In Algeria and Tunisia, the law allows rapists to escape prosecution by marrying their teenage victims. Morocco recently did away with a similar law, two years after 16-year-old Amina Filali committed suicide having been forced to marry the man she said had raped her.
There are many other laws in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia which fail to protect female survivors of sexual violence, such as making the severity of punishment for rape dependent on whether the victim was a virgin.
At the June meeting of Amnesty International Taunton group, members wrote to Iraqi authorities on behalf of father-of-two Osama Jamal ‘Abdallah Mahdi.
He is detained in Kadhimiya Prison, northern Baghdad, following his conviction for killing an Iraqi army officer in 2008.
He is at imminent risk of execution and his case has now been forwarded to the President’s office, which has the authority to ratify the sentence, commute it or grant a pardon.
During his trial, Osama Jamal ‘Abdallah Mahdi withdrew “confessions” extracted from him under torture, but this was not accepted by the court. Witnesses confirm that he was at work at the time of the killing, 120km from where it took place.
Claudia Medina Tamariz woke at 3am on 7 August 2012, to find marines had broken into her home in Veracruz City. They tied her hands, blindfolded her and took her to the local naval base where she says she was given electric shocks, beaten and kicked. She was wrapped in plastic to disguise the marks from the beating. Claudia, a mother of three, was accused of being a member of a violent criminal gang, which she denies.
The day after her arrest, she was blindfolded again and taken with other detainees to the Federal Attorney General’s Office. When the blindfold was removed, she realised her husband and brother-in-law had also been arrested. A prosecutor interrogated Claudia and a marine pressured her into signing a statement that she wasn’t allowed to read.
In court, she retracted her statement and described the abuse inflicted on her in detention. All the charges against her except one (carrying an illegal weapon) were dropped, and she was released on bail.
A judge ordered the Federal Attorney General’s Office to investigate her allegations. But to date no specialist medical and psychological assessment has been conducted, even though Mexico is obliged to do this under UN guidelines for investigating torture, nor has anyone been held to account for Claudia’s torture.
Take Action: How you can help
1) Write to the Federal Attorney General, calling on him to investigate the alleged torture and ill-treatment suffered by Claudia Medina Tamariz, make the results public and bring those responsible to justice.
Address: Federal Attorney General Jesús Murillo Karam, Procuraduría General de la República, Av. Paseo de la Reforma 211-213, Col. Cuauhtémoc C.P. 06500, Mexico D.F., MEXICO
2) Let Claudia know that you are thinking of her and support her struggle for justice.
27-year-old Meriam Yehya Ibrahim is being held in prison with her 20-month-old son and is heavily pregnant with her second child.
Meriam was first arrested in August last year because her husband is Christian. One of her relatives had claimed that Meriam was committing ‘adultery’ for marrying outside of Islam, and reported her to the authorities.
When Meriam appeared before the courtroom in Khartoum, Sudan, on 15 May and refused to renounce her Christian religion, the judges sentenced to death by hanging for ‘apostasy’. She has also been sentenced to 100 lashes for being married to a Christian man.
Meriam has committed no crime. She is a prisoner of conscience and should be released immediately.
Please follow this link to send an email to the Sudanese government, or write to the following addresses:
From Amnesty UK:
Refugees and migrants are risking their lives to reach Europe. If they make it to Europe’s borders, they are often met with violence and ill-treatment and turned away without question.
‘Somebody showed them the baby, asking for help but the coastguards swore at us instead of helping us… when the coastguards cut the rope and tried to move away we started sinking.’
These are the words of Sabur Azizi, an Afghan refugee who lost his wife and son last year when the boat they were travelling in ran into trouble off the coast of Greece.
No matter how high European countries build their walls, no matter how much pressure countries like Greece come under to push people back at their borders, men, women and children will still be compelled to flee persecution, conflict & poverty by coming to the EU.
Recently, you persuaded the UK government to offer sanctuary to some of the most vulnerable refugees from the conflict in Syria. The first families are now rebuilding their lives here.
Now we must build on this progress, and make sure that the lives of all refugees and migrants headed for Europe are protected, whatever their route or reason for coming.
On 26-7 June, EU leaders meet to agree the future direction of asylum and migration policies across the EU. Please make sure it is a future in which no more refugees and migrants risk losing their lives to get here.
Ask your MP to call on David Cameron to protect lives on Europe’s borders at the EU this June.
Over 240 schoolgirls are still missing, weeks after they were abducted from their school by armed militant group Boko Haram. The group kidnapped eight more girls this week.
We now know that Nigerian security forces had more than four hours warning, but did not do enough to stop their abduction.
From Amnesty International USA:
An Egyptian court has sentenced 720 men to death, mostly in their absence, in two mass trials targeting alleged supporters of ousted President Mohamed Morsi.
Amnesty International believes both of these trials to be deeply flawed and grossly unfair.
Alone, each of these mass trials represents the largest number of death sentences handed down in one case in recent years. Taken together, the scale of injustice is staggering. It is a grotesque example of the shortcomings and selective, arbitrary nature of Egypt’s justice system.
This is definitely not justice. It’s the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment, and it could be an attempt to wipe out political opposition.
In April 2011, Mahdi Abu Dheeb, a school teacher in Bahrain and then president of union the Bahrain Teachers’ Association, was arrested for encouraging members of the union to strike.
Along with his colleague Jalila al-Salman, Mahdi proposed a teachers’ strike to support widespread protests at the time, calling for governmental reform. Both Mahdi and Jalila were arrested soon after.
Jalila was freed a couple of years ago, but Mahdi remains in prison. He was interrogated by police at a secret location, subjected to 64 days in solitary confinement, reportedly beaten by the police, and tried in a military court despite being a civilian.
69-year-old Mohammad Asghar is physically and mentally frail. He was arrested under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws in 2010 and sentenced to death in January.
Mohammad was arrested for allegedly writing letters claiming he was a prophet. However, his lawyers maintain it was never established that he posted or even intended to post the letters.
He is both physically and mentally frail. He suffered a stroke in 2000 and has been diagnosed by an expert in Scotland as suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. He attempted suicide in 2010.
His appeal has been lodged, but it could take up to five years to be heard. He remains in detention in Adiala jail, Rawalpindi.
Text ‘SAVE1’ and your full name now to 70505 to sign our petition to the Pakistani authorities. Over 14s only please.
OR
Write/Email/Fax the authorities in Pakistan, before 30 April 2014, at the following addresses:
Sample letter:
I am writing to call on your to immediately and unconditionally drop all charges against Mohammad Asghar, and that he has immediate access to appropriate medical and/or psychiatric treatment. I also ask that you provide his lawyers with all medical records made during his detention.
Mohammed Asghar’s lawyers maintain that it has never been established that Asghar posted, or even intended to post, letters claiming he was a prophet. In addition he is mentally frail and an expert in Scotland has diagnosed him as suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. The charges against him should be dropped.
Amnesty International Taunton Local Group 