Equal rights and freedoms: legal support to vulnerable people in Ukraine



July 17, 2024

In Ukraine, aggression or violence against a transgender person based on transgender hostility would not lead to a criminal case on the infliction of bodily harm, because no law protects this category of people. Likewise, there is no concept of a ‘compatible partnership’ in Ukrainian legislation, which affects the rights of a gay partner in marriage, burial, inheritance issues, etc. Personal data of HIV patients often get disclosed to the Ukrainian law enforcement bodies, which violates the concept of medical confidentiality. ‘Projector’, a human rights defense NGO from Odesa has been at the forefront of legal protection of such vulnerable groups for over four years, thanks to the EU support.

“I was in the second year of my law degree at the Odesa National University. Once, on a trolleybus I saw a couple of young men enter, holding hands. Everyone on the trolleybus looked down on them, as if saying “They are gay! What a shame!” And it struck me that they belong to the category of vulnerable people who receive nothing but stigma and discrimination. In that moment I understood that I wanted to protect them. By chance, I came across an organisation which worked with HIV-positive people and the LGBT+ community. This is where I started to work and grow professionally.”

In 2022 Daniel was off at the front as a tank commander, taking part in the defence of Chernihiv

Vitalii Matvieiev

Vitalii is a Ukrainian lawyer, offering the prominent legal assistance to vulnerable groups of citizens

Vitalii Matvieiev is a Ukrainian lawyer, well-known in his home country for the prominent legal assistance he offers to vulnerable and marginalised groups of citizens – people living with HIV/AIDS, the LGBT+ community, victims of domestic violence, ex drug addicts, etc. His carrier started in 2019 with defending the case of an HIV-positive woman who was struggling for custody of her dying friend’s child. At that moment, the Ukrainian legislation denied HIV-positive individuals (and other categories of vulnerable people) the right to adopt a child. The process lasted two years, but, finally, the court handed down a favourable decision. The case led to the repeal of the discriminatory law.

This landmark trial reached many people across the country who found themselves in similar situations, and Vitalii was receiving hundreds of mails and messages. The key challenge was quite clear: an absence of organisations which would follow up on the problems of vulnerable community members on a legal level. Existing human rights organisations in Ukraine were “paralegal” − limited to a mere monitoring of violated human rights and crime recording, rather than bringing them to the court.

“Together with my friend Andrii Radetskyi we wished to establish a non-governmental organisation which would defend human rights and freedoms, having respect for the individual and recognising equal opportunities for everyone. So, in November 2019 we registered our NGO ‘Projector’ as a grassroots human rights defence organisation that provides legal and psychological assistance to individuals across the south of Ukraine and advocates for the rights of the vulnerable and marginalised groups of citizens,” the lawyer explains.

In 2020, Projector received support from the European Union through the European Endowment for Democracy (EED), which enabled the NGO to provide pro bono legal, psychological and information services to its clients. In the four years since, the Projector team has followed 100 cases, 72 of which were resolved in favour of the plaintiffs. It has also provided 1,453 psychological consultations and 3,135 legal consultations.

Daniel Johnson (30) is a Ukrainian military man. In 2022 he was off at the front as a tank commander, taking part in the defence of Chernihiv; there he was wounded and shell-shocked. After rehabilitation he was directed under the command of the airborne forces. “I am gay, and I do not hide it. It has never been a limit for me to perform my military service effectively. But the head of the command department conveyed that people like me ruin his service, and that being gay is a disease.” Daniel was demoted and sent to a reserve battalion. When he resigned from the service due to health issues, he was denied financial assistance while waiting for the medical certificate. “I also could not get the documents that confirmed my service in the combat zone and the awards that I had received there. They did not want to reward me, and it was discriminatory,” continues Daniel. “When I learned about Projector, I decided to address them to defend myself. Thanks to the NGO, I received all the payments, the certificate, my awards, as well as a disability pension. This public organisation is doing an amazing job!”

There is no law in Ukraine that protects the rights of the LGBT+ community. And if the problem was alarming in peaceful time, martial law has exacerbated it. “We were approached by the transgender community from all over Ukraine,” confirms Vitalii. “There were cases when these people were detained because of the difference between their appearance and their identification documents, which had not been changed due to lack of time. We have provided not only legal advice, but also psychological support as we noticed some suicidal intentions.”

Julia Familieva

Juliia Kohan

Julia Familieva (53) is an HIV-positive transgender woman. She is the programme coordinator of the pan-Ukrainian organisation of transgender people ‘Cohorta’. “I got to know Projector through a representative from our community, whose rights were violated by law enforcement agencies. The Projector lawyers followed her long and difficult case and won the trial. Since then, I have addressed the NGO’s team many times, because many transgender people are ashamed to seek help themselves if they face discrimination,” says Julia. A close collaboration between the two organisations resulted in 30 court victories on protection of transgender people’s rights and on the issues of gender transition.

