08.12.03
Urgent Interventions
The Observatory - Newsletter November 2003
The Observatory - Newsletter No. 25
November 2003
CHAD – Impunity in the case Jacqueline Moudeïna
Press release – November 11th, 2003
On November 11th, the Criminal Court of N'Djamena ordered the discharge of three accused persons in the case Jacqueline Moudeïna. During a women's peaceful walking protest against the electoral frauds noticed during the presidential elections of June 2001, the security forces launched grenades on the demonstrators. Mrs. Moudeïna, lawyer of the victims in the case of Hissène Habré in Chad and in Senegal, was seriously hurt and decided, with six other Chadian women, to raise a complaint with the court of N' Djaména on March 18th, 2002, against police commissioners, for illegitimate violence, aggravated assault and battery.
CHINA - Arbitrary detention / Ill-treatment
November 6th, 2003 - CHN 002 / 1103 / OBS 060
Two labour activists, Yao Fuxin and Xiao Yunliang, imprisoned since March 2002 as leaders of a mass workers demonstration, were transferred on 8 October, from Jinzhou Prison to the notorious Lingyuan Prison, considered to be one of the most brutal prison in China. The transfer was made despite the extremely poor state of health of both prisoners. Their health has constantly deteriorated since then, in reason, in particular, of their lack of access to appropriate medical care.
CHINA - CHN 001 / 0803 / OBS 041.3
November 7th, 2003 - Arbitrary detention / Sentencing
Mr. Zheng Enchong, a Shanghai lawyer involved in the defence of economic and social rights of displaced persons, was sentenced on October 28th, to three years in prison and deprivation of his political rights for one year, on charges of "illegally providing state secrets to entities outside of China" (article 111 of the Criminal Law of the PRC) by the Shanghai Second Intermediate People's Court. Zheng Enchong was sentenced on the basis of two communications he was accused to have sent to the New-York based NGO, Human Rights in China, which contained information on the repression of some social movements in China. These communications were judged to be “State secrets”.
COLOMBIA - Harassment / Threats
November 27th, 2003 - COL 007 / 1103 / OBS 064
On November 18th, on his return to his office in Bogotá, Dr. Daniel Ernesto Prado Albarracin, lawyer, legal counsellor of the Association of the Families of Detainees and Disappeared (ASFADDES) and a member of the l’Asociación Colombiana de Abogados Defensores Eduardo Umaña Mendoza (ACAEDUM) realized that one glass was broken by an impact of bullet and found the missile on the floor. From this date, Dr. Prado has not received any more threats. Weeks before November 18th, Dr. Prado was followed by an unknown man and he also received strange calls, both at work and at his house.
COLOMBIA - Harassment / Threats
November 28th, 2003 - COL 008 / 1103 / OBS 065
On November 24th, three messages were left in the virtual answerer machine of Mrs. Adriana Cuéllar, journalist responsible for the area of communications of the Corporación Colectivo de Abogados "José Alvear Restrepo", threatened her with death. On November 25th, between 8:15 and 10:00 a.m., unknown individuals broke into the apartment where the journalist lives. Mrs. Cuéllar has denounced immediately these facts to the police of Colseguros.
GEORGIA - Arbitrary detention / Judicial proceedings
November 17th, 2003 - GEO 001 / 1103 / OBS 063
On 5 November, Mr. Giorgi Mshvenieradze, representative of the "Georgian Young Lawyers Association", Kutaisi branch, was sentenced to three months of preliminary detention by the Kobuleti Regional Court, in the Autonomous Republic of Adjara. Mr. Giorgi Mshvenieradze, having status of observer for the parliamentary elections, conducted parallel counting of the votes on November 2nd, in Kobuleti and Dagvi. During his observations, Mr. Mshvenieradze noted serious violations of the election process in the polling station. When he asked the members of the election commission to write down and take note of these violations, he was beaten and arrested by officers of the local prosecutors office.
