15-year-old Rape Victim Will Receive 100 Lashes for Pre-Marital Sex

By Karen Diep
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

MALE, Maldives – Yesterday, a Maldivian court sentenced a 15-year-old rape victim to receive 100 lashes for engaging in premarital sex.

Maldives, a popular tourist spot. (Photo Courtesy of International Business Times).

Last year, the Maldivian police examined allegations against the victim’s stepfather for raping and killing their baby.  Authorities subsequently discovered the dead baby buried on the island of Feydhoo in Shavivani Atoll.  If the victim’s stepfather, is convicted, he may face 25 years in prison.  Meanwhile, the victim’s mother is also facing charges for failure to report the incident to the Maldivian police.

After further investigation, the victim admitted to having a sexually consensual relationship with another man.

Maldives’s legal system has attributes of both Islamic and English common law.  Accordingly, in Maldives, sex outside marriage is illegal.

According to BBC News, a spokesperson for the juvenile court, Zaima Nasheed, stated that the court ordered the victim to remain at a children’s home under house arrest for the next eight months. Furthermore, the victim will not receive her punishment until she reaches the age of 18 or consents to an earlier time.

The 15-year-old victim is not the first to face this particular punishment.  In September of last year, a Maldivian court ordered the public flogging of a 16-year-old girl for premarital sex.

Amnesty International censured the punishment as “cruel, degrading and inhumane.”  “We are very surprised that the government is not doing anything to stop this punishment – to remove it altogether from the statute books,” stated Ahmed Faiz, a researcher with Amnesty.

“This is not the only case.  It is happening frequently – only last month there was another girl who was sexually abused and sentenced to lashes,” continued Mr. Faiz.

Furthermore, Human Rights Watch has chastised the punishment and stated that this in reality was a sex crime against the victim.  In addition, the United Nations has continually asked Maldivian authorities to cease using the “barbaric practice” of flogging women.

However,there is hope for the 15-year-old victim. The Maldivian government disagrees with the court’s sentence.  “The President has asked the Attorney-General to appeal against the lower court decision,” stated spokesman Abbas Adil Riza to AFP. “The girl will also be provided with the necessary legal counsel and we hope the case will be concluded in about a month,” continued Mr. Riza.

For further information, please see:

The Globe and Mail – Maldives government to appeal flogging of rape victim, 15, for premarital sex – 28 February 2013

BBC News – Maldives girl to get 100 lashes for pre-marital sex – 26 February 2013

Fox News – Alleged Maldives rape victim, 15, to get 100 lashes for having premarital sex – 27 February 2013

 

 

 

U.S. Supreme Court Rejects Secret Surveillance Case

By Mark O’Brien
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

WASHINGTON, United States — The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a lawsuit on Tuesday that challenged a federal law giving the government a broader ability to eavesdrop on international communications.

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a challenge on Tuesday to a federal wiretapping law that allows the government to eavesdrop on international calls and emails. (Photo Courtesy of RT)

In a 5-to-4 ruling split along ideological lines, the Court shielded a government anti-terrorism program from ever facing a constitutionality challenge, at least according to court observers.

“[The decision] insulates the statute from meaningful judicial review and leaves Americans’ privacy rights to the mercy of the political branches,” said American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Jameel Jaffer in an interview with the Los Angeles Times.

The law is called the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, or FISA.  Congress amended FISA in 2008, giving the National Security Agency broader authority to secretly monitor emails and phone calls of any U.S. citizens, so long as they are suspected of communicating with anyone located outside of the United States.  The amended provision was set to expire at the end of last year, but Congress renewed and reauthorized the bill for another five years.

In the now-rejected case, Clapper v. Amnesty International USA, journalists, lawyers, and human rights advocates challenged the constitutionality of the law on the grounds that they might be subject to future wiretapping.  But Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the Court’s majority, held that such fear was too speculative for the case to proceed.  In other words, they could not show that the law harmed them, so they lacked standing to sue.

“They cannot manufacture standing by incurring costs in anticipation of nonimminent harms,” Alito wrote.  The plaintiffs claimed that the reason they had not been harmed yet was because they had taken steps to avoid the surveillance — for example, traveling out of their ways to meet sources and clients in person rather than sending emails or talking on the phone.

