Kategorie: Humans

Charges Violate Freedom of Expression, Association

The Cuban government should immediately and unconditionally release Maykel Castillo Pérez and Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, artists who are set to stand trial starting on May 30, 2022, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said today. Concerned governments, especially from Latin America and Europe, should monitor the trial and call for the artists’ release.

Otero Alcántara, a visual artist, and Castillo Pérez, a rap singer who is also known by his artistic name “Osorbo,” have been in pre-trial detention for nearly a year. A prosecutor has requested that they be sentenced to seven and ten years in prison, respectively, on a range of charges related to their participation in a peaceful demonstration and an artistic performance, and their criticism of President Miguel Díaz-Canel.

“Maykel Castillo Pérez and Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara are being prosecuted for exercising their human right to criticize their own government,” said Tamara Taraciuk Broner, acting Americas director at Human Rights Watch. “Latin American governments should not stay silent when artists are threatened with prison for speaking out, the extreme intolerance typical of brutal dictatorships in the region’s past.”

“Governments in the Americas and Europe should closely monitor the trial against these prisoners of conscience in Cuba, who should never have spent a day in prison,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International. “In a country where more than 700 people, including some children under 18, are imprisoned for simply expressing themselves, it is of utmost importance that these trials be subject to international scrutiny.”

Otero Alcántara, a member of the San Isidro Movement, formed to critique government censorship, was detained on July 11, 2021, after posting a video saying he would join island-wide peaceful protests that day. More than 700 people arrested during the demonstration remain in detention, according to the Cuban rights group Cubalex. Castillo Pérez, one of the authors of “Motherland and Life” (“Patria y Vida”), a song critical of the Cuban government that was adopted as a popular protest anthem, was detained by state security officials on May 18, 2021.

Maykel Castillo Pérez and Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara are being prosecuted for exercising their human right to criticize their own government

Tamara Taraciuk Broner, acting Americas director at Human Rights Watch

Castillo Pérez, who has experienced multiple short-term arbitrary detentions, was arrested at his home. His family did not know where he was until May 31, when Cuban authorities informed them that he was being held in the Pinar del Río prison, where he remains in detention. The family was only notified a few days after the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances had urged the Cuban government to reveal Castillo Pérez’s place of detention.

In January 2022, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention concluded that Castillo Pérez had been arbitrarily detained and said that the Cuban government should release him immediately. The UN experts found that Castillo Pérez had been detained for exercising his fundamental rights and had suffered due process violations, including abusive limitations to his right to defend himself. The experts found credible evidence that, prior to his latest detention, Castillo Pérez had been arrested more than 120 times for participating in protests and criticizing the Cuban government.

In February, a prosecutor in Havana requested that Castillo Pérez be sentenced to 10 years in prison for the crimes of “public disorder,” “defamation of national institutions, organizations, heroes and martyrs of the nation,” “contempt,” and “assault.” A court document Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International reviewed indicates that some charges are connected to memes Castillo Pérez published on Facebook criticizing President Díaz-Canel and other Cuban authorities. Other charges are connected to an April 4, 2021 peaceful protest in Havana, during which a police officer tried to arrest Castillo Pérez and a group of local residents defended him, preventing the detention.

Otero Alcántara, whom Amnesty International has named prisoner of conscience several times during multiple arbitrary arrests, is being held at the Guanajay maximum security prison in Artemisa province.

The same court document indicates that the prosecutor is seeking a combined sentence of seven years for Otero Alcántara. He is being charged with “insulting national symbols” for his use of the Cuban flag in the performance piece Drapeau, in which he either wore the Cuban flag or carried it around with him 24 hours a day for a month

The prosecutor also charged him with “public disorder” and “contempt” for gathering with Castillo Pérez and other people during the April 4 protest, playing “Motherland and Life” in public and saying “offensive words” against former president Raúl Castro.

