Category: Justice

{He said his disability will make his time in jail unbearable.}

Convicted Paralympian Oscar Pistorius walked on stumps in court on Wednesday as his lawyer Barry Roux pleaded with Judge Thokozile Masipa not to sentence him to 15 years in jail.

The Supreme Court overturned the initial culpable homicide sentence and the State is now gunning for a minimum 15 year term for murder. Mr Pistorius shot and killed his model girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on February 14, 2013.

Advocate Roux told the court that the athlete had a torrid time in prison during the 12 months he spent at Kgosi Mampuru II before being released on parole.

He said his disability will make his time in jail unbearable.

Mr Roux called his client forward and told the court what he was about to do would be embarrassing for him.

He asked a weeping Mr Pistorius to remove his prostheses and stand on his stumps in front of the court. He did so slowly, then walked haltingly.

The former paralympian appeared to be in pain and struggled to retain his balance. He held on to a desk for support.

Roux then pointed to him, saying “this is the man who was frightened by a noise at 3am”.

Final arguments are being heard in the North Gauteng High Court and Mr Roux has maintained his argument that the former athlete did not mean to kill Ms Steenkamp.

“The SCA (Supreme Court of Appeal) found that although frightened, his fear was rational,” argued Mr Roux.

He added that Mr Pistorius’s disability and anxiety disorder affected his ability to think clearly when faced with danger.

He told the court “there was a perception created that the accused wanted to kill the deceased, and the perception stays”.

The athlete will know his fate on Friday at the end of a five-day pre-sentencing hearings. “It is three o’clock in the morning, it is dark, he is on his stumps,” Mr Roux said, stressing his client’s vulnerability.

“His balance is seriously compromised and… he would not be able to defend himself. He was anxious, he was frightened. His perception that he and the deceased were in danger was fortified by finding the open bathroom window. He believed the person in the toilet was an intruder and deceased was at the time in the bed,” Mr Roux said.

PAYING HEAVILY
In March, the Supreme Court of Appeal found Pistorius guilty of murder — irrespective of who was behind the door when he opened fire with a pistol he kept under his bed.

The standard jail term for murder in South Africa is 15 years, but Pistorius’s sentence may be reduced due to the year he has already spent in prison and mitigating factors, including his disability.

Mr Roux urged judge Masipa to “entertain the correct facts and not to be drowned by the many perceptions” whirling around the case that attracted years of intense public scrutiny.

“The accused has lost everything. He can never ever resume his career,” Mr Roux said.

“He lost his future… he has paid physically, he is the shadow of the man he was. He is a broken man, he has paid financially, he has paid socially. He is paying constantly.”

State lawyer Gerrie Nel started his arguments to push for a severe penalty. “He knew there was someone behind the door,” he said.

“Using a lethal weapon, a loaded firearm, the accused fired not one but four shots to the toilet door,” Mr Nel said. “He failed to provide any acceptable version for his conduct.”

Pistorius was originally convicted of culpable homicide — the equivalent of manslaughter — until the appeal court upgraded his crime to murder.

Judge Masipa, who gave the original verdict, is due to hand down a new sentence for murder after final arguments are completed.

Thursday is a national holiday in South Africa, and the sentence could be given on Friday — with Pistorius facing an immediate return to jail.

Earlier, Kim Martin, Reeva Steenkamp’s cousin, gave the last state evidence in the hearing.

“I never ever heard him say that ‘I apologise for shooting, murdering Reeva behind that door’,” she told the court. “We just wanted the truth.”

She added that she was uncertain whether Pistorius and Steenkamp were in a truly loving relationship.

{Rights body raises alarm over attacks against people with albinism, but government dubs Amnesty report as “unfair”.}

The Malawian government has failed to protect people with albinism, leaving this group to the mercy of criminal gangs who hunt for their body parts, Amnesty International has said.

In a new report released on Tuesday, the rights body said the attacks on people with albinism over the past two years were “unprecedented” and that a lack of action on the part of authorities has created a “climate of terror” for those living with the condition.