INDIA - Break in /Threats
November 11th, 2003 - IND 002/1103/OBS 061
On November 5th, a raid was conducted by the police in the premises of People's Watch - Tamil Nadu (PW-TN) at Madurai. Several uniformed policemen and women, without wearing their name badges, made a sudden entry into the PW-TN Office. They stated that they were authorised to search the premises by an order of the Judicial Magistrate, allegedly for harbouring a criminal. They made unwarranted videographic. Mr. Henri Tiphagne, the Executive Director of PW-TN, was personally intimidated and threatened by senior police officials.
IRAN - Detention
28th November 2003 - IRN 004/0012/OBS 125.03
Mr. Nasser Zarafchan's appeal to the Supreme Court was dismissed on November 25, 2003. With this
decision, the Court confirmed M. Zarafchan's five years' imprisonment sentence, which aimed at sanctioning his activity as a lawyer of the families of the Iranian intellectuals murdered by intelligence
services agents in 1998. He is still being held at Evin prison, and could not meet neither his counsel Mrs. Chirin Ebadi, nor Mr. Ligabo, Special Rapporteur of the United Nations on freedom of expression who visited Iran in November 2003.
NIGERIA - Attack / Death Threats
November 14th, 2003 - NGA 001/1103/OBS 062
On October 24th, a raid was conducted by an unidentified armed group in the office of the Consulting Centre for Constitutional Rights and Justice (C3RJ) in Port Harcourt. Mr. Churchill Ibeneche, the Executive Director of the C3RJ and the staff members of the organisation were threatened with death.
The members of the C3RJ decided to evacuate the office, in the presence of Mr. Bishal Khanal, a representative of the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Project Evaluation, with whom a meeting was planned on this day. The armed group came back in order to loot and steel the remaining documents in the office. The matter has been since reported to the Nigeria Police but no one was arrested till now in
connection with this attack.
TUNISIA – Mrs. Radhia Nasraoui in hunger strike
Missions of solidarity – 7 to 10 November and 28 to 30 November 2003
Press release – November 12th, 2003
On November 12th, Mrs. Radhia Nasraoui was hospitalized. The doctors concluded in a big dehydration and important renal problems and prescribed her drips, which she refused, and more pushed exams. Mrs. Nasraoui began a hunger strike on October 13th, in order to protest against the systematic obstacles she has to face in the exercise of her profession of lawyer and the constant harassment among which her, her family and her customers are the object. Mrs Radhia Nasraoui is the target for several years of acts of harassment and aggression because of her activity as a lawyer of political prisoners and as a human rights defender.
The Observatory mandated two missions of solidarity in support of Radhia Nasraoui, from 7 to 10 November and from 28 to 30 November. This last mission was organised jointly with Amnesty International, Avocats Sans Frontières (France and Belgium), the Paris Bar, and the Nanterre Bar.
TUNISIA –Release of Zouhair Yahayaoui
Press release – November 18th, 2003
Zouhair Yahyaoui, the former animator of the Internet site TUNeZINE, who spreads information about public liberties in Tunisia, was arrested on June 4th, 2002, and condemned on June 20th, 2002
in first instance. Then, he made an appeal of the first decision on July 10th, and was condemned in two years of prison for " distribution of false reports ". This release, which stays "conditional ", intervenes paradoxically in a context of escalation of the repression and harassment against human rights defenders in Tunisia.
TUNISIA - Sentence
Mission of judicial observation – November 18th, 2003
Press release – November 19th, 2003
On November 18th, the Observatory mandated a mission of judicial observation to the trial of Mrs. Neziba Rejiba, alias Om Zied, chief editor of the on-line magazine " Kalima " - forbidden by the Tunisian authorities - and founder member of the National council for the liberties in Tunisia ( CNLT). She was condemned on November 18th, in eight months of prison with suspension and in a fine of 1200 Tunisian dinar. Om Zied was pursued for " illegal detention of foreign currencies " based on articles 6, 22, 35, 36 and 37 of the code of the exchanges for having given 170 euro to a close person of a Tunisian political refugee, after his return from France in October.
TURKEY – Legal proceedings
Press Release - November 13th, 2003
The Human Rights Foundation in Turkey (HRFT) faces legal proceedings aiming at its closure through the suspension of its nine leading members. The hearing of November 13th was postponed to January 20th, 2004, on the grounds that information on the first charge of collecting contributions via the Internet was insufficient.
