Document - Europe and Central Asia: Concerns in Europe & Central Asia bulletin: January - June 2006
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Europe and Central Asia
Summary of Amnesty International's Concerns in the Region
January – June 2006
FOREWORD
This bulletin contains information about Amnesty International’s main concerns in Europe and Central Asia between July and December 2005. Not every country in the region is reported on; only those where there were significant developments in the period covered by the bulletin, or where Amnesty International (AI) took specific action.
A number of individual country reports have been issued on the concerns featured in this bulletin. References to these are made under the relevant country entry. In addition, more detailed information about particular incidents or concerns may be found in Urgent Actions and News Service Items issued by AI.
This bulletin is published by AI every six months. References to previous bulletins in the text are:
AI Index EUR 01/01/98 Concerns in Europe: July - December 1997
AI Index EUR 01/02/98 Concerns in Europe: January - June 1998
AI Index EUR 01/01/99 Concerns in Europe: July - December 1998
AI Index EUR 01/02/99 Concerns in Europe: January - June 1999
AI Index EUR 01/01/00 Concerns in Europe: July - December 1999
AI Index EUR 01/03/00 Concerns in Europe: January - June 2000
AI Index EUR 01/001/2001 Concerns in Europe: July - December 2000
AI Index EUR 01/003/2001 Concerns in Europe: January-June 2001
AI Index EUR 01/002/2002 Concerns in Europe: July - December 2001
AI Index EUR 01/007/2002 Concerns in Europe: January – June 2002
AI Index EUR 01/002/2003 Concerns in Europe and Central Asia: July – December 2002
AI Index EUR 01/016/2003 Concerns in Europe and Central Asia: January – June 2003
AI Index EUR 01/001/2004 Concerns in Europe and Central Asia: July – December 2003
AI Index EUR 01/005/2004 Concerns in Europe and Central Asia: January – June 2004
AI Index EUR 01/002/2005 Concerns in Europe and Central Asia: July – December 2004 AI Index EUR 01/012/2005 Concerns in Europe and Central Asia: January – June 2005
AI Index EUR 01/007/2006 Concerns in Europe and Central Asia: July – December 2005
ALBANIA
Background
On 12 June Albania and the European Union (EU) signed a Stabilisation and Association Agreement, a significant step in the process of Albania’s gradual integration with the European Union.
Allegations of Torture and ill-treatment
There were further allegations that police officers had tortured or ill-treated people during or following arrest, in order to force them to confess to crimes or reveal information related to a crime.
In March the president of Gjirokastër Court of First Instance complained, at a meeting with the local chief of police, that some defendants brought before the court to be remanded in custody bore clear signs of physical ill-treatment. He cited a case which had occurred two days previously, in which the defendant had told the court that he had been beaten by eight police officers. He commented: "This is a scandal, a flagrant violation of the law and international human rights treaties."
Dorian Leci was arrested on 2 March in Tirana on a charge of drug-dealing. He subsequently filed a complaint that he had been ill-treated by police at a Tirana police station. His lawyer told journalists: "...my client was hit on the head with a pistol butt, and kicked and beaten about the body. He has two broken teeth and is not in a good state psychologically". He alleged that Dorian Leci was kept at the police station for five days so that marks of his ill-treatment would have disappeared before he was sent to a remand centre (where defendants, in principle, receive a medical examination on entry). Dorian Leci’s brother, Bledar Leci, alleged that he, too, had been beaten by police officers of the Anti-Drugs sector several days later, when he went to collect some of his brother’s belongings which had been seized by police at the time of his arrest.
Ardian Kraja alleged that on the evening of 1 April he was taken to Shkodër police station and questioned by the chief of crime police in Shkodër about a murder that he had allegedly witnessed. Ardian Kraja claimed that when he denied any knowledge of the murder, the police officer punched and struck him in the face and stomach and forced him to sign a statement incriminating a third person of murder. He was then allowed to go home.
In June Amarildo Përfundi, aged 17, committed suicide at home a few days after being questioned about a theft for six hours by Korça police. His family alleged that he had been physically and psychologically ill-treated by police while in custody and that he killed himself for fear that he might be again taken for questioning and beaten. The People’s Advocate (Ombudsperson) reportedly concluded that police officers had psychologically and physically ill-treated Amarildo Përfundi and had questioned him without a parent or a lawyer being present – in violation of Albanian law. He recommended that two or more police officers be prosecuted. Police authorities denied that the boy had been ill-treated, emphasising that an examination of his corpse had not detected marks of ill-treatment. A criminal investigation was opened.
Police officers are rarely prosecuted in connection with complaints of torture or ill-treatment. In the few cases in which they have been prosecuted, they have almost always been charged with "arbitrary acts" or lesser offences, generally punished by non-custodial sentences (fines), rather than under Article 86 of the Criminal Code dealing with "torture and other ill-treatment". Amnesty International knows of no recent case in which a police officer was convicted under Article 86.
Conditions of detention
Despite an EU-supported programme of prison reform and some improvements to detention conditions, these were still generally very poor and characterized by over-crowding, poor hygiene and sanitation, inadequate diet and health care. They could often be considered as inhuman and degrading. Contrary to Albanian law and international standards, minors were still sometimes held together with adult detainees and remand and convicted prisoners shared cells. Mentally-ill prisoners were often held in prisons instead of being sent for compulsory medical treatment in specialised institutions in accordance with court decisions. According to a March press report, Tirana prison hospital, where physically and mentally ill prisoners are treated, lacked appropriate medications and bedding, offered a poor diet and had no premises where occupants could take outdoor exercise.
Detainees held in remand cells in police stations suffered particularly harsh conditions, and there were frequent complaints. In June there was severe over-crowding in Durrës police station remand cells; detainees reportedly included 62 convicted prisoners and 34 minors. Because of lack of space, remand and convicted prisoners, and minors, were not always held separately. Relatives of detainees complained that there were no working showers and little possibility for detainees to exercise in open air.
There has been little progress in implementing a government decision dating from May 2003 to transfer responsibility for remand centres from the Ministry of the Interior to the Ministry of Justice. Even where this has been done (as in Vlora), conditions have hardly improved. In May there were reportedly 98 detainees (30 of them convicted prisoners) in Vlora remand centre, which has capacity for only 43 persons.
Violence against women
Trafficking of women and children for forced prostitution, cheap labour and criminal activity
Albania continues to be a source country for the trafficking of women for forced prostitution and children for use as cheap labour, beggars, thieves or drug couriers, although the authorities appear to have limited its use as a transit country. In January Zane Korra was arrested in Saranda on a charge of trafficking two 12-year-old children to Greece as drug couriers. The children had reportedly been arrested by Greek police two months earlier while crossing the border with a bag of cannabis.
In February Albania and Greece signed an agreement, subsequently ratified by parliament, dealing with the protection, repatriation and rehabilitation of trafficked children.
There were a number of reports of trials and convictions of defendants on charges of having trafficked women to Greece or Italy for forced prostitution. However, despite the existence of a witness protection law, prosecutors complained that when cases were sent for trial, the victims of trafficking tended to withdraw their testimony under pressure from traffickers or their own families.
Violence in the family
Domestic violence is not specifically prohibited in the Criminal Code, although it is generally recognized that such violence, particularly against women and children, is widespread, and that most incidents are not reported. However, in January the parliamentary legislative committee met to discuss a law "On measures against violence in family relations" drafted by a group of domestic non-governmental organizations. This law aimed both to prevent such violence and to introduce procedures to give victims of domestic violence effective protection, as envisaged in the 2003 Family Code. By the end of June the law had not yet been submitted to parliament for adoption.
Refugees
In May the Albanian authorities, at the request of the USA, allowed five Chinese citizens, from China’s north-western Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, members of the mainly Muslim Uighur minority, to enter Albania. There they applied for asylum on the grounds that they faced persecution if they were to be returned to China. The Chinese authorities claimed that the men were terrorists and members of an illegal "East Turkistan" pro-Uighur independence movement and requested their extradition.
The five men had been captured in late 2001in Pakistan and/or Afghanistan, where they were turned over to the USA authorities, and held for six months in Kandahar. They were then sent to the USA detention centre in Guantánamo in Cuba, where they were held until May 2006, although in March 2005 the US authorities had determined that they were not ‘enemy combatants’ and should be released. The US authorities, while recognizing the risk the men faced if returned to China, refused to resettle them in the USA and sought to place them in a third country. Albania was the only country which agreed to accept them.
Report
In March Amnesty International published a report - Albania: Violence against Women in the Family: "It’s not her shame"(AI Index: EUR 11/002/2006).
ARMENIA
Presidential influence over the ombudsperson’s office
On 4 January the ombudsperson, Larisa Alaverdian, was removed from her post by presidential decree and her duties entrusted to an interim three-member commission. Larisa Alaverdian alleged that her removal and replacement were unconstitutional because a presidential prerogative either to dismiss the ombudsperson or to replace that post by another body was not envisioned in Armenian law. The Law on the Ombudsperson stipulates that the ombudsperson’s term should expire 30 days after the adoption of new amendments to the Armenian Constitution. A number of amendments to the Constitution were adopted following their approval in a disputed referendum on 27 November 2005. According to the newly amended Constitution it is the National Assembly which elects the ombudsperson, who must be an independent and prestigious public figure. It was therefore expected that the National assembly would elect a new ombudsperson when it reconvened in February. The presidential decree was enforced in ways not envisaged in Armenian law: the ombudsperson’s office was sealed and the staff forced to take leave without pay. The interim three-member commission appointed by President Kocharian to replace the ombudsperson consisted of two officials drawn from government office, one of whom was a member of the presidential staff, and one from the Constitutional Court. Following the appointment of this commission, Armenian human rights activists expressed concern that officials drawn from within the executive could not function with the same autonomy envisaged for the post of ombudsperson.
Armenian human rights activists supported Larisa Alaverdian’s claims in a public statement condemning the interruption of the ombudsperson’s activities before the election of a replacement by the National Assembly. She appealed to the Constitutional Court on 5 January to overturn President Kocharian’s decision. Her appeal was rejected on the grounds that she no longer occupied the post of ombudsperson and could therefore not appeal to the Constitutional Court (the extension of the right of appeal to the Constitutional Court to the office of the ombudsperson was one of the amendments introduced into the Constitution in 2005). Her application to present a report of her activities in 2005 to the National Assembly, as required by law, was rejected by the Constitutional Court the same grounds.
Larisa Alaverdian alleged that efforts by government agencies to impede her work as ombudsperson and to remove her from the post were related to her criticism of the government’s restriction of the rights to freedoms of assembly, movement and expression during protests mounted by the opposition in 2004. Her annual report in 2005 also contained contained allegations that opposition protesters had been tortured in police stations in the aftermath of those protests. Another report in 2005 had made extensive allegations of the violation of property rights, including forced evictions, of residents in central Yerevan, the capital city.
Armen Harutiunian, the presidential nominee to succeed Larisa Alaverdian, was elected ombudsperson by the National Assembly on 17 February.
Corruption in the judiciary
On 10 March the Council of Europe’s Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) published a report on Armenia, noting the growth of corruption across a range of institutions including the judiciary.
Freedom of expression again restricted
Although multiple independent media outlets exist in Armenia, the government continued to restrict full freedom of expression in the media through the abuse of regulatory and inspection powers, as well as extra-legal pressures. In the Syunik region of southern Armenia the newspaper Syunyats Yerkir (‘Land of Syunik’) was forced to halt publication after its electricity supply was cut off allegedly on the orders of Arayik Grigorian, director of the local branch of the Armenian Electricity Network. Editors of the newspaper claimed that the newspaper was being punished for publishing an article alleging corruption in the local electricity network. On 26 June, Arman Babajanian, editor of the independent daily newspaper Zhamanak Yerevan (‘Yerevan Times’), was arrested on charges of evading military service in 2002. He claimed his arrest was politically motivated and connected to criticism of the government in the newspaper; the case was still pending at the end of the period under review.
Conscientious objection (update to AI Index: EUR 01/005/2004)
In defiance of its obligations to respect the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion and despite the introduction of an alternative civilian service to military service in national legislation in July 2004, Armenia continued to imprison conscientious objectors. According to reports, 48 conscientious objectors, including 28 Jehovah’s Witnesses, were being held in prison or pre-trial detention during the period under review. Reports also suggested that some conscripts continued to be forced to carry out their military service in Nagorny Karabakh, the territory disputed with neighbouring Azerbaijan.
In January an amendment to the Armenian Criminal Code was adopted declaring desertion from the alternative civilian service as a crime punishable by imprisonment. Following this amendment 19 men, all Jehovah’s Witnesses, filed a petition with the European Court of Human Rights on 31 May challenging the amendment’s retrospective application. The 19 men had all opted for the alternative (labour) service as provided for in Armenian law, believing it to be a genuinely civilian service. However, they then abandoned the alternative service when they found it to be under military supervision and control, and therefore contrary to their beliefs. Fifteen of the 19 applicants had been arrested in August 2005 and sentenced to between two and three and a half years’ imprisonment for desertion from military units. Although their convictions were later overturned and all were subsequently released from prison, the courts refused to formally acquit the men. Criminal proceedings against the men were still pending at the end of the period under review.
Lawyer released but charges not dropped (update to AI Index: POL 10/001/2006)
Human rights lawyer Vahe Grigorian, whose law firm had helped families in central Yerevan to lodge petitions with the European Court of Human Rights against forced relocation resulting from government-sponsored redevelopment, and who had been held in pre-trial detention since 2005, was released on bail on 15 February. He had been held on charges of fraud which he alleged were unfounded and politically motivated. Criminal proceedings against Vahe Grigorian were still pending at the end of the period under review.
Non-governmental organizations accused of espionage
In early February staff of the Helsinki Committee of Armenia and representatives of the Yerevan Press Club alleged that three pro-governmental television channels, Armenia, TV 5 and ArmNews, had sought to discredit their organizations by portraying them as involved with espionage and ‘anti-state activities’. They claimed that these alleged attempts at defamation were related to their having publicized violations of human rights in Armenia.
Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture ratified
On 31 May the National Assembly voted in favour of Armenia becoming a party to the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (OPCAT). Armenia officially became a party to this treaty, which aims at preventing torture and other ill-treatment, in September 2006. The Ministry of Internal Affairs announced plans to establish a civil society monitoring board as an inspection mechanism for police detention centres, while the Ministries of Defence and Health agreed to discuss possible mechanisms for the inspection of military detention centres and psychiatric institutions respectively.
AZERBAIJAN
May election re-runs
On 25 January the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in Resolution 1480 laid out five areas requiring improvement in the repeat elections scheduled for 13 May in 10 constituencies where results of the 6 November 2005 parliamentary election had been annulled on account of fraud. In the elections eight seats were won by the ruling Yeni Azerbaycan Party or nominally ‘independent’ candidates affiliated to it; turnout was reported to be low at 36 per cent. International observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) concluded that while the repeat elections had indicated progress in some areas, including a more inclusive representation of candidates, unimpeded campaigning and increased domestic observation, continued interference from local authorities in the electoral process was still in evidence. On 26 January PACE adopted Resolution 1505, in which it was noted that while progress in the conduct of voting was observed, control over and interference in the electoral process by third parties, including local government bodies, remained a source of concern.
Some human rights activists who participated in protests following the October 2003 presidential election and have been charged with public disorder offences continued to live in exile in neighbouring states. Following a request for extradition from the Azerbaijani government Azer Samedov, director of the Caucasus Centre of Freedom of Faith and Conscience, applied for political asylum in Georgia (see AI Index: EUR 56/006/2006). His case was still outstanding at the end of the period under review.
Freedom of expression under attack
Freedom of expression in Azerbaijan became an increasing source of concern during the period under review, with a sharp increase in violent attacks and intimidation aimed at opposition and independent journalists. On 6 March a correspondent for the opposition newspaper Azadlýq (‘Freedom’), Fikret Hüseynli, was abducted, beaten and left for dead on the outskirts of Baku. He was allegedly tied up, had his fingers broken and was stabbed in the neck. On 18 May Baxaddin Xaziyev, editor-in-chief of the opposition daily Bizim Yol (‘Our Way’), was abducted by unidentified assailants and taken to a remote location in the outskirts of Baku. He was threatened and verbally abused, then his assailants ran a car over his legs. Baxaddin Xaziyev was later hospitalized with serious injuries including a broken left leg. Articles alleging corruption in the oil and fishing industries had featured in Bizim Yol the day before the attack; the newspaper had also run a series of articles on corruption in the preceding weeks. The newspaper’s office and other staff had also received threatening phone calls in the preceding period. Bizim Yol’s website was also the target of frequent external disabling, which the newspaper lacked the financial and technical support to counteract. According to journalists and human rights activists no serious investigation of these crimes had been undertaken by the end of the period under review. Similarly, the murder of independent journalist Elmar Hüseynov, killed in March 2005, remained unpunished.
On 23 June Sakit Mirza Zahidov, a well-known journalist and satirist for Azadlýq, was arrested by Interior Ministry personnel belonging to its anti-narcotics department (see AI Index: EUR 55/003/2006). A statement issued by the Ministry alleged that 10 grams of heroin had been found on Sakit Zahidov’s person and confiscated following his arrest. His lawyer, Elchin Gambarov, was only given access to Sakit Mirza Zahidov on 29 June. According to his lawyer, Sakit Mirza Zahidov was forced into the back of a Jeep where he was pinned down and a packet of narcotics inserted into his pocket. Sakit Mirza Zahidov was still being held in pre-trial detention at the end of the period under review.
Fair trial concerns (update to AI Index: EUR 55/002/2006)
In February an activist of the Azerbaijan Democratic Party (ADP) was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment on charges of narcotics possession that ADP leaders and human rights activists claimed were false. Opposition parties also alleged that some seven activists arrested before and after the November 2005 poll continued to be held in pre-trial detention.
The trial of three members of the Yeni Fikir (‘New Idea’) youth movement arrested in August and September 2005 began on 31 March at the Court of Grave Crimes in Baku. Ruslan Bashirli, Said Nuri and RaminTagiyev were accused of actions aimed at the violent overthrow of the Azerbaijani government (Article 278 of the Azerbaijani Criminal Code) and in a second charge, of illegal entrepreneurship (Article 192). The prosecution alleged that Yeni Fikir members had participated in seminars organized by the National Democratic Institute, where strategies for regime change were allegedly discussed, and also met with Armenian secret service agents in Tbilisi and received money from them in order to finance a coup d’état. The accused admitted that a meeting had taken place in Tbilisi, but said that they believed they were meeting with Georgian civil society activists and the money received from them to be intended for democratization activities in Azerbaijan.
