Tag: Denied

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World News

‘Resort Rwanda’ Dissident Denied Meals and Medication in Jail, Household Says

‘Hotel Rwanda’ Dissident Denied Food and Medicine in Prison, Family Says

NAIROBI, Kenya – Paul Rusesabagina, the prominent dissident who was portrayed in the Oscar-nominated film Hotel Rwanda, is denied food and medicine in a prison in Rwanda where his family claims he is being held for terrorism, lawyers and Foundation, the 66-year-old also complained about poor health.

Mr. Rusesabagina told his family members that the prison officials had informed him that they would block his access to food, water and medicine from Saturday.

His family and lawyers believe the Rwandan authorities’ move was an attempt to pressure him to return to his trial, which he stopped attending in March after saying he was not expecting justice. Mr Rusesabagina, the former hotelier whose efforts to save more than 1200 people during the country’s genocide were depicted in Hotel Rwanda, later became a critic of President Paul Kagame’s government.

The Rwanda correctional facility tweeted later on Saturday that it was treating all inmates “equally” and that Mr Rusesabagina had access to meals and a doctor.

Rusesabagina’s lawyers were due to visit him on Friday but were refused entry to the prison, said senior attorney Kate Gibson. Gibson called the recent developments “worrying” and said the legal team had filed an “urgent filing” with the UN Task Force on Arbitrary Detention to request an investigation into Mr. Rusesabagina’s situation.

“It is hard to imagine direct and willful harm being done to an inmate, especially if they are in poor health,” Gibson told the New York Times.

Mr Rusesabagina was arrested last August and charged with nine criminal offenses, including murder and formation of an armed group accused of carrying out deadly attacks in Rwanda. A Belgian citizen and permanent resident of the United States, he had traveled from his home in San Antonio, Texas to join Constantin Niyomwungere, a pastor he says he invited to his churches in Burundi, neighboring Rwanda would have.

Little did Mr. Rusesabagina know that Mr. Niyomwungere was working as an agent for the Rwandan government and was part of a plan to lure him into the country. After meeting in Dubai, the two boarded a private jet that Mr Rusesabagina thought would fly to Burundi – only to land in Kigali on August 28, where he was unceremoniously arrested.

Rwanda authorities have announced that Mr Rusesabagina is traveling to Burundi to meet rebel groups based there and in the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo.

In the days before he was introduced to the press on August 31, Mr. Rusesabagina was hand and foot cuffed, unable to breathe properly or use the toilet, and was held in what he called the “slaughterhouse” where he did the Screams were heard from other inmates, according to an affidavit from one of his Rwandan lawyers, Jean-Félix Rudakemwa.

Murangira B. Thierry, a spokesman for the Rwanda Investigation Bureau, denied the allegations in the affidavit. The office, he said, “is a professional investigative agency that respects human rights.”

Mr Rusesabagina’s lawyers say that not only have they been banned from visiting, but they must first submit to the authorities any documents they wish to share with him. Previously, any notes the attorneys made when they met him had to be reviewed by prison officials before they could be released from prison, Ms. Gibson said.

“Access to lawyers of his choice, to the files against him, to the time and resources to prepare a defense has been denied,” said Ms. Gibson. “The trial of Mr. Rusesabagina has systematically violated his rights as a defendant, to the point that he has decided not to take part anymore. “

Mr. Rusesabagina’s family and lawyers say that his health has deteriorated since he was arrested and that he feared dying from a stroke.

“Of particular concern is the fact that the doctor provided by the Rwandan government has prescribed three bottles of water a day and he doesn’t get them,” said Kitty Kurth, spokeswoman for his foundation, in a statement on Friday.

Mr. Rusesabagina is a cancer survivor, has cardiovascular problems and complains of severe back pain.

“My family is very scared and concerned,” said Mr. Rusesabagina’s daughter, Anaise Kanimba, on Saturday. “We don’t know if his health can take it. We don’t know when to speak to him next time. That is devastating. “

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Business

Nikole Hannah-Jones Denied Tenure at College of North Carolina

Nikole Hannah-Jones Denied Tenure at University of North Carolina

Nikole Hannah-Jones, a Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times Magazine writer, was denied employment at the University of North Carolina after the university’s board of trustees took the highly unusual step of not approving the journalism department’s recommendation.

