Tag: Amnesty International

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Another letter to President Putin

The President of the Russian Federation

Presidential Administration Office

23 Ilyinka Street

Moscow, 103132

Russian Federation

April 4, 2022

Your Excellency, President Vladimir Putin!

I emailed you last year through the Kremlin website. It seemed risky for several reasons, but Alexei Navalny and many others have risked much more in these shadow years of winter.

In my email, I said only you can save Navalny’s life, that you can change the course of history. This is still true. Your position on Navalny and Ukraine may feel fixed in stone, immovable and permanent, like a monument in the making.

The Palace of the Soviets would have been the world’s tallest skyscraper, but unchecked ambition crushed progress and the installed steel was disassembled to support unrelated construction.

The Palace of the Soviets doesn’t exist and obedience forced from dissenting minds can’t last.

From “Dwarf Birches” by Yevgeny Yevtushenko,

Constraint bears the form of rebellion.

For Alexei Navalny and Roman Protasevich, for others like them in Ukraine, Crimea, and Russia, for all persons bent down,

eternal frost can’t last.

Its horror will yield.

Our right to stand upright will come.

Should the climate change, won’t

our branches at once grow

into shapes that are free?

President Putin, won’t you lead this welcome change of seasons?

Spring is coming. 

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Update: Nassima al-Sada Released from Prison on June 27, 2021

About Nassima al-Sada’s release

Free Nassima al-Sada

Amnesty International campaign for Nassima al-Sada

H. R. H. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud
Deputy Prime Minister
Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Your Excellency:

Progressive reforms for women that you’ve introduced include ending the ban on female driving and diminishing male guardianship requirements. Nassima al-Sada is among the millions of people around the world who welcome these changes. In fact, Nassima campaigned for these same human rights that you defended into law, yet years later she is still in Dhahban Central Prison. 

In 2018, Saudi authorities arrested Nassima for championing the same equal rights for the people of Saudi Arabia that you have now established. She was held in solitary confinement for a year, and for months at a time was not allowed to see her lawyer or her own children.

I read that Nassima cares for a plant in her prison cell. Even without sunshine, fresh air, and butterflies, she cultivates life, hope, and freedom. I think I understand this. After losing nearly everything in my life, I started over in a cold, grey city thousands of miles from everything I’ve ever known. Though it rains and snows here and the sun doesn’t shine often, I work hard and against all odds to grow the tropical plants and flowers of my previous life because some dreams will never die. Life, hope, and freedom belong to everyone. Nassima and you are not so far apart; you both want the people of Saudi Arabia to flourish.

I respectfully urge you to release Nassima al-Sada and all detained human rights defenders and activists. They are among your country’s greatest strengths and together you have an unprecedented opportunity to establish equality for everyone. When everyone in your kingdom is empowered and free, imagine what more Saudi Arabia will accomplish!

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Free Idris Khattak

Amnesty International campaign for Idris Khattak

Prime Minister Imran Khan
Prime Minister’s Office
Constitution Avenue
Islamabad
Pakistan

Your excellency, Mr. Prime Minister:

Assalamu Alaikum

I respectfully request your help in the matter of Idris Khattak’s disappearance.

Mr. Khattak was last seen in June 2020 with a black hood over his head as he was taken by force from his car. Later, Pakistan authorities stated that they had Idris Khattak in their custody. Eleven months on and Mr. Khattak still has had no contact with a lawyer, with Amnesty International, or with his family.

We are very concerned for his safety.

If there is sufficient and credible evidence that Idris Khattak has committed an internationally recognized offense, then he must be promptly remanded by a civilian court and granted a fair trial in line with international law and standards.

Without sufficient and credible evidence, Idris Khattak must be released immediately.

In either case, I trust you will uphold Idris Khattak’s essential right to meet with lawyers, Amnesty International, and his family as soon as possible. 

Prime Minister Khan, your immediate intervention to release Idris Khattak is critical and we greatly appreciate your help.

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Col. Dr. Mohamed Elghanam

Ueli Maurer, President of the Swiss Confederation

April 17, 2013

Dear President Maurer:

The Geneva court has demanded the release of Colonel Dr. Mohamed Elghanam from Champ-Dollon prison (where he languished for over six years without contact or treatment) and his transfer to a hospital.

Reported in Le Courrier: La prison pour briser un homme (Benito Perez, Vendredi 17 Mai 2013).

I urge you to swiftly and comprehensively investigate the circumstances that allowed this crime against Colonel Dr. Mohamed Elghanam, to compensate him for his lost health and lost years, and ensure this never happens again.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

April 8, 2013

I am deeply concerned about Colonel Dr. Mohamed Elghanam and reports of his deteriorating health since his imprisonment without a trial in Switzerland in 2007.

His brother, Ali Elghanam, and the Swiss Red Cross International Family Tracing Services (Reference SRK_2009-402) have not been able to see Colonel Dr. Mohamed Elghanam or meet with him. The Swiss Red Cross Tracing Services have contacted Amnesty International and La Ligue Suisse des Droits de l’Homme regarding the case of Dr. Elghanam. The United Nations Enforced and Voluntary Disappearances experts have also been contacted.

