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Yahoo
6 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Egypt illegally detaining Alaa Abd el-Fattah, UN investigators find
The British-Egyptian human rights activist and writer Alaa Abd el-Fattah is being illegally detained by the Egyptian government, an independent UN panel has found after an 18-month investigation. He is being held in a Cairo jail while his mother, Laila Soueif, based in Britain, is on hunger strike. She is holding a daily one-hour vigil outside Downing Street, the limit her health and weight loss allows. She is on day 241 of the hunger strike, and her body weight has halved. Keir Starmer, the UK prime minister, last week called for a second time for the Egyptian president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, to show clemency, saying the Egyptian government was causing the family great anguish. In a report released to the family, the UN working group on arbitrary detention also asked the Egyptian government 'to take the steps necessary to remedy the situation without delay', adding 'the appropriate remedy would be to release Abd el-Fattah immediately and accord him an enforceable right to compensation and other reparations, in accordance with international law'. Unusually, the Egyptian government mounted a full defence of its actions to the UN panel. The UN group gave a withering verdict on the standards of justice in Egypt, including the suppression of free speech. It concluded that the activist's continued imprisonment was arbitrary and illegal owing to the absence of a warrant at the time of his arrest and the lack of explanation of reasons for his arrest or the allegations against him. It found Fattah was arrested for exercising his freedom of expression, not afforded a fair trial, and was detained based on his political views. Egypt is not obliged to comply with the report, but its findings add to the damage being done to the country's reputation by continuing to detain one of it most prominent writers. Fattah was arrested in September 2019, and was finally sentenced in December 2021 to five years in jail for spreading false news and harming Egypt's national interest. The UN panel found the allegation stemmed from Fattah sharing a Facebook post about the death of a prison inmate. Fattah's English barrister, Can Yeğinsu, said: 'The UN working group has delivered a clear and unequivocal decision: Alaa Abd el-Fattah's detention is arbitrary and in breach of international law. Egypt is now obligated to release Alaa immediately.' Richard Ratcliffe, the husband of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the British-Iranian held in a Tehran jail for five years, said: 'Having a ruling from the working group of arbitrary detention is a club no family wants to belong to. You worry repeatedly about whether to file, and then the UN system is so slow, so you can wait for years. Then when it comes, it is a moment of clarity – an acknowledgment of the injustice under international law. 'The crime is not Alaa's; the criminals are those still holding him, and provoking his family to desperation. For our family, our WGAD ruling was also a relief: we thought it would mark an end to the UK government's prevarication, and the beginning of firm action on Nazanin's case. In the end, it did. 'But for Alaa's family, time is so much shorter. The ruling needs to be implemented now. The law is clear, but so is the heavy cost of continuing to ignore it.' Fattah's cousin Omar Robert Hamilton urged the UK to take Egypt to the international court of justice over the detention. The working group in its report said the use of excessively broad and vague concepts such as 'dissemination of false information' were incompatible with international standards of freedom of expression and should be abolished. It also suggested it was a crime against humanity to use 'rotation sentencing', whereby the prosecution changes the original charge so that the defendant's period in pre-trial custody is not counted as part of the sentence.
Scoop
30-04-2025
- Politics
- Scoop
Saudi Arabia: UN Experts Call For Immediate Release Of Child Offenders
GENEVA (30 April 2025) – A group of human rights experts today expressed dismay at the continuing prosecution and sentencing of child offenders in Saudi Arabia, where five people who reportedly committed crimes when they were under the age of 18 have each been charged for protesting against the Government's treatment of the Shia Muslim minority and for attending funerals of those killed by State authorities. 'Enforcing a death sentence in violation of a State's obligations under international law amounts to arbitrary execution and is therefore unlawful,' the experts said. The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) had previously stated in its opinion concerning Abdullah al-Derazi, Jalal al-Labbad, Yusuf Muhammad Mahdi al-Manasif, Jawad Abdullah Qureiris and Hassan Zaki al-Faraj that their deprivation of liberty was arbitrary as it had no proper legal basis. The five individuals have been sentenced to death and face imminent execution. 'We call for the immediate release of the five individuals, to prevent any irreparable harm to their lives or personal integrity,' the experts said. They had previously called for all necessary interim measures to be taken to halt the executions. 'Capital punishment and life imprisonment without possibility of release for offences committed by persons under the age of 18 are explicitly and strictly prohibited by the Convention on the Rights of the Child,' they said. The Working Group found that the deprivation of liberty of these five individuals was arbitrary, as it resulted from their exercise of the rights to freedom of opinion and expression, and to freedom of peaceful assembly and association. 'We had previously communicated to the government of Saudi Arabia our concerns about the fairness of the trial, as it was tainted by ill-treatment and torture, amounting to a violation of fair trial rights,' the experts said, adding that alleged forced confessions taint the entire trial process, regardless of whether other evidence was available to support the verdict. The experts noted that the deprivation of liberty of the five individuals was likely due to their religious affiliation, as they belonged to the Shia minority. 'We are alarmed by the pattern of persecution and long history of discrimination against the Shia religious minority in Saudi Arabia,' they said. 'The situation is particularly worrying given the sharp increase in the number of executions carried out in Saudi Arabia, with some 65 executions carried out since the beginning of 2025,' the experts said.
