Responding to the High Court’s decision to accept the US’s appeal against the decision not to extradite Julian Assange Amnesty International’s Europe Director Nils Muižnieks said:
“This is a travesty of justice. By allowing this appeal, the High Court has chosen to accept the deeply flawed diplomatic assurances given by the US that Assange would not be held in solitary confinement in a maximum security prison. The fact that the US has reserved the right to change its mind at any time means that these assurances are not worth the paper they are written on.
“If extradited to the US, Julian Assange could not only face trial on charges under the Espionage Act but also a real risk of serious human rights violations due to detention conditions that could amount to torture or other ill-treatment. “The US government’s indictment poses a grave threat to press freedom both in the United States and abroad. If upheld, it would undermine the key role of journalists and publishers in scrutinizing governments and exposing their misdeeds would leave journalists everywhere looking over their shoulders.”
BACKGROUND
The US extradition request is based on charges directly related to the publication of leaked classified documents as part of Julian Assange’s work with Wikileaks. Publishing information that is in the public interest is a cornerstone of media freedom and the public’s right to information about government wrongdoing. It is also protected under international human rights law and should not be criminalized.
Julian Assange is the first publisher to face charges under the Espionage Act.
For more information or to arrange an interview contact Stefan Simanowitz press@amnesty.org
To mark Human Rights Day, Amnesty International today launches its first-ever Persian-language website to increase access to information on rights violations in Iran amid an escalating crisis of impunity – and what amounts to an all-out assault on human rights across the country.
It includes reports and legal analysis of shocking human rights violations committed by the Iranian authorities, and recommendations to the international community to tackle this crisis of impunity through the establishment of an independent mechanism to collect, preserve and analyze evidence of the most serious crimes under international law committed in Iran to facilitate future criminal proceedings.
“The website arrives as Iran suffers from a deepening human rights crisis, with hundreds of individuals on death row following unfair trials – including those arrested as children – and thousands persecuted or arbitrarily detained for peacefully exercising their human rights. Meanwhile, the families of thousands of people killed or forcibly disappeared by the authorities are left waiting for truth and justice,” Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International, Diana Eltahawy, said.
“Human rights defenders and dissidents who do speak out against repression and injustice endure grave human rights violations while the Iranian authorities have rained down bullets on protesters who take to the streets, inflicting deaths and serious injuries. Our new Persian-language website will serve as a torchlight that illuminates and exposes these crimes.”
Amnesty International has documented human rights violations in Iran since the mid-1960s. The new website contains Persian translations of around 300 research reports, press releases, public statements and Urgent Actions related to Iran, and will be regularly updated with new publications.
“Amnesty International’s Persian-language website represents a major effort to increase access to information on human rights and further engage Persian-speaking audiences in Iran and around the world with the organization’s research, legal analysis and campaigning work,” said Diana Eltahawy.
“It also signifies Amnesty International’s ongoing commitment to support the people of Iran in their courageous struggle against repression and discrimination, while bolstering calls for truth, justice and reparations for the countless victims of arbitrary detention, discrimination, enforced disappearance, torture and other ill-treatment, extrajudicial executions or other unlawful killings.”
While Amnesty International’s outputs on Iran generally appear in Persian or English, some reports on human rights violations and entrenched discrimination suffered by Iran’s ethnic minorities, including Ahwazi Arabs, Azerbaijani Turks and Kurds, have also been translated into Arabic, Turkish or Kurdish, and we will continue making these translations.
Amnesty’s founding and growth
Founded in 1961 on the idea that, together, people can change the world, Amnesty International has since grown into a worldwide movement of over 10 million people who have campaigned for the release of tens of thousands of people unjustly imprisoned for their beliefs or peaceful activities. The movement has also contributed to the abolition of the death penalty in more than two-thirds of the world and achieved changes in laws and standards to combat torture and unfair trials.
Amnesty International campaigns for a world where human rights are enjoyed by all and those responsible for human rights violations are held to account. Only when the last unjustly detained man, woman or child has been freed, when the last torture chamber has been closed, when the death penalty has been abolished everywhere and the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a reality for the world’s people, will our work be done.
Amnesty International maintains full independence from any and all governments, political ideologies, economic interests or religions. The organization neither seeks nor accepts any funds for human rights research from governments or political parties and we accept support only from businesses that have been carefully vetted.
The vast majority of the organization’s income comes from small donations from private individuals around the world who are committed to the cause of promoting and protecting human rights everywhere.
