Blog de César Salgado

Human Rights Watch publicou onte unha nota de prensa sobre a decisión do Tribunal Europeo de Direitos Humanos pola que se ordena a Francia que suspenda a deportación de Kamel Daoudi, xa que podería ser torturado en Alxeria.

A nota de prensa leva por título “France: European Court Orders Suspension of Deportation. Government Should Automatically Stop Deportation Proceedings on Appeal”. Copio un extracto do seu contido:

The European Court of Human Rights decision to order France to suspend the deportation of an Algerian is a reminder that France’s expulsion policy may put people in harm’s way, Human Rights Watch said today. On April 23, 2008, the court ordered France to halt Kamel Daoudi’s deportation until it could review the case and issue a final decision on whether or not he could face torture or ill-treatment in Algeria.

Under current procedures in France, individuals facing deportation can apply to a special judge for a stay on human rights grounds. But even appeals based on fear of torture or ill-treatment do not automatically suspend the deportation until and unless the special judge orders the stay.

“This case shows why France needs an automatic, in-country appeal process for those facing deportation,” said Judith Sunderland, researcher on Western Europe at Human Rights Watch. “Otherwise, the European Court of Human Rights will keep having to step in.”

Daoudi, a 34-year-old Algerian, was released from prison on April 21, 2008 after serving a six-year sentence for a terrorism-related conviction, and was immediately placed in a detention center pending deportation. He was convicted in 2005 under the broad charge of “criminal association in relation to a terrorist undertaking.” In addition to the prison sentence, the French court ordered that Daoudi be criminally deported after serving his sentence and banned him permanently from re-entering French territory. The trial drew attention because the prosecution alleged that Daoudi and his co-defendants had plotted an attack on the US embassy in Paris. The only evidence presented of a plot against American interests in Paris was the confession of a suspect held in the United Arab Emirates that the appeals court excluded because of concerns about the conditions under which it was obtained.

The United Nations Committee Against Torture has condemned France twice in the past three years for deporting individuals to countries where they faced a risk of torture. In both cases, France had ignored requests from the committee to stay the deportation until the committee had time to study the facts. [...]

Amnistía Internacional publicou a semana pasada o informe sobre Alxeria que foi enviado ó Comité contra a Tortura das Nacións Unidas.

O documento leva por título “Algeria: Briefing to the Committee Against Torture”. Copio un extracto da súa introducción:

[...] This briefing summarizes some of Amnesty International’s main concerns on Algeria, as documented in a number of the organization’s past reports. These concerns relate broadly to a persistent pattern of secret detention and torture by the Department for Information and Security (Département du Renseignement et de la Sécurité, DRS), an intelligence agency which specializes in interrogating individuals who are believed to have information about terrorist activities; to the failure of the state party to provide an effective remedy to victims of human rights abuses, including torture and ill-treatment; and to continuing violence against women.

Torture and other ill-treatment of detainees suspected of terrorist activities in Algeria are being committed in the wake of more than a decade of violence, sparked by the cancellation in 1992 of the multi-party elections which the Islamic Salvation Front (Front Islamique du Salut, FIS), an Islamist political party, was widely expected to win. During the internal conflict, safeguards for human rights protection were grievously eroded. Human rights violations in the name of counter-terrorism became entrenched as security forces ruthlessly combated armed groups who were committing grave and widespread abuses against civilians, including unlawful killings, abductions, torture and rape.. The state’s security forces and, later, state-armed militia (referred to by the authorities as “legitimate defence groups”, “self-defence groups” or “patriots”) committed massive human rights violations and abuses, including extrajudicial executions and other unlawful killings, enforced disappearances, secret and arbitrary detentions, and torture and other ill-treatment of thousands of real or suspected members or supporters of armed groups. The DRS, the force most associated with torture and other ill-treatment today, played a key role in the escalation of such human rights violations during the 1990s.

Notwithstanding the decrease in violence and gross human rights abuses associated with the internal conflict that has occurred in recent years, Amnesty International continues to regularly receive reports of incommunicado detention of suspects in unofficial places of detention and torture by the DRS, in the context of the government’s counter-terrorism operations. Further, while the initiative taken by the government in 2004 to enact provisions in national law to criminalize torture was welcome, it can be noted that these new provisions have failed to end the use of torture by the DRS.

The vast majority of the human rights abuses committed by both armed groups and state security forces, including torture and ill-treatment, in the context of the internal conflict have not been investigated. Impunity for past violations has been further entrenched through amnesty laws introduced by the government in 2006 with the stated intention of bringing closure to the years of violence. These laws provided for exemption from prosecution or release under an amnesty of those convicted of or detained on charges of terrorist activity, and granted comprehensive impunity to members of the security forces responsible for human rights violations.

Women have been particularly affected by violence since the onset of the internal conflict. They have been targeted for abduction, rape and other forms of sexual violence by armed groups, and have suffered disproportionately from the anguish at not knowing the truth as to the fate of thousands of men forcibly disappeared during the conflict. Further, violence against women within the family is prevalent. [...]

