![[Egypt] Egyptian opposition candidate Ayman Nour greeting supporters during a rally in the Mediterranean city of Port Said. [Date picture taken: 2005/08/19]](https://assets.thenewhumanitarian.org/s3fs-public/styles/responsive_large_2x/public/images/200597.jpg.webp?itok=FGoRiV4_ "Opposition leader Ayman Nour")
In Egypt, jailed former presidential candidate Ayman Nour issued a statement from prison on Saturday, ahead of Tuesday’s visit by United States’s Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, appealing for his release on health grounds.
Nour, the Ghad political party leader, came a distant second to President Hosni Mubarak in the 2005 elections. He has alleged ongoing mistreatment and said he has been denied his basic rights. He is serving a five-year prison sentence for forgery and has been waiting for an operation for heart problems since August.
In a statement read by his wife Gameela, Nour said, “The President traditionally releases prisoners on 6 October [the day when Egypt commemorates its victory in the 1973 war with Israel]. Until this moment I am not one of them. [Instead] I am being handcuffed 13 hours a day.”
However, other sources from within his own party said that some party leaders received information from senior government officials that Nour’s release was imminent.
Meanwhile, the Muslim Brotherhood reported on 25 September the transferral to house arrest of its Executive Bureau member Lasheen Abu Shanab. Abu Shanab, who is physically disabled, was imprisoned in August during a general crackdown against the movement.
The Brotherhood claims that more than 700 of its members are being held in Egyptian prisons. The movement is officially banned but tolerated, although it suffers periodical waves of arrests.
According to a Brotherhood statement, the transfer of Abu Shanab was “a step in the right direction. He has only been detained for his political and religious affiliations.”
On Saturday, Jordan’s King Abdullah pardoned two Islamist MPs who were imprisoned for praising Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, the slain leader of al-Qaedah in Iraq.
MPs Mohammad Abu Fares and Ali Abul Sukkar were sentenced to 13 months in prison each after they were found guilty of stirring up sectarianism.
Leaders of the Islamic Action Front (IAF), the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood movement, welcomed their release but insisted the punishment was not fair.
"The pardon eases part of the injustice inflicted on our colleagues who were jailed for political reasons," said Azzam Huneidi, head of the IAF bloc in parliament. The Islamist movement has 17 MPs in Jordan’s 110-member Lower House of Parliament.
Observers believe the move could signal a new chapter in the strained relations between the government and the Islamists.
"The pardon is expected to bridge the gap between the two sides and help the country jump-start political reform," said Musa Mayta, secretary general of the leftist Democratic party.
In a separate development in Jordan on 27 September, the Lower House and the Senate finally agreed on amendments to the draft iftaa [Islamic verdicts] law, despite objections from several Islamist MPs.
The law will grant the prime minister the option of consulting with a new iftaa department on death sentences before verdicts are sent to the king for approval.
In addition, the law will pave the way for establishing a new autonomous body - to be led by the General Mufti, a newly-created post - tasked with issuing fatwas [Islamic rulings] on matters of public concern.
IAF MPs, however, said that the final draft goes against freedom of expression and will politicise religion.
A human rights group said on Saturday that the authorities in Syria recently released a human rights activist after the deterioration of his health.
The National Organisation for Human Rights (NOHR) said that Abdo Khalaf Wlo from Hassaka province in north-east Syria has been released from jail.
NOHR hailed the release as a “positive step in the right direction” and called for the release of all remaining political prisoners. Wlo, 65, a former leading member of the Kurdish Syrian Democratic party, was arrested in mid-June.
Meanwhile, the NOHR said that some Kurdish 46 juveniles who were released from prison in a presidential pardon in March 2004, after having spent two weeks in custody, are still being tried before the Juveniles Court in Hassaka.
The juveniles were arrested following the Qamishli riots between Syrian Kurds and Arabs in north-eastern Syria in March 2004, during which 25 people were killed and more than 100 wounded.
Charges raised against the juveniles included damaging public property, fomenting riots, harming national feeling, confronting policemen and insulting the Syrian authorities.
The NOHR said the trial contravened the spirit of the pardon and called on the Syrian authorities to “close the file of the Qamishli juveniles forever”.
Syrian Kurds have long complained that they lack basic rights and say the government neglects areas of northern Syria where they live. There are about 1.5 million Kurds in Syria, including about 200,000 who are denied Syrian citizenship. Syria has a population of 18.5 million people.
In a seperate development, the NOHR said Syrian writer and human rights activist Mohammad Ghanem was recently released from prison. He was arrested on 31 March and sentenced to six months imprisonment on charges of insulting Syrian President Bashir al-Assad, discrediting the Syrian government and fomenting sectarian unrest.
The NOHR also said that another activist, Lashfan Hassan Abdo, an engineering student who was arrested following the Qamishli riots, was also released.
Human rights specialists confirmed that rights activists Michel Kilo and Anwar al-Bunni were still in custody. They started a hunger strike on 27 September but broke the strike 24 hours later.
Since coming to power in 2000, President Bashar al-Assad has freed political prisoners and passed laws liberalising the state-controlled economy. But he has also clamped down on political activists, jailed pro-democracy advocates and cracked down on government critics.
The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (HRinfo) criticised Yemen’s government on 29 September for curtailing freedom of expression and for other electoral violations during the September elections. The HRinfo said that there were 10 incidents involving the blocking of Yemeni websites and harassment of journalists.