Maintaining the privacy of HIV/AIDS-related information as well as of drug abuse treatment records was another common issue faced by the NGO lawyers. They registered cases of disclosure of personal data by doctors to law enforcement bodies, which could be used to persecute a person. Juliia Kohan (58), an HIV-positive former drug addict, found herself in this situation. Projector filed her lawsuit to the General Prosecutor’s Office, to the Ombudsman and finally to the court. “Though we are still waiting for the court’s decision, I’m hopeful, because my doctors have ceased to request data,” affirms Juliia.

Projector has triggered important work on the changes to relevant legislative acts. But above all, it has contributed to shaping a more tolerant attitude in Ukrainian society to vulnerable groups, creating an environment where all people are valued and respected.

“Until 2020, the level of stigma and closure of the LGBT+ community was enormous. Its members were scared to address law enforcement bodies. Now such fears are much reduced, as we – together with other civil society organisations working in the field – have established collaboration with the Regional Prosecutor’s Office and with the Ombudsman’s Office. We have carried out information and educational activities to increase legal literacy among our clients. We have highlighted high-profile cases in the mass media. And now I see that these people are more motivated and confident in defending their violated rights,” concludes the lawyer.

The initiative of the NGO Projector was funded by the European Union through the European Endowment for Democracy.

Author: Volha Prokharava

 

International Press Institute and Factograf launch guide to decoding disinformation

July 17, 2024

The International Press Institute and the Croatian fact-checking website Faktograf have launched a ‘Guide to Decoding Disinformation’.

This resource is designed to give journalists, fact-checkers and researchers a handy framework to investigate disinformation and smear campaigns targeting media professionals on the frontlines of exposing disinformation.

It helps to understand the context of misinformation, analyse timelines and platforms, identify key actors and identify false narratives. 

Javier Luque, head of digital communications at IPI, said: “These guidelines are not one-size-fits-all, as disinformation keeps evolving with new technologies. However, this guide is a starting point to identify the main components of disinformation campaigns targeting journalists and their credibility.”

The ‘Guide to Decoding Disinformation’ is part of the Decoding the disinformation Playbook of Populism in Europe initiative, supported by the European Media and Information Fund, managed by the European University Institute and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.

Find out more

Press release

Guide to Decoding DisinformationDownload

Nuclear-powered submarine steams north in surface position

The Northern Fleet has for unknown reasons called home three warships that were supposed to show strength at Russia's Main Naval Parade in St. Petersburg later this month.


The Viktor-III class submarine Tambov steams along the surface of Skagerrak on Monday. Photo: Norwegian Armed Forces


By Thomas Nilsen
July 15, 2024
INDEPENDENT BARENTS OBSERVER


As reported by the Barents Observer on Sunday, the nuclear-powered submarine Tambov, the destroyer Admiral Levchenko and the landing vessel Ivan Green suddenly departed the Baltic Sea.

On Monday, the Norwegian Armed Forces informs that the warships are in Skagerrak south of Norway.

The Barents Observer has got new photos showing that the Tambov sails along on the surface.

Normally, a submarine will hide below.

One reason not to dive could be that there are only a limited number of crew, as the submarine was in transit when sailing south earlier this month, heading to the naval parade and was not out for patrol or exercise.

Spokesperson with the Norwegian Joint Headquarters, Henrik Omtvedt Jenssen, says to the Barents Observer that Tambov sailed part of the voyage southbound also on the surface when transiting from the Barents Sea to the Baltic Sea.

The sudden change of plans, not to participate at the Main Naval Parade in St. Petersburg on July 28, is not explained in any Russian sources, neither media nor official statements. There are no information about possible cancellations of the Navy’s biggest annual event, or about shrinking the scale of the celebrations.

B-448 Tambov sails together with Admiral Levchenko and Ivan Green in the same direction. The vessels will likely head north outside Norway towards to Kola Peninsula over the next few days.

“The Defence Forces follows all traffic in our areas of interest. Having a good overview of all activity is a priority and important task for us,” says Jenssen.

The Tambov is one of the oldest nuclear-powered submarines still in operation with the Northern Fleet. Based in Vidyayevo, the Viktor-III class was recommissioned last year after a 7-years lasting modernization at the Nerpa shipyard north of Murmansk.

The vessel is an attack submarine, armed with torpedoes. She is powered by two water-cooled reactors and is considered to be a rather noisy.

The Russian Northern Fleet destroyer Admiral Levchenko. Photo: Norwegian Armed Forces

The big landing ship Ivan Gren on Monday. Photo: Norwegian Armed Forces

Oil spills detected in Murmansk region

Authorities search for those responsible for the incident.


