Hong Kong Protest Ebbs and Turns into Stalemate

By Hojin Choi

Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

HONG KONG, China – Monday morning was the deadline that Hong Kong authorities gave to the pro-democracy protesters to clear streets. The number of protesters has dwindled down to a few hundred, and they allowed government workers back to return to their offices after a weeklong occupation of the streets. The workers went to the government complex through a small path that student protesters created.

Even though the protesters have not fully accepted the city’s request to disperse, as they let the government officials back in the building, the police force is trying not to provoke the protesters by keeping a distance.

The situation in Hong Kong seems to be turning into a stalemate. The student leaders of the protesters have different opinions about whether or not they will continue the protest. However, it appears that they at least agreed to strategically arrange the group, allowing the civil servants to enter the government buildings.

Some protesters have remained on the streets, defying the deadline. These protesters have said that they will not disperse unless the government makes a meaningful change and accepts their demands: promoting democracy in Hong Kong.

 

A protester sleeping in front of barricades (Getty Images)

Schools in Hong Kong also re-opened on Monday. They had been closed since September 29, but students and teachers have resumed their work and study. Interestingly, elementary schools decided to remain closed for safety reasons. During the protest week, 30 to 40 bank branches in Hong Kong had closed, but now the number has been reduced to about seven.

According to the protest organizers, there was a conversation between the protest leaders and the government representatives on Sunday, but they failed to reach an agreement. They decided to continue their talks on Monday hoping to have a conversation with mutual respect.A protester sleeping in front of barricades (Getty Images)

Lester Shum, the Deputy Secretary General for the Students’ Federation, said that the dialogue must be ongoing and the student leaders must be treated equally. He added that actual political reforms in Hong Kong must be derived from the conversation. Those are the conditions for continuing to talk with the government.

The main requests of the protesters are resignation of current Hong Kong Chief Executive, Leung Chun-ying, and a democratic election to be held in 2017. Previously, Beijing announced it would appoint only pro-Beijing candidates for the election. Beijing worried about spreading the demand of democracy over to Mainland China since it is also facing similar issues in Tibet and Xinjiang. The Chinese government declared the protest in Hong Kong illegal, but left resolution of the issue to the discretion of the Hong Kong government.

For more information, please see:

The Washington Post – As authorities’ deadline passes, Hong Kong protest turns into stalemate – 5 October 2014

Reuters – WRAPUP 3-Hong Kong democracy protests fade, face test of stamina – 6 October 2014

The Washington Post – Hong Kong protests appear to be headed into a smaller but durable holding pattern – 6 October 2014

The Guardian – Hong Kong protest numbers dwindle as exhaustion sets in – 6 October 2014

Amidst Drug Trafficking Investigation Peruvian Governors Re-Elected

By Delisa Morris

Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

LIMA, Peru — The unofficial count of election ballots from Peru Monday evening shows at least two gubernatorial candidates under investigation for drug trafficking related crimes have won their elections.  An additional two face run-offs, after a nationwide vote for mayors, governors and municipal councils.  While many on the outside are shocked at the outcome, others are not.

Peruvian man votes. From livinginperu.com

Hundreds of candidates suspected of ties to drug trafficking were on the ballot Sunday in what authorities called the Andean nation’s most violent campaign since 2000.

The Ipsos Apoyo polling firm compiled unofficial results of the election.  According to their tally the winners included Manuel Gambini, a former coca grower in the Amazon state of Ucayali.  Gambini is known for promoting the planting of Cocoa beans and other alternative crops, in place of the crop that produces cocaine.  A clean image that earned him praise from the U.S. and a trip to Miami to showcase his efforts.

However, this past August a judicial order launched an investigation of Gambini, detailing that he amassed a fortune and extensive land holdings, which would have been unlikely funded by his salary as mayor.  Gambini vehemently denies the allegations saying they are lies pitted against him by his competitors.

Also victorious was Gilmer Horna in the northern state of Amazonas.  The owner of a chain of chicken restaurants, he is under investigation for possible money laundering.

One of every three Peruvian voters lives in a region where candidates were investigation, on trial or previously convicted of drug-related crimes. Peru’s state attorney for drug enforcement, Sona Medina, said her office had identified 700 such candidates.

Electoral authorities reported more than 100 incidents of election-day violence, including the destruction of ballot boxes, temporary seizures of polling stations, threats to elections officials and destruction of vehicles.

“We haven’t had situations of this magnitude in Peru for some time,” said Gerardo Tavara, secretary general of the citizen watchdog group Transparencia.  “Hit men are being hired to assassinate candidates” he said.

Two mayoral candidates were slain in gangland-style killings during the campaign, both in cocaine-trafficking corridors, and on Friday, two police officers were shot and killed in an ambush blamed on drug-funded rebels in the Apurimac and Ene river valley, the world’s top cocaine-producing region.