According to the Malawi Police Services, at least 69 people with albinism have been attacked in Malawi since 2014. Amnesty said that at least 18 people have been killed, five others abducted since November 2014. At least four were killed in April 2016 alone.

Body parts belonging to people with albinism have become sought after in areas of southern and eastern Africa. Some believe they contain magical powers, leading to reports of them being sold on the black market.

While attacks have routinely taken place in Tanzania and Kenya and Burundi, “albino hunters” appeared to have moved on Malawi over the past 18 months in particular.

The report released by Amnesty, entitled “We are not animals to be hunted or sold” described the severity of the attacks, including mutilation and dismembering.

The report alleges that police lacked the adequate training and skills to investigate such crimes. It further raised concerns over the police officers’ ability to take human rights abuses endured by people with albinism seriously.

“Some police officers carry the same prejudices against people with albinism that exists within the wider Malawian society,” the report said.

It’s a claim Patricia Kaliati, Malawi’s minister of information, vehemently denies. Kaliati said that her government was “doing everything possible to protect this community”.

“For Amnesty to suggest we are doing nothing is not helpful and not fair,” she told Al Jazeera.

Bonface Massah, the head of the Association of People with Albinism in Malawi, welcomed the report, calling it “a very positive development” for those with albinism.

“It has highlighted the attacks and also has shed light on the deep-rooted social issues facing those with albinism in the country and gives us an opportunity to address it.

Living conditions have become so difficult for those with albinism in Malawi, that in April, United Nations expert Ikponwosa Ero, said if nothing was done, they risked “systematic extinction”.

There are an estimated 7,000-10,000 people living with albinism in Malawi out of a population of 16.5 million.

“The situation is a potent mix of poverty, witchcraft beliefs and market forces which push people to do things for profit,” Ero told Al Jazeera.

According to a report released by the Red Cross, witch doctors in neighbouring Tanzania were willing to pay as much as $75,000 for a complete set of albino body parts – including all four limbs, genitals, ears, tongue and nose.

Simeon Mawanza, Amnesty’s researcher for southern Africa, who worked on the report, said that tracking down the buyers was still the most obscure piece of the puzzle. “The source, we are still searching for the source of these attacks,” he told Al Jazeera.

The report also found that people with albinism suffered “widespread societal discrimination including verbal abuse and exclusion from accessing basic public services”.

Experts say that people with albinism also endured discrimination at schools and hospitals.

{At least 32 killed and thousands flee in the wake of attack in Bosso town on Nigeria-Niger border.}

The UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has expressed concern for some 50,000 people, who have been forced to flee a town in Niger after a devastating attack from armed group Boko Haram.

Adrian Edwards, UN refugee agency (UNHCR) spokesman, told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday that tens of thousands of people were forced to flee the town of Bosso, in south-eastern Niger, after the armed group attacked a military outpost based over the weekend.

Edwards said that many of those fleeing the town were headed towards Toumour, some 30km west of Bosso, living in the open and in pecarious conditions.

“This is a desperately poor area where the general insecurity has destroyed the socio-economic fabric. The self-reliance capacity of the displaced and their hosts is extremely limited.

“Many people are reportedly traumatised and worried about their safety. People are sleeping in the open and urgently need shelter and other assistance,” Edwards said.

Authorities said that at least 30 Nigerian civilians and two Nigerian soldiers were killed during that attack on Friday.

Quoting the mayor of Bosso and a Nigerian military source, Reuters reported on Monday that Boko Haram retook the town on Sunday night following clashes with soldiers from Niger and Nigeria. It was unclear on Tuesday who was in charge of the city.

Martin Ewi, researcher on counter-terrorism at the Institute of Security Studies (ISS) in Pretoria, South Africa, said that Boko Haram’s move to capture Bosso suggested that the group were searching for a “new safe haven”.

Ewi told Al Jazeera that the group were desperately searching for a city from which they could launch their attacks. He described Niger as the “new frontline of the war”.

“Being in the forest is good for hiding, but having a safe haven in southern Niger is what they need for sustainability,” Ewi said.