Representatives of the Russian environmental watchdog testing the waters of the Tuloma River that flows into the Barents Sea. 

Photo: Rosprirodnadzor Vkontakte

Text:
Elizaveta Vereykina
July 17, 2024

INDEPENDENT BARENTS OBSERVER

A large oil spill was detected in the Pervomaysky district of Murmansk city - the capital of the Russian Arctic. The spill has appeared in the very inner part of the Kola fjord - along the Tuloma River that flows into the Barents Sea, Russian environmental watchdog Rosprirodnadzor reported on July 15 in Vkontakte.

“Water samples have been taken, - the watchdog reported, - Significant excesses of the maximum permissible concentration for the pollutant “petroleum” have been established. The spill is spreading downstream towards the Barents Sea. Along the entire route of the pollution, saturated spots of oil products are observed on the shoreline of the Kola Bay.”

Representatives of the environmental watchdog testing the waters around Kola town. Photo: Rosprirodnadzor

Authorities have so far tested water in two locations - around the Kolsky bridge in the Pervomaysky district of Murmansk and around the bridge in the town of Kola in the Murmansk suburbs. The watchdog experts suggest the initial source of both spills is the same and is located further upstream.

“The area of ​​the polluted water was 591 square meters, - the watchdog reported in VKontakte, - The maximum permissible concentration for the pollutant “petroleum products” was found to be 400 times higher.”

Despite the fact that the spill was discovered on 1 July, the authorities are still trying to find those responsible for it and are calling on the public to help:

Murmansk is located a few kilometers away from the Barents Sea

Ella Marie: Oppressed people should resist - I think it's good for the soul

Sámi artist and activist Ella Marie Hætta Isaksen was one of the artists performing at the Riddu Riđđu festival in Manndalen in northern Norway, which took place July 10-13. The Barents Observer met with her during the festival to talk about what fuels her activism and the key issues she sees facing the Sámi People right now.

Arms race gathers pace as Russia and US plan to redeploy once-banned weapons

Then US President Ronald Reagan (right) and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev sign the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty in Dec 1987. 

JUL 17, 2024

LONDON – Four decades ago, the US deployed cruise and Pershing II nuclear missiles in Europe to counter Soviet SS-20s, a move that stoked Cold War tensions but led within years to a historic disarmament deal.

“We can be proud of planting this sapling, which may one day grow into a mighty tree of peace,” Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev told US President Ronald Reagan in December 1987, as they agreed to dismantle the rival systems under a treaty that scrapped all ground-based, shorter-range and intermediate-range (INF) nuclear and conventional weapons – those with ranges of between 500km and 5,500km.

The sapling survived until 2019, when Donald Trump, then US president, quit the treaty, citing alleged violations that Russia denied.


But the risky implications of the pact’s full unravelling are becoming fully apparent only now, as both sides set out their plans for new deployments.

On June 28, President Vladimir Putin said publicly that Russia would resume producing short- and intermediate-range, land-based missiles – something the West suspects it was already doing anyway – and take decisions on where to place them if needed.

Security experts assume these missiles, like most Russian systems, will be capable of carrying either conventional or nuclear warheads.


On July 10, the US said it will start deployment in Germany from 2026 of weapons that will include SM-6s and Tomahawks, previously placed mainly on ships, and new hypersonic missiles.


These are conventional systems, but some could also, in theory, be fitted with nuclear tips, and security experts said Russian planning would have to allow for that possibility.

The decisions, taken against the background of acute tensions over Russia’s war in Ukraine and what the West sees as threatening nuclear rhetoric from Mr Putin, add to an already complex array of threats for both sides.

They also form part of a wider INF arms race with China.


“The reality is that both Russia and the United States are taking steps that they believe enhance their security, regardless of whether it comes at the expense of the other,” said Mr Jon Wolfsthal, director of global risk at the Federation of American Scientists.

“And as a result, every move that the United States or Russia makes puts pressure on the adversary to respond in some way, politically or military. That’s the definition of an arms race,” Mr Wolfsthal, a former US arms control official, said in a telephone interview.
Strike scenarios

Mr Andrey Baklitskiy, a senior researcher at the UN Institute for Disarmament Research, said the planned deployments created “more scenarios for direct military confrontation between Russia and Nato countries”, for which all sides needed to prepare.

Hypothetically, he said, these could include eventualities such as a Russian strike on a Polish base where Western weapons bound for Ukraine were being stored, or a US attack on a Russian radar or a command and control post.

He said each side already has the capability to carry out such strikes using sea- or air-launched missiles, but adding ground-based weapons would give them more options to conduct an attack and withstand the enemy’s response.

The US has said it will start deployment in Germany from 2026 of weapons that will include Tomahawks and new hypersonic missiles. 

The risk, the experts said, is that this fuels already-high tensions and prompts a further spiral of escalation.

