YEREVAN. – The Armenian parliament adopted in the first reading the bill on declaring an amnesty.
Seventy-two deputies approved the bill unanimously. The debates and vote in the second reading is set for Thursday afternoon.
Armenian Parliament adopts bill granting fine amnesty to 150,000 drivers for past 6 years
The Armenian parliament adopted the bill on granting amnesty to drivers for certain fines and penalties accumulated over the years at second hearing today.
68 MPs voted in favor, 1 against and 2 abstained.
The law will cover 150,000 citizens, with nearly 14,000,000,000 drams in fines and obligations being nullified.
The 2012-2018 amnesty will not cover all types of violations, justice minister Artak Zeynalyan had told lawmakers earlier. He said that violations such as installing illegal police lights and sirens on cars, DUIs, or disobeying traffic police’s “pull over” orders will not be granted amnesty.
Amnesty: Egypt subjecting prisoners to horrendous abuse, torture
Amnesty International has reported that Egypt keeps political prisoners locked up in “prolonged” and “indefinite” solitary confinement and subjects them to “horrendous physical abuse,” saying such treatment amounts to torture under international law.
The London-based rights group released the results of a new research dubbed “Crushing humanity: the abuse of solitary confinement in Egypt’s prisons” on Monday, saying dozens of detained journalists, rights activists and members of the opposition are “unlawfully” being “held in prolonged solitary confinement under horrific conditions.”
In the 56-page report, Amnesty said those held in solitary confinement farce “horrendous physical abuse, including beatings by prison guards and having their heads repeatedly dunked into a container filled by human excrement,” which in many cases results in “panic attacks, paranoia, hypersensitivity to stimuli, and difficulties with concentration and memory.”
Upon returning to the prison population, the report added, those tortured in solitary cells “suffer depression, insomnia and an unwillingness to socialize or speak to other people.”
The research, based on dozens of interviews with former prisoners and with family members of the current prisoners, also found other forms of abuses such as food deprivation, humiliation and restricted movement for years on end.
“Under international law, solitary confinement may only be used as a disciplinary measure of last resort, but the Egyptian authorities are using it as a horrifying ‘extra’ punishment for political prisoners,” said Najia Bounaim, Amnesty’s North Africa campaigns director.
“Prison conditions in Egypt have always been bad, but the deliberate cruelty of this treatment shows the wider contempt for human rights and dignity by the Egyptian authorities,” Bounaim said.
The study also revealed in most cases, prisoners are being held behind bars solely because of their “past political activism.”
“Not only are Egyptian human rights defenders, journalists and members of the opposition being targeted for peacefully expressing their views in the outside world; their persecution also continues behind bars,” it added.
Amnesty had sent a memorandum containing a summary of its latest research to the Egyptian authorities last month, but it has received no response.
Authorities have not yet commented on the report, but the Interior Ministry has in the past denied allegations of systemic torture. It blamed abuse in prisons on individuals, saying they are held accountable. It claimed that several officers have been tried and convicted of torture, while others have been acquitted.
Amnesty accuses Ankara of creating ‘climate of fear’ after coup attempt
Amnesty accuses Ankara
Amnesty International has accused the Turkish government of creating a “suffocating climate of fear” across the country and launching a campaign of repression against human rights activists after a botched coup to topple Turkish President Recep Tayyep Erdogan in 2016.
In a report published on Thursday, the London-based rights group lambasted the Turkish authorities’ alleged attacks on rights activists and their “abusive” use of the criminal justice system.
It said the freedom of expression and the right to a fair trial had been “decimated” under a state of emergency imposed after the failed coup on July 15, 2016.
“Under the cloak of the state of emergency, Turkish authorities have deliberately and methodically set about dismantling civil society, locking up human rights defenders, shutting down organizations and creating a suffocating climate of fear,” Amnesty’s Europe director, Gauri van Gulik, said in a statement.
The rights group also said the seventh extension of the emergency law — approved by the Turkish parliament last week — further undermined the country’s “once vibrant independent civil society.”
During the botched putsch, a faction of the Turkish military declared that it had seized control of the country and the government of President Erdogan was no more in charge. The attempt was, however, suppressed over a course of two days.
We must speak up for free expression in Turkey
Amnesty International Turkey
Journalists and human rights activists are being unlawfully held in Turkish prisons, says Stefan Simanowitz, Amnesty International’s Media Manager for Europe, Turkey and the Balkans.
