AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

Berkin is the fourth person to die as a direct result of abusive use of force by police officers during last year’s Gezi Park protests. The lack of effective investigations into the use of such force which also left thousands injured has touched a nerve and resulted in a wave of anti-government demonstrations which are sweeping Turkey again.

Residents wait to receive UNRWA food aid at the besieged al-Yarmouk camp on January 31, 2014.© unrwa.org

The defendants in this trial were confronted by abusive use of force by police. Some of them sought to prevent violence, others to protect themselves. A few were just caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. All are victims of a politically motivated show trial.

This senseless loss of human life is deeply disturbing. The Ukrainian authorities must take all measures in their power to stop and prevent the unlawful use of force and firearms, both by police officers and any vigilante groups who are colluding with them. All those responsible must be brought to justice.

21/02/2014 – Amnesty International has welcomed the decision of the Lithuanian Prosecutor General to open an investigation into the alleged rendition to Lithuania of Mustafa al-Hawsawi. The decision comes after the Vilnius Regional Court ruled on 28 January that al-Hawsawi had a right to an investigation of his claims.

21/02/2014 – Amnesty International has documented numerous cases of excessive use of force by law enforcement officers in policing the demonstrations in Ukraine since November 2013 and calls on the authorities to take the following measures:

Assurances of humane treatment from governments that routinely torture are useless.The Spanish government cannot and should not trust such empty promises from the Kazakhstani authorities, who have relentlessly pursued Aleksandr Pavlov and other associates of Mukhtar Ablyazov.

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL MEDIA ADVISORY

This loss of life is appalling, and the Spanish authorities must come clean on what happened – particularly as the Minister’s version of events contradicts earlier official statements. They must determine what went wrong and bring those responsible to account as a matter of urgency. 

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin (R) speaks with International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach during the Opening Ceremony of the Sochi Winter Olympics.© ANDREJ ISAKOVIC/AFP/Getty Images

11/02/2014 – In light of Italy’s obligations under international human rights and refugee law, and following up on the previous submission in August 2012, Amnesty International draws the Committee’s attention to the following areas which remain of concern to the organisation: the continuing risk of foreign nationals in an ‘irregular situation’ in Libya of being subjected to ill-treatment, indefinite detention under inhuman conditions and arbitrary repatriation, the continuing cooperation between Italy and Libya on ‘migration control’, the lack of access to a fair and satisfactory asylum procedure of those intercepted at sea in the context of the Italian operation “Mare Nostrum”, and the risk of refoulementin the context of search and rescue operations performed by private and commercial vessels. Therefore, Amnesty International calls on the Committee of Ministers to continue to supervise the execution of the Hirsijudgment by Italy.