By Ricardo Zamora
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

PENZANCE, England – A Bristol County Court has ruled against two bed and breakfast owners for refusing to allow a gay couple to share a bed, holding that such a refusal constituted discrimination.  The Court awarded the couple 1,800 pounds (about $2,900) each in damages, reported Britain’s Equality and Human Rights Commission, which supported the gay couple’s claims.

Peter and Hazel Bull, the couple who own and run the bed and breakfast in Cornwall, England, insisted that they had a long-standing policy refusing to allow all unmarried couples to share a room due to their strict Christian beliefs.

Mrs. Bull offered support for their 24-year-old policy by stating that even her brother and his female partner were not allowed to share a room in the bed and breakfast due to her strict religious beliefs.

The Christian Legal Centre, legal counsel to the Bulls, said that “the Bulls made it clear that they did not hold any hostility towards homosexuals and applied their policy of ‘only giving double rooms to married couples’ regardless of sexual orientation.

But Judge Andre Rutherford ruled against the Bulls, holding that they discriminated against Martyn Hall and Steve Preddy on the ground of sexual orientation and in violation of British equality law.

After the judgment, the Bulls stated they are considering an appeal.  “We are obviously disappointed with the result,” they said.  “Our double-bed policy was based on our sincere beliefs about marriage, not hostility to anybody,” they added.

Judge Rutherford also made a point to announce that he believed the Bulls.  “I am quite satisfied as to the genuineness of [their] beliefs and it is, I have no doubt, one which others also hold,” he said.  The Judge, however, refused to accept the defense because the Bulls’ views are not “those accepted as normal by society at large.”

Ben Summerskill, chief executive of Stonewall, a British gay-rights group, supported the ruling.  “You can’t turn away people from a hotel because they’re black or Jewish and in 2011 you shouldn’t be able to demean them by turning them away because they’re gay either,” he said.

For more information please see:

CNN – Christian B&B Owners Discriminated Against Gays, UK Court Finds – January 18, 2011

THE FREETHINKER – Judge Rules Against Christian Fundie B&B Owners Who Turned Away a Gay Couple – January 18, 2011

SKY NEWS – Gay Couple Win B&B Discrimination Case – January 18, 2011

By Ricardo Zamora
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

BRUSSELS, Belgium – A new Hungarian media law, which would apply to news organizations from other EU nations, is raising concerns among EU member states regarding limitations on the freedom of expression.  Human Rights Watch reports that EU member states are calling on the European Commission to urge Hungary to address these censorship concerns and implement the law consistently with relevant EU values and legislation

Human Rights Watch has reported that the new legislation, which came into effect on January 1, 2011 as Hungary took over the EU presidency, creates a new media authority with the right to impose fines on media outlets for “imbalanced news coverage,” material it considers insulting to “the majority.”  The law also allows the authority to compel journalists to reveal sources on issues related to national security.

According to Human Rights Watch, the law undermines media freedom, is incompatible with Hungary’s human rights obligations and is part of a troubling trend of removing checks and balances, including a November 2010 restriction on the power of the constitutional court to review budget laws.

“As holder of the EU presidency, Hungary should embody the EU’s principles and values,” said Lotte Leicht, EU director at Human Rights Watch.  “But when it comes to human rights, Hungary is moving in the wrong direction,” he added.

Neelie Kroes, Digital Agenda Commissioner and European Commission vice-president, has pledged to ensure that EU law is implemented fully and has assured that the European Commission would not make any compromises with Hungary.  Kroes also voiced her intent to involve Fundamental Rights Commissioner Viviane Reding in respect to Article 7 of the Lisbon treaty if Hungary fails to make the media legislation compatible with EU law.

Kroes also raised concerns over an unprecedented registration regime applying to bloggers and internet media.  Also of concern is that Hungary has opened a new blogging platform which has only been used by officials.

But Kroe remains optimistic.  “I am fully confident that Hungary, being a democratic country, will take all the necessary steps to ensure that the new Media Law is implemented in full respect of the European values on media freedom and relevant EU legislation,” she said.

Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orban, has agreed to amend the law if the European Commission demands changes.