The UNHCR said in May that security and humanitarian situation was worsening in the Diffa Region in Niger as the rebellion spread from Nigeria to Niger.

“Nigeria is really cracking down hard on their operations. And Niger has until now been able to detect Boko Haram’s plans, so I am curious to know how they managed to get into Bosso this time,” Ewi said.

Niger, Cameroon, Chad, Nigeria and Benin, have all contributed troops to a 9,000-strong regional task force dedicated to fighting the group.

According to the UN, more than 20,000 people have been killed, and over 2,000 women and girls have been abducted since the conflict began in 2009.

At least 2.5 million people have fled their homes, of whom 2.2 million are internally displaced. A further 177,000 are seeking refuge in the neighbouring countries of Cameroon, Chad and Niger.

{Egypt’s former top auditor, who was sacked after highlighting government corruption, has gone on trial accused of spreading “false news”.}

Hisham Geneina was fired in March, soon after estimating corruption cost Egypt $67.6bn (£46.3bn) over four years.

Mr Geneina said the figure was based on an exhaustive study, but a presidential commission concluded that he had misled the public with “foreign” help.

The former judge denies the charges and says they are politically motivated.

Critics say the prosecution raises questions about President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi’s avowed commitment to fighting corruption.

{{‘Politically motivated’}}

Reporters were barred from the opening of Mr Geneina’s trial at the Cairo Misdemeanour Court, but the Associated Press reported that it was swiftly adjourned until 21 June after his lawyers asked for more time to study the case.

Mr Geneina earlier told the New York Times that the prosecution was politically motivated and driven by powerful enemies inside the government.

“I was expected not to touch certain corruption cases,” he said.

The case is based on comments Mr Geneina made to two Egyptian newspapers last December, when he was still head of the Accountability State Authority (ASA).

The daily Al-Youm Al-Sabea quoted Mr Geneina as saying in an interview that endemic corruption had cost Egypt some 600bn Egyptian pounds ($67.6bn) in 2015 alone, mostly in corrupt land deals.

Mr Geneina later said that he had been misquoted and that the figure covered four years – a claim supported by a separate interview with another newspaper.

He also noted that it was based on a study commissioned by the Egyptian planning ministry and carried out with the UN Development Programme.

The president did not state why he dismissed Mr Geneina three months later, but it came after the presidential commission said he had exaggerated the figure.

Mr Sisi has made fighting corruption a top priority since coming to power after leading the military’s overthrow of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in 2013.

Egypt was ranked 88th out of 168 countries on Transparency International’s 2015 corruption perceptions index.

Two months ago, Mr Sisi’s former agriculture minister was sentenced to 10 years in prison after being found guilty of corruption. Salah Eddin Helal was accused of taking bribes to sell state land to a businessman at a heavily discounted price.

{At least two people are shot and injured in protest over arrests of 11 schoolchildren for “insulting” Pierre Nkurunziza.}

Police in Burundi opened fire and injured at least two people during a protest by schoolchildren against the arrest of fellow students for defacing a photo of President Pierre Nkurunziza, residents and pupils said.

A police official told the AFP news agency that 11 high school students in Muramvya, about 50km east of the capital Bujumbura, were detained on Friday for “insulting the head of state.

“The children, six girls and five boys aged over 14, were placed in custody in Muramvya central prison in mid-afternoon,” the official added, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The information was confirmed by several witnesses, including a parent who saw his daughter being taken off to the prison, and a lawyer who helped the students, AFP reported.

About a dozen others, aged under 14, the age of criminal responsibility in Burundi, were released.

Following the arrests, hundreds of local students immediately rallied to demand the release of their colleagues, witnesses said.

The demonstrators, aged between 12 and 17, were marching on the highway between Bujumbura and Gitega.

“We were in the streets to ask for the release of our colleagues who were unjustly arrested, then some police officers who were in a pick-up vehicle of the intelligence office opened fire on us, a colleague was hurt by one bullet and was taken to hospital for treatment,” one student told the Reuters news agency.

A police officer confirmed to Reuters that a student, along with a taxi driver, had been shot, while witnesses told AFP that two demonstrators and a passing motorcyclist had been injured.

