group 48 newsletter - january 2013

Amnesty International USA Group 48

Newsletter01.13

2 Amnesty International Condemns Guantanamo Transfer Restrictions in the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act

3 Historic ruling on European country’s involvement in US-led rendition program

6 JORDAN: Urgent Action - Heath Concern, Conscientious Objector, Demand Medical Treatment For Protester

8 CHINA: Urgent Action - Pris-oner of conscience, Risk of torture/ ill-treatment, Legal concern

9 China: Uighur writer’s death in prison would be bitter blow

10 TAIWAN: Urgent Action - Imminent execution, Death penalty, Legal issues

12 SUDAN: Urgent Action - Death penalty, Prisoner of Conscience, Risk of torture/ ill-treatment

13 Argentina: Military-era sen-tences another historic step towards justice

Kenya’s decision to confine refugees and asylum-seekers in camps is unlawfulDecember 20, 2012

Kenya’s decision to place refugees and asylum seekers in camps away from urban centres is a discriminatory and unlawful restriction on freedom of movement, Amnesty International said.

“This restriction on freedom of move-ment is likely to lead to other serious human rights abuses in already over-crowded, insecure refugee camps,” said Kathryn Achilles, Amnesty Internation-al’s East Africa expert.

Thousands of refugees and asylum-seek-ers from Somalia living in urban centres including the capital, Nairobi, will be required to move to the Dadaab refugee camp complex in north-eastern Kenya, while those from other countries will be required to move to the Kakuma camp. The Dadaab complex in particular is already extremely overcrowded, even without the additional influx of refugees required to move from urban areas.

Overcrowding has placed a strain on the provision of essential services to asylum-seekers and refugees, including access to shelter, water and sanitation.

“The government cannot simply scape-goat refugees and asylum-seekers en masse for security incidents. North eastern Kenya has suffered from recent insecurity, including attacks against people living in the Dadaab camps, and others living and working in the area. Targeting entire groups of people and blaming them in this way is unaccept-able. It is not, and never can be, an ap-propriate response to security concerns.”

Amnesty International is calling on the Kenyan government to rescind the directive and it urged the authorities to resume registration and service provi-sion in urban areas, as well as to those living in camps.

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AIUSA-Group 48http://aipdx.org | 503-227-1878Next Meeting: January 11thFirst Unitarian Church1011 SW 12th Ave7:00pm informal gathering7:30pm meeting starts

AIUSA group 48 Newsletter January 2013 Pg 2

The move comes after weeks of discriminatory or arbitrary arrests of ethnic Somalis, particularly in the Eastleigh area of Nairobi, in the wake of grenade and other bomb attacks.Hun-dreds of people have been arrested, with most subsequently released without charge. There were also numerous reports of harassment, ill-treatment and extortion by security forces, which Amnesty International called upon the government to investigate.

More than 500,000 Somali nationals are registered in Kenya as refugees, and they make up the vast majority of refugees and asylum-seekers there.

As a signatory to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention and the 1969 OAU Refugee Convention, Kenya is under an obligation to protect those seeking asylum on their territory .

Amnesty International acknowledges the responsibility Kenya has shouldered in hosting refugees, particularly those from Somalia, but the answer is not simply to force people to move to camps, or to restrict their freedom of movement.Kenya must live up to its obligations under international law, and must have the support of the international community to do so, including through increased funding and resettlement programs.

Amnesty International Condemns Guantanamo Transfer Restrictions in the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act Bill Further Entrenches Indefinite Detention and Unfair Trials at GuantanamoWashington, D.C.

AIUSA. “Solutions for ending human rights violations, not excuses, must be found.”

Section 1027 of the 2013 NDAA bans the use of appropriated funds for the transfer of Guantanamo detainees to the main-land U.S., even for trial.

Section 1028 of the new law continues onerous conditions on, but does not preclude, the transfer of detainees to other coun-tries. President Obama has the ability under Section 1028 to resolve a number of cases. One example is Shaker Aamer, a former UK resident who has been held at Guantanamo for ten years without charge.

“The UK government has asked for Aamer’s return, and he should either be charged and tried or promptly released to the UK,” Jannuzi continued. “Resolving the case of Shaker Aamer, not tomorrow, but today, would be a small but sym-bolic step demonstrating that the President has not aban-doned his promise to close Guantanamo.”

On a positive note, the 2013 NDAA includes the Afghan Women and Girl’s Security Promotion Act. The amendment was introduced by Senators Robert Casey (D-PA) and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) based on recommendations from Amnesty International USA and Afghan women’s organiza-tions.

Amnesty International USA condemned the restrictions on the transfer of Guantanamo detainees in the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), signed into law yester-day by President Obama.

The law continues for one more year a ban on appropriated funds to transfer Guantanamo detainees to the mainland United States, even for trial. It also continues onerous condi-tions on the transfer of detainees to other countries.

