Cameroon: Paul Biya libère des leaders anglophones

le 30 août, 2017

Le président de la République vient de décider de l’arrêt des poursuites judiciaires contre Fontem Neba, Agbor Balla, Ayah Paul et d’autres personnes détenues dans le cadre de la crise anglophone.

Le président de la République du Cameroun, Paul Biya, a décidé ce mercredi 30 août, d’arrêter les poursuites « pendantes au Tribunal militaire de Yaoundé contre les nommés Nkongho Felix Agbor, Fontem Neba, Paul Ayah Abine et certaines autres personnes interpellées dans le cadre des violences  survenues ces derniers mois dans les régions du Nord-ouest et du Sud-ouest », dit le texte du Chef de l’Etat.

http://www.journalducameroun.com/cameroun-paul-biya-libere-leaders-anglophones/

http://www.jeuneafrique.com/469945/societe/cameroun-paul-biya-decrete-larret-des-poursuites-contre-les-leaders-anglophones/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=JeuneAfrique&utm_campaign=PostFB_30082017

http://www.journalducameroun.com/cameroun-abandonne-charges-contre-fontem-neba-nkongho-agbor/

(CRTVweb Facebook)

https://soundcloud.com/albert-nchinda/presidential-decree-ending-proceedings-against-anglophone-leaders (ENGLISH)

http://www.henrietteslounge.com/2017/08/biya-bows-down-to-pressure-and-releases.html#qgJ6tHXX0Lt166OE.01 (ENGLISH)

http://reliefweb.int/report/cameroon/cameroon-release-anglophone-leaders-relief-others-still-languish-prison (ENGLISH)

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cameroon-politics-idUSKCN1BA2J2 (ENGLISH)

http://www.africanews.com/2017/08/30/cameroon-biya-orders-release-of-all-anglophone-leaders-drop-all-charges/ (ENGLISH)

https://www.prc.cm/en/multimedia/documents/5768-crise-nw-sw-communique-min-sgpr-arret-poursuites-en (ENGLISH)

USA: Republican Congressman Warns Black Attorney She ‘May Go Missing’ if She Tries Removing a Confederate Statue

August 30, 2017

Republican member of the Georgia House of Representatives issued a veiled threat of lynching to a black former colleague who expressed anti-Confederate memorial sentiments on his Facebook.

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Georgia State Rep. Jason Spencer (R) did exactly that on a Facebook post when former state representative LaDawn Jones expressed a distaste for a photo he took with a Confederate monument.

“This is Georgia’s history,” Spencer wrote on a post accompanied by a selfie he took with a South Georgia monument to Confederate president Jefferson Davis.

Jones, who formerly served in the state legislature until last year, questioned whether state tax dollars help pay for the upkeep of the memorial, which includes the house Davis fled to after the Civil War ended. A few comments in, Spencer began making threatening allusions.

“Continue your quixotic journey into South Georgia and it will not be pleasant,” Spencer replied. “The truth. Not a warning. Those folks won’t put up with it like they do in Atlanta.”

“I can guarantee you won’t be met with torches but something a lot more definitive,” he continued, responding to Jones’ comment about the store-bought tiki torches used by the white supremacists at the Charlottesville rally earlier this month.

…

http://www.alternet.org/republican-congressman-warns-black-attorney-she-may-go-missing-if-she-attempts-remove-confederate

https://theintercept.com/2017/08/29/georgia-gop-rep-tells-former-colleague-she-may-go-missing-over-criticism-of-confederate-monuments/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ladawn-jones-jason-spencer-race_us_59a6e0dee4b00795c2a33a51

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/08/30/white-lawmaker-warns-black-attorney-she-may-go-missing-if-confederate-statues-are-threatened/

Georgia lawmaker: Talk of ditching Confederate statues could cause Democrat to ‘go missing’

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/republican-black-woman-georgia-threat-confederate-statues-monuments-jason-spencer-ladawn-jones-a7920751.html

http://www.newsweek.com/republican-says-black-democrat-will-go-missing-over-georgia-civil-war-statue-656984

http://www.11alive.com/news/politics/civil-rights-leaders-call-on-south-georgia-lawmaker-to-apologize-or-resign/469638840

