Impunity Watch: Europe

BRIEF: Verdicts Announced in Madrid Bombing

MADRID, Spain - Controversial verdicts were announced today in the trial of 28 men accused of the 2004 Madrid train bombing that killed 161 people.  To the shock of many Spanish citizens, only 21 of the 28 men were convicted of at least one of their charges.  Of the eight prime defendants, only three were convicted. One of the alleged masterminds in the plot, Rabei Osman El Sayed Ahmed, an Egyptian, as acquitted of all charges.

For more information, please see:

CNN - Spain condemns terror verdict - 31 October 2007

Verdicts Expected In Madrid Blast

By Jason Green
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

MADRID, Spain – Verdicts are expected tomorrow for the 28 men accused of orchestrating the March 11, 2004 train bombing that killed 191 people at the Atocha train station in Madrid.  The blast has been characterized as the worst terror attack in Europe since a Pan Am airliner was blown up mid-flight in 1988.   

The defendants face a variety of charges related to the attack including membership in a terrorist organization and collaboration with a terrorist group.  If convicted, the men could receive sentences ranging from just a few years in prison to imprisonment for life.  Each defendant has professed his innocence throughout the trial.   

While many of the planning details of the attack remain unknown, prosecutors believe that the group was inspired by al Qaeda’s September 11, 2001 attack on America.  Most of the defendants have remained silent throughout the trial, making it difficult to determine additional details about their alleged involvement. 

The Spanish public remains skeptical of the impending verdict because of the lingering questions.  For example, it is believed that some participants in this attack died later on in subsequent in suicide strikes on enemy targets.  It is unknown how many people were actually involved.  Additionally, the Spanish government's initial investigation linked the bombing to the unpopular war in Iraq and then later to the Eta, creating some confusion among the public over who is actually involved. 

Nevertheless, the verdict hopes to offer some justices to the victims of this tragedy.  Antonio Utrera became half-paralyzed when the bomb exploded while he was on one of the trains.  Reflecting on the upcoming verdict, he commented, “It’s not going to give life back to those who died, but at least I hope it’s going to provide some form of justice and condemn those responsible.” 

Tomorrow’s verdict will conclude what has been one of Spain’s most lengthy and expensive trials. 

For more information, please see:

BBC – Madrid bombing verdicts keenly awaited – 30 October 2007

CNN – Verdict due in Madrid bomb trial – 30 October 2007

Reuters – Verdicts due for deadly Madrid train bombs – 28 October 2007

BRIEF: Spy Sentenced In Russia

MOSCOW, Russia - Russian authorities sentenced one of their own citizens to a seven year term of imprisonment today for selling Russian military secrets to Polish secret agencies.  Authorities allege that Maj Yurena was recruited by the Polish secret service in 2005 and that he provided them with information concerning military personnel and troop movement in Moscow’s Military District. 

Yurena was arrested last March, and was convicted in Russia this summer.  He will begin serving his sentence this week. 

For more information, please see:

BBC – Russia major jailed as Polish spy – 29 October 2007 

French Charity in Hot Water Over Chad Adoption Plan

By Brent Surgeoner
Impunity Watch Senior Desk Officer, Europe

ABECHE, Chad – Sixteen European citizens were detained on Thursday by Chadian authorities over a plan to fly 103 Sudanese orphans to France.

The French charity group responsible for the plan, Zoe’s Ark (L’Arche de Zoe), claims it was “rescuing” the children from the violence in Darfur.  The group’s website read “the survival of these children depends on action.  Now!  The children will be dead in a few months.”

Zoe’s Ark claims that the authorities in Chad knew of its plans, however Chadian officials have argued the opposite.

Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno condemned the actions of Zoe’s Ark as “inhumane” and “unacceptable.”  He stated that those involved will be “severely punished.”

According to reports Zoe’s Ark’s operation was supported by over 300 families in France and one in Belgium.  Families were asked to donate around $3400 per child.  Many waited at an airport in Vatry, France on Thursday night for the children to arrive.