“This law makes it harder for the President to fulfill his prom-ise to close the Guantanamo detention facility, perpetuating a grave injustice against the detainees held without charge or fair trial,” said Frank Jannuzi, Deputy Executive Director of

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Historic ruling on European country’s involvement in US-led rendition programDecember 17, 2012

The judgment affirms without doubt that in Europe at least there can be no impunity for the grave human rights viola-tions that the covert US-led programs entailed. Europe must be a place of redress, accountability and truth, where inter-national human rights law obligations are not bypassed but fulfilled. In the light of this, the Grand Chamber’s judgment highlights the total absence of accountability and remedy in the USA in relation to the CIA’s rendition and secret deten-tion programs operated during the administration of Presi-dent George W. Bush.

Khaled El-Masri, a German national of Lebanese descent, was arrested by the Macedonian authorities after he crossed into the country from Serbia on 31 December 2003.

They held him incommunicado in a hotel in Skopje, subject-ing him to enforced disappearance, repeated interrogations and to ill-treatment, until 23 January 2004 when they handed him over to CIA agents at Skopje airport.

At Skopje airport CIA agents beat him severely, before he was stripped, sodomized with an object, shackled and hooded, then thrown onto a plane, tranquillized and transferred to Af-ghanistan. The Court underlined that Macedonia was directly responsible for the torture inflicted on El-Masri at Skopje air-port by CIA agents because Macedonian officials were present and failed to do anything to stop the torture.

He was then taken to Afghanistan where he was illegally held, without being charged with any crime and without access to any procedure to challenge his detention. Further, he was denied access to a lawyer. His whereabouts were not acknowl-edged, and he was held incommunicado. As a result he was subjected to enforced disappearance for over four months. While in Afghanistan, he alleged he was subjected to torture and other ill-treatment.

In the ruling, the Court held Macedonia responsible for ac-tively facilitating the CIA in the violations perpetrated against Khaled El-Masri. Noting that “a person should not be treated in a way that causes a loss of dignity”, the Court also found that Macedonia had violated El-Masri’s right to privacy and family life.

On 13 December 13th, 2012, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights for the first time held a European state responsible for its complicity in the covert US-led rendition and secret detention programs giving judgment in a case concerning the detention and rendition of German national Khaled El-Masri. Amnesty International and the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) consider the ruling a milestone in the fight against impunity.

The European Court held unanimously that the former Yugo-slav Republic of Macedonia (Macedonia) was responsible for Khaled El-Masri’s unlawful detention, enforced disappearance, torture and other ill-treatment.

The Court also held Macedonia responsible for his transfer out of Macedonia to Afghanistan where he faced torture, with Macedonia being directly responsible for his enforced disap-pearance in Afghanistan at the hands of the CIA.

This judgment recognized that the CIA rendition and secret detention programs involved torture and enforced disappear-ances and confirmed Macedonia’s role in these programs. The Court’s judgment is a step toward accountability for European involvement in torture and enforced disappearance and will have ramifications beyond this immediate case, especially as it highlights the principle that both victims and the public have the right to know the truth about these serious violations.

Macedonia is not the only government to have been directly involved and/or complicit in these US-led operations. Many other European governments colluded with the USA to abduct, unlawfully transfer, “disappear” and torture people in the course of rendition operations. While Amnesty In-ternational and the ICJ believe that this historic judgment represents progress, much more needs to be done to ensure accountability for these violations of human rights, across Europe and in the USA.

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In its judgment the European Court also confirmed, in line with the joint submissions made by Amnesty International and the ICJ, that Macedonia was responsible for multiple egregious violations of Khaled El-Masri’s human rights as a consequence of transferring him to CIA custody in the knowledge that he would face a real risk of torture and other ill-treatment and enforced disappearance. The Court held that Macedonia knew or ought to have known of such a risk, citing a number of contemporary reports by Amnesty International, as well as the inquiries of Senator Marty for the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and other reports describing US interrogation methods and practices that “are manifestly contrary to the principles” of the Euro-pean Convention on Human Rights.

Separately, Macedonia was also directly responsible for his enforced disappearance at the hands of the CIA in Afghani-stan between January and May 2004 following his transfer out of Macedonia. The Court underlined that Khaled El-Masri’s enforced disappearance was a continuing violation “charac-terized by an ongoing situation of uncertainty and unaccount-ability” that persisted for the length of his captivity.

That was because the Macedonian authorities handed him over to US agents even though “it should have been clear to the Macedonian authorities” that El-Masri faced “a real risk of a flagrant violation” of his right to liberty. The Macedonian authorities knew or ought to have known that the USA was engaged in arbitrary and secret detentions in the pursuit of counterterrorism operations. The Court recognized that these operations involved “extraordinary rendition”, that is, detention “‘outside the normal legal system’ and which, ‘by its deliberate circumvention of due process, is anathema to the rule of law and the values protected by the Convention’”.