Amnesty International’s power to achieve impact is reinforced by its Urgent Action network, consisting of over half a million members globally who take action at short notice to defend people whose lives or physical security are at risk.
On a hot day of 10 August 2020, Mikita Zalatarou was standing at a bus stop in the central square of the city of Homel in south-eastern Belarus. Everyone around him was intensely discussing the results of presidential elections that had just ended, and many people were protesting that day and the night before. The square was crowded. Mikita was just 16 and too young to vote that year.
Suddenly, through the street noise, he could hear someone shout “Run!” People rushed by him, and he instinctively ran with them fleeing the invisible danger. The crowd was chased by the riot police (OMON) – like everywhere else in Belarus, the security forces were ordered to disperse any gatherings. Alyaksandr Lukashenka immediately claimed victory in presidential elections despite the results being widely disputed – and the government was determined to shut down any dissent. Mikita’s life was about to be turned upside down, but he was yet to realise it.
The next day, several police offices came to his home to arrest him. Mikita was accused of throwing a Molotov cocktail at two policemen during protests.
Amnesty International
During that time, mass protests were happening across Belarus, including Homel. After presidential elections on 9 August, Alyaksandr Lukashenka declared himself the winner.
The night when the election results were announced, thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Minsk, Homel, Brest and other cities to protest against Lukashenka’s declared victory. The authorities instantly responded to the peaceful demonstrations on 9 August and the following days with unprecedented violence and indiscriminate arrests.
Peaceful demonstrators, civil society activists, journalists and bystanders who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, got arrested, questioned for hours, beaten and tortured. Over the following months, the mechanism of repressions kicked into high gear. Hundreds of dissenters faced criminal charges. The authorities closed down independent media outlets and NGOs; journalists were beaten and detained. People could lose their job or even life for their peaceful opinions. People from almost all social groups in Belarus, including medics, athletes or artists, were persecuted.
Amnesty International
In just over a year since the start of protests and repressions, more than 30,000 people were detained after being charged with administrative offences related to their participation in peaceful demonstrations. The number of peaceful protesters, journalists and human rights defenders wrongfully sentenced to lengthy prison terms on criminal charges has been ever-growing.
Mikita was among the thousands arrested over the first days of protests. Following his arrest, he was taken to a police station where he was beaten and tortured with electric shocks. Seven months later, on 22 February 2021, in a stuffy courtroom, he was sentenced to five years in a penal colony by the Central District Court in Homel.
The prosecution based its case on two main pieces of “evidence”: a video showing a person throwing a Molotov cocktail at policemen and the testimony of a taxi driver who had driven Mikita away from the city centre on 10 August. The person on the video footage was unidentifiable, and the taxi driver said that Mikita discarded a bottle in a trash bin before getting into his car. No other evidence of Mikita’s involvement in “mass disorder” was presented, and hardly could the events of that day in Homel be described as “mass disorder”.
Mikita was sent to a juvenile educational colony.
Amnesty International
Educational Colony 2 No. 2 at 4 Batova Street in Bobruisk is a large facility behind a tall fence, surrounded by high-rise buildings. From the windows of the colony buildings, red and white chimneys of the Bobruisk Thermoelectric Power Plant can be seen.
[Mikita] would not admit even if things were bad [in prison] because all conversations are monitored.
Mikita's father
Mikita tells his parents very little about his life in prison. He keeps saying that everything is fine, but Mikhail, Mikita’s father, believes that “he would not admit [otherwise] even if things were bad because all conversations are monitored.” Mikita has been given some medications for epilepsy — a disorder he has been living with since childhood, but he does not what they are exactly.
His mother came to the colony to visit him not long ago. It took her a while to prepare for her 150 km journey from Homel to Bobruisk and pack all the food, medications and other necessary items. However, she was not let in. She stood at the closed gates for a long time until a guard approached her. He said that Mikita is all right, but refused to let her inside or take a parcel for her son.
Amnesty International
Later, Mikita’s parents learned that at the time he had been placed in a punitive isolation cell where he spent almost two weeks. The reason for his punishment remains unknown. Upon his arrival to the educational colony, Mikita got a yellow label as an “extremist”. Now he has a red label that means “inclined to escaping”, and the reason for this also remains unknown. His parents say that now he has been treated more harshly.
According to human rights defenders, this kind of prisoner labelling is widespread in Belarusian correctional facilities, and the labels can often be predictors of how harsh the treatment of the prisoner will be.