The second charge of illegal entrepreneurship was linked to accusations of receipt by Yeni Fikir of a substantial payment from an unspecified Western embassy in Baku; this charge was later dropped in the apparent absence of substantiating evidence. The trial was initially closed to journalists and human rights activists but access was later granted in April following pressure from the international community. Only witnesses for the prosecution were brought, and in contravention of Azerbaijani law, no jury was appointed as required in cases of crimes punishable by life imprisonment. After the defendants refused to appoint lawyers in order to conduct their own defence, the court appointed lawyers to represent them. These lawyers were allegedly not familiar with the materials of the case, to the extent of reportedly not knowing their clients’ names.
Among the evidence brought by the prosecution at the trial was video footage of Ruslan Bashirli, head of Yeni Fikir, meeting Georgian citizens in Tbilisi and allegedly receiving money from them. The defence lawyer later appointed by the Yeni Fikir members, Osman Kazimov, claimed this video footage had been cut up to 24 times in order to distort Ruslan Bashirli’s words in such a way as to incriminate him with collaboration with Armenian secret service agents. According to reports, Ruslan Bashirli continued to suffer from medical problems associated with concussion sustained since his arrest and with a kidney problem pre-dating it. He reportedly lost consciousness while under interrogation on 2 March; in June he allegedly received medical treatment for both problems. Allegations that he had been tortured following his arrest in August 2005 remained without investigation. Another member of Yeni Fikir, Said Nuri, was released on bail but not allowed to leave Baku. This prevented him from receiving treatment for a thalassaemia condition; he was also allegedly refused certified evidence of his condition in order to receive treatment in the Russian Federation. The trial was still underway at the end of the period under review.
Former ministers Ali Insanov and Farhad Aliyev, arrested in October 2005, remained in pre-trial detention; Farhad Aliyev’s deteriorating health and the reported refusal of the authorities to allow him access to specialized medical care continued to be a source of concern. Natiq Efendiyev, a deputy chairman of the opposition Democratic Party of Azerbaijan arrested in October 2005, remained in pre-trial detention. Allegations that he had been tortured in November 2005 remained without investigation. Another opposition party activist, Qadir Müsayev, the director of the Azerbaijan National Democratic Party’s local chapter in the southern region of Bilasuvar, was sentenced on 2 May to seven years’ imprisonment on charges of distributing narcotics. Human rights activists believed narcotics had been planted on Qadir Müsayev in order to incriminate him.
Conscientious objection denied
In defiance of its obligations as a Council of Europe member, Azerbaijan had still failed to adopt a law on an alternative civilian service to military service during the period under review. On 28 April a Jehovah’s Witness conscientious objector was arrested for draft evasion, despite his stated willingness to perform alternative service (see AI Index: EUR 55/001/2006). He also referred to a constitutional amendment introduced in August 2002 affirming the right to alternative service for all those whose convictions or beliefs prevent them from taking up arms. He was released by a court decision on 26 May and kept under house arrest until his trial began on 30 June.
BELGIUM
‘War on terror’
In March press reports alleged that there had been at least two secret flights by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) that landed briefly at Deurne airport in Antwerp on 17 and 20 July 2002. It is not known whether the planes were transporting detainees. These reports were in contrast to the public statement by Transport Minister Renaat Landuyt in December 2005 that no CIA flight had transited through a Belgian airport in the previous five years.
Prisons and other places of detention
Following a strike in April at the Forest prison, the trade union General Confederation of Public Services (CGSP) issued an open letter to the Minister of Justice denouncing prison overcrowding, lack of resources and under-training of prison staff. The CGSP demanded prompt renovation of buildings which it considered to breach health, hygiene and safety requirements, and better training for staff as it regarded the current six-weeks basic training as "wholly insufficient".
As of May, there were 9,695 prisoners held in prisons designed for a maximum capacity of 8,311, a new high following an overall decrease in the previous year. One third of prisoners were on remand. Juvenile offenders are currently held in general prisons, but the new law on youth assistance includes plans for the construction of a special prison for juveniles with a capacity of 200 places.
Implementation of new measures allowing foreign prisoners to serve their sentence in their home country has been slow due to the need to gain the approval of the country of origin in each case. The first two prisoners to be transferred were a Moldavian and a Romanian.
The report of the Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) regarding its visit to Belgium in April 2005 noted that there was still cause for concern in relation to the protection of fundamental rights against ill-treatment, adding that the CPT had received a number of allegations of ill-treatment during police custody. The report further condemned the over-crowding of the psychiatric unit at Namur prison, the cage-like cells at the law courts in Liège, and the conditions at the INADS detention centre, a temporary holding centre at Bruxelles-Nationale airport (these had also been the subject of criticism following the CPT’s 2001 visit).
Racism and discrimination
An instruction from the Ministry of the Interior issued in March directed police to record crimes motivated by racism. The Centre for Equal Opportunities revealed that the number of complaints of racism it received remained stable at approximately 1,000 per year, although it also noted that many attacks were never reported.
In April the president of Belgium’s National Front party, Daniel Féret, was found guilty of inciting racial hatred and sentenced to 10 years’ exclusion from holding political office and 250 hours of community service. Daniel Féret was convicted for distributing election materials which likened immigrants to criminals, savages and terrorists. The National Front’s website manager was also convicted. However, the court did not order the dissolution of the National Front party – as had been requested by the public prosecutor – due to lack of evidence linking it to the offending texts. Daniel Féret refused to fulfil the community service order (which was to be conducted in an integration service for foreigners), stating that he would appeal against the decision.
On 11 May an 18-year old resident of Antwerp with alleged far-right links shot and killed a pregnant black woman and the white child in her care, and seriously wounded a Turkish woman. He openly stated that he had been targeting foreigners. On 6 May a black French citizen was beaten up by skinheads in Bruges and left in a coma.
Following the murders in Antwerp, a petition was presented to the Council of State by members of the commission on electoral expenditure requesting the curtailment of public funding to the Vlaams Belang party. This was the first application of the law passed in October 2005 which allows for such a petition to be presented, cutting funds for three months to one year, against a party whose principles violate the European Convention on Human Rights. The Council of State has six months to take its decision.
LGBT issues
On 17 May Belgium marked its annual Day Against Homophobia. A report by the Centre for Equal Opportunities and the Fight Against Racism (CECLR) published at the end of May highlighted that the number of complaints it had received regarding discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation had remained stable at approximately 74 per year. Physical and verbal attacks continued to be the most common form of discrimination. A Europe-wide survey conducted by a Belgian organization revealed that 70 per cent of Belgian homosexuals had suffered discrimination due to their sexuality at some point in their life. It also noted that the tendency to suicide was higher among young homosexuals than among heterosexuals of the same age. A new measure to be introduced in the second half of 2006 would permit "homophobia" to be officially recorded as the motive for a crime in police records.
In April the Senate voted in favour of the bill on adoption by homosexuals, approved by Parliament in December 2005, and which granted homosexualcouples the same adoption rights as heterosexuals.
Asylum and migration
The number of asylum applications continued to show a significant decline, with May 2006 producing the lowest number of applications since 1997. At the time of writing, only 15 per cent of asylum seekers successfully gain refugee status. However, the number of asylum seekers receiving recognition from the General Commission for Refugees and Stateless Persons (CGRA – the appeal body for asylum decisions) showed a continual increase.
Claude Lelièvre, the Commissioner on Children’s Rights, visited the family wing of the asylum detention centre in Vottem at the end of March. He criticised the practice of detaining minors and recommended that legislation be introduced to ensure that unaccompanied minors and irregular migrants with children were not detained in closed centres, stating that these were unsuitable environments for children. The growing number of children being detained has been criticised by numerous non-governmental organizations, trade unions and political parties.
The first half of 2006 saw a large number of churches and public buildings occupied by undocumented migrants and failed asylum seekers hoping to avoid deportation and also aiming to draw public attention to their situation. By the end of April, 19 churches were simultaneously occupied by protestors, some of whom were on hunger strike demanding a meeting with the Minister of the Interior. Organizations of the "sans-papiers"(undocumented migrants) also demanded regularisation of their situation, an end to expulsions and closure of secure detention centres. At the end of May, there were hunger strikes in four centres for asylum seekers – Borechem, Kapellen, Saint-Trond and Petit Chateau.
Reforms to the asylum law were proposed which would ensure cases were dealt with within 12 months of the claim, including appeals. The independent CGRA would deal with all applications in place of the Office for Foreigners. Failed asylum seekers would have the right to appeal to a newly created body and a further administrative appeal to the Council of State. Furthermore, the reforms would provide for subsidiary protection for those not covered by the 1951 Refugee Convention but who risked serious violations of their rights if they returned to their country of origin. The reforms would also create special leave to remain for seriously ill patients who would not receive adequate medical care in their country of origin.
Critics of the reform proposals to the asylum law noted that they did not address the problems of undocumented migrants and that the continuing lack of resources would hinder the processing of the backlog of asylum claims.
Domestic violence
In February, ministers of federal, regional and community level adopted a definition of domestic violence. This definition was to provide a common reference point for public powers at all levels and it was hoped that it would facilitate accurate statistical recording, which would in turn help to combat the phenomenon. The definition is broad enough to include unmarried couples, homosexual couples, and couples who do not cohabit, as well as more traditionally recognised partnerships. It includes physical, verbal, psychological, sexual and economic forms of aggression.
In March, the Minister of Justice issued a circular to police and magistrates with instructions on how to manage cases of domestic violence. The so-called "Zero tolerance decree" requires all calls to be recorded, video recording of hearings, and the possibility of removing the aggressor from the family home as a preventative measure.
International law
On 17 March Belgium acceded to the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, following its ratification in September 2000.
Arms control
In February Belgium became the first country to adopt a law prohibiting the production, storage, possession or marketing of fragmentation bombs (‘daisy cutters’). However, a second bill was introduced at the same time which would exclude from this prohibition munitions designed to destroy armoured vehicles (which cannot be activated by a person alone). Belgium also became the first country to ban cluster bombs when Parliament adopted a law banning their production, stockpiling, transportation and trade on 8 June. In 1995, Belgium had been the first country to prohibit anti-personnel landmines.
Extradition request for Hissène Habré (see AI Index: EUR 01/001/2004)
Attempts to extradite former president of Chad Hissène Habré to stand trial for torture under Belgium’s universal jurisdiction laws came to an end at the end of June. Following pressure from the UN Nations Committee Against Torture for Senegal to extradite Hissène Habré or put him on trial, Senegal’s president Abdoulaye Wade declared that a special court would be set up to try him for abuses committed during his regime. The Belgian government had previously declared that it would bring a case against Senegal to the International Court of Justice if it did not comply with its obligation to ensure a fair trial for those accused of torture.
BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA
General and political developments
Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) remained divided in two semi-autonomous entities, the Republika Srpska (RS) and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH), with a special administrative status granted to the Brèko District. The international community continued to exert significant influence over the political process in BiH, as part of the civilian implementation of the Dayton Peace Agreement, led by a High Representative whose nomination is proposed by the Peace Implementation Council (PIC), an intergovernmental body that monitors implementation of the Dayton Peace Agreement. In January Christian Schwarz-Schilling took office as the new High Representative, replacing Paddy Ashdown. In June the PIC Steering Board agreed to begin preparations to close down the Office of the High Representative (OHR) in June 2007. It was expected that the engagement of the international community in BiH would continue with the strengthening of the office of the European Union (EU) Special Representative.
Approximately 6,500 troops of the EU-led peacekeeping force EUFOR remained in BiH mandated to ensure the implementation of the Dayton Peace Agreement and to contribute to a safe and secure environment in BiH. In addition to EUFOR, about 150 North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) troops remained in the territory of BiH, reportedly to provide support to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (Tribunal) with regard to the detention of persons indicted for war crimes, to combat terrorism and to assist the BiH authorities in defence reform.
In April a package of constitutional amendments, aimed at strengthening state institutions, was rejected by the lower house of the BiH Parliament. The amendments had been previously agreed by major political parties following lengthy negotiations.
War crimes and crimes against humanity (update to AI Index:EUR 01/007/2006)
International investigations and prosecutions
The Tribunal continued to try alleged perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the violent collapse of Yugoslavia. A total of six publicly indicted suspects remained at large at the end of June. Under the terms of the "completion strategy", laid down in UN Security Council Resolutions 1503 and 1534, the Tribunal had completed all investigations and indictments for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide at the end of 2004 and is expected to complete all trials including appeals, by 2010. As a result of the tight deadlines imposed by the "completion strategy", the Tribunal continued with its policy of referring cases involving lower level perpetrators to national jurisdictions in the former Yugoslavia. In May the case of Željko Mejakiæ, Momèilo Gruban, Dušan Kneževiæ, and Dušan Fuštar was transferred to BiH. The accused are charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes, for their alleged role in persecutions, murder, inhuman acts and cruel treatment, committed in the Omarska and Keraterm detention camps, run by the Bosnian Serb authorities.
In March former Serbian President Slobodan Miloševiæ was found deadin his cell at the Tribunal Detention Unit, after having suffered a heart attack. He had been on trial charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity for his alleged involvement in the wars in Croatia, BiH and Kosovo. Slobodan Miloševiæ was also accused of having planned, instigated, ordered, committed or otherwise aided and abetted genocide, in connection with his alleged role in the war in BiH.
Also in March, Enver Hadžihasanoviæ and Amir Kubura, former Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Armija Bosnei Hercegovine, ABiH) commanders were sentenced to five and two-and-a-half years’ imprisonment, respectively, for failing to prevent or punish crimes committed against non-Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims) by volunteer foreign fighters. With regard to the criminal responsibility of Enver Hadžihasanoviæ, these crimes included murder and cruel treatment. Amir Kuburawas convicted of having failed to prevent or punish the plunder of a number of villages in central BiH.
In May Ivica Rajiæ, a former commander of the Croatian Defence Council (Hrvatsko vijeæe obrane, HVO), the Bosnian Croat armed forces, was sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment for his involvement in an attack against the village of Stupni Do, in central BiH, when the Tribunal found that forces under the command of Ivica Rajiæ wilfully killed at least 37 persons. Ivica Rajiæ had pleaded guilty to counts of wilful killing, inhuman treatment, appropriation of property and extensive destruction not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly.
In JuneDragan Zelenoviæ, former sub-commander of the RS military police and paramilitary leader in Foèa, was transferred to the Tribunal’s custody. He had been arrested in the Russian Federation in 2005. Dragan Zelenoviæ is indicted on charges of torture and rape as war crimes and crimes against humanity against the non-Serb population in the city and municipality of Foèa. The indictment alleges that Dragan Zelenoviæ raped, sexually assaulted and participated in the gang-rape of detained women.
Also in June Naser Oriæ, former commander of the Srebrenica Armed Forces Staff, was found guilty of having failed to prevent murders and the cruel treatment of Bosnian Serb prisoners in late 1992 and 1993. He was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment.
Cooperation between the RS authorities and the Tribunal remained inadequate. So far not a single person indicted by the Tribunal has been arrested by the RS police and no progress was made by the RS in locating former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžiæ.Radovan Karadžic faces charges, including of genocide, for his alleged role in crimes committed against the non-Serb population, including the mass executions of thousands of Bosniaks in Srebrenica in 1995. In June, in her address to the UN Security Council, the Tribunal Prosecutor noted that cooperation by the RS had in fact decreased, for political reasons and as a result of the reshuffling of personnel in the police.
Domestic investigations and prosecutions
Progress was made in the domestic prosecution of war crimes, including in proceedings at the War Crimes Chamber (WCC) within the BiH State Court, although efforts to bring perpetrators to justice remained insufficient given the scale of the crimes committed and the potentially huge number of crimes to be investigated and prosecuted. In June the BiH Council of Minister appointed a state commission to "investigate the truth on the suffering" of Serbs and other non-Bosniaks in Sarajevo in the period between 1992 and 1995.
The WCC, set up to try particularly sensitive cases or cases referred by the Tribunal, issued its first convictions in the period under review. There continued to be concerns over the lack of financial and other resources needed to ensure the long-term sustainability of the War Crimes Chamber and to enable it to carry out its activities effectively.
In April the retrial at the BiH State Court of Abduladhim Maktouf, a BiH citizen of Iraqi origin, ended with a conviction for war crimes against civilians, for his role in the abduction of two non-Bosniak civilians in 1993. A first-instance guilty verdict had been quashed in November 2005.
Also in April, after proceedings at the WCC, former member of Bosnian Serb forces Neðo Samardžiæ was found guilty of unlawful imprisonment, rape, and of aiding and abetting sexual slavery committed against non-Serb victims in the Foèa area. He was sentenced to 13 years and four months’ imprisonment.
In May Dragoje Paunoviæ, a former local commander of Bosnian Serb forces, was sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment for crimes against humanity committed in 1992 in the Rogatica Municipality and in eastern Bosnia. He was found guilty of the persecution of Bosniak civilians, for his command and individual responsibility in killings and other inhuman acts.
Also in May, the trial started at the WCC of 11 former members of the RS police forces or of the VRS, charged with genocide for their suspected involvement in the Srebrenica massacre in 1995.
Local police forces arrested a number of suspects acting on arrest warrants issued by entity courts. Some war crimes trials of low-level perpetrators were also held in local entity courts, including in the RS. Courts at the entity level continued to face difficulties in dealing with war crimes cases, including as a result of lack of staff and other resources. In these proceedings, victims and witnesses remained without adequate protection from harassment, intimidation and threats including as a result of a failure to implement existing witness protection legislation.
In March, the Livno Cantonal Court sentenced Pero Radiæ, a former VRS member, to eight years’ imprisonment for the murder of a captured HVO soldier. The Mostar County Court sentenced five former ABiH members to between one and half and seven years’ imprisonment for war crimes against Bosnian Croat prisoners of war. Also in March, Milanko Vujanoviæ was sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment after proceedings at the Banja Luka District Court. He was found guilty of having participated in the killing of five Bosniak civilians in 1992, while he was serving in the VRS.
In May, the Banja Luka District Court sentenced three former guards of the Manjaèa detention camp, run by the Bosnian Serb authorities, to imprisonment of between 10 and 14 years, for their role in the murder of two Bosniak detainees and the torture and ill-treatment of other prisoners. Three other suspects were acquitted.
Unresolved 'disappearances' and Srebrenica commission (update to AI Index: EUR 01/007/2006)
According to estimates of the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP), over 15,000 persons who went missing during the 1992-1995 war were still unaccounted for. Many of the missing were victims of "disappearances"; the perpetrators continued to enjoy impunity.
In March the BiH Council of Ministers appointed the directors of the Missing Persons Institute (MPI). The transfer of competencies from the two entities’ missing persons commissions to the MPI was still underway.
Also in March, the exhumation began of a mass grave in Snagovo, a village north of Srebrenica containing the 36 bodies believed to be those of Bosniaks killed by members of Bosnian Serb forces in 1992. In June the exhumation began of a mass grave in the vicinity of the Buk-Bijela hydroelectricplant, near Foèa, believed to contain the mortal remains of Bosniaks and Bosnian Croats.
