Amnesty International Taunton Local Group

Stop Torture Casefile: Uzbekistan: Dilorom Abdukadirova

Dilorom Abdukadirova

Dilorom Abdukadirova worked with her husband and mother-in-law on their small farm. In May 2005, she joined thousands at a protest in Andizhan to voice concerns about the economy. The protest was mostly peaceful, but security forces fired on the crowds, killing hundreds.

Dilorom fled across the Kyrgyzstani border, and arrived in Australia on a refugee visa in February 2006. She desperately missed her family, however, so after receiving assurances from the Uzbekistani authorities that nothing would happen if she went back, she returned in January 2010. At the airport, however, she was detained for four days.

In March 2010, Dilorom was detained again and charged with attempting to overthrow the constitutional order and leaving the country illegally. She was kept in a cell for two weeks without access to a lawyer or her family. At her trial in April 2011 relatives said she looked unusually thin, had a bruised face and was not wearing her headscarf, something she would not have done voluntarily.

Following an unfair trial, Dilorom was found guilty and sentenced to 10 years in prison. She was then accused of breaking prison rules, and her sentence was extended by a further eight years following a closed trial inside the prison.

Take Action: How you can help

1) Write to the Uzbekistan authorities and urge them to:

• Drop all charges against Dilorom Abdukadirova and release her immediately and unconditionally
• Conduct a prompt, impartial and effective investigation into the allegations that Dilorom Abdukadirova was tortured in
custody and make sure anyone found responsible is brought to justice.
• Allow the UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment to visit
Uzbekistan.

Please write to: President Islam Karimov, Rezidentsia Prezidenta, ul. Uzbekistanskaia 43, Tashkent 700163, UZBEKISTAN

2) Let Dilorom know that you are thinking of her and support her struggle for justice

Address: Dilorom Abdukadirova, C/o IAR Programme, Amnesty International UK, 17-25 New Inn Yard, London, EC2A 3EA
Preferred language: English
Suggested message: I stand with you as you seek justice and will campaign for your freedom.
Please do not send a religious card. It is ok to mention Amnesty and to include a return address if you wish

Tags: 2014, action, Amnesty, Dilorom Abdukadirova, Stop Torture, take action, Uzkekistan

Comments 2 Comments
Categories Take action

Japan – please don’t send Hakamada back to death row

19 Oct

Hakamada Iwao‘s freedom is hard-won, but it could be lost at any moment.

After 46 years on Japan’s death row, he was freed in March and granted a retrial based on new DNA evidence that could prove his innocence.

Now prosecutors are appealing his retrial – they want to send the 78-year-old back to death row.

Please ask them to drop the appeal.

Tags: Amnesty, death penalty, Hakamada Iwao, human rights, Japan, petition, prisoner

Comments Leave a Comment
Categories Take action

Afghan women’s rights at risk

3 Oct

Doctors, teachers, journalists, activist and lawyers. Ordinary people are doing extraordinary work, risking their safety, to help women across Afghanistan know and access their rights. Their work is vital. But the threats and violent attacks on them and their families continue and the future looks increasingly dangerous.

UK governments have worked to encourage women to take up public roles like these in Afghanistan. But as international forces prepare to withdraw from the country, the British Government must act now to support and protect women’s rights in Afghanistan.

Please follow this link and sign the petition calling on the UK government to:

create and maintain a database to know who is at risk
have a named member of staff whose job it is to keep in regular contact with women at risk
condemn any threats or violence towards individuals; or any discriminatory laws passed by the Afghan government
provide emergency support as needed, including safe houses and relocation.

Take Action Now

Tags: 2014, action, Afghanistan, government, human rights, take action, Women's Rights

Comments Leave a Comment
Categories Take action

Read all about our September 2014 meeting here…

28 Sep

Torture is out of control in Mexico – there’s been a 600% rise in cases of torture and ill-treatment over the last 10 years. Think of Claudia Medina Tamariz, dragged from her home by marines in the middle of the night, tortured with electric shocks, sexually assaulted and left tied to a chair in the scorching afternoon heat.

Over 2 years later, no investigation of Claudia’s complaint has been made. Since last year Amnesty International has been in frequent contact with the authorities in Mexico, and its recommendations verbally welcomed – but action has yet to be taken.

We signed letters on behalf of those imprisoned or persecuted in Libya, Morocco, Yemen, and Egypt, including human rights activist Yara Sallam.

With regret we said goodbye to Laura, who’s returning to the Midlands. As well as campaigning for those imprisoned or persecuted in the Middle East and North Africa, Laura has set up this WordPress blog for us.

We’re most grateful to local musician Damian Clarke who, in support of Amnesty International, gave a very entertaining lunchtime fundraiser concert to a sizeable audience in St John’s Church on September 12.

At our October meeting Neil Guild, the prospective Labour Parliamentary candidate for Taunton, will be coming to talk to us about his stance on human rights issues. We meet on the second Tuesday of the month at 8pm in the Silver Street Baptist Church – all are most welcome.

