15 February 2013 – The Russian Interior Ministry has opened a new criminal case against colleagues of the late Sergei Magnitsky, who was killed in Russian police custody in 2009. Details of the new criminal case are not yet known other than that it alleges ‘fraudulent actions’.
The new case was opened on January 24, 2013 following public statements by Russian President Vladimir Putin at a December 2012 press conference that he needed to “dig deeper” into the Magnitsky case.
Under this new criminal case, the Russian Interior Ministry is now pressuring HSBC Bank Moscow to provide wide-ranging financial and banking information concerning the companies of the Hermitage Fund and its advisers dating all the way back to 1996.
The Russian Interior Ministry has threatened to use “special forces” to obtain the documents if HSBC doesn’t cooperate.
“Otherwise, the documents which have the force of evidence under the criminal case and are with OOO HSBC Bank RR can be seized by force during a seizure or search, including with the prarticipation of employees of special units,” said the request sanctioned by major G.Sungurov, head of 4th section within the Interior Ministry’s Investigations Department.
Under the Russian law, banking information can be provided to the police only if it concerns specific acts and circumstances of the investigation. The Interior Ministry has failed to identify any circumstances connecting the companies in question to their request, yet they demanded that banking information on transactions of “each day of operations” for 8 different companies be provided in Russia.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Political observers in New Zealand say the future of Richard Prosser does not look promising after an anti-Muslim rant has mired him in a national controversy.
New Zealand First MP Richard Prosser caused a controversy with recent anti-Muslim remarks that might jeopardize his political future. (Photo Courtesy of the New Zealand Herald)
Prosser, who is a House of Representatives member for the NZ First party, recently wrote in a magazine column that all young men “who are Muslim, look like Muslims, or come from a Muslim country” should be banned from flying “Western airlines,” according to TV NZ. The New Zealand Herald also reported that the rant referred to Muslims as “troglodytes” and that Islam was a “stone-age religion.”
“He’s [upset] the party [to] no end,” an anonymous source familiar with the party told the Herald. “The biggest issue is his total lack of judgment.”
So far, the NZ First party leader Winston Peters has said he does not believe Prosser should resign. But criticism has been widespread, and the feeling around parliament is that Prosser may serve only one term.
“He’ll be so far down the list next time, you won’t see the top of his head,” the Herald’s source said, discussing Prosser’s future party standing if he survives the next election.
Prosser, who joined Parliament in 2011 fourth on the NZ First party list, has apologized for the comments. He told the Herald that he believes his willingness to acknowledge he was wrong would go over well with voters.
“I think New Zealanders are essentially fair people,” Prosser said. “[I]f you make a mistake but admit it, undertake not to do it again, and undertake to correct some of them . . . people will give you a fair go.”
Most people, however, do not appear to share that sentiment. The Federation of Islamic Associations of New Zealand lodged a formal complaint against Prosser with the Human Rights Commission. Association leaders called Prosser ignorant and undeserving of being an MP.
“You can maybe excuse it on a street corner on a drunken night, but not from a Member of Parliament,” said the association’s Jamal Green. “This was not just an outburst.”
Judith Collins, who is New Zealand’s minister for both Ethnic Affairs and Human Rights, called Prosser’s comments “appalling and irresponsible.” She called on the party to “avoid causing further embarrassment to New Zealand.”
Prosser’s rant was reportedly sparked by a recent incident when he was stopped from carrying his pocketknife on a flight to Christchurch. This also is not Prosser’s first bought with controversy. He previously called for a ban on burqas in public, mandatory army training for all citizens, and New Zealand’s South Island to become a separate state.
By Justin Dorman Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East
CAIRO, Egypt – Yesterday, both liberal anti-Morsi protesters and Islamic pro-Morsi supporters took to the streets in Egypt to demonstrate. The Morsi opponents were protesting against what they perceived as Morsi’s consolidation of power and implementation of Sharia law. The Morsi supporters were demonstrating against violence caused by protests and the need for Sharia law. Predictably, violence broke out.
Thousands of Egyptians took to the streets on Friday to demonstrate their feelings about President Morsi. (Photo Courtesy of the Jerusalem Post)
The anti-Morsi faction congregated outside El-Quba, one of the presidential palaces. They called the rally, “Checkmate Friday,” as if they had cornered the king. The protesters view Morsi as a dictator who has failed to actualize the purposes of the revolution which put him in his position.
National Salvation Front, the main opposition group to Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood, was not involved in this protest. They sought to distance themselves from the protest after coming under criticism that they have been inciting street violence.
As nightfall covered the protest, violence eventually ensued. “Troublemakers” threw rocks and petrol bombs, and security forces answered back with tear gas and water cannons.