In January the OHR ordered the RS authorities to form a commission (Paliæ Commission), implementing a 2001 decision by the BiH Human Rights Chamber on the "disappearance"of Avdo Paliæ. The Human Rights Chamber had ordered the RS to carry out a full investigation into the "disappearance"of Avdo Paliæ, with a view to bringing the perpetrators to justice, to release Avdo Paliæ, if still alive, or otherwise, to make available his mortal remains to the family and to make all information and findings relating to his fate and whereabouts to the family. ABiH Colonel Avdo Paliæ had "disappeared" after reportedly being forcibly taken by VRS soldiers from the UN Protection Force compound in Žepa on 27 July 1995. He had gone there to negotiate the evacuation of civilians from the town which had just surrendered to the VRS.
In April the Paliæ Commision presented a report to the OHR, which claimed to reveal the location of the mortal remains of Avdo Paliæ and to detail his fate. The report was also forwarded to the BiH Prosecutor. However, the information contained in the report proved to be insufficient to carry out the exhumation of the body. At the end of the period under review no progress had been made in clarifying the fate and whereabouts of Avdo Paliæ or in the investigation of his "disappearance".
Right to return in safety and with dignity (update to AI Index: EUR 01/007/2006)
Since the end of the war, out of an estimated 2.2 million people displaced during the conflict, more than a million refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) were estimated to have returned to their homes. Progress in the return of those still displaced was limited. The office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in BiH registered approximately 2,500 returns between January and June. Of these, approximately 2,100 were returns in a minority situation.
Cases of violence and harassment by non-state actors (private individuals) against returnees and minorities were reported. These included threats, harassment, damage to property and religious buildings and violent attacks. In February, a Bosnian Croat 78-year-old returnee was beaten to death in Bugojno. Three suspects were reportedly subsequently arrested by local police and confessed their role in the crime. In May an elderly returnee was murdered in her house in the outskirts of Sanski Most. An investigation into the case was reportedly ongoing.
Lack of access to employment continued to be a major obstacle to the sustainable return of refugees and IDPs. Employment opportunities were scarce in general, reflecting the weak economic situation and difficulties of economic transition and post-war reconstruction. In addition, returnees faced discrimination on ethnic grounds.
‘War on terror’
The six men of Algerian origin who in 2002 were unlawfully transferred by the FBiH authorities to US custody and detained in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, remained in detention.
In April, following a complaint submitted by the wife of one of the detainees, Hadj Boudellaa, the Human Rights Commission within the BiH Constitutional Court concluded that the BiH authorities had failed to implement a 2002 decision of the BiH Human Rights Chamber with regard to Hadj Boudellaa. The Commission said that the authorities had failed to use diplomatic channels to protect the rights of the detainee, provide him with consular support and take all necessary steps to ensure that he would not be subjected to the death penalty, including by asking the USA for guarantees to that effect.
In June, the Rapporteur appointed by the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, in its report on alleged secret detentions and unlawful inter-state transfers of detainees, noted that the case of the six men transferred from BiH to Guantánamo Bay was "a well documented example of the abduction of European citizens and residents by the American authorities with the active collusion of the authorities of a Council of Europe member state". The report called for a credible diplomatic intervention by the BiH authorities with the USA to secure the rapid repatriation of the detainees.
Accountability of peacekeeping forces
In January members of EUFOR, during an operation carried out in the village of Bjelogorci, near Rogatica, to arrest war crimes suspect Dragomir Abazoviæ, shot and fatally wounded Rada Abazoviæ, the wife of the suspect, and seriously wounded the couple’s11-year-old son. Dragomir Abazoviæ also suffered serious gunshot wounds at his head. According to EUFOR, the incident took place during a gun battle between the family of the suspect and the troops, while the wounds suffered by Dragomir Abazoviæ were self-inflicted during the arrest. His arrest warrant had been issued by the Sarajevo Cantonal Court, on suspicion that he committed war crimes in the Rogatica area. In February the WCC terminated the detention of Dragomir Abazoviæ. Investigations into the incident were opened by EUFOR and by the East Sarajevo Prosecutor. The results of such investigations were not known at the end of the period under review.
In May AI wrote to a number of NATO countries outlining the organization’s concerns at the failure to promptly, thoroughly and impartially investigate the incident in which Jeremija and Aleksandar Starovlah had been seriously wounded by peacekeeping forces. Orthodox priest Jeremija Starovlah and his son Aleksandar Starovlah had been wounded on the night of 31 March to 1 April 2004 when approximately 40 troops of the NATO-led Stabilisation Force (SFOR) conducted a raid in Pale in a Serbian Orthodox church andin the nearby priest’s residence, reportedly in an attempt to apprehend Radovan Karadžiæ.By the end of the period under review AI had received no reply addressing the concerns raised in the letters.
Lack of access to education for Romani children
Primary school attendance rates for Romani children were low and extreme poverty remained one of the main causes of the exclusion of Roma from education (see also below). Moreover, Romani language, culture and traditions were not included in a systematic way in school curricula. Insufficient progress was made by the authorities at state, entity and cantonal level, in the implementation of the 2004 Action Plan on the Educational Needs of Roma and Members of Other National Minorities.
A Council for National Minorities of Bosnia and Herzegovina tasked with overseeing the implementation of the Action Plan on the Educational Needs of Roma and Members of Other National Minorities, was formally created in April, but was not yet operational at the end of the period under review.
UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
In April the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) issued its concluding observations after considering BiH’s initial to sixth reports, submitted in one document, on measures to give effect to the rights enshrined in the International Convention on the Elimination Of all Forms of Racial Discrimination.
CERD inter alia expressed concern at the fact that that the claims for compensation of many workers who during the armed conflict were dismissed from their jobs and/or placed on so-called "waiting lists" because of their ethnicity have not yet been resolved, or have not resulted in the payment of any compensation. CERD urged BiH to ensure that the claims are resolved expeditiously and that the recommendations of the entity and cantonal commissions dealing with such claims are implemented promptly and in good faith.
CERD was also gravely concerned about the extremely low rates of primary and secondary school attendance by Romani children and urged BiH to implement effectively the recommendations contained in the Action Plan on Educational Needs of Roma and Other National Minorities, and to combat discrimination against Romani children and children belonging to other ethnic minority groups by teachers, school authorities, and classmates and their families.
UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
In June the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) considered BiH’s combined initial, second and third periodic report on measures taken to implement the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.
The Committee inter alia expressed concern at the fact that the implementation of existing legislation on domestic violence is hampered by the lack of necessary by-laws and structures. CEDAW called on BiH to ensure implementation of domestic violence legislation. In addition, it recommended that measures be undertaken to empower women to report incidences of domestic violence and to ensure, through training programmes, that public officials, especially law enforcement personnel, the judiciary, health-care providers, social workers and teachers, were fully familiar with applicable legal provisions, were sensitized to all forms of violence against women and were skilled to respond to them in an adequate manner.
CEDAW was also concerned that trafficking in women remained a problem in BiH as a country of origin, transit and destination. CEDAW was further concerned that existing protection measures do not apply to women nationals of BiH who have been trafficked internally and women who have been trafficked for purposes other than prostitution. CEDAW urged BiH to intensify its efforts to combat trafficking in women and girls. In particular, it recommended that protection be extended to also cover women who have been trafficked internally and women who have been trafficked for purposes other than prostitution. Moreover, CEDAW called for the strengthening of measures aimed at improving the economic situation of women and raising awareness to reduce their vulnerability to traffickers, as well as enhancing social support, rehabilitation and reintegration measures for women and girls who have been victims of trafficking.
Moreover, CEDAW expressed concern at the situation of victims of sexual violence occurred during the 1992-1995 war, who may suffer from additional disadvantages as female heads of households and IDPs. CEDAW urged BiH to explicitly recognize and adequately protect women who were civilian victims of sexual violence during the armed conflict through a state law as well as through the allocation of financial resources for adequate social provisions for them.
BULGARIA
General and political background
In March, the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, on his Follow-up report on Bulgaria, recommended the government implement reforms of the justice system, in particular by improving its structure and its efficiency; make further efforts to eliminate corruption; strengthen the status, selection, training and pay of judges; adopt new Codes of Administrative and Civil Procedure as a priority; and allow detained suspects unrestricted access to legal counsel. Concerns remained about the inappropriate use of firearms by law enforcement officials.
In May, the European Commission (EC) recommended that January 2007 be maintained as the date of European Union (EU) accession for Bulgaria, but only if a series of deficits "of serious concern" was remedied. EC President José Manuel Durão Barroso noted that the authorities had to first and foremost tackle corruption, including that at a high level in order to dissipate any "ambiguities as to the independence of the judiciary". Other concerns remained regarding the fight against organised crime and money laundering. The final decision on the date of accession was postponed until September.
Institution of the Ombudsperson
In March, parliament amended the Constitution to incorporate the Ombudsperson institution. Among the amendments was a new provision which entitles the institution to initiate cases before the Constitutional Court if it considers that a law concerning citizens' rights and freedoms is unconstitutional.
Allegations of ill-treatment by law enforcement officials
AI continued to receive reports of ill-treatment by law enforcement officials. In May, for example, the Bulgarian Commission for Protection Against Discrimination initiated an investigation in the case of three police officers in the capital, Sofia, who allegedly ill-treated a gay man during his arrest in October 2005 because of his sexual orientation and ethnic origin (known to AI, but withheld to protect his confidentiality). The Commission concluded that during his illegal 12-hour detention the man was denied access to his relatives, medical assistance and food.
The case of Angel Dimitrov [update to AI Index: POL 01/001/2006]
Businessman Angel (also referred to as Anguel) Dimitrov died in November 2005 during a police operation in the town of Blagoevgrad, according to police from a heart attack during his arrest...Following public protests by his family, who claimed that the police were responsible for his death, an inquest was opened. In December 2005 the findings of an autopsy revealed that Angel Dimitrov had died from a haemorrhage caused by a blow to the head. Although the Interior Ministry publicly accepted responsibility for his death and the Blagoevgrad police chief resigned, the Prosecutor’s Office announced that there was insufficient evidence to bring a prosecution.
In January 2006 a lawyer acting on behalf of the victim’s family filed a complaint against an order issued by the Sofia District Military Prosecutor calling for a halt to criminal proceedings in the case. Later that month the Sofia Military Court overturned the prosecutor's order and returned the case for further investigation. In March the Ombudsperson, Ginyo Ganev, said that the police had violated Bulgarian and international legislation during the arrest of Angel Dimitrov, concluding that they had used excessive force
The case of Zahari Stefanov
In February, the European Court of Human Rights found that Bulgaria had violated Zahari Stefanov’s rights to life and to be free from torture and arbitrary detention (the case of Ognyanova and Choban v. Bulgaria, see also AI Index: POL 10/02/94, where he is referred to as Zaharie Stefanov).Zahari Stefanov, aged 23 and of Romani origin, had died in June 1993 in Kazanluk police station.. An official enquiry at the time concluded that he had jumped of his own accord out of a third-floor room where he was being questioned, and that all his injuries were caused by the fall.
Police ill-treatment of gay man
In May the Bulgarian Commission for the Protection against Discrimination initiated an investigation in the case of three police officers who allegedly ill-treated a gay man in October 2005 because of his sexual orientation and ethnic origin. The Commission concluded that during his illegal 12-hour detention, the man was denied food and access to his relatives and medical assistance.
Racism and discrimination
In February, non governmental organizations (NGOs) and private individuals filed a civil lawsuit in Sofia City Court against the leader of the far-right Attack (Ataka) party, Volen Siderov. They alleged that he incited others, through television broadcasts, publications and public statements, to harass and discriminate against people from ethnic, religious and sexual minorities.
The Romani community
In March, the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights recommended that the government implement its national plan of 2003-2004 for integrating Roma and establishing a coordinated policy for all minorities.
Evictions of Roma
Also in March the government approved a national programme for improving Romani housing conditions, but discrimination in housing persisted.
In April, for example, residents of the capital, Sofia, demanded the removal of a Romani neighbourhood located in the city’s Zaharna Fabrika district. The major of Sofia said the city prosecutor would aid the municipality in finding a legal way for the Roma residents of Zaharna Fabrika to be moved, promising funds from for temporary shelters.
In June two international human rights organisations, the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions and the European Roma Rights Centre, appealed to the authorities to stop the planned eviction of Roma in Dobri Zhelyazkov and in Batalova vodenitza in Sofia. The district authorities required 16 Romani families to leave their homes within 10 days or the municipality would issue an order for their summary eviction, despite the fact that the communities had lived on this land for several generations. The authorities did not provide reasonable justification, adequate notice, consultation with those affected, compensation, alternative housing or social support for the families. The municipality finally said that legal owners would be compensated according to the law, and others would be accommodated in freight containers adapted to make them habitable and placed on municipal land.
Concerns about mental health care
Concerns about mental health care persisted. In March the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights recommended the provision of decent living conditions for people with mental disabilities who lived in social care centres and psychiatric hospitals that had not yet been refurbished. He also called for increased funds to feed people confined in institutions, and a system to ensure judicial review of decisions to confine such people.
In June, the human rights NGO Bulgarian Helsinki Committee in its report entitled Human Rights in Bulgarian closed institutionsreported that the sanitary facilities in psychiatric hospitals and social care centres were still "in the poorest condition", and that the procedures for placements of patients for compulsory and involuntary treatment, provided under the Health Law of January 2005, had not been implemented correctly.
CROATIA
General and political developments
The government of Ivo Sanader continue to pursue Croatia’s full European integration. The first European Union (EU) accession conference with Croatia was held on 12 June, which saw the opening and provisional finalisation of the science and research negotiating chapter, the first of 35 chapters of the acquis communautaire which will be the subject of detailed negotiations between the EU and Croatia.
In June the Croatian Parliament passed amendments to the Criminal Code eliminating imprisonment as a sanction for libel. Libel remains a criminal offence punished with a fine. Under the new provisions, failure to pay the fine does not result in imprisonment.
War crimes and crimes against humanity (update to AI Index: EUR 01/007/2006)
International prosecutions
In March Milan Babiæwas found dead, after having committed suicide, in the Detention Unit of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (Tribunal). He was detained at the Tribunal as a witness in the trial Milan Martiæ. Milan Martiæ is accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role during the 1991-95 war in various leadership positions in the self-proclaimed Serbian Autonomous District (Srpska autonomna oblast, SAO) and Republic of Serbian Krajina (Republika Srpska krajina, RSK). Milan Babiæ had served as RSK President and had been sentenced by the Tribunal to 13 years’ imprisonment for crimes committed against the non-Serbian population.
Also in March, the Tribunal found Ivica Marijaèiæ and Markica Rebiæguilty of contempt of the Tribunal for having revealed the identity of a protected witness, who had testified in 1997 during the trial against former Croatian Army Colonel Tihomir Blaškiæ. When the identity of the witness was revealed, Ivica Marijaciæ was the editor in chief of the Croatian newspaper Hrvatski list. Markica Rebiæ formerly served as the head of the Croatian Security Information Service(Sigurnosno izveštajna služba) and was found as having disclosed a copy of the closed session testimony to Hrvatski list.
On 11 March, former President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Slobodan Miloševiæ, was found dead in his cell at the Tribunal Detention Unit. An inquest of the Dutch authorities into the death concluded that Slobodan Miloševiæ haddied of natural causes. He was accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity for his alleged involvement in the wars in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and Kosovo.
In April the Trial Chamber declared former Yugoslav People’s Army (Jugoslovenska narodna armija, JNA) commander Vladimir Kovaèeviæ unfit to stand trial, as a result of mental health problems. He is accused of war crimes, including murder, cruel treatment and attacks on civilians, committed during the attack against the Croatian city of Dubrovnik.
On 30 January Milan Buliæ was sentenced by thespecial War Crimes Panel within the Belgrade District Courtto eight years’ imprisonment for participating in war crimes against Croatian civilians in 1991 at the Ovèara farm in Croatia. In 1991,after Vukovar fell to the JNA and Serbian forces, non-Serbs were removed from the Vukovar hospital and subsequently executed at the Ovèara farm.
Domestic investigations and prosecutions
Trials for war crimes and crimes against humanity continued or started before local courts, often in absentia; the vast majority of such trials were against Croatian Serb defendants. There continued to be widespread impunity for crimes allegedly committed by members of the Croatian Army and Croatian police forces despite some steps taken with a view to investigating and prosecuting cases of war crimes against Croatian Serbs.
The retrial at the Split County Court of eight former members of the Croatian Military Police, accused of having tortured and murdered non-Croat detainees in Split’s Lora military prison in 1992, ended in March with a guilty verdict for all the accused. Sentences ranged between six and eight year’s imprisonment. Four of the accused were tried in absentiaand remained at large at the end of the period under review. An initial trial held in 2002 had ended with the acquittal verdict of all suspects; the verdict was subsequently overturned by the Croatian Supreme Court
Proceedings continued against 27 Croatian Serbs, Roma and Ruthenians, 18 of whom are being tried in absentia, at the Vukovar County Court, in what is reportedly the biggest war crimes trial ever held in Croatia. The defendants, who face charges of genocide, are suspected of having committed crimes against the civilian population of the village of Mikluševci, near Vukovar in 1991 and 1992. The trial had initially started in 2004 on the basis of an indictment issued in 1996 against 35 suspects and was suspended upon request of the prosecutor, after it was ascertained that eight of those indicted had meanwhile died.
The retrial continued at the Karlovac County Court of a former member of the Croatian special police on charges of having shot dead 13 disarmed JNA reservists in 1991 in Karlovac, by firing bursts from his machine gun. Two earlier acquittals of the suspect had been overturned by the Croatian Supreme Court.
In May Petar Mamula, former member of Croatian Serb forces, was sentenced to four years and 10 months’ imprisonment for war crimes against the civilian population after proceedings at the Osijek County Court. Five co-defendants were acquitted. Also in May, the Zadar County Court sentenced Neven Pupovac, a former member of a Croatian Serb paramilitary formation, to six years’ imprisonment for war crimes against the civilian population in the Zadar region. On 29 May the Karlovac County Court sentenced Milan Æaæiæ, a former member of Croatian Serb forces, to five years and six months of imprisonment for war crimes, including the beating and the intimidation of non-Serbs in the Slunj area. In the same month, two new indictments were issued by the Vukovar County Prosecutor against a total of 52 suspects, for their alleged involvement in war crimes committed against non-Serbs in the Vukovar area.
In June Munib Suljiæ, a former member of a Croatian police unit was arrested in the Netherlands by the Dutch police acting on the basis of an international arrest warrant. He had been convicted in 2005 by the Zagreb County Court for the murder of a man in 1991 and had gone into hiding when the verdict was issued. He was extradited to Croatia at the end of the month. Also in June, the trial started at the Osijek County Court of two suspects accused of having committed war crimes, including murders, against Croatian Serbs in Osijek.