These findings have an important bearing on the account-ability of other European states for their collusion in the rendition and secret detention programs. Other states may be considered to have had similar knowledge of the rendition program at that time – as the Court noted the material cited in the judgment “was in the public domain” before El-Masri’s transfer to the CIA in January 2004.

The Court also highlighted the failure of the Macedonian government to undertake an effective investigation into its involvement in Khaled El-Masri’s case and to provide him with effective redress.

In Macedonia, a request by Khaled El-Masri to launch a criminal investigation into his treatment was not pursued. The Court said that the “summary investigation” carried out by the Macedonian authorities could not be regarded as effec-tive. In this context, the Court emphasized how the inad-equate investigation by the Macedonian authorities deprived Khaled El-Masri of his right to being informed and obtaining an accurate account of what had happened to him, including the role of those responsible for the violations of his rights. As such, the failings of the Macedonian investigation violated El-Masri’s right to the truth.

In the light of those failures, the Court held that Macedonia had violated Khaled El-Masri’s right to a remedy and to the truth and Macedonia’s procedural obligation to investigate allegations of torture and enforced disappearance.

Amnesty International and the ICJ have documented and highlighted how most implicated European governments have hidden behind the shield of ‘state secrecy’ and have refused to disclose the truth about their involvement in the CIA operations. The Court also confirmed these findings in its judgment in this case. As both organizations have pointed out, torture and enforced disappearance are not state secrets, they are crimes under international law.

Amnesty International and the ICJ have urged other Euro-pean governments to take note of this historic judgment and take urgent measures to ensure that the truth is told, that thorough, effective, independent and impartial investigations are carried out and those responsible are held accountable.

Macedonia is not the only state to have failed to investigate serious allegations regarding the case of Khaled El-Masri. A flawed German parliamentary inquiry that lacked the full cooperation of the German government concluded in July 2009 that neither the German government nor its agents were involved in the human rights violations perpetrated against Khaled El-Masri. Amnesty International has called on the German authorities to re-open an investigation into its pos-sible role in Khaled El-Masri’s rendition.

Macedonia’s and Germany’s failures are but two instances in a broader pattern of systematic individual and collective failures by many European states to ensure accountability for their involvement in the rendition and secret detention pro-grams, as highlighted in the report of the ICJ’s Eminent Jurist »


Panel Assessing Damage, Urging Action. For example, Am-nesty International has also documented credible evidence that Poland, Lithuania, and Romania hosted secret detention centers run by the CIA. The reports of Senator Marty for the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe also pro-vide detailed information on the operation of the renditions and secret detention programs in Europe.

In this connection, further cases are pending before the European Court of Human Rights. Abu Zubaydah and ‘Abd al Rahim al-Nashiri, both currently detained at the US naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, have lodged complaints with the European Court.

The Court is due shortly to hear the cases of al-Nashiri against Poland and Romania, while the case of Abu Zubaydah against Lithuania has been lodged and Lithuania has been informed of the case.

Despite the existence of credible allegations, and states’ obli-gations under international human rights law, European states have failed to carry out prompt, thorough, effective, indepen-dent and impartial investigations into their involvement in the US-led rendition and secret detention programs.

Isolated attempts at prosecuting such complicity have oc-curred in some Council of Europe Member States, but have generally been shrouded in secrecy and failed to achieve proper accountability and the truth about what happened.

A recent exception to this occurred in Italy where in Septem-ber 2012 the Court of Cassation upheld the convictions of CIA and some Italian intelligence operatives in connection with the kidnapping of Abu Omar, albeit in absentia for the CIA agents, which was partly a result of the broader failure of the Italian government to cooperate with the judicial inves-tigations. Furthermore, the Court of Cassation ordered the retrial of high-level Italian intelligence officials against whom the cases had previously been dismissed on the basis of the secret of state doctrine, which the Court held had been mis-applied by the lower courts.

Accountability has also been notable only by its absence in the USA. A lawsuit against the CIA brought by Khaled El-Masri was dismissed by the US federal courts after the administration invoked the “state secrets privilege”. The Eu-

ropean Court noted this outcome, and also that “the concept of ‘State secrets’ has often been invoked to obstruct the search for truth”. Courts in the USA have consistently refused to hear the merits of lawsuits seeking redress for human rights violations committed in this context, citing national security, secrecy and various forms of immunity under US law.

Both the administration of President George W. Bush and that of President Barack Obama have argued for judicial dismissal of such lawsuits, while at the same time failing to ensure other routes to accountability and remedy.

