Acclaimed Closed Curtain Crew to be Kept in Iran

By Justin Dorman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

TEHRAN, Iran – A couple of weeks ago, at the 63rd annual Berlin International Film Festival, also known as the Berlinale, Jafar Panahi was awarded the Silver Bear for Best Script for his film, Closed Courtain. Iranian authorities were far from proud of their fellow Iranian’s success, and seized the passports of co-director/actor Kambuzia Partovi and actress Maryam Moghadam. The move was made to ensure that those affiliated with the film could not promote it internationally.

The passports of Kambuzia Partovi and Maryam Moghadam have been confiscated so that the two artists involved with Jafar Panahi’s “Closed Curtain” cannot promote the film. (Photo Courtesy of the Guardian)

Javad Shamaghdari, the head of Iran’s ministry of culture’s cinema and film department was furious with the Berlinale for screening and awarding the film. “We have protested to the Berlin film festival. Its officials should amend their behavior because in cultural and cinematic exchange, this is not correct,” said Shamaghdari. “Everyone knows that a license is needed to make films in our country and send them abroad.” 

In December 2010, Panahi was sanctioned with a twenty year ban from making films. He was also barred from giving interviews, and was given a six year jail sentence. Nevertheless, in 2011, his work, “This Is Not a Film,” reached Cannes and was well received. Much of that video, filmed largely on his cell phone, tells the day-in-the-life account of Panahi while on house arrest.

His most recent work, Closed Curtain, which is also known as Padré, is a fictional drama that is a not so subtle critique of Iranian authorities’ repression of Iranian artists, which mirrors much of Panahi’s own situation. The tale focuses on individuals who are hiding at a remote beachfront villa, trying to evade the authorities. This is Panahi’s villa by the Caspian Sea where he is under house arrest.

Parvoti, who co-directs the film, also plays a screenwriter who is hiding from the authorities at  the villa. He blacks out the windows and attempts to write when Melika, played by Maryam Moghadam finds him. She claims to be a mere girl also on the run from the police, however, the nature of her prying questions about Parvoti’s hiding and screenwriting indicate that she may represent the spirit of freedom. Shortly after it is revealed that Parvoti and Melika are just on the set of a film which Pahini is shooting, however, characters from the film continually haunt Pahini. The film goes on to artistically suggest that Pahini is Parvoti.

The next appearance the film will make will be at the Hong Kong film festival. None of the major participants in the film will be allowed to leave Iran to promote it.

Panahi is also well known for directing The White Balloon, Crimson Gold, and Offside. Jafar Panahi, along with Nasrin Sotoudeh,  were co-winners of the prestigious 2012 Sakharov Prize, which is the top award given for freedom of thought.

For further information, please see:

Blouin Art Info – Iran Seizes Passports of Jafar Panahi’s “Closed Curtain” Collaborators – 28 February 2013

Film Society Lincoln Center – “Closed Curtain” Filmmakers Banned From Leaving Iran – 28 February 2013

Guardian – Jafar Panahi’s Closed Curtain Collaborators Grounded in Iran – 28 February 2013

Radio Zamaneh – Collaborators of Panahi Film Banned From Travel – 28 February 2013

South Africa: “Drag Death” Highlights Police Brutality Concerns

By Hannah Stewart
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — Eight South African police officers have been arrested over the death of a Mozambican man who was dragged through the streets behind a police vehicle.

Protesters gesture in front of the police outside the Daveyton Police station, east of Johannesburg. (Photo Courtesy of Reuters/Stringer)

The event took place in the east Johannesburg area of Daveyton.  Moreover, the incident was captured on video, sparking outrage nationwide.

Mido Macia, a 27 year-old taxi driver was found dead in detention with signs of head injuries and internal bleeding.  Police told media they had detained Macia after he parked illegally, creating a traffic jam, and then resisted arrest.

The video shows the man scuffling with police, who subdue him.  He is then bound to the back of a vehicle by his arms before the vehicle drives, dragging him down the road as he struggles, in front of a crowd of witnesses.  Crowds chased after the van as the man kicked and writhed.  He later died in custody.

It is still unclear how many officers were involved in the incident.  The police force stated that it will conduct an internal investigation, and said the Daveyton station commander was removed from his position “so that the investigations can proceed uninhibited.”

It was the latest in a series of scandals to hit South Africa’s police force in recent months.

For example, Hilton Botha, the lead detective in the murder investigation involving Olympic and Paralympic star Oscar Pistorius was removed from the case last week when it was revealed that he is facing seven charges for attempted murder. Botha is accused of chasing and firing on a minibus full of people while drunk in 2011.