The questionable circumstances surrounding Colonel Dr. Mohamed Elghanam’s arrest in Switzerland, his continuned imprisonment without a trial, and complete lack of communication with the outside world raise additional concerns of government-sanctioned disappearance.

2001
Switzerland granted political asylum to Colonel Dr. Elghanam, who was campaigning in Cairo for Christian Copts to have rights equal to those of Muslims

2003
Colonel Dr. Elghanam was pressured and attacked by Swiss Intelligence agents seeking to recruit Dr. Elghanam as their client/informant and as a reporter of the Geneva Islamic community, particularly Hani Ramadan, a figurehead and relative of the founders of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Colonel Dr. Elghanam filed an official complaint.

2005
On the Geneva University campus, Colonel Dr. Elghanam was assaulted by a Somali man believed to be a Swiss agent sent to intimidate Colonel Dr. Mohamed Elghanam from continuing his complaint. The Somali man was aggressive and hit Colonel Dr. Elghanam and in response, Colonel Dr. Elghanam held up a bread knife. Initially incarcerated for holding up a bread knife, Dr. Elghanam was released after the Somali man admitted he was never touched by Dr. Elghanam.

Subsequently, two police officers, one of them federal, sent a letter to the judge falsely accusing Dr. Elghanam of the following actions:

  • Authoring an article posted to Muslim websites
  • Having “seriously wounded” a man at Geneva University and allegedly having “stabbed him in the abdomen with a kitchen knife”
  • Having threatened leading Swiss personalities with violence
  • Being a violent man who was threatening the “internal and external security” of Switzerland

    No evidence or witnesses support these false allegations.

    2007
    Based on the false accusations of the two police officers, Dr. Elghanam was imprisoned for: alleged mental disorder and “dangerousness/dangerosite”

    2012
    Both police officers and the psychiatrist assigned to Colonel Dr. Elghanam’s case declared that they made mistakes regarding the imprisonment of Colonel Elghanam:

    The psychiatrist confessed he did not examine Colonel Dr. Elghanam, but wrote his report based on the officers’ letter
    One of the police officers said he was sick from seven years ago, including the day he wrote the letter of false accusations against Colonel Dr. Elghanam

    The Swiss government has refused to hear witnesses requested by Colonel Dr. Mohamed Elghanam for the past eight years, even though by law they are required to be heard.

    Since 2005, Colonel Dr. Mohammed El Ghanam has requested the Swiss government hear witnesses: Micheline Calmy-Rey (President and Head of the Department of Foreign Affairs through 2011), President Moritz Leuenberger (president of Switzerland through 2010) and Pascal Couchepin (President of Switzerland and Head of the Federal Department of Home Affairs) among others.

    The imprisonment of colonel Dr. Mohamed Elghanam for an alleged mental disorder allegedly requiring mandatory psychiatric treatment, is, in fact, retaliation for Dr. Elghanam’s refusal to cooperate with Swiss Intelligence and his exposure of acts of intimidation against him involving members of the Swiss government.

    The charges against Dr. Elghanam and his forced isolation should be investigated immediately and his right to communicate with people by phone, email/mail or in person should be restored at once. If evidence supports a trial, then Dr. Elghanam should have access to legal representation and be tried in a court of law that is transparent to Amnesty International and the Red Cross,

    I respectfully urge you to use your power of office to seek justice for Colonel Dr. Mohamed Elghanam.

    • nancykivette1 Comment

    Update: Patrick Okoroafor Released from Prison

    “Child prisoner free after 17 years” Amnesty International, May 9, 2012

    Patrick Okoroafor wrongfully sentenced to death at 16

    January 4, 2009

    His Excellency Chief Dr. Ikedi Ohakim
    Governor of Imo State
    Executive Governor’s Office
    PMB 1183
    Owerri, Imo State
    NIGERIA

    Your Excellency:

    I am respectfully requesting your intervention in the case of Patrick Okoroafor, currently detained indefinitely in Aba prison.

    Concern:
    On October 18, 2001 the High Court of Imo State declared the sentence of death for Patrick Okoroafor to be illegal, null and void, but seven years have passed since the High Court decision and he has still not been released. Police reportedly tortured Patrick in custody: hanging and beating him, and pulling out his teeth with pliers

    History:
    May 1995  –  Patrick Okoroafor was 14 years old when he was arrested and arraigned with six others for robbery and kidnapping, a crime he says he never committed.
    May 1997  –  at the age of 16, Patrick and his six co-defendants were sentenced to death. Patrick and another minor, Chidiebere Onuoha, petitioned for clemency based on their age.
    July 1997  –  the death sentences of the six co-defendants were confirmed, while Patrick’s sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.  Later that month, the six men were publicly shot to death; Chidiebere was 17 years old when he was executed.

    Current Status:
    More than seven years have passed since the High Court judgment in his favor, yet Patrick is still in prison, hoping for his release. His health worsens daily; his asthma attacks are now frequent and life threatening.

    Patrick Okoroafor has spent almost half his life in prison. I am concerned about his deteriorating health and the reported torture that he endured while in police custody.

    I respectfully urge you to release him without delay.

    Thank you for your consideration.