Death Sentence Upheld For Five Ahwazi Iranian Arab Political Prisoners

Iran is not an Arab country, but it does have Ahwazi Arabs living there. As with all minorities in that country, they are persecuted and discriminated against. Persecution and discrimination has lead to activism, and the way the Iranian government deals with dissent is by jailing and executing those they feel are causing trouble. More often than not they are arrested through trumped up charges and/or forced confessions. Ahwazi activists have been executed in the past. Five more were sentenced to death last year, and the sentence was just upheld by the Iranian courts.

In July 2012 Iran Human Rights (IHR) reported that Judge Seyed Mohammad Bagher Mousavi, from branch 2 of the Ahwaz Revolutionary Court, notified lawyers and family members of the five Ahwazi Arab activists about their death sentences.

Recent reports indicate that branch 32 of the Iranian Supreme Court has upheld the death sentences.

The name of the Ahwazi Arab activists are: Mohammad Ali Amouri, Hadi Rashedi, Hashem Sha’bani, and two brothers by the names of Seyed Mokhtar Albooshooke and Seyed Jaber Albooshooke.

Mohammad Ali Amouri is a cultural activist and the editor in chief of Altaras, a student publication at the Isfahan University of Technology. Hashem Sha’bani is a teacher at numerous high schools in the city of Khalfieh. Hadi Rashedi and the two brothers (Mokhtar and Jaber) were condemned to death based on the charges of "Acting against national security" and "Moharebeh" (enmity against God).

The five political prisoners have reportedly been forced to make false confessions. Two of the men, Hadi Rashedi and Hashem Shabaninejad were featured on a program on Press TV, the Iranian authorities’ English-language satellite channel, confessing to their alleged subversive acts. Reports indicate that the confessions were extracted under severe physical and mental torture. The court sentenced the five activists to death in July 2012 based on the false confessions.

IHR strongly condemns the death sentences against the Ahwazi Arab activists. Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the spokesperson of IHR said: "We urge the international community to condemn the death sentences." He continued: "Several political prisoners are in imminent danger of execution. Strong reactions are needed from the international community to stop these executions."

With a government that loves its executions, I don't hold much hope for these five. The Iranian government couldn't care less what the international community thinks.

Torture In Syrian Military Hospitals By Doctors

Patients in Syrian military hospitals are allegedly being tortured by those who have sworn to save lives.

The Hippocratic Oath, for those in the medical profession, was replaced (for the most part) with the Declaration of Geneva. The oath declares:

I solemnly pledge to consecrate my life to the service of humanity;
I will give to my teachers the respect and gratitude that is their due;
I will practice my profession with conscience and dignity;
The health of my patient will be my first consideration;
I will respect the secrets that are confided in me, even after the patient has died;
I will maintain by all the means in my power, the honor and the noble traditions of the medical profession;
My colleagues will be my sisters and brothers;
I will not permit considerations of age, disease or disability, creed, ethnic origin, gender, nationality, political affiliation, race, sexual orientation, social standing or any other factor to intervene between my duty and my patient;
I will maintain the utmost respect for human life;
I will not use my medical knowledge to violate human rights and civil liberties, even under threat;
I make these promises solemnly, freely and upon my honor.

But according to a worker at the military hospital in Homs, doctors aren't trying to save the lives of the many wounded that the government demands are to be brought there, they are actually torturing the men, most of whom are civilians and many not even anti-regime protesters.  They are being blindfolded, chained to their beds and severely beaten. Concerned at their treatment, over several months the employee videotaped some of the patients and handed over the tape to a French photojournalist who was able to smuggle it out. After his pleas to stop the mistreatment were ignored, the worker claims he was labeled a "traitor",  and finally quit.  In an interview with the French journalist "Mani',  he told him

‘I have seen detainees being tortured by electrocution, whipping, beating with batons, and by breaking their legs. They twist the feet until the leg breaks. They perform operations without anaesthetics. I saw them slamming detainees’ heads against walls. Sometimes they have to amputate limbs and they go gangrenous because they don’t prescribe antibiotics,’ he said.

And it wasn't just the military medical personnel that abused the patients, he saw civilian doctors and staff participate as well, and handed over the names of everyone who was complicit in the torture.
This is apparently the first actual evidence of torture that  many have claimed is rampant, but were unable to provide proof of.  'Mani' claims:

‘Ordinary Syrians now consider it too dangerous to go to state-run hospitals if they’re injured. Most opt for hopelessly under-equipped makeshift backstreet clinics.

‘I met a 15-year-old boy who had been shot in the leg by a sniper. His father told me he was too afraid to bring his son to hospital. Even though he was in danger of losing his leg, the boy was treated in his own home by a nurse.’

According to the worker:

Many of those injured, he said, were kept alive so they could be interrogated.
Others were admitted to the hospital simply to revive them between torture sessions. ‘Some of the detainees used to be taken from the hospital to the prison. They’d bring them back either dead or with a brain haemorrhage.

‘The youngest I saw was 14 or 15 years old. Many detainees’ names were removed from emergency admissions lists so that no one would know where they were. There were no names. Just numbers.’

Anything to stay in power.

