Blair kidnapped disidents and shipped them to Libya for Gaddafi to torture

Tony Blair wrote to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi to thank him for the “excellent cooperation” between the two countries’ counter-terrorism agencies following a period during which the UK and Libya worked together to arrange for Libyan dissidents to be kidnapped and flown to Tripoli, along with their families.

The letter, written in 2007, followed a period in which the dictator’s intelligence officers were permitted to operate in the UK, approaching and intimidating Libyan refugees in an attempt to persuade them to work as informants for both countries’ agencies.

Addressed “Dear Mu’ammar” and signed “Best wishes yours ever, Tony”, the letter was among hundreds of pages of documents recovered from Libyan government offices following the 2011 revolution and pieced together by a team of London lawyers.

The lawyers are bringing damages claims on behalf of a dozen Gaddafi opponents who were targeted by the two countries’ agencies during the covert cooperation. The claimants were variously detained and allegedly mistreated in Saudi Arabia, rendered from Mali to Libya, or detained and subjected to control orders in the UK.

Full story at The Guardian

Anti-corruption activists on trial in China

A Chinese anti-corruption campaigner has gone on trial in Beijing, according to his lawyer, joining two others who appeared in court this week as China's government cracks down on activists.

Zhao Changqing, 45, faces a possible five-year prison sentence for supporting activists who unveiled banners in Beijing calling for government officials to disclose their assets - despite not being present, Zhang Peihong, his lawyer, said on Thursday. Zhao is associated with the New Citizens Movement, a loose-knit network of campaigners against corruption, among other issues. China jailed a founder of the movement in January, and more than 10 other members have been tried.

Zhao pleaded not guilty to a charge of "gathering a crowd to disrupt public order" for his alleged involvement in three small-scale protests in Beijing, which saw activists unfurl banners, Zhang said. "[Zhao] didn't disturb public order in any way, he didn't even appear on the scene of the protests, because he was worried about his family," he said, adding that the hearing lasted around three hours.

Fellow anti-corruption activists Ding Jiaxi and Li Wei were also put on trial this week over the protests. China's ruling Communist Party is in the midst of a highly-publicised anti-corruption campaign, which President Xi Jinping has pledged will target both high-ranking "tigers" and low-level "flies" in the face of public anger over the issue.

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Russia activist Sergei Udaltsov under house arrest

A court in Russia has placed the prominent opposition activist Sergei Udaltsov under house arrest. Mr Udaltsov is charged with organising "mass disorder" during a protest in Moscow in May 2012. He was arrested in October before being released.

The leader of the Left Front coalition has rejected the accusation, saying it is an attempt to discredit the opposition to President Vladimir Putin. If convicted, Mr Udaltsov faces between four and 10 years in prison.

BBC News

Wife of the Disgraced Chinese Leader Bo Xilai Is Charged With Murder

In a nation that prefers the wives of political leaders to be bland adornments, Gu Kailai was positively fluorescent. Married to Bo Xilai, the Politburo member whose downfall earlier this year is still shaking the Communist Party, she reveled in her brash, ambitious ways. "This public announcement is just to further discredit Bo, to ensure that he will not rise from the ashes, which is still a possibility." Admirers bragged that Ms. Gu, a pioneering lawyer who spoke fluent English, was China’s answer to Jacqueline Onassis.

But in formally charging her on Thursday with the poisoning death late last year of a British businessman, the Chinese government, almost certainly intentionally, has placed the larger-than-life Ms. Gu into a familiar Chinese framework: the conniving, bloodthirsty vixen whose hunger for money derailed her husband’s promising career.

Although no one has presented any compelling evidence to rebut the official narrative that Ms. Gu, 53, played a role in the death of the businessman, many wonder if party leaders are using her case to deflect public disgust over the kind of corruption and abuse of power that critics say was embodied by her husband. Mr. Bo, who was suspended last April from the Politburo and has not been heard from since, has so far remained in a parallel justice system reserved for the party elite. His fate was not mentioned in the brief statement announcing his wife’s trial.