A month ago, Hatice Kilic and her three daughters waited outside Sakran Prison in Izmir beneath a dark sky. The temperature was close to freezing but they did not feel the cold. All their attention was focused on those metal gates and how they would soon roll open and Taner Kilic — husband and father — would walk through them and into their arms.
Earlier that day, the Istanbul trial court had ruled to conditionally release Taner Kilic, a lawyer and chair of Amnesty International Turkey who has been held, detained on terrorism charges, since last June. His wife and children had come to the prison to pick him up in a state of elated expectation.
Just after midnight, the prison gates opened and Taner Kilic was driven out in a police car. But he was not a free man. Instead of being released he was driven past his family to a military prison where he was locked in another cell. Unbeknownst to the welcoming party, the prosecutor had appealed the court’s decision to release him and a second court in Istanbul accepted this appeal.
Thin charges
Kilic has committed no crime. He is charged with “membership of a terrorist organization” based on the false allegation that he downloaded ByLock, a messaging application authorities say was used by those who organized the 2016 coup attempt. But after nearly nine months behind bars, no credible evidence has been presented to substantiate this claim. On the contrary, two independent forensic experts found that there was no trace of ByLock ever having been on his phone. But if he is found guilty, he could face up to 15 years in jail.
In December, authorities admitted mistakes were made in the cases of thousands of people who have been detained for supposedly downloading the Bylock app. They published lists containing the details of more than 11,400 mobile phone users clearing them of the alleged wrongdoing. This resulted in a mass release of prisoners. Unfortunately, Taner was not one of them.
Kilic has become a potent symbol of the thousands of people unjustly jailed as part of the crackdown that has gripped Turkey since the failed coup in 2016.
Journalists sentenced
Two weeks ago, Ahmet Altan, Mehmet Altan and Nazlı Ilicak became the first Turkish journalists to be convicted of involvement in the coup attempt. They received aggravated life sentences for “attempting to overthrow the government” merely for doing their work as journalists.
The bitter irony of being found guilty of “attempting to overthrow the constitutional order” will not be lost on Mehmet Altan whose release was ordered just last month by Turkey’s Constitutional Court, ruling that his detention violated his constitutional rights such as the right to liberty, security and to freedom of expression. The trial court refused to implement the ruling, flouting the constitution.
Turkish prosecutors seek prison terms for Amnesty Turkey chief, 10 other activists
Nearly a dozen prominent rights activists in Turkey, including two foreign nationals, are facing up to 15 years in prison over charges of membership in terror groups and aiding them some three months after they were detained in Istanbul.
Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency reported on Sunday that Public Prosecutor’s Office in Istanbul had completed its investigation into nine Turkish activists, including Taner Kilic, Amnesty International’s Turkey chief, and German Peter Steudtner along with Swede Ali Gharavi.
The suspects were detained at a workshop, organized by Amnesty, on digital security at a hotel in Buyukada of Istanbul’s Princes’ Islands on July 5 on charges of taking “membership in an armed terrorist organization” and “aiding an armed terrorist organization” in the meeting.
In a 17-page indictment, which was approved by Istanbul Chief Prosecutor Irfan Fidan, prosecutors sought prison terms from seven-and-a-half to 15 years. The indictment was later sent to the Istanbul Heavy Penal Court.
The indictment charged Kilic with armed terror group membership, whereas the rest of the suspects were charged with aiding an armed terror group.
According to the indictment, the suspects allegedly tried to incite violent and chaotic mass public protest rallies when Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party, held “Justice” march between June 15 and July 15.
Kilicdaroglu and his fellow party members marched from the capital Ankara to Istanbul, calling for justice for people jailed for their purported connections to a number of terror groups, particularly the Fethullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), led by US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen.
Ankara accuses Gulen of being the mastermind of last year’s mid-July failed coup in the country. The 76-year-old cleric has since strongly rejected the government’s allegations, but Ankara labeled his movement as FETO and designated it as a terrorist organization.
Amnesty, while denouncing the detention of the activists, describes Gharavi as an IT strategy consultant and Steudtner as a “non-violence and well-being trainer.”