Mr Wolfsthal said he saw the planned US deployments in Germany as a signal of reassurance to European allies rather than a step conferring any significant military advantage.

“My only concern about the deployment of these systems is they may not really add to our military capability, but they almost certainly add to the risk that a crisis could accelerate and grow out of control,” he said.

Mr Ulrich Kuehn, an arms control specialist at the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy in Hamburg, said in a telephone interview: “From a Russian perspective, if you deploy these kind of weapons in Europe, they can generate strategic (threat) effects – to Russian command centres, to political centres in Russia, to airfields, airstrips where Russian strategic bombers are placed.”

Russia might respond, he said, by deploying more strategic missiles that point at the continental US.

How would China respond?

Any deployment of Russian and US intermediate-range missiles could also prompt a further build-up by China, which was not bound by the 1987 Soviet-US treaty and so has been free to ramp up its own INF arsenal.

The US Defence Department said in a 2023 report to Congress that China’s rocket force has 2,300 missiles with ranges between 300km and 3,000km, and a further 500 that can travel between 3,000km and 5,500km.

Concern about China’s missiles was an important factor behind Trump’s decision to quit the treaty with Russia, and the US has already taken an initial step towards placing its own intermediate-range weapons in allied countries in Asia.

In April, it made its first overseas deployment of previously banned ground-launched missiles when it took part in a two-week military exercise in the Philippines.

“This will not be a two-party arms race between Russia and the United States and its allies, it will be a much more complex one,” Mr Kuehn said, with potential to involve China and other US allies in Asia such as South Korea and Japan.

All three experts said the chances of Russia and the US arriving at a breakthrough arms control deal of the kind that Mr Reagan and Mr Gorbachev struck in the 1980s were remote.

“Even if Russia and the United States would totally agree that ‘this whole thing is not helping anybody, let’s get back to the INF treaty’ or whatever, the US would not be able to do that because of China, because they really need those systems to match Chinese capabilities,” Mr Baklitskiy said.

The likelihood, he added, was that “we will just continue piling up those systems and targeting them at each other. So it doesn’t seem like we have a nice time ahead of us”. REUTERS

Exiled Chinese billionaire convicted of defrauding followers after fleeing to US


While in the US Guo Wengui developed a close relationship with Steve Bannon

Larry Neumeister

Former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon (R) greets fugitive Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui before introducing him at a news conference on November 20, 2018 in New York (AFP via Getty Images)

Guo Wengui, a self-exiled Chinese business tycoon whose criticism of the Communist Party won him legions of online followers and powerful friends in the American conservative movement, was convicted by a jury on Tuesday of engaging in a massive multiyear fraud that ripped off some of his most devoted fans.

Once believed to be among the richest people in China, Guo was arrested in New York in March of 2023 and accused of operating a racketeering enterprise that stretched from 2018 through 2023.

Over a seven-week trial, he was accused of deceiving thousands of people who put money into bogus investments and using the money to preserve a luxurious lifestyle. He was convicted of nine of 12 criminal counts, including racketeering conspiracy

Guo's lawyers said prosecutors hadn't proven he'd cheated anyone. After the verdict, one of his attorneys declined to comment.

In a statement after the verdict, US Attorney Damian Williams said Guo's interrelated fraud schemes were “all designed to fleece his loyal followers out of their hard-earned money so that Guo could spend his days in his 50,000 square foot mansion, driving his $1 million Lamborghini, or lounging on his $37 million yacht.”

He added: “Thousands of Guo’s online followers were victimized so that Guo could live of a life of excess.”

Guo, who is also known by the name Miles Kwok, left China in 2014 during an anticorruption crackdown that ensnared people close to him, including a top intelligence official.

Chinese authorities accused him of rape, kidnapping, bribery and other crimes, but Guo said those allegations were false and designed to punish him for publicly revealing corruption as he criticized leading figures in the Communist Party.

He applied for political asylum in the US, moved to a luxury apartment overlooking Central Park and joined former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago golf club in Florida.

While living in New York, Guo developed a close relationship with Trump’s onetime political strategist, Steve Bannon. In 2020, the two announced a joint initiative to overthrow the Chinese government.

Prosecutors say hundreds of thousands of people were convinced to invest more than $1 billion in entities Guo controlled. Among those businesses and organizations was Guo’s media company, GTV Media Group Inc., and his so-called Himalaya Farm Alliance and the Himalaya Exchange.

In a closing argument at the trial, Assistant US Attorney Ryan Finkel said Guo “spouted devious lies to trick his followers into giving him money.”

In this courtroom sketch, Guo Wengui, seated center, and his attorney, Tamara Giwa, left, appear in federal court (Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

He said Guo made hundreds of broadcasts and videos in which he promised followers that they would not lose money if they invested with him.

