HRW Wants Sisi Probed Over Brutal Crackdown
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SUBSCRIPTION WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 13, 2014 SHAWWAL 17, 1435 AH www.kuwaittimes.net Kuwait Times Modi makes Asbestos Ronaldo strikes holds raffle landmark visit pushed in Asia twice as Real draw for to disputed as product beat Sevilla Ramadan30 Quiz Kashmir11 for25 the poor in20 Super Cup HRW wants Sisi probed Max 46º Min 31º over brutal crackdown High Tide 01:03 & 12:25 Putin vows to boost arms sales to Egypt Low Tide 06:44 & 19:33 40 PAGES NO: 16253 150 FILS CAIRO/MOSCOW: Human Rights Watch said yesterday that Egypt’s security forces likely committed crimes Sisi turns page against humanity when it crushed Islamist protests last year, comparing the bloodshed to China’s Tiananmen on Arab Spring Square massacre and calling for a UN investigation into the role of President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi, and his securi- CAIRO: A year after a bloody Cairo crackdown, ty chiefs. In a 188-page report, the rights group accused President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi has tightened his grip security forces of deliberately using excessive force on Egypt, crushed the Muslim Brotherhood, jailed top opponents and turned the page on the Arab against supporters of Mohamed Morsi, the Islamist Spring, critics say. On Aug 14, 2013, after Sisi ousted president ousted by Sisi last summer. It called the crush- Egypt’s first freely elected president, Mohamed ing of the main protester sit-in at Cairo’s Rabaah Al- Morsi, the security forces launched a crackdown on Adawiya Square on Aug 14, 2013, the “world’s largest thousands of his supporters at protest camps in killings of demonstrators in a single day in recent histo- Cairo’s Rabaa Al-Adawiya and Nahda squares that left ry”. hundreds dead. The Egyptian government angrily rejected the The crackdown was launched after thousands of report. After barring Human Rights Watch executives pro-Morsi supporters refused to end their sit-ins from entering the country to issue the report, it accused despite repeated warnings by the interim authorities the group of bias and implied it was serving the agenda installed by Sisi, who at the time was army chief. of the Muslim Brotherhood group, from which Morsi Since then, more than 1,400 people have been killed hails and which the government labelled a terrorist in street clashes, including in the Rabaa carnage, over group. Based on a year-long investigation into the inci- 15,000 jailed including Morsi and the top leadership dents that followed Morsi’s ouster on July 3, 2013, New of his Muslim Brotherhood, and over 200 sentenced York-based HRW said it documented at least 817 pro- to death in speedy trials. The authorities have also testers killed when security forces violently dispersed dissolved the Brotherhood’s political arm, the the Rabaah sit-in. It said the number could be as high as Freedom and Justice Party, since Sisi became Egypt’s 1,000. The government puts the death toll at 624, while second democratically elected president following a Morsi supporters put it at over 2,500. landslide victory in a May vote. “Sisi has succeeded in eliminating most opposi- “Like in Tiananmen ... we are likely never to know the tion within Egypt to his rule,” said James Dorsey of actual number of people killed in Rabaah,” said Omar the Singapore-based S Rajaratnam School of Shakir, one of the principle researchers of the report, International Studies. “He has banned organisations, titled “All According to Plan”. Estimates for the toll from jailed opponents and certainly in early days after the China’s 1989 crackdown on protesters in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square have ranged from the hundreds to ouster of Mohamed Morsi used brutal force to sup- SOCHI, Russia: Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi listen to the thousands. China allows no public discussion of the press groups like the Muslim Brotherhood,” he said. explanations during their visit to the Black Sea Fleet’s guards’ missile cruiser Moskva in this sea port yester- events. Continued on Page 13 day during the Egyptian leader’s first official visit to Russia. — AFP Continued on Page 13 Barrak slams govt’s Williams found hanging from belt ‘revengeful behavior’ Tributes pour in for US actor, comedian New e-media law in offing LOS ANGELES: Tributes poured with a belt secured around his in yesterday for Robin Williams neck with the other end of the By A Saleh and Agencies forged visit visas and iqamas that num- after the Oscar-winning actor and belt wedged between the clothes bered 12,000 transactions?” he demanded. comedian apparently took his closet door and the door frame”. KUWAIT: