Freed Pussy Riot Band Member Takes Case to European Court // Updated 7 months ago

By Nastassia Astrasheuskaya

MOSCOW, Oct 19 – The sole member of anti-Kremlin punk group Pussy Riot freed on appeal has taken her case to the European Court of Human Rights, she and her lawyer said on Friday, accusing Russia of violating her right to freedom of speech and illegally detaining her.

Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30, was one of three band members sentenced to two years in jail in August for belting out a profanity-laced song against President Vladimir Putin in a cathedral in a case that sparked an international outcry.

Her jail term was converted to a suspended sentence and Samutsevich was freed on appeal on Oct. 10 after six months behind bars after her lawyer successfully argued she had not actually taken part in the protest because she had been stopped and led away before it took place.

The lawyer, Irina Khrunova, said the Samutsevich’s rights had been violated during six months of pre-trial detention as she was left without food for hours and deprived of sleep.

“The violations were very serious and very evident,” Samutsevich told Reuters in a Moscow cafe on Friday.

“I don’t like the fact that they did not acquit me and the other girls … and I want to challenge that before the European court. Sadly the Russian courts have not shown objectivity or fairness.”

Samutsevich told Reuters last week that Pussy Riot had “achieved more than our goal” by igniting debate about the close ties between the Russian state and the Orthodox Church, whose spiritual leader has likened Putin’s rule to “a miracle of God”.

She also said the trial had been an ordeal, with she and her fellow band members roused in their cells daily at 5 a.m. after returning to jail at 1 a.m. the previous night.

“It was constant stress, constantly being under guard, handcuffed,” she said in the interview.

The two other band members - Maria Alyokhina, 24, and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22 – remain in jail after a Moscow court upheld their prison sentences, a ruling Putin said they had deserved.

The trio was found guilty of “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred” after performing a song asking the Virgin Mary to “throw Putin out” on the altar of Moscow’s Christ the Saviour Cathedral in February.

The protest prompted accusations of blasphemy from the Orthodox Church and acerbic criticism from Putin, but sparked an outcry from Western governments and pop stars, including Madonna, who condemned the sentences as disproportionate.

However, the altar protest was offensive to many back in Russia, which is legally a secular state.

[FULL ARTICLE]

Families of Slain UK Soldiers Win Right to Sue Government // Updated 7 months ago

By Stephen Eisenhammer

LONDON, Oct 19 – Relatives of four British soldiers killed in the war in Iraq won the right to sue the government for negligence, in a landmark appeal court ruling on Friday that could open the door for other claims.

Families of some of the soldiers who lost their lives in the 2003 U.S.-led invasion had said Britain sent them to the front line with inadequate equipment.

Many of the early casualties were inflicted on troops travelling in lightly armoured Snatch Land Rover vehicles designed to confront rioters in Northern Ireland, but ineffective against insurgents’ roadside bombs in Iraq.

The court said the British defence ministry had a duty of care towards its employees, including soldiers on the battlefield, and had to provide them with the right gear.

It dismissed the defence ministry’s so-called “combat immunity” argument that the government could not be held responsible for the decisions of commanders in the heat of battle.

“My clients are very pleased with the verdict,” Shubhaa Srinivasan, a lawyer representing one of the families told Reuters.

“Today’s ruling is really not about second guessing the soldiers and decisions they make on the ground in the heat of battle … It’s all about whether you’re properly equipping troops to do what they’re meant to do on the battlefield,” she said.

The Appeals Court also upheld a June 2011 High Court ruling that said relatives of two soldiers could not claim for compensation on the grounds that the men’s human rights had been violated.

Susan Smith, the mother of Phillip Hewett who was killed in Iraq in July 2005, said she was angered by that second ruling.

“Why is it that the UK is always ramming down your throat about everybody else’s human rights but their own soldiers have got none?” she told the BBC.

Eric Grove, director of the centre of international security and war studies at the University of Salford, said the prospect of negligence lawsuits would hamper Britain’s army.

“I think it’s applying civil standards to military affairs and combat which is completely inappropriate,” he told Reuters.

“If the armed forces are constantly looking over their shoulder asking is the equipment sufficient … If you take that view we probably wouldn’t have gone to war in 1939,” he added, referring to the beginning of World War Two.

A total of 179 British soldiers lost their lives in Iraq during the 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein and the six years they were stationed there afterwards.

[FULL ARTICLE]

Sources Say Drone Killed Senior Qaeda Leader, Eight Others in Yemen // Updated 7 months ago

ADEN, Oct 18 – Nine suspected al Qaeda militants were killed in what a local security source and residents said was a U.S. drone attack on a farmhouse outside a town in southern Yemen.

[FULL ARTICLE]

Police Fire Teargas at Greek Anti-Austerity Protest // Updated 7 months ago

ATHENS, Oct 18 - Greek police fired teargas to disperse anti-austerity protesters hurling stones and petrol bombs on the day of a general strike that brought much of the near-bankrupt country to a standstill.

[FULL ARTICLE]

Peace Envoy to Visit Syria to Work Out Eid Ceasefire // Updated 7 months ago

AMMAN, Oct 18 – The international mediator on Syria will go to Damascus in the next few days to try to broker a brief ceasefire in the war between President Bashar al-Assad’s government and rebels during the Islamic Eid al-Adha festival.

[FULL ARTICLE]

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