The Middle East

Sultan Qaboos Pardons Protesters in Oman

By Justin Dorman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

MUSCAT, Oman – While the Arab spring led to protests throughout the Middle East, those in Oman have felt it necessary to join in over the past year. As a result of expressing their displeasure with the government and the Sultan, numerous individuals have been detained and imprisoned for their roles and statements made in protests and cyber campaigns.

Approximately fifty individuals detained for defaming the Sultan and unlawfully assembling will be released today on a pardon by the Sultan. (Photo Courtesy of the Guardian)

Many of those detained, were jailed specifically for defaming the sultan. The seventy-two year old Sultan Qaboos bin Said, who has ruled over Oman for the last forty-two years, does not hold too big of a grudge though. The Oman News Agency announced that, “Sultan Qaboos  has issued a royal pardon for those convicted of defamation, information technology crimes and unauthorised rallies.” At least fifty individuals who were sentenced from six to eighteen month jail terms are expected to be released today.

This decision to free all the activists was not completely unprovoked. The sultans pardon came shortly after the negative publicity that arises when approximately thirty detained individuals partake in a two week long hunger strike. The hunger strike began when eleven to seventeen cyber activists chose to protest the delays and denials of receiving appeals. These cyber activists were charged with “unlawful assembly and violating the cyber law.” Eventually, another thirteen imprisoned activists joined their hunger strike.

After fifteen days of not eating, the initial cyber activist hunger strikers were told by the Supreme Court that their appeals would in fact be heard. Just a week later, Sultan Qaboos bin Said announced his royal pardons.

Besides for calling for the release of these protesters, the Sultan is also attempting to respond to many of their concerns. One move the government has taken was to announce a plan to restrict the number of foreign workers in the country in order to decrease domestic employment. Additionally, plans are in the works to greatly increase the minimum wage.

While these improvements sound good on paper, the protesters will not be truly happy until they see they see actual actions taken. There has long been a pledge to increase public specter jobs which has never really come to fruition as the country focuses on its oil export role on the Strait of Hormuz. Until actual change comes, expect more to be detained for defamation against sultan, and eventually more pardons as well.

For further information, please see:

Guardian – Oman’s Sultan Pardons Dissidents who Were Jailed for Defaming him – 22 March 2013

Gulf News – Oman’s Qaboos Pardons Activists – 21 March 2013

Middle East Online – Top Court in Oman Orders Retrial for Jailed Activists – 4 March 2013

Daily News Egypt – 30 Jailed Omani Activists end Hunger Strike: Lawyer – 25 February 2013

Lynch Mob Kills Two in Egypt

By Dylan Takores
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

CAIRO, Egypt – Yesterday, residents of Gharbiya captured and lynched two Egyptian men accused of kidnapping and theft.

The bodies suspended from bus station rafters. (Photo Courtesy of Sky News)

 

Enraged villagers chased the men through the town after allegedly catching the men attempt to steal a rickshaw and kidnap a girl inside the vehicle.  The citizens stripped and brutally beat the men with sticks and clubs before hanging the men from the rafters in a bus station.  Some attempted to help the individuals, but were pushed back by the mob.

Ahram reported that individuals parked their cars on major roads to protest rising gas prices.  The roadblocks prevented police from reaching the scene in time to stop the killing.

Approximately 3,000 locals observed the event.  A photographer at the scene said many in the crowd chanted “kill them!” during the execution.  After, residents dumped the lifeless bodies on the steps of a police station.

Though two years have passed since the revolution that overthrew former President Mubarak, many areas of Egypt have yet to reestablish permanent and effective law enforcement.  Frustrated with the lack of police presence, locals are beginning to take the law into their own hands.

The event took place one week after the Attorney General’s Office announced that citizens should arrest criminals and turn them over to the police.  Following that advice, citizens in several cities and villages formed independent groups known as “popular committees” dedicated to maintaining public security.  Many of the groups carry clubs and knives.

Since the Office’s announcement, incidences of vigilantism have risen dramatically throughout Egypt.  However, Gharbiya has seen the most extreme examples.  A similar public execution took place in the province on Saturday.

The Muslim Brotherhood’s Gharbiya spokesman Mamdouh al-Muneer explained to the Associated Press that the lynching followed a series of kidnappings and rapes in the area.  “Unfortunately, the police are completely out of the picture in Gharbiya,” he added.

Opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei condemned the acts and blamed President Morsi’s administration for the violent outbreak.  ElBaradei tweeted on Monday, “Public display of vigilante lynching & killing: are we losing our humanity in a lawless society?”

