Newsletter

Amnesty International USA Group 48

12.14
Olddocks Stock.Xchng

1 Amnesty International USA

Honors Sudanese
Journalist Amal Habbani
with Annual Award for
Womens Human Rights
Defenders
2 SAUDI ARABIA: Urgent
Action, Executed Body
Not Returned To Family

4 CHINA: Urgent Action,

Female Activist Still Held In
Unknown Location
6 INDONESIA: Urgent Action,
Death Penalty, Legal
Concern, Imminent
Execution

Amnesty International USA Honors Sudanese

Journalist Amal Habbani with Annual Award for
Womens Human Rights Defenders
December 5th, 2014

AIUSA-Group 48
http://aipdx.org
503-227-1878
Next Meeting:
Friday December 12th
First Unitarian Church
1011 SW 12th Ave
7:00pm informal gathering
7:30pm meeting starts

NewsLetter Designed
By Michelle Whitlock
MichelleWhitlock.com

Amnesty International USA honored

Sudanese journalist Amal Khalifa Habbani at this years Ginetta Sagan Award
Reception and Dinner. The award is
given annually to honor courageous
women around the world who put their
lives at risk to stand up for the rights
of women and children who face grave
human rights violations.

humble, yes, but my dreams for a life

of dignity, freedom and equal rights for
women, especially the marginalized, are
uncompromising.

This award has given me the feeling

that our struggles and the struggle for
human rights in Sudan is supported
and warmly embraced by the global
human rights movement. It is as if their
Habbanis columns have led to her being message is that I shouldnt fear anything
because there are those who support
unlawfully prosecuted and censured
me, that I am not alone and the whole
for her criticism of Sudanese laws and
world is with you.
policies that unfairly curtail the rights
of women and undermine freedom of
Named in honor of a WWII resistance
speech and other human rights.
fighter who went on to become a
This award means the world to me,
said Habbani. My contributions are

powerful advocate for Prisoners of Conscience worldwide, the Ginetta Sagan

AIUSA group 48 Newsletter December 2014 Pg 2

Fund of Amnesty International USA was created to recognize

and assist women who are working to protect the liberty and
lives of women and children in areas where human rights
violations are widespread.
The Ginetta Sagan Award is a tangible symbol of Amnesty
Internationals commitment to standing by women human rights defenders all around the world, said Steven W.
Hawkins, executive director of Amnesty International USA.
The violation of anybodys human rights regardless of where
they are in the world is a personal affront to our own rights.

The women we honor tonight have faced discrimination,

inequality, and other injustices, but they are not passive witnesses. Rather, they are leaders in our shared struggle.
The Award recognizes outstanding achievement, often at great
personal risk, and serves to increase international scrutiny on
issues that threaten womens rights, and human rights overall.
The Ginetta Sagan Fund emphasizes that more human rights
work must be done by and for women and is accompanied by
a $10,000 award.

SAUDI ARABIA: Urgent Action - Executed Body Not Returned To Family

AliAgirdas (m)

Sigurd Decroos Stock.Xchng

AliAgirdas, a Turkish man convicted of drug-trafficking

after an unfair trial, was executed on November 20th in Saudi

Arabias capital, Riyadh. His family had not been told he was
about to be executed, and it seems from his last phone call
to them on November 19th that neither was he. The family
only learned about the execution that afternoon, when their
relatives and neighbors told them it had been reported on the
official Saudi Press Agency website. The family have asked repeatedly for his body to be returned to them, without success.
They have not even been told where it is being kept.
AliAgirdas had been arrested on February 24th 2007, when
he was 28, and charged with trafficking drugs in Riyadh. He
was convicted and sentenced to death by a General Court in
Riyadh. His sentence was later upheld by a court of appeal
and the Supreme Court before being ratified by the King.
AliAgirdas had no interpreter or lawyer during his interrogation and trial. He was only assisted by a lawyer during his
appeal and was convicted on the basis of a written statement
in which he confessed. Ali Agirdas had told the judge interrogator that he did not know about the drugs he was accused
of trafficking. However the interrogator presented him with
a document in Arabic and said it would help his case. At trial,
the judge told Ali Agirdas that he had signed a confession in
Arabic, a language he spoke a little but could not read, which