I tell him to keep his head down, to learn, to study languages, English [for example]. I could send him books. But this is impossible: they are so busy there that they do not have a free minute.
Mikita's father
“I tell him to keep his head down, to learn, to study languages, English [for example]. I could send him books. But this is impossible: they are so busy there that they do not have a free minute,” his father says.
Mikita’s parents are hoping to find money to hire a lawyer, “kind of for moral support” — they do not believe in justice in Belarus anymore. Defence lawyers are compelled to sign non-disclose agreements regarding information on the cases they are working on. This practice is illegal, but if they refuse, they risk getting disbarred. So even having a lawyer visiting their son, Mikita’s parents still won’t be able to learn how he is doing, but at least they will know that someone has seen him alive. However, with widespread repression and the system set to break people’s spirit and strip them of rights and protections, this piece of knowledge will be worth it.
Mikita is not allowed to receive letters, but, as his father says with a bleak smile, “if the colony administration starts getting hundreds of letters from all over the world, it will drive them crazy.” “When this is over, we’ll go fishing together,” he promises.
Amnesty International’s Security Lab has confirmed that at least four Kazakhstani civil society activists have had their mobile devices infected with NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware. A forensic analysis shows that all four activists had been targeted and their devices infected from as early as June 2021, Amnesty International said today.
“This case adds to an already mounting pile of evidence that NSO’s spyware is the weapon of choice for governments seeking to silence social movements and crush dissent. States across the globe must immediately implement a moratorium on the export, sale and use of surveillance equipment until a human rights-compliant regulatory framework is in place,” Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, said.
This case adds to an already mounting pile of evidence that NSO’s spyware is the weapon of choice for governments seeking to silence social movements and crush dissent
Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia
Amnesty International’s Security Lab conducted forensic analysis on the phones of nine Kazakhstani human rights activists. Amnesty International was able to confirm that four individuals’ devices were infected with the Pegasus spyware. Three of the victims, Tamina Ospanova, Dimash Alzhanov and Aizat Abilseit, had previously received a “state-sponsored attacker” warning from Apple on 24 November. Apple sent these notifications to individuals they believed may have been targeted by NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware. The fourth victim, Darkhan Sharipov, did not receive this notification, which suggests that the notified individuals represent only a fraction of the human rights activists targeted with the Pegasus spyware in Kazakhstan.
All of the victims belong to the civic youth movement “Oyan, Qazaqstan” (Wake Up, Kazakhstan). The victims are friends of Temirlan Ensebek, whose satirical blogging on Instagram is under criminal investigation.
The mobile devices of all four activists were infected with the spyware between 3 and 5 June 2021. On 5 June, “Oyan, Qazaqstan” was hosting one of their public #Seruen events where activists could meet face-to-face in public spaces. The surveillance campaign continued until at least July 2021.
“The unlawful hacking of these activists not only violates their right to privacy, but also their right to freedom of expression and association. The Kazakhstani authorities must immediately conduct a thorough and transparent investigation into this intrusion and bring those responsible for unlawful surveillance of activists to account,” said Marie Struthers.
The Kazakhstani authorities must immediately conduct a thorough and transparent investigation into this intrusion and bring those responsible for unlawful surveillance of activists to account
Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia
Background
NSO Group’s spyware has been used to facilitate human rights violations around the world on a massive scale, according to a major investigation into the leak of 50,000 phone numbers of potential surveillance targets. These include heads of state, activists and journalists. According to media reports, nearly 2,000 phone numbers are from Kazakhstan.
The Pegasus Project is a ground-breaking collaboration by more than 80 journalists from 17 media organizations in 10 countries, coordinated by Forbidden Stories, a Paris-based media non-profit, with the technical support of Amnesty International, who conducted cutting- edge forensic tests on mobile phones to identify traces of the spyware.
“Oyan, Qazaqstan” (Wake up, Kazakhstan) is a grassroots civil society movement formed in June 2019 in response to the arrest of local activists Beybarys Tolymbekov and Asiya Tolesova. They were arrested for putting up a poster on Al-Farabi Avenue in Almaty during the 2019 marathon, which stated “You can’t escape the truth,” and included a call for fair presidential elections. “Oyan, Qazaqstan” demands greater civil rights and a parliamentary republic, and voices socially progressive positions in support of LGBTQI rights and gender equality.
