Tag: dirty war

Argentina revokes Dirty War generals’ pardon

Posted on By 3arabawy

Good news:

A court in Argentina has overturned a 1990 pardon given to two former military dictators saying they must continue to serve life sentences for human rights abuses.
Jorge Videla, a former president, and Eduardo Massera, a navy chief, were leaders of the junta that waged a “dirty war” against political opponents in the late 1970s and early 80s.
Official reports say around 9,000 people were killed, although human rights groups put the death toll closer to 30,000.
On Wednesday the Argentine federal criminal court declared the 1990 amnesties given to the two men were unconstitutional.

Via Al-Jazeera.

Mubarak’s regime in the dock over tactics of police torturers

Posted on By 3arabawy

From the Observer:

Egypt in the dock over tactics of police torturers
Dissidents tell of cattle prods, whips and beatings as Cairo rejects US criticism of abuses in Mubarak onslaught on opposition
Conal Urquhart in Cairo
Sunday March 11, 2007
Observer
The man’s face crumples in agony and his screams grow louder. He shouts, ‘enough, stop’, but the police around him go on insulting him and assure him that everyone will see his humiliation.
One policeman uses his mobile phone camera to record the torture and then shows the images unashamedly. The clip will join dozens of others on the internet – graphic illustration of the brutality of the Egyptian police.
On Friday, Ahmad Aboul-Gheit, the Egyptian Foreign Minister, reacted angrily to a report by the US State Department that Egypt, a close Western ally, routinely abused human rights. ‘The government’s respect for human rights remained poor, and serious abuses continued in many areas,’ the report said.
Aboul-Gheit said the US had no right to interfere in Egypt’s internal affairs, but many Egyptians are feeling the pressure of what has been called the ‘biggest crackdown in 26 years’ on opponents of the regime. Tareq Khater, director of the Association for Human Rights and Legal Aid, said torture of suspects was routine in Egyptian police stations and an important weapon in the war on dissent. ‘Torture has become systematic under President Mubarak. He uses it to force people to submit to his absolute power and to create fear, so that people think twice about disobedience,’ he said.
It seemed so different in 2005, when Mubarak introduced limited democratic reforms and tolerated public protests. For the first time since he took office in 1981, government-approved candidates were allowed to rival him in the presidential polls, and the Muslim Brotherhood was able to run for election to the People’s Assembly. Since then, however, his regime has arrested hundreds of oppositionists, including 300 members of the Muslim Brotherhood. They joined tens of thousands of political prisoners who have been imprisoned in Egypt without trial. Allegations of torture, rape and brutality are commonplace.
Suspects claim that the torture takes various forms, including being beaten or slapped, electrocuted or, in the case described above, sodomised with a broomstick. Mohammed Sharkawy, 25, is still limping following the beatings he received last year for taking part in pro-democracy protests.
In April he was held for 30 days after a march by the Kefayah (Enough) pressure group demanding political reform. ‘On my first day in prison, I was attacked by 10 people using batons, fists and electric cattle prods,’ he said. Three days after his release, Sharkawy took part in a pro-democracy rally in Cairo. As he left the rally, his car was surrounded by 20 men in plain clothes. He recognized three of them as secret service agents who often attend protests. ‘They dragged me to a doorway, called me a spy and started beating me. One of the agents wanted to stop, and so they attacked him as well,’ he recalled. Taken to the police station, he was blindfolded and attacked with cattle prods and whips. ‘They knew I had a knee injury, so they beat my knee. They removed my clothes and stuck a cardboard tube in my backside,’ said Sharkawy, who was finally released after 60 days. ‘The police are trying to send a message that anyone who dreams of change or has a positive vision for Egypt will suffer what I have suffered.’
According to Khater, Mubarak maintains complete control by making all the key appointments himself: ‘The President chooses the ministers, the prosecutors, the head of the supreme court, the head of the court of appeal, the head of the police, the head of the army. He has complete and absolute power, even legislation proposed by the People’s Assembly has to go through him.’ He said it was impossible to quantify the scale of police brutality because national human rights group were not big enough for the task, but he estimated that there could be as many as 80,000 prisoners held in Egypt’s jails without trial. Other groups put the figure at around 14,000.