The jailing of the 11 activists, including Amnesty’s director in Turkey, Idil Eser, has already sounded international alarm and amplified fears of waning freedom of speech under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Prosecutors charged Kilic with FETO membership, whereas the rest were accused of helping an armed terror group, including FETO.
Since the botched putsch, Ankara has unleashed a massive crackdown across the country, suspending or dismissing more than 150,000 judges, policemen, teachers, and civil servants and arresting nearly 50,000 others.
Many rights groups, including Amnesty and Human Rights Watch, have slammed Ankara’s heavy clampdown on perceived putschists.
Amnesty: Truth, justice ‘total strangers’ in Turkey
Amnesty International slams Ankara for keeping six rights activists, including the director of its Turkey branch, in pre-trial custody on terror-related charges, saying the move shows “truth and justice have become total strangers” in the country.
Idil Eser, Amnesty International Turkey’s director, was among the group of human rights activists remanded in custody, the Hurriyet Daily News said on Tuesday.
Eser and 9 other activists, including a German and a Swedish national, had been detained on July 5 while attending a workshop on digital security and information management at a hotel near Istanbul.
Eight of those detained were Turkish rights activists, including Ilknur Ustun of the Women’s Coalition and Veli Acu of the Human Rights Agenda Association.
The two foreigners, who were leading the digital information workshop, remain in pre-trial detention.
Turkey’s state prosecutor had asked the court on Monday to remand all of them in custody pending trial for membership at a terrorist organization. The court, however, ordered four of the activists to be released, Hurriyet added.
Reacting to the development, Amnesty’s Secretary General Salil Shetty said, “Today we have learnt that standing up for human rights has become a crime in Turkey. Today’s decision shows that truth and justice have become total strangers in Turkey.”
The rights group further urged the international community not to remain tight-lipped against Turkey’s jailing of the activists.
“Leaders around the world must stop biting their tongues and acting as if they can continue business as usual. They must bring pressure to bear on Turkish authorities to drop these spurious charges and to immediately and unconditionally release the rights defenders,” Shetty added.
Meanwhile, Amnesty International’s Turkey researcher Andrew Gardner told media that the Turkish court order is a “shocking travesty of justice …. It is politically motivated targeting not just of these six human rights defenders who have been remanded in pre-trial prison custody but it is taking aim at Turkey’s entire human rights movement.”
Gardner earlier said the activists’ gathering had been a “routine” workshop and there was nothing suspicious about it.
Last month, Amnesty International’s Turkey chair Taner Kilic was also arrested over suspicion of links to an anti-Ankara movement led by US-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen blamed by Ankara for the 2016 failed coup.
The arrests are part a huge police crackdown following last July’s coup attempt. More than 50,000 people have been jailed and over 150,000 including judges, teachers, police and other state servants have been dismissed or suspended in the purge.
Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP)’s Istanbul lawmaker Sezgin Tanrikulu questioned the motive behind the arrests.
“They are all members of associations that were founded within the law and their activities are open to public. The reasons behind their detentions are unknown due to the confidentiality order,” he said.
“On which grounds were they detained?” he asked.
Turkey police hold rights activists, including Amnesty chief
police,Turkish police have arrested eight leading human rights activists including Amnesty International’s Turkey director Idil Eser in Istanbul.
Two trainers – from Germany and Sweden – were also arrested in the raid on a digital security workshop at a hotel in Buyukada.
The police raid was “blatantly without cause”, an Amnesty statement said, according to BBC News.
The group’s whereabouts are unknown. Police have jailed more than 50,000 people since a coup plot a year ago.
The police action “is a grotesque abuse of power and highlights the precarious situation facing human rights activists in the country”, said Salil Shetty, Amnesty International’s Secretary General.
“Idil Eser and those detained with her must be immediately and unconditionally released.”
Turkey remains under a state of emergency imposed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after rogue army officers tried to oust him in a coup on 15 July 2016.
The post-coup crackdown has targeted tens of thousands of public servants accused of supporting US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen.
The European Parliament has deplored the crackdown on Mr Erdogan’s opponents in
Turkey and called for a suspension of talks on it joining the EU if Mr Erdogan is formally granted sweeping new powers.
A controversial referendum in April backed constitutional changes that would turn Turkey into a presidential republic, diminishing parliament’s role.
