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MEAN STREETS MEDIA

Thursday, June 30, 2016

Former Miss Brazil Found Dead Inside Her Apartment



SAO PAULO – Fabiane Niclotti, who was crowned Miss Brazil 2004, was found dead inside her apartment in Gramado, a city in Rio Grande do Sul state, but there were no signs of violence, police said Wednesday.

The 31-year-old model’s brother called police because she was not answering her telephone.

Police found Niclotti’s body on Tuesday night and there were no signs of forced entry or violence at her apartment, investigators said.

Niclotti competed in the 2004 Miss Universe pageant in Quito, but she did not win.

After the contest, she lived for several months in London, where she studied English.

Niclotti worked as a model and general manager of a clothing store.

Body Parts Wash Up near Olympic Volleyball Venue on Rio Beach



RIO DE JANEIRO – Body parts from a murder victim were found Wednesday near the spot on Copacabana beach where the beach volleyball competition will take place when Brazil’s second city hosts the 2016 Olympics in August, Jornal do Brasil reported.

Authorities have not yet determined the age or sex of the victim, the daily said on its Web site, citing Rio de Janeiro state police.

A forensics team is at the site and the investigation will be conducted by the state police homicide division.

Jornal do Brasil noted that the appearance of the body coincides with an upsurge in concern about the ability of authorities to ensure the safety of athletes and spectators attending the 2016 Olympics in Rio.

The Rio de Janeiro state government recently declared a state of financial calamity and police are threatening to walk off the job if they don’t get paid, the newspaper said.

Sexual Violence Is Routine among Mexican Security Forces


MEXICO CITY – Sexual violence is a routine practice in the detention of women by Mexican security forces, but there is hardly any penalty for those crimes, said an Amnesty International report released on Tuesday.

AI spoke with 100 women serving time in federal prisons and all said they had suffered sexual harassment and psychological abuse during their arrest or in the hours that followed.

Seventy-two of them had suffered sexual abuse and 33 were raped.

With numbers like that, “we can’t accept the theory that there are a few bad apples in Mexico’s security forces,” Madeleine Penman, author of the report, told EFE in an interview.

Hours before the study was published, the AI director for the Americas, Erika Guevara-Ross, met with Mexican Attorney General Arely Gomez to present her with the results.

Security-force members who have been prosecuted, the investigator said, “are almost non-existent.” And since 1991, only 15 charges of torture have ended with convictions at the federal level.

Another conclusion of the report is that the crime-fighting strategy is often based on arbitrary arrests that target poor, marginalized women who are the most vulnerable and who end up suffering abuse and being forced to sign “confessions” for their “crimes.”

Such was the fate of Yecenia Armenta, recently released after spending four years in jail. When she was arrested in 2012 she was beaten and raped for hours until she “admitted” killing her husband.

Amnesty International does not hesitate to call the situation in Mexico a “torture epidemic.”

Meanwhile, the National Human Rights Commission, or CNDH, has received some 7,000 complaints about torture since 2010.

Sunday, June 26, 2016

Solidarity with Syrian Revolution in the presence of Syrian Opposition officials 11 June 2016 _ 2