In May, acting on a request by the Croatian State Prosecutor, the Croatian Parliament voted to lift the immunity of Branimir Glavaš, in connection with an investigation into war crimes, including murders, committed against Croatian Serb civilians in 1991. Branimir Glavaš had formerly been a local leader of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (Hrvatska demokratska zajednica, HDZ) Party in the Osijek region. He was expelled from the HDZ in 2005, although he remained an important political figure in the Osijek-Baranja County. The Croatian Supreme Court, following a request by the Croatian State Prosecutor, decided the transfer of proceedings in this case from Osijek to Zagreb. The Croatian State Prosecutor had requested the transfer citing pressure on witnesses and the overall atmosphere in Osijek as obstacles to the impartial conduct of proceedings.
Missing persons and ‘disappearances’ (update to AI Index: EUR 01/007/2006)
In various statements, the Croatian Government Bureau for Detained and Missing Persons continued to claim that it was still searching for approximately 1,100 missing persons, mostly from the first phase of the 1991-95 war. This figure does not include people, mostly Croatian Serbs, who went missing during military operations "Storm" and "Flash" in 1995. However, in a step forward, in early 2006 the Croatian authorities presented a unified list of approximately 2,500 missing persons, divided in three components: missing from 1991-92; missing from operations "Flash" and "Storm"; and citizens of Serbia and Montenegro who went missing in Croatia.
Many of those reported as missing are believed to be victims of "disappearances". Impunity for these crimes, especially with regard to those allegedly committed by the Croatian Army and Croatian police forces remained widespread.
Right to return (update to AI Index: EUE 01/007/2006)
Approximately 300,000 Croatian Serbs left Croatia during the 1991-95 war, of whom only approximately 120,000 are officially registered as having returned. This figure is widely considered to be an overestimation of the real numbers of those who have returned and remained in Croatia.
Croatian Serbs continued to be victims of discrimination in access to employment and in realising other economic and social rights. Many Croatian Serbs, especially those who formerly lived in urban areas, could not return because they had lost their tenancy rights to socially-owned apartments.
In March the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights delivered a judgement in which it determined that it was unable to decide on the merits of the application inthe Bleèiæ v. Croatia case, as it fell outside the temporal jurisdiction of the Court. The Bleèiæv. Croatia case related to the termination of the applicant’s occupancy rights to her flat in Zadar during the war. AI considered the Bleèiæ v. Croatia caseto be illustrative of the adverse human rights consequences of a pattern of discriminatory terminations of occupancy rights to socially owned flats during and after the war.
Cases of violence and harassment by non-state actors against Croatian Serbs continued to be reported. These have included racist graffiti, assaults, threats, and damage to property. The Serbian Democratic Forum (Srpski demokratski forum), a non-governmental organization, reported 10 incidents between January and early June which saw targeted Croatian Serb returnees in the Zadar area. In April an explosive device was thrown into the orchard of a Croatian Serb returnee in the village of Gaj, near Gospiæ. The Croatian police identified a suspect but the Gospiæ Public Prosecutor reportedly decided not to pursue the case due to lack of evidence.
The perpetrators of the murder in May 2005 of an elderly Croatian Serb man in Karin, near Zadar, were still at large at the end of the period under review. No progress was made in the investigation into the deaths, in October and November 2005, of two Croatian Serb returnees who were killed by explosive devices in a wood in the village of Jagma, in the Lipik municipality. The incidents raised particular concern since they occurred, under similar circumstances, in an area that was not considered affected by mines.
CYPRUS
Detention and welfare of migrants and asylum-seekers
In June AI wrote to the authorities expressing concern regarding the length of detention of migrants, some of whom were failed asylum-seekers, in the special ‘Wing 10’ of the central prison in Nicosia. On 4 May a group of detainees had protested about the long periods of detention imposed by the authorities for residing or working without authorization in the country. The detainees claimed that some people were held for over a year. According to a newspaper report, an Indian national had been held in the custody ward of the Limassol police station for 15 months, even though his deportation could not be executed. Following this protest, groups of asylum-seekers held demonstrations in Eleftheria Square in Nicosia between 8 and 19 May. The demonstrators claimed that they were denied the right to work and at the same time were denied access to health and social benefits while their asylum applications were being processed. According to information that appeared in the media, there were an estimated 12,000 asylum-seekers in Cyprus in May, of whom only 300 have a right to work, while only 350 receive government support.
AI enquired about the number of persons currently detained in the special ‘Wing 10’ of Nicosia prison, and of migrants detained in police stations around the country, as well as the lengths of such detention, and whether any of these detainees had filed asylum applications. It also requested information regarding the allegations of the lack of government support and the steps taken to ensure that the rights of asylum-seekers were protected while their claims were being examined.
AI also expressed concern regarding the unlawful detention of migrants in Limassol. In one case, a Sri Lankan national had been detained for two and a half months, even though her sentence for working without proper authorization had been six weeks. In another case, a Filippino national was arrested for working without authorization in a location other than the one her employer had stated on the permit, after she filed a complaint for breach of contract because she was forced to work at the second location.
Police ill-treatment (update to EUR 01/007/2006)
The criminal investigation into the ill-treatment of Marcos Papageorgiou and Yiannos Nicolaou, both 27, in December 2005 by members of the special police Mobile Immediate Response Unit (MMAD) continued. AI wrote to the authorities in April regarding these events, after the release to the public of a video sequence shot on the night of the incident in which police officers could be seen to be punching, kicking, and swearing at the two men, who were on the pavement, with their hands cuffed behind their back.
AI expressed concerns about the independence and impartiality of the internal police investigation into the incident, and urged the authorities to undertake a second investigation to establish whether the internal one was flawed. The organization also made recommendations on the policy of law enforcement officials regarding identification and requested information about the remit of the newly-established Independent Authority for investigating allegations and complaints against the police. In this regard AI also urged the authorities to ensure that the Independent Authority be provided with the necessary resources to thoroughly investigate all complaints received, including complaints of ill-treatment that took place prior to its establishment, but which surfaced following the release of the footage documenting the ill-treatment of Marcos Papageorgiou and Yiannos Nicolaou. In an answer received in May, the Minister of Public Order stated that the police officers who had ill-treated the two men had filed civil actions against them without the approval or knowledge of the Chief of Police, and that the two men had been charged at the police station with public insult, resisting lawful arrest, assaulting a police officer, and driving under the influence of alcohol. The minister also mentioned that the Chief of Police had issued circulars regarding the treatment of detainees, drawing attention to the need to respect human rights and making clear that breach of rules would lead directly to disciplinary procedures. However, the minister also explained that the officers involved in the incident had not been suspended as this would be deemed an administrative rather than a punitive measure, and as such had not taken place because the Independent Criminal Investigation Committee looking into the incident had not requested it. The minister also explained that the current identification procedures implemented by the police were satisfactory and concluded that the ill-treatment of the two men was an exceptional incident. He also informed AI that the Independent Authority investigating complaints against the police had been set up in February and had assumed its duties, but did not specify whether it would be investigating all complaints received following this incident or not.
Discrimination against women
In May the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) considered Cyprus’ third, fourth, and fifth periodic reports at its 35th session. The CEDAW commended the State party for addressing discrimination against women through a number of laws passed, institutions set up, and action plans developed between 1997 and 2003. However, the CEDAW also expressed concerns on a number of issues, including the lack of training for the judiciary on gender issues, the lack of research and data on the extent and causes of violence against women, the persistence of trafficking and sexual exploitation of women, and the discrimination against women migrants especially regarding contracts and working conditions. On the last two areas of concern, the CEDAW requested that the issuing of new work visas to replace the ‘artistes’ visas be closely monitored, as well as the conditions of contract, salaries, and conditions of work for women migrants, and that integration measures be adopted and measures put in place to enhance access to justice for migrant women. The CEDAW also encouraged Cyprus to ratify the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.
Conscientious Objection
An amendment to the law regulating alternative civilian service for conscientious objectors had still not passed through parliament. In March, the Democratic Rally (DISY) party called for reforms to the organization of the military that included lowering army service to 14 months and long-term plans for replacing the current system of conscription with a professional army.
Czech Republic
Failure to pass anti-discrimination bill
On 26 January, the Senate returned to the Chamber of Deputies an anti-discrimination bill which it regarded as too vague and because it would have introduced affirmative action to assist disadvantaged groups. The aim of the proposed law was to ensure equal treatment and access to education, employment, health care, social benefits and housing regardless of race, gender, age or sexual orientation. The passing of such a law was intended to fulfil obligations following the Czech Republic’s accession to the European Union in 2004.
In March, reporting on his January visit to the Czech Republic, the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights Álvaro Gil-Robles expressed regret that an anti-discrimination bill had not been passed, and also that the Czech Republic had yet to ratify Protocol 12 to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) on the elimination of discrimination.
Discrimination against Roma
In February the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights presented his "Final report on the human rights situation of the Roma, Sinti and Travellers in Europe", finding that Roma face discrimination in access to housing, education and employment. The Commissioner reported that severe unemployment and the consequential poverty and indebtedness have made Roma communities specifically vulnerable to usury practices. The Commissioner also expressed concern at unjustified placing of Romani children in "special" schools.
In March, on his conclusions on the human rights concerns in the Czech Republic, the Commissioner noted that initiatives taken have had a limited effect in reducing social exclusion of large sectors of the Romani population. The Commissioner considered that both regional and local authorities should be more closely involved in the implementation of policies against social exclusion, and invited the government to establish effective instruments of co-operation, co-ordination and supervision to that end. Concerns remained on access to education, in spite of efforts to increase the number of preparatory classes and assistant teachers for Roma pupils, and the Commissioner called the Czech authorities to make greater resources available for the provision of pre-school education, language training and school assistant training in order to ensure the success of efforts to fully integrate Roma pupils into the regular school system.
On 7 February, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) rejected a complaint of discrimination in education brought by 18 Romani people from Ostrava who had been placed in special elementary schools for children with learning difficulties. The ECtHR concluded that the Czech Republic had not breached the prohibition on discrimination and the right to education in the ECHR (Article 14) its Protocol 1 (Article 2). The ECtHR said that it could assess only individual complaints and not their social context. The decision was appealed on 8 May and at the end of the period under review was pending before the Great Chamber of the ECtHR.
In May, a report of the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) Roma and travellers in public education, expressed serious concerns about the segregation in primary education of Romani children and their over-representation in special schools. Although recognizing improvements, like the decision in January to introduce a new monitoring system for the collection of anonymous data on the Roma community, the EUMC considered that more active policies on the part of the state were needed.
Allegations of police ill-treatment
Reports continued of police ill-treatment, particularly against Roma.
The case of Kateøina Jacques
At a demonstration on 1 May in Prague against the far-right National Resistance Movement, a police officer reportedly severely beat Kateøina Jacques, a Green Party candidate in the June general election and a senior official from the government’s Office for Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Section. The policeman allegedly threw her to the ground, kicked her and beat her with a truncheon before handcuffing her and taking away for questioning at the police station. There he allegedly continued to ill-treat her. The office was later suspended pending an investigation into the incident by the Police Inspectorate. The National Police Chief Vladislav Husák subsequently acknowledged that the police action against Kateøina Jacques was inappropriate. The Prime Minister at that time, Jiøí Paroubek said that the police officer's intervention was inexcusable and that the officer should leave the police.
Attacks against Roma
Roma continued to be the target of reported attacks by both law enforcement officials and private individuals (non-state actors). The Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights expressed concerns in its February report about a number of allegations of police violence towards this community and cases of inaction by the police force related to crimes committed against Roma.
Fair trial rights denied
On 28 February, the ECtHR found that the Czech government had violated the right to fair trial by allowing witnesses to remain anonymous in breach of cross-examination requirements under the ECHR. The response related to an appeal lodged on 2 September 1999 by Hasan Krasniki, who had been convicted in 1997 on charges of the production and possession of narcotics through the testimony of two anonymous witnesses. The ECtHR found that, while the use of anonymous witnesses could be compatible with the ECHR, in this case it was not. The reliability of anonymous witnesses should be tested and the conviction should not rely exclusively or determinedly on anonymous statements. Czech law has since been amended.
Same sex partnership
In March a law was passed that allowed same-sex couples to register their partnership after the Chamber of Deputies overrode President Václav Klaus's veto of the legislation. The law accorded some of the same rights and obligations as married couples have, including the rights to raise children, to inherit property and to information on the health of the partner, and the mutual obligation to pay maintenance. It did not provide the right to adopt children.
Detention of irregular migrants and asylum seekers
In his March report the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights continued to urge the Czech authorities to abolish the strict detention regime and to further reduce the maximum detention period for irregular migrants, particularly for minors aged between 15 and 18. The Commissioner welcomed the efforts made to improve the material situation in centres hosting asylum-seekers and the creation of new centres for unaccompanied minors, refugees and families. He noted that the running of detention centres had been transferred from the police to a specialised agency, and that children under 15 were not sent to detention centres and attended ordinary schools.
Violence against women
In his February and March reports the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human rights also addressed a number of issues relating to violence against women. With regard to trafficking in human beings, he welcomed the changes introduced in the criminal code to broaden the definition of trafficking and the establishment of a protection programme. On victims of domestic violence, the Commissioners noted a new provision in the criminal code for a specific criminal offence of domestic violence and for severe sanctions against perpetrators of this offence. He welcomed the introduction of interdisciplinary teams in the detection and prosecution of domestic violence and the creation of special police units, but also called on the authorities to strive to meet the demand for additional space in shelters.
The Commissioner also noted that the Czech Republic should compensate women who had been sterilized without informed consent. The Ombudsman of the Czech Republic had investigated some 80 complaints against hospitals that had allegedly sterilized women without their informed consent. In his final report on this issue, in December 2005, the Ombudsman found that in most cases women were not able to give informed consent because they did not understand the procedure, because of lack of time (sometimes the procedure was carried out within a few minutes of their agreeing to it, or after labour had started) or because of misleading information on the part of the hospital personnel about the nature and consequences of the sterilization procedure. A number of these cases were transferred to the state attorney and the police for investigation (see AI Index: POL 10/001/2006)
FRANCE
Violence against women
On 23 March Parliament adopted new legal measures to help combat domestic violence and abuse. The new provisions included raising the legal age for marriage from 16 to 18 years for girls and regarding violence or rape committed by intimate or ex-intimate partners as an "aggravating factor" to the crime. Further measures were introduced regarding forced marriages, genital mutilation, sex tourism and child pornography. The inclusion of the new crime of marital rape created controversy between the Senate and Parliament as the Senate considered that rape occurring within an intimate personal relationship should not be treated differently to other forms of rape.
Despite these legal developments, the most recent statistics available for France indicate that every four days a woman is killed by her partner or ex-partner, with one in six women experiencing some form of domestic violence.
Many domestic violence cases fail due to lack of evidence and thus result in an acquittal of the accused or dismissal of the case. In this event, women who report abuse risk automatic prosecution under article 226-10 of the penal code for making "false accusations" (dénunciation calomnieuse) as it is assumed at law that the dismissal of a case "necessarily" indicates the falsity of the charges made. Such an assumption creates a "presumption of guilt" on women attempting to bring cases of domestic violence to court. Campaigns to amend this provision are being conducted by women’s organizations in France.
In February Amnesty published a report on domestic violence in France - Violence against women: a matter for the State(AI DOC: EUR 21/001/2006). The report highlights various manifestations of violence in France, namely domestic violence; the specific obstacles encountered by foreign women; the question of forced marriage, and the trafficking of women for the purpose of prostitution. Though not exhaustive, these examples reveal that violence is often hidden, long-term and sustained by a system of control. Furthermore, while legal tools do exist, women often have little knowledge of their rights. Professionals, whether they be police, public prosecutors, social workers or doctors, are generally not properly equipped to provide them with appropriate support.
Racist attacks
The annual report published in March by the National Consultative Human Rights Committee (CNCDH) detailed a 48 per cent decrease in anti-semitic attacks in 2005 (compared to the previous year) and a 38 per cent decrease in other racially-motivated assaults. However, racist, anti-Semitic and Islamophobic attacks continued to be a problem.
In February a young Jewish man, Ilan Halimi, was kidnapped in Paris by a gang and held for ransom for three weeks before being tortured to death. The event sparked protests against anti-semitism and racism involving tens of thousands of demonstrators. The suspected gang leader said they had chosen Ilan Halimi because he was Jewish and therefore assumed to be rich. This was the most serious of reported anti-semitic attacks during the period under review, but not an isolated incident – numerous assaults and profanations of cemeteries were also recorded in the press. In March a comedian was convicted and fined for "incitement to racial hatred" for anti-semitic remarks made in an interview with a French newspaper in February 2004.
Islamophobic and anti-Arab attacks were also reported, including the murder of an Algerian man, Chaib Zehaf, outside a bar in Lyon on 4 March. The deceased man’s family and their lawyer have repeatedly highlighted what they believe to be the racist motive of the murder. The case is being brought to trial. The government is investigating at least 26 websites with anti-Islamic content which may be linked to Islamophobic attacks.
Immigration – La Loi Sarkozy
On 17 May Parliament adopted a controversial immigration bill proposed by the Minister of the Interior, Nicolas Sarkozy. On 16 June the Senate approved the bill on a first reading. It was then to be examined by a mixed party commission before being presented for final adoption by Parliament on 1 July. This bill sparked strong opposition from various political groups as well as religious and civil associations, with more than 11,000 demonstrators protesting in Paris on 13 May (the weekend prior to the vote) and two further demonstrations in Marseille and Toulouse.
For migrants entering the country specifically to work, the bill will grant different forms of residence permits according to the length of contract and level of professional skill. A special three-year permit will be created for "highly qualified" immigrants whose skills are particularly sought-after in France. For others, residence permits will be strictly limited to the duration of their work contract. There were fears that this would place immigrants at risk of abuse by employers due to their total dependency on maintaining employment to avoid expulsion.
Foreign residents convicted of "acts of intimidation or threats" or "rebellion" against public officials (police) may have their 10-year residence permit removed and replaced with a one- year permit which must be renewed annually. The charge of "rebellion" is a broad one commonly cited in cases of controversial arrest or as a counter-charge to accusations of police misconduct.
The bill also extends the period before family reunification applications can be presented and introduces "integration contracts" for anyone applying for a temporary residence permit. Those applying for a 10-year residence card must fulfill "integration" conditions relating to respect of ‘Republican values’ and language proficiency. Automatic regularization of status for irregular migrants after 10 years’ residency in France is repealed. Regularization will now take place on a case-by-case basis.
Immigration detention centres:
In March, members of the European Parliament (MEPs) returning from visits to immigration detention centres around Europe particularly condemned two centres in France: one at Mesnil-Amelot near Roissy airport and the other under the Palais de Justice in Paris. The head of mission, Giusto Catania (MEP Italy) described the general conditions as "shocking" and "unimaginable in Europe". The MEPs, together with the Human Rights Commissioner for the Council of Europe, Alvaro Gil-Robles, welcomed the scheduled closure of the Palais de Justice centre set for June 2006.