“These violations are contrary to the Yemeni Constitution and [are] beyond the law. In addition they violate Article number 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, signed by the Yemeni government,” HRinfo said in a statement.
The government has yet to react on the HRinfo criticism.
JB+MBH+MF+AO+MAJ/AR/ED
Nour, the Ghad political party leader, came a distant second to President Hosni Mubarak in the 2005 elections. He has alleged ongoing mistreatment and said he has been denied his basic rights. He is serving a five-year prison sentence for forgery and has been waiting for an operation for heart problems since August.
In a statement read by his wife Gameela, Nour said, “The President traditionally releases prisoners on 6 October [the day when Egypt commemorates its victory in the 1973 war with Israel]. Until this moment I am not one of them. [Instead] I am being handcuffed 13 hours a day.”
However, other sources from within his own party said that some party leaders received information from senior government officials that Nour’s release was imminent.
Meanwhile, the Muslim Brotherhood reported on 25 September the transferral to house arrest of its Executive Bureau member Lasheen Abu Shanab. Abu Shanab, who is physically disabled, was imprisoned in August during a general crackdown against the movement.
The Brotherhood claims that more than 700 of its members are being held in Egyptian prisons. The movement is officially banned but tolerated, although it suffers periodical waves of arrests.
According to a Brotherhood statement, the transfer of Abu Shanab was “a step in the right direction. He has only been detained for his political and religious affiliations.”
On Saturday, Jordan’s King Abdullah pardoned two Islamist MPs who were imprisoned for praising Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, the slain leader of al-Qaedah in Iraq.
MPs Mohammad Abu Fares and Ali Abul Sukkar were sentenced to 13 months in prison each after they were found guilty of stirring up sectarianism.
Leaders of the Islamic Action Front (IAF), the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood movement, welcomed their release but insisted the punishment was not fair.
"The pardon eases part of the injustice inflicted on our colleagues who were jailed for political reasons," said Azzam Huneidi, head of the IAF bloc in parliament. The Islamist movement has 17 MPs in Jordan’s 110-member Lower House of Parliament.
Observers believe the move could signal a new chapter in the strained relations between the government and the Islamists.
"The pardon is expected to bridge the gap between the two sides and help the country jump-start political reform," said Musa Mayta, secretary general of the leftist Democratic party.
In a separate development in Jordan on 27 September, the Lower House and the Senate finally agreed on amendments to the draft iftaa [Islamic verdicts] law, despite objections from several Islamist MPs.
The law will grant the prime minister the option of consulting with a new iftaa department on death sentences before verdicts are sent to the king for approval.
In addition, the law will pave the way for establishing a new autonomous body - to be led by the General Mufti, a newly-created post - tasked with issuing fatwas [Islamic rulings] on matters of public concern.
IAF MPs, however, said that the final draft goes against freedom of expression and will politicise religion.
A human rights group said on Saturday that the authorities in Syria recently released a human rights activist after the deterioration of his health.
The National Organisation for Human Rights (NOHR) said that Abdo Khalaf Wlo from Hassaka province in north-east Syria has been released from jail.
NOHR hailed the release as a “positive step in the right direction” and called for the release of all remaining political prisoners. Wlo, 65, a former leading member of the Kurdish Syrian Democratic party, was arrested in mid-June.
Meanwhile, the NOHR said that some Kurdish 46 juveniles who were released from prison in a presidential pardon in March 2004, after having spent two weeks in custody, are still being tried before the Juveniles Court in Hassaka.
The juveniles were arrested following the Qamishli riots between Syrian Kurds and Arabs in north-eastern Syria in March 2004, during which 25 people were killed and more than 100 wounded.
Charges raised against the juveniles included damaging public property, fomenting riots, harming national feeling, confronting policemen and insulting the Syrian authorities.
The NOHR said the trial contravened the spirit of the pardon and called on the Syrian authorities to “close the file of the Qamishli juveniles forever”.
Syrian Kurds have long complained that they lack basic rights and say the government neglects areas of northern Syria where they live. There are about 1.5 million Kurds in Syria, including about 200,000 who are denied Syrian citizenship. Syria has a population of 18.5 million people.
In a seperate development, the NOHR said Syrian writer and human rights activist Mohammad Ghanem was recently released from prison. He was arrested on 31 March and sentenced to six months imprisonment on charges of insulting Syrian President Bashir al-Assad, discrediting the Syrian government and fomenting sectarian unrest.
The NOHR also said that another activist, Lashfan Hassan Abdo, an engineering student who was arrested following the Qamishli riots, was also released.
Human rights specialists confirmed that rights activists Michel Kilo and Anwar al-Bunni were still in custody. They started a hunger strike on 27 September but broke the strike 24 hours later.
Since coming to power in 2000, President Bashar al-Assad has freed political prisoners and passed laws liberalising the state-controlled economy. But he has also clamped down on political activists, jailed pro-democracy advocates and cracked down on government critics.
The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (HRinfo) criticised Yemen’s government on 29 September for curtailing freedom of expression and for other electoral violations during the September elections. The HRinfo said that there were 10 incidents involving the blocking of Yemeni websites and harassment of journalists.
“These violations are contrary to the Yemeni Constitution and [are] beyond the law. In addition they violate Article number 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, signed by the Yemeni government,” HRinfo said in a statement.
The government has yet to react on the HRinfo criticism.
JB+MBH+MF+AO+MAJ/AR/ED
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
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