Myanmar authorities accused of aiding killings of Muslims
SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) Human Rights Watch on Monday accused authorities in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State of crimes against humanity in the ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims last year, charges the government dismissed as one-sided and “unacceptable”.
Security forces were complicit in disarming Rohingya Muslims of makeshift weapons and standing by, or even joining in, as Rakhine Buddhist mobs killed men, women and children in June and October 2012, New York-based HRW said.
Qatari poet gets life sentence for ‘incitement against authorities’
SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – Many have been shocked to see Qatar, the country which has been showing support to the Arab Spring's revolutions in Egypt, Tunisia, and other Arab countries, issuing a harsh life sentence imprisonment on Thursday against an opponent poet of the ruling family over a poem.
The renown Qatari poet Mohammed Ben al-Dheeb was sentenced to life imprisonment by his country state security court over a verse authorities claim insults the Gulf nation’s “symbols” and encourages the overthrow of its ruling system.
“A Qatar court sentenced to life in prison Mohammed al-Ajami, alias Ibn al-Dhib, charged on three counts: incitement against the regime, defamation of the crown prince, Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, and attacking the constitution,” Nejib Naimi told AFP.
He said he would appeal next week against the verdict, which was taken “after six hearings, most of them in secret.”
Under the charges against him, the poet was liable to a maximum five years in prison, said the lawyer, who was formerly Qatar’s justice minister, stressing that “life in prison only applies in the case of an attempted coup.”
Al Jazeera News Channel did not carry the news despite the fact that it has criticized violations of human rights in other Arab countries, including Kuwait, Jordan and Bahrain where opposing the authorities is a permitted act.
Several poets, writers and journalists have sent an appeal to the Qatari emir asking him to release al-Dheeb and compensate him for the year he spent in prison.
Amnesty International said in a statement that the verdict bore “all the hallmarks of an outrageous betrayal of free speech,” and called for Ajami’s immediate release.
“It is deplorable that Qatar, which likes to paint itself internationally as a country that promotes freedom of expression, is indulging in what appears to be such a flagrant abuse of that right,” said Philip Luther, Amnesty’s regional director.
The poet was arrested in November 2011, accused of incitement “to overthrow the ruling system” and “insulting the Emir” Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, the London-based rights group said.
Amnesty said the charges on which Ajami was convicted were based on the content of his poetry.
His arrest followed the publication of the “Jasmine poem” which criticized governments across the Gulf region, saying “we are all Tunisia in the face of the repressive elite,” the statement added.- www.shfaqna.com/English
Source: Al Arabiya
Bahrain Authorities Investigate After Video Shows Police Beating Up Protester
SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – Bahrain authorities have launched an investigation into alleged police brutality after officers were secretly filmed beating up an unarmed man.
The film shows a man, believed to be an anti-governement protester, being attacked by a number of officers, who repeatedly kick and strike him whilst dragging him across an open space towards their vehicles. Another officer spits in the man's face before another kicks him into the back of a 4x4.
Protests continued on Monday as the demonstrations focussed on a shopping centre near the village of Makiya, where masked activists set fire to tyres. Press reports have claimed that the paramilitary National Guard has been deployed by the government in an effort to suppress the protests.
The police video was published on YouTube on Friday, but it was not until Sunday that the Ministry of Interior confirmed an investigation had begun:
In a statement to the Huffington Post UK, the Bahrain president's office said: "We want to emphasize that the actions of individual officers are not a reflection of any Government mandate and will absolutely not be tolerated. Anyone breaching the police code of conduct will be held accountable.
"The Ministry of Interior is currently enforcing major policing overhauls in regards to the use of force and implementing disciplinary measures. This is a process and we continue to insist that all security personnel act in accordance to the international conventions the Bahraini Government are part of."
However, the statement added a warning to those in the country protesting against the government, saying: "We encourage all citizens to assist security personnel in restoring law and order, instead of breaching the law and aggravating the already volatile environment created by riotous acts."
Monday's protests have been staged in solidarity with a teenager killed during demonstrations at the end of last week when security forces are reported to have attacked worshippers trying to reach Friday Prayers.
Activists claim all the roads to the Deraz mosque where leading Shia cleric, Sheikh Issa Qassim, gives his weekly sermon, were closed by police and that attempts to find alternaitve routes to the mosque were barred.
Witnesses say a 16-year-old boy, Ali Radhi, was being chased by police when he was hit and killed by a car during the disturbances. The Ministry of Interior confirmed the death, although did not say that he was being chased by police at the time. The Ministry later added that the death occurred seven miles away from the mosque and "had no connection with the security check points or police activity".— www.shafaqna.com/English
Source: Huffingtonpost
2 blasts shake Eilat, authorities search for rockets
SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) — Security forces searched the Eilat area on Wednesday night after two powerful blasts rocked the Red Sea resort city.
Eilat residents flooded the police's emergency number after hearing the explosions, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.
Police ground units searched through various parts of the city, and suspect that rockets landed in open areas. No injuries or damages were reported following the explosions.
An IDF spokeswoman said the search was halted by security forces late Wednesday night, and did not definitively confirm that the blasts were caused by rockets.
She added that the search resumed at 6:30 a.m. on Thursday morning.—www.shafaqna.com/english
Source: The Jerusalem Post
Syria: Gunman from al-Khaldea in Homs gives himself up to the Authorities
SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) — A gunman from al-Khaldea neighborhood in Homs gave himself up and handed his weapon to the competent authorities which released him after settling his case.
"I gave myself up to a unit of the Syrian Arab Army positioned at the surroundings of al-Khalea after I tried to do so 4 times, but I failed as the armed groups prevented me from surrender," Mohammad Fares Ghanam said in a speech to the Syrian TV broadcast Wednesday.
Ghanam added that what pushed him to surrender was his wish to abandon what he was involved in and return to normal life, and after his recognition that the acts of armed groups have no relation to which they call a revolution.
"The rebel should be good, clean person.. he doesn't loot house or shops, he doesn't burn or destroy public and private properties," Ghanam said.
He underlined that the families in al-Khaldea want to go out of the neighborhood and get rid of the armed terrorist groups, but they prevent them from leaving to take them as human shields. He called on all gunmen to judge their conscience after hundreds of innocents were killed at their hands. —www.shafaqna.com/english
Source: Abna
Saudi authorities detained three shiite youngsters
SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) — On Sunday, July 15, 2012, Saudi Wahhabi authorities arrested three Shiite youngsters "Ali Hussan al-Jaroudi, Hussain Taqi al-Jaroudi, Mohammad Ahmad al-Medan" on charges of organizing the detonations and inciting violence against the security forces.
Three Shiite youngsters were halted by a police check-point when they were returning home in Qatif from a vacation in al-Medina al-Munwarra.
The police found a photo of Sheikh Nemer al-Nemer on their mobiles.
The security police transferred them to the General Intelligence, Al-Mabahith Al-'Aamma of al-Medina al-Munwarra
Their families have no information about them .—www.shafaqna.com/english