The operational details of and particular practices employed in the past detention, rendition and interrogation activi-ties of the CIA remain generally classified ‘Top Secret’ and exempted from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act. Criminal investigations into the CIA secret detention and interrogation program have been shut down by the US Department of Justice. Khaled El-Masri’s case against the USA is currently pending before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

The US authorities should now take note of the European Court’s findings, including that Khaled El-Masri was subject-ed to torture by the CIA rendition team at Skopje airport and to enforced disappearance for the duration of his detention in US custody.

Please join us in our First Annual Oregon Abolition Gathering as we discuss Oregon’s death penalty, recent developments, goals for abolition in 2013, and how to become more involved. This is an opportunity to meet fellow abolitionists in the Portland area and get updated on some of the big developments here in Oregon. What: Annual Oregon Abolition Gathering Where: SW Portland (Exact address TBA) When: January 26th from 5pm - 8pm How: RSVP to Lauren Zielinski at [email protected]

*Refreshments will be provided

Annual Oregon Abolition Gathering to be Held in January By Lauren Zielinski


JORDAN: Urgent Action - Heath Concern, Conscientious Objector, Demand Medical Treatment For Protester

Some 300 people were arrested following widespread protests against the proposed fuel subsidy cuts. Many were held solely for participation in peaceful protests. Dozens were beaten at the protests and in police detention, and were denied im-mediate access to legal representation, relatives and medical treatment as required. As of December 13th, 47 people were still held, despite a Royal Decree ordering the release of all but 13 of them. It appears that charges against those released have not been dropped. They were charged with offenses under articles of the Penal Code prohibiting individuals from

“engag[ing] in… activity… to destroy the political system … or encouraging resistance” carrying a sentence of up to 15 years (Article 149) or prohibiting gatherings aimed at “disrupting public order”. They face trial by the SSC whose proceedings fall far short of international standards of fair trial.

Additional Information Widespread protests took place in November throughout Jordan particularly in Amman, Zarqa, Irbid, Salt, Tafileh and Ma’an in connection with the government’s announcement to cut fuel subsidies. The authorities say they arrested people for carrying out criminal offenses during demonstrations includ-ing damaging and destroying private and public property and calling for “regime change”. While individuals at some demonstrations apparently carried out violent acts, which in some instances resulted in damage or destruction of private and public buildings, Jordanian activists and lawyers say that security forces, some in plain clothes violently dispersed many peaceful demonstrations, firing tear gas and beating protesters. One civilian and two police officers were killed in the context of the protests.

According to the NCHR, the Public Security Directorate (PSD) has acknowledged that 50 children were arrested in connection with the protests, 12 of whom appeared before the SSC prosecutor and were released on bail days after their ar-rests. One lawyer told Amnesty International that at least nine children, released on November 19th, 2012, reportedly made statements to the police without the presence of a lawyer, parent or other appropriate adult. Cases of detainees being denied adequate medical treatment include Mahdi al-Saafin, a

A Jordanian man, detained after peacefully protesting against fuel subsidy cuts, is being denied specialized medical care he urgently needs. His family says that he lost the sight in his left eye after an injury sustained during the protest.

Adnan al-Howeish participated peacefully in a demonstration against a government decision to cut fuel price subsidies, in Zeiban, northern Jordan on November 16th. He suffered a serious injury to his left eye resulting in a cut in the center of the eye with the eyeball protruding from the socket after he was hit with a stone during the protest. Witnesses claimed that masked government supporters threw stones at the protestors. Adnan al-Howeish was placed in police custody on November 17th at al-Bashir hospital, Amman, where he was handcuffed to the hospital bed. Following an appeal by the official National Centre for Human Rights (NCHR) he was allowed surgery on November 18th, to repair the cut and restore the eyeball to its original position. His doctor recom-mended treatment for his eye injury in a center specializing in eye injuries.

On November 21st, the police transferred him to a cell in a State Security Court (SSC) building, and his detention was extended by 14 days for questioning on November 22nd. He was then taken to al-Balqa’ prison in Salt, where prison authorities only agreed to admit him after police apparently obtained another medical report from the Salt Government Hospital saying he was fit for detention. He is now in Rame-meen prison in al-Barqa’a. His family’s requests for him to see eye specialists for urgent treatment appear to have gone unheeded.

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pro-reform activist who went on hunger strike on November 28th in protest at his detention and was consequently placed in solitary confinement in al-Hashimiyeh prison, south east of Amman. An independent doctor who visited him on December 10th confirmed Mahdi al-Saafin’s complaint that a prison doctor withheld salt from him for several days. He had also complained that he was denied water for two days. He was arrested on November 16th from a peaceful protest in Jabal al-Hussein Square, Amman by plain clothes police. He and many protesters were taken in a police van to the Central Amman Public Security Directorate during which time they were kicked, hit and whipped with cables while their hands were tied behind their backs and they were forced to hold their ID cards in their mouths. The protesters were beaten for the first three days of their detention and denied access to lawyers and relatives.

