Iran news in brief, 15 February 2015

Iran- 17 yr old beaten and arrested (Given no lawyer ) to be Executed

Amnesty International is appealing to halt the execution of an Iranian arrested at the age of 17 and tortured for 97 days in a bid to force a confession of membership of an armed opposition group.

Saman Naseem is due to executed on February 19, after being arrested on July 17, 2011, after a gun battle between Revolutionary Guards and an armed opposition group.

After his arrest he was held in a Ministry of Intelligence detention centre without any access to his family or a lawyer.

Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa, said in a press release: "That the Iranian authorities are preparing to put to death a young man who’s been tortured for 97 days to ‘confess’ when he was 17 years old beggars belief.

"With less than a week left before he is due to be executed, there is no time to waste. Saman’s execution must be immediately stopped and his case thoroughly reviewed.

"In a letter seen by Amnesty International, Saman Naseem, now 22 years old, described how he was kept in a 2 x 0.5 metre cell and constantly tortured before being forced while blindfolded to put his fingerprints on 'confession' papers. He was forced to admit to acts that lead to his conviction for membership of an armed opposition group and taking up arms against the state. He was 17 years old at the time.

"With less than a week left before he is due to be executed, there is no time to waste. Saman’s execution must be immediately stopped and his case thoroughly reviewed.

"This is the reality of the criminal justice system in Iran, which makes a mockery of its own statements that it does not execute children and upholds its obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child.”

In the letter, Saman said: "During the first days, the level of torture was so severe that it left me unable to walk. All my body was black and blue. They hung me from my hands and feet for hours. I was blindfolded during the whole period of interrogations and torture, and could not see the interrogation and torture officers.

"They repeatedly told me that they had arrested my family members including my father, my mother, and my brother. They told me that they would kill me right there and would cover my grave with cement.

"When I wanted to sleep during nights, they would not let me rest by making noises using different devices, including by constantly banging on the door. I was in a state between madness and consciousness. I could not have any contact with my family during this time. During the trial, even the presiding judge threatened me with more beatings a number of times and my lawyers were removed under pressure."

Amnesty said Saman was arrested on July 17, 2011, after a gun battle between Revolutionary Guards and armed opposition group Party For Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK), in the city of Sardasht, West Azerbaijan Province.

After his arrest, he was held in a Ministry of Intelligence detention centre without any access to his family or a lawyer.

His family members were not informed of his arrest and first learned about it through a video clip of Saman aired on state TV, in which he 'confessed' to taking part in armed activities against the state. Court documents indicate that during the fight, a member of the Revolutionary Guards was killed and three others wounded.

Amnesty added: "In January 2012, Saman was sentenced to death by a Revolutionary Court after being convicted of 'enmity against God' and 'corruption on earth' because of his alleged membership of PJAK and taking part in armed activities against the Revolutionary Guards.

"During the trial, he retracted his earlier 'confession' and said that he fired into the air and not towards the Revolutionary Guards. He also told the judge he was tortured but he dismissed this and relied on his “confessions” as admissible evidence. His lawyers have been prevented from pursuing his defence.

"In August 2012, the Supreme Court had overturned the death sentence and sent his case to a lower court for a retrial on the grounds that he had been under 18 at the time of the crimes of which he had been convicted.

"However, Saman was sentenced to death in April 2013 by a criminal court. The Supreme Court upheld this death sentence again in December 2013."

Italy- Baby dies turned away from 3 hospital's

Italy is in shock. A young mother is in mourning.

And public health services are under scrutiny after a newborn baby with breathing difficulties died – reportedly turned away from at least three hospitals on Sicily because of lack of space.

Running out of options, the ambulance carrying little Nicole Di Pietro set off for another hospital more than 100 kilometres away.

But Nicole, born in a private clinic in Catania without the neonatal intensive care facilities she
needed, died on the way.

As her family grieves, regional and national inquiries have been launched.

On her Facebook page, Nicole’s mother Tania blames ‘human error’ for her daughter’s death, demanding justice so that her child can rest in peace.

Her pain and dismay have been echoed by Italy’s new President Sergio Mattarella, himself from Sicily.

The local health minister has resigned but this scandal goes much further with an investigation into possible healthcare failings in a separate case in Naples in which an eight month old baby died.

Yemen: US embassy vehicles seized by Houthi followers

Argentine Prosecutor Presses for Indictment of President

BUENOS AIRES – An Argentine prosecutor filed papers on Friday to indict President Cristina Fernandez and eight others based on the accusations leveled by the late Alberto Nisman days before his Jan. 18 death.

