China ignora pedidos e executa britânico por tráfico de heroína

Shaik, de religião muçulmana, casado e pai de três filhos, foi detido em 2007 com a droga no aeroporto de Urumqi, quando chegava de Dushanbe (capital do Tadjiquistão).

O britânico Akmal Shaikh, condenado à morte em 2008 pelos tribunais chineses após ser detido em flagrante portando de quatro quilos de heroína, foi executado hoje às 10h30 no horário local (0h30 em Brasília) na cidade de Urumqi (no noroeste do país), informou a ONG Reprieve em comunicado confirmado pelo governo britânico.

Shaikh é o primeiro europeu que recebe a pena capital em quase 60 anos no país asiático. Por enquanto, não há informação sobre o método de execução empregado. Na China, o mais utilizado é o disparo na nuca, com crescente implantação da injeção letal.

Os familiares do réu, o governo britânico, a própria Reprieve (defensora de condenados no corredor da morte) e a ONU tinham pedido à China que revogasse a pena, argumentando que Shaikh tinha um transtorno bipolar, mas a justiça chinesa garante que os testes médicos não tinham mostrado nenhum problema psicológico.

Embora as autoridades chinesas não tenham confirmado o fato, o governo do Reino Unido emitiu comunicado através de seu Ministério de Assuntos Exteriores, confirmando e condenando o fato "nos termos mais enérgicos", em nome do primeiro-ministro Gordon Brown.

Shaik, de religião muçulmana, casado e pai de três filhos, foi detido em 2007 com a droga no aeroporto de Urumqi, quando chegava de Dushanbe (capital do Tadjiquistão).

O britânico foi condenado à morte um ano depois. A lei chinesa prevê pena capital para todas as pessoas que sejam detidas com mais de 50 gramas de entorpecentes.

O último europeu executado na China foi o italiano Antonio Riva, um piloto militar na I Guerra Mundial, que foi morto em Pequim no dia 17 de agosto de 1951 (junto a um cidadão japonês) acusado de ter coordenado um complô para assassinar o líder máximo chinês, Mao Tsé-Tung.


Fonte: FOLHA

Cuba rights abuses continue

Civil liberties in Cuba remain severely curtailed, despite hope among activists that Raul Castro would end Cold War-era limits on dissent and the media, a Human Rights Watch report says.

Reporting from Mexico City - Restrictions on civil liberties in Cuba have continued to be harsh since President Raul Castro assumed power from his brother Fidel three years ago, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday.

Authorities have jailed scores of dissidents, protesters and others, often through the use of a "dangerousness" provision that allows the detention of Cubans on suspicion that they might break the law in the future, the rights group said in a 123-page report.

Human Rights Watch said its report, “New Castro, Same Cuba,” is the first broad look at human rights conditions in Cuba since Fidel Castro handed power to his younger brother on a temporary basis in 2006. The ailing older Castro formally stepped down as head of state in February 2008.

Human Rights Watch said liberties remain severely curtailed, despite hope among activists that new leadership in Cuba would end Cold War-era limits on dissent and the media.

In particular, it said Raul Castro has made heavy use of the "dangerousness" law.

"Cubans who dare to criticize the government live under constant fear since they know they could end up in prison just for expressing their opinion," Jose Miguel Vivanco, the group's Americas director, said in a statement issued with the report in Washington.

Nevertheless, the rights group said the United States should lift its 47-year-old embargo on travel and trade with Cuba, calling it a costly failure. It urged more targeted pressure to improve human rights conditions.


"No longer would Cuba be able to manipulate the embargo as a pretext for repressing its own people," the report said.

President Obama has adopted a more conciliatory posture toward Cuba than his predecessor by easing rules restricting travel and money transfers by Cuban Americans. But Obama renewed the embargo as a way to pressure the Cuban government to enact political reforms.

There was no immediate reaction to the report from Cuba, which has denied holding political prisoners and accused foes abroad of stirring discontent in hope of toppling the socialist regime.

Source: LA Times / By Ken Ellingwood

CUBA'S REPRESSIVE MACHINERY

Human Rights Forty Years After the Revolution

I. SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Summary

Over the past forty years, Cuba has developed a highly effective machinery of repression. The denial of basic civil and political rights is written into Cuban law. In the name of legality, armed security forces, aided by state-controlled mass organizations, silence dissent with heavy prison terms, threats of prosecution, harassment, or exile. Cuba uses these tools to restrict severely the exercise of fundamental human rights of expression, association, and assembly. The conditions in Cuba's prisons are inhuman, and political prisoners suffer additional degrading treatment and torture. In recent years, Cuba has added new repressive laws and continued prosecuting nonviolent dissidents while shrugging off international appeals for reform and placating visiting dignitaries with occasional releases of political prisoners.

This report documents Cuba's failures to respect the civil and political rights enumerated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) as well as the international human rights and labor rights treaties it has ratified. It shows that neither Cuban law nor practice guarantees the fundamental rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration. Cuba's obligation to respect the declaration arises from its incorporation into the United Nations Charter, rendering all member states, including Cuba, subject to its provisions. The UDHR is widely recognized as customary international law. It is a basic yardstick to measure any country's human rights performance. Unfortunately, Cuba does not measure up.

Repression of Dissidents

Cuban authorities continue to treat as criminal offenses nonviolent activities such as meeting to discuss the economy or elections, writing letters to the government, reporting on political or economic developments, speaking to international reporters, or advocating the release of political prisoners. While the number of political prosecutions has diminished in the past few years, Cuban courts continue to try and imprison human rights activists, independent journalists, economists, doctors, and others for the peaceful expression of their views, subjecting them to the Cuban prison system's extremely poor conditions. Even as Cuba released some political prisoners early in 1998—most of whom had completed most of their sentences—continuing trials replenished their numbers. Prison remained a plausible threat to any Cubans considering nonviolent opposition. In the case of four dissident leaders arrested in July 1997 and only tried—for inciting sedition—in March 1999, receiving sentences ranging fromthree and one-half to five years, the arbitrariness of Cuban repression was starkly on display.

In the past two years, Cuban prosecutors have relied heavily on criminal code provisions against enemy propaganda and contempt for authority (desacato) to silence dissent. During this period, prosecutors also have tried dissidents for defamation, resisting authority, association to commit criminal acts (asociación para delinquir), failure to comply with the duty to denounce (incumplimiento del deber de denunciar), and the catch-all charge "other acts against state security" (otras actas contra la seguridad del estado). Cuba's prisons also hold nonviolent political prisoners tried for crimes against state security, such as enemy propaganda, rebellion, sabotage, and revealing secrets concerning state security. Individuals convicted of state security crimes often are serving long sentences of ten to twenty years. In addition, Cuba continues to imprison, for "dangerousness," scores of citizens who have not committed a criminal act and also confines persons for "illegal exit" for attempting to exercise their right to leave Cuba.

Full version here/ Human Rights Watch