According to France’s Foreign Ministry, some of those families were told they could adopt these children.  However, neither Sudan nor Chad allow for international adoptions.

“Only the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR, is responsible for movement of Sudanese refugees settled in the east of Chad,” said General Touka Ramadan Korei, a governor in an eastern region in Chad.

The Foreign Ministry had warned Zoe’s Ark about such an operation back in August, alerting the group that it might be breaking international law.  There are strict rules about verifying the orphan status of the children in these situations.

Although unconfirmed by aid workers, many of the 103 children are claiming they are not orphans.  They have told reporters that they were enticed to leave their homes with offers of biscuits, money, and education while their parents worked in the fields.

For now, the children have been placed in the care of UNICEF, UNHCR, the Red Cross, and Chadian authorities.  The authorities are trying to determine where all of the children came from so they can return them to their families.

Aid workers report that the children are in good health, despite contentions from Zoe’s Ark that the children were in need of medical treatment.    The majority of the children fall within the three to five-year-old range.

Zoe’s Ark is adamant about its good intentions, arguing it was in no way involved in child-trafficking.  The French government, the Chadian government, and international aid agencies have all condemned the actions of Zoe’s Ark as irresponsible and in violation of international law.

The 16 individuals being detained include 3 French journalists, 6 members of Zoe’s Ark, and 7 Spanish flight crew members from the Girjet charter company hired to transport the children.

Under Chadian law, suspects may be detained for 72 hours with the option of extended detention for an additional 48 hours for further investigation.

For more information, please see:

Reuters - Chad children say were offered sweets to leave home - 28 October 2007

BBC - Spanish plane crew held in Chad - 27 October 2007

Yahoo (AP) - Questions over plan for Darfur children - 26 October 2007

Reuters - CHAD: French NGO accused of trafficking children - 26 October 2007

BBC - French held over Chad 'adoptions' -  26 October 2007

Stalin’s Victims Reburied Over Sixty Years Later

By Jason Green
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

BYKOVNYA, Ukraine – Ukrainian authorities today reburied at least some of victims of Stalin’s brutal regime.  Approximately 2,000 people were buried at a proper gravesite near the capital city of Kiev, the culmination of a massive effort to remove bodies from mass graves in the region. 

Tens of thousands of people are thought to have been killed by the Soviet Secret Police, the People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs, and left in mass graves in Bykovnya during the 1930’s and 1940’s.  The mass graves were denied by the Soviet government until the fall of the Soviet Union during the 1990’s. 

Approximately 100 people attended the ceremony outside of Kiev.

Andrzej Przewoznik, the general secretary of Poland’s Council for the Protection of Monuments to Struggle and Martyrdom commented to Reuters the importance of the reburial of the victims in Bykovnya forest.  "This is a place where we would like the Polish cross and Polish memories of those people resting in the Bykovnya forest to be," he said. 

Estimates of people killed during Stalin’s 1936-1941 rule exceed 100,000.

For more information, please see:

BBC – Ukraine reburies Stalin’s victims – 27 October 2007

Reuters – Ukraine reburies 2,000 victims of Stalin’s rule – 27 October 2007

Stockhouse Mediascan – Ukraine reburies Stalin’s victims - 27 October 2007

BRIEF: Putin Compares U.S. Missile Shield Plans To Cuban Missile Crisis

Referring to tension between the U.S. and Russia over U.S. plans to build missile shields in Europe, Russian President Vladimir Putin called the situation "technologically similar to the Cuban Missile Crisis. 

The BBC reports that Putin made the comment at a summit with EU leaders in Portugal.  Putin also stated that the world should not fear a cold war repeat because Russia and the U.S. “were not enemies anymore…we are partners and President Bush is a personal friend.” 

U.S. State Department spokesman Shawn McCormack disagreed, noting clear historical differences between the two conflicts. 