said he had known he was carrying drugs when he was arrested. AliAgirdas told the court he had not known what was
in the document.
The Saudi Arabian authorities have executed at least 76 people
in 2014, of whom at least 33 were put to death for drugrelated offences and 29 were foreign nationals. The authorities
executed Hajras al-Qurey on September 22nd for drug-trafficking, despite reports that he was tortured into confessing to the crime and the fact that he was convicted after an
unfair trial. On August 18th the authorities executed four
members of one family in the south-eastern city of Najran,
for receiving large quantities of hashish. The four men had
been sentenced to death on the basis of forced confessions
believed to have been extracted under torture. In 2013, Saudi
Arabia executed at least 79 people, three of whom were under
18 at the time of the crimes for which they were put to death,
in blatant violation of the UN Convention on the Rights of
the Child. Saudi Arabia is one of the top executioners in the
world, with more than 2,000 people executed since 1985.
Court proceedings in Saudi Arabia fall far short of international standards for fair trial. Trials in capital cases are often
held in secret. Defendants are rarely allowed formal representation by lawyers, and in many cases are not informed of the
progress of legal proceedings against them. They may be convicted solely on the basis of confessions made under duress
or deception. Foreign nationals with no knowledge of Arabic
the language of pre-trial interrogation and trial hearings are
often denied adequate interpretation facilities. In some cases
condemned prisoners families are not notified in advance of
their execution. The case of AliAgirdas is only one example of

AIUSA group 48 Newsletter December 2014 Pg 3

how the procedures followed in imposing the death penalty

cases in Saudi Arabia lead to the execution of the accused.
Saudi Arabia applies the death penalty for a wide range of
offenses that are not accepted as most serious crimes under
international standards for applying the death penalty, as
this is limited to crimes involving intentional killing. These
include adultery, armed robbery, apostasy, drug-related
offences, rape, witchcraft and sorcery. Some of these offenses, such as adultery and apostasy, should not even be
criminalized at all. At least one person has been executed for
witchcraft and sorcery in 2014.
International standards on the use of the death penalty require all countries that still retain the death penalty to make
information publicly available on its use and to return bodies
of the executed prisoners to the families to give them the
opportunity to bury their relatives according to their traditions and religious beliefs. The UN Special Rapporteur on
Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions has stated
that secrecy concerning executions amounts to inhuman and
degrading treatment and violates human rights. Amnesty
International opposes the death penalty in all cases without
exception. It violates the right to life as proclaimed in the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is the ultimate
cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.

Reminding them that international law allows for the use

of the death penalty only for the most serious crimes and
following proceedings that fully comply with international
fair trial standards.
Appeals To

PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE JANUARY 7th 2015 TO:

Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs
Mr. Mevlt avuolu
Dileri Bakanl
Dr. Sadk Ahmet Cad. No: 8
Balgat 06100
Ankara - Turkey
Fax: 011 90 312 287 88 11
Parliament email: cavusoglu@tbmm.gov.tr
Salutation: Dear Minister
Saudi Arabian Minister of the Interior
His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Naif bin Abdul
Aziz Al Saud
Ministry of the Interior
P.O. Box 2933, Airport Road, Riyadh 11134
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Fax: 011 966 11 403 3125 (keep trying)
Salutation: His Excellency

Further information: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ Copies To

MDE23/033/2009/en
Saudi Arabian Minister of Justice
His Excellency Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulkareem Al-Issa
Action
Ministry
of Justice
Please write immediately in English, Arabic, Turkish or your
University Street
own language:
Calling on the Turkish and Saudi Arabian authorities to
Riyadh 11137
return without delay the body of Ali Agirdas to his family for Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
burial;
Fax: 011 966 11 401 1741 OR 011 966 11 402 0311 
Urging the Saudi Arabian authorities to establish an official
moratorium on executions immediately, with a view to abolPostage Rates
ishing the death penalty, and commute all outstanding death
Within the United States
sentences;
$0.34 - Postcards
Calling on them to ensure that full information about the
$0.49 - Letters and Cards up to 1 oz.
use of the death penalty in Saudi Arabia is publicly available
To all international destinations
and that condemned prisoners families and lawyers are given
$1.15 - Postcards
full access to them and information about their cases, includ$1.15 - Airmail Letters and Cards up to 1 oz.
ing notification of any scheduled execution;

AIUSA group 48 Newsletter December 2014 Pg 4

Ambassador Adel A. Al-Jubeir,

Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia
601 New Hampshire Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20037
Fax: 1 202 944 5983
Email: info@saudiembassy.net
Please let us know if you took action so that we can track our
impact! EITHER send a short email to uan@aiusa.org with

UA 302/09 in the subject line, and include in the body of the

email the number of letters and/or emails you sent, to let us
know how you took action. Thank you for taking action!
Please check with the AIUSA Urgent Action Office if sending appeals after the above date. This is the first update of UA
302/09.