Alito reasoned that the plaintiffs had the burden of showing they had standing.  To do that, the Justice wrote, they must point “to specific facts.”  The government had no burden to disprove the plaintiffs’ standing.

Justice Stephen Breyer wrote the Court’s dissenting opinion.  He agreed with the plaintiffs that, if they had not shown harm already, it was only a matter of time.

“Indeed, it is as likely to take place as are most future events that common-sense inference and ordinary knowledge of human nature tell us will happen,” Breyer wrote.

To the dissent, the fact the plaintiffs had to alter their work practices to avoid having confidential calls overheard indicated some harm already.

“In my view, this harm is not ‘speculative,’” Breyer added.

For further information, please see:

Supreme Court of the United States — Clapper v. Amnesty Int’l USA — 26 February 2013

GlobalPost — Supreme Court Blocks Warrantless Wiretapping Lawsuit — 26 February 2013

Los Angeles Times — Supreme Court Rules out Secret Surveillance Lawsuits — 26 February 2013

The New York Times — Justices Turn Back Challenge to Broader U.S. Eavesdropping — 26 February 2013

RT — US Supreme Court Refuses to Let Americans Challenge FISA Eavesdropping Law — 26 February 2013

Syrian Revolution Digest: 26 February 2013

Too Little Too Late?

Syrian Revolution Digest – February 26, 2013 

I fear that by the time any agreement on Syria is reached in international policy circles, unfolding events on the ground will have rendered it completely irrelevant. The turtle of disintegration is about to cross the finish line, but the rabbit of intervention is still foraging for carrots.

 

Tuesday February 26, 2013

 

Today’s Death Toll: 111 martyrs, including 13 children, 4 women, and 5 martyrs under torture: 51 martyrs in Damascus and Suburbs, 50 in Aleppo, 11 in Idlib, 10 in Hama, 7 in Homs , 6 in Deir Ezzor, 4 in Daraa, 1 in Raqqa and 1 in Swaida (LCCs).

 

Points of Random Shelling: 374 points, including 20 points that were shelled by regime warplanes, 3 points using Scud missiles, 4 points with barrel bombs, 6 points with cluster bombs, 2 point with Thermobaric bombs, 150 points using heavy caliber artillery, 98 points using rockets and rocket shelling in 91 points across Syria (LCCs).

 

Clashes: 154, with the fiercest clashes were reported in Damascus and Suburbs where FSA rebels successfully liberated the Operations Command Building in the Police Academy in Khan Aasal. In Aleppo, FSA rebels continued their shelling of the local Police Academy setting parts of it on fire. In Hama, rebels targeted the 47th Brigade using mortar shells. And in Daraa, rebels liberated a police station located on the Jordanian-Syrian borders (LCCs).

 

News

U.S. considers direct aid to Syrian rebels The Obama administration is moving toward a major policy shift on Syria that could provide the rebels with equipment such as body armor, armored vehicles and possible military training and could send humanitarian assistance directly to Syria’s opposition political coalition, according to U.S. and European officials.

Rome talks unlikely to break Syria conflict deadlock Whatever exactly emerges from the Friends of Syria meeting in Rome on Thursday, one thing is clear: the parameters of the Syrian conflict – a brutal, slow-moving slugging-match on the ground, and deadlocked international diplomacy – have not changed, nor are they likely to for some time.

Ballistic missile strikes on Aleppo signal new escalation in Syria war The Syrian government denied this week that it is using Scuds in its battle to crush the revolt against President Bashar al-Assad, in which as many as 70,000 people have been killed. But military experts say all the available evidence, including the scale of the devastation from the explosions and the sightings — captured on video — of missiles being fired from bases outside Damascus shortly before the blasts, points to them being Scuds. The Russian-designed missiles carry about 2,000 pounds of explosives and are manufactured by Syria using parts imported from Russia, North Korea and Iran. The Obama administration also thinks the missiles are most likely Scuds.

