The Middle East

Nasrin Sotoudeh Temporarily Released from Prison

By Justin Dorman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

TEHRAN, Iran – Recent Sakharov Prize winner and Iranian human rights attorney Nasrin Sotoudeh has been released from Evin prison. Her release is only a temporary furlough that is set to last just three days. Sotoudeh has spent roughly more than two years in jail thus far.

Nasrin Sotoudeh, now weighing 95 lbs. after her hunger strikes, has been given a three day furlough from Evin prison, after two-years of incarceration. (Photo Courtesy of the Guardian)

Currently, Sotoudeh is serving a six-year prison sentence and a ten-year ban on practicing law for “acting against national security and propaganda against the regime.” She was arrested for providing legal services in human rights cases for activists who were viewed unfavorably by the Iranian authorities. Many believe it was her specific representation of Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian Nobel peace prize laureate who is living in exile, that upset the Iranian authorities.

Throughout the course of her detainment, Sotoudeh was often held in solitary confinement. Additionally, her family was harassed with international travel bans, and Sotoudeh was frequently denied access to family visitation and telephone communication. She was also denied the right to attend her father’s funeral who died while she was in jail; although, she was allowed to attend her mother’s who also died around the same time. In an effort to protest such harassment, Sotoudeh began to partake in a hunger strike.

She wrote to her children, “I know that you require water, food, housing, a family, parents, love, and visits with your mother. . . However, just as much, you need freedom, social security, the rule of law, and justice.”

After a forty-nine day hunger strike, Sotoudeh finally began eating again once her daughter’s travel ban was lifted in early December.

Since the start of her temporary release, it has been reported that Sotoudeh weighs just ninety-five pounds. Drewery Dyke of Amnesty International stated that, “We urge the Iranian authorities to confirm an extension to this period of leave, to allow Nasrin to get any medical checks which she may not have received in Evin prison.”

Besides for an extension of her furlough for health reasons, Amnesty International further urges the Iranian government to release Sotoudeh indefinitely. Dyke added, “In order to abide by human rights commitments, though, her conviction should be overturned and she should be released unconditionally.”

Amnesty International was thrilled to hear of Sotoudeh’s three-day release, however, Dyke believes, “Nasrin shouldn’t have been imprisoned in the first place.”

For further information, please see:

Eurasia Review – Iran: Human Rights Lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh Given First Furlough – 18 January 2013

Women News Network – Imprisoned Iran Rights Attorney Ms. Nasrin Sotoudeh Gets 3 Day Release – 18 January 2013

Guardian – Iranian Human Rights Lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh Temporarily Freed – 17 January 2013

Amnesty International – Iran: Further Information: Lawyer Ends Hunger Strike but Still Detained: Nasrin Sotoudeh – 7 December 2012

Deadly Wave of Attacks Strike Iraq

By Ali Al-Bassam
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Iraq was struck with a wave of attacks last Wednesday, killing 29 people and injuring 235 people.  The attacks occurred within Baghdad and in northern Iraq.  The attacks are considered, so far, to be the deadliest of the year.

Kirkuk was the site of Wednesday’s deadliest attacks. (Photo Courtesy of Al Jazeera)

Wednesday’s attacks were aimed at Kurdish targets within the north.  In Kirkuk, two suicide bombers targeted an office of the Kurdistan Democratic Party.  Another blast appeared to target a compound housing local offices of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Massoud Barzani, the Kurdish Regional President. Sadiq Omar Rasul, Provincial Health Chief of the region, said that  a car bomb killed at least 26 people and wounded 190 others.

In the town of Tuz Khurmatu, located north of Baghdad, a suicide bomber killed five people and wounded 40 others.  The attack happened near the offices of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan of Jalal Talabani, the Iraqi President.

In Baghdad, officials said that five attacks killed six people, while bombings in the towns of Baiji, Hawija, and Tikrit, all north of Baghdad, killed three people and wounded seven others.

According to an AFP tally, Wednesday’s overall death toll was the highest since December 17.

The attacks occurred a day after the killing of Eifan Saadoun Al-Issawi, a Sunni member of Parliament.  He was killed by a suicide bomber who pretended to meet him and then blew himself up.  The assassination occurred in the Anbar Province west of Baghdad, an area of Iraq which has seen heavy protests by the Sunni minority against the Shi’ite-led government.  “The moment he stepped out of the car to check out this road between Fallujah and Amiriya, at this moment there was a man,” said Sohaib Haqi, an aide to Al-Issawi.  “He came to him, hugged him, said ‘Allahu Akbar’ (‘God is great’), and blew himself up.”  The attack also killed two bodyguards, while several other people within the vicinity of the blast were injured.