CHINA: Urgent Action - Female Activist Still Held In Unknown Location

Su Changlan (f), Chen Qitong (f), Chen Dequan (m)

Su Changlan is a well-known activist in southern China, who

has been detained several times previously due to her peaceful activities defending womens rights, on issues including
family planning and domestic violence.
Nick Winchester Stock.Xchng

Fears are growing for the welfare of Chinese womens rights

Support Prisoner of Conscience

Majid Tavakkoli

activist Su Changlan, who has been detained in an unknown

location without access to a lawyer since October 27th. One
of her friends is also now being held after being detained
on November 25th, along with Su Changlans husband. Su
Changlan could be facing charges of endangering national
security.

If you have not already signed the online

petition for Group 48s Iranian prisoner of
conscience, Majid Tavakkoli, please do so
NOW athttps://www.change.org/petitions/
ayatollah-ali-khamenehei-supreme-leader-ofislamic-republic-of-iran-free-majid-tavakkoli

Activist Su Changlan was taken away from her home by

police in Nanhai, Foshan, central Guangdong province, on
October 27th. She had previously made comments on social
media in support of the pro-democracy protests in Hong
Kong. The authorities have repeatedly refused to disclose her
whereabouts or the exact charges against her. On November
19th, one of her lawyers received a police notice turning down
his request to visit her, which stated that she is being held on
suspicion of endangering national security and terrorist
activities, but the charges have not been confirmed.

Majid Tavakkoli was arrested in December 2009,

after giving a speech at a student demonstration at Amir Kabir University in Tehran. He
was beaten and otherwise mistreated during
and after his arrest. In January 2010, at a trial
that his lawyer was not permitted to attend, he
was convicted of participating in an illegal
gathering, spreading propaganda against the
system, insulting the Supreme Leader and
insulting the president, and sentenced to nine
years in prison. Majid Tavakkoli is a prisoner of
conscience, imprisoned for peacefully exercising his right to freedom of expression.

On November 25th, police in Nanhai detained Su Changlans

husband, Chen Dequan, and a friend, Chen Qitong (also
known as Tian Li), who has been providing legal assistance.
Su Changlans husband was held for 11 hours, during which
he had his thighs tied to a restraint chair. He also had his
bank cards, mobile phone and keys to his home confiscated.
Chen Qitong continues to be detained in an unknown location.

See more about Group 48s campaign on Majid

Tavakkolis behalf here:
http://aipdx.org/about/our-prisoners-ofFRQVcience/majid-tavakkoli/

AIUSA group 48 Newsletter December 2014 Pg 5

Action

situation but the authorities refused to disclose her whereabouts. Officials at the petition office at the Public Security
Bureau said the family would get a response to their enquiry
within 60 days. Su Changlans family and lawyer were told by
the police that she was held at the Nanhai District Detention
Centre in Foshan, but when they went there on October 31st,
officers said she was not being detained there.

Please write immediately in Chinese, English or your own

language:
Demanding that the authorities immediately disclose
the whereabouts and legal status of Su Changlan and Chen
Qitong;
Calling on them to ensure without delay that they both
have regular, unrestricted access to their lawyers and family,
Torture and other ill-treatment remain endemic in all places
and are protected from torture and other ill-treatment;
of detention in China, and this risk is even greater for those
who
are not allowed access to their family or lawyer.
Urge the authorities to immediately and unconditionally release all those detained solely for peacefully showing support
At least 101 people have been detained in mainland China
for the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.
since pro-democracy protests began in Hong Kong on September
26th, for activities such as expressing their support
Appeals To
PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE JANUARY 9th, 2015 TO: on social media, shaving their heads in solidarity with the
demonstrators, or planning to travel to Hong Kong to join
Director Jiang Kaixin
the protests. Fifty remained in detention as of November 23rd,
Foshan City Public Security Bureau
and among them, 14 have been formally arrested. This is part
No. 8 Lingnan Dadaobei, Shanchengqu
of a wider attempt by the Chinese authorities to silence any
Foshan City, Guangdong Province
discussion
or displays of support for the events in Hong Kong.
Peoples Republic of China
Government censors have attempted to remove all positive
Salutation: Dear Director
mentions of the pro-democracy protests online, while forcing
Director Nanhai District Detention Centre
newspapers and TV stations to only use the state-sponsored
Shishan Zhaoda Management Zone
narrative of the protests.
Foshan City
An updated list of names and details can be found here: http://
Guangdong Province
Peoples Republic of China
www.amnesty.org/en/news/chinese-activists-detained-supSalutation: Dear Director
porting-hong-kong-protests-2014-11-07.
Director Li Chunsheng
Guangdong Provincial Public Security Department
No. 97 Huanghualu
Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province
Peoples Republic of China
Email: xf@gdga.gov.cn, info@gdga.gov.cn
Salutation: Dear Director
Additional Information

