Oct. 3
PAKISTAN:
Pakistani Christian mother Asia Bibi's death sentence sparks protest in
Australia
The death sentence handed to Pakistani Christian mother Asia Bibi over a
blasphemy charge has sparked a protest in Australia calling on the government
to intervene in the case and help save her from being executed.
In a letter to be submitted to the Parliamentarians in New South Wales, the
demonstrators are demanding that the Australian government guarantee the
continuous enforcement of the principle of "one law for all" in their country.
They are also asking the government to consider once again donating $49 million
in aid to Pakistan.
BPCA chairman Wilson Chowdhry also released a statement decrying Pakistan's
failure to protect Bibi and other Christian minorities. Echoing the demands of
the protesters, he said Australia can be a significant player in the case,
pointing out that the United Kingdom, the United States, and other major donors
have started donating aid to help improve human rights in Pakistan.
"Australia's official policy involves tackling poverty by generating
sustainable growth and employment, as well as focusing on education and health,
all worthy goals," said Chowdhry. "Some of the poorest Pakistani citizens are
Christians, and unfortunately they are typically kept there by a combination of
debt-slavery and direct and systematic religious oppression, frequently
including systematic sex slavery and targeting of Christian girls and women for
kidnap, rape, forced conversion and marriage."
Last month, prominent Christian lawyer Sooba Bhatti appealed to the President
of Pakistan to grant Bibi pardon for the capital punishment. He also asked the
president to order Christian mother's immediate release and acquittal,
Christians in Pakistan reports.
Bibi was arrested in June 2009 over blasphemy charges and was given a death
sentence by a local judge the following year. She was also handed down a
penalty amounting to around US$1,100.
(source: Christian Daily)
IRELAND:/EGYPT:
UK Body Builds Cairo Court, as Irish Student Faces Death Penalty in Egypt
A state-owned Belfast business is helping to furnish an Egyptian juvenile
court, despite concerns over mass trials and death sentences in the country -
including in the case of an Irish juvenile.
New research by human rights organization Reprieve has revealed that, since
March 2015, Northern Ireland Cooperation Overseas (NI-CO) - a state-owned UK
business that has contracts with the Foreign Office - has been involved in a 10
million euros EU-funded project to support "the Administration of Justice" in
Egypt, in partnership with the country's Ministry of Justice.
According to documents relating to the deal, unearthed by Reprieve, the 4-year
project includes the provision of equipment by NI-CO for Egypt's court system.
Tender documents, apparently provided by the Egyptian government, outline a
need for steel structures, security bars and benches for courtrooms, and
surveillance equipment for 'interview rooms'.
The documents also outline detailed plans for a courtroom for children,
including a 'secure waiting area' made out of steel bars, and 'soft chairs for
children', which the documents say should be waterproof, and provided in red,
white and black - the colours of the Egyptian flag. The project has reportedly
included a workshop with 98 judges from Egypt's Court of Cassation, the highest
court in Egypt, which has final say over death sentences.
NI-CO's EU-funded work in Egypt will raise fears over UK and European
complicity in abuses associated with Egypt's justice system. Since July 2014,
Egypt's government has come under heavy criticism for human rights abuses that
have seen protestors, journalists, opposition activists, and juveniles
arrested, with reports of torture common. Egyptian courts have handed down
thousands of death sentences, in mass trials that have failed to meet
international fair-trial standards.
Among the juveniles who have been arrested is Ibrahim Halawa, a student from
Firhouse, Dublin, whose trial alongside 493 other prisoners was postponed
yesterday for the 15th time since it began in 2014.
Ibrahim - who was 17 when he was arrested - is facing a potential death
sentence along with hundreds of others, who face identical charges relating to
protests. Repeated hearings in the mass trial since 2014 have proved chaotic,
and seen hundreds of defendants held in purpose-built pens, where they can
neither see nor hear the proceedings, nor talk to the judge or their lawyers.
Ibrahim has reported being regularly tortured, and forced to witness others
being abused. In a letter published by his family last week, he said that he
shares a dormitory cell with 30 other prisoners, and has a sleeping space just
over 1 foot wide.
The Irish government and the European Parliament have both called for Ibrahim's
release, while the UK government has told Reprieve - which is assisting Ibrahim
- that it is 'monitoring' the case.
The revelations follow concerns last week about NI-CO's work in Bahrain, which
is paid for by the UK Foreign Office, where the company has trained around 400
guards from the gulf kingdom's death row prison.
