Supreme Court to Hear Detainee Case Against Ashcroft, Mueller; Castro Opposes EU Human Rights Conditions; Drug-Related Deaths Continue to Rise in Mexico

By Gabrielle Meury
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

WASHINGTON, U.S. – On June 16, The Supreme Court declared that it would decide whether top government officials can be held personally liable for allegedly knowing of or supporting mistreatment of people detained after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Javaid Iqbal, a Pakistani man who was arrested in New York two months after the 9/11 attacks, is bringing the suit against former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller. Iqbal, a Muslim, is alleging that he was subjected to unlawful ethnic and religious discrimination and subjected to physical and verbal abuse, including unnecessary strip searches and beatings by guards on more than one occasion The court agreed to hear an appeals by Ashcroft and Mueller, who are arguing that they cannot be held personally liable for the actions of their subordinates.
Iqbal has also sued other U.S. government officials, including the warden at the detention facility and the director of the federal Bureau of Prisons.
The case is Ashcroft v. Iqbal (07-1015).

For more information, please see:
CNN- Supreme Court Accepts 9/11 Detainee Case- 16 June 2008

Reuters- Supreme Court to Decide 9-11 Abuse Case- 16 June 2008
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HAVANA, Cuba- While the EU voted on Thursday to lift diplomatic sanctions imposed against Cuba, it imposed strict human-rights conditions that the government must maintain in order to remain sanction-free. The EU will evaluate Cuba’s progress in a year and could take new measures if human rights do not improve.
The EU’s conditions include the release of all political prisoners, access for Cubans to the internet, and a “double-track approach” for all EU delegations arriving in Cuba, allowing them to meet both opposition figures and members of the Cuban government.
EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said that the EU would continue to monitor human rights conditions in Cuba. “There will be very clear language also on what the Cubans still have to do…releasing prisoners, really working on human rights questions.”
The EU sanctions were introduced after Cuba’s government rounded up 75 dissidents in 2003. Sixteen of those arrested have been released on medical parole and another four were freed last month into forced exile in Spain. More than 200 dissidents are still serving jail terms.

For more information, please see:
Reuters- Castro Blasts EU Condition on Lifting Sanctions- 21 June 2008

BBC- Castro Condemns EU’s “Hyposcrisy”- 21 June 2008

USA Today- EU to Lift Sanctions on Cuba- 20 June 2008
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CHIHUAHUA, Mexico- The recent unearthing of at least 48 murder victims from three properties in Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua have brought to drug-related violence to the Mexican Congress’s attention. Many of the recently-discovered victims were presumably associated with illegal drug trafficking and other criminal activities.
In the Guerrero state capital of Chilpancingo, the Committee of Friends and Relatives of Murdered, Disappeared nad Kidnapped Persons, contended that Guerrero Governor Zeferino Torreblanca and State Attorney General Eduardo Murueta have close their doors to family members of missing persons presumably kidnapped by organized criminal elements. Filiberto Ceron Radilla, rather of disappeared architect Jorge Gabriel Ceron Silva, stated, “Not a single state official has faced down the violence that this place is going through. It is as if they want to oblige the citizenry to accept a reality that we are not ready to tolerate.”
Since Mexican President Felipe Calderon unleashed the military at the beginning last year to fight drug traffickers, about 4,000 people have been killed, including police and soldiers. Even in Juarez, where the military has been deployed since March, the death toll continues to climb. From January 1 to March 31, 210 people have been murdered. Between April 1 and June 1, another 276 people have been killed.
The state Congress earlier this month passed a resolution urging the army to punish soldiers involved in abuses.

For more information, please see:
Drug War Chronicle- Latin America: Human Rights a Casualty in Chihuahua’s Drug War- 19 June 2008

Frontera Norte Sur- The Silent Side of Mexico’s Narco War- 19 June 2008