July 8
NIGER/LIBYA:
Niger resists Libyan demands to extradite Gadhafi’s son
A couple of months ago, Saadi Gadhafi and his entourage partied at a swank
restaurant in this steamy West African capital. When the DJ played a Tuareg
song glorifying his late father, Moammar, Saadi and his companions jumped out
of their chairs and clapped their hands to the rhythm.
“Then they all started dancing,” recalled Jean-Yves Rico, the restaurant’s
owner.
In one of the unfinished businesses of the Arab Spring, Libya is seeking the
extradition of Gadhafi, who fled here in September after rebels seized Tripoli,
to face trial for alleged war crimes. The soccer-playing, flamboyant third son
of the late Libyan leader, Saadi was the commander of Libya’s Special Forces
during the civil war; Interpol has issued a “red notice” requesting member
countries to arrest Saadi if they find him on their soil, to pave the way for
extradition.
In interviews, Niger and American officials said that the 39-year-old Gadhafi
is under house arrest in a state guesthouse. But that “guesthouse” is a
luxurious, high-walled mansion in one of Niamey’s most affluent neighbourhoods,
near the American and French embassies. Since Gadhafi arrived, he has led a
normal life, eating at restaurants and dancing at nightclubs early into the
morning, according to restaurant and nightclub owners and local journalists.
Over the past 3 months, though, Niger’s government has ordered him to keep a
low profile and stay inside his mansion, following comments he made to
al-Arabiya television that he was in contact with Gadhafi loyalists and wanted
to retake power in Libya.
At the same time, Niger’s government has refused to extradite him, saying that
Gadhafi would never receive a fair trial, raising tensions with Libya’s new
rulers.
“We won’t accept this demand,” said Morou Amadou, Niger’s justice minister. “We
won’t extradite someone where he is certain to face the death penalty.”
Unlike his elder brother Saif al-Islam Gadhafi, Saadi is not wanted by the
International Criminal Court at the Hague. In addition to the Interpol warrant,
he is the subject of UN sanctions for commanding military units that targeted
demonstrations during Libya’s revolution. He’s been barred from travelling to
other countries.
Saif Gadhafi, who was caught in southern Libya, is being held by Libyan
authorities to face trial inside Libya.
Niger owes a lot to Moammar Gadhafi, and he remains deeply popular here. As he
did with other African nations, Gadhafi directed tens of millions of dollars in
investments and aid toward Niger. He built mosques, including Niamey’s main
one, and roads, as well as the building where Niger’s national assembly meets.
Gadhafi also allowed more than one hundred thousand Nigerois to work in Libya;
their remittances were vital for several million back in Niger, one of the
least developed nations in the world.
When the rebels overran Tripoli, Niger was a key destination for Gadhafi
loyalists. In September, a large convoy of Libyan military vehicles, carrying
military and government officials, as well as reputedly gold bullion, crossed
from Libya’s southern desert into Niger. The Nigerois government has
acknowledged that they received 32 Gadhafi loyalists, including relatives and
military generals, on “humanitarian grounds.”
The most prominent was Saadi Gadhafi. According to a 2009 U.S. State Department
cable, released by Wikileaks, Saadi had a “troubled past” that included “public
scuffles with authorities in Europe,” drug and alcohol abuse, “excessive
partying” and “profligate affairs with men and women.” He played for Italian
soccer teams, but was later barred for failing a drug test.
In November, the Nigerois government granted him asylum.
In December, though, Mexican authorities said they had foiled a plot by
criminals to smuggle Gadhafi into the country. And in February, he told
al-Arabiya that his return to Libya was imminent, and claimed “70 % of Libyans
are unhappy with the current circumstances.”
“There is an uprising that will happen everywhere in the country,” Gadhafi told
the network. “This will be a new popular uprising.”
That prompted Libya’s ruling Transitional National Council to demand that Niger
extradite Gadhafi and other ex-regime officials to “preserve its relationship
and interests” in Libya.
There are signs that Niger’s government is tired of Gadhafi. It needs to
maintain good relations with Libya, not least because so many Nigeriens depend
on remittances sent home by their relatives who work in Libya. After fleeing
the civil war, a growing number of Nigeriens are returning to Libya to seek
work.
Amadou, the justice minister, said that the ministry was in discussions with
its Libyan counterpart, and that Niger would readily hand over Gadhafi to the
International Criminal Court if he were indicted.
“Even his lawyer wants him to leave Niger. Even we want him to leave,” said
Amadou. “We don’t want to have problems with Libya.”
At Rico’s restaurant, everyone wants Gadhafi and his entourage of Libyan exiles
to return.
“He used to come on Fridays and Saturdays, even weekdays, and stay sometimes
till three a.m.,” said Rico. “He and his friends drank lots of vodka — and
Heinekens.”
Rico asked that his restaurant’s name not be identified because he feared
Nigerois authorities would be upset at him.
Gadhafi, he said, would come with 5 or 6 Libyans, including a military general,
adding that they were “very polite.” But they have stopped coming to the
restaurant.
“It’s been more than a month since I have seen him,” said Rico. “Now, he is
really under house arrest, I guess.”
(source: The Star)
AFGHANISTAN:
Afghan officials denounce Taliban execution ---- Video allegedly shows woman
being shot dead in front of 150 villagers for having committed adultery in
Parwan province.
A man who Afghan officials say is a member of the Taliban shot dead a woman
accused of adultery in front of a crowd near Kabul, a video obtained by Reuters
showed.