Will Kerry Convince Ankara on Syria? Although the two countries have closely coordinated on Syria in the past, differences have started to emerge on how the crisis should end, a fact that will no doubt focus added attention on the talks Kerry has with his Turkish counterpart, Ahmet Davutoglu.

Russia wants U.S. to urge Syria rebels into peace talks The crisis in Syria made up “the bulk of the conversation” between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry at talks in Berlin on Tuesday, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said. After talks she characterized as “really serious and hard-working”, Moscow and Washington sounded a rare note of accord over efforts to launch talks to end the nearly two-year-old conflict, in which 70,000 people have been killed.

Displacement in Syria giving way for serious gender-based crimes, warns UN official “This displacement is not only about loss of homes and economic security. It is also, for many, accompanied by gender-based crimes, deliberate victimization of women and children and a frightening array of assaults on human dignity,” the Assistant High Commissioner for Protection, Erika Feller, told the Human Rights Council in Geneva. “Reports are revealing that the conflict in Syria is increasingly marked by rape and sexual violence employed as a weapon of war to intimidate parties to the conflict destroying identity, dignity and the social fabrics of families and communities.”

Syria needs grow, rebel-held north out of reach: U.N. The rebel-held north of Syria remains largely out of reach to aid operations, even though they have been stepped up elsewhere in the country torn by civil war, U.N. humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said on Tuesday. “We are watching a humanitarian tragedy unfold before our eyes,” Amos told a news briefing. “We must do all we can to reassure the people that we care and that we will not let them down.”

Syria: Unlawful Missile Attacks Kill More Than 140 The Syrian government launched at least four ballistic missiles that struck populated areas in the city of Aleppo and a town in Aleppo governorate during the week of February 17, 2013. The attacks killed more than 141 people, including 71 children, and caused immense physical destruction.

Syria troops, rebels battle in Aleppo’s old city The rebels seized the centuries-old Umayyad Mosque, which for months has been used as a military encampment and checkpoint by regime forces, after a day of fighting, Aleppo activists said. The mosque sits near the medieval citadel, the city’s signature landmark and a strategic site high above the surrounding neighborhood, which remains in the hands of the military.

 

Special Reports

Syria rebels bolstered by new arms but divisions remain

Several rebel commanders and fighters told Reuters that a shipment which reached Syria via Turkey last month comprised shoulder-held and other mobile equipment including anti-aircraft and armor-piercing weapons, mortars and rocket launchers. Rebels told Reuters the weapons, along with money for cash payments for fighters, were being distributed through a new command structure, part of a plan by foreign backers to centralize control over rebel units and check Islamists linked to al-Qaeda. However, in a sign of the difficulty in uniting disparate fighting groups, some rebels said they had turned down the arms and refused to submit to the new command.

The Russia Gambit: For the sake of Syrian lives, John Kerry’s got to play hardball with Moscow.

Is this John Kerry, now traveling in Europe and soon the Middle East for consultations about Syria, or is it Warren Christopher, who embarked on a similar mission 20 years ago to bring the bloodshed in Bosnia-Herzegovina to an end? The parallels between the two missions are striking — and we should hope that Kerry has learned the lessons from Christopher’s tragically failed bid.

Give Me Shelter: Syrians brave bombs and bullets to deliver aid to their war-torn country.

With security concerns and bureaucratic hurdles keeping most international aid workers from actually entering this war-torn country, NGOs rely on Syrians like Mahmoud to make the hazardous trek across the border to assess the needs for assistance and deliver aid to the local population. Syrian “implementing partners” pick up the supplies at warehouses in southern Turkey, near the border, and drive them into Syria — avoiding major highways to mitigate the risk of being attacked by a plane or helicopter. “The roads are bad because there are many parts of the road that are destroyed because of the shelling,” Mahmoud said.

Assad’s Big Ally: How Deeply Entrenched Is Iran in Syria?

Though Western and Iranian officials will not discuss Syria when they sit down for talks on Iran’s nuclear program in Kazakhstan on Tuesday, Iran’s ability to shape that conflict will hang over the negotiations, strengthening both Tehran’s perception of its position and the West’s resolve to deny Iran meaningful sanctions relief.