For more information, please see:

EXPATICA – European Broadcasters Concern Over Hungary Media Law – January 14, 2011

EUBUSINESS – EU Sees ‘Problem’ With Hungary Media Law – January 11, 2011

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH– Hungary – Media Law Endangers Press Freedom – January 7, 2011

By Christina Berger
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

HALL, Austria – A mass grave discovered at a mental hospital in the Tyrol Province is thought to contain up to 220 disabled victims of the Nazi euthanasia program.  The remains of people buried between 1942 and 1945 were discovered while the hospital was excavating part of their land for new buildings. Construction was immediately halted to allow for an investigation and identification of the dead.  Exhumations will begin in March.

A group of historians led by Oliver Seifert recently found a map that outlines a former cemetery at the hospital.  Seifert said at a press conference, “At this stage we can’t say that all 220 people were victims of the Nazi euthanasia programme but one of the central questions we will be looking into is how they died.”

He went on to note that documents discovered recently during a reorganization of the hospital archives show that the death rate of Hall patients went up considerably towards the end of the war. Previously there had been no documentation supporting the idea that patients at the Hall hospital were murdered during the Nazi program, though it’s believed that 360 patients from Hall were taken to other institutions to be killed.

According to the Guardian UK, Christian Haring, deputy medical director of the hospital, said authorities were working on the theory that the cemetery was built at a time when the hospital in Hall was considered as a possible site for an official Nazi euthanasia center.  “It’s quite possible that the hospital cemetery was laid out in October 1942 with a view to using Hall for euthanasia,” he said.  He added that patients died in significant numbers, with 30 deaths registered in March 1945 alone.

The hospital put out a global appeal for anyone who believes their relatives might be one of the victims buried there to contact the hospital.  It also asked for possible witnesses to come forward with any information that might be useful.

“Every memory has the potential to help us in researching the history of this cemetery,” a spokesman said.

Nazi-controlled Germany annexed Austria in 1938.  In 1939, Adolph Hitler officially instituted a euthanasia program where those patients deemed “incurable” could be granted “mercy-killing.”  Midwives and doctors were required to report all newborns born with severe disabilities or hereditary diseases such as “idiocy and Down’s syndrome, microcephaly, hydrocephaly, malformations of all kinds, especially of limbs, head, and spinal column; and paralysis.”

More than 70,000 people were killed by the Nazis for being disabled during the official program, though there is evidence that German physicians continued after the official program ended in 1941, killing a total of about 275,000 disabled under the euthanasia program.

During the program, forms were sent to institutions in Germany and Austria, and when they were returned each patient had a plus or minus sign next to their name, marking them for life or death.

For more information, please see:

CNN – World War II-era Nazi mass grave thought found – 6 Jan. 2011

BBC – Nazi-era graves to be dug up in Austria – 5 Jan. 2011

SCOTSMAN NEWS  – Austria: Graves of missing Nazi eugenics victims found – 5 Jan. 2011

TELEGRAPH – Nazi-era mass grave discovered in Austria – 4 Jan. 2011

GUARDIAN – Remains in Austrian hospital graveyard may be Nazi euthanasia victims – 4 Jan. 2011

By Christina Berger
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

MINSK, Belarus – Following the crackdown after the December 2010 elections in Belarus, reported here, an EU human rights watchdog was recently expelled from Belarus.  Additionally, a local human rights organization’s office was raided by police and the director detained, in addition to police raids of several activists’ homes.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has maintained an office in Minsk since 1998 in order to provide assistance to the government in Belarus in developing civil society and the economy.  A positive report by the OSCE on the conduct of the election was to be an essential factor in determining whether Belarus will receive EU financial aid.  However, the OSCE called the recent elections “flawed” and accused the government of fraud, in addition to criticizing the police crackdown on opposition supporters following the election.

Last week, many believe as a result of the election criticism, the OSCE was asked to leave Belarus.  Andrei Savinykh, Belarusian foreign ministry spokesman, said in a statement that “an evaluation of the results achieved by the OSCE mission in Minsk shows that the mission has fulfilled its mandate.”

This contention, however, has been strongly denied.  The chairman of the OSCE, Audronius Azubalis, responded by saying, “[i]ts mandate has not been completed,” and  “[t]here is an important job for the O.S.C.E. to continue in Belarus.”

On Wednesday, police raided the office of the Belarus Helsinki Committee, which is according to the Associated Press “an independent group whose name refers to the principles of the 1975 Helsinki Accords that were the precursor of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.”  The police seized computers from the Helsinki Committee office and detained the director, Oleg Gulak.

