Latest Amnesty International Stories
By Mark Trevelyan, Security CorrespondentBERLIN -- Three men newly freed from jail in Yemen have given detailed accounts to Amnesty International that suggest they may previously have been held at a secret U.S. prison in Eastern Europe, the rights group said on Wednesday.Muhammad Bashmilah, Salah Qaru and Muhammad al-Assad spent 13 months in one secret facility before being flown to Yemen in May 2005 and imprisoned there until their release last month, Amnesty said in a report.It based its...
LONDON (Reuters) - Human rights group Amnesty International accused the United States on Wednesday of using front companies to transfer individuals to countries where they have faced torture or ill-treatment. The fresh charges come after months of allegations by campaigners who say the Central Intelligence Agency transports terrorism suspects outside normal legal channels to countries where they could be tortured under interrogation. Washington says it does sometimes transfer suspects...
By Saul Hudson WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Despite accusing countries such as Jordan and Egypt on Wednesday of torturing detainees, the United States said it will keep sending suspected militants to foreign prisons if governments pledge not to abuse them. Human rights groups said the policy was illegal because the United States could have little faith in the governments' promises and knew there was a high risk of torture, especially after detailing widespread prisoner abuse in an annual...
SANTIAGO, Chile (Reuters) - Irish rock band U2 received Amnesty International's annual Ambassadors of Conscience award on Sunday in Chile's national stadium, which was once a notorious detention center for political prisoners. Chilean President-elect Michelle Bachelet, herself a political prisoner in the 1970s, presented the award to U2 at a backstage ceremony prior to the band playing a concert. Amnesty said it was recognizing band members Bono, the Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry...
By Alan Elsner WASHINGTON (Reuters) - At least 10 percent of the first 1,000 people executed in the United States since 1977, were severely mentally ill, Amnesty International said in a report issued on Monday. The London-based human rights organization, which opposes all forms of capital punishment, said the practice of putting to death people with serious mental illnesses offended international standards of decency. "For the USA to be pursuing this premeditated ritualistic killing...
LONDON (Reuters) - The United Nations must this week pave the way for a treaty to control the sale of small arms that were behind the deaths of one million people since member states last discussed the issue in 2001, campaigners said on Monday. Delegates from U.N. member states hold a preparatory meeting in New York on Monday ahead of a June conference on small arms. "In 2006, the world has a choice. Either it continues to ignore the massive human cost of arms proliferation or it...
LONDON (Reuters) - Amnesty International said on Thursday Britain had allowed the CIA to operate flights on its territory to transport terrorism detainees illegally and demanded that the government launch an investigation. "The UK has allowed these aircraft to land, refuel and take off from their territory," the human rights group's regional director Claudio Cordone said in a statement. "The UK government must launch an immediate, thorough and independent investigation into mounting...
By Lorraine Orlandi MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican police and prosecutors still use torture and their tactics have grown more sophisticated, despite President Vicente Fox's pledges to end such abuse, the national rights watchdog said on Tuesday. Jose Luis Soberanes, president of the national human rights commission, said torture increasingly comes in the form of psychological rather than physical abuse. "Unfortunately, torture is not a thing of the past," Soberanes told reporters,...
KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudanese authorities have arrested and allegedly mistreated a lawyer defending the rights of refugees who live in camps outside the capital Khartoum, rights group Amnesty International said in a statement. About 2 million people who fled regional conflicts in Sudan live in slums surrounding Khartoum. Police clashed with refugees in the Soba al-Aradi camp in May, leaving at least 30 people dead, including 14 policemen, rights groups and witnesses said. The lawyer,...
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Foot-dragging by prosecutors and a lack of government interest could mean Mexico will fail to try former officials for "dirty war" human rights atrocities, the head of Amnesty International said on Tuesday. Irene Khan, Amnesty's secretary general, said the rights group was worried a much-vaunted government program to punish those responsible for Mexico's 1960s and 1970s campaign of repression against students and activists had failed. "We are very disappointed that...