Governments in the Americas and Europe should closely monitor the trial against these prisoners of conscience in Cuba, who should never have spent a day in prison

Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty Internationa

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have learned that Cuban authorities have repeatedly offered to release Castillo Pérez and Otero Alcántara in exchange for them leaving the country indefinitely— a historic practice by the Cuban government that has been applied to other critics in recent months, in violation of the right to enter one’s own country. Otero Alcántara has publicly rejected the offer. Cuban authorities have seemingly backtracked from their offer to Castillo Pérez.

Nobody should be forced to choose between leaving their own country or facing abusive criminal charges for which they should not be prosecuted or imprisoned in the first place, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said.

The prosecution against Otero Alcántara and Castillo Pérez is part of a much broader pattern of systematic abuses against Cuban artists and other government critics and protesters. In recent years, Cuban authorities have jailed, prosecuted, and forced into exile dozens of Cuban artists, including from the “San Isidro Movement” and “27N,” which gather artists, intellectuals, and journalists who are critical of the government.

Cuban authorities have also engaged in arbitrary detention and ill-treatment of detainees, and held unfair mass trials, mostly behind closed doors, in response to overwhelmingly peaceful anti-government protests in July 2021. Dozens of protesters have been sentenced to up to 30 years in prison, in trials in which prosecutors have frequently charged them with vaguely defined crimes, such as “public disorder” and “sedition.”

Cuban authorities should drop charges designed to silence dissent against all protesters and critics, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said. To the extent that the trials proceed, authorities should allow journalists, human rights observers, and staff of foreign embassies in Cuba to be present at the trials, including at the one against Otero Alcántara and Castill, the organizations said.

For more Human Rights Watch reporting in Cuba, please visit: https://www.hrw.org/americas/cuba

For more Amnesty International reporting in Cuba, please visit: https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/americas/central-america-and-the-caribbean/cuba/

For more information, please contact:

For Human Rights Watch, in Montevideo, Tamara Taraciuk Broner (English, Spanish, Portuguese): taracit@hrw.org. Twitter: @TamaraTaraciuk

For Human Rights Watch, in Berlin, Juan Pappier (English, Spanish): pappiej@hrw.org.

For Amnesty International, in Mexico City, Duncan Tucker (English, Spanish): duncan.tucker@amnesty.org

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As Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, spoke in Congress today about the use of Pegasus spyware by Spain’s intelligence services (the CNI), to spy on political figures, Amnesty International have called on authorities to urgently review the regulations to limit covert surveillance of communications.

They have also published ten recommendations aimed at finding out the details of what happened, establish remedy and accountability measures for the victims of human rights violations and prevent future arbitrary and mass surveillance.

“The intelligence services have to respect human rights standards,” said Esteban Beltrán, Director of Amnesty International Spain.

“While there is greater control in criminal cases, in this type of investigation carried out by the secret services, regulations to prevent abuses are very weak. There is risk that they can act with total impunity.”

The ten measures published today include:

• the need for a thorough, independent and effective investigation into the situation the Pegasus Project revealed and active collaboration with current or future judicial processes in this case;
• the need for the government to stick to its commitment to suspend the use of these surveillance instruments until they can establish an adequate regulatory framework that respects human rights;
• urgent legal changes that increase judicial control of CNI investigations and the defense of those under investigation, as well as the modification of the Official Secrets Law so that possible abuses and violations of human rights cannot be protected under the secrecy considerations.

Amnesty International is calling for an exhaustive, independent and effective investigation into the cases of surveillance of Catalan and Basque figures, including the opening of a commission whose findings are made available to the ad hoc Commission of the European Parliament on infringements of European Union law and fundamental rights associated with the use of Pegasus.

“The impunity of this surveillance also highlights once again the need to increase control and legal and operational safeguards in surveillance operations,” said Esteban Beltrán.

“Governments around the world have not done enough to investigate or stop human rights violations caused by invasive spyware like Pegasus. The use, sale and transfer of this surveillance technology must be temporarily stopped to prevent further human rights abuses.”

