The path to impunity for the Khashoggi murder must not be taken

(by Agnes Callamard, Amnesty International Secretary General)

“They dared to commit a murder on Turkish soil. They thought that if it came out, they could buy their way out of it.”

Those are the words of Yasin Aktay, a top aide to President Erdogan and deputy chair of the ruling AKP party, in his 2020 speech on the second anniversary of the murder of the Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Aktay went on to lambast the Saudi judicial system, saying that it could not be trusted to provide justice for Jamal, and he commended the Turkish courts for pursuing the case. President Erdogan should be praised, he said, for not allowing Khashoggi’s murder to be a “political bargaining chip” and for focusing “only on the pursuit of justice”.

Last week, following a decision of the court prosecuting the case to ask his opinion whether to halt the trial, Bekir Bozdag, Turkey’s justice minister, responded that the Turkish government will recommend that the trial-in-abstentia of the 26 Saudi nationals charged with the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi be halted, and the case be transferred to Saudi Arabia. A Turkish court looks likely to rubber stamp this decision tomorrow.

As acknowledged by the minister’s own government, transferring the case of Jamal Khashoggi’s murder to Saudi Arabia is knowingly and willingly deciding to allow the Saudi authorities to cover it up. Afterall, the Saudi system has repeatedly failed to cooperate with the Turkish prosecutor. It is clear that justice cannot and will not be delivered by a Saudi court.

So what might be behind this volte face?

As the former United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, I investigated this case from the start. From the moment Jamal Khashoggi stepped into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018, his treatment, his brutal murder, the whereabouts of his remains and the subsequent search for justice, truth and reconciliation have been shaped, distorted and defined by realpolitik and political interests.

In 2019, at the sham trial in Saudi Arabia, the accused did not deny that they killed Jamal Khashoggi and the hitmen – whose identities were not revealed at the trial – were found guilty. In 2020, a Saudi court then overturned the death sentences, commuting them to 20-year sentences, and sentencing three others to between seven and 10 years.

And yet, the individuals who abused or failed to fulfil the responsibilities of their positions of authority have not even been identified. This was a state sponsored extrajudicial killing, but those at the highest level of the State responsible for ordering it and ensuring its cover up have not been held to account.

The Saudi authorities claim it was “a rogue operation”. However, under international law a rogue operation is narrowly identified and the murder of Jamal Kashoggi does not meet that definition. Instead, every single aspect of this crime involves the responsibility of the Saudi state. The people on the kill-team were Saudi state officials. The team was dispatched as an official mission to Turkey. Those who executed the killing relied on Saudi state resources: they entered Turkey on a jet that had diplomatic clearance; two members of the team had Saudi diplomatic passports. The perpetrated the killing inside the Saudi consulate. A follow-up team of 17 Saudi state officials were dispatched to Turkey to clean up the crime scene.

This was not the action of a few “rogue” individuals. All elements of the operation demonstrate the responsibility of the state of Saudi Arabia.

As the search for justice began, it was clear, including to the Turkish authorities, that there was little hope of justice being served in a Saudi courtroom. So, a trial in-abstentia (a trial that takes place in the absence of the accused) was begun Turkey. Trials in absentia should always be subject to the proviso that a new trial before a new court must be granted after an accused convicted in absentia is subsequently arrested.

But two years later, the Turkish prosecutor’s request to halt the trial and the rapidity of the government’s decision to transfer the case to Saudi Arabia, [and the speed of the response from the Ministry of Justice when asked by the court,] suggests high-level political dynamics are in play.

If the case is indeed transferred to Saudi Arabia, it will be a dark day for those who loved Jamal. It will be a sad day for those who have spent more than three years campaigning for justice for his murder. It would be shameful day for Turkey, being a reversal of the Erdogan government’s public commitment to ensure justice for Jamal Khashoggi’s gruesome murder would prevail. All those who have been waiting for the whole truth to come out before a duly convened, impartial and independent court of law will now rightly ask what has changed since those lofty undertakings of Yasin Aktay, a little over two years ago, that only the search for justice would motivate the actions of his government.

By deciding to transfer the case of the killing of Jamal Khashoggi to Saudi Arabia, Turkey is deciding to hand it back to those responsible for it. It is a sure and certain guarantee that only injustice and impunity will prevail.

Indeed, in the words of a Turkish proverb, “Kurda kuzu emanet edilmez” – never trust the wolf to guard the lamb.