NYTimes.com

Cuba police arrest dissidents after Oswaldo Paya’s funeral

Cuban police arrested dozens of dissidents yesterday after the funeral of Oswaldo Paya, a political activist whose sudden death in a road accident triggered grief and suspicion, AFP reporters said. Those arrested included Guillermo Farinas, a leading rights activist, who was held for questioning by plainclothes police deployed outside the Havana church where Paya's funeral was held.

Farinas, known for hunger strikes that drew attention to the plight of political prisoners in Cuba, and about 50 others were stopped by police after emerging from the funeral mass shouting slogans against the government. They were forced onto two buses that the church had provided to take people to the cemetery where Paya was to be buried.

Two of Paya's children have questioned the official account of how their father was killed. Authorities said Paya, 60, died along with another dissident, Harold Cepero Escalante, on Sunday when their rental car went off the road and struck a tree in southeastern Cuba.

Jamaica Observer

Ai Weiwei's lawyer missing as artist is warned away from tax hearing

The Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei has said police are warning him to stay away from the court hearing on his lawsuit against a tax agency, which he accuses of illegally fining his company 15m yuan (£1.5m).

Meanwhile Ai's legal consultant, Liu Xiaoyuan, has been unreachable since he was told to meet state security officers on Tuesday night, according to Ai and one of his employees, Liu Yanping. Liu Xiaoyuan did not answer calls to his mobile phone. Beijing's Chaoyang district court agreed last month to hear the lawsuit from the company that markets Ai's work, a departure from the courts' consistent refusal to give dissidents any hearing.

His supporters say the tax case, due to be heard later on Wednesday, is part of the government's drive to muzzle the outspoken social critic. Despite the court's acceptance of his lawsuit, Ai told Reuters that police called him repeatedly on Tuesday afternoon warning him not to turn up at the courthouse. "'You can never make it. Don't even try,'" Ai, 55, said police told him. He said they gave no reason.

The Guardian

Chen Guangcheng now wants to leave China after 'death threats'

Chen Guangchen, the blind activist said Wednesday that U.S. officials told him that Chinese authorities would have beaten his wife to death had he not left the American Embassy, where he sought sanctuary after fleeing persecution by local officials in his rural town.

A senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, denied that the administration had passed on to Chen Guangcheng any threat of violence to his family, but did say that Chen was told that if he stayed in the embassy indefinitely, his family would be returned to their home province.

A shaken Chen, speaking from the hospital room where he was taken after leaving the embassy Wednesday, also said that U.S. officials told him Chinese authorities would send his family back home if he stayed inside. But he added that, at one point, the U.S. officials told him his wife would be beaten to death.

"They said if I don't leave they would take my children and family back to Shandong," Chen told The Associated Press. He said he heard the death threat from an American official whom he could not identify.

Syracuse.com

Chinese dissident's escape sparks arrests

Authorities in China have started arresting people connected with activist Chen Guangcheng, who was under strict house arrest when he escaped last week.

Fellow activist Hu Jia has been detained, Hu's wife said Sunday on Twitter. There are also reports Chen's brother and nephew are among those who have been detained by police on suspicion that they helped the blind lawyer flee his heavily guarded house in Dongshigu village.

On Saturday, activists said Chen was under U.S. protection and suggested the only place he could be was inside the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, 600 kilometres from his home.

CBC News

China dissident Chen Guangcheng escapes house arrest

One of China's best known dissidents, Chen Guangcheng, has escaped from house arrest and released a video addressed to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao. In it he makes three demands, including one that Mr Wen investigate what Mr Chen calls the brutal beating up of his family members. Rights activists say Mr Chen slipped out of his home in Dongshigu town in Shandong province on Sunday. His whereabouts are unclear with some reports that he is in Beijing. Mr Chen had been under house arrest since he was released from a four-year jail sentence in 2010.

In the video posted online by Boxun, a Chinese dissident news website based in the United States, Mr Chen asks that:

• Premier Wen investigate and prosecute local officials Mr Chen says beat up his family members
• The safety of his family be ensured
• Corruption in general in China be dealt with and punished according to the law

The Chinese authorities have come under international criticism for their treatment of him. At one point his daughter was barred from school. Many sympathisers who have tried to visit his home say they have been beaten up.