{{Plunged into crisis}}

Burundi has been mired in a year-long crisis in which more than 450 people have been killed since Nkurunziza pursued and won a third term. Opponents said his move violated the constitution and a deal that ended a civil war in 2005.

Nkurunziza’s camp says a court ruling had declared the former rebel-turned-president eligible to seek another term.

In a separate incident two weeks ago, more than 300 students of a school in Ruziba were sent home after staff found a picture of the president had also been defaced in textbooks.

Insulting the president carries a potential jail term of five to 10 years, according to Burundi’s penal code.

{Former president punished over killings and rape of civilian victims}

The African Union-backed court in Senegal on Monday slammed a life jail sentence against former Chadian President Hissène Habre.

The Burkina Faso judge of the court, Justice Gberdao Gustave Kam, announced the verdict declaring Habré guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Judge Kam, however declared that the former leader’s property would not be confiscated as requested by the Senegalese prosecutor of the court.

Habré will henceforth spend the rest of his life in the Camp Manuel jail near Dakar which were especially refurbished for the trial.

Outside the courthouse, there were both wailing on the part of Habré supporters and jubilation on the part of the families of victims many of them from Chad who fell on the ground with tears of joy running down their cheeks.

The verdict brings a long-awaited reckoning to relatives of the up to 40,000 people killed and many more kidnapped, raped or tortured under his 1982-1990 rule as president of Chad.

Habre was guilty of war crimes, crimes against humanity, rape, forced slavery, and kidnapping, said the president of the court Gberdao Gustave Kam, sentencing him to life in jail. His time would be served in a yet to be determined location.

Habre raised his arms into the air on hearing the verdict, shouting “Down with France-afrique!” referring to the term used for France’s continuing influence on its former colonies.

The former leader has 15 days to appeal the sentence.

Victims groups who had travelled to Dakar to hear the verdict were visibly moved by a judgement that comes a quarter century after the abuses they suffered.

FIGHT IMPUNITY

“The feeling is one of complete satisfaction,” said Clement Abeifouta, president of a Habre survivors association.

“It’s the crowning achievement of a long and hard fight against impunity. Today Africa has won. We say thank you to Senegal and to Africa for judging Africa,” he added.

The case was heard by the CAE special tribunal set up by the African Union under a deal with Senegal, and is the first time a country has prosecuted a former leader of another nation for rights abuses.

In the Chadian capital, N’Djamena, up to 250 victims and their supporters gathered to watch the trial on television at their group’s headquarters.

Women screamed with joy as the verdict was read out, embracing one another and shouting “We won!”, before taking to the streets and blocking traffic as they spread the news.

“This is a victory for the Chadian people against impunity and injustice, never again,” said Jean Noyama, head of the AVCRHH victims association.
The precedent set by the verdict could be seismic, according to legal experts.

Reed Brody, a lawyer for Human Rights Watch who has spent the last 15 years working with victims to bring Habre to justice, said the conviction was a warning to other despots.

LIFE OF LUXURY

“This verdict sends a powerful message that the days when tyrants could brutalise their people, pillage their treasury and escape abroad to a life of luxury are coming to an end,” Reed said in a statement.

“Today will be carved into history as the day that a band of unrelenting survivors brought their dictator to justice.”

Amnesty International West Africa researcher Gaetan Mootoo said the verdict would serve as a guiding light for those living in repressive regimes around the world.

“It is moments like these that other victims around the world can draw on in darker times when justice appears beyond reach. It will nourish them with hope and give them strength to fight for what is right,” Mootoo said in a statement.

Known as a skilled desert warrior often dressed in combat fatigues to fit the role, Habre fled to Senegal after his 1990 ouster by Chad’s current President Idriss Deby.

Witnesses recounted the horror of life in Chad’s prisons, describing in graphic detail abusive and often deadly punishments inflicted by Habre’s feared secret police, the Documentation and Security Directorate (DDS).

Victims were subject to electric shocks and waterboarding while some had gas sprayed in their eyes or spice rubbed into their genitals, the court heard.