Amnesty International acknowledges the government’s responsibility to protect public safety, including by arresting and trying in fair proceedings individuals reasonably sus-pected of acts of violence or destruction of property. However, they must do so in a way which ensures the full respect to life, liberty and security. Jordan has an obligation to uphold the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. Peace-ful criticism of the government, including calls to change the system of government by peaceful means expressed during peaceful gatherings or demonstrations are forms of expres-sion protected by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Jordan is a state party. The government’s apparent use of Article 149 of the Penal Code in order to criminalize – at least in some cases - peaceful politi-cal dissent and to silence political opponents and critics of government policy is incompatible with its obligations under international human rights law.

A worrying pattern has emerged over almost two years in Jordan. During 2012 alone hundreds have been arrested and faced criminal charges and unfair trial before the SSC for par-ticipating in peaceful protests calling for prompt and effective implementation of political and economic reforms. Dozens arrested this year for peaceful protess have been released under instructions from the king weeks later.

Action Please write immediately in Arabic, English or your own language:

◌ Calling for Adnan al-Howeish to promptly be given all necessary specialized medical treatment in a civilian hospital, and not to be subjected to cruel or inhuman treatment;

◌ Calling for him and others held solely for peacefully exer-cising their right to protest to be to be released immediately and unconditionally.

Appeals ToPLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE JANUARY 24th, 2013 TO: Minister of Interior His Excellency Awad Khleifat Ministry of Interior PO Box 100 Amman HASHEMITE KINGDOM OF JORDAN Fax: 011 962 6 560 6908 Email: [email protected] Salutation: Your Excellency

Minister of Justice His Excellency Ghaleb Zu’bi Ministry of Justice PO Box 6040 Amman HASHEMITE KINGDOM OF JORDAN Fax: 011 962 6 464 3197 Salutation: Your Excellency

Copies to Minister of Foreign Affairs His Excellency Nasser Judeh Ministry of Foreign Affairs PO Box 35217 Amman HASHEMITE KINGDOM OF JORDAN Fax: 011 962 6 573 5163 Email: [email protected]

Ambassador Alia Hatough Bouran Embassy of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, 3504 International Dr. NW, Washington DC 20008 Tel: 1 202 966 2664 | Fax: 1 202 966 3110 | Email: HKJEmbassyDC@jordanembassyus


CHINA: Urgent Action - Prisoner of conscience, Risk of torture/ ill-treatment, Le-gal concern - Falun Gong Woman Risks Extended Term In Labor CampLi Shanshan (f), Zhou Xiangyang (m)

2011 the Tangshan City Public Security Bureau confirmed to Li Shanshan’s mother and lawyer that she had been assigned to two years’ RTL. Her husband, other family members, and lawyers have been repeatedly refused access to her. On July 12th, after numerous attempts to see her, Li Shanshan’s father was finally permitted to visit her. During the visit she in-formed him that RTL camp officials had threatened to extend her RTL term as a punishment for refusing to denounce Falun Gong. She also informed him that she was being forced to carry out hard labor.

Additional Information Falun Gong is a spiritual movement which gained large num-bers of supporters in China during the 1990s. After it staged a peaceful gathering in Tiananmen Square in July 1999, the government outlawed the group and launched a long-term campaign of intimidation and persecution, directed by a special organization called the 610 Office. Tens of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners have been arbitrarily detained as a “threat to social and political stability” since the spiritual movement was banned. Practitioners have been held in psy-chiatric hospitals, re-education through labor (RTL) facilities

- a form of administrative detention imposed without charge, trial or judicial review - sentenced to long prison terms, and been held in specialized detention centers whose mission is to “transform” Falun Gong practitioners, a process through which they are coerced into renouncing their spiritual beliefs, often through the use of torture and other ill-treatment. Tor-ture and other ill-treatment are endemic in all forms of detention, despite China’s ratification of the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment in 1988. Falun Gong sources have documented numerous deaths in custody of Falun Gong practitioners, believed to have been caused by torture and other ill-treatment.

Action Please write immediately in Chinese or your own language:

◌ Calling for the immediate and unconditional release of Li

Falun Gong practitioner Li Shanshan who is held in a re-education through labor (RTL) camp in northern China, is being threatened with an extended sentence for refusing to renounce her faith. She is at risk of torture and other ill-treatment. Li Shanshan, who is currently held in the Shiji-azhuang City Women’s RTL camp, has been threatened with an extension of her two-year RTL assignment for refusing to renounce her faith. She was detained on October 29th, 2011 in Tangshan, Hebei Province following her campaigning for the release of her husband, Zhou Xiangyang. Zhou Xiangyang spent six years in prison before his release in 2009 on medical parole after months of hunger strike. He was then sent back to prison on March 5th, 2011 before being released on April 1st, 2012. From January 2006, Li Shanshan spent 15 months in RTL. This was punishment for her persistent campaigning on behalf of her husband. On June 26th, 2011 Li Shanshan posted on overseas websites an open letter entitled “A Young Couple’s Hardship: Waiting Seven Years, Nine Years of Unjust Imprisonment”. She described the letter as a “love story” that recounted the hardships the couple experienced as they waited seven years to be able to marry, which they did after Zhou Xiangyang’s release from prison in 2009, only for him to be rearrested in March 2011. After her detention in October 2011 Li Shanshan was initially held at the Fengrun Legal Edu-cation Centre, a type of facility designated especially for the