“I’m rich. I’ll take care of you,” the prosecutor said Guo told them.

Then, he said, Guo spent millions from investors on a lavish lifestyle for himself and his family that included a $1.1 million tortoise-shell jewelry box and some candlesticks, a million dollar chandelier, $36,000 mattresses, a $40,000 coffee table and a $250,000 antique rug, items kept at a family home in Mahwah, New Jersey.

Defense lawyer Sidhardha Kamaraju told the jury that prosecutors had presented a case “long on rhetoric but short on specifics, long on talk, but short on evidence.”

Kamaraju said Guo was the “founder and face” of a pro-Chinese democracy movement that attracted thousands of political dissidents. Kamaraju urged jurors to think about whether Guo would intentionally cheat his fellow movement members for money. He said prosecutors had failed to prove that “Mr. Guo took a penny with the intent to undermine the political movement he invested so much in.”

The lawyer did not deny that his client lived lavishly, with a luxury apartment that took up an entire floor in Manhattan; a home in Greenwich, Connecticut; a yacht and a jet. But he said prosecutors wanted jurors to take “leaps in logic” to find Guo guilty.

“It’s not a crime to be wealthy,” Kamaraju said. “It is not a crime to live in luxury or to spend money on nice things. It’s not a crime to have a yacht or a jet or to wear nice suits. It may not be our lifestyle. It may be odd. It may even be off-putting to some, but it’s not a crime.”

The prosecutor, Finkel, said everyone agreed that Guo was targeted by China’s Communist Party, but that did not give Guo “a license to rob from these people.”

Finkel said Guo also created a “blacklist” of his enemies and posted their personal information online. When the Securities and Exchange Commission investigated him, Guo organized protests against the agency and claimed that it had been infiltrated by China’s Communist Party. And when a bankruptcy trustee was appointed by a judge to represent Guo’s creditors, Finkel said Guo’s followers protested outside the home of the trustee’s children and outside an elementary school where one of them taught.

New Research Finds Blood Cancer Cases at Malmstrom Air Force Base Likely Not ‘Due to Chance’


Country:
UNITED STATES
Author:
Thomas Novelly
GRANTEE




Bioenvironmental engineers from the U.S. Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine, or USAFSAM, and the 341st Operational Medical Readiness Squadron at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Mont., assess environmental factors in a launch control center, June 22, 2023. Image courtesy of John Turner/U.S. Air Force.

Anew independent research report examining non-Hodgkin lymphoma cases among service members who worked with nuclear missiles at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana suggests that it's very unlikely that the high rates of blood cancer would have occurred by chance.

Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, in the unpublished report, analyzed data provided by the Torchlight Initiative, a grassroots group of current and former missileers who have created a cancer registry for those who worked on intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICBMs. The report's findings, first provided to Military.com, showed that "the probability of 18 missileers within the study population being diagnosed with [non-Hodgkin lymphoma] is 2.1 in 1,000 trillion or extremely unlikely to be due to chance," the Torchlight Initiative said in a statement.

"This analysis underscored the exceptionally low likelihood of such events occurring purely by chance, suggesting potential underlying risk factors or exposures unique to this population," the findings of the research paper, shared by Torchlight on Monday, stated

The paper, titled "ICBM Community Cancer Registry Analysis: A Focus on Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma Cases in Missileers," used the Torchlight registry -- which consists of more than 635 reported cancer cases among the community -- and compared it to national rates in the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results Program, or SEER. The new report was not authored or sponsored by the Department of Defense, the Air Force or the U.S. government.

Torchlight said the results show that non-Hodgkin lymphoma is occurring at higher rates and at younger ages than the national average.

"This decision-worthy evidence means that missileers are taking casualties at an unacceptable rate," Torchlight said in a statement. "Now that the community sees evidence of the problem at Malmstrom, steps need to be taken to understand the scope of the problem, the cause or causes, and to mitigate the risks immediately."

Concerns of non-Hodgkin lymphoma and other cancers among missileers and maintainers have been detailed in an ongoing Military.com investigative series examining how service members were working in conditions with known carcinogens and chemicals that they now believe contributed to the health issues.

While the university's report also states that the "modest population size constrains the power of our analyses," it also serves as the first independent analysis of cancer data released since the Air Force announced last year that it was probing the concerns among current and former members of the service's nuclear missile community.

That independent research matters a lot to former missileers such as 47-year-old Michael Yamzon, a recently retired missileer who was stationed at both F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming and Malmstrom in the 2000s. During his career, he started experiencing breathing problems and, last week, was diagnosed with mesothelioma, which he attributes to his time in the Cold War-era facilities.

Yamzon said it's important for outside eyes to examine the cancer rates to come to a truly objective conclusion.