Turkey withdraws child rape amnesty bill, After woman’s outrage & U.N. warning
Turkey’s ruling party has said it will withdraw a marriage bill that the United Nations warned could legitimize child rape. The age of consent in Turkey is 18, though many younger girls are married in Islamic ceremonies.
Turkey’s ruling AK Party is shelving a proposed bill on underage marriage for further consultations, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim told reporters Tuesday, after opposition and rights groups said it could allow men accused of sexually abusing girls to avoid punishment.
The proposed law – scheduled to undergo a final vote on Tuesday despite a public outcry – would have deferred sentencing or punishment for pending sexual assault in cases where there was no physical force and where the victim and perpetrator were married. The law would have been in force retroactively from November 16.
Rights groups and United Nations agencies criticized the legislation, which they said was akin to an amnesty for child abusers and could expose victims to further suffering at the hands of their abusers. “Any forms of sexual violence against children are crimes which should be punished as such,” the UN children’s agency UNICEF and four other UN agencies in Turkey said in a joint statement on Monday.
The legislation is not dead, however. Yildirim told reporters the government would ask an all-party commission to review the proposal, though many members of Turkey’s opposition parties have spoken out against it. The proposal also drew fire from a large swathe of the Turkish public. More than 800,000 signatures were gathered on an online petition this week urging Turkey’s parliament to drop the legislation.
Widespread purges continue
In other news, Turkey dismissed an additional 15,000 more civil servants, military officials, police and others and shut down more than 500 institutions and news outlets in investigations over a failed coup in July, authorities said in two official decrees. More than 110,000 people have been fired or suspended in the military, civil service, judiciary and elsewhere, while 36,000 people have been jailed pending trial as part of the investigation into the foiled coup attempt.
Ankara blames the US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen and his supporters, which it calls the “Gulenist Terror Organization,” for orchestrating the coup bid, in which more than 240 people were killed and demands Washington extradite the reclusive Islamic cleric who has lived in Pennsylvania since 1999.
Turkish authorities have also cracked down on politicians and institutions they accuse of ties to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has waged a 32-year insurgency against Turkey in the largely Kurdish southeast. Critics say the purges and mass arrests in Turkey are spreading to other opposition groups, including media outlets and Kurdish factions, in effect criminalizing political dissent.
jar/tj (AP, dpa, Reuters)
Syrian rebels may have committed war crimes in Aleppo – Amnesty
© Hosam Katan / Reuters
Syrian rebels may have committed war crimes in their bombardment of a Kurdish-controlled area of Aleppo, killing dozens of innocent civilians, according to Amnesty International.
The rights watchdog says it has collected eyewitness testimony and videos which suggest that at least 83 civilians – including 30 children – were killed in the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood of Aleppo, a city split between government and rebel control. The killings reportedly took place between February and April.
“Armed groups surrounding the Sheikh Maqsoud district…have repeatedly carried out indiscriminate attacks that have struck civilian homes, streets, markets and mosques, killing and injuring civilians and displaying a shameful disregard for human life,” Amnesty said in a Friday statement.
The organization’s deputy Middle East director, Magdalena Mughrabi, said the attacks “may amount to war crimes,” Reuters reported.
“By firing imprecise explosive weapons into civilian neighborhoods the armed groups attacking Sheikh Maqsoud are flagrantly flouting the principle of distinction between civilian and military targets, a cardinal rule of international humanitarian law,” Mughrabi said.
The violence is part of intense fighting in the region between the Kurdish YPG militia – which is backed by the US in the fight against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) – and rebel groups, some of which are backed by foreign countries via Turkey.
The YPG and its allies have been battling insurgents, including some Islamist groups, in the northern Aleppo province for several months. Shellings of Sheikh Maqsoud, which has a large Kurdish population, have intensified since February.
Both sides have accused the other of killing civilians.
Rebels claim the YPG wants to take control of a road which provides access from Turkey to Aleppo’s rebel-held areas. They also say the YPG is working in cahoots with the Syrian government – a claim which the YPG denies.
The YPG currently holds and uninterrupted 400km (250 mile) stretch of territory along the Syria-Turkey border. Turkey, which is fighting Kurdish militants in a controversial operation in the country’s southeast, views any YPG expansion with concern.
But despite any disapproval from Turkey, the YPG has been praised for its efforts against IS militants in Syria. The militia has been the most effective partner on the ground in the US-led campaign against IS, seizing large areas from the group last year.