Follow up on Abu Omar

Posted on By 3arabawy

A follow up on Abu Omar’s case by journalist Nadia Abou El-Magd:

Cleric at center of alleged CIA kidnapping case says he was tortured in Egypt
ALEXANDRIA (AP) _ An Egyptian cleric, speaking publicly for the first time, said that Egyptian officials tortured him in prison after he was kidnapped in Italy _ allegedly by CIA agents _ and sent here for interrogation.
The claims by Osama Hassan Mustafa Nasr sharpened the controversy over the CIA’s “extraordinary rendition” program, just days after Italy indicted 26 Americans and five Italian agents accused of seizing him.
The case is the first criminal trial connected to the rendition policy, in which U.S. agents secretly transferred terror suspects for interrogation to third countries where critics say they faced torture.
Italy has signaled it won’t seek the extradition of the 25 CIA agents and one U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel, but it will likely try them in absentia. From the outset, U.S. officials have declined comment on the case.
Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, showed up unexpectedly Thursday at the trial of an Egyptian blogger in this Mediterranean coastal city _ his first public appearance since he was released Feb. 11 after four years in Egyptian custody.
“I was subjected to the worst kind of torture in Egyptian prisons. I have scars of torture all over my body,” Nasr told journalists outside the trial, which is unrelated to his case.
The 44-year-old bearded Muslim preacher showed dark, circular scars on his wrists and ankles that he said were from electrical shocks by Egyptian interrogators. He said he also has scars on his stomach and other areas but was embarrassed to show them in a public place.
He expressed fears that Egyptian security services would re-arrest him for speaking out. “I could be arrested the moment I leave here,” Nasr said.
“I don’t want trouble with anyone anymore. My body cannot bear any more prison and torture,” he said.
Nasr’s case has given a rare look into the renditions program.
Italian prosecutors say Nasr _ suspected of recruiting fighters for radical Islamic causes _ was kidnapped from the streets of Milan in February 2003 by CIA agents with help from Italian agents. He was allegedly taken to Aviano Air Base near Venice, then to Ramstein Air Base in southern Germany, and finally to Egypt.

U.S. officials said in December 2005 that up to 150 terror suspects had been seized and flown to their homelands for interrogation under the renditions program.
The Bush administration has insisted that it gets guarantees from those countries that suspects will not be tortured. Egypt, Syria, Algeria and Saudi Arabia _ all countries with records of torture, according to human rights activists _ are believed to be among the countries where suspects have been sent.
In Washington, U.S. State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey said the administration has nothing more to say on Nasr’s case, adding that the United States “does not render people to countries where we assume they will be mistreated or tortured.”
Egypt, a close U.S. ally, has kept silent over its role in the program.
Nasr was freed in 2004, but was arrested again three weeks later after he spoke to a journalist by telephone. Egypt never acknowledged he was in custody, but the prime minister said in 2005 that “people have been sent” to Egypt, without elaborating.
An Italian prosecutor issued an arrest warrant for Nasr in April 2005 as part of a terrorism inquiry. Nasr was accused of fighting in Afghanistan and Bosnia, though his Egyptian lawyer denied he had ever visited those countries.
Nasr said Thursday he was innocent and wanted to return to Italy, where he was granted political asylum in 2001, four years after entering illegally. He appealed to Italy for help, saying Egyptian authorities had barred him from traveling.
“I want to go back and stand in front of the Italian judiciary and prove my innocence,” he said.
Italian prosecutor Armando Spataro said Thursday that judicial authorities would like Nasr to testify against the American and Italian agents. Egypt has never responded to an Italian request for access to the cleric.
“Obviously it would be useful to hear what he has to say, but obviously it does not depend on us,” Spataro said. “If he is banned from leaving (Egypt) there’s nothing we can do.”
Nasr spoke at the trial of Abdul-Kareem Nabil, a blogger from Alexandria who was convicted Thursday of insulting Islam and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in his Internet writings and sentenced to four years in prison.
Nasr said Nabil was his neighbor in Alexandria, though it appeared he came to the court to make his appeal to the media. After the court session, he told an Associated Press reporter that he could not speak more for fear of arrest.