Tag: Human Rights

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CONGRESSIONAL HEARING: Holding Cuban Leaders Accountable

On Wednesday, June 20, 2018, the House Committtee on Oversight and Government Reform’s Subcommittee on National Security held a hearing, led by Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Ron DeSantis, to discuss the Administration’s Cuba policy, review the 1996 shoot down of the Hermanos al Rescate (Brothers to the Rescue) humanitarian aircraft, and examine human rights violations by the Castro regime.

 

 

 

Key witnesses included:

  • Ms. Miriam de la Peña, Mother of Hermanos al Rescate Pilot Mario de la Peña
  • Ms. Ana Alejandre Ciereszko, Sister of Hermanos al Rescate Pilot, Armando Alejandre Jr.
  • Mr. Jason Poblete, PobleteTamargo Attorney 
  • Ambassador Roger Noriega, Visiting Fellow at American Enterprise Institute (AEI)
  • Dr. William LeoGrande, Dean Emeritus for American Univeristy’s School of Public Affairs

BACKGROUND:

  • On February 24, 1996, the humanitarian organization Hermanos al Rescate (Brothers to the Rescue) launched a search and rescue mission for refugees fleeing the oppressive Castro regime in Cuba. Two Cuban MiGs followed the planes and destroyed two small rescue planes with heat seeking missiles killing four men.
  • President Obama visited Cuba in March 2016, becoming the first U.S. president to visit the island since 1928. As part of his Cuban Thaw, President Obama released three of the five Cuban intelligence operatives who were convicted for their role in the Brothers to the Rescue shoot down.
  • In January 2017, the Administration signaled a shift in U.S. policy towards Cuba by curtailing American travel and investment and resumption of the embargo. The Administration has also withdrawn diplomats out of Cuba.

 

Full Testimonies and further information can be found here. 

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UPDATE 22- Zakka Family Appreciates Efforts By President Trump & U.S. Congress

Statement on the Trump Administration’s Efforts to Secure Release of Hostages in Iran

Zakka Family Appreciates Efforts By President Trump & U.S. Congress

The following statement was made by Nizar Zakka’s attorney in the United States, Mr. Jason Poblete following the announcement of President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the JCPOA:

“After a briefing yesterday with a senior Trump administration official on the JCPOA decision, statements made thereafter, and other briefings we’ve had with U.S. government officials, I’m confident that much is being done by the Trump administration to help to secure the unconditional release of Americans, US LPRs, and others unlawfully detained in Iran. Mr. Zakka and his family deeply appreciate all the U.S. efforts to successfully resolve this humanitarian matter. It’s time for Iran and other stakeholders to do the right thing and release Nizar who should be home with his family, not in Evin.”

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Prior Statements and Releases 

 

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UPDATE 21- Zakka Family Thanks Congress For Their Efforts

Statement on the Continued Unlawful Detention of

Internet Freedom Advocate Nizar Zakka

Earlier today, the House Foreign Affairs Committee convened to markup H.R. 4744 – Iran Human Rights and Hostage-Taking Accountability Act, which was passed by the Committee and now goes to the House Floor for a vote. The measure, if passed by the House, would impose additional sanctions with respect to serious human rights abuses of the Government of Iran, and on Iranian officials involved in hostage-taking of U.S. citizens and U.S. Legal Permanent Residents.

 

 

On behalf of Mr. Nizar Zakka and his family, Mr. Zakka’s lawyer in the United States, Mr. Jason Poblete, issued the following statement: 

“Nizar and his family thank members of the Congress, especially Congressmen McCaul, Deutch, Royce, and Engel, the original cosponsors of the bill, for sending a clear message to the Iranian regime that hostage-taking of U.S. citizens and U.S. Legal Permanent Residents will not go unanswered. Mr. Zakka hopes this action, and the many other efforts by President Trump and his national security team will lead to Nizar’s unconditional release as well as the unconditional release of all unlawfully detained persons in Iran.”

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Mr. Zakka traveled to Iran in September 2015, at the invitation of Iran’s Vice President for Women and Family Affairs Shahindokht Molaverdi, to speak at a conference on the use of technology and the Internet to promote social, economic, and educational development in the region. After the meeting, en route to the airport, Mr. Zakka was taken by persons believed to be associated with the IRGC’s Basij or the intelligence services. Nizar was unlawfully detained on September 18, 2015, the day before the U.S. Congress voted on the JCPOA political agreement between the United States and Iran.

Nizar has been falsely accused of espionage. In a March 2018 statement to the United Nations, Iranian officials, again, falsely accused Nizar of being involved in a “plot for overthrowing the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran.” Despite the pressures, including psychological and physical torture, as well as several hunger strikes, Nizar has maintained his innocence and has refused to sign forced confessions.

The Iranian government has sent mixed signals about Nizar’s case including a statement by Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif on November 7, 2016 that “[w]hat happened with Mr. Zakka is not a problem between Iran and Lebanon, seeing as the problem was the violation of the applicable laws in Iran by a foreigner, and the problem is actually between the United States and Iran.”  

Last year the US Congress approved two Congressional Resolutions urging, among other things, that President Donald Trump make the “release of United States citizens and legal permanent resident aliens held hostage by the Government of Iran the highest of priorities … and that the United States and its allies whose nationals have been detained consider establishing a multinational task force to secure the release of the detainees.”

 

 


Prior Statements and Releases