JURIST - Paper Chase: Monday, January 3, 2011

[JURIST] The Uganda High Court [official website] on Monday issued a permanent injunction [press release, PDF] and awarded damages to plaintiffs who were alleged to be homosexuals by the Ugandan tabloid newspaper, The Rolling Stone. The complaint was filed by Uganda's Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights and Constitutional Law [advocacy website] on behalf of three members who, along with 97 other individuals, were alleged to be homosexuals in an article published by the tabloid [Guardian report] under the headline "Hang Them" in October 2010. In addition to listing the individuals' names, the tabloid also published many of their photographs, addresses and preferred social hang-outs, which the high court ruled constituted an infringement of their fundamental rights to privacy and dignity. The decision is being celebrated by human rights groups as "landmark in the struggle for the protection of human dignity and the right to privacy irrespective of one's sexual orientation."

Uganda has been harshly criticized throughout the international community since the introduction [BBC report] in October 2009 of its Anti-Homosexuality Bill [text, PDF], which has since been stalled in the Parliament. In January of last year, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay [official profile] said the bill was discriminatory [JURIST report] and could harm Uganda's reputation internationally. Additionally, in February, US President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton [official website] denounced the proposed legislation [JURIST report], which would implement harsh punishments for homosexual behavior, including the death penalty in some circumstances. The bill also imposes punishments of up to three years in prison for individuals, including family members, who fail to report the identity of a person who is lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered within 24 hours. Uganda currently criminalizes homosexual behavior [BBC report] with up to 14 years in prison.

[JURIST] Iranian opposition leader Mahdi Karroubi [BBC profile] on Monday publicly invited the government to put him on trial [Kaleme.com report, in Persian] for the civil unrest and violence that erupted in the wake of the hotly disputed 2009 re-election [JURIST news archive] of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad [BBC profile; JURIST news archive]. Karroubi said his only request is that the trial be open and fair, a challenge that could galvanize reformers and opposition to Ahmadinejad's rule. Many believed Ahmadinejad's victory over Hossein Mousavi [BBC profile] was achieved by fraud, leading to a rash of protests and outbreaks of violence [JURIST report] that resulted in hundreds of arrests. After opposition activity subsided, the government refrained from trying Mousavi and other opposition leaders who called for continuing protests [JURIST report]. However, Iranian chief prosecutor said Friday that he intends to prosecute opposition leaders [JURIST report], including Mousavi, Karoubi and former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami [BBC profile]. Dolataabadi's remarks echoed those made in a speech delivered the previous day by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei [BBC profile] at a pro-government rally.

Karroubi and the other three leaders could join a long line of individuals detained or already prosecuted for their roles during the election protests. In September, Shiva Nazar Ahari, a journalist arrested after the 2009 elections, was sentenced to six years in prison [JURIST report] for charges including "warring against God" and distributing anti-government propaganda. Also in September, Nasrin Sotoudeh, a prominent Iranian human rights lawyer known for representing political activists following the 2009 election, was detained for allegedly spreading propaganda and colluding against national security [JURIST report]. In August, an Iranian court sentenced Qorban Behzadianejad, Mousavi's campaign manager, to five years in prison [JURIST report]. The Iranian government detained hundreds of protesters and sentenced several to death [JURIST report]. Khamenei pardoned or commuted the sentences of 81 protesters [JURIST report] in June.

[JURIST] Liberal Russian political activist and former deputy prime minister Boris Nemtsov [advocacy website, in Russian; BBC profile] was sentenced Sunday to 15 days in jail for his part in an unauthorized protest march in Moscow on December 31. Nemtsov, leader of the opposition group Solidarity [advocacy website, in Russian], and an outspoken critic of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin [official website, in Russian; JURIST news archive], was arrested alongside about 20 others on New Year's Eve when they disobeyed police orders to disperse and tried to lead a crowd of more than 2,000 on a march through Pushkin Square. Russian authorities assert that arrests were only made after Nemtsov and other leaders attempted to lead the group through police ranks, but opposition leaders and human rights activists have decried the arrests as baseless and politically motivated [RFE/RL report]. The assembly, which police did permit to proceed in a small square near the Kremlin, was one of a series of assemblies opposition groups have held on the 31st day of the month for the last several years. The timing of the protests is symbolic of Article 31 of the Russian Constitution [text], which guarantees the right to assemble.

Russian authorities continue to draw fire from human rights groups and the Western world for what is seen a increasingly draconian suppression of Putin's rivals. Last week, oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky [defense profile; JURIST news archive] and his business partner, Platon Lebedev [defense profile], were convicted and sentenced [JURIST reports] on charges of fraud and embezzlement stemming from their embezzlement of more than $27 billion [AFP report] from Yukos Oil between 1998 and 2003. The men, who were already in prison serving sentences for tax evasion, saw their terms increased by six years in a trial that was widely decried [Movement for Human Rights press release, in Russian; JURIST op-ed] for apparent political motives and failures of due process. They filed an appeal [JURIST report] earlier this week. Nemtsov was arrested in a similar incident [JURIST report] early in February 2010, when he and about 100 others were detained in Moscow as they protested perceived government curtailment of the right to peacably assemble. The actions of the Russian government in breaking up similar protests in December 2009 earned criticism from US President Barack Obama after the founder of Russia's oldest rights group, the Moscow Helsinki Group [advocacy website] 82-year-old Lyudmila Alexeyeva was arrested.