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2022-04-06

Ethiopia: Crimes Against Humanity in Western Tigray Zone

Immediate humanitarian access, protection of communities key

Tigrayans in the disputed Western Tigray Zone of Ethiopia have experienced a relentless campaign of ethnic cleansing by security forces from the neighbouring Amhara region and their allies.

The campaign of killings, rape, mass detentions, and forcible transfers amounts to war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The Ethiopian government needs to call on security forces and militia to end these atrocities, allow humanitarian agencies access, including to detention facilities, and support credible justice efforts to ensure those responsible for grave crimes are held accountable.

Amhara regional security forces and civilian authorities in Ethiopia’s Western Tigray Zone have committed widespread abuses against Tigrayans since November 2020 that amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today. Ethiopian authorities have severely restricted access and independent scrutiny of the region, keeping the campaign of ethnic cleansing largely hidden.

The report, ‘We Will Erase You From This Land’: Crimes Against Humanity and Ethnic Cleansing in Ethiopia’s Western Tigray Zone, documents how newly-appointed officials in Western Tigray and security forces from the neighbouring Amhara region, with the acquiescence and possible participation of Ethiopian federal forces, systematically expelled several hundred thousand Tigrayan civilians from their homes using threats, unlawful killings, sexual violence, mass arbitrary detention, pillage, forcible transfer, and the denial of humanitarian assistance. These widespread and systematic attacks against the Tigrayan civilian population amount to crimes against humanity, as well as war crimes.

“Since November 2020, Amhara officials and security forces have engaged in a relentless campaign of ethnic cleansing to force Tigrayans in Western Tigray from their homes,” said Kenneth Roth, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch. “Ethiopian authorities have steadfastly denied the shocking breadth of the crimes that have unfolded and have egregiously failed to address them.”

The response of Ethiopia’s international and regional partners has failed to reflect the gravity of the crimes that continue to unfold in Western Tigray.

Agnès Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International

The Ethiopian government should ensure immediate and sustained access to the region for humanitarian agencies, release all those arbitrarily detained, and investigate and appropriately prosecute those responsible for abuses. Any consensual agreement reached by the parties to the armed conflict should include the deployment of an AU-led international peacekeeping force to the Western Tigray Zone to ensure the protection of all communities from abuses.

“The response of Ethiopia’s international and regional partners has failed to reflect the gravity of the crimes that continue to unfold in Western Tigray,” said Agnès Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International. “Concerned governments need to help bring an end to the ethnic cleansing campaign, ensure that Tigrayans are able to safely and voluntarily return home, and make a concerted effort to obtain justice for these heinous crimes.”

Western Tigray Zone is a fertile administrative area in Ethiopia’s Tigray region. Claims over Western Tigray have been the source of heightened boundary and identity disputes since 1992. Western Tigray came under the control of the Ethiopian National Defense Forces (ENDF) and allied forces and militias from the Amhara region within two weeks of the outbreak of conflict in Tigray in November 2020.

Ethiopian authorities have steadfastly denied the shocking breadth of the crimes that have unfolded and have egregiously failed to address them.

Kenneth Roth, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch

During the initial offensives, Ethiopian federal and allied forces carried out war crimes against Tigrayan communities, including indiscriminate shelling of towns and extrajudicial executions, forcing tens of thousands to flee to neighbouring Sudan and to other parts of Tigray. Tigrayan militias and local residents also carried out war crimes against Amhara residents and visiting labourers during a massacre in Mai Kadra town on November 9, the first publicly reported large-scale massacre of this conflict.

In the ensuing months, newly-appointed administrators in Western Tigray and Amhara Special Forces – a regional paramilitary force – undertook a campaign of ethnic cleansing against Tigrayan residents of the area.

Over 15 months, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch researchers interviewed more than 400 people, including in-person interviews of Tigrayan refugees in Sudan, and remote interviews of Tigrayan and Amhara residents of Western Tigray and the Amhara region who suffered or witnessed abuses. Researchers also consulted medical and forensic reports, court documents, satellite imagery, and photographic and video evidence that corroborated accounts of grave abuses.

Campaign of ethnic cleansing

Amhara regional security forces, militias, and newly appointed authorities carried out a coordinated campaign of ethnically targeted persecution beginning in late 2020.