On Wednesday, hundreds of mourners attended Al-Issawi’s funeral outside of the predominately Sunni town of Fallujah.  A spokesman for the Anbar Provincial Council said that officials declared a three day mourning period in Al-Issawi’s honor.

The violence follows a political crisis which has pitted Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki against several of his ministers in provincial elections, which measures support given to the ministers respectively in the run up to the general election which occurs next year.  Anti-government demonstrations have also swept the Sunni-majority areas of the nation.  Demonstrators believe that Sunnis have been targeted and arrested by the Shi’ite led government under anti-terror law.

For further information, please see:

Al Arabiya — Wave of Iraq Attacks Kill 29 — 16 January 2013

Al Jazeera — Deadly Suicide Blasts Strike Iraq’s North — 16 January 2013

Al Bawaba — Iraq’s Protest Region Faces Suicide Bomb Attack — 15 January 2013

BBC News — Iraq Sunni MP Killed by Suicide Bomber — 15 January 2013

Iraqi Government Frees 335 Prisoners Held Under Anti-Terrorism Law

By Ali Al-Bassam
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Iraq released 335 prisoners held under anti-terrorism laws as a goodwill gesture to Sunni Muslim demonstrators who have been protesting against Shi’ite Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki for the last three weeks.

In an effort to appease Sunni protesters, the government released 335 Iraqi prisoners who were not formally charged but were held under anti-terrorism law. (Photo Courtesy of BBC News)

Deputy Prime Minister Hussein Shahristani announced their release during a ceremony that was held at a Baghdad prison last Monday.  The ceremony itself was attended by dozens of freed prisoners, both male and female, who then shook hands with Shahristani after his speech.  It was at the ceremony where Shahristani apologized “on behalf of the Iraqi state” to those prisoners who suffered a prolonged detention.  “I, and the committee, will follow up all the cases to accelerate the release of the prisoners who are freed or completed the sentence,” said Shahristani, who heads the committee formed to look into the Sunni protesters’ demands.

Officials declined to provide statistics over how many prisoners had finished their jail terms and how many had been detained without being formally charged.  An AFP journalist who was present for the mass release said that a number of old men and women were among the prisoners freed.  “This is a good step,” said Mehdi Saleh, a prisoner who was held without charges since 2009.  “We were really desperate to be released,” he said.

For three weeks, Sunni demonstrators had assembled in Iraq’s Anbar province and other predominately Sunni regions to protest alleged discrimination.  Sunni leaders claim that the anti-terrorsim law was used to unfairly target and arrest Sunnis.  Aside from the demand to release prisoners held under the anti-terrorism law, protesters had made other demands, some of which are considered extreme.  They range from calls for Maliki to resign, to ending the campaign to track down former members of Saddam Hussein’s Baath party.

Thousands of protesters are still in Anbar, and do not feel that their demands were adequately met.  “This is not enough.  We didn’t ask for a gesture or a gift for the people.  We want to give people their rights,” said Jaber Al-Jaberi, a lawmaker who represents the Sunni-backed Iraqiya block.  The protests began on December 23, when officials arrested 9 members of  Sunni Finance Minister Rafa Al-Essawi’s security team on terrorism charges.  Tensions have been high for both the demonstrators and government officials since the start of the protests, and Maliki has even threatened to direct security forces to forcibly intervene.

Since Hussein’s fall in 2003, many Iraqi Sunnis felt that they have been discriminated since the Shi’ite majority took power.  Since then, Iraq’s government, comprised of Shi’ite, Sunni, and ethnic Kurds, have struggled to cooperate together in rebuilding Iraq.

For further information please see:

Al Arabiya — Iraq Frees Hundreds of Detainees to Appease Protesters — 14 January 2013

Al Jazeera — Iraq Releases Hundreds of Prisoners — 14 January 2013

BBC News — Hundreds of Prisoners Released  in Iraq — 14 January 2013

Kurdish Globe — Iraq Says it Freed Hundreds of Inmates — 14 January 2013

Reuters — Iraq Frees Prisoners in Gesture to Ease Sunni Protests — 14 January 2013

Abdullah al-Senussi’s Lawyer Calls for ICC Trial

By Justin Dorman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

TRIPOLI, Libya – Abdullah al-Senussi has once been described as the “world’s most wanted man.” During the rule of his brother-in-law, Muammar Gaddafi, Senussi ran the country’s internal security, external security, and was the chief of its espionage agency. His lawyer, Ben Emmerson, believes that if Senussi is not sent for trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague, that he will surely be sentenced to death in Libya.