Recollo da páxina da Coordinadora Estatal de Asociaciones Solidarias con el Sahara (CEAS - SAHARA) unha noticia que saíu nalgúns medios de comunicación. Copio e pego un pequeno extracto:

[...] El juez Baltasar Garzón ha admitido a trámite la querella contra 13 militares marroquíes por delitos de genocidio en el Sahara, que presentaron los hijos de cuatro desaparecidos [...]

El responsable del Juzgado Central de Instrucción número cinco de la Audiencia Nacional se declaró competente el pasado 30 de octubre para investigar a trece altos cargos marroquíes por delitos de genocidio y torturas en el Sahara en relación con la desaparición de cientos de saharauis.

Los principales altos cargos marroquíes a los que Garzón acordó investigar son Housni Ben Sliman, superior que ordenó y dirigió presuntamente la campaña de detenciones y posteriores desapariciones en Smara en 1976 y Abdelhafid Ben Hachem, presunto responsable de los secuestrados en 1987 en El Aaiún y supervisor de los interrogatorios bajo tortura. [...]

Tamén é recente esta outra noticia, da que tamén copio e pego un extracto:

[...] Khadijatou Bourkari Dafa [...] Nació hace 29 años en Haouza, que entonces pertenecía al Sahara Español. [...] Khadijatou se instaló en un campo de refugiados de Tinduf, bajo soberanía argelina. Años más tarde, viajó a España para someterse a un tratamiento oftalmológico con pasaporte argelino, pero su pasaporte caducó. [...] Ha pasado tiempo desde entonces, pero finalmente el Supremo ha reconocido a Khadijatou como una apátrida. Es una situación que legalmente se aplica en pocos supuestos, aunque es un problema muy común entre los refugiados y quienes han nacido en territorios en disputa. [...]

Enlaces relacionados:

• Asociación de Familiares de Presos y Desaparecidos Saharauis (AFAPREDESA)
• Association de soutien à un référendum libre et régulier au Sahara Occidental (ARSO)
• Derecho Internacional (Oficina del Alto Comisionado de las Naciones Unidas para los Derechos Humanos)
• Misión de las Naciones Unidas para la Organización del Referéndum en el Sahara Occidental (MINURSO)
• Sahara Presse Service

Amnistía Internacional publicou hoxe unha nota de prensa denunciando os procesos xudiciais secretos que se levan a cabo no Reino Unido para executar, por motivos de “seguridade nacional”, a deportación a Alxeria dalgunhas persoas. As autoridades británicas defenden tal medida alegando que o Goberno de Alxeria se comprometeu, mediante “garantías diplomáticas”, a non torturar nin maltratar a estas persoas. O lamentable é que as “garantías diplomáticas” non son xuridicamente vinculantes e foron ignoradas en situacións análogas por moitos Estados, sen olvidar que Alxeria ten un historial terrible de violacións dos Direitos Humanos…

A nota de prensa leva por título “United Kingdom: Secret judicial proceedings again expose individuals to risk of torture or ill-treatment on return to Algeria”. Copio e pego un extracto (a negrita é miña):

On 2 November the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) gave its decision in three important test cases concerning the UK’s attempts to deport people to Algeria on “national security” grounds. In all three cases the SIAC re-affirmed its earlier decision that the men could safely and lawfully be returned to Algeria, because it considered that diplomatic assurances obtained by the UK from the Algerian authorities would sufficiently reduce the real risk of serious human rights violations, including torture or other ill-treatment, which the men would face on return.

Amnesty International is deeply disturbed by the SIAC’s decision. The organization considers that assurances obtained from Algerian government officials in fact offer no such protection, and are intrinsically unreliable. Furthermore neither the men themselves nor the authorities in the UK have any effective way of enforcing these promises. Such promises are not worth the paper they are written on, particularly since Algeria has repeatedly been found to have breached its binding international legal obligations to prevent torture or other ill-treatment. Amnesty International is therefore gravely concerned that each of these men will be exposed to a real risk of serious human rights violations, including torture or other ill-treatment, if they are returned to Algeria, notwithstanding any assurances given to the contrary.

Amnesty International considers it deeply unfair that decisions that may have a devastating impact on the lives and safety of these men have been taken in secret. The judicial process in the UK, which has sanctioned reliance on such assurances, has denied the men an effective opportunity to challenge the assertion that it would be safe to return them to Algeria. The judicial proceedings against the men, which have involved the use of secret information in secret proceedings, have made a mockery of the right to due process and the principle that justice should not only be done, but be seen to be done. Judicial secrecy over matters of such importance gravely undermines the rule of law.

The three men are Mustapha Taleb, formerly referred to in judicial proceedings as “Y”; a man referred to as “U”; and another man referred to as “BB”. Each of the men has consistently denied involvement in terrorism or other activities that may be a risk to “national security”.

The SIAC had originally upheld the Secretary of State’s assessment both that the men constituted a risk to “national security”, and that they could safely be returned to Algeria. It did so, in part, on the basis of material which was kept secret from the men, and from their lawyers. [...]