Abdullah al-Senussi’s Lawyer Calls for ICC Trial

By Justin Dorman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

TRIPOLI, Libya – Abdullah al-Senussi has once been described as the “world’s most wanted man.” During the rule of his brother-in-law, Muammar Gaddafi, Senussi ran the country’s internal security, external security, and was the chief of its espionage agency. His lawyer, Ben Emmerson, believes that if Senussi is not sent for trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague, that he will surely be sentenced to death in Libya.

Senussi’s attorney believes that if Senussi is not rightfully sent to face trial at the ICC, that he will be summarily executed. (Photo Courtesy of the Guardian)

On June 27, 2011, the ICC issued arrest warrants for both Senussi as well as Saif al-Islam, Gaddafi’s son. Nevertheless, Islam has been detained in west Libya, where he will be tried. Similarly, despite the arrest warrant, Senussi, who was being held in Mauritania, was deported back to Libya when Libya purposefully ignored the warrant and paid between $125-$200 million for him.

While Libya is supposed to follow the directives of the ICC, there is no real manner in which the ICC can enforce itself, nor the United Nations Security Council, who referred the case to the Hague to begin with. Lord Macdonald, the former director of public prosecutions in England threatened, however, that “the Libyan government need to decide whether they want to join the international community or not. If they continue to flout the UN security council [resolution]. . . they are not going to be treated seriously as part of the community of nations.”

Emmerson claims that if his client is put on trial in Libya, that the country has breached its obligations to both the ICC and Security Council. He further believes that when Libya obtained Senussi from Mauritania, that it partook in unlawful rendition. Emmerson wants a fair trial for Senussi and ultimately feels that if Senussi is tried in Libya, that it is “likely to be a short and summary process resulting in his conviction and summary execution.”

Senussi was believed to be the orchestrator of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, known as the Lockerbie bombing, which killed 170 people. Many also think that he was also the man responsible for the slaughtering of 1,200 prisoners at Abu Salim prison.

On the first of this month, Taha Baara, spokesman for Libya’s attorney general stated that Senussi’s trial would take place “within a month.” The Libyan authorities are required to respond to the ICC’s demands by January 15, 2013.

For further information, please see:

Guardian – Abdullah al-Senussi: Foreign Office Urged to Prevent Execution of spy Chief – 11 January 2013

Al Arabiya News – Libyan Ex-spy Chief Must be Extradited or Risk Execution: Lawyers – 10 January 2013

Amnesty International – Libya Must Seek Justice not Revenge in Case of Former al-Gaddafi Intelligence Chief – 18 October 2012

The Hague Justice Portal – Abdullah Senussi

Displaced Rohingya Refugees Turned Away from Thailand

By Irving Feng
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BANGKOK, Thailand – Over 600 displaced Rohingya Muslims were found by Thai authorities after police raided a warehouse in the town of Sadao in Songkhla province and a rubber plantation in a Malaysian border town of Pedang Besar.

Rohingya refugees awaiting deportation. (Photo Courtesy of Al Jazeera)

Police suspected that the raid sites were utilized by local human traffickers and discovered the refugees during their operations.  Among the Rohingya discovered in Pedang Besar, roughly 20 of the refugees were women and children.

The Thai landowner of the raid sites is now being sought by the local authorities on illegal human trafficking charges.  The charge of sheltering illegal migrants has also been tacked on by the officials seeking to prosecute the alleged traffickers.

Reports say that the Rohingya refugees had fled Myanmar and were passing through Thailand en route to a third destination.  The migration was entirely voluntary by the Rohingya refugees; however, the migrants had been housed in the warehouse for 3 months prior to discovery.

The refugees were reportedly travelling to a final destination in Malaysia and the camps were temporary holding facilities as they passed through.  The landowners were middlemen who were paid to help facilitate the refugees’ journey.

The migrations may have been voluntary because the Rohingya people are currently stateless.  The Myanmar government continues to deny the Rohingya people official citizenship status.  Myanmar also classifies them as illegal Bangladeshi immigrants.

Nearby Bangladesh also denies the Rohingya people official status creating hostility and persecution for the stateless refugees.  The Thai government has refused to grant asylum and plans to force the recently discovered refugees back onto rickety and overcrowded boats for departure, similar to the ones they utilized during their arrival.

Similar incidents in 2008, where Rohingya were forcibly deported from Thailand, generated tragic results.  The Thai military put roughly 1000 Rohingya refugees onto boats without food or water causing hundreds of deaths.