 

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

 

A video found on the mobile of an Assad supporter captured by rebels during a battle in Daraa Province shows pro-Assad troops torturing two detainees to death and beyond, including cutting off their genitals (gruesome) http://youtu.be/oRvN3v01oiA

 

This just released video shows the prisoner exchange that took place a few weeks ago involving Iranian hostages held by rebels http://youtu.be/_1H6fjKzG_8

 

These videos are from February 12, they take us on a tour of Al-Jarrah Airport, Aleppo, after its liberation by rebels http://youtu.be/YXkoqFnkAJ0 , http://youtu.be/1jt65bMim10

 

In Damascus Suburbs, pro-Assad militias continue their pounding of rebel strongholds: Moadamiyeh http://youtu.be/w1CQx3aOzr0 , http://youtu.be/wKZSxXfIxGI Daraya http://youtu.be/T3UHp1jx6Vs

 

In Damascus City: Jobar locals rush to put out a fire started by a missile attack http://youtu.be/T4k0hDSC6TA , http://youtu.be/uOhEDFQe-NQ Yarmouk http://youtu.be/tnTdipCsJtA

 

The pounding of Daraa City by pro-Assad militias continues http://youtu.be/BL8lNSBedyo

 

In Idlib, the pounding of the town of Ariha by pro-Assad militias continues http://youtu.be/r078Dyu73HY

 

U.N. Officials Call for the Release of Judge Maria Lourdes Afiuni

By Pearl Rimon
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

CARACAS, Venezuela – Human rights officials from the United Nations are asking for the government of Venezuela to free Judge Maria Lourdes Afiuni, who is currently on house arrest. Afiuni has been charged with corruption, abuse of authority and aiding an inmate’s escape. U.N. officials are also asking for Afiuni to be offered adequate compensation and to investigate her accusations of acts of violence against her.

Judge Maria Lourdes Afiuni. (Photo Courtesy of AP)

Margaret Sekaggya, the U.N’s Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders and other U.N. officials in an appeal to reverse Afiuni’s conviction. “Judge Afiuni’s situation represents an emblematic case of reprisal,” Sekaggya said in a statement issued by the United Nations.

In 2009, Afiuni infuriated Chavez in 2009 by freeing a banker, Eligio Cedeño,from prison as he waited trial after being accused on charges of flouting currency exchange controls. She says that he was being held in prison awaiting trial longer than law generally permitted.

“Reprisals against a judge for enforcing an opinion of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and withholding her waiting for a process for more than three years is like opening the door to further abuses and has a widespread intimidating effect,” independent expert and current chair of the UN body, El Hadji Malick Sow, stressed.

President Hugo Chavez said on national television that Afiuni should face the maximum sentence of 30 years in prison.

Aifuni accused state authorities of rape and other grave acts of sexual violence while in the infirmary of a women’s prison in 2010. These allegations went public in November when a book by Francisco Olivares was published that detailed her arrest and detention. She claims that she got pregnant from the crime. “After that episode was when I got sick and they removed my uterus,” Afiuni is quoted as saying in the book.

“It is unacceptable that Venezuelan authorities are not acting with due diligence to investigate the acts perpetrated against Judge Afiuni in an immediate and impartial manner, and severely punish those responsible,” said Special Rapporteur on violence against women, Rashida Manjoo.

Aifuni is currently on house arrest due to medical problems following the abortion she had from the prison rape. In December, her lawyer requested for her to be freed, but this was denied by the government the following month.

U.N. Special Rapporteurs are appointed by the Human Rights Council to examine and report on a country situation or a human rights theme.

 

For more information, please see:

Nuestra Tele Noticias — Hermano de María Lourdes Afiuni denuncia “traslado relámpago” de tribunal de la jueza venezolana –20 Feb 2013

Ghana New-Spy Ghana — UN Ask Venezuela To Release Judge María Lourdes Afiuni. – 15 Feb 2013

El Universal — UN: Having Afiuni imprisoned is like opening the door to further abuses –14 Feb 2013

Huffington Post — UN Human Rights Officials Urge Venezuela To Free Judge Maria Lourdes Afiuni – 14 Feb 2013

 

Syria Justice and Accountability Center: 26 February 2013