![[Egypt] Kifaya and other secular opposition protesters face regular state security crackdowns. [Date picture taken: 11/03/2006]](https://assets.thenewhumanitarian.org/s3fs-public/styles/responsive_large_2x/public/images/200611162.jpg.webp?itok=NwtFtlk0 "Kifaya and other secular opposition protesters face regular state security crackdowns.")
EGYPT: Rights group fights sexual harassment
CAIRO, (IRIN) - Pressure mounted this week on police and the government to tackle the problem of sexual harassment. Around 150 activists gathered at the Syndicate of Journalists on 9 November to protest against the mob attacks on women that took place in Cairo on 24 October and against the perceived unwillingness of security forces to prevent them.
A new website, streetisours.org, summarised the new campaign by saying, “There are thousands of daily stories of harassment; on the street, at the work place, in public transportation, in crowded gatherings. Every time, we hear... voices blaming women for being the cause of that harassment.”
Authorities responded to this pressure group by arresting and detaining two well-known activists, Nadia Mabrouk and Waleed Salah, at a related protest in downtown Cairo on Tuesday. The two, who are members of the Kefaya movement, were then released and referred to the Cairo prosecutor.
JORDAN: Torture is rampant in all prisons, says rights watchdog
AMMAN, (IRIN) - On Tuesday, Shaher Bak, the Commissioner General of the government-run National Centre for Human Rights (NCHR), said that prisoners in Jordan were “subjected to some form of torture ranging from beatings to inhuman treatment”.
Bak said this during the presentation of the NCHR’s fourth annual report on the condition of Jordan’s 10 prisons. The NCHR called for an investigation by an independent tribunal on the ill-treatment of inmates as well as on two deaths that occurred this year at Al-Jafr prison, some 250km south of Amman.
The report also recommended legislation to criminalise torture. Senior prison officials have constantly denied allegations of torture.
IRAQ: Three more Iraqi journalists gunned down
BAGHDAD, (IRIN) - Relentless violence claimed the lives of three Iraqi journalists in this war-ravaged country this week, police said. On Monday, gunmen in two cars shot dead Mohammed al-Ban, a 58-year-old cameraman for the independent al-Sharqiya satellite channel in the northern city of Mosul, police Brig Abdul-Karim Ahmed Khalaf said.
Al-Ban was the second journalist working for al-Sharqiya to be killed in the past 10 days. On 3 November, Ahmad al-Rashid, 28, a correspondent, was shot in north Baghdad's Azamiyah neighbourhood.
Also in Mosul, unidentified gunmen on Wednesday intercepted the car of journalist Fadia Mohammed al-Taie, killing her and her driver, Khalaf added. Al-Taie worked as a reporter for the independent weekly newspaper al-Massar.
Another female journalist, Luma al-Karkhi, who worked for the independent weekly al-Dustor, was shot dead in the city of Baqouba, 60 km north-east of Baghdad.
Meanwhile, the German Press Agency reported on Wednesday that the local council in the northern city of Mosul issued an order to close down a publication entitled 'Civil Society’ because it published a cartoon depicting Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al- Maliki sitting on the lap of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and being breastfed by her.
However Mosul's court has refused to carry out the order because it said this would stifle freedom of expression.
SYRIA: Government detains Islamists
DAMASCUS (IRIN) - On Tuesday, Syria’s Supreme State Security Court (SSSC) sentenced six men from E'teba, a town outside Damascus, to sentences ranging from six to nine years for belonging to a "radical Islamic group," said Ammar Qurabi, head of the National Organisation for Human Rights.
International rights groups accuse the SSSC of denying defendants basic human rights.
A day earlier, Syrian authorities arrested Murad Khaznawi, the son of a prominent Kurdish Sheikh who was kidnapped and murdered in May last year. Khaznawi was arrested as he was leaving the country for Jordan.
Qurabi said Khaznawi had been questioned about statements last month by his exiled brother accusing Syrian authorities of orchestrating the kidnap and killing of their father Sheikh Ma'ashouk Khaznawi. Murad Khaznawi was later released.
On 11 November, Al-Nedaa, the website of opposition group the Damascus Declaration, reported that four men had been arrested in Homs and charged with belonging to Hizb al-Tahrir al-Islami, a militant Islamist group.
YEMEN: Youth Shoura Council demands the release of Abu Saba’a
SANAA, (IRIN) – On 13 November, the Youth Shoura Council sent a letter to Sheikh Abdullah bin Hussein al-Ahmer, speaker of parliament, demanding the immediate release of Yahya Nasser Abu Saba’a, who has been detained since 1997.
The Council said that it received a letter from Abu Saba’a’s mother saying that al-Ahmer still keeps her son as a hostage in the central prison in Sana’a. The letter hoped that al-Ahmer would release Abu Saba’a and compensate him for the years he spent in prison.