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• AV materials available on 4 June, the 33^rd anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown
• Events in cities including London, San Francisco and Seoul
• Activists will demand justice for those killed in Beijing on 4 June 1989 and protest against the crackdown on Hong Kong’s annual vigil

Hong Kong’s suppressed Tiananmen vigil will be recreated around the world this June Fourth as people in more than 20 cities light candles in remembrance of those killed in the 1989 Beijing crackdown.

The annual Hong Kong event ran for more than 30 years but has been banned since 2020 amid increased repression in the city. Amnesty International is organizing a series of global candlelight vigils and other events to continue to demand justice and show solidarity for Hong Kong.  

“The Chinese government’s concerted efforts to erase the Tiananmen crackdown from history have spread to Hong Kong since the national security law was enacted in the city in 2020. But the atrocities of 4 June 1989 must never be forgotten,” said Hana Young, Amnesty International’s East Asia Deputy Regional Director.

“This June Fourth, people will come together across the world to remember those killed in Beijing 33 years ago, and to stand in solidarity with those in Hong Kong whose peaceful acts of commemoration are now criminalized.”

For three decades, Hong Kong hosted the world’s biggest commemoration of the Tiananmen crackdown: when hundreds – possibly thousands – of people were killed as Chinese troops opened fire on students and workers who had been peacefully calling for political and economic reforms as well as an end to corruption.

Every year on 4 June since 1990, as many as hundreds of thousands of people joined a candlelight vigil in Hong Kong’s Victoria Park to remember those killed. They called on the Chinese authorities to reveal the truth about what happened and take accountability for the fatalities. The vigil has been banned for the past two years, ostensibly on Covid-19 grounds.

The organizer of the vigil, the Hong Kong Alliance, was forced to disband in September 2021 after coming under increasing pressure since the enactment of Hong Kong’s national security law in June 2020. Several of its senior figures are currently in jail.

The Alliance is one of several prominent civil society organizations forced to fold since last year after being targeted by the Hong Kong police on national security grounds.

On this year’s 33^rd anniversary of the deadly crackdown, vigils and related events – organized by Amnesty International and other groups – will instead take place in cities including San Francisco, Washington DC, Seoul, Taipei, Ulaanbaatar, Sydney, Oslo, Paris, Amsterdam and London.

“The simple act of lighting a candle for Tiananmen has become a crime in Hong Kong, just as it has been in mainland China for more than 30 years. But history cannot be erased and activism will never be silenced,” Hana Young said.

“Just as Hongkongers once stood in solidarity with the victims of Tiananmen, the rest of the world now stands with the people of Hong Kong to the deliver the same message: that repression will not be tolerated anywhere.”

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Global figures

Amnesty International recorded 579 executions in 18 countries in 2021, an increase of 20% from the 483 recorded in 2020. This figure represents the second lowest number of executions recorded by Amnesty International since at least 2010.

Most known executions took place in China, Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Syria – in that order.

China remained the world’s leading executioner – but the true extent of its use of the death penalty is unknown as this data is classified as a state secret; the global figures for executions and death sentences therefore exclude the thousands of people that Amnesty International believes to have been sentenced to death and executed in China.

Figures for North Korea and Viet Nam, which are believed to have extensively resorted to executions, were also not included in the global executions figure, as secrecy and lack of access to independent information made it impossible to assess trends.

Amnesty International recorded 24 women among the 579 people known to have been executed in 2021 (4%), in the following countries: Egypt (8), Iran (14), Saudi Arabia (1) and USA (1).

Belarus, Japan and UAE resumed executions. Amnesty International did not record any executions in India, Qatar and Taiwan, having done so in 2020.

Iran executed at least 314 people (up from at least 246 in 2020), their highest number of executions since 2017, reversing year-on-year declines since then.

Recorded executions in Saudi Arabia rose sharply, from 27 to 65, an increase of 140% percent.

Despite these increases, the 2021 global executions figure constitutes the second-lowest figure recorded by Amnesty International since at least 2010. For the second consecutive year, the number of countries known to have executed people was the lowest the organization has recorded. In 2019, 2020 and 2021 Amnesty International recorded 657, 483 and 579 executions respectively.

