JURIST - Paper Chase: Monday, January 17, 2011

[JURIST] Amnesty International (AI) [advocacy website] called Monday for Haitian authorities to prosecute [press release] the country's former president Jean-Claude Duvalier [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] for human rights violations committed during his time in office. Duvalier returned to Haiti on Sunday stating that he had come to offer assistance [BBC report] to help the country recover from last year's earthquake [JURIST news archive]. Duvalier was president of Haiti from 1971 to 1986. During that time, AI claims Duvalier and his regime committed acts of "systematic torture," including the disappearance or execution hundreds of human rights activists and other pro-democracy individuals at the hands of Haiti's armed forces and private militia, "tonton macoutes." Duvalier has also been accused of embezzling millions of dollars from the country. AI representative Javier Zuniga urged the country's authorities to prosecute Duvalier and others who were responsible for the human rights abuses:

The widespread and systematic human rights violations committed in Haiti during Dubalier's rule amount to crimes against humanity. Haiti is under the obligation to prosecute him and anyone else responsible for such crimes. ... The Haitian authorities must break the cycle of impunity that prevailed for decades in Haiti. Failing to bring to justice those responsible will only lead to further human rights abuses.

Other rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch [advocacy website], joined AI in calling for prosecution [press release] of the former president, stating that the only purpose for Duvalier's return to Haiti should be "to face justice."

Last February, the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland [official website, in French] announced that $4.6 million seized from Duvalier's Swiss bank account must be returned to his family [JURIST report]. The decision came after the Federal Criminal Court of Switzerland [official website, in French] rejected the family's claim to Duvalier's money, which was hidden in Swiss banks during his tenure as president. In 2007, Haitian president Rene Preval [BBC profile] vowed to continue legal proceedings [JURIST report] against Duvalier despite the latter's plea for forgiveness in a recorded message broadcast around the country. Duvalier, also known as "Baby Doc," is the son of former Haitian leader Francois Duvalier, or "Papa Doc," whom he succeeded as "president for life." In response to accusations of human rights violations, Duvalier fled Haiti in 1986, and has since resided in France.

[JURIST] Iran is on an "execution binge," killing one prisoner every eight hours, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran [advocacy website] said in a statement [text] released on Sunday. Forty-seven prisoners have reportedly been executed in Iran since the new year, many from the country's Kurdish minority. "The execution of Kurdish activists, without fair trials and following torture, increasingly appears as a systematic, politically motivated process," said Aaron Rhodes, a spokesperson for the Campaign. The Campaign called on "the Iranian Parliament and the Judiciary to immediately institute a moratorium on executions and to move swiftly to abolish the death penalty, in the face of skyrocketing executions following unfair trials and opaque judicial proceedings." Iran executes more people per capita than any other country, and in absolute numbers, is second only to China, according to the Campaign.

Earlier this month, prominent Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh was sentenced [JURIST report] to 11 years in prison. Sotoudeh was found guilty [Guardian report] of "acting against national security" and "making propaganda against the system" for which she will serve five and one years, respectively. She was the lawyer for Arash Rahmanipour, who was arrested for his role in the post-election protests on charges of moharebeh, or being an enemy of God. Rahmanipour was executed [JURIST report] in January 2010. Also, this month, Iranian chief prosecutor Abbas Jafari-Dolatabadi delivered a speech at Tehran University indicating that he would prosecute opposition leaders [JURIST report] for political unrest that took place after the country's 2009 presidential election [JURIST news archive]. In November, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay [official profile] expressed her concern [text] over Iran's crackdown on human rights defenders.

[JURIST] A federal judge on Friday told the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) [official website] that it must investigate the destruction of interrogation tapes [AP report] related to 9/11 [JURIST news archive] and prevent similar incidents from happening in the future. Judge Alvin Hellerstein of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York [official website] made the statement while considering a complaint from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) [advocacy website] seeking to have the CIA found in contempt of court [AP report] for destroying the tapes. After the judge spoke, Assistant US Attorney Tara LaMorte said that the government prosecutor who investigated the incident was willing to meet with the judge to discuss his findings. Hellerstein agreed to meet with the prosecutor and said he would make as much of the meeting public as possible.

Internal CIA documents [part 1, PDF; part 2, PDF; part 3, PDF] released last April reveal that the former head of the agency Porter Goss may have agreed to the destruction [JURIST report] of videotapes [JURIST news archive] showing harsh interrogations of terror suspects. According to redacted documents [text, PDF] filed in March 2009, 12 of 92 videotapes destroyed by the CIA [JURIST report] contained evidence of "enhanced interrogation techniques." The US Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] had acknowledged in March 2009 that the CIA destroyed [letter, PDF] 92 videotapes of high value terrorism suspect interrogations, in response to an August 2008 judicial order [text, PDF] that the CIA turn over information regarding the tapes or provide specific justifications on why it could not release the information. The August 2008 order came in response to a December 2007 ACLU motion [text, PDF] that the CIA be held in contempt of court for not providing information on the tapes during a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) [text] lawsuit [ACLU materials] brought by the organization in an effort to access government materials on the interrogations.