According to the Council, al-Ahmer detained the then 17-year-old Abu Saba’a so that his brother – who was accused of murder - could surrender to the authorities.
jb/mf/sm/hm/ar/ed
CAIRO, (IRIN) - Pressure mounted this week on police and the government to tackle the problem of sexual harassment. Around 150 activists gathered at the Syndicate of Journalists on 9 November to protest against the mob attacks on women that took place in Cairo on 24 October and against the perceived unwillingness of security forces to prevent them.
A new website, streetisours.org, summarised the new campaign by saying, “There are thousands of daily stories of harassment; on the street, at the work place, in public transportation, in crowded gatherings. Every time, we hear... voices blaming women for being the cause of that harassment.”
Authorities responded to this pressure group by arresting and detaining two well-known activists, Nadia Mabrouk and Waleed Salah, at a related protest in downtown Cairo on Tuesday. The two, who are members of the Kefaya movement, were then released and referred to the Cairo prosecutor.
JORDAN: Torture is rampant in all prisons, says rights watchdog
AMMAN, (IRIN) - On Tuesday, Shaher Bak, the Commissioner General of the government-run National Centre for Human Rights (NCHR), said that prisoners in Jordan were “subjected to some form of torture ranging from beatings to inhuman treatment”.
Bak said this during the presentation of the NCHR’s fourth annual report on the condition of Jordan’s 10 prisons. The NCHR called for an investigation by an independent tribunal on the ill-treatment of inmates as well as on two deaths that occurred this year at Al-Jafr prison, some 250km south of Amman.
The report also recommended legislation to criminalise torture. Senior prison officials have constantly denied allegations of torture.
IRAQ: Three more Iraqi journalists gunned down
BAGHDAD, (IRIN) - Relentless violence claimed the lives of three Iraqi journalists in this war-ravaged country this week, police said. On Monday, gunmen in two cars shot dead Mohammed al-Ban, a 58-year-old cameraman for the independent al-Sharqiya satellite channel in the northern city of Mosul, police Brig Abdul-Karim Ahmed Khalaf said.
Al-Ban was the second journalist working for al-Sharqiya to be killed in the past 10 days. On 3 November, Ahmad al-Rashid, 28, a correspondent, was shot in north Baghdad's Azamiyah neighbourhood.
Also in Mosul, unidentified gunmen on Wednesday intercepted the car of journalist Fadia Mohammed al-Taie, killing her and her driver, Khalaf added. Al-Taie worked as a reporter for the independent weekly newspaper al-Massar.
Another female journalist, Luma al-Karkhi, who worked for the independent weekly al-Dustor, was shot dead in the city of Baqouba, 60 km north-east of Baghdad.
Meanwhile, the German Press Agency reported on Wednesday that the local council in the northern city of Mosul issued an order to close down a publication entitled 'Civil Society’ because it published a cartoon depicting Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al- Maliki sitting on the lap of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and being breastfed by her.
However Mosul's court has refused to carry out the order because it said this would stifle freedom of expression.
SYRIA: Government detains Islamists
DAMASCUS (IRIN) - On Tuesday, Syria’s Supreme State Security Court (SSSC) sentenced six men from E'teba, a town outside Damascus, to sentences ranging from six to nine years for belonging to a "radical Islamic group," said Ammar Qurabi, head of the National Organisation for Human Rights.
International rights groups accuse the SSSC of denying defendants basic human rights.
A day earlier, Syrian authorities arrested Murad Khaznawi, the son of a prominent Kurdish Sheikh who was kidnapped and murdered in May last year. Khaznawi was arrested as he was leaving the country for Jordan.
Qurabi said Khaznawi had been questioned about statements last month by his exiled brother accusing Syrian authorities of orchestrating the kidnap and killing of their father Sheikh Ma'ashouk Khaznawi. Murad Khaznawi was later released.
On 11 November, Al-Nedaa, the website of opposition group the Damascus Declaration, reported that four men had been arrested in Homs and charged with belonging to Hizb al-Tahrir al-Islami, a militant Islamist group.
YEMEN: Youth Shoura Council demands the release of Abu Saba’a
SANAA, (IRIN) – On 13 November, the Youth Shoura Council sent a letter to Sheikh Abdullah bin Hussein al-Ahmer, speaker of parliament, demanding the immediate release of Yahya Nasser Abu Saba’a, who has been detained since 1997.
The Council said that it received a letter from Abu Saba’a’s mother saying that al-Ahmer still keeps her son as a hostage in the central prison in Sana’a. The letter hoped that al-Ahmer would release Abu Saba’a and compensate him for the years he spent in prison.
According to the Council, al-Ahmer detained the then 17-year-old Abu Saba’a so that his brother – who was accused of murder - could surrender to the authorities.
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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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