For more information, please see:

BBC – Putin compares U.S. shield to Cuba – 27 October 2007

BRIEF: Del Ponte Wants More Cooperation from Belgrade

BELGRADE, Serbia - Chief UN war crimes prosecutor, Carla del Ponte, said she would support a Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) between the EU and Serbia if Serbia would take more aggressive efforts to arrest war crimes fugitives Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic. While acknowledging that "a will to fully cooperate with (her) office exists," she said of Serbian officials, "I also know that there are those who could do much more."  However, she said if "more concrete actions are undertaken" she would report to the EU that Serbia is cooperating with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.  An SAA agreement is already in place between the EU and other Balkan states, such as Albania and Montenegro.

For more information, please see:

Yahoo(Reuters) - Del Ponte willing to endorse Serbia, but not yet - 26 October 2007.

BRIEF: Child Sex Ring Disrupted in Netherlands

THE HAGUE, Netherlands - Netherlands police arrested 13 after disrupting a trafficking network in which traffickers smuggled Nigerian children into Western countries to serve as sex slaves.  The children were forced into the sex trade in order to re-pay a Voodoo imposed debt.  Six other arrests were made in the US, Spain, UK and other countries.  All of the suspects are Nigerian.

For more information, please see:

BBC - Dutch smash 'voodoo' child trade - 25 October 2007

UK Plan to Extend Terror Detentions Criticized by Human Rights Watch

By Brent Surgeoner
Impunity Watch Senior Desk Officer, Europe

LONDON, England - Human Rights Watch (“HRW”) published a briefing paper on Monday in which it criticized the British government’s proposal to extend the pre-charge detention period of suspected terrorists from its current limit of 28 days.

The paper, entitled “UK:  Counter the Threat or Counterproductive? – Commentary on Proposed Counterterrorism Measures,” stated that the government’s proposal would “violate human rights law” and be “counterproductive.”  The brief came as Home Secretary Jacqui Smith recommended extending the 28-day limit to the Commons Home Affairs committee.

Although Smith acknowledged that the government has not had a case where more than a 28 day detention period was necessary, she claimed such an extension was justified as recent terrorist plots in Britain have become more complex.

“We believe it is very likely in a very, very small number of cases that there will come a time when more than 28 days is needed to question somebody,” she said.

In addition, Smith denied charges that an extended pre-charge detention period would constitute “internment.”

However, Benjamin Ward, associate Europe and Central Asia director for HRW said the proposal “violates the basic right to liberty and risks alienating British Muslims.” 

Further, he said the measure would be a step backward from the government’s recent shift in counterterrorism strategy from disregarding human rights to winning hearts and minds.

Although Home Secretary Smith did not announce how great of an extension parliament should consider, Prime Minister Gordon has previously mentioned extending the period to 56-days, twice the current limit.

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair had unsuccessfully lobbied for the period to be extended to 90 days when he was in office.

HRW concluded in its paper that any extension would “create a significant risk of unjust extended detention.”  It cited government statistics which reveal that over 50% of terrorist suspects arrested since 2001 have been released without charge.

Rather than extend the 28 day period, HRW asks that the government improve safeguards for the current limit.

For more information, please see:

Human Rights Watch - UK: Halt Efforts to Extend Pre-Charge Detention - 22 October 2007

The Guardian - Detention more than 28 days is not internment, Smith tells MPs - 23 October 2007

BBC - 'Scepticism' on terror detentions - 22 October 2007

UPDATE: French DNA Bill Passes in the Senate

PARIS, France - A controversial immigration bill which provides for DNA testing of immigrants seeking to join family members in France was approved by the Senate today.  The bill was already passed by the National Assembly in September and is now on course to becoming law.  Its proponents have argued that it will “speed up” the immigration application process, noting that 12 EU countries already use DNA testing.  Critics, however, have labeled the bill as racist.  They believe citizenship should be based on human rights rather than genetics.  The opposition Socialist Party plans to bring the bill before the Constitutional Court, thereby temporarily stalling its passage into law.  DNA testing is just one component of the immigration bill.

For more information, please see:

BBC - French parliament adopts DNA bill - 23 October 2007

Impunity Watch - France’s Proposed DNA Testing of Migrants Rebuked by African Leaders - 3 October 2007