In several towns across Western Tigray, signs were displayed ordering Tigrayans to leave, and local administrators discussed their plans to remove Tigrayans in open meetings. A Tigrayan woman from Baeker town described threats she faced by Fanos, an irregular Amhara militia: “They kept saying every night, ‘We will kill you… Go out of the area’.” Pamphlets appeared giving Tigrayans 24-hour or 72-hour ultimatums to leave or be killed.

The authorities rounded up thousands of Tigrayans for long-term detention and abuse in overcrowded facilities. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch believe thousands of Tigrayans are still held in life-threatening conditions today.

Security forces also used gang rape, accompanied by verbal and physical abuse, abduction, and sexual slavery. A 27-year-old Tigrayan woman said that a militia member told her as the men raped her: “You Tigrayans should disappear from the land west of [the Tekeze River]. You are evil and we are purifying your blood.”

Authorities in Western Tigray also imposed restrictions on movement, humanitarian assistance, speaking the Tigrinya language, and access to farmland to coerce Tigrayans to leave. Amhara security forces, and in some places Eritrean forces present in Western Tigray, looted crops, livestock, and equipment, depriving Tigrayans of their means of survival. A 63-year-old farmer from Division village watched as a group of men destroyed his home. One of the men told him: “This is not your land. You have nothing to claim here.”

Many Tigrayan communities, facing starvation and intimidation, felt they had no choice but to leave. In other instances, local authorities provided trucks or buses to expel tens of thousands of Tigrayans, sending them east, toward central Tigray.

This coordinated campaign continued for months. Tens of thousands of Tigrayans had fled or been expelled by March 2021. Abuses and expulsions escalated again in November 2021, when tens of thousands of older and sick Tigrayans, young mothers, and children were expelled, while Amhara forces arrested and detained thousands of adult men, shooting at those who tried to flee.

They kept saying every night, ‘We will kill you… Go out of the area’.

Tigrayan woman from Baeker town

Amhara security forces rounded up Tigrayans in Western Tigray and forcibly transferred them east, towards Northwestern Tigray.

Following the outbreak of armed conflict in Tigray on November 4, 2020, telecommunications, including internet and phone lines, were swiftly cut off in the Tigray region.

Ethiopian soldiers, Amhara Special Forces, and militias entering towns with little resistance fired weapons and shot at civilians, including those attempting to flee.

In several towns in Western Tigray, signs were displayed demanding that Tigrayans leave, and pamphlets distributed issuing Tigrayans a 24-hour or 72-hour ultimatum to leave or be killed.

In early November 2020, federal and allied forces systematically destroyed entire neighborhoods in a cluster of villages known as Division. In other towns, forces marked abandoned homes with the words: “Amhara house” or “This is ours,” as a way of laying claim to property owned by Tigrayans.

Jamila, a 27-year-old in Dansha town, described how in early November 2020, half a dozen Fano militiamen who were carrying out out neighborhood searches targeting Tigrayans, entered her shop while she was working, and raped her in front of her children.

Tekeze River bridge massacre

On January 17 2021, Amhara militias known as Fanos and local residents rounded up and detained dozens of male Tigrayan residents of the town of Adi Goshu.

Members of the Amhara Special Forces rounded up and summarily executed about 60 Tigrayan men by the Tekeze River. Witnesses and the few men who survived believed the killings were a revenge attack after the Amhara forces suffered heavy losses during fighting with Tigrayan forces the previous night.

“When they shot at us, I fell first and then I saw also when the others in front of me were shot and fell,” said a 74-year-old survivor. “And the people behind me fell on me and covered me… After that, they said, ‘The Tigrayans don’t die easily, shoot again’.”

The massacre prompted a mass exodus of Tigrayans from Adi Goshu.

The people behind me fell on me and covered me… After that, they said, ‘The Tigrayans don’t die easily, shoot again’.

74-year-old survivor

On January 17, 2021, Fano militia and local Walqayte and Amhara residents rounded up several dozen Tigrayan men who were residents of Adi Goshu town. Amhara Special Forces then transported them to the Tekeze Bridge near Northwestern Tigray.

Mesfin, one of the men rounded up, said: “They took us… somewhere around the bridge, a kind of field, but we were on the ground. … We were facing a hill.”

“They sprayed us with bullets and we all fell into the ditch below,” recalled Mesfin, one of the men who survived.

