Month: August 2009

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Update on Urgent Action – Ilham Tohti (China)

28 August 2009

Further Information on UA 194/09 (20 July 2009) – Incommunicado detention/Fear of torture

CHINA – Ilham Tohti (m)

Ilham Tohti, editor of the website “Uighur Online” and associate economics professor at Central Nationalities University, was released on 23 August 2009 in Beijing, China’s capital. However, he remains under surveillance.

Ilham Tohti was taken from his home on 8 July, shortly after the authorities said that articles posted on his website had fuelled the violence in Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR) in northwestern China. Ilham Tohti has denied the accusation saying that he would never agree with using violence.

His detention was arbitrary and illegal. In an interview with Radio Free Asia upon his release, Ilham Tohti said that he was not charged with any crime. His lawyer has not received any legal documentation on his detention, and he was not held in an official place of detention. It appears that his detention was a move to prevent him from communicating with journalists and through his website and blog.

In the same interview with Radio Free Asia, Ilham Tohti also said that he was not tortured or otherwise ill-treated in detention, but that the police questioned him “day and night.” Upon release, the police told him not to criticize the government or he would face formal charges and punishment.

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Supreme Court says Troy Davis deserves another chance

Amnesty International USA
Press Release
Monday, August 17, 2009

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL WELCOMES SUPREME COURT ORDER
MANDATING EVIDENTIARY HEARING FOR TROY ANTHONY DAVIS

Contact: Wende Gozan at 212-633-4247, wgozan@aiusa.org, or Laura Moye at 404-452-8920, lmoye@aiusa.org.

(Washington, D.C.) – Amnesty International USA (AIUSA) today welcomed a U.S. Supreme Court order mandating a new evidentiary hearing for death-row inmate Troy Anthony Davis. In today’s ruling, the nation’s highest court decided that Davis should have another chance to prove his innocence before the state of Georgia puts him to death.

“We are grateful that the nation’s highest court has seen the wisdom in granting a new evidentiary hearing to Troy Davis,” said Laura Moye, director of AIUSA’s Death Penalty Abolition Campaign. “For years Amnesty International has maintained that this man’s compelling case of innocence needs to see the light of day. Finally it will. Given the lack of hard evidence tying Davis to Officer MacPhail’s murder, it would be nothing short of unconscionable to put him to death as a means of conveniently tying up loose ends. Finally there is an opportunity for justice to truly be served.”

According to SCOTUSblog, the Court told the District Court to “receive testimony and make findings of fact as to whether evidence that could not have been obtained at the time of trial clearly establishes [Davis’] innocence.”

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Co-founder of New Mexico Coalition to Repeal Death Penalty speaks in Portland

by Terrie Rodello, AIUSA Oregon State Death Penalty Abolition Coordinator

Interested in joining others to end the death penalty in Oregon?

Oregonians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty has invited all Amnesty International members and others to an event featuring Ms. Cathy Ansheles, co-founder and first director of the New Mexico Coalition to Repeal the Death Penalty. Ms. Ansheles will speak about her experience in the effort to abolish the death penalty in New Mexico and provide Oregonians with insight on what needs to be done in Oregon to make abolition a real possibility in the near future.

Date: Monday, August 17

Time: 7:00-9:00 p.m.

Location: The Fireside Room at First United Methodist Church, Portland (18th and SW Jefferson).

Please join us.

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Denounce Aung San Suu Kyi’s imprisonment

Myanmar’s military junta extended Nobel Peace laureate and pro-democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s imprisonment by 18 months today after finding her guilty of violating the terms of her house arrest.

Critics of Myanmar’s military regime condemned the outcome of the 3-month sham trial, calling it a pretext to keep Aung San Suu Kyi out of the running during next year’s presidential elections.

The junta — which currently detains more than 2,100 political prisoners — commuted the sentence from three years hard labor in prison to an 18-month extension of house arrest in the hopes that the international community will view the reduced sentence as an act of leniency.

But Aung San Suu Kyi should have never been imprisoned in the first place.

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Urgent Action – Zamora Gómez family (Mexico)

28 July 2009

UA 202/09 – Torture

MEXICO – José Natividad Zamora Gómez (m), aged 25
Andrés Zamora Gómez (m), aged 27
Jorge Hernández Jardón (m), aged 24

Soldiers broke into the home of the Zamora Gómez family in Morelos state, central Mexico, and tortured three people. The soldiers searched the house and found no weapons or drugs, but went back to watch the house. The family are at risk of further serious human rights violations.

At 12:30am on 24 July, a group of 15 soldiers wearing balaclavas and carrying firearms kicked the front door and broke into the home of the Zamora Gómez family, in Jiutepec municipality. The soldiers did not have a warrant to enter the house. The soldiers grabbed and tied José Natividad Zamora Gómez (aged 25), his brother Andrés Zamora Gómez (aged 27) and his brother-in-law Jorge Hernández Jardón (aged 24) and started hitting them, asking questions about “weapons and drugs” and what they knew about a local criminal gang. They forced the mother of the two brothers, along with their wives and their four small children, into a room and questioned them as well.

The soldiers put a pillow case over Andrés Zamora’s head and then doused him with water while they continued hitting and interrogating him. Andrés Zamora could not speak and could hardly breathe. They then took him out of the house and threw him out onto the street. The soldiers also searched the house, saying they were looking for drugs and weapons. They found nothing, and left at 2am. When asked why they were doing this, one officer said they were “only doing their job” (solo hacían su trabajo) and that they would be coming back for more questioning.

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