Fujimori Conviction Upheld

By Sovereign Hager

Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

LIMA, Peru-Ex-President Fujimori’s appeal to annul his conviction and 25-year prison sentence was turned down by the Peruvian Supreme Court. A law enacted in 2006 prevents a pardon or amnesty from being granted to victims of kidnapping.

Fujimori is seventy-one years old and is serving three concurrent prison sentences. He was convicted in 2007 of voluntary manslaughter, serious injury, and aggravated kidnapping for four events in 1991 and 1992. In 1991 fifteen people were shot and four were seriously injured in a Barrios Altos tenement. In 1992 nine students and a university professor from La Cantuta were tortured, murdered, and dumped in sand dunes outside Lima. Fujimori was also found guilty of kidnapping journalist Gustavo Gorriti and a businessman names Samuel Dyer.

The Supreme Court ratified the Special Criminal Court’s verdict that Fujimori knew and authorized its operations under Vladmiro Montesinos. The fines and damages awarded by the lower court were ratified in addition to the twenty-five year sentence.

Fujimori’s attorney vowed to “continue to fight for the annulment” of the sentence and to take the case to the Constitutional Court. Fujimori’s daughter and Congresswoman vowed to present a writ of habeas corpus to the court. However, the president of the Constitutional Court told the press that the Supreme Court’s decision cannot be changed by his court.

Fujimori is to serve his sentence until February 10, 2032. While a pardon is not permitted, after three quarters of the sentence have been served, Fujimori will be eligible to shorten his remaining sentence. Fujimori is currently being held in the special operations unit of the National Police in north Lima.

For more information, please see:

Peruvian Times-Peru’s Supreme Court Turns Down Fujimori’s Appeal on 25-Year Sentence-5 January 2010

AFP-Peru Confirms 25-year Sentence For Alberto Fujimori-3 January 2010

BBC-Fujimori 25-year Sentence Upheld By Peru Supreme Court-3 January 2010

Congolese Warlord’s Defense Began Thursday

By Jared Kleinman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

The defense team of Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, accused of enlisting child soldiers, began its presentation Thursday as part of the first-ever trial to be held by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Lubanga is the founder and leader of the Union of Congolese Patriots in the Ituri region of the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Lubanga’s trial marks the first in the history of international law to see the active participation of victims in the proceedings, including child combatants. He faces two counts of war crimes: conscripting and enlisting child soldiers into the military wing of his group and then using them to participate in hostilities between September 2002 and August 2003.

Mr. Lubanga’s defense team, led by Catherine Mabille, will present exculpatory evidence over several months. Some 30 witnesses expected to testify, most of whom have not asked for extra protection from the Court.

The Prosecution finished presenting its evidence on 14 July, 2009. Over the course of 22 weeks, and during 74 days of hearings, the Chamber heard 28 witnesses called by the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP), including three experts. The Chamber also called two other experts to testify. Nearly all of the prosecution’s witnesses were granted protective measures, including voice and facial distortion and the use of pseudonyms. A psychologist sat in during the proceedings to support and monitor witnesses.

Mr. Lubanga, who surrendered to the ICC in March 2006, and his defense team were able to see all of the witnesses as they gave their testimony, but some required further special measures to avoid direct eye contact with the accused. To date, 103 victims represented by three teams of legal counsel have been authorized to participate in the trial.

Established by the Rome Statute of 1998, the ICC can try cases involving individuals charged with war crimes committed since July 2002. The UN Security Council, the ICC Prosecutor or a State Party to the Court can initiate any proceedings, and the ICC only acts when countries themselves are unwilling or unable to investigate or prosecute.

For more information, please see:

UN News Services – Defence Kicks Off Case for Warlord at International Criminal Court – 7 January 2010

All Africa – Lubanga Trial Highlights Plight of Child Soldiers – 6 January 2010

International Criminal Court – Trial of Thomas Lubanga Dyilo – the Special Representative of the Secretary General of the United Nations for Children and Armed Conflict Will Testify Before the Court – 6 January 2010

UN Inquires on Controversial Sri Lankan Execution Video

By Alok Bhatt
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka – The UN has recently invoked once again inquiries into a compromising and controversial video aired on British network news in August 2009.  The footage depicted Sri Lankan security personnel committing extrajudicial executions of supposed members of the Tamil Tigers resistance organization.  The graphic imagery shows the killing of a naked and bound man, and in the background eight dead bodies can be seen lying in a muddy field.  The UN seeks an independent, impartial investigation into this disturbing footage.

Despite numerous requests to inspect the matter since the time of airing, the Sri Lankan government has adamantly stated that the video specifically manufactured by unknown authors to vilify and disgrace Sri Lankan security and government.  However, the UN claims that the arguments the Sri Lankan government espoused in its defense video have been proven false.  Sri Lanka, however, persists in discrediting the video and avoiding questions bearing upon it and similar human rights –related issues.

Despite the Sri Lankan government’s obstinacy in denying requests to inquire into authenticity of the execution footage, the UN continually presses to enter the country to investigate the matter along with the deaths of more than 7,000 other civilians within the first quarter of 2009.  The Sri Lankan government only recently allowed hundreds of thousands Tamil ethnic minorities to return to their homes after an extended period of time in unsanitary refugee camps.  The government claimed that it was necessary to put into practice an extensive screening process to identify and remove confirmed members of the Tamil Tigers remaining among the Tamil nationals.  The government also claimed that it had to locate and detonate landmines which were possibly strewn about the areas surrounding the camps.