In July, Sierra Leone’s parliament unanimously adopted an Act which abolishes the death penalty for all crimes. Kazakhstan adopted legislation in December abolishing the death penalty for all crimes, which came into effect this year. Papua New Guinea embarked on a national consultation on the death penalty, which resulted in the adoption of an abolition Bill in January 2022, still to come into force. The Government of Malaysia announced that it would table legislative reforms on the death penalty in the third quarter of 2022.

At the end of 2021, more than two thirds of the world’s countries had abolished the death penalty in law or practice. 108 countries, a majority of the world’s states, had abolished the death penalty in law for all crimes and 144 countries had abolished the death penalty in law or practice. 55 countries still retained the death penalty.

Amnesty International recorded commutations or pardons of death sentences in 19 countries: Bangladesh, Botswana, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guyana, India, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Taiwan, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, UAE, USA, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Amnesty International recorded seven exonerations of people under sentence of death in four countries: Bahrain (1), Kenya (1), USA (2) and Zambia (3).

Amnesty International recorded 2,052 death sentences imposed in 56 countries, up 39% from at least 1,477 in 54 countries in 2020.

Ethiopia, Guyana, Maldives, Oman, Tanzania, and Uganda handed down death sentences having not done so in 2020, while the reverse was true of Bahrain, Comoros, Laos and Niger.

At the end of 2021, at least 28,670 people were known to be under sentence of death. Nine countries held 82% of the known totals: Iraq (8,000+), Pakistan (3,800+), Nigeria (3,036+), USA (2,382), Bangladesh (1,800+), Malaysia (1,359), Viet Nam (1,200+), Algeria (1,000+), Sri Lanka (1,000+).

The following methods of execution were used across the world in 2021: beheading, hanging, lethal injection and shooting.

Four people were executed for crimes that occurred when they were below 18 years of age: in Iran (3) and Yemen (1). Amnesty International believes that other people in this category remained on death row in Maldives, Myanmar and Iran.

At least 134 executions for drug-related offences were known to have been carried out in two countries (China and Iran), an increase of 346% from 2020 (30). Information on Viet Nam, which is very likely to have carried out such executions, was unavailable.

Death sentences were known to have been imposed after proceedings that did not meet international fair trial standards in countries including Algeria, Bangladesh, Cameroon, Egypt, Iran, Myanmar, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Singapore and Yemen.

Regional Analysis

Americas

All 11 of the recorded executions in 2021 took place in the USA. The rest of the Americas region remained execution-free for the 13th consecutive year.

25 new death sentences were handed down in three countries: USA, Guyana and Trinidad & Tobago.

Virginia became the 23rd abolitionist state in the USA and first southern state to have abolished the death penalty. For the third consecutive year, Ohio rescheduled or halted all set executions.

The new US administration also established a temporary moratorium on federal executions in July. 2021 marked the lowest number of executions in the US since 1988.

Asia-Pacific

Amnesty International recorded executions in five countries⁠—Bangladesh, China, Japan, North Korea and Viet Nam⁠—the lowest number in more than two decades.

At least 819 new death sentences were handed down in 16 countries, a rise of 58% compared to 2020 (517), largely linked to increases in Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Pakistan and Viet Nam.

After a hiatus of 24 months, Japan hanged three people. For the second consecutive year, Pakistan reported no executions and also prohibited the use of the death penalty on those diagnosed with severe mental (psycho-social) disabilities. Thailand continued to commute death sentences.

The threat of reintroduction of the death penalty in the Philippines diminished as three of its proponents in the Senate announced they would oppose any such move.

Although Singapore reported no executions for the second consecutive year, the country has resumed executions in 2022.

Europe and Central Asia

Amnesty International recorded one execution and one new death sentence, both in Belarus, which remains the only country in the region carrying out executions.