Commenting, Harriet McCulloch, deputy director of the death penalty team at
Reprieve, said:
"Amid a wave of repression in Egypt that has seen thousands sentenced to death,
it is sickening that a UK body is helping to prop up Sisi's courts - with funds
from the European taxpayer. While NI-CO furnishes Egyptian courts and
'interview rooms' with steel bars and benches, scores of prisoners - including
children, protestors, and journalists - are caught up in Kafkaesque mass
trials. Irish citizen Ibrahim Halawa, who was arrested as a child, is one of
those trapped in this nightmare - like hundreds of others, he faces regular
torture and the threat of execution. NI-CO must put an urgent stop to this
project until Egypt commits to a justice system worthy of the name - this means
releasing the many prisoners, like Ibrahim, who have been wrongly detained
since 2014."
Reprieve is a UK-based human rights organization that uses the law to enforce
the human rights of prisoners, from death row to Guantanamo Bay.
(source: commondreams.org)
*********************
Ibrahim Halawa's lawyers call for maximum pressure to free him from custody
Lawyers for an Irishman jailed in Egypt for the past 3 years over political
protests have called on the Government to put maximum pressure on efforts to
free him.
After Ibrahim Halawa's trial was adjourned today for another month, his legal
team pleaded for diplomats in Dublin, Europe and Cairo to ratchet up attempts
to get him home.
From Firhouse in Dublin, he was detained in a mosque near Ramses Square in
Cairo as the Muslim Brotherhood held a "day of rage" over the removal of their
elected president Mohamed Morsi in August 2013.
His lawyer, Darragh Mackin of Belfast-based KRW Law, said the latest delay was
not a surprise as the hearing had been scheduled on an Egyptian holiday, but
that they remain extremely concerned.
He said the trial process essentially restarted in June when a new panel was
charged with reviewing video evidence.
Mr Mackin called on the Government and other European nations to demand
Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi act on an application for a decree to
secure his release.
"We are calling on the Irish Government and the wider international community.
But the reality is that any of the European Union nations have their part to
play, as Ibrahim is a European citizen," he said.
"We have lodged a fresh application (for a presidential decree) and the grounds
behind that are the delay in the case. It applies to those who are not
convicted prisoners."
Foreign Affairs Minister Charlie Flanagan raised Mr Halawa's case with Egypt's
Ambassador to Ireland Soha Gendi following the latest adjournment, the 15th in
the case.
The Minister said that both he and Taoiseach Enda Kenny have written to
Egyptian foreign minister Sameh Shoukry and President el-Sisi setting out their
support for the presidential decree.
"The Government is continuing to use every possible opportunity to underline
our concerns about this case to the Egyptian Government, and also with the EU,"
he said.
"I want to reaffirm to Ibrahim, his family and his friends of my own and the
Government's ongoing commitment to secure his return to Ireland as soon as
possible and to ensure his welfare during his detention."
Minister Flanagan said the case was a high priority for him and he said
officials were working closely with Mr Halawa's lawyers and the family.
Amnesty International Ireland director Colm O'Gorman said: "This young Irish
citizen has spent more than three years living in horrific conditions, without
access to proper medical care, and without any prospect of a fair trial. His
horrific testimony catalogues a series of human rights abuses.
"While Amnesty International has not as yet been able to review this
information, we take such allegations very seriously."
Amnesty is to protest at the Egyptian embassy in Dublin tomorrow over Mr
Halawa's prolonged detention.
Mr Halawa was detained with 493 others on charges which could ultimately see
him face the death penalty.
His family claim he has been tortured, suffered electric shocks, beatings, been
spat on and moved without their knowledge during his time in custody with
several hundred others over the protests.
Mr Mackin said the latest adjournment in the trial strengthens the case for Mr
Halawa to be freed under a presidential order and deported back to Ireland.
He said the legal team understands that the application is being actively
considered.
"It is with this in mind that the maximum pressure must now be brought to bear,
to ensure that it is met with the appropriate response," Mr Mackin said.
"Today's development unequivocally strengthens the requirement for the Egyptian
president to now directly intervene and ensure he is returned back to Ireland.
Such an outcome, in light of today's development, is the only option that
remains to ensure that Egypt respects its obligations under international law."
Mr Halawa's case is due back before a Cairo court on November 12.
One of the last contacts he had with his family was a letter he wrote over a
week ago to mark when he should have been graduating from university.
Mr Halawa wrote: "In this college I'm obliged to live with a broad diversity of
inmates. From presidential consultants and college professors to illiterate
criminals which taught me to seek the real human being behind every social
rank."
(source: breakingnews.ie)
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