In the 3-minute video, a turban-clad man approaches a woman kneeling in the
dirt and shoots her 5 times at close range with an automatic rifle, to cheers
of jubilation from the 150 or so men watching in a village in Parwan province.
"Allah warns us not to get close to adultery because it's the wrong way,"
another man says as the shooter gets closer to the woman. "It is the order of
Allah that she be executed."
The woman, named as Najiba, was married to a member of a hardline Taliban
fighter group and was accused of adultery with a Taliban commander.
A bearded man is seen in the video reading verses from the Koran condemning
adultery, before saying: "We cannot forgive her, God tells us to finish her.
Juma Khan, her husband, has the right to kill her."
The footage then shows a man in white being handed an AK47 rifle.
His 3rd shot hits her in the back, then she flings her arms wide and collapses.
He then fires another 6 shots into her body as the crowd cheers wildly, And
finally he puts 4 more shots into her.
Basir Salangi, the provincial governor, said the video was shot a week ago in
the village of Qimchok in Shinwari district, about an hour's drive from Kabul.
Such rare public punishment was a painful reminder to Afghan authorities of the
Taliban's 1996-2001 period in power, and it raised concern about the treatment
of Afghan women 11 years into the NATO-led war against Taliban insurgents.
"When I saw this video, I closed my eyes... the woman was not guilty; the
Taliban are guilty," Salangi told Reuters.
'How could this happen?'
When the unnamed woman, most of her body tightly wrapped in a shawl, fell
sideways after being shot several times in the head, the spectators chanted:
"Long live the Afghan mujahideen!", a name the Taliban use for themselves. The
Taliban could not be reached for comment.
Despite the presence of over 130,000 foreign troops and 300,000 Afghan soldiers
and police, the Taliban have managed to resurge beyond their traditional
bastions of the south and east, extending their reach into once more peaceful
areas like Parwan.
Afghan women have won back basic rights in education, voting and work since the
Taliban, who deemed those rights un-Islamic, were toppled by US-backed Afghan
forces in late 2001.
But fears are rising among Afghan women, some lawmakers and rights activists
that such freedoms could be traded away as the Afghan government and the United
States pursue talks with the Taliban to secure a peaceful end to the war.
Violence against women has increased sharply in the past year, according to
Afghanistan's independent human rights commission. Activists say there is
waning interest in women's rights on the part of President Hamid Karzai's
government.
"After 10 years [of war] and only a few kilometres from Kabul... how could this
happen in front of all these people?" female lawmaker Fawzia Koofi asked.
"This is happening under a government that claims to have made so much progress
in women's rights, claims to have changed women's lives, and this is
unacceptable. It is a huge step backwards," said Koofi, a campaigner for girls'
education who wants to run in the 2014 presidential election.
Salangi said 2 Taliban commanders were sexually involved with the woman in
Parwan, either through rape or romantically, and decided to torture her and
then kill her to settle a dispute between the 2 of them.
"They are outlaws, murderers, and like savages they killed the woman," he said,
adding that the Taliban exerted considerable sway in his province.
Earlier this week a 30-year-old woman and 2 of her children were beheaded in
eastern Afghanistan by a man police said was her divorced husband, the latest
of a string of so-called "honour killings."
(source: Aljazeera)
PAKISTAN:
Sarabjeet's counsel 'blows holes' in conviction, calls for immediate revocation
of death sentence
Highlighting flaws in trial of alleged Indian spy Sarajbeet Singh, counsel
advocate Awais Sheikh has demanded that the death sentence of the prisoner be
commuted to a life term.
Sheikh said that the court had overlooked many flaws in Singh's trial to award
a death penalty sentence.
While addressing a press conference, Sheikh complained that despite the
presence of flaws, his client was not given the benefit of doubt, as is done in
the cases of most local prisoners.
According to the Express Tribune, the advocate said that Singh's case was
pertaining to 'mistaken identity' and he was also presented before the courts
by the intelligence agencies under the alias name Manjeet Singh, who was
originally accused of the terrorism acts.
Pointing to the fact that the Lahore High Court, while deciding his appeal
against the death sentence, had ruled that "name makes no difference and it is
enough that he has confessed his crime", Sheikh said that Singh had never been
brought before a magistrate and had never confessed to his crime before any
court of law or any investigation agency.
He added Singh had been made to confess his crime before a television camera,
which has no legal value, and a confessional document which wasn't signed by
Singh, but rather carried fake signatures.
Sheikh also denied charges that his client had been trained to prepare bombs,
plant explosives or had held a Pakistani national identity card, which bore the
pseudonym Khushi Muhammad, son of Allah Bakhsh, and alleged that the card was
surreptitiously prepared by Major Abbas, a prosecution witness in the case.
Denying the allegations of fake identification evidences being recovered from
Singh at the time of his arrest, Sheikh claimed that the prosecution's story
was concocted, with Manjeet Singh, who was originally accused for the terror
charges, and arrested on August 31, 1990, subsequently being released by the
military.
Sheikh alleged that Sarabjeet Singh had been treated discriminately by the
Supreme Court and demanded to review the petition against his death sentence.
(source: ANI)
_______________________________________________
DeathPenalty mailing list
DeathPenalty@lists.washlaw.edu
http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty
Search the Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/deathpenalty@lists.washlaw.edu/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A free service of WashLaw
http://washlaw.edu
(785)670.1088
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