Justice Minister Ahmed Mekki spoke out against the rise in vigilantism as well.  In a statement to a Turkish news agency, he indicated that the violence is a signal of the “death of the state.”  He explained, a “government that allows this to happen is an unjust government, because it does not afford citizens with adequate protection.”

 

For further information, please see:

Sky News – Egypt Vigilantes Kill Two Men as Crowd Watches – 19 March 2013

Ahram – Angry mobs attempt 3rd public lynching in Egypt’s Gharbiya – 18 March 2013

Ahram – Public lynchings indicate ‘death of state’: Egypt justice minister – 18 March 2013

BBC News – Egyptian villagers lynch two men – 18 March 2013

UN Commission, Amnesty International: Syrian War Crimes Must be Determined by ICC

By Ali Al-Bassam
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

DAMASCUS, Syria — Last Monday, United Nations (U.N.) Commission of Inquiry pleaded to the U.N. Security Council to refer cases involving war crimes committed in Syria, by both the government and rebel fighters, to the International Criminal Court (I.C.C.).

A U.N. Commission of Inquiry, and Amnesty International says that cases regarding war crimes committed by those fighting for government and rebel forces should be referred to the I.C.C. (Photo Courtesy of The Guardian)

Carla del Ponte, former Chief Prosecutor for the International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, who is now working on a rolling U.N. inquiry into Syria, said that high-level perpetrators have been identified and should be brought in front of the I.C.C.  “Now really it’s time… We have a permanent court, the I.C.C., who would be ready to take this case,” said del Ponte.

The commission plans to submit a confidential list of names of suspected war criminals to the U.N. Human Rights Office, and has repeatedly urged the U.N. Security Council to refer the cases to the I.C.C.  The Security Council has been deadlocked in doing so.  “We are in very close dialogue with all five permanent members of the Security Council, but we don’t have the key that will open the path to cooperation inside the Security Council,” said Paulo Pinheiro, Head of the Commission of Inquiry.

Since Syria is not party to the Rome Statute, which created the I.C.C., the only way the court can investigate cases arising from the country is if it receives a referral from the Security Council.

Russia, a member of the Security Council, and ally to President Bashar Al-Assad, has blocked three U.N. Security Council resolutions that would increase pressure on the Syrian government.  Moscow is hesitant to refer these cases to the I.C.C, a move which Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov called “untimely and unconstructive.”

Human rights watchdog Amnesty International also called on the U.N. to refer war crimes committed in Syria by both parties to the I.C.C.  “While the vast majority of war crimes and other gross violations continue to be committed by government forces, our research points to an escalation in abuses by armed opposition groups,” said Ann Harrison, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa.

Amnesty International documented regime forces’ use of “internationally banned weapons against civilians,” and “the torture and summary killing of soldiers, pro-government militias and civilians, captured or abducted by rebel fighters.”  It also found evidence of the army’s use of ballistic missiles on the northern city and province of Aleppo.  It provided the testimony of civilians who survived such attacks.  One such testimony came from Sabah, a 31 year old mother who lost three daughters, her husband, mother, sister, and three nephews in one missile attack.  “They were killed; what is left for me in this life?”

For further information, please see:

Alert Net — ICC War Crime Requests for Syria “Untimely” – Russian Official — 19 March 2013

Daily Nation — UN Must Refer Syria War Crimes to ICC: Amnesty — 19 March 2013

The Guardian — Syrian Leaders Should Face Justice at ICC, UN Says — 18 March 2013

Naharnet — U.N. Syria Investigators Seek to Refer Report to ICC — 11 March 2013

Iran Responds to U.N. Special Report on Human Rights

By Justin Dorman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

TEHRAN, Iran – The former foreign affairs minister of the Maldives, Ahmed Shaheed, recently delivered his latest United Nations report on Iran’s human rights record. Iranian delegation leader and Iranian Human Rights Council head Mohammad Javad Larijani disputed basically all of the complaints in the report.

Mohammad Javad Larijani attacks the UN Special report for being based foreign value systems, the word of terrorists, and US bribes. (Photo Courtesy of the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran)

Shaheed stated “that the prevailing situation of human rights in Iran continues to warrant serious concern, and will require a wide range of solutions that are both respectful of cultural perspectives and mindful of the universality of fundamental human rights.”

Mohammad Javad Larijani believes that human rights are subjective and not universal. He views such U.N. reports predicated on universal principles as a cultural invasion on the Iranian way of life. Similarly, his brother, Iranian Chief Justice Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani considers Iran’s ratification of the December 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights to be a “mistake.”

Iran was charged with detaining individuals on bogus charges, torturing detainees, permitting marital rape, and systematically persecuting those of the LGBT community.

