Egypt: Ezzat Ghoneim produced before the court

August 28, 2019

After having been disappeared for nearly five months, human rights defender Ezzat Ghoneim was produced before the Criminal Court of Tura on 9 February 2019. He continues to be held in preventive detention, which is being renewed every 45 days. The human rights defender is facing charges of “defamation” and “joining an illegal group”.

Human rights defender Ezzat Ghoneim disappeared from Al Haram police station 10 days after he was granted conditional release on 4 September 2018. He remained unlawfully detained until 13 September 2018, when police officers informed his wife of his alleged release.

On 4 September, Cairo Criminal Court ordered the release of Ezzat Ghoneim on bail.

On 9 May, the State Security Prosecutor renewed the detention of Ezzat Ghoneim for an additional 15 days pending investigation.

On 4 March human rights lawyer and executive director of the Egyptian Coordination for Rights and Freedoms (ECRF), Ezzat Ghoneim, was detained by State Security in Cairo.

Ezzat Ghoneim is a human rights defender and lawyer focusing on fair trial guarantees and enforced disappearances. Since 2014, he has served as executive director of the Egyptian Coordination for Rights and Freedoms (ECRF), an Egyptian human rights organisation which works on arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, freedom of expression, medical negligence and torture inside prisons.

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https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/case/ezzat-ghoneim-arrested

Committee for Justice gets UN support for the case of human rights defender “Ezzat Ghoneim”

https://www.cfjustice.org/portal/2019/08/06/three-urgent-un-appeals-addressing-the-egyptian-government-based-on-complaints-submitted-by-committee-for-justice/

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/families-missing-egyptian-rights-defenders-plead-their-release

https://madamasr.com/en/2019/02/13/news/u/missing-lawyer-ezzat-ghoneim-appears-in-court-ordered-to-be-detained-for-45-days/

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

Turkey/Belgium: Belgian-Turkish law student barred from leaving Turkey due to Facebook posts

August 27, 2019

A 27-year-old Belgian-Turkish law student is being held in Turkey where she was reportedly arrested more than a month ago over a series of years-old Facebook posts about the Kurds, The Brussels Times reported.

Dual national Gülsüm Çetinkaya was arrested while travelling with her Kurdish parents in Turkey in July, and her relatives worry that she may be held there longer.

She was checked at the border with Bulgaria and immediately detained, her uncle, filmmaker Bülent Öztürk, told Het Nieuwsblad.

Originally from Antwerp, Çetinkaya, who is studying law at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), was recently released from the Turkish prison where she was held, thousands of kilometers from her family’s village, Öztürk told the outlet. But she is still not allowed to leave the country.

“She was in prison for 40 days,” her uncle said, adding that Çetinkaya had told him the cell she was kept in was “tiny” and unsanitary.

Foreign affairs authorities in Belgium are reportedly looking into the situation, but the government cannot interfere if a dual national is held in their second country, according to media reports.

Belgian-Turkish law student barred from leaving Turkey due to Facebook posts

https://www.kurdistan24.net/en/news/36eb2600-88d0-4627-838d-0dea95301659

Belgian-Turkish law student barred from leaving Turkey due to criminal charges

https://tr.euronews.com/2019/08/27/belcika-tatil-icin-gittigi-turkiye-den-cikamayan-gulsum-cetinkaya-icin-devrede (TURKCE)

https://www.sudinfo.be/id137600/article/2019-08-26/une-jeune-belge-de-27-ans-emprisonnee-durant-40-jours-en-turquie-cause-de (FRANCAIS)

https://www.nieuwsblad.be/cnt/dmf20190825_04574621 (VLAAMS)

https://atv.be/nieuws/antwerpse-vrouw-in-turkse-cel-op-basis-van-facebook-berichten-van-5-jaar-geleden-83747 (VLAAMS)

India: Law Student Goes Missing After Accusing Ex-Union Minister of Sexual Harassment

August 27, 2019

A law student in Uttar Pradesh’s Shahjahanpur has gone missing from her college hostel after accusing Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former Union minister Swami Chinmayanand of sexual harassment, say reports.

The woman, a student of Swami Shukdevanand Law College, had posted a video on Friday where she also said that Chinmayanand had been threatening her life and that of her family’s because she had evidence that could prove her claims. Chinmayanand is also the director of the law college.

“A big leader of the saint society, who has destroyed the lives of several girls, has been threatening my life,” the woman says in the video.