The decision was criticized on Wednesday by faculty members who said the last two people in the position that Ms. Hannah-Jones will hold will be granted a term following her appointment.

In late April, the university announced that Ms. Hannah-Jones had been appointed Knight Chair of Racial and Investigative Journalism at the UNC’s Hussman School of Journalism and Media. She will start as a professor in July and continue writing for The Times Magazine. In lieu of tenure, Ms. Hannah-Jones was offered a five-year professorial contract with the option of review.

In the April announcement, the School of Journalism Dean Susan King said, “Now one of America’s most respected investigative journalists will work with our students on projects that will advance their careers and stimulate critical conversations.”

The hiring of Ms. Hannah-Jones, who received a master’s degree from the university in 2003 and a MacArthur scholarship in 2017, sparked backlash from conservative groups concerned about her involvement in Times Magazine’s 1619 project, which came after the The year was named Slavery began in the colonies that were to become the United States. (Ms. Hannah-Jones won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary for her introductory essay.)

The 1619 project sparked a Continuing the debate on the legacy of slavery, however, it has been criticized by some historians over certain allegations and by conservatives who have termed them “propaganda”. Republican-controlled North Carolina legislation appoints the university system’s board of governors, which has significant control over the university’s board of trustees.

The NC Policy Watch website reported Wednesday that the UNC Board of Trustees had declined to approve Ms. Hannah-Jones’ application for tenure. A spokeswoman for the university, Joanne Peters Denny, said in a statement that “details of the hiring processes of individual faculties are personal information”.

In business today

Updated

May 20, 2021, 11:00 a.m. ET

Ms. Hannah-Jones declined to comment. On Wednesday evening she wrote on Twitter: “I stayed away from here today, but I just know that I can see you all and I am grateful.”

Almost 40 faculty members of the journalism school signed an online statement Wednesday calling for the decision to be overturned. She said that Ms. Hannah-Jones did not grant tenure, “moves the goalposts unfairly and violates long-standing norms and established processes.” The statement added, “This failure is particularly disheartening because it occurred despite the support for Hannah-Jones’ tenure by the Hussman dean, the Hussman faculty and the university.”

It continued, “Hannah-Jones’ remarkable record of more than 20 years in journalism exceeds expectations for a permanent position as a Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism.”

In a statement on Wednesday, Ms. King, the school’s dean, said of Ms. Hannah-Jones: “While I am disappointed that the appointment is without tenure, there is no doubt that she will be a star faculty member. “

Alberto Ibargüen, the president of the Knight Foundation, said that while the foundation funds the position of the Knight Chair at UNC, it has no role in the appointment. The agreement provides for a five-year appointment with a tenure review within that period, he said.

“It is not our job to tell UNC or UNC / Hussman who to appoint or who to give a term of office,” Ibargüen said in a statement. “However, we understand that Hannah-Jones is eminently qualified for the appointment and we urge the University of North Carolina Trustees to reconsider their decision within the timeframe of our agreement.”

Ms. Hannah-Jones’ editors expressed their support on Wednesday. “Nikole is a remarkable investigative journalist whose work has helped transform the national conversation about race,” said Dean Baquet, editor-in-chief of the New York Times.

Jake Silverstein, editor of Times Magazine, strongly defended her and her work.

“Nicole’s journalism, whether it’s about school segregation or American history, has always been brave, unwavering, and dedicated to telling awkward truths that some people just don’t want to hear,” said Silverstein. “It doesn’t always make her popular, but it’s part of why her voice is necessary.”

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World News

Trend Mogul Peter Nygard Denied Bail by Canadian Choose

Fashion Mogul Peter Nygard Denied Bail by Canadian Judge

Mr Nygard appeared in court via video link from prison and looked like the shell of the man who was once plastered on billboards in New York’s Times Square and Winnipeg Airport. His gray hair, usually covered in a lion’s mane, was tied in a messy bun. He was wearing a face mask and gray-blue shirt while in jail and stared straight ahead without reacting to the judge’s decision.

