10 Sept 2018 - NPWJ News Digest on Middle East and North Africa Democracy

Articles

US 'threatens ICC judges with sanctions'
Al Jazeera, 10 Sep 2018

The United States has said it will adopt an aggressive posture against the International Criminal Court (ICC), and threatened sanctions against ICC judges if they proceed with an investigation into alleged war crimes committed by Americans in Afghanistan. President Donald Trump's national security adviser, John Bolton, is set to make the announcement in a speech to the Federalist Society, a conservative group, in Washington on Monday. It will be his first major address since joining the Trump White House. "The United States will use any means necessary to protect our citizens and those of our allies from unjust prosecution by this illegitimate court," Bolton will say, according to a draft of his speech seen by Reuters.In 2016, the ICC said that US armed forces and the CIA might have committed war crimes by torturing detainees in Afganistan.

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Syria: Rebel-held areas bombed as Turkey reinforces outposts
Al Jazeera, 10 Sep 2018

Syrian government forces have pounded rebel-held areas in northwest Syria, killing at least five people in a second day of heavy bombardment, according to rescuers, as Turkey sent more troops to the region. The intensified strikes on Sunday, including air attacks, shelling and helicopter-dropped barrel bombs, targeted villages in southern Idlib and northern Hama provinces. The escalation comes amid growing fears over a seemingly imminent all-out offensive against the densely populated Idlib province, the last rebel bastion in Syria.

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Sudanese President Bashir dissolves government, appoints new PM
Reuters, 09 Sep 2018

President Omar al-Bashir dissolved the Sudanese government on Sunday and named a new prime minister, moves aimed at fixing a crisis-hit economy battered in recent months by shortages of bread, fuel and hard currency. Bashir named Motazz Moussa as the country’s prime minister. He replaces Bakri Hassan Saleh, who was appointed in 2017 as the country’s first prime minister since Bashir came to power in 1989. Moussa had been serving as minister of irrigation and electricity before the government was dissolved. Saleh, who had been serving as both prime minister and vice president before the shake-up, will stay on in the newly created post of first vice president, while Osman Yusuf Kubur was appointed second vice president.

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Iran: Executions of three Iranian Kurds an outrage
Amnesty International, 08 Sep 2018

In response to the news that three Iranian Kurdish men, Zaniar Moradi, Loghman Moradi, and Ramin Hossein Panahi, were executed this morning in Raja’i Shahr prison, Karaj, Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s Research and Advocacy Director for the Middle East and North Africa, said: “We are horrified by the news that the Iranian authorities have executed these men, despite widespread condemnation of their death sentences and calls from UN human rights experts and other bodies to halt their executions. “The trials of all three men were grossly unfair. All were denied access to their lawyers and families after their arrest, and all said they were tortured into making “confessions”. In sentencing them to death despite these massive failings in due process, the Iranian authorities have once again demonstrated their brazen disregard for the right to life.

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