Senussi’s attorney believes that if Senussi is not rightfully sent to face trial at the ICC, that he will be summarily executed. (Photo Courtesy of the Guardian)

On June 27, 2011, the ICC issued arrest warrants for both Senussi as well as Saif al-Islam, Gaddafi’s son. Nevertheless, Islam has been detained in west Libya, where he will be tried. Similarly, despite the arrest warrant, Senussi, who was being held in Mauritania, was deported back to Libya when Libya purposefully ignored the warrant and paid between $125-$200 million for him.

While Libya is supposed to follow the directives of the ICC, there is no real manner in which the ICC can enforce itself, nor the United Nations Security Council, who referred the case to the Hague to begin with. Lord Macdonald, the former director of public prosecutions in England threatened, however, that “the Libyan government need to decide whether they want to join the international community or not. If they continue to flout the UN security council [resolution]. . . they are not going to be treated seriously as part of the community of nations.”

Emmerson claims that if his client is put on trial in Libya, that the country has breached its obligations to both the ICC and Security Council. He further believes that when Libya obtained Senussi from Mauritania, that it partook in unlawful rendition. Emmerson wants a fair trial for Senussi and ultimately feels that if Senussi is tried in Libya, that it is “likely to be a short and summary process resulting in his conviction and summary execution.”

Senussi was believed to be the orchestrator of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, known as the Lockerbie bombing, which killed 170 people. Many also think that he was also the man responsible for the slaughtering of 1,200 prisoners at Abu Salim prison.

On the first of this month, Taha Baara, spokesman for Libya’s attorney general stated that Senussi’s trial would take place “within a month.” The Libyan authorities are required to respond to the ICC’s demands by January 15, 2013.

For further information, please see:

Guardian – Abdullah al-Senussi: Foreign Office Urged to Prevent Execution of spy Chief – 11 January 2013

Al Arabiya News – Libyan Ex-spy Chief Must be Extradited or Risk Execution: Lawyers – 10 January 2013

Amnesty International – Libya Must Seek Justice not Revenge in Case of Former al-Gaddafi Intelligence Chief – 18 October 2012

The Hague Justice Portal – Abdullah Senussi

Women Granted Seats on Shura Council for First Time

By Justin Dorman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Saudi Arabia, a ultraconservative Islamic country historically governed by men, has for the first time granted seats on the Shura council to women. The Shura council is Saudi Arabia’s top advisory board.

Saudi Arabia’s Shura Council will now be made up of twenty percent women. (Photo Courtesy of the Guardian)

The one hundred and fifty member council now seats thirty women. Furthermore, courtesy of First Amendment: Article 3 of the council’s statute, which King Abdullah introduced, women can never constitute less than twenty percent of the council. Previously, women were only permitted to be consultants to the council and only on topics such as family and women’s issues.

Members of the Shura council sit for four-year terms. Since the nature of the council is to serve in an advisory capacity, it has no legislative power. Members may review laws and question ministers.

The thirty women who were given seats on the council include human rights activists, university graduates, and two princesses. One such woman is Thuraya Obaid, a United Nations administrator who has previously served as the undersecretary general to the world body and as an executive director to the United Nations Development Programme.

Female Saudi novelist Baridya al-Bishr described the new class of councilwomen as “the cream of the crop.”

King Abdullah’s appointment of women to the council has been warmly welcomed by women’s rights activists. Well known activist Wajeha al-Hawaidar believes that, “men can finally respect women when they see them playing a male role.”

This move was one of many changes King Abdullah has made to advance women since he became king. In 2009, Norah al-Fayez was the first woman ever named to a ministerial post. Then in 2011 he granted women the right to vote and run as candidates in local elections. Most recently, two Saudi Arabian women were permitted to be the first women to partake in the Olympics.

Nevertheless, there are still many more changes female activists wish to see implemented. Women are still not allowed to marry, divorce, work, travel, or be taken care of in a hospital without the permission. Women who are permitted to travel are still electronically tracked, and automatic text messages are sent to her male guardian informing him of her whereabouts.

Ultimately, the council appointments signify great progress for women in Saudi Arabia. The change, however, does not come without limitations. Women still must be segregated from men once inside the council in a special area, and must also enter through a separate door.

For further information, please see:

Al-Akhbar – In Historic First, 30 Women Appointed to Saudi Shura Council – 11 January 2013

Guardian – Saudi King Allows Women on top Advisory Council – 11 January 2013

Middle East Online – Precedent: Saudi Women Named to Shura Council – 11 January 2013

Ya Libnan – Women Named to the Saudi Shura Council for First Time – 11 January 2013