August 11
ETHIOPIA:
Execution for Ethiopia torturers -- Mengistu is in exile in Zimbabwe
2 senior members of Ethiopia's former military government have been
sentenced to death after an 11-year trial.
Former Security Minister Tesfaye Woldeselassie and ex-police chief Legesse
Belayneh were found guilty of torturing thousands of dissidents.
The 2 men had played prominent roles in setting up torture camps during
the "Red Terror" under Mengistu Haile Mariam, the court said.
Some 150,000 people were killed before Mr Mengistu was deposed in 1991.
8 other defendants were given prison sentences from 10 years to life for
their part in the abuse of political prisoners.
'Plastic sheeting'
At one such torture facility, known as Bermuda, "victims of excessive
torture were wrapped [in] plastic sheeting to protect the torturers from
getting splashed with blood or pus of the victims in successive round of
tortures," the court said.
"Apart from the routine whiplashes and beatings, victims also used to be
electrocuted."
Many other trials are under way of those accused of being involved in the
Red Terror.
Mr Mengistu, who has been living in exile in Zimbabwe since he was
overthrown, has been charged with genocide and human rights abuses.
The AFP news agency reports that neither of the 2 men previously sentenced
to death have been executed.
(source: BBC News)
ZIMBABWE:
Death row war vet appeals to Mugabe
A war veteran who shot a policemen on a farm in Marondera and was
sentenced to death has launched an appeal with Robert Mugabe for clemency.
Givemore Katsande, a former army officer, launched the appeal after the
Supreme Court endorsed an earlier High Court decision which granted a
death warrant for the conviction. Katsande's lawyers have argued that the
incident took place at the height of the chaotic farm invasions and that
he shot the policemen in self defence after he brandished a pistol at him.
The courts dismissed this view earlier in the trial arguing the policemen
was not armed. The policeman, Tinashe Chakwenya, was on duty at the farm
belonging to Ian Kay, the MDC candidate for the parliamentary elections in
2000 and 2005. Katsande argues he thought the police wanted to evict him
from the farm which he had seized from Kay. Critics point to the fact that
Mugabe created the lawless environment and hence the appeal for clemency
is being directed at him.
(source: SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news)
YEMEN:
Appeal to cancel execution sentence
Despite of the death sentence issued by the penal court against religious
scholars Yahya Huseein Al Dailami and Mohammed Ahmed Miftah, their
families have kept on appealing to President Ali Abdulla Saleh to cancel
that sentence and order their release.
In this regard, a solidarity meeting was held on Monday at Yemen Times
offices under the auspices of Sheikh Abdullah Ben Hussein Alahmer, speaker
of the parliament, in addition to some civil society organizations and
political parties.
At the beginning of the meeting, Mohammed Miftahs wife read out a message
of her detained husband in which he insisted that he was paying the price
of his legal and moral request to solve Sadaa crisis peacefully for
keeping intact the citizens rights and properties.
The son of Yahya Al Dailami addressed the meeting saying that human mind
and Islam condemn imprisonment of those expressing their opinion and
truthful advisers because they have expressed their thoughts.
Taha Mohammed Ahmed Miftah talked about the abusive practices his father,
his family had come under, and how their house was subjected to robbery,
besides their suffering from the disappearance of their father for a year
without knowing any thing about him or his fate. He asked the president to
account those offenders instead of his father who is "a victim not a
criminal."
Dr. Amal Al Hajer, Yahya AlDailmis wife said "we have to join forces in
defence of thousands of victims and innocents that we dont know their
identities, we have to unite in demanding for independent judiciary
system."
Ms. Amal Albasha, chairperson of Sisters Forum said that Yemen is
committed to the international convention of political and civilian rights
"but what is going on is a violation of all the conventions and treaties
that Yemen had approved, and according to these conventions execution must
be implemented in very limited and particular cases" she added.
Mohammed Almkhlafi, a lawyer, said that the condemnation was based on the
intention of the scholars to establish a charity organization to stage a
strike in one of Sanaa mosques, in an attempt to influence the president
to stop the war in Sada'a "the constitution guarantees the citizens
freedom of expression. Besides, there is not any law or constitution in
the world that incriminates resisting wars. It is stipulated that those
who call for wars and wage wars are to be accounted," he said.