“transformation” of Falun Gong practitioners. This is a process that often uses torture and other ill-treatment with the aim to force them to renounce their beliefs. On November 10th,

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Shanshan, who is a prisoner of conscience as she has been de-tained solely on the basis of exercising her rights to freedom of thought, conscience and belief.

◌ Calling on the authorities to guarantee that, for so long as she remains in detention she is treated humanely, not tor-tured or otherwise ill-treated, and not subjected to any pres-sure to renounce her beliefs.

◌ Calling on the authorities to allow Li Shanshan’s family and lawyer to visit her in detention.

Appeals to PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE JANUARY 24th, 2013 TO: Governor of Hebei Province Zhang Qinqwei, Shengzhang Weiming jie 122 Shijiazhuang City Qiaoxi Hebei Province 050051 PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA Fax: 011 86-311-87026092 Salutation: Dear Governor

Mayor of Shijiazhuang City Jiang Deguo

Zhong Shandong lu 216 Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA Tel: 011 86-311-86688211, 011 86-311-86033528 (Chinese only) Salutation: Dear Mayor

Copies to Director of Shijiazhuang City Women's RTL Camp Zhou Zhanquan Suozhang Shijiazhuang nuzi laojiaosuo Shitonglu Shijiazhuangshi, Hebeisheng 050222 PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA Tel: 011 86-0311-8393-9188 (Chinese only)

Ambassador Zhang Yesui Embassy of the People’s Republic of China 3505 International Place NW, Washington, DC 20008 Tel: 202 495-2266 Fax: 202 495-2138 Email: [email protected]

Please check with your section office if sending appeals after the above date.

China: Uighur writer’s death in prison would be bitter blowPacific. Amnesty International is calling on the Chinese au-thorities to confirm or deny the reports of Yasin’s death. Yasinwas imprisoned for “inciting splittism” on the basis of his story, ‘Wild Pigeon’. The story is a first-person narrative of a young pigeon, the son of a pigeon king, who becomes trapped by humans and commits suicide rather than live in captivity. “Now, finally, I can die free,” the narrator says in the story. “I feel as if my soul is on fire – soaring and free.” Little is known about the writer’s death, but he is believed to have been suffering ill-health while behind bars, and conditions in Shaya prison are known to be harsh. High profile dissident Gao Zhisheng, a human rights lawyer, is being held in the same prison. Yasin was arrested in 2004 after the publica-tion of ‘Wild Pigeon’ in a Kashgar literary journal, and was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment following an unfair trial. He was one of the few prisoners in China visited by the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture in 2005. A prolific author

January 2, 2013 - The reported death of a celebrated Uighur writer in a Chinese prison, if confirmed, would be an indict-ment on freedom of expression, and expose harsh prison conditions in China, Amnesty International said today. Al-though author Nurmemet Yasin’s death was reported only a few days ago, he apparently died sometime in 2011 in Shaya prison in western China’s Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. “Nurmemet Yasin should never have been impris-oned in the first place, and if confirmed, the death of this young writer in prison would be a shameful indictment of the Chinese government’s notion of justice,” said Catherine Baber, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Asia

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and poet, Yasin was an honorary member of English, Ameri-can and Independent Chinese PEN. He published three vol-umes of poetry: First Love, Crying from the Heart and Come on, Children, and his writing is included in Uighur-language

school textbooks. “The Chinese authorities should realise that consigning peaceful writers to a slow death in prison will never destroy their writing, or tame the urge to freedom that their writing inspires,” said Baber.

TAIWAN: Urgent Action - Imminent execution, Death penalty, Legal issuesCheng Hsing-tse (m)

the crime scene intact by moving the guns and the court has never sought ballistic or forensic analysis.

Taiwan provides no procedures that would allow people on death row to seek a pardon or for the sentence to be com-muted – a right recognized by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which the Taiwanese parliament has voted to implement.

Cheng Hsing-tse has been in custody for more than ten years and he is currently being detained in the Taichung Detention Center.

Additional Information Taiwan has not carried out any executions this year and 61 people remain on death row. Five people were executed in 2011. Family members are not informed about scheduled

Cheng Hsing-tse is facing imminent execution in Taiwan after the Prosecutor General rejected a request on December 11th to seek an extraordinary appeal. The Minister of Justice could sign an execution order at any moment.

