The C.R.I.M.E. Report

ISSUE #47 CONTENTS:


SPOTLIGHT CASES:

Did Nokia Enable Iranian Anti-Dissident Wiretaps?

Telecom giant Nokia has spiffy slogan: "Connecting People." But a new report reveals that Nokia may be helping connect the wrong people: Iranian security agents and grassroots dissidents. It seems Nokia has helped Iran install electronic surveillance equipment to intercept text messages, emails, and more. Several activists appear to have been jailed thanks to Nokia's technology.

Last year, Nokia provided the state-owned Irantelecom with a "monitoring center," which enables the regime to tap phones, read e-mails, and watch over all kinds of electronic data transmission. Designed to help stop crime and terror, the new surveillance system appears to have enhanced the regime's ability to crack down on dissent. Last month, twelve women's rights activists were arrested at a private meeting that security forces likely learned about through intercepts. Another arrested dissident was recently confronted by interrogators with transcripts of his text messaging.

"This is an absolute threat to the privacy of all Iranian activists," says Hadi Ghaemi, spokesman for the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. "It puts them in danger of being constantly monitored by the intelligence services, something that we know is already happening." Some international advocates are now calling for new laws to prevent Western companies from selling such "dual-use" technology to Iran.



Wanted for "Defaming the Leader of the Revolution": Fathi El-Jahmi

Fathi El-Jahmi just spent his 68th birthday in a hospital jail, but the remarkable Libyan dissident may not live to see his next one. A former provincial governor and entrepreneur, El-Jahmi openly criticized repression in Libya during media interviews in 2004 has spent most of the past six and a half years in jail. His medical condition has now taken a serious turn, as he is detained in a guarded hospital room with poor medical care. Via family intermediaries who are only allowed to visit him two hours a day, he answered the following questions for The CRIME Report. 

Why has the Libyan regime targeted you and why do you continue to speak out?
I engaged in peaceful opposition to policies of the Libyan government before my arrest in 2002. In 1986, I sued the former Minister of Education and won in court. The Minister, a cousin of Muammar Qaddafi, banned students from learning English. For this, my family home was invaded one night by Revolutionary Committees. My wife and I were stabbed in front of our children, and the entire family was held hostage for a few hours. But in October 2002 I was imprisoned, because I spoke at the Basic People’s Congress and called for free press, free enterprise, government accountability, the creation of a civil society, and national reconciliation.  I was released on March 12, 2004, because then Senator Joseph Biden interceded on my behalf. But I was abducted on March 26, 2004, and have been in prison since, because I continued to call for reform and criticized the policies of Qaddafi. I was denied the right to a lawyer of my choice and a fair trial. In March 2008, they offered to release me to house arrest under the condition that I go on TV and publicly apologize to Libyan government and its leader. I refused. You have to speak the truth. I am going to die eventually no matter what. I want to die with dignity.

Are you in a hospital but in jail?
I have been held at Tripoli Medical Center since July 2007, because I was suffering from congestive heart failure.  Prior to that, I was held by the Anti-Terror division of Internal Security run by Abdel Hamid El-Sayeh. My room at Tripoli Medical Center is unventilated, infested with cockroaches, and locked from the outside. The window is closed, so there is no sunlight. There are guards outside who search my family before visits. I have no access to radio, TV, or newspapers. I am only given the Quran, which itself is sometimes confiscated depending on the dictator’s mood. I am allowed visitation for two hours a day. This is an improvement, actually. For two years, I had no visitation rights. I was isolated from the world and deprived of medications. My family thought I was dead because they had not heard from me. Now my health has significantly deteriorated in the last month. The Libyan Government is subjecting me to torture and slow death for peacefully exercising my right to free speech. I want to be given my passport so that I can seek medical care of my choice outside Libya.

Are you optimistic about getting released and about your dream of reform in Libya?
First, I appreciate all the outside pressure on my behalf. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Physician for Human Rights and many organizations strongly advocated for my case.  I was visited twice by HRW and PHR. Vice President Joe Biden has saved my life more than once and former President Bush publicly cited my case. The Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and Boston Globe have written editorials about it. Outside support is important, without international pressure I will die in prison. Regardless of what happens to me, there is a hunger among Libyans for peaceful genuine political change. This change is about transparency, respect for individual liberties and a government for the people and by the people.  It is born out of the national will and cannot be repressed forever. The regime recognizes that the old ways aren’t working. Inevitably, real change will come and Libya is destined to become a society that respects rule of law and individual rights. 

Click here to send a letter calling for El-Jahmi’s release via this Amnesty International campaign site.



Why the Fizzle?: Assessing Egypt's April 6 Anniversary

Last April, Egyptian grassroots activists captured international attention with a daring strike calling for reform. Aided by a sandstorm, thousands appeared to participate in a stay-home strike in Cairo, and thousands of workers in the industrial city of Mahala took to the streets. As the strike’s anniversary approached, Egyptian activists received a flood of Facebook messages and emails with the title: "April 6: Egypt's Day of Anger!"

A huge number of Egyptian young people joined the call for reviving the strike in the virtual world. The digital activists known as the "April 6 Youth” created a Facebook group that attracted thousands of members. They also formed local online groups for each governorate in Egypt: April 6 Youth Mansoura, April 6 Youth Minya, etc. The main group and the subgroups formed and operated online. Yet when it came to the real world, the strike failed in a dramatic way. The number of American activists who protested outside the Egyptian embassies in Washington DC was bigger than the number of the local activists who made a demonstration outside the Egyptian Press Syndicate downtown Cairo.

What changed this year? First, the security forces were more prepared for the day than the April 6 Youth themselves. They made sure to arrest young activists from different affiliations and political backgrounds who are expected to participate in the strike. Then, on the April 6, they made sure to secure all the main streets in the capital city of Cairo as well as the industrial city of Mahala. Second, there was no sandstorm. Third, and perhaps most important, activists clearly need to develop better techniques for translating virtual organizing into real world action. There are no easy answers to this challenge, but striking on Facebook alone will not generate reform.

 

Quiz: Where were hundreds excluded from casting their vote for president?
Answer: Algeria held its presidential elections on April 9, in which President Bouteflika won a third term with over 90% of the vote. But there are reports of widespread election fraud. The news magazine Al- Khabar, for instance, reports that citizens in southern Algeria were simply excluded from the vote. In the Tamanrasset province, thousands of voters were crossed off polling list. Meanwhile, mobile polling centers enlisted to collect the votes of nomadic peoples in other southern provinces called off their mission. Algerians in the south have staged a protest to contest the faulty election procedures that kept their voices from being heard.

BECOME A PARTNER IN CRIME:
Here is a list of quick ways you contribute to the Middle East civil rights movement: