News of Death Sentences for Football Rioters Leads to More Rioting

By Justin Dorman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

CAIRO, Egypt  – The death sentences for twenty-one individuals deemed responsible for the February football riots of last year have been upheld. Twenty-four others, including two police officers were sentenced to jail, while twenty-eight others were acquitted. The court’s ruling was televised throughout Egypt, and was met by much protest.

Protesters set football stadium ablaze in Port Said after verdict upholds twenty-one death sentences. (Photo Courtesy of BBC)

The football riots occurred in Port Said during February 2012 when the local Al-Masry squad was taking on Cairo’s out-of-town, Al-Ahly. When the game ended, a majority of Al-Masry supporters stormed the pitch, while the police locked the stadium gates, turned off the electricity, and kept away from the violence. Many who tried to escape the stadium were trampled in the process. Seventy-four people died as a result of the riots. Most of the deceased were supporters of Al-Ahly.

After the verdict was announced, hundreds of Al-Masry supporters congregated outside of the local government headquarters of Port Said calling for independence. Football fan Mohamed Ataya said that, “what we need now is to separate from the rest of the country,” after describing how his friend was given jail time for “helping to carry the dead outside the stadium.” Others thought the towns inhabitants were “scapegoated” in the verdict, and yearned for the military enforced curfew to be removed.

Many in Port Said attacked the Egyptian Football Federation and set it ablaze. Others in Port Said released docked speedboats in an effort to block the Suez canal before the military intervened. There has been only one reported death so far.

The police of Port Said locked themselves in the safety of their station. Since the trial began a month ago, at least fifty people have died. Most of these deaths have come as a result of police gunfire. Police forces in ten of Egypt’s twenty-nine provinces have gone on strike to demonstrate against President Morsi’s use of the police in quashing protesters.

In Cairo, supporters of Al-Ahly rejoiced upon first hearing of the court’s result, but then quickly became angered. While they initially were happy that more Al-Masry supporters were sentenced, they were enraged that only two out of the nine police officers, who were charged, ended up convicted. Many believe that the police’s actions in locking the gates and turning off the lights contributed tremendously to the deaths of those seventy four individuals.

Many Al-Ahly supporters attempted to block Cairo’s important October Bridge. Two other protesters were killed in Cairo by police. One died after inhaling tear gas while the other’s life was taken by bird shot. These deaths are said to have been unrelated to the football trial.

For further information, please see:

Al Jazeera – Deadly Egypt Riots Follow Football Verdicts – 9 March 2013

BBC – Unrest in Egypt Over Port Said Football Riot Sentences – 9 March 2013

Guardian – Egyptian Court Confirms Death Sentences for Port Said Football Rioters – 9 March 2013

Daily Star Lebanon – Clashes in Egypt Port Said as Police Move Prisoners – 3 March 2013

Syrian Revolution Digest: Friday, 8 March 2013

The Paradigm Shaft!

Where can one find a paradigm shift when one really needs one? With no one willing to provide it, is it any wonder that Syrians are turning to God, in the form of his self-appointed representatives on earth?  It seems we’re screwed no matter where we turn, and a paradigm shaft is the only thing we can look forward to.

Today’s Death Toll: 81 martyrs, including 7 children, 3 women and 1 martyr under torture. 29 martyrs reported in Damascus and suburbs, 16 in Idlib, 13 in Aleppo, 10 in Homs, 6 in Daraa, 4 in Hama and 3 in Deir Ezzor (LCCs).

Points of Random Shelling: 346 points: 5 Ballistic missiles were reported; Explosive Barrels were reported in Dar Kabireh in Homs; artillery shelling was reported in 118 point; mortar shelling in 112 point; and shelling using rocket launchers was reported in 105 locations (LCCs).

Clashes: 105. Successful rebel operations include taking control of the Abbassin Sports Compound and defending rebel strongholds in Jobar and Yarmouk neighborhoods in Damascus City (LCCs).

 

News

Chemical weapons ‘are being used on children and babies in Syria by Assad’s army’ Medics believe they have detected a nerve gas called Agent XV. Teenage victims are pictured in a French magazine suffering from horrific burns.

In Parts of Syria, Lack of Aid ‘Is a Catastrophe’ the vast majority of aid is going to territory controlled by President Bashar al-Assad, and the small amount reaching opposition-held areas is all but invisible.

Syrian Rebels Agree on Deal to Release Peacekeepers Josephine Guerrero, a spokeswoman for the United Nations departments that oversee its global peacekeeping activities, said “arrangements were made with all parties for the release of the 21 peacekeepers” and that a team had been sent to the location where they were held, but that soldiers remained captive as of Friday night. “Due to the late hour and the darkness it was considered unsafe to continue the operation,” Ms. Guerrero said in a statement. “Efforts will continue tomorrow.”

Syria Refugees Turn To Prostitution Out Of Desperation Scores of the Syrian women who escaped to Jordan are turning to prostitution, some forced or sold into it, even by their families. Some women refugees are highly vulnerable to exploitation by pimps or traffickers, particularly since a significant number fled without their husbands – sometimes with their children – and have little or no source of income… It’s impossible to pin down how many Syrian refugees are now working as prostitutes in Jordan, but their presence is inescapable. Syrian women outnumbered those from any other country in several brothels, and in a couple of cases, virtually all the prostitutes were Syrian. Pimps say they have more women who are Syrian than of other nationalities.

Al-Qaida is not yet at Syria’s gates Claims that al-Qaida has taken control of the border zone between Syria and Israel are a bit exaggerated; meanwhile, Assad and the rebels are locked in a stalemate.

Syria crisis: Russia won’t pressure Assad, says Lavrov Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says there is “absolutely” no chance of Moscow telling Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to stand down. He told the BBC that Russia was not in the “regime-change game”.

Syria’s Assad hails Turkey anti-Erdogan opposition Assad told the Republican People’s Party delegation there was “a need to distinguish between the stance of the Turkish people, who support stability in Syria, and the positions of Erdogan’s government, which supports terrorism, extremism and destabilization in the region,” it said. “The Syrian people appreciates the position adopted by forces and parties in Turkey that reject the Erdogan government’s negative impact on our societies, which are multi-religious and multi-ethnic,” Assad said.

 

Special Reports

Frederic C. Hoff: Can Syria Be Saved?
A policy paradigm shift is needed if the United States is truly committed to changing Assad’s calculation. It will also be needed to counter the growing impression that the United States, burned in Iraq and stretched in Afghanistan, will bear no burden and fight no foe when it comes to Syria. Boots on the ground and even manned aircraft in the airspace are not on the table, but the United States can and should help foster an alternate Syrian government on the ground in liberated parts of Syria. That government should be recognized by the United States and all of the Friends of the Syrian People Group. It should be given the resources it will need to govern. NATO and regional powers should assist in its defense. Would a no fly zone really require an extended bombing campaign to neutralize air defenses when stand-off systems can kill, on the ground, much that flies? Might Assad’s calculation be affected if key regime command facilities begin to disappear? Ideally these steps will not be necessary. Ideally Assad’s calculation will change without them. Yet the West may, in the end, have to be as bloody-minded in trying to end the Assad-Iranian terror spree as the regime and its supporters have been in facilitating it.

My new paper, prepared for a briefing in Washington, D.C. that took place on January 15, 2013, is now out and is titled “Syria 2013: Rise of the Warlords.” It should be read in conjunction with my previous briefing “The Shredded Tapestry,” and my recent essay “The Creation of an Unbridgeable Divide.”

 

Video Highlights

The people of Kafrenbel have a message for Secretary Kerry http://youtu.be/39ZMPM5bfRE

The pro-regime soldiers in this video were killed less than a day after making it. This was their last celebration. They were cadets at the police academy in Aleppo. The video was found on a cell phones of one of them http://youtu.be/MTSxRzLn93s

Pro-Assad militias plucking the beard of two Sunni Sheikhs from Aleppo http://youtu.be/YATP9igYW1Y This one in Deir Ezzor City is taunting rebels http://youtu.be/4xPMy2uSG8U

For over 30 years the Yellow Man was an Aleppo phenomenon that no one really understood. The man insisted on dressing in yellow down to his socks and underwear, and hang around certain spots in Aleppo City where he became part of the scenery. For some reason, some rebels thought he was an informant to the regime, they arrested him and humiliated him, in a development that earned them more popular criticism. The man was eventually released, and people who met him report that he refused to talk about the event http://youtu.be/HQj5AxqV4GY

The repatriation of the remain of pro-Assad soldiers who were killed in Iraq http://youtu.be/HXOeUcihn34

The pounding of cities continues: Zamalka, Damascus http://youtu.be/L_iIKIVRSak Douma, Damascus http://youtu.be/84iogHW4ScQ Homs City http://youtu.be/p9cfsFDKAwI , http://youtu.be/_rjDYIpBxCI , http://youtu.be/kFnwelTVNqg Houleh, Homs http://youtu.be/X3fLdMGFzxA Kafar Sijneh, Idlib http://youtu.be/5gl4cluhYNg Heesh, Idlib http://youtu.be/nFtM9wXRWoA

Intense clashes take place in Sahel Al-Ghab, Hama http://youtu.be/9qMLTDB79aU , http://youtu.be/tS45khx_X1E

Unjust Central Government Land Takings in China Leads to Violent Eruption by Local Villagers

By Irving Feng
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BEIJING, China – Unjust central government usurpation of villager farmland led to a violent clash between hired government thugs and local villagers in the Chinese village of Shangpu.

Villagers next to the overturned vehicles of the intruding hired thugs. (Photo Courtesy of Reuters)

Residents of Shangpu village protested the government taking of a 33 hectare parcel of land used by the villagers to grow rice for their personal consumption and livelihoods.  The parcel had been sold without the consent of the villagers to a third party to be used as an electric cable factory as part of the central government’s plan to urbanize and industrialize much of the once rural countryside.

The central government hired thugs to disperse and intimidate the thousands of residents into agreeing with the unfair land grab, however, the protesters turned violent when the hired thugs threatened violence with steel pipes and metal spades.

The villagers fought back, expelling the thugs from their land, destroying their vehicles, and recently set up barricades and outposts to guard their village against further intrusion and intimidation.  The countryside near their village is now littered with the overturned, smashed vehicles the intruders rode in on.

China’s push to urbanize and industrialize the rural outskirts of major metropolitan areas has generated mass land seizures by the central government.  Parcels of land destined for commercial development have also caused soaring land prices.

This push to urbanize and industrialize has left local farmers and villagers who depend on these parcels of farmland for their livelihoods with inadequate compensation from these land grabs and no legal options to fight these unjust usurpations of their land.

The Landesa Rural Development Institute, a group calling for fairer laws on land ownership and rights, estimates out of the 90,000 social unrest incidents that occur in China each year, roughly two thirds of these incidents is related to land disputes like the one in Shangpu.

With the incoming wave of new politicians currently being installed, Chinese lawmakers are attempting to increase protections allotted to farmers, however, the process is slow and arduous.  The current rule of law specifies that farmers who have their land taken only need to be compensated with 30 times the annual agricultural output of the parcel of land that is taken.

The current system allows for cheap takings of farmland and selling the cheaply acquired land to commercial developers at a huge mark up.  The proposed system currently being debated in China’s parliament allows for the payment of fair market value on farmers’ land that is taken by the government for commercial development.

For further information, please see:

Global Times – China stresses farmers’ property rights in land transfers  – 7 March 2013

Reuters – China village seethes over land grabs as Beijing mulls new laws – 7 March 2013

Cuyoo.com – Stand-off in Chinese village over land grab – 6 March 2013

NPR – Chinese Farmers Revolt Against Government Land Grab – 5 March 2013

Criminal who Committed Crime as Minor may be Executed Tomorrow in Yemen

By Justin Dorman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

SANA’A, Yemen– The humanitarian organizations Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have pleaded with Yemeni President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi to save the life of Mohammad Abd al-Karim Mohammad Haza’a. Haza’a, who may have been a minor when he was convicted, has been sentenced to death, and is scheduled to be shot by firing squad tomorrow morning.

The execution by firing squad of Mohammad Abd al-karim Mohammad Haza’a for a crime he committed when he was a juvenile is set for tomorrow, March 9th. (Photo Courtesy of Amnesty International)

Haza’a was first found guilty of murder in August 1999 by the Court of First Instance in Taizz. He was only sentenced to imprisonment and a payment of blood money, known as diya, because Haza’a was found to be seventeen at the time the crime was committed.

Under international law, states are strictly prohibited from utilizing capital punishment as a sanction against a minor who has committed a crime. Where a convict’s age is disputed, a presumption will arise in favor of finding the convict a minor. Any action would be stayed contingent on an investigation into the truth.

Nevertheless, on appeal, the appellate court amended Haza’a’s sentence to the death penalty. Because the dissenting judge believed that Haza’a was a child when he committed the murder, the judge refused to sign onto the decision.

Despite the uncertainty, the Supreme Court affirmed the decision of the Appeals Court in April of 2008. The Supreme Court made no effort to re-examine what Haza’a’s age was when he committed the murder.  

The child rights researcher for Human Rights Watch, Priyanka Motaparthy, has urged the president of Yemen not to allow the carrying out of Haza’a’s sentence, which Hadi had inherited from previous president, Ali Abdullah Saleh’s consent.

Haza’a was originally set to be executed last week. His death was delayed a week due to the persistent efforts of groups like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the Seyaj Organization for Childhood Protection, to stop the capital punishment, while evidence of his juvenile age exists.

