Countering terror with justice in Europe and Africa
Living in fear is not just a condition of life in war torn countries like Sudan, Afghanistan, or Iraq. This week Amnesty International is taking a stand with five reports describing how Authorities around the world are using the "war on terror" to loosen or ignore laws that protect citizens' human rights.
Four of this week's reports from Amnesty focus on Tunisia. 'Tunisia: Torture, illegal detention and unfair trials' describes "Hundreds if not thousands of young people suspected of terrorism-related offences [that] have been arrested in Tunisia in the past five years. Many have been tortured and otherwise ill-treated, held incommunicado and subjected to enforced disappearance. Some have been sentenced after unfair trials before military and other courts to long prison terms or even death."
The fifth is a 76 page document outlining certain practices of US agencies in Europe and in their dealings with European nationals in the context of the “war on terror” - "ranging from allowing CIA flights headed for rendition circuits to use European airports and airspace to hosting secret detention centres, or “black sites” – and their failure to admit or investigate violations carried out by their nationals or on their territory."
The report tells the story of people like Abu Omar, an Egyptian refugee who was the victim of rendition in Italy and secret detention. According to the report:
Usama Mostafa Hassan Nasr, better known as Abu Omar, an Egyptian national with refugee status and Italian residency, was walking down a street in Milan on 17 February 2003. An Italian-speaking man approached him, identified himself as a policeman, and demanded to see his papers. The next thing Abu Omar knew he was being bundled into a white van.
US agents took Abu Omar to the NATO airbase at Aviano, northern Italy. At Aviano he was reportedly put on a Learjet LJ-35 (SPAR-92) and flown to Ramstein NATO airbase in Germany. In Ramstein, he was transferred to a CIA-chartered Gulfstream IV jet (N85VM) and flown to Cairo in Egypt, where he was detained in secret for the next 14 months.
Abu Omar says that on arrival in Cairo, he was taken by Egyptian security officers to a building he later discovered was the national intelligence headquarters. He said that he was tortured up to 12 hours a day for seven months. He described being “crucified” on a metal door and on a wooden apparatus which they called el-arousa (the bride), during which he was given electric shocks, kicked and beaten...
Read more campaign content on the 'Freedom from Fear, Preventing Torture'