Military.com's investigation showed that prior studies by the Air Force in the early 2000s ignored potential warning signs of cancer clusters among the community, and that the military branches failed to account for known contaminants in the past.

"The Air Force is investigating itself. Are they really interested in doing a thorough investigation? Or is that contradicting. … There's always that doubt on the validity of the depth and the accuracy of the investigation," Yamzon said in an interview with Military.com. "Torchlight has nothing else better to gain other than the advocacy for the health of people, the missile community."

Torchlight's independent report comes as the Air Force is undergoing a massive cancer study of its own that began in 2023 -- after a former Malmstrom missileer and current Space Force officer created a presentation that showed an alarming number of cancer cases among those who served at the base.

Air Force Global Strike Command provided a statement but did not comment specifically on the new research shared by the Torchlight Initiative when reached by Military.com for comment on Monday.

"Our epidemiological study, based on tens of thousands of records, continues to move forward," said Charles Hoffman, a command spokesman. "We expect the results of the next phase of the study to be released at the end of summer."

So far, only preliminary data has been released from the service's study that points to some elevated levels of cancer among the missile community. But the Air Force is still working to gather data from Department of Veterans Affairs medical records, the Department of Defense cancer registry, and the VA cancer registry.

Last month, Air Force Global Strike Command detailed several changes coming during the course of the study, including new workplace inspections and having hazards and exposures added to missileers' records.

The Air Force has done testing at F.E. Warren, Malmstrom and Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota, as well as Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

While missileers and maintainers have told Military.com they were exposed to numerous substances, the Air Force has found only carcinogenic polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, above the Environmental Protection Agency's threshold in facilities at two of the bases, Malmstrom and Minot.

The launch facilities, the underground silos where the actual missiles themselves are kept, at the three operational bases -- F.E. Warren, Malmstrom and Minot -- had not been tested but are scheduled for testing this month.

"I want the Air Force to recognize what they are doing to their airmen," Yamzon said. "They are subjecting their people to an environment that is not acceptable, and they need to do something to remove those toxins to allow people to operate in an ideal condition."

Israeli high court orders govt explain conditions at facility where Palestinians 'raped, tortured'

Israeli human rights groups had filed a lawsuit against the government over the treatment of Palestinian detainees at the facility.

The New Arab Staff
17 July, 2024

Israeli prisons and detention facilities have come under scrutiny over alleged perpetration of human rights abuses [Getty]

Israeli high court justices have ordered the government to give answers over the conditions at Sde Teiman, a facility where thousands of Palestinians are being held in conditions that have been described as horrific.

Acting Supreme Court President Uzi Vogelman and justices Daphne Barak-Erez and Ofer Grosskopf issued the order on Monday after the government requested additional time on the closure of Sde Teiman.

According to Haaretz, the judges demanded the state answer "why the Sde Teiman detention facility is not operated in accordance with the conditions set forth in the law governing internment of unlawful combatants".

Attorney for the state Aner Helman said that a government committee on the issue would present its conclusions to Israeli military chief Herzi Halevi on Tuesday.

The order comes after the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) filed a lawsuit claiming that the extent of the violations of detainees' rights at the facilities "may even amount to a war crime" and that holding detainees at Sde Teiman was unconstitutional.

On Monday, ACRI attorney Oded Feller said his group wanted the court to issue a provisional order.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government had been required to move detainees out of the site before Monday's hearing, but has failed to do so. The Attorney-General of Israel, Gali Baharav-Miara has previously accused Netanyahu of obstructing the closure.

Khaled Mahajne, a Palestinian lawyer who visited the site, said it was "unlike anything I've seen or heard before".

Mahajneh had been at the prison to see journalist Mohammad Arab, who works for The New Arab's sister network Al-Araby TV.

Arab reported seeing cases of rape and torture of inmates at Sde Teiman, Mhajne told a press conference in Ramallah earlier this week.

Other Israeli facilities have also been subject to scrutiny for their harsh conditions, including the Ofer Military Prison where recently released Palestinian bodybuilder Moazaz Abayat lost half his weight after eight months of detention.

Israel's National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who controls the prison service, has said that he has sought to worsen the conditions of Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons

The systematic torture of Gazans in Israel's secret prisons

In-depth: Israel has detained thousands of Palestinians in makeshift detention centres and jails as part of its war on Gaza - and torture and abuse are rife.


Mohamed Solaimane
22 May, 2024

On 11 May, CNN exposed Israel’s harrowing treatment of dozens of Gazan prisoners held hostage in the Sde Teiman desert camp-turned-detention centre.

In the report, which stirred widespread condemnation, whistle-blowers revealed that Gazan hostages were subjected to “extreme physical restraint” and “stripped down of anything that resembles human beings”.

When The New Arab interviewed several of the 76 Gazan prisoners released just days after the CNN report was published, it became apparent that these abuses were not exclusive to that one prison.

