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Articles European Convention Exercise D111 Articles European Convention Correct answers are : Scenario 1 Nisar Trabelsi Article Double Jeopardy Scenario 2 Edward Snowden Article Political Offence Scenario 3 Dorothy McCarthy Article Capital Punishment Scenario 4 Fatima Muhammadi Article Unfair Trial Scenario 1 – Nizar Trabelsi Nizar Trabelsi (born on 02-Jul-1970) is a Tunesian and former professional football player. As a footballer, Trabelsi joined the German Bundesliga team (Fortuna Dusseldorf) in 1988. Nizar Trabelsi has traveled, since 1996, several times to Afghanistan. In his visits in Afghanistan Nizar Trabelsi met several times Osama Bin Laden in Kandahâr who encouraged him to be a Mujahid (holly warrior) and tried to convince him to accept a suicide mission in Europe. Nizar Trabelsi last visit in Afghanistan was in February-2001 when they discussed the possible use of Sarin gas in future terror attacks. On that visit Nizar Trabelsi committed himself, eventually, to a suicide attack against American targets in Europe after seeing pictures of a Palestinian baby girl, who was killed in the Gaza Strip in 2001. Nizar Trabelsi was arrested in Brussels on 13-September-2001, two days after 9/11. His arrest led to the discovery of the raw materials for a huge bomb in the back of a Brussels restaurant. He was also interrogated on his role in a planned US Paris Embassy attack scheduled to 11/2001, which was plotted in his mosque in Dostrum by Jamel Beghal the ringleader. On 30-September-2003 a court in Brussels, Belgium, convicted Nizar Trabelsi for planning to detonate a car bomb containing 850 kilograms of Nitrates and 100 kilograms of Sulphur, at the Belgian air base Kleine Brogel, which houses American soldiers. The attack was scheduled to the beginning of 2002. Nizar Trabelsi was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment. Scenario 2 – Edward Joseph Snowden Edward Joseph Snowden (born June 21, 1983) is an American computer specialist who worked for the CIA and the NSA and leaked details of several top-secret United States and British government mass surveillance programs to the press. Snowden's release of NSA material was called the most significant leak in US history. In mid-May Snowden gave an electronic interview to Laura Poitras and Jacob Appelbaum which was published weeks later by Der Spiegel. On May 20, 2013, Snowden flew to Hong Kong, where he was staying when the initial articles about the NSA that he had leaked were published. On June 14, 2013, United States federal prosecutors charged Snowden with espionage and theft of government property. He traveled on to Moscow on Sunday, June 23, 2013, as Hong Kong authorities were deliberating the US government's request for his extradition. In Russia he received temporary asylum and now resides in an undisclosed location. Scenario 3 – Dorothy McCarthy Dorothy McCarthy (May 11, 1961) is an American (Texas) who is convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of her neighbor, 61-year-old retired professor Kimberly Booth. On 21-July-2007 Dorothy McCarthy went to her neighbor Kimberly Booth saying that she wanted to borrow some sugar. After Dorothy McCarthy arrived at Kimberly Booth's home, she stabbed the retired professor five times with a butcher knife, beat her with a candleholder, and cut off her finger to steal her diamond wedding ring. Dorothy McCarthy then stole Booth's purse and Mercedes-Benz, pawned the diamond ring in order to buy crack and escaped first to Mexico and later to her sister in Spain. A week after the neighbor’s murder, Dorothy McCarthy was charged with murder. Her DNA was found on the murder weapon. On 24-November-2008 Dorothy McCarthy was sentenced to death by lethal injection. The United States of America requested from Spain the Extradition for Dorothy McCarthy. Scenario 4 – Fatima Muhammadi Human rights defender Ms Fatima Muhammadi is indicted for a number of offences including the spreading of propaganda against the Islamic Republic of Iran, supporting the families of political prisoners, and conspiring against national security. Fatima Muhammadi is the Director of the Defenders of Human Rights Centre (DHRC), and founder and director of the National Peace Council. The public prosecutor listed almost all of Fatima Muhammadi's human rights related work as "crimes". These include, for example, forming the National Peace Council; establishing the Committee for Free, Sound and Fair Elections; reporting human rights violations in Iran; and contacting Iranian human rights defender and Nobel Peace Laureate Shirin Ebadi. All of these charges were interpreted by the Iranian authorities as amounting to an attempt to overthrow the Islamic government of Iran and the spreading of lies against the system. Fatima Muhammadi described her sentencing in an interview with the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran as “an unfair ruling for a human rights activist.” She went on to say that “It is a shame that human rights activities should be interpreted as plotting for the overthrow of the regime.” In the past years, Fatima Muhammadi has been arrested on numerous occasions. She was arrested from her home along with her husband on 9 February 2010. She was again detained in May 2010 and brought to Branch 4 of the Revolutionary Court in relation to her involvement with DHRC, before being released on bail. Shortly after her release she moved with her husband and family to Jordan where she tries to continue her work as a human rights activist. Her trial will start beginning of next year and Iran requested the extradition of Fatima Muhammadi from the Kingdom of Jordan. SCENARIO 1 = DOUBLE JEOPARDY Tunesia In 2009 Tunesia requested the extradition of Trabelsi. In Tunisia Trabelsi has been sentenced in absentia for 20 years for being a member of a terrorist organization abroad. It was a copy of the trial he faced in Belgium. USA In 2010 USA requested the extradition of Trabelsi. Trabelsi is facing life time sentence in USA for planning a terrorist attack on the military airbase in Belgium. The American Government has put a lot of pressure on Belgium for the extradition, but in 2010 the European Court has decided that Trabelsi cannot be extradited for the same offence. SCENARIO 2 = POLITICAL OFFENCE The United States federal prosecutors charged Snowden with Espionage. Espionage can be considered as a Political Offence. The requested State can therefore NOT extradite the person. However, the requested State can of course deliberate if the act was a ‘political offence’ or not. In this scenario the requested State could also refuse the extradition on base of an unfair trial. SCENARIO 3 = CAPITAL PUNISHMENT Tony’s note: Spain cannot extradite the person, since the death penalty by lethal injection is still use in Texas. Only this year already 22 people were executed in USA, 11 out of them in Texas. As already during the lesson, the European Court of Human Rights has clarified that in cases where the person concerned could risk the death penalty, the European Convention on Human Rights would have priority over the obligation to extradite in an extradition convention. SCENARIO 4 = UNFAIR TRIAL Iran has shown several times to be known as a country where females don’t have rights. In the eyes of the Iranian leaders female Human Rights Activists are a threat to the official institutions. They should be punished. It is clear that there are serious indicators that Fatima would have a fair trial. Beside that Jordan could also refuse the extradition based on dual criminality, where the act has to be a crime in both countries. .
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