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From: statewatch [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: 05 February 2003 08:32 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Statewatch news, 5 February Statewatch, 5 February 2003 Contents of this message 1. Statewatch News Online review, January-February 2. News in brief 3. Statewatch bulletin vol 12 no 6 ITALY: INTERIOR MINISTER LINKS TERRORISM AND ACTIVISTS - "widespread political illegality": The Italian Interior Minister, Giuseppe Pisanu, appeared in parliament on 27 January 2003 to answer questions on the threat of terrorism with a detailed report in which he warned of a growing climate of "widespread political illegality" which must be monitored and combated. The Minister mixed together Islamic terrorist groups, endogenous left-wing armed groups, anarchist insurrectionaries in general, and right-wing groups, as part of a common threat. Thus anarchist insurrectionaries are a "vast armed group" (terrorist organisation) in spite of "a lack of strategic leadership and hierarchical organisation"; although there is "a lack of evidence of interaction between Islamic groups and endogenous subversive organisations" investigators are following this line of inquiry due to contacts between people in prison from Maghreb countries and the far-left; likewise, "widespread political illegality ... does not result in terrorist actions", but it must be monitored and combated because it is "undoubtedly" dangerous. See: <http://www.statewatch.org/news/2003/feb/02italy.htm> EUROPEAN DIGITAL RIGHTS (EDRI) LAUNCH NEWSLETTER European Digitial Rights (EDRI) have launched about freedom, rights and rules in the information society in Europe. EDRI-gram is produced by members of European Digital Rights and will appear every 2 weeks. The first issue includes: Implementing the European Copyright Directive, European Parliament members rally against mandatory data-retention, Update from the United Kingdom: Identity Card, Action against governmental censorship in Germany. See: <http://www.statewatch.org/news/2003/feb/01edri.htm> FRANCE: OUTRAGE OVER DEATHS OF MIGRANTS BEING DEPORTED "PARIS (AFP) Three French police officers have been suspended after the death of a 24-year-old illegal immigrant from Somalia who lost consciousness while being deported last week, the police service said Wednesday. The three, all stationed at Paris's Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport, were relieved of their functions Tuesday, the service said in a statement. They had been assigned to deport the Somali, identified as Getu Hagos Mariame, on a flight last Thursday to South Africa. Mariame fell unconscious during the process and was taken to a Paris hospital, where he died Saturday. An autopsy was being performed to determine the cause of death. The French police have come under increasing scrutiny after a number of incidents involving deportees..." (Agence France Presse, 22 January 2003). See: <http://www.statewatch.org/news/2003/jan/10fran2.htm> SPAIN: CEAR LAWYER DETAINED FOR ASSISTING IRAQI REFUGEES Francisco Jiménez, a lawyer from the Spanish Commission for Assistance to Refugees (CEAR), was detained after providing legal assistance on 29 December 2002 to three Iraqi stowaways on the Candelaria B, a boat that was anchored opposite Valencia port, leading to the submission of their asylum applications. The CEAR issued a press statement condemning the detention, and alleges that this is not an isolated incident because "during the last few years, complaints have been made to several bodies (Ombudsman, UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva) about the practice by Spanish authorities in relation to asylum seekers, with a trend towards the denial of immediate legal assistance to stowaways who are detected along its coast." See: <http://www.statewatch.org/news/2003/jan/08spain.htm> FRANCE: ARGENTINE MIGRANT DIES DURING DEPORTATION On the evening of 30 December 2002 a 52-year-old Argentinian, Ricardo Barrientos, died during an attempt to deport him from Paris Roissy airport on flight Air France 416 heading for Buenos Aires. Barrientos was an undocumented migrant due for expulsion after serving a prison sentence, and was escorted onto the flight by two police officers. He was sat down in the last row, with handcuffs on, before the other passengers embarked, and was held down "bent in two" by the officers, who leaned on his shoulder blades to keep him in this position. After struggling briefly, he died and was taken to the front of the aeroplane "like a sack of potatoes", according to witnesses, and a passenger who was also a doctor certified his death. The subsequent autopsy found that Barrientos died of a heart attack. According to the Association nationale d´assistance aux frontiers pour les étrangers (Anafé, National Association for assistance to foreigners at borders): "Mr. Barrientos was taken on board in a muscular way, and kept bent down in two with firmness by the two police officers escorting him. This was when he died." See: <http://www.statewatch.org/news/2003/jan/04fran.htm> NETHERLANDS: ID CHECKS TO BE INTRODUCED In future police will be authorized to require anyone in the Netherlands older than 12 to show proof of his or her identity. Failure to do so can result in a prison sentence of up to two months or a fine of up to 2,250 Euro. Police will be given powers to request proof of identity for the purpose of carrying out all their regular tasks, specifically the investigation of criminal offences, maintenance of public order, and providing assistance. Those responsible for carrying out administrative supervision will also be given the same powers, in order to improve law enforcement. See: <http://www.statewatch.org/news/2003/jan/05neths.htm> DIAMANDOUROS WINS EUROPEAN OMBUDSMAN ELECTION The new European Ombudsman, Nikiforos Diamandouros, was elected by 294 to 215 votes over the runner up, UK Conservative MEP, Roy Perry. He will take over from Mr Soderman on 1 April 2003. Mr. Diamandouros is currently the National Ombudsman of Greece, having been appointed Greece's first National Ombudsman in 1998. See: <http://www.statewatch.org/news/2003/jan/07omb.htm> EUROPE: ANALYSIS - DEATHS DURING FORCED DEPORTATION Case details of nine deaths during forced deportations in Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, Hungary, France, Austria and the UK (IRR News Service). Iimmigrants and asylum seekers subjected to arrest, detention and forced expulsion or deportation are frequently denied basic dignity - they are often removed without time to put their affairs in order or say goodbye to friends or sometimes family; they are sometimes physically manhandled, sometimes shackled, sometimes illegally sedated - and occasionally, killed. See: <http://www.irr.org.uk/2003/january/ak000003.html> FRANCE: MALIAN TV CREW PROTEST DEPORTATION SCUFFLE "PARIS (AFP) French police defended themselves Tuesday over an incident in which they detained a television news crew from the west African state of Mali and erased part of their camera tape after being filmed manhandling two Malian illegal immigrants. The national police service issued its statement a week after the December 30 scene on an Air France plane about to leave Paris for the Malian capital Bamako carrying four officers escorting the two immigrants being deported. The officers were roughly holding down the immigrants when they realised they were being recorded by a camera crew from Malian national television that happened to be accompanying Malian textile specialists on board. The two African journalists were quickly detained and their camera tape confiscated. A French student who allegedly insulted the officers was also arrested, at which point the plane's pilot ordered all of them off the aircraft". (Agence France Presse, January 7, 2003) See: <http://www.statewatch.org/news/2003/jan/03malia.htm> STATEWATCH NEWS ONLINE - NEWS IN BRIEF See <http://www.statewatch.org/news/Newsinbrief.htm> * EU: Full text of Consolidated EU Treaty incorporating the Nice Treaty which entered into force on 3 February 2003. * EU: Joint sea patrols mounted in Med by Spain, France, Italy, Portugal and UK * UK: All Party Parliamentary Committee rejects data retention: Report from All Party Internet Group * UK: New Labour and new authoritarianism in criminal justice, by Lee Bridges, Chair of the School of Law at Warwick University, comments on the government's new Criminal Justice Bill For full contents of the latest Statewatch bulletin, see: <http://www.statewatch.org/swbul.html> To have your e-mail address removed from this list, or to subscribe to it, just e-mail us at <[log in to unmask]> and let us know. 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