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MEAN STREETS MEDIA
Saturday, February 13, 2016
Acehnese Authorities Publicly Whip 32 Men for Gambling
Black-masked punishers, locally known as algojo, lashed the men’s backs in front of a crowd of onlookers at Baitul Makmur Mosque at Meulaboh, the capital city of West Aceh Regency, according to witnesses.
Aceh – the only province in Indonesia which implements Islamic Sharia law – has over the past decade increasingly cracked down on “un-Islamic” practices, with whipping being one of many corporal punishments for violating laws including the public dress code or meetings between unmarried individuals, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW) in Indonesia.
In 2010, a university student was apprehended for being on an isolated road with her boyfriend and taken into police custody.
“A Sharia police officer ... told my mom and me that I should be buried and stoned to death. I said, ‘Sir, I was only trying to look for a shortcut, and I should be stoned for that? What about the officers who raped me last night?’” said Nita, 20, explaining that she had been sexually abused by authorities while in detention, as quoted by HRW.
Aceh introduced Sharia Law after it was granted autonomy from the rest of Indonesia in 2005, as part of a deal to end the separatist insurgency that had wracked the northwestern tip of the archipelago since 1976.
Security Forces Thwart Kidnapping of 4 Youths in Mexico
The four young men were led away Thursday by four or five men armed with handguns, according to eyewitnesses and family members of the victims.
But the youths were rescued around three hours later thanks to a security operation that involved blocking access roads to the port city, Veracruz state Gov. Javier Duarte de Ochoa said.
“As a result of an intense security operation, ‘Safe Veracruz’ forces rescued the four Veracruz youths safe and sound,” the governor wrote on Twitter, adding that the victims underwent a medical checkup after being rescued to “assess their state of health.”
The federal government launched “Operation Safe Veracruz” several years ago in an effort to stem drug-related violence in the Gulf coast state.
The governor said authorities were still trying to track down the perpetrators, who burst into a taco restaurant in the tourist zone of Veracruz to kidnap the youths.
One of the young people fled and took refuge inside his father’s establishment, but the criminals found him and abducted him as well.
Surveillance footage broadcast by local media shows the group of gunmen – all dressed in civilian garb – pointing guns at the restaurant’s employees, grabbing one of the youths by the neck and leading him out of the establishment face-down.
Five other young people were kidnapped on Jan. 11 in Tierra Blanca, a municipality in that same state.
Those individuals were arrested by state police at a gas station and handed over to a drug cartel, according to the official investigation.
Officials said this week that DNA tests confirmed that charred human remains found at a ranch in Veracruz state were those of two of the five young people, but family members have challenged the investigators’ findings and called for additional genetic testing.
Friday, February 12, 2016
Mexico - Female reporter found dead
Mexico is reeling from the news that the body of reporter Anabel Flores Salazar was found a day after an armed group kidnapped Monday her from her home in the state of Veracruz, Mexico. The 32-year-old mother of two was a crime-beat reporter for newspaper El Sol de Orizaba and is the third journalist to be killed in Mexico in 2016.

The journalist was found on the side of a highway in the neighboring state of Puebla. The Attorney General of the State of Veracruz issued a statement confirming that Flores Salazar was identified by family members.

Related Article: Gunmen Kidnap Female Reporter in Southern Mexico
Flores Salazar was found Tuesday, half-naked and with bound hands and feet. Her face was covered with a plastic bag; as determined that the journalist died from suffocation.
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