Weekly human-rights roundup

Despite ongoing calls for political reform by local opposition groups and international rights agencies, the sporadic detention of activists and journalists has continued in some countries of the Middle East. REGION The Arabic Federation of Journalists (AFJ) report on media freedom in the Arab world in 2005 noted 136 press freedom violations in Arab countries. The killing of journalists was the most common violation, mostly in Iraq. AFJ president Ibrahim Nafaa called the report the first of its kind to be published by an Arab organisation. EGYPT Activists continued to campaign for the release of political detainees, many of whom were arrested last month after demonstrating in solidarity with the pro-reform Judges’ Club reform movement. “We must show the same resolve as the judges,” said Wael al-Ibrashi, chief editor of independent weekly Sawt al-Umma. The Muslim Brotherhood, which has kept a low profile of late, has also been subject to arrests. “Police arrested nine prominent members of the Muslim Brotherhood during a routine meeting in Cairo,” read a Brotherhood statement. Up to 200 detained activists – most of them members of the Brotherhood and the pro-democracy Kifaya movement – had their prison terms extended for 15 days, according to pan-Arab news website Al-Jazeera. The government-linked National Council for Human Rights has joined other critics in condemning the “cruel” treatment of protesters exercising their legal right to demonstrate. Additionally, on 1 June, fire ravaged the headquarters of jailed dissident Ayman Nour’s al-Ghad party. While the authorities blamed an electrical malfunction for the conflagration, al-Ghad party members allege the fire was the result of arson. On 4 June, Cairo called for the suspension of the International Republican Institute (IRI), a US-based NGO, after the organisation made comments criticising the slow pace of reform in a local newspaper. According to a foreign ministry statement, the IRI – which is funded by USAID – does not have an official license to operate locally. Meanwhile, a court ordered the distribution of compensation to the families of victims of the ill-fated Al-Salam 98 passenger ferry, which capsized in February killing over 1000 people. Each family is set to receive just over US $50,000, while survivors will receive almost US $9,000, according to semi-official daily Al-Gomhouriya. IRAQ Prime Ministry Nouri Maliki announced on Tuesday that he would release 2,000 prisoners as a gesture of “national reconciliation”. On Wednesday, the BBC reported the release of roughly 600 prisoners. Commentators have noted that the amnesty will represent one of the biggest releases since the US-led invasion in 2003. At a press conference on 3 June, Hasan Shaaban, general coordinator for the Iraqi Human Rights Organisation, urged the government and coalition forces to respect human rights. JORDAN Security forces on 8 June briefly arrested correspondent for pan-Arab news channel Al-Jazeera Yasser Abu Helaleh and his crew while they were conducting a live interview with a brother-in-law of Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi, killed in Iraq earlier in the day. Al-Zarqawi's brother-in-law was also arrested by security forces, which confiscated the group’s cameras and mobile phones. “Our correspondent was apprehended by security forces,” said Abu Helaleh. While the group was later released, their possessions remained with police. State security agreed this week to allow five men charged with terrorism-related offences to change their testimonies after alleging that security forces had extracted their confessions via torture. The men – Khalil Eid, Mahmoud Mohammad, Yousef Abdullah, Ayman Khalid and Jamil Abed – pleaded not guilty during their first appearance at the state security court on 6 June, telling the court they wanted to change their testimonies. A number of human rights organisations have recently accused Jordan of torturing detainees and using brutal interrogation methods to extract information and confessions. SYRIA Prominent human rights lawyer Anwar al-Bunni ended his hunger strike, which he began three weeks ago to protest his arrest, his brother said on Thursday. Akram al-Bunni told IRIN that his brother, Anwar, arrested on 17 May with five other activists, ended his hunger strike on 4 June. It was unclear whether the government has met his demands or not. Akram called on the authorities to release his brother, along with other political detainees, saying: “His detention with criminals is inappropriate.” The wife of another detainee, prominent writer and democracy campaigner Michel Kilo, also urged authorities to release her husband and all other political detainees “as soon as possible”. Fourteen other human rights activists who are in detention are planning to start a hunger strike on Saturday. On Wednesday, a military court in Raqqa province in northeast Syria sentenced the writer Mohammad Ghanem, detained three months ago, to one year in prison, although the sentence was later commuted to six months. According to Ammar Qurabi, head of the National Organisation for Human Rights, Ghanem was charged with “insulting the Syrian president, discrediting the Syrian government and fomenting sectarian riots”. An arrest warrant in absentia has been issued for Abdul-Halim Khaddam, a self-exiled former vice-president of Syria. The warrant was sent to Interpol offices worldwide on 5 June, the same day that Syrian opposition figures met in London. YEMEN A branch of the Islah Party in Aden denounced the detention on 5 June of party member Zahi al-Najjar for distributing a party-issued bulletin in public areas. “So far, we have no idea about his condition,” said party official Khaled Haidan. “We don’t know if he’s being tortured. We just know he’s detained in al-Fateh Prison.” Haidan warned that if security authorities refused to free al-Najjar, Islah Party supporters would resort to staging sits-in before the Political Security Prison. Meanwhile, the Joint Meeting Parties on 2 June distributed leaflets condemning the detention of three of its activists in Aden governorate. SA+SZ+MBH+AO+LH+MAJ/AR/AM