BBC News

Chinese activist jailed for nine years for 'subversive writing'

A Chinese court has sentenced a veteran democracy activist to nine years' imprisonment for inciting subversion, in what appears to be the most severe punishment handed down in a crackdown on dissent this year.

Chen Wei was convicted of incitement to subversion over four essays he wrote and published online, according to one of his lawyers. He was detained in February amid an extensive government crackdown in response to anonymous online calls urging Chinese to imitate protests in North Africa and the Middle East.

Attorney Liang Xiaojun said the trial at a court in the city of Suining in south-west China lasted about two and a half hours and the sentence was handed down 30 minutes after the trial concluded.

"We pleaded not guilty. He only wrote a few essays. We presented a full defence of the case, but we were interrupted often, and none of what we said was accepted by the court," Liang said. Liang said that after the sentence was handed down, Chen said: "I protest, I am innocent. The governance of democracy must win, autocracy must die."

The Guardian

China jails activist for "stirring up trouble"

Wang Lihong, a Chinese rights activist, has been sentenced to nine months in jail for staging a protest on behalf of other activists in a move condemned by human rights campaigners as part a broad crackdown on dissent.

The 55-year-old, a veteran of China's 1989 pro-democracy movement in Tiananmen Square, plans to appeal the sentence in the next 10 days, Liu Xiaoyuan, defence lawyer, told the AFP news agency on Friday.

If Wang loses her appeal, she is due to be released in December, taking into account her time already spent in detention, Liu said. Her lawyer said the sentence was "relatively light" compared to the five-year maximum prison term that the Beijing court could have meted out.

But her son, Qi Jianxiang, told reporters: "I think this is a heavy sentence. She should never have been sentenced at all. My mother wasn't campaigning for rights for her own interest but for the sake of others, and now she has been sentenced for it," he said.

Al Jazeera

New evidence links Cisco to jailing and torture of Chinese

A human rights group suing Cisco for aiding the tracking and torture of people in China claims it has new evidence proving the tech giant tailored its technology to specifically enable these abuses. If accepted by the court, the revelations, including that Cisco trained Chinese officials in how to surveil net users, could prove damning for the company, which has always claimed it has done no more than sell stock standard technology to the regime.

The Human Rights Law Foundation, based in Washington, filed its suit against Cisco in May under a law that allows US companies to be sued for violations of human rights committed abroad. The suit accuses Cisco, one of the world's largest technology companies, of aiding the Chinese government in monitoring and jailing members of the banned Falun Gong by helping to develop the “Golden Shield Project”.

The case is running in parallel to a separate case, reported on by Fairfax Media last month, that was brought against Cisco on behalf of Chinese political prisoners who claim they were tortured and suppressed thanks to technology and training provided to the Chinese Communist Party by Cisco.

Their crime was little more than publishing articles on the internet criticising China's one-party system and advocating regime change.

See smh.com.au for full story

Ai Weiwei attacks China over justice and human rights

The dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has launched a scathing attack on the Chinese government after his release from secretive detention in late June, accusing officials of denying citizens their basic rights.

In a strongly worded commentary published late on Sunday on the website of Newsweek magazine, Ai – whose detention prompted an international outcry – branded the capital, Beijing, as "a city of violence". He criticised the government for rampant corruption, the judicial system and its policy on migrant workers, all issues that have inflamed social tensions in China.

Ai's commentary signals his growing impatience with the strict terms of his release from 81 days in captivity in late June. It also presents Beijing with a direct challenge on how to handle the country's most famous social critic.

"Every year millions come to Beijing to build its bridges, roads, and houses … They are Beijing's slaves," Ai wrote. "They squat in illegal structures, which Beijing destroys as it keeps expanding. Who owns houses? Those who belong to the government, the coal bosses, the heads of big enterprises. They come to Beijing to give gifts – and the restaurants and karaoke parlours and saunas are very rich as a result."

The Guardian

Syrian troops 'kill and arrest dissidents'

Syrian security forces have continued their clampdown on the pro-democracy movement, killing four protesters and arresting two leading activists on the eve of more mass rallies.

In the eastern city of Deir al-Zour, where security forces were carrying out operations in nearly all neighbourhoods, two civilians were shot dead on Thursday night, Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syria Observatory for Human Rights, told the AFP news agency.

