Singer/Soldier Travis Bishop : War Resister Released from Stockade

Singer/soldier Travis Bishop, who refused deployment to Afghanistan for reasons of consience, has been released from prison. Photo from Dallas Dreamer.
Fort Hood Soldier who refused to deploy:
Travis Bishop released from Fort Lewis stockade

By Alice Embree / The Rag Blog / March 26, 2010

War resister and conscientious objector Travis Bishop was released from the stockade at Fort Lewis, Washington Thursday morning.

During court-martial proceedings at Fort Hood, Texas, Bishop was sentenced to 12 months in prison for refusing to deploy to Afghanistan for reasons of conscience. He received a three-month reduction in sentence due to a successful clemency application to the Commanding General at Fort Hood, as well as receiving extra time off for good behavior.

Bishop served a total of seven months and 12 days of confinement. His rank was reduced from Sergeant to Private and a Bad Conduct Discharge is pending.

Travis Bishop was recognized by Amnesty International as a prisoner of conscience. He received support from hundreds of people from around the world who wrote letters of encouragement for him and called upon military authorities to release him.

“Travis really appreciated the support he received from Amnesty International and from many people throughout the U.S.,” said his lawyer, James Branum. “All those letters lifted his spirits and shortened his time in jail.”

Bishop spoke out about the inhumane conditions at the Fort Lewis stockade, which produced some reform in treatment of prisoners at the facility. Bishop was placed on the facility's "most difficult" prisoners list for these efforts.

Bishop's supporters in the Washington area are planning a celebration to take place at Coffee Strong GI Coffeehouse, on Sunday, March 28. Bishop also plans to come back to Killeen to visit his friends and supporters at Under the Hood Café and Outreach Center where additional celebrations will be held.

Bishop, a country music singer-songwriter, plans to resume his musical career.

Also on The Rag Blog:

• "Sgt. Travis Bishop : Ft. Hood War Resister to Get Out Early" by Alice Embree / February 10, 2010
• "Alice Embree : The Court Martial of Travis Bishop" by Alice Embree / August 16, 2009
• "Ft. Hood GI Travis Bishop: Why I Won't Go" by Travis Bishop / May 21, 2009
• "Prisoners of Conscience : U.S. Military Isolates War Resisters" by Dahr Jamail / September 29, 2009

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Artist Delara Darabi Executed in Iran

Delara Darabi made a tearful call early on Friday to her parents. Photo from Amnesty International.
Iran Executes Woman for Alleged Murder Committed as a Juvenile

Delara Darabi knew the end was close when she made a panic-filled call to her mother from prison to say that she could see the hangman's noose from her window.

By Philip Sherwell / May 3, 2009

The Iranian artist was executed on Friday for a murder allegedly committed when she was a juvenile and for which she retracted her brief confession, claiming she was covering up for her boyfriend.

The prison authorities hanged Miss Darabi, 23, even though the head of Iran's judiciary granted her a two-month stay of execution on April 19 amid international outrage over her case. They also did not give her lawyer the required 48 hours notice.

Horrific new details have emerged of her last desperate plea for help from Rasht prison as jail guards came to lead her away.

Delara Darabi made a tearful call early on Friday to her parents (Photo: Amnesty International) Miss Darabi made a tearful call early on Friday to her parents to say she could see the gallows and noose, according to media reports from Tehran.

"Mother they are going to execute me, please save me," she pleaded. But a prison official then grabbed the phone and told her distraught mother: "We are going to execute your daughter and there's nothing you can do about it."

The execution of a young woman whose case has become an international cause célèbre is a further damaging blow to President Barack Obama's attempts to thaw US relations with the Islamic regime. Roxana Saberi, an American-Iranian journalist, is on hunger strike in a Tehran prison after being convicted of espionage in a show trial last month.

Miss Darabi's case gained widespread attention after moving paintings and drawings that she made in her prison cell were shown around the world. She developed her talent as a painter behind bars.

Iran, Saudi Arabia and Yemen are the only countries to execute people for crimes committed when they are under 18. Miss Darabi was 17 when she admitted killing her 58-year-old uncle in a burglary in 2003 but she quickly retracted the confession, saying she had taken the blame to save her boyfriend.

Amnesty International, the human rights group that campaigned vigorously to save Miss Darabi, led the condemnation.

"Amnesty International is outraged at the execution and particularly at the news that her lawyer was not informed," said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, deputy chief for the Middle East and North Africa.

"This appears to have been a cynical move on the part of the authorities to avoid domestic and international protests which might have saved Delara Darabi's life.

"This indicates that even decisions by the Head of the Judiciary carry no weight and are disregarded in the provinces."