Human rights in Iran is not just a domestic problem - MEP

The United Press International published on Thursday an opinion piece by José Inácio Faria, a Member of the European Parliament from Portugal, on the Iranian regime's human rights abuses and the steps the international community should take in response.
Mr. José Inácio Faria MEP wrote:
Last week, together with 270 other colleagues in the European Parliament, I signed a statement condemning the ongoing, rampant human rights abuses in the Islamic Republic of Iran. We have called on EU and Western governments "to condition any further relations with Iran to a clear progress on human rights and a halt to executions."
Iran is today the world leader in number of executions per capita. It has also been declared by the U.S. State Department as the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism.
The rate of hangings has increased in recent years with the arrival to power of the so-called "moderate" president, Hassan Rouhani. Nearly 1,000 people were put to death in 2015 alone, according to the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran, Ahmad Shaheed, who declared it as the highest number of executions in Iran in 27 years.
In the streets of Tehran and other Iranian cities, morality police and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps have intensified their efforts to root out and punish various forms of deviance from the country's repressive religious laws, including the forced veiling of women and the criminalization of labour unions and other forms of peaceful gathering. Meanwhile, the Iranian regime's unwavering support for Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad has made Iran part of the problem rather than a solution to the Syrian war.
Iran's fingerprints are also deepening in Iraq, where Iranian-backed Shiite militias have recently been accused again by international rights organizations of systematic torturing and killing of the Sunni population in the battle to take over Fallujah. This will further alienate the Sunnis and drive them toward extremist groups such as the Islamic State.
And as if to illustrate the danger of being caught as a bystander in the middle of Tehran's contest for dominance of the region, Iraq is also the site of a community of exiled Iranian dissidents, who have been stranded since 2012 in the former U.S. military base of Camp Liberty. Described by the UN as a "detention center," the camp has been the target of attacks utilizing Iranian-made rockets, as well as an ongoing blockade of medical supplies and other lifesaving provisions.
When the defenseless camp residents who belong to the main Iranian opposition PMOI were forcibly relocated to Camp Liberty from Camp Ashraf under a deal overseen by the UN and United States, it was done with the promise that they would soon be relocated to stable homes, presumably in Europe and North America. Four years and dozens of deaths later, no nations other than Albania have made a significant effort to relocate those people.
At the same time, following the nuclear agreement that has provided the Islamic Republic with extensive sanctions relief, several EU countries have both sent and received political and trade delegations and have actively pursued investment in Iran without any precondition.
As it has been admitted by the U.S. president and other Western officials, and given the dominance of the IRGC over the Iranian economy, there's little doubt that most of the money, instead of being used for the well-being of Iranian people and the development of the country, is funneled directly to support terrorist groups in the region.
On July 9, together with other many other parliamentarians and political figures from around the world, I will attend a rally organized by the Iranian democratic opposition led by Maryam Rajavi. In doing so, we will strive to reassure the Iranian people that not everyone in the West has forgotten their righteous struggle for freedom and democracy.
Iran's human rights record is of global significance and it is very much the responsibility of Western nations to address that issue.
In fact, our essential values as Europeans ought to be reason enough for us to demand that Iran improve its domestic human rights as a price for any expansion in trade relations. But as foreign investment gives Iran the opportunity to reach its hand further across the region, it should be clear to us that the stakes are much higher than we might have once imagined. And if we refuse to respond to this situation, we will bear responsibility for the loss of innocent lives not only in Iran but also in Syria, Iraq and other places in the region where Iranian proxy fighters seek dominance.
José Inácio Faria, a Portuguese member of the European Parliament, is member of Friends of a Free Iran group in the European Parliament.

UN rights experts: Arrests, heavy fines for artistic expression in Iran ‘unacceptable’

United Nations human rights experts on cultural rights and on freedom of expression have expressed concern at the imprisonment and imposition of heavy fines against three artists in Iran earlier this month and have called for their immediate release.
In a statement issued on Friday by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights, Karima Bennoune, and Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, David Kaye, said that the conviction and sentencing of artists is entirely unacceptable and is in complete violation of the Iranian regime’s obligations under international human rights law.
They have also called for all charges to be dropped.
The expert’s call has also been endorsed by the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, Ahmed Shaheed, and the UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Juan E. Méndez.
Musicians Mehdi Rajabian and Yousef Emadi, and filmmaker Hossein Rajabian were sentenced to six years in prison and fined 50 million Rials (about $1,658) each for “insulting Islamic sanctities,” “propaganda against the State” and for “conducing illegal activities in the audiovisual affaires including through producing prohibited audiovisual material and performing an illegal and underground music site.” On appeal, the prison sentence was reduced to three years.
Mr. Kaye said that "detaining someone on the grounds of ‘insulting the sacred’ and ‘propaganda against the state’ is incompatible with international human rights standards.”
Ms. Bennoune expressed “dismay” at the allegations that the artists were forced to make self-incriminating televised “confessions” to the charges of producing prohibited audiovisual materials, and apologize for broadcasting the voice of female singers.
She said that the action of the Iranian regime against the artists has serious repercussions for others in the country and that it results in unjustifiable restrictions on the right of all persons in Iran to have access to and enjoy the arts. “Artistic expression is simply not a crime,” Ms. Bennoune concluded.
“The arrest, conviction and sentencing of artists is entirely unacceptable and in complete violation of international human rights law binding on Iran. The three artists should be released immediately and all charges dropped,” they concluded.
Special Rapporteurs are appointed by the Geneva-based Human Rights Council to examine and report back on a country situation or a specific human rights theme.

Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Iran: Baha’i woman arrested, her business closed down ( she used instagram )

Following month of harassments and intimidations, on June 16, the Iranian regime’s court summoned Ms. Sara Akhlaghi, a Bahaii resident of Shiraz, southern Iran for signing a waivers to have her maison unlocked, according to a report published Tuesday by the website of the Women’s Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran ( NCRI ).

Bahai woman arrested in Iran, her business shutdown
Ms. Akhlaghi advertized her maison's wedding gowns on Instagram.
However, internet security agents hacked and blocked her account for 'dissemination of indecent photographs and inciting and encouraging others to breach public decency.'
In the next stage, her maison was sealed without prior notice. They posted a banner on the door, which read, 'This business has been sealed because of disseminating indecent photographs and is not allowed to do business.'
Then on June 16, Ms. Akhlaghi was summoned to court ostensibly to reach an agreement for unlocking her business, but she was arrested on the spot. There is no information available on her whereabouts, the report added.