Report of the Council of Europe Commissioner on Human Rights
The report of the visit to France by the Human Rights Commissioner for the Council of Europe from 5 to 21 September 2005 was published on 15 February. With respect to asylum and immigration, the report noted the falling number of asylum applications and low rate of recognition (19 per cent in 2005), with the Commissioner expressing regret that the "zones d’attente" (airport waiting areas) were considered by the authorities not to constitute part of French territory. He also expressed concern at the lack of translation assistance provided to non-Francophone applicants now required to present their application in French and the proposed reduction to 21 days of the maximum period to present an asylum request and 15 days (currently one month) to appeal against a decision.
Regarding police ill-treatment, the Commissioner expressed concern at the rising number of complaints of police violence in recent years, noting that the vast majority of complaints were made by French citizens of foreign origin or foreigners. He recommended that all police in contact with the public should be identifiable at all times by way of some form of identification tag to avoid impunity. Whilst recognizing the crucial role of the Commission Nationale de Déontologie de la Sécurité (CNDS, the French police ombudsman) the Commissioner recommended that its mandate be expanded and its budget increased to ensure it is able to fulfill its task adequately.
One of the most prominent aspects of the report was its assessment of prison conditions which were considered to be at the "limit of human dignity" due to chronic over-crowding which led to the violation of prisoners’ fundamental rights. The report also expressed concern at the use of isolation regimes without time limit for convicted prisoners. On 15 February the minister of justice announced a reform of the isolation regime due to take place in the first half of the year.
Police accountability
Lawyers for the surviving victim of accidental electrocution at Clichy-sous-bois on 27 October 2005 presented a request to the Minister of the Interior in April to recognize the state’s negligence in the events. Three boys were accidentally electrocuted when being chased by police, and two died, leading to the widespread riots of November 2005 (see AI Index: POL 10/001/2006). The lawyers claimed that the police failed to act to protect the three boys from harm despite knowing the danger they were in as they hid in the electrical power centre.
On 9 February a book entitled Place Beauvau: the hidden face of the police(Place Beauvau : la face cachée de la police) was published in France, alleging acts of torture committed by police officers investigating the 1995 islamist terrorist attacks which killed eight people and wounded more than 170 (see AI DOC: POL 10/002/1996). The book contained testimony from former detainees as well as anonymous police sources. In response to these allegations, an inquiry was immediately launched by the Minister of the Interior, to be carried out by the Inspéction General de la Police Nationale (IGPN – an internal investigative body of the police). On 17 March the inquiry’s preliminary report was published. It affirmed accusations that detainees were struck by police officers but found insufficient evidence to support, or in some cases totally rejected, allegations of torture. The Minister of the Interior passed the files on to the Public Prosecutor (Procureur de la République).
The annual report of the Commission nationale de déontologie de la sécurité (CNDS, the French police ombudsman) noted a ten per cent increase in complaints against the police and a 14.55 per cent increase in 2005 of the number of sanctions imposed against police officers following disciplinary proceedings. The number of complaints about police violence decreased by 5.6 per cent, equivalent to approximately one complaint for every 6,000 police interventions. The Commission highlighted its particular concern regarding misconduct in relation to treatment of minors, asylum-seekers and irregular migrants.
Impunity for police abuses – the case of Brice Petit (Update to AI Index: POL 10/001/2006)
The case of Brice Petit, charged with insulting a police officer and defamation following his intervention in the arrest of a stranger in Montpellier, finally concluded. The original tribunal on 31 August 2004 at Montpellier magistrates court convicted Brice Petit for defamation but acquitted him of the other charges on the benefit of the doubt (the only evidence being the word of the police officers against that of the accused and numerous civilian witnesses). The public prosecutor had appealed this decision but the Court of Appeal in Montpellier confirmed the acquittal on 2 March. Brice Petit had made a complaint against the police for their treatment during his arrest but in March the investigating judge closed the case without action. Whilst accepting the credibility of Brice Petit’s statement the investigating judge declared that "someone with such idealistic principles would have found the harsh reality of arrest a major shock".
Counter-terrorism
Rendition flights
In a report published in April entitled USA: Below the radar: Secret flights to torture and ‘disappearance’ (AI Index: AMR 51/051/2006) AI investigated the practice of "renditions" - the illegal transfer of people between states outside of any judicial process by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The report noted information on a total of six flights suspected to have made stop-overs at French airports. A preliminary governmental enquiry on this matter was opened following a complaint lodged by two non-governmental organizations in December 2005, but a full judicial investigation had not been established by the end of the period under review.
The case of M’hamed Benyamina
M’hamed Benyamina, an Algerian national resident in France since 1997, was arrested by Algerian security forces during a visit to Algeria in September 2005, allegedly at the request of the French authorities in relation to his suspected involvement in terrorist activities. A lawyer acting on his behalf in France lodged a complaint in December with the Tribunal de Grande Instance in Paris claiming that M’hamed Benyamina was being detained arbitrarily in Algeria at the request of the French authorities.
In February Amnesty International sent a letter to the French Minister of the Interior, raising concerns regarding the circumstances of M’hamed Benyamina’s incommunicado detention particularly in light of on-going evidence of torture and "disappearance" of suspects held by the Algerian Security Forces. That month, M’hamed Benyamina was charged with "belonging to a terrorist organisation operation abroad" and "joining a terrorist group operating in Algeria". At his trial he was not assisted by a lawyer. He complained to the judge of having been ill-treated while in detention but no investigation appears to have been launched into these allegations.
Following his trial and continued detention in Algeria, media reports indicate that M’hamed Benyamina is now wanted by judicial authorities in France in connection with alleged plans to commit violent attacks on targets in France. AI made an urgent appeal to the Algerian authorities on behalf of M’hamed Benyamina on 3 April expressing concern for his physical integrity and requesting them to communicate his location and the charges against him to his family.
Death penalty
In response to a decision by the Constitutional Council on 13 October 2005 that France’s ratification of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) required a constitutional amendment, on 3 January President Jacques Chirac announced his intention to amend the Constitution to reflect the prohibition of the death penalty in all circumstances. Such a measure would also enable France to become party to the Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR, aimed at total abolition of the death penalty. Although capital punishment was abolished from French domestic law in 1981 this action was easily reversible through legislation. Abolishment of the death penalty from the Constitution would make such a measure permanent and ensure French law was in line with its international obligations.
In January, following a 2005 decision by the Constitutional Council that France’s ratification of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights required a constitutional reform, President Jacques Chirac announced his intention to amend the Constitution to reflect the prohibition of the death penalty in all circumstances. Such a measure would also enable France to become party to the Covenant’s Second Optional Protocol, aimed at total abolition of the death penalty.
GEORGIA
UN Committee against Torture
On 3 and 4 May the UN Committee against Torture (CAT) examined Georgia’s third periodic report on the implementation of the country’s obligations under the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. On 19 May it issued its conclusions and recommendations.
The findings of the CAT echoed concerns expressed by AI regarding the persistence of impunity in relation to the use of excessive force and torture or other ill-treatment by law enforcement officials; the anonymity of special unit police who are often masked when conducting arrests and do not wear identification tags; and the absence of legislation providing for prompt and adequate reparation. The CAT also expressed concern about the use of diplomatic assurances in adjudicating requests for refoulement, extradition or expulsion; about the high number of sudden deaths in custody, and about the absence of detailed information on independent investigations into such deaths.
Among other issues, the CAT called on the Georgian authorities to "introduce regular monitoring by an independent oversight body" to look into human rights violations in the police force and the penitentiary system; that Georgia "strengthen its investigative capacity" in order to ensure that all allegations of torture or other ill-treatment are investigated promptly and thoroughly; that all detainees are promptly informed of their rights to counsel and to be examined by a medical doctor of their own choice; and that Georgia develop and implement a methodology to evaluate the impact of training programmes for law enforcement and penitentiary officials on the reduction of torture or other ill-treatment.
AI had submitted its own report to the CAT members detailing its concerns about continuing allegations of torture or other ill-treatment in police custody and the continuing risk that refugees might be refouled to countries where they would be at risk of torture (AI Index: EUR 56/005/2006). In addition to a number of recommendations also made by the CAT, AI has further called on the Georgian authorities to:
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Promptly draft and implement a comprehensive, coherent action plan against torture that is resourced accordingly to build on the two-year Plan of Action against Torture in Georgia that expired with no new action plan in place in December 2005.
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Ensure that additional efforts are made to end torture or other ill-treatment in the regions of Georgia outside Tbilisi including by increasing monitoring of detention facilities.
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Ensure that law enforcement officers who are placed under investigation for serious human rights violations are suspended from their duties pending the outcome of the disciplinary and judicial proceedings against them.
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Ensure that judges and procurators routinely ask persons brought from police custody whether they were tortured or ill-treated during arrest or detention in police custody.
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Ensure that all questioning of an individual by a police officer is audio/video recorded and that all police authorities are supplied with the equipment necessary for this purpose.
Allegations of excessive use of force in pre-trial detention and prisons
AI received allegations that the authorities used excessive force against inmates of investigation-isolation facilities and prisons on several occasions in the period under review and that at least seven detainees died as a result. AI was seriously concerned that the authorities failed to open prompt, thorough and impartial investigations into the allegations.
Reportedly, on 26 January a senior official at the Ministry of Justice and some 30 members of the ministry’s special forces conducted a search for contraband at Batumi prison. There were allegations that they forced all prisoners outside into the yard and made them run between lines of officers who beat them with truncheons. The prisoners were reportedly forced to stay in the yard for at least two hours in extremely cold temperatures, wearing only their underwear.
Early on 30 January special forces of the Ministry of Justice entered prison no. 1 in Rustavi to conduct a search. Reportedly, a large number of prisoners were beaten by special forces officers after some of the inmates resisted. Special forces reportedly also fired submachine-guns and rubber bullets into the air. To AI’s knowledge, by the end of the period under review no investigations had been opened into the allegations of excessive force with regard to the incidents in Batumi prison and prison no. 1 in Rustavi.
The most serious incident, involving loss of life, took place early on 27 March when special forces reportedly used excessive force against defendants held in investigation-isolation prison no. 5 in Tbilisi. At least seven inmates were killed and many others wounded. According to the authorities, special forces entered the prison to suppress an armed riot and attempted break-out that ringleaders had allegedly organized in advance. The Justice Minister of Georgia stated at a press briefing later that day that the special forces had several times in vain urged the inmates to stop the riot before they "launched the special operation, which lasted for two hours".
According to local human rights organizations, however, the special forces operation was carried out to put down a spontaneous protest by detainees against physical and verbal abuse of inmates in the nearby central prison hospital by a senior official of the Ministry of Justice and special forces earlier that night. Reportedly, the special forces that entered investigation-isolation prison no. 5 did not seek first to use alternative non-violent means to establish control of the prison, but instead fired automatic weapons and rubber bullets into the air, and beat detainees with truncheons.
Later in the day on 27 March senior government officials, including President Mikhail Saakashvili, rejected allegations that excessive force had been used and affirmed that security forces had acted appropriately. According to a report by the US-funded Radio Liberty, on 28 March members of the pro-government majority in parliament, accusing opposition politicians of "patronizing criminals", rejected a proposal to set up a parliamentary inquiry into the 27 March events. According to some reports, the General Procuracy opened an investigation specifically looking into the allegations of excessive use of force by security personnel some three months later. According to other sources, no investigative activities had been conducted by the end of the period under review.
The Ombudsman of Georgia and local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) raised concern at the lack of adequate medical treatment of those injured as a result of the events in the prison hospital and in investigation-isolation prison no. 5 on 27 March. For example, according to a statement issued by the Ombudsman’s Office on 7 April, six men who allegedly sustained injuries as a result of beatings by officials in the prison hospital were transferred to investigation-isolation prison no. 7 in Tbilisi later that night without an authorization by prison doctors and were only given access to medical personnel after the Ombudsman’s intervention. According to information from the NGO Empathy, received by AI on 9 April, many detainees who had sustained bullet wounds on 27 March and were subsequently transferred to investigation-isolation prison no. 6 in Rustavi were left without immediate medical treatment and the wounds of some of them started to fester.
Interior Ministry officials stand trial for killing of Sandro Girgvliani
At the end of the period under review the trial began of four Interior Minstry officials charged with killing a young man named Sandro Girgvliani. Three other senior Interior Minstry officials were suspended during the investigation, amid allegations that those who carried out the crimes had done so at the instigation of others.
Late on 27 January three officers of the Interior Ministry reportedly took Sandro Girgvliani, aged 28, and his friend Levan Bukhaidze to the settlement of Okrokana near Tbilisi. The three officers and another man who reportedly joined them later were said to have beaten and otherwise ill-treated the two young men severely. Levan Bukhaidze was abandoned by the men and managed to get back to Tbilisi. Sandro Girgvliani was said to have died as a result of injuries he sustained and was found near a local cemetery the next day. Reportedly, a forensic medical expert found 12 stabs on his neck and two dozen cuts on his left arm.
A television report on Imedi TV in early February alleged that four senior officials of the Interior Ministry may have ordered the killing. According to non-governmental sources, the abduction and beating of the two young men were connected to a quarrel earlier that evening in Chardin Bar in central Tbilisi where Sandro Girgvliani, Levan Bukhaidze, several senior officials of the Interior Ministry and the Interior Minister’s wife had spent the evening. According to official sources, the quarrel between Sandro Girgvliani and Levan Bukhaidze on the one hand and Interior Ministry officers on the other started outside the bar, not in the presence of senior staff of the Ministry or the Minister’s wife.
On 6 March the Interior Minister announced at a press conference that "we have solved the murder of Girgvliani" and that four suspects, all employees of the Department of Constitutional Security at the Interior Ministry, had been arrested on suspicion of killing Sandro Girgvliani. However, several local human rights organizations and opposition politicians urged that the investigation should continue to identify those who they alleged had ordered the crime.
On 13 March Sozar Subari, the Ombudsman of Georgia, was reported by Black Sea Press as saying that all senior government officials who, in the eyes of the public, have come under suspicion of involvement in the crime, should promptly leave their posts. The same day three senior Interior Ministry officials who had – among others – been accused by human rights activists, opposition politicians and journalists of having ordered Sandro Girgvliani’s murder, were suspended from their duties for the duration of the investigation.
At a news briefing on 2 May Tbilisi city procurator Giorgi Ghviniashvili stated that "the fact that the arrested individuals […] committed the crime is confirmed by numerous pieces of evidence, including their confessions […] Most importantly, they were identified by victim Levan Bukhaidze." He added that "so far, we have no evidence pointing to anyone who gave the order to carry out the crime".
Shalva Shavgulidze, the lawyer working on Sandro Girgvliani’s case, was reported by Black Sea Press on 19 May as saying that he believed the investigation was being delayed on purpose and that it was not being conducted objectively. The trial of the four Interior Ministry employees charged with "deliberate infliction of grave injuries, resulting in death" started on 27 June.
Possible prisoners of conscience arrested for 30 days following picket
On 29 June five activists of the NGO Equality Institute – Irakli Kakabadze, Lasha Chkhartishvili, Zurab Rtveliashvili, Dzhaba Dzhishkariani and David Dalakishvili – were detained by court guards when they protested in front of Tbilisi appeal court. The five were demanding the release of the journalists Shalva Ramishvili and David Kokhreidze, who were being tried in the court building, charged with "extortion". Eka Tkeshelashvili, the chairwoman of the court, said at a press briefing later the same day that "the chair of the court has the right to deprive [people] of liberty if [they express] contempt of court and if the order is gravely violated". Later that day Eka Tkeshelashvili sentenced the five men to 30 days’ imprisonment under Article 208, part 6 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Georgia ("violating court order"), the maximum sentence provided for by this article. Reportedly, the sentence was imposed without an oral hearing and the verdict was not subject to appeal. After their arrest, Irakli Kakabadze, who suffers from a severe form of diabetes, was transferred to a hospital in Saburtalo district in Tbilisi, while the other four were taken to an investigation-isolation prison in Tbilisi.
AI was seriously concerned at allegations that the men were targeted to punish them for exercising their right to freedom of expression. Although independent sources report that the protest took place in front of the court building, Article 208 of the Criminal Procedure Code which was used to imprison the men only applies to violations of order in the courtroom or inside the court building. During the protest Irakli Kakabadze used a megaphone demanding the two journalists’ release. While AI acknowledges that the noise generated by the megaphone could have disrupted the court proceedings, the organization was seriously concerned that the court’s reaction was not proportionate to the action of the protesters. According to the human rights group Georgian Young Lawyers Association, Irakli Kakabadze only used the megaphone for two minutes. Reportedly, the other four protesters did not use a megaphone at all.
Law on domestic violence adopted
In a positive move, on 25 May, the Georgian Parliament adopted the Law of Georgia on Combating Domestic Violence, Prevention of and Support to Its Victims, which had been drafted following extensive consultation with NGOs. The stated aims of the law included, among other things, to ensure "cooperation between various institutions in order to prevent domestic violence from occurring" and to provide "access to justice to victims of domestic violence". The law introduced for the first time a definition of domestic violence into Georgian legislation. In addition, it provided a legal basis for the issuance of protection and restraint orders. It also stipulated that a special plan outlining measures and activities necessary to implement the law should be approved by the government within four months of the law’s publication.
Much will depend on the implementation of the law, which AI will monitor. A major drawback of the law, however, was that while stipulating that temporary shelters for victims of domestic violence and rehabilitation centres for batterers should be set up, the implementation of this provision was postponed until 2008.
By the end of the period under review there were no state-run shelters in Georgia and the government did not provide financial or other assistance to NGOs willing to set up shelters. The only shelter in Georgia specializing in providing safe shelter and services to victims of domestic violence and human trafficking that was functioning at the end of the period under review was run by the NGO Anti-Violence Network of Georgia and located in a three-bedroom flat in Tbilisi that accommodates 10 people. According to local NGOs the demand for space in a shelter was much higher than the places available, and more shelters were urgently needed.
Concerns in the disputed regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia
Civil society activists reprimanded for contacts with Georgians
In June the mother of civil society activist Alan Dzhusoity was dismissed from her job as head mistress of school no. 6 in Tskhinval (referred to by the Georgians as Tskhinvali) in South Ossetia. It was believed that her dismissal was an attempt by the authorities of South Ossetia to put pressure on her son to end his contacts with Georgian NGOs. Alan Dzhusoity and his NGO colleagues Alan Parastaev and Timur Tskhovrebov had repeatedly been reprimanded by the authorities for their contacts with Georgian NGOs and their visits to Georgia.