Moreover, the police fatally shot 34 striking workers at a platinum mine in August 2012; this event was the deadliest security incident since apartheid ended in 1994.

This latest video footage of the taxi driver’s treatment has revived concerns about police brutality in a country where more than 1,200 people a year die while in custody.  Furthermore, the scandal serves to undermine confidence in South Africa’s police force, which has expanded from 120,000 to nearly 200,000 over a decade.

For more information, please see:

BBC News – South Africa: Eight Police Arrested Over Drag Death – 1 March 2013

CNN – South Africa Disarms, Suspends Officers Linked to Man’s Dragging Death – 1 March 2013

Reuters – South Africa Suspends Eight Policemen Who Dragged Man Behind Vehicle – 1 March 2013

USA Today – South Africa: Officers in Dragged Man Case Suspended – 1 March 2013

Russian Opposition Lawyer’s Credentials Questioned

By Madeline Schiesser
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

MOSCOW, Russia – Anti-corruption blogger and prominent opposition figure Alexei Navalny is no stranger to butting heads with Russian authority.  His stance as one of the leaders of the opposition movement against President Putin’s 13-year rule has already garnered Navalny three criminal investigations.  However, on Wednesday, investigators levied a new accusation, accusing Navalny of having acquired his qualifications as a lawyer illegally.  Navalny denied the charge.

Prominent opposition blogger Alexei Navalny has been accused of fraudulently stating his legal credentials in order to become a lawyer. (Photo Courtesy of BBC News)

The Federal Investigative Committee, which answers directly to President Putin, claimed that Navalny provided fraudulent information regarding the two year work experience required to qualify as a lawyer.  The Committee took issue with the Navalny’s statement on his law application that he had obtained the necessary experience while he was the deputy director responsible for legal issues at Allekt, a company where he was also director.

The Committee explained in a statement on its website, “So he named himself both director and his own deputy,” and further claimed that Allekt did not exist when Navalny says he received his legal experience and that Navalny had refused to testify.

Navalny fired back on his blog, pointing out that the Committee’s statement was posted before the Committee had actually interviewed him.  Navalny web activity had already drawn the ire of the Committee.  He had previously used his blog to accuse Investigative Committee chief Alexander Bastrykhin of hiding real estate and other investments in Europe.

Navalny asserted that there are no grounds for denying him his legal credentials and condemned the charges are politically motivated.  Navalny’s lawyer, Vadim Kobzev, has further said his client received his status as a lawyer legally and that there were no reasons to deprive Navalny of his credentials.

Denouncing President Putin’s United Russia as “the party of crooks and thieves,” Navalny’s prominence and effectiveness in the opposition movement appear to have made him a target for a defensive government.  Navalny claims that Putin abuses the justice system to persecute adversaries and the parliament to adopt laws to stifle opposition.  Last week, a senior figure in the United Russia Party resigned after Navalny produced documents evidencing he had failed declare homes owned in the United States on his taxes.

Therefore, three pending investigations are currently underway against Navalny.  He has been accused of stealing timber worth more than $500,000 from a state company in 2009; embezzling up to $3.24 million from a political party in 2007; and, along with his brother, cheating a mail-transport company out of $1.79 million.

Navalny, who worked in commercial law before becoming involved in political activism, became a lawyer in 2009 when working as an adviser to Nikita Belykh, currently the governor of the Kirov region and another prominent opposition figure.

After the Investigative Committee’s announcement, the Moscow Legal Chamber, which registers lawyers in the capital city, announced it would be investigating Navalny’s credentials.

On his blog, Navalny further ridiculed the Committee, calling the allegations old and baseless: “So far, all these complaints have been unsuccessful because they contain a load of garbage that is instantly exposed under critical examination.”

For further information, please see:

Moscow Times – Navalny Fraudulently Obtained Lawyer Credentials, Investigators Say – 28 February 2013

BBC – Russia’s Alexei Navalny Accused of New Fraud – 27 February 2013

Returns – Russia Piles Pressure on Opposition Leader With New Accusation – 27 February 2013

RFE/RL – Russian Opposition Leader’s Law Credentials Questioned – 27 February 2013

Live Journal – The Blog of Navalny in English, In Russian [Original]

French Lawmakers Call on Russia to Cease “Grim Comedy” of Magnitsky Posthumous Trial Ahead of the 4 March Hearing

Press Release
Hermitage Capital

1 March 2013 – Ahead of the 4 March hearing in Moscow in the first ever posthumous trial in the history of Russia of dead whistle-blowing lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, ten French lawmakers published an open letter calling on the Russian authorities to cease this “grim comedy” echoing of “repression” and take steps to bring Magnitsky killers to justice and protect his family from intimidation.