Away from the main rally, in the industrial town of al-Mahalla al-Kubra, protesters set fire to a local government building. Additionally, in Alexandria, protesters who tried to force their way into a police station were met by security force violence.
Thousands of pro-Morsi demonstrators also met in Cairo to show their support for President Morsi and to denounce the violence that has occurred as a result of anti-Morsi protests. This demonstration was dubbed the “Together Against Violence” rally and was organized by the ultraconservative Salafi Islamist group Al-Gama’a al-Islamiya. Ironically, Al-Gama’a al-Islamiya led an armed revolt against the state in the 1990s, but has since denounced violence.
Since the anniversary of the ousting of Mubarak in January, at least sixty people have died as a result of demonstration violence. The pro-Morsi group is calling for an end to this unrest so that Egypt can gain some semblance of stability, such that tourists will not fear the Egyptian political climate and jumpstart its economy. Instead, the protesters just want the whole country to embrace Sharia law.
Mohammed al-Sagheer, a Muslim cleric in the crowd declared that, “the person who came [to power] through ballot boxes will not leave by firebombs.”
Others held banners which read, “No to Violence. Yes to Sharia.”
The demonstrators chanted, “Islam is coming, the Koran is our constitution,” as they marched to the central rally point of Cairo University.
By Madeline Schiesser Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe
ODESSA, Ukraine – Last January, an alleged plot to assassinate then prime minister and presidential candidate Vladimir Putin was exposed when an apartment in Odessa Ukraine exploded. Chechen native and British-educated Adam Osmayev, 31, was arrested and charged with plotting to blow up Putin’s motorcade. At the time of his arrest, Osmayev confessed. However, analysts and opposition figures long dismissed the plot was a mere ploy to boost Putin’s ratings before the critical presidential election. With his case now before a Ukrainian court, Osmayev has retracted his confession and testimony, alleging that he was tortured and harm to his family threatened if he failed to cooperate.
Adam Osmayev still bears the chemical burns from the Odessa apartment explosion, in which he was either framed, or participating in a terrorist plot. (Photo Courtesy of the Telegraph)
Osmayev related his version of events to the British newspaper, The Independent, and to the Ukrainian court. Osmayev says that he was at the apartment of two acquaintances when he smelled gas before an explosion ripped through the house. He denies knowing the other two men another Chechen called Ruslan Madayev, and a Kazakh citizen called Ilya Pyanzin very well, and assets that there was never any assassination plot.
Nevertheless, Osmayev, having entered Ukraine on a false passport, fled the scene of the explosion and was forcefully arrested later. Madayev was killed in the explosion and Pyanzin was arrested on site.
Describing his arrest, Osmayev recalled, “When they broke into the flat to arrest me, they put me face down on the floor. I wasn’t resisting, but they put handcuffs on me with my hands behind my back, and started beating me, on the back of the head, and with guns.” He said that experience was nothing compared to what he would have experienced had he failed to cooperate.
During his interrogation, Osmayev alleges that authorities continued to beat and torture him. He claims during the interrogation his ribs were cracked, he was injected him with a narcotic substances, and he was threatened with physical mutilation. At one point, Osmayev claims, “[T]hey covered my head with a plastic bag. They told me they had my father and stepmother as hostages, and they would be arrested if I didn’t confess.”
Osmayev further claims that his interrogators threatened to hand him over to Ramzan Kadyrov, Chechnya’s ruthless Kremlin-backed leader, if he did not confess to the plot against Putin. By then, Osmayev says “I was ready to admit to anything, even plotting to kill the Pope. Because what Kadyrov does is well known to the world. More than anything I was worried about my father. He had a heart attack a few years ago and I was more worried for him that I was for myself.”
Osmayev’s father, Aslanbek Osmayev has expressed a belief that his son was targeted because of Aslanbek’s former involvement in the Chechen oil industry and a dispute with Ramzan Kadyrov. Aslanbek claims, “They couldn’t get to me so they went for Adam. There wasn’t an ounce of truth in [earlier allegations against Aslanbek], and there is no truth in these latest ones, either. . . I think it is partly personal revenge against me, and partly it was an attempt to please superiors with a ‘convenient’ terrorist plot just before the elections.”
Osmayev’s wife, Anina Okuyeva, who also claims she has received anonymous threats that she would be put in a mental asylum if she publicly criticized the case against her husband, read a statement on his behalf Thursday before a court session: “The testimony was given as a consequence of physical and psychological pressure, placed on me by security services from the moment of my detention: During the examination of the case, I took back, in written form, all of the testimony given earlier and demanded an examination of the fact of torture. Considering all these given facts, in accordance with Article 63 of the Constitution of Ukraine, I am forced to refuse to give an explanation in the court session. I ask you to enter this statement into the case file.”