Sami al-Ghoula, a 53-year-old father of eight, describes the torture to have been unending for the two months he was detained. Rounded up on 14 March from Al-Shifa Hospital where he and his family had been displaced, he was handcuffed and had his face covered before being shoved with other detainees into Israeli military vehicles and taken to warehouses made of corrugated iron, metal nets, and barbed wires - known locally as brixat.

“The torturing and beating started from the first instant and did not stop. I was tortured and severely beaten at all times: alone and in groups; with sticks, fists, and punches; electrocuted all over my body and attacked by dogs. I was subjected to insults and obscenities almost always. I had my hands tied and my face covered almost all the time,” al-Ghoula told TNA on the day of his release.

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In-depth
Alessandra Bajec

Human rights organisations have for decades reported on Israel’s widespread use of torture of Palestinian prisoners. However, in the weeks and months following 7 October, leaked visual content and testimonies showed both a spike in arbitrary arrests and - according to Amnesty International - “gruesome scenes of Israeli soldiers beating and humiliating Palestinians while detaining them blind-folded, stripped, with their hands tied, in a particularly chilling public display of torture and humiliation of Palestinian detainees”.

The sheer number of arrests and brutality with which Israel treats Gazan prisoners is driven by “revenge, desperation and a frantic need for information”, Qadura Fares, head of the Palestinian Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs, told The New Arab.

“The prisoners are subjected to the highest levels of torture and pain in order to obtain information which Israel has failed to obtain after eight months of war on Gaza.”


"The sheer number of arrests, and brutality with which Israel treats Gazan prisoners, is driven by revenge, desperation, and a frantic need for information"
Allegations of terrorism

Despite the countless critical reports of torture being used, Israeli authorities have always found a justification for their methods by referencing ‘terrorism’.

During a raid on Gaza City’s Al-Shifa Hospital in March, during which Al-Ghoula was detained, Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) and the Shin Bet security agency said they captured some 650 “terror suspects” including “very significant” senior members of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. At least 358 of those detained, the IDF had said, confirmed they were "members of terror groups”.

Al-Ghoula was unaware of these accusations and claims but says he witnessed two prisoners - one in his forties and another in his fifties - die from torture in front of him. “They died early in the evening after a round of aggressive beatings and were collected from the cell the next morning. We do not know where they took their corpses,” he said wearily.

For the two months he was held, Al-Ghoula didn't know night from day. “We prayed based on rough speculations of the time and were only allowed between two to four hours of sleep every day,” he said in clear exhaustion. “We were made to sit on the ground in stress positions for hours, not allowed to interact with each other. Those who dared to move faced even harsher physical torture of all forms.”

Recounting the atrocities detainees faced in Israeli jails, Al-Ghoula said that for two months he was not seen by a lawyer, a doctor, or a family member. “I heard prisoners whimpering and moaning in pain from torture in Ofer Prison where I was kept. I saw a couple die. We were starved: the food we were given was not enough for people our age. We were humiliated in every possible way, and with no crimes committed.”


In the weeks and months following 7 October, there was a spike in arbitrary arrests and reports of torture and humiliation used against detainees. [Getty]

Torture in all Israeli prisons

Mohamed al-Shanar, a 33-year-old father of two who was rounded up while working in Israel on 9 October despite holding a work permit, said the mistreatment and abuse were systematic and not exclusive to one prison.

“I was held in the brixat for 12 days, then was transferred to Ofer Prison for what I think was three months, then to Nafha Prison until 6 May, before I was returned to the brixat until my release on 14 May,” he told TNA. “I was monstrously tortured in all of them.”


Describing his time in prison as “inhumane”, Al-Shanar said that beatings, humiliation, starvation, abuse, and torture were the norm. “Strikes with rubber sticks were exceptionally painful and were used often,” he said, his face cringing at the memory.

As for food, Al-Shanar said that it was poor in both quality and quantity. “We were given food insufficient to feed a four-year-old. At the time of my detention, I weighed 87 kilograms, of which I lost around a third of my weight,” he said, adding that he witnessed several deaths resulting from torture.


"I heard prisoners whimpering and moaning in pain from torture in Ofer Prison where I was kept. I saw a couple die. We were starved: the food we were given was not enough [...] We were humiliated in every possible way, and with no crimes committed"

Nemr al-Nemr, an 11-year-old boy, was detained with a friend of his fathers on 1 April in Beit Lahya while the three were attempting to collect humanitarian aid delivered by airdrops. The child, who waiting on an animal-drawn cart while his father hunted for food, was fired at by Israeli soldiers and shot in his stomach, back, and right leg.

“I was drugged for the majority of the 15 days I was arrested, moved from one hospital to the other, operated on, without any contact with my family and without anyone telling me what was happening to me or where I was,” the child told TNA by phone, clearly traumatised by the experience as he recalled the pain and fear he had felt for days on his own.