The violence in the Rakhine state of Myanmar last June has caused a large displacement of the Rohingya people.  Of the 800,000 Rohingya people, an estimated 110,000 people were displaced, many of which were Rohingya.

Rights groups have clamored to the international community about Thailand’s attitude toward the recently discovered Rohingya refugees in the two police raids.  Thailand’s refusal of asylum for the stateless refugees and sending them back to sea in rickety boats without food or water is seen as shameful.

Thailand had already deported 73 of the Rohingya people back to Myanmar last week, but the boat landed in the nearby Thai island of Phuket.

For further information, please see:

Al Jazeera – Myanmar Rohingya refugees rescued in Thailand – 11 January 2013

Breitbart – 700 ROHINGYA IN THAILAND TO BE DEPORTED TO MYANMAR – 11 January 2013

Reuters – Over 600 illegal Rohingya migrants held in Thai raids – 11 January 2013

San Jose Mercury News – Rohingya boat people found adrift near Thai resort – 1 January 2013

Women Granted Seats on Shura Council for First Time

By Justin Dorman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Saudi Arabia, a ultraconservative Islamic country historically governed by men, has for the first time granted seats on the Shura council to women. The Shura council is Saudi Arabia’s top advisory board.

Saudi Arabia’s Shura Council will now be made up of twenty percent women. (Photo Courtesy of the Guardian)

The one hundred and fifty member council now seats thirty women. Furthermore, courtesy of First Amendment: Article 3 of the council’s statute, which King Abdullah introduced, women can never constitute less than twenty percent of the council. Previously, women were only permitted to be consultants to the council and only on topics such as family and women’s issues.

Members of the Shura council sit for four-year terms. Since the nature of the council is to serve in an advisory capacity, it has no legislative power. Members may review laws and question ministers.

The thirty women who were given seats on the council include human rights activists, university graduates, and two princesses. One such woman is Thuraya Obaid, a United Nations administrator who has previously served as the undersecretary general to the world body and as an executive director to the United Nations Development Programme.

Female Saudi novelist Baridya al-Bishr described the new class of councilwomen as “the cream of the crop.”

King Abdullah’s appointment of women to the council has been warmly welcomed by women’s rights activists. Well known activist Wajeha al-Hawaidar believes that, “men can finally respect women when they see them playing a male role.”

This move was one of many changes King Abdullah has made to advance women since he became king. In 2009, Norah al-Fayez was the first woman ever named to a ministerial post. Then in 2011 he granted women the right to vote and run as candidates in local elections. Most recently, two Saudi Arabian women were permitted to be the first women to partake in the Olympics.

Nevertheless, there are still many more changes female activists wish to see implemented. Women are still not allowed to marry, divorce, work, travel, or be taken care of in a hospital without the permission. Women who are permitted to travel are still electronically tracked, and automatic text messages are sent to her male guardian informing him of her whereabouts.

Ultimately, the council appointments signify great progress for women in Saudi Arabia. The change, however, does not come without limitations. Women still must be segregated from men once inside the council in a special area, and must also enter through a separate door.

For further information, please see:

Al-Akhbar – In Historic First, 30 Women Appointed to Saudi Shura Council – 11 January 2013

Guardian – Saudi King Allows Women on top Advisory Council – 11 January 2013

Middle East Online – Precedent: Saudi Women Named to Shura Council – 11 January 2013

Ya Libnan – Women Named to the Saudi Shura Council for First Time – 11 January 2013

Three Politically Active Kurdish Women Mysteriously Murdered in Paris

By Alexandra Sandacz
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe 

PARIS, France – The Kurdish community was stunned this past Thursday when three politically active Kurdish women were brutally murdered. The three bodies were found around 2 a.m. inside the Kurdish Information Center. The center was used to promote Kurds’ political and cultural agendas.

The community watches as the three bodies were removed from the inconspicuous building. (Photo Courtesy of NBC News)

Although there are no claims of responsibility or any suggestion of suspects, it is quite clear that the killings were carefully planned. Since the building is not marked, investigators believe someone would have to know where the office was. Furthermore, the front door could not be opened without a digital code.

Center employee, Berivan Akvol, stated, “There is no doubt this was politically motivated.” Agnès Thibault-Lecuivre, a spokeswoman for the Paris prosecutor’s office, stated, “No hypothesis can be excluded at this stage” as per the motive. However, Kurdish activists believe Turkish forces committed the murders.

