ACLU Lawsuit Charges in Amir Meshal v. Higgenbotham et al that an American Citizen Illegally Detained and Mistreated by U.S. Officials in Kenya and Ethiopia

The American Civil Liberties Union today filed a lawsuit on behalf of a New Jersey man who was illegally detained and mistreated by U.S. officials in Kenya and Ethiopia. After fleeing hostilities in Somalia in 2006, Amir Meshal was arrested, secretly imprisoned in inhumane conditions and subjected to harsh interrogations by U.S. officials over 30 [...]

Annual Report of the UN Committee against Torture – Terrorism related issues

Read the 380 pages report here.
Consideration of reports submitted by state parties under article 19 CAT.
On China
p.27: The Committee appreciates the information on the importance given by the State party to anti-terrorist work and the information on their attempts to strengthen anti-terrorism legislation and other relevant measures, including international cooperation against terrorism. Notwithstanding this information, [...]

Fears of al-Shabab infilitration in Kenya

Kenya is widely seen as a frontline state against the Islamist extremism smoldering across the Horn of Africa. Few expect the Shabab to make good on its threats to march en masse across the border. But the creeping fear, the one that keeps the security staffs at Western embassies awake at night, is that the [...]

New evidence claims that 150 citizens were rendered by the Kenyan government to secret United States prisons in 2006

Kenya’s government illegally detained and rendered 150 citizens in a US-influenced ‘counter-terrorism’ operation, a joint report by Reprieve and Redress reveals today.
The 150 people, of 21 nationalities and including children, were seized near the Kenyan border over three months from December 2006. Many were fleeing to Kenya from the conflict in Somalia. Held beyond the [...]

Amnesty International Annual Report on 2008 – focus on terrorism issues

Amnesty International is calling for a New Global Deal on human rights, because of a human rights investment gap by world leaders.
“It’s not just the economy, it’s a human rights crisis – the world is sitting on a social, political and economic time bomb,” said Irene Khan.
Read the report from May 2009 on 2008’s events [...]

Anti-moneylaundering law reintroduces dubious elements of terrorism bill in Kenya

Muslims have expressed strong opposition to a proposed law to curb money laundering, saying it would sanction human rights violations by the state. The Proceeds of Crime and Anti-Money Laundering Bill (2007) is pending before parliament. The Muslim Human Rights Forum said that after listening to expert reviews of the constitutionalism [...]

FBI questions American held without charges in United Arab Emirates

Naji Hamdan, a 42-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen who immigrated to California from Lebanon in the early 1980s, is already held for three months by security services in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. According to ACLU, the U.S. government is responsible for this detention because it had asked for his detention. FBI headquarters disputed [...]

UK MP demands inquiry into ‘British interrogation of detainees in Ethiopia’

Andrew Tyrie, chairman of the House of Commons all-party group on extraordinary rendition, today called for a parliamentary inquiry into claims, (by Kenian lawyers as well as BBC 4) (scroll to 0722), that British agents were involved in the interrogation of detainees in Ethiopia who had been illegally transported from neighbouring Somalia.
Although there was no [...]

Rendition victims threaten to sue Kenya government

Eight Kenyans who were arrested as suspected Somali Islamist fighters and covertly flown to Ethiopia threatened to sue the government if the officials they blame for their rendition are not charged.
According to their lawyers “Officers of the Somalia government, Ethiopian military, FBI officers and British officers frequently assaulted them and taunted them that they were [...]

HRW Report on US Renditions in the Horn of Africa

At least 10 victims of the 2007 Horn of Africa rendition program still languish in Ethiopian jails and the whereabouts of several others is unknown, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Several of the detained men were interrogated by US officials in Addis Ababa soon after they were secretly transferred from Kenya [...]