November 2003
CHAD – Impunity in the case Jacqueline Moudeïna
Press release – November 11th, 2003
On November 11th, the Criminal Court of N'Djamena ordered the discharge of three accused persons in the case Jacqueline Moudeïna. During a women's peaceful walking protest against the electoral frauds noticed during the presidential elections of June 2001, the security forces launched grenades on the demonstrators. Mrs. Moudeïna, lawyer of the victims in the case of Hissène Habré in Chad and in Senegal, was seriously hurt and decided, with six other Chadian women, to raise a complaint with the court of N' Djaména on March 18th, 2002, against police commissioners, for illegitimate violence, aggravated assault and battery.
CHINA - Arbitrary detention / Ill-treatment
November 6th, 2003 - CHN 002 / 1103 / OBS 060
Two labour activists, Yao Fuxin and Xiao Yunliang, imprisoned since March 2002 as leaders of a mass workers demonstration, were transferred on 8 October, from Jinzhou Prison to the notorious Lingyuan Prison, considered to be one of the most brutal prison in China. The transfer was made despite the extremely poor state of health of both prisoners. Their health has constantly deteriorated since then, in reason, in particular, of their lack of access to appropriate medical care.
CHINA - CHN 001 / 0803 / OBS 041.3
November 7th, 2003 - Arbitrary detention / Sentencing
Mr. Zheng Enchong, a Shanghai lawyer involved in the defence of economic and social rights of displaced persons, was sentenced on October 28th, to three years in prison and deprivation of his political rights for one year, on charges of "illegally providing state secrets to entities outside of China" (article 111 of the Criminal Law of the PRC) by the Shanghai Second Intermediate People's Court. Zheng Enchong was sentenced on the basis of two communications he was accused to have sent to the New-York based NGO, Human Rights in China, which contained information on the repression of some social movements in China. These communications were judged to be “State secrets”.
COLOMBIA - Harassment / Threats
November 27th, 2003 - COL 007 / 1103 / OBS 064
On November 18th, on his return to his office in Bogotá, Dr. Daniel Ernesto Prado Albarracin, lawyer, legal counsellor of the Association of the Families of Detainees and Disappeared (ASFADDES) and a member of the l’Asociación Colombiana de Abogados Defensores Eduardo Umaña Mendoza (ACAEDUM) realized that one glass was broken by an impact of bullet and found the missile on the floor. From this date, Dr. Prado has not received any more threats. Weeks before November 18th, Dr. Prado was followed by an unknown man and he also received strange calls, both at work and at his house.
COLOMBIA - Harassment / Threats
November 28th, 2003 - COL 008 / 1103 / OBS 065
On November 24th, three messages were left in the virtual answerer machine of Mrs. Adriana Cuéllar, journalist responsible for the area of communications of the Corporación Colectivo de Abogados "José Alvear Restrepo", threatened her with death. On November 25th, between 8:15 and 10:00 a.m., unknown individuals broke into the apartment where the journalist lives. Mrs. Cuéllar has denounced immediately these facts to the police of Colseguros.
GEORGIA - Arbitrary detention / Judicial proceedings
November 17th, 2003 - GEO 001 / 1103 / OBS 063
On 5 November, Mr. Giorgi Mshvenieradze, representative of the "Georgian Young Lawyers Association", Kutaisi branch, was sentenced to three months of preliminary detention by the Kobuleti Regional Court, in the Autonomous Republic of Adjara. Mr. Giorgi Mshvenieradze, having status of observer for the parliamentary elections, conducted parallel counting of the votes on November 2nd, in Kobuleti and Dagvi. During his observations, Mr. Mshvenieradze noted serious violations of the election process in the polling station. When he asked the members of the election commission to write down and take note of these violations, he was beaten and arrested by officers of the local prosecutors office.
INDIA - Break in /Threats
November 11th, 2003 - IND 002/1103/OBS 061
On November 5th, a raid was conducted by the police in the premises of People's Watch - Tamil Nadu (PW-TN) at Madurai. Several uniformed policemen and women, without wearing their name badges, made a sudden entry into the PW-TN Office. They stated that they were authorised to search the premises by an order of the Judicial Magistrate, allegedly for harbouring a criminal. They made unwarranted videographic. Mr. Henri Tiphagne, the Executive Director of PW-TN, was personally intimidated and threatened by senior police officials.