The Sri Lankan military essentially dismantled and defeated the Tamil Tigers in May 2009, putting an end to over forty years of bloodshed which has ravaged the island nation.  However, residual complications from the seemingly tireless struggle continue to plague the civilians of Sri Lanka, which has resulted in myriad human rights issues.  The government’s refusal to allow inquiry into the video represents only a single instance of a lack of cooperation on Sri Lanka’s part to resolve the issues affecting its citizens.

Scrutiny of the execution videos does not show any signs of additional manipulation, suggesting that the footage is indeed authentic.  If so, this one occurrence leaves open the possibility of many more disturbing violations committed with or without judicial consent.

For more information, please see:

Al-Jazeera – UN official urges Sri Lanka inquiry – 08 January 2010

Associated Free Press – Sri Lanka faces new charges over war crimes – 07 January 2010

UN – Deeming Sri Lanka execution video authentic… – 07 January 2010

Tamil Editor Freed on Bail

By Michael E. Sanchez
Impunity Watch Reporter, AsiaCOLOMBO, Sri Lanka- On Monday, Sri Lanka’s court of appeal freed on bail a Tamil editor who was sentenced to 20 years in prison last year.

J.S. Tissainayagam, who edited the North Eastern Monthly magazine in Colombo, was arrested in 2008 and charged with inciting violence in articles for his magazine.  A court official said that Mr. Tissainayagam was told to surrender his passport and to post 50,000 rupees ($437 dollars) in bail pending a full appeal hearing.  He has appealed his conviction in August on charges of raising money for terrorism and of causing racial hatred through his writing about Tamils affected by the country’s 37-year seperatist conflict.

Mr. Tissainayagam’s case has received widespread attention in Sri Lanka, and international rights groups have been campaigning for his release.  The European Union, the United States and international press freedom groups have condemned the 20 year sentence in jail with hard labor.  The sentence given to Mr. Tissainayagam’s was the harshest given to a Sri Lankan Journalist in recent years.

Mr. Tissainayagam, who was found guilty of “causing communal disharmony”, was among the handful of journalists mentioned last May by President Barack Obama, who called Mr. Tissainayagam and others “emblematic examples” of a persecuted journalist.

In October, Sri Lankan courts acquitted S. Jaseeharan, publisher of North Eastern Monthly and his wife on the charges of supporting terrorism.  All three were detained in March 2008 for articles published in the magazine.

In September, Mr. Tissainayagam was given an award for courageous and ethical journalism by the Paris-based group Reporters Without Borders.  In addition, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists selected him as a recipient of a 2009 International Press Freedom Award. He was also the first recipient of the Peter Mackler Award, set up in memory of Associated Foreign Press journalist Peter Mackler.

In May 2008, the Sri Lankan government defeated the Tamil Tigers rebels fighting for a separate homeland for the ethnic Tamil minority.  The United Nations estimates that up to 100,000 people were killed in the separatist conflict which erupted in 1972.

Official figures show nine journalists have been killed and 27 assaulted in the past three years in Sri Lanka, while activists say over a dozen journalists have been killed.

For more information, please see:

BBC News- Sri Lankan Editor JS Tissainayagam Gets Bail– 11 January 2010

AFP- Sri Lanka Court Frees Tamil Editor On Bail– 11 January 2010

Greenslade Blog- Tamil Editor Freed For Appeal– 11 January 2010

French Legislator Proposes Ban On Wearing of Veils In Public

By David Sophrin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

PARIS, France – Legislation offered in the French parliament on Thursday that would result in a complete ban on individuals wearing veils over their faces in public.

The legislation’s sponsor is Jean-Francois Cope, the President of the center-right Union for a Popular Movement party (UMP) in the National Assembly.  President Nicolas Sarkozy is a member of the UPM.  Cope has argued that the ban is necessary on the grounds of public safety and to protect the ‘dignity’ of women.  “Permanently masking one’s face in public spaces is not an expression of individual liberty.  It’s a negation of oneself, a negation of others, a negation of social life.”  Under this legislation, those women failing to abide by its provisions would face fines of up to 7,000 euros.  Men who force women to wear a veil would face even higher fines.

This is not the first time that the issue of hear of veils and headscarves have become issues of public debate in France.  In 2004 Islamic headscarves and other certain religious symbols from school classrooms.  In the summer of 2009 a committee was established in the French parliament to hold hearings on a potential future ban on the wearing of veils in public.  President Sarkozy also commented last June that the presence of veils in France were a “sign of subservience and debasement that imprison women” in and were “not welcome”.  The President has not indicated, however, whether he supports Capo’s legislation.

Criticism to the proposed legislation has come from other French politicians.  The French Labor Minister Laurent Wauquiez commented that Cope was using this issue as a means of self-promotion.  The center-left Socialist Party opposes the ban.  National politicians have also indicated that the proposed legislation could be struck down by EU Courts, to which France is subject to.

Cope also introduced a resolution on Tuesday meant to reaffirm the nation’s values against “radical practices which harm them.”

Approximately 5 million Muslims currently live in France.  However, a recent news report noted that only approximately 400 women wear a veil, which is not required by Islam, in the country.

For more information, please see:

AP – France may ban Muslim veils – 12 January 2010

DAILY NEWS – No veiled threat – France mulls fines for wearing a burka in public – 8 January 2010

UK EXPRESS – France In Bid To Fine Those Who Wear Veils – 8 January 2010

AFP – French draft bill to fine burqa-wearing women – 7 January 2010