WorlDWiDe AppeAls
meXiCo TiTA AND roseNDo rADillA
please write, calling on the authorities to carry out a full investigation into the enforced disappearance of rosendo radilla and bring those responsible to justice. urge them to locate rosendo radilla’s remains, provide his family with adequate redress and reform the Code of military Justice so that all cases of human rights violations committed by military personnel are dealt with by the civilian courts, in compliance with the inter-American Court judgment. send appeals to: president of mexico enrique peña Nieto residencia oficial de “los pinos” Col. san miguel Chapultepec méxico D.f., C.p. 11850 méXiCo fax: +52 55 5093 4901 email: enrique.penanieto@presidencia.gob.mx salutation: Dear mr president
TurkeY sulTANi ACibuCA
please write, urging the authorities to undertake an impartial and effective investigation into the alleged torture and other ill-treatment of Nasim salimzoda and his four co-defendants while in detention in september 2011. urge them also to grant the five defendants a retrial in proceedings that meet international fair trial standards. Call for the perpetrators of torture to be brought to account in fair proceedings. send appeals to: president emomali rahmon presidentu respubliki Tajikistan 80 rudaki street 734023 Dushanbe Tajikistan salutation: Dear president
usA leoNArD pelTier
ACTiVisT’s freeDom of eXpressioN ViolATeD
serViNg TWo life seNTeNCes © Private
On 9 June 2010, 61-year-old grandmother Sultani Acıbuca was sentenced to six years and three months in prison for being a member of a terrorist organization. Her conviction was based on her attendance at six peaceful demonstrations in the city of Izmir, Turkey, between January 2006 and March 2008, and a speech she made at one of them. Sultani Acıbuca is an active member of peace Mothers, a group of women whose children have died or been imprisoned in the context of the conflict between the banned kurdistan Workers’ party (pkk) and the Turkish army. The speech she gave at the demonstration called for peace and an end to the conflict. The court convicted Sultani Acıbuca on the basis of her activities on behalf of peace Mothers, which it concluded was linked to the pkk and promotes terrorist propaganda. However, the prosecution failed to produce any evidence connecting the group with the pkk beyond the fact that the demonstrations took place and were publicized by Roj TV, a kurdish television channel based in Denmark, which has been alleged to be linked to the pkk. Although Sultani Acıbuca is not in pre-trial detention, her case remains pending at the Supreme Court of Appeals.
On 12 and 13 September 2011, Nasim Salimzoda and four other men from khojai Alo village in Sughd Region, Tajikistan, were detained by police on suspicion of murdering a military employee. Nasim Salimzoda and the murder victim had both attended a local wedding on 11 September. Local residents told police that they saw the victim being abducted by car and beaten by several men from another village. They wrote the car number plate down, but local police refused to investigate the lead and reportedly tortured witnesses, forcing them to change their testimonies. Nasim Salimzoda and the other four men were held and allegedly tortured by police in Isfara until they “confessed” to murder on 13 September. They retracted their statements on 15 September. Nasim Salimzoda reported being denied food and sleep for three days and being beaten while in detention. On 20 and 21 September 2011, all five were charged with murder. In February 2012, following complaints by the families concerning the torture allegations, their charge was changed to “bodily harm leading to death”. The men were sentenced on 7 March 2012 to between 10 and 12 years in prison.
please write, calling on the authorities to ensure that sultani Acıbuca’s conviction is overturned and her right to freedom of expression respected so that she may participate in events without fear of persecution. urge them to amend the penal Code and the Anti-Terrorism law to prevent further abusive prosecutions in violation of the right to freedom of expression. send appeals to: minister of Justice mr sadullah ergin ministry of Justice Adalet bakanlığı 06659 Ankara Turkey Tel: +90 312 419 46 69 (6 lines) fax: +90 312 417 71 13 email: sadullahergin@adalet.gov.tr salutation: Dear minister
Leonard peltier, an Anishinabe-Lakota Native American, is serving two consecutive life sentences for the murders of two Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents in 1975. Amnesty International remains seriously concerned about the fairness of the proceedings that led to his conviction. Leonard peltier was a leading member of the American Indian Movement (AIM), which promotes Native American rights. On 26 June 1975, during a confrontation with AIM members on the pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota, FBI agents Ronald Williams and Jack Coler were shot dead. Leonard peltier was convicted of their murders in 1977 but has always denied killing the agents. A key eyewitness, Lakota Native American Myrtle poor Bear, retracted her original statement that she had seen Leonard peltier kill the men, eventually claiming that she had been threatened and harassed by the FBI. The testimony was used to extradite Leonard peltier from Canada to stand trial. Although not called as a prosecution witness at trial, Myrtle poor Bear was also not allowed to testify as a defence witness. Also, documents withheld during the trial but later released under the Freedom of Information Act contained evidence which might have assisted his case.
© Jeffry Scott
Tita Radilla has campaigned for over 30 years on behalf of Mexico’s victims of enforced disappearance. She is vice-president of the Association of Family Members of the Disappeared, (AFADEM), seeking justice for those disappeared during the “dirty war” (1960s-1980s), in which the police and military conducted counter-insurgency operations against suspected supporters of small armed opposition groups. Tita’s own father, Rosendo Radilla, was forcibly disappeared by the military in 1974 in Guerrero state. His detention was never officially acknowledged. When state institutions failed to move the investigation forward, Tita to her case to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which ruled in her favour in 2009. It ordered the state to bring those responsible for her father’s enforced disappearance to account and end military jurisdiction for human rights abuses, among other issues. Despite some attempts to locate Rosendo Radilla’s remains, both demands remain unfulfilled. Mexico has recently witnessed an explosion of violent crime and human rights violations committed by the security forces in policing operations. Disappearances, including those involving public officials, have increased substantially.
prisoN seNTeNCe folloWiNg uNfAir TrAil
© Amnesty International
DAughTer of DisAppeAreD mAN sTill fighTiNg for JusTiCe
TAJikisTAN NAsim sAlimzoDA
Leonard peltier is now aged 69 and in poor health, suffering from diabetes, among other things. He is not eligible for parole again until 2024. please write to president obama, expressing your concern about the fairness of the proceedings leading to leonard peltier’s trial and the evidence on which his conviction was based. Note that all legal remedies have been exhausted, that leonard peltier’s next parole date is scheduled for 2024, and that he has spent over 36 years in prison. state that the interests of justice would now best be served by releasing him from prison. send your appeals to: president barack obama The Whitehouse, 1600 pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington DC 20500, usA fax: +1 202 456 2461 email: president@whitehouse.gov salutation: Dear mr president
23 Wire [ Jul/Aug 2013 ]