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HUMAN RIGHTS

Denmark pressures Swaziland on free rights

Denmark has raised the questions of political freedom, human rights, and the trial of political activists Mario Masuku and Maxwell Dlamini with Swaziland’s government and absolute monarch King Mswati III.

Denmark pressures Swaziland on free rights
Mogens Lykketoft hosted Mario Masuku last year. Masuku is now imprisoned in Swaziland. Photo: Peter Kenworthy
Foreign Minister Martin Lidegaard told the Foreign Affairs Committee last week that Denmark is lobbying Swaziland to improve political freedom within the country.
 
“Denmark has continuously raised the question of political freedom with Swaziland, most recently on the 5th of June 2014, when the Danish ambassador held political talks in the capital Mbabane with, amongst others, King Mswati III and [then] Minister of Foreign Affairs Mgwagwa Gamedze”, Denmark's foreign minister, Martin Lidegaard, told the Foreign Affairs Committee last week.
 
During the meeting with the king, the Danish ambassador urged Swaziland to comply with the demands of the ongoing African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) negotiations, which should include changes to Swaziland’s Suppression of Terrorism Act, a bill that Amnesty International has called “inherently repressive”.
 
Mario and Maxwell
“Such changes would particularly benefit the media, human rights defenders, and the political opposition in Swaziland, including Mario Masuku and Maxwell Dlamini”, Lidegaard said. 
 
Mario Masuku and Maxwell Dlamini face terrorism charges under Swaziland’s Suppression of Terrorism Act and could serve 15 years in prison for criticising Swaziland’s absolute monarchy and expressing support for pro-democracy party the People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO).
 
Masuku is the PUDEMO President and Dlamini the Secretary General of PUDEMO’s youth wing. They have been remanded in prison since their arrest on May 1st, having had several applications for bail turned down. Masuku has contracted pneumonia in prison, which has been exacerbated by his diabetic condition and led to drastic weight loss and poor eye sight.
 
Stronger pressure on Swaziland
The imprisonment and trial of Masuku and Dlamini has been heavily criticised, both in Denmark, where solidarity organization Africa Contact and the Red-Green Alliance (Enhedslisten) have campaigned for their release, and abroad.
 
Mogens Lykketoft, the speaker of parliament and a former foreign minister, has supported the calls for their release and called for “stronger pressure” on Swaziland “regarding freedom of speech and organization”.
 
And in a letter to King Mswati, an array of other individuals and organisations such as Desmond Tutu, Freedom House, Freedom of Expression Institute in South Africa, Front Line Defenders, and Southern Africa Litigation Centre called for the release of political prisoners in Swaziland, including Masuku and Dlamini.
 
“We call upon you to order the immediate release of all prisoners of conscience and political prisoners detained in Swaziland,” the letter stated, urging Swaziland’s government to “begin meaningful discussions with the growing number of citizens and independent organizations that are demanding their basic freedoms and calling for democratic reform in Swaziland.”
 
Peter Kenworthy is a freelance journalist for Africa Kontakt and other publications. 

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SYRIA

Germany charges two Syrians with crimes against humanity

Germany charged two alleged former Syrian secret service officers with participating in crimes against humanity, in what rights activists said Tuesday would be the first trial worldwide over state-sponsored torture in Syria.

Germany charges two Syrians with crimes against humanity
Photo: DPA

The two men were arrested in February together with a third suspect in France in a coordinated operation by German and French police, the federal prosecutor's office in the German city of Karlsruhe said.

The suspects, Anwar Raslan and Eyad al-Gharib, both left Syria in 2012.

Raslan, who allegedly led an investigative unit with its own prison in the Damascus area targeting members of the Syrian opposition, is “suspected of complicity in crimes against humanity” in charges filed on October 22nd, the prosecutors said in a statement.

“In this context he is also accused of murder in 58 cases, rape and aggravated sexual assault” in the jail where more than 4,000 prisoners suffered “brutal and massive torture” from April 2011 to September 2012.

Gharib, a former officer who had manned checkpoints and allegedly hunted protesters, had allegedly aided and abetted two killings and the physical abuse of at least 30 people in the autumn of 2011, prosecutors said.

Mass protests

In the town of Douma at the time, security authorities used force to break up an anti-government rally. Gharib is believed to have helped capture fleeing demonstrators and detained them in the prison headed by Raslan.

The same day that the two suspects were arrested in February, another Syrian was detained in the Paris region for “acts of torture, crimes against humanity and complicity in these crimes”, the Paris prosecutor's office said
at the time.

READ ALSO: German Interior Ministry rules out deportations to Syria

The Syria conflict began in March 2011 with a series of mass protests demanding civil liberties, prompting a harsh crackdown by the regime which quickly began using brutal force against anti-government protesters.

Several other legal cases are now pending in Germany against the Assad regime.

Last year, German prosecutors issued an international arrest warrant for Jamil Hassan, a top Syrian official who headed the notorious airforce intelligence directorate and is accused of overseeing the torture and murder of hundreds of detainees.

Although the alleged abuses did not happen in Germany, the case has been filed under the legal principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows any country to pursue perpetrators regardless of where the crime was committed.

The Berlin-based European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights has also joined with torture survivors to file criminal complaints against 10 high-ranking Syrian officials, accusing them of crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Welcoming Tuesday's charges, the ECCHR said: “The first trial worldwide about state torture in Syria is expected to start in Germany in early 2020 – an important step in the fight against impunity.”

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