Su Changlan was questioned by police in Foshan, central

Guangdong province, on two occasions in September, after
she had made comments on social media in support of the
pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. On October 27thshe
was taken from her home by police for questioning at the
Guicheng police station in Nanhai, Foshan. Su Changlans
husband went to the local police station and Foshan Public
Security Bureau office on October 28th to enquire about her

AIUSA Group 48 Contact Information

Group Coordinator
Joanne Lau
jlau@aipdx.org

Prisoners Cases
Jane Kristof
kristofj@pdx.edu

Treasurer
Tena Hoke
tena.hoke@gmail.com

Megan Harrington
megan.harrington
@gmail.com

Newsletter Editor
Dan Webb
write_to_dan@yahoo.com

Concert Tabling
Will Ware
ww_ware@yahoo.com

Darfur (Sudan)
Marty Fromer
martyfromer@gmail.com

Central Africa/
OR State Death
Penalty Abolition
Terrie Rodello
tarodello@igc.org

Indonesia
Max White
maxw33@comcast.net

AIUSA group 48 Newsletter December 2014 Pg 6

INDONESIA: Urgent Action - Death Penalty, Legal Concern, Imminent Execution

Robert Niederer Stock.Xchng

International law guarantees the right of all prisoners under

sentence of death to apply for pardon or commutation of the
sentence and allows for the imposition of the death penalty
only for the most serious crimes. Drug-related offenses do
not meet this threshold.

Action

Please write immediately in English, Indonesian or your own

language:
Urging the authorities to immediately halt plans to execute
the five individuals ;
Calling on them to establish a moratorium on all executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty and to comive death row prisoners in Indonesia have been moved
mute all death sentences to terms of imprisonment;
to separate cells and are believed to be at risk of imminent
Urging them to ensure that full information about the use
execution. Indonesias new government has said publicly that
of the death penalty in Indonesia is available publicly and
it plans to carry out the five executions this year and 20 more that relatives and lawyers are given full access to death-row
in 2015.
prisoners and information about their cases;
Pointing out that the decision to resume executions has set
On November 28th, 2014, the Junior Attorney General for
Indonesia against the global trend towards abolition of the
General Crimes, Basyuni Masyarif, announced that the government was planning to execute five individuals currently on death penalty and the countrys own progress.
death row, who have exhausted all of their legal and clemency Appeals To
appeals, before the end of 2014. He also stated that another 20 PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE JANUARY 16th 2014 TO:
executions are scheduled for 2015.
President of the Republic of Indonesia
H. E. Joko Widodo
Around the 3rd Association of South East Asian Nations
(ASEAN) Ministerial Meeting on Drug Matters in Jakarta on Istana Merdeka
Jakarta Pusat 10110, Indonesia
December 3rd, the Indonesian Vice-President, Jusuf Kalla,
Fax: 011 62 21 386 4816 OR 011 62 21 344 2233
stated that the President will not grant clemency to at least 64 Email: ppid@setkab.go.id
individuals who have been sentenced to death for drug-relat- Salutation: Dear President
ed crimes and that there are plans to execute them.
Attorney General
News reports on December 4th indicate that one of the
H. M. Prasetyo
five individuals facing imminent execution is detained in
Jl. Sultan Hasanuddin No. 1, Jakarta Selatan,
Tangerang, Banten province, and two others in Batam, Riau
Jakarta 12160, Indonesia
Fax: 011 62 21 722 1269 OR 011 62 21 725 0213
Islands Province. All three appear to be convicted of drugrelated crimes. Two other prisoners, who appear to have been Email: humas_puspenkum@yahoo.co.uk
Salutation: Dear Attorney General
sentenced to death for murder, are imprisoned in Nusakambangan, Central Java province. Reports also suggest that they Copies To
have now been isolated from other prisoners, three days
National Human Rights Commission
before executions are due to take place, as required by law. No Chairperson
executions have been carried out so far in 2014. There are at
Hafid Abbas
least 130 people under sentence of death in Indonesia.
Jl. Latuharhari No. 4B, Menteng

AIUSA group 48 Newsletter December 2014 Pg 7

Jakarta Pusat 10310, Indonesia

Fax: 011 62 21 392 5227

with blanks. The squad fires from a distance of between five

and 10 meters.

