MIDDLE EAST: Weekly update of human rights violations in the
region (3 Nov – 9 Nov 2006)
09 Nov 2006 12:29:01 GMT Source: IRIN
DUBAI, 9 November (IRIN) - EGYPT: Threats to freedom of expression CAIRO, (IRIN) - In Egypt, Human Rights Watch (HRW)
denounced the sentencing of former President Anwar al-Sadat's nephew, Talaat al-Sadat, after being convicted by a military court of 'insulting the military and the Republican Guard'. HRW condemned
the conviction of al-Sadat, who is a prominent parliamentarian. "Al-Sadat's prosecution and sentence [sends] a chilling message to anyone who dares to raise sensitive issues in Egypt. No one should be
tried in a military court or any other court for criticising a public institution or a public official," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East Director of the New York-based rights group.Meanwhile,
local NGO Human Rights Info denounced the arrest of a prominent secularist blogger for his views on Egypt's religious establishment. Alexandrian blogger Abd el-Karim Suleiman, who was arrested on
Monday, is being investigated on five charges, which include 'incitement to hate Islam' and 'spreading malicious rumours that disrupt public security'."We are very concerned that he is going to be
charged officially with blasphemy – a charge which can carry the death penalty in Egypt," Human Rights Info spokeswoman Dalia Ziada told IRIN. IRAQ: Two more journalists killed BAGHDAD,
(IRIN) – Iraqi freelance journalist, Abdul-Majid Ismail Khalil, who was kidnapped on 18 October, was found dead 13 days later in Baghdad's Jamila neighbourhood, the Paris-based NGO Reporters
Without Borders said in a statement on 2 November.Khalil, who worked for several Iraqi daily newspapers, was abducted by gunmen who surrounded his car, the group said. On 3 November, Ahmed
al-Rasheed, a correspondent for the privately-owned Sharqiya channel, was shot dead in northern Baghdad, residents and the station he worked for said. JORDAN: Charges dropped against former top
royal adviser AMMAN, (IRIN) - On Sunday, the State Security Court (SCC) dropped charges of "slandering the king and inciting sectarianism" against Adnan Abu Odeh, a former senior adviser to Jordan's
King Abdullah. He was charged following an interview with the pan-Arab satellite television station Al-Jazeerah in which he said that that the Jordanian government was discriminating against
Jordanians of Palestinian origin by preventing them from occupying high and sensitive posts. Private citizens filed complaints against Abu Odeh at the office of Amman Prosecutor General but the
civil office referred the case to the SSC. However, rights groups, including US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW), said they believed the government was behind the case and urged the king to amend
those laws that allow people to file charges against government critics, further threatening freedom of expression."This apparent tactic of initiating and later dropping charges has a chilling
effect on regime critics," said Sarah Leah Whitson, director of the Middle East and North Africa division at HRW. SYRIA: Government jails Islamists DAMASCUS, (IRIN) - Syria continued its
decades-old policy of sentencing Islamists to jail terms through its Supreme State Security Court (SSSC), which operates under the country's 43-year-old emergency laws and which international rights
groups criticise as denying defendants basic human rights. On 5 November, the SSSC sentenced a group of 10 men from the central city of Hama, once the scene of a militant Islamic uprising, to prison
terms of between three and six years after they were found guilty of breaking law 306, which forbids inciting sectarian differences. The men had been arrested in August 2004. Two men from the
north-east city of Raqqa, arrested in July 2004, were sentenced to five years each on charges of belonging to a secret organisation that aims to change the social and economic structure of the state,
also punishable under law 306. Razan Zeitouna, a lawyer who runs an information service on human rights in Syria criticised the sentences. "The defendants were sentenced because they are Wahabis
[Sunni extremists] and they don't belong to an organisation. The sentences were illegal because the court is illegal," he said. YEMEN: Al-Dailami says he was tortured by political security SANAA,
(IRIN) - A day after his release on 5 November, rights activist Ali al-Dailami on 6 November said in a press conference that he was severely tortured, physically and psychologically, while in
detention. Al-Dailami said he was beaten on the back of his head, was not allowed to take medication for an abdomen ulcer, was forced to wear ragged clothes and forced to remain barefoot for 22
days. "Blindfolded, I was forced to sign documents whose content I didn't know," al-Dailami said. He added that he was charged with having links with the al-Qae'da terrorist network and for seeking
political asylum in Denmark.He said that investigators threatened to abduct his physically handicapped small child as well as other family members. Al-Dailami, who is the director of the Yemeni
Organisation for Defending Democratic Rights and Freedoms, was arrested on 9 October at Sana'a airport by political security agents.jb/mf/sm/hm/maj/ar/ed