Updated

Apr. 5, 2021 at 4:14 pm ET

Denied bail is relatively rare in Canada, especially for those with no criminal record like Mr Nygard, said Seth Weinstein, a Toronto criminal defense attorney who co-authored a book on extradition cases.

Mr Prober said he would wait for more information on the charges from the US prosecutor’s office before deciding on his client’s next steps. It is very unlikely that a challenge from Mr Nygard to his extradition would be successful, experts said.

“In Canada, it is almost impossible not to be extradited, especially to our good friends the US,” said Robert Currie, professor of international criminal law at Dalhousie University in Halifax. He added that wealthy people, using all legal means, could prevent extradition for a few years.

In Canada, the bail system is largely based on community trust and connections and does not involve large cash deposits and commercial bail-borrowers as is the case in many US states.

Instead, in most cases, the defendant needs to find one or more “guarantees” – usually a family member or lifelong friend who pledges collateral, often in the form of property. More importantly, they also agree to supervise the accused, make sure the accused keeps bail set by the court, and notify the police of any violations.

In Mr. Nygard’s case, none of his 10 children, ex-girlfriends, or longtime businesspeople who helped set up his business appeared in court as a proposed surety. Instead there were two employees: one a former site manager with a criminal record of cocaine trafficking and a previous association with the Hells Angels motorcycle club, and the other a former director who still works for Mr Nygard overseeing the company’s bankruptcy proceedings.

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Health

Egypt Denied an Oxygen Failure Killed Covid Sufferers. We Discovered That It Did.

Egypt Denied an Oxygen Failure Killed Covid Patients. We Found That It Did.

EL HUSSEINEYA, Egypt – A scream pierced the night from the balcony of an Egyptian hospital. A nurse yelled that patients in the intensive care unit in Covid were gasping for air.

Ahmed Nafei, who was standing outside, passed a security guard, stormed in and saw that his 62-year-old aunt was dead.

Angry, he took out his cell phone and started filming. It appeared that the hospital had run out of oxygen. Monitors beeped. One nurse was clearly desperate and crouched in a corner when her colleagues tried to resuscitate a man with a manual ventilator.

At least four patients died.

Mr Nafei’s 47-second video this month about the chaos at El Husseineya Central Hospital, about two and a half hours northeast of Cairo, went viral on social media.

As the outrage grew, the government denied the hospital had run out of oxygen.

An official statement released the following day concluded that the four deceased had suffered “complications” and denied that the deaths were “in any way related” to anoxia. Security officers interrogated Mr. Nafei and officials accused him of breaking rules that prohibit visiting and filming in hospitals.

However, an investigation by the New York Times found otherwise.

Witnesses, including medical staff and patient relatives, said in interviews that oxygen pressure had fallen to steeply low levels. At least three patients, and possibly a fourth, died of a lack of oxygen. A detailed analysis of the video by doctors in Egypt and the United States confirmed that the chaotic scene in the intensive care unit indicated an interruption in oxygen supply.

The fatal lack of oxygen was the end result of a cascade of problems in the hospital, our research found. By the time the patients suffocated in the intensive care unit, an ordered oxygen release was hours too late and a backup oxygen system had failed.

“We will not bury our heads in the sand and pretend everything is fine,” said a doctor at the hospital on condition of anonymity because he feared arrest. “The whole world can admit there is a problem, but not us.”

The government’s rush to deny the episode is just the latest example of the lack of transparency in its response to the Covid crisis, which has sparked cynicism and distrust of its public assurances.

For many Egyptians, Mr Nafei’s video offered a rare and uncensored look at the real toll of the coronavirus at the height of Egypt’s second wave of pandemics.

The government admitted that four people died in intensive care that day, January 2, but denied that it was due to a lack of oxygen.

The Ministry of Health’s statement stated that the deceased patients were mostly elderly, that they died at different times, and that at least a dozen other patients, including newborns in incubators, were connected to the same oxygen network and unaffected. These factors confirmed “the lack of a link between the deaths and the alleged lack of oxygen”.

Medical staff confirmed that the hospital’s oxygen supply was not completely depleted, but said the pressure was dangerously low. In the intensive care unit, it is even worse and not enough to keep the patients alive. The pressure may have been lower because the intensive care unit’s oxygen vents were at the end of the network or because of other inefficiencies in the pipeline.