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/republican-legislator-missouri-vandal-lynched

Black lawmakers ask GBI to investigate Georgia Republican’s ‘go missing’ comment

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/group-says-lawmaker-made-threatening-comments-in-debate-about-confederate-mounments/602328820

Syria: Justice for the thousands of victims of enforced disappearances

August 30, 2017

We, the undersigned civil society organisations, commemorate the victims of enforced disappearances in Syria and support their families, urging the international community to support their demand to ensure justice, truth and reparation and the immediate release of all those enforcedly held in secret detention. As the world marks today the International Day of Victims of Enforced Disappearances, our organisations condemn the continued and systematic use of enforced disappearance which amounts to a crime against humanity committed by the Syrian government.

We also call upon all armed groups to the conflict to promptly release all those held disappeared and disclose their fates and whereabouts.

Since the rise of the peaceful protests in Syria, our organisations have been monitoring, documenting and campaigning on cases of hundreds of Syrian individuals who have been subjected to enforced disappearance. Many of those are women and children. Thousands of family members of those disappeared are struggling for justice in their dangerous and impossible quest to find the fate and whereabouts of their loved ones. They experience mental and emotional anguish, while placed outside the protection of the law, and are often blackmailed, manipulated and used by brokers. The struggle for justice must not cease, accountability towards enforced disappearance must be high on the agenda of all international peace making and negotiations on Syria which might take place.

We call for justice for Bassel Khartabil, a Syrian-Palestinian software engineer and free speech activist, who was subjected to extrajudicial execution by a military field court in October 2015 and whose fate only became known in August 2017. On 15 March 2012, Military Intelligence had arrested Bassel Khartabil and held him incommunicado for eight months.

We urge the Syrian government to immediately disclose the fate and whereabouts of tens of thousands of victims of enforced disappearances including Syrian lawyer Khalil Maatouk, whose whereabouts are unknown since he was arrested at a government military checkpoint in October 2012. We call on the armed opposition groups to release Syrian human rights defenders, including Razan Zaitouneh, Samira Khalil, Wael Hamadeh and Nazem Hammadi, who were kidnapped from the Violations Documentation Center (VDC) offices by armed, masked gunmen in Douma on 9 December 2013.

…

https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/statement-report/syria-justice-thousands-victims-enforced-disappearances

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Razan_Zaitouneh

https://www.icj.org/thailand-pass-legislation-criminalizing-enforced-disappearance-torture-without-further-delay/

 

Yemen: Lawyer of Yemen’s Saleh attacked by Houthis despite truce

August 30, 2017

Al Arabiya News Channel’s sources in Yemen on Tuesday evening said unidentified gunmen attacked the lawyer of ousted President Ali Abdullah Saleh in the center of the capital Sanaa, causing severe injuries.

The legal department of the Saleh’s party denounced the attack on Mohammed Mahdi al-Masuri as a criminal act.

The attack comes a day after a truce between Saleh and the Houthis, on the back of tension and clashes that erupted in Sanaa.

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/gulf/2017/08/30/Lawyer-of-Yemen-s-Saleh-attacked-by-Houthis-despite-truce.html

India: Maharashtra Takes Back ‘Bias’ Claim Against HC Judge, but Law Fraternity Is Not Appeased

August 29, 2017

Various lawyers’ associations have termed the government’s initial action as ‘interference’ since the constitution clearly separates powers between the legislature, the executive and the judiciary.

…

Four days after the Maharashtra state government made the serious allegation of a “bias” against Justice Abhay Oka, one of the senior most sitting judges of the Bombay high court, the government on Monday, made a u-turn, withdrawing its charges. The advocate general (AG) of the state, Ashutosh Kumbhakoni, expressing regret over the state’s earlier stand, said: “Unfortunately, the intention has been misunderstood and misinterpreted to project the state is against the judiciary.”