Regarding the charges and the torture, Mohammad Javad Larijani claims that Shaheed relied on the testimony of convicts who belonged to terrorist factions. Larjani insists they were given their day in court and received due process before being convicted on counts of “contact with foreign media and the office of the UN Special Rapporteur” and “propaganda against the regime.”

With respect to the treatment of those in the LGBT community, Iran in 2013 takes a similar stance to that of the American medical community prior to 1974. The official stance in Iran is that homosexuality is a disease. Larijani stated that, “we consider homosexuality an illness that should be cured. We don’t consider it acceptable to beat or mistreat homosexuals, either.”

While Iran does not condone the beating of homosexuals, the alleged “disease” is punishable by death according to the fatwas declared by Iranian clerics. Iran also has executed individuals who have been found guilty of committing sodomy. Those men who were executed were married. Unmarried men who engage in the same act may only face stern prolonged lashings. Furthermore, even the ‘passive’ recipient of the sodomy can be executed. This punishment may be received regardless of whether he was a consensual participant or one who was raped.

Besides for debating the concept of universal rights and discrediting Shaheed’s report for taking the word of terrorists, Larijani also criticizes the Special Rapporteur for taking bribes from the United States State Department. He believes that everything written in the report is designed to achieve some result that comports with the interests of the United States.

For further information, please see:

Guardian – Iranian Human Rights Official Describes Homosexuality as an Illness – 14 March 2013

International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran – Denial and Personal Attacks: Iran’s Larijani Responds at the UN – 12 March 2013

World Politics Review – Human Rights Deteriorate in Iran as Elections Approach – 12 March 2013

Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization – Ahwazi: UNHRC Condemns Iranian Delegate for Attacking UN Special Rapporteur – 11 March 2013

I Am a Bearded Police Officer, and Proud of It

By Dylan Takores
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

CAIRO, Egypt – A coalition of eighteen Egyptian police officers formed a group to protest the Ministry of the Interior’s refusal to allow the police officers to express their religious views by growing beards.

 

Bearded police protest at the Ministry of the Interior. (Photo Courtesy of Egypt Independent)

The Ministry’s code of conduct requires that all officers maintain a “presentable appearance.”  Officers must be clean-shaven to fulfill this requirement.  In response, the officers created a Facebook page entitled “I am a bearded police officer” and have since drawn attention and support from several Muslim groups.

The officers claim that the Ministry oppressed their right to engage in a traditional Islamic practice.  Captain Hani al-Shakeri, the group’s official spokesman, wrote on the Facebook page “many Egyptians are keen to see police officers in Egypt grow their beards and follow the example of their prophet.”  They also contend that wearing a beard would not interfere with their ability to perform police duties.

The Ministry of the Interior suspended the bearded officers for violating codes of conduct that prohibit police officers from growing beards.  On February 20, an Administrative Court ruled that the officers should be allowed to return to work.  However, the Ministry ignored the court’s decision and refused to allow the officers to return.

Many have protested the decision.  The officers have been engaged in a sit-in since the Ministry refused to implement the court’s decision.  On March 1, protestors at Abdeen Palace in Cairo rallied in support of the officers.  Last Friday, a large crowd of protestors gathered in Assiut as well.

Islamic scholars at al-Azhar, the world’s foremost Sunni Islam institution, debate the issue.  Abdel Hamid al-Atrash, the former head of al-Azhar’s Religious Edicts Committee, states that the protest is a waste of time and effort.  He asserts that the officers should “maintain the appearance that goes with the status of the police even if this would make them go against a preferred practice in Islam.”

Conversely, former head of al-Azhar’s Scholars Union, Mohamed al-Berri, reasons that capacity to perform official duties should be the primary concern for officers.  He believes the officers should be allowed to wear beards “as long as this does not affect their performance.”

Captain al-Shakeri wrote “[a]t last I get to regain my humanity which I had lost during the oppressive regime.”  Al-Berri echoed this sentiment, stating that the Ministry’s refusal to allow beards is a remnant of pre-revolution mentality.

The officers called for a march to take place in downtown Cairo on March 22.  The officers intend to use the slogan “We will not give up” during the march.

 

For further information, please see:

Ahram – Egypt’s bearded policemen call for march – 14 March 2013

Muslims Debate – Egyptian police officers requests to grow beards, right to religious appearance in workplace – 14 March 2013

Egypt Independent – Bearded policemen remain at loggerheads with Interior Ministry – 10 March 2013

Egypt Independent – Facebook pages call for allowing police, army officers to grow beards – 19 February 2012