José Daniel Márquez, Kelvin Alejandro Romero, José Abelino Cedillo, Porfirio Sorto Cedillo, Ewer Alexander Cedillo, Orbin Nahún Hernández, Arnol Javier Alemán and Jeremías Martínez Díaz, environmental defenders from the municipality of Tocoa in northern Honduras, known as the “Guapinol eight”,are prisoners of conscience who have been wrongfully imprisoned for more than two years solely for peacefully defending the right to clean water, Amnesty International said today.
“Having reviewed all the evidence available, including the criminal proceedings against the Guapinol eight and videos related to the case, and spoken to witnesses as well as to the human rights community in Honduras, Amnesty International considers that they are being detained only because of their activities in defense of the right to clean water and a safe environment,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International.
The eight men are part of the Municipal Committee for the Defence of Common and Public Goods (Comité Municipal en Defensa de los Bienes Comunes y Públicos, CMDBCP), an organization that has mobilized communities in and around Tocoa since 2015 to peacefully challenge the legality of iron mining concessions granted to Inversiones Los Pinares (ILP), because they argue it affects the quality of the Guapinol and San Pedro river waters. The concessions are in the protected Montaña de Botaderos Carlos Escaleras National Park.
The newly elected government of Xiomara Castro must send a clear message that the violence and criminalisation against human right defenders will not be tolerated any longer.
-Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International
Seven of the CMDBCP members have been in pretrial detention since August 2019, accused of the crime of deprivation of liberty (privación ilegal de la libertad) and aggravated arson (incendio agravado), after they voluntarily handed themselves to judicial authorities to contest criminal charges against them arising from a protest encampment in 2018. The eighth man, Jeremias Martínez, has been detained on the same charges since November 2018.
After rigorous analysis, Amnesty International determined that the case file shows multiple flaws in the investigation, including what appears to be a lack of due diligence by the prosecutors to properly clarify the facts, conduct an impartial and independent investigation and provide concrete evidence that could link these men with the charges they are accused of. Instead, the authorities have handpicked these eight human rights and environmental defenders and actively contributed to building a narrative that the Guapinol eightare criminals, having misused the criminal justice system to keep them in pretrial detention as a way to hinder their activism. These irregularities coincide with a wider pattern of criminalization of environmental defenders that we have documented in the region for years.
In 2020, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found the detention of the human rights defenders to be arbitrary and called for their immediate release. Nevertheless, the Honduran authorities have refused to recognise the injustice inflicted on the men and their families, or to remedy the situation.
The Honduran authorities must urgently put an end to these unfair practices that jeopardise the right to defend human rights.
-Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International
The trial of the Guapinol eight begins immediately after the presidential elections in Honduras.
“The newly elected government of Xiomara Castro must send a clear message that the violence and criminalisation against human right defenders will not be tolerated any longer. This context offers the opportunity to break this cycle of attacks against environmental and other human rights defenders. Amnesty International demands the immediate and unconditional release of these eight prisoners of conscience and calls on the Attorney General’s Office to drop the charges against them,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas.
“Unfortunately, in Honduras, those who speak out and protest to protect the environment face frequent threats and attacks, as in the murder of Berta Cáceres, or unjust criminalization, particularly where powerful vested economic interests are involved. The authorities continue to misuse the criminal justice system to silence and imprison human rights defenders. The Honduran authorities must urgently put an end to these unfair practices that jeopardise the right to defend human rights.”
More information
Amnesty International defines as prisoners of conscience people who are imprisoned or subjected to other restrictions on their liberty due to their religious, political or other beliefs, their ethnic origin, sex, colour, language, national or social origin, sexual orientation or gender identity, or other status, and that have not used violence or advocated violence and hatred.
In 2018, as construction work on the mining project began to impact the Guapinol and San Pedro rivers, local residents joined the CMDBCP to demand that national and local authorities respond to their concerns, filing legal actions and holding protests. As the authorities failed to respond, the CMDBCP established a protest encampment on the access road to the mines. The peaceful encampment lasted for 88 days, with local communities, church pastoral activists and other civil society organizations all participating. Negotiations were held with government officials, but in October 2018, the police and the military violently evicted those in the encampment.
The prosecution case against the eight defenders relates to a dispute that took place on 7 September 2018 near to a protest encampment, in which a ILP security staff reportedly shot one of the protesters and in response, protesters retained a contractor before handing him over to police. The shooting of the protester was never investigated, but the ILP reported the retention of the contractor and the burning of a rented car and two ILP shipping containers during the disturbances.
