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Press releases in 2002

Pakistan: Police inaction encourages climate of religious intolerance

Zahid Mahmood Akhtar, 48, was stoned to death by hundreds of villagers after the cleric used a loud hailer to issue a fatwa, a religious decree, ordering his execution. The mentally disturbed man had...

Jamaica: Right to defend human rights is legitimate and must be protected

Amnesty International is urgently seeking answers as to whether it is the official policy of the state to regard human rights groups as sanctioning criminality, following comments by the Head of the...

India: Open letter to Law Minister about the trial of Abdul Rehman Geelani and three others

In an open letter to India's Law Minister, Amnesty International's Secretary General Irene Khan expressed concern that pre-trial proceedings appear to have been flawed. 'The scheduling of hearings of...

Brazil: Justice beckons in Espírito Santo

Years of killing, violence and corruption attributed to the police organisation Scuderie Detetive le Cocq (SDLC), and to powerful economic and political groups in the state, have long gone unpunished...

USA: Basic instinct - another milestone in the ugly history of the death penalty

'It is just two weeks since the US Supreme Court ruled that the execution of people with mental retardation violates contemporary standards of decency,' Amnesty International said. 'Texas has...

Pakistan: Tribal councils must stop taking law into their own hands

An 18-year-old woman from Meerwala in Punjab province, was sentenced to being raped in 'punishment' for her 12-year-old brother's alleged 'illicit affair' with a girl from a tribe considered 'higher'...

Algeria: Assaults against families of 'disappeared' must stop

For the second time in two weeks, police in Algiers today violently dispersed a peaceful demonstration by relatives of the 'disappeared'. The gathering was held outside Algeria's official human rights...

Egypt: Torture allegations concerning four Britons must be investigated

Amnesty International is extremely concerned at reports that the four men - Maajid Nawaz, Ian Malcolm Nisbett, Reza Pankhurst and Hassan Rizfi, who were arrested on 1 April 2002 in Cairo and held for...

Chile: Pinochet case - Supreme Court ruling should not exert influence upon other trials

The resolution of the Supreme Court states that the ruling is not related to Augusto Pinochet's guilt or innocence and acknowledges the gravity of the crimes which are the subject of the investigation...

Security Council: No double standards on international justice

At the Security Council on 30 June, the USA vetoed the extension of the United Nations Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina (UNMBIH) as it did not get support for such immunity. It then agreed to a 72...