At the end of the solidarity meeting, the participants dispatched an
appeal to the president asking him to cancel the sentence of execution and
release the scholars Yahya Huseein Al Dailami and Mohammed Ahmed Miftah,
describing their trial as unfair and illegal, adding that the judge was
negatively influenced by the last political and social events in Sada'a
and that had led to this unjust judgment.
(source: The Yemen Times)
THE NETHERLANDS/IRAN:
War of words over Iranian deportee
The Dutch Immigration and Integration service (IND) and the gay federation
COC Nederland have traded angry words about the case of a gay man said to
face the death penalty if deported back to Iran.
Rejected asylum seeker Korosh Pashaei Majdi, 27, was about to be deported
2 weeks ago from the Netherlands.
He has already been condemned to death in Iran for being gay but managed
to flee abroad, the Dutch gay organisation COC said on Wednesday.
COC chairman Frank van Dalen said the IND refused to incorporate this
information into the man's immigration file. Instead the immigration
service decided there was only a possibility the asylum seeker might be
prosecuted in Iran.
A lawyer for Pashaei Majdi has insisted that deporting a person who has
been sentenced to death is contrary to the European Convention on Human
Rights.
COC says the IND continually refused to take account of a document
smuggled out of Iran that states Pashaei Majdi, who was then underage, and
his friend had been sentenced to death in Iran. Pashaei Majdi managed to
leave the country but his friend was executed in 1997.
The document is difficult to read in parts but it seems to say another
defendant had been sentenced to 100 lashes.
Pashaei Majdi is currently being held at the deportation centre at
Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport.
A spokesperson for the IND described Van Dalen's accusations as "total
rubbish" and said the information was included in the appeals phase of the
man's second asylum application. A judge ruled that there was no new
evidence to be considered.
"It is shocking that Van Dalen judged the IND so easily without knowing
the facts," the IND spokesperson said.
The IND decided to temporarily hold off from deporting Pashaei Majdi after
Iran executed two young men, aged 16 to 18, for being gay. Photographs of
the executions caused an outcry around the world.
Meanwhile, about 70 people gathered in het Plein in The Hague on Wednesday
to protest at what they claim is Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk's
"heartless" asylum policy. The protest was instigated by the decision by
five failed asylum seekers from Iran to go on hunger strike.
The demonstrators handed Klaas de Vries, immigration spokesman for the
opposition Labour Party, a petition in relation to the hunger strikers'
demands.
A spokesperson for the group said the IND did not adhere to its own rules
and he said the Parliament was not exercising proper control of the asylum
process.
(source: Expatica)
INDONESIA:
Indonesian prosecutors demand death penalty on embassy bomber
Indonesian prosecutors here Thursday demanded a death penalty for a
suspect of a deadly blast outside Australian embassy in Jakarta in
September last year that killed 10 people and seriously damaged
surrounding buildings.
Irwan Darmawan alias Rois, 29, was charged for involvement in aplot of
terrorist acts and implicating in a violence that create fears, said
prosecutor Narendra Yatna in a trial session in South Jakarta district
court.
The prosecutor also said that Rois used to assist and hide perpetrators of
the blasts.
Narendra disclosed that the suspect had met with the most terrorists
wanted Azhari Husin and Noerdin Mohammad Top and helpedthem to assemble
the bomb and look for a rental house as well as purchase a mini-white van
that was used to carried out the bombing.
Malaysians bomb expert Azhari and his fellow Top, terror coordinator of
the Al-Qaeda link in Southeast Asia of Jemaah Islamiyah, are the most
wanted fugitives who had been implicated in a series of major terror acts
in the country, including the Bali bombings in 2002, JW Marriot hotel
explosions in Jakarta in 2003 and a deadly blast in Australian embassy in
Jakarta last year.
The prosecutor said that Rois also took part in the last preparation for
the act on Sept. 8, 2004.
The defendant lawyer Ahmad Mihdan said he disagreed with the charges.
"I was disappointed with the prosecutor demand, because I am accused
guilty on the act that I did not do," said Rois.
The court session will be continued next week to hear lawyers defense.
(source: Xinhuanet)