In the short video clip, she can also be seen asking Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh chief minister Adityanath for help.

“…I request Modi ji and Yogi ji to please help me. He has even threatened to kill my family. Only I know what I have been going through. Modi ji please help me, he is a sanyasi and is threatening that the police, DM and everyone else is on his side and no one can harm him. I request you all for justice,” she said.

News18 quoted Senior Superintendent of Police S. Chinappa as having said that he had “no information” about the viral video.

The student’s father – in a written complaint – said he has been unable to trace his daughter since Saturday, reported News18.

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https://thewire.in/women/law-student-goes-missing-after-accusing-ex-union-minister-of-sexual-harassment

https://www.news18.com/news/india/he-destroyed-lives-of-many-girls-law-student-goes-missing-days-after-accusing-ex-union-minister-of-harassment-2285527.html

https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/uttar-pradesh-woman-missing-after-posting-viral-video-father-blames-ex-bjp-mp-2091262

https://www.timesnownews.com/india/article/law-student-who-accused-up-bjp-leader-swami-chinmayanand-of-harassment-goes-missing/477288

‘Stop another Unnao from happening’: Supreme Court lawyers write to CJI over missing Shahjahanpur law student case

Russia/ECHR: European Court of Human Rights Finds Russia Responsible for Death of Whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky

August 27, 2019

In a unanimous judgment, the European Court of Human Rights today delivered a comprehensive rebuke to Russia over the 2009 death in pretrial detention of Sergei Magnitsky, the accountant who had previously exposed a $230m tax fraud involving officials of Russia’s powerful Interior Ministry.

Responding to complaints brought by his mother and widow, the Strasbourg court ruled that Russia was responsible for Magnitsky’s death, and had subjected him to “intentional” acts of “violence…that amounted to inhuman and degrading treatment”.

This included persistently denying him medical treatment for a life-threatening illness, and a beating by guards just before he died.

The court also ruled that Russia’s investigation into Magnitsky’s death and abuse was inadequate, and that the government’s decision to put him on trial on corruption charges after his death was a manifest breach of the rule of law.

The ruling represents the first fully independent assessment of a case that has led to the imposition of sanctions by the United States and Canada against senior Russian officials accused of complicity in Mr Magnitsky’s death.

At the time of his death, Magnitsky had been held in pretrial detention for 358 days, while supposedly under investigation by the same Moscow Interior Ministry officers he had originally accused of corruption. The court ruled that the period of detention had been unreasonably extended by the Russian authorities, “on grounds which cannot be regarded as ‘sufficient’ to justify its duration”.

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https://www.justiceinitiative.org/newsroom/european-court-of-human-rights-finds-russia-responsible-for-death-of-whistleblower-sergei-magnitsky

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-49481471

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/08/europe-top-rights-court-condemns-russia-magnitsky-death-190827184340259.html

https://www.dw.com/en/european-rights-court-rules-against-russia-on-magnitsky-death/a-50178539

https://www.euronews.com/2019/08/27/europe-s-top-human-rights-court-acusses-russia-of-violating-sergei-magnitsky-s-rights

https://www.euronews.com/2019/08/27/russia-flouted-dead-lawyer-magnitskys-rights-says-european-court

https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng-press#%22itemid%22:%5B%22003-6486375-8551786%22%5D

https://echr.coe.int/Pages/home.aspx?p=home

https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/08/27/why-you-should-read-european-court-ruling-magnitsky

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

https://news.ru/politics/priznan-zhertvoj-espch-vynes-reshenie-po-delu-magnitskogo/ (RUSSIAN)

http://www.rfi.fr/europe/20190827-affaire-magnitski-russie-epinglee-cour-europeenne-droits-homme-cedh (FRANCAIS)

https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng-press#{%22itemid%22:[%22003-6486376-8551787%22]} (FRANCAIS)

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergue%C3%AF_Magnitski (FRANCAIS)

https://www.elindependiente.com/politica/internacional/2019/08/28/serguei-magnitsky-el-abogado-que-vencio-a-vladimir-putin-despues-de-muerto/ (ESPANOL)

https://www.ilpost.it/2019/08/27/corte-europea-dei-diritti-delluomo-sergei-magnitsky/ (ITALIANO)

https://24.sapo.pt/atualidade/artigos/russia-condenada-por-violacao-de-direitos-humanos-em-morte-de-advogado (PORTUGUES)