On 21 June, several days after Alan Dzhusoity’s mother was dismissed from her job, the three men traveled to Tbilisi from Tskhinval (Tskhinvali) in South Ossetia to take part in the recording of a TV discussion at Studio Re, an NGO video production studio, on the topic of Georgian-Ossetian relations. During the discussion the three activists spoke out in favour of an independent South Ossetia. They also stated that they did not want South Ossetians and Georgians to be enemies but that peace could only be restored if Georgia acknowledged that the South Ossetian population had a right to self-determination. Shortly after their visit to Tbilisi, President Eduard Kokoity called the three men and other civil society activists to his office. Reportedly, the three men did not attend the meeting but the other activists that were present were warned against any contact with Georgians.
The death penalty (update to AI Indexes: EUR 04/002/2004 and EUR 01/007/2006)
On 28 June the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted Recommendation 1760 (2006) entitled Position of the Parliamentary Assembly as regards the Council of Europe member and observer states which have not abolished the death penalty. With regard to the internationally unrecognized territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia PACE stated that "the death penalty should be abolished in these territories and […] the sentences of all prisoners currently on death row in Abkhazia […] should be immediately commuted to terms of imprisonment in order to put an end to the cruel and inhuman treatment of those who have been kept on death row for years in a state of uncertainty as to their ultimate fate".
GREECE
Counter-terrorism (update to EUR 01/007/2006)
On 11 May two agents of the Hellenic Intelligence Service (EYP) were charged with kidnapping one Indian and six Pakistani nationals in Athens in July 2005, and further investigations were ordered against them. No evidence was discovered in the cases of another six agents initially suspected of having been involved in the abductions, although the on-going investigation also involved them. AI wrote to the authorities in January and May expressing concerns at the alleged abductions, seeking assurances that should human rights abuses be found to have been committed, all those reasonably expected of being responsible would be brought to justice and reparations offered to the victims. AI also sought clarification about the measures taken to ensure that the human rights of the 2,172 migrants who were interrogated in July and August 2005, including six individuals who were deported, were respected. The Minister of Public Order responded to these enquiries in June, informing AI of the progress of the case and emphasizing that "the Hellenic Intelligence Service and the Governmental Agencies had no participation in the case". It was also claimed that the rights of those interrogated and deported had been fully respected, although no details were provided on the measures taken to ensure this.
Denial of refugee protection
AI learnt that following the publication of its report Greece – Out of the Spotlight: the Rights of Foreigners and Minorities are Still a Grey Area (AI Index: EUR 25/016/2005) in October 2005, the local authorities on Chios island removed the metal container in which migrants had been detained. In a letter to the authorities in May 2005, which remained unanswered, AI had asked the government to stop using the container to detain migrants and to carry out investigations in order to establish whether containers were being used elsewhere to detain people. AI had also requested information on the whereabouts of the former detainees and the government’s intention to pay reparations. Although they removed the contained, the local authorities on Chios also banned access by a local activist group to the detention centre for migrants on the island – the group used to provide material assistance to detainees, as well as assistance with the filing of asylum applications and Greek language lessons.
According to statistics published by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the rate of refugee recognition had increased to 1.13 per cent, with a total of 37 cases receiving refugee protection out of a total 3,431 applications for asylum examined in the first half of 2006 (in another 13 cases, protection was granted for humanitarian reasons). However, AI remained concerned that some of the people who had applied for asylum were encouraged to withdraw their applications in order to qualify for residence and work permits under a new law that came into force in August 2005, regulating the entry, residence, and integration of non-European Union (EU) nationals in the country. According to information received by AI, many of the applicants withdrew their applications in the hope of legalizing their status in Greece faster than was the case with asylum applications, where it may take up to two to three years for an application to be examined. However, the lack of staff has slowed both processes.
Arbitrary arrests
During a protest on 5 May organized by the Athens-based non governmental organization (NGO) Support to Refugees and Migrants Network -- as part of the events around the 2006 European Social Forum (ESF) held in Athens at that time -- police used excessive force in attacking demonstrators and detained about 30 persons, including members of the European parliament, university professors, lawyers, political party members, organizers of the 2006 ESF, and journalists. The protestors were demanding a stop to ill-treatment practices towards migrants. Police officers based at the police station where the protest took place had allegedly ill-treated a number of Afghan nationals in December 2004, and the case is still under investigation (see AI Index: EUR 25/016/2004). Four of the protestors who were attacked and detained were meeting with the superintendent of the police station – the arrests took place during this meeting. AI issued a statement on 5 May expressing concern about the excessive use of force used by the police against the protestors and fear that the arrests may have been arbitrary.
Conscientious objection to military service
In May AI published a report Greece: High time to comply fully with European standards on conscientious objection (AI Index: EUR 25/003/2006) in which it assessed the provisions and application of law 3421/2005 on military service, which came into force in November 2005. Under the law, alternative civilian service remains punitive, and its administration, as well as the process of determining conscientious objector status, is under military authorities. Cases against conscientious objectors which had been opened under the previous law remained open under this new law. AI called on the authorities to amend the law and ensure that it complies with European law and international standards. Apart from reducing the length and making the administration of the alternative civilian service independent from military authorities, AI also recommended that the right to conscientious objection becomes applicable at all times, including in time of war; that the right to claim conscientious objector status is available both before and after entering the armed forces; that conscientious objectors recover their civil and political rights (for example to travel abroad); and that information regarding the right to conscientious objection is made more widely available.
Trafficking in human beings
On 27 February Albania and Greece signed an agreement on the protection, including repatriation, rehabilitation and care, of Albanian children trafficked into Greece. The agreement came after reports about the disappearance, between 1998 and 2002, of 502 children, mostly Albanian Roma, from a state institution that had been charged with their protection. By the end of the period under review, however, the agreement had still to be ratified by the Greek parliament.
The agreement established two government agencies in both countries, which would work in communication with NGOs working in the sector. The agreement set out procedures for the provision of food, shelter, and medical and psychosocial support; the appointment of temporary guardians; arrangements for voluntary return; the integration process upon their return; and the prohibition of detention and criminal prosecution of children.
The agreement did not, however, specify conditions on voluntary return of children, including the process of determining whether the return was indeed voluntary. Nor did it specify provisions for the protection of children during the criminal investigation process or for cases of children trafficked by their parents.
Also in February, Bulgarian police arrested six persons suspected of trafficking 13 expectant mothers into Greece where they were paid money to give their babies up, reportedly against their will, or were forced to do so in exchange for loans they had been unable to repay in their country.
On 6 April reports appeared in the media concerning the alleged rape of a 29-year-old Bulgarian national while she was detained in a police station in Rhodes. She was initially charged with illegal entry and detained pending deportation, even though there were suspicions that she was a victim of trafficking – two men who had arranged her transfer from Crete to Rhodes were subsequently charged with trafficking and pimping. The woman alleged that, while she was being detained, one officer took her to his house and raped her while another officer raped her upon return to the police station. A criminal investigation was opened, and the two officers have been charged with rape, while the guard on duty at the police station at the time and the station commander have been charged with neglect of duty.
Later that month the EU Council of Ministers agreed on an integrated plan proposed by the Greek Minister of Public Order to combat trafficking in human beings. The plan covers coordination activities in home security between all countries of South Eastern Europe and the Balkans.
Discrimination
In a report published by the Ombudsman’s Office in March, on the application of Law 3304/2005 against discrimination, a series of violations were noted, including: the refusal to transfer drivers’ licences issued in countries of the former Soviet Union to naturalized Greeks despite the fact that this was possible for Greeks born in Greece; police discrimination against Albanian nationals and members of the Muslim minority in Rodopi; and discrimination in the workplace against disabled individuals. The report also highlighted problems of discrimination faced by Romani individuals with respect to housing. In particular, it was stated that "the unacceptable and, in certain cases, demeaning to human dignity, phenomenon of the, mainly indirect, discriminatory treatment of members of this population is often linked to institutional practices of discrimination". The report also noted problems in the scope of application of the anti-discrimination law because of the requirement for a victim to grant formal power of attorney to civil society organizations representing them in order for the complaint to be dealt with, and lack of public awareness about the law.
Failure to conduct thorough, prompt and impartial investigation
In January, AI learnt that on 31 December 2005 Dimitrios Souras, a 21-year-old Greek national serving his military service in the border district of Evros, was found dead near the military post where he was serving in the region of Pythion. AI received a statement from Dimitrios Souras’ parents, raising concerns about the circumstances that led to their son’s death. The complainants sent photographs of their son’s body, which showed extensive bruising on the face and the arms, inconsistent with the findings of the expert who performed the initial autopsy on behalf of the military authorities on 5 January indicating that "the body bore no marks indicating that a crime may have been committed". That autopsy also concluded that "the death was due to severe damage to the head as a result of being shot at close range." The expert had allegedly instructed Dimitrios Souras’ parents that their son’s body would be delivered to them in a sealed coffin, which they were not to open. This raised their suspicions that their son may not have committed suicide, prompting them to open the coffin and photograph the injuries visible on the body. In a complaint filed with the Prosecutor on 10 January, Dimitrios Souras’ parents demanded that their son’s body be exhumed and a second autopsy be performed by an independent forensic expert. Following this complaint, three forensic experts from the Athens Forensics Department carried out a second autopsy on 13 January. Because of damage caused during the first autopsy, the second autopsy was inconclusive on whether the fatal gunshot wound was inflicted at close range as well as on its precise location. It did, however, establish that the bruising was sustained while Dimitrios Souras was alive and shortly before he died. The forensic experts also stated that the initial autopsy had not tested for traces of gunpowder. By the end of the period under review, neither Dimitrios Souras’ parents nor the lawyers acting on their behalf had received answers to their questions regarding the discrepancies between the findings of the first and second autopsies, or to their requests for information about the investigation regarding their son’s death and for the photographs relating to the second autopsy to be given to them.
Freedom of conscience and religion (update to EUR 25/001/2006)
On 14 March the Appeals Court acquitted Professor Takis Alexiou, founder of the Greek Rumi Committee and President (1994-1996) of the Panhellenic Historical & Philosophical Society (PANIFE). He had been sentenced on 1 July 2005, by the court of first instance in Rhodes, to a 25-month prison term in spite of the Court Prosecutor’s own request for his acquittal. Charges had been brought against Professor Alexiou in a case involving allegedly defamatory actions following a divorce involving other people who were members of PANIFE. Professor Takis Alexiou appeared to have been charged on the basis of his leadership of the Greek Rumi Committee and PANIFE.
HUNGARY
Policing concerns
UN Committee on the Rights of the Child
The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) considered Hungary’s second periodic report under the Convention on the Rights of the Child at its session in January. In its Concluding Observations made public in March, the CRC expressed its concerns, inter alia, about information indicating that children continued to be victims of arbitrary detentions, police brutality and ill-treatment in detention facilities. The CRC recommended that the Hungarian authorities investigate thoroughly all allegations of torture and ill-treatment; ensure that perpetrators are brought to justice; and provide adequate reparations, rehabilitation and recovery programmes for victims of such abuses.
Committee for the Prevention of Torture
In June, the Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) published a report on its last visit to Hungary, held in March and April 2004.
The CPT reported that it had received some allegations of physical ill-treatment by the police at the time of apprehension, in the form of kicks, punches, and tight handcuffing (while recognizing that the majority of the persons interviewed who were, or had recently been, detained by the police, signalled that they had been correctly treated, both at the time of their apprehension and during questioning). The CPT called on the authorities to remind police officers that the ill-treatment of detainees (whether of a physical or verbal nature) is not acceptable and should be the subject of severe sanctions, and that no more force than is strictly necessary should be used when affecting an apprehension. The report also noted the need to remind law enforcement officials that once an apprehended person had been brought under control, there could never be any justification for their being struck.
The CPT raised concerns that, at the time of their visit, it remainedexceptional for persons to benefit from the presence of a lawyer at any stage of police custody, reporting that in many cases lawyers appointed ex officiohad no contact with detained persons until the first court hearing or did not even appear in court. The CPT called on the authorities to create a fully fledged and properly funded system of legal aid for persons in police custody who were not in a position to pay for a lawyer, and for this to be applicable from the very outset of police custody.
With regard to access to health care, the CPT expressed serious concerns about the presence of police officers during the medical examination of detainees, remarking that there could be no justification for police officers being "systematically"present during such examinations, and also about the fact that all medical examinations of persons in police custody were performed by police-appointed doctors. The CPT reiterated its recommendation that the right of detained persons to be examined by an external doctor be formally guaranteed and to ensure that if a detainee presents injuries and makes allegations of ill-treatment, he or she should be seen by an outside medical expert and the case referred to a prosecutor.
Discrimination against Roma
Discrimination continued to deprive the Romani community of a range of rights, including to education, housing and employment.
In its Concluding Observations issued in March (see above), the CRC raised concerns about the prevalence of discriminatory and xenophobic attitudes, especially towards the Roma population, with Romani children in particular stigmatized, excluded and impoverished in relation to the rest of the population because of their ethnicity. Such discrimination was most notable in housing, jobs, and access to health, adoption and educational services. The Committee expressed concern at the arbitrary segregation of Romaini children in special institutions or classes.
Also in March the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, in his Follow-up report on Hungary, called for provisions to be developed that would help Roma obtain decent housing, firmly punish discriminatory or anti-Roma behaviour, and end the over representation of Romani children in special classes or home education.
Court rules Miskolc municipality upheld segregation of Roma children
In June 2006, the Debrecen Appeals Court overruled a first instance judgment and found that the Miskolc municipality, by integrating seven schools without simultaneously redrawing their catchment areas, had perpetuated the segregation of Roma children, violating their right to equal treatment.
In June 2005, the non-governmental organisation Chance for Children Foundation (Esélyt a Hátrányos Helyzetû Gyerekeknek Alapítvány, CFCF) filed a lawsuit against the local council of Miskolc, alleging the practice of school segregation of Romani children citywide. In November 2005, the Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County Court, sitting at first instance, dismissed the lawsuit. While the court acknowledged the fact that Roma children were over-represented in some of the merged schools, it rejected the suit stating that CFCF had failed to show that disparities were directly based on race and resulted from intentional action by the local council; that the local council could not be held responsible for residential segregation and the social disadvantages of Roma which underpinned disparities in the present case; and that the council was not liable for the failure of individual schools to implement their pedagogical plan in light of the obligation of equal treatment.
Violence against women
In his March report, the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights noted that Hungary did not yet have a network of shelters for women suffering domestic violence which was adequate to the problem. The Commissioner also called on the government and parliament to enact as soon as possible legislation creating a specific offence of domestic violence.
In June, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) made available Hungary’s sixth periodic report on measures taken to implement the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. The Hungarian government noted measures including the Act on Equal Treatment and the Promotion of Equal Opportunities, which entered into force in 2003, and new powers under the Criminal Procedure Code to issue restraint orders against the perpetrators of family violence which were set to come into force in July. However, women’s and human rights organizations continued to criticize restrictions that would allow restraint orders to be issued only when a criminal prosecution has been initiated.
KAZAKSTAN
Human rights violations in the "war on terror"
AI was concerned that Kazakstan continued to cooperate with Uzbekistan and China in the name of regional security and the "war on terror" in flagrant disregard of their obligations under international law, including the UN 1951 Refugee Convention, the UN Convention against Torture and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which prohibit the forcible return of anyone to a country or territory where they would be at risk of serious human rights violations.
Forcible returns to China
Thirty-five-year old Yusuf Kadir Tohti (also known as Erdagan) and 30-year-old Abdukadir Sidik, two Uighur men originally from China's Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR), were being held in incommunicado detention in China at the end of June after having been forcibly returned from Kazakstan on 10 May. They were at risk of serious human rights violations, including torture or other ill-treatment, and possibly the death penalty, should their "crimes" be deemed to be "serious". The Kazakstani authorities deported the two men from Almaty, in the south of Kazakstan, to Urumqi, XUAR, following "a decision by the specialized administrative court of Almaty for violation of rules of stay in Kazakstan".
Yusuf Kadir Tohti reportedly fled China for Kazakstan in 1996, and became a religious teacher. The Chinese authorities reportedly accused him of "separatism" and asked for his extradition. He was detained in Almaty by Kazakstani law enforcement officers on 8 March. Abdukadir Sidik was detained on the same day. He had fled the XUAR in 1999 after he publicly protested against the Chinese authorities’ policy on minorities, particularly their enforcement of the family planning policy which limited the number of children that Uighurs could have. He had also protested against harsh working conditions during mandatory state labour which reportedly lasts 45 days for men. He was reportedly detained for two months in connection with his political activities and views. After his release Abdukadir Sidik reportedly filed a complaint against a local official. After he submitted his complaint, the official reportedly came to his house, beat him and threatened him with further punishment. It was after this that Abdukadir Sidik, reportedly fearing for his safety, fled China and was detained by Kazakstani border officials when crossing the border. He was charged by the Kazakstani authorities with illegally crossing the border and sentenced to six months' imprisonment. According to Abdukadir Sidik he actually spent 18 months in detention, and in a letter written from prison before he was forcibly returned, Abdukadir Sidik reported that he was interrogated and threatened by Chinese police officers while in detention in Kazakstan.
Extradition request from Uzbekistan
Gabdurafikh Temirbaev, a refugee from Uzbekistan, was detained by officers from the Kazakstan Committee for National Security (KNS) on 24 June at the house of an acquaintance in Almaty. He was in imminent danger of forcible return to Uzbekistan, where he was at great risk of serious human rights violations, such as incommunicado detention, torture or other ill-treatment and long term imprisonment in cruel, inhuman and degrading conditions or even the death penalty after an unfair trial. Sources believed that he was being held at KNS detention facilities in Almaty. However, the authorities had not confirmed his place of detention, nor granted him access to his family or a representative of the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Kazakstan by the end of the period under review. Gabdurafikh Temirbaev had been recognized as a refugee by the UNHCR in June after a thorough status determination procedure. This procedure included a confirmation from Kazakstani authorities that no criminal charges or cases had been filed against him.
Gabdurafikh Temirbaev was detained by KNS officers reportedly following an extradition request received by the Kazakstani authorities from their Uzbekistani counterparts. According to some sources Gabdurafikh Temirbaev was being sought for membership of banned religious groups. His family denied this and insisted that he was a pious Muslim and not a member of a banned religious or terrorist group. Gabdurafikh Temirbaev has reportedly been in Kazakstan since 1999 when he fled persecution for his religious beliefs in Uzbekistan.
Forcible return of nine Uzbekistani men (update to AI Index: EUR 01/007/2006)
In a reply to appeals by AI members in January the Kazakstani authorities denied that they had detained nine Uzbekistani nationals, including four registered asylum-seekers, and instead claimed that they had been detained by Uzbekistani law enforcement officers on Uzbekistani territory across the border during an operation conducted between 28 November and 2 December 2005.
However, according to reliable sources, Rukhiddin Fahruddinov, Abdurahman Ibragimov, Tohir Abdusamatov, Sharofuddin Latipov, Nozim Rahmanov, Alisher Mirzaholov, Abdurauf Holmuratov, Shoirmat Shorahmedov and Alizhon Mirganiev were forcibly returned from Kazakstan to Uzbekistan early in the morning of 29 November 2005, in contravention of Kazakstan's obligations under international law. They had been detained by KNS officers in the city of Shymkent, in the south of Kazakstan on 24 and 27 November, and had been held incommunicado until they were returned to Uzbekistan.