Moscow attempted but failed to have Osmayev extradited to Russia. He appealed to the European Court of Human Rights and a Ukraine court suspended the extradition. However, alleged co-conspirator Ilya Pyanzin was extradited to Russia in August. Osmayev has since renounced his Russian citizenship and applied for refugee status in Georgia and Finland.
Even so, if the Ukraine court convicts him of the charge: “To carry out a terrorist act with the aim of the elimination of the head of the government of the Russian Federation, V. V. Putin,” Osmayev will face up to a 15-year prison sentence. After Thursday’s hearing, the judge adjourned the case until mid-March.
Osmayev’s lawyer, Olga Chertok, who works independently out of a small office in a shabby Odessa courtyard, has denounced the prosecutor’s case as full of inconsistencies. Known for usually taking on corporate raiding cases Chertok says authorities tried to keep her away from the Osmayev case because, “They wanted a pliant lawyer, and they knew that wasn’t me.” Since taking on the case, Chertok has noticed she has been followed and suspects that her telephone has been bugged.
Nevertheless, she remains undeterred. “There’s not a single piece of evidence that implicates [Osmayev] in any way.” She explains that she believes the home-made explosive devices were planted in order to give Putin a PR edge before elections.
In Russia, the events of the alleged assassination attempt were not released until February, a week before the Russian presidential election. News outlets claimed the three men had been caught making bombs from saltpetre, aluminum powder and other substances when one of them accidentally went off. A computer found in the apartment, alleged to belong to Osmayev, contained internet history of bomb-making websites, and also of video footage of Putin’s motorcade route. Named as the main organizer, film of Osmayev, his face covered with cuts and bruise, was shown admitting that “the plan was to go to Moscow and carry out an attack on Putin”.
Andrei Soldatov, a security analyst pointed out, “Putin is perhaps the best protected leader in the world. Attacking his motorcade is unrealistic, he travels much faster than any Western leader would be able to as the streets are always cleared of all other cars before his motorcade arrives.” Some analysts have also noted that assassination attempts have long been a favorite ploy of leaders attempting to demonstrate their own importance.
Osmayev says that although he is a devout Muslim, he has never been interested in radical Islam or terrorism. “I was educated in Britain, I feel like a very European person,” he says. “I don’t believe in terrorism, I believe in freedom of speech and human rights. That’s why I’m against Kadyrov in Chechnya. I have never been involved in any kind of terrorism.”
NAIROBI, Kenya — The High Court of Kenya dismissed arguments on Thursday that Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta’s pending trial in the International Criminal Court for charges of crimes against humanity renders him ineligible for the presidential elections.
Uhuru Kenyatta (right) and running mate William Ruto are accused of fueling post-election violence in 2007. (Photo Courtesy of BBC News)
Kenyatta and his running mate, William Ruto, are two of four accused at the International Criminal Court of orchestrating tribal fighting that killed 1,200 people after the last vote in 2007. Both men deny the charges.
Kenyatta, a former finance minister and the son of the country’s founding president, is running a close second to Prime Minister Raila Odinga according to opinion polls for the March 4 presidential election.
Odinga and Kenyatta lead largely ethnic-based coalitions with few ideological differences, and there was concern regarding how Kenyatta’s supporters might react had he been barred from the elections.
Similar ethnic rivalries fueled the fighting after the last presidential elections five years ago. The violence marred the image of the east African country, the region’s most powerful economy and a key western ally in the war against militant Islam in the region.
In reaching their decision to decline the case, the panel of five judges said in an oral statement, “the High Court lacks jurisdiction to deal with a question relating to the election of a president.” Moreover, the judges stated that, “this is an issue that is within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Supreme Court.”
The Principal Judge of the High Court, Mbogholi Msagha, further explained that the court lacked jurisdiction over the petitions filed by various legal and rights groups. He stated that the petitioners should have requested the electoral commission exclude Kenyatta and Ruto the ballot.
Msagha also said that the court could not deny Kenyatta and Ruto their right to contest the poll because they had not been convicted. He added that, “they are presumed innocent until proved otherwise.”
It is not immediately clear whether an appeal will be submitted to the highest court. However, it is likely that, if elected president, Kenyatta’s first foreign trip abroad will be to appear in the Hague at a hearing scheduled for April.
Likewise, the Kenyan government is being sued for police brutality in the violence following the 2007 election. The families of seven people shot dead and eight wounded survivors of the post-election violence filed a lawsuit this week to sue the Kenyan government. The petitioners claim that the police fired the shots during a dispute over who won Kenya’s 2007 presidential election.
Four human rights groups are also part of the suit against the government. Moreover, there have been warnings from various international human rights groups that the police are not ready to prevent electoral violence while refraining from human rights violations. Advocacy groups have criticized the Kenyan police for decades of ineffectiveness, corruption, human rights violations, and impunity.