The Iranian authorities said that Miss Darabi confessed to the murder because she believed she would be pardoned as the crime was committed when she was a minor. But her lawyer said that new forensic evidence and the explanation for her confession cleared her, but the court declined to hear the testimony.

"Amnesty International does not consider her trial to have been fair, as the courts later refused to consider new evidence which the lawyer said would have proved she could not have committed the murder," Mr Sahraoui added.

Iran has executed at least 42 juvenile criminals since 1990, including seven in 2007, according to human rights groups. Iran says it only carries out the death penalty when a prisoner reaches the age of 18.

Iran's existing penal code holds a nine-year-old girl and a 15-year-old boy to be legally responsible if involved in crime.

Capital offences in Iran include murder, rape, armed robbery, apostasy, blasphemy, serious drug trafficking, repeated sodomy, adultery or prostitution, treason and espionage.

Iran stepped up its use of the death penalty last year in what it says is a bid to improve security in society.

© Copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited 2009

Source / Telegraph, U.K. / CommonDreams

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Amnesty International : China Using Olympics As ‘Pretext’ For Crackdown

A Chinese paramilitary policeman tries to block photos being taken outside the Olympic Stadium. Photo by AFP.
Repression of 'human rights defenders, journalists and lawyers has intensified'
July 29, 2008

HONG KONG - China is using the Beijing Olympics as a pretext to pursue — and in some cases tighten — a crackdown on human rights, notably ridding the capital of “undesirables,” Amnesty International charged Monday.

Reporting 11 days ahead of the August 8 opening ceremony, the rights group said that despite some minor reforms, authorities had stepped up repression of activists and lawyers to present a picture of stability and harmony.

Amnesty urged the International Olympic Committee and political leaders to do far more to challenge China, warning of even more repressive measures once the spotlight on the Games has faded away.

“Unless the authorities make a swift change of direction, the legacy of the Beijing Olympics will not be positive for human rights in China,” it warned.

“In fact, the crackdown on human rights defenders, journalists and lawyers has intensified because Beijing is hosting the Olympics.”

Amnesty’s report, citing specific cases, said activists who had tied their cause to the Games had been singled out for the pre-Olympics “clean-up,” while many others were being detained, imprisoned or placed under house arrest.

“Authorities have used the Olympic Games as a pretext to continue and in some respects, intensify existing policies and practices that have led to serious and widespread violations of human rights,” the report added.

It listed a series of recommendations urging China to:

* release all prisoners of conscience;

* stop police arbitrarily detaining activists and dissenters;

* impose a moratorium on the death penalty;

* allow complete media freedom; and

* account for those killed or detained in Tibet.

“It is very disturbing that Chinese authorities have indulged in such a big crackdown on the activists,” Mark Allison, China researcher for Amnesty, told AFP.

“These are people who represent many many more people in China.”

Officials were also extending the use of punitive administrative detention, notably of activists and petitioners as well as beggars and peddlers, Amnesty said.

In January, Beijing police launched a campaign against “illegal activities that tarnish the city’s image and affect the social order,” it noted.

In May, authorities adopted a “re-education through labour” law to control various types of “offending behaviour.”

In June, authorities in Shanghai sent notices to activists and petitioners ordering them to report to the police every week and barring them from leaving without permission or visiting Beijing until after the Games.

A clampdown on journalists has also intensified in recent months, Amnesty said, citing figures from the Foreign Correspondents Club of China showing as many as 230 cases of reporters being obstructed from interviews this year so far, compared to 180 cases in the whole of last year.

Internet controls have also been tightened up and many websites closed down for providing information deemed sensitive, the group noted.

Amnesty said that journalists working from Beijing’s Olympic press centre were unable to access the group’s website, as well as those of the BBC, Germany’s Deutsche Welle, Hong Kong newspaper Apple Daily, and Taiwan newspaper Liberty Times.

“This flies in the face of official Chinese promises to ensure ‘complete media freedom’ for the Games,” said Allison.

Such tactics raised concerns that officials would seek to block broadcasts of anything deemed sensitive or inappropriate, despite public commitments by organisers not to cut coverage.

Amnesty said China’s crackdown in Tibet earlier this year, and restrictions on reporting there, highlighted the authorities’ ongoing censorship.

It urged the IOC and the international community to express concerns publicly and press China to fulfil its obligations on human rights and dissent.

“The danger now becomes that after the Olympic Games, these patterns of serious human rights violations may continue or intensify with even less attention paid by the international community than has been the case so far,” it said.

© 2008 Agence France Presse

Source / AFP / CommonDreams

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