A Brother Strangles his Sister in Honor Killing

By Yasmine S. Hakimian
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

JERASH, Jordan – On December 1, an unidentified Jordanian man was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison for strangling his 16-year-old married sister. Using wire and his sister’s scarf, the 20-year-old man strangled his sister to cleanse his family’s honor. The man testified it took 30 minutes to strangle his sister to death. He killed her in January in the Gaze refugee camp in the town of Jerash after she visited a female friend.

Girls younger than 18 can legally wed in Jordan. The girl was married for six months at the time of her death.

The presiding judge on the case, Judge Hassan Amayreh, reported the man confessed to the killing. He testified to killing his sister to cleanse his family’s honor after her husband complained that she regularly disappeared from home without a reason. Investigations indicated the girl was visiting her female friend when she wasn’t at home.

Judge Amayreh explained he originally sentenced the man to a 15-year prison term on November 30. However, the judge reduced the sentence since the girl’s family gave up their legal rights. In Jordan, prison sentences are reduced if the family drops the charges against the person who committed the honor killing.

Despite continuous campaigns by local and international human rights activists, those who commit honor killings receive reduced sentences because parliament has refused to reform the penal code to ensure harsher sentences.

Between 15 and 20 women are murdered each year in the name of “honor” in Jordan. Last year around 18 honor killings were recorded.

In the past, Jordan has been criticized for giving lenient sentences in so-called honor killing cases. Some honor killings have carried jail sentences of just six months.

According to the United Nations, over 5,000 women and girls are killed every year by family members in honor killings. These crimes occur where cultures believe that a woman’s unsanctioned sexual behavior brings such shame on the family that the female must be murdered. Honor killings have resulted from talking to a man or in suffering rape.

Honor killings are a controversial issue within the Muslim world. Although a tradition in some teachings of Islam, they are increasingly criticized by Westerners and moderate Muslims around the world.

For more information, please see:

Bare Naked Islam – It Took Him 30 Minutes to Strangle his Sister to Death with a Metal Wire and Her Own Scarf – 3 December 2008

International Campaign Against Honour Killings – Girl Strangled Slowly in Sick ‘Honour Killing’ – 2 December 208

WA Today – ‘Honour Killing’: Man Strangles Sister – 2 December 2008

BBC – Jail for Jordan ‘Honour Killing’ – 1 December 2008

Two Journalists Sentenced as Judicial Crackdown in Myanmar Continues

By Ariel Lin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

YANGON, Myanmar – Myanmar Junta continues its judicial crackdown on political activities.  Two journalists were sentenced for seven years each.  Thet Zin, editor of the local Myanmar-language journal Myanmar Nation, and Sein Win Maung, the paper’s manager, were convicted for undermining the government under the country’s Printing and Publishing Law.  They were also being charge for possessing documents deemed to be subversive, including a UN Special Human Rights Report on Myanmar. The same day, 13 members of the ’88 Generation students group’ were sentenced to six years in jail.

Thet Zin founded the Myanmar Nation in 2006.  He is a former political prisoner and had previously worked as a reporter and editor for several weekly journals, including News Watch and Ah Lin Tan.  Thet Zin and Sein Win Maung were arrested in February in a raid in which military intelligence officers seized the UN Special Human Rights Report on Myanmar, Shan ethnic leader Shwe Ohn’s book on federalism, and a VCD containing footage of the 2007 September uprising.

“In the case of Thet Zin and Sein Win Maung, the judges have imposed the maximum penalty allowed under the press law. What is the most shocking is that none of journalists, bloggers, poets, activists or monks who have recently been sentenced, committed a crime defined as such under Burmese law. Their sole crime is to peacefully oppose the junta”, the worldwide press freedom organization said.

Myanmar courts sentenced more than 100 people, including activists, writers, musicians and Buddhist monks to jail since last month.  Myanmar Junta, which has held power since 1962, frequently arrests artists and entertainers regarded as opposing the regime.

For more information, please see:

AP – Journalists caught in crackdown by Myanmar junta – 01 December 2008

Reporters Without Borders – Two journalists jailed for seven years as wave of sentencing continues – 29 November 2008

The Irrawaddy – Judicial Crackdown in Burma Continues – 28 November 2008

Journalist Gunned Down in Bihar, India

By Shayne R. Burnham
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BIHAR, India – Journalist Vikas Ranjan was shot dead on November 25 in Bihar, a northern state of India. Ranjan, 32, was killed outside his office in Rosera, located in the Samastipur district, by three armed men. The gunmen waited at the entrance of the office, shot Ranjan and fled on motorcycles. Ranjan was pronounced dead upon arrival to a local hospital.

It is alleged that Ranjan’s murder was connected to his investigations on local drug trafficking in recent weeks.

Bihar regional director of Hindustan’s sister newspaper, the English version of the Hindustan Times, said that his family had received threats about two weeks before his death. He reported them to police but did not get any protection.

“We call for the investigation into Vikas Ranjan’s murder to be immediate, thorough and transparent,” said Bob Dietz, Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) Asia Program coordinator. “Correspondents in remote areas should be protected from attacks made in retribution for their reporting.”

Relatives of Ranjan and fellow journalists gathered outside the hospital where Ranjan died, calling for immediate action by the police and protesting police failure to afford him protection against threats.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar ordered proper police investigations into the murder. The official in charge of investigations said that three suspects had been identified and would be arrested in the next few days.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has spoken with authorities in Assam and Manipur, two other northeastern states where killings of journalists are prevalent, asking them to effectively investigate their deaths and protect journalists.