The Belarussian police on Thursday conducted raids on the homes of several political activists.  They seized computers, phones, cameras, memory cards, and printed material such as organization member lists.

These events are all part of a continuing crackdown that followed election day, when almost 700 opposition supporters were arrested following mass demonstrations which were broken up by a violent police shutdown.  Most of the people arrested faced 5 to 15 days in jail, followed by firing from their work or expulsion from school.  The opposition presidential candidates that have been charged face up to 15 years in jail.

This comes after many within European circles had hoped the election in Belarus would be conducted in concert with EU ideas of freedom and democracy, and had been prepared to reward such actions.  As Reuters phrased it, “Brussels had dangled the prospect of financial aid if the election demonstrated at least a veneer of democracy.”

A closer Belarussian relationship with the EU seems unlikely now.  As Guido Westerwelle, German Foreign Minister,  said in a statement, “[t]he decision to shut down the OSCE office is a further setback for the rule of law and human rights in Belarus.  With its authoritarian course, the government in Minsk is leading the country further away from European freedom values.”

For more information, please see:

RADIO FREE EUROPE – Activists In Belarus Fear School Expulsions, Firings – 7 Jan. 2011

NAVINY – New KGB raids over post-election protest – 6 Jan. 2011

NEW YORK TIMES – Belarus: Police Raid Rights Group Office – 5 Jan. 2011

AP – Belarusian human rights group reports police raid – 5 Jan. 2011

NEW YORK TIMES – Belarus Ejects European Watchdog Agency – 1 Jan. 2011

REUTERS – Belarus throws out EU watchdog after election – 1 Jan. 2011

BBC – Belarus closes down OSCE office after poll criticism – 31 Dec. 2010

By Ricardo Zamora

Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

Former Yukos Oil company executives Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev have had their previous eight-year prison terms lengthened to fourteen year.  The new rulings, handed down by Moscow’s Khamovnichesky district court on December 30, 2010, indicate a politically motivated trial and showcase continuing corruption within the Russian judicial system, said Human Rights Watch.

Arrested in 2003 for tax evasion and fraud, both men were scheduled to be released in 2011 and were eligible for parole beginning in 2007. The new charges, including theft and embezzlement, were brought in February 2007 when both men approached parole eligibility on their original sentences.  The December 2010 ruling, however, moves back their release date until 2017.

“The sentence is a blow to the rule of law in Russia,” said Rachel Denber, acting Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch.  “Everything about the charges and the trial indicates that the case against them is political.”

Amnesty International reports that several procedural violations were tolerated during the trials including defense lawyers being unable to cross-examine witnesses and defense witnesses prevented from taking the stand.  Additionally, authorities have pressured and harassed former colleagues to testify for the prosecution and the courts have failed to order the prosecution to disclose procedural irregularities which violated the defendants’ rights to prepare their cases.

Russia has a motive for retaliating against Khodorkovsky.  One of the young tycoons who amassed a fortune in the early 90s after the former Soviet Union’s collapse, he took a stand against Putin’s government, challenging state control over exports and funding opposition parties.  He became a thorn in Putin’s side and Putin, now only Russias prime minister, nevertheless remains Russia’s most powerful man.

“All evidence points to a pattern of political motives and interference having obstructed justice in this case,” said Nicoal Dockworth of Amnesty International.  “The Moscow City Court must overturn this unfair conviction to restore faith in the independence of Russia’s legal system,” she added.

Several human rights groups have urged Russian President Dmitri Medvedev to call on prosecutors to drop the charges, citing several flaws in the charges, concern over the court’s tolerance of serious procedural errors, and evidence suggesting the government intimidated, harassed, and beat several individuals connected to the case.  In response, Russia has accused those groups, the EU, and the US from trying to influence the outcome of the case and has warned the West to mind its own business.

Malaysia Sun – Irregularities and Obstruction of Justice Marred Khodorkovsky Trial Says Amnesty International – January 3, 2011

Human Rights Watch – Russia: Khodorkovsky Sentence Spotlights Unfair Trial – December 30, 2010

Reuters – Russia Accuses West of Meddling in Khodorkovsky Trial – December 28, 2010