MIDDLE EAST: MIDDLE EAST: Weekly update of human
rights violations in the region (10 Nov – 16 Nov 2006)
16 Nov 2006 14:46:24 GMT Source: IRIN
DUBAI, 16 November (IRIN) - EGYPT: Rights group
fights sexual harassment CAIRO, (IRIN) - Pressure mounted this week on police and the government to tackle the problem of sexual harassment. Around 150 activists gathered at the Syndicate of
Journalists on 9 November to protest against the mob attacks on women that took place in Cairo on 24 October and against the perceived unwillingness of security forces to prevent them. A new
website, streetisours.org, summarised the new campaign by saying, "There are thousands of daily stories of harassment; on the street, at the work place, in public transportation, in crowded
gatherings. Every time, we hear... voices blaming women for being the cause of that harassment."Authorities responded to this pressure group by arresting and detaining two well-known activists,
Nadia Mabrouk and Waleed Salah, at a related protest in downtown Cairo on Tuesday. The two, who are members of the Kefaya movement, were then released and referred to the Cairo prosecutor. JORDAN:
Torture is rampant in all prisons, says rights watchdog AMMAN, (IRIN) - On Tuesday, Shaher Bak, the Commissioner General of the government-run National Centre for Human Rights (NCHR), said that
prisoners in Jordan were "subjected to some form of torture ranging from beatings to inhuman treatment".Bak said this during the presentation of the NCHR's fourth annual report on the condition of
Jordan's 10 prisons. The NCHR called for an investigation by an independent tribunal on the ill-treatment of inmates as well as on two deaths that occurred this year at Al-Jafr prison, some 250km
south of Amman.The report also recommended legislation to criminalise torture. Senior prison officials have constantly denied allegations of torture. IRAQ: Three more Iraqi journalists gunned down BAGHDAD, (IRIN) - Relentless violence claimed the lives of three Iraqi journalists in this war-ravaged country this week, police said. On Monday, gunmen in two cars shot dead Mohammed al-Ban, a
58-year-old cameraman for the independent al-Sharqiya satellite channel in the northern city of Mosul, police Brig Abdul-Karim Ahmed Khalaf said. Al-Ban was the second journalist working for
al-Sharqiya to be killed in the past 10 days. On 3 November, Ahmad al-Rashid, 28, a correspondent, was shot in north Baghdad's Azamiyah neighbourhood.Also in Mosul, unidentified gunmen on Wednesday
intercepted the car of journalist Fadia Mohammed al-Taie, killing her and her driver, Khalaf added. Al-Taie worked as a reporter for the independent weekly newspaper al-Massar.Another female
journalist, Luma al-Karkhi, who worked for the independent weekly al-Dustor, was shot dead in the city of Baqouba, 60 km north-east of Baghdad.Meanwhile, the German Press Agency reported on
Wednesday that the local council in the northern city of Mosul issued an order to close down a publication entitled 'Civil Society' because it published a cartoon depicting Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri
al- Maliki sitting on the lap of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and being breastfed by her.However Mosul's court has refused to carry out the order because it said this would stifle freedom
of expression. SYRIA: Government detains Islamists DAMASCUS (IRIN) - On Tuesday, Syria's Supreme State Security Court (SSSC) sentenced six men from E'teba, a town outside Damascus, to sentences
ranging from six to nine years for belonging to a "radical Islamic group," said Ammar Qurabi, head of the National Organisation for Human Rights. International rights groups accuse the SSSC of
denying defendants basic human rights.A day earlier, Syrian authorities arrested Murad Khaznawi, the son of a prominent Kurdish Sheikh who was kidnapped and murdered in May last year. Khaznawi was
arrested as he was leaving the country for Jordan.Qurabi said Khaznawi had been questioned about statements last month by his exiled brother accusing Syrian authorities of orchestrating the kidnap
and killing of their father Sheikh Ma'ashouk Khaznawi. Murad Khaznawi was later released. On 11 November, Al-Nedaa, the website of opposition group the Damascus Declaration, reported that four men
had been arrested in Homs and charged with belonging to Hizb al-Tahrir al-Islami, a militant Islamist group. YEMEN: Youth Shoura Council demands the release of Abu Saba'a SANAA, (IRIN) – On
13 November, the Youth Shoura Council sent a letter to Sheikh Abdullah bin Hussein al-Ahmer, speaker of parliament, demanding the immediate release of Yahya Nasser Abu Saba'a, who has been detained
since 1997.The Council said that it received a letter from Abu Saba'a's mother saying that al-Ahmer still keeps her son as a hostage in the central prison in Sana'a. The letter hoped that al-Ahmer
would release Abu Saba'a and compensate him for the years he spent in prison. According to the Council, al-Ahmer detained the then 17-year-old Abu Saba'a so that his brother – who was accused
of murder - could surrender to the authorities.jb/mf/sm/hm/ar/ed
