king win elections – 21 November 2007

BBC – Jordan Islamists claim poll fraud – 21 November 2007

Reuters – Islamists lose seats in Jordan elections – 21 November 2007

Al Jazeera – Jordan opposition cries foul – 20 November 2007

A 19 year old woman was sentenced to 200 lashes and six months in prison in Saudi Arabia, because she was in a car with men who gang raped her.  She was initially given 90 lashes, but her penalty was increased.  The cause for the increase in her sentence was that she sought help from the media.  The extra 110 lashes were a direct penalty for questioning the judicial system.

The male who was kidnapped alongside the woman faced similar penalties.  The man had allegedly been trying to blackmail the woman with a photo of hers when the two were abducted and the woman was raped.

However, the appeal did increase the punishment of the men who committed the crime from two years to nine years.  The attackers could have faced the death penalty.

Concurrently her lawyer, Abdulrahman al-Lahim, had his license revoked by the judiciary for appealing the case and approaching the media.  The woman’s lawyer is seeking to have his license reinstated and also seeking a reprieve from King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz to clear the woman of all punishments.

For more information, please see:

CNN- Saudi lawyer in rape victim plea- 20 November 2007

By Vivek Thiagarajan
Impunity Watch Senior Desk Officer, Middle East

UNITED STATES- The U.S. military has recommended charges against an Iraqi photographer employed the Associated Press for being linked to insurgents.  Bilal Hussein was part of the AP photo group that won a Pulitzer prize in 2005.

Bilal Hussein has been held by the US military without charges for the last 19 months.  The military has refused to inform Hussein of his alleged conduct or present its for holding Hussein.

Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell cited that “new evidence has come to light” regarding Hussein, which caused the government to formally bring charges now.  (AP)  However, the government has remained silent regarding the exact charge crimes.   Instead, Morrell stated that the military has “convincing and irrefutable evidence that Bilal Hussein is a threat to stability and security in Iraq as a link to insurgent activity” and asserted that Hussein was “a terrorist operative who infiltrated the AP.”  (AP)

However, the AP has rejected the Government’s assertions of convincing and irrefutable evidence.  The Associate General Counsel for the AP responded, “That’s what the military has been saying for 19 months, but whenever we ask to see what’s so convincing we get back something that isn’t convincing at all.”  (AP)

AP President and CEO Tom Curly asserted that Hussein should be immediately released, because Hussein has been denied due process of law.  “The steps the U.S. military is now taking continue to deny Bilal his right to due process and, in turn, may deny him a chance at a fair trial. The treatment of Bilal represents a miscarriage of the very justice and rule of law that the United States is claiming to help Iraq achieve.”  (Reuters)

Hussein’s defense lawyer has also raised the difficulty of creating a viable defense.  The classified evidence against Hussein is inaccessible for the defense lawyer until the trial, which handicaps the defense lawyer.  However, even if Hussein wins the case and is released it does not bar the defense military from further detaining Hussein as a security risk.

For more information, please see:

AP- US Plans Case Against AP photographer- 20 November 2007

Reuters- US seeks charges against AP photographer in Iraq- 19 November 2007

CNN- News photographer in Iraq accused of insurgent ties- 19 November 2007

BBC News- Iraq reporter faces terror charge- 20 November 2007