“Magnitsky killers should not be above the law, and the grim comedy of his posthumous trial must stop. Similarly, the ongoing harassment and suffering caused to his mother and widow must stop,” said French lawmakers.

The open letter published yesterday in the weekly French magazine Marianne (http://www.marianne.net/Monsieur-le-President-les-droits-de-l-Homme-en-Russie-c-est-maintenant-_a226954.html) is signed by Bruno Le Roux, President of the ruling Socialist group in the National Assembly, Senator Jean-Vincent Place, chairman of the Green faction in the Senate, Senator Andre Gattolin, Deputy Axelle Lemaire and other lawmakers from both the French Senate and National Assembly.

“Those whom Magnitsky sought to prove complicit with the impunity denounce him today and accusing him of fraud. His trial reopened in a closed court in Moscow a few days ago sounds like an echo of repressive mobilization,” said French parliamentarians.

French lawmakers urge Russia to return to the values of Enlightenment and the European Human Rights Convention which bars posthumous proceedings as being contrary to the principle of fair trial where people cannot obviously defend themselves.

“In ancient times the dead were sometimes judged – in ancient Egypt, in medieval Italy or in France of the Ancien Régime. But in the legal tradition of the Enlightenment, “it does not suit the corpses or the memory of the dead,” and the post-mortem condemnation of an accused is precluded by the European Court of Human Rights under Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights ratified by the Russian Federation,” said French deputies and senators in their open letter.

In making their point about the Magnitsky case being symbolic of human rights violations, French lawmakers drew parallels between the Magnitsky’s ordeal and his prison diaries with the poignant description by Russian writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn of the Soviet Gulag.

“Fifty years ago Alexander Solzhenitsyn published One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, a literary narrative of the daily life of a “zek”, a prisoner of the Gulag, describing fatalism with deprivation and torture. The same attention to detail in his presentation but with a revolt of an alive was applied by the lawyer Sergei Magnitsky to explain in the hundreds of letters from prison in Moscow his ordeal and the reasons for his innocence. But after 358 days of detention, threats, isolation, cold and lack of care the determination of this young tax lawyer came to an end, when he died November 16, 2009 at the hands of his captors.”

 

For further information please contact:

Hermitage Capital
Phone:             +44 207 440 1777
Email:              info@lawandorderinrussia.org
Website:          http://lawandorderinrussia.org
Facebook:        http://on.fb.me/hvIuVI
Twitter:           @KatieFisher__
Livejournal:     //hermitagecap.livejournal.com/

85% of French Citizens Support the Adoption of a Magnitsky Act in France

Press Release
Hermitage Capital

28 February 2013 – A major French opinion poll was published showing that 85% of the French people support the adoption of a Magnitsky Act in France. The poll results were released ahead of today’s meeting between French President Francois Hollande and Russian President Vladimir Putin to show the widespread support in France for imposing EU-wide sanctions on Russian officials involved in the torture and murder of the whistle-blowing lawyer.

In a poll conducted by the French polling organization IFOP, an overwhelming majority of French population supports the idea of introducing legislation sanctioning Russian officials who commit human rights abuses with visa bans and asset freezes – measures similar to the those already adopted in the United States under the “Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act,” signed by U.S. President Barack Obama last December.

The polster asked the question: “The United States has recently passed a law to prohibit entry and block accounts and assets held by some Russian citizens suspected of crimes, but have not been pursued by the Russian justice. Would you support or oppose similar legislation to be adopted in France?,” and 85% of French respondents answered that they would support it.

Andre Gattolin, French Senator, said:  “With this type of public support we are now in a strong position to push through a resolution in the French Senate and National Assembly to freeze assets and ban visas for the Russian officials who killed Sergei Magnitsky and perpatrators of other similar crimes.”

“The overwhelming sentiment of the French public to support ban visas and asset freezes for the Russian human rights abusers will hit these people right where it counts. France is one of the key countries where they like to spend their ill gotten gains. They better enjoy their last remaining French holidays because their days of partying in Paris and Monaco are numbered,” said a Hermitage Capital representative.

 

For further information please contact:

Hermitage Capital
Phone:             +44 207 440 1777
Email:              info@lawandorderinrussia.org
Website:          http://lawandorderinrussia.org
Facebook:        http://on.fb.me/hvIuVI
Twitter:           @KatieFisher_
Livejournal:     //hermitagecap.livejournal.com/

Survey published here:
http://www.metrofrance.com/111129-Les-Francais-et-les-libertes-publiques-et-le-respect-des-droits-de-lHomme-en-Russie.pdf

IFOP polling organization:

http://www.ifop.com/?option=com_in_brief