Afterwards, some 3,000 people gathered in front of the house of the new governor, Samir Othman al-Sheikh, to "demand an end to the killing," he said.
Earlier, residents were out in the streets trying to prevent security forces from carrying out arrests, he said.

To the west, in Madaya, near the capital Damascus, residents told the Reuters news agency two civilians were also killed in a security sweep on the town on Thursday.

More on Al Jazeera

China frees dissident Hu Jia

One of China's most prominent dissidents, Hu Jia, has been released after serving more than three years in jail on subversion charges. "He is back home with his parents and me," his wife, Zeng Jingyan, told Reuters in a telephone interview.

Hu Jia was arrested in December 2007 after a long period of confinement at his home. He was sentenced in April 2008 for "incitement to subvert state power." Hu had written a series of articles ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games criticising the Chinese government on the state of human rights in China.

His long-scheduled release in the early hours of Sunday followed the freeing of prominent artist and activist Ai Weiwei. The releases came while Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao was visiting Europe on trips to Hungary, Britain and Germany. But activists worry that despite their release, the dissidents will not be free in their movement or expression.

Al Jazeera

Ai Weiwei released from detention

After 81 days in detention, China's best-known artist, Ai Weiwei, returned home a considerably thinner and noticeably quieter man.

"I'm fine. I'm out," the 54-year-old artist told the Guardian in a telephone call shortly after his release on bail. "I'm back with my family. I'm very happy."

The state news agency, Xinhua, said police had released him "because of his good attitude in confessing his crimes" and a chronic illness. Speaking from his home in north Beijing, the usually outspoken artist said he could not comment any further, adding: "I'm on bail. Please understand." Ai's sister Gao Ge said: "I'm very, very happy … we thank everyone, including our media friends, for all their help and support so far."

See The Guardian for full story

Mid-East: Will there be a domino effect?

In the wake of the ousting of Tunisia's President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, observers have drawn parallels with other countries in the region. There is speculation about a possible domino effect similar to the collapse of Communist governments around Eastern Europe in 1989.

Egypt - Egypt has many similarities with Tunisia - tough economic conditions, official corruption and little opportunity for its citizens to express their dissatisfaction with the political system. President Hosni Mubarak, 82, has an almost complete monopoly on power, has been in office for three decades and is seeking re-election this autumn.

Yemen - There have been several days of protests in Yemen - the Arab world's most impoverished nation, where nearly half of the population lives on less than $2 a day.

Algeria - As the winter protests escalated in Tunisia, its western neighbour also saw large numbers of young people taking to the streets. As in Tunisia, the trigger appeared to be economic grievances - in particular sharp increases in the price of food.

Libya - "There is none better than Zine to govern Tunisia. Tunisia now lives in fear." Libyan leader Muammar Gadaffi's sharp reaction on Saturday to the overthrow of President Ben Ali would seem to reflect his own nervousness about a possible domino effect.

Morocco - Like Tunisia, Morocco has been facing economic problems and allegations of corruption in ruling circles. Morocco's reputation was damaged after Wikileaks revealed allegations of increased corruption, in particular the royal family's business affairs and the "appalling greed" of people close to King Mohammed VI.

Full story on BBC News

New crackdown on government opponents in Moscow

Police in Moscow arrested around 20 government opponents holding a peaceful protest against the jailing of former vice premier Boris Nemtsov, Interfax news agency reported Monday.

Nemtsov, a leading critic of the Kremlin, was sentenced to 15 days detention on Sunday for resisting arrest during an unauthorized demonstration on New Year's Eve.

The verdict has aroused widespread anger among human rights activists and members of Russia's non-parliamentary opposition. Civil rights activist Lev Ponomaryov accused Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's government of launching an assault on elements of society who disagreed with it.

The treatment of ex-oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsy, jailed last week for stealing oil from his now defunct company, Yukos, was intended to apply pressure on civil society, he said. Nemtsov was the third prominent government opponent to be jailed in fast-track trials since police forcibly broke up the December 31 demonstrations, arresting around 120 people.

Monsters and Critics / DPA