“I’d wake up from anaesthesia to find I had been taken to another hospital, or in an individual cell. I’d cry and ask for someone to speak to me,” he said, adding that no medical staff or lawyers spoke with him or explained where he was.

“One of the times I woke up from the drugs, I found I was transported to a prison where grown-up prisoners were held. They were blindfolded and tied up. No one was allowed to speak or move. I saw Israeli prison guards peeing on them, beating them, and dogs attacking them,” said al-Nemr.

Released at the Kerem Shalom border crossing, his uncle - with whom he is staying - says that al-Nemr has not yet reunited with his family as they remain in the north of Gaza.
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'Crimes against humanity'

Fares, head of the Palestinian Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs, said a multitude of crimes have been committed against Gazan prisoners, starting with enforced disappearance.

“These are not violations, but crimes. They are kidnapped, concealed from the world, and any source of information came either from a liberated prisoner speaking about them or through West Bank prisoners in Ofer Prison who reveal the presence of two sections for Gaza prisoners and how they’ve heard of Gaza prisoners facing assault,” he said.

He further explained that while administrative charges should technically enable a prisoner to be visited by a lawyer after 90 days of being held, down from the previous 120 days, in reality, this doesn’t happen.


“Israeli prison authorities demand receiving a hard copy of a direct power of attorney made for the lawyer, and signed by the detainee’s relatives in Gaza, which is impossible: the lawyer will not access Gaza, and the families of the prisoners cannot enter Israel. Having a power of attorney sent by WhatsApp or email is not accepted by Israeli authorities, and so prisoners aren’t allowed legal presentation, he said.

At least 27 Palestinian detainees from Gaza have died in Israeli jails since the war began. [Getty]


Stating that there are no official numbers for Gazan prisoners detained after 7 October, Fares cited Israeli claims of holding 900 prisoners. He added that - based on information from released prisoners - Gazans are held in four prisons.

“We are certain of two: Ofer and Ktzi'ot in the Negev, and those 900 prisoners are held here because they are under the administration of prisons,” he said. There are, he added, two other locations that have not been confirmed, including Sde Teiman, which is under the command of the Minister of Defence, located to the east of Beersheba.

“While Israel is classified as a state, it has disavowed all legal obligations or commitments, including announcing the numbers of those it detains, their names, the locations of their detention and their conditions,” he said, accusing the Israeli government, the army, the police, intelligence, and the judiciary of complicity.

“I can confirm that dozens of prisoners from Gaza were murdered in Israeli prisons, and hundreds were badly harmed and wounded as a result of physical torture. This is not an individual violation as claimed by Israeli authorities.”

Mohamed Solaimane is a Gaza-based journalist with bylines in regional and international outlets, focusing on humanitarian and environmental issues

This piece was published in collaboration with Egab.

Oman says crew member of capsized tanker found dead and nine rescued

By David Gritten, BBC News

Indian Navy
The Indian Navy released a photo showing a warship approaching a lifeboat in the Arabian Sea

Omani authorities say nine members of a 16-strong Indian and Sri Lankan crew have been rescued, after going missing when their oil tanker capsized off the coast of Oman on Monday. One other has been found dead.

The Indian Navy announced that eight Indians and one Sri Lankan from the Prestige Falcon had been found by the warship INS Teg in the Arabian Sea on Wednesday.

Oman’s Maritime Security Centre later confirmed that nine crew members had been saved, but added that “tragically, one crew member was found deceased.”

India and Oman are continuing the search for the remaining crew in what the navy described as “challenging weather conditions”, including rough seas and high winds.

The Comoros-flagged Prestige Falcon, which had 13 Indians and three Sri Lankans on board, capsized about 25 nautical miles (46km) south-east of the Ras Madrakah peninsula.

An Indian official told the BBC that the tanker had been on its way to the port of Aden in Yemen when it transmitted a distress call around 22:00 local time (16:30 GMT) on Monday.

Officials from Oman's Maritime Security Centre told Reuters news agency on Tuesday that the vessel remained "submerged, inverted" but did not confirm if it had stabilised.

Oman's defence ministry, which runs the centre, did not respond to the BBC's questions about whether the contents of the tanker had spilled into the sea.

The 117m (384ft)-long tanker was built in 2007, according to marinetraffic.com.

The area the ship capsized in falls in the province of Duqm in Oman, where the country has a major industrial port.

Indians form a majority of the global maritime workforce and are often the victims of accidents or piracy.

In April, 17 Indians, four Filipinos, two Pakistanis, one Russian and one Estonian national on board the MSC Aries, a Portuguese-flagged container ship, were stuck in Iran after Iranian troops seized the vessel. The crew were released the following month.