Peruvian law allows convicted criminals to run for office as long as they have been rehabilitated by court order. More than 1,300 candidates convicted of crimes — including rape and graft — were on Sunday’s ballot, and two governors jailed under preventative detention pending possible corruption trials were re-elected, according to unofficial results.

This election day boasted 30 deaths from car accidents.  Mostly from people attempting to navigate Peru’s mountainous terrain.  In Peru voting is mandatory, if a citizen does not vote they can be subject to fines.

Official electoral results remained incomplete Monday.

For more information please see:

Sky News.com.au – Thirty Killed in Peru Election Day Accidents – 6 Oct. 2014

ABC News – 2 Peru Governor Candidates Win Despite Drug Probes – 6 Oct. 2014

Fox News – In No.1 Cocaine-Producer Peru, Narco Candidates are Tainting Nationwide Elections – 4 Oct. 2014

SBS News – 30 Killed in Peru Election Day Accidents – 6 Oct. 2014

President Uhuru Kenyatta to appear at ICC in The Hague

By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Managing Editor, Impunity Watch

NAIROBI, Kenya – Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has confirmed he will be appearing at a hearing at the International Criminal Court in The Hague this week. The hearing, which is to be held on 8 October, is expected to set a date for his trial on charges of organizing ethnic massacres that killed 1,200 people and left more than 600,000 people displaced after the 2007 elections. President Kenyatta denies the charges, during an address to the nation he said “I wish to reiterate here for all that my conscience is clear, has been clear and will remain forever clear that I am innocent of all the accusations that have been leveled against me.” The International Criminal Court had President Kenyatta to appear to explain allegations that evidence against him had been withheld. In September, the court postponed the trial after prosecutors said that the Kenyan government had failed to deliver key documents. Witnesses for the prosecution have also withdrawn from the case.

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta will be temporarily stepping down as president invoking a never before used provision of the Kenyan constitution. (Photo courtesy of BBC News)

Kenyatta gave an address to the nation before parliament informing the public that he would invoke an article of the Kenyan constitution that will allow his deputy William Ruto to temporarily assume the role as president. “To protect the sovereignty of the Kenyan republic, I now take the extraordinary and unprecedented step of evoking article 1473 of the constitution and I will shortly issue the legal notice necessary to appoint honorable William Ruto, the deputy president, as acting president while I attend the status conference at The Hague in the Netherlands.” The article, which until now has never been evoked in Kenyan History, says that the deputy can assume the duties of the president when the president is absent, temporarily incapacitated or during any other period the president decides.

Kenyatta is essentially using this loophole in the Kenyan constitution as a way of fulfilling the International Criminal Court’s order that he attend Wednesday’s hearing before the ICC but avoiding becoming the first sitting president to sit before the court. Because of this constitutional provision he will be appearing before the court as a private citizen, without giving up the ability to resume his passion as President of Kenya.

There had been doubts about whether President Kenyatta, who had been to the International Criminal Court before assuming office in 2013, would become the first sitting president to attend the court. Although he will now be appearing before the court as a private citizen dozens of Kenyan Members of parliament are expected to travel to The Hague in support of President Kenyatta.

For more information please see:

BBC News – Uhuru Kenyatta will appear at ICC in The Hague – 6 October 2014

The Guardian – Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta to step down from office to attend ICC – 6 October 2014

Irish Independent – Kenyatta to take presidency break – 6 October 2014

BBC News – ICC hearing: Kenya MPs ‘to back Uhuru Kenyatta at Hague’ – 3 October 2014

USA Freedom Act May Ban NSA Surveillance Powers

By Lyndsey Kelly
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

 

WASHINGTON D.C., United States of America – Patrick Leahy, the Senate Judiciary Chairman, is pushing the Freedom Act in order to stop the National Security Agency from collecting the phone records of millions of Americans. The bill would ban bulk collection of phone records by the NSA, while still allowing targeted surveillance of suspected terrorists.

The USA Freedom Act is the first legislative attempt at reining in the National Security Agency, however time is running out for Congress to pass it.

Leahy has stated that he has already gained the support of the Republicans, and can win approval of the bill when Congress returns for session after the 4 November election. With Congress’ approval, the bill will be passed this year. The legislation would require the government to disclose the individuals whose data has been collected and report how many of these individuals were American citizens. Further, the Act would create a panel of special advocates, which would be used to address issues concerning privacy and civil liberties.

If the Freedom Act is not passed, the National Security Agency will likely be left without the necessary surveillance capabilities to conduct legitimate and necessary investigations of suspected terrorists. Previously, the NSA has used the Patriot Act anti-terrorism law, in order to conduct authorized surveillance. However, this act is set to expire on 15 June.