Cheng Hsing-tse was arrested on January 5th, 2002 and accused of killing a police officer during a gunfight. He was sentenced to death for murder by the Taichung District Court on November 18th, 2002. The case bounced back and forth between the High Court and the Supreme Court for appeals and retrials; however Cheng Hsing-tse’s death sentence was finalized on May 25th, 2006. His lawyers have since applied for extraordinary appeals but the requests have been rejected each time by the Prosecutor General.

Cheng Hsing-tse first retracted his confession, allegedly extracted by the police through torture, on January 6th, 2002 and again on January 22nd, 2002. He continued to retract his confessions in court proceedings. There have been no investi-gations into the torture allegations so far.

Cheng Hsing-tse’s lawyers have also argued that there were irregularities in the investigation. For example, four guns were obtained from the crime scene but Cheng’s fingerprints were not found on any of them. The police also failed to keep

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executions in advance and they learn about them afterwards, when they are invited to collect the bodies from the mortuary.

Since 2000, the government of Taiwan has repeatedly pledged to abolish the death penalty. However, on April 30th, 2010 they resumed the implementation of the death penalty for the first time since 2005 by executing four people.

The current government agreed to implement the UN In-ternational Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in 2009, and reaffirmed its intention to eventually abolish the death penalty.

Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception, regardless of the nature or circumstances of the crime; guilt, innocence or other characteristics of the individual; or the method used by the state to carry out the execution. International law and standards on the use of the death penalty require that in all capital cases rigorous compli-ance with international standards for fair trial, at least equal to those contained in Article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, are observed. These include: the right to be tried before an independent, impartial and competent tribunal; the right to competent defense counsel at every stage of the proceedings; the right to adequate time and facilities to prepare one’s defense; the right to be presumed innocent until guilt has been proved beyond a reasonable doubt; the right to appeal to a higher court; the right not to be compelled to testify against himself or herself or to confess guilt; the right to seek pardon and commutation of sentence.

Action Please write immediately in English or your own language:

◌ Urging the authorities not to sign an execution order for Cheng Hsing-tse or any other prisoner;

◌ Urging the authorities to introduce a legal procedure for requesting clemency;

◌ Urging the authorities to establish an immediate mora-torium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty, in line with UN General Assembly resolutions 62/149 of December 18th, 2007, 63/168 of December 18th, 2008 and 65/206 of December 26th, 2010;

◌ Urging the authorities to commute all death sentences to terms of imprisonment.

Appeals to PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE JANUARY 25th, 2013 TO: Minister of Justice Minister Tseng Yung-fu No.130, Sec.1, Chongqing S. Road Taipei City 10048 TAIWAN Fax: 011 886 2 23319102 Email: [email protected] Salutation: Dear Minister

President Ma Ying-jeou Office of the President No. 122, Sec. 1, Chongqing S. Rd. Zhongzheng Dist. Taipei City 100 TAIWAN Fax: 011 886 2 23832941 Salutation: Your Excellency

Copies to Cheng Hsing-tse Taichung Detention Center No.11, Peide Road Nantun District Taichung City 408

Within the United States $0.31 - Postcards $0.45 - Letters and Cards up to 1 oz.

To Canada $0.80 - Postcards $0.80 - Airmail Letters and Cards up to 1 oz.

To Mexico $0.84 - Postcards $0.84 - Airmail Letters and Cards up to 1 oz.

To all other destination countries $1.05 - Postcards $1.05 - Airmail Letters and Cards up to 1 oz.

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TAIWAN Salutation: Dear Cheng Hsing-tse

Representative Jason C. Yuan Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States 4201 Wisconsin Ave. NW

Washington, DC 20016 Tel: 1 202 895 1800 Fax: 1 202 495-2138 Email: [email protected]

Please check with your section office if sending appeals after the above date.

SUDAN: Urgent Action - Death penalty, Prisoner of Conscience, Risk of torture/ ill-treatment Jalila Khamis Koko (f)

was banned by the Government of Sudan in September 2011. She is a member of the Nuba ethnic group from Southern Kordofan. The detention of Jalila Khamis Koko appears to be part of a pattern of detention of SPLM-N activists and intel-lectuals, as well as of people of Nuba descent.

Amnesty International considers Jalila Khamis Koko to be a prisoner of conscience, held solely for her humanitarian work and for the peaceful expression of her views.

Additional Information: In June 2011, conflict broke out in the state of Southern Kordofan between government forces and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army – North, the military wing of the SPLM-N. Fighting expanded to the state of Blue Nile in September 2011. Indiscriminate aerial bombardments by the Sudanese Armed Forces on SPLM-N controlled areas, coupled with the block-ing of humanitarian assistance to the conflict-affected areas since the conflict began, has led to deaths and injuries of civil-ians, looting and destruction of property, tens of thousands of people driven from their homes, and over 200,000 refugees in Ethiopia and South Sudan.