Gerardo Pollicita asked Judge Daniel Rafecas to authorize charges against Fernandez, Foreign Minister Hector Timerman and six other people for trying to conceal the involvement of Iran in a deadly 1994 terrorist attack on a Jewish organization in Buenos Aires.

Nisman, the special prosecutor investigating the car-bomb blast that left 85 dead at the offices of the Jewish organization AMIA, was found fatally shot four days after unveiling the allegations against the president.

Nisman’s brief, now taken up by Pollicita, cites the Memorandum of Understanding the Fernandez administration signed with Iran in 2013 to facilitate the AMIA investigation as the principal instrument of the purported cover-up.

The late prosecutor said that intercepts of telephone among some of the prospective defendants – though not Fernandez or Timerman – showed the outlines of a plan for Argentina to get Interpol to rescind the red notices the international police agency had issued for the arrest of the Iranians accused in the AMIA bombing.

In exchange, according to Nisman, Iran was supposed to sell oil to Argentina.

The Fernandez administration has pointed out that no part of the ostensible conspiracy ever came to fruition, while the man who headed Interpol for 15 years until last November rebutted Nisman’s key accusation.

“I can say with 100 percent certainty, not a scintilla of doubt, that Foreign Minister Timerman and the Argentine government have been steadfast, persistent and unwavering that the Interpol’s red notices be issued, remain in effect and not be suspend or removed,” Ronald K. Noble said last month.

The Argentine government, in a brief filed with the courts hours before Pollicita’s motion, provided documentation of Buenos Aires’ contacts with Interpol in the AMIA matter.

Argentina’s opposition parties welcomed the push to indict Fernandez, who will leave office in December after two terms.

Many in the Argentine Jewish community believe the AMIA bombing was ordered by Iran and carried out by Tehran’s Hezbollah allies.

Both the Iranian government and the Lebanese militia group deny any involvement and the accusation relies heavily on information provided by the CIA and Israel’s Mossad spy agency.

Prosecutors have yet to secure a single conviction in the case.

In September 2004, 22 people accused in the bombing were acquitted after a process plagued with delays, irregularities and tales of witnesses’ being paid for their testimony.

The attack against the AMIA building was the second terrorist strike against Jewish targets in Argentina. In March 1992, a car bomb was detonated in front of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, killing 29 people and wounding more than 100 others.

Mexican Compensated for Being Shot in the Back by Border Patrol Agent

TUCSON, Arizona – The case of an undocumented Mexican who received compensation for being shot in the back by a Border Patrol agent is a “victory,” according to activists.

“This is a great victory, because the use of lethal force by the Border Patrol has been a big problem for some time,” James Duff Lyall, a representative of the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona, told Efe.

He said that when a Border Patrol agent is suspected of abuse of power, he is almost never penalized as in this case.

On Feb. 5 a federal judge awarded $500,000 in compensation to Jesus Castro Romo, who was shot in the back in November 2010 after being arrested trying to cross the border into the U.S. illegally together with other immigrants.

Border Patrol agent Abel Canales said he fired in self-defense after Castro threatened him with a rock.

U.S. District Judge James Soto ruled that Castro was in no position to throw a rock at the federal agent at the time he was hit by a bullet.

The judge went a step further and said that “a rock is not as deadly an object as a gun and requires greater degree of certainty that the object will be used than the threat or perceived threat of a gun.”

“It is often extremely difficult for an immigrant to file suit against Border Patrol agents,” William Risner, the attorney who represented Castro in the civil lawsuit, told Efe.

On many occasions the Border Patrol has made the excuse of being threatened with a rock to justify the use of lethal force.

“This is just one case – we know there is still a long road ahead and a long history of abuse and lack of responsibility on the part of this federal agency,” Risner said.

The attorney said that Castro’s health has had a number of complications due to the bullet wound and that the $500,000 compensation must be used to cover the costs of a needed operation.

Risner has another three cases pending of border agents who shot and killed someone.

One case is that of 19-year-old Carlos Lamadrid, a U.S. citizen who died after being shot several times in March 2011 in the border town of Douglas, Arizona.

He was fleeing police and was trying to climb over the border fence to the Mexican side when he was shot in the back at least four times.

The U.S. Justice Department ruled in 2013 that there was insufficient evidence to file criminal charges against the border agent, identified as Lucas Tidwell.

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