According to reports only two of the returned men were initially given access to lawyers in Uzbekistan while the others were held incommunicado. Two men were sentenced to six years in prison following a closed trial in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, on 12 April. A criminal investigation into the charges against Rukhiddin Fahruddinov, a former independent imam (religious leader) of a mosque in Tashkent, was reportedly closed in May and the files handed over to court. His trial was expected to start in July.
On 19 March the UNHCR office in Kazakstan resettled independent imam Obidkhon Nazarov and his family to an undisclosed European location. He had been in hiding in Kazakstan since being forced to flee Uzbekistan in 1998. UNHCR recognized him as a refugee when he applied to their Kazakstan office for protection in November 2005 after Kazakstan had forcibly returned the nine Uzbekistani nationals above accused by Uzbekistan of being members of banned Islamic organizations. Some of the deported men were believed to have been followers of imam Nazarov. He himself had been sought by the Uzbekistani authorities for allegedly wanting to overthrow the constitutional order of Uzbekistan.
Release of Galimzhan Zhakianov (Update to AI Index: EUR 01/007/2006)
On 14 January Galimzhan Zhakianov, one of the leaders of the former opposition Democratic Choice of Kazakstan party, was given parole by a local court in Pavlodar and released from prison following an appeal hearing. The court had ruled in December 2005 that Galimzhan Zhakianov should be released on parole having served half his sentence. However, the local prosecutor had appealed the court’s decision.
Galimzhan Zhakianov had been sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment in 2002 for "abuse of office" and financial crimes, but the real reason for his imprisonment appeared to be his peaceful opposition activities.
Fair Trial Concerns
The bodies of Altinbek Sarsenbaev (a former information minister and ex-ambassador to Russia before resigning to join the opposition party, Naghiz Ak Jol, in 2003) and of his bodyguard and driver were discovered on the outskirts of Almaty on 12 February. They had been shot in the back; Altinbek Sarsenbaev had also been shot in the head. Opposition leaders alleged that the murder was politically motivated because Altinbek Sarsenbaev had been very outspoken, particularly on official corruption.
On 29 June, Yerzhan Utembaev, the main defendant on trial for the murder of Altinbek Sarsenbaev, retracted his confession in court. Yerzhan Utembaev, the former head of the Senate’s secretariat, claimed that he had been put under severe psychological pressure in pre-trial detention to admit to having ordered and organized the murder of the former government minister and opposition politician. On 28 June, another defendant, Rustam Ibrahimov, a former member of an elite special unit of the KNS, who was accused of having carried out the murder, stated in court that the charges against him had been fabricated and that he had been coerced into signing a confession. The trial started on 14 June in the city of Taldi-Korgan, some 250km north of Almaty. Supporters of Altinbek Sarsenbaev expressed concern that the location of the trial made it difficult for many observers, including Altinbek Sarsenbaev’s elderly parents, to attend.
There was also concern that the defendants had been presumed guilty from the moment of their detention on 22 February. Indeed, the Minister of Internal Affairs described Yerzhan Utembaev in a press conference on 27 February as having ordered the murder for personal reasons. On 1 March President Nursultan Nazarbaev told a joint session of parliament that Yerzhan Utembaev had already confessed to law enforcement officers and that he had received a personal letter from Yerzhan Utembaev in which the latter admitted his guilt.
KYRGYZSTAN
Extradition requests and threat of forcible return (update to AI Index: EUR 01/007/2006)
Zhakhongir Maksudov, Odilzhon Rakhimov, Yakub Toshboev and Rasulzhon Pirmatov, four refugees from Uzbekistan, in detention in Kyrgyzstan since June 2005, were in imminent danger of being forcibly returned to Uzbekistan having exhausted all available legal procedures. AI was concerned that if returned to Uzbekistan, the men were at risk of serious human rights violations, including incommunicado detention, torture and other ill-treatment, a flagrantly unfair trial followed by either long prison sentences or even the death penalty. The four were part of a group of more than 500 asylum-seekers who fled the city of Andizhan in eastern Uzbekistan on 13 May 2005 after security forces fired on thousands of mainly unarmed demonstrators. The asylum-seekers sought international protection and safety in neighbouring Kyrgyzstan and most were subsequently recognized by the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and eventually the Kyrgyzstani authorities as refugees.
However, following an extradition request from Uzbekistan, the four men named above were transferred from a refugee camp at Besh Kana to a prison in Osh in June 2005 before their refugee status determination by UNHCR could be completed. The four men have been in detention ever since. The Uzbekistani authorities claimed that one of the four had been convicted of narcotics offences and that the other three were being sought in connection with the violent death of the city prosecutor in Andizhan on 13 May 2005, a charge they denied. UNHCR eventually recognized all four men as refugees under their mandate, a decision contested through the courts by the Kyrgyzstan Department of Migration Services (DMS). In December 2005 the men appealed a lower court’s decision to extradite them to Uzbekistan.
In February and May the Supreme Court of Kyrgyzstan rejected the appeals of three of the men - Zhakhongir Maksudov, Odilzhon Rakhimov and Yakub Toshboev - against the DMS’s refusal to grant them refugee status. A fourth appeal by Rasulzhon Pirmatov remained pending. On 13 June the Supreme Court finally examined the appeal of the fourth man and upheld the earlier decision by the DMS not to recognize him as a refugee. This decision and those in the other three cases could not be appealed According to the men’s legal team a decision on whether or not to extradite the four refugees to Uzbekistan was expected to be taken by the General Prosecutor’s Office within 10 days of the Supreme Court decision on Rasulzhon Pirmatov’s status entering into legal force.
In a statement on 14 June, the UNHCR reiterated that the agency had found permanent resettlement places for all four men in different countries and urged the government of Kyrgyzstan to transfer them into the agency’s care for immediate resettlement. Kyrgyzstan is obliged under international law, including the 1951 Refugee Convention and the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, to uphold the principle of non-refoulement, which prohibits the forcible return of persons to any country where they would be at risk of serious human rights violations, including torture and other ill-treatment.
In March AI learned that a fifth Uzbekistani asylum-seeker, Faioz Todzhihalilov, had been held in detention in Osh together with the four refugees since September 2005. His application for refugee status was in the process of being reviewed by the UNHCR and Kyrgyzstani authorities. He reportedly fled to Kyrgyzstan later than the main group of refugees fearing for his safety, as a relative of one of the 23 entrepreneurs accused of being members of Akramia whose trial was said to have triggered the Andizhan events. Allegedly, the Uzbekistani authorities also wanted him in connection with the killing of the Andizhan city prosecutor.
In an interview given to Radio Liberty at the end of May, Faioz Todzhihalilov said: "After May 13 [2005], it became clear that the [authorities] would bring accusations against me because I was a relative of [one of the defendants.] Even if I had 50, 100, or 1,000 witnesses to testify [that I did not take part in the unrest], they would not have believed me."
The death penalty (update to AI Index: EUR 01/007/2006)
Conditions on death row
In March a group of 20 prisoners on death row in Bishkek’s pre-trial detention centre No.1 (SIZO 1) wrote an open letter to President Kurmanbek Bakiev asking him to set up a commission to re-examine their criminal cases and review their convictions which they felt were unsafe. The letter claimed that many prisoners on death row had been tortured in order to confess to fabricated charges and were sentenced to death after unfair trials. Alleged torture methods included putting gas masks on detainees and turning the air supply off, and breaking fingers and toes.
Many had been waiting on death row since the introduction of a moratorium on executions in 1998 in a state of continued uncertainty as to their ultimate fate, a situation that AI believed to amount to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. The Ombudsman, Kyrgyzstani and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and some government and prison officials agreed that conditions on death row were harsh: in SIZO 1, 136 death row inmates were housed underground in cells said to be damp and with no window. Because of overcrowding the cells originally designed to hold two inmates had to accommodate three, with one man sleeping on the floor. The inmates were reportedly allowed only one hour of exercise in a roofless cell on the top of the SIZO building every other day. In a newspaper interview in January, the former head of the prison system said that 73 death row inmates had died since the introduction of the moratorium, the majority of them from tuberculosis (which was said to be rife throughout the prison system), harsh prison conditions and suicide.
Death sentence upheld
On 22 June the Supreme Court turned down the appeal against his death sentence by Uzbekistani national Otabek Akhadov. The decision by the Supreme Court was final and could not be further appealed. According to Otabek Akhadov’s lawyer the Supreme Court failed to take into account evidence provided by the defence, including a medical certificate, that he had been tortured in pre-trial detention in order to confess to a murder. Otabek Akhadov’s conviction was reportedly based solely on his written "confession". The appeal hearing apparently lasted only 40 minutes.
On 31 December 2001, Otabek Akhadov and three other men, all of Uighur origin, were found guilty of the assassination of the head of the Uighur Society in Kyrgyzstan on 28 March 2000 and of a "terrorist act against the state delegation of Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region of China (XUAR) on 25 May 2000". The case against them was believed by unofficial sources to be politically motivated. The four men were also believed to have been convicted for their ethnic origin and alleged membership of a "separatist" Uighur organization, the Eastern Turkestan Liberation Front. One of them was already serving a 14-year prison sentence at the time when the crimes were committed.
On 27 March 2006 Husein Dzhelil, also known as Huseyin Celil, a 37-year old Canadian citizen and ethnic Uighur from XUAR, was detained in Uzbekistan for his alleged involvement in these crimes (for more details, please see the entry on Uzbekistan).
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Human Rights Defenders
Human rights activist attacked
On 12 April Edil Baisalov, the leader of the independent human rights organization Coalition for Democracy and Civil Society, was attacked by an unidentified assailant as he was leaving the office of his NGO in the centre of Bishkek. Edil Baisalov was crossing the road to get into his car when he was struck in the back of the head with a blunt object, which he thought might have been a rock thrown by a young man. He was hospitalized suffering from concussion and a cut to the back of the head. Supporters claimed that the attack was in retaliation for Edil Baisalov’s outspoken public campaign against corruption and alleged collusion between the state and organized crime and was meant to intimidate him and deter him from further protests. On 8 April he had been amongst the organizers of a 2,000-strong peaceful demonstration against corruption and organized crime in Bishkek. He was preparing another demonstration for 28 April.
The 8 April demonstration took place a day before a by-election saw Rysbek Akmatbaev, a suspected criminal leader, elected to take up the parliamentary seat of his brother, Tynychbek, the head of the parliamentary legal affairs committee, who was killed during prison riots in September 2005. Edil Baisalov had publicly protested the decision by the Supreme Court to allow Rysbek Akmatbaev to stand as a candidate in the by-election despite having been disbarred by the Central Electoral Commission on 30 March for having a criminal record. Rysbek Akmatbaev denied any involvement in the attack on Edil Baisalov. On 10 May newly-elected Rysbek Akmatbaev was killed by unknown men who reportedly fired dozens of rounds of gunshots at him from a car when he stepped out of a mosque after evening prayers.
Human rights organizations harassed for taking up cases of custodial violence against women
In June two human rights NGOS from Jalalabad Region, Spravedlivost (Justice) and Vozdukh (Breath of Air), both part of the Jalabad Regional Human Rights Network, complained that their members were threatened by regional law enforcement officers after they publicized allegations of torture and other ill-treatment of women in two separate cases. The two NGOs also assisted the women in raising their allegations with the relevant authorities.
Following an article in the February issue of Spravedlivost’s human rights bulletin which detailed the alleged ill-treatment of a pregnant woman in January by an officer of the Dzhalabad Department of Internal Affairs (UVD), the officer accused the woman and Spravedlivost of slander and filed a criminal suit against both for defamation. The woman, who had been summoned to the UVD on 14 January to be questioned as a witness in a case of theft, told human rights defenders that she was accused by the officer who conducted the interview of being a thief. He also reportedly called her a prostitute, grabbed her arm and pushed and threatened her. When she questioned his behaviour he allegedly hit her in the chest. The woman, who was pregnant, started bleeding and told the officer that she was afraid of losing her baby. According to her, he did not offer any assistance but continued to threaten her. She eventually managed to summon help. She was taken to the maternity hospital and kept under observation for 10 days. The woman reported the ill-treatment to the regional prosecutor’s office, but no action against the UVD officer was taken. On 20 June the trial of the woman and human rights activists of Spravedlivost on charges of slander started in Jalalabad town court. During a break in court proceedings, supporters of the UVD officer reportedly insulted the woman, now eight months pregnant, and threatened her. Police officers, present at court, reportedly did not interfere to stop the abuse. When trial proceedings resumed the judge allowed her to leave the courtroom after supporters of the officer continued to verbally threaten and insult her. On 21 June the judge postponed the trial indefinitely after the pregnant defendant was taken ill. She was reportedly hospitalized the same day.
On 16 June law enforcement officers detained a 26-year-old woman at her home in Bazar-Kurgan and took her to a pre-trial detention centre in the city of Nooken. The officers reportedly did not present an arrest warrant and beat the woman. Her family were denied access to her and claimed that they were threatened by guards at the detention centre. The woman had a prior conviction and had been detained twice before, in 2003 and 2005. On both occasions she had raised serious allegations of torture or other ill-treatment in detention. Azimzhan Askarov, a human rights defender from the NGO Vozdukh, who had taken up the case of the woman after she was first released from detention in 2003, agreed after her latest detention to be appointed her legal representative, as she had not been given access to a lawyer. He was reportedly personally threatened by an UVD officer, whom the woman had accused of having tortured her in 2005. Vozdukh was also threatened with criminal prosecution for slander by the same officer because the NGO had widely publicized the torture allegations of the woman and had helped her to lodge complaints.
According to information published by Vozdukh in 2003 the then 23-year-old woman had been arbitrarily detained for eight months in a temporary detention facility (izoliator vremmenogo zaderzhania, IVZ) in Bazar-Kurgan district on minor theft charges. She alleged that she was beaten during interrogation and in the IVZ. She was made to sleep on the concrete floor of an overcrowded underground cell and did not receive enough food. She also claimed that she and her female co-defendants were sold by guards to male detainees who raped them. When she reportedly became pregnant and went into premature labour, she was taken to hospital, handcuffed to the bed and forced to give birth in the presence of a male IVZ guard. The baby died two days later and she was returned to the IVZ cell. After she was given a one-year suspended sentence and released, she approached Vozdukh for assistance in lodging a complaint. The NGO took up her case and as a result some of the IVZ guards were brought to trial and two UVD officers had disciplinary charges brought against them.
In September 2005 the woman was detained again on charges of theft and placed in the same IVZ for several days. The UVD officer, who interrogated her without a lawyer, reportedly insulted and threatened her because she had sought the help of Vozdukh in 2003. She also claimed that she had been tortured and otherwise ill-treated, including by the UVD officer. According to Vozdukh signs of torture and other ill-treatment were clearly visible on the woman’s body when she came to the NGO’s office after her release: she appeared to have been beaten severely and needles seemed to have been inserted under her fingernails. Vozdukh documented her ill-treatment and lodged a complaint with the local prosecutor’s office who reportedly launched an investigation into the allegations made against the UVD officer. Vozdukh reported that the woman and her family had complained in 2006 that UVD officers were putting pressure on them to withdraw the torture allegations against their fellow officer.
The woman remained in detention at the end of June.
MACEDONIA
General and political background
Legal reforms continued, as required by the Stabilization and Association Agreement with the European Union (EU). Between 5 and 10 May, the parliament passed legislation including a Law on the Courts, introducing a new Administrative Court to reduce the workload of the Supreme Court and a Law on the Judicial Council, establishing an independent body to elect and dismiss judges. The parliament also voted to abolish compulsory military service, with the aim of establishing a professionalized military from 2007. An amendment to the criminal code was proposed by the government to decriminalize defamation, removing penal sanctions for this offence. In March the Macedonian Helsinki Committee criticized the draft Law on the Police for failing to provide independent oversight or effective accountability mechanisms, and noted that the "Alpha" special police units were not included in the law.
Parliamentary elections
In advance of parliamentary elections to be held on 5 July, political rivalry between members of the two largest ethnic Albanian parties, the Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA, Partia Demokratike Shqiptare) and the Democratic Union for Integration (DUI, Demokratska Unija za Integracija) (which then formed part of the coalition government), resulted in violence on several occasions. EU officials expressed concerns that such violence might jeopardize Macedonia’s accession to the EU.
On 15 June the DUI’s Saraj office was attacked, allegedly by local DPA members, who drove a bulldozer into the building. On 18 June, the car of the DPA mayor of Saraj, Imer Selmani, was attacked by gunfire; he escaped unharmed; over the following days two grenades were reportedly thrown at the DUI offices in Saraj. On 17 June a hand grenade was thrown at the DUI office in Struga; the office in Tetovo was also attacked. Late on 23 June Abdulhalim Kasami, a member of the DUI was shot and wounded in front of his house in Tetovo. On 24 June in Rasce, firearms were used when fighting broke out between two groups of rival supporters, resulting in the wounding of one member of the DUI and the injury of two others. Criminal investigations were opened.
Impunity for War Crimes
On 3 May the defence team for former Minister of Internal Affairs Ljube Boshkovski again requested his provisional release from the custody of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (Tribunal). He had been indicted in 2005, along with Johan Tarchulovski, for command responsibility for the attack on the village of Ljuboten in August 2001 when seven ethnic Albanian men died and over 100 more were detained and subjected to torture and ill-treatment. Four other cases over which the Tribunal had seized primacy, but for which they had not issued indictments, remained to be returned to the Macedonian authorities for prosecution.
In April the Ministry of Internal Affairs informed AI that it had issued a search warrant to establish the whereabouts of three ethnic Albanians – Sultan Memeti, Hajredin Halimi and Ruzdi Veliu – who "disappeared" during the 2001 internal conflict. This was confirmed by the Minister of Internal Affairs on 26 May in a meeting with relatives of the abducted, when he reportedly stated that an investigation into the cases of the six "disappeared" Albanians was underway. He also confirmed that the case of the 12 Macedonian citizens abducted by armed ethnic Albanians in 2001 would be heard by the Macedonian authorities as soon as it had been returned by the Tribunal.
Prisoner of Conscience Zoran Vraniskovski [Update to AI Index: EUR 01/007/2005].
On 3 March Zoran Vraniskovski, the bishop of the autocephalus Ohrid Archbishopric – considered by AI to be a prisoner of conscience – was released from prison, following an order by the Supreme Court.
Discrimination against minorities including Roma
The DPA continued to allege discrimination against ethnic Albanians by the police and in failures to implement the Ohrid Agreement, including in ensuring the employment of ethnic Albanians by municipal authorities. In their consideration of Macedonia’s report to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW, see below), the Committee urged the authorities to implement effective measures to eliminate discrimination against rural women and ethnic minority women, and in particular Roma and Albanian women, "to enhance their enjoyment of human rights through all available means, including temporary special measures".
