News from Saudi Arabia, Ukraine and Brazil

Raif Badawi, who started the “Free Saudi Liberals” website, was arrested in June 2012 and charged with cyber-crime and disobeying his father – a crime in the Arab state, local media has reported.

His website included articles that were critical of senior religious figures such as Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti and allegedly insulted Islam and religious authorities, according to Human Rights Watch. [The Grand Mufti is the highest official of religious law in a Muslim country. His main role is to give opinions (fatwas) on legal matters and on social affairs. The Saudi court system, which is governed by Sharia (Islamic) law, is heavily influenced by the opinions of the Grand Mufti.]

Prosecutors had demanded Badawi be tried for apostasy (a total desertion of or departure from one’s religion; rejecting the truth of Allah in this case), a charge which carries the death penalty, but this was dismissed by the judge.

Badawi was originally sentenced to seven years in prison and 600 lashes in July last year, but an appeals court overturned the sentence and ordered a retrial – which then earned him a more severe sentence.

His punishment comes shortly after Saudi Arabia criticized Norway’s human rights record and accused it of not doing enough to counter criticism of the prophet Mohammed.

The gulf state also demanded all criticism of religion and of the Prophet Mohammed be made illegal in Norway.

Badawi’s lawyer, human rights activist Waleed Abu al-Khair, will not be able to represent him in an appeal because he has also been jailed and is currently awaiting trial on criminal charges that include “breaking allegiance with the king,” and “making international organizations hostile to the kingdom.”

His retrial led the judge to impose a harsher punishment and fine him one million riyals (almost $267,000).

In April, the Kingdom introduced a series of new laws which define atheists as terrorists, according to Human Rights Watch.

In a string of royal decrees and an overarching new piece of legislation to deal with terrorism generally, the Saudi King Abdullah has clamped down on all forms of political dissent and protests that could “harm public order.”…

[Badawi has been in prison since June 2012 and was found guilty in July 2013 of insulting Islam through his website and in television comments. He was sentenced to seven years in prison and 600 lashes for violating the nation’s anti-cybercrime law. After that first sentence, Ensaf Haidar, Badawi’s wife, said she was devastated by the news.  “I don’t know what to do,” Haidar said. “Raif did nothing wrong.”  Haidar and the couple’s three children now live in Lebanon.  Estranged from her family, Haidar said it would be impossible to take her children back to Saudi Arabia. The stigma is too strong there, she said.]

UKRAINE – Ukrainian Jews form defense force to combat anti-Semitic attacks

Ukrainian Jews with combat skills have formed a rapid intervention force to stop anti-Semitic attacks.

The force, which was set up in recent weeks, currently is made up of eight men who served in the Ukrainian or Israeli armies or have martial arts skills, the team’s founder, Tzvi Arieli, told JTA Thursday.

The defenders are armed with baseball bats that an American donor whose family hails from Kiev sent the team, he added. “We are trying to raise funds for bullet-proof vests which would greatly increase safety if the situation escalates,” said Arieli, a Latvia-born former soldier of a special forces unit in the Israel Defense Forces who lives in Ukraine.

Arieli said he set up the task force – which now has its own Facebook page – at the request of Rabbi Yaakov Dov Bleich, a chief rabbi of Ukraine, following a series of anti-Semitic attacks that occurred in Kiev and beyond in the wake of a bloody revolution that erupted in November over former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych’s alleged corruption and perceived allegiance to Russia.

Yanukovych was ousted from power in February. The following month, Russian-backed troops seized control of the Crimean Peninsula – an area which used to belong to Ukraine and which Russia promptly annexed [took over], claiming residents had sought Russian protection for fear of Ukrainian nationalism in the post-revolution period. Hundreds have died in clashes between different interest groups and militias.

“In talks with officials, it became clear the authorities could offer limited protection to the Jewish community so we needed to take security into our own hands,” said Arieli, who in March helped organize the medical evacuation of Ukrainians who had been wounded in fighting to Israel. He said the self-defense team was acting with Ukrainian authorities’ knowledge and consent.

Arieli also noted that Ukraine, where anti-Semitic assaults used to be rare occurrences, has seen four serious physical assaults against Orthodox Jews and two attempts to torch synagogues.

“These attacks were well-planned,” said Arieli, who blamed pro-Russian militants whom he said were trying to justify Russian aggression. The Kremlin and some pro-Russian Ukrainians have blamed far-right Ukrainians for the attacks.

“The current reality means that even tomorrow we could find 20 people with firebombs outside the synagogue. We need to be prepared,” said Arieli. …

BRAZIL – High cost, corruption claims mar Brazil World Cup

The cost of building Brasilia’s World Cup stadium has nearly tripled to $900 million in public funds, largely due to allegedly fraudulent billing, government auditors say. The spike in costs has made it the world’s second-most expensive soccer arena, even though the city has no major professional team.

Mane Garrincha stadium, which boasts 288 imposing concrete pillars holding aloft a high-tech self-cleaning roof, has become the costliest project related to Brazil’s $11.5 billion World Cup. Critics call it the poster child for out-of-control spending and mismanagement, or worse.

Now, an Associated Press analysis of data from Brazil’s top electoral court shows skyrocketing campaign contributions by the very companies involved in the most Cup projects. The lead builder of Brasilia’s stadium increased its political donations 500-fold in the most recent election.

The financial links between construction firms and politicians add to deep suspicions among Brazilians that preparations for soccer’s premier event beginning next month are tainted by corruption, raising questions about how politicians who benefit from construction firms’ largesse can be effective watchdogs over billion-dollar World Cup contracts. Anger over perceived corruption helped fuel huge protests last year, and there are fears more unrest could mar the Cup.

“These donations are making corruption in this country even worse and making it increasingly difficult to fight,” said Renato Rainha, an arbiter at Brasilia’s Audit Court, which is investigating the spending on Brasilia’s stadium. “These politicians are working for those who financed campaigns.”

In a 140-page report on the stadium, the auditors found $275 million in alleged price-gouging — and they have only examined three-fourths of the project. They forecast that fully one-third of the stadium’s cost may be attributable to overpricing, the largest single chunk of $500 million in suspect spending auditors have flagged in World Cup construction projects so far.

Federal prosecutors say as yet no individuals or companies face corruption charges related to World Cup work, but it could take years for official audits to be finalized and judged by civil courts, a required step before any criminal charges are filed. There are at least a dozen separate federal investigations into World Cup spending.

“Is there corruption in the Cup? Of course, without a doubt,” said Gil Castelo Branco, founder of the watchdog group Open Accounts that campaigns for transparency in government spending. “Corruption goes where the money is, and in Brazil today, the big money is tied up in the Cup.” …

In a poll last year, three-fourths of respondents said the World Cup construction has been infused with corruption.

Such beliefs fueled widespread and often violent anti-government protests last June that sent more than a million Brazilians into the street during FIFA’s Confederations Cup soccer tournament, the warm-up event to the World Cup. Many protesters railed against corruption and the billions spent to host the events.

The distrust isn’t surprising in a nation where 40 percent of federal congressmen have criminal cases pending against them before the country’s highest court, according to the watchdog group Focus on Congress, bolstering concerns the rise in campaign contributions found by the AP likely influenced government spending on the Cup.

Critics say four of the stadiums will become white elephants after the tournament because they are in cities that cannot support them…

(The news briefs above are from wire reports and staff reports posted at Britain’s The Independent and the Jerusalem Post on on May 8 and YahooNews on May 12.)