Tags: 2014, action, Amnesty, Egypt, group meeting, human rights, MENA, Stop Torture, take action, Taunton

Comments Leave a Comment
Categories Group meetings and news

Stop Torture Casefile: Philippines: Alfreda Disbarro

21 Sep

Alfreda Disbarro

On 3 October 2013, Alfreda Disbarro was at an internet café near her house in Parañaque, Manila, when police officers approached her and accused her of being a drug dealer. She denied the allegation and to prove she was not carrying drugs, emptied her pockets, which contained a mobile phone and a five-peso coin. Without warning the officers pointed a gun ather and punched her in the chest.

Alfreda, a 32-year-old mother of two, was taken to the police headquarters where she says police officers pinned her against a wall, repeatedly punched her in the face and stomach, hit her with a club, poked their fingers in her eyes, slapped her, forced a mop into her mouth, and banged her head against a wall. Then they beat her with a wooden stick and a metal bar.

Over the following days Alfreda was in such pain that she couldn’t eat, had difficulty breathing and kept vomiting. During this period she was photographed with three $100 bills and a sachet of drugs, and told to sign a blank sheet of paper.

After making a complaint to the Philippine Commission on Human Rights, Alfreda underwent a medical examination on 10 October 2013. The doctor found numerous bruises and marks on her body and concluded that they were caused by a hard, blunt object.

Take Action: How you can help

1) Write to the Phillipine police Internal Affairs Service and urge them to:

open an investigation into these allegations of torture made by Alfreda Disbarro and refer the case for public prosecution
take immediate administrative measures against any police officers who are found to have been involved or complicit in the torture of Alfreda Disbarro
give a safe space for whistle-blowers within the Philippine National Police who wish to report their personal knowledge of torture by their colleagues, including in the case of Alfreda Disbarro.

2) Let Alfreda know that you are thinking of her and support her demand for justice.

Address: Alfreda Disbarro, c/o IAR Programme, Amnesty International UK, 17-25 New Inn Yard, London, EC2A 3EA
Preferred language: English or Filipino
Suggested message: I have heard about the difficult experience you have had at the hands of police officers. I will be campaigning for you and others who have experienced torture. You have been so brave to report your experience. Be strong and continue fighting for justice.
You may send a religious card if you wish; Alfreda is Christian. It is ok to mentionAmnesty and include a return address if you wish.

Tags: 2014, action, Alfreda Disbarro, Amnesty, human rights, philippines, Stop Torture

Comments Leave a Comment
Categories Take action

Urgent: China – Do not send refugees back to North Korea

15 Aug

Four families, including a one-year-old baby, fled to China to escape the tyranny of North Korea. Now China might send them home where they could face torture, labour camps and possibly death.

They have already been taken to a detention centre on the border with North Korea.

North Korea is in a category of its own when it comes to human rights violations. It is a totalitarian state where tens of thousands of people are enslaved and tortured. All forms of freedom of expression are repressed and anyone attempting to assert their rights is crushed. No one is safe from arrest and imprisonment

Call on Chinese authorities to let them seek asylum in China or another country, or travel onwards to South Korea.

Tags: asylum, children's human rights, China, forced labour, government, human rights, North Korea, petition, refugees, take action, torture, urgent

Comments Leave a Comment
Categories Take action

Gaza: Stop the arms, stop the killing

27 Jul

From AIUK:

The death toll is rising as rockets rain down on the citizens of Gaza.

Children, women, men – nobody is safe from the indiscriminate bombing.

Israel says it’s targeting Hamas operatives, but most of the dead are civilians.

We must not facilitate war crimes.

Click here to call on the UK government to halt the supply of arms to Israel.

Tags: 2014, action, Amnesty, Arms trade, Gaza, human rights, Israel, petition, take action

Comments Leave a Comment
Categories Take action

Stop Torture Casefile: Morocco: Ali Aarrass

27 Jul

ali In 2010, Ali Aarrass, a Belgian-Moroccan national, was forcibly returned to Morocco from Spain, where he had been supporting his ageing father. The extradition took place despite warnings from the UN Human Rights Committee and Amnesty International that doing so would put the father-of-one at risk.

Ali has been detained ever since. For the first 12 days he was held incommunicado and tortured in a secret detention centre: he was beaten on the soles of his feet, given electric shocks to his testicles, suspended from his wrists, and burnt with cigarettes.

In November 2011, Ali was convicted of illegal use of weapons and participation in a group intending to commit acts of terrorism, solely on the basis of a ‘confession’ extracted under torture. In September 2012 the UN Special Rapporteur on torture and an independent forensic doctor visited Ali in detention and confirmed his torture claims.

The Moroccan authorities have repeatedly failed to investigate Ali’s assertions that he was held incommunicado and tortured.

How you can help

1) Call on the Minister of Justice and Liberties in Morocco to:

• Implement the decision of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention calling for the immediate release of Ali Aarrass.
• Investigate reports that he was tortured or otherwise ill-treated.
• Introduce video-recording and make the presence of defence lawyers compulsory in pre-arraignment detention, as a safeguard against torture and other ill-treatment.

Address: Minister of Justice and Liberties El Mustapha Ramid, Ministère de la Justice et des Libertés, Place El Mamounia, BP 1015, Rabat, Morocco

2) Let Ali know that you are thinking of him and support his struggle for justice.

• Address: Ali Aarrass, Prison locale de Salé II, Salé, Morocco
• Preferred language: French, Spanish or English.
• Please do not send a religious card. It is ok to mention Amnesty and to include a return address if you wish.