Opposition leader and former The Cabinet said on Monday it had own life following a battle with “Mr Williams, at that time, was MP Musallam Al-Barrak yesterday attacked revoked the citizenship of 10 people, severe depression. Williams, 63, cool to the touch with rigor mor- the government over its decisions to including a well-known cleric. Last month, known for high-energy, rapid-fire tis present in his body,” he told revoke citizenship from critics. “Did I not tell the Cabinet revoked the citizenship of two improvisation and clowning, was reporters, adding that the inside you not to believe them? It is a govern- opposition figures and some of their family one of the most beloved enter- of his left wrist bore signs of hav- ment that chose revengeful behavior that members. The Information Ministry also tainers of his time. One publica- ing been cut. is far from the law and the constitution,” he cancelled the licences of a local newspaper tion called him the Boyd, who is Marin charged. “They want to kill people, and said and a television channel over failure to “ful- funniest man alive. SEE PAGES 38 & 39 County’s assistant revoking citizenship from some people ly honor one of the conditions in the The star of films such coroner, refused to say was because they were not included in the licences”. Yesterday Minister of Information as “Good Will Hunting”, “Good whether a suicide note had been 1965 census. This is very stupid, because and State Minister for Youth Affairs Sheikh Morning Vietnam” and “Mrs found, as an investigation contin- what is important for them is the result, not Salman Al-Sabah said in a press statement Doubtfire” was found dead at his ues. He said Williams had last the reason,” he said. yesterday that a new law organizing elec- home outside San Francisco been seen alive Sunday by his “Is it realistic to say that 1965 census is tronic media was in its final stage of pre- shortly before midday on wife Susan Schneider before she one of the conditions to get citizenship, paredness at the National Assembly. Monday. retired for the night. She left the then you come seven years later to say that He said it was necessary to wait for the First responders called to house on Monday assuming he those whose nationalities were revoked input of lawmakers on the law, which he Williams’ home found the actor was still asleep in a separate were not in the 1965 census,” Barrak won- emphasized would not affect social net- dead of an apparent suicide with room, he said. He was found dead dered. “You the government of selectivity works, but only electronic media including a belt around his neck and slight by his personal assistant, who and revenge - who are the officials who the Internet, radio and TV broadcasting wounds to his wrist, police said entered the room at 11:45 am approved the file before granting them cit- and online news services, among others. yesterday. Lieutenant Keith Boyd “when he failed to respond to izenship? Who reviewed it? What did you The new law should help those in the of the Marin County Sheriff’s knocks on his bedroom door,” SANTA MONICA, California: This June 15, 2007 file photo shows actor do to them? Will they be retired and then media to operate more efficiently and Office said he was found “in a Boyd said. and comedian Robin Williams posing to promote his film ‘License to promoted like the person in the case of the credibly, said the minister. seated position unresponsive Continued on Page 13 Wed’. Williams died in an apparent suicide aged 63. — AP ‘Missing’ Saudi teenager found Chinese zoo unveils panda triplets By Hanan Al-Saadoun HONG KONG: A Chinese zoo has have lived longer than any other triplets unveiled newborn panda triplets billed as so far,” Dong said. An official from KUWAIT: Kuwait detectives solved the mystery of a the world’s first known surviving trio, in Sichuan Wolong National Nature Saudi girl, 19, who went missing in Saudi Arabia one what it hailed as a “miracle” given the ani- Reserve, considered the foremost week after her wedding. The girl disappeared on mal’s famously low reproductive rate. The authority on pandas, said the trio were July 8 at midnight, and her family notified Saudi mother panda, named Juxiao, meaning too young to be officially recognised as police. Police found no record of her leaving the “chrysanthemum smile”, delivered the “surviving” but that they were the only kingdom. Her phone was switched off, so police triplets at Guangzhou’s Chimelong Safari known panda triplets alive. “We can only checked her call record and found that the last call Park in the early hours of July 29, but was say they are surviving once they reach was to a Kuwaiti who entered the kingdom on July 7 too exhausted to take care of them after- six months.