Concerns were expressed by non-governmental organizations about continued discrimination against predominantly Roma refugees from Kosovo who had been denied asylum or continued to await a determination of their status. Several groups of refugees were threatened with refoulement by the authorities who continued to seek agreement with the Kosovo authorities on their forcible return. Romani women, believed to have been raped by members of the Kosova Liberation Army were not provided with assistance or support. The CEDAW had observed that although refugee women were able to separately file applications for asylum, a gender-sensitive approach had not been adopted by the authorities.
Torture and ill-treatment
In January the Council of Europe Directorate of Legal Affairs published a report on the prison system which had noted in 2005 severe overcrowding in Idrizovo and Skopje prisons and continuing staff shortages, resulting in a failure inter alia to deliver adequate health care to detainees or to provide them with educational or other activities. Between 15 and 26 May the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment carried out a country visit, reportedly inspecting 12 police stations, six places of detention, a psychiatric hospital and institutions for people with mental disabilities.
Trajan Berikov
Mass demonstrations were held by the Roma community across Macedonia following the "disappearance" of Trajan Bekirov, who was last seen near the river Vardar on 10 May, while being chased by members of a special police unit who suspected the 17-year old Romani boy and his friend of theft. The whereabouts of the boy remained unknown until his body was found on 27 May – in a search organized by his relatives – in the river Vardar. Despite suspicions that he had been ill-treated by the police, the child appears to have jumped into the river while in flight from the police. Questions remained about the authorities’ failure to search for his body or to conduct a proper investigation into his disappearance. The Institute of Forensic Medicine also failed to provide Trajan Bekirov’s parents with an autopsy report until international pressure was brought to bear; the Institute had also sought to prevent a second independent autopsy from being conducted.
War on Terror
Rendition of Khaled El Masri (Update to AI Index: EUR 01/0072006)
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) continued to question Macedonia about the involvement of officials, including from the security and intelligence services, in the unlawful arrest and detention of a German citizen of Lebanese descent, Khaled el Masri. He had allegedly been held by the authorities in a Skopje hotel for 23 days in 2003, before being rendered to the US authorities and flown from Skopje to Bagram airbase in Afghanistan. The PACE regretted that the Macedonian authorities had not shown the political will to conduct an investigation into the allegations.
Members of the European Parliament’s Temporary Committee also conducted further investigations, including in meetings with government officials in Macedonia between 27-29 April. The Committee reported in June that they had been met with a "wall of silence" and noted inconsistencies in the account given by the Macedonian authorities, who continued to deny their involvement.
AI considered that the Macedonian authorities had violated Khaled el-Masri’s rights to liberty and freedom from arbitrary detention, and their obligation to refrain from torture and other ill-treatment. Further in concealing Khaled el-Masri’s whereabouts, the Macedonian authorities placed him outside the protection of the law, which possibly constituted an act of enforced disappearance.
Raymonda Malecka and Bujar Malecka
In March Albanians Raymonda Malecka and her father Bujar Malecka were released from prison, and expelled from Macedonia. They had been sentenced in November 2005 in a retrial at Skopje District court to five years’ imprisonment on terrorism charges, despite a ruling by the Supreme Court, following an initial trial in May 2005, that the charges against them, related to their possession of video footage they had taken of members of an armed ethnic Albanian group, were without foundation.
Violence against women
In February the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in their Concluding Observations on Macedonia’s combined initial, second and third reports emphasized that legislation failed to include a definition of discrimination against women or the principle of equality of men and women.
While welcoming amendments made in 2004 to the Law of [the] Family codifying domestic violence as a separate crime in the criminal code, CEDAW remained concerned about the high prevalence of violence against women, including domestic violence, and the persistence of trafficking in women and girls despite the formulation of a National Programme to Combat Human Trafficking and Illegal Migration for 2006-2008.
MOLDOVA
Torture and Ill-treatment
In February, the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) published the report of its visit to Moldova in September 2004. The CPT found that torture and ill-treatment was still widespread and that important safeguards for the prevention of torture were not observed. Detainees were not informed of their rights, not always given access to a lawyer, or doctor, and their families or a third party were sometimes not informed of their arrest.
On 4 April the European Court of Human Rights ruled in the case of Corsacov v. Moldova that Moldova had violated Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR) because the applicant had been tortured by police officers. Mihai Corsacov was arrested by police officers on 9 July 1998 under suspicion of theft, and was punched and beaten during arrest and later at the police station. At the police station he was allegedly also suspended from a bar and beaten. The following day he was allegedly taken to a forest where a police officer put a gun to his head and threatened to kill him if he did not confess. The Court also decided that the General Prosecutor’s Office had failed to conduct an effective investigation into the torture allegations and, by refusing to open a case against the police officers concerned, had deprived the applicant of an effective remedy against the ill-treatment he had suffered.
The case of Vitalii Colibaba (Kolibaba)
Vitalii Colibaba was arrested at his home on 21 April, accused of injuring a policeman during a drunken brawl the night before, and taken to Buiucani district police station. He was reportedly tortured by three police officers at Buiucani police station to force him to confess. He alleged that they tied his arms to his legs, stuck a crowbar under his elbows and suspended him from the crowbar for 40 minutes. The officers allegedly beat him about the head and neck with a stool while he was suspended, until he passed out from the pain. After he was taken back to his cell, Vitalii Colibaba tried to commit suicide by cutting his wrists. An ambulance was called and his wounds were stitched, but the medics left him in the police station. On 27 April, six days after he had been arrested, Vitalii Colibaba was allowed to see a lawyer for the first time. The lawyer immediately wrote a complaint to the Procuracy. When the police officers who had allegedly tortured him found out that he had complained they reportedly beat him again. This time the three police officers beat him on the head with a plastic bottle full of water, so as to leave no marks, and punched him in the kidney area. On 29 April, police took Vitalii Colibaba for a forensic medical examination. The examination was carried out in the presence of the three officers who had allegedly tortured him and the forensic expert reportedly only looked at his hands and reported that there was no evidence of torture. The lawyer reported that he could see marks on Vitalii Colibaba’s arms that were consistent with his allegations that he had been suspended from a crowbar. On 15 May, following an urgent intervention by AI, he was released on bail. At the time of writing the charges against Vitalii Colibaba were still pending.
Update: Case of Sergei Gurgurov (see AI Index: EUR 59/006/2005 and EUR 59/007/2005)
Sergei Gurgurov was allegedly tortured by officers from Ryshkan district in Chiºinau in October 2005 and subsequently released on bail. On 18 January the Prosecutor’s office refused to start a criminal case against the police officers concerned. Sergei Gurgurov was arrested again on 18 April and accused of violating his bail conditions. He had been undergoing medical treatment for the injuries he sustained from the torture and ill-treatment during his previous period of detention. Police claimed that Sergei Gurgurov violated his bail conditions because he did not present himself at the police station when summoned. His lawyer contacted the police station at the time to explain that he could not go because he was undergoing medical treatment in hospital. The arrest order was drawn up by the district court in February, without Sergei Gurgurov or his lawyer being informed, but police did not act on the order until two months later. The police have claimed that Sergei Gurgurov was intending to leave the country; his lawyer denied that he had any intention of doing so because he was in the process of receiving medical treatment. Police reportedly threatened Sergei Gurgurov during his detention, and told him to withdraw the torture allegations he made following his first arrest. Sergei Gurgurov was released on bail on 12 May following urgent intervention by AI. The Chiºinau appeal court ruled that his detention had been illegal and that there had been no valid grounds to detain him a second time.
Harassment of lawyers
On 28 June, Ana Ursachi and Roman Zadoinov, two Moldovan lawyers who had worked closely with AI on the cases of Vitalii Colibaba and Sergei Gurgurov, above, were informed that they faced criminal prosecution for spreading false information about human rights violations in Moldova. In a letter to the national Bar Association of Moldova, dated 26 June, the Prosecutor General’s Office stated that the two lawyers could face prosecution under Article 335 of the Criminal Code for "misuse of official position" which carries a maximum prison sentence of five years or a fine. AI was concerned that the letter to the Bar Association of Moldova was a deliberate attempt to intimidate Ana Ursachi and Roman Zadoinov, and to prevent lawyers in Moldova from making public information about human rights violations.
The publicity that followed AI’s actions on the two alleged torture cases above was clearly a cause of sensitivity to the General Prosecutor’s Office. In a letter to AI on 9 March, concerning the case of Sergei Gurgurov, the General Prosecutor’s Office stated that the version of events given by AI "does not correspond to the reality, generates image crisis for our state".
Inhuman conditions in pre-trial detention centres
In the report published in February, the CPT described conditions in places of detention run by the Ministry of the Interior as "disastrous", and stated that in many cases the conditions amounted to inhuman or degrading treatment. In January, AI wrote to the Minister of the Interior concerning conditions in the pre-trial detention centre in Orhei. According to information received by AI, cells at the police Commissariat in Orhei were in the basement, and measured approximately 3 m by 4.5 m. The cells were intended to hold four detainees, but usually held seven or more. Ventilation was poor and the cells were infested with fleas and lice. Many of the detainees suffered from skin diseases, but were rarely given access to a doctor. Detainees did not have access to a flushing toilet, and were provided with a bucket for use in the cell in full view of the other detainees. Detainees were reportedly forced to sleep in turns, on a platform 1.5 m by 3 m which was made of limestone bricks. They were not provided with blankets or sheets, and there was no mattress.
Abolition of the death penalty
On 29 June the Moldovan parliament voted unanimously to amend Clause 3 of Article 24 of the Constitution, which provided for the death penalty in exceptional cases, thus abolishing the death penalty in law.
Violence against women
On 28 February, Moldova ratified the optional protocol to Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women, and on 19 May the country ratified the Council of Europe’s Convention against Trafficking in Human Beings, thereby becoming the first country to do so. Moldova continued to be a major source country for women and girls trafficked for sexual exploitation and forced labour. The US State Department’s annual Trafficking in Persons Report, which was published in June, found that Moldova’s efforts to protect and reintegrate trafficking victims remained weak and that the witness protection law was inadequately implemented.
Self-proclaimed Dnestr Moldavian Republic (update to AI Index: EUR 01/03/00)
Tudor Petrov-Popa and Andrei Ivanþoc were still in detention in Tiraspol at the end of June, despite a July 2004 judgment by the European Court of Human Rights which found their detention to be arbitrary and in breach of the ECHR. They were members of the "Tiraspol Six", who were sentenced to prison terms in 1993 for "terrorist acts", including the murder of two DMR officials. The four men convicted with them were released in 1994, 2001 and 2004. On 11 May the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe adopted a fourth interim resolution in the case, asking for execution of the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights. The resolution asked Moldova to continue its efforts to secure the release of the two men and requested the Russian Federation to comply with the judgment.
POLAND
Background
Being in a minority government since the parliamentary elections of September 2005, the Law and Justice Party (Prawo i SprawiedliwoϾ, PiS), formed a coalition government in May with the League of Polish Families (Liga Polskich Rodzin, LPR) and Self-Defense (Samoobrona) party.
Alleged secret detention centres and "rendition" flights
In March, the Secretary General of the Council of Europe Terry Davis released his opinion on the alleged secret detention centres in member states set up as part of the USA’s programme of secret detentions and "renditions" - the illegal transfer of people between states outside of any judicial process. He expressed concern at Poland’s lack of response to questions of whether officials had been involved in the detentions or renditions or whether any official investigation was underway or had been completed.
On June, the Rapporteur on secret detentions of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Dick Marty, reported on what he described as global "spider’s web" of detentions and transfers by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and alleged collusion in this system by 14 Council of Europe member states. He singled out Poland has having harboured secret detention centres, and reported that the Polish authorities were unable, despite repeated requests, to provide him with information from their own national aviation records to confirm any CIA-connected flights into Poland.
The Rapporteur remarked that the absence of flight records from a country such as Poland was unusual, considering that a number of neighbouring countries, including Romania, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic, had had no such problems in retrieving official data for the period since 2001. In fact, the submissions of these countries, along with data from Eurocontrol (the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation), confirmed numerous flights into and out of Polish airports by the CIA-linked planes that were the subject of his report.
Police ill-treatment and violation of rights during time of detention
In March, the Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) published its report on the last visit to Poland held in October 2004.
Allegations of ill-treatment
The CPT expressed its concern on allegations of physical ill-treatment by the police at the time of apprehension, including slaps, kicks, punches, blows with a truncheon and tight handcuffing for prolonged periods of time. The CPT also expressed its concerns about allegations concerning the time of questioning by police officers when the detainees would have been punched or slapped, threatened with violence or verbally abused.
The CPT recommended that the Polish authorities remind police officers, through appropriate means and at regular intervals, that the ill-treatment of detainees (whether of a physical or verbal nature) is not acceptable and should be the subject of severe sanctions and that no more force than is strictly necessary should be used when effecting an apprehension. The report also noted that, once an apprehended person has been brought under control, there can never be any justification for their being struck.
The CPT remained concerned about the fact that complaints of police ill-treatment had been ignored by prosecutors or judges before whom they had been brought shortly after apprehension. The CPT received allegations by persons who were detained by the police that their complaints of police ill-treatment were ignored by prosecutors or judges before whom they had been brought shortly after apprehension. The CPT called upon the Polish authorities to take effective steps to ensure that, whenever a person brought before a judge/prosecutor alleges ill-treatment by the police, the judge/prosecutor immediately requests a forensic medical examination, irrespective of whether the person concerned bears visible injuries. Further, even in the absence of an express allegation of ill-treatment, a forensic medical examination should be requested whenever there are other grounds to believe that the person could have been the victim of ill-treatment.
The CPT expressed also concerns at the length of time during which means of restraint were being applied to prisoners placed in a security cell at the prisons visited.
Violation of the right to be medically examined by a doctor
The CPT expressed concerns about the right of persons in police custody to be medically examined by a doctor of their own choice not being formally guaranteed and in practice being "clearly non-existent". The confidentiality of medical information was not respected, to the extent that the medical examination of detained persons was conducted in the presence of police officers in common bases. Furthermore, the register of medical examinations was not kept separately from other registers and could be accessed by police staff.
Violations of the rights of people under the age of 18
On police and border guard establishments, the CPT noted that children could be held at the establishments visited for periods considerably exceeding the 17 days provided for in Poland’s 1982 Juveniles Act, in some cases, for up to three months. Moreover, those establishments were not adapted for prolonged stays.
The CPT remained concerned on allegations made by juvenile detainees of physical ill-treatment and threats in order to obtain confessions.
The CPT expressed concerns on the number of juveniles being questioned and made to sign statements admitting to criminal offences without the benefit of the presence of a trusted person. The Polish Commissioner for Civil Rights Protection confirmed this information, indicating that his office received complaints from parents that the police did not respect their duties set out in the Juveniles Act. Moreover, and being the same case for adults, the law does not provide for the appointment of an ex officio lawyer before the stage of court proceedings.
Discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation
Homophobic statements by leading public officials
Openly homophobic statements made by prominent politicians and public officials, including an encouragement to use violence against peaceful lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights demonstrators, worsened the climate of discrimination and intolerance.
Wojciech Wierzejski, a member of parliament for the League of Polish Families (Liga Polskich Rodzin, LPR) on 11 May 2006, allegedly encouraged the use of force against participants in the annual Equality March in Warsaw in June. He reportedly said, "If deviants begin to demonstrate, they should be hit with batons". Commenting on the possible attendance of politicians from Western Europe at the march, he is reported as saying "they are not serious politicians, but just gays and a couple of baton strikes will deter them from coming again. Gays are cowards by definition". On 12 May, Wojciech Wierzejski is said to have written a letter addressed to the Minister of Interior and Administration Ludwik Dorn and the Minister of Justice Zbigniew Ziobro urging that law enforcement authorities check what he called "legal and illegal sources of financing" of organizations of homosexual activists, and demanded the State Prosecutor's intervention. The letter also accused LGBT organizations of being involved with paedophiles and the illegal drug-trade, and stated that. Wojciech Wierzejski wished to check whether LGBT organizations "penetrate Polish schools". Following his demand the State Prosecutor ordered all prosecutors, in a letter issued on 30 May, to check very carefully the ways of financing of LGBT organizations, their alleged connections to criminal movements and their presence in schools.
On 21 May, Roman Giertych, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Education and also leader of the LPR said on TVN (a Polish private TV channel) that "LGBT organizations are sending transsexuals to kindergartens and asking children to change their sex."
Actions by the Ministry of Education
On 19 May, Miros³aw Orzechowskiego, Deputy Minister of Education and member of the LPR, stated that an international project that was organized by several LGBT rights non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and financially supported by the European Commission Youth Programme, would lead to the "depravity of young people". The Deputy Minister also said that "the rules and priorities of the programme under which such projects get money, need to be changed in order to prevent such organizations from receiving money in the future".
On 8 June, Roman Giertych, asMinister of Education, dismissed Miros³aw Sielatycki, the director of the National In-Service Teacher Training Centre (Centralnego Oœrodka Doskonalenia Nauczycieli, CODN). The reason the minister gave for the dismissal was that "a lot of books there were encouraging teachers to organize meetings with LGBT non-governmental organizations such as Campaign Against Homophobia [Kampania Przeciw Homofobii, KPH] or Lambda".
The dismissed director of the CODN said that the only book he was aware of in the context of Minister Giertych’s accusations was a Council of Europe anti-discrimination handbook and a manual on human rights for young people. Reacting to these events, the Secretary General of the Council of Europe Terry Davis, claimed that the handbook reflects basic European values, including the culture of tolerance, and stated that "if the teaching material is optional, the values and principles contained therein are certainly not." He also expressed concern about "some politics promoting homophobia …and homophobic behaviours being accepted by the Government".
Freedom of assembly
Incidents continued to be reported in which demonstrators from the LGBT community and other activists were attacked by private individuals, including counter-demonstrators, together with allegations that the police failed to ensure that the LGBT demonstrators were able to exercise their right to peaceful assembly.
On 28 April, a Tolerance March in the city of Kraków was attacked by members of a counter-demonstration called the Tradition March. The Tolerance March was organized to promote tolerance within Polish society and more than 1,000 people reportedly took part. Despite the presence of the police, the participants were reportedly harassed and intimidated by members of a right-winggrouping known as All Polish Youth (M³odzie¿ Wszechpolska).
On 17 May, in Toruñ, KPH organized a public meeting in the Market Square linked to the International Day Against Homophobia. On the same day, Socialist Youth (the youth wing of the Socialist Party) organized a demonstration through the town against the new Education Minister Roman Giertych. Members of National Rebirth of Poland (Narodowe Odrodzenie Polski, NOP), a nationalist organization, held a counter-demonstration at the same place and time as the KPH. NOP members chanted slogans, including "gas the queers" (peda³y do gazu), "come closer"(chodŸcie bli¿ej) or