Section 215 has been the basis for collecting and storing records from United States phone companies. These records have been used by the NSA in data sweeps, whereby they used telephone numbers, the date and time of phone calls, and the length of the calls in surveillance investigations. However, this section did not give the NSA authority to include records of actual conversations. The FBI and other law enforcement agencies have also used Section 215 in obtaining business records, driver’s license records, and credit card records of suspected terrorists.

The bill has garnered support from groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union, The Information Technology Industry Council (ITIC), and the National Rifle Association. The ITIC stated in a letter to the senate, “The USA Freedom Ac will send a clear signal to the International community and to the American people that government surveillance programs are narrowly tailored, transparent and subject to oversight.”

 

For more information, please see the following:

THE GUARDIAN – Time is Running Out on the USA Freedom Act – Which could Drastically Curtail US Surveillance Powers – 3 Oct. 2014.

USA TODAY – Congress May Ban NSA Phone Data Collection – 3 Oct. 2014.

US NEWS – Should Americans Be Worried About The National Security Agency’s Data Collection? – 3 Oct. 2014.

WALL STREET JOURNAL – NSA Phone-Date Collection Program Set For Legal Challenge – 1 Sept. 2014.

 

 

Russian Government Refuses to Comply with Council of Europe’s Demand to Re-Open the Sergei Magnitsky Murder Investigation for the Fourth Time

PRESS RELEASE

 

6 October 2014 – The Russian Investigative Committee has for the fourth time refused the application from Sergei Magnitsky’s mother to investigate the murder of her son in Russian police custody after he uncovered and testified about the theft of $230 million from state coffers by members of the criminal gang and corrupt Russian officials. 

The latest refusal was issued by General Major Alyshev. In his refusal, he did not address any of the arguments posed by Ms Magnitskaya’s lawyer, and simply rejected the application in general terms, stating:

“The decree to close the criminal case was checked using the case materials…This decision is lawful and justified, and no grounds are seen to cancel it.”

The rejection letter issued by General Alyshev ignored every one of the points made in Ms Magnitskaya’s complaint seeking the reopening of the investigation, including that she has been refused the right to conduct an independent medical evaluation of her son’s tissues; that none of the officials that she named from the FSB, Interior Ministry and General Prosecutor’s Office have been questioned; that the documents she requested for collection have not been gathered from state bodies; that no investigation was done into the death threats sent to Mr Magnitsky’s colleagues shortly before his killing, and that the findings of the Council of Europe’s report about the falsification, disappearance and concealment of evience have been ignored.

“Numerous facts shows that after S.Magnitsky exposed the fraudsters who stole 5.4 billion rubles [$230 million] from the country’s budget, he was repressed, and on 16 November 2009 cruelly murdered…During the next three years, investigators faked an investigation of a criminal case, and the officials mandated to supervise the investigation and its length, including Mr Veseliev, simply symbolized such supervision,” says the complaint from Ms Magnitskaya’s lawyer.

 “The nature and location of bodily injuries demonstrate that brutal violence was used against him [Sergei Magnitsky]. The body of the deceased was found …on the floor of the cell of the collection unit of Matrosskaya Tishina detention center where he was delivered for emergency medical treatment during an acute stage of his disease. It is an incontrovertible fact that unlawful acts were carried out against S.L. Magnitsky by officials of the Tax Crime Department of the Moscow Interior Affairs Department….who made false statements in reports to justify his unlawful detention. During less than a year in custody, Magnitsky was transferred 22 times between three detention centers… None of these facts have been examined in a fair, legal way, none of the guilty in these violations, in fact, crimes, have been brought to justice,” says the complaint.

“40 months have been spent by investigators to conduct knowingly partial judicial medical examinations, the conclusions of which had been artificially made to comply with a particular diagnosis to enable to close the case and not to bring to account those responsible for the death, in fact, murder of S.L.Magnitsky,” says the complaint.

In his refusal, General Alyshev also ignored the requests from Ms Magnitskaya to allow her an independent medical examination of her son’s tissues, to question Russian law enforcement officials and to heed the findings of the Council of Europe’s comprehensive international investigation into Sergei Magnitsky’s killing.

This is the fourth refusal by the Russian Investigative Committee of requests from Magnitsky’s mother to re-open an investigation into her son’s murder in custody. Previously, refusals were issued by Investigator Strizhov and senior Committee officials named А.М. Veseliev and D.V. Kolesnikov.

 

Ms Magnitskaya’s complaint said that the Investigative Committee has created a “regime of uncontrolled impunity” which is exemplified by the fact that no one has been brought to justice for the heinous murder of her son.