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Korea Herald
31-03-2025
- Politics
- Korea Herald
[Contribution] Missionary's son moved UN. Now North Korea must release South Korean detainees
By Won Jae-chun, professor of International Law and Director of International Law, Handong Global University Behind every international decision lies a story of struggle, faith and solidarity. The recent opinion by the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD), declaring the imprisonment of South Korean missionaries Kim Jung-wook, Kim Kook-kie and Choi Chun-gil as arbitrary detention, is not just a legal milestone — it is a testament to the power of collaboration between victims, government, civil society and the international community. Families' cry that stirred the world At the heart of this campaign stands Choi Jin-young, son of Missionary Choi Chun-gil. Driven by a quiet yet relentless determination, the younger Choi traveled across continents to personally present his father's case to key international stakeholders. His meeting with EU Special Representative for Human Rights, Olof Skoog, was more than diplomatic— it was deeply personal. Through his words, the suffering of families long silenced came alive in the halls of Brussels and Geneva. This was not a solo effort. The wife of Kim Kook-kie and the son of Kim Jung-wook each wrote heartfelt letters to their loved ones and delivered them to international representatives. These deeply moving testimonies, paired with the legal precision of NGO documentation and academic support, formed a compelling case that ultimately led to WGAD's official opinion. Unified effort for justice South Korea's Ministry of Unification played a pivotal role in supporting and coordinating efforts through its dedicated taskforce on abductions. In its March 14 statement, the Ministry welcomed the WGAD's findings, reaffirming that the North's detention of the three missionaries 'is a clear violation of international law' and urged 'immediate and unconditional release' of its citizens. The government reiterated its commitment to working with allies including the US, UK and key international religious and humanitarian groups. This multilateral effort was echoed by global civil society. In Germany, Gerda Ehrlich, who grew up in East Germany under communist rule, led weekly vigils and prayer gatherings outside the North Korean Embassy in Berlin. Her lived experience gave moral clarity to the fight — she recognized in North Korea's totalitarian tactics the very repression her generation once endured. Her advocacy reminded Europe that freedom of belief, conscience and dignity must be defended globally. Academics and legal scholars lent expertise to ground the campaign in international law. Their work ensured that the submission to the UN Working Group met procedural rigor while highlighting the broader human rights crisis facing North Korean detainees. The media played a crucial role by amplifying the victims' stories and providing sustained coverage of the campaign. Their reporting transformed an issue once confined to diplomatic backchannels into a matter of global public concern. UN has spoken — now world must act The WGAD opinion was clear: the three men were arrested without legal basis, tortured into confessions, denied legal representation and sentenced in sham trials. Their continued imprisonment violates multiple articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The UN demands their immediate release, compensation, independent investigation and accountability for the violations. It is now time for countries that maintain diplomatic relations with North Korea — like Sweden — to go further. We call on them to exercise their unique positions to seek consular access, monitor the conditions of the detainees and push for the implementation of WGAD's recommendations. Beyond this case lies a wider injustice. Over 100,000 South Koreans remain unaccounted for since the Korean War — wartime abductees, unreturned POWs, postwar fishers and ethnic Koreans repatriated from Japan. Many of them, and their families, continue to suffer silently under discrimination or separation. The WGAD's bold opinion must serve as a precedent to address all cases of abduction and arbitrary detention. The voices of the families — united in love, grief and courage — reached the conscience of the United Nations. Now it is the world's turn to respond. This cannot end with a statement. It must end with a reunion. Let global solidarity continue until the doors of arbitrary detention are opened, and these families are made whole again. Let justice not end with an opinion. Let it lead to action! ---- Won Jae-chun serves as a member of the 12-member, one-year term North Korean Human Rights Promotion Committee from March 2025 to March 2026, an advisory body to Unification Minister Kim Yung-ho. The views expressed in this article are his own. -- Ed.