More photos at DailyMail.UK

Iranian Rappers Blast Syria's Bashar Al-Assad and Russia's Medvedev

In support of the ongoing massacre in Homs,  Iranian rappers blast Syria's tyrant Bashar Al-Assad and Russia's Medvedev. Translated by Memri.TV

I am linking to the video on Youtube because Google adsense might think it's too graphic.

China Sends Back North Korean Refugees To Face Jail, Torture and Death

It looks like North Korea's Kim Jong-un is following in his "dear" father Kim Jong -il's footsteps.  Jong-il's baby boy is continuing the legacy of torturing, jailing and killing defectors, all with the help of China.
Over the years many North Koreans have fled to China (and elsewhere), to escape the dire conditions created by the late lunatic dictator Kim Jong-il's leadership. But rather than helping these people, China has been sending them back knowing full well it's a death sentence. 

In fact, in the 100 days of mourning for papa Jong-il, Jong-un decided to step up the tracking down of defectors:

As Kim Jong-Un attempts to consolidate his power in North Korea, one of the new regime's focus has been arresting as many North Koreans in China as possible. Right now, North Korea has sent into China a task force of covert agents numbering in the thousands -- a scale simply unprecedented -- who would pretend to be North Korean defectors, only to rat out true defectors to the Chinese police. The Chinese police arrests these defectors and repatriate them back to North Korea. Once back in North Korea, these defectors will face near certain deaths in gulags out of hard labor and starvation. Recently, there was an arrest of 28 North Korean defectors in China, who will be repatriated back to North Korea in just a few days. Right now, even as we speak, these defectors are essentially facing a death penalty if they are sent back to North Korea. Some of the defectors' families in South Korea (who defected before this group of defectors) are pleading that if these defectors are to be sent back to North Korea, they are better off killing themselves in the Chinese prison.

And it's not just North Koreans who hunt down these defector 'refugees', China is actively involved in doing the same thing, in spite of the fact that China is a party to the  U.N. Refugee Convention, its 1967 Protocol and the U.N. Convention Against Torture.  The U.N. is supposed to have access to refugees, but China has categorically refused.

Over 5,000 people per annum are repatriated to North Korea from China, and pregnant women who are deported are forced to abort their babies if they are half Chinese.

But it seems that the lives of North Koreans in China are as tragic as they probably were in their homeland, especially for women. According to Robert Park, a human rights activist, writing for the Mercury News:

Sixty to 70 percent of the North Korean refugees in China are women, 70 to 80 percent of whom, without recourse to legal rights or protections, have become victims of sex trafficking. Their children conceived through rape are considered stateless in China and are vulnerable to trafficking and abandonment. Furthermore, innumerable children who escaped from North Korea with their parents have become orphans because one or both of their parents were found by Chinese officials. These children also usually end up homeless or become victims of exploitation.

Park says that North Korean refugees are welcome in South Korea, and are considered citizens and thus should have diplomatic protection, but that doesn't seem to make any difference to the Chinese who currently have 80 defectors detained in prison ready to be sent home.

Among them are a 16-year-old orphan who escaped North Korea after losing his parents in an attempt to find an older brother in South Korea, and a 19-year-old woman whose parents live in Seoul. If sent back to North Korea, they will be tortured and most likely killed. Kim Jong-un vowed in January to annihilate those who attempt to leave the country and their entire families.

In spite of requests from South Korea not to repatriate nine caputured refugees, last week China sent them back anyway. 

The problem is no-one seems to want to ruffle China's feathers, and so North Korean's will continue to be shipped back to an uncertain fate.

U.N. Allegations Of Sexual Torture and Murder Of Children In Syria

A U.N. investigation has determined that, since the beginning of November, government  troops have also targeted young children in the chaos that is Syria. According to a U.N. report, the organization has received information from credible sources that over 256 boys and girls have been murdered, including a young 2-year-old girl who was shot and killed. The alleged reason for killing the little girl was to ensure that she did not grow up "to be a demonstrator."  There have also been allegations of sexual torture.

The panel's report to the U.N. Human Rights Council says government forces have used excessive force to "shot indiscriminately at unarmed protesters" while snipers targeted others in the upper body and head.

Their report, released Monday, said Syrian security forces along with militias were given "shoot to kill" orders to crush demonstrations.

If indeed true, though unconscionable, it wouldn't be surprising since it's not unusual for children to be abused in that region of the world.  Like women, children mean nothing in Islam, and suffer greatly as a result.  Look at how children in Muslim-majority third world countries are often encouraged and groomed to become suicide bombers.

But, in the case of Syria, it's not just the children suffering under a brutal, autocratic leader who is willing to fight to the death (as did Libya's Qaddafi), if his country is invaded.  It probably has much to do with the whole idea of martyrdom that so many Muslims cherish so deeply, and the unwillingness to give up power that so many people find so incredibly intoxicating.

At least the Arab League has finally approved sanctions against the Syrian government, for whatever good that will do; but at least it's something. Of course, it's the Syrian people who will suffer, as Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem so bluntly put it.

"Let them study the history of Syria very well. Neither warnings nor sanctions will work with us."

An estimated 3,500 have been killed since the people's revolt started 8 months ago. 

But President Bashar al-Assad still has his fervent  supporters, just like Qaddafi did and just like the Iranian government still does.  I think Assad might just end up like Qaddafi did. Dead.

Other sources: New Kerala News