Worldwide Appeals January 2006

AI Index: NWS 22/001/2006

Yemen

Executions imminent

Ismail Lutef Huraish (right), Ali Mussara’a Muhammad Huraish and Hafez Ibrahim (left) are at risk of imminent execution.

Ismail Lutef Huraish and his cousin, Ali Mussara’a Muhammad Huraish, were sentenced to death in 2000 for a murder committed in 1998. Ismail Lutef Huraish is deaf but since his arrest the authorities have not provided sign-language interpretation for him. Therefore, at no point in the judicial process was he able to give his own account of his alleged involvement in the murder. His guilt was apparently decided solely on the basis of statements Ali Mussara’a Muhammad Huraish made during police interrogation and during their trial, which allegedly implicated both men in the murder.

The failure of the authorities to provide the means for Ismail Lutef Huraish to communicate is in violation of the Yemeni penal code, as well the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Yemen is a state party.

Seventeen-year-old Hafez Ibrahim was sentenced to death for a murder which he allegedly committed when he was aged 16. The Yemeni penal code expressly prohibits the execution of anyone under 18 years old. The Minister of Human Rights in Yemen told AI that Hafez Ibrahim’s age was disputed. However, lawyers representing Hafez Ibrahim maintain that he is under 18.

President ‘Ali ‘Abdullah Saleh is considering these sentences. The President may grant clemency, but if he chooses to ratify their sentences, they could be executed at any time. Death sentences are often passed in Yemen after proceedings which fall short of international standards for fair trial.

Please write, urging the President to commute the death sentences passed on Ismail Huraish, Ali Mussara’a Muhammad Huraish and Hafez Ibrahim.

Send appeals to: General ‘Ali ‘Abdullah Saleh, President of the Republic of Yemen, Sana’a, Yemen. Fax: + 967 127 4147.

El Salvador

Impunity for murders of young women

The body of 17-year-old Marian Isabela Rivas Martínez was found on 4 December 2002 in San Bartolo, San Salvador. She had been raped, killed and dismembered.

Five days later the decapitated head of another young woman was found in a rucksack in the Libertad Park in San Salvador. Later on the same day her leg was found in a plastic bag in a bus station. Her full identity has still not been established, and she has since been referred to as Rosa N.

In January 2003, a group of gang members were arrested on suspicion of involvement in the killing of Rosa N. It appears that the charges were brought against the gang members on the basis of little or no evidence. The case collapsed in August 2004 when the accused were acquitted on the grounds that they had been imprisoned at the time of the killing.

Some of the gang members arrested on suspicion of involvement in the murder of Rosa N. were also charged in relation to the killing of Marian Isabela Rivas. These charges were also dismissed in August 2004 for lack of evidence. No other lines of inquiry into the killing of Rosa N. or Marian Isabela Rivas seem to have been pursued; all original evidence is thought to have been lost or destroyed and the cases archived.

Between the end of 2002 and the middle of 2004 at least 20 women were killed and their bodies mutilated in El Salvador. Some victims showed signs of having been raped prior to death. According to reports, only a few cases have been properly investigated and those responsible brought to justice. Investigations into the remaining cases appear to have

been closed.

Please write, calling for the murders of Marian Isabela Rivas Martínez, Rosa N. and other similar cases to be properly investigated and those responsible brought to justice.

Send appeals to: President Elías Antonio Saca, President of the Republic of El Salvador, Casa Presidencial, Alameda Dr Manuel Enrique 5500, San Salvador, El Salvador.

Fax: +503 2243-9947. Email: Belisario_artiga@hotmail.com

Russian Federation

‘Disappearance’ from police custody

Zalina Medova was pregnant with her second child when her husband, Adam Medov, “disappeared” in June 2004.

Twenty-four-year-old Adam Medov left his house in the Russian Republic of Ingushetia on 15 June 2004. He called later that night to say that his car had broken down, but did not leave time for his family to ask any questions. Two days later his family received a call from a policeman they knew, who said that Adam Medov was in a police station in the Sunzhenskoi district of Ingushetia.

When the family went to the police station, they heard that Adam Medov had been found that day by Ingush traffic police in the boot of a car driven by members of the Federal Security Service (FSB). The FSB officers, who were apparently about to take him to Chechnya, were detained by the police. Adam Medov told the police that he had been detained on 15 June and forced to call his family so that they would not worry about him. He said that he had been beaten by the FSB officers.

A police officer allowed the family to hand over food for Adam Medov and agreed to arrange a meeting between Adam and his brothers. The family waited outside the police station. But before the meeting could take place, the family was told that, under orders from the FSB, the FSB officers had been released and had taken Adam Medov out of the police station via the back door. The police said the FSB were taking him to Chechnya. It was the last time the family had any information about his whereabouts.

When Zalina Medova lodged a case with the European Court of Human Rights regarding the “disappearance” of her husband, she received numerous threats which appeared to be from the FSB. She was told that she would make her children orphans if she pursued the case. Zalina Medova and her two children had to flee the Russian Federation, as she was not willing to give up the search for her husband.

Please write, calling for an investigation into the detention and “disappearance” of Adam Medov, including the actions of the FSB officers who had attempted to take him to Chechnya in the boot of their car.

Send appeals to: Procurator General Vladimir Ustinov, General Procuracy of the Russian Federation, Ul. B. Dimitrovka 15a, 103793 Moskow K-31, Russian Federation.

Fax: +7 495 292 8848 (if someone answers say “fax please”).