The state government, through the AG, had moved an application in an open court on August 24, alleging that Justice Oka harboured a “bias” against the administration. The application was moved during a scheduled review – by Justices Oka and Riyaz Chagla – of an order passed by it in 2016 on setting up silence zones across the city after an amendment to the Noise Pollution (Regulation and Control) Rules by the Central government.

The state government in its application cited “examples” of Justice Oka’s views on the dahi handi festival and the recently amended noise pollution rules on declaration of silence zones to “demonstrate” his bias.

…

Other lawyers’ associations, like the Indian Association of People’s Lawyers (IAPL), also condemned the chief justice’s decision and termed the governments allegations “brazen”. The association called such interferences from the government in the administration of justice as a move against the basic structure of the constitution, which clearly separates the powers between the legislature, the executive and the judiciary. “An independent judiciary and non-interference in its functioning is crucial in a democratic state. It is essential that the judicial and legal fraternity resist such interference in the administration of justice so that the rule of law prevails, and a matter is judged on its merits, irrespective of the parties,” IAPL member Arun Feriera said.

https://thewire.in/171769/maharashtra-government-bias-allegation-bombay-high-court-judge-oka/

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-justice-oka-chews-state-govt-out-for-fake-apology-2541361

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/mumbai/govt-recants-bias-charge-against-justice-oka/article19577217.ece

http://www.asianage.com/metros/mumbai/290817/maharashtra-government-apologises-to-justice-oka-for-bias-allegations.html

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/mumbai/justice-oka-accepts-govts-unconditional-apology/article19583175.ece

The Philippines: Duterte questions ombudsman’s stay in office

August 30, 2017

Irked by her “selective justice,” President Duterte said he is reminding Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales of her “very precarious” hold on her position as she is just serving the remaining term of her predecessor who resigned to avoid impeachment proceedings.

“You are supposed to serve the remaining term of the guy who resigned, not to a full term. That is very clear under the law. But it has not been questioned until now. I do not know why,” Duterte said in remarks at the mass oath-taking of 70 newly appointed government officials at Malacañang yesterday.

He was referring to Merceditas Gutierrez who resigned in 2011 before she was to face an impeachment trial. The Chief Executive did not cite a specific law that requires Morales to serve only Gutierrez’s remaining term.

“Everyone calls for ‘due process’ and (dispensing) of justice without fear or favor,” Duterte said.

…

In his remarks, he also accused Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno of sitting on temporary restraining order (TRO) on two contraceptive implants regulated under the Reproductive Health (RH) Law.

Duterte said some drugs bought by the government had expired without being distributed because the Supreme Court had not  decided yet on the TRO.

“The medicine have been purchased, expecting that it would, you know, be needed by government,” the President said.

“Until now, it’s two years ago, the medicine have expired. Sereno is sitting on it. What’s the problem, ma’am? We spent money, we bought medicine only to expire,” he added.

Duterte said he has no problems with the justices of the Supreme Court but criticized the delays in the issuance of judicial decisions.

…

http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2017/08/30/1734129/duterte-questions-ombudsmans-stay-office

Turkey: Jailed jurist’s daughter says ostracized by professors, classmates before father’s death

August 30, 2017

Buket Erdoğan, the daughter of recently deceased former Supreme Court of Appeals member Mustafa Erdoğan, said her lecturers and classmates would pretend not to see her at university until her father passed away last week.

Imprisoned as part of a post-coup crackdown conducted by the government, Erdoğan died in critical care shortly after being released from prison under judicial supervision on Aug. 22. His family members earlier said medical reports showing the seriousness of his condition were ignored and that appeals for his release were rejected.

“Even my best friends stopped talking to me, thinking that they would be harmed. My professors at the school [Ankara University’s faculty of law] who I used to get along with ignored me. No one except some of my father’s brave friends dared call us. My social circle completely changed up until my father passed away,” Buket told the Grihat online news platform.

Buket said Erdoğan’s last words before he died were: “I did nothing wrong. … One day the justice will be served.”

The former jurist was paralyzed after cancer surgery on Dec. 30, 2016, according to his daughter.

https://www.turkishminute.com/2017/08/30/jailed-jurists-daughter-says-ostracized-by-professors-classmates-before-fathers-death/