Updated

Jan. 18, 2021, 5:26 p.m. ET

Efforts by hospital staff to correct the shortage were thwarted by further mishaps. When they tried to switch the intensive care unit oxygen supply from the hospital’s main tank to the reserve reserve, the reserve system appeared to be overloaded and failed.

Earlier in the day, aware that they were running out of breath, hospital officials had requested more oxygen from the Ministry of Health. But the van that was due in the afternoon was more than three hours late.

“If it had arrived by 6 p.m., none of this would have happened,” said the hospital doctor.

The medical experts who analyzed the video, including six doctors in the United States and Egypt, discovered details that aid in the determination of oxygen failure.

In the video, none of the patients appear to be connected to the central oxygen line.

A doctor uses a portable tank, which is usually used in an emergency and only temporarily. And just a few feet away, a group of nurses are trying to resuscitate a patient with a manual pump that does not appear to be connected to an oxygen source.

“There is no oxygen tube attached to the airbag,” said Dr. Hicham Alnachawati, a New York emergency doctor who worked in intensive care units in hospitals. It doesn’t happen. It’s impossible if you don’t have oxygen. “

Another doctor who checked the video, Dr. Bushra Mina, the Egyptian-American head of pulmonology at Lenox Hill Hospital who has cared for hundreds of Covid-19 patients in New York, noted the “urgency” of the doctor and nurses in the video “Trying to Oxygenate the Patients.” supply or supplement. “

“It can be overwhelming, even in the US where you have a lot of resources,” said Dr. Mina. “Imagine Egypt where resources are limited and you exceed your capacities.”

The oxygen crisis at El Husseineya Central Hospital may not have been the only one.

Signs of shortages in other hospitals flooded social media for a week. A hospital director on social media urged people to donate portable oxygen tanks, citing a “critical need”. A patient in another hospital filmed himself in the isolation ward and said, “We don’t have enough oxygen.” And a video of a scene similar to the one Mr. Nafei saw was posted online.

These claims could not be independently verified.

“Is there a real problem?” asked Ayman Sabae, a researcher with the Egyptian Personal Rights Initiative, a human rights group. “Nobody but the government can claim to have this information.”

The government’s record during the crisis has not instilled confidence that it aligns with the Egyptians.

President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has denounced critics of the government’s coronavirus efforts as “enemies of the state”. His security services expelled a foreign journalist who questioned the official toll. Prosecutors have warned that anyone who spreads “false news” about the coronavirus can face a prison sentence of up to five years.

And the government has waged a bitter feud with doctors who earlier revolted in the pandemic over lack of protective equipment. Some of the doctors were thrown in jail.

“They’re trying to control the narrative, they’re trying to make sure things look like they’re under control, and part of that is controlling the information that is being shared with the public,” Sabae said. “I have no problem with that if the government gives us credible information that we can rely on.”

When the El Husseineya Central Hospital video came out instead, the answer was to tell the Egyptians not to believe what they were seeing.

“This is not a scene showing a lack of oxygen,” said Mamdouh Ghorab, the governor of Al Sharqiya, the governorate that also includes El Husseineya Central Hospital. He spoke on a pro-government television show that did not interview or invite witnesses to question the official narrative.

Even the official numbers are suspect. Egypt has reported over 150,000 Covid cases and over 8,000 deaths, remarkably low numbers for the region and for a country of over 100 million people.

However, outside experts and even some government officials say both numbers are a huge undercount, largely due to the lack of comprehensive testing and because the laboratories that run tests don’t always report their results to the government.

Although the lack of oxygen at El Husseineya Central was denied, officials began taking steps to address the problem and tacitly acknowledged it.

Health Minister Hala Zayed recognized a shortage of oxygen delivery trucks and delays in distribution. President Sisi called on the government to double oxygen production to meet the surge in demand.

The government appears to have taken another action in response to the video of the crisis in El Husseineya Central. Visitors must now leave their phones at the door.

Mona El-Naggar reported from El Husseineya and Yousur Al-Hlou from New York. Video by Arielle Ray and Ben Laffin.