H.E. Ambassador Budi Bowoleksono

Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia
2020 Massachusetts Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20036
Fax: 1 202 775 5365
Email: ikuhn@embassyofindonesia.org
or http://www.embassyofindonesia.org/contactform/contactform.php

Amnesty International recognizes the obligation and duty for

governments to protect the human rights of victims of crime,
and believes that perpetrators, after a fair judicial process,
should be punished with a sentence that is proportionate to
the crime committed, but without resort to the death penalty.
There is no convincing evidence that the death penalty deters
crime any more effectively than other forms of punishment.

Please let us know if you took action so that we can track our
impact! EITHER send a short email to uan@aiusa.org with
"UA 305/14" in the subject line, and include in the body of the
email the number of letters and/or emails you sent, to let us
us know how you took action. Thank you for taking action!
Please check with the AIUSA Urgent Action Office if sending
appeals after the above date.
Additional Information

Indonesia resumed executions on March 14th, 2013 after a

four year hiatus, when Adami Wilson, a 48-year-old Malawian national, was put to death for drug-trafficking. Four other
people were executed during 2013, three for murder and one
other, a foreign national, for drug-trafficking. The resumption
of executions was a shocking and regressive step after years
of positive indications that Indonesia was moving away from
the death penalty. In October 2012, after news that the then
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono commuted the death
sentence of a drug trafficker, Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa had said the move was part of a wider push away from
the use of the death penalty in Indonesia. Also in 2012, the
Supreme Court commuted the death sentence of a drug trafficker to 12 years imprisonment and the President granted
clemency for two others who had been sentenced to death for
drug trafficking.
Death sentences in Indonesia are carried out by firing squad.
The prisoner has the choice of standing or sitting and whether
to have their eyes covered, by a blindfold or hood. Firing
squads are made up of 12 people, three of whose rifles are
loaded with live ammunition, while the other nine are loaded

Amnesty International believes that the death penalty is the

ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment, and a
violation of the right to life as proclaimed in the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights. Article 6(6) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which
Indonesia is a State Party, states that Nothing in this article
shall be invoked to delay or to prevent the abolition of capital
punishment by any State Party to the present Covenant. The
Human Rights Committee, the body overseeing the implementation of the ICCPR, has stated that Article 6 refers
generally to abolition [of the death penalty] in terms which
strongly suggest... that abolition is desirable. The Committee
concludes that all measures of abolition should be considered
as progress in the enjoyment of the right to life.
Group 48 Write-a-thon and
Potluck Friday, Dec 12th
Our annual holiday potluck and Write-a-thon
is happening on Friday Dec 12.
Please add a comment to the posting on our
website at the link below to specify what you will
bring in terms of food and/or supplies.
Several people have indicated they will bring
greeting cards so please consider bringing
something else, such as stamps, pens, envelopes, copies of the sample letters, utensils,
plates, napkins, etc.
http://aipdx.org/2014/11/18/group-48-holidaypotluck-write-a-thon-2/

AIUSA group 48 Newsletter December 2014 Pg 8

Group 48 Membership
Group 48's membership fee is due every January. If you join Group 48 after January in any given year, we appreciate you pay
the full membership fee at the time you join us or you have the choice to pay in January of the following year. Please send a
check or money order payable to Amnesty International Group 48 and the form below to our treasurer: Tena Hoke, 5026 SE
46th Ave, Portland OR 97206. None of your contact information will be shared with any other organization.
If you wish to pay online, go to: http://aipdx.org/donate/

Please add my email address

to the Group 48 email list.

Name __________________
Address _________________

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City/State/Zip _____________

$25 Family membership

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$50 Generous donor

Email _____________
Note: Group 48 is not a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
Donations to Group 48 are not tax-deductible.

$100 Amnesty Angel

$5 Limited income

Postage

AIUSA group 48 Newsletter December 2014