Kazakhstan signed into law a bill abolishing the death penalty for all crimes.

Armenia became a state party to a key international treaty on abolition of the death penalty.

The Russian Federation and Tajikistan continued to observe moratoriums on executions.

Middle East and North Africa

520 executions were recorded in seven countries–Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Syria, United Arab Emirates and Yemen – an increase of 19% on 2020.

Recorded executions in Iraq more than halved, from 45 to 17, though this may have been the result of a slowdown in the executive approvals of death sentences due to the political turmoil that the state was in for much of the year.

A mass execution of 24 people in Syria in October made the country the fifth biggest recorded executor in 2021.

There were at least 834 new death sentences in 17 countries, a jump of 32%, with sharp increases in Egypt, Iraq and Lebanon. This figure does not reflect the many death sentences that were believed to have been imposed in Iran.

At least 356 people were sentenced to death by Egyptian courts in 2021, a rise of 34% and the highest number of death sentences that Amnesty International was able to record worldwide in 2021.

Sub-Saharan Africa

The number of executions, recorded in 3 countries, more than doubled to 33, as a result of rises in Somalia and South Sudan. The other country to carry out executions was Botswana.

At least 373 new death sentences were handed down in 19 countries, an increase of 22%, due to sharp rises in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Mauritania, and despite a significant drop in Zambia.

In July, Sierra Leone’s parliament unanimously adopted an Act which abolishes the death penalty for all crimes. In Central African Republic and Ghana, legislative processes to abolish the death penalty were started and remain ongoing.

At least 5,843 people were held under a sentence of death, with Nigeria holding 52% of them (at least 3,036).

The post Death Penalty 2021: Facts and Figures appeared first on Amnesty International.

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdul Aziz must halt the imminent execution of Jaafar Sultan and Sadeq Thamer, two Bahraini Shi’a men who were sentenced to death on terrorism and protest-related charges following a grossly unfair trial, Amnesty International said today.

In its 2021 annual review of the death penalty published today, Amnesty International found that Saudi Arabia more than doubled its number of executions over the previous year, with that spike continuing in March when 81 people were executed in a single day.

“These two men are at imminent risk of execution now that their sentences are before the King for ratification. They were sentenced after a deeply flawed trial based on torture-tainted confessions. King Salman should immediately halt the execution of Jaafar Sultan and Sadeq Thamer, annul their death sentences, and ensure they are retried in accordance with international law,” said Lynn Maalouf, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa.

“In upholding these death sentences, Saudi Arabia’s judicial system has yet again displayed a chilling disregard for human rights. If the King ratifies their death sentences, their execution will constitute an arbitrary deprivation of the right to life.

“The Saudi Arabian authorities must order a prompt, impartial and independent investigation into the defendants’ claims before the court of torture and ill-treatment. They must also establish an official moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty entirely in Saudi Arabia.”

Background

Jaafar Sultan and Sadeq Thamer were arrested on 8 May 2015 and held incommunicado in solitary confinement for three-and-a-half months. They were only allowed to call their families 115 days later, but prison officials did not allow them to discuss the conditions of their detention.

The Specialized Criminal Court sentenced them to death in October 2021 following a grossly unfair trial. They were tried on terrorism-related charges over the smuggling of explosive materials into Saudi Arabia and participation in anti-government protests in Bahrain. The Appeals Court upheld their sentences in April 2022. They could be executed in Saudi Arabia as soon as the King ratifies their sentence. In the absence of transparent information around judicial processes in Saudi Arabia particularly in death penalty cases, families only find out about the fate of their loved ones in the media after the execution is carried out.

Jaafar and Sadeq had no access to legal representation throughout their pre-trial detention and interrogations. According to court documents, they told the court that they were tortured and that their so-called confessions were extracted under duress.

Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception regardless of the nature of the crime, the characteristics of the offender, or the method used by the state to kill the prisoner. The death penalty is a violation of the right to life and the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.

Join Amnesty International’s Urgent Action to call on King Salman to halt these executions.

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