Deaths in detention sites

Former detainees held in sites across Tigray said many people died in detention sites run by the Amhara forces and Fano militias. Some died as a result of torture, denial of medical care, and lack of food and water; guards killed others. A 72-year-old farmer said: “They [Amhara militia guards] kept telling us that Tigrayans deserve to be starved…to death.”

Both Ethiopian federal forces and Amhara authorities have denied allegations of ethnic cleansing in Western Tigray. On February 25, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch wrote to Ethiopian federal and Amhara and Tigrayan regional authorities concerning the organizations’ findings. At time of writing, only the Amhara regional government had responded.

In armed conflict, all parties are obligated to respect international humanitarian law – the laws of war. Amhara regional forces and forces aligned with the Ethiopian government in the Western Tigray Zone committed the war crimes of murder, torture, rape, deportation and forcible transfer, and enforced disappearance. Such violations committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack on a civilian population in furtherance of a state or organizational policy constitute crimes against humanity.

The Ethiopian federal government and its international and regional partners should take concrete steps to protect all communities in Western Tigray, including by immediately releasing Tigrayans arbitrarily detained there, and allowing protection monitoring. On March 24, the government announced a humanitarian truce. Regardless of any truce or ceasefire, Ethiopia’s federal and regional authorities should allow unhindered, independent, and sustained humanitarian assistance.

The government should also demobilize and disarm all abusive militia forces in Western Tigray, and vet Amhara Special Forces and Ethiopian federal forces and remove those implicated in serious abuses, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said. Civilian officials, including interim authorities in Western Tigray, and security force personnel implicated in serious abuses should be suspended pending investigations.

Any consensual agreement by all parties should include the urgent deployment of an AU-led international peacekeeping force with a robust civilian protection mandate to Western Tigray. This is crucial to promote human rights, allow the delivery of humanitarian aid, and to help protect at-risk communities in Tigray. Ethiopia’s international and regional partners should support these calls.

They [Amhara militia guards] kept telling us that Tigrayans deserve to be starved…to death.

A 72-year-old farmer

Tigrayans rounded up and detained in Enda Yetbarek warehouse in Humera town described appalling abuses, including torture, lack of food and medical care, and severe overcrowding.

In several detention sites across Western Tigray, security forces frequently punched, kicked, or slapped Tigrayan detainees, or beat them with implements such as sticks, rifle butts, and heavy metal objects, often resulting in serious injuries or death.

find out more about Crimes Against Humanity and Ethnic Cleansing in Ethiopia’s Western Tigray Zone

read the report

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2022-04-04

Ukraine: Apparent war crimes by Russian forces in Bucha must be investigated

Following reports of apparent war crimes committed by Russian military forces against civilians in Bucha, Agnès Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International, said:

“These reports from Bucha are showing a wider pattern of war crimes including extrajudicial executions and torture in other occupied areas of Ukraine.

“We fear the violence suffered by civilians in Bucha at the hands of Russian soldiers is not unique. These incidents should be investigated as war crimes.

“To date, Amnesty International has gathered evidence of civilians in Ukraine killed by indiscriminate attacks in Kharkiv and Sumy Oblast, documented an airstrike that killed civilians queueing for food in Chernihiv, and gathered evidence from civilians living under siege in Kharkiv, Izium and Mariupol.”

Later this week, Amnesty International will publish new testimony gathered during an on-the-ground investigation in a number of towns in the wider Kyiv region.

As Russia continues its war against Ukraine, Amnesty International is continuing to document violations of human rights and international humanitarian law. All of Amnesty International’s outputs published to date – including news updates, briefings and investigations – can be found here.

Russia’s aggression against Ukraine is itself a crime under humanitarian law.

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2022-04-04

Saudi Arabia: Uyghur girl, 13, among four ‘facing deportation’ and torture in China

Saudi authorities must immediately release four Uyghurs – including a 13-year-old girl and her mother – who are at grave risk of being taken to repressive internment camps if sent back to China, Amnesty International said today amid fears that deportation plans for the group may already be under way.

Buheliqiemu Abula and her teenage daughter were detained near Mecca on Thursday and told by police they faced deportation to China along with two Uyghur men already held, according to a message received by Abula’s friends.

Abula is the former wife of Nuermeiti Ruze, who with Aimidoula Waili has been detained without charge in Saudi Arabia since November 2020.

“Deporting these four people – including a child – to China, where Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities are facing a horrific campaign of mass internment, persecution and torture, would be an outrageous violation of international law,” said Lynn Maalouf, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa.