If Haza’a is killed tomorrow, he will not be the first Yemeni minor to have been served with capital punishment. As a result of imprecise records and bad rulings, other minors have been sentenced to death. Currently, Haza’a is one of one hundred eighty criminals facing a death sentence for a crime committed by one when the criminal was a juvenile.

Other countries who have executed juveniles in the past five years include Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan.

For further information, please see:

Amnesty International – We Wish to Inform you That Tomorrow you Will be Executed – 8 March 2013

Human Rights Watch – Yemen: Halt Execution of Alleged Juvenile Offender – 8 March 2013

Yemen Post – In Response to Sejay’s Appeal, Taiz Court Suspends Death Penalty Against Juvenile – 27 February 2013

Tymoshenko Defender Stripped of MP Mandate and Immunity

By Madeline Schiesser
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

KIEV, Ukraine – Serhiy Vlasenko is no longer a member of the Ukrainian parliament, or Rada.  He was stripped of his seat Wednesday, and the immunity from prosecution that goes with it.  Although Ukraine’s Highest Administrative Court claims that the reason Vlasenko was removed was because he illegally combined the occupations of legislator and lawyer, many believe the move was politically motivated.  Vlasenko is a member of the opposition party, Batkivshchyna, and acted as an attorney, for free, for jailed former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

Serhiy Vlasenko was stripped of his parliamentary mandate and immunity from prosecution in a politically motivated attempt to prevent him from defending former PM Tymoshenko. (Photo Courtesy of RFE/RL)

The court acted on a motion from Party of Regions political ally, Speaker Volodymyr Rybak, of current Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, which claimed that Vlasenko acted as a lawyer while holding office, a banned act.

Vlasenko has claimed that the Party of Regions desires his arrest in order to deprive Tymoshenko of a qualified legal defense.  He further says that he is aware of at least three criminal charges already against him.

However, opposition leader Arseniy Yatseniuk has promised that the Batkivschyna party plans to take all possible measures to prevent Vlasenko’s arrest.  “We will do everything so that Vlasenko is not arrested, including with the assistance of our Western partners,” he said on Thursday.

According to Member of the European Parliament Rebecca Harms, if Vlasenko is arrested and jailed, an Association Agreement between the European Union and Ukraine currently under discussion will not be signed.  Hams further emphasized that if the Ukrainian government continues to employ selective judgment of political opponents, the European Union would introduce sanctions against the Ukrainian authorities.

European Commissioner for Enlargement, Stefan Fuele, condemned the ruling, saying via Twitter: “Stripping a parliamentarian of his mandate like being done in case of Vlasenko is not European way. Does this bring Ukraine closer to EU?”

The United States State Department has also spoke out against the treatment of Vlasenko, saying efforts to deprive Vlasenko of his seat in parliament “appear to be politically motivated due to his connection with Tymoshenko.”  The State Department further noted that Vlasenko is not the first lawmaker to be forced out of Ukraine’s parliament.  Last month a Ukrainian court annulled the parliamentary mandates of two independent lawmakers: Pavlo Blaloha and Oleksandr Dombrovsky.  The United States called on the Ukrainian government to end “politically motivated prosecutions of opposition leaders and to abide by their international commitments to the rule of law and democracy.”

Former PM Tymoshenko has notably been a political adversary of current PM Yanukovich, of the Party of Regions.  In 2004, she led the Orange Revolution protests that stopped his first bid for the presidency.  However, in 2011, she was jailed on abuse-of-office charges, and now faces tax evasion and embezzlement charges, as well as suspicion of involvement in a political murder.  She claims she is innocent of all charges and that they are merely revenge from Yanukovich’s political camp.

Vlasenko remains undeterred by the loss of his parliamentary mandate.  “Today’s court decision does not influence my status as a defense counsel in the case of Yulia Tymoshenko. I will continue to defend her as before,” he said Wednesday.  “I realize that their goal was not just to withdraw my mandate – their goal was to stop me,”

For further information, please see:

Kyiv Post – Yatseniuk: Opposition to do Everything to Prevent Vlasenko’s Arrest – 7 March 2013

Kyiv Post – European Lawmaker: If Vlasenko Jailed, Ukraine-EU Association Agreement Won’t be Signed – 7 March 2013

Ukraine Business – Vlasenko Remains Tymoshenko’s Defender – 7 March 2013

The Independent – Ukrainian Defense Lawyer is Stripped of Seat – 6 March 2013

Returns – Ukraine Court Strips Tymoshenko Ally of Parliament Seat – 6 March 2013

RFE/RL – U.S. ‘Deeply Concerned’ Over Anti-Opposition Moves In Ukraine – 6 March 2013