IRAN - Detention
28th November 2003 - IRN 004/0012/OBS 125.03
Mr. Nasser Zarafchan's appeal to the Supreme Court was dismissed on November 25, 2003. With this
decision, the Court confirmed M. Zarafchan's five years' imprisonment sentence, which aimed at sanctioning his activity as a lawyer of the families of the Iranian intellectuals murdered by intelligence
services agents in 1998. He is still being held at Evin prison, and could not meet neither his counsel Mrs. Chirin Ebadi, nor Mr. Ligabo, Special Rapporteur of the United Nations on freedom of expression who visited Iran in November 2003.
NIGERIA - Attack / Death Threats
November 14th, 2003 - NGA 001/1103/OBS 062
On October 24th, a raid was conducted by an unidentified armed group in the office of the Consulting Centre for Constitutional Rights and Justice (C3RJ) in Port Harcourt. Mr. Churchill Ibeneche, the Executive Director of the C3RJ and the staff members of the organisation were threatened with death.
The members of the C3RJ decided to evacuate the office, in the presence of Mr. Bishal Khanal, a representative of the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Project Evaluation, with whom a meeting was planned on this day. The armed group came back in order to loot and steel the remaining documents in the office. The matter has been since reported to the Nigeria Police but no one was arrested till now in
connection with this attack.
TUNISIA – Mrs. Radhia Nasraoui in hunger strike
Missions of solidarity – 7 to 10 November and 28 to 30 November 2003
Press release – November 12th, 2003
On November 12th, Mrs. Radhia Nasraoui was hospitalized. The doctors concluded in a big dehydration and important renal problems and prescribed her drips, which she refused, and more pushed exams. Mrs. Nasraoui began a hunger strike on October 13th, in order to protest against the systematic obstacles she has to face in the exercise of her profession of lawyer and the constant harassment among which her, her family and her customers are the object. Mrs Radhia Nasraoui is the target for several years of acts of harassment and aggression because of her activity as a lawyer of political prisoners and as a human rights defender.
The Observatory mandated two missions of solidarity in support of Radhia Nasraoui, from 7 to 10 November and from 28 to 30 November. This last mission was organised jointly with Amnesty International, Avocats Sans Frontières (France and Belgium), the Paris Bar, and the Nanterre Bar.
TUNISIA –Release of Zouhair Yahayaoui
Press release – November 18th, 2003
Zouhair Yahyaoui, the former animator of the Internet site TUNeZINE, who spreads information about public liberties in Tunisia, was arrested on June 4th, 2002, and condemned on June 20th, 2002
in first instance. Then, he made an appeal of the first decision on July 10th, and was condemned in two years of prison for " distribution of false reports ". This release, which stays "conditional ", intervenes paradoxically in a context of escalation of the repression and harassment against human rights defenders in Tunisia.
TUNISIA - Sentence
Mission of judicial observation – November 18th, 2003
Press release – November 19th, 2003
On November 18th, the Observatory mandated a mission of judicial observation to the trial of Mrs. Neziba Rejiba, alias Om Zied, chief editor of the on-line magazine " Kalima " - forbidden by the Tunisian authorities - and founder member of the National council for the liberties in Tunisia ( CNLT). She was condemned on November 18th, in eight months of prison with suspension and in a fine of 1200 Tunisian dinar. Om Zied was pursued for " illegal detention of foreign currencies " based on articles 6, 22, 35, 36 and 37 of the code of the exchanges for having given 170 euro to a close person of a Tunisian political refugee, after his return from France in October.
TURKEY – Legal proceedings
Press Release - November 13th, 2003
The Human Rights Foundation in Turkey (HRFT) faces legal proceedings aiming at its closure through the suspension of its nine leading members. The hearing of November 13th was postponed to January 20th, 2004, on the grounds that information on the first charge of collecting contributions via the Internet was insufficient.