The Sudanese authorities have arrested numerous real or per-ceived SPLM-N activists across the country since the conflict began in Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile. Many have been detained on the basis of their ethnicity, often without charge, and without access to lawyers or their families.

Before she was arrested, Jalila Khamis Koko had been volun-teering to provide humanitarian support to people who had fled their homes in Southern Kordofan. In June 2011, she appeared in a Youtube video in which she denounced the conditions in conflict-affected areas of Southern Kordofan and called for a ceasefire.

On December 13th, Sudanese teacher and activist Jalila Khamis Koko was officially charged on five criminal counts. She faces the death penalty. The charges come after Jalila has been detained, without charge, for over nine months.

Jalila Khamis Koko was formally charged with five criminal counts on December 13th. Two charges fall under the cat-egory of crimes against the state, and carry the death penalty, in accordance with Sudan’s 1991 Criminal Code: “undermin-ing the constitutional system” (article 50) and “waging war against the state” (article 51). The other charges are: “partici-pation in the execution of a criminal conspiracy” (article 21),

“exciting hatred against sects or between them” (article 64) and “publication of false news” (article 66). Her next court date is scheduled for December 18th.

Shortly after being charged, she was transferred to the Khar-toum north courts. Jalila Khamis Koko had previously been held in prolonged administrative detention under the author-ity of the prosecutor in charge of crimes against the state. She was arrested on March 15th, 2012, and spent the first three months in solitary confinement in the National Security Service (NSS) detention center. During this time, her physical health has considerably deteriorated.

Jalila Khamis Koko is a member of the opposition party Su-dan Peoples’ Liberation Movement – North (SPLM-N), which

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The 2010 National Security Act provides the NSS powers to search and seize assets and to arrest and detain people for up to four and a half months without judicial oversight. Under the same act, NSS agents are provided with immunity from prosecution for any act committed in the course of their work. The provisions in the Act do not ensure that detainees held by the NSS have access to judicial review and other human rights. It does not comply with international norms of fair trial and other human rights standards.

Action Please write immediately in Arabic, English or your own language:

◌ Urging the authorities to release Jalila Khamis Koko imme-diately and unconditionally;

◌ Urging the authorities to drop all charges against Jalila Khamis Koko;

◌ Calling on the authorities to ensure Jalila Khamis Koko is not tortured or otherwise ill-treated;

◌ Calling on the authorities to allow Jalila Khamis Koko ac-cess to her lawyers and family;

◌ Calling on the authorities to stop harassment and intimida-tion of SPLM-N activists and intellectuals, as well as people of Nuba descent.

Appeals To PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE JANUARY 25th 2013 TO: President HE Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir Office of the President People’s Palace PO Box 281 Khartoum SUDAN Fax: 011 249 183 782 541 (keep trying) Salutation: Your Excellency

Minister of Justice Mohammed Bushara Dousa Ministry of Justice, PO Box 302 Al Nil Avenue Khartoum SUDAN Salutation: Your Excellency

Copies to Minister of Interior Ibrahim Mohamed Hamed Ministry of Interior PO Box 873 Khartoum SUDAN

Argentina: Military-era sentences another historic step towards justiceDecember 21, 2012

said Mariela Belski, Executive Director at Amnesty Interna-tional Argentina. “The challenge that remains is that all those who were involved or participated in the killing, torture and disappearance or thousands of people during Argentina’s military rule, including civilians, are brought to justice.” In their ruling, the Tribunal also requested that the sexual abuses perpetrated by officials is considered torture and that the police stations that functioned as secret detention centers be turned into sites of memory. During Argentina’s military rule, between 1976 and 1983, the security forces abducted around 30,000 people, many of whom are still unaccounted for. Widespread and systematic human rights violations were committed, including torture and extrajudicial execu-tions on a grand scale. A number of high level officials, in-cluding former military Presidents Jorge Videla and Reynaldo Bignone, have been convicted for their responsibility in the crimes.

The first sentence against a civilian for human rights abuses committed during Argentina’s military rule is another historic step towards justice, said Amnesty International today. For-mer minister Jaime Smart and twenty-two former military of-ficials were on Wednesday found guilty for their involvement in the kidnapping, murder and torture of social activists at six illegal detention centers in Buenos Aires. Smart, who was Minister of Interior of the state of Buenos Aires between be-tween 1976 and 1979, was sentenced to life in prison. “These convictions are yet another sign that Argentina is dealing with it’s tragic past and bringing truth and justice to society,”

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AIUSA group 48 Newsletter January 2013

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group 48 newsletter - january 2013

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