“Ranjan was the third Indian journalist to be murdered in the past two weeks,” said Reporters Without Borders.

According to CPJ’s Impunity Index, India ranks at number 13. The Impunity Index is a list of those countries where governments have failed to solve journalists’ murders.

For more information, please see:

Committee to Protect Journalists – Journalist Shot Dead in Bihar – 1 December 2008

Hindustan Times – Hindustan Reporter Shot Dead in Bihar – 2 December 2008

Reporters Without Borders – Journalist Investigating Drug Trafficking Gunned Down in Bihar State – 27 November 2008

UN Security Council to Discuss Israeli Blockade

By Nykoel Dinardo
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

UNITED NATIONS – On December 3 the United Nations Security Council decided to take up a complaint by Libya, who claimed that Israel unlawfully intercepted a cargo ship carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza.  An emergency session was held at Libya’s request.  Libya claims that Israel’s actions constitute an affront to peace.

On December 1, Israel stopped a Libyan cargo ship that Libyan and Palestinian officials claim was carrying over 3,000 tons of food and humanitarian aid for residents in Gaza.  Libya says that Israel ships confronted the cargo ship and forced it to veer towards Egypt.  Unable to dock in Gaza, Tripoli officials say that the ship will have to return to Libya.

Israel claims that Libya is using its status as a member of the Security Council for public relations purposes.  Israeli Ambassador Gabriella Shalev responded to Libya’s accusations that Israel’s actions are an affront to peace by saying that Libya was not acting as a peace-maker when Hamas attacked Israel earlier this year.  Libya currently has no diplomatic relations with Israel and has criticized the handling of the situation in Gaza.

In response to Palestinian attacks, Israel has imposed a blockade against Gaza since November 2007. As of February, they allowed humanitarian aid to the region three times.  Karen Abu Zayd, the UN official in charge of humanitarian aid to the area, accused Israel of punishing the Palestinians in the area, including aid workers.  According to Zayd, Israel recently published a list of items that could not be received into Gaza; including spices, kitchenware, and paper.  She also claimed that aid workers were not allowed to send or receive mail. 

On December 2, groups held protests against the blockade in several Middle Eastern countries.  Palestinian children held a protest where they imitated sick children who lacked medical supplies.  Some children also wore loaves of bread as masks to protest hunger in Gaza.  In Lebanon, nearly 2,000 students marched on the UN headquarters in Beirut, where they sang resistance songs for 30 minutes before dispersing peacefully.

For more information, please see:

AFP – UN Council to Take Up Israel Blockade of Libya Ship: Source – 3 December 2008

The Daily Star – Scores of Children Protest Against Israel’s Seige of the Gaza Strip – 3 December 2008

New Zealand Herald – Israel Punishing Aid Workers, Says UN Official – 3 December 2008

YNet News – UN to Discuss Israel’s Refusal to Allow Libyan Ship to Dock in Gaza – 3 December 2008

Radio Netherlands Worldwide – Gaza’s Hungry Children – 2 February 2008 

Former Iraqi Defense Minister “Chemical Ali” Sentenced to Death for the Second Time

By Lauren Mellinger
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

BAGHDAD, Iraq  – On December 2, the Iraqi High Tribunal sentenced Ali Hassan al-Mahid, also known as “Chemical Ali” to death for his role in suppressing a Shia uprising in 1991.  This is the second death sentence al-Majid has received since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

The court also sentenced former Baath Party official Abdulghani Abdul Ghafour to death for the same offense.  Both al-Majid and Ghafour are scheduled to be hung, for “committing wilful killings and crimes against humanity.”  Ten other defendants on trial received sentences ranging from 15 to 20 years in prison, while some received life sentences.  It is estimated that between 20,000 and 100,000 people were killed in the regime’s attempt to put down the rebellion.

In explaining why other defendants received lighter sentences, Judge Mohammad al-Uraibi stated that “Most of them apologized and felt regret during the trial except Ali Hassan al-Majid.”

Al-Majid received his first death sentence in June 2007 after being convicted of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes for his actions during the 1988 Anfal campaign against the Iraqi Kurdish population, which killed more than 100,000 people, including many women and children.  Also part of the Anfal campaign was the gassing of the Kurdish village of Halabja in northern Iraq, killing more than 5,000 civilians.  For his role in the Anfal campaign, he received the nickname “Chemical Ali.”

During the Shia uprising in 1991, Al-Majid served as the Defense Minister and was considered to be Saddam Hussein’s “right-hand man.”  As a member of the Revolutionary Command Council, Al-Majid was routinely called upom to put down Shia and Kurdish rebellions.

During the trial for Al-Majid’s involvement in “crushing” the Shia uprising following Saddam Hussein’s defeat in the first Gulf WAr, witnesses gave testimony of the mass executions; including accounts of family members being thrown from helicopters, massacres in and around the Shia holy cities of Najaf and Karbala, and the bombing of Shia towns and villages in southern Iraq.

The execution for Al-Majid’s prior conviction was never scheduled due to a political dispute.  The Iraqi High Tribunal has not set a date for execution following this latest conviction, leaving time for Al-Majid to appeal the decision, if he chooses.

For more information, please see:

BBC –New Chemical Ali Death Sentence  – 2 December 2008

CNN – Chemical Ali Sentenced – Again – to Death – 2 December 2008

Guardian – Iraq’s ‘Chemical Ali’ Gets Second Death Sentence for Shia Massacre – 2 December 2008

International Herald Tribune – Iraq’s ‘Chemical Ali’ Gets Second Death Sentence – 2 December 2008