One woman who was killed is one of the founders of the Kurdish Workers’ Party, the PKK. Multiple nations, such as Turkey, believe the PKK is a terror organization because of their 28-year rebellion against the Turkish state, one of Middle East’s longest-running conflicts.

The PKK, a pan-Kurdish nationalist movement, is internationally known for the three decade war against the government of Turkey. As a result, an estimated 40,000 people were killed. However, suspiciously, the killings happened around the time the Turkish government entered into peace talks with Kurdish leaders.

French Interior Minister, Manuel Valls, told reporters that the three women were “without doubt executed” and described the killings as “totally unacceptable.”

Roj Welat, a spokesman for the PKK leadership in northern Iraq, said “It is an assassination, it is terror, it is ideological and political assassination, a terror attack against the Kurdish people. Sakine Cansiz has been actively involved in the peace and democracy struggle, freedom struggle, of the Kurdish people for a long time. She was one of the women who participated in the formation of the PKK.”

However, although many believe the Turkish government is behind the killings, Turkish political leaders were quick to express their shock and disgust. Additionally, Turkish government spokesman, Bulent Arinc, said the “savage” killing of the women was “utterly wrong.”

The BDP, the Turkish parliament, also stated, “We expect the French government to enlighten this massacre beyond a shadow of doubt. We want it known that these murders committed overtly in the busiest part of Paris cannot be covered up.”

For further information, please see:

BBC News – PKK Paris deaths: Turkey PM Erdogan blames ‘internal feud’ – 11 January 2013

CNN – 3 Kurdish women political activists shot dead in Paris – 11 January 2013

NBC News – Three women shot dead in ‘politically motivated’ Paris slayings – 10 January 2013

The New York Times — 3 Kurds Are Killed in Paris, in Locked-Door Mystery – 10 January 2013

UN Human Rights Group Calls for Release of American Prisoner

By Mark O’Brien
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

HAVANA, Cuba — A human rights group at the United Nations urged Cuba this week to free an American held captive for more than three years.

A United Nations human rights group is calling on the Cuban government to free American prisoner Alan Gross. (Photo Courtesy of CBS Baltimore)

The lawyer for Alan Gross publicly released a 12-page report by the U.N. Human Rights Council imprisonment watchdog on Tuesday.  The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention called Gross’s imprisonment arbitrary and Cuba’s judicial system biased.

Gross, an American contractor, is serving a 15-year sentence for delivering computer and communications equipment to Cuba’s Jewish community.  The equipment was used to access the Internet by bypassing government controls.  U.S. government programs paid for the tools, which were aimed at spreading democracy across the communist country.

The island nation outlawed all cooperation with the American programs, describing them as designed to snuff out communism.  Gross was charged with a crime against the state by acting against the country’s “sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

But the report criticized Cuba’s judiciary as lacking independence, and it said that the nature of the alleged crime was imprecise.  And while the report said the failure of the courts to grant bail to Gross rendered his punishment arbitrary, it rejected complaints by Gross’s attorney that the process violated Gross’s due process rights or that the charges violated Gross’s free speech rights.

“By virtue of what has been set out, the Working Group asks the Government of Cuba to immediately release Mr. Alan Phillip Gross,” the report stated.

The Working Group has no enforcement powers; however, the ruling could pressure Cuban leaders to release Gross.

The Cuban government arrested Gross in December 2009 and convicted him in 2011.  Some have called his arrest an obstacle in efforts to improve relations between the United States and Cuba.

Gross’s family hired Jared Genser, an international human rights lawyer, to argue that both Gross’s arrest and conviction amounted to human rights abuse.

Cuba scoffed at the report’s conclusion last month, blaming the U.S. government for pressuring the UN group to take action.  The Cuban government reiterated that Gross received a fair trial.

Efforts to free Gross have been ongoing since his arrest.  Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.), now President Obama’s nominee for Secretary of State, reportedly had a secret meeting in 2010 with Cuba’s foreign minister in New York.

According to Havana Times.org, Gross’s release was to be conditioned on ending the pro-democracy destabilization programs.  The Cuban-American Florida lobby, however, reportedly blocked those plans.

For further information, please see:

The Miami Herald — A U.N. Human Rights Group Has Urged Cuba to Free Alan Gross — 10 January 2013

CBS Local — UN Report Calls on Cuba to Release Alan Gross — 9 January 2013

Havana Times.org — Cuba: Failed Attempts to Free Alan Gross — 9 January 2013

JTA — U.N. Imprisonment Watchdog Calls on Cuba to Release Alan Gross — 8 January 2013