“With time seemingly running out to save the four Uyghurs from this catastrophic extradition, it is crucial that other governments with diplomatic ties to Saudi Arabia step in now to urge the Riyadh authorities to uphold their obligations and stop the deportations.”

Religious scholar Aimidoula Waili and his friend Nuermaimaiti Ruze have been detained in Saudi Arabia since November 2020 without explanation. Family members of the two Uyghur men told Amnesty International last month that Waili and Ruze were transferred from Jeddah to Riyadh and back again on March 16 – a move they believed signalled their imminent extradition to China.

Strategic allies of Saudi Arabia, such as the United States and the United Kingdom, must not stand by while it wilfully ignores human rights law.

Lynn Maalouf

Buheliqiemu Abula had been able to maintain regular contact with her ex-husband Nuermaimaiti Ruze until two weeks ago. The last time Abula received a phone call from Ruze was on 20 March, when Ruze recounted that he had told the Saudi authorities he and Waili “would rather die here than be sent back to China”.

It appears that Abula and her daughter have now also been detained and face the same deportation threat.

Under the customary international law principle of nonrefoulement and as a State Party to the UN Convention against Torture, Saudi Arabia is obliged not to return anyone to a country where they would face a real risk of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, persecution and other serious human rights violations.

“The Saudi government must abandon any attempt to extradite the four Uyghurs to China and release them from detention immediately, unless they are charged with an internationally recognizable crime,” Lynn Maalouf said.

“Strategic allies of Saudi Arabia, such as the United States and the United Kingdom, must not stand by while it wilfully ignores human rights law. The international community must do everything it can to prevent the illegal extradition of Uyghurs to China.”

In June 2021, Amnesty International published a report revealing how hundreds of thousands of Muslim men and women in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region are being subjected to arbitrary mass detention, indoctrination and torture.

Earlier the same year, another piece of Amnesty research described how the children of internment camp detainees are often sent to state-run “orphan camps” where they face indoctrination and are cut off from their parents.

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2022-04-01

DRC: Conviction of 13 youth activists is a shameful act to suppress dissent

Today’sconviction of 13 activists from the citizen movement Lutte pour le Changement (LUCHA) by a military court in Beni is a scandalous attempt to silence critical voices, said Amnesty International.

The conviction of these 13 activists simply for having exercised their right to freedom of peaceful assembly is another scandalous and shameful attempt to suppress dissent in DRC

Flavia Mwangovya, Deputy Director for East Africa, the Horn and the Great Lakes Region

The activists – who have already been held arbitrarily for five months – were sentenced to a further 12 months in prison for their participation in a peaceful demonstration in November last year.

“The conviction of these 13 activists simply for having exercised their right to freedom of peaceful assembly is another scandalous and shameful attempt to suppress dissent in DRC,” said Flavia Mwangovya, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for East Africa, the Horn and the Great Lakes Region.

The sentence must be quashed, and these activists must be immediately and unconditionally released

Flavia Mwangovya

“The sentence must be quashed, and these activists must be immediately and unconditionally released. Congolese authorities should address these activists’ legitimate demands for effective protection of civilians in the conflict, instead of preventing them from speaking out.

“President Tshisekedi must lift abusive restrictions on civic space under the pretext of the state of siege, and completely revoke the power given to military courts to judge civilians, in accordance with international human rights standards.”

Background:

The 13 Lucha activists were arrested on 11 November 2021 in Beni during a peaceful protest to denounce the authorities’ failure to protect civilians against deadly attacks by armed groups, despite the ongoing state of siege.

They have been arbitrarily detained since November 2021, with at least three of them falling seriously ill due to the trauma of their brutal arrest and poor prison conditions. They have not received appropriate medical attention. The 13 activists were accused of “provocation to disobey the laws” and faced three years in prison.

President Félix Tshisekedi declared a ‘state of siege’ in North-Kivu and Ituri provinces in May 2021 with the declared aim of reducing attacks on civilians. However, the implementation has resulted in flagrant human rights violations, including the transfer of political and administrative powers to the military and police, a blanket ban on protests, and the transfer of criminal jurisdiction over civilians to military courts. All of these constitute a violation of the Congolese Constitution, the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to which the DRC is a party.

Amnesty International has documented dozens of cases of arbitrary arrests and unlawful detention of peaceful activists, journalists, and at least three provincial MPs in the two provinces since May 2021.

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